November 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 Cooper (Cooper@ISI.EDU)
NSF Regional reports - Corinne Carroll (ccarroll@NNSC.NSF.NET)
Directory Services reports - Tom Tignor (TPT2@ISI.EDU)
requests to be added or deleted from the Internet Monthly report list
should be sent to "cooper@isi.edu".
Back issues of the Internet Monthly Report can be copied via FTP:
FTP> nis.nsf.net
Login: anonymous guest
ftp> cd imr
ls
get IMRYY-MM.TXT
For example, JUNE 1991 is in the file IMR91-06.TXT.
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Internet Monthly Report November 1991
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD
IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
END-TO-END SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5
Internet Projects
BARRNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29
CONCERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31
CSUNET (CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NETWORK). . . . . . . page 32
FARNET (FEDERATION OF AMERICAN RESEARCH NETWORKS) . . . . page 32
GAO (GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING OFFICE). . . . . . . . . . . . page 33
ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34
JVNCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 36
LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 38
MERIT/MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 38
NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK) . . . page 39
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 40
NSFNET/ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING. . . . . . . . . . . . page 40
NSFNET/INFORMATION SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 43
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 44
PREPnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 45
SAIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 46
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 47
SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 48
SURANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 49
UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 49
UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 50
WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 50
DIRECTORY SERVICES ACTIVITIES
DIRECTORY SERVICES MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 52
IETF OSIDS & DISI WORKING GROUPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . page 52
FOX - FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . page 53
ISI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 53
PSI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 53
SRI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 54
PARADISE PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 55
PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 57
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PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 57
REGISTRATION AUTHORITY COMMITTEE (ANSI USA RAC) . . . . . page 58
SG-D MHS-MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 63
CALENDAR OF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 64
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IAB MESSAGE
CHANGE OF IAB CHAIR
The chairman of the IAB is selected by and from the IAB membership,
to serve a term of two years. Vint Cerf's term ended in June 1991,
and at that time the IAB selected Lyman Chapin as the next IAB
chair. Unfortunately, Lyman was unable to begin serving
immediately due to existing time committments, and Cerf consented
to continue as acting chair.
At the IAB meeting in Sante Fe, Vint Cerf announced that he will
retire from the IAB in January 1992, to devote full time to
launching the Internet Society. At that time, Lyman Chapin will
take up the duties of IAB chair.
STANDARDS ACTIONS:
The IAB has accepted the IESG recommendation to make "U.S.
Department of Defense Security Options for the Internet Protocol"
(IPSO, Internet Draft <draft-ietf-ahwgipso-ipso-01>) a Proposed
Standard. It will be RFC-1108.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS
-------------------------
AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS
-------------------
No Internet progress to report this month.
Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC.EDU)
END-TO-END SERVICES
-------------------
No Internet progress to report this month.
Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU)
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INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS
----------------------------
November 1991 IETF Report
Reported by Phill Gross, IETF Chair
1. Santa Fe IETF meeting (November 18-22, 1991)
The IETF met in Santa Fe on November 18-22 1991. The meeting was
hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Many thanks are due to
Dale Land, John Morrison, C. Phil Wood, Peter Ford, and many others
at LANL for the amazing amount of work that went into hosting this
meeting. The facilities were outstanding and the location was
beautiful. Numerous folks mentioned to me that this was a very
productive IETF meeting. I think we can thank LANL (and perhaps,
the clear mountain air? :-) for helping to make this such a
productive meeting.
The meeting was attended by approximately 350 people. It was quite
productive with 46 working groups and 11 BOFs meeting in over 80
separate sessions. Three IETF Area "advisory groups met -- the
Security Area Advisory Group (SAAG), the Operational Requirements
Area Directorate (ORAD), and the User Services Area Council (USAC).
We are very pleased that FARNET chose to meet in Santa Fe during
the same week, so that there was quite a bit of interaction between
IETF and FARNET interests during the week. In particular, the ORAD
met jointly with FARNET, and had a very productive session pursuing
FARNET's topic for the week -- "Hardening the Mid-level Networks".
The IAB also took this opportunity to meet in Santa Fe. It was
quite helpful to have IAB members in attendance at IETF, and this
helped increase the communication and positive interaction between
the IAB, the IESG, and the IETF. I feel that the IETF benefits
greatly from the direct participation of IAB members in the various
WG activities. I hope we will continue to see this close
interworking between the IAB and IETF.
There were 14 technical presentations during the week. As it turns
out, there was an increased interest in ATM at this meeting, with 3
separate presentations on the basic technical details of ATM and an
interesting approach to using ATM in local area networks. There
was also a BOF on "IP over ATM", which will become a working group
at the next meeting.
There was an important focus on routing at this IETF. Martha
Steenstrup (BBN) presented a status report on Inter-Domain Policy
Routing (IDPR), and how IDPR might interwork with BGP (or other
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inter-domain routing protocols). Deborah Estrin (USC) presented a
proposal, co-authored with Yakov Rekhter (IBM) for a "unified"
inter-domain routing protocol. Noel Chiappa ran a BOF on his
proposal for a new routing and addressing architecture. Noel's BOF
was based on his presentation at the July IETF meeting in Atlanta,
and will likely evolve into a working group effort. The BGP WG had
several very important sessions. During one BGP WG session,
Jessica Yu (MERIT) introduced a new WG effort (under the
Operational Requirements Area) to concentrate on the operational
deployment of BGP.
In another BGP WG session, Phill Gross (ANS) led a discussion on
introducing address masks into BGP, including the notion of
"supernet masks" to condense information in routing tables. The
discussion soon expanded to encompass the related problem of IP
address depletion. As a result, the assembled group, along with
the IAB and IESG, organized the "Routing and Addressing (ROAD)
Working Group.
The goal of the WG will be to propose methods to deal with the
related problems of routing table scaling and IP address depletion.
The ROAD WG will hold its first meeting at the March IETF meeting
in San Diego (March 16-20, 1991). The IETF effort dovetailed very
nicely with the results of the IAB/IESG Architecture Retreat in
June (reported at the July IETF meeting), which recommended (in
part) that an IETF WG be formed to pursue this crucial matter. In
an attempt to help focus the activities of this important group
several members of the IAB retreat have joined some participants
from the BGP WG session to set the agenda for the ROAD WG in March,
and explore some of the various alternatives.
Area Reports from activities at the Santa Fe IETF are included
below.
2. IESG and IAB Reporting of Internet Standardization
The procedures for reporting and track Internet standardization
activities have grown in an ad hoc fashion over the last several
years as the IETF standardization activiities have expanded. In
Santa Fe, the IAB and IESG wrote down the following sequence of
procedures for reporting Internet standarization actions to the
IETF and the wider Internet community. Comments on this procedure.
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Procedure for Reporting/Tracking Internet Standards Actions
1. Announce WG Progress I-D announcements
To: IETF
2. Announce WG Completion (ie, "Last Call")* From: IESG
To: IETF, IAB
3. Announce IESG Recommendation From: IESG
To: IAB
cc: IETF
4. Announce IAB Outcome From: IAB
To: IETF, IESG
5. RFC Published RFC List
Essentially the same procedure is followed for standards actions at
any of the three levels of Internet stanardization -- Proposed,
Draft, Internet Standard. Note that the second step ("last call")
is new. It was added to assure that interested parties will have
additional notification and time to make comments on upcoming
standards actions.
3. Upcoming IETF Meetings
The next IETF meeting will be hosted by San Diego Supercomputer
Center on March 16-20, 1992. Paul Love and Hans-Werner Braun will
act as local hosts. Reservation material will be sent to the IETF
mailing list in January 1992. Note that this is the same week of
the America's Cup, so San Diego will be VERY crowded. Please try to
make your reservations as early as possible.
We are now working very hard to schedule IETF meetings further into
future. Our goal is to schedule meetings at least one year in
advance.
Please note that we are now planning to hold our first IETF meeting
outside North America in Fall 1993 in Europe. This is a natural
step, with the Internet Society beginning operation in 1992, and
with the IETF finding itself increasing involved in international
issues. More information on this important development will be
made available as the plans become firm.
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4. IETF Report in the Internet Society Quarterly Newsletter
The Internet Society will be publishing a newsletter on a quarterly
basis. Activities in the IETF will be reported regularly in this
newsletter. The IETF submission for the first ISOC newsletter is
included below. Since this is the first ISOC newsletter, I have
included a great deal of introductory material, with which many
readers of this list may already be familiar. However, since we
continue to see many new participants in the IETF, it may be useful
to repeat that introdcutory material in the IMR, too. See section
8. below for the IETF submission to the ISOC newsletter.
5. IETF Area Reports from the Santa Fe meeting
USER SERVICES AREA REPORT
-------------------------
Reported by: Joyce K. Reynolds
Eight Working Groups met at the IETF in Santa Fe:
Directory Information Services (pilot) Infrastructure
Working Group (DISI), Chaired by Christopher Weider.
DISI is a working group that provides a forum
to define user requirements in X.500. It is
an offshoot of the OSI Directory Services
group and is a combined effort of the User Services
Area and the OSI Integration Area of the IETF.
Paper 1, "Executive Summary" (Weider, Reynolds, Heker).
Defines issues DISI should be working on.
This current draft has been revised twice since
the Atlanta IETF. It is ready for Internet-Draft
submission, and on to FYI RFC publication.
Paper 2, "Survey" (Lang, Wright).
This document will undergo one last modification
before publication. Additional DUAs were added that
were inadvertently left out, as well as additional
submissions. This document will be reissued as an
Internet-Draft, then submitted to the RFC Editor for
FYI RFC publication.
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Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (IAFA)
Chaired by Peter Deutsch and Alan Emtage
This is a new working group which met for the
first time in Santa Fe.
The Internet Anonymous FTP Archives working group is
chartered to define a set of recommended standard
procedures for the access and administration of
anonymous FTP archive sites on the Internet.
IAFA attendees agreed on the charter. Discussion
then focused on two documents this group intends
to produce:
"Anonymous FTP Site Administrator's Guide"
"Anonymous FTP User's Guide"
The contents of these two documents were discussed,
as well as a discussion on new technology issues.
Newer technology issues were tabled for further
discussion at a later date.
John Curran (BBN), Ellen Hoffman (Merit), and
April Marine (SRI) volunteered to work on the
"Anonymous FTP User's Guide" document.
Internet School Networking (ISN)
Chaired by: John Clement, Art St. George, and Connie Stout
This is a new working group which met for the
first time in Santa Fe.
The Internet School Networking working group is
chartered to facilitate the connection of
the United States' K-12 (Kindergarten-12th Grade)
schools, public and private, to the Internet, and
school networking in general.
ISN's session gathered educators and Internet
folks together. This meeting primarily focused
on going over and refining the charter, the
goals and projected milestones.
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Network Information Services Infrastructure Working
Group (NISI), Chaired by April Marine and Patricia Smith
Dana Sitzler has resigned as co-chair of NISI.
April Marine has accepted the co-chair position.
Patricia Smith will remain as co-chair.
The final review of this group's Internet-Draft,
"Building a Network Information Services
Infrastructure" was discussed. Inclusion of a
security "verification" section in the document
has been placed and agreed upon.
Continued discussion on where this group should go
from here - there was justification of additional action
items/tasks that fall in NISI's realm.
NOC-Tool Catalogue Revisions Working Group (Noctool2)
Chaired by Robert Enger and Darren Kinley
Gary Malkin has resigned as co-chair of NOCTOOL2
to work with Tracy LaQuey Parker on the User-Glossary
document. Darren Kinley has accepted the co-chair
position. Robert Enger will remain as co-chair.
The "Son of NOCTools" working group are updating
and revising their catalog to assist network managers
in the selection and acquisition of diagnostic
and analytic tools for TCP/IP Internets.
This group has "one last call" out for submissions,
and is continuing to accept additional "vendor
gathering" for one more month. The document will be
submitted as an Internet-Draft, then on to the RFC
Editor for FYI RFC publication.
User Documentation (UserDoc)
Chaired by Ellen Hoffman and Lenore Jackson
The User-Doc working group will be preparing a revised
bibliography of on-line and hard copy documents,
reference materials, and training tools addressing
general networking information and how to use the
Internet. The target audience includes those
individuals who provide services to end users and
end users themselves.
(See the USWG minutes below for further information on
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this group's current progress.)
User Glossary (UserGloss)
Chaired by Gary Malkin and Tracy LaQuey Parker
Karen Roubicek has resigned as co-chair of UserGloss.
Gary Malkin has accepted the co-chair position.
Tracy LaQuey Parker will remain as co-chair.
The User-Gloss working group met and decided on
the document format and updated goals and milestones.
A draft document will be ready for review at the
next IETF in San Diego. A review and final draft
will be presented at the IETF in Boston. The
final document will be published shortly after
the Boston IETF.
User Services Working Group (USWG)
Chaired by Joyce K. Reynolds
The User Services working group provides a regular
forum for people interested in all user services to
identify and initiate projects designed to improve
the quality of information available to end-users of
the Internet.
