Telnet TN3270 Enhancements WG Session Minutes - reported by Ed Bailey, WG
Co-Chair

Summary

     The work group has produced a number of Internet Drafts for enhancing
tn3270 and tn5250 protocols. Focus of the
work group is centered around completing last call for these drafts for
submission to IESG. The remaining drafts awaiting
completion of last call are TLS Security, and Tn3270e extensions. Currently
in last call are tn5350e, MIBs, and Service Location.
Experiences were presented for implementations of the new TLS and MIB
drafts. The WG responded to the submission by the
interested parties of the OHIO specification on how to proceed. Interest
remains high to continue interoperability testing  in 1999
of implementations of the new drafts.

Details

Agenda

Michael Boe - WG Co-Chair open the session with a review of the published
agenda. No modifications were requested.
The topics of the agenda were:
   Status of existing drafts (MIBs, Extensions, SLP, TLS)
   TN5250E
   TLS experience for Telnet
   Misc (Ohio, Interoperability)
It was emphasized that the co-chairs were attempting to achieve closure on
remaining items within the work group.

Status of existing drafts

MIBS

According to Keith Moore (Apps Area Director), the two internet drafts for
MIBs have completed IESG last call. These
drafts will be assigned Proposed Standard status and rfc numbers as soon as
the director completes the writeup.
Implementations by IBM and Cisco were noted for Response Time MIB.
Implementation of the Config MIB is now
available from IBM. Implementations of the MIBs thus far seem to be the
minimal necessary to support service level
agreements. Reporting applications are being developed to present data
represented by the MIBs. MIB testing will
be included in the future interoperability events.

TN3270 Extensions

Gene Pullen reported that three additional extensions have been requested.
These were 1.) an acknowledgment
that the client has completed the processing of the Bind/Unbind; 2.) end
brackets be passed thru to the client by the
server; 3.) add a code to indicate client inactive (PU Inactive). More
discussion on the mailing list is required to
understand these requests before they are accepted by the WG as extensions.

Service Location Protocol

This draft is in Work Group last call. No additional comments have been
posted on the mailing list. A final request
will be issued on the List to solicit approval for submission to IESG.
There are server implementations for IBM and Novell.
There are client implementations for Zephyr, WRQ, and IBM. The Internet
draft conforms to version 2 of the Servloc
specification and allows for version 1 compatibility. This draft is
intended for locating tn servers. Optionally it can be
used to balance multiple requests across multiple servers. However, there
are other specifications such as rfc2250bis
which can be used to balance requests across multiple servers.

TLS

The last revision was posted in sep 98. Implementations are being
developed. The negotiation is intended to be consistent
with other implementations such as ACAP and IMAP. Some clarifications were
requested about negotiation failure and fall back
 to SSL V3. Also clarification of use of V3 certs and an example of the
cert exchange was requested.

Jeff Altman from Columbia University, discussed his experience in
implementing the TLS draft for telnet and kermit. Jeff has used
DSS and SSLEAY 9.1.

TN5250E

Armando Fratezi reported that the authors will make the revisions to move
the current draft to standards track from informational.
A target date of 2/99 is intended for the new draft. TN5250E was noted as a
high priority for future interoperability events.

Misc

Ohio

Tom Brawn co-author of the OHIO specification reviewed with the work group,
the progress of the OHIO committee and the results
of their two day meeting. Their original draft submitted 9/98 as
informational defined a open set of objects for accessing host data.
Since the submission, a considerable amount of discussion has occurred and
a significant commitment by a number of interested
parties has been expressed to pursue this specification as a standard.

The Work group and IETF response to the committee was for them to prepare a
charter that establishes the goals, deliverable,
and milestones for consideration in forming a new IETF work group. A new
work group is necessary because the OHIO specification
falls outside of the existing tn3270e work group charter. The committee
accepted this request and will work with the Apps Area director
 to develop a charter for a proposed OHIO work group. The Apps area
director will work with the IAB and IESG to determine the
appropriateness of a OHIO work group and to reach a final decision.

Interoperaility

The work group will be discussing the details of the next interoperabilty
event on the mailing list. Currently, the intent is to hold the next
 event sometime in April 99.

Session Adjourn