Bad ideas run amok
2006-11-08 00:41:32.445637+00 by meuon 2 comments
PNRP (Peer Name Resolution Protocol) is one of those ideas that sounds simple and innocuous enough. It even sounds like it has 'secure names', obviously a buzzword compliant marketing term to sell value added services of 'secure names' outside the DNS/Domain hierarchy. Two things make it sound like an idea that only sounds good after a case of liquor and some good drugs.. You know: that point when concepts like 'Light bulbs are dark-suckers, not light emitters' are really really deep thoughts.
Multiple entities can publish the same peer-name
PNRP does not use a routing table, but rather a cache of PNRP entries. New cache entries are acquired as a side effect of ongoing traffic. The cache maintenance algorithm ensures that each node maintains adequate knowledge of the "cloud". It is designed to ensure that the time to resolve a request varies as the logarithm of the size of the cloud.
As I start imagining scenarios for stupidity, spoofing and malice, my head explodes.