<NIS.NSF.NET> [IMR] IMR87-03.TXT
Westine [Page 1]
~
MARCH 1987
INTERNET MONTHLY REPORTS
------------------------
The purpose of these reports is to communicate to the Internet Research
Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by
the task forces and contractors in the ARPA Internet Research Program.
This report is for research use only, and is not for public
distribution.
Each task force and contractor is expected to submit a 1/2 page report
on the first business day of the month describing the previous month's
activities. These reports should be submitted via ARPANET mail to
Westine@ISI.EDU.
Reports are requested from BBN, ISI, LL, MIT-LCS, NTA, SRI, UCL, and
UDEL.
Other groups are invited to report newsworthy events or issues.
BBN LABORATORIES AND BBN COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION
---------------------------------------------------
VAX NETWORKING
In the month of March, documentation was completed and tapes were
made of the final beta release of the 4.3bsd Internet Multicast
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implementation. Distributions are targeted for Carnegie-Mellon,
Stanford and University College London, pending the signing of
licensing agreements. (CMU was not able to retrieve the
distribution that was made available to them via anonymous ftp last
month, due to congestion on the network. They opted to wait for
the final distribution, which will be sent via US mail.)
WIDEBAND NETWORK
BSAT software Release 3.0 was distributed to the Wideband Network
sites this month. The Wideband Network's stream service became
fully operational with this release, which incorporates automatic
detection of and recovery from inconsistencies in the distributed
scheduling of satellite channel stream allocations. Also included
in Release 3.0 are a a number of robustness features allowing BSATs
to operate with only partial host and/or channel connectivity in
the event of certain Butterfly hardware failures.
Software development efforts were started on two new BSAT features:
dynamic group addressing, and shared stream allocations. The
former feature allows network hosts to exploit the broadcast nature
of the Wideband channel via the dynamic creation, deletion, and
membership modification of message delivery groups. The latter
feature can provide bandwidth efficiencies for some network
applications by allowing multiple hosts to share a single satellite
channel stream allocation.
BSAT-BSMI hardware and software integration efforts this month
resulted in the first satellite channel operation of a BSAT through
a BSMI. In addition, BSMI board assembly and testing is well
underway, with the first BSMI deployments expected to occur next
month.
SATNET
The SATNET continues to provide reliable service. There have been
no additional hardware or software problems. Service was restored
on channel 1 at all sites by bypassing the defective piece of
hardware in the PSP terminals at Tanum and Fucino.
The transmit power has been adjusted at the Fucino site for channel
0 and channel 1. The power drifted and began affecting performance
on channel 0. The transmit power is now at an acceptable level on
both channels.
A long standing and elusive problem on the SATNET has been a
slightly higher error rate for particular size packets, "the
multiple of 8 bug". The problem was isolated to the transmit
encoder in the PSP terminal several years ago with reasonable
certainty. We have installed a patch to the SIMP software which
pads packets to avoid these dubious sizes. We have tested and
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installed the patch in the SIMPs but are watching for unknown side
effects which it may cause. We no longer see these higher than
expected error rates.
There has been a connectivity problem in the Fucino SIMP to Cnuce
gateway link. The SIMP and Gateway do not appear to be causing
this problem. We believe it is a line problem, but we are still
investigating.
GATEWAYS
The Butterfly Gateways continue to be stable. The problem reported
last month involving Wideband Gateways' Ethernet Interfaces is
under investigation.
Work is being done on the Butterfly Gateways Up/Down protocol, to
help improve the performance of the ARPANET during congested
periods.
The European Satnet sites have had problems with connectivity to
some Internet sites. Because the gateways do not do reassembly of
fragmented packets, EGP routing packets which are too large are
being truncated to get them across the SATNET. The European
gateways get partial information and may not be able to reach some
sites. We are currently working on implementing IP reassembly in
the Butterfly Gateway (and LSI-11 too because the problem will also
occur when we get to about 300 networks on the ARPANET).
Bob Hinden (Hinden@BBN.COM)
ISI
---
Internet Concepts Project
Jon Postel, Bob Braden, and Paul Mockapetris, attended the
TCP/IP Interoperability Conference, 16-19 March, 1987 in
Monterey, California. Jon Postel gave a presentation on
"Internet Protocol Standards", Paul Mockapetris chaired a
session for the "Domain Systems" and Bob participated in two
sessions and chaired a Birds-of-the-Feather session on network
file systems.
