Internet Monthly Report - January 1994
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January 1994
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 - To obtain the procedure describing how to
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Cooper [Page 1]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNET ARCHITECTURE BOARD
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
Internet Projects
ANSNET/NSFNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING . . . . . . . . . . . page 7
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 12
CONCERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19
CSUNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20
INTERNIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21
ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27
LOS NETTOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31
NEARNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32
NORTHWESTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 35
RARE SECRETARIAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 36
UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 40
CALENDAR OF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 41
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS
----------------------------
IETF Monthly REPORT for January, 1994
1. The 29th meeting of the IETF will be held in Seattle, Washington
from March 28 through April 1, 1994. This meeting is being
hosted by NorthWestNet and the University of Washington. The
registration reception will be held Sunday evening, March 27th,
beginning at 6 PM. The first wave of announcements have already
been sent out by the IETF Secretariat.
Information on future IETF meetings can be always be found in
the file 0mtg-sites.txt which is located on the IETF shadow
directories.
2. There is a new question on the IETF Meeting Registration Form.
As an experiment, the Secretariat will be working on an
electronic version of the meeting proceedings in addition to the
printed version. Meeting attendees must explicitly state whether
they want to receive a hardcopy version of the proceedings.
REMEMBER: This is an EXPERIMENT (the first time an electronic
version is being attempted).
3. The IESG approved or recommended the following five Protocol
Actions during the month of January, 1994:
o RFC 1408 (Telnet Environment Option) has been reclassified
as Historic.
o The OSPF NSSA Option as a Proposed Standard.
o TN3270 Current Practices be published as an Informational
RFC.
o Extensions to RIP to Support Demand Circuits as a Proposed
Standard.
o Protocol Analysis for Extensions to RIP to Support Demand
Circuits be published as an Informational RFC.
4. The IESG issued five Last Calls to the IETF during the month of
January, 1994:
o Definitions of Managed Objects for the SONET/SDH Interface
Type <draft-ietf-atommib-sonet-04> for consideration as a
Cooper [Page 3]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Proposed Standard.
o Definitions of Managed Objects for Frame Relay Service
<draft-ietf-frnetmib-fr-07> for consideration as a Proposed
Standard.
o PPP over ISDN <draft-ietf-pppext-isdn-03> for consideration
as a Proposed Standard.
o PPP in X.25 <draft-ietf-pppext-x25-02> for consideration as
a Proposed Standard.
o PPP over SONET/SDH <draft-ietf-pppext-sonet-01> for
consideration as a Proposed Standard.
5. Three Working Groups were created during this period:
Address Lifetime Expectations (ale)
Printer MIB (printmib)
Relational Database Management Systems MIB (rdbmsmib)
Additionally, one Working Group was concluded:
Mail and Directory Management (madman)
6. A total of 26 Internet-Draft actions were taken during the month
of January, 1994:
(Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) )
WG I-D Title <Filename>
------ -----------------------------------------------------
(bgp) o A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)
<draft-ietf-bgp-bgp4-08.txt>
(atommib) o Definitions of Managed Objects for the SONET/SDH
Interface Type <draft-ietf-atommib-sonet-04.txt>
(iesg) o IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures
<draft-ietf-iesg-wgguidelines-02.txt, .ps>
(nir) o A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval:
Tools and Groups
<draft-ietf-nir-status-report-02.txt>
(frnetmib) o Definitions of Managed Objects for Frame Relay
Service <draft-ietf-frnetmib-fr-07.txt>
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
(dns) o DNS Resolver MIB Extensions
<draft-ietf-dns-resolver-mib-02.txt>
(dns) o DNS Server MIB Extensions
<draft-ietf-dns-server-mib-02.txt>
(atm) o Default IP MTU for use over ATM AAL5
<draft-ietf-atm-mtu-06.txt>
(none) o Internet Authentication Guidelines
<draft-haller-auth-requirements-02.txt>
(tn3270e) o TN3270 Extensions for LUname and Printer Selection
<draft-ietf-tn3270e-luname-print-01.txt>
(none) o Transport Multiplexing Protocol (TMux)
<draft-cameron-tmux-02.txt>
(tn3270e) o TN3270 Current Practices
<draft-ietf-tn3270e-current-pract-04.txt>
(pppext) o The PPP Multi-Link Control Protocol (MLCP)
<draft-ietf-pppext-multilink-05.txt>
(none) o An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status
Notifications <draft-vaudreuil-mime-delivery-02.txt>
(snadlc) o Definitions of Managed Objects for SNA Data Link
Control: SDLC <draft-ietf-snadlc-sdlc-mib-01.txt>
(modemmgt) o Modem MIB <draft-ietf-modemmgt-mdmmib-01.txt>
(bgp) o BGP-4 protocol document roadmap and implementation
experience <draft-ietf-bgp-bgp4-implement-01.txt>
(tpix) o Common Architecture Technology for Next-generation
Internet Protocol
<draft-ietf-tpix-catnip-base-02.txt>
(rreq) + Requirements for IP Routers
<draft-ietf-rreq-iprouters-require-00.txt>
(pppext) + PPP BSD Compression Protocol
<draft-ietf-pppext-bsd-compress-00.txt>
(sip) + Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP): Unicast
Hierarchical Address Assignment
<draft-ietf-sip-unicast-addr-00.txt>
(atm) + IP over ATM: A Framework Document
<draft-ietf-atm-framework-doc-00.txt, .ps>
(sip) + Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP): Routing and
Addressing <draft-ietf-sip-routing-addr-00.txt>
(sip) + SIPP Security Architecture
<draft-ietf-sip-sa-00.txt>
(sip) + SIPP Authentication Payload
<draft-ietf-sip-ap-00.txt>
(sip) + SIPP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)
<draft-ietf-sip-esp-00.txt>
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
7. There were 13 RFC's published during the month of January, 1994:
RFC St WG Title
------- -- -------- -------------------------------------
RFC1563 I (822ext) The text/enriched MIME Content-type
RFC1564 I (osids) DSA Metrics(OSI-DS 34(v3))
RFC1565 PS (madman) Network Services Monitoring MIB
RFC1566 PS (madman) Mail Monitoring MIB
RFC1567 PS (madman) X.500 Directory Monitoring MIB
RFC1568 I (none) Simple Network Paging Protocol - Version
1(b)
RFC1569 I (none) Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT
Subdomain: Radio Paging -- Technical
Procedures
RFC1570 PS (pppext) PPP LCP Extensions
RFC1571 I (telnet) Telnet Environment Option
Interoperability Issues
RFC1572 PS (telnet) Telnet Environment Option
RFC1573 PS (ifmib) Evolution of the Interfaces Group of
MIB-II
RFC1576 I (tn3270e) TN3270 Current Practices
RFC1577 PS (atm) Classical IP and ARP over ATM
St(atus): ( S) Internet Standard
(PS) Proposed Standard
(DS) Draft Standard
( E) Experimental
( I) Informational
Steve Coya (scoya@nri.reston.va.us)
Cooper [Page 6]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
INTERNET PROJECTS
-----------------
ANSNET/NSFNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING
----------------------------------
Network Status Summary
======================
Routing software changes were made to work around problems due to
increased memory utilization associated with forwarding table
growth on ANSnet. This is a temporary workaround pending the
deployment of gated routing software on ANSnet in early February.
Following the completion of the phase-5 upgrade in December,
overall T3 network stability increased to a 12 month high in
January '94. Overall Internet stability (as measured by external
route flapping) continued to decrease in January.
January Backbone Traffic and Routing Statistics
===============================================
The total inbound packet count for the T3 network (measured using
SNMP interface counters) was 45,786,027,182 on T3 ENSS interfaces,
down 0.5% from December. The total packet count into the network
including all ENSS serial interfaces was 53,834,709,296 up 2.9%
from December. The maximum number of destinations announced to the
T3 network during January was 16,281 up 9.9% from December. The
number of network destinations configured for announcement to the
T3 network but were never announced (silent nets) during January
was 5,462.
Rcp_routed Routing Software Changes
===================================
Paging problems experienced due to memory used for route computa-
tion began to appear on other ENSS. Previously this problem had
only been observed on ENSS136 (11 external peers). Changes to
rcp_routed software were deployed to reduce memory usage and avoid
a problem where router memory allocation for route download spooling
could cause page thrashing. Release notes are available for
anonymous ftp at ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/t3-rcp_routed/Release-Notes.
