Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 13:03:23 +0500
From: dupuy@smarts.com (Alexander Dupuy)
Message-Id: <9409301703.AA00977@just.smarts.com>
To: Michael.Mealling@oit.gatech.edu, nje@ansa.co.uk
Subject: Re: No "TOP" of the docuverse [Was: URC usage scenarios ]
> Client/server multicasting can cause scaling problems in wide-area
> networks. It is possible to build protocols in which a client can
> send a multicast as single message to m servers on the same LAN
> segment. However, if the servers are in different parts of the network
> (URN/URC servers will be), m separate messages will be needed to send
> a multicast to them (even routers are used to fan-out the
> multicast). So if there are n clients you have n*m messages.
> A possible solution to this is to have the client pick ONE member from
> the group of servers and send its request to that. If that fails it
> tries to talk to the next one until it succeeds or exhausts the list.
An interesting solution to this sort of problem which doesn't require
maintaining lists of servers and adding code to the client side for retrieving
this list and iterating through it is the "Host Anycasting Service" described
in RFC 1546.
@alex