~ February 1993 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 - Susan Calcari (calcaris@cerf.net) Requests to be added or deleted from the Internet Monthly report list should be sent to "imr-request@isi.edu". Details on obtaining the current IMR, or back issues, via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending an EMAIL message to "rfc- info@ISI.EDU" with the message body "help: ways_to_get_imrs". For example: To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU Subject: getting imrs help: ways_to_get_imrs Cooper [Page 1] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 PRIVACY AND SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 Internet Projects ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9 BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16 CREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19 JANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22 JVNCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23 MERIT/MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24 NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK) . . . page 28 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 29 NORTHWESTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29 NSFNET/INFORMATION SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 PREPnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 SDSC (SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER) . . . . . . . . . . page 33 UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 USER SERVICES REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 35 CALENDAR OF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 63 Cooper [Page 2] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 IAB MESSAGE The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) will meet on Tuesday, March 30 during the IETF meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The meeting location will be posted in the IETF registration area. The meeting will start at 7:30 PM and end by 10:00 PM. Observers are welcome to attend this open meeting. This will be the first face-to-face meeting of the "new" IAB, following the selection/confirmation of 6 new IAB members by the Internet Society Trustees. Lyman Chapin, (lyman@BBN.COM) Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS ------------------------- PRIVACY AND SECURITY -------------------- The PSRG met in San Diego on February 8-10. PSRG members continued work on an Internet Security Architecture document. An initial, very rough draft of the document was reviewed in detail and many revisions were proposed. A format was adopted for additional sections of the document, and members volunteered to write several of these sections. Rob Shirey, who is acting as editor of the document, will be making revisions and accepting additional inputs in preparation for producing the next draft of the document. Following the PSRG meeting, on 2/11-12, the first PSRG Workshop on Network and Distributed System Security took place in San Diego. This workshop, co-sponsored by Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory and the Internet Society, was organized by Dan Nessett (LLNL). Dan and the rest of the PSRG members acted as the program committee for this workshop, selecting 12 papers from over 20 submissions. Over 160 attendees spent two days in this single-track, eight-session workshop. Proceedings were provided to attendees and an second printing of the proceedings is being undertaken to satisfy additional demand. Plans are underway to make this an annual event, under Internet Society sponsorship. Dan Nessett will serve as chair for next years event, with Rob Shirey (Mitre) and Russ Housley (Xerox) as program committee chairs. Cooper [Page 3] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 The next PSRG meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 7-9, in Cambridge (UK), immediately preceding the IETF meeting in Amsterdam. Steve Kent INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS ---------------------------- 1. Let me remind everyone that the next IETF meeting will be held in Columbus, Ohio from March 29th through April 2, 1993 (yes, this does mean that the IESG Open Plenary will be held on April First), and is being co-hosted by OARNet and The Ohio State University. The Newcomers' Orientation and the Registration Reception will be held on Sunday, March 28. Registration information has already been sent and updates will be made to the IETF Announcement list. Note that the 27th meeting of the IETF, scheduled for July of 1993, will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and will be co-hosted by SURFnet and RARE. This will be the first time an IETF meeting has been held outside of North America. The Secretariat will be distributing information and instructions for making hotel reservations relatively soon to facilitate making travel plans and arrangements, but are NOT accepting meeting registrations for Amsterdam at this time. 2. The IESG adopted the following policy on the scheduling of BOFs during IETF Plenary meetings. This policy goes into effect following the Columbus, Ohio meeting in March, 1993. 1. All BOFs wishing to meet during an IETF Plenary must have the approval of the appropriate Area Director. The Secretariat will NOT schedule or allocate time slots without the explicit approval of the Area Director. 2. The purpose of a BOF is to conduct a single, brief discussion or to ascertain interest and establish goals for a working group. All BOF organizers are required to submit a brief written report of what transpired during the BOF meeting together with a roster of attendees to the IETF Secretariat for inclusion in the proceedings. 3. A BOF can only be held once (ONE slot at one IETF Plenary meeting). 4. Under unusual circumstances an Area Director can, at his/her discretion, allow a BOF to meet for a second time. Typically, Cooper [Page 4] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 though not a requirement, this is to develop a charter to be submitted to the IESG. 5. BOFs are not permitted to meet three times. 6. Non-IETF groups wishing to participate in IETF meetings may hold a BOF, for single-event discussion, or may pursue creation of normal IETF working groups, for on-going interactions and disussions. The rules governing such BOFs are the same as for all other IETF BOFs and working groups. 7. When necessary, IETF WGs will be given priority for meeting space over IETF BOFs. 3. The IESG approved or recommended the following nine actions during the month of February, 1993: o Network Time Protocol be published as a Draft Standard. o SMTP Service Extensions be published as a Proposed Standard. o SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration be published as a Proposed Standard. o Transition of Internet Mail from Just-Send-8 to 8Bit-SMTP/MIME be published as an Informational RFC. o SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport be published as a Proposed Standard. o Lightweight Directory Access Protocol be published as a Proposed Standard. o The String Representation of Standard Attribute Syntaxes be published as a Proposed Standard. o Directed ARP be published as an Experimental Protocol. o DUA Metrics be published as an Informational RFC. Cooper [Page 5] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 4. The IESG issued three Last Calls to the IETF during the month of February, 1993: IEEE 802.5 Token Ring MIB IEEE 802.4 Token Bus MIB Path MTU Discovery 5. Three new Working Groups were formed during the month of February, 1993: Minimal OSI Upper-Layers (thinosi) Network Training Materials (trainmat) Integrated Directory Services (ids) Additionally, three working Groups were concluded during the month: Directory Information Services Infrastructure (disi) Ethernet MIB (ethermib) DS1/DS3 MIB (trunkmib) 6. Twenty-two (22) Internet Draft actions were taken during the month of February, 1993: (Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) ) WG I-D Title ------ -------------------------------------------------- (netdata) o Network Database Protocol (ospf) o OSPF Version 2 Traps (netdata) o Network Database Implementation Information Internet Draft (x400ops) o Routing coordination for X.400 MHS services within a multi protocol / multi network environment Table Format V3 for static routing (none) o An Architecture for IP Address Allocation with CIDR (smtpext) o SMTP Service Extensions (smtpext) o SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration (mimemhs) o HARPOON: Rules for downgrading messages from X.400/88 to X.400/84 when MIME content-types are present in the messages Cooper [Page 6] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 (pip) o Pip Header Processing (noop) o An Echo Function for ISO 8473 (none) o RFC 1327 tutorial (smtpext) o SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport (x400ops) o Using the Internet DNS to maintain X.400 MHS Routing Informations (iesg) + IESG Advice from Experience with Path MTU Discovery (none) + RAP: Internet Route Access Protocol (none) o Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR): an Address Assignment and Aggregation Strategy (822ext) + Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies (none) + A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information (iplpdn) + The Transmission of Multi-protocol Datagrams over Circuit-mode ISDN (iplpdn) + Parameter Negotiation for the Multiprotocol Interconnect (pip) + Pip Near-term Architecture (x400ops) + Evaluation of ADMDs and Integration aspects with respect to the R&D messaging community 7. Sixteen (16) RFC's were published during the month of February, 1993. RFC St WG Title ------- -- -------- ------------------------------------- RFC1384 I (osids) Naming Guidelines for Directory Pilots RFC1413 PS (ident) Identification Server RFC1414 PS (ident) Ident MIB RFC1416 E (telnet) Telnet Authentication Option RFC1417 I (none) NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview RFC1421 PS (pem) Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures Cooper [Page 7] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 RFC1422 PS (pem) Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part II: Certificate-Based Key Management RFC1423 PS (pem) Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers RFC1424 PS (pem) Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part IV: Key Certification and Related Services RFC1425 PS (smtpext) SMTP Service Extensions RFC1426 PS (smtpext) SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport RFC1427 PS (smtpext) SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration RFC1428 I (smtpext) Transition of Internet Mail from Just-Send-8 to 8Bit-SMTP/MIME RFC1429 I (none) Listserv Distribute Protocol RFC1430 I (osids) A Strategic Plan for Deploying an Internet X.500 Directory Service RFC1431 I (osids) DUA Metrics St(atus): ( S) Internet Standard (PS) Proposed Standard (DS) Draft Standard ( E) Experimental ( I) Informational Steve Coya (scoya@cnri.reston.va.us) Cooper [Page 8] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 INTERNET PROJECTS ----------------- ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING --------------------------- Network Status Summary ====================== The deployment of the AIX 3.2 operating system on the T3 routers is tentatively scheduled to begin during the first week in April '93, pending the successful completion of system test in March. The upgrade will involve a hard disk swap over 4 weekend maintenance windows to be scheduled in April. The ANSnet forwarding table now supports over 7K destinations that are actively announced. New adapter microcode and routing protocol changes are being implemented to increase the current capacity of the on-card forwarding tables beyond 10K destination networks. Minor routing software enhancements to the rcp_routed software were made in February to support the migration to AIX 3.2, as well as more efficient logging support, and fixes for third party routing exchanges. T1 backbone dismantling activities continued in February, and will be completed in March. T3 network performance tests were conducted in February in cooperation with Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center. Preliminary results have correlated peak performance observations that are close to the maxiumum theoretical adapter bandwidth. Backbone Traffic and Routing Statistics ======================================= The total inbound packet count for the network (measured using SNMP interface counters) was 26,404,260,412 on T3 ENSS interfaces, up 8.5% from January. The total packet count into the network (including all ENSS serial interfaces was 30,358,722,577. As of February 28, the number of networks configured in the Merit Policy Routing Database was 9582 for the T3 backbone. Of these, 1955 were never announced to the T3 backbone (e.g. silent nets). Merit is working with the regionals to reduce the number of "silent" nets in the policy routing database. The maximum number of networks announced to the T3 backbone during the month (from samples collected every 15 minutes) was 7013. Average announced Cooper [Page 9] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 networks on 2/28 were 6978. The overall average number of networks announced via the primary configured AS path was around 95% in February. AIX 3.2 Migration Plan Status ============================= The T3 backbone software upgrade to support the AIX 3.2 operating system is tentatively scheduled to be begin on April 3rd, pending the completion of system testing in March. The upgrade will be administered by swapping out CNSS/ENSS disk drives loaded with AIX 3.1 with new AIX 3.2 disk drives at each site. The process involves several steps including AIX 3.2 Hard Drive Creation, Hard Drive Installation, and Phased Deployment. Most of the upgrade tasks have