[IMR] IMR90-04.TXT April 1990 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 research use only, and is not for public distribution. 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 4 AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 END-TO-END SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 PRIVACY AND SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 7 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 7 Westine [Page 1]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Internet Projects BARRNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15 BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15 CERFNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16 CICNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 CORNELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK . . . . . . page 21 LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23 MERIT/UMNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24 MIDNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25 MIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25 MITRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 26 MRNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 26 NCAR/USAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27 NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK . . . . . . . . page 27 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 27 NORTHWESTNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29 NSFNET BACKBONE, MERIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 NTA-RE/NDRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 NYSERNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 OARNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 30 Pennsylvania Research and Economic Partnership Network . page 30 PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeans) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 SESQUINET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 SRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 31 SURANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION NETWORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 UDEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 32 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN/NCSANET . . . page 33 WESTNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 WISCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 34 Westine [Page 2]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 IAB MESSAGE A. MEETING The IAB held a video teleconference on May 26, 1990. Minutes of this meeting will be published as soon as possible. B. STANDARDS ACTIONS During April, the IAB took the following actions concerning Internet standards, following recommendations from the IESG. These changes will be reflected in the next edition of the IAB Official Protocols RFC. 1. Advance to Standard: SNMP -- Simple Network Management Protocol (RFC-1098) SMI -- Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based internets (RFC-1065) MIB I -- Management Information Base for Network Management for TCP/IP-based internets (RFC-1066) 2. Advance to Draft Standard: RFC-1006 -- ISO Transport Service on top of TCP RIP -- Routing Information Protocol (RFC-1058) NICNAME -- WhoIs Protocol (RFC-954) 3. Designate as Proposed Standard: MIB II -- Extensions to MIB OSPF -- Open Shortest Path First IGP (RFC-1131) 4. Retain as Proposed Standard: NNTP -- Network News Transfer Protocol (RFC-977) 5. Move back to Experimental: VMTP -- Versative Message Transaction Protocol (RFC-1045) Westine [Page 3]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 C. STANDARDS STATUS The IAB has held extensive discussions on possible improvements in the way that status (e.g., Elective vs. Recommended) and applicability is attached to Internet protocol specifications, but decision has not yet been reached on these issues. The intent of any change would be to give vendors and users better guidance in determining the relevance of each standard. The IAB welcomes constructive input from any member of the Internet community on these and any other issues relating to the standardization process. Send comments to Vint Cerf, chair of the IAB (VCerf@NRI.RESTON.VA.US) or to Phill Gross, chair of the IETF (PGross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US). D. WORKING WITH ANSI Three members of the IAB, along with interested IETF members, met with ANSI X3S3.3 on April 18 and April 20 in Tucson, Arizona. At that meeting we discussed the possibility of introducing several new work items for entering IP, ICMP, TCP and UCP into the American National Standards track. A vote by the members of X3S3.3 was put off until June 27th, to allow X3S3.3 members to discuss these proposals with their respective organizations and to come to conclusions about the advisability and feasibility of entering the TCP/IP protocols into ANSI. Joint work with ANSI is already under way within the IETF OSI area, specifically with respect to the IS-IS dual routing protocols (OSI and TCP/IP). It is anticipated that joint meetings or, at least, colocated IETF and ANSI X3S3.3 meetings, will be scheduled in the future. Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS ------------------------- AUTONOMOUS NETWORKS ------------------- 1. The Autonomous Networks research Group held a videoconference on April 24 to discuss policy and technical issues associated with resource usage feedback and billing in a commercialized Internet. We were joined by several visitors, including Scott Shenker of XEROX PARC and members of the IETF Accounting Working Group (chaired by Cyndi Mills of bbn cmills@bbn.com). Westine [Page 4]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 We hope to pursue aspects of our discussion through assorted experiments in DARTnet, as well as in smaller laboratory setups. Some of the work will be pursued by the IETF Working Group. More details will be available once I get the minutes written up... 2. Policy Routing related work has shifted, for the most part, to the IETF ORWG, in which I and several other ANRG members are very active. Deborah Estrin (Estrin@USC.EDU) END-TO-END SERVICES ------------------- No progress to report this month. Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) PRIVACY AND SECURITY -------------------- The IRTF Privacy and Security RG met April 4-6 at Digital Equipment Corporation in Boxborough, Massachusetts, with 10 members and four guests, thanks to the hospitality of John Linn. Topics discussed include: PRIVACY-ENHANCED MAIL: Representatives of Trusted Information Systems planned to present their P-E Mail system at the May IETF meeting in Pittsburgh. TIS's implementation progress has included a number of improvements to the system's performance and reworking the key management interfaces to allow for the later integration of full RFC 1114 key management. Plans were made at the Boxborough meeting for the first phase beta test of P-E Mail among PSRG and IAB members, to begin in the coming month. A mailing list was established for implementation issues pertaining to P-E Mail, and interested parties may join by sending a message to "pem-dev-request@tis.com". Burt Kaliski of RSADSI drafted the fourth part of the P-E Mail RFC series, which details procedures and forms for certificate- based user registration, and this was reviewed at the Boxborough meeting. Westine [Page 5]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 BBN has received funding for and will begin implementation of prototype hardware to support on-site user registration and generation of signed certificates, an alternative to the co- issuing arrangement detailed in RFC 1114, that would allow greater organizational autonomy and lower per-user cost in the registration process. Mike Taylor and John Linn of DEC presented and successfully demonstrated DEC's implementation of P-E Mail at the Boxborough meeting. This system is implemented under VMS and runs within DEC's TPU text processing environment. POLICY-BASED ROUTING: Martha Steenstrup and Isidro Castineyra of BBN and the IETF Open Routing Working Group were guests at the Boxborough meeting, and the ORWG's architecture for Inter-Domain Policy-Based routing was presented. The PSRG offered its input on a number of security-related issues in the proposed architecture, including tradeoffs for maintaining authenticated data in routing data bases in light of the restrictions imposed by cryptographic speeds and storage space for signatures, and general tradeoffs of timestamps and serial numbers. LABELLING FRAMEWORK: Russ Housley presented the most recent draft of the labelling framework RFC he is working on, and discussion at the Boxborough meeting suggested further refinements to text defining integrity labels and sensitivity labels. Russ planned to submit text being produced under this task for a security labelling workshop planned for the end of May at NIST. SNMP AUTHENTICATION: The PSRG reviewed the SNMP Authentication draft produced by the IETF Authentication WG. Much of the discussion centered on the choice of the Quadratic Congruential Manipulation Detection Code as the authentication algorithm, and the modes in which the drafts recommends that the QCMDC be used. The PSRG passed on its comments to authors of the draft for consideration at the May IETF meeting. SECURITY ARCHITECTURE: The PSRG undertook a task, proposed in discussion between RG Chair Steve Kent and IESG Security Directory Steve Crocker, to produce an Internet Security Architecture to serve as a framework for further security- related protocol work in the Internet Engineering and Research communities. Rob Shirey agreed to begin work on this task, and an outline for this document is expected to be discussed at the next RG meeting. Westine [Page 6]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 The next PSRG meeting is planned for July 31-August 3 at University of British Columbia in conjunction with the UBC IETF meeting, to allow for joint meetings between the PSRG and IETF WGs working on security issues. Ken Rossen (kenr@BBN.COM) COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY ------------------------ No report received. INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS ---------------------------- IETF CHAIR'S REPORT Chair: Phill Gross/NRI The IETF will meet at the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center and the Software Engineering Institute at CMU on May 1-4, 1990. The meeting will be hosted by Gene Hastings, with much help from SEI, Prepnet and Bell of Pa. The agenda for that meeting has been distributed on the ietf@isi.edu mailing list. There will be an open IESG meeting on Thursday afternoon from ~4-7 pm. This will be the third open IESg session since the steering group was formed last summer. In this session, we will follow-up topics from the FSU session, namely, the status of the IAB standardization process and grandfathered Internet standards. We will also discuss the new recent initiative by the IAB and ANSI to submit certain TCP/IP protocols to ANSI standardization. I want to encourage comments and input from the plenary during the IESG session, so I intend to change the format slightly. Rather than run this session as an IESG meeting, I would like this to be more of an open plenary session in which all attendees can feel free to participate. Reporting from the various Areas may seem a bit light this month due to the upcoming meeting. There will be a more comprehensive report on the meeting in next month's report. Westine [Page 7]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 APPLICATIONS AREA Director: Russ Hobby/UCDavis This month two new Working Groups have been created. 1) The Network Database Working Group is being chaired by Clifford Lynch (lynch@postgres.berkeley.edu) from the Division of Library Automation at the University of California, Office of the President. The first task of the WG is to define the method for SQL communication over TCP/IP networks. This should be a simple mapping into the TCP/IP world of the work that has been done for OSI. After the first task, the WG will continue work to define the use of American National Standard Z39.50, an information retrieval protocol, on TCP/IP networks. 2) The Network FAX Working Group is being chaired by Mark Needleman (mhn@lilac.berkeley.edu), also from UC Division of Library Automation. This WG will define a protocol for FAX devices connected to the Internet. This protocol will allow direct FAX to FAX communications over a TCP/IP network. It should be noted that this communication is different than some of the current methods defined for including FAX images in electronic mail. Mail lists for these two WG will be created shortly. In the mean time if you interested in either subject, contact the WG chair. HOST AND USER SERVICES AREA At the January IETF, we decided to disband the networked graphics WG because it was felt that we could not attract enough networking experts to IETF. Instead, we decided to see if we could encourage SIGCOMM and SIGGRAPH to put together a workshop on the inter- actions between networking and graphics. It appears that such a workshop will actually be held in late 1990 or early 1991 at NCAR. We expect an official announcement shortly. INTERNET SERVICES AREA Director: Noel Chiappa/Consultant Report not received. Westine [Page 8]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 NETWORK MANAGEMENT AREA Director: Dave Crocker/DEC Report not received. OSI INTEGRATION AREA Directors: Ross Callon/DEc and Rob Hagens/UWisconsin Report not received. OPERATIONS AREA Director: Phill Gross/NRI (Interim Director) The Topology Engineering WG (TEWG), Benchmarking Methodology WG, and Network Joint Management WG (NJM) are all scheduled to meet at the PSC IETF. Full reports of those meetings will be included next month. Kent England has produced a "Border Patrol" document for TEWG to consider in PSC. This document is intended to be a tutorial and framework for defining and coordinating network interconnections. The Federal Networking Council (FNC) has expressed interest in such a similar document to be used in registering and coordinating international connections. TEWG and the FNC Egng Planning Group (FEPG) will work together to produce these documents. ROUTING AREA Director: Robert Hinden/BBN Border Gateway Protocol Review A review of the new draft of the Border