/nsfnet/linkletter/linkletter.9109-10 Vol. 4 No. 3 Sept/Oct 1991 L I N K L E T T E R The Merit/NSFNET Backbone Project Merit and ANS to participate OSI DEMONSTRATIONS PLANNED FOR INTEROP '91 Merit Network, Inc. (Merit), Advanced Network & Services, Inc. (ANS) and some 30 networking technology vendors are working in collaboration to provide International Standards Organization (ISO) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) infrastructure demonstrations at InterOp '91. The demonstrations will link workstations on the convention floor to about 30 networks including five European sites (see Figure 1 on page 4). Most of the networks are also providing end system support. The T1 NSFNET has been capable of routing Connectionless Network Protocol (CLNP) traffic since August of 1990. Merit, in collaboration with MichNet, MITRE, and UUNET, successfully demonstrated the exchange of OSI traffic between two OSI applications across the production NSFNET in April of 1991. Infrastructure demonstration highlighted OSI demonstrations on the InterOp '91 convention floor include OSI Vendor Booths, such as ANS and IBM using OSI to the world, and the collaborative OSI Demonstration Booth (see Figure 2 on page 4). ISO's Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol between multiple routing vendors will be demonstrated in the OSI booth. IS-IS is an ISO intra-domain routing protocol like an Internet Protocol (IP) Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). NSFNET currently uses the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) IS-IS routing protocol for IP. Demonstration booth The OSI Demonstration Booth features three main areas of activity, including an Infrastructure Demonstration using X.500, X.400, File Transfer, Access, and Management (FTAM), and VT, a Co-Existence and Interoperability demonstration using X.400, X.500, FTAM, Virtual Terminal (VT), and others exchanging data, and a demonstration highlighting OSI use by Burlington Coat Factory. The OSI Infrastructure Demonstration will be showcased in the booth for 15 minutes each hour. Booth staff will also show conferees an OSI application running over a connection via the Internet to another site. IDRP also demonstrated An Inter-Domain Routing Protocol (IDRP) demonstration which functions between routers on the show floor and the Internet will also be featured in the booth. IDRP provides a means of passing OSI routing information between domains and applying policy filters to that routing information. Currently no Inter-domain protocol exists to pass OSI routing information between two domains except through the use of static routes. Further details on the IDRP prototype can be obtained from Merit. NIST testing of IS-IS The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hosted a week of pre-InterOp OSI dynamic router interoperability testing from August 12-16. The open lab was part of NIST's Cooperative Laboratory for OSI Routing Technology program. Testing addressed the Draft International Standard specification of the IS-IS protocol (DIS-10589) and the operation of the IS-IS protocol in a live multi-vendor Intermediate System and End System Environment. OSI routing was tested over 802.3 and FDDI networks as part of the program. Vendors participating in IS-IS testing included 3Com, Digital Equipment Corporation, Proteon, and Wellfleet. Testing and hot staging The InterOp '91 demonstrations are the culmination of extensive Internet testing activities during August. Internet applications testing of FTAM, X.400, and X.500 involving 3Com, ANS, Argonne National Laboratory, Banyan, BARRnet, CDC, CONCERT, ESNET, NorduNet, Merit, MITRE, Minnesota Supercomputer Network (MSC), MRnet, NEARnet, OSINET, and UUNET, were then followed by an OSI Demonstration "hot-stage." Other vendors participating in the hot-staging included Alcafel TITN, Frontier, CDC, cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Network Systems, Novell, Pyramid, RETIX, Silicon Graphics, Tandem, UNISYS, and Wallongong. Additional support for end systems (hosts) in the Internet was provided by SUN. At press time, testing for the OSI demonstration continued, along with work to bring additional networks on line before InterOp '91. Merit and ANS InterOp demonstrations were coordinated by Susan Hares of Merit's Internet Engineering Group. "The InterOp '91 OSI Infrastructure Demonstration Booth is the result of a tremendous cooperative effort," says Hares. "We hope those attending InterOp '91 will stop by the booth and experience an OSI application running across the Internet." -Ken Horning, Merit/NSFNET X.500 - CRAZY . . . LIKE A FOX! The "global network directory" defined by the X.500 protocol has spawned a number of interesting projects across the Internet. One of these is the Field Operational X.500 (FOX) project which is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Four organizations comprise the nucleus of this endeavor: University of Southern California/Information Sciences Institute (ISI) which is the main contractor and coordinator of the project, SRI International (SRI), Performance Systems International (PSI), and Merit Network, Inc. (Merit). Features X.500 is a protocol which resides in the Application Layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite and defines a global network directory. It is a distributed, hierarchically- structured directory which features: Decentralized maintenance. Each site that runs such a directory is responsible only for its local part, which makes it possible for directory updates and maintenance to be accomplished instantly. Authoritative local information. Since each site is responsible for its local information, data are kept current and accurate, with backups needed only to be kept locally. Structured directory information. As each site resides in a specified location in the global hierarchy, directory searches are much more efficient. How It Works The abstract X.500 server contains two pieces, a Directory User Agent (DUA) and a Directory Service Agent (DSA). The worldwide collection of DSAs form a vast distributed directory. Because the DSAs are hierarchically ordered, each one may contact all the others without maintaining huge location tables. The Directory User Agent acts as an interface between the user and the DSAs. When a user makes a request to a Directory User Agent it contacts the nearest Directory