As per Relevance of the word research, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group Barry M.
Request for Comments: 1017
August 1987
Network Requirements for Scientific
Internet Task Force on Scientific
STATUS OF THIS
This RFC identifies the requirements on communication networks
supporting scientific research. It proposes some specific areas
near term work, as well as some long term goals. This is an "idea
paper and discussion is strongly encouraged. Distribution of
memo is unlimited
Computer networks are critical to scientific research. They
currently being used by portions of the scientific community
support access to remote resources (such as supercomputers and
at collaborator's sites) and collaborative work through
facilities as electronic mail and shared databases. There
considerable movement in the direction of providing
capabilities to the broad scientific community in a unified manner
as evidence by this workshop. In the future, these capabilities
even be required in space, as the Space Station becomes a reality
a scientific research resource
The purpose of this paper is to identify the range of
for networks that are to support scientific research.
requirements include the basic connectivity provided by the links
switches of the network through the basic network functions to
user services that need to be provided to allow effective use of
interconnected network. The paper has four sections. The
section discusses the functions a user requires of a network.
second section discusses the requirements for the underlying link
node infrastructure while the third proposes a set of
to achieve the functions on an end-to-end basis. The fourth
discusses a number of network-oriented user services that are
in addition to the network itself. In each section, the
is broken into two categories. The first addresses near
requirements: those capabilities and functions that are needed
and for which technology is available to perform the function.
second category concerns long term goals: those capabilities
which additional research is needed
This RFC was produced by the IAB Task force a Scientific Computing
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which is chartered to investigate advanced networking
that result from scientific applications. Work reported herein
supported in part by Cooperative Agreement NCC 2-387 from
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to
Universities Space Research Association (USRA).
1. NETWORK
This section addresses the functions and capabilities that
and particularly internetworks should be expected to support in
near term future
Near Term
There are many functions that are currently available to subsets
the user community. These functions should be made available to
broad scientific community
User/Resource
Undoubtedly the first order of business in networking is to
interconnectivity of users and the resources they need. The goal
the near term for internetworking should be to extend
connectivity as widely as possible, i.e. to provide
connectivity among users and between users and resources. Note
the existence of a network path between sites does not
imply interoperability between communities and or resources
non-compatible protocol suites. However, a minimal set of
should be provided across the entire user community, independent
the protocol suite being used. These typically include
mail at a minimum, file transfer and remote login capabilities
also be provided
Home
One condition that could enhance current scientific computing
be to extend to the home the same level of network support that
scientist has available in his office environment. As network
becomes increasingly widespread, the extension to the home will
the user to continue his computing at home without dramatic
in his work habits, based on limited access
The scientific user should not have to worry about the costs of
communications any more than he worries about voice
(his office telephone), so that data communications becomes
integral and low-cost part of our national infrastructure.
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implies that charges for network services must NOT be
sensitive and must NOT be charged back to the individual. Either
these conditions forces the user to consider network resources
scarce and therefore requiring his individual attention to
them. Such attention to extraneous details not only detracts
the research, but fundamentally impacts the use and benefit
networking is intended to supply. This does not require
networking usage is free. It should be either be low enough
that the individual does not have to be accountable for "normal
usage or managed in such a manner that the individual does not
to be concerned with it on a daily basis
Most applications, in the near term, which must be supported in
internetwork environment are essentially extensions of current ones
Particularly
Electronic
Electronic mail will increase in value as the
interconnectivity provided by internetworking provides a
greater reachability of users
Multimedia
An enhancement to text based mail which includes
such as figures, diagrams, graphs, and digitized voice
Multimedia
Network conferencing is communication among multiple
simultaneously. Conferencing may or may not be done in "
time", that is all participants may not be required to be on
line at the same time. The multimedia supported may
text, voice, video, graphics, and possibly other capabilities
File
The ability to transfer data files
Bulk
The ability to stream large quantities of data
Interactive Remote
The ability to perform remote terminal connections to hosts
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Remote Job
The ability to submit batch jobs for processing to remote
and receive output
Applications which need support in the near term but are
extensions of currently supported applications include
Remote Instrument
This normally presumes to have a human in the "control loop".
