nanog mailing list archives

Re: to name or not name


From: Michael Dillon <michael () memra com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 11:03:40 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 28 Jul 1995, Hans-Werner Braun wrote:

I have an idea. Lets create a .ssn domain. Better yet, lets assume
everything plain numeric is an SSN. As you all know, Vixie's SSN is
123-45-6789. Consider that address to be a middle level. At the bottom you
need something that maps it to where, e.g., he can find his email. When he
wants to hang out in his hotel in Costa Rica tomorrow, he may have to remap
123456789, so things can be found wherever he really wants them. Probably a
host on the hotel's HIPPI switch. Point is, at the identifier-to-location
mapping, things have to be flexible enough to easily and quickly be updated.
Kind of like cellular auto-roaming. May be he can even use his cellular
phone to beacon around where he is *really* located, so the mapper finds
him, and so he may not have to do much explicitly.

Yuckk! Why put all the intelligence in the central system. Look at the 
Internet, dumb routers and packet switches flipping data bits all over 
the place with all the intelligence in the hosts at the periphery. Paul 
has a mail server at vixie.sf.ca.us that receives his mail and if he 
really needed access remotely, he can just run a POP server there and 
pick it up anywhere there is a net connection. Or if he cares about where 
the mail lands, he can have vixie.sf.ca.us forward all his mail via UUCP 
and then poll via TCP/IP or modem from wherever he happens to be located.

May mean you have to give machines social security numbers as well, as you
may have to address more generic resources (humans are just one
instantiation) before too long.

IPv6 will save us all. We can address each cell in our bodies and have 
enough addresses left over for the light switches. Every child will 
receive their IPv6 allocation at birth.

Michael Dillon                                    Voice: +1-604-546-8022
Memra Software Inc.                                 Fax: +1-604-542-4130
http://www.memra.com                             E-mail: michael () memra com



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