~ APRIL 1991 INTERNET MONTHLY REPORTS ------------------------ The purpose of these reports is to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating organizations. This report is for Internet information purposes only, and is not to be quoted in other publications without permission from the submitter. Each organization is expected to submit a 1/2 page report on the first business day of the month describing the previous month's activities. These reports should be submitted via network mail to Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU) or Karen Roubicek (Roubicek@NNSC.NSF.NET). TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 END-TO-END SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 Westine [Page 1] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 Internet Projects BARRNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6 BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6 CALSTATE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 8 CORNELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9 ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 10 JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK . . . . . . page 12 LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14 MERIT/MICHNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14 MITRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 15 NSFNET BACKBONE, MERIT NETWORK, INC., . . . . . . . . . . page 15 NDRE and NTA-RD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17 PREPnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17 SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17 UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 DIRECTORY SERVICES ACTIVITIES DIRECTORY SERVICES MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20 IETF OSIDS & DISI WORKING GROUPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20 FOX - FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . page 20 ISI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21 MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21 PSI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22 SRI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 22 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY. . . . . . page 23 NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTORY FORUM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24 OSI IMPLEMENTOR'S WORKSHOP (OIW). . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24 PARADISE PROJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25 PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27 REGISTRATION AUTHORITY COMMITTEE (ANSI USA RAC) . . . . . page 28 SG-D MHS-MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29 Westine [Page 2] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 IAB MESSAGE STANDARDS ACTIONS: The IAB has taken the following actions on standards since March 1991, in accordance with recommendations by the IESG: * Proposed Standard state for OSI CLTS over UDP. This is a companion to RFC-1006. * Proposed Standard state for PPP Extension to Bridging. This has been published as RFC-1220. * Draft Standard state for POP3 (RFC-1081). * Historic state for the POP3 Extension defined in RFC-1082. Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS ------------------------- AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS ------------------- There is nothing to report this month. Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC.EDU) END-TO-END SERVICES ------------------- The End-to-End Research Group held a two-day meeting at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. Sandy Fraser and Krishnan Sabnani of AT&T as well as Dave Sicoskie and Ira Cotton of Bellcore participated in the meeting. Topics discussed included: alternative traffic control mechanisms, including the new VJ/DDC proposal; the extent and nature of the requirement for service guarantees; the need for hop-by-hop jitter control; the economics of public networks; the X-Kernel as a possible universal basis for protocol R&D; the need for admission control to limit congestion; how not to implement UDP; and how not to design a host interface. Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) Westine [Page 3] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS ---------------------------- 1) New Working Groups for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991 Internet Message Extentions (822ext) Network News Transport Protocol (nntp) 2) Internet Draft Activity for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991 (Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) ) WG I-D Title ------ ----------------------------------------------------- (snmp) o Extensions to the Generic-Interface MIB (snmp) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet- like Interface Types (snmp) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the SIP Interface Type (null) o An Approach to CO/CL Interworking-- Part II: The Short-Term -- Conventions for Transport-Service Bridges in the Absence of Internetworking (no wg) o Tunneling IPX Traffic through IP Networks (ospf) o OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base (osinsap) o Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet (snmpsec) + SNMP Administrative Model (snmpsec) + SNMP Security Protocols (snmpsec) + Definitions of Managed Objects for Administration of SNMP Parties (test) + dfsgdsfgsdfgsdfg <- > (bgp) + Border Gateway Protocol NEXT-HOP-SNPA Attribute (none) + The IP Network Address Translator (Nat): Preliminary Design (snmp) + SNMP Communications Services Westine [Page 4] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 (null) o An Approach to CO/CL Interworking -- Part III: The Long-Term -- Conventions for Network-Layer Relays and Transport-Service Bridges in the presence of Internetworking 15 Drafts produced, 8 new this period 3) RFC's Produced for Apr 01, 1991 to Apr 30, 1991 RFC Group Title ------- -- -------- -------------------------------------------- RFC1214 (oim) OSI Internet Management: Management Information Base RFC1220 ps (pppext) Point-to-Point Protocol Extensions for Bridging Standards( 1), Experimental( ), Informational( 1) Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US) Westine [Page 5] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 INTERNET PROJECTS ----------------- BARRNET ------- One new T1 connection, three 56kbps connections, and one dial-in connection were completed in April, bringing the number of connected members to 84. One of the 56kbps connections is the first trial of a bridged Ethernet to be installed by BARRNet. The T3 ENSS is now fully operational; all traffic routed to NSFNet sites that are also connected by T3 at the other end is now traversing the T3 backbone. by Paul Baer BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC. ---------------------------- Terrestrial Wideband Network (TWBNet) and ST/IP Gateway