This condition relaxes the requirements on the (inter)
somewhat as to response times and reliability. Timing would
presumed to be commensurate with human reactions
reliability would not be as stringent as that required
completely automatic control
Remote Data
This supports the collection of experimental data where
experiment is remotely located from the collection center
This requirement can only be satisfied when the bandwidth
reliability, and predictability of network response
sufficient. This cannot be supported in the general
because of the enormous bandwidth, very high reliability
and/or guaranteed short response time required for
experiments
These last two requirements are especially crucial when one
remote experimentation such as will be performed on the
Station
The above applications could be best supported on a network
infinite bandwidth, zero delay, and perfect reliability
Unfortunately, even currently feasible approximations to these
of capabilities can be very expensive. Therefore, it can be
that compromises will be made for each capability and between them
with different balances struck between different networks.
of this, the user must be given an opportunity to declare
capability or capabilities is/are of most interest-most
through a "type-of-service" required declaration. Some examples
possible trade-offs: File Transport Normally requires
reliability primarily and high bandwidth secondarily. Delay is not
important
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Bulk
Some applications such as digitized video might require
bandwidth as the most important capability. Depending on
application, delay would be second, and reliability of
importance. Image transfers of scientific data sometimes
invert the latter two requirements
Interactive
This normally requires low delay as a primary consideration
Reliability may be secondary depending on the application
Bandwidth would usually be of least importance
The use of standards in networking is directed
interoperability and availability of commercial equipment. However
as stated earlier, full interoperability across the
scientific community is probably not a reasonable goal
internetworking in the near term because of the protocol mix
present. That is not to say, though, that the use of
should not be pursued on the path to full user interoperability
Standards, in the context of near term goal support, include
Media Exchange
Would allow the interchange of equations, graphics, images, and
bases as well as text
Commercially Available
Plug compatible, commercially available standards will allow a
of interoperability prior to the widespread availability of the
standard protocols
Long Term
In the future, the internetwork should be transparent
between users and resources, and provide the additional
services required to make use of that communications. A user
be able to access whatever resources are available just as if
resource is in the office. The same high level of service
exist independent of which network one happens to be on. In fact
one should not even be able to tell that the network is there
It is also important that people be able to work effectively while
home or when traveling. Wherever one may happen to be, it should
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possible to "plug into" the internetwork and read mail, access files
control remote instruments, and have the same kind of environment
is used to at the office
Services to locate required facilities and take advantage of
must also be available on the network. These range from the
"white" and "yellow" pages, providing network locations (addresses
for users and capabilities, through to distributed data bases
computing facilities. Eventually, this conglomeration of computers
workstations, networks, and other computing resources will become
gigantic distributed "world computer" with a very large number
processing nodes all over the world
2. NETWORK
By network connectivity, we mean the ability to move packets from
point to another
Note that an implicit assumption in this paper is that
switched networks are the preferred technology for providing
scientific computer network. This is due to the ability of
networks to share the available link resources to
interconnection between numerous sites and their ability
effectively handle the "bursty" computer communication requirement
Note that this need not mean functional interoperability, since
endpoints may be using incompatible protocols. Thus, in
section, we will be addressing the use of shared links
interconnected networks to provide a possible path. In the
section, the exploitation of these paths to achieve
connectivity will be addressed
In this section, we discuss the need for providing these
paths to a wide set of users and resources, and the
of those paths. As in other sections, this discussion is broken
two major categories. The first category are those goals which
believe to be achievable with currently available technology
implementations. The second category are those for which
research is required
Near Term
Currently, there are a large number of networks serving
scientific community, including Arpanet, MFEnet, SPAN, NASnet,
the NSFnet backbone. While there is some loose correlation
the networks and the disciplines they serve, these networks
organized more based on Federal funding. Furthermore, while there
significant interconnectivity between a number of the networks,
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is considerable room for more sharing of these resources
In the near term, therefore, there are two major requirement areas
providing for connectivity based on discipline and user community
and providing for the effective use of adequate networking resources
Discipline
Scientists in a particular community/discipline need to have
to many common resources as well as communicate with each other.
