RE: WCCP talk..

["Christian Kuhtz" <ck () adsu bellsouth com>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

> > My question is, what prevents a cache from seding a WCCP frame
saying,
> > "Hey, I'm alive" when it really isn't?
>
> the application itself (layer 7) is most likely to know more about
whether
> the application is alive and working than anything else.

(see below)

> i believe WCCP is more a heartbeat mechanism - the router will age
WCCP
> 'hello' packets and expire them.  presumably if it doesn't hear one
of the
> cache engines 'check in', it'll stop forwarding traffic to it.

Actually, that is inaccurate.  For a cache to say that it is alive is
insufficient.  This is a reflection of a much more sophisticated, yet
lightweight, state being maintained in the infrastructure.

Although, this does reflect the view of L4 switch vendors and their
"accomplices" -- it is in their best interest to make WCCP look like
modified policy routing or simple state maintenance a la heartbeat. 
Seems like their FUD works. :(

James, can you comment?  I don't want to get into NDA h*ll ;)

Cheers,
Chris

- --
Christian Kuhtz <ck () adsu bellsouth com> -wk     ck () gnu org -hm
Sr. Network Architect, BellSouth Corp., Advanced Data Services
NOTE: "We speak PGP: key available at well-known key servers."
            "Turnaucka's Law: The attention span of a computer 
             is only as long as its electrical cord."  
                                         -- /usr/games/fortune
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.0 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBNkhZ34RXnO1Cm58sEQJG9ACgkKKQly+oGJYoZHtM2I5f3JkCCGgAoO1X
knqTNLpAHQ1M8TJqBvsGKQ8z
=6epK
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----