During April, conferencing facilities were installed at RADC. There are now seven conferencing sites -- UCL, BBN, RIACS, ISI, DARPA, Germany, and RADC. These sites participated in a total of ten video conferences and demonstrations. Of these, four included four sites, three included three, and the remaining three were point to point. Two of the four way conferences included UCL, and the multipoint connection was handled by the hublet. Conferences were held for discussions in the following areas: the Internet Activites Board, the IETF Coip WG, the Directory WG, an ad-hoc WG on Connection-oriented Connection-less Internetworking, Inter- Domain Policy Routing Development Group, Dartnet experimenters, and the UK Fat-pipe Operational Management Group. The TWBNet was also used to support three Simnet exercises -- two included three sites and lasted 3 days, one involved two sites and lasted one day. Inter-Domain Policy Routing During the month of April, we focused on three different topics: enhancing the IDPR prototype implementation, preparing a usage and configuration document for users of IDPR, and preparing a draft of our proposed mechanisms for policy-based resource allocation. In early April, we held a videoconference with the IDPR software developers from BBN, USC, and SAIC to discuss the results of our various experiments with the prototype implementation. In particular, we discussed performance measurements (both the amount Westine [Page 6] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 of processing time required for path setup and the amount of processing time required to forward data traffic) conducted by USC and SAIC, features of the architecture to be added to the implementation, and minor problems discovered. For more detail on all of these, please write to idpr@bbn.com. The minor bugs discovered we fix immediately, but we are also eager to add more functionality to the prototype. Unfortunately, there is not enough of the developers' time to accomplish things as quickly as we wish; all of the current developers are overcommitted. To simplify the process of adding IDPR capabilities to routers in one's administrative domain, we are preparing an Internet Draft describing how to configure transit policies, as well as other IDPR parameters. In the document, we will provide a configuration template as well as sample configurations for example domains. We hope to have a draft available for review by early June. We are also preparing a document on the routing, flow control, and resource reservation mechanisms we intend to bundle together to implement policy-based resource allocation. We hope to have a draft available by early June. Resources permitting, we may also be able to implement some subset of these mechanisms in a prototype later in the summer. Internet O&M / ICBNet Infrastructure During the month of April, we closely monitored the status of the US/UK "fat pipe" to see if the new software in the Butterfly gateways at ULCC and SURA had alleviated the routing problems which had appeared in December of last year. For the first half of the month, BBN worked closely with NRI, with each location running independent tests and exchanging daily reports. The main conclusion at the end of this period was that overall fat pipe performance had returned to an acceptable level. (Availability data accumulated by BBN between mid-March and mid-April showed the connection to be up approximately 96% of the time.) Reports from NRI also showed that there were 2 minute outages occuring at irregular intervals which we have traced to fragmentation reassembly timeouts in the Butterfly software. This is a new problem which has appeared since the total number of nets being advertised from the NSFNet and the DCA Mailbridges have exceeded 2000 nets and the new software now carries all of these routes. We have not yet found the exact cause of this problem. We began preliminary testing for the upcoming conversion to the newer BBN T/20 router at ULCC, SURA and other ICBNET locations. As part of this testing, we have replaced the BBN-WB gateway with a T/20 router. Westine [Page 7] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 The Operations Management Group of the Fat Pipe met formally for the first time by video conference. Participants included ICB members at UCL and representatives from NASA, BBN, NRI at the AMES, BBN and DARPA sites respectively. Jeanne Pinette CALSTATE -------- The California State University Network (CSUnet) Progress this month: - Most CSUnet Backbone Ring nodes now running at T-1 Most of the T-1 circuits on the CSUnet T-1 Backbone Ring have been installed and are operational. Only one circuit (San Francisco to San Luis Obispo) is pending due to phone company delays. The CSUnet T-1 Backbone Ring links the twenty California State University campuses across the entire State of California. The Backbone nodes now upgraded and interconnected are: (1) California State University, Sacramento TO (2) San Francisco State University TO (3) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo TO (4) CSUnet Network Operations Center (SWRL) in Los Alamitos TO (5) San Diego State University TO (6) California State University, Fullerton TO (7) California State University, Fresno TO (1) California State University, Sacramento Also, a T-1 donated by the California Department of Water Resources interconnects (1) CSU Sacamento to the (4) SWRL CSUnet Network Operations Center. A postscript map of the T-1 topology can be obtained by anonymous ftp to nic.CSU.net. The file "CSUnet_T1.ps" should be transferred in binary mode to obtain the correct formatting. Late news in: [May 3, 1991] T-1 MUX purchase order issued, install on June 3 After almost a year of effort, the procurement of T-1 multiplexor equipment for CSUNET is in its final phase. A purchase order was issued today to Digital Equipment Corporation for 21 Stratacom T-1 multiplexors, one for each of the twenty California State Westine [Page 8] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 University campuses. Unlike conventional circuit-switched multiplexors, these employ advanced "frame relay" and "fast packet" technology. The Phase I sites to be delivered June 3 are: - CSUnet Network Operations Center in Los Alamitos, California - California State University, Fullerton - San Diego State University Phase II installs are scheduled for the early part of July at: - San Francisco State University - California State University, Sacramento - California State University, Fresno - California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo The remaining fourteen sites will be installed at a rate of one per week beginning in August. [The campus installation order was determined by the systemwide CSUnet Network Task Force last Fall]. Mike Marcinkevicz (mdm@CSU.net) CORNELL ------- Wide-Area Multicasting The main area of investigation now is how different