Re: comments? mirrors.txt

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 02:57:49PM -0500, Andre John Mas wrote:
> Traditionally mirrors provide a reference to their geographic
> location. While by no means a guarantee to improved transfer
> speeds,

> The reason I suggest a grid-reference for geographic locality
> is the this is language neutral and can easily be parsed and
> used to estimate which mirror is likely to best based on
> distance, without having to speak to each one. The geographic 
> information could be added be component of the X-URI-RES
> header (though this would necessitate a change in the spec):
> 
> X-URI-RES: <service uri> ; <service type> [; target uri] [; grid-ref]

That's an interesting idea.. The problem I would have with it right now
it that the Internet backbone tends to be laid down according to
political boundaries, and not wholly geographic considerations.

For example, Seattle will probably be closer (by bandwidth) to Chicago
or New York than it is to Edmonton, which is geographically closer.

ISO 3166 country codes are also language-neutral and easily parsed, and
could be used in conjunction with grid references to avoid having to
maintain a database of 'nearness' between countries.


Ian Clelland
<ian@veryfresh.com>

Received on Monday, 31 March 2003 16:47:30 UTC