[comp.os.vms] DECnet area numbering - reposted

kenw%noah.arc.CDN@ean.ubc.ca (Ken Wallewein) (05/20/88)

  I posted this once before, during the latest Great Mysterious News Blackout. 
Somebody should investigate those things. Anyway, I never saw it, so here goes 
again...

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  A while back I posted a message asking for recommendations about DECnet area 
numbering. I received a number of very helpful replies, totalling somewhere in 
the range of 120 kbytes. 

  One message, from Phil DeMar of Fermilab, stood out as a most valuable piece
of work - a rather large memo entitled "MANAGING AREA NUMBERS IN MULTI-
ORGANIZATIONAL DECNET NETWORKS". It outlines the measures taken by SPAN and
HEPnet, including, among other things, a recommended numbering scheme, and a
DECnet techique called "area filtering", for controlling the propagation of
area routing information. 

  The upshot: DON'T USE AREA 1 - USE A NUMBER ABOVE 46. The technique, an
admitted kludge necessitated by DECnet, declares areas above the arbitrary
value of 46 as local, to do with as you want; the others are global. 

  I would recommend that document to anyone involved DECnet management. It
runs about 46 kbytes, so I hesitate to post it to the whole group. If you want
a copy, contact either Phil DeMar at DEMAR@FNALE.bitnet, or myself. 

 /kenw
                                                                 A L B E R T A
Ken Wallewein                                                  R E S E A R C H
kenw@noah.arc.cdn                                                C O U N C I L