Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!ucbvax!MCIMAIL.COM!0004219666
From: 0004219666@MCIMAIL.COM (Bob Stine)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: IP addressing & T1 channels
Message-ID: <43910301132734.0004219666NB4EM@mcimail.com>
Date: 1 Mar 91 13:27:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The Internet
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A client of mine is developing a real-time, distributed system that will use the
TCP/IP protocol suite for control & monitoring.  A component in the system will
serve as a gateway between a LAN and a T1 link to (another gateway on) another
LAN.

In addition to control traffic, we will be performing down-line loads to
components on the distant LAN, sometihing like:


         LAN        T1           LAN
Server  ------ GW --------- GW --------- Destination 
                 1            2

Now, we don't want the bulk traffic to cause overly-long delays to the real-time
traffic.  The control traffic will all be on a single 56kbs channel of the T1,
framed in HDLC.  We were contemplating giving the down-line load traffic its own
channel, and using an application at GW2 to receive and distribute big files to
the destinations on the far LAN.

We will be writing our own device driver for the T1.

To me, a "natural" solution to this problem seems to be to use separate IP
addresses for the control and bulk-data channels.

Questions:

1. Would this require separate drivers to get any performance improvements
(i.e., would a sinlge HDLC device driver become a bottleneck)?

2. Is there a better approach?

3. What are the hidden "gotchas"?

4. Where could I look for more info?

Thanks,

Bob Stine
bstine@MCIMail.com
c_rstine@hns.com