What Makes for a Successful Protocol?
RFC 5218
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(July 2008; No errata)
Was draft-iab-protocol-success (iab IETF)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Dave Thaler , Bernard Aboba | ||
| Last updated | 2017-05-10 | ||
| Stream | IAB | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Stream | IAB state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
Network Working Group D. Thaler
Request for Comments: 5218 B. Aboba
Category: Informational IAB
July 2008
What Makes for a Successful Protocol?
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Abstract
The Internet community has specified a large number of protocols to
date, and these protocols have achieved varying degrees of success.
Based on case studies, this document attempts to ascertain factors
that contribute to or hinder a protocol's success. It is hoped that
these observations can serve as guidance for future protocol work.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. What is Success? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Success Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3. Effects of Wild Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4. Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1. Basic Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.1. Positive Net Value (Meet a Real Need) . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.2. Incremental Deployability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.3. Open Code Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.4. Freedom from Usage Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.5. Open Specification Availability . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.6. Open Maintenance Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.7. Good Technical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.1. Extensible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2. No Hard Scalability Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.3. Threats Sufficiently Mitigated . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Thaler & Aboba Informational [Page 1]
RFC 5218 Protocol Success July 2008
Appendix A. Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A.1. HTML/HTTP vs. Gopher and FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A.1.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A.1.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A.1.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A.2. IPv4 vs. IPX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A.2.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A.2.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.2.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.3. SSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.3.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.3.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A.3.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A.4. Inter-Domain IP Multicast vs. Application Overlays . . . 20
A.4.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A.4.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
A.4.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.5. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) . . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.5.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.5.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.5.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.6. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.6.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.6.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.6.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.7. RADIUS vs. TACACS+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A.7.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A.7.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A.7.3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A.8. Network Address Translators (NATs) . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
A.8.1. Initial Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
A.8.2. Wild Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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