--On Thursday, November 29, 2001 22:42 -0800 Reinaldo Penno
<reinaldo_penno(_at_)nortelnetworks(_dot_)com> wrote:
Actually I was refering and acknowledging the fact that routers can run
an OPES intermediary and still meet the "this is for explicitly
configured connections between user agent and OPES intermediary".
Oh, for sure. I'd assumed everyone already "got that"; let's not forget
that for a limited part of what they do many L3 routers are hosts too. I
tried to be careful with my language for exactly this point.
IMO when people think of OPES they are automatically thiking about an
appliance, another self-contained physical device. Although several OPES
intermediaries will come be this way, other alternatives will appear.
OPES is just a set of application layer protocols. The "how many and what
type of boxes" issue is totally up to implementors, of course.
Of course implementations will change. It can be in-house, built on top
of existing software or OEM/licensing. I can think of two router vendors
today where their firewall is nothing more than a general purpose PC
blade running a software from a different company. You can easily extend
this model where a router vendor makes an agreement with one of the
caching/proxy appliance vendors out there to OEM its software or just use
the "technology in blade" approach.
... ah, memories of 1998 :-)