Re: Message Pushing and TCP Transport

[Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>]

At 05:23 PM 8/22/2001, Daniel Manley wrote:
>>The usual response is "polling" but that means constantly polling, and in 
>>this case constantly polling for something that is typically not 
>>present.  Hence, substantial overhead, for negative benefit.
>
>If you're using poll to ping a connection to keep it alive, then you're 
>already doing it anyhow.

And you are placing a load on the server that the registry operator should 
not appreciate very much.


>So I don't think there's a negative benefit. Pushing pushes the 
>substantial overhead *multiplied* by each registrar client to the server, 
>who's already overworked anyway.

Actually, no.  Pushing has no wasted effort, unlike polling.  Hence the 
overhead of push is only incurred when there is something to push.

So I have no idea how your are calculating a "multiplied" overhead.  Feel 
free to provide detail for your claim.


>>Do you like constantly checking for email, when there is none?  Would you 
>>not prefer that email "just arrive" when it is available?
>>
>>Imagine never getting telephone calls.  Instead you have to call a 
>>number, to see whether there is anyone waiting to talk with you.
>
>But I might want the message to go to voice mail if I'm too busy, and I'll 
>get it later when it's convenient for me.

The comparison was not about whether sometimes it is nice to use voicemail, 
but whether you would like having ONLY voicemail, with no phone calls 
*ever* coming in.  Without push, you get no phone calls.

>>THAT is why push is better than pull, for some scenarios.

Voicemail is pull.  You check to see whether there is a message.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker  <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253;  fax +1.408.273.6464