Agenda items included:
Report on the RARE WG3 meetings held in Zurich,
Switzerland. Reported by Joyce K. Reynolds.
SIGUCCS draft - Presented by Martyne Hallgren.
Written by ACM Siguccs Networking Taskforce.
Document title - "Connecting to the Internet -
what connecting institutions should anticipate",
Revision of User-Doc WG - Presented by Lenore
Jackson & Ellen Hoffman, User-Doc Co-chairs.
Discussion focused on the revision of its charter,
objectives, future goals, and establishing procedures
on updating the bibliography.
QUAIL - presented by Gary Malkin.
Gary Malkin and April Marine held a brief discussion
with the USWG on the updating of the "Questions and
Answers for New Internet Users".
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OPERATIONS AREA REPORT
----------------------
Susan Estrada and Bernhard Stockman
During this IETF five working groups meet. There were three
BOF's on operations related subjects. The Operational
Requirements Area Directorate (ORAD) meet together with FARnet
which met in Santa Fe at the beginning of this IETF week.
1. User Connectivity Working Group
The User Connectivity Working Group met twice this week, in
the true tradition of operators being over committed to these
things, and actually came up with some really good outputs.
They decided how to do a NOC phone book, standardized network
status reports and standardized total ticket handoff, which
is the mechanized procedure. There should be some
implementations happening in the next six months, and that
will actually make our lives a lot simpler. If you're
interested in getting on the mailing list, send a request to
ucp-request@nic.near.net
2. Network Joint Management Working Group.
Network Joint Management met once this week. Following the
FARNET theme of "Hardening the Mid-level Networks", the group
discussed 50 simple things you can do to help the internet be
hard. The operators were encouraged to subscribe to
nwg@merrit.edu, which is going to be the open discussion list
for what's going on in the networking community.
3. Network Status Reports.
Around 30 people attended this session. Network status
reports were given from
- ESnet (Tony Haines)
- NSI (Milo Medin)
- MILNET (Katherin Huber)
- EBONE-92 (Bernhard Stockman)
Phill Gross has been organizing the network status report
sessions for some time. However, at this meeting, Phill
turned the organization of this group over to Gene Hastings.
The choice of Gene as the new chair was an indication of the
similar subjects covered by the Network Status Report
sessions and the Network Joint Management WG, also chaired by
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Gene. It is hoped that both NJM and NSR will benefit from
this new close coordination.
4. Router Requirements Checklist BOF.
The idea behind a router requirements checklist is to take
that router requirements document an turn into something that
may be used as guidance for purcahsing router equipment.
Theg group decided that this was a useful thing to do. A
strawman checklist will be constructed real soon. A mailing
list is already set up and if you are interested to subscribe
send a request to rcl@cerf.net. It's not clear that this
work will be done within an IETF working group. The ideas is
rather to bash this out, and just get it issued as an
informational RFC, without having to form a working group.
5. Quality of Service Measurements BOF
This BOF only concerned quality of service measurements for
wide area networks. Basically the idea here is that as
regionals, or as networks, there is no need to find
measurement criteria available. The base line is to find the
right questions to ask and that is a good way to start. A
working group will be formed and a mailing list set up for
discussing this subject.
6. Benchmarking and Methodology Working Group.
The Benchmarking folks met this week. They word-smithed the
benchmaring document. They're going to have one more video
meeting in January, and a draft document will be available by
the next IETF.
7. The Operations Requirments Area Directorate (ORAD) session.
The ORAD session was chaired by Susan Estrada, Phill Gross
and Bernhard Stockman. Around 50 people attended. The meeting
was a joint session between ORAD and FARnet people.
Presentation of the Intercontinental Engineering and Planning
Group (IEPG). Geoff Huston, co-chair of IEPG, gave an
overview of the current IEPG work. The IEPG meet in Santa Fe
the week before IETF. Major topics of interest for the IEPG
group were
- Interactions bewteen network regions.
- Protocol infrastrucuture.
- Multi-lingual applications.
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- Network minimal service levels.
- Global traffic flows.
- Information services.
There is the need of define operation tools to the vendors.
For example there is a need to make the SNMP displays used
today a little more meaningful and a lot more helpful to use
in the long run. A working group will be initated, probably
at the next IETF, that will define recommendations for the
operational folks to give to vendors, to help them design
better interfaces.
8. Operational Statistics WG.
OPSTAT meet during two session with around 30 participants
chaired by Bernhard Stockman.
The main topic was a simplified version of earlier documents
descriping the gathering, storage and presentation of
statistical data. The major time was spend on discussing the
storage format and polling periods. Prior to this there have
been a discussion on 5 - 15 minutes polling periods. It was
concluded that one single polling period could not be
recommened. The polling period has to be dependant on the
type of polling being performed so the meeting defined a set
of polling periods for different situations. The intention
is to have the simplified version ready for ID during
Decemeber 1991.
9. BGP Deployment and Applications BOF.
A BOF on BGP usage with around 30 participants, chaired by
Jessica Yu. The reason for this was to investigate the need
and interest of forming an IEtF WG around this concept.
Topics that were treated:
- The need for an IETF WG to facilitate for interoper-
ability test and to act as a forum for knowledge
transfer.
- A reveiw of today BGP impelementation and usage.
- Presenation by CISCO on current implemenations and
future plans
- Discussion around the NSFnet T3 and T1 BGP
implementations.
- A review of midlevel networks currently using BGP.
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APPLICATIONS AREA
-----------------
Director: Russ Hobby/UC Davis
Overview
The Applications Area of the IETF is moving to bring
multimedia capabilities to the Internet. One Working
Group in particular, The Internet Message Format
Extensions WG, has made great strides in this direction.
This WG is finishing the specifications to allow email to
have multiple parts to the message where each part may be
text, image, audio, video or other types of information to
be presented to the end user. The Network News Transport
Protocol WG is working closely with the new message format
to bring these capabilities to the network news world.
The Teleconferencing BOF explored the idea of desktop
video conferencing. The general goal of the area is to
define the protocols to create an interoperable multimedia
distributed computing environment for the Internet.
Working Groups Summary
Internet Message Format Extensions WG
The WG is finishing the document on multi-part mail
messages that will replace RFC 822. The WG plans to
submit the document as a Proposed Standard in early
January. This will complete the work of the WG.
Internet Mail Extensions
The WG has a new chair, John Klensin. The WG had to
decide if progress could be made towards a method to allow
eight bit characters in SMTP. The group decided to define
a means for negotiating the transport of eight bit
characters. It was thought that the method could also be
useful for negotiation of other items, such as allowed
message size.
Network News Transport Protocol
This WG did not meet in Santa Fe, but has been making good
progress on the mail list and has a document about ready
to be issued as an Internet Draft.
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Automated Internet Mailing List Services
Unfortunately the chair of this WG, David Lippke, had to
resign due to a reassignment of work duties. The WG will
be on hold until a new chair is found.
Network FAX
The WG finished work on the image format to be used for
transporting FAX on the Internet. The Document will be
available as an Internet Draft soon.
Network Database
The WG continued work on the definition of SQL
transactions over TCP/IP networks. The group is small and
there needs to be involvement from other SQL implementers.
TELNET
The TELNET WG made further progress on authentication and
encryption for TELNET sessions. It was decided that
authentication and encryption need to be closely tied
together in operation.
Teleconferencing BOF
At this BOF several individuals presented work being done
on teleconferencing over the Internet. After the
presentations there was discussion on how the problem can
be broken in work that can be done by various Working
Groups. One WG was created to define methods for realtime
transport of audio and video.
INTERNET AREA
-------------
Noel Chiappa
Philip Almquist
Four Internet Area working groups met in Santa Fe. The Internet
Area also hosted two birds-of-a-feather sessions.
The Apple-IP Working Group revised their AURP (IP over Appletalk)
and MacIP (Appletalk over IP) drafts. The group expects that both
of these documents are now finished, but will allow a final comment
period before submitting them for standardization. SNMP over
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Internet Monthly Report November 1991
Appletalk is ready to be submitted for standardization. Work
continues on Appletalk over PPP. Appletalk MIB enhancements are on
hold pending further implementation experience.
The Multi-Media Bridge Working Group has been working on a
replacement for RFC1042 (IP over 802). This work is intended to
better handle the peculiarities of 802.5 yet remain backwards-
compatible with RFC1042. The group also continues to consider the
problems of bridging dissimilar networks.
The Router Requirements Working Group revised and approved a
Forwarding Table MIB document and made some minor revisions to the
Router Requirements draft. The group's chair gave a plenary
presentation on the Router Requirements draft in anticipation of
its immanent completion. The group held a joint session with the
IDPR Working Group to ensure that the output of the two groups will
be consistent. For similar reasons, some members of the group
attended the BGP Working Group's discussions of route leaking
between OSPF and BGP.
The PPP Working Group decided, based on implementation experience,
that some changes to the protocol were needed. In particular, they
revised the definitions of the Link Quality Monitoring and IP
Address Negotiation facilities. The group also did some work on
their PPP Authentication draft.
A BOF chaired by Bob Hinden met to determine whether sufficient
interest in ATM networks existed to justify the formation of an IP
over ATM working group. The answer seemed to be a resounding yes.
Another BOF, chaired by Andy Nicholson, met to discuss experiments
at Cray Research in "Dynamic Creation of Network Links" (basically,
using switched T3 services to add Internet paths on demand). This
BOF has met before, and will probably become a working group.
NETWORK MANAGEMENT AREA
-----------------------
J. Davin
At the Santa Fe meeting of the IETF, six working groups of the
Network Management Area held one or more sessions throughout the
week. Also, two Birds of a Feather sessions were held.
The SNMP Network Management Directorate reviewed six MIB
specifications that had been recently reported out of working
groups. Three of these were products of the Character MIB Working
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Group: the MIB for character stream devices, the MIB for parallel-
printer-like hardware devices, the MIB for RS232-like devices. Also
reviewed were the IP Forwarding MIB produced by the Router
Requirements WG, the Frame Relay MIB produced by the IPLPDN Working
Group, and the SMDS Interface Protocol MIB produced by the SNMP
Working Group. The IESG announced its intention to consider these
MIBs as candidates for Proposed Standard status after final text is
available in the Internet Drafts repository..
In addition, the directorate discussed the problem of representing
elaborate protocol stacks using the abstractions provided by the
"interfaces" group of MIB 2. The directorate discussion was
premised on the notion that is implicit in MIB 2 that an
"interface" object is only used to represent protocol entities
below the internetwork (e.g., IP) layer. The problem addressed has
arisen in any number of Working Group discussions: although the
interfaces group in MIB 2 is a convenient abstraction for managers,
it doesn't support specific transmission media or elaborate
protocol stacks that may involve both downward and upward
multiplexing.
The directorate discussion came to three conclusions:
-- Every entry in a media-specific MIB table is paired one-to-one
with a single entry in the interfaces table of MIB 2. The media-
specific entry can be reached from the generic interfaces table
entry by using information in the ifType object together with
information in the ifIndex object.
-- Media-specific MIB table entries can (and often do) include
"pointer" information that represents user-service relations among
entities in a more or less elaborate protocol stack below the
internetwork layer. This pointer information variously takes the
form of OBJECT IDENTIFIER values (as in the Character MIB) or
combinations of OBJECT IDENTIFIER and INTEGER values. -- If every
protocol entity below the internetwork layer is represented by an
entry in the MIB 2 interfaces table, then all possible user-service
relations among such entities may be concisely represented as a set
of ordered pairs of ifIndex values. A simple MIB to represent such
a set of ordered pairs was deemed desirable.
A document presenting these conclusions in greater detail will be
prepared as a basis for broader discussion of this problem.
X.25 MIB Working Group
The X.25 MIB Working Group met to consider three documents: one
that instruments X.25 link-layer functionality, one that
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instruments X.25 layer 3 functionality, and one that instruments
convergence functions necessary to run IP over X.25.
At this meeting, the WG decided that the scope of instrumentation
in the link-layer MIB will be confined to the LAPB protocol. The
working group also concluded that the objects in these MIBs should
be reviewed for actual usefulness in managing networks and that
some pruning or alteration in conformance posture may be desirable.
The working group noted that the IPLPDN Working Group was
contemplating a revision to RFC 877 and decided to monitor that
activity to determine if it may warrant revision to the IP/X.25
convergence MIB. The group also discussed at some length the
problems of representing X.25 protocol stacks in MIBs and suggested
that the SNMP directorate might pay some attention to this problem.
Remote LAN Monitoring Working Group
This working group met informally to discuss implementation
experience with the recently published RMON MIB. At the suggestion
of members who had attended the Birds of a Feather session on SNMP
Device Discovery earlier in the week, the working group spent some
time discussing ways in which RMON technology could be applied to
the device discovery problem. The meeting also recommended that a
new working group be formed to address extensions of the RMON MIB
for Token Ring media.
