<NIS.NSF.NET> [IMR] IMR89-01.TXT
JANUARY 1989
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 participating organizations.
This report is for research use only, and is not for public
distribution.
Each organization 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 network mail to Ann Westine
(Westine@ISI.EDU) or Karen Roubicek (Roubicek@NNSC.NSF.NET).
IAB REPORT
----------
This is the first of a series of reports on those decisions and
actions taken by the Internet Activities Board that should be of
general interest to the Internet community.
The following items are decisions made at the January 1989 meeting
of the IAB.
A. Private Mail
For several years, the Privacy & Security Task Force chaired by
Steve Kent of BBN has been developing a scheme to add privacy to
SMTP-based electronic mail. RFC's to be published soon will
contain the final details of the plan for encapsulating
encrypted text within SMTP messages (see RFC-1040 for an earlier
Westine [Page 1]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
draft) and the plan for key distribution. This scheme will
(optionally) provide data confidentiality, origin
authentication, per-message integrity, and non-repudiation by
the originator, and is based upon public-key encryption using
the RSA algorithm. Public keys will be bound to individuals by
means of "user certificates", which will be issued by a private
company, RSA Data Security Inc. The expected cost will be $25
for a user certificate valid for two years.
The IAB reviewed this plan and gave the go-ahead to proceed with
implementation in the Internet. Not everyone needs private
mail, of course, but for those that do, this feature should
allow Internet email to take on a new importance.
B. The Worm Incident
The IAB joined others in the community in expressing its deep
concern about the recent Internet worm incident and the
resulting public reaction. The IAB released a policy statement
that has been published in RFC-1087, entitled "Ethics and the
Internet."
The IAB plans to take future steps to make the gateway protocols
more secure against subversion and to improve the facilities for
network managers to selectively isolate pieces of the Internet
should such problems recur.
C. Draft Documents
The IAB believes that the Internet community is best served if
there continues to be only one archival series of documents, the
RFC's. To help prevent the erosion of this singularity, the IAB
has decided that the IDEA series of draft documents maintained
by the IETF will be replaced by a series of "Internet drafts".
The new series is crafted to minimize inappropriate citations
and to ensure that these drafts move forward into RFC's as
quickly as possible. Details were announced by Phill Gross,
chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force, at its January
1989 meeting.
D. IP Security Option
A vendor requested an IP Option for commercial security, where
the contents of this option would be unstandardized and vendor-
specific. The IAB felt strongly that IP options must be
publicly defined and documented, while that proprietary or
privately-structured options are a bad idea. The IAB will
initiate a broad-based effort to define a (commercial) security
Westine [Page 2]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
option for IP. Interested parties may contact Steve Kent
(Kent@BBN.COM, 617-873-3988).
Report prepared by Bob Braden (Braden@isi.edu)
TASK FORCE REPORTS
------------------
APPLICATIONS -- USER INTERFACE
No report received.
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS
The Autonomous Networks Task Force is preparing for a three day
meeting in February at ISI. We will meet with members of IETF
ORWG Feb 14-15 and with members of the Privacy and Security Task
Froce Feb 16.
Check this space for a summary in February or March!
Deborah Estrin (Estrin@OBERON.USC.EDU)
END-TO-END SERVICES
No internet-related progress to report.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
INTERNET ARCHITECTURE
At the recent IAB workshop and meeting in Santa Clara, it was
suggested that INARC take up the issue of the limits of the
Internet architecture and protocols in the light of present and
projected future requirements. A meeting has been proposed for
the May/June frame at a date and place to be decided. The
meeting is to be organized as a workshop similar to the one held
a year ago. Participants will be encouraged to present a
prepared talk and/or document, but this is not a requirement for
admission. While participants may be invited on the basis of
their known expertise, biases and vocalities on the issues,
participants outside the IAB and its dependencies are actively
encouraged. Following the workshop the INARC will meet
specifically to discuss issues raised and to determine future
study plans and assignments.
Westine [Page 3]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
Suggestions for agenda items and meeting date and place, as well
as intentions to attend, can be sent to the chair at
(mills@huey.udel.edu).
Dave Mills (Mills@HUEY.UDEL.EDU)
INTERNET ENGINEERING
1) The IETF met at the Balcones Research Center of the
University of Texas in Austin on January 18th through
January 20th. The meeting was hosted by Bill Bard and
Allison Thompson (both of University of Texas). Sara
Tietz and Susan Carlson (Advanced Computing Environments)
helped with much of the pre-meeting (and other local)
logistics. The final agenda, as conducted at the meeting
is given below.
