-----Original Message-----
From: Henning Schulzrinne [mailto:hgs@cs.columbia.edu]
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 10:33
>
> Inspired by the Polk/Linsner/Schnizlein draft on using DHCP for
conveying
> geospatial location information to client, I wrote up a complementary
draft
> on civil locations: draft-schulzrinne-geopriv-dhcp-civil-00
>
My only issue with this draft is that, like the Polk/Lisner/Schnizlein
draft, it is intended to convey essentially application layer
information through a protocol intended primarily for configuring lower
layers. This does not make the draft unworkable, unusable, or any other
sort of "un-" but is just an observation that few DHCP options intended
for application configuration have ever been widely deployed (for
example, "default www server" and "default irc server") so I strongly
suggest you think carefully about the usability of the option.
Although I can envision several applications beyond emergency response
for location data, I still have trouble understanding how a
[centralized] server can know the precise location of the host without
solving some very difficult configuration issues. Determining the host
location with sufficient precision for the intended application, then
configuring the server without introducing [transcription] errors, and
finally tracking the location of the host when it is relocated (as often
occurs in commercial or educational settings) is not a minor effort. A
breakdown in performing any of these tasks invalidates host location and
renders the application marginal or unusable.
This draft seems prone to failure, so I caution that operational and
usage requirements be fully explored before advancing this draft.
--Barr Hibbs
Received on Sun Dec 8 04:38:16 2002
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