Jon Postel and Danny Cohen attended the Advanced Computer
Communications Workshop sponsored by NSF, at Lake Arrowhead,
California, 29-31 March, 1987.
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Paul Kirton visited ISI on 30 March, 1987, and gave a seminar
on his current activities at Telecom in Australia. Paul
presented a paper on "Fast Packet Switching for Integrated
Network Evolution".
Five RFCs were published:
RFC 997: Reynolds, J.K., and J. Postel, "Internet Numbers"
RFC 998: Clark. D.D., M. Lambert, & L. Zhang, "NETBIT: A
Bulk Data Transfer Protocol".
RFC 1001: NetBIOS Working Group, "Protocol Standard for a
NetBIOS Service on a TCP/UDP Transport: Concepts
and Methods
RFC 1002: NetBIOS Working Group, "Protocol Standard for a
NetBIOS Service on a TCP/UDP Transport: Detailed
Specifications
RFC 1003: Katz, A., "Issues in Defining an Equations
Representation Standard".
One ISI research report was published:
ISI/RR-87-180: Finn, G., "Routing and Addressing Problems
in Large Metropolitan Scale Internetworks".
Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU)
Multimedia Conferencing Project
Our initial tests of packet loss with video traffic have
provided mixed results. On several occasions, half an hour or
a full hour has gone by without a single packet loss (100000
packets/hour). At other times, there may be a packet loss
every 15 seconds to a few minutes. This higher loss rate
seems to occur primarily in the BBN to ISI direction, and
seems to be more likely after 17:00 PST. We plan to do
additional testing over longer periods, and we will try to
correlate the video packet loss with other tests of channel
bit error rate, etc.
Steve Casner (Casner@ISI.EDU)
Brian Hung has put aside the addition of text capability in
the current multimedia software running on the IBM PC AT, in
the interest of making the current program more automated,
i.e., one that involves little user effort in sending
multimedia messages from the IBM PC AT to the host running the
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Multimedia Message Transfer Protocol. Joyce Reynolds presented
a BBN Diamond demo to Paul Kirton of Telecom, Australia.
Brian Hung and Joyce Reynolds (JKReynolds@ISI.EDU)
NSFNET Project
During March we put in a major burst of effort on the revision
to the "Requirements for Internet Gateways" RFC-985. A draft
was distributed to about 15 people, and we received and
processed very thorough and useful comments from Hans-Werner
Braun, Scott Brim, Dave Mills, Craig Partridge, and Steve
Wolff. Our goal is to release an advanced draft to the
Internet Engineering Task Force for comments before their
April meeting at BBN. There are still a number of important
voids in the gateway specifications; we look to the
Engineering Task Force to take an active role in filling these
voids.
We also continued work on gathering data on the current NSFNET
topology. Our goal is to design a database on network
connectivity for use in future planning and operations, and to
create an initial instance of that database. If we collect
the right data, we will be able to extract from it "views"
with appropriate levels of detail for particular purposes.
For example, we want to be able to suppress or include the
inner structure of the networks, and to suppress or include
the subnet details. As a byproduct of this work, we prepared
a one-page map of the current NSFNET, at the lowest level of
detail; copies of this map found their way into a number of
talks at the Monterey TCP/IP Workshop.
Bob Braden and Annette Deschon attended a half-day meeting on
NSFNET technical issues, held at Monterey in connection with
the TCP/IP Workshop, March 16-19, 1987. Braden attended the
workshop to participate in two sessions and to chair a Birds-
of-the-Feather session on network file systems. Deschon
attended a two-day meeting of the re-constituted Autonomous
Networks Task Force, chaired by Deborah Estrin, 20-21 March
1987, at Xerox Parc, in Palo Alto, CA.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
Supercomputer and Workstation Communication Project
We have finally achieved NETBLT transfer rates near the
throughput limit of the Wideband Net. The overall rate
(including initial and final handshaking) for a transfer of
716000 bytes was 521 Kb/s. But for the purposes of testing
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the network, the more interesting measure is the steady-state
transfer rate which ignores the initial and final handshaking
and any retransmissions after the initial transmission of the
last packet. The steady-state transfer rate is equivalent to
the overall transfer rate as the file length approaches
infinity. The best steady-state transfer rate was 942 Kb/s,
nearly hitting the magic goal of 1 Mb/s! The theoretical
transmission rate for the data alone was 1.04 Mb/s, but packet
loss was the cause of the lower measured value. The loss is
not in the Wideband Net, but appears to be in reception at the
destination Sun.