IEEE 802.3 Hub MIB Working Group
This working group met to discuss the current draft of a SNMP MIB
for 802.3 Repeater devices. The chair reported on IEEE reaction to
this first draft of the SNMP MIB. A presentation was made on ideas
for a "chassis MIB" that is useful in instrumenting communications
products that encompass multiple devices. As a result of this
presentation, the working group concluded that its repeater MIB
need not accommodate multiple repeater devices as this need was
better addressed by the notion of a chassis MIB. The working group
recommended that effort be applied to development of the chassis
MIB ideas.
Internet Accounting Working Group
This working group met in two sessions during the Santa Fe IETF
meeting. The first session reviewed the IA Background document
(RFC 1272). Some time was spent bringing newcomers up to date with
the WG's purpose and efforts. New attendees brought fresh
perspectives and offered many comments, criticisms, and suggestions
that will be incorporated into either a new version of the RFC or
into follow-on documents.
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The second session was spent in discussion of the latest draft of
the IA architecture. Although this document has existed for
several months now and has undergone 3 or 4 extensive revisions, it
still needs work, both in form and content. The stated scope of the
document was tightened. The IA model and its difference from the
OSI accounting model was more clearly defined. A decision was made
to combine the metering services document (formerly to be separate)
with the architecture document. A decision was made to announce the
WG's intention to produce a draft MIB document before its work is
concluded. Discussion of the architecture document will continue
with a view to advancing it to the status of Internet Draft by the
next IETF conference.
SNMP Working Group
This working group met briefly in Santa Fe to conclude its
business. The only item of outstanding business was the resolution
of issues surrounding the Ethernet MIB. The WG chair reviewed the
course of action that had been previously discussed on the mailing
list. With the formation of the Ethernet MIB working group to
resolve outstanding issues, the SNMP WG adjourned and disbanded.
The scheduled time that remained after adjournment of the SNMP WG
was devoted to the first meeting of the new Ethernet MIB group.
Ethernet MIB Working Group
The Ethernet MIB working group met for the first time in Santa Fe
to begin its resolution of outstanding issues in the Ethernet MIB.
The working group charter was presented and interpreted by the
chair. The working group decided to omit from the current version
of the MIB the language that dissociates conformance to the
standard from actual implementation of the relevant objects. The
working group felt that resolution of the issues required a more
straightforward strategy that ties implementation requirements to
particular operating environments. The working group also decided
that distinctions between 802.3 and Ethernet environments could be
a useful principle in articulating conformance requirements. The
group also agreed that distinctions between hardware and software
implementations of MAC layer functions would also be an important
consideration.
SNMP MIB Compiler BOF
A Birds of a Feather session on SNMP MIB compiler technology was
conducted by Dave Perkins of Synoptics. Dave presented his recent
work on MIB compiler technology and explained how it could be
valuable both in syntax checking of MIB documents and as a tool to
support development of SNMP agents.
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SNMP Device Discovery BOF
A Birds of a Feather session on SNMP Device Discovery was conducted
by Fred Baker of ACC. Much time was spent in this session
attempting unsuccessfully to formulate an adequate definition of
the problem. The session articulated some ideas on how remote
monitoring technology could be applied to the device discovery
problem, and these were subsequently presented to the RMON MIB
working group for its consideration.
6. Eighteen (18) Internet Draft Actions this month
There were 18 Internet-Draft actions leading up to the Santa Fe
IETF meeting in November.
(Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) )
WG I-D Title <Filename>
------ --------------------------------------------------------
(ppp) o The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP): A Proposed Standard
for the Transmission of Multi-Protocol Datagrams Over
Point-to-Point Links
<draft-ietf-ppp-multidatagrams-03.txt>
(ucp) o FYI on an Internet Trouble Ticket Tracking System for
addressing Internet User Connectivity Problems
<draft-ietf-ucp-connectivity-01.txt>
(none) o Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822
<draft-ietf-kille-x_400mapping-05.txt>
(iplpdn) o Management Information Base for Frame Relay DTEs
<draft-ietf-iplpdn-frmib-02.txt>
(pppext) o The PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP)
<draft-ietf-pppext-ipcp-02.txt>
(dhc) o Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
<draft-ietf-dhc-protocol-01.txt, .ps>
(smtpext) o SMTP Extensions for Transport of Enhanced Text-Based
Messages
<draft-ietf-smtpext-8bittransport-02.txt>
(mospf) o Multicast Extensions to OSPF
<draft-ietf-mospf-multicast-01.ps>
(disi) o A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations
<draft-ietf-disi-catalog-01.txt>
(pppext) o The PPP Authentication Protocols
<draft-ietf-pppext-authentication-01.txt>
(rreq) o IP Forwarding Table MIB
<draft-ietf-rreq-forwarding-04.txt>
(cat) + Distributed Authentication Security Service
<draft-ietf-cat-dass-00.txt, .ps>
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(isis) + Integrated IS-IS Management Information Base
<draft-ietf-isis-mib-00.txt>
(e2e) + TCP Extensions for High Delay*Bandwidth Paths
<-No Internet Draft>
(none) + Experiences Supporting By-Request Circuit-Switched
T3 Networks
<draft-nicholson-conditioning-00.txt>
(none) + Multiprotocol Interconnect on X.25 and ISDN in the
Packet Mode
<draft-ietf-iplpdn-x25_isdn-00.txt>
(tcplw) + TCP Extensions for High Performance
<draft-ietf-tcplw-tcpext-00.txt>
(822ext) + Representation of Non-ASCII Text in Internet Message
Headers
<draft-ietf-822ext-msghead-00.txt>
7. Eleven (11) RFC's this month
(Standard (S), Proposed Standard (PS), Draft Standard (DS),
Experimental (E), Informational (I) )
RFC Status WG Title
--------- -- -------- ---------------------------------------------
RFC1108 PS () U.S. Department of Defense Security Options
for the Internet Protocol
RFC1271 PS (rmonmib) Remote Network Monitoring Management
Information Base
RFC1272 I (acct) Internet Accounting: Background
RFC1273 I () A Measurement Study of Changes in
Service-Level Reachability in the Global
TCP/IP Internet: Goals, Experimental Design,
Implementation, and Policy Considerations
RFC1274 PS () The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema
RFC1275 I (osids) Replication and Distributed Operations
Extensions to Provide an Internet Directory
using X.500
RFC1276 PS (osids) Replication and Distributed Operations
extensions to Provide an Internet Directory
RFC1277 PS (osids) Encoding Network Addresses to support
operation over non-OSI lower layers
RFC1278 I (osids) A string encoding of Presentation Address
RFC1279 E (osids) X.500 and Domains
RFC1281 I (spwg) Guidelines for the Secure Operation of the
Internet
8. IETF Submission to the First Internet Society Newsletter
This is the first report on the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) in an Internet Society publication. Therefore, I'd like to
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Internet Monthly Report November 1991
start by saying how exciting it is for the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG) and IETF to be part of the formation of a new
professional society concerned with something very important to us
all -- the global communications network called the Internet. The
IETF has played a key role under the Internet Activities Board
(IAB) in many important Internet development activities. We all
look forward to working within the Internet Society in the future.
Since this is an initial report on the IETF, I feel it is important
to give an overview of the IETF, how it operates, and how to become
more involved in the open IETF activities. I will also give a
brief report on the most recent IETF meeting, which took place in
November 1991 in Santa Fe New Mexico, USA.
IETF Overview
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol
engineering, development, and standardization arm of the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB). The IETF began in January 1986 as a
forum for technical coordination by contractors for the U.S.
Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET,
U.S. Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway
system. Since that time, the IETF has grown into a large open
international community of network designers, operators, vendors,
and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet
protocol architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.
The IETF mission includes:
1. Identifying and proposing solutions to pressing operational
and technical problems in the Internet,
2. Specifying the development (or usage) of protocols and the
near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for
the Internet,
3. Making recommendations to the IAB regarding standardization
of protocols and protocol usage in the Internet,
4. Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research
Task Force to the wider Internet community, and
5. Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the
Internet community between vendors, users, researchers,
agency contractors, and network managers.
Technical activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed
within Working Groups (WG). All Working Groups are organized
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Internet Monthly Report November 1991
roughly by function into nine technical areas. Each is led by an
Area Director who has primary responsibility for that one area of
IETF activity. Together with the Chair of the IETF, these nine
technical Directors (plus, a director for Standards Procedures)
compose the IESG.
The current Areas and Directors, which compose the IESG, are:
IETF and IESG Chair: Phill Gross/ANS
Applications: Russ Hobby/UC-Davis
Internet: Noel Chiappa/Consultant
Philip Almquist/Consultant
Network Management: James Davin/ MIT
OSI Integration: David Piscitello/Bellcore
Ross Callon/DEC (retiring)
Operational Requirements: Susan Estrada/CERFnet
Phill Gross/ANS
Bernard Stockman/Nordunet
Routing: Robert Hinden/BBN
Security: Steve Crocker/TIS
Transport and Services Dave Borman/Cray Research
User Services Joyce Reynolds/ISI
Standards Management: Dave Crocker/DEC
The IETF has a secretariat, headquartered at the Corporation for
National Research Initiatives in Reston Virginia, with the
following staff:
IETF Executive Director: Steve Coya
IESG Secretary: Greg Vaudreuil
IETF Coordination: Megan Davies
Administrative Support: Debra Legare
Cynthia Clark
The Working Groups conduct business during plenary meetings of the
IETF, during meetings outside of the IETF, and via electronic mail
on mailing lists established for each group.
The IETF holds 4.5 day plenary sessions three times a year. These
plenary meetings are composed of Working Group sessions, technical
presentations, network status briefings, WG reporting, and an open
IESG meeting. A Proceeding of each IETF plenary is published,
which includes reports from each area, each WG, and each technical
presentation. The Proceedings includes a summary of all current
standardization activities.
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Mailing Lists
Much of the daily work of the IETF is conducted on electronic
mailing lists. There are mailing lists for each of the Working
Groups, as well as a general IETF list. Mail on the Working Group
mailing lists is expected to be technically relevant to the Working
Groups supported by that list.
To join a mailing list, send a request to the associated request
list. All internet mailing lists have a companion "-request" list.
Send requests to join a list to <listname>-request@<listhost>.
Information and logistics about upcoming meetings of the IETF are
distributed on the general IETF mailing list. For general
inquiries about the IETF, send a request to ietf-request@isi.edu.
An archive of mail sent to the IETF list is available for anonymous
ftp from the directory ~ftp/irg/ietf on venera.isi.edu
On Line IETF Information
The Internet Engineering Task Force maintains up-to-date on-line
information on all its activities. There is a directory containing
Internet-Draft documents and a directory containing IETF working
group information. All this information is available in identical
format for public access at several locations globally. (See below
for locations.)
The "IETF" directory contains a general description of the IETF,
summaries of ongoing working group activities and provides
information on past and upcoming meetings. The directory generally
reflects information contained in the most recent IETF Proceedings
and Working Group Reports.
The "Internet-Drafts" directory makes available for review and
comment draft documents that will be submitted ultimately to the
IAB for standardization and/or submitted to the RFC Editor to be
considered for publishing as an RFC. Comments on Internet-Drafts
from the wider Internet community (i.e., in addition to those
attending the WG sessions at the IETF plenaries) are strongly
encouraged and should be addressed to the responsible person whose
name and electronic mail addresses are listed on the first page of
the respective draft.
The IETF Directory
Below is a list of the files available in the IETF directory and a
short synopsis of what each file contains.
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Files prefixed with a 0 contain information about upcoming
meetings. Files prefixed with a 1 contain general information
about the IETF, the working groups, and the internet-drafts.
FILE NAME
0mtg-agenda the current agenda for the upcoming quarterly
IETF plenary, which contains what Working Groups
will be meeting and at what times, and the
technical presentations and network status
reports to be given.
0mtg-logistics the announcement for the upcoming quarterly
IETF plenary, which contains specific
information on the date/location of the meeting,
hotel/airline arrangements, meeting site
accommodations and travel directions.
0mtg-rsvp a standardized RSVP form to be used to notify
the support staff of your plans to attend the
upcoming IETF meeting.
0mtg-schedule current and future meeting dates and sites for
IETF plenaries.
1id-abstracts the internet drafts current on-line in the
internet-drafts directory.
1id-guidelines instructions for authors of internet drafts.
1ietf-overview a short description of the IETF, the IESG and how
to participate.
1wg-summary a listing of all current Working Groups, the
working group chairmen and their email addresses,
working group mailing list addresses, and,
where applicable, documentation produced. This
file also contains the standard acronym for the
working groups by which the IETF and Internet-Drafts
directories are keyed.
Finally, Working Groups have individual files dedicated to their
particular activities which contain their respective Charters and
Meeting Reports. Each Working Group file is named in this fashion:
<standard wg abbreviation>-charter.txt
<standard wg abbreviation>-minutes-date.txt
Using FTP, the "dir" or "ls" command will permit you to review what
Working Group files are available.
The Internet-Drafts Directory
The Internet-Drafts directory contains the current working
documents of the IETF. These documents are indexed in the file
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1id-abstracts.txt in the Internet-Drafts directory.
