Plenty of reasons to have fixed length. The major reason that comes to mind is the lookup engine that has to be implemented in hardware on core internet routers. These beasts are not simply a fast CPU processing traffic. Might be possible on software only routers, but today's mid to high-end routing is largely based on switching routers. It's difficult enough to move from a 32bit length to a 128bit length in terms of forwarding lookup. CAM memory basically quadruples in width.
Ever heard of MSDP? Not perfect, but there's plenty of work going on here.
Who ever said that it needed to support something other than real-time (read audio/video)?
There are some real life applications in use today that a couple of large cable operators use to redistribute things like VoD content to multiple sites.
The Nasdaq uses mcast on the trading floor for live video, and also to remote sites.
While it's largely an enterprise type application, there are some areas where ISP's can benefit from it especially as we start to see more and more streaming applications.
Actually, there are several products that DO use IIS. The Cisco Call Manager for IP phones, and the IPTV content manager run IIS on NT 4.0. There are a few others but these are the notable ones.
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Plenty of reasons to have fixed length. The major reason that comes to mind is the lookup engine that has to be implemented in hardware on core internet routers. These beasts are not simply a fast CPU processing traffic. Might be possible on software only routers, but today's mid to high-end routing is largely based on switching routers. It's difficult enough to move from a 32bit length to a 128bit length in terms of forwarding lookup. CAM memory basically quadruples in width.
Ever heard of MSDP? Not perfect, but there's plenty of work going on here.
Who ever said that it needed to support something other than real-time (read audio/video)?
There are some real life applications in use today that a couple of large cable operators use to redistribute things like VoD content to multiple sites.
The Nasdaq uses mcast on the trading floor for live video, and also to remote sites.
While it's largely an enterprise type application, there are some areas where ISP's can benefit from it especially as we start to see more and more streaming applications.
Ummm... plenty of customers are asking for IPV6 especially european and asian wireless providers (read NTT).
Actually, there are several products that DO use IIS. The Cisco Call Manager for IP phones, and the IPTV content manager run IIS on NT 4.0. There are a few others but these are the notable ones.