Service Agent. If that DSA does not have the desired information, but suspects that another DSA may have it, a referral/chaining process is initiated to allow the information to be obtained from the other DSA(s). To the user, however, it appears as if the entire global directory resides locally. Infrastructure FOX plans to examine and test the interoperability of the Quipu and Custos (NIST-X.500) implementations, and Digital Network Architecture Naming Service (DNANS-X.500) if possible. Additionally, FOX will explore X.500 interfaces to conventional database systems and X window-based user interfaces. Applications A long-range goal is to facilitate the use of X.500 for real Internet applications. FOX will first focus on making network infrastructure information available through X.500. This includes network and autonomous system site contacts, topology information, and the NIC WHOIS service. X.500 version of "whois" A centrally-managed X.500 version will be the first phase of a WHOIS service. The main focus is how to offer WHOIS information via X.500. PSI has populated "@o=Internet" (organization=Internet) of the White Pages Pilot with RFC and FYI information. K-12 and NIC information Merit is providing "network infrastructure information" made available through the Merit/NSFNET Network Operations Center (NOC). Merit is also working with the IETF/Network Information Services Infrastructure working group to provide information about Network Information Centers, with EDUCOM to provide information about K-12 resources and also to provide Network Service Access Points or OSI network layer addresses. Bibliographic retrieval of RFCs/FYIs PSI is involved in the development of a bibliographic retrieval application which will initially be used to look up RFCs and FYIs. In order to avoid conflict with existing procedures/policies for WHOIS registration and advertisement of this information via WHOIS, part of the Directory Information Tree (DIT) will contain RFC/FYI data. For each document, title, publication date, author and storage location will appear. This part of the DIT will be freely distributed to several Directory System Agents and will be updated regularly. For example, a program called "barney" will accept queries such as: find all the rfcs by reynolds which will produce information on all RFCs with reynolds as the author will be returned. In addition, one can tell "barney" to obtain a copy of the desired document and it will use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to retrieve a copy. X.500 version of "whois" SRI has begun work on identifying the Internet-related information that will be copied from the old database to X.500 and on defining how that information will be represented in the Directory. Providing an X.500 version of such a well-known widely-used service will help promote the use of the new standard by Internet users. In addition, this effort provides experience in designing X.500 applications. However, the manageability of this scheme will be short-lived as the next step will be a design for a distributed version of WHOIS. For those readers interested in following the FOX project and other X.500 activities more closely, two mailing lists are suggested: disi- request@merit.edu and osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk. - Pat Smith, Merit/NSFNET and Joyce Reynolds, ISI FREE-NETS: NETWORKING MEETS MIDDLE AMERICA One of the more interesting experiments going on in telecomputing today is the development of free, public access community computer systems, and perhaps the leading example of that concept is the Cleveland Free-Net in Cleveland, Ohio. Free-Nets occupy, in effect, a new middle ground in telecomputing which is roughly half-way between the commercial services like CompuServe or Genie, and the single line bulletin board systems (BBSs) operated by hobbyists. Each one has at least some of the power and sophistication of CompuServe or GEnie, yet each one is locally owned, locally operated, and free to the user, like a BBS. Much of the power of the Free-Nets is derived from their clever and judicious use of the Internet. For example, Free-Net users can exchange mail with Internet users, and can use the Internet's "telnet" capability. Likewise, schools from areas outside a given Free-Net area that have Internet connections can access the Free- Net and its features, such as Academy One and the Teleport which are described below, through the Internet. While the Free-Nets do not throw the Internet open to all comers, they do allow many average citizens the ability to benefit from this technology, which is a genuine plus in these days of limited funding. How Free-Nets work A multi-user computer is established at a central location in a given city and it is connected to the telephone system through a series of modems. Running on the machine is a computer program which provides its users with everything from electronic mail services to information about health care, education, technology, government, recreation, or just about anything else the host operators would like to place on the machine. Anyone in the community with access to a home, office, or school computer and a modem can contact the system 24 hours a day. They simply dial a central phone number, make a connection, and a series of menus appear on the screen which allows them to select the information or communication services they would like. All of it is free and all of it can easily be accomplished by a first- time user. Run by the community The key to the economics of operating a community computer system is the fact that the system is run by the community itself. Everything that appears on one of these machines is there because there are individuals or organizations in the community who are prepared to contribute time, effort, and expertise to place the information and maintain it over time. This, of course, is in contrast to the commercial services which have very high personnel and information/acquisition costs and must pass those costs on to the consumer. Affordable technology Couple this volunteerism with the rapidly-dropping costs of computing power, the use of inexpensive transmission technology, and the fact that the necessary software to operate these systems is available at low or no cost from the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), and public access computing becomes