Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!pprg.unm.edu!hc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!A.ISI.EDU!CERF
From: CERF@A.ISI.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Variable length addresses
Message-ID: <[A.ISI.EDU].7-Dec-88.21:50:48.CERF>
Date: 8 Dec 88 02:50:00 GMT
References: <8812071620.AA06614@uunet.UU.NET>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 13

Mike,

the performance question is what caused us to select a fixed
length, 32 bit address in the version 4 IP. Your question
is a good one and I wonder whether anyone has hard data for the
OSI IP version which does use a variable length address format.

It seems clear that we must give serious thought, though, to
a substantial increase in the number of networks addressable
within the IP scope if we are to scale to the size of the
global ISDN, for instance.

Vint