RE: draft-bonica-tunneltrace-02

[Ron Bonica <Ronald.P.Bonica@wcom.com>]

Folks,

Eric has hit the nail on the head. The enhanced route-tracing application
described in draft-bonica is an IP debugging tool. Specifically, it traces
the path between any two points in an IP network. If one or more IP tunnels
(e.g., MPLS) support the traced path, the application can reveal tunnel
details.

The tool is admittedly IP-centric. It assumes the ubiquity of IP, but does
not assume that any particular tunneling technology has been deployed. This
is a safe assumption for those of us who will use the tool to maintain IP
networks.

Given this starting point, the protocol requirements enumerated by the draft
are a logical consequence. We should not be surprised that the enhanced
route tracing application resembles the current "traceroute" in that a) it
is based upon probes and responses, b) UDP carries its PDUs, and c) it is
stateless.

                                                         Ron
                                                   (speaking as individual
contributor)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ccamp@ops.ietf.org [mailto:owner-ccamp@ops.ietf.org]On
> Behalf Of Eric Rosen
> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 1:32 PM
> To: David Allan
> Cc: Shahram Davari; 'Thomas D. Nadeau'; ccamp@ops.ietf.org
> Subject: Re: draft-bonica-tunneltrace-02
>
>
>
> I  understand that  you don't  think that  MPLS, viewed  as an
> IP tunneling
> protocol,  is worthwhile.   But that's  not the  question.  The
> question is
> whether  a traceroute  tool that  works through  IP tunnels
> (including MPLS
> tunnels)  is  worth  standardizing.   This  question doesn't
> seem  to  have
> anything to do  with CO networks.  Thus I don't  understand why a
> discussion
> of  CO networking  is even  relevant to  the discussion  of  the
> tunneltrace
> requirements.
>
>