example, the quantum physics research community obtains funding
a number of Federal sources, but carries out its research within
context of a scientific discourse. Furthermore, this discourse
overlaps several disciplines. Because networks are
oriented based on the source of funding, this required
has in the past been inhibited. NSFnet is a major step
satisfying this requirement, because of its underlying philosophy
acting as an interconnectivity network between supercomputer
and between state, regional, and therefore campus networks.
move towards a set of networks that are interconnected, at least
the packet transport level, must be continued so that a scientist
obtain connectivity between his/her local computing equipment and
computing and other resources that are needed, independently of
source of funds
Obviously, actual use of those resources will depend on
access permission from the appropriate controlling organization.
example, use of a supercomputer will require permission and
allocation of computing resources. The lack of network access
not, however, be the limiting factor for resource utilization
Communication Resource
The scientific community is always going to suffer from a lack
adequate communication bandwidth and connections. There
requirements (e.g. graphic animation from supercomputers)
stretch the capabilities of even the most advanced long-
networks. In addition, as more and more scientists
connection into networks, the ability to provide those connections
a network-centric basis will become more and more difficult
However, the communication links (e.g. leased lines and
channels) providing the underlying topology of the various
span in aggregate a very broad range of the scientific
sites. If, therefore, the networks could share these links in
effective manner, two objectives could be achieved
The need to add links just to support a particular
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topology change would be decreased,
New user sites could be connected more readily
Existing technology (namely the DARPA-developed gateway system
on the Internet Protocol, IP) provides an effective method
accomplishing this sharing. By using IP gateways to connect
various networks, and by arranging for suitable cost-sharing,
underlying connectivity would be greatly expanded and both of
above objectives achieved
Expansion of Physical
Unfortunately, the mere interconnectivity of the various
does not increase the bandwidth available. While it may allow
more effective use of that available bandwidth, a sufficient
of links with adequate bandwidth must be provided to avoid
congestion. This problem has already occurred in the Arpanet,
the expansion of the use of the network without a
expansion in the trunking and topology has resulted in congestion
consequent degradation in performance
Thus, it is necessary to augment the current physical
(links and switches) both by increasing the bandwidth of the
configuration and by adding additional links and switches
appropriate
Network
One of the major deficiencies in the current system of networks
the lack of overall engineering. While each of the various
generally is well supported, there is woefully little engineering
the overall system. As the networks are interconnected into a
system, this need will become more severe. Examples of the
where engineering is needed are
Topology engineering-deciding where links and switches should
installed or upgraded. If the interconnection of the networks
achieved, this will often involve a decision as to which
need to be upgraded as well as deciding where in the network
upgrades should take place
Connection Engineering-when a user site desires to be connected
deciding which node of which network is the best for that site
considering such issues as existing node locations,
bandwidth, and expected traffic patterns to/from that site
Operations and Maintenance-monitoring the operation of the
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system and identifying corrective actions when failures occur
Support of Different Types of
Several different end user applications are currently in place,
these put different demands on the underlying structure.
example, interactive remote login requires low delay, while
transfer requires high bandwidth. It is important in
installation of additional links and switches that care be given
providing a mix of link characteristics. For example, high
satellite channels may be appropriate to support
applications or graphics, while low delay will be required to
interactive applications
Future
Significant expansion of the underlying transport mechanisms will
required to support future scientific networking. These
will be both in size and performance
Bandwidth requirements are being driven higher by advances
computer technology as well as the proliferation of that technology
As high performance graphics workstations work cooperatively
supercomputers, and as real-time remote robotics and
control become a reality, the bandwidth requirements will continue
grow. In addition, as the number of sites on the networks increase
so will the aggregate bandwidth requirement. However, at the
time, the underlying bandwidth capabilities are also increasing
Satellite bandwidths of tens of megabits are available, and
optics technologies are providing extremely high bandwidths (in
range of gigabits). It is therefore essential that the
connectivity take advantage of these advances in communications
increase the available end-to-end bandwidth
Expressway
As higher levels of internet connectivity occur there will be a
set of problems related to lowest hop count and lowest delay
metrics. The assumed internet connectivity can easily
situations where the highest speed, lowest delay route between
nodes on the same net is via a route on another network.
