Subject: Re: IPv4 vs MAC

From: "J. Noel Chiappa" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 14:58:04 -0400

> From: "Jose Manuel Arronte Garcia" <[email-masked]>

    > 1. ARP's function is to resolve IPv4<->MAC addresses (32-bit<->48-bit)
    > 2. Ipv4 addresses are running out.
    >
    > Why the IPv4 development team did not implement a simpler mechanism for
    > IP addresses? ... If they had done this .. we would have more
    > addresses available for all us

You need to realize that when Ethernet came out, there were a lot of
machines already running TCP/IP, with other WAN/LAN technology interfaces.
They included various home-rolled LAN's (CHAOSNet, V1 LNI Ring, Experimental
Xerox Ethernet), as well as lots of other stuff. We had an entire working
infrastructure, with lots of routers, etc. 

So, converting IPv4 to have larger addresses (to allow a straight inclusion
of the IEEE address in the "rest" field) would have been a lot more work
than doing ARP for those few (at that point) machines that wanted to hook up
to an Ethernet.

	Noel