Subject: DLSw Scalability RIGlet Minutes from AIW 7

From: David Bryant/HQ/3Com <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Jul 95 11:14:10 EDT

Ok, so I'm really late in putting these out......

At AIW 7 the DLSw RIG identified the need to address DLSw scalability.  A new 
Scalability Riglet was formed with yours truly appointed "grand pu-bah" (Riglet 
chair).  

The Riglet identified two primary inhibitors to DLSw scalability:
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1). Search overhead: CANUREACH/ICANREACH messages which consume both bandwidth 
and CPU.

2). TCP/IP connections associated with SSP peers.  The TCP/IP connections 
consume memory and CPU at the SSP nodes which can be significant when a large 
number of SSP peers exist.  This can happen in large meshed configurations 
(where N squared becomes large) and/or SNA data center configurations where 
many locations all communicate to a single location. 

The Riglet is intent upon providing solutions to both forms of scalability 
inhibitors. 

Cisco gave a presentation on their DLSw+ enhancements which are intended to 
increase DLSw scalability particularly in meshed any-to-any configurations. 

The Riglet discussed the cisco proposal in the time alotted with the following 
conclusions:

1). The cisco proposal does nothing to address scalability issues in situations 
where many remote sites must access a central data center.  TCP/IP connections 
at the central site are not reduced (other than the elimination of unnecessary 
connections using "peer-on-demand").

2).  The cisco proposal does not actually reduce CANUREACH messages, but simply 
redistributes them to save on critical WAN resources. 

3). The cisco proposal focuses on reducing search overhead 
(CANUREACH/ICANREACH) messages in meshed configurations most often associated 
with NetBIOS.

4). Use of a centralized directory approach to reduce CANUREACH/ICANREACH 
overhead results in essentially the same solution as the cisco proposal.

Action Plan:
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1). Cisco committed to post a written formal proposal on the internet by 6/30

2). The Riglet membership should post alternative proposals and/or comments 
about the cisco proposal on the internet.

3). The Riglet has a TENTATIVE objective to choose a scalability solution 
direction (Approved Direction) at AIW 8 in August '95. 

The current plan is to review all existing proposals and comments on them at 
AIW 8.  Assuming there are no substantive technical concerns with the cisco 
proposal then a motion for AD on the cisco proposal will be heard and 
discussed.  If valuable alternatives or significant technical concerns are 
surfaced in the meantime, then the Riglet will discuss these and proceed as 
appropriate. 

David Bryant
3Com Corp