routing protocols will interact in the real world, and how multicast packets should be delivered at the interfaces between of autonomous systems, given typical administrative goals and restrictions on routing protocol behavior, the possibility of multiple logical networks on one physical network, and so on. The draft RFC for OSPF extensions is having the details added; completion of the BGP extensions document is waiting until we have thought through the possible problems at administrative boundaries mentioned above. Gatedaemon Jeff Honig attended a meeting at Merit to discuss integration of OSI routing protocols into gated and its use on the NSFNet backbone. Volunteers stepped forward to integrate the BSD 4.3 Reno reduced radix tree routing table code and Wisconsin's Integrated Stack IS-IS into the latest gated development code. Merit is implementing IDRP. Yet another volunteer is working on a SMUX interface to the ISODE snmp daemon. Westine [Page 9] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 Integration of the University of Maryland's OSPF into gated is progressing nicely. We hope to be able to participate in the next round of OSPF interoperability testing in June. International Connections The new connection to INRIA became operational on 4-25-91 and the new connection to NORDUNET became operational on 5-2-91. The old connections through JVNCNET will remain as backup for thirty days. Scott Brim (swb@chumley.tn.cornell.edu) ISI --- GIGABIT NETWORKING Greg Finn is writing a paper that discusses utilizing a certain class of emerging Gigabit LANs to be used internally in an architecture as well as externally as they are today. ATOMIC Greg Finn has been working on issues concerning the ATOMIC network. INFRASTRUCTURE Joyce Reynolds travelled to the DDN NIC April 9 & 10th. Joyce travelled to UCDAVIS to participate as a volunteer "master helper" at their "Mining the Internet" event, April 11 & 12. Joyce travelled to Washington, D.C., April 22-24, as an invited participant of the EDUCOM/NSF Workshop on Information Services. 14 RFCs were published. RFC 1208: Jacobsen, O., and D. Lynch, "A Glossary of Networking Terms", Interop, Inc., March 1991. RFC 1209: Piscitello, D., and J. Lawrence, "The Transmission of IP Datagrams over the SMDS Service", Bell Communications Research, March 1991. RFC 1210: Cerf, V. (CNRI), P. Kirstein (UCL), and B. Randell Newcastle on Tyne), "Network and Infrastructure User Requirements for Transatlantic Research Collaboration Brussels, July 16-18, and Washington July 24-25, 1990", March 1991. Westine [Page 10] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 RFC 1211: Westine, A., and J. Postel, "Problems with the Maintenance of Large Mailing Lists, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1991. RFC 1212: Rose, M., (PSI), and K. McCloghrie (Hughes Lan Systems), "Concise MIB Definitions", March 1991. RFC 1213: McCloghrie, K., (Hughes Lan Systems), and Rose, M., (PSI), "Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II", March 1991. RFC 1214: LaBarre, L., "OSI Internet Management: Management Information Base", Mitre, April 1991. RFC 1215: Rose, M., "A Convention for Defining Traps for use with the SNMP, Performance Systems International, March 1991. RFC 1216: Richard, P., (Almanac Institute) and Prof. Kynikos, Miskatonic University, "Gigabit Network Economics and Paradigm Shifts", April 1991. RFC 1217: Cerf, V., "Memo from the Consortium for Slow Commotion Research (CSCR)", CSCR, April 1991. RFC 1218: The North American Directory Forum, "A Naming Scheme for c=US", April 1991. RFC 1219: Tsuchiya, P., "On the Assignment of Subnet Numbers", Bellcore, April 1991. RFC 1220: Baker, F., Editor, "Point-to-Point Protocol Extensions for Bridging", ACC, April 1991. RFC 1221: Edmond, W., "Host Access Protocol (HAP) Specification - Version 2", BBN, April 1991. Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU) MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING Several experiments were conducted this month with the SPARCstation version of the Voice Terminal (VT) program, the packet audio component of our teleconferencing system. The ST-I version of VT was modified to make use of IP-multicast on the IP-encapsulated ST packets. This was used during an audio teleconference which connected six DARTnet sites including BBN, ISI, LBL, SRI, Westine [Page 11] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 University of Delaware, and Xerox PARC. Meanwhile, we have built a SunOS kernel combining BBN's socket-interfaced kernel ST-II (RFC 1190) implementation with the DARTnet router kernel modules provided by Van Jacobson, and we have made a new version of VT using that ST-II socket interface. Both the kernel and VT are in testing. Redesign of the conference connection management architecture has also begun. The intent is to extend our distributed model to accommodate more flexibility in modes of operation for office-to- office conferencing that are not feasible in the current meeting- room-style system. Important characteristics include support for heterogeneous site configurations, robustness in the face of network flakiness, and multiple user interfaces. Steve Casner made a presentation on "Multimedia Collaboration" at the National Software Exchange workshop at NASA/Ames. Eve Schooler, Steve Casner, Annette DeSchon (schooler@ISI.EDU, casner@ISI.EDU, deschon@ISI.EDU) JVNCNET, NORTHEAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK -------------------------------------------- JvNCnet Princeton University B6 von Neumann Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 Director: Sergio Heker Compiled by Rochelle Hammer JvNCnet Contact information: Information "nisc@jvnc.net" 609-258-2405 9:00-5:00 M-F Operations "noc@jvnc.net" 609-258-1544 24hours/ 7days General number: 609-258-2400 Network availability as of April 25 is 99.86%. An automated RFC responder mechanism is being completed and will be announced next month. This mechanism will allow users with Internet connectivity to retrieve RFCs from "nisc.jvnc.net" by sending an electronic mail message with a specified format. NISC.JVNC.NET is an official repository for RFCs. Westine [Page 12] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 The National University of Singapore was connected to the JvNCnet by a 64kbps IP link. The connection became operational on time time thanks to the cooperation of the Singapore staff, the telephone company, and JvNCnet staff. This connection becomes part of the "international system" supported by JvNCnet. This system consists of a T1 line from the JvNCnet headquarters in Princeton to the telephone company international gateway. The T1 is channelized to accommodate a number of international circuits. The channel bank located at the JvNCnet headquarters allows for multiple 64kbps (or 56kbps) channels for each card and currently supports one 112kbps channel to CA*NET, 