Re: draft-ietf-ldapext-ldap-c-api-03 & timeout

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <Harald@Alvestrand.no>]

At 19:05 28.09.99 -0700, fan jiao wrote:
> I agree the simple timeout has less
> complexity to manage. But it doesn't
> work well in a congested production
> network. On the other hand, the
> exponential timeout is being widely used
> in SNMP world; it has been proven to
> increase odds to retry/re-connect to
> network devices.

remember that the LDAP timeout is occuring on top of a TCP connection.
Retransmissions to correct for network troubles occur on the TCP level,
and already use exponential backoff.

Retransmissions on the LDAP level (if they make sense) will have to be
done if the *server* is congested - and can only make sense if the server
is written in such a way that it can lose a request without losing the 
connection - something that seems a bit strange to me.

I don't think LDAP should do retransmission; if it did, it would have to be 
of the "assume stalled engine, tear down connection and try again on a new 
connection" variety.

Someone tell me if I'm in the wrong garden....

                     Harald A

--
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Maxware, Norway
Harald.Alvestrand@maxware.no