~ September 1991 INTERNET MONTHLY REPORTS ------------------------ The purpose of these reports is to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating organizations. This report is for Internet information purposes only, and is not to be quoted in other publications without permission from the submitter. Each organization is expected to submit a 1/2 page report on the first business day of the month describing the previous month's activities. These reports should be submitted via network mail to: Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU) 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 "westine@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. Westine [Page 1] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 Internet Projects BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16 CSUNET (CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NETWORK). . . . . . . page 17 ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK . . . . . . page 18 LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20 MERIT/MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20 NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK . . . . . . . . page 21 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 21 NSFNET BACKBONE, MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21 PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27 PREPnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 28 SAIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 28 SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29 UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29 UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 DIRECTORY SERVICES ACTIVITIES DIRECTORY SERVICES MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 FOX - FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . page 32 ISI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 33 MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 33 PSI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 33 SRI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTORY FORUM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 SG-D MHS-MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 35 Westine [Page 2] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 CALENDAR OF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 37 Westine [Page 3] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 IAB MESSAGE INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD Since May 1991, the IAB has taken the following standards actions, following recommendations from the IESG. o Draft Standard state for "Concise MIB Definitions", RFC-1212. o Standard state for MIB-II: "Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets", RFC-1213. o Proposed Standard state for Network Time Protocol (NTP) Version 3, RFC in preparation. o Proposed Standard state for ICMP Router Discovery protocol, RFC-1256 o The IAB produced RFC 1262 on Measurement Activity Guidelines co-ordinated by Hans-Werner Braun and with the assistance of Michael F. Schwartz. Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS ---------------------------- IETF report for September 1991 Reported by Phillip Gross, IETF Chair Introduction This reports on the July IETF meeting and the period from July 1991 through September 1991. The July IETF meeting was a particularly active one. In fact, we still have quite a backlog of actions to get through the process. Some actions about to emerge include 5 documents on BGP, the ethernet MIB (in original version), the recommendation for the "common IGP", a set of X.500 documents, 2 Frame Relay documents, and several other MIBs. Please see sections 7-10 of this report for completed actions between July and September 1991. A version of this report will be included in the Proceedings for Westine [Page 4] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 the July IETF meeting. Contents 1. Thanks to Atlanta hosts -- BellSouth and Caroline Cranfill 2. IETF and IESG Status Report 3. New IETF Secretariat staffing 4. Atlanta's Open Plenary 5. Internet Society 6. Focus on international growth 7. 4 New Working Group(s) formed between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 8. 7 Working Group(s) concluded between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 9. 75 Internet Draft Actions between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 10. 12 RFC's Produced between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 1. Thanks to Atlanta hosts -- BellSouth and Caroline Cranfill I'd like to extend my appreciation to BellSouth and Caroline Cranfill for hosting the Atlanta IETF meeting. The facilities and connectivity were excellent. Our hosts deserve special thanks for the Tuesday evening social activity, which gave us a fine introduction to Atlanta hospitality. Thanks to our hosts for helping to make the IETF in Atlanta a successful one. 2. IETF and IESG Status Report At the start of the Atlanta IETF meeting, there were 63 working groups in 9 areas (one area, Standards Practices, does not have working groups). For Atlanta, 9 working groups submitted "final" Internet-Drafts. Some of these documents represent standards actions, for which the IESG will be forwarding recommendations to the IAB. Others are informational documents. Most of these working groups will retire when their documents are published as RFCs (either as standards or informationl RFCs). These numbers, both the total number of working groups and the number of working groups approaching conclusion at one meeting, represent high-water marks (yet-again) for IETF activity. Detailed listings and status of working groups will be provided in the Proceedings for the July IETF meeting. There has been some new additions to the IESG, and some minor restructuring, since the March IETF meeting. First, we have added a new "Transport and Services Area", led by David Borman of Cray. Long time IETF attendees will recognize David from his numerous reports in the past regarding his work implementing high performance TCP for the Cray operating system, Westine [Page 5] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 based Van Jacobson's enhancements. This new area will also include activities that don't quite fall properly into either the Internet or Application Areas (from a "layerist" perspective). The DNS activities are an example. We used to have an area called "Host and User Services", led by Craig Partridge. When Craig left for his postdoctoral position at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) last fall, we divided the transport and other host issues between the Internet and Application Areas and elevated User Services as a distinct area (led by Joyce Reynolds, USC-ISI). However, that move added additional topics to two of the largest IETF areas (i.e., Internet and Applications). Plus, we soon realized that we had need for specific transport level expertise on the IESG. Therefore, we decided to form the new "Transport and Services Area". We are very pleased that David has been able to join the IESG to fill this new position. Next, I am very happy to announce that the Operational Requirements Area is now fully staffed. Bernhard Stockman (Nordunet) and Susan Estrada (Cerfnet) have joined the IESG as co-Area Directors for this important area. Bernhard brings a special understanding of international networking to this task, which will help us as the Internet, and the surrounding technical issues, expand globally. Susan brings a perspective based on two important views -- her long time key association with FARNET and her role as Executive Director of a midlevel network. I had been acting as an interim Director for this Area, and I will continue to work with Susan and Bernhard for the near future. One of the first objectives will be to form an Operational Requirements Area Directorate. We held an open session in Atlanta which we hope will act as an organizational session for the ORAD. You can read Susan's report on that meeting later in these Proceedings. I am also pleased to welcome Philip Almquist onto the IESG, joining Noel Chiappa as co-Director of the Internet Area. The Internet Area is one of the largest, and historically one of the more important, in the IETF and it will profit from the additional attention that Noel and Philip together will now be able to bring to bear. Philip will bring an important perspective as the current chair of the Router Requirements working group. I am also sorry to have to report that Rob Hagens (University of Wisconsin) has had to leave the IESG due to other pressing time commitments. We will miss Rob as the co-Director for the OSI Integration Area, with Ross Callon (DEC). Fortunately, we will not lose Rob completely because he will remain as co-chair of the X.400 Operational working group. The OSI Integration Area is a large area, requiring a special set of skills, and we already are looking for someone to join Ross in leading this area. Rob, we will miss Westine [Page 6] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 you on the IESG, but we look forward to your continued contributions to the IETF as a working group chair. With the changes above, there are now 10 IETF Areas and 13 members of the IESG. A complete listing of the areas and members will be provided in the Proceedings for the Atlanta IETF meeting. 