Re: Limited Domains:

[Toerless Eckert <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 10:51:03PM +0200, Tony Przygienda wrote:
> yepp, researchers are having fun unencumbered largely by harsh realities

Well, the better researcher attempt to get more of an understanding
of the harsh realities by working with whats available to them, which is
quite limited - a few P4 platforms. This lack of openness to multi-party
innovation is what causes high-speed router platforms to become less and
less relevant and devolve into commodities, at least at the level where
folks in IETF are interested in them. Obviously the spped&feed hardware
level will stay an ongoing motor of innovation and maybe even sales
margin, but for the packet layer forwarding, we can close shop if we do
not have a strategy to allow new markets/innovation to be brought in.

Heck, take a look at the challengers in 5G/6G. They are already moving
purely into general purpose CPU because those challengers have no way to
put innovation into accelerated forwarding hardware due to lack of access,
complexity and also being stuck in a world of standards such as GTP that make
innovation difficult.

Its totally incomprehensible to me, why engineers who paycheck ultimately 
depends on hardware that already is way more flexible than what our current
protocols use do not try harder to think about better models for third parties
to get more value from this hardware. More flexible, programmable packet forwarding
options are one core option here. And obviously no sane customer
wants something thats not multi-vendor in this space which is where
IETF could come in. And no sane network operator wants another protocol silo.
Which is where IPv4/IPv6 compatibility comes in as a base level expectation.

> while meanwhile large scale IP forwarding is still governed by the
> microcents/bit payload that customers can run their business profitably at
> and this is governed in turn by the merciless trifecta of physical laws of
> power/cooling/space that did not only not change in the last 50 years but
> last 500 and probably much longer even before Newton laid his cranium under
> the said apple tree ...

When single-family home systems are built from 19" CPU server racks
providing compute across FTTH and powered by solar electricity, i think
we are also starting to see big shifts in the economics of those core
factors. But thats digression.

I think we agree that from the protocols we remember, IP/IPv6 has
done a pretty good job providing value out of the hardware
deployed. But we also know that other protocols like Ethernet and MPLS
have shown other sectors where they are doing better. So it seem to me
obvious that as developers we should look ahead and see what it is we
can best do to crearte more value. And certainly we know our hardware
can already do more than what is utilized by the protocols.

Cheers
    Toerless