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terminological nit
In the INRIA draft entitled "supporting unidirectional paths in the Internet",
two forms of receiver access are defined: basic access and subnetwork access.
I think those terms could be improved. The problem I have with "basic access"
is that in English "basic" sometimes implies "most common", but as I
mentioned in an earlier message, I think what is called "basic access" may
become the exception rather than the rule. The problem I have with
"subnetwork access" is that it implies that there is only one subnetwork
behind the receiver. I think the real distinction between the two cases
is simply whether the receiver is a router or a (multihomed) host.
Also, those terms only cover the alternative possibilities at the receiving
end of the simplex link; the same alternatives exist at the sending end.
As I see it, we need to consider all combinations of:
- transmitter is a host
- transmitter is a router
- receiver is a host
- receiver is a router
where I am using the terms "host" and "router" are as defined for IPv6, i.e.,
a router is an IP device that forwards packets not addressed to itself, and
a host is any other IP device. It is assumed that both hosts and routers
have interfaces to additional links, in order to obtain full-duplex internet
access.
Steve