<NIS.NSF.NET> [IMR] IMR90-09.TXT
September 1990
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).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD
IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
END-TO-END SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
PRIVACY AND SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5
Westine [Page 1]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Internet Projects
BARRNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 13
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 13
CERFNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14
CICNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14
CORNELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15
CREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15
FARNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15
ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16
JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK . . . . . . page 17
LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17
MERIT/COMPUTER NETWORK-MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17
MIDNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
MIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
MITRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
MRNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
NCAR/USAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK . . . . . . . . page 19
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 20
NORTHWESTNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21
NSFNET BACKBONE, MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21
NDRE and NTA-RD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22
NYSERNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23
OARNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23
PENNSYLVANIA RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP NETWORK . page 24
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25
SESQUINET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25
SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25
SURANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 26
TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION NETWORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27
UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27
UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN/NCSANET . . . page 28
WESTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 28
WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 28
Westine [Page 2]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
IAB MESSAGE
MORE ON CONNECTED STATUS, ETC
The IAB recommendations contained in RFC-1174 ("IAB Recommended
Policy on Distributed Internet Identifier Assignment and IAB
Recommended Policy Change to Internet 'Connected' Status",
August 1990) have been accepted by the Federal Networking
Council (FNC). The changes are being implemented as quickly as
possible by the DDN NIC and by appropriate agencies in other
countries, to ease the growth of the international Internet.
It has been asked whether the "connected status" requirement is
to be dropped on Autonomous System numbers as well as IP network
numbers; the answer is most assuredly "yes".
INTERNET STANDARDS ACTIONS
The IAB has approved the following four IESG recommendations:
o Proposed Standard state for the CMIP-over-TCP (CMOT)
specification, from the "OSI Internet Management" Working Group
of the IETF. This protocol is an implementors agreement for the
use of CMIP (the ISO International Standard network management
protocol) over TCP. This new version of CMOT uses a subset of
the ISO SMI ("Structure and Identification of Management
Information") rather than the Internet Standard SMI (RFC-1155).
o Advancement to Draft Standard state of the IP-over-FDDI spec,
produced by Dave Katz on behalf of the "IP over FDDI" Working
Group of IETF. A revised RFC will be published, replacing
RFC-1103. Note that RFC-1103 was erroneously listed as an
Internet Standard in RFC-1140, the latest edition of the
"IAB Official Protocol Standards" document.
o Proposed Standard state for the Internet IS-IS routing
protocol, produced by the "IS-IS for IP Internets" Working
group of the IETF.
o Advancement to Draft Standard state for the Telnet Linemode
Option, produced by the IETF Telnet Working Group. A new RFC
will be published with some changes and extensions,
replacing RFC-1116.
Host system vendors are urged to track the Telnet Linemode
Option, as it is expected to provide important benefits for
Internet users. For example, Section 3.3.5 of the Host
Westine [Page 3]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Requirements RFC-1123 says, "This option will greatly decrease
packet cost of Telnet sessions and will also give much better
user response over congested or long-delay networks".
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS
-------------------------
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS
-------------------
No specific progress to report for this month. Currently
considering calling a meeting for October/November. A second
teleconference meeting will probably be held sometime in
February with John Crowcroft and other UK folks.
Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC.EDU)
END-TO-END SERVICES
-------------------
No progress to report this month.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
PRIVACY AND SECURITY
--------------------
Since the wayward August report did not show up in the last
monthly, I should note that the PSRG met in conjunction with the
IETF meeting in Vancouver. An open meeting regarding Privacy
Enhanced Mail and joint meetings with policy and authentication
Working Groups dominated the agenda. These resulted in several
changes to the P-E Mail RFCs which will be advised of on the
"pem-dev" mailing list, and in a plan for individual members of
the PSRG to act as liaisons for the security concerns of other
WGs.
Rob Shirey distributed another draft of the Security
Architecture RFC at the August meeting, and that will be among
the topics on the agenda at the upcoming meeting October 23-25
at MITRE McLean.
Westine [Page 4]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Privacy-Enhanced Mail is in beta test at NIST, TIS and BBN
Communications, and BBN will be demoing this software and
certificate generation software at Interop 90 in October.
Ken Rossen (kenr@BBN.COM)
COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY
------------------------
No report received.
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS
----------------------------
This report covers the following topics:
IETF ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES
a) Reminder -- Next Meeting
b) Trial modifications to the IETF meeting format
c) Actions to encourage WG productivity
d) IESG Activity
- Standards Management
- New Network Management Directorate
IETF TECHNICAL AND STANDARDS ACTIVITY
a) "Technical Summaries" in IESG recommendations to IAB
b) Internet-Drafts for September 1990
c) Standards actions for September 1990
d) New Working Group
1) IETF Administrative Issues
a) Reminder -- Next Meeting
The next IETF meeting will be December 4-7, 1990 in Boulder
Colorado. The meeting will be jointly sponsored by Westnet
and NCAR. Carol Ward (University of Colorado) and Don
Morris (NCAR) are the local hosts.
A very interesting technical agenda on high performance
transport protocols is beginning to take shape.