3. New IETF Secretariat staffing Over the past couple years, the IETF has grown a great deal. Most of the technical activities of the IETF are handled by volunteers from either academia or industry (i.e., the working group chairs, the IESG members, and/or the many individual working group contributors). However, with 3 yearly meetings of 350-400 attendees, the administration and logistics of the IETF can no longer be handled solely by volunteers. To handle the growing administrative and logistics necessities, a professional staff has grown up at CNRI over the last few years to support the many volunteer technical contributors. With the hiring this summer of Steve Coya (CNRI) as IETF Executive Director, perhaps it is now time to recognize this "IETF Secretariat" for the important role it now plays. It is clear, at least in my mind, that the IETF could no longer function as efficiently as it now does without this important support. The current full-time professional staff comprising the "IETF Secretariat" at CNRI is: - Steve Coya IETF Executive Director - Greg Vaudreuil IESG Secretary - Megan Davies Proceedings and Logistics Coordinator - Cynthia Clark Administrative support - Debra Legare Secretary Please join me in thanking these folks and CNRI for the wonderful support they have provided in the past and will continue to provide at future meetings. If there are any questions or suggestions regarding the Secretariat, please feel free to correspond directly with Steve Coya (scoya@nri.reston.va.us). Either Vint Cerf (CNRI) or myself can also answer questions, if Steve is not available. 4. Atlanta's Open Plenary The Atlanta meeting represents the largest number of working groups the IETF has ever sponsored in one place at one time. As a measure of the growth and activity of the IETF, this is an exciting statistic. However, it also raises important questions about how Westine [Page 7] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 large the IETF can grow and still enjoy its present success and utilize its present format. These and other issues were very much on the minds of attendees during the open plenary session on Thursday afternoon. Specifically, this most recent growth surge has re-surfaced some problems that we have seen, and dealt with, in the past. For example, there is the simple logistics hassle of scheduling many parallel WG meetings so that important groups do not overlap. There is also the problem of bringing new players into the WG activities without completely rehashing all the old technical issues. One answer is to increase our effective usage of electronic mail. However, then we must be careful to balance the "group consensus" reached by email versus the consensus reached by onsite attendees. And, of course, there is the general problem of reaching closure on technical issues in a large group, whether that group is meeting face-to-face or by email. These are all problems that we have seen in various degrees, and attempted to deal with in various ways, in the past. These are all problems that seem to re-surface at the leading edge of any new IETF growth surge. What's less clear, at least to me, is whether we have finally hit a "wall", in which the basic procedures that the IETF has developed to conduct business are no longer valid, or whether we merely need to adapt to the new environemnt (yet-again) by evolving our operating procedures. One of the strengths of the IETF has always been its ability to evolve and to adapt to new conditions. In many ways, we are still learning lessons about how best to conduct our business. "Making it up as we go" has been both a blessing and a curse. At times we have seen interactions between the IAB and IESG, or between the IESG and the working groups, suffer from lack of clarity of "procedures". On the other hand, when conditions change around us, we have always had the flexibilty to adapt quickly. My personal feeling is that our ability to evolve has been one of the major keys to our success. I think we must all recognize that the networking world has changed in recent years in ways that very few could have predicted, and the IETF has had the ability to learn from any missteps and change along with it. We are still evolving, and I'd like to think that we have a ways to go (and grow) before we hit a "wall". Westine [Page 8] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 Some excellent suggestions came out at Thursday's open plenary sesssion. Acting on these suggestions, we will add an extra afternoon session on Friday at the next IETF meeting. This will allow us to add one additional WG session to the current generic schedule and to devote both all of Monday and Tuesday to WG sessions. We will also try to make good use of the new/old idea of "Birds of a feather" sessions, to explore subjects before commiting expensive (and scarce) personnel resources to starting up a full WG. (In Atlanta, we had 5 BOFs on important subjects.) We will make an extra effort to schedule "overview" sessions on topics of interest, particularly as status reports on ongoing WG activities. This will help keep general attendees and new players abreast of activities on other areas. Finally, we will enhance our current set of guidelines for WG chairs to provide suggestions on how to handle new attendees who need to be brought up to speed and how to achieve closure in the face of questions from these new players. For example, acting on a suggestion from the open plenary, we will ask WG chairs to do a better job of recording the rationale for all technical decisions. In this way, new players will have a better record of why specific decision were made. Some other suggestions were as simple as to make better use of agendas and to invoke a different set of meeting guidelines as a WG nears conclusion. For example, in Atlanta the Router Requirements WG had a strict agenda of still-open topics, and the chair announced beforehand that previous issues would not be re-opened in Atlanta without very good cause. It's also important for WG chairs to understand that they are bound to reach consensus, not unanimity. That is, in the face of unresolved technical opinions, it is perfectly valid for the chair to adapt the consensus view and then move forward. It is important to understand that the open plenary sessions have always played an important role in guiding the IETF. (In fact, in *very* beginning, there were no WGs, so the entire meeting was an open plenary!) The open plenaries have included IESG reports since the IESG formation at the Hawaii meeting (Fall 1989). Of course, there are other ways to provide comments on IETF activity. The main IETF mailing list is available for that purpose (ietf@isi.edu). The IESG can be reached individually or collectively (iesg@nri.reston.va.us). I am always available either by phone or email (pgross@ans.net, 914-789-5335), and the IETF Secretariat can be reached through Steve Coya, IETF Excutive Director, (scoya@nri.reston.va.us). Westine [Page 9] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 I believe it is very important to have direct interaction with attendees and others interested in IETF activities. This makes the IETF very much a self-guiding body, and I think that has contributed as much to the IETF's success as any other factor. 