Internet Info 1993/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (1993).iso/inet/ietf/91nov/dcnl-minutes-91nov.txt

Text File | 1993-02-17 | 6.3 KB | 158 lines

CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by Andy Nicholson/CRAY

Minutes of the Dynamic Creation of Network Links BOF (DCNL)

Description:

We held BOFs on this subject at the 20th and 21st IETF's, under the name
``Conditioning of By-Request Network Resources''.  This is a
continuation of that interchange.  The change of name was suggested by
Noel Chiappa.  This meeting attracted much more interest than the
previous meetings.  Attendees generally suggested developing a charter
for the possibility of starting an IETF Working Group.

While working with circuit-switched T3 networks, developers at Cray
Research Inc., determined that there would be advantages to defining a
standard way to control certain classes of network resources through the
internet.  In the case of a circuit-switched T3 line, the line should be
switched on only when there are active transport connections which can
fully utilize the service.  Due to the high cost of the resource,
underutilization would be particularly undesirable.  The developers
believe that this capability might have other applications in the
internet and that an effort should be made to define a standard
protocol.

Minutes:

The meeting began with a presentation by Andy Nicholson regarding the
work done at Cray Research with circuit-switched T3 networks.  This was
a review of the internet draft draft-nicholson-conditioning-00.txt.

This was followed by a short discussion of the Link Control Protocol
used by the Cray Research demonstration software.  This protocol is
mentioned in the existing draft and will be fully described in an
upcoming internet draft.

The attendees discussed different methods of supporting this service and
how it might fit into the infrastructure of the internet.  One
possibility is that rather than transport providers deciding when to
activate and deactivate links, intermediate routers in the network may
decide to perform this function when there is a need.  In this way the
network could automatically adapt to changing network load and delay
conditions.

Some of the attendees were suggesting other possible uses of this
capability and some discussion ensued.  The most likely other use of
this type of support for circuit-switched links would be for planned
capacity management where an administrator might bring extra capacity

                                   1





on-line in the network during peak load times.  Other possible uses are
for backups to existing primary links or for bypass links when there is
sufficient traffic between distant endpoints to avoid multiple hops
between those endpoints.

Bill Jolitz suggested considering the management of the dynamic links.
Rather than developing a new protocol (LCP) to create and manage links,
SNMP could be used if a proper MIB was developed.  He went on the
suggest that this could be used as a methodology of defining the work to
be done by making a first cut at a MIB for this facility.  A Working
Group could then iteratively improve the MIB while refining the
functionality of dynamically created links.

We also discussed the various issues presented in a slide, and the
attendees suggested other issues requiring consideration.  One issue is
that when bringing extra bandwidth into the network to alleviate
Congestion, the relief may only be temporary.  As senders discover the
extra bandwidth, they may increase their output to use it up.

Another possibility is that the routing protocols may dynamically change
the network topology to suit the changing demands, and this would add
new complexity to routing and routing protocols.

Ken Hayward was concerned whether this service would have a useful
lifetime, considering that there does not seem to be, at present, an
analog to switched T3 in the ATM world, and that ATM might address the
issues presented here.  There was general agreement that this was a good
point, but that we could not predict the future.  It was further noted
that some networks might wish to have dynamic control of slower links,
such as in the case of bringing backup links on-line when a primary link
fails.

The attendees generally agreed that this is an interesting topic of
discussion and expressed a desire to see a concrete description of the
problems to be addressed.  I agreed to develop a charter which addresses
these concerns.  I also agreed to install a mailing list for discussion
of this topic.  If there is sufficient interest then I will present the
charter to the IESG for Working Group status.

At the meeting I described a paper published by CICNet in July, 1991,
which mentioned their interest in circuit-switched T3 services.  I
promised to include instructions on how to get this paper.  That
information is presented here.

A report titled ``High Performance Applications on CICNet:  Impact on
Design and Capacity'' is available from CICNet via anonymous FTP.


  {\bf host:}       NIC.CIC.NET


                                   2





  {\bf directory:}  /pub/reports
  {\bf file:}       ds3-report.[ps or txt]


ABSTRACT: This twenty-three page report summarizes available network
technologies, reports on a survey of the needs of researchers and
faculty at CIC institutions, and provides detailed studies of network
requirements in four areas of contemporary, scientific research.

The needs of these four areas of research are then summarized in terms
of network requirements, and specific recommendations are presented by
the Working Group to CICNet, Inc.  The report was authored by the CICNet
DS-3 Working Group, which was chaired by Mike Enyeart of Indiana
University.


[Final Note:  A mailing list for this work has been set up, its address
is [e-mail].


Attendees

Jordan Becker            [e-mail]
Richard Cherry           [e-mail]
Erik Fair                [e-mail]
Craig Fox                [e-mail]
John Gong                [e-mail]
Kenneth Hayward          [e-mail]
Greg Hollingsworth       [e-mail]
William Jolitz           [e-mail]
Andy Nicholson           [e-mail]
Timothy Salo             [e-mail]
Stephen Shew             [e-mail]
Martha Steenstrup        [e-mail]
Brad Steinka             [e-mail]
Preston Wilson           [e-mail]
Robert Woodburn          [e-mail]
Richard Woundy           [e-mail]



                                   3