Westine [Page 5]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
b) Trial modifications to the IETF meeting format
The attendance at IETF meetings has increased from under 100
to nearly 300 in the last 2 years. During this period the
number of working groups has increased from 12 to over 45.
Although I generally take this growth as a positive sign of
success, it should also alert us to look for ways to make
sure this new activity is integrated smoothly into the
existing IETF structure.
In this section, I report some trial modifications to the
Boulder IETF meeting format, based on suggestions by
attendees. In the next section, I note ways for WG chairs
and attendees to keep meetings highly productive.
In the FSU IETF plenary in February 1990, we decided to
reduce the number of IETF meetings from four per year to
three per year. At the next two IETF plenaries
(Pittsburgh/May 1990, Vancouver/August 1990), we decided to
expand the current 3.5 day meeting format to 4.5 days on a
trial basis.
Together with the new 4.5 day format, we have decided to
include several other suggestions in the trial. We have
divided each full day into 3 periods, resulting in 13
periods total. Eight of these will be WG sessions, three
periods will be devoted to technical presentations, one for
an open plenary/IESG session, and one for a reporting
session on Friday morning. Total time for WGs is increased
by a third, while time for other regular IETF features (eg,
technical presentations, reports, IESG) remain about the
same.
The trial format for the Boulder meeting will look like:
Mon Tues Weds Thu Fri
--- ---- ---- --- ---
9:00-12:00 WG WG WG WG Reports
1:30-3:30 WG WG WG Tech
4:00-6:00 WG Tech Tech IESG
Main registration will be on Sunday evening.
Again in response to suggestions, we will offer more
technical presentations by moving some to within WG
Westine [Page 6]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
sessions. For example, we will move the network status
reports into the NJM or TEWG working group sessions.
We will be looking forward to comments on these new
features.
c) Actions to encourage WG productivity
As a reminder to WG chairs and WG attendees, there are some
specific actions that can be done to help make WG meetings
more productive.
WG chair actions:
1) WG chairs are asked to provide "charters" and meeting
reports, both of which are openly available online and in
IETF Proceedings. The purpose of charters and reports is to
help prospective attendees understand the objectives and
status of the group, so that they can come to meetings
prepared.
2) WG chairs can further assist prospective attendees in
preparing for meetings by providing an agenda and document
reading list for each WG meeting. This will help attendees
prepare for meetings. Plus, having an explicit agenda helps
the WG focus the meeting and keep it on track.
WG attendee actions:
IETF Working Group meetings are technical *working*
sessions. Active, informed, constructive participation is
welcomed and encouraged. Observers are also welcome. WG
meetings are generally fully open (although some WG sessions
may be open only to document reviewers).
To get the most out of WG attendance (for yourself and for
the WG), attendees should come to meetings with a good
understanding of the WG background and progress-to-date.
Attendees can become familiar with the current status and
progress of WGs in several ways. 1) WG objectives and notes
from previous meetings are available online (send to iesg-
secretary@nri.reston.va.us for retrieval instructions). 2)
WG objectives and notes from previous meetings are also
reproduced in the hardcopy Proceedings (to order
Proceedings, send to proceedings@nri.reston.va.us). 3)
Agendas and reading lists for WG meetings will also be
posted to the respective WG mailing lists.
Westine [Page 7]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
d) IESG Activity
- Standards Management
The IAB and IETF were founded, and continue to function, as
technical development groups for Internet networking
technology. Out of necessity over the past several years,
the IAB and IETF have evolved a standards-making component
to define the protocols and procedures used in the Internet
more rigorously. Although this standards process is now
reasonably well defined (see RFC1140), there are certain
aspects of the process (and the procedures to implement the
process) that are still "ad hoc". This is particularly true
in the way that the IESG treats new work and the way that
IESG makes recommendations to the IAB regarding standards
actions.
In order to develop clearer IETF/IESG standards procedures,
I have asked Dave Crocker (DEC) to establish a new IETF
Standards Management position on the IESG. The specific
charter of this new position will be to:
1) Write down new and existing IESG standards practices in
a "IETF Standards Practices Handbook".
2) Propose new or amended practices where needed to fill out
a fully-developed IETF/IESG standards practice (up through
the recommendation to the IAB).
3) Act as coordinator to help move specific protocols through
the IETF/IESG standards process.
4) Act as the liaison between the IESG and IAB on standards
activity. This might include developing new general
procedures for IAB/IESG interaction, helping to conduct
"Technical Reviews" when needed, or generally tracking
IESG recommendations through the IAB.
I envision that much responsibility will still belong to
each Area Director for specific standards actions (e.g.,
primary responsiblity for advancing work to the IESG from
IETF working groups, providing "Technical Summaries" (see
2a. below), etc,). And Greg Vaudrueil (CNRI), as IESG
Secretary, will continue to act as the agent for most of the
specific actions (e.g., formulating the actual IESG
recommendations and forwarding to the IAB, etc).
Westine [Page 8]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
However, in addition to recommending and codifying the
standard practices, the new IESG Standards Manager will act
as a backstop to make sure the process is followed in an
expeditious manner, and nothing gets lost in the cracks.
In order to provide adequate focus on this new activity,
Dave Crocker will give over his role as Network Management
Area Director to the newly organized IESG Network Management
Directorate. This is the subject of the next topic.
