Adding GPS location to IPv6 header

William Herrin bill at herrin.us
Sun Nov 25 17:08:15 UTC 2012


On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 7:30 AM, Ammar Salih <ammar.salih at auis.edu.iq> wrote:
> 2- Layer 7 will not be detected by layer 3 devices (routers) .. so
> location-based service on layer-3 will not be possible.

Geographic-based layer 3 routing has been thoroughly discussed on the
IRTF RRG and just as thoroughly rejected. It's wholly inadequate as an
approximation for topographic locality within the network graph.

Uses of geolocation information at layer 3 are similar to uses of the
"evil bit."


On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 1:28 AM, Jimmy Hess <mysidia at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

As is the user's legal name and social security number. If it isn't
processed by the layer 3 protocols, if they don't use it for next hop
selection, then it doesn't belong at layer 3.


> For example, in the case of an  anycasted service,   the  source IP
> address does not uniquely identify where the source came from.

Given appropriate construction of the layer 4 protocol, nothing stops
an anycasted service from responding with a unicast IP address and
using the unicast address during subsequent communication. An anycast
service has far better mechanisms available to identify the responding
server than stuffing a GPS header in the layer 3 packet.

Regards,
Bill Herrin




-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004




More information about the NANOG mailing list