Steve Casner (Casner@ISI.EDU)
MIT-LCS
-------
NETBLT testing is continuing over the 3 Mbps Wideband satellite
network. We have reached throughputs of 945 Kbps, out of a maximum
usable bandwidth of a little over 1 Mbps. Attempting faster
transmission rates has caused the Wideband net to fail in various
ways, due to overload of either the BSAT or ESI network interfaces.
The next phase of NETBLT testing will involve the design of a
series of adaptive rate-control algorithms to provide automatic
selection of optimum transmission rates as the load over a
particular network path varies during a data transfer.
Lixia Zhang (Lixia@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU)
NTA and NDRE
------------
1. The Butterfly gateway and SATNET have been working stable for
months. Morning connectivity to the West Coast (our time) is
not good but acceptable. Afternoon connectivity is useless!
2. The area where NTA is located has changed to a new modern
digital telephone exchange, with the result that all numbers
in the area have been changed. For those in need of it, the
new number for NTA-RE is
(+47) (6) 80 91 00 or (+47) (6) 80 91 25
3. There is no third spare modem in the PSP terminal at Tanum,
which worries me and Knut Lindquist quite a bit. Allthough
everything seem to work well right now, the setup at Tanum has
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shown considerable flakyness from time to time. There is very
little info like schematics etc on the PSP terminal, thus very
little help for Knut when things are going bad. Only his
enthusiasm, strong feeling of responsibility and hard work has
made Tanum work so well as it does. What can be done to
improve the situation?
4. We have changed to the new domain-style adresses. NTA-VAX.ARPA
is renamed to TOR.NTA.NO NTA-ODIN.ARPA will shortly be renamed
to ODIN.NTA.NO
5. NTA-RE has started a multi-media activity which will be based
on Diamond. People have been allocated and are awaiting the
final go from Darpa and BBN.
6. There seems to be substantial interest at NTA-RE to experiment
with new satellite services. Probably this could be combined
with the ICB interest. A roof-top setup (antenna and RF
equipment) made in Norway would be approximately Nok
250.000.-, and about the same as I pay for the floor-space at
Tanum and 48 kb/s line from Kjeller to Tanum! The best of all,
we can do away with the Swedish customs people!
7. NDRE is currently actively using ARPAmail as a means to
communicate with various NATO groups and others. Hopefully
this can stimulate to further involvements.
Paal Spilling (paal@TOR.NTA.NO)
SRI
---
No report received.
UCL
---
Steve Kille attended the second TCP/IP Interoperability Conference
at Monterey, CA, and gave a talk on X.400 and using the ISODE.
Steve Easterbrook finished the preliminary implementation of the C
ASN code generator generator(!).
Work has started on a tool to automatically draw reasonable
pictures of networks, given lists of gateways and attached networks
(ie host.txt file). This will be integrated in the UCL status and
alarm system.
Jon Crowcroft (jon@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
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UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
----------------------
1. Development continues on the Dissimilar Gateway Protocol
(DGP). A technical note on data-base design and transmission
model was distributed. A simple link-based routing algorithm
was designed and a test jig built (in BASIC, no less). The
test jig used real data collected from NSFNET and its clients,
consisting of 78 gateways, 63 nets and 217 interfaces
interconnected in glorious ways. The Linkabit folk are working
on a specification due for review in April.
2. The University of Delaware hosted a one-day, ad-hoc meeting on
high-speed networks with several luminaries from NRI,
Bellcore, MIT, AT&T Bell Labs, IBM and UDel in attendance. The
group, so-far mercifully unnamed, agreed to meet at Bellcore
next month.
3. Gary Delp, Dave Farber and Dave Mills attended the Advanced
Communication Workshop at Lake Arrowhead, CA. Pete Warter and
Dave Mills attended the TCP/IP Interoperability Conference at
Monterey, CA. Dave Mills attended a NAS meeting on survivable
telephone networks at Washington, DC.