5. Internet Society This meeting saw the announcement of the Internet Society by Vint Cerf (CNRI). The Internet Society will be a professional society which we hope will grow to encompass the activities of the IAB and IETF in a positive way. The IAB and IESG are very supportive of the Internet Society, and we look forward to working with Vint on developing the specific method by which the IAB and IETF both become part of this new important group. Vint Cerf's presentation fooils will be included in the Proceedings for the July IETF. 6. Focus on international growth Another topic that received considerable attention at this meeting was the growing focus in the IETF on global networking issues. This emphasis is almost unavoidable as the Internet grows internationally. (MERIT's network status report again showed that the non-US portion continues to be the fastest growing segment of the Internet.) We had the largest showing of non-US attendees in Atlanta, and we now have non-US representation on both the IAB and IESG. This raised the possibility of holding an IETF meeting outside of North America (we have already held an IETF in British Columbia). I think this is a very natural and desirable outcome. However, we have to approach it cautiously. Many US employers and US federal agencies treat non-US travel quite differently from domestic travel. We need to make sure that the environment has matured properly so that we can expect to get representative participation at any IETF meeting outside North America. As important as it is to begin holding IETF meetings in non-US venues, it could be damaging to our very goals of internationalization if we held a non-US meeting that was poorly attended by US participants. We normally schedule IETF meetings 12-18 months in advance, so the earliest spot not yet scheduled is Fall 1992 or Winter 1993. Fortunately, this provides time to prepare and plan for our first meeting outside North America. Westine [Page 10] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 One way to help prepare the climate for such a meeting is make the Internet Society a strong and successful organization. One of the principal goals of the Internet Society will be to focus on international networking issues. So please consider joining the Internet Society. For my part, I will work directly with Vint Cerf and incoming IAB chair Lyman Chapin (BBN) to see that the IAB and IETF are incorporated into the Internet Society in a positive and natural fashion. 7. 4 New Working Group(s) formed between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 Trusted Network File Systems (tnfs) Privacy-Enhanced Electronic Mail (pem) Automated Internet Mailing List Services (list) Internet K-12 Networking (k12) 8. 7 Working Group(s) concluded between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 Router Discovery (rdisc) Management Services Interface (msi) Topology Engineering (tewg) OSI X.400 (osix400) Internet Security Policy (spwg) FDDI MIB (fddimib) DDN Interconnectivity (ddniwg) 9. 75 Internet Draft Actions between Jul 01 and Sep 30, 1991 (Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) ) WG I-D Title ------ ----------------------------------------------------- (osids) o An Interim Approach to use of Network Addresses (osids) o A String Encoding of Presentation Address (idpr) o An Architecture for Inter-Domain Policy Routing (telnet) o Telnet Data Encryption Option (telnet) o Telnet Authentication Option (telnet) o Telnet Authentication Option (rreq) o Requirements for Internet IP Routers (snmp) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the SIP Interface Type Westine [Page 11] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 (osids) o Replication and Distributed Operations Extensions to Provide an Internet Directory using X.500 (osids) o The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema (charmib) o Definitions of Managed Objects for RS-232-like Hardware Devices (charmib) o Definitions of Managed Objects for Character Stream Devices (charmib) o Definitions of Managed Objects for Parallel-printer- like Hardware Devices (osids) o Replication Requirement to Provide an Internet Directory Using X.500 (none) o Network Time Protocol: Version 3 (osids) o Handling QOS (Quality of service) in the Directory (osids) o Naming Guidelines for Directory Pilots (osids) o DSA Naming (pem) o Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures (rdisc) o ICMP Router Discovery Messages (null) o Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822 (decnetiv) o DECnet Phase IV MIB Extensions (iplpdn) o Inverse Address Resolution Protocol (iplpdn) o Multiprotocol Interconnect over Frame Relay Networks (iplpdn) o Management Information Base for Frame Relay DTEs (pppext) o The Point-to-Point Protocol for the Transmission of Multi-Protocol Datagrams Over Point-to-Point Links (pppext) o The PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP) (null) o X.400 1988 to 1984 downgrading Westine [Page 12] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 (822ext) o Mnemonic Text Format (822ext) + Character Mnemonics and Character Sets (null) + An Approach to CO/CL Interworking -- Part II: Specification -- Conventions for Transport- Service Bridges (pppext) + Proposed Point-to-Point Procotol for AppleTalk (rmon) o Remote Network Monitoring Management Information Base (pem) o The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm (osids) + Directory Requirements for COSINE and Internet Pilots (OSI-DS 18) (dhc) + Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (none) o Mid-Level Networks; A Minimum Services Provider (pem) + The MD2 Message-Digest Algorithm (pem) + The MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm (pem) + Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part IV: Notary, Co-Issuer, CRL-Storing and CRL-Retrieving Services (osids) + Generic Security Service Application Program Interface Overview and C bindings (smtpext) + SMTP Extensions for Transport of Text-Based Messages Containing 8-bit Characters (none) + International character support in SMTP (none) + RFC "nroff macros" (null) + A LaTeX Style for RFCs and Internet Drafts (nisi) + Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure (pem) + Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part II: Certificate-Based Key Management (null) + RFC Document Type for Scribe Westine [Page 13] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 (fddimib) + FDDI Management Information Base (fddimib) + SNMP Trap Definitions For FDDI Management (idpr) + Definitions of Managed Objects for the Inter-Domain Policy Routing Protocol (Version 1) (tnfs) + A Specification of Trusted NFS (TNFS) Protocol Extensions (hubmib) + Definitions of Managed Objects for IEEE 802.3 Repeater Devices (ospf) + OSPF Version 2 Traps (iesg) + An Internet Evolution Plan for the IETF (rreq) + Ruminations on Route Leaking (rreq) + Type of Service in the Internet Protocol (rreq) + Some Thoughts on Multi-Domain Routing (rreq) + Ruminations on the Next Hop (idpr) + Inter-Domain Policy Routing Configuration and Usage (pppext) + The PPP OSI Network Layer Control Protocol (OSINLCP) (mospf) + Multicast Extensions to OSPF (disi) + A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations (pppext) + The PPP Authentication Protocols (none) + A New IP Routing and Addressing Architecture (iesg) + IESG Recommendation for Internet Interior Gateway Routing Protocols (bgp) + Default Route Advertisement In The Border Gateway Protocol (rreq) + IP Forwarding Table MIB (null) + RIP Version 2 Addition of Subnet Masks Westine [Page 14] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 (pem) + Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers (rmon) + SNMP Trap Definitions For Remote Network Monitoring (bgp) o Multicast Communications Using BGP (null) + Security Information Transfer Protocol (SITP) (bgp) + Application of the Border Gateway Protocol in the Internet (osids) + An Access Control Approach for Searching and Listing 10. 