2) This meeting marks the start of several efforts to
streamline the IETF meeting logistics. Karen Bowers
(NRI) has tentatively scheduled the dates and locations
for the next five IETF meetings and ACE will continue its
role, begun at the January meeting, of organizing the
actual logistics of future meetings.
3) The Proceedings for the January meeting are in progress
and will be mailed out (by US mail) to all attendees
prior to the next meeting. In the future, we plan to have
the Proceedings available at least one month prior to the
following meeting. Depending on the response, we may
continue the practice of mailing the Proceedings to all
attendees. (There has never been any direct charges (eg,
attendance or registration fees) for IETF meetings.
These new efforts to streamline IETF logistics will not
change that policy.)
4) In another new development, the process by which IETF
documents are submitted as RFCs has been modified and
streamlined. As part of this change, the IDEA documents
have been renamed to INTERNET-DRAFTS (see IAB report
elsewhere in this report). I will send an announcement
to the IETF mailing list when the new procedure is in
place.
5) Agenda for the January 18-20 IETF Meeting
Westine [Page 4]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17th
9:00 am -
5:00 pm Pre-IETF Working Group Meetings
o Internet Management Information Base (MIB) WG,
Craig Partridge (BBN)
o ST and Connection-Oriented IP WG, Claudio Topolcic (BBN)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18th
9:00 am Opening Plenary and local arrangements (Gross, NRI)
Working Group Sessions
9:15 am -
12:00 pm o CMIP-Over-TCP Net Management (Lee LaBarre, MITRE)
9:15 am -
5:00 pm o Performance and Congestion Control (Mankin, MITRE)
o Point-Point Protocol (Perkins, CMU/ Hobby, UCDavis)
o OSI/Internet Interoperability (Callon, DEC/ Hagens, UWisc)
o User Services (Bowers, NRI)
o ST and Connection-Oriented IP WG, Claudio Topolcic (BBN)
1:00 pm -
5:00 pm o Interconnectivity and EGP3 (Almes, Rice)
5:00 pm -
7:00 pm o Domain Name System WG (Mockapetris, ISI)
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19th
9:00 am Opening Plenary
9:15 am -
12:00 Working Group Sessions
o Host Requirements (Braden, ISI)
o TELNET Linemode (Borman, Cray)
o Working Group for Joint Monitoring Access for Adjacent
Networks focusing on the NSFNET Community (Hares, Merit)
o Interconnectivity and EGP3 (Almes, Rice) Members only
1:15 pm IETF Plenary and Technical Sessions
o Network Status Reports
o Merit NSFnet Report (Hares, UMich)
o Internet Report (Opalka, BBN)
o DOE ESNET Report (Hain, LLL)
o CSNET Report (Partridge, BBN)
o Domain System Statistics (Lottor, NIC)
o Report on the Interconnectivity and EGP3 WG (Almes,Rice)
o Support for OSI Protocols in 4.4 BSD (Hagens, UWisc)
o Report and Discussion on the Internet Worm (Karels,UCB)
5:00 pm Recess
Westine [Page 5]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20th
9:00 am Working Group Reports and Discussion
o CMIP-over-TCP (CMOT) (LaBarre, MITRE)
o Domain Name System (Mockapetris, ISI)
o Host Requirements (Braden, ISI)
o Internet MIB (Partridge, BBN)
o Joint NSFNET/Regional Monitoring (Hares, Merit)
o OSI Internet Interoperability (Callon, DEC/Hagens,UWisc)
o Performance and CC (Mankin, MITRE)
o Point-to-Point Protocol (Perkins, CMU)
o ST and CO-IP (Topolcic, BBN)
o TELNET Linemode (Borman, Cray)
o User Services (Bowers, NRI)
12:00 Concluding Plenary Remarks and Group Discussion (Gross,NRI)
12:30 pm Adjourn
Phill Gross (gross@gateway.mitre.org)
INTERNET MANAGEMENT
No report received.
PRIVACY
John Linn and Steve Kent attended the January IAB workshop in
Santa Clara, CA and presented a pair of briefings on privacy-
enhanced electronic mail processing procedures and on supporting
key management mechanisms based on the use of public-key
certificates, corresponding to the task force's RFCs currently
in preparation. The concepts were well received, and the IAB
approved publication of the RFCs and authorized press releases
on the architecture and on RSA Data Security's involvement as
certificate provider therefor.
