stoler@seas.gwu.edu (Rich Stoler) (01/10/90)
Would some authority at HP care to comment on HP's plans for this
enhancement outlined below?
Besides the routing benefits, this is a real important
enhancement as far as Usenet News is concerned. Using these new
features, more efficient "News" propogation methods can be
implemented. (e.g., by coming up with a broadcast-type technique to
spread the news, and replace most of the machine-to-machine forwarding
that goes on now.)
Thanks!
Original Message follows:
Message-Id: <9001052140.AA01228@risci.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
To: tcp-ip@nic.ddn.mil, ietf-interest@venera.isi.edu,
vmtp-ip@gregorio.stanford.edu
Subject: IP Multicasting in SunOS
Reply-To: Jeffrey C Honig <jch@risci.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
Organization: Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 90 16:40:07 -0500
Below is a copy of the RFE (Request for Enhancement) I submitted to
Sun asking them to support IP Multicasting. I'd like to encourage
other people to do the same, and not just with Sun, but with other
vendors too. For most BSD 4.3 based systems the code is already
available so implementation should not be too difficult from a
technical aspect. The hard part is convincing them that we want it.
Jeff
The purpose of this RFE is to request that SunOS support IP multicast
communications and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) as soon
as possible.
IP Multicasting and IGMP, as defined in [RFC1112], are both
"recommended standard" internet protocols for use in the DARPA
Internet. IP Multicasting is listed as a feature that "SHOULD" be
implemented and IGMP is a listed as a feature that "MAY" be
implemented in [RFC1122].
Whenever multicast capability has been made available on local area
networks, applications which exploited and benefited from it have
rapidly evolved. Since the Internet is moving toward an environment of
high-speed circuits, and high-performance hosts, we can expect an
increasing demand for real-time interactive and transaction-style
applications not just on local networks but across the nation.
IP multicasting provides many benefits. On the local network level it
reduces the amount of broadcast traffic a host must process. A host
need only subscribe to the multicast groups it desires. On a regional
and national level multicasting will reduce the amount of traffic
required to "flood" information to distributed applications in the
internet.
One protocol to support wide-area multicasting already exists, more
sophisticated ones are under currently under development, support is
already committed by some major router vendors. Widely available
support for IP multicasting in SunOS would greatly benefit this
development.
One major use for IP multicasting is the Open Shortest Path First
(OSPF) designed by the IETF and submitted as a "proposed protocol" for
Internet routing. OSPF is a much more robust interior routing
protocol than RIP and is a major candidate to be the "recommended
standard" interior routing protocol for the Internet. OSPF was
designed to use IP multicasting instead of IP broadcasting to reduce
the broadcast traffic that must be handled by non-participating hosts.
Suns are the Unix system of choice for use as high speed routers.
Their ability to support IP multicasting and hence OSPF will be
crucial in their continuing to be so. The Internet of the near future
will not be able to survive without a more robust interior routing
protocol than RIP.
Sun has proven itself to be a leader in workstation field, especially
in wide-spread use of networking. Implementation of IP multicasting
would help maintain this leadership.
RFC1112:
Deering, S. "Host Extensions for IP Multicasting". August,
1989.
RFC1122
Internet Engineering Task Force. "Requirements for Internet
Hosts -- Communication Layers". October 1989.
End of Original Message.dfc@hpindda.HP.COM (Don Coolidge) (01/11/90)
We don't have IP multicasting in our current release, since HP-UX networking has been 4.2BSD-based to date. However, we've already merged it into our next release, which has 4.3BSD-ish networking. As for a release date, I'd suggest contacting your local HP rep. - Don Coolidge HP Information Networks Division ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Of course, this is only me talking for myself, not for HP. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------