[Nml-wg] DCN glossary

[John Vollbrecht]

On Jul 1, 2008, at 9:09 AM, Freek Dijkstra wrote:

> John Vollbrecht wrote:
>> Attached is a DCN glossary which is part of DCN architecture and  
>> DCN reservation documents.
>
> Thanks John!
>
>> path - a connection between a source and destination.  A path is a  
>> sequence of hops.
>
> I would argue that a path is a sequence of edges/links rather than  
> hops. That way I can distinguish between two links between the same  
> hops, and can more easily between different types of relations  
> between hops (link, cross connect, adaptation, de-adaptation)
>

I  think of a path a a sequence of hops because a requested path may  
contain some but not all intermediate hops, and hops may be domains  
rather than links.
A strict path is a sequence of links.

There may be multiple paths between hops but paths may be "potential"  
or requested as well as confirmed and strict.

What I think is needed is a concept of resources like bw that are  
included in a connection or circuit.  I have (I think wrongly) been  
using path to describe a circuit, which is path with specific  
resources in each segment of the path.    Probably we need a name for  
this concept of circuit over time.  Perhaps just circuit is good  
enough -- what do you think.  Then what DCN reserves is a circuit and  
its circuit segments.  Paths and path segments are similar without  
resources assigned to them.  does this make sense?

In that case, adaptations are assigned to circuits rather than links.

Which is not to say that circuits cannot be links in a different  
infrastructure of higher order links and nodes.

John


> Regards,
> Freek

John Vollbrecht, Senior Network Engineer
Internet2
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