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Network Working Group                                  E. Harslem - RandRequest For Comments: 131                              J. Heafner - Rand                                                              April 1971Response to RFC #116 (May NWG Meeting)Phase OneSoftware Status of 360/65     1) Our software is currently being changed to reflect the new NCPprotocol delineated in RFC #107.  These changes will be completedbefore the end of May.     2) We are implementing a logger that, after an automatic ICPdialog, can be driven from a local console.  Any desirable messagescan be sent or received in EBCDIC, ASCII (8), or as binary streams.The purpose of the logger is to allow sites to checkout remote log inprocedures.  Since no production-oriented services will be offered onthe 360/65, the logger is for experimental purposes only.  It will becompleted before the end of May.     3) We have not planned a TELNET. We will, however, implement bothserver and user TELNETs once a specification is generally accepted.Implementation time will be on the order of two weeks.Transition from 360/65 to PDP-10     1) We plan to move from our 360/65 to a PDP-10.  Rand will offerNetwork services on the PDP-10.  The hardware and software status ofthe PDP-10 will be reported later.     2) The 360/65 Network connection will remain for some time due toits production use by another ARPA-sponsored project at Rand.Maintenance of the 360/65 Network software will be provided for thelifetime of the connection but no new programs will be developed onthe 360/65 after September.                                                                [Page 1]

Network Related Activities     1) The UCSB/Rand Network activities were recently reported in RFC#113 and earlier in RFC #78.  The Climate Dynamics Project (CDP) atRand will continue to use this facility (more heavily) in the future.     2) In conjunction with the above facility, the Rand Network teamhas planned and implemented a front-end graphics program to allow thereduced data from UCSB to be displayed and interacted with locally asgraphs, contours, plots, and lists.  This will be used in about threemonths after an intermediate program, being written by the CDPpersonnel, is completed.Phase TwoExperimental Data Reconfiguration Service (Form Machine)     1) A working session was held recently at Rand on the Datareconfiguration Service (DRS), the results of which have been draftedand are being edited by the participants.  These data will bepublished soon as an RFC.  Eric Harslem will be prepared to make anoral report at the NWG meeting on the DRS.Protocol Manager     1) We plan to submit a positional paper on a proposed ProtocolManager, which will allow flexibility in both experimental andproduction use of connection protocols.  This will be presented as aRequest for Comments on a software package that Rand intends toimplement for its use on the PDP-10.  For example, it should obviate afixed logger on our forthcoming PDP-10.                                                                [Page 2]

Phase ThreeComments on Goals and Organization of the NWG     1) We have been proponents of the collective NWG as a forum toraise issues and as a general information transfer mechanism of whatsites are doing and thinking.  More recently small working groups andcommittees have been formed to generate particular specifications suchas TELNET, the new NCP protocol, etc.  We favor continuance of thesemethods as long as any site with a willingness, an interest, andcontribution is not excluded from any group or committee.  We feelthat these groups will limit themselves to a small functional size apriori because they are directed toward special interests.     The long lead time between the formation of such a group andtheir final output (and subsequent implementation of the plan) hasbeen accepted by the NWG Technical Chairman and is ratherdisconcerting.  The NCP glitch cleaning committee is an example ofexpedient work. UTAH, for example, has already implemented the new NCPprotocol.  Other groups (including the DRS) have not been asresponsive.  Perhaps the technical problems addressed by other groupsare more complex and the needs for their solutions are not asimmediate as the NCP glitches.  We offer no nice solution except thatperhaps some guidelines should be established concerning timelypublication of reports.     2) Regarding long range goals of the NWG, we do not think thatthe NWG is the right body to establish the long range goals.  By longrange goals of the NWG, we are really concerned (in part) with longrange goals of the Network.  We feel that the Principal Investigatorsare in a position to have a better perspective of long range Networkgoals than the NWG members.  As a suggestion, one way of convertingtheir views into NWG tasks is to have the NWG Technical Chairman hosta one day opinion session of the Principal Investigators, then reportthese views to the NWG for the generation of their implied tasks.       [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]         [ into the online RFC archives by Jim Thompson 4/97 ]                                                                [Page 3]