4. A new fuzzware version for NSFNET Backbone sites and other
places has been completed and is now in test. Besides fixing a
few bugs, the new version has much more buffer space due
changes in the virtual-storage mapping mechanism. Linkabit
moved their fuzzballs and Suns to another location in the
building, with the result that the WWVB radio clock is
currently antennaless and its indications senseless. In spite
of that, clockwatchers throughout the Internet still hear
high-quality time signals, since the intricate system of NTP-
based backup clocks keeps on tocking.
Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU)
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NSF NETWORKING
--------------
UCAR/BBN LABS NSF NETWORK SERVICE CENTER (NNSC)
We continue to add to the services and information we provide the
NSFNET community. We are coordinating the NSFNET contribution to
the Internet Monthly Report, and have attended some recent
meetings: Dick Edmiston and Karen Roubicek went to the Federation
Assembly and FCCSET Meetings in San Diego, and Craig Partridge gave
several presentations at the TCP-IP Interoperability Conference in
Monterey. We are working on developing network monitoring standards
and Craig expects to present a proposed system to some of the
Internet Task Forces in April.
Craig, Karen and Bill Curtis from UCAR visited the Pittsburgh
Supercomputer Center and met with the Systems, User Services and
Operations Managers to get an overview of the Center's operations.
We have now visited five of the six centers.
We have published a bulletin to increase the user community's
awareness of NSFNET and to give them information which will make it
easier for them to use the network. The bulletin will be mailed
out the week of April 6.
By Karen Roubicek (roubicek@nnsc.nsf.net)
NSFNET BACKBONE SITES
CORNELL NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTER FACILITY
16,800,000 packets were delivered (net) by the backbone in
February, up 35% from January. There was a surge at the end of
February. At the end of the first three weeks of March we had
delivered 12,000,000 -- 65% more packets than the same period in
February.
We are now monitoring and collecting traffic data for SURANET's
connection to the NSFNET backbone. If you would like access to
this sort of information contact the Network Information and
Support Center at 607-255-5060.
Coordination and Interoperability Issues
Cornell Theory Center staff are now participating in the NPAG, four
of the IAB task forces and two of the the NSFNET federation
committees.
There have been no major changes in the gatedaemon code, although
some bugs were fixed. We are now centrally coordinating all of the
gatedaemon implementations that surround the backbone, including
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the EGP metrics with which networks are announced to ARPANET.
By Scott Brim (SWB@DEVVAX.TN.CORNELL.EDU)
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
We had planned to drop off of the USAN network in preparation for
turning into our own hub at the time NCAR converted their
addresses. This would not have been a problem with Illinois users,
but would have been a problem for Northwestern and U of Chicago.
Therefore, for the time being we are still part of USAN.
TCP et. al. for CTSS is nearing completion. Next week we will
begin staff testing a FTP to/from CTSS. Telnet will come a bit
later. Performance is comparable with our current Move utilities
even using the bottleneck Interprocess Communication facility in
CTSS. Slicker IPC facility is currently being tested.
Class B conversion of campus is immenent. Our P4200's have all
been converted to 7.2 clearing the critical path for the
conversion. We will need to change our fuzz address probably to
128.174.5.14. Date for conversion should be set Monday with an
estimated two weeks of user warning.
By Ed Krol (krol%uiucvmd.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU)
JOHN VON NEUMANN SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER
Dynamic Routing: Routing at the John von Neumann Center ( JVNC ) is
done dynamically with RIP between "some" of the members of the JVNC
consortium and HELLO with the other NSFNET sites. We are currently
working on "integrating" the campuses networks into the JVNCNET.
This means:
1. managing the routing information so any campus in the consortium
can get to any other campus of the consortium via JVNCNET and/or
any other alternative path,
2. pass to the consortium sites the routing information learned
from NSFNET core system,
3. filter any bogus network from being advertized to the NSFNET
backbone,
4. provide full backup routing to the members of the JVNC
Consortium so they can route to the ARPANET if their PS
is down.
Some of the Consortium sites's networks are already fully
integrated to the JVNCNET. These are:
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Rutgers University,
University of Pennsylvania
Princeton University,
Columbia University,
New York University,
Penn State University,
University of Colorado.
The other sites are still working out local network problems to
make this integration possible.
