NBS TECHNICAL NOTE 805

Network Management Survey
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards 1 was established by an act of Congress March 3, 1901. The Bureau's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology

and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts

research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade, and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau consists of the Institute for Basic Standards, the Institute for Materials Research, the Institute for Applied Technology,

the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, and the Office for Information Programs.

THE INSTITUTE FOR BASIC STANDARDS provides the central basis within the United

States of a complete and consistent system of physical measurement; coordinates that system

with* measurement systems of other nations; and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform physical measurements throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry,

and commerce. The Institute consists of a Center for Radiation Research, an Office of Measurement Services and the following divisions: Applied Mathematics — Electricity — Mechanics — Heat — Optical Physics — Nuclear

Sciences 2 — Applied Radiation " — Quantum Electronics ' — Electromagnetics 3 — Time

and Frequency 3 — Laboratory Astrophysics 3 — Cryogenics 3

. THE INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement, standards, and data on the properties of well-characterized materials needed by industry, commerce, educational institutions, and Government; provides

advisory and research services to other Government agencies; and develops, produces, and

distributes standard reference materials. The Institute consists of the Office of Standard Reference Materials and the following divisions: Analytical Chemistry — Polymers — Metallurgy — Inorganic Materials — Reactor

Radiation — Physical Chemistry.

THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGY provides technical services to promote

the use of available technology and to facilitate technological innovation in industry and

Government; cooperates with public and private organizations leading to the development of

technological standards (including mandatory safety standards), codes and methods of test; and provides technical advice and services to Government agencies upon request. The Institute consists of a Center for Building Technology and the following divisions and offices: Engineering and Product Standards — Weights and Measures — Invention and Innovation — Product Evaluation Technology — Electronic Technology — Technical Analysis — Measurement Engineering — Structures, Materials, and Life Safety 4 — Building

Environment * — Technical Evaluation and Application * — Fire Technology.

THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts research and provides technical services designed to aid Government agencies in improving cost effec- tiveness in the conduct of their programs through the selection, acquisition, and effective

utilization of automatic data processing equipment; and serves as the principal focus within

the executive branch for the development of Federal standards for automatic data processing

equipment, techniques, and computer languages. The Institute consists of the following

divisions: Computer Services — Systems and Software — Computer Systems Engineering — Information Technology.

THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION PROGRAMS promotes optimum dissemination and

accessibility of scientific information generated within NBS and other agencies of the Federal Government; promotes the development of the National Standard Reference Data System and

a system of information analysis centers dealing with the broader aspects of the National Measurement System; provides appropriate services to ensure that the NBS staff has optimum

accessibility to the scientific information of the world. The Office consists of the following

organizational units: OffiV? of Standard Reference Data — Office of Information Activities — Office of Technical

Publications — Library — Office of International Relations.

1 Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, Maryland, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, D.C. 20234.

a Part of the Center for Radiation Research.

3 Located at Boulder, Colorado 80302.

* Part of the Center for Building Technology.
Network Management Survey

Ira W. Cotton

Computer Systems Engineering Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

National Byresti of Stan APR 2 9 1974

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation

18th and G Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20550

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Frederick B. Dent, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Richard W. Roberts, D/recfor

Issued February 1974
National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 805

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Tech. Note 805, 91 pages (Feb. 1974)

CODEN: NBTNAE

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1974

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No. C13.46:805). Price $1.20
Foreword

This report Is one of a series of publications

produced by the Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology, National Bureau of Standards, under Grant

AG-350 from the National Science Foundation.

This grant supports a broad program of Investigation

Into the foundations of computer networking in support of

scientific and related educational efforts.

A listing of completed and planned publications

produced by the Institute under this grant follows*

1. "Primary Issues In User Needs"

D. W. Fife

Chapter 10 in <Networks for Research and Education*

Sharing of Computer and Information Resources

NationwIde>

MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Expected Publication* January 1 974

2. "Some Technical Considerations for Improved

Service to Computer Users"

T. N. Pyke, Jr.

C0MPC0N 1973

Seventh Annual IEEE Computer Society

International Conference

3. "Computer Networking Technology - A

State of the Art Review"

T. N. Pyke, Jr. and R. P. Blanc

COMPUTER Magazine

Computer Society of the IEEE

August, 1973

4. "Review of Network Management Problems and Issues"

A. J. Neumann

October, 1973

NBS Technical Note No. 795

5. "Annotated Bibliography of the Literature on

Resource Sharing Computer Networks"

R. P. Blanc, I. W. Cotton, T. N. Pyke, Jr.

zr.4 S. W. Wat kins

September, 1973

NBS Special Publication 38k

in
6. "Network Management Survey"

I. W. Cotton

February, 1974

NBS Technical Note No. 805

7. "User Procedures Standardization for

Network Access"

A. J, Neumann

October, 1973

NBS Technical Note No. 799

8. "Review of Computer Networking Technology"

R. P. Blanc

January, 1974

NBS Technical Note No. 804

9. "Microeconomics and the Market for

Computer Services"

I. W. Cotton

Submitted for publication

10. "Cost Analyses for Computer Communications"

R. P. Blanc

NBS Report In Preparation

11. "Network User Information Support"

A. J. Neumann

NBS Technical Note No. 802

Expected Publications February 1974

12. "Quality Service Assurance Experiments"

R. Sti 1 lman

January, 1974

NBS Technical Note No. 800

13. "A Guide to Networking Terminology"

A. J. Neumann

NBS Technical Note No. 803

Expected Publication* February 1974

14. "Research Considerations in Computer Networking'

D. W. Fife

NBS Technical Note No. 801

Expected Publication* February 1974

IV
CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 1 ARPA Network k

MERIT Network 22

Triangle Universities Computation Center 34

Oregon State Regional Network 51

TYMNET 61

Conclusions 71
Acknowl edgements

The contributions to this document of Robert Blanc,

Albrecht Neumann, Dennis Fife and Thomas Pyke, Jr., all

of the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology,

are expressly and gratefully acknowledged. Also, the

assistance of technical and managerial personnel from

each of the networks surveyed, both in providing

information and in reviewing drafts, is noted and

appreciated. Of course, the ultimate responsibility

for the content of this document is the author's alone.

VI
Network Management Survey

Ira W. Cotton

This report presents the results of a study of management

practices In different computer networks. Five networks

were chosen as typical of different approaches to network

Implementation and management* Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (ARPA) Network, MERIT Network, Triangle

Universities Computation Center (TUCC), Oregon State

Regional Network and Tymnet, a commercial network. A

common format Is employed to survey each network. While

the report Is not Intended to be prescriptive, some

empirical observations are presented for each topic

covered.

Key words * Computer network; management;

network; network management

Introduction

This report on management practices In different computer

networks presents some of the results of a study conducted

by the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology,

National Bureau of Standards, for the National Science

Foundation In support of the "Networking for Science"

program. The approach to management taken in this report

Is positive (i.e., reporting on current practices as they

exist); the normative or prescriptive approach is taken In

a separate report as indicated in the foreword.

This survey Is meant to be representative and illustrative

rather than exhaustive or conclusive. The networks

covered were chosen to be typical of different approaches

to network Implementation and management.

The ARPA network Is a large distributed network of

autonomous, heterogeneous computer systems. It has

focused on the development of network technology and

resource-sharing techniques, rather than organizational

probl ems.
Network Management Survey Introduction

MERIT is a controlled experiment in networking on a regional basis with heterogeneous computer systems.

Considerable attention has been focused during the

network's development on the organizational problems.

TUCC Is another regional network, but with homogeneous

computers and a larger number of participating

institutions. TUCC has also given considerable

attention to organizational issues.

The Oregon State network is representative of many

centralized or "star" networks serving a regional

cl i entele.

TYMNET is the only commercial network included in the

study. It was desired to include a profit-seeking

network in the study, so as to be able to compare

managerial practices in non-competitive environments

with actual business practices. (Of course, the

inclusion of TYMNET in this study in no way implies

endorsement of this network).

Information for this report was gathered from primary and

secondary literature sources, from telephone and on-site

interviews, and by iterative review of thi s -document by

representatives of the networks covered. In some cases

the information presented here will already be out of date

by the time this report is published, so rapidly are these

networks developing.

A common format was employed for presenting the details of

each network. The table of contents which follows is an

outline for each of the five surveys which follow it.

Network architecture is separated from network management,

and the latter is broken down into a number of different

functional areas. This approach was adopted to permit

easy comparison of specific managerial concerns from

network to network. Some empirical observations from such

comparisons are presented in a concluding section which

follows the same format as each of the reports.

Some comments are probably in order regarding the use of

the term "successful" with reference to the networks

surveyed. In the author's view, success is measured by

the satisfaction and acceptance of the network and its

facilities by its users. This should translate to the

continued existence of the network, and in most cases to

growth. Used in this sense, the term transcends mere

technical accomplishments. A network which performs
Network Management Survey Introduction

adequately in the technical sense but which fails to

satisfy user needs can not be considered successful.

Table 1. Organization of Each Survey

I. Introduction

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

B. Purpose/mission of Network

C. Status and Topology

D. Technology Summary

E. Future Plans

III. Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

B. Functions Performed

1 . PI anni ng

2., Instal 1 at i on

3. Operations

A. User Services

C. Interfaces ( rel at i onshi ps with other organizations)

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capi tal i zat i on

B. Accounting

C. Regulation

D. Security

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

B. Lessons Learned

Annexes

A. Bi bl i ography

B. Special Vocabulary
ARPA Network

I, Introduction

The ARPA Network is characteristic of large

decentralized networks of autonomous computer systems.

Its continued successful operation has been widely

publicized in the professional literature and trade

press, and has demonstrated the technical feasibility

of packet-switching for large networks.

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

The network is sponsored by the Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency (ARPA), an agency of the

Department of Defense concerned with research and

development in areas of advanced technology.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

The ARPA Network was begun as a research effort to

investigate multiple computer resource sharing and

to demonstrate the feasibility of packet switching

technology.

The network currently supports many ARPA-sponsored

research programs by providing access to resources

not available locally.

C. Status and Topology

The network has ,een operational since mid-1971.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate respectively the recent

geography and topology of the network . The

network currently includes over 30 sites with over

40 independent computer systems connected.

Reliability of the various network components

varies widely. Currently the communications subnet

of Interface Message Processors (IMPs) and circuits

has extremely high reliability, with only

occasional outages for particular IMPs or circuits.

Since most nodes are connected to at least two

other nodes, the outage of a single circuit does

not disturb network operation. The service sites

are generally less reliable than the subnet,

although the statistics vary widely from site to

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Network Management Survey ARPA Network

D. Technology Summary

The ARPA Network may be characterized as a distributed store-and-forward network of

heterogeneous computer systems (hosts). Hosts are

connected to the communications subnet by means of

a software interface called the Network Control

Program (NCP) and a hardware interface which may

have the characteristics of either a channel or a communications line. Each host is connected to a switching center in the subnet called an Interface

Message Processor (IMP) which contains an augmented

Honeywell 516 or 316 computer; up to four

independent hosts may be connected to the same IMP.

Each IMP is connected to two or more neighboring

IMPs by means of dedicated 50kb communications

lines. Host to host messages are passed from the

sending host to its IMP, where they are broken into

packets and relayed to their destination by the

subnetwork of IMPs and communications lines. The

routing is adaptive; i.e., the route of any given

packet is not established in advance and in general

the several packets of a message may follow

different routes. The destination IMP will

reassemble the message and deliver it to the proper

host.

Protocols in the network are constructed according

to a layered approach. The lowest level protocol

is a binary synchronous communications protocol

governing traffic exchange between IMPs. The

so-called "first level" protocol governs the

logical exchange of information between host and

IMP. The "second level" protocol governs the

logical exchange of information between Network

Control Programs in communicating hosts. The

"third level" of protocol refers to any

communications occur Ing between processes in the

host machines. Such third level protocols include

the Initial Connection Protocol (ICP), data

transfer protocol, file transfer protocol, remote

job entry protocol, graphics protocol, and others.

A special third level protocol called TELNET

defines a network virtual terminal and permits all

terminals on the network to provide a similar

interface to processes in a separate host computer

system. A special IMP which is augmented by the

addition of memory and a multiline controller (a
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

specially designed component containing central

logic and line interface units) can provide direct

network access to terminals without going through a separate host computer system by providing the

TELNET function itself. Such an IMP is called a Terminal IMP, or TIP.

E. Future Plans

The ARPA network continues to grow at a rate of

about one site per month. It has been extended

into Hawaii and Europe via satellite links.

Network traffic has been growing at an exponential

rate for some time. The main technical work

includes redesign of the present IMPs, development

of mi ni -computer front ends to IMPs for remote job

entry and private line interfaces, and the

continued refinement of the protocols.

Organizationally, the network is turning its

attention to improving resource-sharing facilities.

III. Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

Figure 3 illustrates the present organizational

structure for the network.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the

Department of Defense initially conceived and

funded the network, and presently directs its

operation through the Information Processing

Techniques Directorate. ARPA is not a large

agency, serving primarily as a granting agency, and

only several people spend their full time on

network activities.

