APRIL 1991
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 Internet information purposes only, and is not
to be quoted in other publications without permission from the
submitter.
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 3
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
END-TO-END SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
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Internet Projects
BARRNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6
CALSTATE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 8
CORNELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9
ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 10
JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK . . . . . . page 12
LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14
MERIT/MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14
MITRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 15
NSFNET BACKBONE, MERIT NETWORK, INC., . . . . . . . . . . page 15
NDRE and NTA-RD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17
PREPnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17
SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17
UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18
UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18
WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18
DIRECTORY SERVICES ACTIVITIES
DIRECTORY SERVICES MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20
IETF OSIDS & DISI WORKING GROUPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20
FOX - FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . page 20
ISI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21
MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21
PSI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22
SRI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY. . . . . . page 23
NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTORY FORUM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24
OSI IMPLEMENTOR'S WORKSHOP (OIW). . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24
PARADISE PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25
PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27
REGISTRATION AUTHORITY COMMITTEE (ANSI USA RAC) . . . . . page 28
SG-D MHS-MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29
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IAB MESSAGE
STANDARDS ACTIONS:
The IAB has taken the following actions on standards since March
1991, in accordance with recommendations by the IESG:
* Proposed Standard state for OSI CLTS over UDP. This is a
companion to RFC-1006.
* Proposed Standard state for PPP Extension to Bridging.
This has been published as RFC-1220.
* Draft Standard state for POP3 (RFC-1081).
* Historic state for the POP3 Extension defined in RFC-1082.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS
-------------------------
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS
-------------------
There is nothing to report this month.
Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC.EDU)
END-TO-END SERVICES
-------------------
The End-to-End Research Group held a two-day meeting at Bell
Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. Sandy Fraser and Krishnan
Sabnani of AT&T as well as Dave Sicoskie and Ira Cotton of
Bellcore participated in the meeting.
Topics discussed included: alternative traffic control
mechanisms, including the new VJ/DDC proposal; the extent and
nature of the requirement for service guarantees; the need for
hop-by-hop jitter control; the economics of public networks; the
X-Kernel as a possible universal basis for protocol R&D; the
need for admission control to limit congestion; how not to
implement UDP; and how not to design a host interface.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
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INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS
----------------------------
1) New Working Groups for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991
Internet Message Extentions (822ext)
Network News Transport Protocol (nntp)
2) Internet Draft Activity for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991
(Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) )
WG I-D Title
------ -----------------------------------------------------
(snmp) o Extensions to the Generic-Interface MIB
<draft-ietf-snmp-interfacemibext-02.txt>
(snmp) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-
like Interface Types
<draft-ietf-snmp-ethernetmib-05.txt>
(snmp) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the SIP Interface
Type
<draft-ietf-snmp-smdsipmib-01.txt>
(null) o An Approach to CO/CL Interworking-- Part II: The
Short-Term -- Conventions for Transport-Service
Bridges in the Absence of Internetworking
<draft-ccirn-cocl-doc2-01.txt>
(no wg) o Tunneling IPX Traffic through IP Networks
<draft-provan-ipxtunneling-01.txt>
(ospf) o OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base
<draft-ietf-ospf-ospfmib-03.txt>
(osinsap) o Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet
<draft-ietf-osinsap-internetalloc-01.txt, .ps>
(snmpsec) + SNMP Administrative Model
<draft-ietf-snmpsec-admin-00.txt, .ps>
(snmpsec) + SNMP Security Protocols
<draft-ietf-snmpsec-protocols-00.txt, .ps>
(snmpsec) + Definitions of Managed Objects for Administration
of SNMP Parties
<draft-ietf-snmpsec-mib-00.txt>
(test) + dfsgdsfgsdfgsdfg
<- >
(bgp) + Border Gateway Protocol NEXT-HOP-SNPA Attribute
<draft-ietf-bgp-nexthop-00.txt>
(none) + The IP Network Address Translator (Nat):
Preliminary Design
<draft-tsuchiya-addrtrans-00.txt, .ps>
(snmp) + SNMP Communications Services
<draft-ietf-snmp-commservices-00.txt>
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(null) o An Approach to CO/CL Interworking -- Part III:
The Long-Term -- Conventions for Network-Layer
Relays and Transport-Service Bridges in the
presence of Internetworking
<draft-ccirn-cocl-doc4-01.txt>
15 Drafts produced, 8 new this period
3) RFC's Produced for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991
RFC Group Title
------- -- -------- --------------------------------------------
RFC1214 (oim) OSI Internet Management: Management
Information Base
RFC1220 ps (pppext) Point-to-Point Protocol Extensions for
Bridging
Standards( 1), Experimental( ), Informational( 1)
Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US)
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INTERNET PROJECTS
-----------------
BARRNET
-------
One new T1 connection, three 56kbps connections, and one dial-in
connection were completed in April, bringing the number of
connected members to 84. One of the 56kbps connections is the first
trial of a bridged Ethernet to be installed by BARRNet.
The T3 ENSS is now fully operational; all traffic routed to NSFNet
sites that are also connected by T3 at the other end is now
traversing the T3 backbone.
by Paul Baer <baer@jessica.stanford.edu>
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.
----------------------------
Terrestrial Wideband Network (TWBNet) and ST/IP Gateway
During April, conferencing facilities were installed at RADC.
There are now seven conferencing sites -- UCL, BBN, RIACS, ISI,
DARPA, Germany, and RADC. These sites participated in a total of
ten video conferences and demonstrations. Of these, four included
four sites, three included three, and the remaining three were
point to point. Two of the four way conferences included UCL, and
the multipoint connection was handled by the hublet. Conferences
were held for discussions in the following areas: the Internet
Activites Board, the IETF Coip WG, the Directory WG, an ad-hoc WG
on Connection-oriented Connection-less Internetworking, Inter-
Domain Policy Routing Development Group, Dartnet experimenters, and
the UK Fat-pipe Operational Management Group. The TWBNet was also
used to support three Simnet exercises -- two included three sites
and lasted 3 days, one involved two sites and lasted one day.