64kbps to NORDUnet and 64kbps to Singapore. From the channel bank, the connections go to different gateways (the NSFNET node for the CA*NET connection and cisco routers for the others). Currently the Singapore connection to the United States is being advertised to only JvNCnet member networks until it is configured in the NSFNET policy database. Introduction to Data Networking and TCP/IP is scheduled to take place on Friday, May 17, 1991 at Princeton University. Pre- registration is preferrable and most convenient by sending electronic mail to Allison Pihl at pihl@jvnc.net or by calling 609-258-2406. Upon receipt of your registration, an informational package with agenda, directions and campus map will be mailed. Please call Ms. Pihl with any questions or comments. Attendees: The seminar is appropriate for network operations and technical staff of local area networks. This course is designed as an entry level introduction to TCP/IP networking and how the operations of a network are performed. Registration fee: $50 for staff of JvNCnet member institutions. $150 for all others interested. The fee includes introductory reference materials (seminar documentation), lunch, and refreshments. JvNCnet SEMINAR Introduction to Data Networking and TCP/IP Friday, May 17, 1991 Computer Science Building, Princeton University (CS BOWL 104) TENTATIVE AGENDA 9:30 Continental Breakfast 10:00 Welcome 10:15 What is a network? What makes a network? Westine [Page 13] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 11:15 Break 11:30 An Introduction to TCP/IP 12:30 Lunch 1:45 How do these four functions affect networking? Operations Installation and Maintenance Information Services Engineering 3:00 Break 3:15 Questions and Answers 5:00 Adjourn LOS NETTOS ---------- The TRW network interconnection site was successfully moved to their new location. As per the norm both Pacific Bell and GTE have made errors in their phone bills concerning start and stop dates for the new and old circuits. Unisys in Camarillo has terminated their network connection to Los Nettos. Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU) MITRE Corporation ----------------- On the OSI front, John McGuthry and Walt completed the introduction of CLNP routing into the I.E. Testbed and retested with Europe. They then introduced CLNP routing into some of the MITRE production routers. We now have CLNP routing, FTAM, and X.400 communication between the Bedford, Washington, and Colorado Springs sites. Walt Lazear articipated in DCA's PSTP working group on Network Management held at BDM 9 April. He briefed the group on IETF net management activities. Shari Galitzer, Kit Leuder, and Forrest Palmer attended the IFIPS Symposium on Integrated Network Management. Last month's report neglected to acknowledge that Allison Mankin and Rick Wilder attended the IETF, where their congestion avoidance work was presented. Sorry for the omission. Walt Lazear (lazear@gateway.mitre.org) Westine [Page 14] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC. ---------------------------------------- The NNSC Tour of the Internet is now also available via the NSFNET portion of the CSNET Info-Server. To retrieve the Tour, send a message, to: info-server@nnsc.nsf.net, in the body of the message, type the following: request: nsfnet topic: internet-tour request: end The topic "internet-tour" is a list of two topics: internet-tour-readme internet-tour.sit.hqx in directory /nfs/nnsc/nnsc/ftp/internet-tour (The binhex file for the Internet Tour comes in 17 fragments.) The NNSC also distributed additions to Chapters 2 and 3 of the Internet Resource Guide. Karen Roubicek attended the NSF Workshop on Information Services. Corinne Carroll NSFNET BACKBONE (Merit Network. Inc.) ------------------------------------- The April 1991 inbound packet count for the NSFNET T1 infrastructure totaled 7,544,331,873 packets, an increase of 7.37% over the March inbound packet total of 7,026,153,681. Networks announced via the NSFNET numbered 2622 at the end of April; foreign networks represent 793 of the 2622 network total. Approximately 400 configured networks now route traffic between each other on the T3 infrastructure. Traffic through nodes at Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Ithaca, Boston, San Diego, Palo Alto and Champaign totaled 409,349,186 inpackets, with production traffic continuing to be phased from T1 to T3. Connectivity for NEARNET to the NSFNET was established via the T3 node at Boston. Routing backup to the NSFNET is provided to NEARNET with the cooperation of JvNCnet through NSS 8 at Princeton. The Ann Arbor T1-T3 interconnect was deployed to a private Ethernet, enabling traffic to be monitored between the two networks independently of any other traffic. Westine [Page 15] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 Sue Hares and Dave Katz of Merit/NSFNET Internet Engineering met with Jeff Honig (Cornell), Yakov Rekhter (IBM Yorktown), Rob Hagens (Wisconsin), Steve Heimlich (IBM Yorktown), and Rich Woundy (IBM Milford) in Ann Arbor to discuss the implementation of OSI in the T3 infrastructure. Of particular interest is building a publicly available implementation of OSI routing protocols, including IDRP and dual stack IS-IS in gated. The proposed means of connecting OSI domains has wide technical acceptance, and is on the OSI standards track. On April 10th, two United States regionals exchanged pure OSI stack traffic using commercially available products over NSFNET. The end systems were Sun workstations running the SunNet OSI code (version 7.0) at Merit and MITRE; the stacked protocol was full OSI using CLNP at the network layer and FTAM at the application layer. Guests at the Merit Network Operations Center included Tony Bates, of the University of London Computing Center. Bates' discussed network operations and United Kingdom network routing to the NSFNET. Eric Aupperle, President of Merit Network, Inc., attended the FARNET meeting in Austin, TX. Dave Katz attended a meeting of the OSI Network and Transport Layer Technical Working Group in Raleigh, NC, and presented a paper on FDDI to Electronic Imaging West in Anaheim, CA. Elise Gerich, also of Merit/NSFNET Internet Engineering, was its representative to the FEPG meeting in Livermore, CA. Glee Cady, manager of Merit/NSFNET Information Services attended the 1991 Faxon Institute in Reston, VA, "Creating User Pathways to Electronic Information." Pat Smith, of Merit/NSFNET Information Services, participates on the SIGUCCS Networking Task Force, a group interested in reaching the thousands of potential users who are not aware of the benefits offered by a national network. NETTF convened at the spring SIGUCCS Computer Center Management Symposium in St. Louis, MO. Susan Calcari, also of Information Services, conducted the workshop, "Enhancing Education with NSFNET," and gave the NSFNET overview at the plenary