ARPA has turned over the day-to-day operation of

the communications network to the USAF Range

Measurements Laboratory (RML) at Patrick AFB in

Florida. RML will serve as the procurement agent

for IMPs and maintenance services and as the

central liaison point for the Defense Commercial

Communications Office and the common carriers (see

below, III-B-1), Bolt Beranek and Newman, Network

Analysis Corporation, and prospective new users.

Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) of Cambridge,

Massachusetts, is the primary ARPA contractor in

8
HONEYWELL n

RRM ~ RESEARCH SITES DDR

- SERVICE SITES NCC

ATT —

mm

1 L USER SITES

MAC — ARPA

| NMC — 1 RML — 'NETWORK FACILITATORS"

NIC —

HML

/ MITRE CORPORATION

l

PROSPECTIVE USERS

BBN- Bolt Beranek & Newman

ATT- American Telephone & Telegraph

NAC- Network Analysis Corporation

NMC- Network Measurement Center (at UCLA)

NIC- Network Information Center (at SRI)

NCC- Network Control Center (at BBN)

RML- Range Measurements Laboratory (Patrick AFB)

Figure 3. Present Organizational Stricture for Operation of the ARPA Network
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

the development and operation of the network. BBN

designed and constructed the IMPs and TIPs which

comprise the subnet, wrote the software for these

processors, and participated in the specification

of the network protocols. BBN currently oversees

all network modifications, dealing, through RML,

with the Bell System for the wideband circuits, and

with Honeywell Information Systems for the

procurement of H-516 and H-316 processors for

inclusion in the IMPs and TIPs. BBN also operates

a Network Control Center (NCC) which monitors the

operation of the network on a round-the-clock basis

and which aids in the diagnosis of failures and

Initiates and coordinates maintenance efforts.

Honeywell Information Systems is an OEM supplier of

basic H-316 and H-516 processors, from which BBN

fabricates the IMPs and TIPs. Honeywell field

engineers also assist in the installation of the

IMPs and TIPs, and are responsible for maintenance.

Network Analysis Corporation (NAC), Glen Cove,

N.Y., serves as an ARPA contractor for analytical

studies to determine the optimum topology of the

network and select the topology actually used.

The Network Measurement Center (NMC) is an

ARPA-supported research group at the University of

California (Los Angeles) which performs

measurements and investigates the performance of

the network.

The Network Information Center (NIC) at Stanford

Research Institute provides a reference center

serving to receive, record, index, and transmit,

online and offline, Information produced by and

about the Network. To do this it designs

Information-handling tools for dialogue and

record-handling. The NIC currently operates a PDP-10 TENEX system which is used both for

development and network services. However, it Is

planned to separate the development activities from

the service functions through an arrangement with

Tymshare, Inc. The involvement with Tymshare is

strictly on a "facilities management" basis. That

is, Tymshare will operate a computer system

virtually identical to the one at the NIC, to

provide reliable Tenex, NLS, and Journal service to

NIC users and other selected customers. The NIC

10
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

staff will remain at SRI, as will the

responsibility for further developments in these

areas

Approximately 18 hosts may be classified as

research sites. These sites perform research In a number of areas under ARPA contracts and utilize

the network in support of their research.

Six sites are classified as service sites: UCLA

(360/91), SRI (NIC), UCSB (360/75), B8N (PDP-10),

USC-ISI (PDP-10) and MIT (MULTICS). Some of these

sites offer services to the network community on a fee basis; others are subsidized by ARPA.

The remaining sites are users, although intersite

arrangements are often made for the sharing of

resources. Almost all of the sites make some of

their resources available, but not all guarantee to

interact as a service organization. Each site has

a Technical Liaison to answer technical questions,

and a Station Agent to handle questions concerning

administrative, documentation, and similar

questions regarding the network resources and the

NIC.

The "network facilitators" were an informal

commitee of experienced users who proselytized and

attempted to solve network problems for users.

This group was In existence for about a year, after

which it disappeared. The performance of this type

of function has since been delegated to a group at

the Mitre Corporation under contract to ARPA.

Mitre publishes a network newsletter, responds to

user inquiries and provides various kinds of

assi stance.

Other groups that are in a sense "network

facilitators" are these special and general

interest groups »

ANTS Support Group

ARPANET Satellite System

Computer Based Instruction Group

File Transfer Protocol Interest Group

Imlac Interest Group

International Network Working Group

International Packet Network Working Group

Network Associates Group

11
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

Network Graphics Group

Network Information Center

Network Liaison Group

Network Measurement Group

Network Station Agent Group

Network Working Group Steering Committee

Principal Investigators

Packet Radio Group

Remote Job Entry

Speech Understanding Research Group

TIP Users Group

TNLS User Group

TENEX Users Group

B. Functions Performed

1 • PI anning

Network growth Is controlled by the sponsoring

agency, ARPA. However, Karp (1973) indicates

that the first 15 sites were ARPA research

facilities selected for their expertise in

software and system design rather than for the

computer resources they could provide.

Subsequent sites have provided both additional

resources and users of these resources. There

does not appear to be any fixed or published

policy for determining what sites are to be

added. Network growth Is presently limited by

the rate at which Honeywell and BBN can supply

IMPs (about 1 per month).

When a new site is selected, Network Analysis

Corporation determines for ARPA the new topology

for the subnet. The network topology is not

optimized each time a node is added, since that

might entail too costly and disruptive

alterations of existing circuits, but the new

node is added in as cost-effective a means as

possible. Occasionally, more extensive changes

are made to the network topology as needs

warrant. The planning function is thus

centralized and supported by appropriate

analysi s.

All hardware procurement for the network Is

controlled by ARPA; the individual sites are not

involved. ARPA places orders (through RML) for

IMPs and TIPs with BBN. Communications circuits

12
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

are ordered through the Defense Commercial

Communications Office (DECCO) which deals with

the various common carriers. As explained

below, in practice BBN coordinates circuit

installation with the carriers.

2. Instal 1 at i on

Each site which is added to the network is

responsible for fabricating the interface to the

IMP or TIP and for coding a network control

program (NCP). Specifications for each are

available from Bolt Beranek and Newman. The

host organization is also responsible for site

preparation (floor space, power, air

conditioning, etc.) for the IMP, which will

reside at the host's own location.

Bolt Beranek and Newman coordinates IMP

installation through the Network Control Center.

The normal installation team consists of a BBN

representative, the person from the locai

Honeywell office who will maintain the machine,

possibly an additional person from the main

Honeywell office, and telephone company

personnel

3. Operations

The local host organization is responsible for

maintenance of its host processor, NCP and IMP

interface. The local Honeywell office will

maintain the IMP itself. AT&T Long Lines

Division is responsible for maintenance of the

modems and communications circuits.

For diagnostic and control purposes, BBN

operates a special host system in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, which is called the Network

Control Center. The NCC regularly receives

status reports from all the IMPs in the network

regarding the operational status of their

communication circuits and their neighbouring

IMPs. Special programmable debugging and fault

isolation procedures (such as looping lines back

into the same IMP) may be initiated remotely

from the NCC. Fault isolation may or may not

require the assistance of local host personnel.

13
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

The maintenance function, which may involve

several organizations including the Bell System,

Honeywell, BBN and the local host, appears

complicated, but is handled ef

icient ly *t. The

Network Control Center is very effective in

diagnosing failures and coordinating maintenance

among the various groups involved.

The division of responsibility for software is

similar to that for hardware. All IMP software

Is controlled by BBN and Is currently loaded via

the network itself. Host organizations are

forbidden to modify the software In their IMPs.

Functional protocols are specified by committees

of host, ARPA and contractor personnel. At the

lower levels these are fairly well agreed upon

and debugged, and hosts agree to abide by them.

At the higher levels, the protocols are still

evolving, and subsets of hosts often experiment

with variants among themselves.

At the present time, all of the lower level

protocols are sufficiently well defined and

debugged as to be of little or no concern tc the

average user. The higher level protocols, or

more precisely, the lack of generally accepted

and debugged higher level protocols (for

example, remote job entry) have and continue to

be a major hindrance to increased network

utilization. However, these problems are

recognized and new and improved protocols are

being constructed and tested by various

contractors.

4. User Services

Users at one site seeking to utilize resources

at another site are required to be familiar with

the characteristics (log-on procedures,

operating system commands, program conventions,

etc.) of that site. Documentation is, ?n

general, provided by the serving site according

to its own conventions. Several organizations

do exist, however, to help users access remote

resources.

The Network Facilitators Group was an informal

committee of experienced personnel at various

14
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

sites around the country who organized to

promote network utilization. This informal

group has since been replaced by a group at the

Mitre Corporation who have an ARPA contract to

assist network users.

The Network Information Center is operated by

Stanford Research Institute to facilitate the

collection and dissemination of data produced by

and about the Network. The NIC maintains online

files of data about the Sites and people on the

Network, maintains online tools for access to

the data, and produces offline notebooks,

indexes and directories of the data for use by

the Network and other networking agences. The

NIC also functions to reproduce, catalog, index

and distribute online and hardcopy documents as

requested by Network Sites in the process of

building and using the Network.

The user support function Is probably the least

wel 1-provi ded function in the ARPA network. The

quality of documentation and the general

availability of assistance from sites varies

tremendously from site to site. The network

facilitators helped at selected user sites, but

because of the Informality of their organization

and because they were not located at all sites

they were not a general solution. Mitre has

been at work on their user assistance task for

too brief a period to be evaluated. The NIC has

not provided a general solution to the

documentation problem, since they do not attempt

to distribute all the documentation needed to

run at a particular site nor to enforce any

documentation standards.

C. Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

The question of the ARPA network's future status

has yet to be settled. The network is a closed

community, available only to governmental agencies

and their contractors, but the network has been

connected for demonstration purposes to other

(commercial) networks (e.g., TYMNET). The ARPA

network is presently functioning as a marketplace

for the sale of computer time to the network

communi ty.

15
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

ARPA has indicated on several occasions that it

does not intend to operate the network indefinitely

and has already turned over daily operation to

another governmental organization (RML). Various

options for converting the network to commercial

operation have been considered, but none have been

considered feasible. It remains to be seen what

the future of the network will be.

In another vein, the technology developed for the

network has already received commercial attention.

Several companies have filed applications with the

Federal Communications Commission to set up and

operate similar networks as common carriers (in

some cases, using basic communications circuits

provided by other common carriers in a so-called

"value-added" configuration).

Finally, ARPA does seem interested In investigating

the means and the difficulties of connecting to

other networks. Many members of the ARPANET

community participate in the International Network

Working Group, originally an ARPA-sponsored

initiative which is now a working group under IFIP

with international participation. The purpose of

the group is to develop inter-network protocols and

to mount some international experiments.

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capitalization

The network was funded by ARPA, so capitalization

Is provided through research grants. ARPA

continues to subsidize the subnet communications

circuits. Each of the IMPs and TIPs was either

paid for by ARPA or the participating host

organization. In general, some of the early sites

were ARPA contractors, and so had their IMPs

provided, while many of the newer sites are users

who are paying for their own.

B. Accounting

Participation In the network requires access to the

communications subnet and access to individual

hosts on the network. IMPs and TIPs are available

for a fixed fee from ARPA, which obtains them from

BBN. Monthly maintenance charges must be paid

16
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

after the first year of operation. Communications

charges are assessed by ARPA according to usages a base fee plus a variable fee for traffic above a

given minimum. In fact, most network participants

have been supported by ARPA in one way or another,

and communications costs continue to be subsidized.

Accounting for resources at the host sites is done

by each of the hosts concerned. Each user who

desires to utilize remote resources must open an

account at the appropriate site. The friendliness

of sites to external users varies considerably, as

do billing rates. Billing procedures vary widely

(some sites have been known to close an account

when it ran out of funds without notifying the

user) and require using sites to deal with many

vendors. The overall situation is recognized to be

less than satisfactory, and a committee of

principal Investigators is currently trying to

develop a network-wide accounting scheme.

C. Regulation

No commercial users or non-research commercial

servers are currently permitted on the network. As

a research activity sponsored by the Department of

Defense, the network is not subject to regulation

by other government agencies (e.g., the FCC).

The wideband communications circuits used in the

subnet are leased by ARPA through the Defense

Department at bulk (TELPAK D) rates. These rates

represent considerable economies of scale for large

data communications users.

D. Security

The communications subnet will insure that messages

are delivered to the proper host. The

non-deterministic routing of the individual packets

of a message could be viewed as providing some

degree of security to the subnet. At that point It

is the responsibility of the host to insure

delivery to the proper user. There is no checking

on the origin of messages to insure that they agree

with the identification given in a log-on sequence.

File security is the responsibility of the

Individual hosts. Log-on procedures, keyword

17
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

access and the like are among the procedures

employed by the various hosts as protective

mechanisms.

V. Conclusions

A, Summary of Problems

Start-up Requirements - Fabrication of the IMP

interface and coding of the Network Control Program

have been major obstacles to new hosts joining the

network. BBN has fabricated some interfaces, but

prefers not to do so. This problem is expected to

continue, as the character of sites joining the

network changes from researcher to user. However,

a mitigating factor may be the inventory of

interfaces and NCPs which have already been

constructed.