Inter-Domain Policy Routing
During the month of April, we focused on three different topics:
enhancing the IDPR prototype implementation, preparing a usage and
configuration document for users of IDPR, and preparing a draft of
our proposed mechanisms for policy-based resource allocation.
In early April, we held a videoconference with the IDPR software
developers from BBN, USC, and SAIC to discuss the results of our
various experiments with the prototype implementation. In
particular, we discussed performance measurements (both the amount
Westine [Page 6]
Internet Monthly Report April 1991
of processing time required for path setup and the amount of
processing time required to forward data traffic) conducted by USC
and SAIC, features of the architecture to be added to the
implementation, and minor problems discovered. For more detail on
all of these, please write to idpr@bbn.com. The minor bugs
discovered we fix immediately, but we are also eager to add more
functionality to the prototype. Unfortunately, there is not enough
of the developers' time to accomplish things as quickly as we wish;
all of the current developers are overcommitted.
To simplify the process of adding IDPR capabilities to routers in
one's administrative domain, we are preparing an Internet Draft
describing how to configure transit policies, as well as other IDPR
parameters. In the document, we will provide a configuration
template as well as sample configurations for example domains. We
hope to have a draft available for review by early June.
We are also preparing a document on the routing, flow control, and
resource reservation mechanisms we intend to bundle together to
implement policy-based resource allocation. We hope to have a
draft available by early June. Resources permitting, we may also
be able to implement some subset of these mechanisms in a prototype
later in the summer.
Internet O&M / ICBNet Infrastructure
During the month of April, we closely monitored the status of the
US/UK "fat pipe" to see if the new software in the Butterfly
gateways at ULCC and SURA had alleviated the routing problems which
had appeared in December of last year. For the first half of the
month, BBN worked closely with NRI, with each location running
independent tests and exchanging daily reports. The main
conclusion at the end of this period was that overall fat pipe
performance had returned to an acceptable level. (Availability
data accumulated by BBN between mid-March and mid-April showed the
connection to be up approximately 96% of the time.) Reports from
NRI also showed that there were 2 minute outages occuring at
irregular intervals which we have traced to fragmentation
reassembly timeouts in the Butterfly software. This is a new
problem which has appeared since the total number of nets being
advertised from the NSFNet and the DCA Mailbridges have exceeded
2000 nets and the new software now carries all of these routes. We
have not yet found the exact cause of this problem.
We began preliminary testing for the upcoming conversion to the
newer BBN T/20 router at ULCC, SURA and other ICBNET locations. As
part of this testing, we have replaced the BBN-WB gateway with a
T/20 router.
Westine [Page 7]
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The Operations Management Group of the Fat Pipe met formally for
the first time by video conference. Participants included ICB
members at UCL and representatives from NASA, BBN, NRI at the AMES,
BBN and DARPA sites respectively.
Jeanne Pinette <jpinette@BBN.COM>
CALSTATE
--------
The California State University Network (CSUnet)
Progress this month:
- Most CSUnet Backbone Ring nodes now running at T-1
Most of the T-1 circuits on the CSUnet T-1 Backbone Ring have been
installed and are operational. Only one circuit (San Francisco to
San Luis Obispo) is pending due to phone company delays.
The CSUnet T-1 Backbone Ring links the twenty California State
University campuses across the entire State of California. The
Backbone nodes now upgraded and interconnected are:
(1) California State University, Sacramento TO
(2) San Francisco State University TO
(3) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo TO
(4) CSUnet Network Operations Center (SWRL) in Los Alamitos TO
(5) San Diego State University TO
(6) California State University, Fullerton TO
(7) California State University, Fresno TO
(1) California State University, Sacramento
Also, a T-1 donated by the California Department of Water Resources
interconnects (1) CSU Sacamento to the (4) SWRL CSUnet Network
Operations Center.
A postscript map of the T-1 topology can be obtained by anonymous
ftp to nic.CSU.net. The file "CSUnet_T1.ps" should be transferred
in binary mode to obtain the correct formatting.
Late news in: [May 3, 1991] T-1 MUX purchase order issued, install
on June 3
After almost a year of effort, the procurement of T-1 multiplexor
equipment for CSUNET is in its final phase. A purchase order was
issued today to Digital Equipment Corporation for 21 Stratacom T-1
multiplexors, one for each of the twenty California State
Westine [Page 8]
Internet Monthly Report April 1991
University campuses. Unlike conventional circuit-switched
multiplexors, these employ advanced "frame relay" and "fast packet"
technology.
The Phase I sites to be delivered June 3 are:
- CSUnet Network Operations Center in Los Alamitos, California
- California State University, Fullerton
- San Diego State University
Phase II installs are scheduled for the early part of July at:
- San Francisco State University
- California State University, Sacramento
- California State University, Fresno
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
The remaining fourteen sites will be installed at a rate of one per
week beginning in August. [The campus installation order was
determined by the systemwide CSUnet Network Task Force last Fall].
Mike Marcinkevicz (mdm@CSU.net)
CORNELL
-------
Wide-Area Multicasting
The main area of investigation now is how different routing
protocols will interact in the real world, and how multicast
packets should be delivered at the interfaces between of
autonomous systems, given typical administrative goals and
restrictions on routing protocol behavior, the possibility of
multiple logical networks on one physical network, and so on.
The draft RFC for OSPF extensions is having the details added;
completion of the BGP extensions document is waiting until we
have thought through the possible problems at administrative
boundaries mentioned above.
Gatedaemon
Jeff Honig attended a meeting at Merit to discuss integration of
OSI routing protocols into gated and its use on the NSFNet
backbone. Volunteers stepped forward to integrate the BSD 4.3
Reno reduced radix tree routing table code and Wisconsin's
Integrated Stack IS-IS into the latest gated development code.
