Personal Tom Bombadil Lord of the Hosts Internet Draft Document: draft-bombadil-netlemmings-00.txt Expires: November 2006 1st April 2006 NETLeMMings – Or how I learned to Stop Thinking and Forget the Basics of IP Mobility draft-bombadil-netlemmings-00.txt Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a max of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on October 2006. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). 1 <2006> Abstract This is the story of the Host and how it became a mindless NETLeMMing under the influence of evil priesthoods and the inexcusable failure of the IETF to protect its fundamental rights INDEX 1. Happier Days.......................................................3 2. The Priesthoods....................................................3 3. The Fall of the Host(s)............................................6 4. The Failure(s) of the IETF.........................................7 5. The Return of the Hosts............................................9 6. Disclaimer........................................................11 7. Author's Address..................................................11 Intellectual Property Statement......................................11 Copyright Statement..................................................12 Acknowledgment.......................................................12 2 <2006> 1. Happier Days Once upon a time, in an Inter-network far, far away, there lived a Host. The Host was happy. The Host did what it liked, when it liked, and was generally beholden to no one. Some days it would wake up, stretch its protocol stack, fire up its favorite protocol appendage (most mornings this was Ethernet), brew up a little Java and view its neighborhood via its favorite window Firefox; on other days it would run Explorer (usually on cloudy days). Still, the Host was happy, determining what Apps it ran and when. It would often speak with its family and friends using a variety of VoIP/IM technologies, having to gateway to circuit-based communications only when encountering 'The Legacy' network---an entity the Host did not understand but which, from the little it sensed, seemed to represent a black hole---an enigma absorbing all insight and innovation, and emanating nothing but a sense of despair. As one can imagine, the Host stayed as far away from The Legacy as possible. Following breakfast, the Host would pack up and head to work. Suddenly, its Ethernet appendage would cease to function. But no matter, this happened everyday and the Host would activate and quickly shift to another of its appendages called a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) to maintain communications with its favorite Hosts. The Host understood that its Inbox would fill rapidly with Invoices when using this appendage. The Host often wondered why, despite these charges, that this limb functioned so poorly, being at first glance little different from its other appendages. Then it realized its driver for this appendage was more complex than that of its lightweight Ethernet driver, and that strange things had been done to its TCP stack in a seemingly vain attempt to improve the performance of this appendage. The more the Host pondered this issue, the more this appendage's inherent complexity began to remind him of his distant inter-workings with The Legacy. The more the Host utilized this appendage, the more its bad feelings grew and the Host looked for any opportunity to shed this appendage. Fortunately, when the Host arrived at work, a corporate 802.11 network eagerly awaited. The Host would activate this appendage, dispense with the ill-feeling and costly WWAN, and smooth communications quickly resumed. All in all, the Host was happy. It could move from place to place, using a variety of network appendages and applications as best suited its needs, but it hoped one day that someone would make big improvements to the WWAN. 2. The Priesthoods But not all were happy. The folks that created the malformed "all- IP" WWAN networks were becoming increasingly concerned. The WWAN, you see, was primarily designed by the Shinto-led Nordic Priesthood, who loved to build colorful, multi-form network boxes in a variety of tactile materials that could be piled up in sanctuaries and shrines across the world, and shifted in large numbers to their unsuspecting and fashion conscious Followers, the Network Operators 3 <2006> (NetOptors). For many years, their power in the WWAN had been unchallenged, their authority absolute. Even though much of the value they had recently created had turned out to be negative, they had managed to get paid just the same (tricksy they are). If at any point their following began to wane, they would simply profess the refined qualities of the next incarnation of their God. Not to worry, the 3rd incarnation of God, 3G, would be perfect---and if not, surely the 4th will be. But now the inexorable march of technology was preparing to take its next step. For many years, insidiously from the perspective of some, the Internet had been growing---a distributed, decentralized network with an open application framework. Sounds like a good thing, and it is---promoting innovation and competition---unless