[e2e] Discrete IP

[Detlef Bosau]

On 09/13/2012 06:38 AM, Pars Mutaf wrote:
> Hi Andrew,
>
> China has IPv6 for example but I cannot talk to them.
> I don't have to install IPv6 to talk to them. If one day someone uses 
> IPv7 (it is their right), I don't have to install IPv7.
> The fact that there is a version field doesn't mean that all versions 
> are supported.

I think, you miss two basic points.

First: There is no such thing as "the" end to end principle. 
Particularly, Internet communication is nothing which happens between 
the communication end points and only there, but most of the work is 
done at the nodes in between.

Second: The Internet is an overlay network by design. We want ONE common 
protocol which is supported by all nodes connected to this overlay 
network. Particularly, it shall not be the intention of the Internet to 
run several protocols in parallel. Nevertheless, this happened in the 
past, happens in the present and is expected to happen in the future, 
however it is not the basic intention. The more protocols you run in 
parallel, the more complex your intermediate nodes, which do all the 
routing work, will be. And it's certainly not our goal to make thinks 
unnecessarily complex.

DB

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