Arrangements were made for the privacy task force's February
meeting at ISI, partly to be held in conjunction with the
autonomous networks task force.
John Linn (Linn@CCY.BBN.COM)
Westine [Page 6]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
SCIENTIFIC REQUIREMENTS
The Scientific Requirements Taskforce met at ISI on January 17.
Due to low attendance partially resulting from illnesses, we
only met for one day instead of the planned two days.
The following was discussed:
1. Review of Charter
The taskforce needs to have input from a much broader base of
scientists. We plan to compile a list of mailing/discussion
lists to which scientists subscribe and:
a) Announce the existence of the taskforce to the online
scientific community
b) Announce the publication of our position papers
c) Solicit input and position papers from working
scientists
2. Functioning of the Taskforce:
Each member of the taskforce will send out a regular one
paragraph summary of what they are working on. Many of
us are working inthe same areas and this should be useful.
3. We should have two position papers out soon: one on High
Bandwidth requirements for science, and one on the need
for an Equations Representation Standard.
4. We had presentations on the results of the Telescience
Testbed Pilot Project, a proposal on a Cooperative Approach
to Software Advancement (CASA) by Dennis Hall of LBL, and a
report of Internet performance measurements by Peter Shames
of the Space Telescope Science Institute. We also saw a demo
of Annette DeSchon's (ISI) BFTP program.
Barry Leiner (Leiner@riacs.edu)
DSAB
----
No report received.
Westine [Page 7]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.
----------------------------
SATNET
The SATNET has been very stable through the month of January. The
new direct RSRE to BBN link is now in place and has been carrying
traffic since January 18th.
WIDEBAND NETWORK
Wideband Network activities during the month focused primarily on
BSAT software adjustments and operational support aimed at
sustaining and improving the network's capability to accommodate an
increasing traffic load. Increased demands for Wideband channel
bandwidth are primarily attributable to a higher frequency of two-
and three-site video/multimedia conferencing coupled with the
"background" presence of Wideband-based ARPANET inter-switch trunk
and other Internet traffic.
Further improvements have been made to the Wideband Network
monitoring and control capabilities in support of the network's
near-term transition to a high-speed terrestrial topology. These
improvements will simplify the conversion to processing the new
types of monitoring data that will be generated by the terrestrial
network's Butterfly switches.
INTERNET R&D
The new link between RSRE and BBN is now up and appears to be
stable. Traffic from RSRE and UCL is being routed over the new
link due to its lower delay. UCL and RSRE still have a connection
to SATNET, but that is expected to be removed sometime in February.
As part of bringing up the new link, Mike Brescia visited RSRE and
UCL and installed new gateway software, and tools to make future
software updates easier.
Marianne Lepp presented a talk to the IAB on the IETF Open Routing
Working Group and the EGP3 protocol.
Bob Hinden (Hinden@BBN.COM)
Westine [Page 8]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
ISI
---
INTERNET CONCEPTS PROJECT
Greg Finn finished simulation studies on the possibility of using
Source Quench to control internetwork congestion. The report on
this work is in its final stages of editing.
Jon Postel and Paul Mockapetris attended the IAB meeting in Santa
Clara, CA, 9-13 January. Paul Mockapetris attended the Internet
Engineering Task Force meeting in Austin, Texas 17-20 January.
One RFC was published this month.
RFC 1087: IAB, "Ethics and the Internet", January 1989.
Ann Westine (Westine.ISI.EDU)
LOS NETTOS
ISI's Los Nettos gateway is forwarding about 100,000 packets per
day to the gateways connected to the ARPANET. We are still trying
to get all our traffic to and from the ARPANET to be forwarded
through the butterfly gateway, BFGWY.ISI.EDU, to improve
performance. GATEWAY.ISI.EDU is one of the most heavily loaded
gateways to the ARPANET. This will soon change because of the
conversion to butterfly core gateway nodes.
We had two significant failures. The link to TIS and a CSU/DSU
both failed at the same time. This partitioned them for one day.
We also lost both links to Caltech when phone people in a manhole
disrupted repeaters for both lines. Because both of these failures
partitioned the network and contacting people at each site is
sometimes difficult, we are trying to develop a method for remotely
accessing the Cisco and Datatel console ports to speed diagnostic
testing.