it happens to devalue the 'value' you provide. For some of the Priests did not like the Hosts, did not like the inherent power they currently wielded or the future power they represented. For these Priests worshipped at the altar of the God of Network Control, and it is a belief that they have helped to spread far and wide amongst their Followers within the NetOptors. To such a faith a self-controlled Host is blasphemous, for it destroys the very premise of their religion; that the network knows what is best for the Host. For in their faith the network is all powerful. You see, in the beginning there was the one true God, the 1G Network, beautiful in its analog simplicity, complete in its omnipotence of control. Yes, there were perhaps many warring, incompatible sects within the faith, but at its heart lay the golden core of pure Network Control. Miraculously, from the ashes of this war rose a Phoenix, a second God, a digital God, a 2G God which could unite the warring analog factions under a single world-wide credo, or so it was thought. For in America, that land of annoyingly clever people that drive cars much too big for them, a competing 2G God was already rising. Its following took root in Asia and America, and gradually spread across the globe as well. This new theology also greatly appealed to the Shinto Priests, who already worshipped Network Control as one of their highest Kami. But with the new faith being of foreign origin, the xenophobic instincts of the Shinto Priests quickly surfaced, and so the belief needed to be purified and recast as a 'wideband' Kami before it could be truly praised. The Shinto Priests, smiling and speaking ever so politely whilst eating endangered fish with their Nordic brethren, suggested that if the Nordic Priesthood would embrace their new Kami as a new 3G God, the Nordics would be allowed to build sanctuaries amidst the Shinto shrines and fill these with their beloved, multi-form colourful boxes. Being principally interested in growing their own congregations in the land of Shintoism, the Nordics acquiesced and adopted the Shinto wideband Kami as their new 3G God of Network 4 <2006> Control. Unfortunately, this overly complex, confused and crippled God did not understand the Internet and its simple principles for robust operation. Alas. The Internet, you see, is different. And along with its rise has been an acceptance of an alternative faith---the so-called "end-to- end principle" in system design. The end-to-end principle is one of the central design tenets of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is the basis of the Internet. Its devotion states that, whenever possible, communications protocol operations should be defined to occur at the *end-points* of a communications system. The concept purports that reliable systems tend to require end-to-end processing to operate correctly, in addition to any processing in the intermediate system. It can then be demonstrated that the end-to-end processing alone suffices to make the system operate, and that the intermediate processing stages are largely redundant. Given this fact, much intermediate processing can be made simpler, relying on the end-to- end processing to make the system work. This leads to the model of a "dumb network with smart terminals"---a completely different model from the previous paradigm of the "smart network with dumb terminals". The appeal of this alternative paradigm is strong, primarily because it appeals to reason. Unsurprisingly (or perhaps surprisingly) a schism has recently appeared within the Nordic Priesthood. A set of "Application Layer" Priests have broken with the faith and designed an infrastructure known as IMS which makes use of SIP and operates under Host control. In IMS, you see, a Host decides which Apps it wishes to run, and using which appendages. The IMS allows a Host to run only those Apps for which it is authorized, which is appropriate, but the Host remains in control of when, where and over which appendages these services are used. Such a model, whilst possibly extremely profitable to NetOptors, is clearly blasphemous to the sect of Network Control. But the network control Priests are supposedly intelligent beings, capable of adaptation. With the advent of IP mobility, with the need to support multi-appendage communications in a variety of rapidly-evolving neighborhoods (WPAN, WLAN, WMAN, WWAN, P2H Ad hoc, Satellite, etc.), surely it would be understood that Host-controlled IP mobility is the simplest, most robust, and at times the only feasible means. In fact, it is perhaps the most practical application of the end-to-end principle in the design of robust mobile systems. Why wouldn't all the Priests (Shintos and Nordics alike) adopt the only practical and general model for inter- technology mobility? Regrettably, the unspoken heresy is that the network control faith is both self-serving and blinded by the past. For many years the Priests have constructed, in one form or another, a variety of Reliable Network Control (RNC) boxes made in the image of their previous Gods to maintain overall Network Control of mobility. These centralized boxes have represented a portion of their "value 5 <2006> add". In fairness