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From: tcp-ip@ucbvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: fa.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: IP datagrams on IEEE 802.3/802.2 networks
Message-ID: <7198@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 16-May-85 23:56:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.7198
Posted: Thu May 16 23:56:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 18-May-85 00:46:25 EDT
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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From: "J. Noel Chiappa" <JNC@MIT-XX.ARPA>

	I think that there was some compromise worked out where if
the value in the type/length field is larger than the largest legal
Ethernet packet (1500) then it was to be interpreted as a type field.
This lets out most of the common values for that field, including
IP and ARP. This basically legalized the de facto standard, which was
that everyone was ignoring the SAP stuff.
	(The exact use of having an optional length field if you have
to be able to function without it was never made clear. But remember,
being a standards committee means never having to say 'Yow, are we
gratuitously kludgy yet?')

	Noel
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