Merit is implementing IDRP. Yet another volunteer is working on
a SMUX interface to the ISODE snmp daemon.
Westine [Page 9]
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Integration of the University of Maryland's OSPF into gated is
progressing nicely. We hope to be able to participate in the
next round of OSPF interoperability testing in June.
International Connections
The new connection to INRIA became operational on 4-25-91 and
the new connection to NORDUNET became operational on 5-2-91.
The old connections through JVNCNET will remain as backup for
thirty days.
Scott Brim (swb@chumley.tn.cornell.edu)
ISI
---
GIGABIT NETWORKING
Greg Finn is writing a paper that discusses utilizing a certain
class of emerging Gigabit LANs to be used internally in an
architecture as well as externally as they are today.
ATOMIC
Greg Finn has been working on issues concerning the ATOMIC network.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Joyce Reynolds travelled to the DDN NIC April 9 & 10th. Joyce
travelled to UCDAVIS to participate as a volunteer "master helper"
at their "Mining the Internet" event, April 11 & 12. Joyce
travelled to Washington, D.C., April 22-24, as an invited
participant of the EDUCOM/NSF Workshop on Information Services.
14 RFCs were published.
RFC 1208: Jacobsen, O., and D. Lynch, "A Glossary of
Networking Terms", Interop, Inc., March 1991.
RFC 1209: Piscitello, D., and J. Lawrence, "The Transmission
of IP Datagrams over the SMDS Service", Bell
Communications Research, March 1991.
RFC 1210: Cerf, V. (CNRI), P. Kirstein (UCL), and B. Randell
Newcastle on Tyne), "Network and Infrastructure
User Requirements for Transatlantic Research
Collaboration Brussels, July 16-18, and Washington
July 24-25, 1990", March 1991.
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
RFC 1211: Westine, A., and J. Postel, "Problems with the
Maintenance of Large Mailing Lists, USC/Information
Sciences Institute, March 1991.
RFC 1212: Rose, M., (PSI), and K. McCloghrie (Hughes Lan
Systems), "Concise MIB Definitions", March 1991.
RFC 1213: McCloghrie, K., (Hughes Lan Systems), and Rose, M.,
(PSI), "Management Information Base for Network
Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II",
March 1991.
RFC 1214: LaBarre, L., "OSI Internet Management: Management
Information Base", Mitre, April 1991.
RFC 1215: Rose, M., "A Convention for Defining Traps for
use with the SNMP, Performance Systems
International, March 1991.
RFC 1216: Richard, P., (Almanac Institute) and Prof. Kynikos,
Miskatonic University, "Gigabit Network Economics
and Paradigm Shifts", April 1991.
RFC 1217: Cerf, V., "Memo from the Consortium for Slow
Commotion Research (CSCR)", CSCR, April 1991.
RFC 1218: The North American Directory Forum, "A Naming Scheme
for c=US", April 1991.
RFC 1219: Tsuchiya, P., "On the Assignment of Subnet Numbers",
Bellcore, April 1991.
RFC 1220: Baker, F., Editor, "Point-to-Point Protocol
Extensions for Bridging", ACC, April 1991.
RFC 1221: Edmond, W., "Host Access Protocol (HAP)
Specification - Version 2", BBN, April 1991.
Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU)
MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING
Several experiments were conducted this month with the SPARCstation
version of the Voice Terminal (VT) program, the packet audio
component of our teleconferencing system. The ST-I version of VT
was modified to make use of IP-multicast on the IP-encapsulated ST
packets. This was used during an audio teleconference which
connected six DARTnet sites including BBN, ISI, LBL, SRI,
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
University of Delaware, and Xerox PARC. Meanwhile, we have built a
SunOS kernel combining BBN's socket-interfaced kernel ST-II (RFC
1190) implementation with the DARTnet router kernel modules
provided by Van Jacobson, and we have made a new version of VT
using that ST-II socket interface. Both the kernel and VT are in
testing.
Redesign of the conference connection management architecture has
also begun. The intent is to extend our distributed model to
accommodate more flexibility in modes of operation for office-to-
office conferencing that are not feasible in the current meeting-
room-style system. Important characteristics include support for
heterogeneous site configurations, robustness in the face of
network flakiness, and multiple user interfaces.
Steve Casner made a presentation on "Multimedia Collaboration" at
the National Software Exchange workshop at NASA/Ames.
Eve Schooler, Steve Casner, Annette DeSchon (schooler@ISI.EDU,
casner@ISI.EDU, deschon@ISI.EDU)
JVNCNET, NORTHEAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK
--------------------------------------------
JvNCnet
Princeton University
B6 von Neumann Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
Director: Sergio Heker
Compiled by Rochelle Hammer
JvNCnet Contact information:
Information "nisc@jvnc.net" 609-258-2405 9:00-5:00 M-F
Operations "noc@jvnc.net" 609-258-1544
24hours/ 7days
General number: 609-258-2400
Network availability as of April 25 is 99.86%.
An automated RFC responder mechanism is being completed and will be
announced next month. This mechanism will allow users with
Internet connectivity to retrieve RFCs from "nisc.jvnc.net" by
sending an electronic mail message with a specified format.
NISC.JVNC.NET is an official repository for RFCs.
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The National University of Singapore was connected to the JvNCnet
by a 64kbps IP link. The connection became operational on time
time thanks to the cooperation of the Singapore staff, the
telephone company, and JvNCnet staff. This connection becomes part
of the "international system" supported by JvNCnet. This system
consists of a T1 line from the JvNCnet headquarters in Princeton to
the telephone company international gateway. The T1 is channelized
to accommodate a number of international circuits. The channel
bank located at the JvNCnet headquarters allows for multiple 64kbps
(or 56kbps) channels for each card and currently supports one
112kbps channel to CA*NET, 64kbps to NORDUnet and 64kbps to
Singapore. From the channel bank, the connections go to different
gateways (the NSFNET node for the CA*NET connection and cisco
routers for the others). Currently the Singapore connection to the
United States is being advertised to only JvNCnet member networks
until it is configured in the NSFNET policy database.
