[Din] 1. Re: End-End Principle (Lixia Zhang)

[Brian Obeirne <[e-mail]>]

Hi Lixia, 

The “end-to-end” principle or “end-to-end argument” is a feature of system design. It was formulated by Jerry Saltzer, Reed and Clark. Here is the relevant article and abstract: 

https://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.pdf <https://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.pdf>

"This paper presents a design principle that helps guide placement of functions among the modules of a distributed computer system. The principle, called the end-to-end argument, suggests that functions placed at low levels of a system may be redundant or of little value when compared with the cost of providing them at that low level. Examples discussed in the paper include bit error recovery, security using encryption, duplicate message suppression, recovery from system crashes, and delivery acknowledgement. Low level mechanisms to support these functions are justified only as performance enhancements."

This principle was implemented in the design of the TCP/IP protocol insofar as the protocol was “agnostic” and adding features was left to engineers at the endpoints. Jonathan Zittrain has written about it in the context of the “hourglass structure” of the the internet.
   

> On Mar 26, 2023, at 1:00 PM, [e-mail] wrote:
> 
> Re: End-End Principle (Lixia Zhang)