Mark Nottingham wrote:
How is this enforced? I.e., what prevents an ISP from running an
ad-insertion service using OPES mechanisms in transparent proxies?
How is TCP congestion control enforced, what prevents a vendor from
implementing and using a different, more aggressive and non compliant
TCP implementation? How are cachability rules enforced, what prevents
a cache vendor or a CDN provider from ignoring HTTP cachability
primitives? How is fairness with UDP traffic enforced, what prevents
an application writer from blasting the network with uncontrolled UDP
traffic? Would you consider all these mechanisms mentioned above as
bad?
The point is that there are technologies that offer opportunities, but
that are also open for sort of misuse. The challenge is trying to
restrict and discourage people from misusing these technologies.
I know that the group working on OPES doesn't intend these uses.
However, there isn't anything in the design that will prevent them
(please tell me if I've missed something), [...]
The group is required to look at a policy framework, which includes
rules that specify which services are called when. I would imagine
that - if done and implemented correctly - this policy framework would
serve this purpose. Similar to HTTP cachability primitives today, i.e.
similar to the way a content provider and/or the user can specify
cachability rules today, he/she might be able to specify rules for
executing (or not executing) services. Of course, there are CDN
providers and caches out there today that simply ignore HTTP
cachability rules, as there are folks that simply blast the network
with UDP traffic, blowing away fair TCP traffic...
There seems to be consensus that the group has to and will address
this challenge, so please feel invited to contribute and help making
sure that it's done right. Looking forward to your input.
Thanks,
Markus