- New Network Management Directorate
One of Dave Crocker's goals as NM AD has been to form a NM
"Review Board". The goal of this board would be to provide
broad community perspective and input to IETF network
mangement development decisions. For example, such a board
would perform the key role of guiding and reviewing Internet
MIB development activity. With Dave's moving from the NM
area to a new Standards management role, it became clear
that the time for forming this group had arrived.
We are now forming an "IETF Network Management Directorate".
The NM Directorate will be a composed of approximately 9
persons. Its chair will also serve as the IESG NM Area
Director.
The NM directorate is not entirely in place. However, I am
very pleased to be announce that Chuck Davin (MIT) will be
able to serve as the new NM AD and chair of the NM
Directorate. He and I, after consultation with the IESG and
other participants in the NM area, have identified
candidates for the rest of the group and are in the process
of inviting them to join. He and I hope to be able to
announce the complete membership of the new NM directorate
in next month's report.
2) IETF Technical and Standards Activity
a) "Technical Summaries" to be included in IESG recommendations
to IAB
The IESG is called upon to make recommendations to the IAB
on Internet standards activity. The most common example is
when an IETF Working Group wishes to submit a protocol
document to the IAB for standardization. In such a case,
the WG chair forwards the protocol document to the IESG via
the relevant Area Director. The IESG then forwards a
recommendation to the IAB (usually after open discussion at
Westine [Page 9]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
an IETF meeting). All IESG recommendations to the IAB are
cc'ed to the IETF mailing list.
In the future, the IESG will furnish a "Technical Summary"
as part of all standards recommendation packages. A
"Technical Summary" will include a brief overview of the
document, and explain the motivation for the particular
technical approach taken.
"Technical Summaries" are different from "Technical
Reviews". The more concise "Technical Summary" is meant to
give a brief overview of the main technical points, and will
become a routine part of all future IESG recommendations to
the IAB. "Technical Summaries" will be provided by the
document author or Area Director.
"Technical Reviews" would generally be a more thorough, but
less frequent, review conducted by a separate group drawn
together by the IESG and/or by the relevant Area Director.
So far, there have only been "Reviews" for CMOT, BGP, (and
less formally) PPP and MTU Discovery.
To summarize (and, hopefully, to help clarify our evolving
process):
- The IESG makes recommendations to the IAB on Internet
standards actions. These IESG recommendations are usually
formulated after discussion at an open plenary session of
the IETF. The final recommendation is always cc'ed to the
IETF mailing list.
- In the future, the IESG will include a "Technical Summary"
as part of the recommendation package. The "Summary" will
be provided by the document author or the appropriate AD.
- A wider, more comprehensive "Technical Review" may also be
requested by either the IESG or IAB, but this is expected
to be a less frequent occurrence.
b) Internet-Drafts for September 1990
The following thirteen new or revised Internet-Drafts were
installed in the online IETF directories this month. (Please
send to iesg-secretary@nri.reston.va.us for instructions on how
to access the online IETF directories.)
Westine [Page 10]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Title: Definitions of Managed Objects for the T1 Carrier
Interface
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-t1mib-01.txt
First Posted: 04/23/1990
Revised: 09/26/1990
Title: Experimental Definitions of Managed Objects
Filename: draft-ietf-iwg-bgp-mib-01.txt
First Posted: 07/17/1990
Revised: 09/21/1990
Title: The Finger User Information Protocol
Filename: draft-zimmerman-finger-03.txt
First Posted: 09/04/1990
Title: Internet Stream Protocol
Filename: draft-ietf-cip-st2-00.txt
First Posted: 09/04/1990
Title: Towards Concise MIB Definitions
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-mibdefinitions-01.txt
First Posted: 09/05/1990
Revised: 09/26/1990
Title: A Convention for Defining Traps for use with the SNMP
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-traps-01.txt
First Posted: 09/05/1990
Title: Experimental Definitions of Managed Objects for the PPP
Filename: draft-ietf-ppp-pppmib-01.txt
First Posted: 09/10/1990
Title: Extensions to the Generic-Interface MIB
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-interfacemibext-00.txt
First Posted: 09/12/1990
Title: Transmission of IP Datagrams and ARP Packets over ARCNET
Filename: draft-provan-iparcnet-00.txt
First Posted: 09/17/1990
Title: Requirements for Internet IP Routers
Filename: draft-ietf-rreq-iprouters-00.txt
First Posted: 09/17/1990
Title: IEEE 802.4 Token Bus MIB
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-tokenbusmib-00.txt
First Posted: 09/26/1990
Westine [Page 11]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Title: Definitions of Managed Objects for Ethernet-like
Interfaces
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-ethernetmib-00.txt
First Posted: 09/26/1990
Title: IEEE 802.5 Token Ring MIB
Filename: draft-ietf-snmp-tokenringmib-00.txt
First Posted: 09/26/1990
c) Standards Actions for September 1990
In September, the IESG made the following standards
recommendations to the IAB:
Issue IESG Recommendation
- IP over FDDI Draft Standard
- MTU Discovery Proposed Standard
- Integrated IS-IS Proposed Standard
- Telnet Linemode Draft Standard
- Telnet Environment Option Proposed Standard
The results of these recommendations will be recorded
in future IAB reports or in the quarterly "IAB Official
Protocol Standards" RFC (current version is RFC 1140).
d) New Working Group announced in September 1990
OSI X.500 (osix500)
Chair: Steve Kille, S.Kille@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Mailing Lists:
General Discussion: ietf-osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk To
Subscribe: ietf-osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US)
IETF Chair
Westine [Page 12]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
INTERNET PROJECTS
-----------------
BARRNET
-------
No report received.
