[1] Welcoming the New Millennium With this issue of the Amateur Computerist, we want to welcome the new millennium. Such an event happens rarely and when it does, it gives one reason to pause and consider its significance and the promise it represents. The arrival of a new millennium happens at a propitious time in the plans of the Amateur Computerist. The current issue was delayed several months, and now it turns out to be an appropriate way to welcome in a new era. This issue was to be a 25th anniversary issue for celebrating the publication in May 1974 of the paper describing the philosophy and design of the protocol for an internetting of diverse networks. We are a little late. The paper "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" by Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf appeared in the IEEE Transactions on Communications. This paper marks a significant change both in the development of packet switching networks as they were developed up to its publication and in the notion of what would make possible a global, ubiquitous computer communications infrastructure for the future. There was a challenge facing society at the time the paper was written in summer of 1973. There were no personal computers at this time. The earliest kit version for a personal computer, the Mark 8, would not be announced in the magazine Radio Electronics until over a year later, in September 1974. Already by the summer of 1973, there were a number of time sharing systems and much interest in creating computer networks in countries around the world. The research documenting the development of the ARPANET had been broadly disseminated. It led to widespread interest in setting up such computer networks for diverse uses such as research purposes, commercial purposes as for banks and airlines, for educational purposes and for other uses. Already the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom was developing a packet switching network, as was Louis Pouzin in France, who was creating Cyclades. And there were commercial networks beginning like TYMNET, and soon TELENET in the U.S. Also there were plans for creating a European Informatics Network (EIN). How would people or computers on any of the growing number of packet switching networks be able to communicate with those on other networks? Recognizing the need to be able to interconnect these diverse networks, Robert E. Kahn, who was the system designer of the ARPANET and had worked at Bolt Beranek and Newman on the early development of the ARPANET wrote: "If separate data networks are jointly planned before development, at least at the interconnection level, they may be connected at a later date and viewed together as a single network that evolved by way of separate networks." "Resource-Sharing Computer Communications Networks" in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol 60, no. 11, November 1972, pg. 1407. The problem to be solved was more difficult than apparent. How would it be possible for diverse networks using different technologies, under different forms of ownership and under different administrations, to interconnect? To do so, it would be necessary to recognize and provide for this diversity. It would also be necessary to identify the generality of what the networks had in common, and how they might differ, and to be able to accommodate these differences. That is the task that Kahn found himself exploring in early 1973. Considering the general problem, he also had the advantage of having a particular problem to solve that was related to the general problem. He had come to work at ARPA/IPTO in November 1972 after arranging a successful demonstration of the ARPANET for over 1000 people attending the International Conference on Computer Communications in Washington DC the previous month. At ARPA/IPTO he found there was a desire to have research in the area of developing a ground packet radio (PRNET) and a packet satellite (SATNET) network. While there had been research about a single node packet radio network called AlohaNet, there was not the kind of ground packet radio networking developed that Kahn decided to create. Money had already been appropriated, Kahn explains describing the situation at IPTO in early 1973. With the general problem in mind of how to link up diverse packet switching networks, Kahn had the particular problem of connecting PRNET to the ARPANET. Also he had in mind connecting SATNET to PRNET and to the ARPANET. In considering the particular problem in a general way, Kahn identified a conceptual framework for an architecture to solve the problem. He calls this conceptual framework the Open Architecture Network Environment. Briefly, Kahn recognized that diverse packet switching networks will be created by different entities, and that their interconnection could not require any internal changes in the networks. Kahn's concept was for a meta-level system that would be independent of any networking technology or operation. It would make it possible to have these networks interconnect and intercommunicate. Developing the ground packet radio network and packet satellite network in a general way so that they could be linked peer to peer, rather than becoming embedded in one big network like the ARPANET, Kahn clarified the architectural principles that would make a global internet a reality. Realizing the need to embed the new protocol into the operating system and part of the gateways of the component networks to make this internetworking possible, Kahn recognized the need to understand how to interface the protocol to diverse operating systems. Vinton Cerf, who had recently joined the faculty at Stanford, had been part of the Network Working Group (NWG) and had had experience with operating systems. While a graduate student at UCLA, Cerf had helped Kahn to test the ARPANET. Kahn invited Cerf to work with him developing the design for the protocol. In Spring 1973, Kahn described ideas about the new protocol to Cerf and they worked together on the details for the design of the protocol during the summer of 1973. They presented their draft paper describing the new protocol at the same time as a NATO sponsored meeting of international networking researchers at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK in September, 1973. The final paper appeared in the journal IEEE Transactions on Communications in the May 1974 issue. The Open Architecture Network Environment welcomes diversity and makes communication possible among different networks. The goal of making resource sharing possible not only in a network, but among diverse networks a goal at the foundation of the Internet. The Internet heralds in a new era and appropriately symbolizes the promise of the new millennium. This issue of the Amateur Computerist opens with an article on the recently issued GAO report on ICANN. There is an excerpt from testimony given by Robert Kahn to a U.S. Congressional subcommittee describing the early development of the Internet. It also contains RFC 2555 about the early development of RFCs. RFC 2555 was issued to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the RFCs and as a tribute to the work of Jon Postel who died in Fall, 1998. The RFC includes comments by Joyce Reynolds, Steve Crocker, Vint Cerf, Jake Feinler. Also, in the issue is the article "Some Principles of the Internet" describing in more detail the early technical issues of the Internet. There is a report on the Internet pioneers panel held at the ACM SIGCOMM99 in August 1999. Also, there is a report on a conference in Finland held by the EU on how citizens can participate more in decision making by those in government. A proposal for an oral history of the Internet follows. Along with a note about the closing of the Cleveland Free-Net, the issue ends with the continued serialization of an article on the early mailing list on ARPANET, the MsgGroup mailing list. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reprinted from the Amateur Computerist Vol 10 No 1 Spring/Summer 2000. The whole issue or a subscription are available for free via email. Send a request to jrh@ais.org or see http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------