RE: Enough on TCP vs. FCTP, please

["Douglas Otis" <dotis@sanlight.net>]

David,

You and I have a different opinion about reasonable changes to TCP.  It is
not reasonable to redefine the urgent pointer.  When used for SCSI, the
urgent pointer is defined to be pointing to the first message boundary
within the frame?  There is an equal lack of consideration for legitimate
alternatives to mucking with TCP.  But this is based on my concepts of
reasonable.

Doug

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Black_David@emc.com [mailto:Black_David@emc.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 3:49 PM
> To: dotis@sanlight.net; matt_wakeley@agilent.com; ips@ece.cmu.edu
> Subject: Enough on TCP vs. FCTP, please
>
>
> > End schemes to fix TCP; address the issues of TCP and SCTP.  Do
> not stand
> on
> > desires for TCP over SCTP or that a pact was made to promote TCP.  SCTP
> > performance will be superior to TCP using either hardware or software.
> SCTP
> > is easier to accelerate in hardware than TCP and any resulting SCSI
> standard
> > will change substantially as a result of the features of SCTP.  Even if
> > there was a generic RDMA option, SCSI would look more like Firewire as a
> > result.  A debased version of RDMA has already been offered that avoids
> > stepping on accepted options.
>
> I think this sort of debate really needs to stop.  Matt's draft is a
> reasonable
> attempt to apply an existing TCP feature to address a shortcoming in use
> of TCP for iSCSI.  It is not perfect, as is the case for most engineering
> tradeoffs and compromises.  SCTP does have a number of improvements
> over TCP (e.g., the whole session discussion is moot for SCTP), but TCP
> has significantly more deployment experience and a great deal of work in
> progress on hardware acceleration.
>
> I am restating the WG consensus that iSCSI needs to anticipate both
> SCTP and TCP, with the assumption that TCP deployments will come
> first.  Given this, Matt's draft is within scope for the WG.  If anyone
> other
> than Doug Otis disagrees, please say so and say why on the mailing list.
>
> --David
>
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> David L. Black, Senior Technologist
> EMC Corporation, 42 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
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>