session of the California Educational Computing Consortium Workshops held in Davis, CA. Jo Ann Ward (jward@merit.edu) Westine [Page 16] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 NDRE and NTA-RD --------------- There is nothing to report from NDRE or NTA-RD this month. Anton Leere (leere@ndre.no) PREPNET ------- No progress to report this month. PREPnet NIC (prepnet+@andrew.cmu.edu) SRI ---- Internet registry activities in April included the assignment of xxx IP network numbers. The cumulative total of all assigned IP numbers is now 30,917. There are now a total of 1,261 assigned Autonomous System numbers (ASNs) assigned. There are currently a total of 2,741 domains registered with the NIC, including 61 at the top level, 2,624 at the second level, and 56 third-level MIL domains. Cumulative IP Network Statistics Month/Year Class A B C Total Apr. 1991 43 4,977 25,897 30,917 Mar. 1991 41 4,520 24,572 29,133 Feb. 1991 39 4,347 22,552 26,938 Jan. 1991 39 4,246 21,731 26,016 Dec. 1990 36 4,305 21,811 26,152 Nov. 1990 35 4,198 21,149 25,382 Mary Stahl (stahl@nisc.sri.com) Westine [Page 17] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 UCL ---- There were several video conferences from UCL in April. The main two were the IETF Directory Group meeting, which was 4 way plus voice, and the IETF CO-CL working group which was 3 way with voice to France. Crowcroft attended Infocomm in Miami, and TriComm at UNC in North Carolina and gave papers on Floor Control for Conferencing, and on the UCL CAR/DARPA/LIVENet video conferencing activities. A number of experiments with constant rate IP traffic on JANET have been conducted to see if the current pilot IP service is suitable for carrying video traffic. John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK) UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE ---------------------- 1. The Cornell fuzzball time server finally expired from a disk stroke after five years of faithful tick. While its embers may yet find light elsewhere, it has been replaced by a Unix machine at the same stratum and address. 2. Erik Perkins and Dave Mills participated in a DARTnet audio teleconference, while Dave Mills attended an End-to-end Research Group meeting at AT&T Murray Hill. Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU) WISCNET ------- Training sessions for user consulting staff were held at UW-Madison and at UW-Eau Claire. Presentations included a national network overview, the domain system, network mail and gateways, use of tools (nslookup, whois, etc.), news, security issues, and demonstrations of various network commands. The WiscNet Board met this month and approved replacement of the T1 lines connecting UW-Madison to the State's data network with a fiber link. This link will also carry XUNet to the UW-Madison Computer Science Department and some other bulk analog services. Westine [Page 18] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 The Board also approved our membership agreement. We expect to approach about six additional colleges or vocational and technical schools who have expressed interest in WiscNet membership in the near future. Michael Dorl (dorl@macc.wisc.edu) Westine [Page 19] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 DIRECTORY SERVICES ------------------ This section of the Internet Monthly is devoted to efforts working to develop directory services that are for, or effect, the Internet. We would like to encourage any organization with news about directory service activities to use this forum for publishing brief monthly news items. Current reports include: o IETF OSIDS & DISI Working Groups o Field Operational X.500 Project - ISI - Merit - PSI - SRI o National Institute of Standards and Technology o North American Directory Forum o OSI Implementor's Workshop o PARADISE Project o PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT o Registration Authority Committee (ANSI USA RAC) o U.S. Department of State, Study Group D, MHS Management Domain subcommittee (SG-D MHS-MD) Steve Hotz (hotz@isi.edu) DS Report Coordinator IETF OSIDS & DISI WORKING GROUPS -------------------------------- Refer to IETF section (above) for the OSIDS and DISI working group reports. FOX -- FIELD OPERATIONAL X.500 PROJECT -------------------------------------- The FOX project is a DARPA and NSF funded effort to provide a basis for operational X.500 deployment in the NREN/Internet. This work is being carried out at Merit, NSYERNet/PSI, SRI and ISI. ISI is the main contractor and responsible for project oversight. Steve Hotz (hotz@ISI.EDU) Westine [Page 20] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 ISI --- ISI organized the April 17 FOX phone conference, which included participants from all of the FOX contractors and several government agency representatives. The primary topics of this meeting were: (1) a discussion of the FOX project and how it relates to various other X.500 efforts, (2) status of and questions about the ongoing activities at each site, and (3) potential research issues that FOX may need to resolve to facilitate Internet X.500 deployment. Hotz produced minutes for this meeting, which were distributed to the participants. The March 1991 Directory Services Activities Report was edited and submitted to be included in the PARADISE International X.500 report. Bob Braden and Steve Hotz attended the April 11 IETF OSI-DS videoconference. Hotz supplied ISI site notes for inclusion in the meeting's minutes. Steve Hotz (hotz@ISI.EDU) MERIT ----- Merit FOX members participated in a meeting at NSF on Network Information Services, to help determine requirements for the new "NIC". Emphasis was placed on Directory Services as an important requirement to be provided, and on the incorporation of X.500 in particular. Work and discussions on the interim network infrastructure information schema and DIT drafts continued. Merit began the initial design and discussion of a scheme for representing Internet resources in X.500. Chris Weider (clw@merit.edu) Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu) Westine [Page 21] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 PSI --- A tool to translate from RFC-INDEX.TXT to QUIPU's EDB format was developed; the Directory has been updated accordingly. These entries are contained in the Directory under: @o=Internet@cn=RFC Documents A document relating NADF-123 and X.500 in the Internet was circulated to the FOX partners. Marshall Rose (mrose@cheetah.ca.psi.com) SRI ---- The White Pages Pilot (WPP) Project DSA offering access to SRI staff information, San Joaquin Kit Fox, was upgraded to ISODE 6.8. SRI continued work on providing access to WHOIS information via the Directory. A prototype DSA offering access to Individual, Computer, Network, Domain, Autonomous System, Organization, and Group information is running locally at SRI. Schema additions, both new objects and attributes, were made to support the WHOIS information. The prototype employs the new schema but does not yet contain distinguished name references (e.g., between individual and computer that they coordinate); these will be added in early May. Also in May, SRI will contact the WPP Manager to have this DSA added to the Pilot DMD, and apply to have the WHOIS-supporting objects and attributes added to the Cosine and Internet X.500 Schema. An early analysis of WHOIS data mapping to the Directory revealed that a significant number of entries fail postalAddress length restrictions (6 address lines, each no greater than 30 characters). 