[openib-general] RDMA connection and address translation API

[Caitlin Bestler]

The requirement is solely that that System Administrators
for each host directly attached to Network X agree on the
basic addressing characteristics for Network X.

This onerous challenge is sucessfully overcome on every
IP subnet in the world every day for such details as 
what the subnet is, what the mask is, etc. Further, 
two adjoining subnets won't be able to talk unless
their administrators have arranged for them to agree
on what their network identifiers are/etc.

For the specific question it is even less of a
problem than theory suggests. A rule such as "non
IPv4 subnets are direct translated while IPv4 subnets
use IPv4" is actually quite simple to implement.
That could even be extended to allow *some* IPv6
subnets to be translated so that mutiple IPV6
aliases for a single GID could be identified
(that is, if anyone has a need for such a thing).
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Dreier [mailto:rolandd at cisco.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 2:45 PM
To: Caitlin Bestler
Cc: Roland Dreier; James Lentini; openib-general at openib.org
Subject: Re: [openib-general] RDMA connection and address translation API

    Caitlin> So with this wealth of options available, do you agree
    Caitlin> that there is no reason to elevate any of these issues to
    Caitlin> being visisble to a transport neutral application?

No -- the fact that there are a wealth of options actually means that picking
one is an arbitrary choice we impose on transport neutral implementations and
is de facto mandating a wire protocol.

 - R.