Introduction to Data Networking and TCP/IP is scheduled to take
place on Friday, May 17, 1991 at Princeton University. Pre-
registration is preferrable and most convenient by sending
electronic mail to Allison Pihl at pihl@jvnc.net or by calling
609-258-2406. Upon receipt of your registration, an informational
package with agenda, directions and campus map will be mailed.
Please call Ms. Pihl with any questions or comments.
Attendees: The seminar is appropriate for network operations and
technical staff of local area networks. This course is designed as
an entry level introduction to TCP/IP networking and how the
operations of a network are performed.
Registration fee: $50 for staff of JvNCnet member institutions.
$150 for all others interested.
The fee includes introductory reference materials (seminar
documentation), lunch, and refreshments.
JvNCnet SEMINAR
Introduction to Data Networking and TCP/IP
Friday, May 17, 1991
Computer Science Building, Princeton University
(CS BOWL 104)
TENTATIVE AGENDA
9:30 Continental Breakfast
10:00 Welcome
10:15 What is a network?
What makes a network?
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
11:15 Break
11:30 An Introduction to TCP/IP
12:30 Lunch
1:45 How do these four functions affect networking?
Operations
Installation and Maintenance
Information Services
Engineering
3:00 Break
3:15 Questions and Answers
5:00 Adjourn
LOS NETTOS
----------
The TRW network interconnection site was successfully moved to
their new location. As per the norm both Pacific Bell and GTE have
made errors in their phone bills concerning start and stop dates
for the new and old circuits.
Unisys in Camarillo has terminated their network connection to Los
Nettos.
Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU)
MITRE Corporation
-----------------
On the OSI front, John McGuthry and Walt completed the introduction
of CLNP routing into the I.E. Testbed and retested with Europe.
They then introduced CLNP routing into some of the MITRE production
routers. We now have CLNP routing, FTAM, and X.400 communication
between the Bedford, Washington, and Colorado Springs sites.
Walt Lazear articipated in DCA's PSTP working group on Network
Management held at BDM 9 April. He briefed the group on IETF net
management activities.
Shari Galitzer, Kit Leuder, and Forrest Palmer attended the IFIPS
Symposium on Integrated Network Management.
Last month's report neglected to acknowledge that Allison Mankin
and Rick Wilder attended the IETF, where their congestion avoidance
work was presented. Sorry for the omission.
Walt Lazear (lazear@gateway.mitre.org)
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC.
----------------------------------------
The NNSC Tour of the Internet is now also available via the NSFNET
portion of the CSNET Info-Server. To retrieve the Tour, send a
message, to: info-server@nnsc.nsf.net, in the body of the message,
type the following:
request: nsfnet
topic: internet-tour
request: end
The topic "internet-tour" is a list of two topics:
internet-tour-readme
internet-tour.sit.hqx
in directory /nfs/nnsc/nnsc/ftp/internet-tour
(The binhex file for the Internet Tour comes in 17 fragments.)
The NNSC also distributed additions to Chapters 2 and 3 of the
Internet Resource Guide. Karen Roubicek attended the NSF Workshop
on Information Services.
Corinne Carroll <ccarroll@nnsc.nsf.net>
NSFNET BACKBONE (Merit Network. Inc.)
-------------------------------------
The April 1991 inbound packet count for the NSFNET T1
infrastructure totaled 7,544,331,873 packets, an increase of 7.37%
over the March inbound packet total of 7,026,153,681. Networks
announced via the NSFNET numbered 2622 at the end of April; foreign
networks represent 793 of the 2622 network total.
Approximately 400 configured networks now route traffic between
each other on the T3 infrastructure. Traffic through nodes at Ann
Arbor, Pittsburgh, Ithaca, Boston, San Diego, Palo Alto and
Champaign totaled 409,349,186 inpackets, with production traffic
continuing to be phased from T1 to T3.
Connectivity for NEARNET to the NSFNET was established via the T3
node at Boston. Routing backup to the NSFNET is provided to
NEARNET with the cooperation of JvNCnet through NSS 8 at Princeton.
The Ann Arbor T1-T3 interconnect was deployed to a private
Ethernet, enabling traffic to be monitored between the two networks
independently of any other traffic.
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Sue Hares and Dave Katz of Merit/NSFNET Internet Engineering met
with Jeff Honig (Cornell), Yakov Rekhter (IBM Yorktown), Rob Hagens
(Wisconsin), Steve Heimlich (IBM Yorktown), and Rich Woundy (IBM
Milford) in Ann Arbor to discuss the implementation of OSI in the
T3 infrastructure. Of particular interest is building a publicly
available implementation of OSI routing protocols, including IDRP
and dual stack IS-IS in gated. The proposed means of connecting
OSI domains has wide technical acceptance, and is on the OSI
standards track. On April 10th, two United States regionals
exchanged pure OSI stack traffic using commercially available
products over NSFNET. The end systems were Sun workstations
running the SunNet OSI code (version 7.0) at Merit and MITRE; the
stacked protocol was full OSI using CLNP at the network layer and
FTAM at the application layer.
Guests at the Merit Network Operations Center included Tony Bates,
of the University of London Computing Center. Bates' discussed
network operations and United Kingdom network routing to the
NSFNET.
Eric Aupperle, President of Merit Network, Inc., attended the
FARNET meeting in Austin, TX. Dave Katz attended a meeting of the
OSI Network and Transport Layer Technical Working Group in Raleigh,
NC, and presented a paper on FDDI to Electronic Imaging West in
Anaheim, CA. Elise Gerich, also of Merit/NSFNET Internet
Engineering, was its representative to the FEPG meeting in
Livermore, CA.
