Steve thanks for your reply. It helps, though I am trying do write a less abstract statement. Would you say that the following statement conveys a correct understanding of the matter of fact: ---- the Internet protocol contains numerous parameters, for example to identify the character set of a text, or a operating system. (A character set is a set of conventions to code a traditional alphabet, e.g. latin, cyrillic, japanese). The values of these parameters need to be assigned uniquely. ICANN/PSO is to make those unique assignments and to maintain a registry of the currently assigned values. (here I am cutting & pasting statements from IANA's web site) mario ps do you have a two lines definition of what a port is? At 13.37 06/07/00 -0400, Steve Coya wrote: > >Mario, > >I'm not a technical expert (or any other kind), but I can take a stab at >this. > >If one were to look at the construct of certain header records (IP, TCP, >ICMP, etc), there are fields which can contain certain values. Some of >these fields define the set of permissible values from which the >appropriate value is selected/chosen. Many protocol header records include >a space for the inclusion of options, >each of which is assigned a particular value for uniqueness. > > >For example, in the IP header, there is a IP Version field. There are >also such things as Type of Service fields, option fields, protocol >fields, traffic class fields (in IPv6), etc. > >I hope this helps. > > >Steve > > >>>Due to lack of technical knowledge, I am not sure to understand what >>>'assignment of parameters for Internet protocols' really means. (I >>>understand that that is PSO main business, isn't it?) >>> >>>Any 'easy to understand' explanation is very welcome. In particular, I >>>would appreciate a couple of simple examples of the kind: the protocol >>>..... includes the parameters ....., and they are usually fixed in such and >>>such way as ......... > > _______________________________________________ PSO-Discuss mailing list PSO-Discuss@pso.icann.org http://www.pso.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/pso-discuss ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 14:28:43 -0400