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Routing Stability Measured on the T3 Network
============================================
Internal routing stability measurements are made by monitoring
short term disconnect times (disconnects of five minutes duration
or less). This is intended as a measure of overall system
stability rather than complete connectivity. January showed a
considerable improvement over past months:
MONTH overall excluding configs
------ ------- -----------------
January 99.1% 99.5%
February 99.0% 99.5%
March 97.5% 99.1%
April 96.1% 97.2%
May 97.4% 98.0%
June 95.5% 96.6%
July 97.3% 97.7%
August 97.5% 97.9%
September 98.1% 98.5%
October 98.0% 98.3%
November 97.2% N/A
December 96.6% N/A
January 98.7% N/A
The node that contributed to the most instability in January was
ENSS134 due to two consecutive days in which that node suffered
from memory page thrashing (rcp_routed problem discussed above).
This was followed by E205, a customer site which agreed to be used
for early deployment of gated routing software. This node was
switched between rcp_routed and gated software a number of times to
test gated. The node ENSS177 had numerous power problems and one
other node, ENSS133, experienced over one hour of instability. For
most nodes, January was very stable, with only 13 nodes reporting
more than 30 minutes of instability and 28 nodes reporting over 15
minutes. This histogram of overall stability recorded by each node
over the last 12 months is as follows:
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
MONTH >5 hr >2 hr > 1hr >30 min >15 min <= 15min
<98.7% <99.7% <99.87% <99.93% <99.97% >=99.97%
------------------------------------------------------------
January 0 0 1 8 19 55
February 0 0 1 24 19 41
March 0 4 18 23 23 22
April 2 2 3 13 12 57
May 0 4 33 32 15 5
June 3 21 35 18 12 3
July 0 12 28 44 6 1
August 1 5 28 21 17 15
September 1 38 25 10 4 13
October 0 3 3 10 25 50
November 1 2 15 25 24 26
December 0 8 24 46 9 3
January 0 0 4 9 15 54
There has been steady increase in route flaps associated with
external networks over the course of the last 12 months. The
measurement method is described in:
ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/routing-stats/ExternalRouteFlapReports
This report measures overall Internet stability associated with the
number of times networks are announced as unreachable. The
following represents the monthly totals in terms of number of
networks declared unreachable per hour during the last 12 months.
January 844 May 1134 September 2395
February 876 June 1560 October 2272
March 1104 July 1815 November 2321
April 1038 August 1874 December 2008
January 2414
Plots of the internal routing stability, external peer session
stability and external route flap are available as the files:
ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/routing-stats/internal.ps
ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/routing-stats/external.ps
ftp.ans.net:/pub/info/routing-stats/flap.ps
External Internet route flapping increased to a new monthly high in
January. Three destinations were announced as unreachable over
5,000 times (1 US). Another 8 destinations were announced as
unreachable over 1,000 times (4 US). Another 179 destinations were
announced as unreachable over 500 times (72 US). Another 1045
destinations were announced as unreachable 100 times or more (250
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
US). 1917 destinations were announced as unreachable 50 time (302
US) and 12,872 destinations were announced as unreachable 1 to 50
times (8,313 US). On average 2414 destinations were withdrawn per
hour over the course of the month.
Number of times each destination is declared unreachable
>=5000 >=1000 >=500 >=100 >=50 <50
3 8 179 1,045 1,917 12,872 total
1 4 72 250 302 8,313 US
2 4 107 795 1,615 4,559 non-US
Destinations announced through multiple peer networks are usually
counted once for each peer AS over which it is declared unreachable
when connectivity is lost (this is generally the case except when a
single peer transit provider loses connectivity).
There were 31 AS paths announcing over 5,000 networks as
unreachable and 29 AS paths sending over 1,000 updates containing
unreachables. These were:
AS path Updates Destinations
174 14941 52093
2149 14837 50106
701 405 16760
1800;1133;559 306 16571
1800;1755;1717 123 14168
701;702;560 584 13088
603;577;271 152 12524
555 497 12042
602;271 109 9326
19 2083 8909
279 2383 8770
1240;1239;1800;1755;1128;2043;786 238 8723
1800;1133;513;789 789 8333
1800;1755;1128;2043;786 369 8318
1133;1800;1755;1128;2043;786 431 7821
603;577;549 169 7817
568 1501 7303
1800;1239 383 7292
1800;1755;1887 541 6623
297 1406 6560
701;286;1270 97 6540
702;701 402 6495
86 2773 6180
602;577;549 150 5883
204 5626 5722
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
1324;517 241 5615
1800;1801;786 88 5562
1240;1239;1800;1755;786 264 5394
1133;1800;1755;786 297 5364
1800;701;1849 72 5105
1740;2715 956 5062
174 14941 52093
2149 14837 50106
204 5626 5722
86 2773 6180
1740 2702 4037
2551 2532 4238
279 2383 8770
19 2083 8909
1800;1755;1853;2012 2040 4226
701;286;2118 1960 3830
1133;1800;1755;1853;2012 1951 3940
1674;1133;1800;1755;1853;2012 1940 1993
1240;1239;1800;1755;1853;2012 1796 1805
200 1664 3463
97;1250 1639 4190
201;200 1616 3359
97 1616 2562
293;1251 1591 4061
291;293;1251 1587 4170
568 1501 7303
297 1406 6560
2548 1293 1491
1225 1263 2811
266 1188 2051
1800;701;286;2118 1177 2162
209 1146 4075
372 1145 4497
701;286;1267 1013 3430
1206 1002 1245
There were 102 AS paths with 1,000 to 5,000 destinations announced
as unreachable, 60 with between 500 and 1,000, 240 with 100 to 500,
109 with 50 to 100, 289 with 10 to 50, and 387 AS paths with under
10 destinations announced as unreachable.
Gated BGP4/CIDR Deployment Update
=================================
We are expecting to deploy gated/BGP4 on the first AS690 router
(ENSS205) in early February. The BGP code is quite stable and has
been running on AS1133 routers since early December and we do not
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
expect many problems with it. The IGP interoperability between the
two routing daemons (rcp_routed and gated) has been harder to get
working correctly.
Once the ENSS205 router is stabilized on gated, our next step will
be to deploy gated/BGP4 on ENSS160, ENSS131 (Ann Arbor) and a CNSS
(yet to be chosen) that supports HSSI interfaces and FDDI. We plan
to burn the code in for a few days and if successful, deploy this
further on ENSS136, and possibly ENSS139.
Once we have the gated code deployed on these AS690 routers that
represent the most complex configurations we need to support, the
rest of the AS690 deployment should go quickly. Once the AS690
deployment is complete, we could expect BGP4 peers of AS690 to
start to withdraw the more specific routes which are represented by
the aggregates that they are announcing.
We are working with Merit on a tool that would allow us to monitor
which more specific class-based routes (that are represented by
announced aggregates) are getting withdrawn on a weekly basis. We
hope this will allow us to debug any connectivity problems that are
reported, which may be correlated to CIDR transition.
Notable Outages in January '94
==============================
E137 (Princeton) suffered an extended power outage on 01/08.
E132 (Pittsburgh) suffered an extended power outage on 01/19.
E173 (ITESM) suffered an extended power outage on 01/30.
E257 (Creative Cybernetics) suffered an extended circuit outage
on 01/31.
Jordan Becker, ANS, <becker@ans.net>
BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.
----------------------------
December/January Reports
========================
Defense Simulation Internet
The Defense Simulation Internet (DSI) has grown to over 80 sites.
All operational user sites are now running the ST-II protocol on
the unclassified side of the network. ST 1.5 is being phased out
of the secure side of the network as well.
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
An upgrade to the backbone is planned for February. Capacity will
be doubled to 3 Mbps.
The DSI supported a major demonstration at the end of November at
the Interservice/Industry Training Systems and Education Conference
(I/ITSEC). At this conference, simulators in the United States
interacted with simulators from Britain using the DSI and ISDN
circuits to connect the three sites in Britain. In addition, four
Department of Defense Dependent Schools (in Germany, Korea, and the
United States) were connected into the DSI and ran a number of
demonstrations, using both the ST-II and IP protocols.
Inter-Domain Policy Routing
During the month of December, we continued our laboratory testing
of IDPR multicast and multipath routing. We also integrated the
IDPR kernel with mrouted so that we can use IP multicast for
intra-domain multicasting and IDPR for inter-domain multicasting.
