[ih] Better-than-Best Effort

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 28-Aug-21 11:09, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> Perhaps packet switching has outlived its usefulness?   With so much 
> bandwidth, and so much computing power, setting up a circuit might now 
> be better than moving packets?

It's possible, once you've decided you *need* to set up a circuit. But
the packet-switched network is much better for discovery, very short
transactions, and deciding that you need a circuit. Today, the circuit
is set up using TCP. Maybe tomorrow, it will be set up by using QUIC.
Maybe the day after, by using some kind of optical circuit switch.

(However, when you look at the number of "connections" involved in a
modern, advertising-rich, web page, I wonder about scalability.For
example, I count 34 distinct http(s) destinations when I load
the front page of The Guardian newspaper. Each one adds a TCP session.) 
 
> It's somewhat akin to the advent of cheap computers killing timesharing 

> as PCs became dominant.

Except that they didn't; they just changed its nature.
 
> Surely that thought will cause a ruckus here!

Actually I find more radical thinking here than on most IETF lists.

Regards
    Brian

> 
> /Jack
> 
> 
> On 8/27/21 3:51 PM, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:
>> As long as queuing theory holds and glass fibres are cheap, I am not sure
>> much is going to change.
> 
>