Date: Wed, 27 Apr 1994 15:56:01 -700 (PST)
From: Mitra <mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us>
Subject: Re: Seperating URC format and URN->URC resolution
To: rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov
In-Reply-To: <199404272243.QAA27380@idaknow.acl.lanl.gov>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9404271553.B8856-0100000@pandora.sf.ca.us>
On Wed, 27 Apr 1994 rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov wrote:
> Mitra's scenario currently locates the URI server(s) for a particular
> publisher and gives us their IP address. However, this is not quite
> enough. We have to know how to talk with the server we find at that
> address. In order to support a range of alternatives in the experimentation
> phase, how about we standardize on a well-known (to us :-) port and a
> trivial service on that port which gives the client a list of ports and
> services that can really do the URN->URL mapping. Browsers can look at the
> list to see if they know how to speak the supported protocol(s) on that
> URI server. Later on when we have standardized on a protocol, we can bump
> up the version number of the trivial service and have it do the real thing.
The big problem with this is speed, setting up a connection to a service
is a non-trivial exercise, with around a 1 second penalty (which is why
Prospero uses UDP).
- Mitra