Internet Area

Director(s):


   o Philip Almquist:  almquist@jessica.stanford.edu
   o Stev Knowles:  stev@ftp.com


Area Summary reported by Philip Almquist/Consultant

Considerable activity occurred in the Internet Area during this meeting.
Eight of the Internet Area's working groups met, and there were an
additional four BOF sessions.

The work that undoubtedly attracted the most interest was the continued
efforts on proposals to replace the current IP protocol with one which
more readily scales to the scope that the Internet is rapidly attaining.
Four working groups have been aggressively attacking this problem:


  1. IP Address Encapsulation (IPAE)
  2. P Internet Protocol (PIP)
  3. Simple Internet Protocol (SIP)
  4. TCP/UDP over CLNP-addressed Networks (TUBA)


Each of these groups gave a plenary presentation on their progress so
far and met during the week to continue to refine their proposals and
their documents.  In addition, a BOF on Selection Criteria considered
the problem of how to best evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the
four proposals.

IP over Fibre Channel (FIBREIP)

A BOF on IP over Fibre Channel met to discuss Yakov Rekhter's
Internet-Draft ``IP and ARP on Fibre Channel (FC)''. The Group felt that
only minor changes needed to be made to the document, but elected to
defer entering it into the standards process until there is some
implementation experience.  This work is being closely coordinated with
the ANSI Fibre Channel committee.

Inter-Domain Multicast Routing (IDMR)

The IDMR BOF met to discuss dynamic routing of IP multicast datagrams to
multicast groups containing members in multiple routing domains.

Selection Criteria (SELECT)

The objective of the Selection Criteria BOF was to develop consensus on
a precise statement of the community's goals for a replacement for IP.
The goal was to provide a yardstick against which the various proposals

                                   1





could be objectively measured to point up their relative strengths and
weaknesses.  Needless to say, this goal was far too ambitious to
actually be achievable in the single session available.

Dynamic Host Configuration (DHC)

The Dynamic Host Configuration Working Group worked to finish up the set
of documents which define the DHCP protocol and its options.  The Group
then held some preliminary discussions on an additional protocol for
coordinating the activities of multiple DHCP servers.

IP over AppleTalk (APPLEIP)

The IP over Appletalk Working Group heard reports on several topics and
worked on the IP over Appletalk document and a revision to the Appletalk
MIB. The Group expects to wind down its activities during the next
couple of meetings due to the development of an appropriate forum (ASIG)
for working on Appletalk-related issues outside of the context of the
IETF.

IP over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

The ATM Working Group finished up its IP over ATM document and intends
to submits it as a Proposed Standard.  The Working Group also discussed
the current state of ATM signaling protocols in CCITT and the ATM Forum,
and requirements that Internet protocols impose on ATM signaling.  The
Group also received received a request to establish formal relations
with the ATM Forum to facilitate the exchange of protocols and idea
between the two organizations.

Point-to-Point Protocol Extensions (PPPEXT)

The Point-to-point Protocol (PPP) Extensions Working Group worked on
finishing up a set of extensions to the Link Layer portion of PPP (LCP).
They also discussed some documents concerning IPX over PPP. A subgroup
was formed to to investigate conformance testing.  Part of the meeting
was a joint session with the IP over Large Public Data Networks (IPLPDN)
Working Group to discuss how PPP mechanisms might be adapted to minimize
the number of frames sent (important on WANs which impose per-packet
charges).



                                   2