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.
----------------------------
TCP-TP4 PROTOCOL TRANSLATION
A demonstration was run using a simple telnet-over-TP4 application.
A user logged in on an OSI host, SUN Unix running SunLink-OSI, and
connected through the protocol converter to an Internet host at
another site, where he logged in, typed some commands, and printed
some text mail. The OSI (TP4) was carried over an X.25 net, and
the TCP over parts of the Internet between BBN and DARPA.
BBN along with SHAPE Technical Centre are documenting the results
of the implementation and demonstration.
INTERNET O&M / ICBNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The TWBNet gateway located at FIX-West (NASA Ames Research Center)
was upgraded to support a new video/multimedia conferencing
facility at RIACS. The RIACS conferencing facility replaces the
facility that had been located at SRI.
A TWBNet gateway was installed at the Naval Ocean Systems Center
(NOSC) in San Diego, CA. Connection of the gateway to the TWBNet
is pending completion of the T1 line linking the NOSC site to the
TWBNet Wideband Packet Packet Switch (WPS) in Los Angeles.
The US endpoint of the 64 Kbps connection to the ICBNet gateway at
the Italian National Research Council (CNUCE) in Pisa, Italy was
re-homed from the TWBNet gateway at DARPA (Arlington, VA) to the
TWBNet gateway at FIX-East (SURANet/UMd). This change was made in
anticipation of the relocation of the DARPA offices. Operation of
the re-homed link was unstable during the first few weeks of
operation, due to a combination of hardware and software problems
within the SURANet gateway. As of the end of the month, these
problems appear to have been resolved and the CNUCE<->FIX-East
connection was exhibiting stable operation.
Westine [Page 13]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
TERRESTRIAL WIDEBAND NETWORK AND ST/IP GATEWAY
During September, the ST Gateway and Terrestrial Wideband projects
supported two video conferences and no SIMNET exercises. Both
video conferences involved 2 sites. Conference participants
included Ira Richer (DARPA) and Bob Kahn (NRI).
A major milestone was achieved with the establishment of the first
video connection to University College in London. Also, the ST
gateway and video conference suite located at SRI were moved to
RIACS at Ames Research Center at Moffet Field. Connectivity for
this site is being provided via the Los Angeles WPS.
We presented a paper on "The DARPA Wideband Dual Bus Protocol" at
the ACM SIGCOMM '90 conference in Philadelphia, 9/24-27.
Inter-Domain Policy Routing
During the month of September, we continued to work on the software
modules for the individual IDPR protocols, which are all well in
hand. The main focus of our work in September has been making sure
we have clean yet flexible interfaces between the higher layer
routing protocols and the lower layer transport functions. We have
also replaced the reliable transmission part of each IDPR protocol
with a single transport protocol that serves all IDPR protocols.
This makes for a cleaner design, but has complicated the interface
definition task. In fact, the definition of this interface has
proved to be one of the most difficult parts of the whole IDPR
system, but we now believe that it is very close to the way we want
it. The collaborative effort of SAIC, USC, and BBN has helped to
ensure that we do not omit crucial details of IDPR functionality,
as we near completion of implementation and prepare for DARTNET
testing.
Bob Hinden (Hinden@BBN.COM)
CERFNET
-------
No report received.
CICNET
-------
No report received.
Westine [Page 14]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
CORNELL
-------
No report received.
CREN
-----
The CSNET West Coast Cluster was directly connected to the NSFNET
in August. Traffic from the Cluster is now directly connected to
the NSFNET. Traffic from the West Coast cluster in California goes
through olivetti.com at Menlo Park over a T1 line to the NSS at the
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). On the East Coast, traffic
from what can now be called the CSNET East Coast Cluster, which
includes PhoneNet and Dial-Up IP sites, continues to go through
NEARNET to the NSS at JVNCNET, in Princeton, NJ.
The East Coast Cluster and the West Coast Cluster are also
connected by a cross-country fractional T1 line (a 256KB channel),
which was installed in January 1990. This is still the preferred
route for traffic within CSNET.
+-----+ Cross-Country Fractional T1 Line +-----+ +-----+
|CSNET|-------------------------------------------|CSNET|--|NEAR-|
| WCC | | ECC | | NET |
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| |
| T1 line (direct) Several|hops
| |
+-----+ +-----+
| SDSC| |JVNC-|
| Cntr| | NET |
+-----+ +-----+
| NSFNET |
==================================================================
If for any reason traffic from either the WCC or the ECC cannot be
routed through the NSS, it is automatically switched to the Cross-
Country Fractional T1 Line. Similarly, if the Cross-Country Line
fails, its traffic is switched to the NSSs.
by Karen Roubicek (roubicek@sh.cs.net)
FARNET
-------
No report received.