The documents are named according to the following conventions. If
the document was generated in an IETF working group, the filename
is:
draft-ietf-<std wg abrev>-<docname>-<rev>.txt , or .ps
where <std wg abrev> is the working group acronym, <docname> is a
very short name, and <rev> is the revision number.
If the document was submitted for comment by a non-ietf group or
author, the filename is:
draft-<org>-<author>-<docname>-<rev>.txt, or .ps
where <org> is the organization sponsoring the work and <author> is
the author's name.
For more information on writing and installing an Internet-Draft,
see the file 1id-guidelines, "Guidelines to Authors of Internet-
Drafts".
Directory Locations
The directories are maintained primarily at the NSFnet Service
Center (NNSC). There are several official "shadow" machines which
contain the IETF and INTERNET-DRAFTS directories in identical
format. These machines may be more convenient than nnsc.nsf.nsf.
(Plus, there are numerous "unofficial" sites, that may also be more
convenient for specific users.)
To access these directories, use FTP. After establishing a
connection, Login with username ANONYMOUS and password GUEST. When
logged in, change to the directory of your choice with the
following commands:
cd internet-drafts cd ietf
Individual files can then be retrieved using the GET command:
get <remote filename> <local filename>
e.g., get 00README readme.my.copy
IETF Directory Locations
NSF Network Service Center Address: nnsc.nsf.net
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The Defense Data Network NIC Address: nic.ddn.mil
Internet-drafts are also available by mail server from this
machine. For more information mail a request:
To: service@nic.ddn.mil
Subject: Help
NIC staff are happy to assist users with any problems that they
may encounter in the process of obtaining files by FTP or
"SERVICE". For assistance, phone the NIC hotline at
1-800-235-3155 between 6 am and 5 pm Pacific time.
Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au
The Internet-drafts on this machine are stored in Unix
compressed form (.Z).
Europe Address: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)
Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US)
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INTERNET PROJECTS
-----------------
BARRNET
-------
BARRNet connected two new sites at 56kbps and one site at T1 in
November, bringing the total connected BARRNet membership to 105.
One of the connected sites was the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District, the first local government organization to join BARRNet.
BARRNet also deployed the first new low-cost IP router manufactured
by Network Application Technology, which has reduced the cost for
an all-hardware-provided 56kbps connection to $6500 from over
$10,000.
by Paul Baer <baer@jessica.stanford.edu>
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.
----------------------------
Terrestrial Wideband Network (TWBNet)
During November, the TWBNet backbone nodes were upgraded with
intelligent I/O interfaces (BI4s) for the trunk connections and a
new software release. In early December, BBN will be tuning
internal operating parameters and conducting performance tests.
The resulting high-speed Dual Bus Protocol (DBP) subsystem will
provide:
* Decreased end-to-end delay across the network: Currently,
each frame sees not only propagation delay but also a per-
WPS-hop delay of 21.5 milliseconds. With the new hardware,
the per-hop delay will drop to 6 milliseconds. The Boston
to LA end-to-end delay is reduced by 77.5 milliseconds to
66 milleseconds (a 54% improvement).
* Better trunk line bandwidth utilization and finer-grain
allocation of stream capacity, hence higher available
throughput: The new hardware allows us to use 548 byte
cells which are about half the current cell size.
* Increased tolerance to trunk line noise and errors: The BI4
DBP implementation includes a better Phase Lock Loop
algorithm for long-term frame timing.
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In addition to these performance improvements, the new release
contains two other enhancements. First, it supports running the
TWBNet monitoring and control system on either a SPARC or SUN3
platform. Second, priority handling has been extended to cover
discarding during overload: lower priority traffic is always
discarded first. This change allows the network to better support
conferencing gateways which are connected by lower speed lines,
e.g., 256Kbps, and which carry both IP and ST traffic.
Inter-Domain Policy Routing
During the month of November, we resumed work on IDPR. Our near-
term goal is technology transfer, namely making IDPR available in
the Internet. To this end, we have been working on the gated
version of the IDPR software with SAIC, who is leading the gated
development effort. We have concentrated our efforts on
configuration, designing a user interface, a parser, the database,
and the interfaces between the IDPR functions and the database.
ST Conferencing
During November, the TWB backbone WPSs were upgraded with BI4
processors, and conferencing personnel and equipment were involved
in extensive release and operational testing. Conferencing
continued to run successfully after the upgrade. One week of the
month was reserved for this upgrade. A total of 7 video
conferences and 11 scheduled test conferences were conducted during
November. Two conferences involved three sites, and five
conferences were point-to-point. Some of the sponsored events
included an ICB meeting at ISI, a seminar conducted with UCL
including the University of London Livenet network, and a DISA
meeting.
Ft. Leavenworth was not reconnected to the TWB as a conferencing
site during November, because the T1 tail circuit to the TWB was
not yet available. The RIACS conferencing site announced an
impending move in December. A new location for that conference
center is still under investigation. Present conferencing sites
include Los Alamos, RIACS, ISI, DARPA, RADC, BBN, UCL London and
WPC Germany. To schedule a video conference, please send mail
video-conf-request@bbn.com.
Jil Westcott (westcott@bbn.com)
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CONCERT
-------
SAS Institute, Inc. was added to the CONCERT network during the
month of November and now has Internet access.
Four members of the CONCERT staff attended the IETF and FARNET
meetings in Santa Fe.
The CONCERT staff held a full day tutorial on LAN technology for
representatives from several of the smaller North Carolina Colleges
which will soon be connecting to the CONCERT network. This is one
in a series of tutorials to be presented by the CONCERT staff to
assist the schools in setting up their local networks and
connecting to the CONCERT network.
During the past month, CONCERT researchers have sucessfully
demonstrated full motion video conferencing over a local ethernet
network. They have achieved near broadcast quality video and audio
teleconferencing over an existing workstation network. The
prototype consists of video cameras, microphones, and monitors
connected to two Compression Labs (CLI) Rembrant II/VP codecs. The
codecs are connected via RS-449/422 interfaces to modified 3COM
cards in a pair of IBM RS6000s. The RS6000s communicate via
standard TCP/IP. The output of the CLI codecs is a constant bit
stream at 640Kbps in each direction, corresponding to 12% of the
available ethernet bandwidth. The video conferencing and normal
computer traffic co-exist on the local area network without
impacting the quality of service for the workstation users. Future
plans include expanding from a local area network to a wide area
network, moving the display from an external monitor to the display
of the workstation, and expanding from point-to-point conferencing
to multisite multi-user conferencing. These aspects will require
significant research into the communications protocols at both the
network and transport layer. Bandwidth reservation expansions for
IP, multicast for TCP/IP, and network latency control will be
investigated.
With NSF sponsorship, MCNC and the CONCERT network will host a
workshop on Teleconferencing and Packet Video scheduled for
December 10 and 11. The workshop will focus on on-going packet
video projects, networking issues, compression and workstation
technology, and current videoconferencing capabilities.
by Tom Sandoski <tom@concert.net>
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CSUNET (THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NETWORK)
-----------------------------------------------
The California State University network connected the Los Angeles
County Office of Education. LACOE plans to interconnect most of
its ninety-five school districts which comprise over one-thousand
schools in the LA, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.
Mike Marcinkevicz (mdm@CSU.net)
FARNET (FEDERATION OF AMERICAN RESEARCH NETWORKS)
-------------------------------------------------
FARNET held its quarterly meeting on Nov. 18-19 in Santa Fe, NM,
concurrently with the IETF. Highlights of this meeting included a
lively panel discussion on the question, "What IS Hardening the
Network?" with presenters from NSF, NASA, DOE, IETF, and FARNET.
We also had a visit from the Mystery User, who has proposed 10 new
SDECs (Simple Diagnostic Error Codes) to assist the unwary in
making sense of the Internet. SDEC 01, for example, is "The
hardware is bad." An 11th SDEC was proposed and adopted at the
meeting. SDEC 11 is "The user is bad." Other presentations
included: building and using trouble ticket systems (NEARnet),
managing outsourcing contracts (CICnet and NYSERNet), training the
customer (PSI), and analyzing network performance (CICnet/AT&T).
FARNET is working with NSF, the mission agencies, the IETF, and
other interested groups to establish well understood performance
requirements for network services. We will also be investigating
new tools and procedures to improve network management and
operations.
On November 1 FARNET released an RFI for partners in responding to
the forthcoming NSF solicitation for Interim NREN Network
Information Services.
NYSERNet and NorthWestNet have published excellent resource
directories for new Internet users. Contact FARNET for details.
Information about FARNET can be obtained by anonymous ftp from host
FARNET.ORG in the farnet directories.
NREN lives!
Laura Breeden (breeden@farnet.org)
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GAO (Government Accounting Office)
---------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 91 16:10:44 -0500
From: KH3@CU.NIH.GOV
Subject: GAO Reports
December 4, 1991
Dear Internet or Bitnet Interest Group Moderator,
Two additional U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reports are
available over the Internet in our continuing test to determine
whether there is sufficient interest within this community to
warrant making all GAO reports available over the Internet. They
may be of interest to your group.
The reports are in ASCII text format and available in the
Anonymous FTP directory GAO-REPORTS at the NIH computer center
(CU.NIH.GOV). Use the FTP TEXT mode for down loading.
1. High Performance Computing: Industry Uses of Supercomputers
and High-Speed Networks, GAO/IMTEC-91-58, July 1991.
Provides examples of how various industries are using
supercomputers; identifies barriers preventing the increased
use of supercomputers; and provides examples of how certain
industries are using and benefiting from high-speed networks.
(This report is identified as IMTEC-91.R58 in the FTP
directory, and is 104,998 bytes or 1,966 lines long.)
2. High Performance Computing: High-Speed Computer Networks in
the United States, Europe, and Japan, GAO/IMTEC-91-69,
September 1991. Provides information on United States,
European, and Japanese efforts to develop high-speed computer
networks. (This report is named IMTEC-91.R69 in the FTP
directory, and is 162,584 bytes or 2,856 lines long.)
The Anonymous FTP directory also contains 7 earlier reports, which
are described in the file named REPORTS. A list of GAO reports
released since September 1991 is in the file named A-LIST; it is
updated every week or two.
Cooper [Page 33]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
So that we can keep a count of report recipients, and your
reaction, please send an E-Mail message to KH3@CU.NIH.GOV and
include, along with your E-Mail address, the following
information:
1) Your organization.
2) Your position/title and name (optional).
3) The title/report number of the above reports you have
retrieved electronically or ordered by mail or phone.
4) Whether you have ever obtained a GAO report before.
5) Whether you have copied a report onto another bulletin
board--if so, which report and bulletin board.
6) Other GAO report subjects you would be interested in. GAO's
reports cover a broad range of subjects such as major
weapons systems, energy, financial institutions, and
pollution control.
7) Any additional comments or suggestions.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jack L. Brock, Jr.
Director,
Government Information and Financial
Management Issues
Information Management and Technology Division
ISI
---
GIGABIT NETWORKING
INFRASTRUCTURE
Joyce Reynolds, Bob Braden, and Jon Postel, attended the IETF
meeting in Santa Fe, NM, November 18 - Nov. 22.
11 RFCs were published this month.
RFC 1270: Kastenholz, F., "SNMP Communications Services"
Clearpoint Research Corporation, October 1991
Cooper [Page 34]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
RFC 1271: Waldbusser, S., "Remote Network Monitoring
Management Information Base", November 1991.
RFC 1272: Mills, C., (BBN), D. Hirsh (Meridian Tech),
G. Ruth (BBN), "INTERNET ACCOUNTING: BACKGROUND"
November 1991.
RFC 1273: Schwartz, M., "A Measurement Study of Changes in
Service-Level Reachability in the Global TCP/IP
Internet: Goals, Experimental Design, Implementation,
and Policy Considerations", University of Colorado,
November 1991.
RFC 1274: Barker, P., S. Kille, "The COSINE and Internet
X.500 Schema", University College London,
November 1991.
RFC 1275: Hardcastle-Kille, S.E., "Replication Requirements to
Provide an Internet Directory Using X.500", University
College London, November 1991.
RFC 1276: Hardcastle-Kille, "Replication and Distributed
Operations Extensions to Provide an Internet
Directory Using X.500
RFC 1277: Hardcastle-Kille, "Encoding Network Addresses to
Support Operation Over non-OSI Lower Layers, University
College London, November 1991.
RFC 1278: Hardcastle-Kille, "A String Encoding of Presentation
Address", University College London, November 1991.
RFC 1279: Hardcastle-Kille, "X.500 and Domains", University
College London, November 1991.
RFC 1281: "Pethia, R., (Software Engineering Inst.), S. Crocker
(Trusted Info. Systems), B. Fraser (Software
Engineering Inst.), "Guidelines for the Secure
Operation of The Internet" November 1991.
PAPERS PUBLISHED
Finn, G., "An Integration of Network Communication with Workstation
Architecture Computer Communication Review", Vol. 21,
No. 5, October 1991, pp. 18-27.
