Re: response to Last Call on: IP Authentication using Key

["Housley, Russ" <[e-mail]>]

>> Now that it may finally be on the table to do something about 
>> draft-ietf-ipsec-ah-md5-03.txt
>> I would like to remind this community that not only 
>> should the MAC be defined independent of
>> its intended use, so too should the encryption transform.
>
> More properly, you should state that it is your opinion that the 
> transforms should be independant of use.

There are many advantages to a protocol specifiation that is 
independent of mechanism and a separate mechanism description.  One 
iportnat benefit is that other IETF groups can use the same mechanism 
description in the same way that Hugo's I-D references the MD5 RFC.  
Good modularity in the specifications saves alot of time and effort 
down the road.  And, it makes specification maintenence easier too.

Russ