been automated via shell scripts to assure uniform processes across systems. Replicas of each CNSS/ENSS file system will be created in the lab on the AIX 3.2 platform. This replica will be shipped with a backup tape for use during "fall back" procedures, in the unlikely event of a drive failure on site. Other tools such as AIX 3.2 boot diskettes will be shipped to support this new platform in the field. The hard drives on routers at all sites will be backed up prior to the hard drive installation. This AIX 3.1 platform backup could be used during "fall back" procedures. All configuration files that might have changed since the replica drive was made will be preserved on a neighboring CNSS/ENSS for comparison after the system is brought up with AIX 3.2. AIX 3.2 Phased Deployment ------------------------- The Deployment will occur in four (4) phases. Each of these phases will occur on consecutive weekends starting on Friday April 2nd around 23:00 local time and continuing into Saturday morning. Each phase will include upgrades to selected CNSS nodes and their adjacent ENSS nodes during the same maintenance window. The CNSS upgrades will be staggered in pairs to allow optimal use of T1 backup circuits at T3 ENSS's as well as to maintain continuous monitoring capabilities by either the ANS Ann Arbor primary NOC, or the New York backup NOC. The tentative schedule (pending completion of system testing in March) is as follows: Cooper [Page 10] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Phase I (April 2) - Washington D.C. Phase II (April 16) - Seattle/Denver, San Francisco/Los Angeles Phase II (April 23) - Greensboro/Atlanta, Houston/St. Louis Phase IV (April 30) - Hartford/New York City, Cleveland/Chicago The staggering of upgrades between the CNSS and its adjacent ENSS will reduce the ENSS outage approximately the elapsed time of their site upgrade. The upgrade process to a router is as follows: (1) Upgrade T3-B CNSS router, bring up routing (2) Upgrade the T3-C and associated T3 ENSS's simultaneously, bring up routing (3) Upgrade T1-C and associated T1 ENSS's, bring up routing. This process will be followed for the first CNSS pair then the second CNSS pair. Installation Fall Back Procedures --------------------------------- In the unlikely event that a disk failure occurs (in shipping or installation), the following fall back procedures will be followed: 1. Install site from AIX 3.2 BACKUP for that machine (shipped with hard drive). 2. Install site from AIX 3.2 BACKUP of another machine on site. (applies to CNSS ONLY, disk is shipped with hard drive) 3. Re-install AIX 3.1 hard drive 4. Install site from AIX 3.1 BACKUP for that machine (created before 3.2 install started). AIX 3.2 Testing --------------- The AIX 3.2 testing proceeded during February, and scheduled to complete by mid-March. Most of the problems that have been fixed during the latter part of the system test cycle relate to the interaction between the routing daemon and the 3.2 kernel routing tables. One of the more significant changes in the 3.2 kernel is the support a radix trie forwarding table. Cooper [Page 11] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Growth in Destination Networks ============================== The following table (provided by Enke Chen at Merit) illustrates the growth in the ANSnet router forwarding tables (maximal number of announced networks of each month): MONTH MAX RATE(%) ===== ==== ====== 07/92 4596 08/92 4866 5.9 09/92 5070 4.2 10/92 5432 7.1 11/92 5772 6.3 12/92 6239 8.1 01/93 6654 6.7 (Avg monthly growth rate: 6.4%) The interface forwarding tables on the ANSnet routers are currently configured to support 10K destinations. In the near term, microcode changes will be deployed to support improved address compression in the forwarding tables which will support 12K destinations. Following the AIX 3.2 deployment, ANS will deploy GATED software. The GATED routing daemon will support a number of enhancements that increase the forwarding table capacity. BGP4 within GATED will support CIDR aggregation. The kernel, microcode and routing daemon support for CIDR is expected to reduce the rate of growth in the number of on-card routes. ANSnet will configure to receive and redistribute aggregated routes to other networks that support BGP4. ANSnet will also perform proxy aggregation for networks that are not running BGP4. No capability is planned to explode/de-aggregate supernet routes to allow re- advertising them to non-BGP4 neighbors. Routing Software Changes ======================== Changes to the rcp_routed software on the T3 network included improving the logging performance on ENSS206 (Geneva) since there are over 200 routes announced by 3rd party peers. Other changes support the planned migration from AIX 3.1 to AIX 3.2 software, support for handling multiple peer routers with multiple interfaces to the ENSS (typically one FDDI and one ethernet per peer), and additional changes to address problems associated with changing third party route announcements. Cooper [Page 12] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Release notes are available for anonymous ftp in: ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/t3-rcp_routed/Release-Notes Routing Stability Measured on the T3 Network ============================================ During February, internal routing stability was measured by short term disconnect times (disconnects of five minutes duration or less). Overall the network saw almost 99% complete routing stability (no internal disconnects in any part of the network). All individual nodes reported 99.8% stability or better. ENSS206 (Geneva) continued to experience circuit problems and reported 1 hour and 20 minutes of short term BGP disconnect time over the course of the month. Taking into account the configuration runs, ENSS206 had only 25 minutes of instability. All other nodes reported less than 51 minutes or about 98.9% stability. Only 10 nodes reported less than 99.9% stability. The configuration runs accounted for the majority of the instability. Only ENSS201 (a new installation) experienced higher instability at 48 minutes (outside the configuration window). Only 5 nodes reported more than 15 minutes of instability outside the configuration window during the entire month. The external routing stability report covers data gathered during the following interval: Feb 1 00:11:12 UTC - Feb 28 19:05:14 UTC During the reporting period 241,195 IBGP updates were received from 536 distinct AS paths. These updates contained 591,707 network numbers (or an average of 2.5 networks per update or 1,103.9 updates per AS path). There were 2,448 distinct network number. The most unstable network during this period was contained in 5,263 unreachables. The total number of updates and number of AS paths were up slightly from the January data. There were fewer updates per AS path. We have been forwarding reports to selected peer networks to help identify and eliminate chronic route flaps. The automation of these reports is in progress so that the data can be sent daily for any AS which supports networks that were unstable in the previous day. RS960 FDDI Deployment Status ============================ During February we installed new FDDI adapters on ENSS141 Cooper [Page 13] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 (Boulder), and ENSS142 (WestNet). It has come to our attention that some peer network routers may be taking a performance hit by setting the MTU to 4000 bytes to match the T3 backbone MTU. On the T3 backbone, packets received larger than 4000 bytes are fragmented on the FDDI card (with the first fragment being 4000 bytes). This will be changed when AIX 3.2 is deployed. The MTU will then increase to 4352 bytes on both the T3 and FDDI cards. We will still be able to *receive* packets larger than 4352 bytes in size, and fragment them (with first fragment being 4352 bytes). However we will not *send* packets of size larger than 4352 bytes. We therefore suggest that peer networks using FDDI set their router MTUs to default maximum. CNSS97 Maintenance ================== During January and early February we experienced problems with the CNSS97 (Denver) router which results in the reset of several T3 interfaces. This affected ENSS141 (Salt Lake City), and ENSS142 (Boulder) nodes. On 2/13, the router system board and one of the T3 interfaces were swapped out. During the change, ENSS141/ENSS142 were rehomed to CNSS96. They were rehomed back to CNSS97 following the upgrade. No further problems have been experienced on CNSS97 since then. T1 Dismantling Near Completion ============================== During February we dismantled and removed most of the T1 backbone RT equipment. Some of this equipment was donated to regional network locations and will remain onsite. There are still 5 sites for which the remainder of this equipment will be packed and shipped in March. OSI Configuration Activities ============================ EON (OSI Encapsulator) systems will be installed to support OSI traffic destined for the T3 backbone at ENSS136 (College Park) to support MAE-East, and within OARnet to support the March IETF meeting. International Circuit Maintenance ================================= Special maintenance was conducted to support problem identification and resolution on international circuits to ENSS173 (Mexico), and Cooper [Page 14] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 ENSS206 (Geneva). ANSnet Performance Testing ========================== A set of performance tests were conducted on the T3 backbone on 2/19 in cooperation with Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center (Matt Mathis). The tests involved use of a PSC developed tool "uping", which can be viewed as windowed version of traceroute. It measures data rate and loss as functions of ttl (distance into a pipe), mtu, and window size. All tests were done with MTU=4000 bytes (The current backbone MTU). There was no observed packet loss from the PSC Cray C90 to ENSS132 (Pittsbugh) at any rate tested. The measured bandwidth to CNSS41 (Cleveland) was 20.8 Mb/S (650 pps). The measured bandwidth to CNSS40 (also Cleveland), and all points further west to the San Diego Supercomputer Center was 17.6 Mb/S (550 pps). This seem to be due to two factors. The first is the ambient load on the T3 network. The second is that the RS960 HSSI interface cards that connect to T3 DSUs are clocked by the DSU (22.5Mbps), however the HSSI interface cards that are connected to other HSSI interfaces in the POP are clocked using on-card clocking and are therefore limited to 20Mbps. This will be changed on a new revision to the RS960 card later in 1993. PSC provided the uping program to ANS along with the data he collected during the 2/19 PSC-SDSC test. ANS ran some tests on the T3 testnet using the "uping" program. There was no other traffic on testnet during these measurements. ANS observed up to 19.648 Mbps from the ANS Elmsford T3 ENSS to two testnet CNSS nodes. This confirms that the clock rate on intra-POP links is 20Mbps. In the coming months, ANS will attempt to correlate the other background traffic with the uping traffic, and identify any sources of congestion using on card RS960 instrumentation. New ANSnet ENSS Nodes Activated in February =========================================== ENSS Customer Access Date Active ---- -------- ------ ----------- E220 NetIOWA 56K 02/12 E219 Westlaw 56K 02/19 E218 Westlaw 56K 02/23 E201 SHARE T1 02/28 Jordan Becker (becker@ans.net) Cooper [Page 15] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC. ---------------------------- Defense Simulation Internet (DSI) The following is a synopsis of the various DSI activities that occurred during February. During this period, we finished alpha testing of the ST2 router software. New video teleconferencing software was also successfully tested. Packet aggregation software was deployed on the secure side of the network to increase the effective throughput of the Network Encryption System (NES). BBN is continuing development of the NES security software using an ST Encapsulated Processor (STEP). Efforts have also begun on a major demonstration that will occur in the May time frame. It will be conducted for the May AUSA conference to be held in Orlando, Florida. Advancements in simulation technology will be demonstrated over a wide area network. To date, more than 55 sites have been installed in CONUS, Hawaii, Europe, and Korea, with the most recent being installed in sites located on the East Coast of the United States. In addition, several more sites are in the process of being added to the network. Lastly, all five sites in Europe have been installed, with some awaiting final approval to operate in a secure mode. Real-time Multicast Communications and Applications On February 9th, we demonstrated the use of the Video Information Server (VIS) over a wide area network at DARPA. The set of machines that comprises the VIS was located at BBN and a client machine running video applications was set up at DARPA for the demo. The machines were located on local Ethernets (at each site) and these were in turn connected to the DARTNET which supported the wide area communications. The video server machines are Sun workstations. These machines control a variety of video devices including video disc players and analog video switches. One of the server machines contains a Parallax board which is used to convert analog video to digital video for transmission over the wide area net. The video server also contains a WAIS database of video information, obtained by recording and decoding closed captioned video and indexing the closed captioned text to the video. Users search the WAIS database Cooper [Page 16] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 to select video of interest. The client machine used in the demo was a Sun workstation