Cost - The question of cost is growing in

importance as the network operation is examined by

potential commercial suppliers and as the full

costs become known. Published documentation on

costs have thus far dealt mainly with the

communications subnet. Even here, the costs may be

distorted because published figures are derived

from loading factors which have never been realized

(although traffic has been growing at an

exponential rate). Also, the cost of network

access (an IMP or TIP) remains high (though lower

cost replacements are currently under development).

However, the most significant concern is that the

cost of the subnet may not be the major network

cost. Recent studies have shown that the overhead

associated with the NCP may be substantially larger

than was previously believed. Additional cost

studies are indicated, as well as a reevaluation of

the current protocol strategy with a view to

reducing overhead.

Reliability - In contrast to the now high

reliability of the subnet, the host sites, at which

the real work Is done, vary widely in reliability.

Heterogeneity - While some facilities (such as

TELNET, network mail and file transfer protocol)

have been provided to permit common operation on

hosts of different types, the problem has not been

solved in general. Executive level commands are

18
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

all different for different machines, text editors

are different, log-on procedures are different,

etc. This is a difficulty which networks have only

exacerbated by making additional systems available

to potential users.

User Services - The need for readable, accurate,

complete and available documentation cannot be

stressed too much. Of equal importance, however,

Is the occasional need for hand-holding. On-line

tutorials may provide some relief, but personal

assistance by knowledgable and friendly personnel

will never be completely replaced by documentation.

The current level of these services on the ARPA

network leaves room for improvement.

Protocols - Lack of particular protocols such as

graphics and remote job entry has cut off potential

usage in some cases. This problem will be resolved

as these protocols become better developed and are

made generally available.

B. Lessons Learned

In fairness, it must be recognized that the ARPA

network began as an experiment in networking among

research-oriented sites. It has achieved its

objective of demonstrating the feasibility of the

packet-switching approach. Large numbers of users

depend on the network now for their day-to-day

work. Many of the problem^ which have been

identified have arisen as the network matured and

the complexion of its participants changed from

research-oriented to usage-oriented.

In general, the network has functioned best where

there has been formal responsibility and

organization, for example, at the Network Control

Center. The less directed efforts have been

correspondingly less successful, for example, the

higher level protocol committees.

The network seems also to have been most useful In

offering services when the differences between host

systems have been bridged automat icaly by the network.

For example, perhaps the most successful service has

been the TELNET, which has permitted a wide range of

terminals to operate more or less identically on many

different host systems. The resources for which this

19
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

type of standardization has not been performed have

been less successful In attracting wide utilization.

Additional work in this area seems indicated.

Annexes

A. Bibliography

Carr, S., Crocker, S. and V. Cerf. "Host/host

comunl cation protocol in the ARPA network." SJCC,

1970, pp. 589-597.

Crocker, Stephen D. et. al . "Function-oriented

protocols for the ARPA computer network." SJCC

1972, pp. 271-279.

Frank, Howard, Robert E. Kahn and Leonard

Kleinrock. "Computer communications network design — experience with theory and practice." SJCC

1972, pp. 255-270.

Heart, Frank E. et. al. "The interface message

processor for the ARPA computer network." SJCC

1970, pp. 551-567.

Kahn, Robert E. and William R. Crowther. "A study

of the ARPA network design and performance." Bolt

Beranek and Newman, Report No. 2161, August 1971.

Karp, Peggy M. "Origin, development and current

status of the ARPA network." <Compcon73>, pp.

49-52.

McKenzIe, Alexander A. et. al. "The network

control center for the ARPA network." <Computer

Communication - Impacts and Impl icat ions> (Proc.

ICCC), 1972, pp. 185-191.

MImno, N. W., et. al . "Terminal access to the ARPA

network^ experience and improvements."

<Compcon73>, pp. 39-43.

Network Analysis Corporation. "ARPANET* design,

operation, management and performance." Report to

Rome Air Development Center, April 1973.

Ornstein, S. M. et. al . "The terminal IMP for the

ARPA computer network." SJCC 1972, pp. 243-254.

20
Network Management Survey ARPA Network

Roberts, Lawrence G. and Barry 0. Wessler.

"Computer network development to achieve resource

sharing." SJCC 1970, pp. 543-549.

B. Special Vocabulary

IMP - Interface Message Processor - A specially

modified Honeywell 316 or 516 processor which

serves as the communications computer in the

network.

TIP - Terminal IMP - An IMP which is augmented by

additional memory and a multiline controller. The

TIP contains a network control program and a TELNET

program within it to permit terminals to access the

network directly through it.

Multiline Controller - A specially designed

multiplexor-like device which supports the access

of up to 64 terminals of varying type into a TIP.

Message - A logical unit of data exchange between

processes.

Packet - Physical segments of a message which are

the transmission units In the subnet.

Subnet - The array of IMPs, TIPs and communication

circuits which deliver messages from one host to

another.

21
MERIT Network

I. Introduction

The MERIT Network Is representative of a controlled

experiment In networking on a regional basis. The

straightforward design of the communi cat ions system

and the limited size of the network have permitted

attention to be focused on the managerial problems of

the network.

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

In 1966, Michigan State University, Wayne State

University and the University of Michigan formally

established a program of mutual cooperation known

as MICIS (Michigan Interuni versi ty Comi ttee on

Information Systems). MICIS established a

non-profit corporation, MERIT (Michigan Educational

Research Triad, Inc.), for the purpose of receiving

and distributing funds for research. It is this

non-profit corporation which sponsors the network.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

The Merit Network is a prototype educational

computing network that seeks to enhance the

educational and computing resources of each

university by permitting network participants to

share resources. The objectives of the network

were broadly stated as gaining, through the

development and successful implementation of a network, knowledge about and solutions to the

problems of network operation in an established

educational computing environment.

The three computer systems in the network are

sufficiently different as to make desireable the

directing of particular types of work to one of

them from the others.

The University of Michigan's system, using

duplex IBM 360/67 hardware, was designed

especially for timesharing using MTS.

The Michigan State University computer (CDC

6500) is unusually fast and therefore

well -suited to large, compute-bound jobs.

22
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

The Wayne State University Computer Center,

using duplex IBM 370/67 hardware running the MTS

timesharing system, has developed a special

competence in administrative data processing.

At the time of organization of the network, a cooperative policy in acquiring special peripheral

equipment was considered feasible. It was

suggested that relatively unusual equipment, such

as a film recorder-scanner, might be purchased by

one installation to serve all three universities,

C. Status and Topology

The network became operational in the summer of

1972. The topology of the network is three node,

fully connected. Presently the network provides

communication service, on a nearly continuous basis

whenever the host systems are up; usage through

1973 has been light, however. Aupperle (1973)

reports that current network-use data indicates

that between one and two million bytes are

transmitted monthly by an average of twenty

individual users. About 100 different users have

tried the network during the second half of 1972,

the first six-month period of statistical data

gather ing.

D. Technology Summary

The three host systems in the MERIT network are

tied together through small communications

computers located at each host site, which are

themselves interconnected by means of modems

through the switched telephone network. The

interface which the communications computers

present to the host system are uniquely adapted to

the requirements of each particular host; the

interface which the communications computers

present to the telephone network (and thus to each

other) are identical. A somewhat novel capability

Is the ability to dynamically vary the bandwidth of

the communications paths available between pairs of

hosts. This is accomplished by providing each

communications computer with four separate modems

and an automatic calling unit. The bandwidth

represented by the four lines may be allocated to

communications with either of the other two hosts

as dictated by Immediate communications

23
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

requirements; normally at least one line Is kept

open to each other remote site.

The communications computer consists of a standard

Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11/20 with 16K

words of 16-bit core memory. Four different types

of interfaces are required:

1. Data set interface

2. Automatic calling unit and multiplexor

i nterf ace

3. IBM 360/67 interface (one for each of two

host systems)

4. CDC 6500 interface (for one host system)

The data set interfaces are designed to transfer

entire messages over the telephone network directly

to and from the PDP-11's core memory without

program intervention, once the transfer is

Initialized by software action. These Interfaces

are designed to function as either half-duplex or

full-duplex units over a wide range of frequencies

and are compatible with binary synchronous

communications procedures.

Automatic calling unit and multiplexor interfaces

provide the communications computer with the

ability to dial, under program control, a single

telephone call. The automatic calling unit may be

shared among eight telephone lines.

The host Interfaces (IBM 360 and CDC 6500), like

the data set interfaces, are designed to transfer

entire messages without intervention, once

appropriate action is initiated. The interfaces

transfer data in parallel between the host and the

communications computer, and they partially resolve

the word length mismatch that exist between these

machines. The host interfaces also cause the

communications computer to appear as a number of

identical, but separate, devices to the host, thus

simplifying the logical structure of multiple user

activity over the network and minimizing the amount

of the host's network support software.

The systems programming requirements for the MERIT

24
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

computer network consist of device suport for the

communications computer in each of the hosts, and

an operating system in the communications computer

which provides support for the message switching

function and an interface to each host. Each host

treats the communications computer as an I/O

device. Together, the software elements in the

host and communications computers permit a user to

establish a path to a remote host and to utilize

services there. All terminal access into the

network is through the local host; there is no

direct terminal access Into the network which

bypasses the local host. However, this capability

Is being considered for future Implementation.

E. Future PI ans

The MERIT network continues to serve the three

participating universities. There is consideration

for a remote version of the communications computer

to allow terminals to access the network directly

(without there being a local host) so as to be able

to offer service to other institutions In the

region. Work is underway to extend the

communications computer software to allow the

routing of messages in a 1 ess-than-ful 1 y connected

network.

III. Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

Figure 1 presents a simplified view of the

organization of the MERIT Computer Network.

The Michigan Interuni versi ty Committee on

Information Systems (MICIS) is made up of

representatives from each of the three

participating universities. A few are computer

experts, but most are not. MICIS members in turn

are responsible for selecting the Director of the

MERIT Computer Network.

The MERIT Computer Network project director Is

responsible for the orderly execution of all of the

technical and contractual responsibilities, broadly

divisible into three, staff supported functions!

1. Educational and promotional;

25
Joint Executive

Committee of MERIT

1

I

I

1 Project

Director

Fiscal

Agent

Associate Directors

MSU U-M WSU NET Central

Senior Staff

NET Central

Figure 1. Simplified MERIT Computer Network Organization Chart

26
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

2. Research and technical development of the

network; and

3. Financial administration.

For the initial phase of network design and

construction, MICIS chose a computer expert, Dr.

Bertram Herzog, to lead the work. The director's

office is located at the University of Michigan.

In the educational and promotional functions, the

director is assisted by three associate directors,

one located at each campus. The associate

directors are chosen by the director from

nominations made by the universities. The special

responsibility of each associate director is to

promote and encourage the development of the

network within his own community of users. He has

esentially a dual role* to support the director and

the network so that the implementation of the

network at his particular site proceeds as

efectively as possible, and to insure that his own

university's interests are equitably served with

respect to the demands made on its resources by the

network. The associate directors have no direct

responsibility for the technical details of the

project, but they are kept informed of relevant

developments and provide advice.

Four groups are concerned with the technical

research and development functions the Network

Central Staff, and the separate Network-Michigan

State University, Network-University of Michigan,

and Network-Wayne State University staffs

individually affiliated with their respective host

sites. Further, the Network Central Staff has two

components 2 the senior staff with technical

responsibility for all of these groups, and the

programming staff, charged with developing software

for the common part of the network. At the peak of

activities, approximately the equivalent of 12

full-time engineers and systems programmers were

involved in this facet of the project. This number

represents (equi valent ly ) two systems programmers

located at each of the three campus computing

centers and six members of the Network Central

Staff located at MERIT headquarters.

Wayne State University acts as fiscal agent for the

27
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

network, fulfilling such functions as the receipt

of funds from several sources, the distribution of

these funds to the various MERIT groups and

vendors, and the preparation of all contractural

and budgetary material.

B. Functions Performed

1 . PI anni ng

Long range planning responsibility rests with

MICIS, which continues to function as a committee and currently meets on a bimonthly

schedule. Each university has appointed several

representatives, officially four, to MICIS for

an indefinite term. The representatives from

each university consist of one high-ranking

member of each university's administration and

of faculty members, usually including the

computing center director and others Interested

in computer application areas.

In its efforts to develop a computer network,

MICIS sought both state and federal support. A

three-member Joint Executive Committee was

established by the participating universities to

administer any funds provided by the State of

Michigan. Further, in the fall of 1966 the

Michigan Educational Research and Information

Triad (MERIT) Inc. was created with Its three

man Board of Directors, and charged with the

responsibility to solicit and receive non-state

funds for the network. Wayne State University

was designated as the fiscal agent for all state

and non-state funds.

Once funding was assured, a network research and

development project was established and work

began in July 1969. Initially designated the

Tr i -Uni versi ty Computer Network, it later became

known as the MERIT Computer Network Project.

Thus the director of the MERIT Computer Network

Project submits budgets for approval to the

Joint Executive Committee and the Board of

Directors of MERIT, Inc. (the same three people

serve on both boards) whereupon the fiscal agent

executes the appropriate contractural

operat ions.

28
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

2. Instal 1 at ion

The special communications facilities for the

network were developed by the project staff

under the guidance of the Director. This

development included communications computer

hardware and common software. Software specific

to a particular site, and all software residing

in the host computers, is the primary

responsibility of each host site's staff. A

common design for network software was developed

by the central project staff.