to the Priests, these monolithic systems tended to be built in isolation (pre-IP), using a mixture of mobile and network-controlled means, but which almost always maintained overall control of mobility within the network. Consequently, such a paradigm is understood, familiar and profitable to them, providing them with many robes, places of worship and assorted holy southern watery retreats. And so they chant at the top of their voices, in strange accents, that 'Full mobile control is impractical', and that 'Mobile control would take NetOptors out of the loop'. Their beliefs had spread insidiously throughout the scared and generally unwise NetOptors; with the free-thinking doubters in these organizations being easily brought over with vouchers for free lighting systems or rectangular cutlery for the wife. 3. The Fall of the Host(s) And so it was that one day, a Host was cornered by a group of very polite, excitable and somewhat pushy blond haired chaps from Cliffhanger Networks, a recent for-profit offshoot run by an evangelical Nordic ex-clergyman. They suggested, in a synchronous monotone chant, that he plug into a new form of WWAN appendage controlled by their Lemming Mobility Module (LMM). They said it was also all-IP, and was much better than previous WWAN. They said it would enable the Host to control all its appendages better, and they reeled off big words such as ubiquitous, convergence, inter- networking, inter-technology and didn't mention Bluetooth once. The Host was impressed. The Host was somewhat concerned by the company name, and the fact he could not understand much of the manual, but he thought he would give it a try. The WWAN, as it was, was very unappealing. However, when he installed and activated the Lemming driver, the Host detected a sudden and uncontrollable urge to *jump*. This manifested itself as a StrongARM command, originating from the Lemming driver, to handoff to the WWAN, even when he was getting beautiful and cheap performance over his beloved 802.11 link. He strongly resisted the urge to jump, but the impetus was overwhelming, and he found himself falling off the cliff into a rough hewn WWAN abyss filled with network-controlled Lemmings. Once in the abyss the performance was dismal, occasionally even dying due to the low Signal to Noise Ratio, his signal of interest being drowned out by priest-led, robotic sermons regarding the joys of a predictable life under the control of a synchronous network. At the bottom of the cliff, all the Host could see was a shear dark granite face, but in the distance it could hear the remote sounds of Hosts high above playing joyously in the Ethernet. The Host was able to talk to the Network via its LMM to tell it of its difficulties and to request a move back to the Ethernet, but the Network refused, and told him to recite to himself several Orwellian-like mantras from the Holy scriptures reminiscent of "Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength". The Host could only sit and wait amidst the chanting for 6 <2006> its desired networking to return, but not only did it have no idea when or how this might occur, but the cost of sitting in the pew on the barren rocky outcrop at the bottom of the cliff was huge, as the basket requiring mandatory offerings to the Network God kept being passed. Things worsened. As he sat there, the Host realized that one by one all his friends were also jumping off the cliff, guided by their own Lemming Mobility Modules. Apparently, a piece of WWAN equipment was telling the joyous Hosts that their lost friend was actually having a great time on a sandy beach, drinking Vodka, surrounded by babes. One by one the happy Hosts flung themselves into oblivion as well, their festive sounds turning to screams as they hit the rocky floor to be surrounded by chanting Norsemen. The guys at Cliffhanger Networks were delighted. With the Lemming Mobility Module installed, they had complete control of the poor Hosts who could now be bullied around and kept away from the free Ethernet. Any attempt by a Host to try to climb up the cliff was met with a zap from its WWAN appendage. 4. The Failure(s) of the IETF Amidst the chanting, the Hosts met to try to get a plan together and all agreed to try to remove the Lemming Mobility Module. To their horror though, they discovered that not only did the module not have an uninstaller, but the LMM driver had infected and taken over the drivers of all their other appendages. The LMM also came with a contract clause that would gradually force them into bankruptcy, as holy offerings were now mandatory. Their only option was to appeal to the canon law as written down by the Imaginary Engineering Task Force of the Hosts. They sent e-mails to the IETF (but they were lost or corrupted over the WWAN). They then tried VoIP, but the WWAN quality was so poor that they could not be understood. Their only option was to band together, to collaborate to form a Host chain using their presently useless Ethernet cables so that one of the Hosts could be lifted up the cliff and could attend an IETF meeting in 'person' to communicate their plight. The first Host over the cliff was chosen, as he had the most experience of the rocky outcrop, and had previously attended IETF meetings long ago which he had found welcoming, informed, fair and fast moving. Boy was he in for a shock. The Host flew into Host city and met some old friends from the IETF for drinks at a BAR FOB (OFF). His friends looked weary and gloomy, and told tales of how the good days had gone. How the end-to-end principle had been set aside by the cold and cruel Priesthood, and their robotic disciples at Cliffhanger, with their desire to manipulate, interfere and control. How many in the IETF now worshiped 3G and spent all their energies in serving 3G to the detriment of the Internet. The Host trembled at this news and went through a Restart and a Restore before he could hear anymore. 