Westine [Page 15]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
ISI
---
INTERNET CONCEPTS PROJECT
Jon Postel visited Sun Corporation in San Francisco September 25th,
to discuss networking. Paul Mockapetris visited RIACS Corporation
in San Jose, regarding conferencing, September 18th. Ann Westine
presented a paper at the 1990 ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference
XVIII in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sep 29-Oct 3.
Two RFCs were published this month.
RFC 1181: Blokzijl, R., "RIPE Terms of Reference", RIPE/NIKHEF
September 1990.
RFC 1183: Everhart, C., (TRANSARC), L. Mamakos (UNIV. MARYLAND),
R. Ullman (PRIME COMPUTER), and P. Mockapetris (ISI)
"New DNS RR Definitions", October 1990.
Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU)
MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING PROJECT
The multimedia teleconferencing facility at SRI has been moved a
short distance to RIACS in Mountain View. This was so that the ST
Gateway could be moved to NASA Ames where it connects to FIX-West.
We thank SRI for their support of the facility over the past year
and a half. The facility will continue to be available in its new
location for teleconferences by research working groups, etc. All
sites now include a PictureTel codec that gives better quality
images in addition to the Concept codec that allows multiple sites
to conference together.
The Host Control Protocol (HCP), defined by BBN, has been
incorporated into the multimedia conference control program, MMCC,
and the packet video host, PVP. This gives MMCC separate control
of voice and video connections so that video-only calls (with in-
band audio) can be placed to the UK site. This new control path
will also allow implementation of switched multi-site conferencing
with PictureTel codecs. This is part of the larger effort to port
the teleconferencing system to the SPARCstation in which HCP will
be used to control both PVP and the voice host program, VT. We
have already tested SPARCstation-VT connections across an Ethernet.
We are ready to begin testing the SPARCstation-VT with the BBN
Butterfly-VT as soon as the new version of the ST gateway that
supports IP encapsulation is deployed by BBN.
Westine [Page 16]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Steve Pink from the Swedish Institute for Computer Science visited
ISI to learn about our implementation of packet voice and video
software on the SPARCstation. We hope to collaborate with SICS on
multimedia conferencing issues.
The ST protocol specification was put into RFC-ready form by BBN
and ISI authors this month in response to comments received on the
IETF-draft version. It should be an RFC next month.
Eve Schooler, Steve Casner, Annette Deschon, Dave Walden
(schooler@ISI.EDU, casner@ISI.EDU, deschon@ISI.EDU,
djwalden@ISI.EDU)
FAST PARTS
No report received.
JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK
---------------------------------------------
No report received.
LOS NETTOS
----------
Remote console access kits were installed at TIS, USC, TRW, and
NOSC. The CMU SNMP package was adapted for monitoring Los Nettos.
Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU)
MERIT COMPUTER NETWORK/MICHNET
------------------------------
(July, August, September)
The state-wide network operated by the Merit Computer Network now
has a new name--"MichNet." The MichNet name is being adopted at
this time to reflect changing technologies being applied to the
state network as well as the recent commitment to expand the
network to reach out beyond Merit's traditional audience of four-
year, publically supported colleges and universities in Michigan.
With this name change, the Merit name will apply specifically to
the organization that manages and operates MichNet and which also
has networking projects at the national level through its NSFNET
program.
Merit worked with IBM and MCI in the formation of a new
corporation, Advanced Network & Services, Inc., which will focus on
Westine [Page 17]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
national networking and operate the NSFNET under subcontract to
Merit. The new corporation was officially launched at a press
conference in Washington on September 17, 1990. Douglas Van
Houweling, Vice Provost for Information Technology at the
University of Michigan, was chosen by the Merit Board of Directors
as the Merit representative on the new ANS Board of Directors. Van
Houweling will serve along with one representative each from IBM
and MCI and five others who have been chosen to represent other
organizations with broad interest in national research and
education networking.
Work is progressing nicely on our new IP router statewide backbone
project. A prototype network is being configured to test out many
of our assumptions about routing, traffic patterns, and to
rigorously test out our new software. This prototype network will
carry production traffic from the beginning. We have not made a
final selection of routers, and so are using routers in this stage
which were owned by or lent to the member universities for the
testing.
As part of the new backbone upgrade, we have broken off part of our
net 35 addresses into separate addresses for each campus. Most of
the Merit/Michnet member universities have changed IP addresses on
their campuses, or are planning to do so within the next few
months. The new addresses are (note status of change over in this
chart):
University New Number Status
=================================================================
Central Michigan 141.209.0.0 Not Changed
Eastern Michigan 192.73.75.0 Not Changed
Oakland University 141.210.0.0 Change Complete
University of Michigan 141.211.0.0 Change Complete
141.212.0.0 "
141.213.0.0 "
141.214.0.0 "
141.215.0.0 "
141.216.0.0 "
Wayne State 141.217.0.0 In Process
Western Michigan 141.218.0.0 In Process
Michigan Tech 141.219.0.0 In Process
Westine [Page 18]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
Eric Aupperle and Jeff Ogden of the Merit/Michnet staff attended
the FARNET meeting at the end of September, representing the
network. Glenn McGregor, a member of the programming staff,
attended SIGCOMM. Scott Gerstenberger, Jeff Ogden, and Dana
Sitzler attended the Third Annual State of Educational Technology
Conference in Detroit.
by Pat McGregor (patmcg@merit.edu)
MIDNET
------
No report received.