The Associate Director at each of the

participating universities is responsible for

matters relating to the installation of the

network facilities at his site.

3. Operations

Day-to-day management responsibility for the

network rests with the Director and his staff.

The MERIT staff is developing procedures to

closely monitor the performance of the network.

Statistics gathered on message errors, traffic

distribution, and overall throughput will

significantly help in adapting the original

network design to actual usage patterns.

A. User Services

Responsibility for promoting the network within

each of the member universities and for

providing the required user services rest with

the associate directors.

The distribution of system documentation

throughout the user community is the joint

responsibility of MERIT and the individual

universities. At the present time, MERIT

disseminates information relevant to the design

and operation of the communications subsystem

and Its interfaces. Each university is required

to maintain and distribute its local facility's

documentation and is responsible for issuing

notices reflecting any significant changes.

29
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

C. Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

As explained below, the MERIT network was funded by

the Michigan State Legislature and the National

Science Foundation. While this has not received

much attention in the open literature, it is clear

that the network will need to be responsive to the

wishes of the Legislature, Along these lines, It

is the intention of the network's developers to

provide the capability for network access by many

of the smaller colleges and universities in the

State of Michigan without host computers.

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capitalization

The Merit Computer Network was funded, initially

for two years, by the Michigan State Legislature,

the National Science Foundation and each of the

participating universities. The Michigan State

Legislature provided in successive appropriation

bills the total sum of $400,000, provided that

matching support could be obtained from other

sources. By the end of 1968, a proposal in the

amount of $400,000 was submitted to and

subsequently funded by the National Science

Foundation.

B. Accounting

The Director and the Joint Executive Committee of

MERIT have focused much attention on the accounting

difficulties encountered in even so controlled a network as this. The MERIT network follows the

basic policy of permitting each site to set prices

and charge for services individually. The problem

is not in getting sites to offer resources for

sale, but in convincing management at each of the

sites to permit usage of resources at other sites.

The problem Is that the possible "balance of

payments" deficit (excess of outside use by local

users over inhouse use by outside users) cannot be

predicted in advance, and therefore is very

difficult to budget for, especially on a normal

annual basis.

In MERIT'S case, relief was sought and obtained

from the universities' administrations to pledge,

30
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

from sources other than the computing budgets, an

amount of monies to protect the potentially

unbalanced budgets of the wholesaler (local

university computer centers) due to the presence of

the network. By so doing, a deterrent to

utilization was removed.

C. Regulation

The MICIS and the MERIT efforts have been formally

approved by the Michigan State Legislature, the

State Board of Education, and the governing boards

of each of the three universities.

Communications between sites in the MERIT Computer

Network currently utilize a pre-existing,

inter-university, voice-grade telephone network.

D. Security

No special security procedures have been developed

for the MERIT network beyond the normal access

control mechanisms for the individual host systems.

However, all users of remote resources presently

must be validated by their own system as well as

the remote system, since there is no access to the

network other than through a local host.

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

The developers of the MERIT network have had to

face all the problems faced by developers of other

networks of heterogeneous computers (e.g., ARPA)

The most publicized problems have been in

non-technical areas. However, the development of a processor which offers a common interface to the

network from the specialized interface requirements

of each host machine was a non-trivial effort.

Similarly, the development of the necessary control

software for each of the host systems had to be

undertaken. By and large the major technical

difficulties have been overcome, although some

peculiarities remain to be ironed out. (For

example, terminals behave according to the system

to which they are physically connected, not the

system which they may be using, as In the ARPA

network).

31
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

Perhaps the most publicized non-technical issue in

the MERIT network has been the budgeting problems

getting the computer centers of the three

universities to budget for possible net deficits in

network usage (excess of work sent to other nodes

over work taken in) for a period greater than a

single calendar year.

With this problem apparently solved (as explained

in IV-B), the main problem has been insufficient

network usage to justify its existence. It appears

that the three participating universities each have

sufficient computing resources to satisfy local

needs, so that there are few compelling reasons for

extensive use of the network. Also, the double

charges for use of remote resources (charges by

both the local and the remote system) tend to

discourage network usage. This problem could be

solved by the expansion of the network to include

additional user-only and direct terml nal -access

sites In the state, as the network developers

envisioned.

B. Lessons Learned

One important lesson to be learned from the MERIT

experience is that organizational and managerial

problems can frequently dominate technical problems

in the development of a computer network, and can

even cast a shadow on technically sound networks.

In the technical area, MERIT has provided

additional evidence as to the soundness of using an

intermediate communications computer to mediate

between the standard operations of the network and

the peculiarities of each host.

Annexes

A. Bi bl iography

Aupperle, Eric M. "Merit network re-examined."

<Compcon 73>, pp. 25-30.

Becher, William D. "The communications computer

hardware of the MERIT computer network." <IEEE

Trans, on Communi cat i ons>, Vol. C0M-20, June 1972,

pp. 516-526.

32
Network Management Survey MERIT Network

Cocanower , A. B. et . al. "The comrrunlcat I ons

computer operating system — the Initial design."

MERIT Computer Network Manual 1070-TN-3, October

1970 (PB 203 552).

Coleman, Susan (Ed.). "Users guide."

(Preliminary). MERIT Computer Network publication

MCN-0473-UM-11, April 1973.

Eick, Harry, Seymour J. Wol f son and Karl L. Zinn.

"Facilities & resources available via the MERIT

computing centers." MERIT Computer Network

publication MCN-0573-GE-U, May 1973.

Herzog, Bertram. "MERIT proposal summary." MERIT

Computer Network publication, February 1970.

Herzog, Bertram. "Computer networks." <Proc>

International Computina Symposium, 12-14 April

1973, CINI Foundation, Venice, Italy, pp. 182-199.

(MERIT Computer Network Publication MCN-0572-TP-8,

May 1972.)

Herzog, Bertram. "Progress report for the period

July 1969-March 1971." MERIT Computer Network

publication 0571-PR-4, May 1971.

B. Special Vocabulary

CC - Communications Computer, the PDP-11 based

front-end computer which provides a common network

Interface for host systems.

MERIT - Michigan Educational Research Triad

MICIS - Michigan Interuni versi ty Committee on

Information Systems

33
Triangle Universities Computation Center (TUCC)

I. Introduction

TUCC is an example of a successful cooperative venture

in regional networking by independent and autonomous

unl vers! ti es.

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

The Triangle Universities Computation Center is a not-for-profit corporation which is owned by the

three universities who cooperatively sponsored its

establishment -- Duke University at Durham, North

Carolina State University at Raleigh and the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

The network has three primary goals*

1. To provide each of the institutions with

adequate computational facilities as

economically as possible;

2. To minimize the number of systems programing

personnel needed; and

3. To foster greater cooperation in the exchange

of systems, programs ano ideas among the three

uni versi t i es

Services include educational, research and

administrative computing services for the three

major universities, about fifty smaller schools and

several research laboratories.

C. Status and Topology

TUCC is essentially a centralized, homogeneous

network comprising a central service node (IBM

370/165), three primary job source nodes (IBM

360/75, IBM 360/40, IBM 370/135), 23 secondary job

source nodes (leased line Data 100s, UCC 1200s, IBM

1130s, IBM 2780s, and leased and dial line IBM

2770s) and about 125 tertiary job source nodes (64

dial or leased lines for Teletype 33 ASRs, IBM

1050s, UCC 1035s, etc.). Figures 1 and 2

34
DUKE/DURHAM

360/40

PRIMARY TERMINAL

50 Edtortranat IftstttatttiB- UniversRies, CiHegis,

Community Colleges,

Technical Institutions,

& Secondary Schools

[Various Medium & Low

Speed Terminals)

UNC/CHAPEL HILL 360/75

PRIMARY TERMINAL

NCSU/RALEIGH

360/40

PRIMARY TERMINAL

Note: In addition to the primary terminal installation at DUKE,

UNC, and NCSU, each campus has an array of medium

and low-speed terminals directly connected to TUCC.

Figure 1. The TUCC Network

35
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uj oro

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uj <£ x<

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36
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

Illustrate respectively the topology and geography

of the network.

Services to the TUCC user community include both

remote job entry (RJE) and Interactive processing.

Thruput has grown from about 10,000 jobs per month

in 1967 to about 80,000 jobs per month in 1972.

(This increase in thruput was accomplished by

hardware upgrades during the period). At the

present time about 8000 different individual users

are being served directly.

D. Technology Summary

TUCC operates a 3-megabyte,

telecommunications-oriented IBM 370/165 using

0S/360-MVT/HASP and supporting a wide variety of

terminals (see Figure 3).

The three universities are connected to the TUCC by

means of Telpak A (40.8 K baud) circuits which

connect the universities' primary remote batch

terminals to the central facility. In addition,

over 50 educational institutions are linked to TUCC

by a variety of medium and low speed lines which

cover the state and extend as far as Elizabeth

City, Wilmington and Ashville.

All local node computers are of the same

manufacture as the central facility, and provide

local computing services and teleprocessing

services (from the central facility). Except in

special circumstances, none of the local nodes

provide computing services for remote users at this

time, but the Hasp-to-Hasp software in use allows

for such services to be provided if and when

desi red.

E. Future Plans

TUCC continues to serve its participating

institutions. Hardware and software adjustments

are made as required to insure adequate capacity to

meet their processing demand. Immediate emphasis

is on improving interactive services (primarily but

not exclusively via TS0) and services for large

data base processing including university

administrative data processing.

37
to — — <_> C3 "S

M-> LtJ °=:

=» 1

CO *x. •— o _j o PO i-i <=>5

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38
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

III. Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

The network is characterized by an organization

which provides both for centralization of certain

functions and the retention of freedom and

authority by the individual computing centers to

operate in the academic environment.

TUCC Organization

The TUCC Corporation is governed by a board of

directors whose nine members represent the three

major universities. The three members from each

university represent the administration,

computer science instruction and computer users.

The board members are appointed by the executive

officers of each institution. The board meets

once a month to act on matters of general

policy. Other attendees to board meetings are

the President and Director of TUCC, the

Associate Director and System Manager, the

Campus Computation Center directors and the

Director of NCECS (see section C below). Most

questions are decided by simple majority vote of

the board, except that questions of "fundamental

importance" are decided by each university

delegation casting a single vote. Questions of

"fundamental importance" include selection of

the TUCC President, the annual budget and major

equipment decisions.

TUCC Staff

The central staff organization is shown in

figure 4.

Systems Programming Section

This section is responsible for development,

testing, integration and implementation of

all TUCC and manufacturers' system software.

The section is headed by a systems manager

who is also the primary technical liaison

between the campus computation centers and

the manufacturers' field and systems

engineering organization. The systems

39
ASSOCIATE

DIRECTOR

PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR

BUSINESS

MANAGER

SECRETARY

BOOKKEEPER

DATA BASE

PROCESSING & OPERATING

SYSTEMS MGR.

SECRETARY

SYSTEMS

MANAGER

OPERATIONS

MANAGER

ASSISTANT

TO THE DIRECTOR

I

PUBLICATIONS

ASSISTANT

INFORMATION

SERVICES EDITOR

SYSTEM

PROGRAMMERS

DEVELOPMENT

MANAGER

TELEPROCESSING

MANAGER

SHIFT SUPERVISORS

TAPE

LIBRARIAN

KEYPUNCH ASST. & CLERK-TYPIST

OPERATORS

Figure 4. TUCC Organization Chart

40
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

manager serves as an Associate Director of

TUCC.

Information Services Section

This group is responsible for the collection

and dissemination of documentation to users,

campus center staff, directors and the Board

of Directors. Most documents are prepared

throughout the network organization,

including the documentation services section.

These documents are edited, approved and

published by this section. The section is

also responsible for maintaining the program

library, for documentation standards, for

public relations and visitor liaison, for a periodic newsletter and for general interest

brochures.

Development Section

This group is concerned with generation of

new versions of the operating system,

maintenance of the manufacturer supplied

operating system, designing and programming

of software interfaces between TUCC-written

programs and the operating system, and

creation of utility programs needed in the

TUCC environment. The group is also

responsible for design, programming and

installation of monitors, statistics

gathering programs for performance

evaluation, and for the evaluation of overall

systems performance.

Teleprocessing Section

The primary responsibility of this section is

maintenance of the teleprocessing software.

It maintains current knowledge of all

terminals and plans and acquires new

communications hardware as required. The

teleprocessing manager also acts as a consultant to the campus centers and to

individual users.

Operations Section

This section is concerned with the day-by-day

41
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

operations of the computer room. It also

maintains the systems accounting records and

prepares programs on systems usage,

efficiency and turnaround statistics. It

provides liaison with manufacturers' field

engineers and with the campus computation

center operations managers. It is also

responsible for security.

B. Functions Performed

1 . PI anni ng

Once per month the campus computer center

directors meet with the TUCC director, systems

manager, and assistant director, primarily to

discuss operational policies and procedures.

Charging policies and changes to the billing

algorithm are among the topics determined at the

directors' meeting.

The TUCC systems manager and the systems

programmers of the central staff and of the

universities meet monthly to discuss plans for

new systems additions and/or modifications.