Walt Prue presented a talk "Bringing Up Los Nettos" at a Cisco
Technical Advisory Meeting Jan 17th. He discussed the technical
problems that were overcome as part of bringing up Los Nettos. Of
particular interest to many was how to get the Datatels to work
with the Cisco AGSs with MCI interfaces. Datatel is now responsive
and appears to be trying to clear all of the reported problems. A
representative for Datatel has loaned two units to Cisco Systems
for evaluation. This should help to expedite finding and resolving
incompatabilities.
Westine [Page 9]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
We now have six sites that are interested in joining Los Nettos in
phase 2. We have received POs from JPL, IBM Scientific Center, and
RAND. Also interested are UNISYS, TRW, and NOSC. We have been
having some problems with the standard wording on most POs because
Los Nettos is a cooperative effort with shared risk for all
members.
Because no member needs Los Nettos for connectivity yet, loading
the network and trying to stress it is difficult. We still need to
get more of the member hosts to use the network as a default path.
Walter Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU)
MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING PROJECT
The video packet host software (PVP) was extended to allow the
video data rate to vary between and during connections.
Redesign of the conferencing system's multimedia control program
and conferencing applications is underway, in light of developments
with the Diamond multimedia Toolkit and the VMTP protocol.
Steve attended the IAB Workshop in Santa Clara; also the IETF
meeting in Austin to participate in the ST and Connection-Oriented
IP Working Group. While in Austin, a side trip was made to
VideoTelecom Corp to see a demonstration of their video codec. It
might be a good alternative to the Image30, Concept Communication's
codec, for future packet video use (after some adaptations are
made).
Several demonstrations of the teleconferencing system were given
this month, including multipoint conferences for visitors from
VideoTelecom Corp and Teliport of Boston, MA. Discussions about
the Image30 were initiated with researchers from Olivetti who are
interested in video mail applications.
Dave Walden, Eve Schooler, Steve Casner (djwalden@ISI.EDU,
schooler@ISI.EDU, casner@ISI.EDU)
NSFNET PROJECT
Last month we released new versions of both BFTP and NNStat. There
were a number of BFTP improvements:
o BFTP is now compatible with Rick Adams' new "ftpd",
which will be released by Berkeley in the near future.
o BFTP now supports the transfer of a directory tree.
Westine [Page 10]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
o In multiple transfers, BFTP continues with the next
file when there is a failure that applies to a single
file, such as a type mismatch.
o Alternate directory capability for BFTP request files
is now supported. The bftp directory can be set using
the command "setenv BFTPDIR .bftp".
o BFTP now runs on a Sun OS 4.0 system.
o The "cancel" command now deletes ".list" files that
may remain when BFTP is interrupted in the middle of
a transfer attempt.
The NNStat were minor bug-fixes for problems discovered in 2.2.
Bob Braden organized and attended a 4-day meeting of the IAB in
Santa Clara, California on Jan. 10-13. He also held a meeting of
the IETF Host Requirements Working Group at the IETF meeting in
Austin, Texas on Jan. 18-20.
Bob Braden and Annette DeSchon (Braden@ISI.EDU, DeSchon@ISI.EDU)
SUPERCOMPUTER WORKSTATION COMMUNICATIONS and
FAST PROJECT ON REMOTE ACCESS OF GRAPHICS DATABASES
The Supercomputer Workstation Communications (SWC) project at ISI
ended on 31 August 1988. The final project report should be out
"real soon now". Anyone who would like a copy should contact Alan
Katz (Katz@ISI.EDU).
The new project Alan is working on is an investigation into how to
do remote access of an electronic parts database that has graphical
information. The prototype will probably be based on the X window
system. Since much of the SWC work was about remote access of
Supercomputers using X or NeWS, this is somewhat a continuation of
that work.
Alan is currently trying to find existing on-line parts databases
that have pictures in them (such as an online IC catalog with
pinout diagrams) that he can use for the prototype. Alan is also
trying to find out if there are any existing standards for the
representation of such data (there are many proposed standards).
If anyone can give further information, it would be appreciated.
Over the past couple of months, Alan has been making X version 11
work on his color Sun (3/110), evaluating X toolkits, and has been
Westine [Page 11]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
trying to modify the X server to work under Sun overview.
The FAST project at ISI is developing an automated broker for
purchasing of standard electronic parts. A partially automated
version of the broker is currently in operation and users can
communicate with FAST via electronic mail to request technical
information about parts, receive quotes, and place orders. If you
are interested in using FAST, send a message to FAST@Isi.Edu or
call Anna-Lena Neches at (213)822-1511.