During January, we moved our testing onto DARTnet.
Scalability
Under its Defense Simulation Internet (DSI) Engineering contract
from ARPA (ASTO), BBN is tasked to study the issue of "scalability"
from the perspective of network performance and functionality. The
Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) user community has
ambitious goals for dramatically increasing the scale of simulated
war-fighting exercises. While the largest exercises to date have
involved less than 1000 "entities" (tanks, planes, ships, etc.),
planned future exercises may involve as many as 100,000. Changes
to both the DIS applications and the supporting network(s) will be
necessary to accommodate this growth.
During December and January, work progressed on two fronts.
Statistics were collected at two Synthetic Theater of War (STOW)
Engineering Demonstrations and in combination with statistics from
demonstrations at November's Industry/Interservice Training,
Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) are being analyzed in
order to characterize DIS network traffic and DSI performance.
Significant progress was made in enhancing the DSI network
simulator.
In December, network traffic and performance statistics were
collected during the first of several Synthetic Theater of War
(STOW) Engineering Demonstrations. The DSI statistics collection
was coordinated with the STOW participants in order to enable
correlation between performance measurements and events within the
virtual battle. High frequency collections were done at several
Cooper [Page 13]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
points. First, for measurement of raw throughput, SNMP was used to
collect counts of packets and bytes entering and leaving router
interfaces on both the secure and unclassified subnets. Similar
statistics were collected from trunk interfaces on the Wideband
Packet Switches that make up the wide area backbone of the DSI.
Secondly, for measurement of performance specific to participating
hosts and war-fighting entities (multiples of these can be
generated by a single host), TCPdump was run on site-resident
workstations to collect full traces of simulator update traffic.
Thirdly, a special-purpose ping-like program was run among NTP-
synchronized, site-resident hosts to measure LAN-to-LAN delay every
second. The simulation participants at NRaD also collected
statistics, and it is likely that we will be combining our data
with theirs for cooperative analysis. In January, another small-
scale STOW exercise was held involving only constructive
simulators, and statistics were collected during this experiment,
as well. The data are currently being analyzed, and preliminary
results should be available soon. Unfortunately, much of the data
is classified, but the possibility of declassification is being
explored.
It is expected that initial analysis will consist primarily of
traffic characterization and network performance measurement. More
advanced analysis will follow, whose objectives will include
estimation of the benefits to be gained by various approaches to
multicast routing when combined with sophisticated application-
level filtering algorithms.
The DSI network simulator is part of the Scalability Toolset being
built in cooperation with Loral Advanced Distributed Simulation
(LADS). The network simulator is operational and is being used to
model network loading that would result from sample STOW scenarios
being generated at LADS. During December and January, we added
real-time statistics display and menu options for file handling.
The simulator is also being equipped with a graphical user
interface for easy editing and configuration of the topology of the
modeled network. In January, an interim release was provided to
the "beta test site," Lincoln Lab. This release includes real-time
display of network statistics and a load/save feature for ease in
bringing up previously stored topologies. Additional progress has
been made since then on various cosmetic attributes of the display
and tool palette.
Point of Contact: Josh Seeger (jseeger@bbn.com)
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Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Real-Time Multicast Applications and Communications
In the fall, we reported on the development of several new network
services -- anycast, multi-level data flows, shared streams, and
resource coordination objects. During the past few months,
o A paper describing Resource Coordination Objects was distributed
to the community and made available for anonymous FTP from
clynn.bbn.com as pub/docs/RCOs.ps).
o Some of the multicast features developed under this project have
been passed on to ISI for integration into the standard DARTnet
kernel. This includes low-level features supporting resource
coordination objects (RCOs) and multi-level data flows.
o We have modified the Video Information Server (VIS) to use three
of new network services developed under the Multipoint/Realtime
Communications project -- anycast, shared streams (built using
Resource Coordination Objects (RCOs), and multi-level data flows.
The bulk of recent efforts have been involved in the last task.
BBN's Video Information Server (VIS) can operate over wide-area
networks using only standard TCP and UDP mechanisms plus IP
multicasting. Part of the work involved considering how these new
services affect the design and efficiency of wide-area network
multimedia applications. We have compared the use of traditional
and novel network services in two areas related to the VIS: use of
distributed catalogs of video information, and digital delivery of
audio and video data.
ANYCAST
-------
Introduction
Anycasting provides a way to locate one of a set of supposedly
equivalent network resources. It differs from multicasting in that
a multicast datagram is delivered to *every* listener, while an
anycast datagram is delivered to *typically one* of a group of
listeners: the "best" one according to some criterion.
The Video Registry
The Video Registry is an anycast-based service through which video
applications can locate video resources. It consists of a trivial
relational database with a TCP-based query interface, a location
server that responds to anycast requests for the nearest registry,
and a multicast-based mechanism for redistributing locally-known
Cooper [Page 15]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
resources to other registries.
A video resource (for example, a catalog server that lists
available video clips) sends an anycast UDP datagram to locate the
nearest video registry. At most one registry responds with a
unicast UDP datagram containing the registry's IP address. Said
resource then opens a TCP connection to that address and sends a
request to register itself. Every 5 minutes or so, each registry
multicasts to all other registries all of the resources it knows
from local registration requests. It also immediately announces
newly registered resources. Remotely registered resources not
heard about for 20 minutes are dropped.
A client application locates a registry in the same way, connects
to it, and issues a query for all the video resources of a certain
class. The registry returned locally-registered resources first,
followed by remotely registered ones. New functions in VideoLib
make it relatively simple for both client and server applications
to use the registry.
Vlens Without Anycasting
One client application that uses the video registry is vlens, which
displays a list of video clips that match supplied keywords, then
allows the user to view any clip in the list. The search itself is
performed on behalf of vlens by various video servers; vlens can
locate these servers using two methods: multicast-based or
anycast-based.
Each video server has a WAIS server that exports one or more video
catalogs (BBN's video server currently exports 11 catalogs). In
addition, each video server has a multicast catalog-query manager.
By default, vlens uses IP multicast queries. Each time the user
enters some keywords, vlens sends out a couple of multicast query
datagrams containing the keywords plus a globally-unique
identifier. The catalog-query managers receive these datagrams and
forward the query to their corresponding WAIS server (running on
the same host). If a WAIS server returns any valid matches, the
catalog-query manager sends a response datagram to the multicast
originator saying, in effect, "I have a valid response to your
query ID #<such-and-such>." Queries are idempotent; subsequently
received query datagrams with the same identifier elicit an
immediate retransmission of the above reply.
After transmitting its queries, the client application sits back
and awaits replies. After a time, it iterates through the list of
replies, opening a TCP connection to each of the responding query
Cooper [Page 16]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
managers and saying, "Send me your responses to my query ID
#<such-and-such>." Each response takes the form of a one-line EDL
file, which vlens simply concatenates for display to the user.
Vlens With Anycasting
The above scheme is simple to implement, and takes good advantage
of the parallelism inherent in multiple catalog servers.
Nevertheless, it is obviously non-deterministic, and in practice
tends to be noticeably unreliable. The alternative anycast-based
search mechanism, enabled by running "vlens -anycast", works rather
differently.
When first started in anycast mode, vlens uses anycast to locate
the nearest Video Registry. It then opens a TCP connection to the
registry and gets a list of all resources of class "WAIScatalog".
Vlens then iterates through this list, contacting each WAIS server
at the given address and port. It forms a query to the INFO
database asking for all ".src" files, which in turn identify all
available databases; it retrieves these into a subdirectory of
/tmp. At this point vlens is ready for user input; it then takes
each user query and sends it in turn to each of the available
databases, collecting up to 250 total responses.
SHARED STREAMS
--------------
Introduction
A Shared Stream is a bandwidth reservation shared by multiple
transmitters. A conventional bandwidth reservation is made when a
single transmitter requests absolute priority use of a specified
number of bits per second between two specified network endpoints
(Note that "absolute priority use" is not the same thing as
"exclusive use.") If another transmitter makes a similar request,
it receives a separate allocation from that of the first
transmitter.
Nevertheless, in some circumstances (such as a floor-controlled
videoconference) the second transmitter doesn't really need a
separate allocation, because it will never transmit at the same
time as the first transmitter. Shared Streams are a way for other
transmitters to request access to the same stream already allocated
for the first transmitter, with the promise that their total
combined transmitted bandwidth will somehow be limited to the
original allocation.