MIT-LCS
-------
No report received.
Chuck Davin (jrd@PITT.LCS.MIT.EDU)
MITRE Corporation
-----------------
No new developments to report this month.
Allison Mankin (mankin@gateway.mitre.org)
MRNET
-----
No report received.
NCAR/USAN
---------
No report received.
NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK
-----------------------------------------
NEARnet continued to grow in September, to a total of 56 members.
The NEARnet backbone has been extended to Western Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island; a connection to the
University of Vermont will be installed in October. This will
bring NEARnet points of presence into five New England states.
Westine [Page 19]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
The current membership of NEARnet is distributed as follows:
10 MB (microwave) 8 sites
T1 (leased line) 7
128 KB (leased line) 1
56 KB (leased line) 34
9.6KB (leased line) 6
The third NEARnet technical and user seminar will be held at BBN on
October 26. Topics to be covered include "Introducing the Internet
at Your Organization" and "Managing Network Security." Presenters
will come from NEARnet member organizations, including MIT, the
University of Maine, Middlebury College, Harvard University, and
Prospect Innovation Center; NEARnet will also host the executive
director of CICnet, the regional network that serves the Midwest.
NEARnet and ESnet, the Energy Sciences network, will be connected
at MIT this fall. The connection will be based on TCP/IP initially
and will support DECNET (for NEARnet members who are also users of
ESnet) later this year. Technical details are still being worked
out.
Cisco gateways in the NEARAnet core are being upgraded to the CSC-3
processor. The upgrade will be completed in October.
NEARnet's connection to the NSFNET backbone via JVNCnet is being
upgraded to a dedicated T1 circuit between Boston and Princeton,
New Jersey, to eliminate the multihop shared links that are
currently in place. Plans for the installation of the 45MB NEARnet
NSS at MIT late in 1990 are proceeding on schedule.
by John Rugo (jrugo@nic.near.net)
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC.
----------------------------------------
Karen Roubicek attended the FARNET Meeting in Boulder, Colorado and
hosted by the Colorado Supernet. Craig Partridge attended the
SIGCOMM Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Two new FYI RFCs published by the IETF User Services Working Group
(USWG), "A Bibliography of Internetworking Information" and the
"Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions are now
available through the NSFNET portion of the Info-Server. The file
names for these documents are "userdoc-bibliography" and
"questions_and_answers".
by Corinne Carroll (ccarroll@nnsc.nsf.net)
Westine [Page 20]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
NORTHWESTNET
------------
No report received.
NSF BACKBONE (Merit)
--------------------
An 11.13% increase in the number of packets coming into the NSFNET
backbone is represented by the September total count of
4,144,462,818 inbound packets over the August total inbound packet
count of 3,729,357,107. Networks configured for announcement on
the NSFNET backbone totalled 1980 at the end of September.
On 17 September 1990, Merit, Inc., IBM Corporation and MCI Communi-
cations Corporation announced the establishment of Advanced Network
and Services, Inc. (ANS). The new not-for-profit organization will
manage and operate the federally-funded NSFNET backbone, under
subcontract to Merit, as well as provide a broad spectrum of
networking services to researchers and educators in universities,
federal laboratories and the private sector. These services range
from basic network monitoring to complete networking connectivity
and support. ANS will begin to connect additional educational,
industrial and government institutions to the nation's largest
public computer network at speeds up to 45 megabits per second
(T3). ANS is being established to help build and expand current
networking capabilities to meet the skyrocketing demand of the
nation's scientists, engineers and educators for high-speed
networking.
As part of the expansion of the NSFNET backbone, a new node located
at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, became operational
at the end of September. Two T1 circuits, one terminating at the
node in Houston, TX and the other at the Pittsburgh Supercomputer
Center in Pittsburgh, PA, connect the new node to the T1 NSFNET.
The Atlanta node will provide additional connections to the South-
eastern University Research Association Network, SURAnet.
A new version of NNStat which incorporates byte counts has been
deployed on all nodes of the operational backbone. The
Connectionless Network Protocol (CLNP) has been deployed on all
routers across the backbone. Wideband peering with NSFNET has been
implemented at FIX-EAST and FIX-WEST. This will allow for
international networks announced by the United Kingdom to directly
peer with the networks of U.S. federal agencies.
Merit/NSFNET Information Services, committed to providing current
information on national networking to all users of the NSFNET
Westine [Page 21]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
backbone, will sponsor a two-and-a-half-day seminar in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, November 12, 13, and 14, 1990. "Making Your NSFNET
Connection Count" will be an informative seminar focusing on issues
of interest to campus computing leaders, information systems and
networking administrators, educational liaisons, librarians, and
educators who want to learn more about national networking.
Information may be obtained via e-mail to seminar@merit.edu or
phoning 1-800-66-MERIT.
Representatives from JPL were guests at the Merit/NSFNET Network
Operations Center in September. Dave Piscitello of Bellcore was
also a guest, and spoke on Switched Multi-Megabit Data Service.