Alan Katz (Katz@ISI.Edu)
MIT-LCS
-------
We continue to plan for an experimental gateway testbed, using the
MIT C-gateway. The goal of this testbed is a cross-country network
based on gateways that can be programmed by members of the academic
research community, to try out new gateway algorithms. Chuck Davin
is constructing detailed plans and coordinating various sites that
might participate.
David Clark and Karen Sollins have orgainzed a meeting to discuss
options for "White Pages" naming services for the Internet. The
meeting, to be held in the beginning of February, will result in a
proposal to the IAB and the FRICC for possible actions in order to
construct such a service.
Lixia Zhang (Lixia@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU)
MITRE Corporation
-----------------
No report received.
NTA-RE and NDRE
---------------
No report received.
SRI
---
Paul McKenney completed a prototype of Transaction Transport
Protocol (TTP) running as a user-level process on a Sun
Workstation. A set of "boiler-plate" IP routines are used in
conjunction with Sun's Network Interface Tap (NIT) facility to
allow the user process access to Ethernet (the raw socket interface
Westine [Page 12]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
is preferable on systems (such as SunOS 4.x) that fully implement
it). Performance is currently less-than-impressive, in part due to
a problem that forces polling of the NIT socket.
Zaw-Sing Su (zsu@tsca.istc.sri.com)
UCL
---
Infrastructure:
We are losing the SATNET from UCL/RSRE in exchange for RSRE leased
line to US any day now/then. This may see improved performance
between US and UK MoD sites, plus STC and FGAN. Academic traffic
awaits the academic equivalent line.
Research and Development:
A great deal of work went on integrating the ODA and X.400 work
(about three man months per week) for an ODA interworking
demonstration in Febuary. If you thought Unix has gotten large,
wait for multimedia mail with directories!!
Several graduate projects have started including: Remote management
for our FDDI network. Authentication and privacy (based on PKC).
Integrating Load sharing with whole file cacheing.
John Crowcroft (jon@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
----------------------
1. Our grads continue hacking these and various odd jobs. Mike
Minnich brought up Sun 4.0 and new NTP versions on various
machines. Paul Schragger is installing the Profile system from
U Arizona. We are looking at Kerberos and plan to install it
here. Paul and Jeff are also working on a paper for SIGCOMM
89. Our main campus VAXhorses were rehomed on our class-B
network and gateways shuffled to match. We are also working to
rehome a gateway to another ARPANET host port when our PSN
goes to heaven.
2. Paul Schragger and Dave Mills attended the IAB workshop and
meeting in Santa Clara. Dave presented a briefing on the
activities of the INARC Task Force, while Paul served his
Scribe apprenticeship. Dave also attended a meeting at DCEC on
new funded work in routing protocols. Jeff Simpson is
Westine [Page 13]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
preparing to attend the Autonomous Networks Task Force meeting
in February.
3. An experimental authentication mechanism for the Network Time
Protocol (NTP) was completed and is now in test. It uses DES
cipher-block chaining to produce a crypto-checksum on the NTP
header. However, the Whitesmiths DES encryption routines used
in the Fuzzball require about 250 milliseconds to compute the
checksum, which is hardly good news for precision time
servers. After reviewing code from other sources, new routines
were constructed in assembly code which require only about 150
milliseconds. Rather than try to further reduce this time, the
timestamping code was revised to measure the encryption times
and compensate for them. The results of testing in the
Fuzzballs deployed in the Internet show that NTP accuracies
have not been significantly compromised.
4. In response to occasional complaints that NTP peers
occasionally become unstable when connectivity becomes very
flaky, the timekeeping algorithms were reviewed and a subtle
problem found. The gain of the first-order (frequency) term in
the phase-lock loop did not account for the time between
updates, which ordinarily is fixed. The algorithms were
rebuilt to do that and also to include a feature that reduces
the gain after long periods of good data. The result is an
improvement in frequency stability to a few parts in 10**8
after about a day of chiming with an accurate synchronizing
source. Anything much better than that requires something like
a cesium clock for the local oscillator.
5. My paper on the Wiretap algorithm appeared in the January CCR.
While I had thought I was breaking new ground when I submitted
it electronically for direct printing in PostScript format, I
found that, due to a font incompatibility, it was one of two
papers NOT directly printed for that issue.
Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU)
Westine [Page 14]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
NSF NETWORKING
--------------
NSF NETWORKING
UCAR/BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC., NNSC
Craig Partridge chaired the MIB Working Group session at the IETF
and Karen Roubicek participated in the new User Services Working
Group meeting. NNSC staff continue to give presentations about
NSFNET to current and future users in the research community.
Several NSFNET posters have been distributed. Please send requests
for additional copies to nnsc@nnsc.nsf.net.
by Karen Roubicek (roubicek@NNSC.NSF.NET)
NSFNET BACKBONE (MERIT)
As of January 31, 1989, the NSFNET has completed seven months of
production. Traffic and network connections have continued to
increase during this period. The number of "allowed" networks
began at 173 primary and 30 secondary on 7/1/88 and, as of 1/31/89,
stands at 384 primary, 147 secondary, and 5 tertiary with new
networks coming on line almost every day.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Comparison of Packet Counts
December 1988/January 1989
Packets In Packets Out
December 395,580,713 419,348,204
January 467,753,653 497,787,338
% increase 15.4% 18.7%
--------------------------------------------------------------
January backbone use showed a marked increase over December 1988.
Usage was lower at the beginning of the month but gradually
increased and peaked during the last week of the month.
NNStat
Development and use of a modified version of the NNStat package
continued in January. With this package, the statistical tallies
in each NSS are periodically retrieved by a central collector in
Ann Arbor where they are then staged to the NSFNET Information
Services mainframe to be merged into a database. The information
in this database will aid the NSFNET partners in analysis of
network usage and provide needed input for planning of network
Westine [Page 15]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
configuration and expansion.
MCI View
Also during January, utilization of MCI View(tm) began. MCI View
is used to pass Extended Super Frame (ESF) information on the
performance of the NSFNET backbone to the Merit NetView(tm) host.
This combination provides a comprehensive look at the functioning
of network communications including: 1) near real-time monitoring
of voice and data communications networks; 2) transparent operation
within NetView; 3) enhanced network management through the existing
IBM NetView/PC interface. The most immediate benefit of MCI ESF
monitoring to the NSFNET is that the performance and alarm
information is centrally stored and can be accessed by MCI network
management and operations personnel to help isolate and resolve
circuit troubles in a timely manner.
New Topology
Merit and its partners, MCI and IBM, have been working on a major
redesign project to improve connectivity and move NSFNET toward the
higher performance required in the future. The new topology,
scheduled to be deployed during the second quarter of 1989, will
increase the number of T-1 circuits in the backbone to provide
multiple connections for all nodes and take advantage of MCI's
Digital Reconfiguration Service (DRS) to improve network management
capabilities.
by Patricia G. Smith (patricia_g_smith@um.cc.umich.edu)
NSFNET BACKBONE SITES & MID-LEVEL NETWORK SITES
BARRNET
No report received.
CERFNET
January signified the committment of funds to CERFnet from the
National Science Foundation. CERFnet will receive $2.8 million
dollars, which is to be allocated over the next four years. The
backbone member institutions are expected to be on-line by late
March, and others will be phased in throughout 1989. A current
schedule of when lines will be available is as follows:
Westine [Page 16]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
Site Name/Install Date
University of California at San Diego (UCSD)/November
Agouron Institute/April
Research Institute of Scripps Clinic (RISC)/May
University of California at Irvine (UCI)/March
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)/March
University of San Diego (USD)/May
University of California at Riverside (UCR)/June
Occidental College/November
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)/March
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)/March
California State University (CSUNET)/Southwest Research Labs
(CSU/SWRL)/April
Science Application Information Systems (SAIC)/April
Qualcomm Incorporated/April
University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB)/March or April
In addition to the list of sites and expected on-line dates,
CERFnet would like to report the University of California at Santa
Barbara is expected to be on-line by March, April at the latest,
1989.
CERFnet presented a two day seminar, "In Depth Introduction to
TCP/IP" at the San Diego Supercomputer Center on January 25th and
26th. The seminar was instructed by Dr. Douglas E. Comer of Purdue
University and was successful in presenting an interesting and
informative introduction to TCP/IP. The seminar was attended by
approximately 70 people. This was the first of many seminars
CERFnet plans to present in the future.
In December, CERFnet produced its first newsletter, the CERFnet
News. The News is scheduled to be produced bi-monthly and will
contain interviews with researchers currently using the network,
technical notes relating to the network, and CERFnet general
Westine [Page 17]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
"going-ons". The next issue is scheduled for release the week of
February 13th.