Note that JVNCNET will soon provide alternative paths to the NSFNET
backbone since,
1. University of Arizona is going to be connected to the San Diego
SuperComputer Center, and they are already connected to JVNC
via JVNCNET.
2. University of Colorado is already connected (although not
exchanging dynamic routing information) with NCAR, and they
are connected to JVNC via JVNCNET. The University of Colorado
is logically connected to the JVNC-NSFNET core gateway via a
VITALINK bridge over the satellite.
3. New York University, Columbia University and University of
Rochester are all part of NYSERNET (as well as the Cornell
Theory Center), and they are also part of the JVNCNET.
University of Rochester is expected to start exchanging dynamic
information with JVNC in a few days. NYU and Columbia are
already doing so. NYU is connected to JVNC via a T1 line while
Columbia and Rochester are connected with 56k lines.
These multiple connectivity paths will add accessibility from the
different Universities to the Supercomputer Centers, and redundancy
to the NSFNET backbone.
Network Reliability: The network is very stable these days,
occasionally the TransLAN bridge that connects our satellite nodes
hangs, but VITALINK is working on the problem. The T1 lines are
very reliable and if they go down we have them tested and back up
in record time. The 56k lines are reliable as well, with the
exception of the link to Columbia, the problem at the New York site
was to convince NYtel that the CSU/DSU was good, finally they found
the problem in their point of presence in Columbia.
We are testing Ungermann-Bass routers (we have 6 of them). They
are on alpha test right now, and connect JVNC with NJIT, NJIT with
Stevens and NJIT with UMDNJ. They have been running for a few
weeks already.
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We are increasing the traffic on our T1 lines as the scientists at
the different sites start to find out about X-Windows. We expect
to have full utilization of the T1 bandwidth as graphics users
grow.
Network Monitoring: Together with the emergence of backbones,
regionals and other entities, a need came about to monitor the
networks. At JVNC we are working on a project that is now in phase
II, to monitor the JVNCNET network and the NSFNET network as well.
This project consists on an integrated package that consists of:
a. a scheduling program to schedule up/down time,
b. a monitoring program to collect interfaces statistics, as well
as gateways dynamic routing information,
c. reachability program, to determine the networks that are
reachable, and help us find routing loops
The programs have user interfaces in the form of color graphic
displays in our user services area, status reports for the
technical staff and for the managers, and reports for the operators
to indicate problems on the network.
By Sergio Heker ("heker@jvnca.csc.org")
NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH AND UNIVERSITY SATELLITE
NETWORK PROJECT
A problem with a switch on the LSI11/73 caused the fuzzball to be
down for about 24 hours on March 30.
The splitting of address space 128.117 into 128.116 and 128.117 at
NCAR has been completed. The fuzzball to NSFNET (X.64.3), cisco
gateway to the University of Colorado (X.64.4), Proteon gateway to
128.117 (X.64.2), and all USAN gateways { UMD (X.6.1), Wisconsin
(X.12.1), Illinois (X.4.1), Oregon State (X.14.1), Michigan
(X.18.1), Miami (X.10.1) } are now on X = 128.116 while all NCAR
hosts are isolated on 128.117. The Proteon gateway to 128.117 is
configured with static routing tables with the default gateway
being the fuzzball.
On April 7 Illinois will drop out of USAN but will still be
accessible to NCAR via NSFNET. Woods Hole will be added to USAN
sometime in May. Since Woods Hole also is connected to MIT, it may
have a backdoor path to NSFNET via JVNC. The NCAR system now looks
like
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Satellite to JVNC
|
Univ. of Colo. satellite to USAN
| sites with Vitalink fuzzball to
cisco box TRANSLANS NSFNET
| | | 128.116
---------------------------------------------------------------
| |
PROTEON p4200 {this summer} -> Sun 3 -- ARPA PSN
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------
All machines at NCAR 128.117
By Don Morris (morris@scdsw1.ucar.edu)
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
NSFNET The PSC Fuzzball has had few interruptions. It was rebooted
on March 25th so that it is now running the latest release of
fuzzball software. The UIUC-PSC link has been upgraded by Illinois
Bell to a direct 56Kbps DDS circuit.
We had previously announced to NSFNET-OPS our plan to relocate the
lines for our Fuzzball to the building where our offices are. We
now have a commitment from Bell of Pa to do the line relocation on
Monday, April 6. This involves moving PSC Fuzzball and PSC-GW to
another building, reconnecting the lines to JVNC and UIUC, and
extending the line from PSC-GW to the CMU PSN.