Ann Westine Cooper (Cooper@ISI.EDU)
Cooper [Page 35]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING
At the IETF meeting in Santa Fe, a BOF session was held to explore
teleconferencing in the Internet. Several areas of interest were
identified, one of which was deemed ready for a working group. The
Audio/Video Transport WG, chaired by Steve Casner, will specify
protocols for real-time transmission of audio and video over UDP to
foster interoperation among experimental systems. Discussion of
this WG can be followed by subscribing to rem-conf-request@es.net.
A new technical report was published this month, "A Distributed
Architecture for Multimedia Conference Control". It can be
retrieved electronically via anonymous FTP from venera.isi.edu.
The file is located in the pub directory as mmc-mmcc.ps along with
other mmc-* documents (see mmc-README for further details).
Steve Casner, Eve Schooler (casner@ISI.EDU, schooler@ISI.EDU)
JVNCNET
-------
I. General information
A. How to reach us:
1-800-35-TIGER (from anywhere in the United States)
E-MAIL:
NOC: noc@jvnc.net
Service desk: service@jvnc.net
US MAIL:
Princeton University
B6 von Neumann Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
(Director: Sergio Heker)
B. Hours
NOC: 24 hours/day, seven days a week
Service desk: 9:00 to 5:00 pm, M - F (except holidays)
C. Other info available on-line from NICOL
Telnet to nicol.jvnc.netS.
Login ID is nicol and no password.
Cooper [Page 36]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
II. New Information
A. RFCs on-line
To obtain RFCs from the official JvNCnet repository
(two methods)
ftp nicol.jvnc.net; username: nicol; password: <your
email address>
RFC automailer
Send email to sendrfc@jvnc.net. Subject line is RFCxxxx.
xxxx represents the RFC number. RFCs with three digits
only need three digits in the request.
B. Operational information
JvNCnet availability for October is 99.95%.
C. New on-line members
Seton Hall University, Madison, NJ
St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ
The College of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, NJ
Monmouth College, Longbranch, NJ
Drew University, Madison, NJ
William Paterson College, Paterson, NJ
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Ramapo College, Ramapo, NJ
Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, PA.
Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ
Atlantic County Community College, Mays Landing, NJ
Advanced Media Laboratory of Samsung Electronics,
Lawrenceville, NJ
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
D. JvNCnet Members Meeting
The next members meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 17,
1992 at Lewis Thomas Laboratory Auditorium 003 (Washington Road,
Princeton University). In addition to parallel sessions
including X.500 directory service, engineering enhancements for
gateway and host services, member requests for additional
information services, Switched Multi-Data System and Frame Relay
tutorials will be presented. Agenda and travel information are
being prepared for electronic dissemination and regular mailing.
For further information, please send email to hammer@jvnc.net.
Cooper [Page 37]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
E. JvNCnet Symposium Series
New Internet users will receive an opportunity to learn about
helpful Internet-accessible applications, for more efficiency
and productivity, as well as network services by attending the
JvNCnet Symposium, NETWORK APPLICATIONS,on Friday, January 24,
1992 at Lewis Thomas Laboratory Auditorium 003, Washington Road,
Princeton University. A finalized agenda is expected shortly.
Please send inquiries to pihl@jvnc.net.
F. Megabytes newsletter
The fall 1991 issue has been published (volume 1, issue 2). A
postscript file is available via anonymous ftp to nicol.jvnc.net
under nicol/megabytes directory. If you want your name added to
the mailing list, please send email to megabytes-
request@jvnc.net.
by Rochelle Hammer (hammer@jvnc.net)
LOS NETTOS
----------
OSPF testing continues
Plans are in progress to provide an alternate EGP peer to the San
Diego NSS for Los Nettos route and to load share across the peers.
This will give us a backup if the primary EGP peer session fails.
A new accounting system for Los Nettos is almost complete. The old
system has been running on a Tops 20 machine which is being shut
down.
Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU)
MERIT/MICHNET
-------------
As of December 1, 1991, MichNet will implement PPP Authorization in
the network. Any PPP user will be able to authorize for basic
service (within Michigan and Net 35) or full service. Full service
authorizers must have an account on an accredited host.
As part of our continuing work to upgrade the network backbone,
many of our links have been upgraded in the past few months.
Several more link improvements are planned for the near future.
The network link between Central Michigan University in Mount
Cooper [Page 38]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
Pleasant and Michigan State University in East Lansing was upgraded
from 9600 to 56 thousand bits per second early in the fall.
Links between the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Western
Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and between Wayne State
University in Detroit and Oakland University in Rochester have been
upgraded from 56 thousand bits per second to T1 (1.5 million bits
per second).
The Grand Rapids Regional Center is enjoying improved connections
with the rest of the network now that the 9600 bits per second link
with Michigan State has been upgraded to 56 thousand bits per
second.
The link to Saginaw Valley State University has been upgraded from
9600 to 56,000 bits per second.
New Affiliates: Warner Lambert Parke-Davis of Ann Arbor has become
MichNet's newest affiliate.
Conferences: Many MichNet staff members attended conferences in
October and November. Laura Bollettino and Ellen Hoffman attended
Educom. Pat McGregor attended ACM SIGUCCS. Chris Weider, Ellen
Hoffman, Dale Johnson, Allan Rubens, Glenn McGregor, and Larry
Blunk attended IETF. Jeff Ogden, Dale Johnson, and Ellen Hoffman
attended FARNET. Mark Davis-Craig presented at the Merit Seminar in
Baltimore, and afterward attended the SURANet regional meeting.
Reorganization: Merit Network, Inc. has had some internal
reorganization in the past few months. Jeff Ogden is now the Merit
Associate Director for MichNet. The NSFNET Information Services
group and the MichNet Technical Support group have been reorganized
into a new Network Information Center, managed by Ellen Hoffman,
formerly assistant to Merit's president. Scott Gerstenberger has
become Associate Director for UMnet, the campus network of the
University of Michigan.
by Pat McGregor <patmcg@merit.edu>
NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK)
---------------------------------------------------
NEARnet has grown to 108 members.
The fifth NEARnet Technical and User Seminar will be held on
December 12, 1991 at the Brandeis University Events Center in
Waltham, Massachusetts.
Cooper [Page 39]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
The tenth issue of the electronic bulletin "NEARnet This Month" has
been distributed. Past issues of the bulletin are available via
anonymous FTP at nic.near.net, in the directory
/newsletters/nearnet_this_month.
John Curran attended the FARNET meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico and
spoke about the value of each regional network establishing
membership agreements with their clients. Dan Long also attended
the FARNET meeting and presented an overview of the NEARnet Trouble
Tracking System and the UCP Working Group activities.
by John Rugo <jrugo@nic.near.net
NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC.
----------------------------------------
John Curran attended the User Services Working Group at the IETF in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
On behalf of the NNSC, John Rugo gave a presentation on the
Internet at a meeting sponsored by the Boston Chapter of the
Special Libraries Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Corinne Carroll <ccarroll@nnsc.nsf.net>
NSFNET/ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING
----------------------------------
Summary
During November the T3 backbone network continued to perform well,
with significantly fewer outages and new problems than had been
experienced in prior months. Some new enhancements were applied,
and some remaining problems were resolved in preparation for the
transition to support a full load of traffic. The T1 backbone
still exhibits some congestion, although several problems were
resolved which has reduced the severity of the connectivity and
performance problems. We are planning for a change freeze and
"stability period" during which no changes will be made to the T3
backbone. Attached NSF midlevel and regional networks will be
solicited to introduce an artificial load of traffic onto the T3
backbone to experiment with the routing conversion and migration
plan. Following the stability test period and the correction of
any problems that are identified during this period, traffic can be
moved over from the T1 to T3 backbone.
Cooper [Page 40]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
T1 Backbone Update
The T1 backbone NSS's have been experiencing loss of EGP sessions
with several regional network peers. This problem has diminished at
several sites with the installation of new RT kernel (build 277)
software that contains some buffering enhancements, and ethernet
and token ring driver performance enhancements. The buffering
changes also fix a problem that caused delays in getting link state
changes announced to the rest of the nodes in the backbone in a
timely fashion. This software build has been deployed throughout
the T1 backbone NSS's, including the split-EPSPs nodes located at
remote sites (eg. CERN, Switzerland). However even with these
changes, we continue to experience some EGP session loss problems
which we have isolated to exist within the RCP node within he NSS.
For reasons that have not yet been determined, the RCP will
occasionally delay sending responses to EGP packets for up to
several minutes at a time. We have installed a new version of the
rcp_routed software that has improved diagnostic capabilities to
help identify the exact cause of the problem.
T3 Backbone Update
IBGP Disconnect Problem
We were observing occaisional disconnects of the Internal Border
Gateway Protocol (IBGP) sessions between ENSS and CNSS nodes in the
T3 system. This problem was due to a faulty DS3 interface
adapter/DSU hardware pair on the T3 backbone link between Chicago
and Cleveland. Packets traversing this link in the westward
direction occasionally became altered in a systematic pattern of
byte reordering such that the data passed the TCP checksum at the
IBGP receiver end. The BGP protocol handler detected the
corruption and dropped the session. This problem stopped occurring
once this link was rehomed to a different interface at the Chicago
POP. We also plan to improve the link level error detection before
cutting the bulk of the traffic to the T3 network.
Safety Net
Safety Net represents the addition of 12 T1 links interconnecting
the core backbone router CNSS nodes that also support T3 links.
These safety net links are installed between the POP sites and do
not connect to the ENSS nodes. Currently 10 of these 12 links are
fully installed and configured. The T1 link metrics are designed
so that a T1 path is used only if all other T3 paths to adjacent
CNSS nodes become unreachable. This has already proven useful on a
few occasions, including one where the T1/T3 interconnect gateway
lost its T3 connectivity. The T1 link allowed the gateway to
Cooper [Page 41]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
function with no interruption of service or session loss, although
performance was not optimal because of the delays due to congestion
on this link. The remaining two T1 links will be installed in mid-
December.
T1/T3 Interconnect Gateways
The routing design for load sharing among the T1/T3 interconnect
gateways (at Ann Arbor, Houston and San Diego) is nearly complete
and we expect to enable this in December. This requires a small
amount of work to the policy routing configuration database
procedures to allow a bulk update of network numbers to be
administered. This introduced in two phases where T3 routes will
first be split across the interconnect gateways in the
announcements to the T1 backbone, and then the same procedure will
subsequently be administered on the T3 backbone. The process will
take a week or so to complete, and we expect this to occur without
undue downtime.
Route Loss
A new problem with routing on T3 has surfaced during November. On
about 5 occasions in November, a CNSS or ENSS router in the T3
system lost some of the networks in its routing tables, requiring a
manual reset of the routing software. During one such recent event
we determined that the rcp_routed software did not correctly
identify the status of an external peer session which caused the
route loss to occur. A fix has been applied to the rcp_routed
software to correct this and continue to watch for any recurrence
of this problem. We are running a shell script that identifies if
a node loses routes, to allow the NOC to correct this in a timely
fashion. The NOC will continue to gather logging and routing table
dumps to be analyzed if this problem happens again. This problem
must be solved as a pre-requisite prior to the "stability week"
period.
New External BGP Peers
Several sites have been cooperating with us to establish external
BGP peer sessions with the T3 system. This is helping to reduce
the volume of traffic associated with large external routing
updates. Several router vendors have cooperated in fixing problems
and are helping us to tune these implementations. We are pleased
with the results so far, and we continue to encourage peer networks
to support BGP routing exchanges with us.
Cooper [Page 42]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
Phase III T3 Network Preparation
C-Bit Parity
C-Bit parity provides real-time end-to-end performance monitoring
and link error reporting for DS3 circuits (similar to ESF on T1).
Work is now underway to implement and test the C-Bit Parity feature
on the DS-3 links and DSU interfaces. New non-intrusive C-Bit
parity monitoring units are being installed on the MCI provided
transmission facilities allow real time link problems to be
isolated out-of-band from a remote monitoring center.
RS/960 DS3 Cards
Testing is in progress for the new RS/960 "smart" cards for the
RS/6000 routers. These new DS3 interfaces and DSU cards will allow
card-to-card transfer of packets across the microchannel without
involving the RS/6000 system processor. The new cards will also
allow a configuration of 5 interfaces to be installed per node
rather than 4. This introduces new options for the CNSS router
configuration within the POP sites. The current estimated
timeframe for begining the RS/960 card installations is
February/March 1992, contingent upon the completion of the current
T3 network stabilization activities. The installations will be
administered in a phased fashion to minimize disruption of the
production network. Enhanced testing in the labs and on the
research network will be done in a detailed fashion. Lab testing
has proceeded smoothly an the wide area test network test plan is
being finalized now.
Mark Knopper, Merit Network Inc., (mak@merit.edu)
Jordan Becker, Advanced Network & Services, Inc., (becker@ans.net)
NSFNET/INFORMATION SERVICES
---------------------------
During November 1991, 11,223,611,197 inbound packets traversed the
T1 and T3 infrastructures, a 0.4% decrease from October's
11,267,961,959 combined inbound packet traffic.
NSFNET T1 infrastructure traffic totaled 10,112,861,182 inbound
packets, including traffic entering from the T3 network. Networks
announced to the T1 NSFNET now number 3,751, with 1,302 foreign
networks as part of this total.
