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Date:      Mon, 05 Jul 1999 09:33:56 -0700
From:      Dann Lunsford <dann@greycat.com>
To:        Net@freebsd.org
Subject:   mbuf-less IP?
Message-ID:  <3780DE74.2DD4F526@greycat.com>

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Just a question out of pure curiosity.  I've been studying the Stevens
set ("TCP/IP Illustrated", all three vols) and came across a comment
that Van Jacobson had an experimental IP stack that didn't use the mbuf
structures.  The reasoning was that the current implementation was
designed when memory was much more constrained, CPU speed was lower, and
networks weren't as fast or fat.  Reportedly, Jacobson found
siginificant performance improvements and better resource utilization
over current, mbuf based, implementations.  

So... Has anybody looked into this idea?  I realize it would entail
*MAJOR* rewrites and redesigns, and would not be undertaken lightly, but
perhaps it would be worth considering for the future.   The current
design smacks of "It's always been done that way"; whenever I hear that
phrase, a chill goes up my spine :-).

Anyway, that's it.  Just tossing it into the ring; please don't throw
knives back :-).

    Dann Lunsford
    dann@greycat.com


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