[e2e] Flow Control in IP, Deadlocks in Routing Protocols.

[Detlef Bosau]

RFC 791 specifies:

>    There are no mechanisms to augment end-to-end data
>    reliability, flow control, sequencing, or other services commonly
>    found in host-to-host protocols.

>    The internet protocol does not provide a reliable communication
>    facility.  There are no acknowledgments either end-to-end or
>    hop-by-hop.  There is no error control for data, only a header
>    checksum.  There are no retransmissions.  There is no flow control.
Is this still valid?

In a paper I read the following:

> The functions of routing algorithm are the provision of the
> fastest path, deadlocks prevention, low latency insurance,
> network utilization balancing, and fault tolerance. Routing
> algorithms in mesh-connected topologies can be classified as
> follows:[4].

Does this make sense? The system model in the quoted paper is an overlay 
network upon the Internet.
To my understanding, routing deadlocks cannot happen in this context, 
because there is no flow control and consequently a sender does not wait 
for a receiver getting ready to receive a packet.

So, it may sound harsh, but in my opinion, the requirements stated in 
this section do not really make sense.

Thx.

Detlef

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