2. Instal 1 at i on

As described in 1 1 1. A above, all planning and

control over equipment installation at TUCC is

performed by the central management. Each

university's computer center management performs

these functions for its own center.

3. Operations

Each university computer center is autonomous

and is operated by its own staff. TUCC is

operated by a separate staff reporting to the

central management.

4. User Services

Considerable attention has been devoted

throughout the TUCC organization to the

provision of adequate user services. Although

there is some information dissemination from the

central organization in the form of regular

newsletters and an extensive documentation

42
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

system, the wholesaler-retailer organization

Insures that most user services are provided by

the local computer center. This facilitates

user access to these services and insures

responsiveness on the part of the providers.

In the case of the small institutions served by

NCECS, these services are provided by "circuit

riders'* who visit the schools on a regular

basis. Schools are visited as needed and

geographically close visits are usually

coordinated. Consulting services are assisted

by in-WATS telephone lines and personal contacts

of remote users at workshops or through visits

to the central facility. Data lines can also be

used for voice transmission when not otherwise

in use. Some use is being made of inquiries

being sent by terminal communications to the

central computer to be answered by the central

staff.

C. Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

The North Carolina Educational Computing Service

(NCECS) was created as a state agency by the Board

of Higher Education in 1969. (NCECS is the

successor of the North Carolina Computer

Orientation Project (NCCOP) which began in 1966).

Its mission is to provide educational services to

institutions throughout the state. NCECS provides

technical support and consulting to small users.

This includes computing services (terminals,

communications and computer time) as well as

technical support (information services, technical

assistance to users, specialized software and

documentation).

The director of NCECS represents his organization

at TUCC board meetings in a non-voting capacity,

and also attends meetings of the computer center

directors. Close geographic co-location (in

different wings of the same building) help

intercommunications between the two staffs,

although the organizations are totally independent.

The NCECS staff includes both state supported and

project supported positions. Nine positions are

state supported* the director, his secretary,

administrative assistant for curriculum

43
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

development, manager of user services, three

computing consultants, an information services

officer and a business officer. Grant supported

positions include curriculum development manager,

programmer for curriculum development (half-time)

and systems programmer (half-time).

The main function of the staff is the increase and

improvement of involvement of the participating

schools in computing. Two full time and one

half-time "circuit riders" and a manager of user

services deal directly with the needs of the

outlying institutions, as explained above

(III-B-4).

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capi tal i zation

Initial grants were received from NSF and from the

North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, in

whose Research Triangle Park building TUCC was

located. These funds, along with the payments for

services from the founding universities, served to

establish TUCC.

B. Accounting

The accounting system for TUCC is based on a wholesaler-retailer concept. TUCC is a wholesaler

of computing services, including machine cycles,

operating system, programming languages and

application programs, a documentation service, and

management. The TUCC wholesale service

specifically does not include typical user services — debugging, contract programming, etc. — nor

does it include user level billing or curriculum

development. Rather, these services are provided

for their constituents by the campus computation

centers and NCECS, which are retailers for the TUCC

Network.

The wholesaler-retailer concept can also be seen in

the financial and service relationships. Every two

years the founding universities negotiate with each

other and with TUCC to establish a minimum

financial commitment from each to the net budgeted

TUCC costs. Then, on an annual basis the founding

universities and TUCC negotiate to establish the

44
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

TUCC machine configuration, each university's

computing resource share, and the cost to each

university. This negotiation includes adoption of

an operating budget. Computing resource shares are

stated as a percentage of the total resource each

day.

Each of the three universities and NCECS currently

pay 25% of the TUCC budgeted operating costs and

are each entitled to equal amounts of service. A

scheduling algorithm with a "usage leveling

capability" allocates resources to the institution

which has used the least so far. Each institution

funds its own computer facility and communications

lines. Each institution bills local users based on

all of its costs, including payments made to TUCC,

and on detailed usage statistics collected at the

central computer.

The budget negotiation described above results in

an effective wholesale rate to the three

universities which is a littie lower than the

wholesale rate charged to NCECS. The justification

for this procedure is the fact that the income from

the universities is guaranteed while the income

from the NCECS is less certain. Both the computing

centers and the NCECS levy additional charges on

the local user to cover local computing center

costs and the costs of the additional NCECS central

staff.

C. Regulation

No direct Federal or state regulations apply to the

TUCC network. However, the state of North Carolina

can exert influence over the network through the

University of North Carolina.

Since the TUCC network does not extend outside the

state of North Carolina except for occasional dial

services, intrastate tariffs apply for most

communications facilities. Standard telephone

company services are utilized for wideband and

voice grade circuits.

D. Security

In addition to those measures normally found in a third-generation operating system for the control

45
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

of access to files, TUCC has I mpl emented its own

data set and volume password systems as well as

locally developed encrypting programs and operator

procedures.

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

Administrative Data Processing

TUCC has for some time been handling the full

range of administrative data processing for two

NCECS universities and is beginning to do so for

other NCECS schools. The primary reason that

this application lags behind instructional

applications In the NCECS schools is simply that

grant support, which stimulated development of

the instructional applications, has been absent

for administrative applications. However, the

success of the two pioneers has already begun to

spread among the others.

With the three larger universities there Is a

greater reluctance to shift their administrative

data processing to TUCC, although Duke has

already accomplished this for their student

record processing. One problem which must be

overcome to complete this evolution and allow

these universities to spend administrative

computing funds on the more economic TUCC

machine is the administrators' (understandable)

reluctance to give up a machine on which he can

exercise direct priority pressure. The present

approach to this problem is to extend the

allocation and scheduling algorithm to guarantee

a portion of the central machine to each

founding university's administrative data

processing needs. Another problem Is the

development of confidence in the available

back-up resources. It would probably require

additional computing resources at TUCC if this

option is elected by any of the universities.

Hardware Homogeneity

While not a real problem at present, it would

appear that TUCC has locked itself into IBM

compatible systems. This has simplified the

46
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

development of the network by permitting

compatibility problems to be ignored, but it may

restrict the alternatives for future growth.

B. Lessons Learned

1User Servi ces

A very important lesson that was learned is that

personal communication must exist and be kept

al i ve at al 1 1 evel s.

"It is amazing how misinformation can spread

if there does not exist a vigilant system for

keeping people informed... Experience has

shown us that if we relax ..., then little

things that may go wrong may sometimes be

magnified completely out of proportion to

their importance and begin to become a source

of irritation at some point in the system.

The central facility must therefore have a high coefficient of sensitivity to the needs

of all users. "(Davis, p. 4-1-2)

The earliest recognition of this fact was the

hiring, at the time of the formation of TUCC, of

a Manager of Information Services at TUCC. His

responsibility is the documenting of all

operating systems, services and policies. An

elaborate system of memoranda series with

distributions to various relevant groups was

developed. This lesson also explains the

"circuit riders" who were employed by NCCOP (now

NCECS) to regularly assist its client colleges.

2. Wholesaler-Retailer Concept

TUCC's implementation of the wholesaler-retailer

concept (as explained In section IV-above) was

designed as a mechanism for the administrative

protection of the interests of the three

founding universities and the NCECS schools.

Because each of the universities and NCECS is

guaranteed a minimum percentage of utilization

of the central machine (in effect, a virtual

machine for each), they have the assurance that

they can take care of their users' needs as

would be the case with totally independent

47
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

facilities. The scheduling algorithm also

allows each to define and administer quite

flexible, independent priority schemes.

Since the local centers and NCECS are the

retailers of all computer services, whether

produced locally or purchased on a wholesale

basic from TUCC, they are not in competition

with TUCC. Users are also able to turn to local

personnel for all required services, and receive

a si ngl e bi 1 1 . There are several structural devices which serve

to protect the interests of both the wholesaler

and the retailers. At the policy making level

this protection Is afforded by the Board of

Directors, which is appointed by the Chancellors

of the three founding universities. Typically

each university allocates its representatives to

include its business interests, its computer

science instructional interests, and its other

computer user interests. The University

Computer Center Directors sit with the board

whether or not they are members, as do the

Director of NCECS and the President of TUCC. An

example of the policy level function of the

Board is their determination, based on TUCC

management recommendations, of computing service

rates for NCECS and other TUCC users. (Williams,

1972)

At the operational level there are two important

groups, both normally meeting each month. The

Campus Computation Center Directors* meeting

includes the indicated people plus the Director

of NCECS and the President, the Systems Manager,

and the Assistant to the Director of TUCC. The

System Programmers* meeting includes

representatives of the three universities, NCECS

and TUCC. In addition, each of the universities

has the usual campus computing committees.

3. Neutrality of Site

The neutral location of the central computer is

felt to be "one of the chief factors

contributing to the political stability of

TUCC." (Brooks, et. al.) An earlier

unsuccessful experience with a computer jointly

48
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

owned by NCSU and UNC-CH, but located at Chapel

Hill, had shown that "the psychological and

political consequences of location could not be

tele-processed away." It is recognized that a neutral location requires extra cost, but this

is felt to be "an i ndespensi ble expense."

Annexes

A. Bi bl iography

Brooks, Frederick. P., Jr., Ferrell, James K. and

Thomas M. Gal lie. "Organizational, financial and

political aspects of a three-university computing

center." Proceedings IFIP Congress 1968>, pp.

923-927.

Davis, M. S. "Economics -- point of view of

designer and operator." <Interdi ci pi inary

Conference on Multiple Access Computer Networks>

(Austin, Texas, April 20-22, 1970), University of

Austin and The Mitre Corporation, pp. 4.1.1-4.1.7.

Freeman, David N. and Robert R. Pearson.

"Efficiency versus responsiveness in a multiple-services computer facility." <ACM

National Ccnf.>, 1968, pp. 25-34.

Freeman, David N. and Joe R. Ragland. "The

response-efficiency tradeoff in a multiple-university system." <Datamation>, Vol.

16, No. 3, (March 1970), pp. 112-113.

Grobstein, David L. and Ronand P. Uhlig. "A

wholesale retail concept for computer network

management." 1972 FJCC, pp. 889-898.

International Business Machines, Inc. "In North

Carolina, computing power for education."

<Computing Report>, 9 : 2 (Summer 1973), pp. 2-6.

Parker, L. T., Gal lie, T. M. , Brooks, F. P. and J.

K. Ferrell. "Introducing computing to smaller

colleges and universities — a progress report."

<CACM>, 12:6 (June 1969), pp. 319-323.

Williams, Lei and H. "A functioning computer

network for higher education in North Carolina."

1972 FJCC, pp. 899-904.

49
Network Management Survey TUCC Network

B. Special Vocabulary

NCCOP - North Carolina Computer Orientation Project

NCECS - North Carolina Educational Computing

Servi ce

TUCC - Triangle Universities Computation Center

50
Oregon State Regional Network

I. Introduction

The Oregon State Regional Network is representative of

the large number of centralized "star" networks

serving a regional clientele. It was organized to

provide educational computing services to a number of

geographically dispersed institutions, and is not

concerned with research into the technology of

networking,

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

The network was sponsored by Oregon State

University with support from the National Science

Foundati on.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

The regional network was established in connection

with a two-year project with National Science

Foundation support to develop and appraise

instructional uses of computational facilities

provided through computer terminals on-line to a

central computer facility. The objectives of the

project were*

1. To provide faculty and students at the

participating colleges with computing resources

available through terminals which have direct

access to a central computing facility.

2. To develop special instructional programs and

materials suitable for regular as well as

"short" courses in the use of computers in an

educational environment.

3. To appraise the usefulness in instructional

programs of the facilities offered with

reference to the instructional needs of each

institution.

C. Status and Topology

The system now supports a network of more than 200

remote terminals with approximately 75 terminals

active concurrently. Approximately 35 terminals

51
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

are located at other universities and colleges of

the network. The network serves instructional,

administrative and research aplications, and may be

reaching saturation. Acquisition of new computing

hardware ?s being contemplated at the present time.

D. Technology Summary

The Oregon State University Regional Computer

Network consists of a central computing facility at

the Oregon State University campus in Corwallls,

Oregon, which serves some sixteen institutions of

higher learning in Oregon. The central facility

runs in a time-sharing mode under a special

operating system developed at Oregon State

University. Remote users are connected to the

central facility by low speed teletypewriter lines.

The principal resource at the computation center is

a CDC 3300 with a memory capacity of 98K 24-bit

words. Peripheral devices include a card reader

and punch, line printer, four magnetic tape units,

five magnetic disc units, a 200 million character

mass storage disc unit, 16 CRTs, a plotter and a PDP-8 minicomputer which serves as a communications

front end. The PDP-8 also serves as a telephone

line interface for 180 remote terminals. During

1972 remote batch capability was added using card

readers and line printers.

The operating system, OS-3 (Oregon State Open Shop

Operating Syste^ was designed and implemented by

the Oregon Stat<- Computer Center. It permits time

sharina operation in a variety of languages,

including ALGOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, OSCAR (a

conversational language for all types of users),

EDIT (a file editing language), and others.

E. Future Plans

The regional network described here was an

experiment of fixed duration and limited to

academic computing. The State Department of Higher

Education is currently considering a proposal to

establish a computing consortium among all nine of

the institutions of higher learning in the state

and to establish and develop a computer network to

serve both academic and administrative needs. It

would be structured similar to the regional

52
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

network, with a central facility and staff at OSU

and remote stations at the other participating

si tes.