two sites one either end of the country, but both on the
multipoint internet, where their network also is gatewayed to
other network with high speed transcontinental links. The
algorithms must be able to handle these situations gracefully,
they become of increased importance in handling global type-of
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service routing
3. NETWORK
To achieve the end-to-end user functions discussed in section 2,
is not adequate to simply provide the underlying
described in the previous section. The network must provide
certain set of capabilities on an end-to-end basis. In
section, we discuss the specifications on the network that
required
Near Term
In the near term, the requirements on the networks are two-fold
First is to provide those functions that will permit
interoperability, and second the internetwork must address
additional requirements that arise in the connection of networks
users, and resources
A first-order requirement for scientific computer networks (
computer networks in general) is that they be interoperable with
other, as discussed in the above section on connectivity. A
step to accomplish this is to use IP. The use of IP will
individual networks built by differing agencies to combine
and minimize cost by avoiding the needless duplication of
resources and their management. However, use of IP does not
end-to-end interoperability. There must also be compatibility
higher level functions and protocols. At a minimum, while
agreed upon standards (such as the ISO developments) are proceeding
methods for interoperability between different protocol suites
be developed. This would provide interoperability of
functions, such as file transfer, electronic mail and remote login
The emphasis, however, should be on developing agreement within
scientific community on use of a standard set of protocols
Access
The design of the network should include adequate methods
controlling access to the network by unauthorized personnel.
especially includes access to network capabilities that are
via the commercial phone network and public data nets. For example
terminal servers that allow users to dial up via commercial
lines should have adequate authentication mechanisms in place
prevent access by unauthorized individuals. However, it should
noted that most hosts that are reachable via such networks are
reachable via other "non-network" means, such as directly
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over commercial phone lines. The purpose of network access
is not to insure isolation of hosts from unauthorized users,
hosts should not expect the network itself to protect them
"hackers".
The network should provide protection of data that traverses it in
way that is commensurate with the sensitivity of that data. It
judged that the scientific requirements for privacy of data
on networks does not warrant a large expenditure of resources in
area. However, nothing in the network design should preclude the
of link level or end-to-end encryption, or other such methods
can be added at a later time. An example of this kind of
would be use of KG-84A link encryptors on MILNET or the Fig
DES-based end-to-end encryption box developed by DARPA
The network should provide adequate accounting procedures to
the consumption of network resources. Accounting of
resources is also important for the management of the network,
particularly the management of interconnections with other networks
Proper use of the accounting database should allow network
personnel to determine the "flows" of data on the network, and
identification of bottlenecks in network resources. This
also has secondary value in tracking down intrusions of the network
and to provide an audit trail if malicious abuse should occur.
addition, accounting of higher level network services (such
terminal serving) should be kept track of for the same reasons
Type of Service
Type of service routing is necessary since not all elements
network activity require the same resources, and the
for minimizing use of costly network resources are large.
