Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com> writes:

> On Fri, Jun 01, 2001 at 05:59:00PM -0400, Rajappa Iyer wrote:
> > Is the ISO stack in NetBSD functional?  The reason I ask is that
> > someone is planning to do an open source OSI stack implementation and
> > I was hoping that the NetBSD stack could be used as is for the lower
> > layers.
> 
> Are you aware that there is _already_ an "open source OSI stack
> implementation"?  Where do you think what's in NetBSD came from?
>
> The bits that need to be in the kernel came from the University of Wisconsin
> and shipped in 4.4BSD and therefore in NetBSD.  For the rest, you want to
> look at ISODE.
> 
> We've had some bugs in the OSI stuff over time, but more importantly, AFAICT
> it's basically useless, dead weight.  I have a lot of trouble understanding
> why you'd want to reinvent not just a wheel, but a particularly angular,
> poorly-rolling wheel, at that.

Um... if you'll read what I wrote, it is precisely to prevent the
reinvention of the wheel that I was hoping that the NetBSD stack was
functional and could be used as is.  I am quite aware of ISODE, but
there are problems with ISODE.  For example, the ASN.1 compiler with
ISODE, and for that matter, other ASN.1 compilers extant are a little
dated and work with the 84 version only.

OSI may be dead below the transport layer, but in the telecom world,
the application layer protocols such as CMIP, FTAM etc. and routing
protocols (ES-IS and IS-IS) are still very much alive and useful.

If *I* were the one embarking on such a project, I'd take NetBSD for
transport and below, perhaps modify ISODE for most of the upper layer
protocols and work on OSIMIS for CMIP.  But it's not my itch.

Regards,
Rajappa
-- 
<rsi@panix.com> a.k.a. Rajappa Iyer.
	They also surf who stand in the waves.