rfc871.txt

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     (Network Interface, Host-Host, and Process-Level, or
     Applications), the constituents of which are to be modular.
     E.g., in the Host-Host layer of the current ARMS, the Internet
     Protocol, IP, packages internet addressing--among other
     things--for both the Transmission Control Protocol, TCP, which
     packages reliable interprocess communication, and UDP--the less
     well-known User Datagram Protocol--which packages only
     demultiplexable interprocess communication ... and for any other
     IPC packaging which should prove desirable.  The ISORM view, on
     the other hand, fundamentally treats layers as rather narrow
     functional groupings, attempting to force modularity by requiring
     additional layers for additional functions (although the
     "classes" view of the proposed ECMA-sponsored ISORM Transport
     protocol tends to mimic the relations between TCP, UDP, and IP).

          It is, by the way, forcing this view of modularity by
     multiplying layers rather than by trusting the designers of a
     given protocol to make it usable by other protocols within its
     own layer that we suspect to be a major cause of the divergence
     between the ISORM and the ARM, but, as indicated, the issue
     almost certainly is not susceptible of proof.  (The less
     structured view of modularity will be returned to in the next
     major section.)  At any rate, the notion that "N-entities" must
     communicate with one another by means of "N-1 entities" does seem
     to us to take the ISORM out of its






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     RFC 871                                            September 1982


     intended sphere of description into the realm of prescription,
     where we believe it should not be, if for no other reason than
     that for a reference model to serve a prescriptive role levies
     unrealizable requirements of precision, and of familiarity with
     all styles of operating systems, on its expositors.  In other
     words, as it is currently presented, the ISORM hierarchy of
     protocols turns out to be a rather strict hierarchy, with
     required, "chain of command" implications akin to the Elizabethan
     World Picture's Great Chain of Being some readers might recall if
     they've studied Shakespeare, whereas in the ARM a cat can even
     invoke a king, much less look at one.

     Common Intermediate Representations

          The next axiom to be considered might well not be an axiom
     in a strict sense of the term, for it is susceptible of "proof"
     in some sense.  That is, when it came time to design the first
     Process-Level (roughly equivalent to ISORM Level 5.3 [5] through
     7) ARMS protocol, it did seem self-evident that a "virtual
     terminal" was a sound conceptual model--but it can also be
     demonstrated that it is.  The argument, customarily shorthanded
     as "the N X M Problem", was sketched above; it goes as follows:
     If you want to let users at remote terminals log in/on to Hosts
     (and you do--resource sharing doesn't preclude remote access, it
     subsumes it), you have a problem with Hosts' native terminal
     control software or "access methods", which only "know about"
     certain kinds/brands/types of terminals, but there are many more
     terminals out there than any Host has internalized (even those
     whose operating systems take a generic view of I/O and don't
     allow applications programs to "expect" particular terminals).

          You don't want to make N different types of Host/Operating
     System have to become aware of M different types of terminal.
     You don't want to limit access to users who are at one particular
     type of terminal even if all your Hosts happen to have one in
     common.  Therefore, you define a common intermediate
     representation (CIR) of the properties of terminals--or create a
     Network Virtual Terminal (NVT), where "virtual" is used by
     analogy to "virtual memory" in the sense of something that isn't
     necessarily really present physically but can be used as if it
     were.  Each Host adds one terminal to its set of supported types,
     the NVT--where adding means translating/mapping from the CIR to
     something acceptable to the rest of the programs on your system
     when receiving terminal-oriented traffic "from the net", and
     translating/mapping to the CIR from whatever your acceptable
     native representation was when sending terminal-oriented traffic
     "to the net".  (And the system to  which the terminal is
     physically attached does the same things.)







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     RFC 871                                            September 1982


          "Virtualizing" worked so well for the protocol in question
     ("Telnet", for TELetypewriter NETwork) that when it came time to
     design a File Transfer Protocol (FTP), it was employed again--in
     two ways, as it happens.  (It also worked so well that in some
     circles, "Telnet" is used as a generic term for "Virtual Terminal
     Protocol", just like "Kleenex" for "disposable handkerchief".)
     The second way in which FTP (another generic-specific) used
     Common Intermediate Representations is well-known: you can make
     your FTP protocol interpreters (PI's) use certain "virtual" file
     types in ARMS FTP's and in proposed ISORMS FTP's.  The first way
     a CIR was used deserved more publicity, though:  We decided to
     have a command-oriented FTP, in the sense of making it possible
     for users to cause files to be deleted from remote directories,
     for example, as well as simply getting a file added to a remote
     directory.  (We also wanted to be able to designate some files to
     be treated as input to the receiving Hosts' native "mail" system,
     if it had one.)  Therefore, we needed an agreed-upon
     representation of the commands--not only spelling the names, but
     also defining the character set, indicating the ends of lines,
     and so on.  In less time than it takes to write about, we
     realized we already had such a CIR: "Telnet".