Gateway Protocol was completed in April. It was carried out because this protocol was submitted to the IETF by the Interconnectivity Working Group (IWG) for consideration as a Proposed Standard. The reviewers were Deborah Estrin Milo Medin John Moy Radia Perlman Martha Steenstrup Westine [Page 9]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Mike StJohns Paul Tsuchiya I wish to thank them for their time and effort writing the reviews. SUMMARY OF REVIEWS BGP is a very good replacement for the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) for Inter-Autonomous System routing in the Internet and that BGP is significant improvement over EGP. It relaxes the EGP "Core Model" topology restrictions and allows arbitrary topologies, reduces the size of routing updates, and introduces some policy routing mechanisms. BGP should be standardized and deployed in the Internet as soon as possible. BGP provides some policy mechanisms, but it does not support full internet policy routing. It does not provide mechanisms which insure that routes conform to a specific policy. BGP will support a much larger Internet than we have today, but will probably not support an Internet an order of magnitude larger. Other longer term solutions need to be developed to handle this growth. The authentication mechanisms in BGP are insufficient. Authentication information needs to be carried in every message (not only in the OPEN message) and more than one type of authentication should be supported. OSPF provides a good model of what is required. There is also an issue about running authenticated BGP on top of an un-authenticated TCP. The use of TCP for a transport protocol for BGP raises many issues. TCP was certainly an excellent choice for building the first versions of BGP and getting operational experience. It is less clear that it is appropriate for a widespread and long term deployment. One important issue is that old information will be retransmitted by TCP even where there is new information which replaces the older data. Other routing protocols (e.g. EGP, OSPF, IS-IS, etc.) include mechanisms cause new routing data to replace the older data. Old routing data is never retransmitted. Other issues raised include: Timer Interactions Message v.s. Byte Stream Mismatch BGP / TCP Interface Specification Authentication Westine [Page 10]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 The BGP specification needs to be improved in several ways. It needs to have a better description of the problem being solved and what problems are not solved. It should probably be merged with the BGP usage document. Also, it's organization is reversed. The protocol functions should be described before the message formats are introduced. RECOMMENDATION I recommend that BGP be published as an RFC and entered in the standards track as a Proposed Standard after the editorial changes and clarifications are made as indicated in the reviews and that the authentication mechanism be improved. I believe that there are a number of significant issues raised by BGP's use of TCP as a transport protocol. I would like to see these issues resolved before BGP advances from a Proposed Standard to a Draft Standard. Interconnectivity Working Group The Interconnectivity Working Group is working on revising the BGP protocol document based on the review of the protocol. It will then be submitted as a proposed standard. OSPF This month OSPF was successfully deployed in NASA's NSI internet and also in the BARRNet NSF regional network. The NSI deployment covered 10 routers and imported approximately 100 external routes. The BARRNet deployment covered 10 routers and approximately 3000 external external routes. We hope to get performance statistics from the NSI deployment and also from the testing that has been going on at the University of Illinois. Incorporation of OSPF into GATED (by Jeff Honig of Cornell) is proceeding. He has also added an OSPF parser to the "tcpdump" program. IS-IS WG The IS-IS working group met jointly with ANSI X3S3.3, April 17th and 18th, in Tucson Arizona. We considered two main sets of issues: (i) Possible technical changes and editorial clarifications to the IETF (integrated) IS-IS specification, based on comments received on the Internet Draft; (ii) Possible changes to the OSI IS-IS specification (for possible inclusion in the U.S. ballot comments on the ISO DP ballot). Westine [Page 11]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Based on our discussions, the editor of the IETF IS-IS specification was charged with producing an updated draft, which he promised to distribute to the IS-IS working group before submission as an RFC. The main technical changes include: (i) a generalization of the manner of dealing with IP External Reachability Information in level 2 LSPs; (ii) Further definition of the Authentication field; (iii) More complete definition of the Dijkstra algorithm; and (iv) More complete definition of encapsulation and decapsulation. A number of editorial clarifications were also proposed. In addition, our discussion resulted in one addition to the U.S. ballot comments on the ISO DP ballot. If accepted, this would allow more general treatment of external OSI reachability information, and would allow the integrated IS-IS specification to treat IP and OSI external reachable address information in the same manner. SECURITY AREA Director: Steve Crocker/TIS The security area has working groups in authentication, security policy and site security policy handbook. The Authentication Working Group covers both IP authentication and SNMP authentication. The security area also coordinates security matters with other IETF areas and with the IRTF Privacy and Security Research Group. Authentication (IP and SNMP): Jeff Schiller, Chuck Davin, Jim Galvin, and Keith McCloghrie The SNMP documents have been reviewed by the PSRG and informal comments have been submitted to the authors. All three documents will be available at the Pittsburgh meeting for review during the SNMP Authentication Working Group Meeting. Security Policy: Rich Pethia The SPWG met on April 17 at NRI facilities. The meeting was attended by 13 IETF members who focused on developing an: Internet Security Policy Development Framework. The purpose of the framework is to give the working group a focal point to use when identifying policy issues and deciding policy content. The framework contains the following major sections: -Introduction: definitions, scope of policy, applicability, authority, focus and emphasis. Westine [Page 12]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 -Inventory of existing policies: existing policies, directives, laws that may impact Internet security policy. -Needed Policy: what policies are needed and how should they be produced. -Security Services: what specific Internet services should be covered and what is the policy in each area. -Certification and Accreditation: who are the "authorities", what process is used to certify individual network components, how is a collection of components accreditated. -Security administration and responsibilities: how is the security policy communicated, administered. This framework will be presented to the SPWG working group at the May IETF meeting and assignments to work specific areas will be made at that time. Site Security Policy Handbook: Joyce Reynolds and Paul Holbrook The SSPHWG will be meeting May 2nd at the Pittsburgh IETF. The agenda will include: 1) Discussion on current security policy and relationship to the Security Policy Working Group (SPWG). 