with a Parallax board which is used to receive and decode digital video and display the video in a window on the workstation. All of the video control, i.e. searching the video database for the desired video clip, locating an appropriate video device to play the clip, and controlling the video device (i.e. forward, pause, play, etc.), was done remotely over the wide area network. There were no local video devices. The video was delivered digitally over the wide area network. This demo showed several new features of the Video Information Server. The original VIS was designed to work in a local area. Not only was video delivered via analog lines, but many of the control mechanisms relied on features only available in a local area network, for example, local file sharing as a method for obtaining information about video clips. The demo showed not only the digital delivery of video, but also the use of new mechanisms for video searching and control of video devices, which enable these functions to be done on a wide area network. We have now demonstrated the use of the Video Information Server in a wide area network, and will continue to work on this system to improve reliability and add new features. In parallel with the VIS efforts, we have completed implementation of "anycasting" service and a version of "multi-level flows". o Anycasting is a concept that allows an application to address a replicated object and find the nearest/best one. This feature can make it possible to place relatively static information about servers and services in regional service directories distributed throughout the Internet, while allowing the choice of a particular server (of an indefinite and dynamically changing group of servers) to be made by the network according to network and client conditions. o Multi-level data flows are a special case of resource coordination in which a group of information flows forms a whole: for example, different levels of video resolution. Network support for multi-level data flows can be used to permit a recipient to specify what part of the total data flow should be conveyed, when the data has been separated into, say, high, medium, and low resolution components. This is useful in extending applications such as video conferencing into environments where some of the sites may be connected by low speed links. The source sends at full rate to the multicast address, but only the low resolution data would be delivered to Cooper [Page 17] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 the disadvantaged sites. Over the next couple of months, we will be experimenting with and enhancing these services and integrating them with the Video Information Server. Scaleability During the past month, there have been two major activities on the scaleability project. The network simulator component has been updated to use InterViews version 3.1, rather than 2.6, so that future work on the network topology editor can make use of the Unidraw graphical editor toolkit. Work was also started on adding delay modeling to the network simulator. The other major scaleability activity has been to define and characterize a set of potential scaling techniques for investigation under the algorithm study portion of the project. Approximately a dozen potential techniques have been identified, and an experimental plan and analysis procedure has been defined for each. These algorithm studies will be submitted to the project sponsors for selection of the set which will actually be explored as part of the current effort. Inter-Domain Policy Routing During February, we continued to make progress in preparing for the Internet pilot demonstration of IDPR. We have spent most of our time getting one SPARCstation to function as three separate policy gateways in three separate administrative domains. The task may sound simple, but it involves a certain amount of "art", given the fact that we do not have a Sun source license. We have a little more testing to do before we will be ready to place the software in the Internet. Karen Seo CREN - CORPORATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL NETWORKING (CREN) ---------------------------------------------------------------- A draft CREN RFP for development of list-management software for Unix platforms on the Internet is being reviewed internally and should have been released about March 5 for public comment and consideration. Cooper [Page 18] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 A moderated LISTSERV list, crenlist@bitnic.educom.edu, has been established for receipt of comments and suggestions about how to improve the RFP. This list will also be used to respond to questions of interpretation from prospective responders and others. All interested parties are encouraged to self-subscribe to this list by sending the command SUB CRENLIST your-name as the message text of a mail message to LISTSERV@bitnic.educom.edu. List archives are available from LISTSERV@bitnic.educom.edu and may be obtained by sending the command SEND CRENLIST LOG9303 (for the March '93 archive) as message text in the same or another mail message to listserv@bitnic.educom.edu. Text, PostScript, and RTF interchange format versions of the draft and final RFP will also be made available for anonymous ftp as the files ip-listserv.txt, etc., in the directory /cren-rfp on the (Unix) machine info.cren.net, as they are released. Our intent is to release a final version of the RFP by about March 19, with proposals due a month later. by Jim Conklin ISI --- GIGABIT NETWORKING Infrastructure 17 RFCs were published this month. RFC 1399: Reynolds, J., "Request for Comments Summary" RFC Numbers 1300-1399, February 1992. RFC 1416: Borman, D., "Telnet Authentication Option", Cray Research, Inc., "February 1993. RFC 1417: The North American Diretory Forum, "NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview" February 1993. RFC 1418: Rose, M., "SNMP over OSI", Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., March 1993. RFC 1419: Minshall, G., (Novell), and M. Ritter, (Apple Computer, Inc.), "SNMP Over AppleTalk", March 1992. Cooper [Page 19] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 RFC 1420: Bostock, S., "SNMP Over IPX", Novell, Inc. March 1993. RFC 1421: Linn, J., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures", February 1993. RFC 1422: Kent, S., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part II: Certificate-Based Key Management", BBN, February 1993. RFC 1423: Balenson, D., " "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers", TIS, February 1992. RFC 1424: Kaliski, B., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part IV: Key Certification and Related Services", RSA Laboratories, February 1993. RFC 1425: Klensin, J., (UN University), N., Freed, (Innosoft Int`l), M. Rose, (Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.) E. Stefferud (Network Management Associates, Inc.) D. Crocker, (The Branch Office), "SMTP Service Extensions", February 1993. RFC 1426: Klensin, J., (UN University), N., Freed, (Innosoft Int'l), M. Rose, (Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.) E. Stefferud (Network Management Associates, Inc.) D. Crocker, (The Branch Office), "SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport", February 1993 RFC 1427: Klensin, J., (UN University), N., Freed, (Innosoft Int'l), M. Rose, (Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.) E. Stefferud (Network Management Associates, Inc.) D. Crocker, (The Branch Office), "SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration", February 1993 RFC 1428: Vaudreuil, G., "Transition of Internet Mail from Just-Send-8 to 8bit-SMTP/MIME", February 1993. RFC 1429: Thomas, E., "Listserv Distribute Protocol", Swedish University Network, February 1993. Cooper [Page 20] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 RFC 1430: Hardcastle-Kille, S., (ISODE-Consortium), E. Huizer (SURFnet bv), V. Cerf, (Corporation for National Research Initiatives), R. Hobby, (University of California, Davis), S. Kent (Bolt, Beranek and Newman) "A Strategic Plan for Deploying an Internet X.500 Directory Service", February 1993. RFC 1431: Barker, P., "DUA Metrics", University College London, February 1992. Ann Westine Cooper (Cooper@ISI.EDU) MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING This month we extended the teleconferencing facilities at DARPA and ISI by interconnecting the wide-area packet teleconferencing systems, which use DARTnet and DSInet, with the ZAPT local-area desktop conferencing system. The ZAPT system, installed both at DARPA and ISI, uses analog audio and video with NeXT workstations running a custom extension of Bellcore's Touring Machine software, and provides a local analog distribution and teleconferencing capability. MMCC, the multimedia conference control program, allows users to select among different codecs for the different wide-area systems, and among dedicated conference rooms or the interconnect to the desktop system. To avoid conflicts created by multiple conferencing systems needing access to shared hardware (e.g., MMCC and ZAPT controlling the crossbar switch, echo canceller, video codecs), we integrated resource registration into our device servers. Now, a client application can use the server to reserve access to the hardware and prevent another teleconferencing application from stealing it. The resource reservation is also fault tolerant, so that owner failure releases the device. Routines for software decoding of the video data stream produced by a Bolter/Concept codec have been integrated into the popular "nv" video tool with much help from Ron Frederick at Xerox PARC. A number of improvements were made in the decoding as well, including interpolation of the data in low-resolution mode. We are working on arrangements to allow release of the decode routines in binary form. The paper, "Case Study: Multimedia Conference Control in a Packet- switched Teleconferencing System", was completed this month, and will appear in the Journal of Internetworking. Steve Casner, Eve Schooler, Joe Touch (casner@isi.edu, schooler@isi.edu, touch@isi.edu) Cooper [Page 21] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 JANET ------ The bandwidth of the connection between JANET and the NSFNET (ie over the UK/US Fat-pipe) was recently increased from 512 kbit/s to 1 Mbit/s. This is currently being shared between JANET and NASA. (NASA uses part of the bandwidth to support US/UK scientific collaborations.) The link will be reengineered during March to separate the NASA and JANET traffic, with JANET traffic having a dedicated 1 Mbit/s link. The increase in bandwidth on the Fat-pipe has meant an increase in load on the router that connects JANET to its international connections (gw.ulcc.ja.net). This is now saturated. The main reason for this is that most of the IP traffic passing through the router is being carried over X.25 (the main transport mechanism for IP across JANET.) Handling this is processor intensive within the routers used (Cisco AGS+/4); in practice they saturate at approximately 2500 pkt/s. To provide a further increase in performance, an inner backbone of "native" IP (ie direct over HDLC) is being created. When this is in place the routing will be changed so that much of the traffic to and from gw.ulcc.ja.net travels over the HDLC backbone. This is expected to reduce the processing load on the router, and allow better throughput between JANET and its international links. Planning is now well advanced for the creation of the initial phase of the SuperJANET data network. This will be a 34 Mbit/s IP network linking 7 sites in the UK. The implementation of this network is expected to take place at the end of March and beginning of April. The total IP traffic switched across JANET in February was approximately 950 Gigabyte. Of this approximately 160 Gigabyte passed through the UK/US Fat-pipe, and approximately 80 Gigabyte to and from EBONE. The number of hosts attached continues to rise. This is measured, to first order, by the size of the ac.uk domain. As of end February it contained 50828 distinct hosts in 289 subdomains. (This represents approximately 90% of the uk domain.) Bob Day (R.Day@jnt.ac.uk) Cooper [Page 22] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 JVNCNET ------- JvNCnet-Global Enterprise Services, Inc. B6 von Neumann Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 1-800-35-TIGER I. New Information A. New on-line members (fully operational February 1993) Applied Logic Technologies, Inc., New York, NY Balch Hardy Scheinman & Winston, Inc., New York, NY W. Boyce, North Brunswick, NJ County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ Desknet Systems, Inc., White Plains, NY Knight Services, Seattle, WA Logos, Inc., Mt. Arlington, NJ P. Holsberg, Trenton, NJ Point Source Communications, Colorado Springs, Co Research for Better Schools, Philadelphia, PA Robert Morris College, Coraopolis, PA Shebute, Inc., New York, NY SI 3, Inc., Fairfield, NJ Technibuild, Inc, Princeton Junction, NJ The Software Consulting Company, Darien, CT II. Symposia Series Introduction to Network Protocols Location: Princeton Marriott Forrestal Village, Painsboro, NJ One day introductory level seminars on three major protocols currently being used on Local Area Networks are scheduled. Recommended audience: Network and systems managers who work with and support these protocols or who need guidelines to establish a TCP/IP connection. Seminars may be taken in sequence or individually. The fee includes lunch and reference book. Cooper [Page 23] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Seminar Date Instructor TCP/IP 3/16 Paul Schragger, Univ. of Delaware Vikas Aggarwal, GES, Inc. Registration 8:30am, session begins 9:00 Novell 3/17 Paul Wilson, Novell John Dooley, Novell Registration 8:45; session begins 