Glee Cady, manager of Merit/NSFNET Information Services attended
the 1991 Faxon Institute in Reston, VA, "Creating User Pathways to
Electronic Information." Pat Smith, of Merit/NSFNET Information
Services, participates on the SIGUCCS Networking Task Force, a
group interested in reaching the thousands of potential users who
are not aware of the benefits offered by a national network. NETTF
convened at the spring SIGUCCS Computer Center Management Symposium
in St. Louis, MO. Susan Calcari, also of Information Services,
conducted the workshop, "Enhancing Education with NSFNET," and gave
the NSFNET overview at the plenary session of the California
Educational Computing Consortium Workshops held in Davis, CA.
Jo Ann Ward (jward@merit.edu)
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
NDRE and NTA-RD
---------------
There is nothing to report from NDRE or NTA-RD this month.
Anton Leere (leere@ndre.no)
PREPNET
-------
No progress to report this month.
PREPnet NIC (prepnet+@andrew.cmu.edu)
SRI
----
Internet registry activities in April included the assignment of
xxx IP network numbers. The cumulative total of all assigned IP
numbers is now 30,917. There are now a total of 1,261 assigned
Autonomous System numbers (ASNs) assigned.
There are currently a total of 2,741 domains registered with the
NIC, including 61 at the top level, 2,624 at the second level, and
56 third-level MIL domains.
Cumulative IP Network Statistics
Month/Year Class
A B C Total
Apr. 1991 43 4,977 25,897 30,917
Mar. 1991 41 4,520 24,572 29,133
Feb. 1991 39 4,347 22,552 26,938
Jan. 1991 39 4,246 21,731 26,016
Dec. 1990 36 4,305 21,811 26,152
Nov. 1990 35 4,198 21,149 25,382
Mary Stahl (stahl@nisc.sri.com)
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UCL
----
There were several video conferences from UCL in April. The main
two were the IETF Directory Group meeting, which was 4 way plus
voice, and the IETF CO-CL working group which was 3 way with voice
to France.
Crowcroft attended Infocomm in Miami, and TriComm at UNC in North
Carolina and gave papers on Floor Control for Conferencing, and on
the UCL CAR/DARPA/LIVENet video conferencing activities.
A number of experiments with constant rate IP traffic on JANET have
been conducted to see if the current pilot IP service is suitable
for carrying video traffic.
John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
----------------------
1. The Cornell fuzzball time server finally expired from a disk
stroke after five years of faithful tick. While its embers may
yet find light elsewhere, it has been replaced by a Unix
machine at the same stratum and address.
2. Erik Perkins and Dave Mills participated in a DARTnet audio
teleconference, while Dave Mills attended an End-to-end
Research Group meeting at AT&T Murray Hill.
Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU)
WISCNET
-------
Training sessions for user consulting staff were held at UW-Madison
and at UW-Eau Claire. Presentations included a national network
overview, the domain system, network mail and gateways, use of
tools (nslookup, whois, etc.), news, security issues, and
demonstrations of various network commands.
The WiscNet Board met this month and approved replacement of the T1
lines connecting UW-Madison to the State's data network with a
fiber link. This link will also carry XUNet to the UW-Madison
Computer Science Department and some other bulk analog services.
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The Board also approved our membership agreement. We expect to
approach about six additional colleges or vocational and technical
schools who have expressed interest in WiscNet membership in the
near future.
Michael Dorl (dorl@macc.wisc.edu)
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
DIRECTORY SERVICES
------------------
This section of the Internet Monthly is devoted to efforts working to
develop directory services that are for, or effect, the Internet. We
would like to encourage any organization with news about directory
service activities to use this forum for publishing brief monthly news
items. Current reports include:
o IETF OSIDS & DISI Working Groups
o Field Operational X.500 Project
- ISI
- Merit
- PSI
- SRI
o National Institute of Standards and Technology
o North American Directory Forum
o OSI Implementor's Workshop
o PARADISE Project
o PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT
o Registration Authority Committee (ANSI USA RAC)
o U.S. Department of State, Study Group D,
MHS Management Domain subcommittee (SG-D MHS-MD)
Steve Hotz (hotz@isi.edu)
DS Report Coordinator
IETF OSIDS & DISI WORKING GROUPS
--------------------------------
Refer to IETF section (above) for the OSIDS and DISI working group
reports.
FOX -- FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT
--------------------------------------
The FOX project is a DARPA and NSF funded effort to provide a basis
for operational X.500 deployment in the NREN/Internet. This work
is being carried out at Merit, NSYERNet/PSI, SRI and ISI. ISI is
the main contractor and responsible for project oversight.
Steve Hotz (hotz@ISI.EDU)
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ISI
---
ISI organized the April 17 FOX phone conference, which included
participants from all of the FOX contractors and several
government agency representatives. The primary topics of this
meeting were: (1) a discussion of the FOX project and how it
relates to various other X.500 efforts, (2) status of and
questions about the ongoing activities at each site, and (3)
potential research issues that FOX may need to resolve to
facilitate Internet X.500 deployment. Hotz produced minutes for
this meeting, which were distributed to the participants.
The March 1991 Directory Services Activities Report was edited
and submitted to be included in the PARADISE International X.500
report.
Bob Braden and Steve Hotz attended the April 11 IETF OSI-DS
videoconference. Hotz supplied ISI site notes for inclusion in
the meeting's minutes.
Steve Hotz (hotz@ISI.EDU)
MERIT
-----
Merit FOX members participated in a meeting at NSF on Network
Information Services, to help determine requirements for the new
"NIC". Emphasis was placed on Directory Services as an
important requirement to be provided, and on the incorporation
of X.500 in particular.
Work and discussions on the interim network infrastructure
information schema and DIT drafts continued.
Merit began the initial design and discussion of a scheme for
representing Internet resources in X.500.