47% of the addresses listed for Individuals failed the length restrictions; a majority of the failures were due to the 30 character per address line limit. SRI will pursue a means to provide feedback to the standards community on this issue. As part of the Directory Information Services (pilot) Infrastructure Working Group (DISI), an RFC/FYI document cataloging X.500 implementations will be created. Ruth Lang, along with Russ Wright of LBL, wrote and distributed an X.500 implementation survey form to relevant Internet mailing lists. Westine [Page 22] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 Although the date for receipt of survey forms was 5/3/91, late survey input will be accepted. Contact rlang@nisc.sri.com or wright@lbl.gov to receive a survey form. The DISI working group will review and edit input during the month of May. It is anticipated that this document will be distributed as a draft RFC/FYI in June. Ruth Lang attended the OSI-DS videoconference meeting held on April 11, and was the designated scribe for the RIACS site. Jose Garcia-Luna, Ken Harrenstien, and Ruth Lang participated in a FOX project phone conference meeting held on April 17. Ruth Lang (rlang@NISC.SRI.COM) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY ---------------------------------------------- NIST is involved in several X.500 activities: standards, pilot deployment, and development of an X.500 implementation, Custos. The objective is to see X.500 widely deployed and used in the US government. X.500 is expected to be in the next release of the US Government OSI Profile (GOSIP). In the standards efforts, emphasis is on access control and replication; the other activities are described in some detail below. (A) NIST/GSA X.500 Pilot Deployment NIST and GSA are collaborating in the creation of a U.S. government X.500 pilot deployment. To date, two meetings have been held. At the second, held on April 25th at NIST, significant progress was made towards refining an initial draft schema developed by NIST. A number of government agency requirements will be included in the next schema revision. Once the schema is defined, agencies will begin collecting data for loading into the directory. Initially, NIST will offer to host agency data on Custos DSAs running at NIST. Eventually, agencies are expected to obtain and operate DSAs. The next meeting of the NIST/GSA pilot project is scheduled for June 18, 1991. Operational deployment is expected to begin in October 1991. (B) Custos Update The NIST X.500 public-domain implementation, Custos, is implemented on ISODE, although it otherwise bears no relation to QUIPU. One of its more interesting features is that the DBMS interface is SQL, and we provide a simple DBMS as part of Custos to support the DSA. Information can be optionally loaded into memory, and the memory Westine [Page 23] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 usage is reasonably efficient on a per-entry basis. NIST has implemented, tested, and made a limited release of Custos, referred to as Release 0.1. It implements the read, add, compare, and list operations, along with a significant amount of "infrastructure" code that applies to all operations. The organizations that have received Release 0.1 are: SRI and Merit, which plan to incorporate Custos into the FOX effort; York University in Toronto, which plans to instrument it with OSI network management; and COS, which intends to use Custos to evaluate X.500 test systems. The conditions for getting 0.1 are that the organization make some contribution to improving the implementation, and only minimal support from NIST is provided until Release 0.2 is available. An interim release of 0.1 will be made available by May 15 which incorporates additional efficiencies in the DBMS, and modifications for DAP interoperability with OSIWARE and QUIPU. Search, access control, and schema management are currently under development. This is the additional functionality for Release 0.2, which is due out in October. The extent of the distribution for this release has not yet been determined. Richard Colella (colella@osi.ncsl.nist.gov) NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTORY FORUM ------------------------------- NADF-123 was published as an informational RFC (RFC-1218). Marshall Rose (mrose@CHEETAH.CA.PSI.COM) OSI IMPLEMENTOR'S WORKSHOP (OIW) -------------------------------- The OSI Implementor's Workshop (OIW) is an open public forum for technical issues, concerned with the timely development of implementation agreements based on emerging international OSI standards. The Workshop accepts as input the specifications of emerging standards for protocols, and produces as output agreements on the implementation and testing particulars of these protocols. This process is expected to expedite the development of OSI protocols and to promote interoperability of independently manufactured data communications equipment. Westine [Page 24] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 The Workshop organizes its work through Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that prepare technical documentation. The SIGs are encouraged to coordinate with standards organizations and user groups, and to seek widespread technical consensus on implementation agreements through international discussions and liaison activities. The Directory SIG of the Workshop produces agreements on the implementation of Directory protocols based on ISO 9594 | CCITT X.500 Recommendations. There are three major areas that the SIG is working on for 1991: access control, replication, and distributed operations. Three subgroups have been formed, each focusing on one of these areas. The SIG plans to achieve agreements in these areas based on the Draft International Standards and the Draft Amendments by the end of 1991. At their last meeting (March, 1991), the subgroups detailed workplans and produced outlines of the agreements. At their next meeting (scheduled for June 10-14, 1991), the groups expect to start to produce actual agreements based on the output of the April 1991 ISO/CCITT Directory Editor's meeting. Youbong Weon-Yoon (youbong@arch2.att.com) PARADISE -------- The first PARADISE report (found in the March 1991 Internet Monthly) was a summary of what the