Traffic on the T3 infrastructure totaled 1,586,680,321 inbound
packets, including traffic entering from the T1 network. At the
close of November, 907 networks have announcement to the T3
Cooper [Page 43]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
infrastructure.
Merit has received an additional $754,701 under the National
Science Foundation cooperative agreement to provide T3 connectivity
to two NASA sites, the NASA-Ames Research Center and NASA-Goddard
Space Flight Center. These connections, one directly to Ames and a
second for Goddard at College Park, will be implemented in early
1992. This brings Merit's total NSFNET award to $28,754,701 over
five years.
Susan Calcari, of Merit/NSFNET Information Services, gave an
overview of the NSFNET project and internet resources to the Human
Factors Society in New York City. The fall meeting of SIGUCCS in
Seattle was attended by Pat Smith and Laura Kelleher of
Merit/NSFNET Information Services. A member of the Networking Task
Force Working Group, Smith spoke on Internet resources. The FARNET
and IETF meetings in Sante Fe were well attended by Merit/NSFNET
staff. Mark Knopper, manager of Internet Engineering, and Ellen
Hoffman, manager of Information Services, represented Merit at
FARNET. Knopper gave update presentations on the NSFNET
infrastructures to FARNET and IETF sessions. Smith is active on
the USWG, co-chairing the NISI Working Group. Sue Hares and
Jessica Yu, Internet Engineering, and Dale Johnson, manager of the
Network Operations Center, also attended IETF proceedings. Elise
Gerich of Internet Engineering, was the Merit/NSFNET representative
to the IEPG meeting, also held in Santa Fe. Technical support for
the T1 network at Super Computing '91 in Albuquerque was provided
by John Scudder of Merit/Internet Engineering. The fall meeting of
the Coalition for Networked Information in Arlington, VA was
attended by Kelleher, who participates in the Directories and
Resource Information Services working group.
The November Merit Networking Seminar held in College Park, MD, was
well received by over 120 registrants. The next Merit Networking
Seminar is scheduled for April 13-14, 1992 in Las Vegas, NV.
Seminar information is available from 1-800-66-MERIT or electronic
mail to seminar@merit.edu.
Jo Ann Ward (jward@merit.edu)
PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER
--------------------------------
The PSC has signed an agreement with Cray Research, Inc. to replace
the center's Cray Y-MP8 system with the newly announced Cray Y-MP
C90. The agreement provides that the PSC will receive the first
C90 available to a non-government research center. Delivery is
scheduled for October of 1992. The C90 has sixteen processing
Cooper [Page 44]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
units, twice as many as the Y-MP8. Each processor is capable of
performing a billion calculations per second. It will come
configured with 256 million words, (2 billion bytes) of memory,
eight times that of the Y-MP8, and will be upgraded to 512 million
words in 1993.
The PSC's networking staff provided significant contributions to
the design and implementation of the network (SCinet) for the
Supercomputing '91 Conference held November 18-22 in Albequerque,
N.M. These contributions ranged from designing SCinet's internal
FDDI and ethernet infrastructure, providing administrative support
in assigning and tracking network address assginments, host names,
etc, to participating in implementing and running the network at
the conference.
The joint PSC and Lawrence Berkeley Labs booth at the conference
featured a demonstration of the first cross-country real time
imaging application utilizing the Internet, the Cray YMP and the
Thinking Machine's CM-2. The data flow rate achieved by this demo
was limited by the performance of the currently available FDDI
interfaces.
Jamshid Mahdavi of the PSC participated in the Northwest Net
Conference held in Pasco Washington. He spoke about the creation
of the Distributed High Speed Computing Library, (DHSC) and
applications on which he has been working. This library will allow
our users to write applications that can be distributed across the
Cray and the CM.
Gene Hastings participated in a FARNET panel discussion on the
hardening of mid-level networks.
Additions to and requests for Internet connectivity for the month
include five networks through PREPnet regional: Lincoln University,
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Fore Systems, Telebase Systems,
and BIOSYS.
by Stephen Cunningham <cunningham@b.psc.edu>
PREPNET
-------
This report covers PREPnet activities for October and November.
PREPnet has five new members, which brings our total membership to
61. Allegheny College is connected to the Northwest hub via a
56Kbps link. Munin Systems is served by the Pittsburgh hub. Fore
Systems, Inc. will be connected to the Pittsburgh hub via a 56Kbps
Cooper [Page 45]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
link.
Additional new members are Telebase Systems, Inc. and BIOSIS.
Telebase Systems is a commercial information provider whose
product, EasyNet, provides a common interface to more than 850
databases. BIOSIS provides the Life Science Network and Biological
Abstracts as part of EasyNet's service. BIOSIS and Telebase
Systems will be connected to the Philadelphia hub via a 56Kbps
link.
In October, Tom Bajzek represented PREPnet at the EDUCOM meeting.
Tom also spoke about PREPnet and the Internet at the annual
conference of the Appalachian Regional Commission in Knoxville, TN,
where the theme was "Telecommunications for Rural Competitiveness."
In November, PREPnet held its Annual General Member Meeting in
Pittsburgh. Approximately 130 people attended the meeting.
Discussions included national networking issues, how our members
are using their connections, and PREPnet's decision to move to CPE
(Customer Premise Equipment).
The change to CPE moved the demarcation point from the member's
ethernet interface to the end of the circuit at the member's site.
This move affects the initial equipment costs for our members,
since they can now purchase their equipment from several sources;
provides options for maintenance and maintenance costs for their
equipment; and provides flexibility in the use of their equipment.
Marsha Perrott participated in the November IETF in Santa Fe.
During that same week, Tom Bajzek attended the FARNET meeting, also
held in Santa Fe.
PREPnet NIC (prepnet+@andrew.cmu.edu)
SAIC
----
During the month of November we were unable to complete that parser
and kernel portions of the gated implementation as planned because
of unresolved issues in interpretation of the spec and the latest
configuration document. This problem is being resolved and
improved functionality and clearer documentation will result.
Chi Chu, Ken Carlberg, and Robert Woodburn attended the 22nd IETF
in Santa Fe. Discussions in the IDPR Working Group meetings
centered on a few design issues, the functionality in the gated
implementation, and issues related to the Router Requirements
Working Group. The latter included the feasability of IDPR
integration into the IP routing table, ICMP handling in an
Cooper [Page 46]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
encapsulated environment, TTL processing, and IGP interactions.
Chi Chu has been analyzing results of an NVLAP conformance test for
accredidation of a new test facility. Ken Carlberg presented a
paper on mobile hosts at the mobile hosts BOF. The paper is in
draft version and is entitled, "An Architecture That Supports the
Routing of Mobile End Systems". Copies of this document may be
obtained by sending mail to "kgc@cseic.saic.com".
We also welcome a new member of the Network Design and Analysis
group, Treit Lu. Mr. Lu will be developing an Ada API for X.400
services.
Planned Activities:
Completion of the new parser design based on the new configuration
document. When Chi Chu has finished the NVLAP analysis, he will be
able to continue with the IDPR kernel modifications.
Ken Carlberg is planning to begin a prototyping effort based upon
his study of mobile end systems.
Robert Allen Woodburn (woody@cseic.saic.com)
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER
------------------------------
SDSC continues its research efforts in the development of a
systematic methodology for network analysis and performance
testing. Kim Claffy completed the initial draft of a collaborative
effort with colleagues in Japan to characterize international
academic and research traffic between the Asian and American
continents. The paper was introduced at the 13 November IEPG in
Santa Fe by Jun Murai (U-Tokyo). Claffy and Hans-Werner Braun are
also communicating with other researchers about broadening the
scope of the analysis and performance efforts.
On November 6, Hans-Werner Braun attended a Gigabit Testbed Review
in Washington, D.C. as one of the CASA testbed representatives.
Hans-Werner Braun particpated in the 7 Nov 1991 IAB conference
call, as well as the 19 Nov 1991 IAB meeting in Santa Fe. He also
attended the IEPG conference in Santa Fe, NM (November 13-15),
which was partly held in conjunction with the CCIRN. Further
discussions on issues surrounding NREN engineering are continuing,
including at a meeting on 20 November 1991 in Santa Fe. Attendees
were Bob Aiken and George Strawn of NSF, Peter Ford of LANL, and
Hans-Werner Braun.
Cooper [Page 47]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
Active involvement in the Casa Gigabit Testbed effort continues,
and SDSC is hosting a CASA project wide workshop in December. Dan
Massey of SDSC continues to collaborate with LANL on HIPPI network
simulation efforts.
On Dec. 14th, SDSC will be having Flag Day - We will be redoing the
interior routing at SDSC to use EGP as routing protocol, to give
better access to the T3 NSFnet.
SDSC has also started plans for IETF in March 1992, which they will
be hosting. Paul Love attend IETF in Santa Fe, NM.
by Paul Love <loveep@sdsc.edu>
SRI
----
SRI's Network Information System Center (NISC) is currently working
on an update to the TCP/IP CD-ROM and expects it to be available in
January 1992. New information, such as Release 7.0 of the ISODE
software, will be included. Additionally, versions of the document
files will be included that will be easily readable on Macs. We're
open to suggestions for any additional updates and invite users to
contact us with their comments.
The NISC is also developing an Internet User Guide to explain what
the Internet is, how to become a part of it, and what to do once
you're connected. This guide will be available first quarter 1992.
Orders are currently being taken, for the Internet Technology
Series (ITS), which includes the six-volume Internet Technology
Handbook (ITH), the TCP/IP CD-ROM and its update, and the Internet
Technology Subscription. The ITH is a value-added network document
that will update and supercede the 1985 DDN Protocol Handbook.
Each component of the ITS is also available separately.
For more information about these or other hardcopy documents
available from the NISC, call 1-415-859-NETS or send a message to
nisc@nisc.sri.com.
Sue Kirkpatrick (sue@nisc.sri.com)
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SURANET
-------
Technical Meeting
SURAnet held its Technical Meeting on November 12th - 15th at the
Adult Education Center of the University of Maryland at College
Park. Seventy people from all parts of the region attended. The
Technical Meeting followed a joint Merit/SURAnet seminar that was
held at the same location on November 11th and 12th.
IETF & FARnet Meetings
Four members of SURAnet staff attended the IETF meeting in Santa
Fe, New Mexico on November 18th - 22nd as well as the FARnet
meeting also held in Santa Fe on November 18th and 19th.
New Topology:
SURAnet is in the process of establishing a new topology; one which
will consist of collocated equipment at MCI Points of Presence
(POPs) in the Southeast. The majority of SURAnet members will be
directly connected to an MCI POP and each POP will have physical
redundancy. Members will benefit by reduced local loop costs,
enhanced services and improved reliability.
by Peter Liebscher <plieb@sura.net>
UCL
----
Crowcroft & Kirstein attended an ICB meeting at ISI, followed by a
meeting on International Collaboration on Multimedia Tele-
Conferencing. Kirstein also attended the IETF, charing a working
group on ODA and attending a working meeting on Video Conferencing.
UCL demonstrated their ISDN IP gateway at the Esprit week in
Brussels, which was used by several other organisations at the
conference site when the X.25 failed.
Crowcroft presented a paper on Computer Supported Collaborative
Authoring at a DTI CSCW meeting.
John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
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UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
----------------------
1. Work continues on checkout of the NTP Version-3 time daemon
implementation for Unix. A data capture facility has been
implemented in order to properly test and monitor its
operation. Device drivers have been constructed for WWVB and
CHU receivers. The new version is now running in all net-
128.4 Unix platforms.
2. An unexpected opportunity to explore rambunctious protocol-
machine interactions occurred when all timing sources for
DARTNET were lost over the Thanksgiving recess. Latent bugs
were found in the Version-2 implementations, which resulted in
subtle changes to the Version-3 specification, implementation
and simulation utilities.
3. An intricate experiment is being conducted in order to assess
the ultimate accuracy expectations of various timekeeping
platforms and radio clocks available to the Internet
community. The experiment required recalibration of our cesium
clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, together with careful
measurements conducted over the last two months between it and
receivers for GPS, WWVB, WWV and CHU. Preliminary results
confirm that all radios on occasion must be expected to
deviate considerably outside their specified tolerance
envelope, sometimes for exotic cause, even in the case of GPS
receivers. We have found explanations for most of these
deviations, but are still working on the remainder.
4. We are still working on bringing up experiments and video
equipment for DARTNET. Shortly before silicon apparently fried
on our video codec, our pictures were being monitored at MIT.
Repairs are underway.
Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU)
WISCNET
-------
The WiscNet Board met at UW-Platteville on November 7, 1991. Items
considered included reports by the Facility Manager, the Finance
Committee, the Technical Committee, and the User Services
Committte. The Finance and Membership Committees met jointly
before the Board meeting to discuss membership classes, fees, and
backdoor connections. A consensus on backdoor connections was
reached and will be further developed before the next meeting.