9:30 DECnet 3/18 Ted Koch, Digital Equipment Corp. Registration 8:30; session begins 9:00 For more information or to register, contact Rochelle Hammer at 609-258-2409 or send email to hammer@jvnc.net. Single course - JvNCnet members $250 and nonmembers $275 by March 9. April 1993 seminars: Building a Data Network based on TCP/IP April 14: Local Area Network April 15: Wide Area Network To place your name on the symposia mailing list, please send email to hammer@jvnc.net. by Rochelle Hammer (hammer@jvnc.net) MERIT/MICHNET ------------- This month Merit's report is separate from ANS's Backbone Engineering report, which appears elsewhere in the IMR. This makes sense because of the separation of activities of the two groups. Merit's Internet Engineering group has been focusing on routing coordination, database and protocol development, and service aspects for NSFNET; ANS handles operation and engineering of the backbone itself. The Merit IE group consists of the following staff members: Enke Chen Elise Gerich Sue Hares Laurent Joncheray Ken Latta Gartha Parrish Sheri Repucci John Scudder Steve Widmayer Jessica Yu Cooper [Page 24] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Additionally Merit's Network Management Systems group handles database and net management software development and consists of: Andy Adams Dale Johnson Chinh Nguyen Bill Norton Steve Richardson Rick Riolo Following is a summary of activities and projects pursued during February: 1. NSFNET Connection to MAE-East An agreement was made which allows the NSFNET service to peer with network service provider peers at the Metropolitan Area Ethernet - East (MAE-East), an experimental Network Access Point in the Washington DC area. Currently the AlterNet and PSI networks, and the Global Internet Exchange (GIX) route server are peering with the NSFNET service over this network. The GIX route server is operated by the RIPE group in Europe, and will distribute routing announcements for European networks to peers at MAE-East. Merit is collaborating with RIPE, and is working on installing an additional experimental route server for handling non-European routes. 2. New Policy Routing Database System Testing of a new Policy Routing Data Base system based on the Informix package is nearly complete. The system formerly ran on an IBM mainframe using the Spires database system. The new system duplicates all of the features of the current system and is able to handle all of the configuration file and report generation requirements without postprocessing. The system is being phased in by first verifying the configuration file integrity and then performing a suite of tests of the data entry front end. The target date for operational use of the new system is March 15. 3. Silent Nets Merit has started a project to analyze the NSFNET Policy Routing Database (PRDB) to look for networks that are not being announced to the backbone. Enke Chen of Merit has been sending each regional or midlevel (AS administrator actually) a list of the "silent nets" for their autonomous system. Our goal is to prune out of the database any networks not being used and not expected to be used in Cooper [Page 25] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 the near future. This is important for a couple of reasons: 1) we are approaching a hard limit in the table size in the ANS backbone routers; and 2) storing information for the non-announced networks requires human resources and some router space resources since all of the configured nets are stored in the configuration file on each router. As of March 5, there are 10057 networks configured in the database. The number of silent nets for February was 1955, ie. 1955 networks which were in the database as of February 1 were never announced in the entire month. So far we have received requests to delete about 200 of the silent nets. The maximum number of nets that were announced to the backbone as of 2/28 was 7037. Historical growth in network announcements is summarized in the following table. Merit is working with the regional and midlevel network operators to develop methods of expediting the elimination of the silent nets in order to prevent potential operational problems due to routing table size. 4. Inter-Domain Routing Protocol Development Sue Hares and John Scudder are working on development of the IDRP protocol in gated and have made significant progress in the last month. A testbed consisting of RS/6000s (AIX) and 486 systems (running BSD 4.4) is running gated and using the ISO IS-IS protocol. IDRP is now being tested on this testbed. Merit expects to be able to provide this code to ANS for deployment on the backbone later this year. 5. Shared Whois Project Sheri Repucci has been working with the RIPE and Network Solutions groups to share the data in the Merit Policy Routing Database with the NIC Whois and RIPE NCC. The three organizations have agreed on a common transfer syntax for sharing the data, and Sheri has developed a program which will merge the data and produce reports on conflicts, duplication and missing information. The goal is to allow the data to be synchronized to improve the quality of contact and registration information for networks. The intent is to use X.500 to make the information more accessible and allow backup copies across organizations. 6. IETF Connectivity Merit and ANS have been working with the OARnet staff to ensure that good connectivity will be provided to the IETF in Columbus later this month. ANS will be adding a second T1 circuit for OARnet Cooper [Page 26] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 to the backbone, which will be used mainly for the mbone audio/video multicast transmission. Merit has re-engineered its Michigan mbone tunnel connections to improve connectivity for MichNet as well as for OARnet. ANS will provide an EON RT system for encapsulation of OSI CLNP datagrams, in order to allow demonstrations of TUBA software. 7. CA*Net Transition As reported in earlier IMR reports, the Canadian backbone, CA*Net, has been transitioning to a new configuration for its connection to the NSFNET service. Initially the connection in three locations (Princeton, Ithaca and Seattle) was via the T1 backbone NSS nodes. In the first phase of the transition, the NSS's were still used but only for the purpose of transit between the CA*Net link and the ethernet to get to the T3 ENSS. This month the CA*Net software has been successfully deployed on the USA-side RT routers which will allow a single RT node to replace the NSS to connect CA*Net to the T3 backbone, in each of the three locations. 8. CIDR and BGP-4 Configuration The target date for deployment of CIDR and BGP-4 capability on the NSFNET backbone service is June, 1993. This will be done in phases, first with gated replacing the current rcp_routed daemon (supporting BGP-3) and later adding BGP-4. After a test phase involving regional and midlevel networks, aggregation will be enabled which will lead to the goal of limiting routing table growth. Merit is working on making design changes to the database as well as specifying new service options for configuration of route aggregation. The backbone service will need to 1) accept aggregates from regional or midlevel peers, 2) announce aggregates to peers, and 3) perform aggregation on behalf of peers for inbound announcements under certain conditions. We will submit an Internet Draft detailing these configuration parameters and service options for discussion at the upcoming IETF. Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu) Cooper [Page 27] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK) --------------------------------------------------- Membership Update As of February 26, 1993, NEARnet has grown to a total of 194 member organizations. NEARnet delivers usage statistics to members NEARnet now sends weekly line utilization graphs either as email messages containing Postscript graphs or as faxes. This service has been well received by members who can now use this information to assess their bandwidth requirements. Internet Gopher System Presentation to NEARnet members Over 150 nearnet members attended the Internet Gopher System Presentation on Thursday, February 18 from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) Newman Auditorium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Farhad Xerxes Anklesaria, a designer and member of the Internet Gopher Team was the NEARnet guest speaker for this presentation. Farhad gave an helpful introduction and interesting overview of the Internet Gopher System. His introduction included a description of Gopher, pointers to problems it was designed to solve, instructions for obtaining the software and using Gopher. His overview included how Gopher works, and who, when, and how people are using the Gopher System. Farhad also spent a good deal of time answering several questions during his presentation which made the presentation even more helpful for the attendees. The Gopher presentation was videotaped and copies are now available for NEARnet members to borrow. Please direct any questions or requests to the NEARnet User Services Staff at: nearnet- us@nic.near.net. "NEARnet This Month" Bulletin The January issue of the "NEARnet This Month" bulletin has been distributed. Past issues are available via anonymous FTP at nic.near.net, in the directory newsletters/nearnet-this-month. by Corinne Carroll NORTHWESTNET ------------ In February 1993, two new organizations joined the NorthWestNet community, which now numbers over 90 members. The two new members are the Washington State Department of Information Services (Olympia, WA) and Advanced Hardware Architecture (Moscow, ID). In a teleconference meeting 2/25/93, the User Service Committee began planning for the October 1993 NorthWestNet Annual Meeting and discussed the implementation of two working groups that will focus on a new User Services Representative kit and electronic information distribution for the NorthWestNet community. On 2/26/93, the NorthWestNet Engineering Advisory Board met. Among other issues, their agenda covered redundancy options, Cooper [Page 29] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 implementation of DNS and NNTP servers, FDDI DMZ update, and IXC co-location criteria. NorthWestNet info@nwnet.net 15400 SE 30th Place, Suite 202 Phone: (206) 562-3000 Bellevue, WA 98007 Fax: (206) 562-4822 Dr. Eric S. Hood, Executive Director Jan Eveleth, Director of User Services Dan L. Jordt, Director of Technical Services Anthony Naughtin, Manager of Member Relations NorthWestNet serves the six state region of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. by Jan Eveleth NSFNET/INFORMATION SERVICES --------------------------- NSFNET Information Services (Merit Network, Inc.) President Bill Clinton released his technology policy statement on 22 February. "Technology for America's Economic Growth: A New Direction to Build Economic Strength," the associated White House press release, and remarks by President Clinton and Vice-President Gore to Silicon Graphics employees introducing the "Technology for America's Economic Growth" policy are available for Anonymous FTP from the directory /nren/clinton.1993 on Merit's information services machine, nic.merit.edu. These documents are also available via e-mail query: send an electronic mail message to nis-info@nic.merit.edu with the first line of text (not the subject) as send filename where filename is replaced with one of the following: tech.initiative - "Technology for America's Economic Growth: A New Direction to Build Economic Strength," President Clinton's technology policy. tech.initiative.announce - The press release announcing President Clinton's new technology policy. Cooper [Page 30] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 tech.initiative.speech - President Clinton and Vice-President Gore's remarks to Silicon Graphics employees introducing the Technology for America's Economic Growth policy. A few openings remain for the Merit Networking Seminar, March 15-16 at the San Francisco Airport Hilton. Hosted by BARRNET, "Making Your Internet Connection Count: Technology, Tools and Resources" includes an overview of the Internet, its tools and resources, and the national policies that affect its growth. Nationally known experts will discuss network resources, getting connected, and how the network is effectively being used today by universities, research organizations, libraries, and public schools. Interactive breakout sessions each day make it possible to get your questions answered by the experts. A text-only version of the brochure is available via Anonymous FTP to nic.merit.edu as the file /nsfnet/seminar.brochure.march93. An electronic mail message to nis-info@nic.merit.edu with the first line of text send seminar.brochure.march93 will also retrieve the electronic version of the brochure. Requests for more information may be made to seminar@merit.edu or 313/936-3000. Elise Gerich, of Merit Internet Engineering, represented the IEPG at the CCIRN meeting in Brussels, Belgium, February 18 and 19. Chris Weider, Merit Information Services, was invited to speak on the technical requirements for the integration of Internet information services at the meeting of NORDUNET in Helsinki, Finland. Weider discussed similar issues at the Swedish Technical Institute (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. Ellen Hoffman, manager of Merit Information Services, and Laura Kelleher, Merit Network Applications Coordinator, presented the "Cruise of the Internet" in Washington, D.C. to members of the Federal Funding Agencies and to staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. Steve Burdick, Information Services, traveled to the JvNCnet meeting in Princeton, N.J. to participate in their program as host of the "Cruise." Jo Ann Ward (jaw@merit.edu) Cooper [Page 31] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 PREPNET ------- PREPnet: 305 South Craig Street, 2nd Fl. Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3706 412-268-7870 fax: 412-268-7875 nic@prep.net PREPnet has had the following new members since January 1, 1993: In Allentown, Lehigh Valley Hospital will connect at 56K and Lehigh County Community College will connect via Lehigh University. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is will make a connection to our Harrisburg hub at 56K. In Philadelphia, The Academy of Natural Sciences will connect at 56K, and The Institute for Scientific Information will connect via SLIP. Treehouse Software and Mt. Lebanon School District will have SLIP connections to our Pittsburgh hub while PDF Solutions and Clarit Corporation will connect via Carnegie Mellon University. Tom Bajzek, PREPnet Executive Director, has been re-elected secretary of FARNET. The Pittsburgh SMDS demo officially began in November and ended January 31. Participants included PREPnet, Shadyside Hospital, Carnegie Mellon University, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and IBM's Industrial Technology Center. The participants tested traffic matrices and the use of SMDS for Internet access and packet video applications. The PSC gathered statistics to evaluate throughput of the SMDS link. The Bell Atlantic booth at Interop East will include a connection to the Pittsburgh SMDS cloud in order to demonstrate packet video, file transfer, and general Internet access via SMDS. PREPnet NIC (prepnet+@andrew.cmu.edu) Cooper [Page 32] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 SDSC (SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER) ------------------------------------- SDSC Network Activities ======================= The physical plant installation of fiber continues. FDDI to selected offices is complete. Fiber is also being used to extend V.35 to the various rooms in which VTC services are being offered. The next step is the conversion of the Sequoia 2000 Dec systems from Ethernet over ThinWire to FDDI and Ethernet over fiber. The later will allow each system to be on both the Center's own LAN and directly connected to the Sequoia Project's private network. These steps are awaiting a microcode update to the DS5000's. CSUnet (the network for the Calif State University System) will be installing their own cisco router on the Center's DMZ Ethernet during March. This will replace their use of a prort on an SDSC router. SDSC will be hosting the first Torrey Mesa MAN planning meeting during March. This will see if there is enough interest to build such a MAN - one with a min. speed of 100meg. SDSC Applied Network Research Group =================================== The Applied Network Research Group at SDSC has recently completed its annual report, summarizing progress of its research efforts during the past year, including collaborative efforts with the University of California, San Diego. Research topics include: o analysis of the existing data and instrumentation of the NSFNET o sampling network traffic data in wide area environments o end-to-end delay and jitter across wide-area networks o routing stability and characteristics o reliability and quality of service metrics; performance evaluation of a multimedia application o and individual statistics of interest for performance evaluation and modeling of a wide area environment. We also include research efforts outside the scope of this proposal but within the scope of the larger ANR research agenda, such as our involvement with the CASA gigabit network infrastructure and our participation in NSF's NREN Engineering Group. Cooper [Page 33] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Copies of this report are available through Paul Love. Travel ====== Paul Love attended the Jan FARnet meeting held in Denver in conjunction with the ALA's mid-winter meeting. by Paul Love UCL ---- Working with Thierry Turletti, INRIA, we now have full interworking h.261 software tested real against GPT and other H.261 hardware codecs. In particular, we can source video from a codec, filter off the H.221 fgraming, packetize and multicast over INRIAs protocol over IP multicast, and decompress and receive under X in pure software quite conveniently. WE are now trying to reconnect the UK to the MBone so we can run this multicast internationally (for the Internet and MICE). 2 papers were submitted to conferences, on CBT Multicast and on a Control-theoretic analysis and design of a video transport protocol. A note on the (ironic) unsuitability of RPC for building distributed programs (in particular, conference control systems) was distributed, and will be submitted to a suitable place after comments. It can be ftp-d from cs.ucl.ac.uk, in darpa/conf-rpc.ps.Z ( unix compressed, postscript) John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK) Cooper [Page 34] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 USER SERVICES REPORT -------------------- Trip Report 13th RIPE Meeting - Paris, France NETF - Oslo, Norway October 1992 Joyce K. Reynolds USC/Information Sciences Institute The Thirteenth RIPE Meeting The Thirteenth RIPE Meeting was held at in October 1992 in Paris, France, with 95 attendees. Approval of the agenda was first, with parallel sessions starting after general plenaries. Technical sessions slated for this meeting were postponed until the next meeting in Prague. General Plenaries Daniel Karrenberg presented a second quarterly report on the RIPE NCC. There was a summary of main topics. The activities of the last quarter included the Internet Registry, the RIPE Database (DB), Domain Name System (DNS) Area, General, Goals/Evaluation, and future work. Internet Registry (IR) The IR identified and started up 36 local registries, and developed interim procedures. It fielded 172+ requests during the last 2 months. Greater than 50% of the requests were via the postal services or fax. Two-thirds of the requests were completed in the same day. 89% completed in 5 days. Class C allocation takes 1.96 days on average. Class B allocation typically takes two days, but can take up to 24 days, depending upon the application. The IR assigned 50 Class Bs and 940 Class Cs. Kudos were given to the local registries for their work and cooperation. RIPE Database New updates are fully configurable. They are in process of revising the indexing of software, and there is a new, improved WHOIS server. There is a new RIPE WHOIS client, and a global exchange format developed. The RIPE NCC has frequent exchanges with the DDN NIC and Merit. Would like to work on Internet maps, but the RIPE Map working group has yet to meet. Tools and guidance are needed from the Map working group. Cooper [Page 35] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 DNS Area The DNS Area provided a regular host count and consistency checking tools. In regards to document store, the RIPE NCC reorganized all RIPE documents and improved information services. Guidance is needed from the RIPE DNS group. Statistics are needed! General The RIPE NCC produced information leaflets, provided several presentations, provided RIPE support, and an IP providers mailing list. It is in processing of setting up and testing audiocasts. The RIPE NCC has improved the document store, RIPE meeting support, and support structure of RIPE working groups. Goals/Evaluation The goals are following the NCC Activity Plan (RIPE 35). Priorities are not fixed! The NOC needs guidance from RIPE (e.g., working groups, individuals, etc.). The goals are ambitious and guidance from some RIPE working groups are critical. What is not in the activity plan is referrals (i.e., refer questions about Internet services to suitable providers). It is hoped that the new National Science Foundation (NSF) "InterNICs" (the NIC of first and last resort) will be able to refer end users to appropriate NICs/NOCs. RIPE Database Statistics Most queries come from the .EDU domain, most of which are outside of Europe!! The Future of the RIPE NCC It is an organizational position (neutral, impartial, and a friendly organization). The RIPE community feels this is a good idea. RARE feels this should be changed to an organizational unit. The RIPE NCC must be trusted by all services providers. This will not change. The RARE Council now understands this. They provided a short and concise statement of how RARE sees the RIPE NCC. In summary, the RIPE NCC has had a good start, and has ambitious goals. Guidance is needed from RIPE working groups. It is still FUN! Cooper [Page 36] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Report from RARE Council of Administration (CoA) The RARE Technical Committee (RTC) defines the technical program of RARE, suggests and solicits new activities, defines an annual work plan (which is submitted to CoA), prioritizes Task Force (TF) proposals, and follows other forums (e.g., IETF, RIPE). Decisions are based on consensus. Funding of RARE WGs used to be paid by the European Commission (EC), but this is now ending. Funding currently available is now 25% of what it was. RTC members include Tom Kalin and Tim Dixon. Emphasis on IP Networking RARE WGs and TFs are not restricted to OSI. There is a cultural revolution not yet reflected in the current workplan. There is a strong desire by CoA to solve the problems that exist. User services is important, both current work and what is expected. Recognizing the IETF work goes without saying. RARE WGs are long lived groups per area of interest. Membership is open, a convenor is appointed by the RTC, forum of communication (experts and non-experts), two meetings per year (JENC, NSC). Common meetings (RTC, WG-convenors). All WGs have charters, a convenor, and a work plan well defined. RARE TFs are small, short lived groups (experts). They address a specific activity, have clear goals and deliverables. Can be funded or unfunded. TFs disband after each action. Current RARE WGs 1) WG-CHAR - multiple character sets 2) WG-MMM - multimedia (come up with recommendations) 3) WG-ISUS - information services/user services 4) WG-LLT - covered by Layer 1 - Layer 4 5) WG-MSG - developing message services 6) WG-NAP - network application support (not yet available) 7) WG-NOP - operations 8) WG-SEC - security/PEM mail pilot RARE Technical Reports (RTRs) have enhanced visibility and credibility of work, and providing peer review and approval. Traffic Measurements - Torben Nielsen Problems with short term sampling of data of one month, six months, etc., plays itself out. In the Pacific, they have done systematic long term networking. In the first 6 months of 1992, Torben's group Cooper [Page 37] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 connected all packets that had flowed through Hawaii (PACCOM topology) and brought up transit traffic to a known entity, while funding mechanisms. Goals Data Collection - allows for the determination of where the traffic is coming from and going to. What services are being used, and for how long, what patterns of usage exist and the periodicity of those patterns. Traffic Collector Topology A lurker was multi-homed (without interfering with measurements). When data (50-70% full data) is transferred to the net, it is compressed and stored on one of two staging disks. The disks are then dumped to Exabyte type when convenient. This started on 2 Dec 91, and ran more or less until 2 June 1992. Results 40 Exabyte tapes and 13 optical disks were collected. This is about 90 gigabytes of compressed packet headers (about 175 gigabytes uncompressed). The preliminary observations show 1.4 billion packets/280 gigabytes of data, in over 100,000 IP hosts addresses/over 500 networks. EBONE Strategy Discussion - Bernhard Stockman The current intent of the EBONE strategy is to act as a neutral interconnect point and provide Pan European IP services. It is an open market by stimulating IP provides. It provides a neutral platform with a strategy document to be produced, which will include a fair cost distribution, and US connectivity included. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) User Services Reports Joyce K. Reynolds gave a presentation on the updates to the IETF User Services Area and the Internet Engineering Steering Group's (IESG), "Integrated Information Architecture Plan": The User Services Area of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) by Joyce K. Reynolds, 18 September 1992 When the IETF was first established, it did not immediately create a distinct User Services Area. As of 1991, this area has grown to take its place with other Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) areas Cooper [Page 38] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 as the importance of a user services forum has increased globally. This area provides an international forum for people interested in all levels of user services, to identify and initiate projects designed to improve the quality of the information available to users of the Internet. One continuing goal of the User Services Area is to coordinate the development of user information services by clearly and concisely providing documentation information and distribution for the Internet community. FYI (For Your Information) RFCs (Request for Comments) are introductory and overview documents for network users. Their purpose is to make available general information, rather than the protocol specifications or standards that is typical of other RFCs. FYIs are allied to the RFC series of notes, but provides information about who does what on the Internet. The FYI RFC series has proved a success since its initiation, and its goal is to continue to do so. A current list of FYI RFCs are listed at the end of this document. The actual projects of the User Services Area are handled by the creation of Working Groups. There are currently eleven working groups in this area. IETF User Services Area Working Groups Directory Information Services Infrastructure (DISI). DISI is chartered to facilitate deployment of X.500 Directory Services on the Internet, by producing "Administrator's Guides". Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (IAFA). IAFA is chartered to define a set of recommended standard procedures for the access and administration of anonymous ftp archive sites on the Internet. Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR). IIIR is chartered to facilitate interoperability between Internet Information Services, and to develop, specify, and align protocols designed to integrate the plethora of Internet information services (WAIS, archie, Prospero, etc.) into a single "virtually unified information service". Internet School Networking (ISN). ISN is chartered to facilitate the connection of the United States' K-12 (Kindergarten-12th Grade) schools, public and private, to promote school networking in general. Networked Information Retrieval (NIR). NIR is chartered to increase the useful base of information about networked information retrieval tools, their developers, interested organizations, and other Cooper [Page 39] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 activities that relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools. NIR is a cooperative effort of the IETF, RARE, and CNI. Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI). NISI is exploring the requirements for common, shared Internet-wide network information services. The goal is to develop an understanding for what is required to implement an information services "infrastructure" for the Internet. Universal Resource Identifiers (URI). URI is chartered to define a set of standards for the encoding of system independent Resource Location and Identification information for the use of Internet information services. User Documentation (USERDOC2). UserDoc2 is preparing a revised bibliography of on-line and hard copy documents/reference materials/ training tools addressing general networking information and how to use the Internet. (Target audience: those individuals who provide services to end users and end users themselves.) User Glossary (USERGLOSS). User-Gloss is chartered to create an Internet glossary of networking terms and acronyms for the Internet community. User Services (USWG). 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. Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS). The purpose of WNILS is to expand and define the standard for WHOIS services, to resolve issues associated with the variations in access, and to promote a consistent and predictable service across the network. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | WG Chair(s) Mailing List | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | DISI Chris Weider disi@merit.edu | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | IAFA Peter Deutsch iafa@cc.mcgill.ca | | Alan Emtage | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ Cooper [Page 40] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 | | | IIIR Chris Weider iiir@merit.edu | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | ISN John Clement isn-wg@bitnic.educom.edu | | Art St. George | | Connie Stout | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | NIR George Brett nir@cc.mcgill.ca | | Jill Foster | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | NISI April Marine nisi@merit.edu | | Pat Smith | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | URI Peter Deutsch uri@bunyip.com | | Alan Emtage | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | USERDOC2 Ellen Hoffman userdoc@merit.edu | | Lenore Jackson | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | USERGLOSS Gary Malkin usergloss@xylogics.com | | Tracy LaQuey Parker | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | USWG Joyce K. Reynolds us-wg@nnsc.nsf.net | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | WNILS Joan C. Gargano ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ Cooper [Page 41] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Internet Documentation for USERS (not Wizards!) The FYI RFC Series FYI 16 "Connecting to the Internet: What Connecting Institutions Should Anticipate", (Also RFC 1359), August 1992. FYI 15 "Privacy and Accuracy Issues in Network Information Center Databases", (Also RFC 1355), August 1992. FYI 14 "Technical Overview of Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol", (Also RFC 1309), March 1992. FYI 13 "Executive Introduction to Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol", (Also RFC 1308), March 1992. FYI 12 "Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure", (Also RFC 1302), February 1992. FYI 11 "A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations", (Also RFC 1292), January 1992. FYI 10 "There's Gold in them thar Networks! or Searching for Treasure in all the Wrong Places", (Also RFC 1290), December 1991. FYI 9 "Who's Who in the Internet: Biographies of IAB, IESG and IRSG Members", (Also RFC 1336), May 1992. FYI 8 "Site Security Handbook", (Also RFC 1244), July 1991. FYI 7 "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly Asked "Experienced Internet User" Questions", (Also RFC 1207), February 1991. FYI 6 "FYI on the X Window System", (Also RFC 1198), January 1991. FYI 5 "Choosing a Name for Your Computer", (Also RFC 1178), August 1990. FYI 4 "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions", (Also RFC 1325), May 1992. FYI 3 "FYI on Where to Start: A Bibliography of Internet- working Information", (Also RFC 1175), August 1990. Cooper [Page 42] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 FYI 2 "FYI on a Network Management Tool Catalog: Tools for Monitoring and Debugging TCP/IP Internets and Interconnected Devices", (Also RFC 1147), April 1990. FYI 1 "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to the F.Y.I. Notes", (Also RFC 1150), March 1990. Details on obtaining FYI RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending an EMAIL message to "rfc-info@ISI.EDU" with the message body "help: ways_to_get_rfcs". For example: To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU Subject: getting rfcs help: ways_to_get_rfcs ======================================================================= "Integrated Information Architecture" Many new networked services to identify, access, and retrieve information resources have sprung up in the last several years -- archie, WAIS, and Netfind, to name only three. Now, much as the Internet has tied many disparate networks together into an integrated system, the pressing problem is how to integrate these many new services into a single coordinated Internet information naming, discovery, and retrieval system. There are three vital areas of this integration effort that the IESG is interested in pursuing: 1) The identification, cataloging, and documentation of networked information services, new and old. 2) The standardization of descriptions and identification schemes for networked resources, and the distribution and implementation of these identifiers. 3) The integration and interoperability of the various new information services. To this end, the IESG is creating three new working groups: 1) Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) -- NIR will work on the first issue above by identifying, cataloging, and documenting networked information services. The result will be a published catalog of network information retrieval services. In addition, NIR will liase with other organizations working on this goal, such as RARE ISUS and CNI. Cooper [Page 43] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 2) Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) -- URI will concentrate on the second issue above, particularly on the standardization and implementation of identification schemes for networked resources. There will be two primary components in this effort: a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which is a string which tells how to locate a document. The second part is a Universal Resource Serial Number, which is used to uniquely identify a resource, so that one can, for example tell if two documents with different file names are, in fact, the same. The standard identification scheme developed by URI will be used by NIR to define the standard resource formats. 3) Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR) -- IIIR will work on the third issue by developing technical specifications and documentation for a) interoperation between the various information services and b) the integration of new information services into the existing CIM (combined information mesh). After the specifications for interoperation have been completed, IIIR will examine the need for additional protocols necessary to further integrate the CIM, including gateway protocols, query routing protocols, and other mechanisms. In addition to the above named groups, the IETF wishes to facilitate the standardization of descriptions and data formats for various specific information services by chartering single-protocol working groups which will work on this standardization. Examples of such groups are the Internet Anonymous FTP Archive group (IAFA), which is working on standardization of anonymous FTP archives, and the new Whois Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS), which is working on standardization of services using the WHOIS protocol. The IESG considers these WGs to be components of a single coordinated IETF effort to create an integrated Internet information architecture. Therefore, the chairs and membership of each group will be active participants in the other groups. The overall coordination of this effort will be under the joint management of the Applications and User Services Area. Due to the importance of an Integrated Internet Information Service Architecture, the IESG requests the working group chairs and the Applications and User Services area directors to jointly expand this brief overview into a more fully fleshed out architectural statement, and to issue periodic progress reports describing how the integrated information service is developing. Cooper [Page 44] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 RIPE Parallel Meetings Attended IP Registry/Addressing BOF Rudiger Volk suggested that there should be a list of the local registries. Daniel Karrenberg mentioned that the list is changing daily and that is not the way to operate. There is also the semantics of different categories of commercial, research, and government. Elise Gerich pointed out that we are waiting for the NSF NIS solicitation to be announced. 80-90% of the requests that the IR receives are paper submissions, not via electronic mail. Model of supernetting - US backbones and regionals. Not the case in Europe and not an easy task due to the interconnection of things in Europe right now. The distributed scheme is local/homogenus, with all registries which will refer requests between different registries. It is absolutely necessary and feasible to create local templates (primary in English, secondary in a native language). There needs to be more documentation spelling out procedure and how the template could be uniform. Set of Documents to be Developed 1) Create a common user document. Bob Day volunteered to be the focal point for the user documents. 2) Create a common template - Daniel Karrenberg volunteered for template development. Joyce K. Reynolds took an action item to initiate a quick line to the new IR (InterNICs), once it has been announced and established. She also volunteered the IANA to help out about how the template should be developed 3) Exchange and document evaluation criteria. This still needs to be determined. Nebulous addressing. There are too many Class As and Class Bs. What is the substantiation?? What about Class Cs?? There is also the consideration of the growth factor. It is evolutionary and ready to take on the challenge. Focus on topological, not geographics...then subdivide. There are no firm guidelines on how Class Bs are assigned. The IANA needs to provide a set of guidelines for each set of IP addresses. Also, to clarify the rationale to maintain the Class Bs, as there are no instructions. The guidelines should provide different scenarios so that one can judge how to assign a number. There is a need to take the "class" out of "Class B" flavors. There is a notion that a Class B is the "prestigious big Cooper [Page 45] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 thing" to obtain in the Internet. Registry system funding was not discussed, due to time constraints. Regarding the Rekhter I-D on network numbers, it is considered a good draft. There are some reservations about Class B's being retained by the IR. It is considered okay for now, but this topic will be reevaluated later. RIPE Database WG Included in the agenda was the proposed structure of the DB, organizational and legal issues, operational issues, and technical issues. There was approval of the RIPE-DB leaflet for publication. 1) Ownership/copyright of database use. Review of RIPE-02 paper. The X.400/X.500/MHS issues liaison with the RTC. No formal result. This is a very complicated issue that needs consulting via a lawyer. There should also be interaction with OSI. 2) Operational. There is a need for a change to the database format. The DDN NIC has changed its format, with additional information available. What about the non-standard use of fields?? Contact the US representatives first. 