III. Network Organization

A, Structure and Extent

The organization of the network is embedded in the

organization of the regional computer center.

Special organizational elements, exclusively

concerned with network operations are a regional

coordinator who reports to the regional computing

center director, a regional steering committee, and

campus coordinators resident on the individual

campuses. Close liaison Is maintained with the

Teaching Research Division, an arm of the

Chancellor's Office, which represents all

institutions of the Oregon State System of Higher

Education.

Computer Center Director

The regional computing facility is under the

direct supervision of a central administrative

officer, the computer center director. He has

the authority to enforce adherence to

established procedures, observation of

priorities, and conformance to established

schedules. The director is assisted by a

steering committee.

Steering Committee

The regional steering committee considers policy

matters affecting regional projects, terminal

end users, and recommends action to the regional

coordinator and the computer center director.

The committee helps to maintain uniformity and

workability of operation and services, where

this Is In the interest of participating

institutions. It acts as a developer of

procedures for network users. It Is responsive

to all network participants and considers the

effects of all actions on local centers.

Members are elected to the steering committee by

the participating schools.

Campus Coordinators

53
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

The campus coordinator acts as the manager of

instructional computing on his individual

campus. He needs to have a knowledge of

available computing facilities and of specific

campus computing needs. He works closely with

all users and coordinates i nterdi ci pi i nary

requests and problems. This assignment is

considered to require at least half time

availability of the designated faculty member.

Specific functions of the campus coordinator

are

Coordinate use of remote terminals with local

f aci 1 i t ies

Act as campus-wide focal point for

utilization, dissemination and facilitation

of instructional and research uses of the

regional computing facilities on his campus;

Serve as a member of the local institution

computer committee;

Facilitate training for faculty;

Coordinate remote regional facility

maintenance, regional staff visits and

workshops;

Attend regional conferences;

Report development of computer-related

curriculum material and other documentation

to regional project coordinator;

Prepare and coordinate interim and annual

reports regarding institutional participation

in the network;

Report news items to regional newsletter

editor;

Be aware of all projects involving curriculum

development teachers, curriculum writers,

consultants and learning and evaluation

speci al ists

Participate in local budget recomendat ions

54
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

involving utilization of regional facilities

on his campus.

The final project report recommended that the

campus coordinator report to either the dean of

instruction or the dean of administration. It

was also suggested that on some campuses it

would be beneficial for the Campus Coordinator

to have an advisory committee to assist him in

making decisions relating to the allocation of

resources.

B. Functions Performed

1 . PI anni ng

The emphasis during the initial portion of the

project was on three items* 1) developing useful

and reliable services; 2) assisting individuals

and classes to become fully cognizant of the

services and how they could be used; and 3) a

preliminary exploration of the curricular

changes brought about by the introduction of the

facilities. The emphasis throughout the last

year of the project was on the development and

evaluation of techniques and materials relating

to the role of computers In the academic

envl ronment.

2. Instal lat i on

The time-sharing computer facility of the OSU

Computer Center has been the basic computational

resource of the network. Access to the center

is through remote terminals located at each of

the participating colleges. Under the grant

they were provided with terminals,

communications costs, computer time, and

consulting services. The Installation

requirements for this type of arrangement are

mi ni mal

3. Operations

Because of the star configuration of the

network, operational concerns specific to the

network are minimal. The center is operated as

any other large mul ti programmed center serving

interactive users.

55
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

k. User Services

User services have primarily been provided by

three means • publications, seminars and personal

i nteracti on.

Publications include manuals for all services

available as well as a computer center

newsletter published on a regular and timely

basis. These are necessary but not sufficient

to the success of the project.

In an effort to promote the use of the network,

a series of conferences were held at various

campuses to introduce the faculty to some of the

instructional uses that can be made with the

computer in the classroom. Each conference

lasted two days and concentrated on a specific

academic area 9 The participating faculty were

presented with ten to fifteen examples of actual

classroom uses of the computer followed by an

opportunity to use the material and to modify

and adapt some of the examples Into their

instruction. Whenever possible, each example

was presented by an instructor who had used the

material in his class, and Regional Computer

Center staff were on hand to help the faculty

with any problems they had in using the

terminal, the system or the materials. The

faculty attending the conferences became very

enthusiastic about the possibilities of the

computer in the classroom. However, it was

found that without some type of follow-up the

enthusiasm wanes.

The follow-up is provided through personal

interaction. A Regional Computer Center staff

member, familiar with the academic area and the

instructional materials, visited the

participating schools during the immediate weeks

following the conference. He discussed with the

faculty who attended the conference and other

interested faculty possible applications in

their classrooms. The role of the local campus

coordinator in providing personal assistance has

already been discussed. Within the course of

one term, following this procedure, the faculty

who have attended the conferences introduced the

56
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

computer into their classrooms on a regular

basi s.

C. Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

The regional computing center has worked closely in

the past with the Teaching Research Division, an

arm of the Chancellor's office which represents all

institutions of higher learning in the Oregon State

System. This division Is concerned with

i nprovements in the teaching procedures at various

levels of instruction. The division has assisted

in two areas* 1) direct assistance to faculty in

courses using computers, and 2) evaluation of user

reaction, utilization patterns, and impact of the

computer on instruction.

The other external relationship of interest Is with

the other universities involved in the CONDUIT

project, Oregon State University, Dartmouth

Col lege, the North Carolina Educational Computing

Service, and the Universities of Iowa and Texas

have been funded by the National Science Foundation

in a cooperative project in educational computer

usage and program exchange. Each of these schools

have developed active computer networks and a

significant base of curriculum materials. The

CONDUIT project Involves the formation of a central

organization and staffs at each of five schools to

design the procedures necessary to transport about

75 curriculum units and to implement these

procedures in the five networks. CONDUIT will

quantify this exchange process including all costs,

faculty training requirements and user feedback.

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capitalization

The National Science Foundation, through Its Office

of Computing Activities has funded 20 regional

computing activities during the period 1968-1969.

One of the first three such grants made was to

Oregon State University in 1968 in cooperation with

six other colleges in Oregon. The principal

Investigator under the grant was Dr. Larry C.

Hunter of OSU. This grant has since expired, and

current network activities are self-supporting.

Campus computer center operations are supported by

57
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

the local university budget. The regional center

is supported by state funds and usage charges.

B. Accounting

Because of the "star" configuration of the network,

accounting was not a problem. All users maintained

accounts in the central machine at OSU and were

billed (or charged against their portion of the

grant) from there.

C. Regulation

The network was regulated in part by the National

Science Foundation by the terms of its grant and in

part by the Chancellor's Office of the State of

Oregon. Only institutions of higher learning In

Oregon could participate.

Since all participants of the network were located

within the state of Oregon, intrastate tariffs

applied for all telephone lines used. The network

was configured as a "star" or single central

timesharing system with remote users, so there were

no other issues related to tariffs.

D. Security

The only security controls In the system are

provided by the log-on sequence of the central

time-sharing system.

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

Due to the use of a well-known and straightforward

network design (the star configuration) and the

emphasis on providing service rather than

performing research on networking, there were no

notable technical problems. The primary problem

was in promoting the use of the facility by those

to whom it was offered.

B. Lessons Learned

The project's final report suggested that the

success of a regional computing activity required

quick and effective methods of communication

58
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

between the remote site and the central staff. The

following general principles were offered*

1. There must be a willingness of regional

participants to work out mutual problems, to

cooperate, to compromise if necessary, and to

consider the progress of all users.

2. A regional center should be considered a service organization to provide services which

cannot be provided efficiently otherwise.

3. The activities of the regional group are

under a steering committee which considers

policy matters affecting regional projects,

terminal use and users, and recommends action to

the Regional Coordinator and the Computer Center

Di rector.

A. The Regional Steering Committee can help to

maintain uniformity and workability of operation

and services.

6. The regional facilities and activities should

augment each schools local facilities and

services. The use of the terminals and

facilities on each campus should be under the

jurisdiction of that school and operated for

that respective school.

7. Location of regional facilities is of little

concern. More Important is ease of access,

reliability and personal service.

Annexes

A. Bi bl iography

Hunter, Larry C. "A final report on OSU regional

computer center project." Submitted to the

National Science Foundation, March 22, 1971.

Office of Administration, Oregon State Board of

Higher Education. "Computer services In the

Department of Higher Education." January 1, 1973.

Weeg, Gerard P. "The role of regional computer

networks." <Computers in Instruction* Their Future

59
Network Management Survey Oregon State Regional Network

for Higher Educatlon>; Rand Corporation* Santa

Monica, CA, July 1971; pp. 55-66.

B. Special Vocabulary

OS-3 - Oregon State Open Shop Operating System

OSCAR - Oregon State Conversational Aid to Research

60
TYMNET

I. Introduction

TYMNET is a distributed national network of

heterogeneous computers operated for profit by a major

time-sharing company. The continued operations of

this network serves to demonstrate that such

facilities are commercially viable.

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

Tymshare, Inc., with headquarters in Cupertino,

California, was formed in 1966 as a commercial time

sharing company. It has grown to a company with

annual sales of some $21 million and about 450

employees, making it the largest independent in the

time sharing field. The total number of individual

users of Tymshare services is in excess of 10,000,

and they represent over 150 separate organizations.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

TYMNET exists primarily to make available the

commercial timesharing services of Tymeshare, Inc.,

although the capabilities of the communications

network itself have been marketed separately to

customers wishing to connect their own terminals to

their own computers. The network is designed for

Interactive terminal to computer communications,

although computer to computer connections are

poss I bl e.

C. Status and Topology

The network has been operational since 1969 as a commercial service. It is presently serving over

ten thousand interactive users (800 simultaneously)

in over 70 cities throughout the United States and

Europe (Paris, France).

The network serves to interconnect approximately 40

host computer systems and contains some 100

communications nodes In a multi-ring configuration.

Figure 1 illustrates an abbreviated topological map

of the network.

61
62
Network Management Survey TYMNET

D. Technology Summary

The network consists of approximately 100

minicomputers (Varian 620/1, 620/L and 620/L-100)

called TYMSATs interconnected by common carrier

voice grade facilities. The TYMSATs serve in two

different capacities, to connect host systems and

terminals to the network.

The "base" TYMSAT is responsible for acting as both

a message switching computer in the communications

network and as an interface to the network for host

or service computers. When the service computer is

one of those generally supported by Tymshare (such

as an XDS 940, IBM 370/158 7 or DEC POP- 10), the

TYMSAT has been programmed as a communications

controller replacing the standard components for

that function. Computers of a type not employed by

Tymshare have thus far been interfaced to the net

through their standard communications controller

(e.g., IBM 270X or 3705 for an IBM 360 or 370) so

that the TYMSAT appears as a complex of terminals

to the controller.

The base TYMSATs are each connected to a service

computer in a one-to-one or one-to-two fashion

(approximately forty throughout the country) and to

one another either directly or through an

intermediate base TYMSAT in a multiple ring or

distributed manner. The circuits used are either

2400 or 4800 bps synchronous, full-duplex, private

1 eased 1 I nes

The "remote" TYMSATs act as store-and-forward

computers and as concentrators for user terminals.

In addition, some remote TYMSATs with added

hardware and software can suport local printers in

the 600 to 1200 baud range. Each is capable of

supporting up to thirty-one asynchronous,

full-duplex modems allowing for terminal speeds in

the 110 to 300 bps range. The remote TYMSAT can

identify a terminal (baud rate and carriage return

delay time) by the first character typed. It is

possible to allow a terminal to connect with two

different baud rates for input and output. In

addition, ASCII conversion is provided for

non-standard terminals and echoing if the user

terminal is operating in echo-plex mode.

63
ietwork Management Survey TYMNET

The remote TYMSATs are connected to the base

TY/iSATs and thus the service computers through a

ring configuration whereby a circuit passes through

a number of remote TYMSATs and one base TYMSAT.

Store-and-forward techniques are used to exchange

information between any remote TYMSAT and any base

TYMSAT. The circuits connecting the remote TYMSATs

are again 2400 and 4800 bps synchronous,

full-duplex, private leased lines.

Blocks are transmitted through the network over

full-duplex virtual circuits. These circuits are

established at log-in time and exist for the

duration of the connection. These circuits are

established by software in the TYMSATs which

associate an input channel with the appropriate

output channel at each switching point. A circuit

is established by the "supervisor in active mode"

(Sam). When a user connects to TYMNET, he is

originally communicating with the Sam, which, after

the appropriate exchange of information, will

establish a circuit from that user's terminal to

the desired service computer by selecting the

proper TYMSATs to complete the virtual circuit.

The "supervisor in active mode" is so named because

It Is a function which can be taken over by backup

supervisors in the event of failure. A backup

supervisor will become active by detecting a failure, polling the TYMSATs to get network status

information, and assuming the active role. This

sequence does not disturb users on processors other

than the one whose supervisor failed.

It should be noted that in the event of a processor

failure, its base TYMSAT can still function In the

role of a network store-and-forward computer.

