[e2e] Reacting to corruption based loss

[Ethan Blanton]

Alex,

Cannara spake unto us the following "wisdom":
> Good one Clark!  Indeed FDDI and other fiber rings have dual interfaces &
> fibers and anything can happen in any part of the hardware.  The assumptions
> about the physical layer that have been made in most TCP discussions simply
> evidence lack of understanding of the reality and complexity of underlying
> layers.  This lack extends to the length of time the defects last and go
> undiscovered, while folks struggle with peformance issues.

Let me get this straight, for my benefit and for the benefit of those
who may not understand you.  You're suggesting that TCP should have a
mechanism by which the hardware layer can communicate that there is a
particular sequence of bits which, due to physical imperfections in
the transmission medium, cannot be reliably transmitted, and that
given this information the TCP stack could choose a different method
of communicating those particular bits?

I can't believe no one has thought of implementing this richness of
signalling before now.  This is certainly an inherent flaw in the TCP
design.

Ethan

(On a side note:  I keep hearing that the Internet is completely
broken and could never possibly work.  Why is it that certain emails
to the e2e mailing list *unfailingly* reach my mailbox under these
circumstances?)

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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