# Re: Multicasting vs Anycasting (was: No "TOP" of the docuverse)

Jon P. Knight (J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk)
Fri, 30 Sep 1994 17:30:41 +0100 (BST)

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    Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 17:30:41 +0100 (BST)

    From: "Jon P. Knight" <J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk>

    Subject: Re: Multicasting vs Anycasting (was: No "TOP" of the docuverse)

    To: Daniel LaLiberte <liberte@ncsa.uiuc.edu>

    In-Reply-To: <9409301541.AA01735@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu>

    Message-Id: <Pine.3.05.9409301740.H2081-b100000@suna>

On Fri, 30 Sep 1994, Daniel LaLiberte wrote:
> I agree that multicasting has problems. I believe anycasting provides
> a better solution to the problem where you really only want one of
> several servers to respond. Rather than have client applications
> decide which server to select, the internetwork can decide based on
> proximity, availability, or other criteria. Anycasting is described
> in "Host Anycasting Service" <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1546.txt>.

Has there actually been an anycasting service deployed on the Internet?
If so I'd be interested to know about it as I've not seen one yet (it
would fit in *very* nicely with some other work I'm doing as part of my
Ph.D. :-) ). At least I know that multicast IP is pretty widely deployed,
and getting wider all the time. It might not be the perfect solution to
all the problems but at least it is a solution we can grab today for
prototyping with (when it comes down to it, if the prototypes are coded
nicely the multicast vs. anycast will be a matter of simply changing the
well known address/port number pair that is used).

Much as I hate to say this, I fear that this is a ``mere implementation
detail''. I think we've got some bigger problems to tackle first with
URC/N resolution, processing, representation, storage and administration.

Jon

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jon Knight, Research Student in High Performance Networking and Distributed
Systems in the Department of _Computer_Studies_ at Loughborough University.
* It's not how big your share is, its how much you share that's important *

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