brian@wb6rqn.UUCP (Brian Lloyd) (04/19/88)
Just because you see a packet doesn't mean that it arrived at the destination. For this reason counting packets in a lossy network is very unfair to the subscriber. The only place in IP/TCP/UDP where you can actually measure delivered packets is in TCP or UDP (only at the destination in the case of UDP). This makes accounting in a datagram based network non-trivial. Perhaps this is why the PTTs have adopted VC based networks. At least they know when a packet has been delivered to the host (or at least the edge of their network) and can charge reliably. Has anyone thought to define the measure of service delivered? Is it really the number and size of packets delivered? Off the top of my head I cannot think of another measure but that does not mean that there isn't one. Maybe a definition of service is in order before a discussion of service measurment. Brian Lloyd, President Sirius Systems, Inc. 19200 Tilford Way, Germantown, MD 20874 (301) 540-2066 brian@wb6rqn.uucp Share and enjoy!