example, interactive traffic such as remote login requires low
so the network will not be a bottleneck to the user attempting to
work. Yet the bandwidth of interactive traffic can be quite
compared to the requirements for file transfer and mail service
are not response time critical. Without type of service routing
network resources must sized according to the largest user, and
characteristics that are pleasing to the most finicky user. This
major cost implications for the network design, as high-delay links
such as satellite links, cannot be used for interactive
despite the significant cost savings they represent over
links. With type of service routing in place in the
gateways, and proper software in the hosts to make use of
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capabilities, overall network performance can be enhanced,
sizable cost savings realized. Since the IP protocol already
provisions for such routing, such changes to existing
does not require a major change in the underlying
implementations
Administration of Address
Local administration of network address space is essential to
for prompt addition of hosts to the network, and to minimize the
on backbone network administrators. Further, a distributed name
address translation service also has similar advantages. The
Name Domain system currently in use on the Internet is a
implementation of such a name to address translation system
Remote Procedure Call
In order to provide a standard library interface so that
network utilities can easily communicate with each other in
standard way, a standard Remote Procedure Call (RPC) library must
deployed. The computer industry has lead the research community
developing RPC implementations, and current implementations tend
be compatible within the same type of operating system, but
across operating systems. Nonetheless, a portable RPC
that can be standardized can provide a substantial boost in
capability to write operating system independent network utilities
If a new RPC mechanism is to be designed from scratch, then it
have enough capabilities to lure implementors away from
standards. Otherwise, modification of an existing standard that
close to the mark in capabilities seems to be in order, with
cooperation of vendors in the field to assure implementations
exist for all major operating systems in use on the network
Remote Job Entry (RJE
The capabilities of standard network RJE implementations
inadequate, and are implemented prolifically among major
systems. While the notion of RJE evokes memories of
technologies such as punch cards, the concept is still valid, and
favored as a means of interaction with supercomputers by
users. All major supercomputer manufacturers support RJE access
their operating systems, but many do not generalize well into
Internet domain. That is, a RJE standard that is designed for 2400
baud modem access from a card reader may not be easily modifiable
use on the Internet. Nonetheless, the capability for a network
to submit a job from a host and have its output delivered on
printer attached to a different host would be welcomed by
science users. Further, having this capability interoperate
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existing RJE packages would add a large amount of flexibility to
whole system
Multiple Virtual
The capability to have multiple network connections open from
user's workstation to remote network hosts is an invaluable tool
greatly increases user productivity. The network design should
place limits (procedural or otherwise) on this capability
Network Operation and Management
The present state of internet technology requires the use
personnel who are, in the vernacular of the trade, called
"wizards," for the proper operation and management of networks
These people are a scarce resource to begin with, and
them on day to day operational issues detracts from progress in
more developmental areas of networking. The cause of this problem
that a good part of the knowledge for operating and managing
network has never been written down in any sort of concise fashion
and the reason for that is because networks of this type in the
were primarily used as a research tool, not as an
resource. While the usage of these networks has changed,
technology has not adjusted to the new reality that a wizard may
be nearby when a problem arises. To insure that the network
flexibly expand in the future, new tools must be developed that
non-wizards to monitor network performance, determine trouble spots
and implement repairs or 'work-arounds'.
Future
The networks of the future must be able to support transparent
to distributed resources of a variety of different kinds.
resources will include supercomputer facilities, remote
facilities, distributed archives and databases, and other
services. Access to these resources is to be made widely
to scientists, other researchers, and support personnel located
remote sites over a variety of internetted connections.
modes of access must be supported that are consonant with the
of resources that are being accessed, the data bandwidths
and the type of interaction demanded by the application
Network protocol enhancements will be required to support
expansion in functionality; mere increases in bandwidth are
sufficient. The number of end nodes to be connected is in
hundreds of thousands, driven by increasing use of
and workstations throughout the community. Fundamentally
sorts of services from those now offered are anticipated, and
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bandwidth selection and allocation will be required to support
different access modes. Large-scale internet connections
several agency size internets will require new approaches to
and naming paradigms. All of this must be planned so as
facilitate transition to the ISO/OSI standards as these mature
robust implementations are placed in service and tuned
performance
Several specific areas are identified as being of critical
in support of future network requirements, listed in no
order
Standards and Interface
As more and different services are made available on
various networks it will become increasingly important
identify interface standards and suitable
abstractions to support remote resource access.