12 RFC's Produced between Jul 01, 1991 and Sep 30, 1991 (Standard (S), Proposed Standard (PS), Draft Standard (DS), Experimental (E), Informational (I) ) RFC Status WG Title ------- -- -------- ---------------------------------------- RFC1237 PS (osinsap) Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet RFC1242 (bmwg) Benchmarking Terminology for Network Interconnection Devices RFC1243 PS (appleip) AppleTalk Management Information Base RFC1244 (ssphwg) Site Security Handbook RFC1245 (ospf) OSPF Protocol Analysis RFC1246 (ospf) Experience with the OSPF Protocol RFC1247 DS (ospf) OSPF Version 2 RFC1248 PS (ospf) OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base RFC1252 PS (ospf) OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base RFC1253 PS (ospf) OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base RFC1254 (pcc) Gateway Congestion Control Survey RFC1256 PS (rdisc) ICMP Router Discovery Messages Standards( 7), Experimental( ), Informational( 5) Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US) Westine [Page 15] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 INTERNET PROJECTS ----------------- BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC. ---------------------------- ST Conferencing During September, a second independent conferencing site was added at BBN to support the DWS project. BBN-DWS was the first conferencing site directly connected to the TWB through a T/20 instead of a butterfly gateway. Subsequently, the WPC conferencing gateway was also replaced with a T/20. Conferencing between sites with T/20s and between T/20 and Butterfly gateway sites went ahead successfully. We conducted an important demonstration between BBN and WPC for Admiral Hess at the end of September. With the addition of BBN-DWS, there are now nine conferencing sites. We anticipate that a tenth will be added in October, when the Ft. Leavenworth SIMNET and conferencing equipment is scheduled to be reconnected to the TWB. There were a total of 19 video conferences and demonstrations during September. Of these, two included four sites, five included three, and the remaining 12 were point to point. Although the BBN hublet can no longer support four-site conferencing, we were able to accommodate one request for a four-site conference because it included sites that also had Concept codecs. The other four-site conference was supported by temporarily borrowing equipment from another DARPA project after a special request from DARPA. A third four-site conference request was denied sue to lack of equipment. Conferences were held for discussions in the following areas: DART, IDPR, OMG, LANL projects, DARPA projects, the Brazilian National Packet Network, and the NOS contract. There were no SIMNET exercises this month. Jil Westcott (westcott@bbn.com) Westine [Page 16] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 CSUNET (The California State University Network) ----------------------------------------------- Over the last two months, CSUnet has installed six more StrataCom IPX multiplexers and upgraded from 56K to T-1 at these sites: StrataCom upgraded Site IPX/16 | cisco link | T-1 installed to | other ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSU Bakersfield newly | frame-relay | Fresno | 2-way installed | | | VIDEO Sonoma State Univ newly | frame-relay | San Francisco | CSU Northridge newly | hdlc to backbone| Los Alamitos NOC | CalPoly Pomona newly | hdlc to backbone| Fullerton | CSU Long Beach newly | hdlc to backbone| Los Alamitos NOC | CSU Stanislaus newly | frame-relay | Fresno | Other new connections/events: - The CSU Chancellor's Office now has a cisco providing IP and AppleTalk - The CSUnet backbone has undergone renumbering in order to provide symmetric IP routing over T-1 paths instead of T-1 and 56k paths - BARRnet has fixed BARRnet's internal routing configuration (EGP and IGRP to OSPF) to provide more reliable primary/secondary routing for CSUnet - CSU Sacramento and CSU Bakersfield carried on a two-way video conference over the T-1 backbone using the IPX network with 384K compressed-video. A demonstration was held at the quarterly CSUnet Network Task Force meeting. The video routed over the network from CSU Sacramento media center via CSU Fresno to CSU Bakersfield's media center. CSU Fresno was also able to watch as it received the video/audio directly from CSU Sacramento via the California Owen's Valley Microwave Project media. Plans for October: - IPX and T-1 installs at CSU San Bernardino and Humboldt State Mike Marcinkevicz (mdm@CSU.net) Westine [Page 17] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 ISI --- GIGABIT NETWORKING Infrastructure Six RFCs were published this month. RFC 1255: The North American Directory Forum, "A Naming Scheme for c=US", September 1991. RFC 1256: Deering, S., "ICMP Router Discovery Messages" September 1991. RFC 1257: Partridge, C., "Isochronous Applications Do Not Require Jitter-Controlled Networks", Swedish Institute of Computer Science, September 1991. RFC 1258: Kantor, B., "BSD Rlogin", UCSD, September 1991. RFC 1259: Kapor, M., "Building The Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed For The National Public Network", Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 1991. RFC 1261: Williamson, S., and L. Nobile, "Transition of NIC Serices", Network Solutions, September 1991. Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU) JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK --------------------------------------------- JvNCnet Princeton University B6 von Neumann Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 General telephone number: 609-258-2400 Director: Sergio Heker Compiled by Rochelle Hammer JvNCnet contact information: Network operations: Email: noc@jvnc.net 609-258-1544 24 hours/7 days Westine [Page 18] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 Information services: Email: nisc@jvnc.net 609-258-2505 9:00-5:00 M-F On-line information is available from nisc.jvnc.net. Username is nicol and no password. News A new toll-free number to reach JvNCnet, 1-800-35TIGER, begins October 21. A JvNCnet symposium on Network Applications is being scheduled for November. For more information, please send email to "nisc.jvnc.net". Meckler Publishing and JvNCnet, through a joint project, have entered the wonderful world of electronic publishing. JvNCnet's Network Operations Center On-Line (NICOL) application swings open the door to Meckler's periodical, journal, sponsored conferences, and other publications. Meckler's service, MC2 allows the user to review the on-line catalogue, submit an electronic publication order, or check the list of conferences. Meckler's newest journal, MeckJournal, concentrates on electronic publishing, and is also available on line via NICOL. For more information, email "meckler@tigger.jvnc.net". JvNCnet availability for August is 99.89% and for September is 99.92%. New JvNCnet members, in the previous thirty days are: *National Council of Technological and Scientific Research (CONOCIT), Caracas, Venezuela *Educational Testing Service *Intelecom *United Nations Development Program *Star Semiconductor *Pennington Systems, Inc. *Unix System Laboratories *Moodys *Osteonics *Advanced Media Laboratory of Samsung Electronics by Rochelle Hammer Westine [Page 19] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 LOS NETTOS ---------- OSPF testing has resumed. A Technical Committee meeting has been scheduled for October. PacBell has initiated a circuit review at our request to analyze a T1 link which has had cronic problems. PacBell has been very responsive to this request so far. Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU) MERIT/MICHNET ------------- August/Sept 1991 Northwestern Michigan College became a Merit affiliate in July. NMC enrolls approximately 4,400 students at its Traverse City and Cadillac campuses. In 1951 NMC was the first community college in Michigan to be founded under the Community College Act. NMC is very proud of its vocational programs which include offerings in 28 business and health-related disciplines. Installation of their network hardware will take place in the fall. Upgrades from 56K to T1 are in place for links between Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo and between Detroit and Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Users who access MichNet using dial-up modems or hard-wired asynchronous connections can now use the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to get direct access to TCP/IP services from a personal computer or workstation. This new PPP support is similar to MichNet's SLFP (Serial Line Framing Protocol) support which has been available for nearly two years. This initial implemetation of PPP uses header compression, which allows for faster throughput for those using the SLFP protocol. PPP Authorization is now available for this service. For more information about MichNet's PPP support, see the September, 1991, issue of the MichNet News, which is available via anonymous FTP from the machine nic.merit.edu.) Eric Aupperle and Ellen Hoffman attended the FARNET meeting in Big Sky, Montana, representing MichNet and Merit, Inc. Westine [Page 20] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 Chris Weider attended the first meeting of the Consortium for School Networking, reprensenting MichNet. Pat McGregor (patmcg@merit.edu) NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK ----------------------------------------- NEARnet held a meeting with ANS and MERIT to resolve the problems with the instability of the T3 connection. Steps that have been taken have had a positive effect on the network. Other procedural issues will be addressed and there will be a continual effort to resolve these issues. by John Rugo NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC. ---------------------------------------- The NNSC Staff distributed additions to Chapter 3 of the Internet Resource Guide. The NNSC began distribution of the 10th issue of the NSF Network Newsletter. On behalf of the NNSC, John Rugo of BBN spoke to a group of researchers at the seventh annual Scientific Computing & Automation Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia yesterday. Dr. Michael Duncan of NRL and John spoke about the Internet, its history, technology and use. Corinne Carroll NSF BACKBONE (Merit) ------------------- ANSNET/NSFNET Backbone Engineering Report September 30, 1991 Mark Knopper Jordan Becker Jo Ann Ward Advanced Network & Services Inc. Merit Network Inc. Overview This report is intended to provide a status report on the ANSNET/NSFNET backbone for the month of September. There are actually two physical backbones: the T1 NSFNET and the T3 ANSNET, Westine [Page 21] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 each of which interconnect to NSF sponsored sites. Few changes have been made on the T1 backbone, while further stabilization is taking place on the T3 backbone. During the period between 5/91- 9/91 nearly 90% of all T3 backbone infrastructure was changed to improve robustness of the network. The coming months will focus on stabilization of the resulting infrastructure with our target being to achieve the same or better level of reliability which the T1 backbone exhibits. Eventually as reliability of the T3 network improves, attaching networks will be moved from primary use of the T1 backbone to primary use of the T3 backbone. When this is complete and a T1 backup capability is introduced on the T3 backbone, the T1 backbone will be turned off. Merit is responsible to the NSF for the NSF sponsored network attachments to the T1 and T3 backbones. ANS manages and expands the T3 backbone while Merit in partnership with ANS operates and provides engineering for the two backbones. The month of September included a few new customer site installations to the T3 backbone, complete replacement of T3 DSU interface cards to prevent the DSU synchronization problem known as "grey link", full deployment of new router software that fixes the low level "packet loss" problem on the T3 serial line adapters, and a change to the way NNSTAT statistics are gathered on the T1 backbone. There are still a number of outstanding problems in the T3 router that compromise backbone reliability. In an effort to minimize users loss of connectivity resulting fro m this unreliability, several actions have been taken to provide additional backup connections for some customer sites and for the CNSS backbone nodes themselves. Traffic Statistics Traffic on the T1 infrastructure measured 8.47 billion inbound packets during September 1991, an increase over the 7.77 billion inbound packets of August. T3 infrastructure traffic increased from 1.93 billion inbound packets in August to 2.00 billion inbound packets in September. At the end of September, 818 networks are configured for announcement via the T3 infrastructure of a total 3389 networks announced on the backbone. New Backbone (CNSS) Nodes Denver is a new T3 CNSS backbone site. The Denver CNSS is linked to the Seattle CNSS, but is not yet linked to the St. Louis CNSS. An additional T1 concentrator router (T1-C) node was installed at the Hartford CNSS. Westine [Page 22] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 New ENSS Sites The Suranet site at College Park, MD now has a T3 ENSS connected to the T3 backbone at Washington, DC. Boulder has a T3 ENSS connected to the Denver CNSS. Later in the month another T3 ENSS at Salt Lake City will be connected to the Denver CNSS. University of Washington at Seattle is another T3 connected ENSS site, to the Seattle CNSS. Note: CNSS is core nodal switching subsystem, and ENSS is external nodal switching subsystem. The CNSS's are located within the MCI point of presence (POP) locations, and the ENSS's are at the sites of the attached NSF sponsored regional networks or other ANS customers. A map of the current T3 backbone network is available in postscript format via anonymous FTP to ftp.ans.net (cd pub/info, file=t3net.ps). New Software Changes/Fixes Statistics Collection A statistical sampling technique is now employed on the T1 backbone rather than using full statistics collection. This should improve the reliability of the statistics without compromising accuracy. A similar technique is being developed for the T3 backbone. Currently T3 traffic statistics are not being collected until this software is deployed. The traffic statistics that are collected include packets & bytes, both in and out of the backbone(s), sorted by network number, port number and protocol type. Packet Loss Users had previously reported TCP application performance degradation when using the T3 backbone. The problem was traced to a low level loss of packets (0.1% loss typically). To reduce the low level "packet loss" which occurred due to a problem on the T3 router serial line driver, new firmware and router driver software, was installed this month throughout the T3 backbone. This change has been tested by a number of users and it seems to have dramatically reduced the observed packet loss. T960 T1/Ethernet Adapter The new software deployed on the T3 backbone includes bug fixes for the T960 ethernet and T1 interface adapters on the T3 nodes to address a problem involving route caching which occured infrequently. Westine [Page 23] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 T3 Network Problems Remaining T3 386 Adapter Black Link Problem The most severe remaining problem on the T3 backbone is the known as the "black link" symptom. The symptom of this problem is a hung T3 interface which in some cases can completely hang the T3 router, and cannot be reset without rebooting the T3 router. There are three known problems which result in this symptom involving the T3 386 adapters and the T3 driver software. As of the end of September, we have identified several of the causes of this problem and are well along in testing a new driver revision which should avoid these symptoms. We expect to have this new driver installed throughout the network by the end of October, which we expect will eliminate the problems caused by the black link condition. Network Unreachable Messages When the IS-IS interior gateway protocol for the T3 backbone cycles upon a link state change, there is a period of time during which some packets may be dropped. Currently an ICMP network unreachable packet is generated when this happens. It has been brought to our attention that many implementations of TCP/telnet will close the connection if they receive one of these packets. While this is not proper behavior for telnet and should be addressed separately, we are working on providing a software change so that backbone CNSS routers will no longer send network unreachable packets. ENSS's will continue to send them outside the T3 backbone. Because the ENSS nodes maintain Internal BGP sessions which stay up during routing changes, ICMP network unreachable messages will only be sent to hosts when there is a real outage