3) "Major Part" of Technical issues. Modification of the "in" field for supernetting. Domain objects and general purpose extensions. GSI/Merit/RIPE NCC exchange format is almost finished. Routing Object and Routing privilege updates. Method for deleting an object. Sending in a whole object and pseudo attributes. New line "d", plain text as to why it is deleted. The RIPE Meeting Audiocast The 13th RIPE meeting was broadcast "To all of Europe and Israel", The audiocast went well at this meeting. A group of volunteers needs to be assembled near strategic points in the physical infrastructure. It is to be called, MBONE-EU. An emergency shut off mechanism needs to be installed, if there develops an excessive load on the net. Network Information Discovery for Users Support (NIDUS WG) The NIDUS WG, chaired by Nandor Hovarth, lead a discussion to identify services to give to users that will be provided by the RIPE database and the RIPE NCC document store. Joyce K. Reynolds, in response to her previous NIDUS WG action items at the RIPE last meeting, presented the IETF Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI) Working Group's NIC template, and the Cooper [Page 46] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 "Global Notable NICs" file (see below). While the Notable NICs file it not complete, it is a start. Joyce also distributed updates to the IETF User Services Area's Working Groups and new FYI RFC publications (see section, "Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) User Services Reports", above). Milan Sterba commented that the RIPE NIDUS should draw on Jill Foster's RARE ISUS group and Joyce Reynolds' IETF User Services working groups, as the BBN NNSC's Internet Resource Guide is not "global". The NIDUS group should try to appoint each country to provide information of their site. This information can be collected in a central place, in a database (Milan's proposed database). Geza Turchanyi commented that there are two ways to approach this: 1) Plan for the future (Milan's database) 2) Do what is needed now immediately (Geza's plan) NIDUS should start with existing US templates - BBN's template and the DDN NIC's template. These can be obtained from the RARE Secretariat. Milan's reasoning is that collecting information: 1) can be used for service providers 2) might be a tool which could be given to the users to help at their databases directly. It is also good idea to use/include the information already collected by Jill Foster's group (RTR 1), but NOT via each national network, but by each country, with user support information and local updates. The RTR 1 report as a paper copy is too definitive, the RIPE database is moving and evolving constantly. It was suggested that WAIS is good in aggregating multiple databases. It works from the bottom up; local NICs first, then get the information on what they are doing. Not GUIDES, but WHERE one can FIND things. The RIPE NCC should be the right place to store this information, once it is collected. It was decided at the next RIPE meeting to focus on database specific issues. It was also proposed to improve the template until the next meeting. Index information, put all information on-line, and connect it directly to the server. Nandor commented on how the NIDUS WG should to proceed with their work. There are large amounts of existing documents (informational, and so on) that could be made available on the RIPE NCC. What is already out there?? What else could be put in that is not already in the database? Also, put in global NIC information. Geza and Daniel will help with this task. Cooper [Page 47] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Milan suggested to define a new RIPE database object for resource information, resource guides, and access methods. There are different opinions about this concept. 1) This information cannot be structured. The RIPE DB is not the best forum to store information. 2) What kind of information should one collect about resources?? The RIPE DB is a valuable tool. Milan will continue to refine and resolve this issue. He will bring and enhanced proposal to the next RIPE meeting. NISI WG "NIC-Template" The Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI) Working Group in the User Services Area of the IETF is exploring the requirements for common, shared Internet-wide network information services. The goal is to develop an understanding for what is required to implement an information services "infrastructure" for the Internet. April Marine (SRI International) and Pat Smith (Merit) are co-chairs of this group. The NISI WG has produced an FYI RFC on, "Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure" (FYI 12, RFC 1302). One of their projects is to initiate development of a central point where profiles of existing Network Information Centers can be maintained for NICs around the world to access. They also have available a mailing list called "nic-forum@merit.edu" to provide NIC personnel with a means of soliciting information from other NICs, offering solutions to common problems, and posting information of general NIC interest. Besides providing valuable information, this will be a contribution to needed communication between NICs at this level and also a boost for the X.500 effort. Additional information and the template are included below. If you have further questions please send a message to april@nisc.sri.com and psmith@merit.edu. The NISI WG co-chairs are excited about this project and are looking forward to your participation! ==================================================================== Cooper [Page 48] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 1) JOINING the nic-profiles and the nic-forum To join the nic-forum, send a note to: nic-forum- request@merit.edu. To join the nic-profiles, please complete the attached template and return to: psmith@merit.edu. When the template comes back to merit.edu, your NIC profile entry will be added to the database. 2) MODIFYING INFORMATION -- Who has access? Note that the means of allowing access for modifying information which is described in the following paragraph is only a temporary measure. Eventually a "modification password" will be required in addition to the proper e-mail address. When the initial template is completed, one piece of information requested is the e-mail address of the NIC contact person (contactPersonEmail). That electronic address becomes the "password" for updating your NIC information. Any corrections or changes will be sent to: nic-profile-update@merit.edu. The incoming mail will be checked to ensure that the e-mail address in the "From:" field matches the e-mail address of the contact person. If it matches, then the information will be changed. If not, the mail will be returned to sender with an explanatory note. 3) ACCESSING NIC-PROFILES In order to access X.500, your site must have a Directory User Agent (DUA) set up which can speak to Merit's Directory Service Agent (DSA). If the DUA is running all that is necessary is to go to Merit's branch of the directory tree which is: @o=Internet@NICProfiles If your site doesn't have this capability, send a note to psmith@merit.edu for further information. Information on availability of X.500 Directory User Agents (DUAs) and Directory System Agents (DSAs) is available in FYI 11, RFC 1292 (" Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations"), written by Ruth Lang (SRI International) and Russ Wright (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) of the Directory Information Services Infrastructure (DISI) Working Group in the User Services Area of the IETF. For those who do not have X.500 software at their site, efforts are underway to provide the capability for updating nic-profiles entries and accessing the information using electronic mail. Cooper [Page 49] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 4) NOTES ABOUT THE TEMPLATE 1. "objectClass" will always be nicProfile. 2. An example of "parentOrganizationName" and "commonName" might be: parentOrganizationName=Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc.; commonName=NSF Network Service Center; commonName=NNSC 3. contactPersonEmail is the "password" that will be matched before any changes to the NIC entry can be made. 4. Under "servicesOffered" please include one-line bulleted items, not paragraphs of prose. The Template follows. Please return to psmith@merit.edu: (Note: Initially, there will be human interaction in making these entries, so don't worry about format, punctuation, spaces, etc.) ==================================================================== objectClass: nicProfile primary name of nic: secondary name of nic (if applicable): parent organization: street number and name: city,state/province,zip/postal code: area/country code, telephone number: nic e-mail address: accessControlList: (default): name of nic contact person: contact person's e-mail address: days of week nic is open: Cooper [Page 50] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 hours of operation (GMT and local time - indicate time zone): principal language spoken at this nic: services offered by this nic: publications offered by this nic: ==================================================================== Notable NICs - Joyce K. Reynolds (ISI) 18 September 1992 AARNet Network Information DDN (NIC) French National Network (FNET) GARR (NIS) Japan Network Information Center (JNIC) Merit NASA Science Internet (NSI NIC) New England Academic and Research Network (NEARnet) NorthWestNet NIC (NUSIRG) NSF (NNSC) RIPE (NCC) SRI (NISC) AARNet Network Information Provides information services, connectivity and reachability information for Australia Including: online information ftp archive service, including archie server resource cataloging technical support number assignments and we answer any question about any aspect of Internet connectivity in this area of the globe ( :-) ) AARNet Network Information is reachable at: +61 6 249 3385 +61 6 249 1369 (FAX) and via electronic mail to: aarnet@aarnet.edu.au Cooper [Page 51] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Defense Data Network (DDN) Network Information Center Assists DDN users in obtaining information about the DDN and the Internet. Assigns IP network numbers, autonomous system numbers, and administrates Domains Maintains "WHOIS" database. Issues TAC cards to uthorized DDN users. Maintains library of network documents including RFC's. The DDN NIC is reachable at: (800) 365-3642, and via electronic mail to: "nic@nic.ddn.mil" French National Network (FNET) Assigns IP network numbers, administrates Domains, provides various network services such as mail (SMTP and X.400), time services, News, anonymous FTP of various documents, standards, and software. Fnet is reachable at: Administrative: +33(1)39.63.55.34 +33(1)39.63.53.30 (fax) fnet-admin@inria.fr Technical: +33(1)39.63.52.13 +33(1)39.63.53.30 (fax) fnet-tech@inria.fr Operations: nocmaster@inria.fr Cooper [Page 52] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Japan Network Information Center (JNIC) (locates at Univ. of Tokyo) Assigns IP network numbers for Japan, administrates JP domains, and provides information services The JNIC is reachable at: +81 3 3812-2111 ext.2720 +81 3 3814-7279 (FAX), and via electronic mail to: "jnic@nic.ad.jp" GARR - Network Information Service GARR - Italian Research and Academic Network Network Information Service Provides support to the GARR regionals network managers Assigns IP network numbers, and administrates Domains under IT Provides information services including: FTP repository of RFCs online information services GARR Electronic Bullettin GARR Resource Catalog X.500 directory The GARR-NIS is reachable at: +39 50 593360, and via e-mail to: info@nis.garr.it Merit/NSFNET Information Services Services include: Merit Networking Seminars NSFNET publications online information services consulting Merit/NSFNET is reachable at: (313) 936-3000 and via electronic mail to: "nsfnet-info@merit.edu" Cooper [Page 53] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 NASA Science Internet Network Information Center (NSI NIC) Serves as a central point of contact for NSI research & engineering community. Provides Help Desk Hotline, on-line information services, documentation, and outreach. Note: NSI is an international dual protocol (TCP/IP & DECnet) backbone network. Including: annual user forum dial-up access Directory Services (NSI_DB, X.500) e-mail distribution lists FTP repository (The NSI File Cabinet) Help Desk (questions,problems,consulting) interoperability gateways (EAST, NSINIC) online information services (NONA) USENET News feeds The NSI NIC is reachable at: help@nic.nsi.nasa.gov (preferred) (301) 286-7251 (Hotline) (301) 286-5152 (FAX) and also via electronic mail (DECnet) TO: nsinic::nsihelp New England Academic and Research Network (NEARnet) NEARnet User Services Provides information services to the NEARnet community. Services include: online information available via anonymous FTP at nic.near.net publication of the NEARnet Newsletter publication of the "NEARnet This Month" online bulletin Technical and User Seminars (six mini-seminars and one annual seminar) videotape collection of previous seminars support of library and K-12 communities through affinity groups training program development and user liaison support Hotline and "Help" Mailbox Cooper [Page 54] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 The NEARnet User Services Staff is reachable at: (617) 873-8730, and via electronic mail to: "nearnet-us@nic.near.net" NorthWestNet NIC (8/10/92) NorthWestNet User Services Internet Resource Guide (NUSIRG) Online resources Training for member organizations For more information and questions contact: info@nwnet.net (206) 562-3000 NSF Network Service Center Provides information services to the NSFNET/Internet end-user community Services Include: online information workshops resource cataloging technical support NSF Network Newsletter publication contact information Hotline and "Help" Mailbox The NNSC is reachable at: (617) 873-3400, and via electronic mail to: "nnsc@nnsc.nsf.net" RIPE (NCC) Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE) Network