MSDP allows independent domains to exchange information about multicast sources without creating interdomain rendezvous point dependencies. One task has been to develop a QoS architecture across Cisco GSRs in the Abilene backbone. To help this effort along, we plan on putting QoS features on GSR line cards in stages. Then we talk about how to implement the goals on Cisco gear. You have to look at the hardware and software network infrastructure and struggle with interoperability issues throughout every layer of the network.
Standards have to be complete enough so that vendors can do their own independent implementations.
This type of testing, of course, is of great interest to the I2 community at large and is already under way. A This is also an area of intense interest. We have to find painless ways to accomplish such interoperability, so that the parties involved don't run away screaming. There isn't just one entity. Like the I2 project itself, interoperability boils down to the collective efforts of all the working groups, vendor participants, and advanced Internet initiative teams, as well as the I2 academic and research community at large.