The CERFnet pilot is functioning well with four California State
University (CSU) campuses, Fullerton, Fresno, San Luis Obispo and
Stanislaus, and CSU's Office of the Chancellor in Los Alamitos, and
SDSC, with Stanislaus being added in the later part of November.
Chris Taylor of CSU's Office of the Chancellor, reports, "One known
major technical problem remains unsolved. CSUNET interconnects the
cisco System routers via "virtual networks" analogous to a physical
point-to-point circuit between two sites. A design flaw in the
cisco router requires each CSUNET site to have a separate virtual
circuit to each and every other site in order for local CSU site
routing information to be distributed properly. With all twenty
sites and SDSC, the resulting 210 virtual circuits becomes a
serious problem . . . Cisco Systems have been made aware of the
problem."
Technical Statistics-
CERFnet reports traffic on the network to date as follows;
Packets in . . . 3,248,796 (15 no input)
Packets out . . . 1,414,807
by Karen Armstrong (armstrongk@sds.sdsc.edu)
CICNET
The month of January has been one of implementation. A schedule
was developed based upon the turn over of circuits by MCI to CICNet
with a target completion date of January 30. However, by the
second week of January it was evident that schedule could not be
met. MCI has been turning over circuits at least one week behind
schedule and for many, two and three weeks behind. MCI is having
problems coordinating testing and assuring performance between
local loops and their circuits, particularly in the Chicago area.
At the time of this writing, three circuits are stable and are
operating in test mode: Ohio State University to University of
Michigan, University of Michigan to Michigan State University, and
Michigan State University to University of Chicago. The circuit
between University of Minnesota and University of Iowa also seems
to be stable but without meaningful other connections. All other
circuits have not been turned over or their operation is very
problematic.
Westine [Page 18]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
An additional problem with MCI has been their implementation of
Extended Super Frame (ESF). We were told circuits would be
available with ESF but are now being told that hardware corrections
are required by MCI through their equipment vendor and we should
not expect ESF data until mid-March. This will require about a 30
minute outage by each node to implement.
The cisco routers were also delivered with bad Rockwell chips and
the temporary correction that cisco provided was to increase the
voltage. We are anxiously awaiting version 7.1 of the cisco
software so that we can correct this problem as well as have remote
communication with the routers at 2400 baud. This software is not
expected before March 1, so the initial implementation of CICNet
will occur with the present software.
We are not expecting to complete implementation before February 20,
but this date is most dependent upon the turn over of circuits by
MCI. MCI expects this to be completed the week of February 5. Two
circuits in the Chicago area must be flash-cut to CICNet after all
other circuits are fully operational. It is likely that user
traffic can begin to be carried between Ohio State University and
University of Michigan to the Merit NSS sometime during the week of
February 5, with later nodes following as circuits stabilize.
Merit, Inc. is the contractor to operate CICNet from the Network
Operation Center that is used for NSFNet. Staff have been
increased at Merit and the formal contract is expected to be signed
very soon. A new Executive Director of CICNet is also about to be
hired, and I expect that next month's report will be from him.
by Barbara Wolfe (bbwolfe%smuvm1.bitnet@uicvm.uic.edu)
CORNELL UNIVERSITY THEORY CENTER
Gatedaemon Project
We are glad to announce that the gatedaemon has some funding again
(from NSF). At least enough to maintain status quo.
This month the ARPAnet EGP update size exceeded 2K, the maximum
packet size compiled into EGPUP and the BSD Unix kernel. BSD 4.2-
based systems required a kernel rebuild. A version of gated was
made available that automatically adjusts the kernel's buffer sizes
via an ioctl. Gated is now distributed with a maximum EGP packet
size of 8k.
A new version of gated should be released soon, the major change
being concurrent support for NYSERNet's SGMP and SNMP daemons.
Westine [Page 19]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
Also included are bug fixes for the previous release which was
distributed in a hurry due to the EGP crisis.
Top priority for gated is a prototype of the EGP3 protocol.
Modifications to gated necessary to support EGP3, which will also
make it easier to test additional protocols, are being incorporated
now while the protocol is being finalized. These modifications.
In addition we are hiring someone whose first job will be to
rewrite the command parser.
Network Engineering and Architecture
Scott Brim has been working on interconnectivity issues, especially
in the Autonomous Networks Task Force (report above), and attended
the IAB workshop in Santa Clara. The connection to CNUSC
(Montpellier, France) is still not used, as they are still trying
to decide whether to hook it directly into the NSFNet node or not.
by Scott Brim (swb@chumley.tn.cornell.edu)
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN/NCSANET
No report received.
