[e2e] where end-to-end ends

[Eric Travis]

I'm not sure that I agree with the implication
of your subject line ...

I've always interpreted the ultimate "end" in 
end-to-end to be the communicating processes 
rather than the transport entities who are 
providing services.

While the relevant control loops are localized, 
the ultimate end points of communication remain 
the same as they always were - the communicating 
processes (application layer entities).

Now I'm curious - am I really bound to having only 
a *single* layer-4 hop before "end-to-end ends" in 
the absolute sense? 

All this is really no different than e-mail. Wouldn't
you agree that e-mail correspondence between two 
people is still legitimately labeled as "end-to-end" 
communications?

Eric 

travis at gst.com

Christian Tschudin wrote:
> 
> A new Internet-Draft on the "Interplanetary Internet" was recently
> published in which the authors (Cerf et al) predict where the end of
> end-to-end is:
> 
>   "We have concluded that the standard Internet protocols should be
>    essentially "terminated" at the Interplanetary Gateways [...]"
> 
> and not surprisingly they opt for an active networking approach ;-)
> 
>   "But because of the enormous round-trip delays, such systems must work
>    very indirectly. For example, to steer the Mars Pathfinder rover, one
>    sends instructions about intermediate points that the robot must steer
>    past."
> 
> Just some synectic readings.
> christian.
> 
> Ref:
>   draft-irtf-ipnrg-arch-00.txt (May 2001)
> 
> ---
> Christian Tschudin, Department of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Box 325
> S-75105 Uppsala, Sweden. <tschudin at docs.uu.se>, http://www.docs.uu.se/~tschudin