2) Goals and directions of the SSPHWG (strawman proposal by J. Paul Holbrook). 3) Structure and organization of handbook. 4) Timeframe for writing and submission for publication of the handbook. 5) Review of plans/action items for next round of meetings. a) Next meeting in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 12th at USC/Information Sciences Institute. b) Next IETF meeting in August at University of British Columbia. Westine [Page 13]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Privacy Enhanced Mail: Steve Kent and Ken Rossen Privacy enhanced mail will be presented at the IETF meeting in Pittsburgh. Details are being worked out for the release of the software to the PSRG and later to the Internet community as a whole. Phill Gross (pgross@NRI.RESTON.VA.US) Westine [Page 14]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 INTERNET PROJECTS ----------------- BARRNET ------- No report received. BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC. ---------------------------- TERRESTRIAL WIDEBAND NETWORK AND ST/IP GATEWAY During April, the ST Gateway and Terrestrial Wideband projects supported three SIMNET exercises/tests, seven video conferences and two conferencing demos. SIMNET activity included the support of two days of SIMNET testing/demos and the support of a week long SIMNET exercise involving the Navy, Army and Marines. The latter demonstrated interoperability over long-haul communications between the Navy simulation system (BFIT) and SIMNET. At the same time, the Army and Marines participated in separate successful tank and air support exercises. Five of the video conferences held included four sites, one involved two sites, and one involved one site. Conferences were held by the Internet Activities Board (IAB) and multiple IETF working groups. Conferences were held that involved Mark Pullen (DARPA), Brian Boesch (DARPA), Ira Richer (DARPA), Dave Clark (MIT), Bob Braden (ISI), Van Jacobson (LB), and many others. TCP/ISO TRANSLATION Software and Demonstration of TCP-TP4 protocol translation at SHAPE Technical Centre (STC). The transport layer protocol implementation in Estelle is being coded by STC. Part of this has been completed. We have the environment for off-line testing integrated with the code produced from the Estelle finite-state machine rules, and the the TCP transactions associated with connection opening are being debugged. ICBNET INFRASTRUCTURE Special-purpose Butterfly Gateway X.25 interface software is under development for the provision of automatic fallback connectivity to Westine [Page 15]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 European ICBNet sites in the face of single-point ICBNet backbone node or trunk failures. This software, which will be installed in the CNUCE and STC ICBNet nodes, will automatically open an X.25 PDN virtual circuit between those two nodes for as long as a node or trunk problem along the ICBNet's European backbone persists. The virtual circuit will be automatically closed when primary backbone connectivity is restored. Interface hardware will soon be installed at CNUCE and STC in preparation for preliminary testing of connectivity through the PDN. A dialup capability will implemented at all of the Butterfly-based ICBNet sites which will provide control of, and diagnostic access to, ICBNet nodes by network operators when they are temporarily cut off from access via network paths. This capability will provide complete gateway console access; remote execution of diagnostic programs residing on the gateway load device; remote hardware reset and power-cycling of the Butterfly, its load device, and other ancillary equipment; and remote download of new gateway software. All dialup paths will be protected with (at a minimum) the security measures required by the host site. The joint US-UK "fat pipe" effort is on schedule, with installation of the 512 Kbps international circuit linking "FIX-East" (located at SURANet facilities at UMd) to ULCC (University of London Computer Center) currently expected at the end of June. With the installation of Butterfly Gateways at the circuit's endpoints, the fat pipe will provide the primary connectivity to the US for most of the European ICBNet sites. Bob Hinden (Hinden@bbn.com) CERFNET ------- This year is quickly becoming a progressive year for CERFnet. During March, CERFnet prepared a proposal to the National Science Foundation that seeks to expand the network. In early April, CERFnet introduced its new dialup service, DIAL n' CERF. Two new industrial members were brought online and another installation is planned for May. These new memberships bring the total membership to 50 institutions since CERFnet installed the CERFnet backbone one year ago. Phase II proposes CERFnet expansion CERFnet submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation in March. This proposal, CERFnet-Phase II, provides for 23 new connections to CERFnet. The institutions participating in this Westine [Page 16]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 proposal are three four-year colleges, two community colleges and fifteen K-12 schools and one Department of Education. Also, the proposal asks for additional funding to upgrade existing connections to support growth. Anniversary It was one year ago this May and June that the CERFnet backbone was installed. Since then traffic on the network has grown tremendously. During the next few months the CERFnet staff will be evaluating the performance of CERFnet. Keun Hee Han, a researcher and scientist from the Korean Advanced Institute ofScience and Technology, will be one of the staff working on this project. Mr. Han will be with CERFnet for the next 6 months. He is involved with the development of a national research and education network in Korea. While with CERFnet, Mr. Han hopes to learn about the administrative and technical efforts involved in running a wide area network. Dialup service now available DIAL n' CERF, the new dialup SLIP service offered by CERFnet, was made available to users on April 9. The new dialup service allows users to connect to CERFnet via a personal computer or terminal, and a modem. The service will be available on a trial basis at first. One terminal server has been installed at SDSC. Eventually, the service will be expanded and terminal servers will be installed at the other four backbone sites: UCLA, Caltech, UCI, and the UC Office of the President. New members Walt Disney Imagineering located in Glendale, California was brought online April 6. A 56 kbps link to the California Institute of Technology will be installed. Walt Disney is involved in research and development, particularly in collaborative projects with academic institutions. Also, Science Horizons of Encinitas, California was brought online in February. Science Horizons has a 56 