Cooper [Page 17]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Registering a Shared Stream
BBN's implementation of Shared Streams works as follows:
- The first transmitter sends the Resource Reservation Daemon
(RRD) a FlowSpec detailing its bandwidth requirements.
- If the reservation succeeds, the RRD returns a Resource
CoordinationObject (RCO) ID, which consists of an IP address
followed by 32 additional bits.
- Subsequent transmitters send their local RRDs the same
FlowSpec plus the RCO ID returned to the first transmitter.
Video clients that use shared streams first agree on an alias by
which the RCO ID will be known when it becomes available. The
first client to obtain the RCO ID registers it in the video
registry under the agreed-upon alias. Later clients retrieve it
under the same alias. When the originator closes down its stream,
it unregisters the alias.
Shared Streams in XIO
We modified the XIO program, which transmits and receives JPEG-
compressed video and mu-law audio, to support shared streams. When
invoked as "xio -t -ptt -join <stream name>" argument, the XIO
transmitter interacts with the RRD and video registry, as described
above, before each connection attempt. To create a suitable
FlowSpec, XIO derives a conservative estimate of its bandwidth
requirements from the initial settings for picture size, inter-
frame delay, and quantization factor.
The "-ptt" flag causes the XIO transmitter to display a Push-To-
Talk (PTT) button; it transmits audio and video only while that
button is depressed. For our demonstration, we run XIO at three
separate DARTnet sites with at least one common segment across
which two streams must flow. Videoconference participants take
turns depressing their PTT buttons, multicasting their image and
voice to all participants.
MULTI-LEVEL DATA FLOWS
----------------------
Introduction
A multi-level data flow is an unreliable transmission in which the
transmitter tags each datagram with its importance to the overall
information transfer. For example, in a pyramid-encoded video
transmission the low-frequency data, which gives the overall shape
of the image, is more important than the high-frequency data, which
Cooper [Page 18]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
fills in details. Faced with inadequate bandwidth, intermediate
gateways would discard the less-important datagrams first.
In the video server, we chose to demonstrate two-level video
transmission. Because we do not have a pyramid encoder, we chose
to transmit a low-resolution image with audio, and a high-
resolution image without audio. A receiver requesting a low-
bandwidth transmission would receive a complete, but small, picture
with audio. A receiver requesting a high-bandwidth transmission
would receive both streams, displaying a large image from the
high-resolution stream with the audio from the low-resolution
stream.
Multi-level Flows in XIO
We modified the XIO program to support multi-level flows. Given
the "-subflows" argument, XIO will transmit and receive audio and
video in one or two hierarchical subflows. For example, "xio -t
-subflows 01" will set up a transmitter that sends two subflows
numbered 0 and 1, while "xio -r -subflows 0" will set up a receiver
that only subscribes to Subflow 0.
Our demonstration of multi-level flow support consists of
Workstation A multicasting a two-subflow digital video stream from
a continuous audio+video source (such as a television channel) in
which Subflow 0 contains audio and low-quality compressed video
(JPEG quantization factor of 500), and Subflow 1 contains high-
quality compressed video (JPEG quantization factor of 100) only.
Workstation B receives both streams, playing the audio but
discarding the video from Subflow 0 while showing the video from
Subflow 1. Workstation C receives only Subflow 0, from which it
plays both the audio and video data.
Karen Seo <kseo@BBN.COM>
CONCERT
-------
In December, the HPCC research group began evaluating the resource
requirements for incorporating the Compressed Video
Interoperability Protocol concept from Viewpoint Systems Inc. into
a general interoperability framework for packet-based video
conferencing. This intention was conveyed through the following
statement:
"MCNC, in Research Triangle Park, N.C., intends to incorporate the
Compressed Video Interoperability Protocol concept into a general
framework being developed that will foster interoperability among
Cooper [Page 19]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
different video coding schemes. Supporting interoperability is
consistent with the objectives of MCNC's existing Packet Video
Project and associated Packet Video Forum. A detailed estimate of
the scope of the effort and the required implementation resource is
underway."
In January, the ATM testing group and the HPCC research group
successfully tested interoperation between 2 Fujitsu SMX-6000
broadband service multiplexors and the Fore ASX-100 switch, at OC3c
link speed. A lesson learned was that applications should not use
VCIs 14,15, and 65535 to avoid conflict with with internal use by
the switch (software version 2.2.5).
by Tom Sandoski <tom@concert.net>
CSUNET
------
CSU was awarded a CALREN grant from Pacific Bell. The grant will
provide Pacific Bell ATM services at no charge for a two year
trial. The trial will be a joint venture between the California
State University and University of California systems. San Jose
State University is the only university in the state of California
now offering a Masters in Library Science. The trial will exploit
ATM services for transfer of video images and JPEG (2Mb-8Mb) video
between three CSU campuses. Instructional facilitators and
cirriculum designers from CSU and UC will be collaborate to form a
new M.S. in Library Science to be taught anywhere in California.
On the new connections front, CSUnet continues to attract new
education, research, and state agencies for connection to the
Internet. The focus remains on districts, libraries, county
offices of education and community colleges rather than individual
high schools because it is often the case that administrative
systems connecting the high schools can be re-used for instruction.
Latest members include:
The County of Riverside (the entire county system will provide
connections to county and city agencies)
East Side Unified School District (San Jose area)
Ventura County Superintendent of Schools
Butte College (Chico area)
City College of San Francisco
Yosemite Community College District
CSU Stanislaus Off-site Center
San Joaquin Valley Library system
Sonoma County Library system
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
Cooper [Page 20]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
CSUnet has installed a frame-relay hub in Los Alamitos and has
contracted GTE to provision yet untariffed services. Pacific Bell
also is providing new frame-relay connections. The "public" net is
being used instead of our private net for these new 56K connections
because of the low pricing by the RBOCs.
Mike Marcinkevicz (mdm@CSU.net)
INTERNIC
--------
INFORMATION SERVICES
Contact Information:
Reference Desk Information
Toll-free hotline +1 800 444-4345
Email info@internic.net
Fax +1 619 455-4640
InterNIC Suggestions or Complaints
Suggestions suggestions@internic.net
Complaints complaints@internic.net
NSF Network News
Newsletter subscriptions newsletter-request@internic.net
Newsletter comments newsletter-comments@is.internic.net
InterNIC Seminar Series
Information seminars@internic.net or +1 800 444-4345
Listserv lists
net-happenings listserv@internic.net
net-resources listserv@is.internic.net
nics listserv@is.internic.net
InfoSource
Host Name is.internic.net
Host Address 192.153.156.15
Postal address
InterNIC Information Services
General Atomics
P.O. BOX 85608
San Diego, CA 92186-9784
Cooper [Page 21]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
TRAINING RESIDENTS OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
The InterNIC Seminar Series
----------------------------------------
The InterNIC Seminar Series "Training Residents of the Global
Village" was unveiled January 20-21, 1994, at the Houghton-Mifflin
Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Employees of the company
participated in two InterNIC seminars, "Using Network Tools
Effectively" and "Building an Electronic Network Information
Center", taught by Chris Weider of Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
Both programs were well received by the participants.
Below is the Seminar Schedule for Feburary 1994.
1. Using Network Tools Effectively
This seminar will demonstrate to new and experienced users how to
effectively utilize current network tools to identify and locate
valuable network resources. Topics will include FTP, telnet, WAIS,
WorldWideWeb, gopher, archie, X.500 and Whois++.
Date: February 15, 1994
Instructor: Chris Weider, Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Host: ASPIN
Date: February 18, 1994
Instructor: Chris Weider, Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Host: ArkNet
II. Hello Internet: Tools for the Classroom
Designed to meet the needs of educators and administrators at all
levels, this seminar will introduce the Internet and demonstrate
its relevance to the classroom. Specific tools will include
archie, gopher, NCSA Mosaic, and live video over the network via
CU-SeeMe.
Date: February 23, 1994, morning
Instructor: Yvonne Andres, Global SchoolNet Foundation
Location: Del Mar, California
Cooper [Page 22]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
III. Making and Managing Global Learning Projects
Many ideas for online learning projects languish because teachers
lack the skills to effectively organize and conduct projects in the
Internet environment. This seminar will give educators many
practical strategies and skills, as well as examples for making,
marketing, and managing their own collaborative learning project
ideas.