Since virtual circuits are established and fixed

for the duration of processor connections, recovery

from a physical line failure Is not as clean. When

a line fails, users communicating through virtual

circuits using that line in their definition must

reconnect.

E. Future Plans

Tymshare, Inc. continues to expand its network

coverage as business conditions justify. The

64
Network Management Survey TYMNET

company is also starting to use higher-speed lines

and alternate suppliers.

Ill, Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

Tymshare, Inc. is organized similarly to most

corporations which produce and market goods

nationally. They have a home office with a central

staff for planning and control in Cupertino,

California, and regional and branch offices

throughout the country and in Europe.

B. Functions Performed

1

PI anni ng

The network is privately managed in its

entirety, and all planning for its growth is

done by the Tymshare, Inc. corporate staff. The

network topology, however, has not been laid out

following any specific design strategy, but has

just grown in response to customer needs and the

business expected in certain areas.

2. Instal 1 ati on

All matters relating to installation (such as

leasing phone lines and the delivery and

attachment of TYMSATs) are handled by Tymshare,

Inc. as part of the usage contract with the

customer.

As usage grows and bottlenecks occur, two main

courses of action are taken by Tymshare. As an

Interim step, the "preferred routing"

definitions for some terminals can be changed,

so as to reroute data and thus relieve the

bottleneck. Also, additional leased lines can

be ordered; it normally takes about six weeks to

obtain such lines. The ring structure of the

network provides considerable flexibility in the

management of the physical network.

3. Operations

The network is controlled by a Network

Supervisory System. This is a control program

65
Network Management Survey TYMNET

that Is resident in four host computers.

Currently, two of these host computers are at

Cupertino, California, one Is at Englewood

Cliffs, New Jersey, and one is at Paris, France.

However, only one of the programs Is in control

of the network. The other three have a "pecking

order" for taking over control of the network in

case the active supervisor shows any sign of not

being able to handle the job. If the network

should become segmented, such as transmission

across the Atlantic be disrupted, then each

segment can be run independently until

communications have been reestablished.

The network has proved to be very reliable, with

an average of only 1.4 failures per year for the

TYMSATs. Preventive maintenance Is performed

twice per year on the TYMSATs.

A. User Services

Tymshare, Inc. has an extensive organization of

marketing representatives throughout the country

who also continue to provide service to

customers after they contract to use the

network. The company offers many proprietary

software packages for use on the network, and is

continuing to develop more.

As a profit-making company, it is reasonable to

assume that Tymshare will be quite responsive to

user needs. For example, remote batch service

is not presently offered, but will probably be

added when user demands dictate.

C. Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

Since Tymshare is a company which markets products

to organizations rather than to individual

consumers, each customer represents an interface

with another organization. As outlined below, many

organizations, both private and public, use TYMNET

In a "shared" (really "value-added") mode of

operation as provided for In FCC Tariff No. 260.

Tymshare obtains circuits from the common carriers

and "shares" the use of them with the additional

network functions sold to its customers.

Besides Tymshare itself, the National Library of

66
Network Management Survey TYMNET

Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, is the largest

user. With nation-wide access to their Medline

Data Base on an IBM 370/155, NLM serves more than

200 libraries, hospitals and university medical

centers, NLM has been using the network since

February 1972.

IV, Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capl tal I zatlon

Tymshare, Inc. is a for-profit corpojiation

capitalized by the sale of stock to private

i nvestors.

As listed In the 1972 Annual Report, Tymshare's

investments in computer systems and

termi nal /comuni cati on equipment were $5.05 million

and $4.49 million, respectively.

B. Accounting

Tymnet can and is being used in several ways. The

principal use is for providing customers with time

sharing services, both computing services and

application packages. The network allows a customer to use a specific resource, such as a particular data file, that may be located at a Tymshare computing center on the other side of the

country. In addition, the network allows Tymshare

to make "rolling use" of its resources by diverting

peak loads occurring at particular hours of the day

to computers located in other time zones.

Another use of the network is where the customer

has both a computer and terminals connected to the

network, and the Tymshare computers do some of the

processing. Data files may be exchanged between a user's computer and Tymshare computers as required.

Still another way to use the network I s by a joint

use arrangement, which is allowed under Federa]

Communications Commission (FCC) Tariff 260. In

this type of usage, the customer contracts for a specified percentage of the Tymnet capacity •— say

1% averaged over a one month period — for

communicating between the customer's terminals and

the customer's computer* In this instance, the

Tymshare host computers are involved to set up the

67
Network Management Survey TYMNET

call routing and to guarantee their stability, but

not to process data. An agreement is signed with

the Telephone Company whereby it bills the company

for the specified percentage of the communications

charges. In addition, Tymshare bills the customer

for its "value added" services.

TYMNET's standard price list is as follows:

Descr i pt ion

Each log-on to host computer

Accumulative time connected to host

for al 1 termi nals*

to 500 hours

next 1 500 hours

next 3000 hours

next 5000 hours

each hour over 10,000

Transmission of characters between

user and host computer

TYCOM-III rental (30 ports)

AT&T Joint Use Charge

(bi lied by AT&T)

One time installation charge

Monthly Charges

$ .50

3.00/hour

2.50/hour

2.00/hour

1.50/hour

1.00/hour

.125/1000

characters

2150.00/month

7.50/leased

lines used/month

1000.00

C. Regulation

Aside from taritrs (discussed above) and the normal

laws affecting all private businesses, TYMNET is

not regulated.

D. Securi ty

When a user accesses the system, a Tymsat accepts

his terminal identification and prompts with the

message PLEASE LOG IN. He is immediately connected

to the network supervisor which checks the Master

User Directory and validates the user name and

password. The supervisor then determines which

computer is associated with that user and connects

him to the appropriate system. At that time, the

supervisor transfers control to that system and

data is transmitted directly, rather than through a central point as i n a star-type network. Whenever

68
Network Management Survey TYMNET

he logs out, he is returned to the network

supervisor which again asks for the log in

sequence.

Users may be validated on multiple systems, in

which case they must identify the system to which

they wish to be connected at login-time, A single

user's password is the same on all systems.

The supervisor, in maintaining records, provides a complete chronol i gi cal log of all events in the

network. The supervisor also permits manual

intervention and survey, including the ability to

determine how many users are connected to a host

and to determine where host users have originated a call and which nodes they pass through en route.

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

TYMNET continues to have a number of technical

problems which affect the level of service which

can be offered. No facilities for remote job entry

are presently provided, although this service is

under investigation, and synchronous terminals

cannot be supported. The capabilities of the

Varian 620's place a limit on the ability of the

network to handle much faster communications lines

than are presently in use. The present strategy of

disassembly and reassembly of all messages at every

node also limits the capacity for handling

increased traffic. Terminal interfaces to the

TYMSATs are also bit-oriented, thus limiting the

number of terminals which a single TYMSAT Can

accommodate. Tymshare recognizes this "bit

banging" to be inefficient, and is investigating

the use of more sophisticated terminal interfaces

and message forwarding strategies.

B. Lessons Learned

Tymshare has demonstrated that value-added networks

can offer an economically viable product.

Of equal importance, Tymshare's experience

demonstrates that a distributed network can be

adequately managed.

69
Network Management Survey TYMNET

Annexes

A. Bibliography

Beere, M. P. and N. C. Sullivan, "Tymnet, a serendipitous evolution," <IEEE Transactions on

Communications>, June 1972, Part 2; pp. 511-515.

Combs, Bill. "Tymnet* a distributed network."

<Datamation>, 19*7 (July 1973), pp. 40-43.

Tymes, L. R., "Tymnet, a terminal oriented

communications network," Proceedings of the 1971

SJCO, AFIPS Press: Montvale, N pp. 211-216.

B. Special Vocabulary

TYMSAT - a mi ni processor based on the Varian 620/1

which acts as a store-and-forward switch and an

interface for terminals and computer systems to the

network

TYCOM - A modified TYMSAT which permits users'

computers to be connected to the network through

their own communications controllers.

70
Concl us ions

I. Introduction

The approach to network management taken in this

report has been to report on management practices as

they exist, rather than to try to proscribe the way in

which they should be performed, Nevertheless, it is

possible to draw some conclusions simply from

observing which of several different approaches have

been successful. This is the essence of the

comparative approach to management. While the

conclusions which will be drawn here are not intended

to be definitive, they do seem to be indicative of how

successful network management is performed. It is in

this spirit that they are offered.

II. Network Identification and General Description

A. Sponsoring Organization

We are concerned more here with the managing

organization than the sponsoring organization.

They may be the same, and if the sponsoring

organization really wants the network to succeed It

is better that they be the same (the absentee

landlord is never an effective manager).

For the managing organization there are two

important criteria^ the organization should have a serious stake in the success of the network (e.g.,

either financial reward or the satisfying of needs

of the organization Itself), and it should have the

means of exercising effective managerial control.

Viewed another way, these criteria are simply the

responsibility and authority which should accompany

the delegation of any management task.

B. Purpose/mission of Network

It seems clear that network success, I.e., high

user satisfaction and growing demand for network

services, cannot be achieved or adequately

acertained without there being a real purpose for

the network other than just research on networking.

Networks faced with real needs to satisfy are more

likely to seriously and realistically work out user

support problems than networks which would hardly

be missed by a significant user community.

71
Network Management Survey Conclusions

C. Status and Topology

There does not appear to be a minimum critical size

for achieving success in user satisfaction by a network. Indeed, growth seems to present more

stringent demands on network management resources

in such areas as user services. Thus for research

projects or experiments In networking, small scale

efforts with a wel 1 -i dentl f i ed user community would

seem preferable. Nonetheless, evaluation and

measurements would have to be considered In

projecting success for an expanded operation.

Topology is important only in that shared

facilities should be equally available to all those

contributing to their maintenance. Geographic

neutrality has been found (in the case of TUCC, for

example) to help emphasize this point.

D. Technology Summary

The particular technology employed in constructing

a network does not appear to be critical to the

success or failure of the network. Speed of lines,

routing strategies and similar factors seem not to

be significant. Reliability, however, is

significant. The conclusion appears to be that

users will adapt their usage modes to whatever type

and level of service is offered, but they must be

confident of receiving this service when It Is

desired If the network is to be successful.

E. Future Plans

It seems to be characteristic of networks, as with

organizations In general, that once established

they have a 1 i f e of their own and are only

disestablished under unusual circumstances. All of

the networks surveyed are continuing In operation,

and indeed, are undergoing expansion.

III. Network Organization

A. Structure and Extent

The main comment to be made regarding the structure

and extent of the network management organization

is that there SHOULD BE structure and extent.

Networks need to be well managed to be successful,

72
Network Management Survey Conclusions

and a formal organization is preferred to an

informal one in nearly all cases.

B. Functions Performed

1. Planning

The results of the survey seem to Indicate that

centralized planning is to be preferred over

distributed responsibilities. In

mul ti -organi zat ional ventures where the

interests of individual parties need to be

protected, the centralization of planning

responsibility can be vested in a joint team or

commi ttee.

2. Instal lat ion

The installation of equipment In a well-managed

network will be accomplished In a non-disruptive

manner and on a timely basis. This can only

result from orderly planning, as discussed

above. None of the networks surveyed appeared

to be deficient In this area.

3. Operations

The main comment to be made about operations is

that the degree of reliability which must be

built into networks is extremely high — 95% up

time is probably not good enough. Users must

have the assurance that the system will be

available when they need to use It.

A large measure of this reliability is designed

into networks through the techniques of

redundancy and standardization. Redundancy, for

example, insures that the failure of a single

communications link does not Isolate any users.

Standardization provides a means to switch from

processor to processor as required. Additional

efforts along these lines are required, but

these are not, strictly speaking, operational

matters.

The main requirement in the operations area Is

the ability to rapidly diagnose and respond to

failures in the network. The network control

center developed for the ARPA network Is the

73
Network Management Survey Conclusions

most sophisticated example in this survey. Such

control centers serve the multiple functions of

continually monitoring the network and

diagnosing problem areas, coordinating

corrective measures, and providing a central

point to which users may direct inquiries and

compl ai nts.

4, User Services

It is clear that the area of user services is

critical to the success of any network. It is

also clear that a wide variety of services is

required, not just good documentation. These

services include as a minimum documentation,

training, assistance on specific problems, and a

channel for accepting user feedback (gripes!).

Additional services might include network mail

and facilities for on-line collaboration.

The experience of the networks surveyed

indicates that services are best provided by

organizations closest to the user — e.g,, the

local retailer. This is because personal

services are required, and because a local

organization is likely to be more responsive to

the needs of local users,

C, Interfaces (relationships with other organizations)

Because of their size, most networks must deal with

multiple organizations; indeed, this is one of the

major problems facing network management.

Certain special organizations seem likely to affect

many of the networks surveyed here. Various

standards groups are beginning to consider the area

of data networks. The International Network

Working Group was founded following an ARPA

initiative to examine means of interconnecting

different networks. Composed of members from a large number of different data networks around the

world, the group now has official standing as a working group under IFIP Technical Committee 6

(data communications). An American National

Standards Task Group has also been formed to

consider all interface standards relating to

"Public Data Networks" (X3S37). This group

74
Network Management Survey Conclusions

develops the American position for presentation to

the International Standards Organization (ISO).

