[ih] IPv4 address size debate

Tony Li tony.li at tony.li
Fri Nov 13 14:46:08 PST 2009


Jack Haverty wrote:
> Variable-length addresses would have changed the odds significantly, so
> that such a trick would probably rarely work, and packet data would
> always have to be moved.  Hence the pressure for fixed-length header
> fields, at least for the always-present fields - like the addresses.

Was there ever any debate of making addresses variable length, but only 
using one of those lengths in practice?

Tony



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