Chris Weider (clw@merit.edu)
Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu)
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
PSI
---
A tool to translate from RFC-INDEX.TXT to QUIPU's EDB format was
developed; the Directory has been updated accordingly. These
entries are contained in the Directory under:
@o=Internet@cn=RFC Documents
A document relating NADF-123 and X.500 in the Internet was
circulated to the FOX partners.
Marshall Rose (mrose@cheetah.ca.psi.com)
SRI
----
The White Pages Pilot (WPP) Project DSA offering access to SRI
staff information, San Joaquin Kit Fox, was upgraded to ISODE
6.8.
SRI continued work on providing access to WHOIS information via
the Directory. A prototype DSA offering access to Individual,
Computer, Network, Domain, Autonomous System, Organization, and
Group information is running locally at SRI. Schema additions,
both new objects and attributes, were made to support the WHOIS
information. The prototype employs the new schema but does not
yet contain distinguished name references (e.g., between
individual and computer that they coordinate); these will be
added in early May. Also in May, SRI will contact the WPP
Manager to have this DSA added to the Pilot DMD, and apply to
have the WHOIS-supporting objects and attributes added to the
Cosine and Internet X.500 Schema.
An early analysis of WHOIS data mapping to the Directory
revealed that a significant number of entries fail postalAddress
length restrictions (6 address lines, each no greater than 30
characters). 47% of the addresses listed for Individuals failed
the length restrictions; a majority of the failures were due to
the 30 character per address line limit. SRI will pursue a
means to provide feedback to the standards community on this
issue.
As part of the Directory Information Services (pilot)
Infrastructure Working Group (DISI), an RFC/FYI document
cataloging X.500 implementations will be created. Ruth Lang,
along with Russ Wright of LBL, wrote and distributed an X.500
implementation survey form to relevant Internet mailing lists.
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
Although the date for receipt of survey forms was 5/3/91, late
survey input will be accepted. Contact rlang@nisc.sri.com or
wright@lbl.gov to receive a survey form. The DISI working group
will review and edit input during the month of May. It is
anticipated that this document will be distributed as a draft
RFC/FYI in June.
Ruth Lang attended the OSI-DS videoconference meeting held on
April 11, and was the designated scribe for the RIACS site.
Jose Garcia-Luna, Ken Harrenstien, and Ruth Lang participated in
a FOX project phone conference meeting held on April 17.
Ruth Lang (rlang@NISC.SRI.COM)
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY
----------------------------------------------
NIST is involved in several X.500 activities: standards, pilot
deployment, and development of an X.500 implementation, Custos.
The objective is to see X.500 widely deployed and used in the US
government. X.500 is expected to be in the next release of the US
Government OSI Profile (GOSIP). In the standards efforts, emphasis
is on access control and replication; the other activities are
described in some detail below.
(A) NIST/GSA X.500 Pilot Deployment
NIST and GSA are collaborating in the creation of a U.S. government
X.500 pilot deployment. To date, two meetings have been held. At
the second, held on April 25th at NIST, significant progress was
made towards refining an initial draft schema developed by NIST. A
number of government agency requirements will be included in the
next schema revision. Once the schema is defined, agencies will
begin collecting data for loading into the directory. Initially,
NIST will offer to host agency data on Custos DSAs running at NIST.
Eventually, agencies are expected to obtain and operate DSAs.
The next meeting of the NIST/GSA pilot project is scheduled for
June 18, 1991. Operational deployment is expected to begin in
October 1991.
(B) Custos Update
The NIST X.500 public-domain implementation, Custos, is implemented
on ISODE, although it otherwise bears no relation to QUIPU. One of
its more interesting features is that the DBMS interface is SQL,
and we provide a simple DBMS as part of Custos to support the DSA.
Information can be optionally loaded into memory, and the memory
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
usage is reasonably efficient on a per-entry basis.
NIST has implemented, tested, and made a limited release of Custos,
referred to as Release 0.1. It implements the read, add, compare,
and list operations, along with a significant amount of
"infrastructure" code that applies to all operations.
The organizations that have received Release 0.1 are: SRI and
Merit, which plan to incorporate Custos into the FOX effort; York
University in Toronto, which plans to instrument it with OSI
network management; and COS, which intends to use Custos to
evaluate X.500 test systems. The conditions for getting 0.1 are
that the organization make some contribution to improving the
implementation, and only minimal support from NIST is provided
until Release 0.2 is available.
An interim release of 0.1 will be made available by May 15 which
incorporates additional efficiencies in the DBMS, and modifications
for DAP interoperability with OSIWARE and QUIPU.
Search, access control, and schema management are currently under
development. This is the additional functionality for Release 0.2,
which is due out in October. The extent of the distribution for
this release has not yet been determined.
Richard Colella (colella@osi.ncsl.nist.gov)
NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTORY FORUM
-------------------------------
NADF-123 was published as an informational RFC (RFC-1218).
Marshall Rose (mrose@CHEETAH.CA.PSI.COM)
OSI IMPLEMENTOR'S WORKSHOP (OIW)
--------------------------------
The OSI Implementor's Workshop (OIW) is an open public forum for
technical issues, concerned with the timely development of
implementation agreements based on emerging international OSI
standards. The Workshop accepts as input the specifications of
emerging standards for protocols, and produces as output agreements
on the implementation and testing particulars of these protocols.
This process is expected to expedite the development of OSI
protocols and to promote interoperability of independently
manufactured data communications equipment.
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
The Workshop organizes its work through Special Interest Groups
(SIGs) that prepare technical documentation. The SIGs are
encouraged to coordinate with standards organizations and user
groups, and to seek widespread technical consensus on
implementation agreements through international discussions and
liaison activities.
The Directory SIG of the Workshop produces agreements on the
implementation of Directory protocols based on ISO 9594 | CCITT
X.500 Recommendations. There are three major areas that the SIG is
working on for 1991: access control, replication, and distributed
operations. Three subgroups have been formed, each focusing on one
of these areas. The SIG plans to achieve agreements in these areas
based on the Draft International Standards and the Draft Amendments
by the end of 1991.
