[governance] What Will Happen [@ NARALO/ALAC/CCNSO?]

[Karl Auerbach]

yehudakatz at mailinator.com wrote:

> "The ENUM system effectively enables ...

I take a rather different view of ENUM.

I see it as a niche technology that will allow internet based devices to 
reach and be reached by what will be a decreasing number of devices that 
can only be natively addressed via telephone numeric looking addresses.

Nearly everyone I know who uses VoIP and who is allowed to pick their 
own phone "number" picks something that looks a lot like an email address.

For example, my SIP phone "number" contains not a single numeric digit. 
  (And when you call it it rings on a phone at home, a phone at the 
office, and on my laptop - the call binds to the first one that is 
answered.  No ENUM is involved.)

Enum translates what looks like a phone number, for example 1 831 
123-456 into a domain name (6.5.4.3.2.1.1.3.1.1.<some designated base>) 
and returns not an IPv4 or IPv6 address record but rather a pattern that 
has to be processed against the original phone number with the end 
result being a URI - which itself contains yet another domain name that 
has to be re-submitted into DNS for yet another round of resolution.

(And let's not forget Christian Huitma's observation that a significant 
component of user perception of net responsivity is based on the 
cumulation of DNS lookup delays.)

The idea with the expressions used in ENUM is that with the same 
"number" fax machines could reach fax machines, people could reach 
people, etc.  Nice idea.  But not a necessary idea:

Why not cut through the noise and have your fax machine named 
"fax-machine.mydomain.mytld"?  And your phone could be 
"yehudakatz at yourphonecompany.tld"

And with lightweight directories - think things as simple as speed dial 
buttons - and more ubiquitous net connectivity - shorthand mechanisms 
will hide from the user even those URI or domain based full names.

Personally I don't see much future in the national ENUM hierarchies - 
except as a recourse of last resort when a calling device searches for a 
target device.

Rather, I see ENUM having more viability institutional settings where 
there is a desire to optimize outgoing call routing.

The main gravity that holds ENUM in place is the 12 key keypad - it's a 
nice convenient keypad that fits nicely on handheld devices.  But even 
on such devices, how many people do you know who, when given the option, 
choose purely numeric text messaging names?

So, all in all, I perceive ENUM a lot like a catalog for parts for air 
cooled Volkswagen motors - there is a large legacy base, but eventually 
it will shrink.

I also have another concern about ENUM - regular expressions.

Regular expressions are amazingly tricky things.  I really doubt that 
many users of ENUM are really going to have a mastery of regular 
expressions.  And errors in those expressions are going to be rather 
difficult to diagnose.

I'm in the business of testing network protocols.  It is amazing how 
people get even simple protocols wrong (For example you can count on the 
fingers of one hand, with fingers to spare, how many IP stacks do a 
perfect job of IPv4 packet reassembly.  And the domain name 
"maps-to-nonascii.cavebear.com" causes most gethostbyname() 
implementations to fail.)

Regular expression processing code is not trivial - and how well will 
someone's Brand-X implementation work in an world where the character 
"*" is common and where IDN's are increasing prevalent?  As they say in 
Minnesota - it will be "different" - which is a euphemism for "it may 
prove be prone to failures when run outside of its normal environment".

		--karl--
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