Coordination Centre Assists European Internet operators. Refers users to apropriate operators. Cooper [Page 55] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Services include: delegated registry for network and AS numbers whois database at whois.ripe.net document store at ftp.ripe.net (also accessible via gopher and wais) interactive information service via telnet at info.ripe.net The RIPE NCC is reachable at: +31 20 592 5065 +31 20 592 5155 (fax) or via electronic mail at ncc@ripe.net SRI Network Information Systems Center Provides network tools and information services to the Internet community Including: online information FTP repository of RFCs Only service offering hardcopy RFCs Several hardcopy information documents CD-ROM with all online RFCs and other info The SRI NISC is reachable at: (415) 859-6387 (415) 859-3695 (415) 859-6028 (FAX) and via electronic mail to: nisc@nisc.sri.com =================================================================== Cooper [Page 56] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 The NETF Meeting The NETF meeting was held in a suburb outside of Oslo, Norway, with approximately 75 attendees. NORDUnet Services/Events -A cisco based system provides better response time. This is a the major event. -DECnet out from UNI-C now runs on a cisco. -DECnet Phase V experiment is beginning to study this and hopes are that this will be an application in the future. -Tender/SRNETT project -Nordic Schools Project - a collective for schools to communication via NORDUnet. -Baltic activities -Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Set up a "CERT" in Stockholm. Formalized by becoming a member of "FIRST", which is a club of "CERTS". NORDUnet is the first European member of this club. "FIRST"'s objective is to obtain information on security holes, etc., and find out how to protect sites. NORDUnet Relations NORDUnet will be a part of the common EBONE, starting 3 January 1993. It has an operations unit, and is a member of FIRST. Work is in progress to make NORDUnet an "A/S" (that is, making NORDUnet a legal body). NORDUnet is a founding original member of the Internet Society. EBONE in Europe - IP Backbone Bernhard Stockman presented a talk on EBONE. Routing was going on before EBONE, but it was cost inefficient. Wanted optimization for technical and economic reasons. The EBONE backbone currently comprises five major sites in Europe. In 1993, the extensions to the backbone will be to an EBONE border system. This border system will be between an extension EBONE and internal sites in Europe. EBONE 1993 will include: Cooper [Page 57] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 -neutral interconnections among all operators. -Pan European Backbone (no such thing as yet). -sound organization (proper, fair financing) -neutrality (no government subsidizing of commercial enterprises) -long-term EBONE (3-5 years). The EBONE organization in 1992 included: ECCO - RBS connections EAT (EBONE Action Team) - Engineers EOT (EBONE Operations Team) - Operations EMC (EBONE Management Committee) - The Board NETF Nordic Program There is a NORDUnet program proposal, which includes: -bi-lateral discussions -Nordic schools projects (distance education) -Library sector -"NORDinfo" -Research collaboration -Sweden/Norwegian activities The future program focuses on being able to compete on "equal terms" with Europe, the US, and Japan. Also, to initiate closer ties onto "building a chain" between: -R&D activities in IT and communication -Pilot use of new technology -Deployment of technology A report has been published (in Swedish). The evaluation of this report has been positive. A formal request was made for funding, but it was turned down, due to bad financial situations. A new program is not possible at this point in time. So, what now?? A new program should be based on existing activities. -need to develop the ideas into another proposal. -should be national level discussion ("lobbying" is needed) -immediate support to the NETF is needed -NORDREN@searn.sunet.se - will be the email distribution list NTR - Norwegian Telecom Research Per Einar Dybuik presented a talk on the NTR. A workplan has been established, called the CoMMedia initiative (Communication Cooper [Page 58] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Cooperation and Multimedia). This is a Norwegian Telecom Agreement. The workplan will try to establish a major national research project in the area of distributed multimedia applications. The study is not in place yet. The background on this effort came out of an agreement at the multimedia seminar on 24 April 92. The workplan ambitions include: -national distributed multimedia lab -interaction with other initiatives -identify applications -conclusions and future work Planned and on-going applications include: -distributed electronic classrooms -multimedia library services -distributed meetings and cooperation -electronic maps -electronic newspapers -distributed medical and environmental services -entertainment market -multimedia document interchange Major participants include all major Norwegian universities and colleges, UNINETT, Norwegian Telecom, and the National Research Council (NRC). SIREN - A Swedish Initiative in IT and communications The goals of the SIREN initiative include: -deploy use of IT and communication services to: schools, universities, industry, government, etc. -find mechanism to turn research results into public use. What protocol stacks are needed?? Pilot user of new transmission/network concept Dynamic Time Division (DTM) Funding is needed for this project. Background on a Network Information Services Infrastructure Establishment of a NISI (SUNET and NORDUnet) -public service providers. Cooper [Page 59] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 -collaborative research program (Multi G) -a "whois" SIREN (with a bottom up approach - not delegated from on-high, government entities) Research issues: -multimedia, distributed, integrated -network technology: fiber and mobile -host interface design -operations system -user interface Pilot services: -multimedia mail, videoconferencing, interactive TV Research and Education improvements: -university and school level education (must start at the school level) -research profile (educate educator for public market education) -international collaboration and industry collaboration CNI - Coalition of Networked Information Craig Summerhill presented a talk on CNI. CNI was founded in March of 1990 by ARL, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. There is a 9 person steering committee, a 150 member task force, 8 working groups, a 3 person secretariat, and a variety of network services. CNI is content oriented, making the assumption that there are other frameworks in existence and promulgating vision statements. Working groups focus on the modernization of scholarly publishing, the transformation of scholarly communications, and directories and resource information services. Architecture and standards are looked at in the form of legislation, codes, policies and practices. Access to government information, teaching and learning, management and professional and user education. CNI works on networking partnerships in research and education. CNI project criteria includes: -full disclosure -collaborative -advance state of the art or state of understanding -open architecture and standards Cooper [Page 60] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Information and User Services Session Nordhagen. Anders Gillner presented a talk on structuring Gopher. Joyce Reynolds presented a talk on the current projects in the User Services Area of the IETF and the new "Integrated Information Architecture" plan put forth by the IESG (see RIPE meeting notes, sections, "Network Information Discovery for Users Support" (NIDUS WG)", and "Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) User Services Reports", above). Rolf lead a discussion on future ideas and activities in the user services realm in the NETF. NETF Multimedia -mime-information exchange - projects, problems, achievements -pilot experiments MIME is structuring the body of mail -identification: What? encoding: How? (Anything beyond US-ASCII) -character sets (binary transfer, multiport) This is not focussed on defining new formats, but a question of labelling The status of MIME is that it is now a Proposed Standard Protocol (RFC 1341). The future of MIME: -no big changes -more body parts -better user agents -MIME mail servers In five years, most Internet mail will use MIME. To quote Marshall Rose, "If MIME is adopted, X.400 is dead." Distance Education in Scandinavia Astrid Jenssen, University of Oslo, presented a talk on distance education. The definition of "distance education" in this talk is, any education activity where teacher and students are separated in space and/or in time. The technical media are applied for distribution of subject content and for real two-way exchanges. The Distance Education Model: -Large Scale Model (Large, front end development) -Small Scale Model (number of students much smaller) -Text based communications The most important aspect is two way communication. Cooper [Page 61] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 This model helps to: -facilitate group communication between students, teachers, and administrative staff -Distribute information -Handle assignments -Professional, social, and administrative communications -asking for help, discussions, group collaboration, and guest lecturing -information must be organized in different forms On-line education activities at USIT -pedagogic on-line seminars (provides an introduction to on-line uses and protocols) -introduction to Unix (FUNIX) -Electronic networking (introduction to TCP/IP-based services (FIK) Electronic networking (FIK) goals include to become familiar to the services and to get an introduction to network technology. The target group is persons at educational institutions that are linked to UNINETT (Norwegian academic network, which is part of the Internet). An on-line educational model includes: -face-to-face meetings -reproduced written material -electronic exercises and individual assignments -obligatory use of the server Administrative Routines include: -developing administrative routines for announcing registrations, payments, etc. -check local equipment and access to computer network services -administrating user accounts (this must be initiated) -user support for solving technical problems -written material by giving step-by-step guidance (this started 4 1/2 - 5 years ago) There are copyright issues regarding teaching materials. For example, in Music History. Luckily, the copyright issues in Europe are not a bad in the the United States. Cooper [Page 62] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 CALENDAR -------- Readers are requested to send in dates of events that are appropriate for this calendar section. Please send your submissions to (cooper@isi.edu). 1993 CALENDAR Feb 28-Mar 3 Modeling & Analysis of Telecommunication Systems, Nashville, TN Mar 8-12 INTEROP93, Wasington, D.C. Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) Mar 8-12 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Mar 8-12 IEEE802 Plenary, Omni Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD Mar 15-19 Uniform, San Francisco Mar 24-31 CEBIT 93, Hannover, Germany Mar 29 - Apr 2, IETF, Columbus, Ohio Apr 5-19 TCOS WG, Boston (tentative) Apr 14-16 National Net'93, Wash D.C. (net93@educom.edu) Apr 18-23 IFIP WG 6.6 Third International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, Sheraton Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA (kzm@hls.com) Apr 20-22 ANSI X3S3.3, Orlando, FL May 10-13 4th Joint European Networking COnf., JENC93 Trondheim, Norway May 13-14 RARE Council of Administration, Trondheim May 23-26 ICC'93, Geneva, Switzerland May-Jun PSTV-XIII, University of Liege. Contact: Andre Danthine, Jun 2-4 ANSI X3S3.3, Raleigh, NC Jun 7-11 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Jun 15-30 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC21, Yokohama Jun 21-25 USENIX, Cincinnati Jun 30 RARE Technical Committee, Amsterdam Jul 12-16 IETF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Jul 12-16 IEEE802 Plenary, Sheraton Denver Tech Center, Denver, CO Jul 12-16 TCOS WG, Hawaii (tentative) Aug 1-6 Multimedia '93, Anaheim, CA Aug 17-20 INET '93, San Francisco, Aug 23-27 INTEROP93, San Francisco Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) Sep 13-17 SIGCOMM 93, San Francisco Sep ?? 6th SDL Forum, Darmstadt Ove Faergemand (ove@tfl.dk) Sep 8-9 ANSI X3S3.3, Boulder, CO Sep 13-17 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Cooper [Page 63] Internet Monthly Report February 1993 Sep 20-31 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6, Seoul, Korea. Sep 28-29 September RIPE Technical Days, TBC Sep 30-Oct 2 Paris Oct INTEROP93, Paris, France Oct 12-14 Conference on Network Information Processing, Sofia, Bulgaria; Contact: IFIP-TC6 Oct 18-22 TCOS WG, Atlanta, GA (tentative) Nov 2-4 ANSI X3S3.3, TBD Nov 9-13 IEEE802 Plenary, Crown Sterling Suites, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Nov 15-19 Supercomputing 93, Portland, OR Dec 6-10 OIW, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 1994 CALENDAR Apr 18-22 INTEROP94, Washington, D.C. Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) Jun 1-3 IFIP WG 6.5 ULPAA, Barcelona, Spain Einar Stefferud (stef@nma.com) Aug 28-Sep 2 IFIP World Computer Congress Hamburg, Germany; Contact: IFIP Sep 12-16 INTEROP94, San Francisco Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) 1995 CALENDAR Sep 18-22 INTEROP95, San Francisco, CA Dan Lynch (dlynch@interop.com) ======================================================================== Cooper [Page 64]