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The WiscNet User Services Committee is organizing our first-ever
WiscNet conference entitled "WiscNet: Highway to Resources --
Providing Services Easily and Effectively.", to be held in Stevens
Point Wisconsin on April 27-29, 1992. Paul Evan Peters, Director of
the Coalition for Networked Information will be the keynote
speaker. The conference will be linked to the Wisconsin
Association of Academic Librarians (WAAL) conference, which runs
April 29-May 1.
The Milwaukee School of Engineering, a independent college located
in Milwaukkee Wisconsin, has applied for membership and has been
accepted
Michael Dorl (dorl@vms.macc.wisc.edu)
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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. The current reporters list includes:
o IETF OSIDS Working Group
o IETF DISI Working Group [X]
o Field Operational X.500 Project
- ISI
- Merit [X]
- PSI
- SRI
o National Institute of Standards and Technology [X]
o North American Directory Forum [X]
o OSI Implementor's Workshop [X]
o PARADISE Project
o PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 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)
[X] indicates no report this month
Tom Tignor (tpt2@isi.edu)
DS Report Coordinator
IETF OSIDS WORKING GROUP
------------------------
The OSI-DS WG did not meet in Santa Fe, as it had recently met at
Interop.
The following WG documents have been progressed as RFCs:
RFC 1274: The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema
RFC 1275: Replication Requirements to provide an Internet
Directory using X.500
RFC 1276: Replication and Distributed Operations
extensions to provide an Internet Directory
using X.500
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RFC 1277: Encoding Network Addresses to support operation
over non-OSI lower layers
RFC 1278: A string encoding of Presentation Address
RFC 1279: X.500 and Domains
There has been extensive electrong discussion on new attributes for
the schema. It is hoped that this will resolve soon into a new
version of RFC 1274.
Christian Huitema suggested an alternate approach to naming
organisations to that proposed in OSI-DS 12. There has been an
electronic survey of the WG to attempt to progress this issue. A
discussion of the relevant points will be in the next version of
OSI-DS 12.
Steve Hardcastle-Kille (s.kille@cs.ucl.ac.uk)
FOX -- FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT
--------------------------------------
The FOX project is a DARPA and NSF sponsored 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.
ISI
---
ISI is in the process of installing a new DSA. The new DSA, as
yet unnamed, will run over isode 7.0 and will incorporate the
NADF naming scheme. The new DSA is being designed as a
replacement for "Incan Speckled Iguana," ISI's current level-1
DSA. "Incan Speckled Iguana" runs over isode 6.0 and the process
of converting the old EDBs to the new format has been discovered
to be problematic.
Tom Tignor (tpt2@isi.edu)
PSI
---
A decision was made to rename the existing "x5ftp" application
to "x5rfc", to more accurately reflect its function. A new
application, called "x5ftp", that retrieves files from anonymous
ftp archives was written and completed.
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The document describing the schema underlying the (new) "x5ftp"
application was submitted to the OSI-DS group for consideration.
Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com)
SRI
----
The "Northern Swift Fox" and "San Joaquin Kit Fox" which support
WHOIS data and SRI staff data respectively, were upgraded to run
ISODE and QUIPU 7.0.
SRI pursued obtaining copies of WHOIS data from the current DDN
NIC contractor (GSI/Network Solutions) in order to keep the
X.500 WHOIS data up to date. A fax containing proposed options
for the format of the dumps and/or incremental updates of the
WHOIS data was sent to Scott Williamson of Network Solutions as
a basis for discussion. Scott Williamson and Ruth Lang met
while at IETF to continue these discussions. Early agreements
point toward the use of an Ingres-independent ASCII format for
transmission of this information. According to Network
Solutions' estimates, they may be able to make WHOIS data
available to FOX in early 1992.
SRI initiated the purchase of an additional memory board for the
Sun 4/390 that supports the WHOIS QUIPU DSA. The addition of
memory in this workstation will result in a decrease in the time
it takes to load the WHOIS data which now is prohibitively high.
SRI reviewed the schema employed to support WHOIS data in X.500
and identified attributes that were not being used by the
X5WHOIS program. Although the additional attributes added value
to the objects themselves, we decided in the short term to
eliminate them from the data set loaded into QUIPU in order to
reduce the total size of the data set loaded. As an additional
means for reducing the effective WHOIS data size, we took
advantage of the inherited attributes available in QUIPU 7.0 and
represented access control lists in this manner. In order to
preserve formatting (e.g., tabs) available in WHOIS Comments
field, the use of the "info" attribute (caseIgnoreStringSyntax)
in WHOIS objects was replaced by a new attribute "comments"
(CaseIgnoreIA5StringSyntax).
Enhancements were made to X5WHOIS to implement time/size search
limits, mailbox searches based on availability of fast suffix
matching in QUIPU 7.0, and search for organizationName in
addition to commonName to better match old WHOIS behavior.
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The NIST X.500 implementation, Custos, was studied in
preparation for replacing its use of the UNIX file system as a
pseudo-relational database with a commercial relational database
(Sybase). Interaction with the NIST development team clarified
that changes being made to produce the next release of Custos
will not impact SRI's work based on release 0.1.1.
The following changes were made to the DISI Internet-Draft, "A
Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations" and are reflected in
the current Internet-Draft. To the document itself, six
additional and 16 updated implementation descriptions were
added, the keyword cross reference section was revised, and a
separate disclaimer section was created. To the Implementation
Descriptions, a Pilot Connectivity section was added, the
Completeness section was enhanced to make a statement with
respect to Section 9 of X.519, and a Last Modified section was
added. A request to progress this document to FYI status has
been placed with the Chair of the User Services Working Group.
We received and responded to 3 queries regarding the
availability of "A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations"
(Internet-Draft document draft-ietf-disi-catalog-01.txt).
Ruth Lang attended the 22nd IETF meeting held in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.
Ruth Lang (rlang@nisc.sri.com)
PARADISE
--------
In the last month three new countries joined the pilot.
In JAPAN, the WIDE project in the University of Keio is running the
master DSA for c=JP. There are 13 QUIPU DSAs at present working in
the country - eight of which were registered in the pilot at the
time of writing. These include AIC Systems Laboratories, Fujitsu
Laboratories Ltd, Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Kyoto
University, Sony Computer Science Laboratory Inc., and the SOUM
Corporation. One of the more important tasks of the WIDE project is
the handling of the Japanese character set in X.500. Currently,
they use T.61 with ISO 2022, and after making a simple modification
of QUIPU, are designing attributes in Japanese.
PORTUGAL's X.500 Directory pilot finally took off at the University
of Minho; they hope to include several more University sites before
summer 1992.
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The Victoria University of Wellington registered its QUIPU DSA with
Giant Tortoise and is now mastering entries for NEW ZEALAND.
Besides the University, the Ministry of Research, Science and
Technology is the only other entry under c=NZ at the moment.
Also in November, in ITALY, the c=IT node moved from Systems
Wizards, the software consultancy based in Ivrea and running its
own implementation DirWiz, to CNUCE in Pisa. CNUCE are part of the
CNR (Consiglio Nazionale di Ricerca) and are planning to run a
QUIPU-based directory service on behalf of GARR, the Italian
Research and Academic network. At present the Italian DIT, in
addition to CNR, shows INFN and the University of Pisa. CNUCE are
also running the top level Internet DNS and it is their intention
to experiment using X.500 to store domain information.
The PARADISE project set up the domain l=Europe, generating both
interest and brickbats. The domain is intended to cater for
genuinely pan-European "supranational" activities, and its
"naturalness" and justification for existence will be reviewed
before the end of the project (December 1992). At present there are
three entries:
(1) the COSINE project, which though its management unit
(the CPMU) arebased in Amsterdam, is effectively a
pan-European association of national governmental and
policy group representatives, as well as national IXI,
MHS and X.500 managers and contact points;
(2) projects under the CEC ESPRIT (European Strategic
Programme for Research in Information Technology) which
have pan-European consortia;
(3) the European Space Agency (ESA) have plans to run an
experimental pilot before concluding whether to scale
up to a full operational directory service across the
whole of the ESA network.
The last week of November saw the ESPRIT Conference Week in
Brussels in which PARADISE demonstrated the Directory on a SUN
SPARCstation. A video camcorder was mounted on top of the box, and
using a SUN Videopics card, delegates were framed, interrogated and
listed in the Directory. This proved an effective way of attracting
attention - the results can be seen under:
l=europe;o=cosine;ou=ecw
though pictures may not be in place until mid-December. The PROOF
project which also involves University College London demonstrated
Cooper [Page 56]
Internet Monthly Report November 1991
the Directory over a primary rate ISDN line which often performed
more successfully than the local X.25 switch used by PARADISE.
The second PARADISE International Report was published in the last
week of November and is now available in hard copy form from:
helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
It has the same style as the last report but also includes a DUA
Survey carried out by Colin Robbins and Paul Barker. The electronic
version should be available soon.
David Goodman (d.goodman@cs.ucl.ac.uk)
PARADISE Project Manager
PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 Project
---------------------------
The manager of the c=US arc in the global DIT participated in
cleaning up the root of the DIT. To this end, the l=North America
node was deleted from the DIT as per the agreements reached in the
last meeting of the IETF OSI-DS group. In addition, the manager of
the c=US arc, in cooperation with the managers of other national
arcs worked to ensure consistent replication of national entries
among top-level DSAs in order to enhance the operational stability
of various Directory pilots.
A fix to the "fred" program was installed to circumvent an
assumption in the search algorithm used by "fred". The fix will be
returned to the maintainers of the quipu software once it is
determined that the problem the fix is supposed to resolve no
longer exists.
In preparation for participation in the NADF Experimental Directory
pilot, some discussions were held with other prospective
participants to coordinate various details involved in the setup of
the pilot.
Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com)
PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT PROJECT
-----------------------------
The transition of the PSI White Pages Pilot Project to the NADF
naming scheme continues.
New organizations added to the pilot this past month are:
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Internet Monthly Report November 1991
University of Oregon
Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com)
Registration Authority Committee (ANSI USA RAC)
-----------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
Although this report may seem to point out many complicated issues
that remain to be resolved, the good news is that these issues are
finally on the surface and may be expected to be solved in the near
future, now that they are surfaced.
ANSI USA RAC met on November 21, 1992 at ANSI in New York City to
consider how ANSI will coordinate its registration authority work
with the US Dept of State, CCITT National Committee, Study Group D,
which now has a joint interest in these activities for c=US. (SG-
D, MHS-MD will meet on Dec 5-6 at the US Dept of State, and will
meet jointly with ANSI USA RAC on Dec 6.)
The joint ANSI/SG-D(MHS-MD) interest stems from two sources:
First, MHS Management Domain naming (ADMD/PRMD) is primarily a
CCITT responsibility, since X.400(84) was a CCITT-only
Recommendation. ISO was not involved with X.400(84) though it has
since become involved for X.400(88) with ISO 10021 (MOTIS). So,
both CCITT and ISO Member Bodies in c=us must now involve
themselves in resolving any naming issues related to both X.400 and
X.500.
Second, ISO/CCITT have jointly created a new Alpha-Numeric "Name
and OID" tree { joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(16) us(840 } for c=US in
a revision of ISO 9834-1, which brings Alpha-Numeric Name and OID
registration under joint responsibility of the ISO/CCITT Member
bodies in each country, including c=US. The number 16 has recently
been assigned to the "country" element of this new joint-iso-ccitt
OID tree.
The member bodies for c=US are ANSI and the US Dept of State.
An additional complication in the present ANSI/MHS-MD situation is
that ANSI has already started to register stuff (standards,
regions, and organizations) in the original ISO Alpha-numeric name
tree { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) }, and now must decide exactly
how to "move" to the new tree, after agreement is made with the US
Dept of State on administration of the { 2 16 840 } tree.
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At the USA RAC meeting, it was generally agreed that whatever
happens, all prior registered names, and all newly registered
names, in either arc, must be regarded as being in a single pool of
names, with no names or numbers in either arc to be registered to
different registrants! Whether existing registrations in { 1 2 840
} should or should not be copied into and also registered in { 2 16
840 } is for further study,
A BRIEF DIGRESSION
It is my very strong personal position that having multiple OID
values for any registered object is a very bad practice, and I hold
that existing registered numbers should not be given a second
registration in the new arc unless the registrant specifically
applies (with payment of a new fee) for a new registration, and
then the applicant must show an understanding of the dangerous
issues of assignment of multiple OID values to the same objects
before the old OID value is assigned in the new arc { 2 16 840 }.
Presumably this new registration would be given the same numeric
value in { 2 16 840 } as the old value in { 1 2 840 }, since (by
policy) any numeric value assigned to anyone in {1 2 840 } should
never be also assigned to anyone else in { 1 16 840 }.
I will not go further into the downside of assigning multiple OID
values to the same object, other than to note that all implementors
must then account for all the alternative possible values in their
implementation code. This can only lead to interoperability
problems. And it is pointless.