JOHN VON NEUMANN NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
No report received.
MERIT/UMNET
No report received.
MIDNET
No report received.
MRNET
MRNet continues to anticipate and prepare for the arrival of
CICnet. Connection of CICnet to the University of Minnesota is
expected within a week or two. In general, the University of
Minnesota and the Minnesota Supercomputer Center will be routed
through CICnet, while the rest of the MRNet members will be routed
through the MRNet link to the NSFnet. Unfortunately, there will be
several exceptions to this general rule. Routing difficulties will
be addressed by Stuart Levy (slevy@msc.umn.edu or 612/626-0211) and
Roger Gulbranson (roger@vx.acss.umn.edu or 612/626-0535).
Westine [Page 20]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
Efforts continue towards connecting several of the Minnesota
private colleges to MRNet. This project will likely split into two
efforts: connecting some of the colleges in the immediate future
and assisting the remaining colleges in obtaining NSF funds for
equipment and lines.
The next MRNet general meeting is scheduled for March 22, 1989.
by Tim Salo (tjs@msc.umn.edu)
NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH & UNIVERSITY SATELLITE
NETWORK PROJECT
Because of the increasing number of NSFNET gateways connected to
the USAN backbone, a new backbone, NCAR-NSS, is being formed to
serve these gateways. This new backbone will contain NSS-EGPing
gateways to Los Alamos National Lab (AS #68), Westnet East (AS
#209), USAN (AS # 194), and later this winter a connection to
Mexico. There is also a possibility that the Boulder laboratories
of the US Department of Commerce will be connected. The network
will also contain a gateway to NSN (NASA/Ames) that does not EGP-
peer with the NSS.
The USAN gateway currently is Sun3 that has only one network
connection and uses the gated software as an agent. This will be
replaced in the new configuration by a cisco box so that individual
USAN member sites are not gatewayed on the NCAR-NSS stub.
by Don Morris (morris@windom.ucar.edu)
NORTHWESTNET
No report received.
NYSERNET
No report received.
OARNET
Over the past several months OARnet has been implementing the SGMP
monitoring software from NYSERNET, and we are planning to install
the SNMP software as it becomes available. We are also running
NNSTAT and have been spending quite a bit of time writing report
programs for the data emitted by both NNSTAT and SGMP. We're
seeing the usual steep buildup of traffic and are now working to
put together a capital budget for OARnet that will allow us to
upgrade our facilities in 1990. At present OARnet is fully funded
Westine [Page 21]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
by the state, and there is no charge for either connection or use.
This pleasant state will probably not continue in the face of
rising demand, unless we are successful in making a case to the
state legislature that the benefits to higher education justify the
investment. We certainly plan to make this case.
OARnet currently has about twenty nodes online and another six or
so in various stages of being connected. All the schools in Ohio
that have graduate programs are part of OARnet, and we are now
starting to add the four year colleges. Both OCLC (which supplies
union catalog services to most of the schools in the United States)
and Chemical Abstracts are part of OARnet, and have expressed
strong interest in much higher bandwidth connections. The close
geographical proximity of both companies to Columbus makes this a
realistic possibility.
The Board of Regents, which oversees public educational facilities
in Ohio, has funded a major new library intiative for a statewide
library system, and they have expressed interest in using OARnet as
the vehicle for their interlibrary communications. The
NYSERNET/OCLC Z.39 project is key to making this technically
feasible, but we expect that by the time the library system is
ready to use OARnet that it will be technically possible to do so.
Having Ohio libraries online would certainly strengthen the case
that OARnet should be funded as an overhead item for the state
educational system.
We continue to be interested in recruiting good technical people
who know something about TCP/IP and UNIX. Not that we are unique
in that regard!
by Alison Brown (alison@maverick.osc.edu)
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER
No report received.
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
No report received.
SESQUINET
No report received.
Westine [Page 22]
Internet Monthly Report January 1988
SURANET
SURAnet continues to increase in the number of sites connected and
in the number of networks advertised to the NSFnet.
At present there are 57 sites online and 68 networks are being
advertised to the NSFnet.
The current list of sites and networks can be obtained via
anonymous FTP from noc.sura.net, password guest, cd pub. File name
is "online".
by Jack Hahn (hahn@umd5.umd.edu)
WESTNET
No report received.