Susan Calcari and Ken Horning, of Merit/NSFNET Information
Services, presented information on the NSFNET backbone project at a
reception highlighting ongoing research activities at three
Michigan universities. The collaborative effort of the University
of Michigan, which hosts the Merit Network Operations Center,
Michigan State University and Wayne State University, was held at
the National Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C. for members of the
Michigan congressional delegation as well as Washington, D.C.-area
alumni. Glee Cady, Manager of Merit/NSFNET Information Services,
attended the National Information Standards Organization Annual
Program in New York. Elise Gerich, of Merit/NSFNET Internet
Engineering, participated in the Washington, D.C. meeting of the
FEPG. Eric Aupperle, President of Merit, Inc., was its
representative to FARNET in Boulder, CO. Laura Kelleher and Pat
Smith, both of Merit/NSFNET Information Services, attended the 1990
ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference XVIII in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Laura, former editor of the Merit/NSFNET "Link Letter", was awarded
1st Prize in the Newsletter Competition for newsletters of fewer
than 16 pages. Pat, current editor of the "Link Letter", accepted
the award for Best Article Under 1500 Words given to "Everything
You Always Wanted to Know About FDDI Basics" by Dave Katz. Pat
also participated in a meeting of the SIGUCCS Networking Task Force
Advisory Board which convened before the conference.
Jo Ann Ward (jward@merit.edu)
NDRE and NTA-RD
---------------
No report received.
Westine [Page 22]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
NYSERNET
--------
No report received.
OARNET
------
NEW OARnet T1 NETWORK BACKBONE IN PLACE
The Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet), a part of the Ohio
Supercomputer Center has put in place a higher speed computer
network linking universities across the state. A network "backbone"
connecting Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo is
capable of transmitting data at T1 rates.
Formerly all links between Ohio Universities were low-speed 9600
bps or medium-speed 56Kb/s. The new state backbone network is 24
times faster than before. In fact, all previous OARnet circuits
were combined (multiplexed) into one T1 circuit to Columbus.
The OARnet network using Internet TCP/IP protocols provides for
networking applications such as electronic mail, file transfers,
and remote logins. These traditional networking applications do not
require high-speed connections. The T1 network makes possible new
applications such as interactive remote supercomputer
visualization.
The University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
State University, NASA-Lewis, and Kent State University have
installed full T1 connections to nearest POPs. Some existing OARnet
sites and all new OARnet sites will be connected at the POPs.
OARnet provides access to U.S. TCP/IP networks via NSFnet and
CICnet. The National Science Foundation NSFnet, the national
educational research Internet backbone, consists of T1 links
between national supercomputer centers. CICnet, the regional
network of Big Ten universities plus Chicago, was the first
regional network composed of all T1 circuits. The OARnet T1
project has been a cooperative effort. Charles Bender, Director of
the Ohio Supercomputer Center, and Alison Brown, OARnet Director,
have been firmly committed to providing high-speed network access
to the CRAY Y-MP supercomputer for users around the state. The
State of Ohio Network Integrated Communications (SONIC) has
provided communication links, space in their communication centers
at Cleveland and Akron, and support personnel. The Univerity of
Akron, Bowling Green University, University of Cincinnati, and
NASA-Lewis in Cleveland have helped finance portions of the T1
Westine [Page 23]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
backbone. Dan Wintringham, OARnet Engineering manager, John
Wieronski, Kannan Varadhan, and Henry Clark have worked most of the
year on putting the complicated technology in place and making it
work. The Ohio State University has contributed technical support.
OARnet RECEIVES NSF GRANT
OARnet, the Ohio Academic Resources Network, has received a grant
in the amountof $110,000 from the National Science Foundation to
connect 5 new schools to OARnet and upgrade one school's connection
to 56Kb.
Six Ohio schools participated in the grant proposal: Central State
University,in Wilberforce, Ohio; Muskingum College in New Concord,
Ohio; Ohio Northern University in Ada; Shawnee State University in
Portsmouth; Sinclair Community College in Dayton; and Wilberforce
University in Wilberforce. Central State University currently has
a DECNET connection to OARnet; they will be upgrading to a 56Kb
connection. The remaining schools are new members, and will be
connecting at 56Kb line speed.
The funds received from the NSF will be distributed over FY 1990-
1991. The first year's funds will be used to purchase capital
equipment for the new schools. Funding for the second year is
contingent on the NSF receiving their budget allocation fraom
Congress in the amount they requested. If the Graham-Ruddman Act
goes into effect, this will impact budget allocation for theNSF,
and OARnet will not received any funds for 1991. However, the
schools are preparing contingency plans should this occur. If
OARnet does receive second year funding, this money will be used to
pay partial line charges for the schools.
The OARnet engineering staff expects that the new connections and
the upgrade in line speed will be completed shortly after the first
of the year. For more information, contact Lin Daniels at (614)
292-8100 or lin@osc.edu
by Lin Daniels (lin@osc.edu)
PENNSYLVANIA RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP NETWORK
------------------------------------------------------
Since our last report, we have added three members to our network.
They include Devon Systems, Inc., US Bureau of Mines, and Visual
Understanding Systems, Inc. (VISUS). This brings our total
membership to 35.