Other initiatives, such as the HSF Networking for

Science program, seem likely to promote greater

cooperation and perhaps interconnection between

networks.

IV. Financial and Legal Concerns

A. Capitalization

The first conclusion to be drawn in this area is

that networks require substantial capital, both for

the development required and to underwrite the

operation of the network while usage Is still very

light. Since usage may take some time to grow, as

users gain both familiarity and confidence in the

system, the initial capitalization should be

adequate to cover at least two years of operation.

We comment elsewhere in these conclusions that a

commitment from users to the success of the network

may be a key element in achieving success,

especially in a non-commercial network. In this

vein, it seems likely that a significant

contribution to the network's capitalization by

these users would go a long way towards encouraging

this commitment. A network in which the users have

little to lose in the event of failure is that much

more likely to fail.

B. Accounting

Herzog (1973) discusses the accounting problems

which must be faced when a network is constructed

to interconnect a number of autonomous sites. He

bases his discussion on the wholesale/retail

concept espoused by Grobstein and (Jhllg (1972).

The users, of course, are anxious about the prices

they must pay for service. The wholesalers (e.g.,

autonomous university computing centers), whose

planning and budgeting experience is dominated by

the history of pre-network days, are afraid that

some of the income they have anticipated will be

diverted to other wholesalers. This potential

diversion threatens the budgetary integrity of each

wholesaler and results In real anxiety.

75
Network Management Survey Conclusions

Herzog suggests that in the long run, usage

patterns can be incorporated in the budgetary and

planning process, thereby reducing the problem to

the traditional one of matching the expected and

actual income. At the start, however, a

cooperating group seeking to obtain the benefits of

a network must find a mechanisrr to overcome this

anxiety. Using the total flow of resources across

the network as a measure of success, he suggests

that the ideal would be to have a large but

balancing flow. A zero differential flow by

definition avoids the cited anxiety. However, as

Herzog recognizes, it Is unrealistic and

short-sighted to expect that this ideal will be

met. (It could, of course, be met by

administrative flat, but this would create an

unstable situation of unsatisfied demand which

would be difficult to perpetuate).

In MERIT'S case, relief was sought and obtained

from the universities' administrations to pledge

funds from sources other than computing budgets to

cover imbalances. This removed a serious potential

deterrent to network utilization. To arrive at

this resolution, however, required a careful review

of existing Internal organizational policies.

C. Regulation

Up to the present time, most networks have been

able to avoid entanglements in tariff questions

through one means or another. However, as networks

continue to grow In size and importance, there are

likely to be tariff decisions made which will

affect networks.

There have been two major issues before the Federal

Communications Commission that have direct bearing

on computer networks and their required data

communications. These Investigations covering

specialized common carriers and the

inter-dependence of computers and communications

and the resulting rulings are often confused and

considered together. However, as Ens low has

pointed out, it is important to realize that they

are separate and distinct In their effects on both

computer networks and communications.

The major question addressed In the Specialized

76
Network Management Survey Conclusions

Common Carrier inquiry, FCC Docket No. 18920, was

whether or not carriers other than the presently

established ones would be permitted to offer

competitive services. The FCC decision, released

in June 1971, came almost eight years after MCI

first filed for authority to construct a Chicago to

St. Louis microwave system; however, the ruling

covered all of the applications pending before it.

The Commissioners position strongly supported free

and competitive entry into the market.

In November 1966, the FCC initiated Docket No.

16979 to examine the "Regulatory and Policy

Problems Presented by Interdependence of Computer

and Communication Services and Facilities."

Another lengthy study was required before the

Commission issued its final order in March 1971.

Although all of the items raised in the initial

inquiry were not ruled on, there were important

decisions made on the regulatory status of publicly

offered teleprocessing services. Enslow

characterized the decision in terms of a spectrum

of service offerings between pure computing and

pure communications.

"Pure" remote computing utilizes communications

services, but that use is only incidental to the

primary function of the service. It was ruled

that this service would be unregulated.

The other end of the spectrum is circuit

switching which requires some computation and

logical decisions to be made by the switching

processor. However, this is incidental to the

primary service which is "essentially

communications" and therefore fully subject to

regul atl on.

The Commission's ruling also covered message

switched service, which, though it requires more

computation, is still a "communications" service

and regulated. What the ruling did not settle was

the status of hybrid services where the

"incidental" test fails. The problem was

recognized and specified as an area In which

advisory rulings could be obtained; however, as

Enslow recognizes, the mere fact that the line is

not drawn between what is to be regulated and what

77
itwork Management Survey Conclusions

is not has already served as a deterrent to the

offering of new services.

Another regulatory issue that is often raised when

networks are discussed is the prohibition against

resale or third-party use by an organization that

has obtained service from the regular common

carriers. This is a problem; however, Enslow

suggests that it is becoming less of a problem in

the area of data communications. One important

feature of data communications networks that

distinguishes them from private voice networks is

the fact that the service provided by the operator

of the network is usually quite different from the

facility he obtained from the common carrier. A

data communications network will usually provide

additional services to its customers such as error

correction, automatic routing, testing and

alternate routing, and other features such as

directory services. Enslow suggests the term

"Value-Added Network" or VAN to describe such

services, but he points out that the regulatory

issues relating to such networks have not yet been

resolved.

D. Security

Security is an issue which has been conveniently

ignored by most networks, but which will have to be

faced by many of them eventually. Security may

seem to be of little importance in an academic

environment, but even there may be found instances

of sensitive files which require adequate

protection from examination and tampering (e.g.,

personnel files, files of student grades).

Networks which offer service commercially have the

responsibility to develop measures to protect their

customers' sensitive information.

V. Conclusions

A. Summary of Problems

The problems which have been evidenced in the

networks surveyed may be most conviently summarized

according to a number of broad classes as follows*

Technological - These problems deal with the

difficulty of setting up a useful, usable and
Network Management Survey Conclusions

reliable service for the usually remote users of

the network. The problems include the

compatibility difficulties between different

computers, both in hardware and software,

i mplementat ? onal difficulties, both in host

operating systems and in communications computers,

and reliability problems with all components.

Problems of this sort continue to plague all

network developers; on the other hand, all of the

networks surveyed have found acceptable solutions

to most of these problems. Thus, technological

problems do not represent the major impediment to

network success.

Operational - These problems relate to the

day-to-day managerial tasks associated with

operating a computer network. Included are all

problems related to network planning and

installation, diagnosis and maintenance, and the

delivery of user services. In general, problems

have arisen when one (or both) of the two

requirements for effective management,

responsibility and authority, have been lacking.

Financial - These problems include the costs

associated with the various network components, and

raising the necessary capital to develop and

operate a network. Networks are not inexpensive to

develop or operate, with substantial costs arising

both from hardware and software components.

Furthermore, most costs are fixed over a given

operating period, resulting in a high sensitivity

to variations in demand on the part of network

finances. A major challenge to network developers

is to reduce the overhead and thereby the costs

associated with such components as host software

specific to the network. The communications

components of networks represent opportunities for

savings resulting from economies of scale, so

another challenge is to raise network loading to

the point where these benefits are realized.

Capitalization of the networks surveyed did not

appear to be a major problem, but it certainly

represents a barrier to entry for potential

networks, be they academic or commercial.

Legal - The legal and regulatory issues relating to

computer networks were outlined in IV. C above.

Problems in this area are more likely to affect

79
Network Management Survey Conclusions

current and potential commercial networks than

private and/or academic networks. These problems

have hardly affected any networks up to the present

time, but with the FCC now actively considering the

Issues, legal matters may become much more of

concern in the near future. The resale of common

carrier communications services with "value-added"

is a particular area likely to be affected by any

FCC ruling.

Sociological - These problems arise from the large

and diverse organization which typifies computer

networks. A large, distributed network establishes

a community of developers, maintainers and users

who must interact with each other. The technology

of the network requires that each of these people

operate in a way in which they may not be

accustomed. Users in particular must adapt to

certain constraints of a network in order to

accomplish their desired tasks. For example, less

user assistance through personal interaction is

characteristic of networks. User assistance is

provided instead through better documentation and

on-line tutorials in automated form. To the extent

that users are unable to adapt to this mode of

operation, serious impediments to network success

may arise.

B. Lessons Learned

The overwhelming empirical lesson to be learned

from this study is that networks can and must be

managed if they are to succeed in providing

adequate levels of service to users. Computer

networks offer no exceptions to the principles of

management which apply in all other organizations.

Annexes

A. Bibliography

Emery, James C. "Problems and promises of regional

computing." <Datamat ion>, \3»S (August 1973), pp.

55-58.

Enslow, Philip H., Jr. "Network viability:

economic, legal and social considerations."

<Compcon73>, pp. 7-10.

80
Network Management Survey Conclusions

Enslow, Philip H., Jr. "Non-technical Issues in

network design — economic, legal, social, and

other considerations," <Computer>, 6*8 (August

1973), pp. 20-30.

Grobsteln, David L. and Ronand P. Uhlig. "A

wholesale retail concept for computer network

management." 1972 FJCC, pp. 889-898.

Herzog, Bertram. "Organizational Issues and the

computing network market." <Compcon 73>, Dp.

11-14.

Hootman, Joseph T. "The computer network as a marketplace." <Datamat Ion>, 18*4, April 1972, pp.

43-46.

Morrisroe, David W. "Management concerns for

national and regional networks." <Networks for

Higher Education> (Proceedings of the EDUCOM Spring

Conference), April 13, 1972, pp. 65-69.

Peterson, J. J. and S. A. Velt. <Survey of

Computer Networks>. Mitre Corporation Report

MTP-359, 1971.

Pyke, Thomas N., Jr. and Robert Blanc. "Computer

networking technology — a state of the art

review." <Computer>, 6*8 (August 1973), pp. 12-19.

Roberts, Lawrence G. "Network rationale! a 5-year

reevaluat i on." <Compcon73>, pp. 3-5.

Stefferud, Einar A. "Management's role in

networking." <Datamation>, 18^4, April 1972, pp.

40-42.

Stefferud, Einar, Grobstein, David L. and Ronald

Uhlig. "Wholesale/retail specialization in

resource sharing networks." <Computer>, 6*8

(August 1973), pp. 31-37.

B. Special Vocabulary

Centralized Network - A network with a topology

such that all nodes are connected to a single node.

Circuit Switching - The establishment of a physical

81
Network Management Survey Conclusions

circuit between nodes prior to the start of

transmi ssion.

Communications Computer - A computer that acts as

the interface between another computer or a terminal and a communications link.

Decentralized Network - A distributed network of

centralized sub-networks.

Distributed Network - A network in which the

majority of nodes are not directly connected to a majority of the other nodes.

Front-end Computer - See Communications Computer,

Host Computer - A network computer acting as a service node.

Link - A communications path between two nodes.

Network1) An interconnected or interrelated group of

nodes;

2) In connection with a disciplinary or problem

oriented qualifier, the combination of material,

documentation and human resources that are

united by design to achieve certain objectives,

(E.g., a science information network).

Node - A point of convergence of communication

paths in a network.

Process - A systematic sequence of operations to

produce a specified result.

Protocol - A formal set of conventions governing

the format and relative timing of message exchange

between two communicating processes.

Regional Network - A network whose nodes are

confined to a specified geographical area.

Remote Job Entry - The mode of operation that

allows input of a batch Job by a card reader at a

82
Network Management Survey Conclusions

remote site and receipt of output by a line printer

or card punch at the remote site.

Resource - Any capability or service available to

users, such as computational power, brain power,

programs, data files, storage capacity, or a combination of these.

Resource Sharing - The joint use of resources on a network by a number of dispersed users.

RJE - see Remote Job entry.

Server Node - A node primarily providing network

resources.

Star Network - A centralized network.

Store-and-Forward - Pertaining to communications

where a message is received, stored until ready for

output, and then retransmitted.

Sub-network - A network which is itself a component

of a larger network.

Tariff - Communications tariffs are schedules filed

by common carriers that specify the classifications

and charges for offered facilities or types of

service. Under the Communications Act of 1934,

interstate and international tariffs are approved

by the Federal Communi cat i ens Commission.

Terminal - A point in a system or communication

network at which data can enter or exit.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1974—542-653/133

83

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U.S. DEPT. OF COMM. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO. NBS TN-8052. Gov't Accession

No.

3. Recipient's Accession No.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Network Management Survey

5. Publication Date February 1974

6. Performing Organization Code

7. AUTHOR(S)

Ira W. Cotton

8. Performing Organ. Report No.

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 6502372

11. Contract/Grant No. AG-350

12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Complete Address (Street, City, State, ZIP)

National Science Foundation

Washington, D. C. 20550

13. Type of Report & Period Covered Interim

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

16. ABSTRACT (A 2 00- word or less factual summary ol most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.) This report presents the results of a study of management

practices in different computer networks. Five networks were chosen

as typical of different approaches to network implementation and

management: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)

Network, MERIT Network, Triangle Universities Computation Center

(TUCC), Oregon State Regional Network and Tymnet, a commercial

network. A common format is employed to survey each network.

While the report is not intended to be prescriptive, some empirical

observations are presented for each topic covered.

17. KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name; separated by semicolons)

Computer network; management; network, network management.

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