which results in an unreachable condition. We are currently measuring the convergence time for the backbone's IGP routing protocol to determine whether we are correctly generating the ICMP packets as part of this investigation. T960 Ethernet Packet Delays Occasionally (e.g. once a week) a T1/T3 ENSS ethernet interface will be reported to have gone into a "sticky" condition where packets are held for an inordinate amount of time. Packets aren't dropped as seen by the ping program but the delay times are shown to be excessive. The latest software changes do not address this problem, although there is instrumentation installed to diagnose the problem further. The condition can be be fixed by a manual reset of the ethernet controller by the NOC, and a script has been Westine [Page 24] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 developed which will automatically reset the ethernet controller thereby minimizing the effect of this problem prior to a real fix becoming available. We have also observed that the T960 adapters may occasionally hang after a reboot which should also be addressed by the automatic reset. Both of these problems occur infrequently and should be addressed in the upcoming software changes. Congestion on T1/T3 Interconnect Gateways Interconnect points between the T1 and T3 backbones are located at Ann Arbor and San Diego. It is still the case that only one interconnect can be active at a time due to problems with the routing software. We have seen congestion on the ethernet interface on the T1 backbone node at Ann Arbor that has caused packet loss on the interconnect gateway. Work has begun to establish an additional interconnect point at Houston. Also new software available in early October will allow both the Ann Arbor and Houston gateways to share the load for T1/T3 interconnect traffic. San Diego will be a "cold" standby in this configuration. We expect to deploy these changes in phases, the first of which will be to operate the San Diego interconnect in a "hot standby" mode, where if the Ann Arbor interconnect goes out of service the San Diego interconnect will take over automatically. RS/6000 Router Manual Reboot Required It is currently the case that when a CNSS or ENSS crashes for any reason, the machine's debugger is entered and the machine must be rebooted from the console. This was useful in the early days of the T3 backbone deployment in order that debugging information could be obtained to assist developers. However we have collected lots of information and very little new debugging information is currently gathered during these crashes. Therefore we are installing a change to the router software to minimize the downtime after a router crash by automatically taking a core dump and rebooting the router. This change is being tested and should be deployed during the 2nd week of October. Improvements to Backup Connectivity for the T3 Backbone Most of the NSF sponsored midlevel networks attached to the T3 backbone have backup connections to the T1 backbone. One problem we have struggled with during backup transitions is that the EGP protocol takes a long time (several minutes) to switch routing over from one network to the other. Using BGP as an exterior routing protocol significantly reduces the transition time between the T1 and T3 networks during backup transitions. NEARnet is particularly interested in this, and has made progress in working with Cisco to Westine [Page 25] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 improve the use of BGP support in their routers. We are also adding a second backup connection to the T1 backbone for NEARnet, which should improve performance when backup to the T3 backbone is required. T3 Core Backbone Redundancy - "Safety Net" Recognizing that the most probable cause of failure in the T3 backbone are the T3 386 interface adapters, we have taken action to engineer additional redundancy around these adapters. In October we will install a set of T1 point-to-point links interconnecting connecting the T3 backbone CNSS nodes which run in parallel with existing T3 point-to-point links. This represents an interim solution to improve reliablity while we continue to deploy the other engineering changes described here. This "safety net" includes 12 T1 point-to-point links and will be used in a "ring" topology connecting the T3 CNSS's at all of the MCI POP sites together. We expect that this will avoid the isolation of ENSS sites and partitioning of the T3 backbone if multiple T3 point-to- point links go down. Remaining Installations to Complete Phase II of T3 Deployment Phase II of the T3 backbone deployment should be complete in early October. Four T3 ENSS sites remain to be interconnected to the T3 backbone: Boulder, Princeton, Salt Lake City, and Lincoln. The Denver CNSS will be linked to the St. Louis CNSS to complete the planned connectivity of the CNSS backbone. The Boulder site ENSS will connect Westnet, NCAR, Los Alamos, and several Mexican networks. The Princeton site ENSS will connect JVNCnet, NEARnet, CA*Net, and a regional network in Singapore. The Salt Lake City site ENSS will also connect to Westnet. Phase III T3 Network Planning Following stabilization of the Phase II T3 network, we will follow with several changes now in the planning stage. Phase III of the T3 network will consist of a technology upgrade of the T3 serial interface adapters in the RS/6000s from the T3 386 adapters to "RS960" adapters. This will improve both network performance and reliability. The T3 CNSS multi-router architecture will be redesigned around this new interface adapter technology. While some backbone topology changes are under consideration, the final phase III topology is not expected to introduce any significant changes in backbone topology. ENSS backup services required to reduce dependency on the T1 network are being planned. Improved DS3 transmission facility monitoring using the ANSI T1.107A "c-bit parity" standard will be supported. Westine [Page 26] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 Software changes in the T3 network are expected to include support for OSI CLNP switching services as well as migration from the RCP_Route daemon to the Gateway Daemon (gated), which will support a number of new routing technologies for both IP and OSI CLNP. Note that gated uses the Dual IS-IS protocol for IP and CLNP. All of these plans are still being developed and are contingent upon the progress made on stabilizing the phase II T3 network. Merit staff conference and meeting activities Jessica Yu of Merit Internet Engineering attended the September FEPG meeting in San Diego, CA. Susan Hares was the Internet Engineering representative to the X3S3.3 Task Group which convened in Boulder, CO. Merit Network, Inc. will sponsor "Making Your NSFNET Connection Count" at College Park, Maryland, November 11-12. This informative seminar, intended for beginning and intermediate network users, will focus on issues of interest to educators, librarians, campus computing leaders, information systems and networking administrators, educational liaisons, and others. For information, contact seminar@merit.edu or phone 1-800-66-MERIT. Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu) PITTSBURGH SUPER COMPUTING CENTER --------------------------------- The PSC has completed the first step of our High School Supercomputing Outreach program. This involved outfitting ten regional high schools each witha 3D DecStation 5000, all generously donated by Digital Equipment Corporation. The ten schools were chosen from several on the merit of a research proposal each school submitted to the PSC. We are using V.32 modems connected to a dial-in router at our networking hub, located at Carnegie Mellon University, asa cost effective means of TCP/IP connectivity. The system uses SLIP/PPP software that was modified here at the PSC, that now enables 9.6 bps. We plan to evaluate V.32 bis and V.42 bis modems using data compression techniques to push that figure up to 38.4 bps. The schools currently have connectivity to the PSC, PREPnet and full Internet access when logged into our front end mainframes. Gene Hastings of our communications group attended and participated in last months FARNET/NSFNET workshop on inter-regional connectivity held in Big Sky, MT. New network connections for the month include: Lebanon Valley Westine [Page 27] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 College, WEA Manufacturing, Hershey Medical Center, Gettysburg College, Carnegie Group, and Juniata College. by Stephen Cunningham PREPNET ------- During September, Franklin and Marshall College, Children's Hospital, and Lincoln University joined PREPnet. Franklin and Marshall College will be connected to the Harrisburg hub at 56Kbps, Children's Hospital will be connected via the University of Pittsburgh, and Lincoln University will be connected to the Philadelphia hub at 56Kbps. PREPnet has been investing using the Telebit NetBlazer to provide entry level services. PREPnet NIC (prepnet+@andrew.cmu.edu) SAIC ---- SAIC Activities for September The first draft for the gated implementation design document was completed. There are still some design issues that need to be resolved before producing the final document. Chi Chu Chung has begun modifying the original IDPR kernel module to correct some bugs and improve efficiency. It is expected that a radix based route lookup function similar to that in BSD 4.3 Reno will replace the existing fixed size table routines. This is also being chosen for compatibility with the new BSD route table. It is expected that the new route table from BSD may have the functionality required for IDPR that it could be used directly. In the mean time, IDPR will have to use a separate route lookup. An architecture for using the domain-name system for resolution of IP addresses to Administrative Domains IDs is in an embryionic form. It is expected that an RFC will be forthcoming describing the additions to the DNS. Planned activies: Testing of the GATED implementation continues. Configuration is very difficult and hinders progress. The new configuration parser should alleviate some of this. Westine [Page 28] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 The kernel work is extensive and will continue through November. Woody Woodburn (woody@sparta.com) SRI NIC ------- The cumulative total of all IP numbers assigned at the end of September was 36,988. See the table below for a breakdown of these assignments by class. The cumulative total of assigned Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) was 1,384, and the cumulative total number of domains registered was 3,450. This includes the root domain, 77 top-level domains, 3,304 second-level domains, and 67 third-level MIL subdomains. Cumulative IP Network Statistics Month/Year Class A B C Total Sep. 1991 47 6,239 30,702 36,988 Aug. 1991 45 5,908 28,977 34,930 Jul. 1991 43 5,799 25,364 31,206 Jun. 1991 43 5,654 24,449 30,146 May. 1991 43 5,026 24,797 29,866 Apr. 1991 43 4,977 25,897 30,917 Mar. 1991 41 4,520 24,572 29,133 Feb. 1991 39 4,347 22,552 26,938 Jan. 1991 39 4,246 21,731 26,016 Dec. 1990 36 4,305 21,811 26,152 Nov. 1990 35 4,198 21,149 25,382 As of 26 September, SRI International ceased its provision of registration services to the Internet. We've devoted many exciting and enjoyable years to serving the Internet community, but the time has come to say farewell. Thanks for your encouragement and moral support over the years--we shall miss you all. Mary Stahl (stahl@nisc.sri.com) UCL ---- Ian Wakeman attended SIGCOM 91. There was an Operations Management Videoconference about the UK-US Fat Pipe. There was a quick Westine [Page 29] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 demonstration of video from BBN to visiting VIPs. We have now demonstrated UDP based voice from UCL to Lancaster University and an X based Video to Cambridge University (based on video capture from the Archimedes workstation). Voice is perfectly usable; video is 128 pixel square, monochrome, 5 frame per second, all in software. We are still awaiting BT CODECs delivery. (There are now 17 UK Universities reachable by IP at 2Mbps, although progress in their appearance in the DNS is a little complex). James Cowan has completed a Generic MIB Browser for our OSIMIS software, based on the X Windows Interviews C++ library and our generic management software. Some non-ISO Managed Objects include TCP connections and Unix Processes and Users. A paper on this and follow on work is in progress. An SNMP version would be relatively simple. [The size of a binary linked with interviews, X, CMIS and ISODE does not really bear thinking about:-]. John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK) UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE ---------------------- 1. A second T1 circuit has been installed from the UDel campus to the NSFNET College Park node. This circuit normally carries only traffic to and from our 128.4 research net, but can carry the full campus load should the primary T1 circuit fail. The new arrangement should improve timekeeping accuracy for those peers chiming the UDel NTP time servers. 2. Rick Anthony completed and tested a demodulator for the Canadian time-service station CHU. Used with a junkbox shortwave receiver, this quite inexpensive widget provides surprisingly good time to the low milliseconds. Neil Corman completed and tested a computer interface for a LORAN receiver. Work continues on the receiver itself, which should yield accuracies comparable to GPS, but cost lots less. 3. Ken Monington is working on a rigorous mathematical analysis of the adaptive-parameter NTP local-clock model. The goal of this effort is to provide fast, reliable time acquisition to the regime of a few seconds, down from about a minute in the present design. This work is being supported by the US Navy SAFENET program. Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU) Westine [Page 30] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 WISCNET ------- The DDS circuit between Marquette Univerity and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee was replaced with a T1 circuit on September 25. Informational papers describing news and white pages service alternatives where written and distributed. The August '91 issue of 'NSF NETWORK NEWS' contains a description of WiscNet and WiscNet sites have been incorporated in the map. Michael Dorl (dorl@vms.macc.wisc.edu) Westine [Page 31] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 DIRECTORY SERVICES ------------------ This section of the Internet Monthly is devoted to efforts working to develop directory services that are for, or effect, the Internet. We would like to encourage any organization with news about directory service activities to use this forum for publishing brief monthly news items. The current reporters list includes: o IETF OSIDS Working Group [X] o IETF DISI Working Group [X] o Field Operational X.500 Project - ISI - Merit - 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 [X] o PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 Project o PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT o Registration Authority Committee (ANSI USA RAC) [X] 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 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. Three members of the FOX group along with Steve Hardcastle-Kille will participate in a panel session at Interop about efforts to bring X.500 into the Internet community. In addition, demonstrations and information about FOX efforts will be available in the display area. Westine [Page 32] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 ISI --- ISI organized a meeting of the FOX participants who will be at Interop. Tom Tignor has joined the ISI FOX project team. He has been reviewing various X.500 documents, and will be coordinating their review by the full FOX group. Steve Hotz (hotz@isi.edu) MERIT ----- 1. Sue Hares of Merit is managing the OSI booth at Interop '91. Along with FTAM, X-Windows, X.400 and Virtual Terminal, one of the applications to be demonstrated there will be X.500. CLNP will be used at the network layer, and the demonstration will include connectivity beyond the show floor over NSFNET and international networks. CDC is sponsoring the @c=US@o=Interop portion of the DIT. Each of 12 vendors (or so) will have organizational unit entries under this entry. Merit is also adding the Site Contacts directory at @c=us@o=Interop@ou=Site Contacts. Merit is also working with IBM to demonstrate directory user agents in the NSFNET section of their Interop booth. As part of this effort, the host FOX.MERIT.EDU is now running SunNet OSI 7.0 which allows X.500 over TP4/CLNP. 2. Merit is participating in the activities to extend the FOX contract for an extra two years. Merit's work for this extension will be to finalize and create schema for network infrastructure and information services objects, populate and update the directory with these objects, and create user interface tools to make them useful. Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu) PSI --- The program to automatically load RFC information into X.500 was modified to include RFC numbers as a search key so as to allow the "x5ftp" program to search by RFC numbers, in addition to other existing search keys. In preparation for alignment of the White Pages Pilot Project Westine [Page 33] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 with the NADF naming scheme, the "usconfig" program was written. The "usconfig" program performs the same function as the existing "dsaconfig" program, except that it has knowledge of the NADF Naming recommendations, and produces configurations specific to the U.S. Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com) SRI ---- SRI provided further input to the NIST DSSIG (by fax) as they met in September on postalAddress length constraints. The input was gathered based on experience converting the WHOIS database to X.500 and problems that were found due to postalAddress length constraints. Toward the end of the month, we worked with a DSSIG member, Russ Wright (LBL) to gather more detailed information on failure percentages for line lengths ranging between 31 and 50 characters. We received and responded to 11 queries regarding the availability of "A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations" (Internet-Draft document draft-ietf-disi-catalog-00.txt). Ruth Lang (rlang@nisc.sri.com) PSI DARPA/NNT X.500 Project --------------------------- A new draft on the naming of DSAs, now released as the Internet Draft draft-ietf-osids-dsanaming-01.txt was reviewed, and comments sent to the author. The manual "PSI White Pages Project: Administrator's Guide" was updated to reflect the upgrade to ISODE 7.0, and the upcoming transition to the NADF's recommendations on naming. Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com) PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT PROJECT ----------------------------- The "Fruit Bat" DSA was moved to a more reliable machine to increase general project reliability. This DSA currently provides updates of the (root) EDB to all the DSAs in the White Pages Pilot Project. In preparation for alignment of the White Pages Pilot Project with Westine [Page 34] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 the NADF naming scheme, the experimental information that was used to test the NADF naming scheme in its early stages was taken out of the U.S. portion of the DIT. New organizations added to the pilot this past month are: Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. Wengyik Yeong (yeongw@psi.com) SG-D MHS-MD ----------- The SG-D MHS-MD Subcommittee met at the US Dept of State on September 17-18 to progress the proposal it is developing for registration of MHS-MD names in c=US. The meeting was chaired by Richard Jesmajian of ATT. The proposal (at this point) tentatively involves a plan to use ANSI c=US registered names as c=US MHS-MD names, with the added restriction that they must meet the standard requirements for any X.400 ADMD or PRMD name. At this meeting, after long and arduous elliptical discussions, it was agreed that the proposal should include a goal for all PRMD names in c=US to become unique in c=US, in spite of the fact that some service providers are currently under contract with certain customers to "specifically not disclose their chosen PRMD Name to anyone." This non-disclosure contract situation presents an interesting and frustrating conundrum for efforts to enable a c=US National MTS Backbone interconnection plan. It was also agreed to include in the plan a scheme to allow "MHS-MD Naming (Sub)Authorities to use the "Constructive Syntax" developed last year by the NIST OIW X.400 SIG. It was noted that the US Government (GSA) is currently using this constructive syntax coupled with its ANSI Registered Organizational Name (GOV) to form PRMD Names such as GOV+DOE, etc. It is understood that many government organizations are not happy with this state of affairs, and there is serious oposition to this schem, mostly based on esthetic considerations such as "They are ugly!". During the meeting, it was frequently pointed out by the Chair that the MHS-MD subcommittee is only empowered to develop a recommendation to SG-D, which will review it and possibly modify it before recommending it to the US CCITT National Committee, which has the power to adopt it. It was also pointed out (several times) that it is possible that the MHS-MD proposal might be rejected, and that SG-D or the US CCITT National Committee might adopt some other Westine [Page 35] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 plan, altogether. For example, it was suggested (several times) that the US Dept of State just might dump the whole MHS-MD plan in favor of asking one of the prominent service providers (ATT came to mind) who are thought to be very good at registering names and numbers to just do it on behalf of c=US. No criteria for this possibility were ever provided by anyone. Another issue discussed was that of joint administration of the new { joint-iso-ccitt(2) country(?) } name tree adopted by ISO and CCITT to serve as the Alphanumeric & Numeric name tree for use by X.500, and which would become the c=US name tree from which MHS-MD plans to draw its MHS-MD names. It was agreed that SG-D should negotiate with ANSI with regard to joint administration of name registration in this new joint arc. A joint meeting of the MHS-MD and ANSI USA RAC committees is planned for December, mostly likely during the planned MHS-MD meeting at the US Dept of State in December. The next meeting is scheduled for December 5-6 at the US State Dept. Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu) Westine [Page 36] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 CALENDAR OF EVENTS ------------------ Readers are requested to send in dates of events that are appropriate for this calendar section. 1991 CALENDAR Sep 29-Oct 4 5TH SDL (CCITT FDT) FORUM, Rick Reed, GPT Coventry, UK rick_reed@eurokom.ie Oct 7-11 INTEROP91, San Jose, Ca Oct 7-15 6TH WORLD TELECOM'91 SYMPOSIUM, Geneva Oct 8-11 IFIP WORKSHOP ON OPEN DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING -- Contact jdm@fokus.berlin.gmd.dbp.de or heymer@iir-adlershof.adw.dp.dd Oct 15-17 4TH INTL. WORKSHOP ON PROTOCOL TEST SYSTEM Leidschendam, Jan Kroon (J_Kroon@pttrnl.nl) Nov 18-22 IETF, Santa Fe, MN Megan Davies (mdavies@NRI.RESTON.VA.US Nov 19-22 FORTE'91, University of Queensland Ken Parker, Telecom Austrl (k.parker@trl.oz.au) 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. Phoenic Dec 14-18 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 1992 CALENDAR Jan 13-21 ANSI X3T5 Jan 20-22 RIPE, Amsterdam Jan 28-30 ANSI X3S3.3, Tucson, AZ Feb 19-20 RARE WG1, Location unknown Feb 20-21 RARE Manager Mtg, Location unknown 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 Mar 16-20 IETF, San Diego, Ca Megan Davies (mdavies@NRI.RESTON.VA.US) Mar 18-20 Computers, Freedom & Privacy II, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, DC Westine [Page 37] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 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. IETF, San Diego, CA Megan Davies (mdavies@nri.reston.va.us) May 4-6 ANSI X3T5 May 4-8 DECUS '92, Atlanta, GA May 4-8 IEEE INFOCOM'92, See IEEE Pub., Florence May 12-14 Joint Network Conference 3, Innsbruck, Austria (this is the RARE Networkshop - renamed) 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 8-12 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 17-20 SIGCOMM, Baltimore, MD Deepinder Sidhu, UMBC Sep 7-11 IFIP World Congress Madrid, Spain; Contact: IFIP Sep 14-18 ANSI X3T5 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 Westine [Page 38] Internet Monthly Report September 1991 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 Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) Westine [Page 39]