kbps link to SDSC. CERFnet NIC and mailing list If you had problems printing the CERFnet User's Guide from the CERFnet NIC, or any other postscript document, please try again. We have resolved the problems and apologize for any inconvenience. You can reach the CERFnet NIC via anonymous ftp to NIC.CERF.NET. Westine [Page 17]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 CERFnet has also changed its mailing lists from the @sds.sdsc.edu address to info@cerf.net (general information), ops@cerf.net (operations information), and help@cerf.net (for assistance or questions). The April-May 1990 issue of CERFnet News was produced. Copies can be retrieved in postscript and text format via the CERFnet NIC in the subdirectory cerfnet_news. by Karen Armstrong (armstrongk@sds.sdsc.edu) CICNET ------- No report received. CORNELL ------- No report received. ISI --- INTERNET CONCEPTS PROJECT The linear congruential random number package has been extracted from the UNIX C library random package and installed in the psuedo-gateway's kernel. This allows testing of the IP/SQ algorithm's performance where gateways use random drop and Source Quench generation when their queues overflow due to congestion. Simulation had previously suggested that this would add a measure of fairness to the IP/SQ algorithm when several like sources are simultaneously competing for a restricted bandwidth. Early tests indicate that this is indeed the case. Greg Finn continues to gather data for inclusion into a paper which is in an early draft stage. Bob Braden organized three teleconferences during April. On April 13, a group concerned with planning and using the open gateway testbed ("DRI") met. Topics included the schedule for hardware installation, the development of the necessary gateway and experimental software, and possible ways to facilitate collaboration among groups. On April 26, the IAB met, and on April 27, the End-to-End Research Group met, using the teleconferencing facility. Westine [Page 18]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Jon Postel attended the ANSIx3S3 meeting on Internet Protocols, 18-20 April. Jon Postel visited Sun Computers in Palo Alto to discuss network interfaces and system engineering, 12 April. Paul Mockapatris consulted with Mark Pullen at DARPA, 1-6 April, and again on 22-27 April. Paul Mockapetris, Joyce Reynolds, and Steve Casner attended the IETF meeting in Pittsburg, PA, April 30 - May 3. Ann Westine represented Los Nettos at a Networking Symposium at Fullerton College May 3-4. Six RFCs were published this month. RFC 1147: Stine, R., "FYI on a Network Management Tool Catalog: Tools for Monitoring and Debugging TCP/IP Internets and Interconnected Devices", Sparta, Inc., April 1990. RFC 1149: Waitzman, D., "A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers", BBN STC, April 1990. RFC 1151: Partridge, C., (BBN), and R. Hinden (BBN), "Version 2 of the Reliable Data Protocol (RDP), April 1990. RFC 1152: Partridge, C., "Workshop Report Internet Research Steering Group Workshop on Very-High-Speed Networks", BBN, April 1990. RFC 1153: Wancho, F., "Digest Message Format", WSMR, April 1990. RFC 1154: Robinson, D., and R. Ullman, "Encoding Header Field for Internet Messages", Prime Computer, Inc., April 1990. One ISI Research Report was published. ISI/RR-90-254: Westine, A., A. DeSchon, J. Postel, and C. Ward, "Intermail and Commercial Mail Relay Services, USC/ISI, April 1990. Ann Westine (Westine@ISI.EDU) MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING PROJECT Many multisite teleconferences were held this month. An all-day telemeeting of the IAB was the first to use the new conference room setup on the 1st floor at DARPA. PictureTel video codecs have been purchased for installation at the four existing teleconference sites plus University College London Westine [Page 19]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 and one or two additional sites in the US. These codecs will give better video quality, but can only show one site at a time. We expect to continue parallel operation of the existing Concept codecs for multi-site, multi-quadrant teleconferences. In a visit to PictureTel headquarters, we proposed collaborative development of a multi-quadrant capability in the PictureTel codec. The idea was well received; discussion will continue. To accommodate sites configured for multiple codecs or multiple workstations sharing the same codec, codec control functionality was removed from the Multimedia Conference Control program, MMCC, and placed in a separate RPC-based server. An initial pass at an RPC-based audio/video crossbar switch server was completed as well. As another move toward more personalized conferencing, we began porting the Voice Terminal (VT) program, which runs on a BBN Butterfly as part of the current multimedia conferencing system, to run on a Sun Sparcstation. Two NEC echo cancellers were also purchased, and will be installed at ISI and at DARPA. They will eliminate the need for headphones at those two sites, and will also allow people who can't get to one of the teleconference sites to participate by telephone in the audio portion of a teleconference. Terry Crowley of BBN provided a new version of MMConf, which we tested in a phone + shared workspace mode with Hans-Werner Braun at Merit and Scott Brim at Cornell. After some additional refinement, this new version will be installed for use during video teleconferences, and we will encourage widespread use for teleconferences by video, phone, or a combination. A new version of the Packet Video Host, PVP, is also in testing. It allows one to dynamically vary the parameters of a new packet- reordering algorithm (which corrects for lost, out-of-order and late ST packets) and to change codecs and codec data rates on the fly. Using the newly larger ST packet data areas, PVP will also allow a dynamic change, between one and "n", in the number of ST packets needed to carry the data for a single video frame. A new version of the BFTP package, BFTP.311.tar.Z, is available for anonymous FTP from the "pub/" directory on venera.isi.edu. It includes command parsing code from UC Berkeley and time parsing code from IBM/CMU which may be freely distributed. Dave Walden, Eve Schooler, Steve Casner, Annette DeSchon (djwalden@ISI.EDU, schooler@ISI.EDU, casner@ISI.EDU, deschon@ISI.EDU) Westine [Page 20]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 FAST PARTS Paul Postel implemented a fully automated procedure for a subset of FAST's rfq/quote handling. Request for quote information is automatically extracted from FAST's Oracle database into a mail message that is sent via the Internet's Reston mail bridge to FAST's vendors with MCI mail accounts. The quote responses from the vendors are returned via the same path and automatically parsed and inserted into the database. Anna-Lena Neches (ALNeches@ISI.EDU) JVNCNET, NORTH EAST RESEARCH REGIONAL NETWORK --------------------------------------------- Princeton University will assume responsibility for management of the JvNCnet Regional Network effective this summer. Ira Fuchs, Vice President for Computing at Princeton University, will assume overall management responsibility. The entire JvNCnet staff, under the direction of Sergio Heker, will be relocated to Princeton University as a separate organization reporting to Lee Varian, Director for Systems and Technical Support. The JvNCnet will be managed as a self-sufficient, non-profit organization on behalf of its academic, industrial and government members. A board of Overseers will be established to review the JvNCnet annual program plan and budget, advise JvNCnet management on the operation of the network and assist in obtaining new contracts and grants. The overall plan has been approved by the Consortium for Scientific Computing and the National Science Foundation. A detailed plan has been developed for relocation of the staff and equipment to Princeton University and it is now under way. We do not anticipate any difficulties with the transition, and expect that the relocation will be transparent to our users. The traffic on the network on the month of March has increased to 2.09 Billon packets (into and out of the JvNCnet). Of this, 0.88 Billon was directed to or received from the NSFNET. The availability of the network for March was 99.68%. The New Haven backbone node is being being installed this week connecting with T1 lines Providence and New York and the end nodes of Yale University and Wesleyan University. Westine [Page 21]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 For more information contact: Network Operations: "noc@nisc.jvnc.net" Network Information Services: "nisc@nisc.jvnc.net" JvNCnet Regional Network Topology (As of 05/09/90) ------------(8) Boston / / / (7) Providence / / / (6) New Haven / / / / / (5) New York | / | / | (4) Newark | / | / | (3) Trenton | / \ | / (2) JvNC | / --(1) Philadelphia Westine [Page 22]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Backbone Node Institutions ============= ============ 1 Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Penn State University Rohm & Haas (scheduled) 2 JvNC Princeton University Institute for Advanced Study R.E. Squibb & Sons Siemens Research NORDUnet JANET RISQ NEC GFDL 3 Trenton 4 Newark Rutgers University Stevens Institute of Technology New Jersey Institute of Technology University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ Montclair State College Kean College AT&T Bell Labs Bell Communications Research IEEE (scheduled) 5 New York New York University 6 New Haven Yale University Wesleyan University 7 Providence Brown University American Mathematics Society University of Rhode Island 8 Boston NEARnet Dartmouth College by Sergio Heker (heker@nisc.jvnc.net) LOS NETTOS ---------- The DOE ESNet was installed through the Los Angeles area with nodes at Caltech and UCLA. An agreement was reached for methods of exchanging routes with Los Nettos and CERFnet at Caltech. This was implemented on 20 April90. Discussion of appropriate routing information exchange methods at UCLA is continuing. Los Nettos service to the IBM Scientific Center in Santa Monica discontinued as of the beginning of April. This IBM group is relocating out of the area. A new circuit was installed to maintain the robust topology IBM's leaving disrupted. IBMs Westine [Page 23]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 departure is a loss to Los Nettos. Service to TRW was disrupted for about 8 hours on 25-April-90 due to backhoe fading. A data pattern sensitivity problem was detected on the ISI-UCLA circuit on 3-April-90. The carrier (GTE) has provided a work around but has not resolved the problem. It is curious because the pattern of all zeros or all ones does not cause the problem. It is not therefore simply a ones density problem. Equipment for providing remote console access to member ciscos and CSU/DSUs was ordered. Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU) MERIT/UMNET ----------- March 1990 At a Merit board of directors strategic planning retreat in early March, the board set several mandates aimed at improving connectivity throughout the state, bringing the remaining 5 Michigan supported universities onboard as members of the Merit consortium, and to extend Merit's services to a more comprehensive group of universities, K-12 school systems, community colleges, and commercial organizations doing research. The Board also directed that the staff continue planning and design for the upgrade of the statewide network backbone. A task force has begun work on an RFI to be issued to commercial router vendors; in parallel, a meeting of network staff from all of the Merit consortium members convened to begin discussing the routing issues involved in the backbone migration as well as the Merit members' complicated Internet connectivity. Merit's SprintMail-to-Internet gateway service came online for testing late in March. The gateway, which is using x.400-to-SMTP gatewaying software, is running on a SUN SPARCstation provided by SprintNet for this purpose. The Merit Network News, Merit's newsletter, is now printed on recycled stock, at a net savings of approximately 10%. by Pat McGregor (patmcg@merit.edu) Westine [Page 24]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 April 1990 Merit has recently added a 9600/19200 dialin service in Ann Arbor, and expects to add it in Washington, DC, in the near future. Since 9600 bps dialin is a prevalent access speed across the nation with Sprintnet's deployment of 9600 bps modems in many major cities and Merit's recent installation of modems at this speed, we are beginning a major revision in our listings of access phone numbers and other related documentation. Our new "Telnet at Which Host?" service has become immensely popular. This is a telnet server from the main entry point of the network, which allows users without TCP/IP software to use the network to support a telnet session. The service's popularity (and the subsequent increased IP traffic load on the system) has helped us discover and fix some hidden problems with our routing and storage programs. Additionally, user questions and needs have helped us clarify our policies regarding appropriate use of the system. The Merit statewide network backbone redesign team has been meeting regularly and making good progress. The Merit staff are refining the architectural requirements for the Michigan statewide network in preparation for selecting a router vendor. It is expected that this process will be completed by sometime in June. The issues surrounding address space and multiple entries to the Internet (via CICNet, NSFNET, and Merit itself) are being worked out jointly with the technical representatives for the eight Merit member universities. Merit's SprintMail-to-Internet gateway service came online for production use early in April, although it has not yet been formally released. After some initial unsteadiness, the gateway seems to be working well. by Pat McGregor (patmcg@merit.edu) MIDNET ------ No report received. MIT-LCS ------- No report received. Westine [Page 25]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 MITRE Corporation ----------------- No report received. MRNET ----- The MRNet Executive Committee completed and unanimously approved the document "MRNet: A Vision for Phase II." This document articulates the MRNet Executive Committee's vision for the future of MRNet. Conclusions include: o MRNet's mission must be expanded to better provide research and education network services which strenghten the academic and industrial infrastructure of Minnesota and the region. o MRNet must offer a broader range of services, from the unsupported Internet connectivity offered today, to fully supported Internet connections. Other, related network services should also be offered. o MRNet requires a strengthened organization in order to pursue the expanded mission and offer the enhanced services. A corporation owned by MRNet's stakeholders is the most appropriate structure, (as was first proposed in MRNet's 1987 Bylaws). The Executive Committee is undertaking two tasks to refine and implement MRNet Phase II: o The MRNet Advisiory Committee is being formed to guide the transition to the next phase of MRNet. o The Executive is seeking funds to: - Write the business plan for MRNet Phase II. - Publish a quarterly MRNet newsletter, and - Host a conference for the many groups involved with research and education networking in the region. Westine [Page 26]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 This document will be distributed shortly. Contact any member of the MRNet Executive Committee for additional information. Carl F. Henry MRNet Treasurer chenry@carleton.edu Timothy J. Salo MRNet Secretary tjs@msc.umn.edu Jeff A. Wabik MRNet Vice Chair jwabik@msc.umn.edu by Timothy J. Salo (tjs@msc.umn.edu>) NCAR/USAN --------- No report received. NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK ----------------------------------------- During April, Aware, Inc. was connected to the network. Operation of the network continued to be stable. The connection to Colby College, which splits 56Kb/s off of a T-1 circuit for data, has had to be redesigned due to numerous operational problems with the equipment. by John Rugo (jrugo@nic.near.net) NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC. ---------------------------------------- The NNSC began distribution of the NSF Network News, Issue No. 7. The NNSC continues to distribute several copies of the NSFNET posters to interested current users as well as prospective users of the network. The NNSC distributed additions to Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 and M of the Internet Resource Guide. The NNSC had begun editing entries for Chapter 4, White Pages. Distribution of this newest chapter will begin shortly. The NNSC has received over 2,000 anonymous ftp requests for the month of April. The electronic mail distribution list for updates to the guide is estimated as close to 800 mail addresses and local mail exploders. Westine [Page 27]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 Requests to be added to, or removed from the distribution list for the Internet Resource Guide should go to resource-guide- request@nnsc.nsf.net. The guide is also available via anonymous ftp at nnsc.nsf.net, cd resource-guide. by Corinne Carroll (ccarroll@nnsc.nsf.net) NSFNET BACKBONE (MERIT) The inbound traffic on the NSFNET Backbone was 3,075,017,813 packets for April, an increase of 8.23% over March. As of 30 April 1990, 1525 nets are configured on the NSFNET Backbone. The NSS locations at Ithaca, College Park and Princeton will be changed in the upcoming weeks. Staff at the individual sites and Merit will be working to minimize the disruption to the backbone network as a whole. Preparations for CA*net connections continue. The first operational link between CA*net and the NSFNET is anticipated for the end of May. Guests at the Merit/NSFNET Network Operations Center included Michael Ekedahl from the University of Nevada, CA*net technical staff, telecommunications experts from Northern Telecom of Ottawa, Canada, and visitors from the Swedish PTT. Paul Christ of the University of Stuttgart Regional Computer Center Institute for Data Transmission spoke with Merit/NSFNET staff about high speed networking activities in Germany. Hans-Werner Braun attended the IAB video conference from the Washington node and also attended a FEPG meeting. The NSFNET Backbone project was represented in a display at the Science Day reception, part of National Science and Technology Week, sponsored by Coretech (the Council on Research and Technology) in Washington, D.C. Susan Calcari and Ken Horning discussed national and international networking with guests attending the reception, including legislators and legislative staffers. by Jo Ann Ward (jward@merit.edu) Westine [Page 28]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 NORTHWESTNET ------------ The NWNet Technical Committee met on April 6. Most of the discussion centered around router upgrades and configuration issues. It was decided that NWNet will begin to purchase cisco routers where there were clear economic or technical incentives to do so. In the past, prospective clients were required to purchase a Proteon router to serially connect to existing NWNet sites. In the absence of vendor implementations of the Point to Point Protocol, NWNet will entertain proposals from strategic hub sites requesting the placement of a cisco on a shared Ethernet with the existing Proteon. The first site to do so was the Oregon Graduate Institute in Beaverton, Oregon. OGI had requests from 3 prospective clients to join NWNet, given that they could use one of their ciscos to facilitate that connection. The Technical Committee granted OGI's request. In addition, the Technical Committee recommended that the existing Proteons be upgraded to v8.2 of the operating system, that 68020 based CPUs be installed, and that each router be retrofitted with an Integrated Boot Device to decrease the reliance upon a TFTP server at boot time. Finally, the Technical Committee recommended that the Configuration sub-committee reconvene with the following topics among those to be discussed: o Reconfiguration of existing circuits (Battelle, Boeing, OGI) o Redundancy planning, both inter and intra regional o Evolution of the NWNet IGP from RIP to OSPF or IS-IS o Collaboration with the Oregon State System of Higher Education Network (OSSHEnet) activities o CA*Net connection from Vancouver to Seattle o Possible Pacific Rim connections via new trans-Pacific fiber New members The Pacific Marine Environmental Labs of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (PMEL/NOAA) located in Seattle, joined NWNet via a 56kbps link to the Univerisity of Washington. by Dan Jordt (danj@cac.washington.edu) Westine [Page 29]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 NSF BACKBONE (Merit) ------------------- No report received. NTA-RE and NDRE --------------- No report received. NYSERNET -------- No report received. OARNET ------ No report received. PENNSYLVANIA RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP NETWORK (PREPnet) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Two additional corporate sites have signed on as members of PREPnet during the month. Softswitch Inc., a company involved in the design of application layer gateways, has contracted for a 56 Kbps connection to the Philadelphia hub and Maya Design Group, a Pittsburgh-based software development company, has agreed to a 56 Kbps connection to the Pittsburgh hub. Installation is still pending on these new sites. A PREPnet data sensitivity problem was encountered and resolved during the month. The problem surfaced when Penn State University (PSU) network operators observed difficulty in passing packets containing four or more consecutive bytes of hex '00'. File transfer rates were dropping by almost half for these packets. Local testing was first performed to generate the required packets and confirm the existence of the problem. Bell Telephone technicians then sectionalized the trouble between the Pittsburgh hub and the Penn State campus. SNMP errors on a COM-2 interface board indicated a possible problem with the T1 carrier subnetwork. The interface on the COM-2 board was switched in an attempt to further sectionalize the trouble, however, this change did not eliminate the incidence of data errors. The T1 span was then patched off between the State College, PA (PSU) Bell central office and the Pittsburgh hub's central office. This patch should have allowed PREPnet traffic to use the patched span, however, the transmission line did not come back up. As it turned out, when the Westine [Page 30]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 patch was taken down the line still did not come up, and the problem was found to be a coincidental problem with the level converter on the PSU router. The span was patched off again in an attempt to further sectionalize the trouble. Eventually, a marginal low-speed transmit board in a fiber-optic multiplexor at the State College Bell central office was detected. This board was replaced and test data containing hex 00's was then transferred without the previous significant degradation in transmission rates. This problem has been documented as being unique to a T1 carrier transmission line. Tom Cummings (tc1r@andrew.cmu.edu) PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER ------------------------------- No report received. RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeans) --------------------------- No report received. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER ------------------------------ No report received. SESQUINET --------- No report received. SRI ---- DDN NIC The root domain server on NIC.DDN.MIL is in the process of being moved to NS.NIC.DDN.MIL (192.67.67.53). Servers are currently being run in parallel on NIC.DDN.MIL and NS.NIC.DDN.MIL. The server on NIC.DDN.MIL will be turned off on 1 June. Vivian Neou In April, 198 new numbers have been assigned to government- sponsored IP networks. In addition, this month we assigned 88 numbers to independent IP networks. The total number of all Westine [Page 31]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 assigned IP numbers is now 4,529 which includes 2,604 sponsored networks and 1,925 independent networks. The total number of assigned Autonomous System numbers (ASNs) is now 673. There are currently a total of 1,555 registered domains which includes 47 at the top level, 1,460 at the second level, and 48 third-level MIL domains. Douglas MacGowan SURANET ------- No report received. TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION NETWORK ------------------------------ No report received. UCL ---- Nothing to report this month. John Crowcroft (j.crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK) UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE ---------------------- 1. Erik Perkins, Mike Davis and Ken Monington finished testing and evaluating experimental VLSI crossbar chips for our gigabit project. In spite of careful simulation and analysis with Magic and Spice before silicon etch, an obscure logic bug appears to prevent full functionality. Plans are in the works to fix the bug and etch again. We are gaining some appreciation for the sinister nuances of silicon engineering. 2. Ken Monington is working on statistical methods for time transfer and network synchronization. Erik Perkins is working on congestion control and avoidance and is to spend the Summer at Xerox PARC. Both presented present status and future plans at department seminars. Dave Mills attended a DARTNET teleconference and an End- to-End teleconference, both at DARPA. Westine [Page 32]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 3. Stefan Levie produced a report on a port of Dennis Ferguson's NTP daemon to the MS-DOS/KA9Q environment. Mark Shaw completed a precision timer board for the IBM AT and is watching the Northeast LORAN-C chain with it. We expect to provide rainfall data and New York subway monitoring with it. 4. Dave Mills reported on LORAN-C and Global Positioning System time transfer experience to a meeting of the U.S. Coast Guard. At issue was the automation of LORAN-C inter-chain synchronization with U.S. Naval Observatory. Also at issue was the intentional degradation of the GPS Block-II satellite system accuracy to the point where they are not useful for precision time transfer. Happily, we have been granted an extension on the loan of our cesium clock and LORAN-C receiver. 5. Further work on the NTP specification and implementation continues. The specification has been coded in Estelle, which revealed a bushel of prose waffles and a minor functionality bug or two. This has resulted in a major overhaul of the specification to improve clarity, resolve ambiguities and control error budgets, as well as extend functionality to the nanosecond/gigabit regime for future projects. Interestingly, the Estelle version is about the same size as the English version. However, the Estelle version is apparently too large for the existing simulation tools and breaks the compiler compiler compiler (sic). 6. There are now two fuzzball time servers in Norway, one connected to a cesium clock and the other to a LORAN-C receiver, although not all the bugs are worked out for the latter. The transatlantic path is still quite noisy and occasionally jiggles the seconds in Norway; however, modifications to the synchronization algorithms are being made to fix that. The JvNC fuzzball time servers is to be relocated, but a suitable resting spot has not yet been declared. Dave Mills (Mills@UDEL.EDU) UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN/NCSANET -------------------------------------------------- No report received. Westine [Page 33]  Internet Monthly Report April 1990 WESTNET -------- No report received. WISCNET -------- Work on RFBs (Request for Bids) for DDS and T1 DSUs, T1 multiplexors, and communication services was completed and the RFBs were issued to vendors. Responses are due in May. Analysis of RFB responses are expected to be completed in May or early June. An additional RFB for IBM mainframe TCP/IP hardware and software is under development. The Board of Directors will meet on May 2 in conjunction with a UW System Computing Center Directors meeting at UW-Eau Claire to discuss membership policies, a proposal to implement a early test site, appropriate use policies, and recent developments such as the RFBs and the status of the NSF proposal (no official confirmation has been recived as of 26 April). Michael Dorl (dorl@macc.wisc.edu) Westine [Page 34]