Comments and questions on March 1995 draft of Frame Relay DTE MIB

[Alan Bartky <[e-mail]>]

To editors/authors of Draft Frame Relay MIB

First, let me introduce myself.  My name is Alan K. Bartky
and I am a new engineer here at XYLAN corp.  Before this
I was in charge of standards at Sync Research Inc. where
I was co-author of the SDLC MIB (RFC-1747), Editor of
Data Link Switching (RFC-1795) and participated in
the drafting the 802.2 LLC MIB and SNA Network 
Addressable Unit MIB.  I also was technical representative
to the Frame Relay Forum for Sync.

We are starting on new projects here at XYLAN and need
to be involved in any work regarding Frame Relay
MIB work going on.  First let me start by asking a few
questions.

What is the current status of the Frame Relay DTE MIB?

Is there a draft version newer than the March 95 version
(draft version 4)?

Is there a group working on it?  If so, how do I
and/or other engineers at XYLAN subscribe to the mail exploder
in order to contribute to the work in progress?

Thats it for questions.  Here are some comments on the
March version (I apologize if there is a new version, where
these comments may not apply).

1) frDlcmiState has added ccitt_933_A(5) since RFC1315.  This
is surely needed, but it has two problems.  First the CCITT
is now called the ITU-T.  Also all other ITU-T values
in RFC1315, just use Q9xx as a value.  I would rename this
to Q933_A(5).

2) frDlcmiStatus has also been added.  Unfortunately it was
added as {frDlcmiEntry 3}.  This causes all the original RFC1315
table entries to change numbers.  It was always my understanding
in my working in MIB working groups that MIB objects should 
always be added to an end of the table to help backwards
compatability with previous MIBs/implementations, and deleted
objects would have to change to "obsolete" status.  My recommendation
would be to change this object to {frDlcmiEntry 12} and to change
frDlcmiRowStatus to {frDlcmiEntry 13}.

3) There are references all over the place for "Draft" American
Standard T1.617.  I don`t believe this is a draft standard
anymore.  The MIB needs to be brought up to the times
as far as indicating which references are to Draft or "Real"
National or International Standards.

Thats all I have for now.  One thing would surely help (and 
should probably be added as introductory text to the next
RFC) is what has changed between this MIB and RFC1315.  I'll
have more comments as I get more into this.


Regards,

Alan

**********************************************************
Alan K. Bartky                       Email:[e-mail]
Principal Software Engineer          Voice:[phone]
XYLAN Corporation                    FAX:  [phone]
15707 Rockfield Avenue Suite 155F
Irvine CA. 92718
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