At their last meeting (March, 1991), the subgroups detailed
workplans and produced outlines of the agreements. At their next
meeting (scheduled for June 10-14, 1991), the groups expect to
start to produce actual agreements based on the output of the April
1991 ISO/CCITT Directory Editor's meeting.
Youbong Weon-Yoon (youbong@arch2.att.com)
PARADISE
--------
The first PARADISE report (found in the March 1991 Internet
Monthly) was a summary of what the project was about and who was
involved. This report is a summary of what's been happening over
the last three months. Subsequent reports will contain only
monthly status updates.
(A) Central DSA
The SUN 4/330 was configured with ISODE-6.7m and was running a test
DSA from 30 January. Extensive connectivity tests of IPSS, IXI,
Janet and Internet were made with no significant problems. On
February 18, the DSA became "Giant Tortoise" and thus held the
master copy of the root of the pilot DIT (Directory Information
Tree). The DSA has been running since then without major problems.
It is now accepting an average of 3000 associations per week, with
approximately 10,000 operations per week. Most of these are caused
by either the replication protocol or by the relay service giving
IXI access to the US via the Internet. The SUN is connected to the
Internet via the "Fat-Pipe" and is now running SUNOS 4.0.3 and has
been upgraded to ISODE 6.8. System back-up procedures are now in
place, and automatic back-ups to tape are done nightly. There have
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
been some complaints about the fat-pipe connection to the US; since
a recent software upgrade there have been very few outages. There
is now a backup via Germany which will kick in if necessary.
(B) Central DUA
Work on the interface for the central DUA service is progressing
steadily and should be ready on schedule in June. This service
will run on the SUN 4/470 purchased by the project. The interface
is currently able to resolve most queries given to it, although
more work is still needed. Additional work is also needed on
formatting the output of results to the user. A test version of
the interface will be made available via the central server to the
PUNTERS for comments and appraisal in the near future. It is hoped
that this interface will come on-line in June, with the possibility
of other simple interfaces available on the central server.
(C) Central Support
A staff appointment has been made for the PARADISE HelpDesk based
at ULCC. Phone and email contact have been available since April
29th.
Telephone: +44 71 405 8400 x432
Telefax: +44 71 242 1845
Email: helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
There will also be an info-server which it is hoped will contain a
variety of PARADISE documents, including a number of "living"
documents:
o a list of reference implementation sites
o a product file of DSAs
o a product file of DUAs
o the PARADISE International Report
o a calendar of meetings and events relevant to
PARADISE and the Internet
(D) PUNTERS
The national pilots involved in the project are known as the
PUNTERS (Paradise UNfunded parTnERS). Representation is mostly
drawn from members of RARE WG3, and is clear for all countries
where national pilots exist, or at least country level nodes have
been taken. In those other cases, it is unclear who the
representative is, or which group will represent a future national
pilot. The next PUNTERS meeting will be held back-to-back with the
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
RARE WG3 meeting in Zurich, September 30th through October 2nd. It
is hoped that demonstrations and tutorials will be offered.
Internet visitors will be welcomed.
During the last quarter, AUSTRIA has connected its single DSA to
the pilot, and hopes to add another shortly. ITALY provided the
first non-QUIPU implementation in the pilot. Systems Wizards
participated in interoperability testing with UCL to demonstrate
their product DirWiz. IRELAND has put up a DSA, but are having
operational problems. A national pilot for FRANCE (OPAX) has been
put together, and it is hoped that once testing with their product,
PIZARRO, is complete, they will join the pilot. YUGOSLAVIA took
delivery of QUIPU 6.7, and hopes to have something working soon.
SPAIN hopes to have an operational service very shortly. The UK
has moved to extend its academic pilot to the commercial world,
though support will not be provided by the JNT.
(E) PTT Developments
PTT Telecom (Netherlands), which is subcontracted to UCL is itself
subcontracting to the Swiss and Finnish PTTs to provide project
liaison with the other European PTTs. The team has developed a
long term action plan which includes an investigation (by means of
a survey and interview) of the possible acceptance of X.500 within
the European PTTs. Their study will look at whether X.500 can be
used as a basis of an operational commercial public service; all
conclusions will be looked at with a view towards taking positive
future action. The exact relationship between X.500 and the TPH028
protocol for interconnecting public telephony directories will also
be investigated, with discussion of possible future migration.
Also of some importance to future strategy is the development of
valid accounting mechanisms; for X.500 these are an order of
magnitude bigger than those for X.400. The PTTs will be monitoring
developments through ETSI.
David Goodman (d.goodman@cs.ucl.ac.uk)
PARADISE Project Manager
PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT PROJECT
-----------------------------
As of May 5th, 1991 there were 76 sites under c=US, 68 of them
operating as PRDMDs. New additions this month: University of
Alaska Fairbanks, Auburn University.
In order to test the next DIT naming scheme, the Directory was
loaded with the US organizations from the UUMAP database (over 6000
entries). These are leaf organization objects under the
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
appropriate state. This uncovered a new optimization for the UFN
algorithm, which was subsequently coded.
Marshall Rose (mrose@cheetah.ca.psi.com)
REGISTRATION AUTHORITY COMMITTEE (ANSI USA RAC)
-----------------------------------------------
This committee (ANSI USA RAC) was formed by the ANSI ISSB
(Information Systems Standards Board)
"To serve as an advisory group to the Registration Coordinator
with regards to technical or procedural questions and to serve
as an appeals body."
Members are appointed by the ISSB.
It held its first meeting at ANSI offices in New York on 30 January
1991, and its second meeting at Boulder, CO on 4 April 1991.
At this point, after the second meeting, the USA RAC has approved
its own operating rules, and has modified and approved the
previously drafted procedures for registration of Alphanumeric Form
Names and Numeric Form names under the ISO DCC arc { iso member-
body US(840) }, which is also known by the numeric object
identifier form "1 2 840".
