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Re: Is Fragmentation at IP layer even needed ?

2016-02-08 12:57:19

On Feb 8, 2016, at 12:23 PM, Warren Kumari <warren(_at_)kumari(_dot_)net> 
wrote:
...
On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 9:05 AM David Borman 
<dab(_at_)weston(_dot_)borman(_dot_)com> wrote:
...
So if you are writing an application that needs >1500 octets, use an IPv6 
implementation that supports >1500 octet fragmentation and reassembly.

... but as an application writer (or, basically anyone else), I have no 
control over the "IPv6 implementation". Even if I'm in an environment where I 
do control the OS / model of all devices, and I know they support >1500 
octet, it seems like a bad idea to *rely* on that. Sometime I'm going to want 
to change OS / add some other device, be able to interact with some other 
system. This sounds like vendor lock at its worst…

If you wind up in a scenario where you get locked to a particular OS vendor 
because it’s the only one that supports IPv6 fragmentation >1500 octets, then 
that is probably the least of your worries.  I’d be much more worried about 
IPv6 fragmentation in light of Ron Bonica’s comment that intermediary nodes 
drop packets with extension headers, which is bad news even for fragmented 
packets in the 1280-1500 range.

                        -David