Minutes of the Telnet TN3270E Enhancements (tn3270e) Working Group 

Reported by: Ed Bailey 

I.Summary: 

The tn3270e Enhancements Working Group conducted two 1-hour sessions
on Tuesday 8/12/97 at 3:45 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. with approximately 12
people in attendance. The 3:45pm session opened with a brief
discussion of the charter, activity on the listsrv, and use of the
IETF web pages.  The results of the most recent interoperability
testing held in May at Cisco Systems were reviewed along with WG plans
for the next interoperability testing. The submission of the tn3270e
Internet Draft to the IESG for Draft status was proposed with no
objections. Then, discussion proceeded to the activities currently
underway on the use of TLS and IPSEC for security for the remainder of
the first session. The 5:00pm session was devoted to the review of the
Internet drafts for tn3270e management and Response Time MIBs. A
number of suggested changes were identified which will be added to the
drafts and reposted as updates on the listsrv.


II. Detail (first hour session):

The charter will be updated to reflect the progress of the working
group. In particular, the update will address the rewrite of rfc1647
into the tn3270e internet draft, its last call in the working group
and submission to the IESG for draft status. Based upon the second
inter- operability testing which included 11 organizations and
representing an array of client and server implementations, the
working group is confident that consistent interpretations are
possible with the latest internet draft and is ready for draft
status. The WG Chair will work with the Area Directors on the IESG
submission.

The next interoperability testing is planned for October, 1997. The
exact date and location will be posted on the list in the following
weeks after Munich. More emphasis on printing and tn5250 is
anticipated.

A number of enhancements are being discussed in the working group (see
minutes of Memphis 97).  In particular, security, and network
management are at the forefront. Demand for tn3270 security is
high. SSL3 has no reference spec yet TLS and IPSEC may not be ready
soon enough for us. In light of current IETF activities on TLS and
IPSEC, the working group will implement security negotiations based
upon TLS with the ability to "fall back" to SSL3.0 which should
suffice initially. Most new implementation will be on SSL3.1
(TLS). General deployment of SSL3.0 in corporate networks will
pressure implementations to use it for tn3270 as well. The wg decided
to separate the base telnet security need into a separate
document. Michael Boe will be publishing this document. Some of the
other comments and observations are as follows. There are existing
challenge/response mechanisms in place for most of the tn3270/tn5250
applications. The use of encryption is used to protect passwords from
flowing in the clear but is has too high overhead to encrypt all the
traffic. More discussion on the list is needed to address the use of
encryption and certificates.


III. Detail (second hour session): 

Network management of tn3270 sessions requires certain instrumentation
in the client and server to allow for seting and getting certain
relevant performance and configuration information. The tn3270e base
mib and the tn3270e rt mib are intended to specify the minimum
instrumentation for managing tn3270e connections. Although fairly
complete, review of these two draft documents led to a number of
changes to enhance the implementation and understanding of the
information. A revision will be made and posted on the list for review
in the next 30 days following Munich.  Most changes evolved the use of
the ipaddr and port numbers for better granularity, additional
information in base, and positioning with the application mib. The
revised drafts will identify the individual changes. Some additional
comments included ipv6 naming, use of timingmarks, and consistency
with SNAMS response time management. An informational rfc will be
produced to note the rationale for the mib variables and how they can
be used.
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Minutes of the Telnet TN3270E Enhancements (tn3270e) Working Group

Reported by: Ed Bailey

I.Summary:

The tn3270e Enhancements Working Group conducted two 1-hour sessions on
Tuesday 8/12/97 at 3:45 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. with approximately 12 people
in attendance. The 3:45pm session opened with a brief discussion of the
charter, activity on the listsrv, and use of the IETF web pages.  The
results of the most recent interoperability testing held in May at Cisco
Systems were reviewed along with WG plans for the next interoperability
testing. The submission of the tn3270e Internet Draft to the IESG for
Draft status was proposed with no objections. Then, discussion proceeded
to the activities currently underway on the use of TLS and IPSEC for
security for the remainder of the first session. The 5:00pm session was
devoted to the review of the Internet drafts for tn3270e management and
Response Time MIBs. A number of suggested changes were identified which
will be added to the drafts and reposted as updates on the listsrv.


II. Detail (first hour session):

The charter will be updated to reflect the progress of the working
group. In particular, the update will address the rewrite of rfc1647
into the tn3270e internet draft, its last call in the working group and
submission to the IESG for draft status. Based upon the second inter-
operability testing which included 11 organizations and representing an
array of client and server implementations, the working group is
confident that consistent interpretations are possible with the latest
internet draft and is ready for draft status. The WG Chair will work
with the Area Directors on the IESG submission.

The next interoperability testing is planned for October, 1997. The
exact date and location will be posted on the list in the following
weeks after Munich. More emphasis on printing and tn5250 is anticipated.

A number of enhancements are being discussed in the working group (see
minutes of Memphis 97).  In particular, security, and network management
are at the forefront. Demand for tn3270 security is high. SSL3 has no
reference spec yet TLS and IPSEC may not be ready soon enough for us. In
light of current IETF activities on TLS and IPSEC, the working group
will implement security negotiations based upon TLS with the ability to
"fall back" to SSL3.0 which should suffice initially. Most new
implementation will be on SSL3.1 (TLS). General deployment of SSL3.0 in
corporate networks will pressure implementations to use it for tn3270 as
well. The wg decided to separate the base telnet security need into a
separate document. Michael Boe will be publishing this document. Some of
the other comments and observations are as follows. There are existing
challenge/response mechanisms in place for most of the tn3270/tn5250
applications. The use of encryption is used to protect passwords from
flowing in the clear but is has too high overhead to encrypt all the
traffic. More discussion on the list is needed to address the use of
encryption and certificates.


III. Detail (second hour session):

Network management of tn3270 sessions requires certain instrumentation
in the client and server to allow for seting and getting certain
relevant performance and configuration information. The tn3270e base mib
and the tn3270e rt mib are intended to specify the minimum
instrumentation for managing tn3270e connections. Although fairly
complete, review of these two draft documents led to a number of changes
to enhance the implementation and understanding of the information. A
revision will be made and posted on the list for review in the next 30
days following Munich.  Most changes evolved the use of the ipaddr and
port numbers for better granularity, additional information in base, and
positioning with the application mib. The revised drafts will identify
the individual changes. Some additional comments included ipv6 naming,
use of timingmarks, and consistency with SNAMS response time management.
An informational rfc will be produced to note the rationale for the mib
variables and how they can be used.