STANDARDS FOR OPEN SYSTEMS:  MORE FLEXIBILITY FOR FEDERAL USERS
Communications networks are essential to the federal government's
plans for using information technology to improve the
effectiveness of agency programs and to provide better services
to citizens.  Government initiatives for streamlined procurement
practices and easy access to government information rely on the
interoperability and openness of different computers and
communications systems.
Today a wide variety of computers and communications technologies
are being used by organizations to carry out their programs.
Mainframe computers, local area networks, workstations, personal
computers, proprietary and standards-based networking services
and protocols often operate in isolated applications.  Not all of
today's products are interoperable, and it is not always easy to
transmit information across different systems and applications.
Open and interoperable systems underlie the federal government's
goal for a modern information infrastructure.  The Information
Infrastructure Task Force (IITF), an interagency group that
develops and implements policies and initiatives concerning the
National Information Infrastructure (NII), envisions that this
infrastructure will be a "network of networks" that is "open,"
interactive, and user-driven.
To succeed in integrating information technology into the
business of government, agencies have to choose strategies that
will support their current diverse systems and missions, that are
cost-effective, and that will provide for future systems.  This
bulletin provides information on recent changes to Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for data communications
protocols that enable computer systems to communicate with other
systems in an open environment.
Background
During the past year, we completed a review of the government's
requirements for the interoperability and openness of its
networks.  The Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel, which
was established by NIST to study issues and recommend actions on
the use of networking standards by the federal government, issued
its final report in 1994.
The Panel focused on the problems faced by federal agencies in
implementing FIPS 146, Government Open Systems Interconnection
Profile (GOSIP), when acquiring and using networks.  Issued in
1986, GOSIP was developed by an interagency group composed of
representatives of more than 20 agencies that had requirements
for a set of common data communication protocols based on the
International Organization for Standardization's seven-layer Open
Systems Interconnection (OSI) Basic Reference Model.
Agencies participating in the development of GOSIP included the
Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and
Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice,
Labor, Transportation, Treasury, NASA, OMB, and others.
Agreements reached at the NIST Workshop for Implementors of Open
Systems Interconnection (now the Open Systems Environments
Implementors' Workshop [OIW]) were an important part of GOSIP.
Both government and industry users and the providers of open
systems contributed to the development of these agreements which
defined common ways to interpret and implement the OSI standards.
Beginning in 1990, the use of GOSIP protocols was required when
agencies acquired computer network products and services and
communications systems or services that provided certain
functionality:  electronic mail, file transfer, interoperability
among standard local area networking technologies, and remote
terminal access capabilities.
Network Diversity
The Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel pointed out that
"(w)hen GOSIP was originally conceived in the mid-1980s, OSI
products were beginning to appear, vendors were developing (and
promising to develop) more products, and governments and
industries around the world were establishing plans and programs
to adopt the OSI standards as the basis of their interworking."
OSI protocols were expected to displace another suite of standard
data communications, the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS), which are
developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force of the Internet
Society in a less formal process than that used by international
standards groups.  The Panel said that "IPS products, on the
other hand, were limited in the mid-1980s, and several major
vendors of computer and networking equipment were still in a
'wait and see' mode."
Many marketplace changes have occurred since 1986 when GOSIP was
issued.  The Internet has evolved from a limited network for the
research and defense community to a broad international service
with many government and commercial users.  Commercial hardware
and software that conforms to the IPS standards is widely
available.  On the other hand, OSI products were slow in coming
to the market.
The Panel observed that agencies seldom bought OSI products, or
may not have used or installed the OSI products that they did
acquire as a result of the procurement mandate.  While there were
a few successful OSI applications, such as for electronic mail,
these applications did not result in governmentwide
interoperability.  Agencies continued to use proprietary
solutions or adopted the IPS standards.
Both IPS and OSI provide many of the same capabilities:  the
interconnection of computers, local area, wide area, and other
networks; the routing of information in packets or datagrams
between networks; reliable data transmission; file transfers;
remote log-in to a computer; and electronic mail.  While the
technologies for tying these different systems together are
diverse, complex, and often incompatible, there are ways to use
some OSI protocols over an IPS network.
