Richard L. Barnes <rbarnes@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > ISTM that the success of changes to the infrastructure depends on the > value those changes deliver to participants in the Internet economy... > So the question is rather how many problems there are in the current > infrastructure that cause people enough pain to do something. Indeed -- _an_ interesting question... but perhaps not phrased quite right: in truth, there are an arbitrarily large number of problems that cause _somebody_ enough pain to do something. > I think there are at least a couple (improving BGP security, for > example), and the number will probably slowly shrink over time, > but in the long run, I expect there will ultimately always be a few > big things that need to be done that can't be done in end systems. Start from the end: there _will_ be a number of things that shouldn't be done in end systems. End systems _really_don't_ want to worry about the route packets follow -- at most they want to worry about delay, jitter, and order of delivery. But they _will_ work with whatever tools are available to ameliorate such worries. The number of problems will most surely _increase_ over time, not shrink. BGP security is a _dreadful_ example. It conflates weaknesses of the original design with issues entirely out-of-scope of the original design. And the original design was seriously flawed by defining algorithms instead of meanings. Nonetheless, the example does serve to illustrate a weakness of IETF process -- that it's much easier to get traction on small fixes to parts of the problem than on migration to a design which avoids the problems. BTW, I find it interesting to see how little of the work originating in the Security area has gained traction. I wonder to what extent this results from: - cycles being expended on cross-area reviews; - recommending IPsec whether or not it could be deployed for the use; - the inherent complexity of key infrastructure? -- John Leslie <john@xxxxxxx> _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf