~ September 1992 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 - Corinne Carroll (ccarroll@NNSC.NSF.NET) Directory Services reports - Tom Tignor (TPT2@ISI.EDU) Requests to be added or deleted from the Internet Monthly report list should be sent to "imr-request@isi.edu". Details on obtaining the current IMR, or back issues, via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending an EMAIL message to "rfc- info@ISI.EDU" with the message body "help: ways_to_get_imrs". For example: To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU Subject: getting imrs help: ways_to_get_imrs Cooper [Page 1] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERNET ACTIVITIES BOARD IAB MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3 INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 PRIVACY AND SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 Internet Projects CICNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 10 CONCERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 10 COSINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 11 ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 14 JVNCNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 15 LOS NETTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16 NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK) . . . page 17 NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC., . . . . . . . . page 17 NSFNET/ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING. . . . . . . . . . . . page 18 SDSC (SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER) . . . . . . . . . . page 23 SURANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23 UCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 24 DIRECTORY SERVICES ACTIVITIES NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY. . . . . . page 25 CALENDAR OF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 27 Cooper [Page 2] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 IAB MESSAGE IAB REPORT for August and September, 1992 SUMMARY OF STANDARDS ACTIONS The following table shows standards actions approved by the IESG and IAB during the months of August and September. It also shows those actions still pending in the IAB. Those dates prefixed with "*" give the approval date; however, the date of RFC publication will determine the effective date of the action for determining time-in-grade. ======================================================================== | |Proposed| Draft |Internet| | | | Description |Standard|Standard|Standard| RFC | RFC Title | ======================================================================== |STD 35: | May 87 | Apr 90 | Sep 92 | 1006 |ISO Transport on | | ISO Transport | | | | |the TCP | | on the TCP | | | | | | ======================================================================== //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ======================================================================== | | | | | | | |Ethernet MIB | Nov 91 |pending | | 1284 |Definitions of | | | | in IAB | | |Managed Objects for| | | | | | |the Ethernet-like | | | | | | |Interface Types | ======================================================================== //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ======================================================================== |BGP OSPF | Aug 92 | | | 1364 |BGP OSPF | |Interaction | | | | |Interaction | ======================================================================== |InterDomain | *Aug 92| | |in | | |Policy Routing | | | | prep | | ======================================================================= |IP and ARP on | *Sep 92| | |in | | |HIPPI | | | | prep | | ======================================================================= |Telnet Remote | *Sep 92| | |in | | |Flow Control | | | | prep | | |Option | | | | | | ======================================================================= |PPP |pending | | | | | |authentication | in IAB | | | | | ======================================================================= Cooper [Page 3] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 ======================================================================= |802.3 Repeater |pending | | | | | |MIB | in IAB | | | | | | | | | | | | ======================================================================= |PPP DECnet Ph IV|pending | | | | | |Control Protocol| in IAB | | | | | |(DNCP) | | | | | | ======================================================================= |MIB Extension |pending | | | | | |for LAPB | in IAB | | | | | | | | | | | | ======================================================================= |MIB Extension |pending | | | | | |for X.25 Packet | in IAB | | | | | |Layer | | | | | | ======================================================================= |PPP OSI Network |pending | | | | | |Layer Control | in IAB | | | | | |Protocol | | | | | | ======================================================================= |PPP AppleTalk |pending | | | | | |Control Protocol| in IAB | | | | | |Protocol (ATCP) | | | | | | ======================================================================= Bob Braden (Braden@ISI.EDU) INTERNET RESEARCH REPORTS ------------------------- PRIVACY AND SECURITY (PSRG) -------------------------- The next meeting of the PSRG will occur on September 29 through October 1, hosted by Trusted Information Systems (TIS) in Glenwood, MD. PSRG members have been working on contributions for an Internet Security architecture document and at this meeting will review the document status and plans for completing the document. PSRG member Dan Nessett has organized the Privacy and Security Research Group Workshop on Network and Distributed System Security, which is cosponsored by the Internet Society and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This workshop will take place in San Diego in February, 1993 and PSRG members are acting Cooper [Page 4] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 as the program committee. The upcoming PSRG meeting will devote some time to a review of the submissions for this workshop and a discussion of the workshop agenda. Steve Kent INTERNET ENGINEERING REPORTS ---------------------------- 1. The next IETF is scheduled for November 16-20, 1992 in Washington, DC. Our local host is U.S. Sprint. The Registration Reception will be held on Sunday, November 15, beginning at 6 PM. There will be some changes in the agenda for the Washington, DC IETF meeting. First off, the agenda for Monday morning will be for presentations made by Working Groups on technical proposals for Internet Routing and Addressing. Another change is that there will be no Area reports on Friday morning. Instead, this time slot will be available for individual Working Group meetings. Additionally, at this meeting there will be a newcomers orientation held Sunday afternoon. 2. There are now two IETF mailing lists. The list ietf@nri.reston.va.us is still the general discussion list. A new list was created to be used exclusively for IETF meeting announcements, Internet-Draft and RFC announcements, etc. This is a one way, moderated list and is not to be used for general discussions and comments. To join the IETF discussion list, send requests to: ietf-request@nri.reston.va.us To join the IETF announcement only list, send requests to: ietf-announce-request@nri.reston.va.us 3. The following Working Groups were created: a. Networked Information Retrieval (nir) b. Integration of Internet Information Resources (iiir) c. Universal Resource Identifiers (uri) d. SNMP Version 2 (snmpv2) Cooper [Page 5] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 The following Working Groups were concluded: a. Connection IP (cip) 4. The IESG issued 9 Last Calls to the IETF during the month of September: a. Network Time Protocol b. Ident MIB c. SNMP over IPX d. Identification Server e. Clarifications and Extensions for the Bootstrap Protocol f. Default Route Advertisement In The Border Gateway Protocol g. Concise MIB Definitions h. Applicability Statement for OSPF i. Transmission of IP and ARP over FDDI Networks 5. The IESG made the following recommendations to the IAB during the month of September, 1992: a. The PPP AppleTalk Control Protocol (ATCP)) be published as a Proposed Standard. b. The PPP OSI Network Layer Control Protocol (OSINLCP) , be published as a Proposed Standard. c. SNMP over OSI be published as a Proposed Standard. d. SNMP over AppleTalk be published as a Proposed Standard. e. The PPP DECnet Phase IV Control Protocol (DNCP) be published as a Proposed Standard. f. SNMP MIB extension for LAPB be published as a Proposed Standard. g. SNMP MIB extension for the X.25 Packet Layer be published as a Proposed Standard. h. SNMP over IPX be published as a Proposed Standard. Cooper [Page 6] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 6. Twenty-nine (29) Internet Draft actions were taken during the month of September, 1992: (Revised draft (o), New Draft (+) ) WG I-D Title ------ ------------------------------------------------------ (none) o FTP-FTAM Gateway Specification (dhc) o Clarifications and Extensions for the Bootstrap Protocol (cat) o The Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5) (bgp) o Default Route Advertisement In The Border Gateway Protocol (pem) o Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers (x400ops) o Mapping between X.400(1984/1988) and Mail-11 (DECnet mail) (dns) o DNS MIB Extensions (bgp) o A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4) (none) o Guidelines for IP Address Allocation (atm) o Multiprotocol Interconnect over ATM Adaptation Layer 5 (mimemhs) o Mapping between X.400 and RFC-822 Message Bodies (mimemhs) o Equivalences between 1988 X.400 and RFC-822 Message Bodies (822ext) o Japanese Character Encoding for Internet Messages (bgp) + Definitions of Managed Objects for the Border Gateway Protocol (Version 4) (pem) o Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part IV: Key Certification and Related Services Cooper [Page 7] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 (none) o SMTP Service Extensions (none) o SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-cleanliness (none) o SMTP Service Extension for Administrative Maximum Message Size (none) + Use of ISO CLNP in TUBA Environments (none) o SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration (fddi) + Transmission of IP and ARP over FDDI Networks (bgp) + BGP4 OSPF Interaction (bgp) + Source Demand Routing Protocol Specification (Version 1). (none) + Applicability Statement for OSPF (x400ops) + Using the Internet DNS to maintain RFC1327 Address Mapping Tables and X.400 Routing Informations (osids) + DSA Metrics (osids) + DUA Metrics (userdoc2) + FYI on Introducing the Internet--A Short Bibliography of Introductory Internetworking Readings for the Network Novice (mimemhs) + HARPOON: Rules for downgrading messages from X.400/88 to X.400/84 when MIME content-types are present in the messages Cooper [Page 8] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 7. Five (5) RFC's were published during the month of September, 1992. RFC St WG Title ------- -- ------- ----------------------------------------- RFC1360 I (iab) IAB OFFICIAL PROTOCOL STANDARDS RFC1362 I (none) Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN) RFC1363 E (none) A Proposed Flow Specification RFC1364 PS (bgp) BGP OSPF Interaction RFC1365 I (none) An IP Address Extension Proposal St(atus): ( S) Internet Standard (PS) Proposed Standard (DS) Draft Standard ( E) Experimental ( I) Informational Steve Coya (scoya@nri.reston.va.us) Phill Gross (pgross@nis.ans.net) Cooper [Page 9] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 INTERNET PROJECTS ----------------- CICNET ------- CICNet completed a backbone reconfiguration plan this month which added the University of Notre Dame as a backbone node. CICNet has also been participating in the MBone activities and plans to offer multicast audio and video of the next IETF to several CICNet sites. New members of CICNet this month include John Marshall Law School and GE Medical Systems. On Sept. 24-26 CICNet held its first annual Fall meeting in Ann Arbor. This event included meetings of the CICNet Board of Directors, the Technical Board, and the Network Information Resources Committee. Invited speaks were Dan Atkins, Dean of the University of Michigan School of Library and Information Studies, Mark Olsen, Director of the Artfl Project at the University of Chicago, and Dave Rodgers, Manager of Systems Development at the American Mathematical Society. The Fall meeting was attended by over 80 individuals. CICNet staff also participated in the IEEE/EDUCOM/CRA sponsored NREN Policy Workshop and the netILLINOIS Board of Directors meeting. John Hankins CONCERT ------- (July, August, September) During the past few months, CONCERT added eight new members to its list of connected sites. The new members include Duke University Marine Lab, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Fisheries and Oceanographers, UNC Institute of Marine Science located at the North Carolina Coast, and several commercial sites. The CONCERT staff held the third in a series of Introductory TCP/IP tutorials for representatives from several of the smaller North Carolina Universities and Colleges which have recently connected to the CONCERT network. Work continues on the CONCERT Trouble Ticket System. The system is based on the postgres database, and includes both a standard Cooper [Page 10] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 terminal interface as well as an X windows interface. It also includes a version of the "finger" daemon that allows users to remotely access the ticket database to list currently open tickets or to reference data from a specific ticket. The system uses all publically available software, and is available via anonymous ftp from "ftp.concert.net" in the directory "dist/tickets". CONCERT has a node participating in the MBONE, offering internal distribution to North Carolina sites connected to the CONCERT network. We have been experimenting with INRIA's Videoconference System, using VideoPix boards in two local SUN workstations. We'd be interested in finding other sites running the system who would like to test the software by running video/audio conferences between our networks. Tom Sandoski COSINE ------ *COSINE MHS Project* -------------------- COSINE MHS coordinates the X.400 email for the R&D community throughout the world. This coordination function is preformed by SWITCH (the Swiss R&D network) and NetConsult AG. This is the first report we have submitted to the Internet Monthly Report. We explain where we are with this first report. *COSINE MHS status per August 1992* ----------------------------------- The COSINE MHS community is constantly changing. The geographic coverage of the COSINE MHS service has increased in the USA, Asia and Eastern Europe. The status of the network as per August 1992, is summarized in Tables 1 through 5. Cooper [Page 11] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 Table 1. Participating R&D networks and the ADMDs (ie. public email service providers) that they are connected to via X.400. Country R&D network ADMDs Connected to -------------------------------------------------------- Austria ACONET ADA Belgium BRNET RTT China CRN - Denmark DUNET DK400, TELDK Denmark DENET DK400, TELDK Finland FUNET Elisa, Mailnet, IBMX400 France RED ATLAS Germany DFN DBP (planned) Greece ARIADNE No ADMD exists Iceland ISANET - Ireland INCIP Eirmail400 (planned) Italy INFN MASTER400 Luxembourg RESTENA No ADMD exists Netherlands SURFNET 400NET Norway UNINETT TELEMAX Portugal RCCN - Slovenia ARNES MAIL South Africa UNINET Telekom400 Spain RedIRIS MENSATEX Sweden SUNET SIL (planned) Switzerland CERN - Switzerland SWITCH ARCOM United Kingdom JANET GOLD 400, Interspan, IBMX400, TMAILUK United States XNREN - United States ESNET - Yugoslavia YUNAC MAIL There are some R&D networks not mentioned that are operating pilot services. Cooper [Page 12] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 NB: WEP - Well Known Entry Point (ie. the main network mail hub that is used to switch international traffic) Table.2 MTA software products in use by WEPs product OS # WEPs ------------------------- PP6.0 UNIX 10 DFN EAN VMS 8 MRX VMS 4 UCOMX UNIX 3 UBC EAN UNIX 2 DFN EAN UNIX 1 EAN UNIX 1 Uninett EAN UNIX 1 Sunlink MHS UNIX 1 QK-MHS/VM IBM VM 1 Table 3. Protocol stacks/networks used by the WEPs Table 3-a: Protocol stacks/networks - Number of WEPs using this network - X.25/IXI - 20 - X.25/Public services - 28 - IP/Internet - 19 - ISO IP - 1 NB: IXI = International X.25 Infrastructure (an X.25 R&D network throughout Europe) Table 3-b: Network Combinations - Number of WEPs using this combination - IXI - 0 - Public X.25 - 3 - Internet - 2 - IXI Public X.25 - 9 - IXI Internet - 0 - Public X.25 Internet - 5 - IXI Public X.25 Internet - 12 - IXI Public X.25 Internet ISO IP - 1 26 of the 32 operational WEPs use 2 or more lower layer networks for communication. Please note that public X.25 services are not used to switch very much traffic as there are volume charges in place. Cooper [Page 13] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 Table.4 X.400 Traffic statistics (only international traffic between other WEPs) *below is based on the log data of 8 out of 32 possible WEPs +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | # messages handled during Jul 92: 143712 | |----------------------------------------------------------------| | message (kilobytes) volume during Jul 92: 1097244 | |----------------------------------------------------------------| Table 5. X.400 Traffic delay statistics (only international traffic between other WEPs) *below is based on the log data of 8 out of 32 possible WEPs +--------------------------------------------------+ | % of messages of priority (*) delivered within | | (low) | (normal) | (high) | | 2m 5m 1h 1d| 2m 5m 1h 1d| 2m 5m 1h 1d| |--------------------------------------------------| | 11 26 93 99| 78 84 96 99| 78 86 97 99| +--------------------------------------------------+ Figures for August were not available at time of print. Jim Romaguera, romaguera@cosine-mhs.switch.ch COSINE MHS Project Leader, NetConsult AG ISI --- GIGABIT NETWORKING Peter Will and Jon Postel attended the DARPA PI meeting in New Orleans September 1-2, 1992. Joyce Reynolds attended the RIPE meetings in Paris France, and attended the NETF meetings in Olso, Norway, September 27 - Oct 10, 1992. Five RFCs were published this month. RFC 1360: Postel. J., (IAB), "IAB Official Protocol Standards" September 1992. RFC 1362: Allen, M., "Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN)", Novell, Inc., September 1992. RFC 1363: Partridge, C., " A Proposed Flow Specification", BBN, September, 1992. Cooper [Page 14] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 RFC 1364: Varadhan, K., "BGP OSPF Interaction", OARNET, September 1992. RFC 1365: Siyan, K., " An IP Address Extension Proposal", Siyan Consulting Services, September 1992. One ISI Research Report was published. ISI/RR-92-291: Cohen, D., G. Finn, R. Felderman, A. DeSchon, "Atomic: Low-Cost, Very High-Speed LAN, September 1992. Ann Westine Cooper (Cooper@ISI.EDU) MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCING This month an alpha release of the Connection Control Protocol (CCP) sources were made available to a few courageous researchers who are exploring the use of CCP -- the session management protocol used in our teleconferencing system -- for multimedia synchronization, collaborative design and Simnet host control. Organization of the MBONE, a virtual IP multicast backbone network to support IETF audio/videocasts and other experiments, is proceeding well. The topology it taking shape, especially among NSFnet-connected regional networks in the US. Several networks are ready to provide multicast tunnel connections for the end-user sites they serve, and we're hoping to get most of the sites that would like to receive the next IETF audiocast hooked up soon to avoid a rush at the last minute. Steve Casner (casner@isi.edu) JVNCNET ------- JvNCnet Global Enterprise Services, Inc. I. New Information A. New on-line members (fully operational September 1992) Galaxy Scientific Corporation, Pleasantville, NJ Merck & Co., Rahway, NJ PSDA Inc., Princeton, NJ Network Cybernetics Corporation, Irving, TX RMS Technologies, Inc., Marlton, NJ Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, Boca Raton, FL Applied Science Associates, Narragansett, RI Carnegie Foundation, Princeton, NJ Cooper [Page 15] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 B. "Telecommunications in the K-12 Classroom" Symposium, September 22, 1992 (jointly sponsored by Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and JvNCnet). Databases, newspaper articles and periodicals, peer communication and interaction with experts, bulletin boards and network news were some of the "found" electronic resources which teachers from the Princeton Regional Schools and the JvNCnet K-12 Program described. They explained their plans to blend these sources into lesson plans or how they have already located and used on-line information to provide more meaningful opportunities for students. They articulated much enthusiasm about learning to use the technology, their explorations on the Internet, and how it makes a vital difference for students becoming "active" learners and contributors, and developing life-long skills. In addition, a Princeton H. S. student related that using telecommunications through the school's electronic bulletin board system is educational and appealing to students. Princeton University CIT specialists demonstrated WAIS, Gopher, Princeton Network News, electronic library card catalogs, Weather Underground and Geographic Name Server. Rounding out the meeting, the audience of about 70 educators listened to an update of the New Jersey statewide educational technology project and Princeton Plasma Physics Lab educational programs for students and teachers. by Rochelle Hammer (hammer@jvnc.net) LOS NETTOS ---------- Los Nettos operated normally in September. Walt Prue (Prue@ISI.EDU) Cooper [Page 16] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 NEARNET (NEW ENGLAND ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH NETWORK) --------------------------------------------------- NEARnet Membership: As of September 30, NEARnet has grown to 165 members. NEARnet has now integrated faxing into the NEARnet Trouble Ticket System. With this new feature, sites will now receive timely information regarding network status via their FAX machine, if their network connection is down. On September 18, 1992, NEARnet held the fourth seminar of its 1992 Mini-Seminar Series. More than 80 participants attended the NEARnet Services Seminar, which was held at the Newman Auditorium at Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This session focused on the technical services NEARnet offers to its members. The session included an overview of the Domain Name Service (DNS), the NEARnet Bouncer and Guest Account, and the Network Time Protocol (NTP) by John Curran of the NEARnet staff. Rich Salz, author of the new USENET software for Internet sites, InterNetNews (INN), presented an overview of Network News in the Internet. The fifth seminar of the NEARnet Mini-Seminar Series, "Introducing the Internet to Administrators," is scheduled for October 8, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at BBN's Newman Auditorium. The goal of the upcoming seminar is to enable administrators to manage the impact of an Internet connection on their organization. Specific topics will be discussed concerning the benefits of the Internet and issues concerning usage, resources, and security. The September issue of the electronic bulletin "NEARnet This Month" has been distributed. Corinne Carroll NNSC, UCAR/BOLT BERANEK and NEWMAN, INC. ---------------------------------------- In addition to the "NNSC Network Provider Referral List", the NNSC has recently published a second referral list aimed at individual users and small organizations. The "NNSC Limited Access Referral List" includes providers of dialup ip and email-only access to the Internet, This list is available via anonymous FTP at nnsc.nsf.net in the pathname: nsfnet/limited-referral. Cooper [Page 17] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 The NNSC has distributed updates and additions to chapters 1,2,3, and 5 of the Internet Resource Guide. The NNSC Staff has processed hundreds of requests for information on connecting to the Internet due to a two-part series on the Internet published in the September 14 and September 21 issues of "Info World". Corinne Carroll NSFNET/ANSNET BACKBONE ENGINEERING ---------------------------------- T3 Backbone Status ================== During August, new RS/960 FDDI adapters were installed in 4 production ENSS nodes. Activities are underway in preparation for dismantling of the T1 backbone which is targeted for November. Several steps to be completed prior to dismantling the T1 backbone include support for OSI CLNP transport over the T3 backbone, and the deployment of the redundant backup circuits for the T3 ENSS gateways at each regional network. Further activities in support of the Phase IV upgrade to the T3 backbone are in progress. Backbone Traffic and Routing Statistics ======================================= The total inbound packet count for the T1 network was 3,512,296,181, down 10.0% from August. 334,806,439 of these packets entered from the T3 network. The total inbound packet count for the T3 network was 15,680,453,501 up 20.1% from August. 118,261,088 of these packets entered from the T1 network. The combined total inbound packet count for the T1 and T3 networks (less cross network traffic) was 18,739,682,155 up 13.4% from August. As of September 30, the number of networks configured in the NSFNET Policy Routing Database was 6640 for the T1 backbone, and 5920 for the T3 backbone. Of these, 1292 networks were never announced to the T1 backbone and 1207 were never announced to the T3 backbone. For the T1, the maximum number of networks announced to the backbone during the month (from samples collected every 15 minutes) Cooper [Page 18] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 was 5068; on the T3 the maximum number of announced networks was 4458. Average announced networks on 9/30 were 5034 to T1, and 4428 to T3. New FDDI Interface Adapter for ENSS Nodes ========================================= We have installed new RS960 FDDI adapters for the RS/6000 router on ENSS128 (Palo Alto), ENSS135 (San Diego), ENSS129 (Champaign), and ENSS132 (Pittsburgh). These adapters provide improved reliability and performance. We are making adjustments to the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) on most T3 network interfaces to support this deployment of FDDI adapters on selected ENSS nodes. The goal is to maximize performance for applications designed to exploit T3/FDDI bandwidth, while maintaining satisfactory performance for sites that still interconnect to the T3 routers via an ethernet interface. The MTU on all internal T3 interfaces will initially be set to 2900, and will remain at 1500 on all ethernet interfaces. The reason for this is to minimize packet fragmentation for traffic that is transiting the T3 backbone via FDDI interfaces on each end, as well as for traffic that will transit an FDDI on one end and an ethernet interface on the other. We are actively developing plans for subsequent FDDI deployments on additional ENSS nodes. Phase-IV T3 Network Upgrade Status ================================== The upgrades to the T3 backbone discussed in the August engineering report have started according to schedule and will complete prior to the dismantling of the T1 backbone. Activities completed so far include: 1) T3 ENSS FDDI interface upgrades to the new RS/960 card. This has been completed at ENSS128, ENSS135, ENSS132, and ENSS129. 2) T3 DSU PROM upgrades. We are in the process of installing new T3 DSU firmware in all network DSUs. This supports additional SNMP function and fixes a few non-severe bugs. The testing of the PROMs were completed in September, and the installation of these PROMs will be completed by late October. 3) The CNSS routers in the Washington D.C. area (CNSS56, CNSS57, CNSS58, CNSS59, CNSS60) were successfully re-located to an MCI POP in downtown Washington D.C. on 9/12 for closer proximity to several ENSS locations. Cooper [Page 19] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 4) The installation of three new CNSS nodes (CNSS104, CNSS105, CNSS107, CNSS108) in the Atlanta MCI POP was completed on 9/26. The T3 circuit between Greensboro (CNSS73) and Georgia Tech (ENSS138) was rehomed to the to Atlanta POP (CNSS105). T3 Link Metrics Changed ======================= The link metrics on the interior T3 backbone links have been adjusted to approximate the latency on the physical T3 links, as was discussed in the August '92 engineering report. The new metrics result in more east<->west traffic traversing the northern T3 route (New York-Cleveland-Chicago-San Francisco) than the southern route (New York-Washington-Greensboro-Atlanta-Houston-Los Angeles-San Francisco). Also, there are no longer any equal cost redundant routes inside the T3 network. This avoids assymetric internal T3 backbone routing. Dismantling the T1 Backbone =========================== The current target for dismantling the T1 backbone is November '92. This will occur after (1) the remaining networks using the T1 backbone have been cut over to the T3 backbone (these are: ESnet, EASInet and CA*net); (2) the OSI CLNP transport capability over the T3 backbone is in place; (3) the T3 ENSS nodes are backed up by additional T1 circuits terminating at alternate backbone POPs. These activities are described below. Remaining Network Cutovers -------------------------- The ESnet cutover is waiting for a new version of software to be configured for the ESnet router peers at FIX-West and FIX-East. A routing plan for this cutover has been developed with ESnet and Argonne National Lab staff. A new T1 ENSS will be installed in CERN, Switzerland to provide connectivity to the T3 backbone for EASInet. Cutover of EASInet traffic will occur when this installation is complete. The Seattle RT E-PSP for CA*net is being converted to run the CA*net software and operate as part of CA*net's domain. It will run gated and speak BGP with the T3 ENSS. Once this has been debugged and tested the Princeton and Ithaca connections will similarly be upgraded. Cooper [Page 20] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 OSI Support Plan ---------------- We have begun to test the RT/PC OSI encapsulator software that was described in the August '92 engineering report. We plan to continue to run this over the T3 test network during early October, and begin deployment of the encapsulator software on production RT-EPSP nodes in late October. Native CLNP switching services will be available in a future release of the RS/6000 system software which is scheduled for deployment on the T3 network in early 