The Panel concluded that the OSI protocols alone are not
sufficient in meeting the full range of government requirements
for data internetworking, and that federal government agencies
should have flexibility to select networking protocol standards
based on factors such as interoperability needs, existing
infrastructure, costs, the availability of marketplace products,
and status of a protocol suite as a standard.
New Policies
Based on the Panel's recommendations, we have taken actions to
modify FIPS 146, GOSIP, and FIPS 179, Government Network
Management Profile (GNMP), which is based on OSI protocols and
provides network management functions and services for GOSIP end
systems and intermediate systems.  In a Federal Register notice
(Vol. 60, No. 93, May 15, 1995), NIST announced that the
Secretary of Commerce had approved revisions to both standards.
OSI protocols are no longer mandatory for use by federal agencies
when they acquire networking products and services and
communications systems and services.  FIPS 146 has been renamed
Profiles for Open Systems Internetworking Technologies (POSIT).
The revised standards broaden options for agencies by enabling
them to acquire and use a variety of networking products that
implement open, voluntary standards.  Such standards include
those developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF),
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO).  Federal
agencies are encouraged to select networking protocols that meet
their interoperability needs, and that are supported in cost-
effective, off-the-shelf commercial products.  The Industry/
Government Open Systems Specification (IGOSS), issued as NIST
Special Publication 500-217, updates the OSI protocols in the
former GOSIP standard and may be used by federal agencies when
they wish to acquire OSI protocols.
Since interoperability is a key requirement for the effective use
of information technology, agencies may wish to require that
products that they acquire be tested for or required to
demonstrate interoperability.  The IGOSS Industry/Government Open
Systems Specification Testing Framework (NISTIR 5438) describes a
voluntary testing program for IGOSS protocols.
Future Federal Requirements
Government agencies have common information technology
requirements and the need to share information electronically.
Agencies and groups with common requirements have become known as
affinity groups, some of which have already been identified in
areas such as electronic commerce, electronic mail, access to
information, and benefits transfers.  These groups are actively
working to implement the recommendations of the National
Performance Review report on Reengineering Through Information
Technology, which addressed the use of information technology to
improve the delivery of government services.  Their work is being
coordinated by the Government Information Technology Services
(GITS) Working Group under the IITF.
The Panel observed that affinity groups could be active in the
selection of future standards needed for interoperability and in
the development of the infrastructure to support
interoperability.  A process for identifying future groups, their
roles and responsibilities needs to be defined, according to the
Panel.
NIST Assistance
NIST hosts workshops and conducts other support activities to
assist users in addressing open systems requirements, preparing
for the use of new technology, and identifying the international,
national, industry and other open specifications that are
available for building open systems frameworks, such as the
government's Applications Portability Profile for the Open System
Environment.  NIST sponsors the semiannual Users' Forum on
Application Portability Profile (APP) and Open System Environment
(OSE) to exchange information and respond to NIST proposals
regarding the evaluation and adoption of an integrated set of
standards to support the APP and OSE.  The quarterly Open Systems
Environment Implementors' Workshop (OIW), co-sponsored by NIST
and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Computer Society, provides a public international technical forum
for the timely development of implementation agreements based on
emerging OSE standards.
References
NIST Special Publication 500-217, IGOSS-Industry/
Government Open Systems Specifications, Version 1, Gerard
Mulvenna, Editor, May 1994.
NISTIR 5438, Industry/Government Open Systems Specification
Testing Framework, Version 1.0, Jean-Philippe Favreau, Editor,
June 1994.
"The National Information Infrastructure:  Agenda for Action,"
Information Infrastructure Task Force, September 15, 1993.
"Report of the Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel,"
prepared for NIST, May 1994.
NIST Special Publication 500-210, Application Portability
Profile--The Government's Open System Environment Profile OSE/1
Version 2.0, June 1993.
"Reengineering Through Information Technology," Accompanying
Report of the National Performance Review, Office of the Vice
President, Washington, DC, September 1993.