Date: February 23, 1994, afternoon
Instructor: Al Rogers, Global SchoolNet Foundation
Location: Del Mar, California
Seminars are being scheduled for locations throughout the country
in 1994. Please contact us if you are interested in hosting a
seminar at your location.
For more information or an electronic registration form, contact
the addresses below:
email: seminars@internic.net
gopher: is.internic.net
FTP: is.internic.net
phone: 619-455-4600 or 800-444-4345
NSF Network News
----------------
The _NSF Network News_, on hiatus since December, has resumed
preproduction with Vol. 1, No. 1 (March/April 1994). To subscribe,
send email to newsletter-request@internic.net, and specify if you
prefer hardcopy or ASCII.
An integral and popular part of the _NSF Network News_ is the 6-
page fold-out map of U.S. Internet Connectivity sites. In the past,
regional and midlevel networks contributed statistics on the number
and identity of their connections and customers, as well as the
number of dialup customers for inclusion in the Map. In order to
update the Map for future issues of the _NSF Network News_, updated
statistics are needed from all network NICs. Networks which have
contributed to past versions of the Map are:
Cooper [Page 23]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
BARRNet
CERFnet
CICNET
CONCERT
JcNCnet
Los Nettos
MIDNET
Merit/MichNet
MRNet
MCSAnet
NEARnet
NorthWestNet
NSFNET Backbone Sites
NYSERNet
OARnet
PREPnet
PSCNET
PSInet
SDSCNET
SESQUINET
SURAnet
THEnet
UIUC/net
VERnet
WESTNET
WiscNet
We are still collecting information from contributors for the next
issue of the _NSF Network News_. Please contact the Publications
Department of Information Services at +1 619 455-3941, +1 619 455-
3934 or newsletter-comments@internic.net for more information on
updating or adding your listing to the Internet Connectivity Map.
Reference Desk
--------------
The Reference Desk received over 4600 requests for information
during January due to continued media attention. The InterNIC IS
Reference Desk staff has been working hard to handle the thousands
of requests, and the Help Desk staffs at both Directory and
Database Services and Registration Services have been a great help
by taking calls from clients unable to get through. We regret any
inconvenience this may have caused the Internet community.
Cooper [Page 24]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
The following table gives a summary of the Reference Desk contacts
for January:
Method Contacts % of Total
------- -------- ---------
Email 642 14.8
Phone 3449 79.4
Fax 214 4.9
US Mail 19 <1
Other 19 <1
------- -------- ---------
Total 4343 100
by Karen D. Frazer <kfrazer@is.internic.net>
DIRECTORY AND DATABASE SERVICES
For users who have telnet access to the Internet, we have a number
of "public" logins available on our server.
guest - This login provides a menu interface to the Directory and
Database Services. Help and tutorial information is available as
part of the menu system. This login is a good choice for new users
of our services. It provides access to most of the services
described below.
newuser - This is an alternate name for the "guest" login and
provides access to the same menu interface.
wais - Provides access to a telnet-oriented WAIS client. This
client has access to all of the WAIS databases on our server. If
you are a new users of this interface, type "help tutorial" after
logging in. The databases available include the Directory of
Directories database, all of the RFCs that are available in
electronic form, Internet Drafts, and a number of other collections
of documents.
gopher - Provides access to a Gopher client that starts out at the
top of the InterNIC Gopher tree.
archie - Provides access to an Archie server.
netfind - Provides access to Netfind. Netfind is a system that
uses finger, DNS, and other standard Internet tools to try to find
users with accounts on machines connected to the Internet. Netfind
has associated help files for additional information.
Cooper [Page 25]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
x500 - Provides access to an X.500 client that gives access to a
global X.500 directory tree. The tree includes organizations that
are participating in the Paradise project (worldwide, but primarily
in Europe) and the White Pages Project in the US.
All of these logins are available through telnet on our host,
ds.internic.net. No password is required for any of the logins.
A reminder - if you would like to help the Internet community find
a resource that you offer, send mail to admin@ds.internic.net and
we will send information about listing your resource in the
Directory of Directories.
by Rick Huber <rvh@ds.internic.net>
REGISTRATION SERVICES
Significant Events
------------------
InterNIC Registration Services received 2,320 calls in January,
mainly as a result of an article in _USA Today Weekend_ magazine
January 23, 1994. The majority of these calls requested
information on connecting to the Internet.
A number of service providers have begun to implement inverse
addressing on their existing CIDR blocks. Registration Services is
working with each of these providers in transistioning inverse
addressing so no customers are inconvenienced.
Registration Statistics for November
------------------------------------
Hostmaster Email 3,688
Postal/Fax Applications 233
Telephone Calls 2,320
Domain Registered 826
Inverse Addresses 691
Class C's Assigned 6,724
Class B's Assigned 45
ASN Assigned 46
Cooper [Page 26]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Connections Retrievals
Gopher Sessions 51,770 17,904
Wais Sessions 20,817 36,469
Ftp Sessions 6,773 28,809
Telnet Sessions 50,370
Mail Server 1,743
by John Zalubski <johnz@rs.internic.net>
ISI
---
GIGABIT NETWORKING
Greg Finn attended the NDS/IEC Conference in Arlington, VA January
31-February 2, 1994. Joyce Reynolds attended the RIPE meetings in
Amsterdam, Netherlands Jan 21-28, 1994.
13 RFCs were published this month.
RFC 1563: Borenstein N., "The text/enriched MIME Content-type"
Bellcore, January 1994.
RFC 1564: Barker, P., (UCL), R. Hedberg (TUD), "DSA Metrics,
(OSI-DS 34 (v3))", January 1994.
RFC 1565: Kille, S., WG Chair, (ISODE Consortium),
N. Freed, Editor, (Innosoft), "Network Services
Monitoring MIB", January 1994.
RFC 1566: Kille, S., WG Chair, (ISODE Consortium),
N. Freed, Editor, (Innosoft), "Mail Monitoring
MIB", January 1994.
RFC 1567: Mansfield, G., (AIC Systems Laboratory), S. Kille
ISODE Consortium, "X.500 Directory Monitoring MIB",
January 1994.
RFC 1568: Gwinn, A. (Southern Methodist University), Simple
Network Paging Protocol - Version 1(b), January 1994.
RFC 1569: Rose, M., (Dover Beach COnsulting, Inc.,)
"Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT
Subdomain: Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures",
January 1994.
Cooper [Page 27]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
RFC 1570: Simpson, W., Editor (Daydreamer), "PPP LCP
Extensions", January 1994.
RFC 1571: Borman, D., Cray Research, Inc., "Telnet Environment
Option Interoperability Issues", January 1994.
RFC 1572: Alexander, S. (Editor), Lachman Technology, Inc.,
"Telnet Environment Option", January 1994.
RFC 1573: McCloghrie, K., (Hughes LAN Systems), F. Kastenholz,
(FTP Software), January 1994.
RFC 1376: Penner, J., "TN3270 Current Practices", DCA, Inc.,
January 1994.
RFC 1577: Laaubach M., "Classical IP and ARP over ATM",
(Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, January 1994.
US DOMAIN ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
------------------------------------
EMAIL/FAX/PHONE 528
----------------------------
Total Contacts 528
DELEGATIONS 30
DIRECT REGISTRATIONS: 24
OTHER US DOMAIN MSGS: 474
---------------------------
Total 528
OTHER US DOMAIN MESSAGES INCLUDE: modifications, application
requests, discussion and clarification of the requests, questions
about names, referrals to other subdomains or to/from the InterNic,
resolving technical problems with zone files and name servers, and
whois listings.
Cooper [Page 28]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Third Level US Domain Delegations this month
--------------------------------------------
K12.DC.US D.C. K12 Schools
CC.OR.US Oregon Community Colleges
GEN.OR.US General branch of US Domain
MUS.OR.US Oregon Museums
STATE.OR.US Oregon State Gov't Agencies
TEC.OR.US Oregon Technical Schools
CC.VA.US Virginia Community Colleges
K12.VA.US Virginia K12 Schools
TEC.VA.US Virginia Technical Schools
SWEET.WY.US Sweetwater, WY, locality
USDA.FED.US US Department of Agriculture
FS.FED.US US Forest Service
BELINGHAM.WA.US Bellingham, WA, locality
MANKATO.MN.US Mankato, MN, locality
PALO-ALTO.CA.US. Palo Alto, CA, locality
Other US Domain Delegations this month
--------------------------------------
CO.ALBEMARLE.VA.US Albemarle, VA, County Agencies
CO.DUVAL.FL.US Duval, FL, County Agengies
CI.OAKLAND.CA.US Oakland, CA, locality
MARLBOROUGH.LA.CA.US Marlborough Independent Secondary School
SEAPUB.K12.WA.US Seattle, WA Public School District
ACES.K12.CT.US Area Cooperative Educ. Serv. CT Schools
MTCS.TEC.ME.US Main Technical College System
TAC.NYC.NY.US Lappeenrata Univ. Of Technology
SANDER.CUPERTINO.CA.US Sander, Cupertino Domain
ADMIN.CO.MARTIN.FL.US. Martin County Bd. of County Comm. Admin.