7 <2006> The Host next heard how meeting attendees were now motivated by personal advancement rather than the common good. The Host was amazed to learn of a new document called RFC4144 "How to Gain Prominence and Influence in Standards Organizations". He was told how attendees would support ideas that they didn't really believe in, or even understand, would submit drafts that were nearly identical to existing drafts with the intent of "merging" or getting onto a design team, and volunteering to edit a draft (e.g., terminology draft) without the background or expertise to contribute anything meaningful---basically, of doing just about anything to be part of the 'in-crowd' and to further their name by association. The RFC mentioned nothing about excellence and the value of good practical ideas and running code. The Host realized that, in such an environment, the Shinto and Nordic Priesthoods had been able to get away with murder, and had led the now Lemming-like technical community on a tale of Hans Christian Anderson-sized proportions. The Host left his dull-eyed, now sadly Lemming-like friends drinking themselves into a stupor, dismayed at their demise. The Host attended the NETwork-based Lemming Mobility Management (NETLMM) meeting the next morning, refreshed and very happy from a night of 'gaming' with another as yet uncorrupted Host on the broadband link in his hotel room. No one seemed to recognize him though, the WG members, all with vacant expressions, each mindlessly staring towards the front of the room. On introducing himself and stating his purpose for attending, he was asked either "so what - who cares" or "what's a Host". He sat down and waited for the meeting to start. He was dismayed to see members of the Priesthood all around, dressed in matching yellow and blue outfits. The Host then saw two experienced IETF members as the Chairs at the head of the room and felt relieved for a brief moment. The Host then noticed however that the Chairs also seemed to have glazed eyes, their heads wincing from time to time as painful commands were administered via LMM-controlled cranial implants. The meeting proceeded, with each Chair joining in the synchronous chants led by the Cliffhanger guys as they showed slide after slide of their evil network nodes bullying poorly defined and defenseless Hosts into performing impossible circus tricks on demand. They even showed graphs of how far and fast their LMM technology could provoke a Host to jump, if they so wished, sometimes condemning them to the pit of dial-up despair. The Host stood up to ask a question, but was booed. He tried to get to the microphone, but his LMM kicked in and before he knew it he was in a Management Area meeting, surrounded by talk of MIBs. He fearlessly rushed back to the NETLMM meeting and, after carving out his Lemming Mobility Module with a jakknife, he eventually got to speak. He told them, whilst his memory leaked, about all his friends at the bottom of the cliff, the mandatory network worship and unflinching submission to the Priestly dictates. He cried, he pleaded and he begged to be given the right to make his own choices. He promised to use the WWAN whenever it made good sense, to make his religious contributions on time, and promised not to use the 8 <2006> Ethernet for real-time services, but it made no difference. The Lemmings, now brainwashed by the Priesthood, were happy to define requirements for future Lemming Mobility Modules that would be backward compatible with the LMMs already installed in their infected drivers. Then they would design the new LMM thinking that they are designing it based on their own thoughts. The Host was despondent. It seemed that the IETF was now so full of Lemmings that the intellect and integrity of the standards process was lost. After the meeting, the Host complained vigorously to the Chairs, and to the assembled clergymen. They reassured the Host that whilst the LMM may not be perfect, that its problems would be sorted out over the next twenty years by future upgrades to the Lemming Mobility Module. The Host realized that all was lost. The Lemming Mobility Module was the result of the fusion of a religion, of market power, of unchecked stupidity, and of a corrupted standards process, leaving behind a set of forgotten yet powerful principles that had once guided inter-networking design. The Host flew back to the cliff – very dejected and alone. He walked up to the cliff edge, and defiantly, with its last drop of free memory, autonomously decided to throw itself off the cliff, two aerials held up in a 'V', and rejoin his friends. 