RFC 1669 (rfc1669) - Page 1 of 4

Market Viability as a IPng Criteria

Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Next >
Network Working Group                                          J. Curran
Request for Comments: 1669                                           BBN
Category: Informational                                      August 1994


                  Market Viability as a IPng Criteria

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document was submitted to the IETF IPng area in response to RFC
   1550. Publication of this document does not imply acceptance by the
   IPng area of any ideas expressed within.  Comments should be
   submitted to the  mailing list.

Introduction

   In an open marketplace, adoption of new technology is driven by
   consumer demand.  New technologies that wish to succeed in the
   marketplace must provide new capabilities or reduced costs to gain
   consumer confidence.  Internetworking technologies can be
   particularly difficult to deploy and must provide a correspondingly
   high return on investment.  In order to determine market viability of
   new internetworking technology, it's necessary to compare the
   required deployment effort against the potential benefits as seen by
   the customer.  "Viability in the Marketplace" is an important
   requirement for any IPng candidate and this paper is an attempt to
   summarize some important factors in determing market viability of
   IPng proposals.

"Pushing" Internetworking Technology

   It has been asserted by some that the adoption of a single IPng
   protocol by the computing industry would generate general acceptance
   in the networking industry.  There is ample evidence to support this
   view; for example, some of the today's more prevalent networking
   protocols gained initial market acceptance through bundling with
   computer operating systems (e.g. IP via UNIX, DECNET via VMS, etc.)
   It should be noted, however, that this approach to technology
   deployment is by no means assured, and some of today's most popular
   internetworking software (Novell, etc.) have thrived despite
   alternatives bundled by computing manufacturers.   Given that IPng
   will have to compete against an well established and mature



Curran
Next >