PSC-GW has been running quite well. It is currently averaging
about 465,000 incoming packets per day. Beta tests of a new
release of ACC 5250 software and of flow control modifications to
our local PSN have been completed. These tests have greatly
improved the throughput and reliability of the NSFNET/ARPANET link.
PSCNET We have had problems with IP traffic to our Front End 8650s
(VMS v4.5) from both NSFNET and ARPANET. We have felt that most of
the speed problems and some of the disconnect problems were due to
our local routing: NSF traffic comes into our Fuzzball, to PSC-GW
over a stub Ethernet, out PSC-GW to the CMU PSN, through the PSN
and CMU-GW to a heavily loaded 3mb Ethernet, through an 11 router
with multiple drops to a 10mb Ethernet, through a locally designed
68000 router to the CMU Campus spine, through a DEC LANBridge to
our offices, and from there through a Vitalink Translan II using a
T1 line to our remote facility where our Cray and Front Ends are.
At the end of February, we installed a second network interface in
CPWSCB to provide an alternate channel for experiments in improved
IP service to our Front Ends. This Ethernet controller was
connected to a stub Ethernet whose only other occupants were a
Proteon P4200 and its boot device.
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This 4200, located at our remote machine room was connected to
another 4200, located at our offices, which was in turn connected
to a 4200 at the site of our gateway, fuzzball, and PSN. (The link
from front ends to offices is a portion of a T1 channel, about
750kbps; the link from offices to Fuzzball is 56kbps. The 56Kbps
link will disappear when the fuzzball is reterminated as described
above.) This has enabled us to bypass the multiple routers and use
an unloaded link.
We went through several configurations of interface on the 4200s
("loads"), until, with Proteon's assistance, we have achieved
uptimes on the order of 5-10 days without crashes. Even during
periods of instability, users have been pleased with the improved
performance.
We are now announcing service to B.PSC.EDU exclusively at
128.182.65.2, whereas it was previously in the CMU net (128.2). We
plan to move A.PSC.EDU to this new net, leaving it dual-homed, if
possible.
This has given us a good shakedown of the P4200s, so we're planning
to start deploying them to build up PSCNET straight away. Several
lines have been ordered and the links will be brought on line as
soon as the vendor can provide them.
By Jim Ellis (ellis@MORGUL.PSC.EDU)
SDSCNET
SDSC has put in place a Proteon p4200 to server as an IP gateway
between its Ethernet and the UCSD campus-wide broadband/ethernet.
A DEC LAN Bridge 100 is in parallel to the p4200 to provide DECNET
and DEC LATS connectivity between the 2 Ethernets. This has been
functioning well since mid Feb. The Proteon will also connect our
first "TCP/IP" consortium member, UC Santa Barbara, to the center
at 56k. This is expected to be operational as soon as line problems
are resolved. We have ordered a T1 interface for the p4200 to use
with a microwave link to the Salk Inst. This will provide them
with IP, DECNET and BITNET service. The p4200 will also be used to
link an industrial participant to the center at 56k with both IP
and DECNET.
SDSC has ordered a center-funded 56k circuit to UC Los Angeles to
provide a connection directly to the ARPANET. This service,
provided via the UC Office of the President (UCOP) T1 service
between UC San Diego and UCLA, will be used until the SDSC/ARPANET
PS, scheduled to be installed in Aug, is connected by DCA lines.
As a side note, UCOP service is also used to connect the center to
UCSB.
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The center has taken delivery of a DEC 8200. This will be used as
a research tool to explore methods of high speed data flow between
our hub and the Cray X-MP/48; speeds higher than that currently
provided by our NSC Hyperchannel.
NSFNET REGIONAL AFFILIATED AND CONSORTIUM NETWORKS
BARRNET (No Report Received)
JVNCNET (Refer to JVNNSC backbone report)
MERIT
The Merit Computer Network is currently focusing most of its
development efforts on implementing the TCP/IP protocol suite
within the network and its host interfaces. In March, progress
toward that goal included:
+ Software internal to the subnet for control of IP-packet
congestion. Enhancement of routing functionality.
Proliferation of routing tables throughout the subnet.
ARP source IP address verification.
