Adding GPS location to IPv6 header

Sun Nov 25 06:28:54 UTC 2012

On 11/24/12, John Adams <jna at retina.net> wrote:
> Don't conflate layer 5-7 needs with basic communication requirements. IP is
> not the place for this sort of header.

IP is the logical place for this kind of header,  as this information
is node dependent, not application dependent.

It would be useful for identifying the location of a server, when an
IP address does not.
For example, in the case of an  anycasted service,   the  source IP
address does not uniquely identify where the source came from.

The requirement that the embedded location data,  be GPS data,
however:  would seem to be overly restrictive;    a simple   8-bit
"Site number"  identifier  could be all the location data needed  for
diagnostic purposes.

"Privacy issues"  are policy considerations,  that have no place in
the determination of protocol header formats;  providers of a service
will generate  location header extensions, if they are useful to them,
 if they are not, then they would choose to not support the extension.

If a provider wants to attempt to implement rights management using
header fields, then more power to  them....   I never heard of a
digital rights management provider  implementing an open
standards-based approach,   and it would be a positive development  if
they did,  but more likely than not, they will ignore header extension
options,   and implement  rights management identification   inside
proprietary application layer payloads   that contain the actual
protected content,

instead of IP packet headers,  which are easily stripped off, and
replaced with new IP headers  containing the same packet data payload.

--
-JH