LAKESIDE.SEA.K12.WA.US Lakeside School, Seattle WA
SW2.K12.WY.US. Sweetwater County School District #2
VALGIS.DEP.CI.NYC.NY.US NYC DEP Water Supply at Valhalla
CATGIS.DEP.CI.NYC.NY.US NYC DEP Water Supply at Catskill
BOARDWATCH.LITTLETON.CO.US Boardwatch Magazine
Cooper [Page 29]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
TABLE OF DELEGATED DOMAINS BY STATE
K12 CC TEC STATE LIB MUS GEN
-----------------------------------------------------------
AK
AL X
AR X
AS
AZ X X X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
CA X X X X
CO X X X X
CT
DC X
-----------------------------------------------------------
DE X X X X X
FL X X X X X
GA X X X X
HI
-----------------------------------------------------------
IA X X X X
ID X X X X
IL X X X X
IN X X X X
KS
-----------------------------------------------------------
KY X X X X X X X
LA X X X X X
MA
ME X
MI X X X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
MN X X X X X X X
MO X X X X
MS X X
MT
NC X X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
ND X X
NE X X X X
NH X X
NJ X
NM X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cooper [Page 30]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
K12 CC TEC STATE LIB MUS GEN
-----------------------------------------------------------
NV
NY X X X X
OH X X X X X X X
OK
OR X X X X X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
PA X
RI X
SC X X X X X
SD X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
TN
TX X X X X
UT X X X
VA X X X
-----------------------------------------------------------
VI
VT X X
WA
WI X X X
WV X X X X X X X
WY X
===========================================================
For more information about the US Domain please request an
application via the RFC-INFO service. Send a message to RFC-
INFO@ISI.EDU with the contents "Help: us_domain_application". For
example:
To: RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU
Subject: US Domain Application
help: us_domain_application
Ann Westine Cooper (Cooper@ISI.EDU)
LOS NETTOS
----------
Walt Prue and Jon Postel attended the Regional Techs mtg held in
San Diego at the San Diego Supercomputer Center January 31st and
Feb 1st.
Walt Prue <prue@isi.edu>
Cooper [Page 31]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
NEARNET
-------
NEARnet Membership Update
NEARNET'S SERVICE AREA EXPANDS
As of January 27, 1994, NEARNET has grown to a total of 287 member
organizations.
NEARNET has expanded its service area, now including leased-line
points of presence (PoPs) in New York City and New Haven,
Connecticut. NEARNET has also installed dialup PoPs in Worcester,
Massachusetts; Hanover, New Hampshire; and Hartford, Connecticut.
NEARNET would like to welcome the following new members who have
joined since the Fall of 1993:
ALPHATECH Inc., Burlington, MA
ALPINE Computer Systems, Holliston, MA
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
Amphibian Media Corporation, New York, NY
The Boston Globe, Boston, MA
Champlain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg, VT
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Quest Protein Database Center,
Beverly, MA
Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA
CW Publishing Inc., Framingham, MA
DMI, Woburn, MA
Epoch Systems, Westborough, MA
FARNET, Lexington, MA
Getty Art History Information Program, Williamstown, MA
Goddard College, Plainfield, VT
Gradient Technologies, Inc., Malboro, MA
Harmonix Corporation, Lowell, MA
IDEA Associates, Billerica, MA
International Data Corporation, Framingham, MA
Iris Associates, Inc., Westford, MA
Kollsman, Merrimack, NH
LightStream Corporation, Billerica, MA
Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
Maine Technical College System of Augusta, ME
McLean Hospital Corporation, Belmont, MA
Merrimack College, Andover, MA
Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA
Molten Metal Technology, Waltham, MA
Myco Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge, MA
New Hampshire College, Manchester, NH
Cooper [Page 32]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
The Northeast Regional Laboratory, Andover, MA
Parametric Technology Corp., Waltham, MA
The Praxis Group, Inc., Burlington, MA
Providence College, Providence, RI
Raytheon Missile Systems Division, Sudbury, MA
Rhode Island Department of Education, Providence, RI
Rivier College, Nashua, NH
Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH
Salve Regina University, Newport, RI
SeaBeam Instruments, Inc., E. Walpole, MA
Simon's Rock College of Bard, Great Barrington, MA
Spaceball Technologies Inc., Lowell, MA
University of New England, Biddeford, ME
University of New Haven, New Haven, CT
Vermont State College, Waterbury, VT
Yale University, New Haven, CT
NEARNET USER SERVICES STEERING COMMITTEE ESTABLISHED
The NEARNET User Services Steering Committee (USSC) has been
established to provide guidance to NEARNET's User Services staff.
The USSC will also advise the NEARNET Steering Committee on user-
service related areas, including: policy, information services,
packages, training and seminars. The USSC is made up of people
from NEARNET member organizations.
The first USSC meeting was held on November 12, 1993. The second
meeting was held on January 10, 1994. Subsequent meetings will be
held every six weeks. The next USSC meeting is scheduled for
February 28.
NEARNET TRAINING SCHEDULE FOR 1994
NEARNET is introducing a set of three six-hour lecture and demo
courses offered quarterly for member representatives. This set of
courses includes: (1) An Introduction to Resources on the Internet;
(2) An Orientation for New NEARNET Information and Technical
Liaisons; and (3) An Introduction to Internet Technology.
All new liaisons and system administrators are encouraged to attend
the "NEARNET Liaison Orientation". Information liaisons should
also attend the "Introduction to Internet Resources" course, and
technical liaisons and systems administrators should also attend
the "Introduction to Internet Technology" course.
The entire set of three courses is available to three people from
each new "full-service" NEARNET site. The "NEARNET Liaison
Orientation" course is open to all NEARNET members on a first-come
Cooper [Page 33]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
first-served basis. The "Introduction to Internet Resources" and
the "Introduction to Internet Technology" courses are also open to
existing NEARNET members, for a fee, on a first-come first-served
basis.
All courses will be held from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the BBN Newman
Auditorium, 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA. Advanced
registration is required for all courses. To register, send email
to nearnet-seminars@nic.near.net, or call 617-873-8730 and press
option six.
Schedule for NEARNET Training Courses 1994
---------------------------------------------------------------
Winter Spring Summer Fall
---------------------------------------------------------------
Feb 22 | May 11 | Aug 10 | Nov 16 | Introduction to Internet
Resources
Feb 23 | May 12 | Aug 11 | Nov 17 | NEARNET Liaison Orientation
Feb 24 | May 13 | Aug 12 | Nov 18 | Introduction to Internet
Technology
---------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNET TOOLS MINI-SEMINAR
A mini-seminar covering NEARNET-provided Internet tools and value-
added services will be held on March 16th. This seminar is being
held to satisfy the overwhelming interest in Internet applications
expressed during the NEARNET Annual Seminar in December 1993. The
seminar will cover NEARNET's new Gopher and World Wide Web (WWW)
servers, the InterNavigator, the Global Network Navigator (GNN),
and the Commerce Business Daily online service.
The seminar will be held from 9:00 AM until 12:30 PM at the BBN
Newman Auditorium, 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA. Advanced
registration is required. To register, send email to nearnet-
seminars@nic.near.net, or call 617-873-8730 and press option six.
Additional information on future mini-seminars for 1994 will be
announced shortly.
NEW NEARNET INFORMATION SERVICES
As of November 1993, NEARNET provides the "Commerce Business Daily"
(CBD) online for it's members via FTP from ftp.near.net in the
directory cbd. The CBDs are also available via NEARNET through
five cbd newsgroups, pincluding: cbd.notices, cbd.foreign,
cbd.awards, cbd.procurements and cbd.surplus.
Cooper [Page 34]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Since November 1993, NEARNET has also provided its member
organizations with access to O'Reilly's Global Network
Navigator(tm) (GNN), an interactive general-interest Internet
guide. Through an agreement with O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.,
NEARNET member organizations may also receive free profiles in the
GNN Marketplace service. Additional information on the GNN
pservice is available via NEARNET's Gopher at nic.near.net or
anonymous FTP at ftp.near.net in the pathname: docs/gnn-info.txt.
NEARNET ANNUAL SEMINAR
Over 250 member representatives attended NEARNET's Annual Seminar
on Friday, December 3, 1993 at Bentley College in Waltham,
Massachusetts. Guest speakers included: Telecommunications policy
analyst Mark Horan (standing in for Representative Edward Markey),
Craig Partridge of BBN, and Ed Krol, author of "The Whole Internet
User's Guide and Catalog".
by NEARNET Client Services <nearnet-us@nic.near.net>
NORTHWESTNET
------------
NorthWestNet welcomes our newest member organization, the Alaska
Native Medical Center of Anchorage, Alaska.
The User Services Committee elected Eve Ruff as the new committee
vice
chair. Eve is Head of Library Services at the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Eve was also the
topic moderator for the January 20 teleconference committee meeting
titled "Care and Feeding of Gopher: Policy Management, Planning,
Execution, and Maintenance Considerations."
Fourteen hours of on-site training were provided to 18 K-12
teachers and administrators participating in the U.S. Department of
Education funded grant, CHOICES (Changing How we Organize:
Inclusion through Collaboration and Educating Support).
New staff members to the NorthWestNet technical services group
include Steve Corbato, Network Engineer, and Bruce Dugan, Systems
Engineer.
-----------------
NorthWestNet E-mail: info@nwnet.net
15400 SE 30th Place, Suite 202 Phone: (206) 562-3000
Bellevue, WA 98007 Fax: (206)562-4822
Cooper [Page 35]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Dr. Eric S. Hood, Executive Director
Jan Eveleth, Director of User Services
Dan L. Jordt, Director of Technical Services
Anthony Naughtin, Director of Member Relations
NorthWestNet serves the six state region of Alaska, Idaho, Montana,
North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington.
RARE SECRETARIAT
----------------
NEWS FROM RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne)
CEENet
A new international networking association has recently been
established: CEENet, of which the members are at the moment: ACONET
(Austria), UNICOM (Bulgaria), CARNet (Croatia), CESNET (Czech
republic), NASK (Poland), SANET (Slovakia) and UARNet (Ukraine).
More CEEC members are expected to join shortly. The members are
networking organizations that represent their country with
authorization from their government. CEENet's role is to coordinate
international aspects of academic and research networking in the
CEEC region.
CEENet was admitted as International Membership of RARE. CEENet has
chosen RARE as the umbrella body for networking for research in
Europe. A planning group has been set up to discuss how best to
coordinate infrastructure planning and to function as a point of
reference.
RARE/EARN merger
With the overall target of strengthening user representation in
Europe the Executives of EARN and RARE are progressing a merger
between the two Associations.
RARE Signatory of ICT MoU
RARE has signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Partnership in
Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a EC initiative
targeting enhancing user involvement in ICT.
Elections Executive Committee
Kees Neggers was elected President, Paul Van Binst Vice-President
and Peter Bakonyi Treasurer. Sven Tafvelin and Christian Michau are
the new members of the Executive Committee. The new RARE Executive
Cooper [Page 36]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Committee takes office on 1 May 1994.
RARE Technical Programme
RARE will establish a project involving maintenance of the
reference implementation of World Wide Web and will seek funding
for this project. The activity will be coordinated with Mosaic.
The RARE Technical Committee is planning a Europe wide effort to
coordinate the INIX and D-GIX activities and will raise the funding
for this coordination effort.
RARE Publications
RARE has published its seventh in its series of Technical Reports:
"RTR7 (RFC1502) has appeared: X.400 use of Extended Character
Sets". The report was written by Harald Alvestrand from UNINETT,
Trondheim in Norway. The author believes that this specification
can easily accomodate the use of any character set in the ISO
registry . Also the guidelines given for choosing character sets
will help interworking.
This is the second Technical Report to be published as RTR and
Internet RFC at the same time. Paper copies of RARE publications
are available from the RARE Secretariat. Electronic versions can be
obtained from the RARE document server.
Conferences and seminars
INET'94/JENC5 Conference The annual Joint European Networking
Conference (JENC) will be held in conjunction with the INET'94
conference in Prague this year. This event will take place on 13-17
June in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The conference
committee of INET'94/JENC5 is chaired by Geoff Manning (UKERNA,
responsible for JNT programme), while Bernhard Plattner (ETH,
Zurich) again chairs the programme committee. Local arrangements
are in the hands of Jan Gruntorad (Czech Technical University).
At the moment the organizers are in the process of composing the
programme for the conference which will become available in March.
If you would like to receive a copy of the programme, please have
your email address added to our distribution list ('inet-jenc-
request@rare.nl'). Already available from inet-jenc-request@rare.nl
is the Call for Papers, which gives an overview of the various
tracks and topics that will be presented and discussed in Prague.
Cooper [Page 37]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
EARN is organizing a Network Services Conference in London, from 28
to 30 November, subsequent to which a large RARE Working Group
meeting will take place.
The final report on the NATO Advanced Networking Workshop on
Research Networking in Central and Eastern Europe that took place
in Budapest last Autumn will be available from the fileserver,
soon. The Workshop was very well attended and regarded as very
useful by several countries.
HIGH SPEED NETWORKING SYMPOSIUM
The 3rd Symposium on High Speed Networking for Research in Europe
was held on 2 February 1994. The regis tration process for this
symposium already showed a large interest with 148 participants
from 24 countries, 2 even from Japan, but even more experts
attended during the day. The attendees' comments were full of
praise of this unique opportunity to exchange and review High Speed
Networking issues.
Presentations
There were 14 high-level presentations on various subjects such as:
- engineering trans-oceanic 44 MBs TCP/IP networks
- high speed services plans applied to backbone technology
- coordinated ATM testing and services within Europe
- multimedia experiments in SGN, the Stockholm Gigabit Network
- LARA, an Interconnection of ATM products
- ATM experiments for High Rate Space Telemetry Transportation
and more.
General
The symposium was especially of interest to experts in the field of
ATM. It brought together the practical experience of ATM from the
research, PNO and service communities, as well as the experience
from major commercial user organizations.
Examples of on site, intersite and even international testing with
ATM were covered, as well as research work related to supporting
ATM at higher speed. Some of the current gaps in ATM
implementations were identified, but it was noted that technical
specifications in these areas had been, or were being, produced.
An overview of some of the presentations
Dr Leslie Clyne reported on the work of the RARE ATM Task Force
which is coordinating ATM developments between RARE organizations,
Cooper [Page 38]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
and is acting as a forum for exchange of information and
experience. Coordination of input to the proposed European ATM PNO
pilot is also being carried out.
Dr Guy Almes described some of the network engineering issues
associated with the deployment of a Trans-oceanic DS3 link between
mainland USA and Hawaii.
Dr Juha Heinanen presented the FUNET project which links ATM sites
in Finland and is providing pilot services. He identified both the
potential of ATM, and some of the technical shortcomings in areas
such as agreement on protocol stacks, implementation of traffic
policing and dynamic signalling.
Dr Leslie Clyne reported on the national UK SuperJANET project
which is using a combination of networking services and
technologies including SMDS, and ATM over PDH/SDH, to provide high
speed networking to over 50 sites. During the 1st half of 1994 some
50 sites are getting SMDS connections at 10 Mbps, and at least 12
sites will have ATM switches connected to the 100+ Mbps WAN
bandwith.
Prof. Bjorn Pehrson described the Stockholm SDH Gigabit testbed
which is facilitating research into new multimedia experiments
requiring 100's of Mbps of intersystem bandwith.
Dr Jaques Prevost presented previous work on ATM in the French
research community and the recently approved plan for national ATM
testing and deployment.
Mr Jalal Samain descri bed the BETEL project which in 1993
transferred ATM cells between France and Switzerland. LAN's were
connected using an ATM switch and Virtual Paths between routers.
Mr Kees Neggers described the plan for SURFNet 4, which is an ATM-
based technology pilot to connect 2, then 9 sites in the
Netherlands.