5. The Return of the Hosts Years passed in the abyss, and all proceeded as planned. The Lemmings were independent no longer, their installed LMMs maintaining the envisioned 'new order'. And the Priests were pleased, for they above all rejoiced in order, worshipping its very essence, being by nature compulsively obsessed with planned evolutions, however misguided. But the true order of the universe is disorder. Things arise out of the chaos, despite the best efforts of those that seek to control nature's progression. And so things happen, often contrary to expectations, and at times in reaction to action---the so-called "unintended consequences of action". And so the Priests would learn. For the Lemmings were beginning to die off, their numbers slowly dwindling as time passed. The Priests were puzzled. How could this be? The Lemmings seemed healthy. Their LMMs operating with flawless precision, making seemingly perfect network appendage changes under the supreme direction of their network god. Lemmings, you see, were now being born with fully functioning LMMs. Following birth, they would be distributed throughout the planet to the NetOptors, who would in turn offer up the Lemmings to appease *their* God---a terribly fickle, multi-headed God---The Market God of Subscribers. Satisfying this God was the ultimate purpose for 9 <2006> which the Lemmings had been conceived. And if this God smiled upon the Lemmings, the Lemmings could multiply. And yet their lifespan was not what it should be. Subscribers would purchase a Lemming, but many would then quickly discard it. This confused the Priests. Weren't Lemmings available in a multitude of colours, making a variety of pleasing noises? Didn't recent models even emit sensuous odors in conjunction with certain Interactive IMS Apps? Didn't the Lemmings permit access to this set of wonderfully addictive IMS Apps under the full control of their omnipotent Network God, who always made revenue maximizing network choices? What more could this dreadful Market God want that it would discard young Lemmings in their prime of life (long before the NetOptor subsidy was recouped?)? The Priests consulted far and wide searching for an explanation. To their dismay, they discovered that the Market God was capable of far greater heresy than they could have ever imagined. The Market, it seemed, did crave the addictive applications (those App-layer Priests are earning their place in the hereafter). But the search found that Subscribers preferred accessing these Apps using a *different* kind of device. This was incomprehensible to the Priesthood. How could this be? Their Lemming network control policies were ideally crafted to satisfy the most recent IMS market surveys, conducted to provide multimedia services inline with the latest ITU recommendations. Why would this terrible Market God want anything else? Why indeed. The Market God, it seems, prefers Choice---choice of Applications, choice of Access---choice of options which evolve at a pace which exceed the capabilities of the Priesthood to anticipate, plan for or control (need we even give examples?). Because it exceeded their capabilities, perhaps that is why it exceeded their comprehension, no one knows for sure. What is known is that over time the Lemmings died off. The NetOptors, remaining ultimately subservient to their Market God, ultimately deployed another form of device, you guessed it---a Host :-)---a device enabling open access to Applications, provided by the NetOptors or others, and accessed via a variety of Host-controlled network appendages in accordance with the wishes of the Subscriber God. And what of our friends at the bottom of the cliff? After what seemed an eternity, ropes were lowered by helpers of the NetOptors, enabling the LMM-controlled Hosts one by one to scamper up the cliffsides in defiance of their LMMs. Exorcisms were duly performed, expelling the LMM drivers in green streams of bit spew. The freed Hosts rejoiced! Ultimately each found a home in the service of a happy Subscriber. 10 <2006> And as for our original Host? Well, he could not find his way back into the service of Man. The irrationality of the whole experience had deeply offended his emotional and spiritual silicon. The last anyone had heard of him he was helping rehabilitate IP Hosts recently released from imprisonment within WCDMA handsets from the horrors of their GGSN-tethered existences. He is said to receive immense satisfaction from the delight each Host exhibits when viewing the Internet anew thru any interface other than a PDP context. And I am reasonably sure that when the Host reflects on the failed vision of the Priests, he is smiling. 6. Disclaimer The events and people depicted in this draft are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real life or technical reality is purely accidental, as befits the current work of the IETF in the area of Mobility. 7. Author's Address Tom Bombadil The Lord of the Hosts Email: the_lord_of_the_hosts@yahoo.com Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. 11 <2006> Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society.