Addressing in internetwork protocols

The most important part of an internet protocol is its addressing information-that is, the information that affects routing of an internet packet. While there has been much research of routing in internetworks, there has not been a comprehensive study of addressing information in internet protocols per se. In this thesis, we examine the use of addresses in internet protocols. We start with a taxonomy of addressing functions. Using this taxonomy, we then give a comprehensive description of addressing modes in internetwork protocols. Finally, we present two designs for addressing in internetwork protocols, one based on current internet protocol syntax (SIPP), and one based on a new syntax (SPip). Both of these designs exploit the notion that virtually all routing and addressing semantics can be achieved through the loose source route mechanism, though SPip does this more generally than SIPP. We analyze the capabilities and costs of SIPP and SPip, and compare them with those of OSI's internetwork protocol, CLNP. We show that the general use of the loose source route mechanism is the best way to achieve flexible, efficient, and evolvable routing and addressing