Tom Cummings (tc1r@andrew.cmu.edu)
Westine [Page 24]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
-------------------------------
No report received.
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
------------------------------
Our Proteon p4200's DECnet routing problems have stopped. One was
traced to a remote node duplicating that router's DECnet node
number. The other has not been traced to its cause, so our fingers
are still crossed, but is suspected to have been caused by that
remote LAN's configuration.
CSnet's Westcoast NSFnet was turned up in during August and is in
operational use. CSnet has tested it and its Eastcoast relative
for proper function during failover.
During August we changed our peer from Mozart.sdsc.edu (cisco/EGP)
to VIP.sdsc.edu (SUN/gated/EGP). In September this system was
upgraded to gated 2.0 alpha.
We have tweaked QFT to support the transport of BITnet & ESnet
files to and from our UNICOS Cray Y-MP.
As an side note, during one week in September we lost a total of 7
disks on various systems ranging from out Y-Mp to a couple of
SparcStations. Needless to say, that was a very interesting week!
Paul Love (loveep@sdsc.edu)
SESQUINET
---------
No report received.
SRI
----
DDN NIC
In September, we assigned 117 numbers to new IP networks. The
total number of all assigned IP numbers is now 5,411 networks. The
total number of assigned Autonomous System numbers (ASNs) is now
1,100.
There are currently a total of 1,993 registered domains which
includes 55 at the top level, 1,888 at the second level, and 50
Westine [Page 25]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
third-level MIL domains.
Douglas MacGowan (MACGOWAN@NIC.DDN.MIL)
In order to proceed with the recommendations made in RFC 1174 on
the assignment of network and autonomous system numbers without
distinction between connected vs. unconnected status, the NIC has
been in the process of making some significant modifications to the
WHOIS database and information server. Beginning in the second
week of October information about all registered networks will be
available via the WHOIS server with no regard to their previous
connectivity nstatus. In addition, WHOIS will accept queries about
autonomous system numbers. That information was never before
available via WHOIS.
NIC staff members are also in the process of revamping the
applications that are used to assign internet and autonomous system
numbers. We will be incorporating changes that have been suggested
by several people in the internet community in addition to our own
staff. We plan to send an announcement to the community when these
updated applications are ready for FTP access.
Mary Stahl (stahl@NISC.SRI.COM)
SURANET
-------
During July, SURAnet moved to new facilities adjacent to the
University of Maryland, College Park campus. Our new address is:
8400 Baltimore Blvd.
Suite 101
College Park, Maryland 20740
Main Phone: (301)982-4600
NOC Phone: (301)982-3214
Fax Phone: (301)982-4605
In conjunction with the move, SURAnet became the Federal
Interagency Exchange for the east coast region, also known as FIX-
East.
The agencies that comprise FIX-East are the Department of Energy
(Energy Sciences Network), the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA Science Network), the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (The Terrestrial Wideband Network), the
Department of Defense (Mailbridge to Milnet)and the National
Science Foundation (NSS connection to NSFnet Backbone).
Westine [Page 26]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
At present, there are 120 sites online and 166 networks being
advertised to theNSFnet. A current list of sites and networks can
be obtained via anonymous FTP from noc.sura.net, password "guest",
cd "pub". The file name is "online".
Any questions or inquiries can be directed to Diana Scotti or Dr.
Jack Hahn at (301)982-4600, or email <name>@umd5.umd.edu.
by Diana Scotti (scotti@umd5.umd.edu)
TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION NETWORK
------------------------------
No report received.
UCL
----
The UCL Video Conferencing facility is now functioning. A half hour
session between BBN and London ran fairly smoothly. The codecs were
only set up for 128 kbps video although we had plenty more
bandwidth.
There was also a succesful test session to DARPA/Washington. A half
day meeting is scheduled for the beginning of October.
The codec is attached to the UCL Livenet video switch, which means
that it is also feasible to conference to other London College
sites (e.g. QMW or Imperial College). International multi-media
conferencing brings with it whole new problems of network resource
reservation and time zone differences!
We are working on control of a separate departmental video switch
with connections through to multi-media workstations in
collaboration with a RACE project.
Jon Crowcroft attended the SIGCOMM '90 Symposium in Philadelphia.
John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
----------------------
1. While overall connectivity within and without our regional
network has been generally good this month, the fraction of
packets dropped transiting the College Park switchyard
continues to climb. Currently, the fraction dropped due all
Westine [Page 27]
Internet Monthly Report September 1990
causes is running 1.3 percent.
2. Our DARTNET router has settled in with appropriate protocol
trappings, including DNS and NTP, but is still without a T1
interface. Mike Davis managed to tame its timekeeping systems
so that now it keeps time usually within a few hundred
microseconds.
3. Judah Levine at NIST Boulder has completed a nice series of
experiments evaluating various methods of Internet time
transfer, including NTP. He is hoping to obtain a dedicated
NTP time server at NIST to supplement the present informal
server now operating. Since a dedicated server would be tied
directly to NIST standards, this service would be a valuable
supplement to present methods, which rely on sometimes
cantankerous radios.
Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU)
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN/NCSANET
--------------------------------------------------
No report received.
WESTNET
--------
No report received.
WISCNET
-------
No report received.
Westine [Page 28]