At 03:03 PM 11/23/2001 -0800, Reinaldo Penno wrote:
hummm. Let's see a real example. My broadband provider is ATT and I have
webmail. If AT&T offers anti-virus with a intermediary (proxy) and remote
call-out server (anti-virus scanner), does ATT as a whole suddenly becomes a
CDN? A Content Network?
Another example. In my house I run a web server with a reverse proxy. If in
this (OPES) reverse proxy I offer some service, for instance language
translation, does my home network becomes a CDN? Does ATT as a whole becomes
indirectly a CDN? A Content Network?
To offer a third-party opinion on this matter, I'd like to suggest that folks
give a read to the first few sections of draft-day-cdnp-model-08.txt. Over in
CDI land, we needed good definitions for terms like "Content Network" and
"CDN"
as the basis for our work, so we've started with a general definition and
elaborated on that. I think we've reached a fair amount of consensus in this
area, and indeed, the document is nearing completion. However, input is
appreciated... better late than never.
In brief, we know that in the routed world, once you put two host machines on
the same ethernet wire, you technically have a "network". As "networks" go,
it's on a whole different scale than one operated by AT&T or the IT department
at your local enterprise, but this is why we have terms like "public backbone
network", "LAN", "VPN", etc. Similarly, we would argue that once you add ANY
proxy ("forward" or "reverse") you have created a type of Content Network.
Things like callouts from those proxies just further enhance the functionality
of that CN. The type of CN known as a "CDN" is a more specific refinement, as
it implies a set of features made popular by certain service providers over
the
past couple years. This is all described in the draft.
--
Phil Rzewski - Senior Architect - Inktomi Corporation
650-653-2487 (office) - 650-303-3790 (cell) - 650-653-1848 (fax)