+ At the subnet boundary, the provision of automatic
recognition of the asynchronous IP protocol on an
integrated basis with our existing terminal-recognition
procedure. Provision of a UDP service access
point for Merit channel-attached hosts.
+ At the user level, the first user beta-testing of our
IP services. Beginning of campus-wide training
of user-services staffs in what will be required for
support of the TCP/IP world.
By Christine Wendt, Merit Technical Support Group
(Christine_Wendt@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU)
MIDNET
The big news for the MIDNET institutions (the Univ. of Nebraska-
Lincoln, Kansas State Univ, the Univ of Kansas, the Univ of Tulsa,
Oklahoma State Univ, the Univ of Oklahoma, the Univ of Arkansas-
Fayettevill, the Univ of Missouri-Columbia, Washington Univ, the
Univ of Iowa and Iowa State Univ) is that we have been able to get
56 kbps digital service into all locations. We have been promised
a June 1 installation of the following configuration:
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UNL --- --- ISU --- UI --- NCSA
| |
KSU --- KU |
| UMC --- WU ---
| |
OSU --- UT |
| |
OU --- --- --- UA
In addition to the current members, the consortium is exploring
connections to additional universities that have expressed an
interest.
On March 30 representatives from the MIDNET institutions attended a
one day seminar at the National Center for Supercomputer
Applications. The seminar covered the facilities and services
offered by the NCSA as well as an introduction for first-time
supercomputer users. We hope that this will be the first of many
meetings aimed at the end user.
The consortium has initiated a publications/documentation program
that will organize its memoranda and technical notes and start a
monthly newsletter. The first issue of the newsletter is scheduled
for May.
Doug Gale (doug%unlcdc3.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU)
NORTHWESTNET
Northwestnet has not yet been formally funded; however, we are
optimistic that final NSF approval will be forthcoming within the
next 30 - 60 days.
Current plans are to connect the following universities via 9.6/56
kbaud lines:
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Washington State University, Pullman, WA
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK
Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
North Dakota State System, Fargo, ND
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
Connection to the NSFNET has not been decided upon, but the
University of Washington has a 56kbaud satellite link to the San
Diego Supercomputer Center, and Oregon State University has a
VITALINK Satellite connection to NCAR.
Westine [Page 16]
Internet Monthly Report March 1987
The three principal investigators are Robert McVicar, Northwest
Academic Planning Forum, Dick Jonsen, Western Interstate Commission
on Higher Education (WICHE), and myself. The network will be
managed by a management committee, having one representative from
each university, plus one from Boeing Computer Services (BCS). BCS
will be the facilities manager for the network. Technical
supervision will be provided by a Technical Committee, chaired by
Dr. John Sobolewski, University of Washington.
By Hellmut Golde (Golde%UWACDC.Bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU)
NYSERNET
As of 1 April 1987, NYSERNET has the following topology with 56kbit
links. T1's are also in place for the topology of below but have
not been cutover to the switching gear. Packet traffic from
NYSERNET, NSFNET, ARPANET etc is available to each site.
Rochester--------Cornell---------RPI
| |
| |
| |
NYTEL------------Columbia--------NYU
|
|
|
BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratories)
"Line" facilities are in place for SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY
Binghamton, SUNY Stony Brook, Polytechnic University, City
University of NY, and Rockefeller University. Delivery of
preconfigured switching gear for these will commence in the 2nd
week of April.
Planning for two corporate members, IBM and Kodak is in progress.
Creation of an experimental root domain server is in progress.
A meeting restricted to TCP/IP Host Implementation and
interoperability is being planned for all "systems people" within
the NYSERNET community for the 27th of April at the University of
Rochester.
By Marty Schoffstall (schoff@NIC.NYSER.NET)
SDSCNET (Refer to SDSC Backbone Report)
SESQUINET
Our immediate goal is to have an initial working configuration up
by June 15th. This initial configuration will include all members
involved in the NSF proposal that funds the network:
Westine [Page 17]
Internet Monthly Report March 1987
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston Area Research Center
Rice University
Texas A&M University
Texas Southern University
University of Houston, Central Campus
The initial topology will be only slightly redundant:
TAMU
\ HARC
\ /
\ /
UHD
/ \
(ARPANET)-----RICE UHCC
| |
BCM-----TSU
Each of the links is a 56-kb/s DDS circuit, with the exception of
the HARC-to-UHD link, which will bundle several 56-kb/s circuits
into a single higher speed link.
