PTP: A Framework for Explicit Performance Signalling

Abstract

In section 2.1, the end to end argument was cited as a rule that one should move complexities “out of the network” and that the network itself should be as “dumb as possible”. While this interpretation is common, it is incorrect — still, it captures an essential part of what the end to end argument says. The argument as described in [18] is applicable not only to computer networks but to systems design in general; for example, the design choices upon which the RISC architecture was built are very similar. A slightly altered version which directly refers to computer networks can be found in [76]:

Functions required by communicating applications can be correctly and completely implemented only with the knowledge and help of the applications themselves. Providing these functions as features within the network itself is not possible.