          So we "used Telnet", or at any rate the NVT aspects of that
     protocol, as the "Presentation" protocol for the control aspects
     of FTP--but we didn't conclude from that that Telnet was a lower
     layer than FTP.  Rather, we applied the principles of modularity
     to make use of a mechanism for more than one purpose--and we
     didn't presume to know enough about the internals of everybody
     else's Host to dictate how the program(s) that conferred the FTP
     functionality interfaced with the program(s) that conferred the
     Telnet functionality.  That is, on some operating systems it
     makes sense to let FTP get at the NVT CIR by means of closed
     subroutine calls, on others through native IPC, and on still
     others by open subroutine calls (in the sense of replicating the
     code that does the NVT mapping within the FTP PI).  Such
     decisions are best left to the system programmers of the several
     Hosts.  Although the ISORM takes a similar view in principle, in
     practice many ISORM advocates take the model prescriptively
     rather than descriptively and construe it to require that PI's at
     a given level must communicate with each other via an "N-1
     entity" even within the same Host.  (Still other ISORMites
     construe the model as dictating "monolithic" layers--i.e., single
     protocols per level--but this view seems to be abating.)

          One other consideration about virtualizing bears mention:
     it's a good servant but a bad master.  That is, when you're
     dealing with the amount of traffic that traverses a
     terminal-oriented logical (or even virtual) connection, you don't
     worry much about how many CPU cycles you're "wasting" on mapping
     into and out of the NVT CIR; but





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     RFC 871                                            September 1982


     when you're dealing with files that can be millions of bits long,
     you probably should worry--for those CPU cycles are in a fairly
     real sense the resources you're making sharable.  Therefore, when
     it comes to (generic) FTP's, even though we've seen it in one or
     two ISORM L6 proposals, having only a virtual file conceptual
     model is not wise.  You'd rather let one side or the other map
     directly between native representations where possible, to
     eliminate the overhead for going into and out of the CIR--for
     long enough files, anyway, and provided one side or the other is
     both willing and able to do the mapping to the intended
     recipient's native representation.

     Efficiency

          The last point leads nicely into an axiom that is rarely
     acknowledged explicitly, but does belong in the ARM list of
     axioms: Efficiency is a concern, in several ways.  In the first
     place, protocol mechanisms are meant to follow the design
     principle of Parsimony, or Least Mechanism; witness the argument
     immediately above about making FTP's be able to avoid the double
     mapping of a Virtual File approach when they can.  In the second
     place, witness the argument further above about leaving
     implementation decisions to implementers.  In the author's
     opinion, the worst mistake in the ISORM isn't defining seven (or
     more) layers, but decreeing that "N-entities" must communicate
     via "N-1 entities" in a fashion which supports the interpretation
     that it applies intra-Host as well as inter-Host.  If you picture
     the ISORM as a highrise apartment building, you are constrained
     to climb down the stairs and then back up to visit a neighbor
     whose apartment is on your own floor.  This might be good
     exercise, but CPU's don't need aerobics as far as we know.

          Recalling that this paper is only secondarily about ARM
     "vs." ISORM, let's duly note that in the ARM there is a concern
     for efficiency from the perspective of participating Hosts'
     resources (e.g., CPU cycles and, it shouldn't be overlooked,
     "core") expended on interpreting protocols, and pass on to the
     final axiom without digressing to one or two proposed specific
     ISORM mechanisms which seem to be extremely inefficient.

     Equity

          The least known of the ARM axioms has to do with a concern
     over whether particular protocol mechanisms would entail undue
     perturbation of native mechanisms if implemented in particular
     Hosts.  That is, however reluctantly, the ARMS designers were
     willing to listen to claims that "you can't implement that in my
     system" when particular tactics were proposed and, however







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     RFC 871                                            September 1982


     grudgingly, retreat from a mechanism that seemed perfectly
     natural on their home systems to one which didn't seriously
     discommode a colleague's home system.  A tacit design principle
     based on equity was employed.  The classic example had to do with
     "electronic mail", where a desire to avoid charging for incoming
     mail led some FTP designers to think that the optionally
     mandatory "login" commands of the protocol shouldn't be mandatory
     after all.  But the commands were needed by some operating
     systems to actuate not only accounting mechanisms but
     authentication mechanisms as well, and the process which
     "fielded" FTP connections was too privileged (and too busy) to
     contain the FTP PI as well.  So (to make a complex story
     cryptic), a common name and password were advertised for a "free"
     account for incoming mail, and the login commands remained
     mandatory (in the sense that any Host could require their
     issuance before it participated in FTP).

          Rather than attempt to clarify the example, let's get to its
     moral:  The point is that how well protocol mechanisms integrate
     with particular operating systems can be extremely subtle, so in
     order to be equitable to participating systems, you must either
     have your designers be sophisticated implementers or subject your
     designs to review by sophisticated implementers (and grant veto
     power to them in some sense).

          It is important to note that, in the author's view, the
     ISORM not only does not reflect application of the Principle of
     Equity, but it also fails to take any explicit cognizance of the
     necessity of properly integrating its protocol interpreters into
     continuing operating systems.  Probably motivated by Equity
     considerations, ARMS protocols, on the other hand, represent the
     result of intense implementation discussion and testing.

                               Articulation

          Given the foregoing discussion of its axioms, and a reminder
     that we find it impossible in light of the existence of dozens of
     definitions of so fundamental a notion as "process" to believe in
     rigorous definitions, the ARPANET Reference Model is not going to
     require much space to articulate.  Indeed, given further the
     observation that we believe reference models are supposed to be
     descriptive rather than prescriptive, the articulation of the ARM
     can be almost terse.

          In order to achieve efficient, equitable resource sharing
     among dissimilar operating systems, a layered set of interprocess
     communication oriented protocols is posited which typically
     employ common intermediate representations over logical
     connections.  Three






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     RFC 871                                            September 1982


     layers are distinguished, each of which may contain a number of
     protocols.