ANSI MHS-MD COORDINATION ISSUES
The largest part of the USA RAC meeting effort was applied to
development of an "ANSI Negotiating Position" for use in a joint
meeting with MHS-MD to be held at the US Dept of State in the
morning of Dec 6. A reasonable set of alternative coordination
arrangements was developed, all of which strive to obtain a single
registration agent for all OSI names and identifiers in c=US,
whether there might be more than one registry involved or not.
It should be noted that the current ANSI registry provides for
perpetual care of all registered names and numbers without any
exceptions. It is allowed for any name or identifier registration
to be transferred to a new owner, but once a numeric identifier is
assigned, it cannot be retired and then later reassigned. However,
it is possible for an alpha name to be retired (only by an action
of its owner), and become available for reassignment to a new
applicant.
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The logic of this is that numeric OID values may be assigned to
subordinate objects and subtrees by an any OID owner, and all these
subordinate OID assignments are perpetual by the rules of ISO
9834-1. Any reassignment would lead to assignment of the same OID
to new objects, without any way to revoke the earlier assignment of
the same value to a different object.
The situation for ALPHA names is not quite the same, in particular
because the names are not used for OID formation in the same way.
It helps to think in terms of civil naming systems where alpha
names are not assigned for perpetuity. X.500 directory, which is
dependent on civil naming, must be able to accommodate rollover of
name assignment.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN the OLD and NEW ARCS
{ iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) } and
{ joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(16) us(840) }
First these are two totally separate name and number spaces. Any
coordination between them is arbitrary, and "out of band", if I may
use this term here to signify that the involved parties must deal
with any coordination through procedures that are entirely outside
the ISO/CCITT 9834-1 rules of administration of either arc.
Aside from the general idea that any number or name assigned in
either arc must be either reserved for (or also assigned to) the
same object (organization or entity) in the other arc, there is an
additional complication to be considered.
ISO 9834-1 (original and new versions) defined the formation of a
Distinguished Name (DN) as having the country-name (e.g., c=US) as
the first level under the "root". This is familiar to all who deal
with the idea of a "top level DSA". This is different from the way
an OID is formed in these same trees, by using the prefix { 1 2 }
or {2 16 }.
Therefore, when forming a Distinguished Name (DN) from either tree,
{ iso member-body } or { joint-iso-ccitt country }, the first
element that is visible is { country-name } (e.g., c=US, c=GB,
etc). Thus, it is impossible to know whether a name was registered
under one or the other or both trees. ISO 9834-1 makes a point of
having defined them to overlay each other when used in X.500
Distinguised Names.
SO, IT IS IMPERATIVE that in c=US (and in any other country as
well), that any alpha-numeric names registered under the { 1 2 }
arc be mapped exactly the same way under the { 2 16 } arc, else
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there might be two entities assigned to the same DN. Therefore, it
is strongly recommended (by me) that every country be very careful
about coordination between the two arcs.
If possible, I suggest that if you have not yet begun to assign
names and numbers under { iso(1) member-body(2) }, that you now
deprecate such registrations and start your registration processes
using only { joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(16) }.
NEXT STEPS IN C=US COORDINATION EFFORTS
The next step is to hold a joint meeting on Dec 6, 1991 between
ANSI USA RAC (USA Registration Authority Committee) and MHS-MD (US
Dept of State, CCITT National Committee, Study Group D, MHS
Management Domain subcommittee).
I am not entirely clear on what happens after USA RAC and MHS-MD
come to agreement, but I expect that ANSI USA RAC must submit the
joint recommendation to the ANSI ISSB for ratification, while MHS-
MD must submit the joint recommendation to SG-D, which must pass it
along to the CCITT National Committee, which must pass it along to
the US Dept of State for ratification. I have no idea how long
this might take.
WHAT TO DO IN THE MEANTIME
What I (STRONGLY) suggest is that the IETF-OSI-DS simply adopt the
NADF Naming Scheme (RFC1255, NADF175) for c=US and get on with the
piloting efforts. The NADF175 c=US scheme enables virtually
everyone to use their already assigned civil name for DN formation.
Only a very few organizations cannot use their commonly preferred
names (where they have not yet managed to register these names with
some civil authority). If this is important, then they should
simply find a way to register their desired names with their
desired civil naming authorities. ANSI is one possible
registration authority if you must have a name with "national
standing registration".
I do want to point out however, that such a national standing name
is not required, unless you have a strong desire for what I call a
National Vanity Name. This is like getting Vanity License Plates.
WHAT ABOUT MHS-MD NAMES?
I assume you are all curious about this topic, but I note that this
report is for the OSI-DS mailing list, which is focused on X.500
naming issues. None-the-less, here is a brief discussion of some
possibilities that I have imagined. I do not want to preempt the
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upcoming joint meeting.
The issues center on differences between the basic semantics of
X.500 RDN use of names and X.400 ORAddress use of names. X.500 is
concerned with unique and unambiguous identification of objects,
wherever they may be and whatever they may be. Conceptually, every
thinkable entity can be entered in an X.500 DIT. On the other
hand, X.400 is concerned only with naming Administration and
Private Management Domains (ADMD and PRMD) for use in Addresses of
recipients and for use in the process of routing mail from an
originator to a recipient.
ISO 9834-1 is concerned only with supplying a means for unambiguous
identification of objects, while X.400 is additionally concerned
with issues of service provider behavior, and concerned with some
aspects of enforcement of some rules (to be determined).
9834-1 is thus oriented to perpetual registration, while X.400 is
concerned with time limited registration and with periodic renewal
requirements. This leads to a value-conflict over the registration
fees to be charged (annual vs one-time), and whether the registrar
cares about any aspect of the intended use of the name (none vs
some).
The economics of each are very different (perpetual care cemetery
lots vs annual "license" renewal). ANSI fees are high one-time
charges, while ADMD and PRMD operators want lower fees, and will
accept annual renewal requirements.
MHS-MD (and the US Dept of State) might see an MHS-MD name
registration as implying an agreement by the applicant to abide by
certain rules (to be voluntarily agreed upon by the service
providers), which serve to fulfill certain ITU Treaty obligations
which are the responsibility of the US Dept of State. I say
"might" here because MHS-MD and the US Dept of State have not yet
decided exactly what they think about this issue of service
provider behavior.
Therefore, MHS-MD registration takes on very different
characteristics from the current ANSI registration service. The
purposes and the behaviors of each registry appear to have serious
fundamental differences in their requirements, so the decisions are
going to require some very careful thought.
NEXT ANSI USA RAC MEETING
The next meeting of USA RAC will be held in NYC on Feb 19, 1992.
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Repectfully submitted by Einar Stefferud (Member of USA RAC and
MHS-MD)
Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu)
SG-D MHS-MD
-----------
Some information on SG-D, MHS-MD activities is included in Einar
Stefferud's ANSI USA RAC report above.
-Tom Tignor (tpt2@isi.edu)
DS Report Coordinator
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
------------------
Readers are requested to send in dates of events that are appropriate
for this calendar section.
1991 CALENDAR
Dec 2-5 4TH INT. WORKSHOP ON PETRI NETS AND
PERFORMANCE MODELS, Melbourne, Australia
Jonathan Billington, Telecom Austrl.
(j.billington @ trl.oz.au)
Dec 2-5 GLOBECOM'91, See IEEE Publications. Phoenix, AZ
Dec 9-13 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
1992 CALENDAR
Jan 13-21 ANSI X3T5
Jan 19 T1S1, Call Control and Signaling (ISDN,
Frame Relay, Broadband ATM)
Jan 20-22 RIPE, Amsterdam
Jan 28-30 ANSI X3S3.3, Tucson, AZ
Feb 9 T1E1, Physical Layer Interfaces (ISDN, T1,
Broadband, etc.) Fish Camp, CA Verilink
Feb 19-20 RARE WG1, Location unknown
Feb 20-21 RARE Manager Mtg, Location unknown
Mar 2 T1S1, Call Control and Signaling (ISDN, Frame
Relay, Broadband ATM)
Mar 2-6 ANSI X3T5
Mar 2-6 CAIA '92 8th IEEE Conference on AI Application
Mar 3-5 ACM CSC, Kansas City, MO
Mar 9-13 IEEE802 Plenary, Irvine, CA
Mar 9-13 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Mar 16-19 Info Netwrk&DataComm, Espoo, FI
Espoo, Helsinki, Finland; Contact: IFIP-TC6
<Spring> IETF, San Diego, CA
Megan Davies (mdavies@nri.reston.va.us)
Mar 18-20 Computers, Freedom & Privacy II,
Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, DC
Mar 23 T1M1, Management and Maintenance (ISDN,
Broadband, Frame Relay, etc.), Raleigh, NC,
Fujitsu
Mar 25-27 National Net 92, Washington DC
Elizabeth Barnhart (barnhart@educom.edu)
Apr 6-16 CCITT SG VII Geneva, Switzerland
Apr 21-23 ANSI X3S3.3, Mountaon View, Ca.
May 4-6 ANSI X3T5
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May 4-8 DECUS '92, Atlanta, GA
May 4-8 IEEE INFOCOM'92, See IEEE Pub., Florence
May 11 T1E1, Physical Layer Interfaces (ISDN, T1,
Broadband, etc.)
Williamsburg, VA, Bell Atlantic
May 12-14 Joint Network Conference 3, Innsbruck, Austria
(this is the RARE Networkshop - renamed)
May 13-15 IFIP International Workshop on Protocols for
High Speed Networks, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact: <PfHSN92@sics.se>
May 18-25 INTEROP92, Washington, D.C.
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
May 19-29 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
May 27-29 IFIP WG 6.5 Int'l Conference, Vancouver, Canada
May ??-?? Third IFIP International Workshop on
Protocols for High-Speed Networks, Stockholm
Per Gunningberg, per@sics.se
Bjorn Pehrson, bjorn@sics.se
Stephen Pink, steve@sics.se
Jun 8 T1M1, Management and Maintenance (ISDN,
Broadband, Frame Relay, etc.)
Minneapolis, MN, ADC TElecom
Jun 8-12 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Jun 10-11 RARE WG1, tentative-Location unknown
Jun 11-12 RARE COSINE MHS MGR, tentative-Location unknown
Jun 14-17 ICC-SUPERCOMM'92, Chicago, IL
Jun 15-19 INET92, Kobe, Japan
Jun Murai (jun@wide.ad.jp), KEIO University
Elizabeth Barnhart (barnhart@educom.edu)
"North America Contact"
Jun 16-18 ANSI X3S3.3, Minneapolos, MN
Jun 22-25 PSTV-XII, Orlando
Umit Uyar (umit@honet5.att.com)
Jerry Linn or Holmdel, NIST
linnrj@ECF.NCSL.NIST.GOV
Jun 14-17 ICC-SUPERCOMM'92, Chicago, See IEEE Publ..
Jul 6-10 IEEE802 Plenary, Bloomington, MN
Jul 13-17 ANSI X3T5
Jul 13-24 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6, San Diego, CA
Aug 2 T1S1, Call Control and Signaling (ISDN,
Frame Relay, Broadband ATM)
Aug 16 T1S1, Call Control and Signaling (ISDN,
Frame Relay, Broadband ATM)
Aug 17-20 SIGCOMM, Baltimore, MD
Deepinder Sidhu, UMBC
Sep 7-11 IFIP World Congress
Madrid, Spain; Contact: IFIP
Sep 14-18 ANSI X3T5
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Sep 21-25 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Sep 22-24 ANSI X3S3.3, Boston, MA
Oct 5-8 FORTE'92, Lannion
Roland Groz (groz@lannion.cnet.fr)
Michel Diaz (diaz@droopy.laas.fr)
Oct 26-30 INTEROP92, San Francisco
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
Nov 9-13 ANSI X3T5
Dec ANSI X3S3.3, Boulder, CO
Dec 7-11 DECUS '92, Las Vegas, NV
Dec 14-18 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
1993 CALENDAR
Mar 8-12 INTEROP93, Wasington, D.C.
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
Mar 8-12 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
May 23-26 ICC'92, Geneva, Switzerland
May-Jun PSTV-XIII, University of Liege.
Contact: Andre Danthine,
May 23-26 ICC'93, Geneva, See IEEE Publications.
Jun 7-11 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Aug INET93, San Francisco Bay Area
Aug SIGCOMM, San Francisco
Sep 13-17 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Sep 20-31 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6, Seoul, Korea.
Oct 12-14 Conference on Network Information Processing,
Sofia, Bulgaria; Contact: IFIP-TC6
Oct 25-29 INTEROP93, San Francisco
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
Nov 9-13 IEEE802 Plenary, LaJolla, CA
Dec 6-10 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
1994 CALENDAR
Apr 18-22 INTEROP94, Washington, D.C.
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
Aug 29-Sep 2 IFIP World Congress
Hamburg, Germany; Contact: IFIP
Sep 12-16 INTEROP94, San Francisco
Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
1995 EVENTS
Sep 18-22 INTEROP95, San Francisco, CA
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Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com)
-------------------------------
Note:
T1E1: Physical Layer Interfaces (ISDN, T1, Broadband, etc.,)
TiMi: Management and Maintenance (ISDN, Broadband, Frame
Relay, etc.)
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