[e2e] modularity of address lookup and management

[Craig Partridge]

Hi folks:

I'm currently working on a challenge related to how one modularizes
problems of looking up addresses, assigning (or learning of) addresses on
interfaces, at the like.

To make this problem concrete, consider the requirement that a multihomed
host accept any datagram with any one of the host's IP addresses as the
destination.  If address control is done in the MAC/device driver layer,
then a datagram could trigger one lookup per interface.  If address control
is done by the IP layer, then there are challenges of mapping IP addresses
to MAC layers/interfaces (required, as I recall, on outbound where the
source IP address usually must but that of the outbound interface).

Somehow, in the back of my head, there's the idea that someone looked at
this problem in the early 1990s.  There's text in the Router Requirements
RFC and Host Requirements sketching out the problems, but not espousing a
particular software modularity.  Did anyone write something on this problem?

Thanks!

Craig

E-mail: craig at aland.bbn.com or craig at bbn.com