All the site abbreviations should be clear with the exception of
the switching router (supporting no local campus network) located
physically at the Downtown campus of the University of Houston for
convenience of telecommunications.
Initially there will be one 56-kb/s link to the rest of the
internet, viz. the existing ARPANET connection to Rice.
We are this week ordering the telecommunications links, and expect
them within two months. Early this month we will decide on router
vendor; we are most seriously considering Cisco and Proteon.
Later this summer we expect to connect to the NSFNET site at NCAR.
Further, we hope to connect to a SURANET site. The inclusion of
these links will bring to three the number of medium-speed links to
the rest of the internet.
Although we are concentrating on implementing the initial
configuration, we are always interested in adding members.
Potential members should contact Guy Almes at (713)527-4834 or
almes@rice.edu.
Guy Almes (almes@RICE.EDU)
SURANET
Eleven SURANET routers are presently interconnected by 56kb lines
and are operational. A twelfth should be operational within a few
Westine [Page 18]
Internet Monthly Report March 1987
days. Four of the sites have their campus network on-line to the
router.
All sites use Proteon p4200 IP routers. At the time of the last
report all used Version 7.1 of the Proteon software. Reliability
was poor. During the past month we have moved to Version 7.2 and
have installed a simple hardware modification (100 ohm pull-up
resistor ). Reliability appears to be much improved.
During this month we began to advertise the following nets via EGP
to the internet:
128.109.0.0 TUCC
128.150.0.0 NSF
128.163.0.0 U of Kentucky
128.164.0.0 George Washington Univ
128.167.0.0 SURANET
128.169.0.0 U of Tenn
128.173.0.0 Va Tech
192.5.57.0 Univ of Delaware (udel-cc)
192.5.219.0 Clemson
192.16.17.0 Univ of Alabama
We are working on improving the reliability of the fuzzball which
communicates with Cornell. Operator procedures and training are
being developed so that 24 hour coverage will be available.
Operator procedures for the Proteon routers are also being
developed.
Drs. Hahn and Ricart, as well as four other University of Maryland
staff participated in the Interoperability Conference, Mar. 16-19,
Monterey, CA.
A SURANET technical meeting was held in mid-February at the
University of Maryland. Over 70 people attended from SURANET and
from other NSF supported networks. The meeting was videotaped and
copies can be purchased. The first of a series of user's meetings
is planned for next month. The host will be Dr. Henry Schaffer of
the University of North Carolina. Attendees from non-SURA
institutions will be welcome and should contact Dr. Schaffer at
(919) 737 2516.
By Jack Hahn (hahn%umdc.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU)
WESTNET
No report received.
Westine [Page 19]
Internet Monthly Report March 1987
TASK FORCE REPORTS
------------------
APPLICATIONS -- USER INTERFACE
No report received.
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS
Several members of the Autonomous Networks Task Force met
March 20 and 21 at Xerox PARC. I am now working on writing up
the meeting notes as a basis for ongoing discussion over the
net. Persons interested in participating in the discussion
should ask to be added to the autonets-interest@isi.edu
mailing list (send your request to me, estrin@usc-
cse.usc.edu). Our next official meeting is scheduled for early
November in Boston.
Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC-CSE.USC.EDU)
END-TO-END SERVICES
No report received.
INTERAGENCY REQUIREMENTS
The first meeting for Interagency Requirements will be in May.
Vint Cerf (Cerf@A.ISI.EDU)
INTERNET ARCHITECTURE
The INARC list was quiet this month.
Dave Mills (Mills@UCEL.EDU)
INTERNET ENGINEERING
No report received.
Westine [Page 20]
Internet Monthly Report March 1987
PRIVACY
Privacy Task Force minutes from the September 1986 meeting
were distributed this month, in order to facilitate continuing
discussion of electronic mail key management mechanisms at our
next meeting, which will be held 31 March-1 April at RIACS.
John Linn (Linn@BBN.COM)
ROBUSTNESS AND SURVIVABILITY
No report received.
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING
No report received.
SECURITY
No report received.
TACTICAL INTERNET
No report received.
TESTING AND EVALUATION
No report received.
Westine [Page 21]