abstractions may be applicable at several levels in
protocol hierarchy and can serve to enhance both
functionality and portability. Examples are transport
connection layer abstractions that support
independence from lower level network realizations or
abstractions that provide a data description language that
handle a full range of abstract data type definitions
Applications or connection level abstractions can provide
of bridging across different protocol suites as well as
with protocol transition
OSI Transition and
Further evolution of the OSI network protocols and
of large-scale networks so that some of the real protocol
tuning issues can be dealt with must be anticipated. It
only when such networks have been created that these issues
be approached and resolved. Type-of-service and
routing and related routing issues must be resolved before
real transition can be contemplated. Using the
abstraction approach just described will allow definition
of applications that can transition as the lower layer
are implemented. Applications gateways and relay
will be a part of this transition strategy, along with
mode gateways and protocol translation layers
Processor Count
Increases in the numbers of nodes and host sites and
expected growth in use of micro-computers, super-
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workstations, and other modest cost but high power
solutions will drive the development of different network
interconnect strategies as well as the infrastructure
managing this increased name space. Hierarchical
management (as in domain based naming) and suitable
layer realizations will be required to build networks that
robust and functional in the face of the
expansions
Dynamic Binding of Names to
Increased processor counts and increased usage of
units, mobile units and lap-top micros will make
management of the name/address space a must. Units must
fixed designations that can be re-bound to physical
as required or expedient
4. USER
The user services of the network are a key aspect of making
network directly useful to the scientist. Without the right
services, network users separate into artificial subclasses based
their degree of sophistication in acquiring skill in the use of
network. Flexible information dissemination equalizes
effectiveness of the network for different kinds of users
Near Term
In the near term, the focus is on providing the services that
users to take advantage of the functions that the
network provides
Directory
Much of the information necessary in the use of the network is
directory purposes. The user needs to access resources available
the network, and needs to obtain a name or address
White
The network needs to provide mechanisms for looking up names
addresses of people and hosts on the network. Flexible
should be possible on multiple aspects of the directory listing
Some of these services are normally transparent to the user/host
to address translation for example
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Yellow
Other kinds of information lookup are based on cataloging
classification of information about resources on the networks
Information Sharing
Bulletin
The service of the electronic bulletin board is the one-to-
analog of the one-to-one service of electronic mail.
bulletin board provides a forum for discussion and
of information. Accessibility is network-wide depending on
definition of the particular bulletin board. Currently
SMTP and UUCP protocols are used in the transport of
for many bulletin boards, but any similar electronic
transport can be substituted without affecting the
concept. An effectively open-ended recipient list is
as the recipient of a message, which then constitutes
bulletin board posting. A convention exists as to
transport protocols are utilized for a particular set
bulletin boards. The user agent used to access the
Board may vary from host to host. Some number of
resources on the network provide the service of
expanding the symbolic mail address of the Bulletin Board
its constituent parts, as well as relaying postings as
service to the network. Associated with this service is
maintenance of the lists used in distributing the postings
This maintenance includes responding to requests from
Board readers and host Bulletin Board managers, as well
drawing the appropriate conclusions from
automatically generated or error messages in response
distribution attempts
Community
Much information can be shared over the network. At some
each particular information item reaches the stage where it
no longer appropriately kept online and accessible.
moving a file of information to offline storage, a network
provide its hosts a considerable economy if information
interest to several of them need only be stored offline once
Procedures then exist for querying and retrieving from the
of offline stored files
Shared/distributed file
It should be possible for a user on the network to look at
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broadly defined collection of information on the network as
useful whole. To this end, standards for accessing
remotely are necessary. These standards should include
for random access to remote files, similar to the
employed on a single computer system
Distributed Databases and
As more scientific disciplines computerize their data
and catalogs, mechanisms will have to be provided to
distributed access to these resources. Fundamentally new
of collaborative research will become possible when
resources and access mechanisms are widely available
Resource Sharing
In sharing the resources or services available on the network
certain ancillary services are needed depending on
resource
Access
Identification and authorization is needed for individuals, hosts
subnetworks permitted to make use of a resource available via
network. There should be consistency of procedure for obtaining
utilizing permission for use of shared resources. The
scheme used for access to the network should be available for use
resources as well. In some cases, this will serve as
access control, and in other cases it will be a useful adjunct
resource-specific controls. The information on the current
location of the user should be available along with information
user identification to permit added flexibility for resources.
