Using Self-Delimiting Numeric Values in Protocols
draft-irtf-dtnrg-sdnv-09

[Ballot comment]
The introduction states:

  One example of SDNVs being used outside of the
  DTN protocols is in Hixie's Web Socket protocol
  [I-D.hixie-thewebsocketprotocol], which includes
  a binary frame length indicator field identical to an
  SDNV.

Referencing draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-76 seems problematic, given that this individual I-D was superseded by draft-ietf-hybi-thewebsocketprotocol and the work of the IETF's HYBI WG. If this text is not really needed here, I would urge its removal to prevent confusion regarding the canonical documentation of the WebSocket protocol.

[Ballot comment]
I have one comment with my independent reader hat on.  I was a little
surprised, after several potential uses of SDNVs were described earlier
in the document, to read:

  In general, it seems like the most promising use of SDNVs may be to
  define the Length field of a TLV structure to be an SDNV whose value
  is the length of the TLV's Value field.  As previously discussed,
  this leverages the strengths of the SDNV format and limits the
  effects of its weaknesses.

I was left wishing for a little more explanation of why the authors make
this statement and wondering why the other potential uses for SDNVs
were judged less promising.

[Ballot comment]
I have one comment with my independent reader hat on.  I was a little surprised, after several potential uses of SDNVs were described earlier in the document, to read:

  In general, it seems like the most promising use of SDNVs may be to
  define the Length field of a TLV structure to be an SDNV whose value
  is the length of the TLV's Value field.  As previously discussed,
  this leverages the strengths of the SDNV format and limits the
  effects of its weaknesses.

I was left wishing for a little more explanation of why the authors make this statement and wondering why the other potential uses for SDNVs were judged less promising.

From: Aaron Falk

This is a request for the IESG to perform a RFC5742 review of draft-irtf-dtnrg-sdnv [1] to be published an an Informational IRTF RFC. The document has been approved for publication by the IRSG. See [2] for details on prior reviews. Please copy all correspondence to the document shepherd, Elwyn Davies .

--aaron
IRTF Chair

[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-irtf-dtnrg-sdnv
[2] http://trac.tools.ietf.org/group/irtf/trac/ticket/30