Ms Jocelyne Lemagnen described the extensive work done by the LARA
consortium in France on LAN and WAN ATM testing. In particular the
LAN environment used ATM switches from many vendors, and a variety
of hosts were connected. Some of the technical gaps in
specifications were identified.
A presentation by Alcatel explained the current research trends on
development of optical ATM switches which would allow use of the
technology above the current limitation of Gigabit speed for access
ports.
Cooper [Page 39]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Mr Rumeau described the use of ATM for the support of high speed
(50 Mbit/sec) Constant Bit Rate services to interconnect ground
sites and transfer bulk data from satellite experiments.
Fourth Symposium on High Speed Networking
The announcement of a fourth symposium on High Speed Networking for
research in Europe in 2 or 3 years' time was warmly welcomed by
all. The proceedings will be published in the next issue of CNRE.
For more information contact:
raresec@rare.nl or kiers@rare.nl
fileserver: gopher.rare.nl or ftp.rare.nl
Judith Kiers
RARE Publicity Officer
UCL
----
MICE now have H.261 Quad-multiplexing software working. We have
also completed an mbone monitoring tool, and will be releasing it
(with source, so sites can audit the code before running) in the
next week or so.
We await delivery of a sun to SURA so that we can run the CBQ and
classifier code that is now working locally.
John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK)
Cooper [Page 40]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
CALENDAR
--------
The information below has been submitted to the IETF Secretariat
as a means of notifying readers of future events. Readers are
requested to send in dates of events that are appropriate for this
calendar section. Please send submissions, corrections, etc., to:
<meeting-planning@cnri.reston.va.us>
1994
------------
Feb. 6-10 High-speed ntwking
& multimedia apps San Jose, CA
Feb. 14-17 UniForum Dallas, TX
Feb. 14-17 IEEE/IFIP Ntw Ops/Mgt Orlando, FL
Feb. 20-25 SHARE Anaheim, CA
Mar. 3-4 RARE Technical Committee Amsterdam, NL
Mar. 7-11 IEEE P802.11 Plenary Vancouver, BC
Mar. 14-16 5th Wkshp on VHSN Baltimore, MD
Mar. 14-18 OIW
Mar. 15-18 ARPA HPCC Symposium Alexandria, VA
Mar. 16-23 CeBIT '94 Hannover, Germany
Mar. 22-26 Seybold Boston, MA
Mar. 23-26 Comp, Freedom & Priv Chicago, IL
Mar. 24-27 2nd Intl Conf on Telecom Sys.
modelling & anaysis Nashville, TN
Mar. 28-Apr. 1 29th IETF Seattle, WA
Mar. 29 Rare Exec./EARN Exec. Comm. Amsterdam, NL
Apr 6-8 National Net '94 Washington, DC
Apr. 11-15 High Performance Computing La Jolla, CA
Apr. 18-20 European Exhb. HP Comp/Ntwk Munich, Germany
Apr. 18-22 IEEE POSIX
May 2-6 NetWorld+Interop Las Vegas, NV
May 4-6 IFIP '94 Hamburg, Germany
May 9-12 IEEE P802.11 Interim Oshawa, Ontario
May 16-18 RIPE Amsterdam, NL
May 19-20 RARE Council of Admn. Darmstadt
Jun. 1-3 IFIP WG 6.5 Barcelona, Spain
Jun. 6-8 Digital World Los Angeles, CA
Jun. 8-10 Seybold Paris
Jun. 6-10 USENIX Boston, MA
Jun. 6-10 NetWorld+Interop Berlin
Jun. 12 RARE Technical Committee Prague
Jun. 13-17 INET94/JENC Prague
Jun. 13-17 OIW
Jun. 20-Jul. 1 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 Helsinki
Cooper [Page 41]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Jun. 27-Jul. 1 HPN '94 Grenoble, France
Jun. 27-Jul. 1 Home-oriented informatics Copenhagen, Denmark
Jul. 11-15 8th ACM Intntl Supercomputing Manchester, England
Jul. 11-15 IEEE P802.11 Plenary Orlando, FL
Jul. 13-14 W/S on Community Networking Millbrae, CA
Jul. 25-29 30th IETF Toronto, Canada
Jul. 25-29 Sigraph 94 Orlando, FL
Jul. 25-29 NetWorld+Interop Tokyo, JP
Aug. 1-2 USENIX Berkeley, CA
Aug. 7-12 SHARE (IBM) Boston, MA
Aug. 10-12 IFIP Protocols Vancouver, BC
Aug. 22-26 6th Joint EPS-APS Phyicics Lugano, Switzerland
Aug. 28-Sep 2 IFIP World Congress Hamburg, Germany
Aug. 29-Sep 2 SIGCOMM 94 London, England
Sep. IEEE P802.11 Interim TBD
Sep. 7-9 Windows Solutions San Francisco, CA.
Sep. 12-16 NetWorld+Interop Atlanta, GA
Sep. 12-16 OIW
Sep. 13-16 Seybold San Francisco, CA
Sep. 14-16 4th Int'l CCHP Vienna, Austria
Sep. 26-28 2nd IWACA Heidelberg, Germany
Oct. 2-5 IEEE Leading Edge Comp. Ntwg Minneapolis, MN
Oct. 6-8 Parallel & Dist. Compt. Sys Las Vegas, NV
Oct. 24-28 NetWorld+Interop '94 Paris, France
October/November Windows Solutions Germany
Nov. 2-4 Gigabit testbed jamboree Reston, VA
Nov. 7-11 IEEE P802.11 Plenary Incline Village, NV
Nov. 11-14 ICCCN '94 San Francisco, CA
Nov. 14-15 CEC Cist 237 M-media Vienna, Austria
Nov. 14-18 Supercomputing '94 Washington, DC
Nov. 14-18 USENIX/ACM SIGOPS Monterey, CA
Nov. 14-18 31st IETF (Tentative) SFO Bay Area
Nov. 28-Dec. 2 Email World Boston, MA
Dec. 5-9 31st IETF (Tentative) SFO Bay Area
Dec. 7-9 Windows Solutions Tokyo, JP
Dec. 12-16 OIW
1995
---------
Jan. 16-20 USENIX New Orleans, LA
Feb. 16-17 PSRG - ISOC Symposium
Feb. 20-24 UniForum Dallas, TX
Feb. 26-Mar. 3 SHARE (IBM) Los Angeles, CA
Mar. 6-10 IEEE 802 Plenary Tentative
Mar. 13-17 OIW
Mar. 13-17 32nd IETF (Tentative)
Mar. 13-24 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 Tokyo, JP
Mar. 20-24 32nd IETF (Tentative)
Cooper [Page 42]
Internet Monthly Report January 1994
Mar. 27-31 Email World Chicago, IL
Mar. 28-30 NetWorld+Interop (Tentative) Las Vegas, NV
May 18-19 RARE Council of Admin. Tel Aviv, Israel
May-Jun. NetWorld+Interop (Tentative) Berlin, Germany
Jun. ISOC Wkshop for Tech.
Emerging Countries
Jun. 12-16 INET '95 (Tentative) Singapore, JP
Jun. 12-16 OIW
Jun. 19-22 USENIX San Francisco, CA
Jun. INET95
Jul. 10-14 IEEE 802 Plenary (Tentative)
Jul. 17-21 33rd IETF (Tentative)
Sep. 11-15 OIW
Oct. 3-11 Telecom '95 Geneva, Switzerland
Oct. 9-13 Email World San Jose, CA
Nov. 6-10 IEEE 802 Plenary (Tentative)
Nov. 13-17 34th IETF (Tentative)
Dec. 4-8 OIW
Dec. 4-8 34th IETF (Tentative)
1996
-----------
Mar. 11-14 UniForum San Francisco, CA
Mar. 18-22 OIW
Jun. 10-14 OIW
Sep. 2-6 14th IFIP Conf. Canberra, AU
Sep. 9-13 OIW
Dec. 9-13 OIW
1997
-----------
Mar. 10-13 UniForum San Francisco, CA
Via ftp: /ietf/1events.calendar.imr.txt on ietf shadow directories
Via gopher: "Internet Society / IETF / IETF Meetings /
Scheduling Calendar" on ietf.cnri.reston.va.us
Cooper [Page 43]
- Internet Monthly Report - January 1994 Ann Cooper