example, it should be possible to verify that an access attempt
coming from within a state. A state agency might then grant
access to its services only for users within the state.
of individuals should be codifiable within the access
database, for example membership in a given professional society
Users of a resource have a right to expect that they have
over the release of the information they generate. Resources
allow classifying information according to degree of access, i.e
none, access to read, access according to criteria specified in
data itself, ability to change or add information. The full range
identification information described under access control should
available to the user when specifying access. Access could
granted to all fellow members of a professional society, for example
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To permit auditing of usage, accounting information should
provided for those resources for which it is deemed necessary.
would include identity of the user of the resource and
corresponding volume of resource components
Legalities of Interagency Research
To make the multiply-sponsored internetwork feasible, the
budget will have to recognize that some usage outside a
budget category may occur. This will permit the cross-utilization
agency funded resources. For example, NSFnet researchers would
able to access supercomputers over NASnet. In return for this,
total cost to the government will be significantly reduced because
the benefits of sharing network and other resources, rather
duplicating them
In order for the networking needs of scientific computing to be met
new standards are going to evolve. It is important that they
tested under actual use conditions, and that feedback be used
refine them. Since the standards for scientific communication
networking are to be experimented with, they are more dynamic
those in other electronic communication fields. It is critical
the resources of the network be expended to promulgate
standards and maximize the range of the community utilizing them.
this end, the sharing of results of the testing is important
User-oriented
The functionality of the network should be available widely
the costly need to refer requests to experts for formulation.
basic information facility in the network should therefore
developed. The network should be self-documenting via online
files, interactive tutorials, and good design. In addition, concise
well-indexed and complete printed documentation should be available
Future
The goal for the future should be to provide the advanced
services that allow full advantage to be taken of the
of users, computing resources, data bases, and
facilities. One major goal would be the creation of a
knowledge bank. Such a knowledge bank would capture and
computer-based knowledge in various scientific fields that
currently available only in written/printed form, or in the minds
Leiner [Page 18]
RFC 1017 Requirements for Scientific Research August 1987
experts or experienced workers in the field. This knowledge would
stored in knowledge banks which will be accessible over the
to individual researchers and their programs. The result will be
codification of scientific understanding and technical know-how in
series of knowledge based systems which would become
capable over time
In this paper, we have tried to describe the functions required
the interconnected national network to support scientific research
These functions range from basic connectivity through to
provision for powerful distributed user services
Many of the goals described in this paper are achievable with
technology. They require coordination of the various
activities, agreement to share costs and technologies, and
to use common protocols and standards in the provision of
functions. Other goals require further research, where
coordination of the efforts and sharing of results will be key
making those results available to the scientific user
For these reasons, we welcome the initiative represented by
workshop to have the government agencies join forces in providing
best network facilities possible in support of scientific research
Internet Task Force on Scientific
Rick Adrion University of
Ron Bailey NASA Ames Research
Rick Bogart Stanford
Bob Brown
Dave Farber University of
Alan Katz USC Information Science
Jim Leighton Lawrence Livermore
Keith Lantz Stanford
Barry Leiner (chair)
Milo Medin NASA Ames Research
Mike Muuss US Army Ballistics Research
Harvey Newman California Institute of
David Roode
Ari Ollikainen General
Peter Shames Space Telescope Science
Phil Scherrer Stanford
Leiner [Page 19]
if you see any problems within the linking, don't worry be happy,
this is version 0.1 of the Relevance System and you gotta expect some crappy subroutines sometimes,
just be content we did not write this in Java, which would have made this "bigger and better" HAHAHHA.
RFC documents can be found at I.E.T.F.
Relevance System Copyright © 2002 Spectrum WorldResearch
other technical nosh by ServerMasters Corporation
collaboration of BobX