project was about and who was involved. This report is a summary of what's been happening over the last three months. Subsequent reports will contain only monthly status updates. (A) Central DSA The SUN 4/330 was configured with ISODE-6.7m and was running a test DSA from 30 January. Extensive connectivity tests of IPSS, IXI, Janet and Internet were made with no significant problems. On February 18, the DSA became "Giant Tortoise" and thus held the master copy of the root of the pilot DIT (Directory Information Tree). The DSA has been running since then without major problems. It is now accepting an average of 3000 associations per week, with approximately 10,000 operations per week. Most of these are caused by either the replication protocol or by the relay service giving IXI access to the US via the Internet. The SUN is connected to the Internet via the "Fat-Pipe" and is now running SUNOS 4.0.3 and has been upgraded to ISODE 6.8. System back-up procedures are now in place, and automatic back-ups to tape are done nightly. There have Westine [Page 25] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 been some complaints about the fat-pipe connection to the US; since a recent software upgrade there have been very few outages. There is now a backup via Germany which will kick in if necessary. (B) Central DUA Work on the interface for the central DUA service is progressing steadily and should be ready on schedule in June. This service will run on the SUN 4/470 purchased by the project. The interface is currently able to resolve most queries given to it, although more work is still needed. Additional work is also needed on formatting the output of results to the user. A test version of the interface will be made available via the central server to the PUNTERS for comments and appraisal in the near future. It is hoped that this interface will come on-line in June, with the possibility of other simple interfaces available on the central server. (C) Central Support A staff appointment has been made for the PARADISE HelpDesk based at ULCC. Phone and email contact have been available since April 29th. Telephone: +44 71 405 8400 x432 Telefax: +44 71 242 1845 Email: helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk There will also be an info-server which it is hoped will contain a variety of PARADISE documents, including a number of "living" documents: o a list of reference implementation sites o a product file of DSAs o a product file of DUAs o the PARADISE International Report o a calendar of meetings and events relevant to PARADISE and the Internet (D) PUNTERS The national pilots involved in the project are known as the PUNTERS (Paradise UNfunded parTnERS). Representation is mostly drawn from members of RARE WG3, and is clear for all countries where national pilots exist, or at least country level nodes have been taken. In those other cases, it is unclear who the representative is, or which group will represent a future national pilot. The next PUNTERS meeting will be held back-to-back with the Westine [Page 26] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 RARE WG3 meeting in Zurich, September 30th through October 2nd. It is hoped that demonstrations and tutorials will be offered. Internet visitors will be welcomed. During the last quarter, AUSTRIA has connected its single DSA to the pilot, and hopes to add another shortly. ITALY provided the first non-QUIPU implementation in the pilot. Systems Wizards participated in interoperability testing with UCL to demonstrate their product DirWiz. IRELAND has put up a DSA, but are having operational problems. A national pilot for FRANCE (OPAX) has been put together, and it is hoped that once testing with their product, PIZARRO, is complete, they will join the pilot. YUGOSLAVIA took delivery of QUIPU 6.7, and hopes to have something working soon. SPAIN hopes to have an operational service very shortly. The UK has moved to extend its academic pilot to the commercial world, though support will not be provided by the JNT. (E) PTT Developments PTT Telecom (Netherlands), which is subcontracted to UCL is itself subcontracting to the Swiss and Finnish PTTs to provide project liaison with the other European PTTs. The team has developed a long term action plan which includes an investigation (by means of a survey and interview) of the possible acceptance of X.500 within the European PTTs. Their study will look at whether X.500 can be used as a basis of an operational commercial public service; all conclusions will be looked at with a view towards taking positive future action. The exact relationship between X.500 and the TPH028 protocol for interconnecting public telephony directories will also be investigated, with discussion of possible future migration. Also of some importance to future strategy is the development of valid accounting mechanisms; for X.500 these are an order of magnitude bigger than those for X.400. The PTTs will be monitoring developments through ETSI. David Goodman (d.goodman@cs.ucl.ac.uk) PARADISE Project Manager PSI WHITE PAGES PILOT PROJECT ----------------------------- As of May 5th, 1991 there were 76 sites under c=US, 68 of them operating as PRDMDs. New additions this month: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Auburn University. In order to test the next DIT naming scheme, the Directory was loaded with the US organizations from the UUMAP database (over 6000 entries). These are leaf organization objects under the Westine [Page 27] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 appropriate state. This uncovered a new optimization for the UFN algorithm, which was subsequently coded. Marshall Rose (mrose@cheetah.ca.psi.com) REGISTRATION AUTHORITY COMMITTEE (ANSI USA RAC) ----------------------------------------------- This committee (ANSI USA RAC) was formed by the ANSI ISSB (Information Systems Standards Board) "To serve as an advisory group to the Registration Coordinator with regards to technical or procedural questions and to serve as an appeals body." Members are appointed by the ISSB. It held its first meeting at ANSI offices in New York on 30 January 1991, and its second meeting at Boulder, CO on 4 April 1991. At this point, after the second meeting, the USA RAC has approved its own operating rules, and has modified and approved the previously drafted procedures for registration of Alphanumeric Form Names and Numeric Form names under the ISO DCC arc { iso member- body US(840) }, which is also known by the numeric object identifier form "1 2 840". The following unofficial text describes the ANSI organization name registration service. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has established an organization name registration service in line with the authority vested in ANSI as the U.S. member body of the International Standards Organization (ISO). The service has been established in response to industry concerns for creating a U.S. national registry of organizational names whose value may be an integer or alpha-numeric characters. ANSI's service provides that once registered, the owner of the registered value must determine its usage and must take the appropriate action to encourage its use. Potential usages are foreseen in the context of Open Systems Interconnection products and services. Once registered, the value is asserted to be nationally unique within the context defined in ISO standards. For example, the values may be used in various computer network systems and services to identify entities of interest to users. A fee is collected for registration of both the numeric integer Westine [Page 28] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 and alpha-numeric value. The fees are designed to cover the costs incurred by ANSI in administering the registration authority. For further information and an application form, contact the Registration Coordinator (Beth Somerville), ANSI, 11 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. Phone 212 354 3300. FAX 212-398- 0023. (NOTE: This is a new address, but the same FAX and Phone numbers.) ANSI began registration of numeric name forms in January of 1991, and intends to begin registration of alpha-numeric name forms in May of 1991. In the meantime, ISO and CCITT actions have led to voting on a proposal to move the Object Identifier Tree that is allowed to have Alpha-numeric Name Forms as well as Numeric Name Forms from the ISO arc to the Joint-ISO-CCITT arc, since both ISO and CCITT standards and recommendations require alpha-numeric names for certain identifiers, such as for X.500 and X.400. Only one among all the trees in the ISO and CCITT "forest" allows alpha-numeric values to be registered. It is expected that the vote will be affirmative, and that the current arc used by ANSI will then be moved to place it under the joint-iso-ccitt arc. This of course means a change in all object identifiers currently formed by concatenation with the ANSI registered values. Another consequence of this action is that both the ISO member-body (ANSI) and the CCITT member-body (SG-D) for the U.S. will both have some jurisdiction over registration policies and procedures. The processes of alignment and negotiation of joint control have begun with the exchange mutual recognition indications between ANSI and SG-D. Fortunately there is a large overlap in the membership of both committees. So, stay tuned! The good news is that something is happening. Unfortunately, the bad news is that something is happening. Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu) SG-D MHS-MD ----------- On the X.400 front, the CCITT member-body for the U.S. is the Department of State, which fulfills its CCITT member-body role by chairing the U.S. CCITT National Committee, which has subordinate Westine [Page 29] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 Study Groups (A, B, C, and D). Study Group D (SG-D) is responsible for certain telecommunications areas, including X.400 and X.500 services. In response to industry concerns about registration of ADMD and PRMD names in the U.S., SG-D formed a new subcommittee (MHS-MD) to develop rules and procedures for MHS MD name registration and use. The MHS-MD committee has met twice since it was commissioned under a charter that was developed by an ad hoc MHS-MD group for consideration and adoption by SG-D. The first official meeting was held at the U.S. Department of State on 17-18 December 1990, and the second meeting in Scottsdale, AZ, on 7-8 March 1991. The next meeting will be held on 6-7 June 1991, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC. Additional meetings are set for 16-17 September 1991, and 6-7 December 1991. All meetings of the MHS-MD subcommittee are open to anyone doing business in the U.S. who has an interest in the issues before the subcommittee. All outputs from the MHS-MD subcommittee are forwarded to SG-D for consideration and adoption, and are then passed on to the U.S. CCITT National Committee for ratification. Now, why, you ask, is the U.S. Department of State involved in such arcane technical matters in the telecommunication services area? Good question! The answer is that in the U.S., where there are many telecommunication service providers, many of which provide international services with connections to service providers in other countries, someone has to be responsible for fulfillment of U.S. treaty obligations under the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) treaties. Although, we in the U.S. do not consider packet switching or X.500 or X.400 to be "basic telecommunication services" under the ITU treaties, the fact is that if any other country does make these services "basic" according to law, then the ITU treaties take effect and the U.S. Department of State must act to fulfill its treaty responsibilities under U.S. law for compliance with all applicable aspects of the ITU treaties. Under these treaties, all U.S. service providers are obligated to make arrangements such that any user in any foreign country can make a packet service connection or address X.400 mail to any user connected to a U.S. public service provider of those services, and expect the connection to be made, or the mail to be delivered, regardless of which U.S. service provider serves the addressed user. Thus, the U.S. Department of State has a vested interest in Westine [Page 30] Internet Monthly Report April 1991 assuring that there is a sufficient U.S. service provider "backbone" to support international connections to any user on any network in the U.S. For X.400, this starts with ADMD and PRMD Name Registration and ends with rules for how the ADMDs (public service providers) will voluntarily arrange to provide a suitable backbone operation for X.400 mail services. It is expected that SG-D may have a similar interest in X.500 directory services. Thus, it is encouraged to send copies of any contribution to ANSI or SG-D to the other. Each has agreed to keep the other fully informed. The MHS-MD subcommittee is not as far along with its MD name registration procedures as the ANSI USA RAC, in part because it started work much later (ANSI procedures have been under development since 1988). Another reason is that the problem is somewhat harder for X.400 because of the "real estate" problem: The restriction of ADMD/PRMD names to 16 characters of PrintableString and the requirement that these names form a single flat space of unique names for the entire c=US. Fortunately, X.500 does not force either of these restrictions on the choice of names for organizations registered under c=US. MHS-MD is now assembling its first draft for review and progression at its meeting in June, and we expect that a final draft will be available by the December meeting of this year. Einar Stefferud (stef@ics.uci.edu) Westine [Page 31]