8/4/2019 2556276 Network Computing TCPIP Dependable Networking Infrastructure

1/3

Th re archcaught on quickly and led to RPA T(a wid area n twork tabli h d byDARPA . Ba d on lea d lin andpack t- witch d n twork RPA ETund rwent e plo iv gr wth. In 19 0DARPA tart d witchin ARP ETov r to a n wly d v loped prot 01uit : TCP/IP.Hundr d of thou and of T P/IPba d node prang up, link d over local and wide area n twork . Th larg tand mo t popular wid area n twork forT P/IP i what i n w known th Intern t. AI th larg number of nodand wid area network putT P/IP to anearly and d manding trial. n u ntly,th TCP/IP prot 01 haY n t t dund r heavy fire in all kind of n tworking environm n .TCP/IP' performanch al 0 contributed to it u

YI t anoth r r a on for T P/IPpopularity i that itpr t 01 ar in thpubl ic domain. Anyon can writ aTCP/IP impl m ntat ion without g ttinga lic n or performing any oth r admin-i trat iv pr du r .Unlik c pyrightedtandard lik 0 IT P/IP i availabl toany n at v ry I wco t. Ac ordin to J nP t I editor of th of-fi ial Int rn t tan-dards, publi a hI d to important contribution by oftwaretartup programmand v n tud nt , whohaY readily add d valu thr ughout th T P/IP-ba ed n t-w rking nvironm nt.Havin T P/IP in th publi domainal 0 mad it attr tiv t n twor im

pI m nt r . A a r ult impl m ntation cropped up on a vari ty of c mput . Particularly important wa thin orporation of T P/IP into th B r -

application continu to appear. On ofthe bigge t ucce e , for xampl ,habe n the SimpleMail Tran fer ProtocolMTP). Originally con ider d likTCP/IP, to be only an int rim olution,th ervic ha clearly won out ov rother approache .Among th lik Iy r a on forTCP/IP popularity i that th re haYbe n many pr totype implem ntationof th prot 01 to t t a part of thtandard proce .Thi ,i n tum, h furth r been aided by a very open procfor participating in tandard -makingd ci ion.What' more, di tribution ofth tandard i fr . Thi i in harp contra t too I wh r many protocol becomtandard without v r being implemented, and where information can runa much a ]0 per pag (inc th protocol ar copyright d).

,n w

hink of TCP/IP the te andpractical Old mobil of modemprotocol tack. It i old d pendable and not particularly fl hy. Atth sam tim ,i popularitymakeit more like a Honda (it II i If).How did TCP/IP (tran mi ion controlprot ol/intem twor protocol) becom 0 popular? Two word can explain it ucce : It work . And an oldadag , "If it i n' t broken don't fix it nexplain it longevity.We'v heard for year that TCP/IPwa ju t a t mporary olution-a tranition until OSI (Open Sy t m Interconn ction) would take over for openy t m . Vendo of proprietary y tern -DECn t A, etWar andoth -pay lip ervic to TCP/IP butthen go on to argue that their own product are better.

But TCP/IP protocol pr vail. Theirb ic rvic g twid u ,and value-add d rviceuch a Sun' etwork Fil Sy terncontinu to appear.Indeed, th futureof TCP/IP lookvery good even inth fac of moremod rn protocoluit lik thooffer d by OSI.

Iep/IP-A Dependableetwor ing Infrastructureby Carl aa ud

14 NETWOn COMPUTING A'RIL 1991

8/4/2019 2556276 Network Computing TCPIP Dependable Networking Infrastructure

2/3

ti ularly wh n d aling with quick andhort communication .Which i prefi rred? If up to th r-vic or u n th n twork. m r-vi can u both tran port conn tion . Oth r r quire TCP t o en ure thatdata i not 10 1.

APRIL 1991 NETWORK COMPUTING IS

8/4/2019 2556276 Network Computing TCPIP Dependable Networking Infrastructure

3/3

VIIIIN!-adftMThallvi

I' NETWOn COMPUTING APRil 1991

ant toring atFOR MORE INFORMATION

c n d at low 0 t from a number ofdiffi rent vendo .Th re ult with th TCP/IP pr to-col i a wid a ptan of both RPCandXDR. Ov r a million comput arenow running th protocol, which upport all th maj r operating y t m .Sun etwork Fil Sy t m ( F ),which i built on top of RPC and XDR,furth r h Ip th popularity of both ofth protocol. FS, al 0 fr Iy availabl ,allow a fi I y tern on n comput r t appear a local fil y tern toanoth r. A work tation can "mount"file from a Cray, IBM mainfram ,VAX oro th r platform and haY th mall appear local fiI .Wh n a protocol uit uch t-

info- r er b. .n tI f you re on another y tern, uth ir Int m t gateway.For xample from MCI addremail a follow :TO: I ( ): Internet8 :info- rver@Sb. .netAnd if you're on Compu rv ,nd to:>Internet:info- r v C ' - ' ~ I I A ; : ! k U ~ Wh n nding your m ge, youcan leav th ubj ct lin blank. In th body of th m ge, in-clud two linR Q T:TOPI : H LP Finally, you'U g t a me g teU-ing you how to get pecific d umenA good tart i RFC 1118, theHitchhik r' Guide to the Internet.

work Fil wid Iy im-plem nted h t rogen u file y t mwork a r a rang of computing ar-chil' ctuf .With i wid a ceptance and popularity till going trong-ju t th r -Iiabl family dan continu to rollt adily aJong-TCP/IP till ha plentym r mil I ft to go before it i repia ed by 0 I.Carl Malamud write profi s ional I"< if-el"< nc book. H recently ompletedAnalyzing DECnet/OSI Phase V, to bpublish db Van Nostrand Reinhold.