Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!proteon.COM!jas
From: jas@proteon.COM (John A. Shriver)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: a proposed modification to ARP
Message-ID: <8807181502.AA20987@monk.proteon.com>
Date: 18 Jul 88 15:02:26 GMT
References: <19880715134509.7.DCP@SWAN.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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> I just barfed up my breakfast.  Have they stopped teaching modularity
> and functional boundaries in computer science classes?

ARP is one of the quintessentially elegant protocols.  An enormous
amount of power is provided for a very simple implmentation.  Let's
keep it that way.

Let's also remember that ARP runs on 5 networks other than Ethernet
(Experimental Ethernet, AX.25, ProNET, Chaosnet, and ARCNET) that
don't have multicast, only broadcast.

Of course I could be a real killjoy and note that ARP won't be needed
on ISO networks, routers will send you redirects instead.