an economically-viable entity. Free-Net in Cleveland The community computing movement is largely being driven by the National Public Telecomputing Network. NPTN currently has community computers operating in five U.S. cities, with another 10-12 scheduled to go online by early to mid-1992. Of these, perhaps the "flagship" system of the network is the Cleveland Free-Net. Established in July 1986, the Cleveland system was the first of its kind. It now boasts over 22,000 registered users and averages between 4500 and 5000 logins a day. Detailing the more than 300 information and communication features available on this super- system would be impossible in this short article but some of the highlights are described below. The system is set-up like an "electronic city" which provides a cognitively intuitive metaphor for understanding where everything is located. Electronic mail is found in the Post Office, medical information in the Medical Center, legal information in the Courthouse, and so forth. Among the more interesting "sights to be seen" in this electronic city are: - Teleport-the electronic city's version of an airport whereby the user is transported to other computer systems around the U.S. and abroad; - Project Hermes-full-text of U.S. Supreme Court decisions which are provided within minutes of their release in Washington, D.C.; - NPTN/USA TODAY News Center-which provides the user with a free electronic version of the USA TODAY newspaper. - Academy One-an electronic schoolhouse which allows K-12 schools from around the world to use any of the Free-Nets to teach telecomputing. If a K-12 school can beg, borrow, or otherwise obtain an Internet connection from a local source, they will have free access to a wealth of resources and special programs which are running via Academy One on any of the NPTN affiliated systems. The National Public Telecomputing Network The parent organization of all these systems is the National Public Telecomputing Network which is similar to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting on T.V. To understand NPTN, simply substitute community computer systems for public radio or television stations, and one has the core of what they are hoping to accomplish. NPTN provides the initial expertise and software necessary to get a community computer started, provides links into a common network with all the other Free-Net community computers, and then provides "cybercasting" services which are high quality information feeds and special features very similar to network broadcasts in the radio and TV industry. How to access the Cleveland Free-Net The Cleveland system can be accessed via telephone lines (216-368- 3888) or via the Internet (at 129.22.8.75, or 129.22.8.76, or 129.22.8.82). For more information on the Free-Nets or NPTN in general, contact: Tom Grundner, Ed.D President, NPTN Box 1987 Cleveland, Ohio 44106 Voice: 216-368-2733 FAX: 216-368-5436 Internet: aa001@cleveland.freenet.edu BITNET:aa001%cleveland.freenet.edu@cynyvm. - Tom Grundner, NPTN FrEdMail USERS GAIN ACCESS TO THE INTERNET Recently, thousands of FrEdMail users gained access to the NSFNET via newly established gateways at two NSFNET mid- level network locations: Merit/MichNet in Ann Arbor, MI, and CERFnet (California Education and Research Federation Network) in San Diego, CA. FrEdMail subscribers can now exchange electronic mail with the entire Internet community, including the large number of K-12 teachers currently attached to NSFNET. The Free Educational Mail (FrEdMail) Network is a dynamic, grass-roots telecommunications network which links K-12 schools, students and educators around the world. FrEdMail was initiated by Al Rogers who is now Executive Director of the FrEdMail Foundation, a California non-profit corporation, owned and operated by educators who provide all the services for the FrEdMail Network. NSFNET access reduces costs In the past, FrEdMail files were exchanged between nodes by using the store-and-forward method: dialing up a nearby node when telephone rates were low and then exchanging the files. An advantage of the new FrEdMail-NSFNET gateways will be to use the NSFNET infrastructure for these connections, eliminating the long-distance phone charges for file transfers between nodes. No membership fees The end-users of the network pay no membership dues or system charges to participate in FrEdMail activities. The only cost is the telephone charge to the nearest node. With the advent of the FrEdMail-NSFNET Gateway Software, costs may be further reduced by reaching a FrEdMail node through an NSFNET regional network. The FrEdMail-NSFNET Gateway Software will soon be available to any mid-level network, college, or university which has an interest in collaborating with local K-12 school districts to bring the power of electronic networking to a cross- section of teachers and students. "Colleges and universities which use this gateway can provide their local districts with electronic services without having to bear the burden of maintaining a large number of individual accounts," reports Rogers. "One gateway account can effectively serve hundreds of teachers and students." Through FrEdMail, teachers can share classroom experiences, distribute curriculum ideas and teaching materials, as well as obtain information about workshops, job opportunities, and legislation affecting education. Students at all levels in schools around the world may take part in collaborative projects such as data collection, sharing, analysis, and joint authoring efforts. "The National Research and Education Network (NREN) is pushing the development of gigabit speeds for academia and industry and, at the same time, pulling all levels of education towards the inherent benefits of connectivity to the national infrastructure," noted Stephen Wolff, Director of NSF's Division on Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure. Wolff continued, "The NSF is committed to improving the performance of students in math and science. The development of this gateway will facilitate a national network of academic computing hubs that will act as local file servers to their regional K-12 FrEdMail sites via existing facilities and transportation networks." The FrEdMail-NSFNET Gateway Software project was developed by CERFnet with the assistance of a grant from the National Science Foundation. - Susan Calcari, Merit/NSFNET