1993. T1 ENSS Backup Circuits ----------------------- The installation of new T1 circuits between the existing T3 ENSS nodes, and a backup CNSS node is being scheduled to begin in late October. The initial topology for T3 ENSS backup is illustrated in a postscript map that is available via anonymous FTP on ftp.ans.net in the file /pub/info/t3enss-backup.ps . We are in contact with several regionals to schedule the installation of these backup links. We will discuss specific backup routing plans and other details with each regional. Increase Routing Table Sizes on T3 Network ========================================== We continue to experience an increase in ANSNET/NSFNET advertised networks, (see Backbone Traffic and Routing Statistics, above) The current on-card routing table size on the T3 router RS960 card (T3/FDDI) and T960 card (T1/ethernet) supports 6,000 destination networks with up to 4 alternate routes per destination. The current on-card routing tables are managing on the order of 12K routes (including alternate routes to the same destination). We are now testing new adapter microcode for the RS960 and T960 interfaces that will be deployed shortly on the T3 backbone that supports up to 10,000 destination networks with up to 4 alternate routes per destination network. We also continue to work on support for on-card route caching which will significantly increase the upper limit on the number of routes to unique destination networks that may be supported on the T3 network. This software will be available with the AIX 3.2 operating system release of the RS/6000 router software in early 1Q93. Cooper [Page 21] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 Notable Outages in September ============================ MCI Maryland Fiber Outage - 9/13 ------------------------- On Sunday evening 9/13 there was a major MCI fiber outage on the east coast that affected T3 circuits between New York<->Washington, and New York<->Cleveland. The same outage also caused several T1 safetynet circuits to go down. The fiber outage was cleared early Monday morning 9/14. During the outage, we had 4 circuits on MCI restoration facilities that were moved over to temporary restoration facilities and then moved back after the outage: New York <-> Cleveland T3, and T1 Safetynet St. Louis <-> Lafayette T1 Purdue Austell <-> Pittsburugh T1 Backbone During the fiber outage, some users may have experienced performance problems due to alternate routing over safetynet circuits, but there were did not appear to be any T3/T1 ENSS/NSS nodes that were isolated. CNSS32 Outage - 9/14 ------------- Following the fiber outage described above, there was an unrelated equipment problem that occured on the New York T3 backbone router (CNSS32). This problem started on Monday morning and was ultimately resolved by replacing the RS/6000 I/O planar board hardware on Tuesday evening. Traffic was routed around CNSS32 during this outage with the exception of the period 12:30-13:30 EST on 9/15 during which the hardware failure induced a network segmentation causing several ENSS nodes to be isolated. AIX 3.1 TCP Bug --------------- We have identified a bug in the AIX 3.1 system software that can leave RS/6000 router TCP sessions (e.g. external BGP) in a deadlock state. We have observed some isolated problems caused by this bug on ENSS134, and ENSS136 in September. We are working to isolate and correct this problem. Mark Knopper (mak@merit.edu) Jordan Becker (becker@ans.net) Cooper [Page 22] Internet Monthly Report September 1992 SDSC (SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER) ------------------------------------- SDSC Network Activities ======================= The FDDI card in the NSFnet T3 router has been upgraded. In our project to wire the building with fiber, we have received the necessary equipment, fiber, etc. We expect to have the project compeleted by the middle of Nov. This will let us run video, FDDI to the desktop, etc easily within the building. Additionally, by the end of the year we plan to have split our FDDI ring in two leaving one ring for internal use and one for external. SDSC was a participated in TCA. Tom Hutton coordinated the borrowing of a pair of NSC T3/FDDI routers that allow FDDI at the convention center to be connected to SDSC's FDDI via switched T3. SGI loaned a workstation and demos were run between our CRAY, a SGI at the Center, and the SGI at the convention center at T3 rates. Our work with Packet Video and the MBone continues. SDSC Applied Network Research Group =================================== Preliminary results of a study on the routing stability of the Internet are complete. We analysed routing fluctuations as seen by the NSFNET backbone and quantified the changes in terms of the number of networks changing state, time intervals between state changes, average number of transitions per network, etc. The results should be available soon in the form of a technical paper. We have begun installation and testing of a HiPPI attached frame buffer and a HiPPI link-level tester for the CASA gigabit testbed. We are also in the process of installing HILDA network analysis hardware and software for HiPPI based networks. Paul Love