braden@VENERA.ISI.EDU (08/16/90)
The following IAB Report was published in the July 1990 Internet Monthly
Report, which uses a somewhat restricted mailing list. We are hereby
sending this same report to the Internet community.
Bob Braden, for the IAB
_________________________________________________________________________
IAB REPORT -- July 1990
The IAB held a two-day meeting at BBN in Cambridge, MA on June 28-29,
1990. The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) joined the second
day of the meeting.
A. INTERNET NUMBER REGISTRATION AND CONNECTED STATUS
At this meeting, the IAB developed recommendations to the Federal
Networking Council (FNC) on the procedures for registration of
Internet network and autonomous system numbers, and concerning the
notion of "connected status". These recommendations, which have
been published in RFC-1174, were motivated by the increasing
internationalization of the Internet. The IAB gratefully
acknowledges the efforts of Elise Gerich of MERIT, who prepared
early drafts of these recommendations for our consideration.
Essentially, the IAB recommended that authority to assign IP
network and autonomous system numbers be distributed on an
international basis. A central registry (Internet Registry) would
continue to allocate blocks of numbers, to avoid any duplication,
but actual registration and assignment of numbers would be
accomplished by delegated registries. The details of procedures,
particularly the nomination of delegated registries, remain to be
fully specified.
The second recommendation concerned "connected status." The IAB
recommended that this concept be retired, and that all networks
which have been assigned Internet numbers be entered into the
Domain Name System database(s) regardless of the status of their
physical connectivity. In addition, for each network, a statement
describing the nature of the traffic this network would inject into
the Internet should be collected and stored by the Internet
Registry and made available to all interested parties. This
information would be used by network managers and operators to
configure routing controls to accept or reject routes from
networks, based on the type of traffic each network sends. It is
important to note that this concept operates on route set-up and
not on a per-packet basis.
The Federal Networking Council has responded positively to these
suggestions and is now considering various means to implement
them.
B. ANSI STANDARDIZATION
Members of the IAB were also in attendance at an ANSI X3S3.3
meeting held on June 27 at Data General Corporation. The question
of introducing the core TCP/IP protocols (IP,ICMP,UDP,TCP) into
ANSI standardization was discussed at length. At the conclusion of
the meeting, the proposal for introduction of the protocols was
tabled, pending the formation of a joint IAB/ANSI working party to
consider all of the ramifications that such a move might have on
both ANSI and IAB procedures and prerogatives.
The IAB considers it essential, for example, that any changes to
these core protocols be subject to the same rigorous treatment that
any Internet Protocol receives. In particular, implementation,
testing and the availability of public domain implementations lie
at the heart of the Internet Protocol standardization process but
are largely outside the ANSI process. In the usual course of events
within the ANSI environment, the introduction of a protocol for
ANSI standardization transfers to ANSI all future authority for
further evolution of the protocol. The IAB proposed a modus
operandi which would leave the basic standardization activity
within the Internet community, including resolution of any
objections to standardization arising during ANSI balloting. Since
this is not fully consistent with the ANSI rules as we now
understand them, the matter requires further examination.
C. RARE NETWORKSHOP
The IAB agreed to participate in the planning of the RARE Networkshop
now scheduled for May, 1991 in Blois, France.
D. STANDARDS ACTIONS
Following IESG recommendation, the IAB designated the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) Initial Configuration Options as a
Proposed Standard, and it was subsequently published in RFC-1172.
The base PPP specification, a Draft Standard, was republished with
minor updates as RFC-1171.
The Simple File Transfer Protocol (SFTP, RFC-913) and the Resource
Location Protocol (RFC-887) were moved from Proposed Standard to
Experimental. These protocols, which had been labelled Proposed
prior to last year's tightening of the Internet standards process,
are not currently in the Internet standards track.