CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_

Reported by Steve DeJarnett/IBM

Minutes of the Internet Stream Protocol V2 BOF (ST2)

The ST2 BOF met during the 1930-2200 session, opposite the Networking
Multimedia Applications BOF (MULTIAPP) and the Open IAB Meeting (among
others).  The overlap with MULTIAPP in particular, and the multiple
reschedulings of the BOF, may have limited the attendance, but in spite
of those problems there were still 27 attendees.


Presentations and Discussion

The BOF started with presentations on existing ST-II implementations.
Frank Hoffmann presented a description of the IBM ST-II implementation
in the Heidelberg Transport System (HeiTS). Lou Berger presented
information on BBN's work with ST-II in their T/20 router which is used
in the backbone of the ARPA Defense Simulation Internet (DSI). Lou also
spoke briefly about other work BBN was doing with ST-II. Luca Delgrossi
discussed work going on in the BERKOM project in Germany, which has
chosen ST-II as their network layer protocol for use in a multimedia
teleservices pilot.

After the presentations, discussion about interest in a working group to
revise and clarify the ST specification was started.  There was a great
deal of discussion during the BOF about the problems that are known with
ST-II as currently specified, (e.g., the lack of a formal definition of
ST-II states and the problems associated with efficiently supporting
very large numbers of destinations in a single connection).  Additional
discussion focused around whether standardization of ST was warranted at
this time, given work in other areas (e.g., resource reservation); no
clear consensus was reached.

During the presentations on the various implementations, questions were
raised which mostly dealt with implementation details.  Those details
have been left out of this summary except as they relate to the proposed
mission of the working group.


Results

In the end, consensus was achieved on having a working group whose
purpose was to clarify the current ST protocol in order to correct
errors in the specification, and to make it easier to implement ST-II in
a manner which is likely to be interoperable with other ST-II
implementations.  The future of that protocol, whether continuing as an
Experimental Protocol or moving forward as a Proposed Standard is still
open for discussion.  That discussion should be held at a later date
when the results of the working group are demonstrable.


Attendees

Lou Berger               lberger@bbn.com
Stefan Braun             smb@cs.tu-berlin.de
Michael Brescia
James Davin              davin@thumper.bellcore.com
Steve DeJarnett          steve@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com
Luca Delgrossi           luca@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com
Jeffrey Dunn             dunn@neptune.nrl.navy.mil
Ed Ellesson              ellesson@vnet.ibm.com
Deborah Estrin           estrin@usc.edu
Jill Foster              Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
Marcel Graf              graf%dhdibm1.bitnet@vm.gmd.de
Ken Hayward              crm57d@bnr.ca
Frank Hoffmann           hoffmann@dhdibm1.bitnet
John Larson              jlarson@parc.xerox.com
Susan Lin                suelin@vnet.ibm.com
Cynthia Martin           martin@spica.disa.mil
Zbigniew Opalka          zopalka@agile.com
Jorg Ott                 jo@cs.tu-berlin.de
Michael Patton           map@bbn.com
John Penners             jpenners@advtech.uswest.com
J. Mark Pullen           mpullen@cs.gmu.edu
Robert Reschly           reschly@brl.mil
Kenneth Smith            kensmith@bnr.ca
Fumio Teraoka            tera@csl.sony.co.jp
Claudio Topolcic         topolcic@cnri.reston.va.us
Werner Vogels            werner@inesc.pt
Jost Weinmiller          jost@prz.tu-berlin.d400.de