joshua@athertn.Atherton.COM (Flame Bait) (09/20/89)
A General Question:
Given a choice between a modified TCP, RDP, or VMTP, for use as a
reliable packet oriented protocol, which would you use, and why? Assume
that TCP has been modified to make it more packet oriented by concatenating
the open stream/send data/close stream messages into one message. Also
assume that availability is not a consideration at all (ie. the fact that
everyone already has TCP is not important).
The Real Question:
What I'm really interested in is using email as a transport layer,
similar to the way RPC or TCP are used today. I think that there are
many applications where speed is not very important, but being able to
communicate with diverse machines "far away" is. The specific application
I'm thinking of is a distributed document system, where several authors
are collaborating on one document, with each author working on a different
part. Another interesting system would be one to automatically distribute
test results to various authors collaborating on an experiment.
What I want to do is implement a reliable packet oriented communications
layer on top of email. Since email has many of the same characteristics as
IP packets, I'm hoping that I will be able to "port" an IP based reliable
protocol into an email based reliable protocol.
My question really is, "Are there any protocols which have already been
designed and tested which I can use as a starting point in designing a
reliable communications protocol based on email messages?"
Any ideas? Or anything that I've missed?
Joshua Levy
-------- Quote: "The Street finds its own uses for technology."
Addresses: -- William Gibson
joshua@atherton.com
{decwrl|sun|hpda}!athertn!joshua work:(408)734-9822 home:(415)968-3718