The following unofficial text describes the ANSI organization name
registration service.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has established
an organization name registration service in line with the
authority vested in ANSI as the U.S. member body of the
International Standards Organization (ISO). The service has been
established in response to industry concerns for creating a U.S.
national registry of organizational names whose value may be an
integer or alpha-numeric characters.
ANSI's service provides that once registered, the owner of the
registered value must determine its usage and must take the
appropriate action to encourage its use. Potential usages are
foreseen in the context of Open Systems Interconnection products
and services. Once registered, the value is asserted to be
nationally unique within the context defined in ISO standards.
For example, the values may be used in various computer network
systems and services to identify entities of interest to users.
A fee is collected for registration of both the numeric integer
Westine [Page 28]
Internet Monthly Report April 1991
and alpha-numeric value. The fees are designed to cover the
costs incurred by ANSI in administering the registration
authority.
For further information and an application form, contact the
Registration Coordinator (Beth Somerville), ANSI, 11 West 42nd
Street, New York, NY 10036. Phone 212 354 3300. FAX 212-398-
0023. (NOTE: This is a new address, but the same FAX and Phone
numbers.)
ANSI began registration of numeric name forms in January of 1991,
and intends to begin registration of alpha-numeric name forms in
May of 1991.
In the meantime, ISO and CCITT actions have led to voting on a
proposal to move the Object Identifier Tree that is allowed to have
Alpha-numeric Name Forms as well as Numeric Name Forms from the ISO
arc to the Joint-ISO-CCITT arc, since both ISO and CCITT standards
and recommendations require alpha-numeric names for certain
identifiers, such as for X.500 and X.400. Only one among all the
trees in the ISO and CCITT "forest" allows alpha-numeric values to
be registered.
It is expected that the vote will be affirmative, and that the
current arc used by ANSI will then be moved to place it under the
joint-iso-ccitt arc. This of course means a change in all object
identifiers currently formed by concatenation with the ANSI
registered values.
Another consequence of this action is that both the ISO member-body
(ANSI) and the CCITT member-body (SG-D) for the U.S. will both have
some jurisdiction over registration policies and procedures. The
processes of alignment and negotiation of joint control have begun
with the exchange mutual recognition indications between ANSI and
SG-D. Fortunately there is a large overlap in the membership of
both committees.
So, stay tuned! The good news is that something is happening.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that something is happening.
Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu)
SG-D MHS-MD
-----------
On the X.400 front, the CCITT member-body for the U.S. is the
Department of State, which fulfills its CCITT member-body role by
chairing the U.S. CCITT National Committee, which has subordinate
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
Study Groups (A, B, C, and D). Study Group D (SG-D) is responsible
for certain telecommunications areas, including X.400 and X.500
services. In response to industry concerns about registration of
ADMD and PRMD names in the U.S., SG-D formed a new subcommittee
(MHS-MD) to develop rules and procedures for MHS MD name
registration and use.
The MHS-MD committee has met twice since it was commissioned under
a charter that was developed by an ad hoc MHS-MD group for
consideration and adoption by SG-D. The first official meeting was
held at the U.S. Department of State on 17-18 December 1990, and
the second meeting in Scottsdale, AZ, on 7-8 March 1991. The next
meeting will be held on 6-7 June 1991, at the U.S. Department of
State in Washington, DC. Additional meetings are set for 16-17
September 1991, and 6-7 December 1991.
All meetings of the MHS-MD subcommittee are open to anyone doing
business in the U.S. who has an interest in the issues before the
subcommittee. All outputs from the MHS-MD subcommittee are
forwarded to SG-D for consideration and adoption, and are then
passed on to the U.S. CCITT National Committee for ratification.
Now, why, you ask, is the U.S. Department of State involved in such
arcane technical matters in the telecommunication services area?
Good question! The answer is that in the U.S., where there are
many telecommunication service providers, many of which provide
international services with connections to service providers in
other countries, someone has to be responsible for fulfillment of
U.S. treaty obligations under the ITU (International
Telecommunications Union) treaties.
Although, we in the U.S. do not consider packet switching or X.500
or X.400 to be "basic telecommunication services" under the ITU
treaties, the fact is that if any other country does make these
services "basic" according to law, then the ITU treaties take
effect and the U.S. Department of State must act to fulfill its
treaty responsibilities under U.S. law for compliance with all
applicable aspects of the ITU treaties.
Under these treaties, all U.S. service providers are obligated to
make arrangements such that any user in any foreign country can
make a packet service connection or address X.400 mail to any user
connected to a U.S. public service provider of those services, and
expect the connection to be made, or the mail to be delivered,
regardless of which U.S. service provider serves the addressed
user.
Thus, the U.S. Department of State has a vested interest in
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Internet Monthly Report April 1991
assuring that there is a sufficient U.S. service provider
"backbone" to support international connections to any user on any
network in the U.S.
For X.400, this starts with ADMD and PRMD Name Registration and
ends with rules for how the ADMDs (public service providers) will
voluntarily arrange to provide a suitable backbone operation for
X.400 mail services. It is expected that SG-D may have a similar
interest in X.500 directory services. Thus, it is encouraged to
send copies of any contribution to ANSI or SG-D to the other. Each
has agreed to keep the other fully informed.
The MHS-MD subcommittee is not as far along with its MD name
registration procedures as the ANSI USA RAC, in part because it
started work much later (ANSI procedures have been under
development since 1988). Another reason is that the problem is
somewhat harder for X.400 because of the "real estate" problem: The
restriction of ADMD/PRMD names to 16 characters of PrintableString
and the requirement that these names form a single flat space of
unique names for the entire c=US.
Fortunately, X.500 does not force either of these restrictions on
the choice of names for organizations registered under c=US.
MHS-MD is now assembling its first draft for review and progression
at its meeting in June, and we expect that a final draft will be
available by the December meeting of this year.
Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu)
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