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* * A bi-monthly electronic news bulletin
* * reporting on the activities of DANTE,
* the company that organises international
* network services for the European
THE WORKS OF D A N T E research community.
No.13, February 1996 Editor: Josefien Bersee
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TRANSATLANTIC CONNECTIVITY
UKERNA, the UK national network has asked DANTE to organise an
extension of their transatlantic capacity with 9 Mbps. DANTE will
organise the provision of six T1s (1.5 Mbps) to provide the requested
additional connectivity, which will bring its total transatlantic
capacity to 24,5 Mbps. There are additional requests from SWITCH and
enquiries from BELNET and DFN for a considerable increase in their US
connectivity.
The current position on the co-funding of transatlantic capacity by
US research organisations contains a number of fundamental
inequities. Whilst there are winners and losers on this side of the
Atlantic there is no doubt that Europe, taken as a whole, pays
significantly more than its fair share of the cost of
interconnection. When NSFnet was funded as a research network, the
National Science Foundation co-funded lines to several European
National Research networks. With the commercialisation of the
Internet in the USA the future of this co-funding is uncertain.
Historically, Europe was a net importer of bits from the USA.
However, it is true for lines managed by DANTE, that traffic between
Europe and the USA is balanced and this is more generally the case.
There is therefore a need to develop a settlement model
which fairly relates costs and benefits.
DANTE, in co-operation with a number of its shareholders, has had
discussions with US funders and Internet service providers aimed at
achieving a much more balanced arrangement. Whilst there is
recognition in the USA that the current state of affairs is no longer
tenable and there is sympathy towards establishing a fair
arrangement, it will require some time to establish this since US
researchers are generally accustomed to see this provided as a free
part of the Internet.
MORE NETWORKS SIGN TEN-34 CONTRACT
Since the previous 'Works' many more national research networks, in
addition to the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, have decided to
sign the TEN-34 contract, in particular Austria, France, Greece,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, NORDUnet on behalf of the Nordic
countries, Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. Other networks
(and PNOs) still have the opportunity to join in before the
implementation starts in the second quarter of 1996.
In the meantime the proposals by Unisource and ABS (ATM Broadband
Services consisting of BT, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and
Telecom Italia) are being finalised. The final TEN-34 interconnect
infrastructure at 34 Mbps will consist of two subnetworks which are
interlinked at two locations in Europe. The National Research
Networks in the TEN-34 Consortium plan to provide an integrated pan-
European Networking Service offering IP. Consultations with JAMES,
about the use of an ATM test network to validate new multi-media
applications are also ongoing.
TEN-34 expects the contract with the Commission to be ready for
signature later this month.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATION STATUS FOR DANTE
One of the key arguments for the siting of DANTE in Cambridge was
that the UK government offered tax exemption from profits tax to
qualifying 'not for profit' organisations whose principal activities
involved Research and Development. In order to qualify for this
status DANTE had to submit its audited accounts together with a
summary of its activities for approval. This approval has now been
given so that DANTE has been awarded the status of a Research
Association in the UK. The practical effect of this is that surpluses
that DANTE may make will not be subject to UK corporation tax but can
be re-invested in further activities to support Europe's researchers.
WHEN OPERATING SYSTEMS CAN NOT COPE WITH INTERNET GROWTH....PART TWO
In the previous 'Works' Michael Behringer, DANTE's Senior
Network Engineer, reported on the 'hop count problem'. Below he
explains what has happened since December 1995.
During the last quarter of 1995 an increasing problem could be noted
as some Internet hosts could no longer reach remote hosts on the US
West coast or in the Asia/Pacific region. This was due to some
operating systems defaulting to too low time-to-live values (TTL) for
TCP/UDP packets. Those packets would time out on the way to the
destination and be discarded. Amongst the operating systems affected
were widely used ones such as the whole Microsoft range. SWITCH
(Swiss national research network) has gathered important information
on this problem on their WWW server. See
http://www.switch.ch/switch/docs/ttl_default.html for details.DANTE
and some of its customers have exerted considerable pressure to get
the issue resolved.
A particularly important host, www.microsoft.com, has now
been updated to a higher TTL after several mails from the community.
The press has shown a considerable interest in this issue and
articles about it have appeared in both Communications Week
International and Data Communications International.
In addition there has been a topology change in ANSnet, where most of
the EuropaNET transatlantic lines end. Whereas before the change the
ANS backbone was traversed for all destinations, there are now direct
connections to the two major Internet exchange points on the US East
coast, MAE-East in Washington and the Sprint NAP in Pennsauken. This
shortens the path for numerous non-European destinations.
It must be stressed however that the primary problem lies within the
default settings of some operating systems for the TTL values. Whilst
topology changes might work around the problem in the short term, the
operating system must support the parameters specified in Internet
standards. The Internet will keep on growing - operating systems and
Internet software must strictly conform to these standards in order
not to hinder this development.
NAMEFLOW-PARADISE: TESTING X.500 1993
The NameFLOW-Paradise International Directory service will migrate
from a Quipu-based to an X.500(93)-based service, which will create
an open, multi-vendor service environment. The migration process was
initiated in August 1995 and will enter the next phase shortly. The
first phase covered three European countries (UK, NL and CH) and
involved ULCC (who provide central operational management of NP). The
test plan for 1996 comprises large scale tests and consists of three
steps.
Step one: Root Context test. NameFLOW-Paradise wants to replace the
Quipu replication protocol with the 1993 shadowing and operational
binding protocols, but without losing the performance improvement
that has been gained for one-level searches. A Root Context test will
be performed from 12 to 16 February 1996 by a small group (10) of
organisations. The target is to test the top level/Root Context and
in particular DISP (Directory Information Shadowing Protocol). If
possible the test will be extended to DAP (Directory Access Protocol)
and DSP (Directory System Protocol).
Step two: the Small Transition (or interworking & scaling test).On
the precondition that the Root Context works properly the next phase
will be to test interworking (including Quipu and X.500(88) co-
existence) and scaling. The test is planned for May/June 1996. A
meeting to discuss the result is planned for the June NameFLOW-
Paradise Managers meeting (11-14 June, Brussels)
Step three: the Big Migration (or Operational Transition).
All will depend on the outcome of the two previous tests. If both are
successful the Big Migration to an X.500(93) infrastructure can
start, hopefully in the Autumn of 1996.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
DANTE currently has a job opening for a Security Expert.
DANTE's interest in security is twofold: providing (or participating
in the provision of) a coordinated European CERT activity as well
as a Certification Authority for the European R&D community. For
more information see: http://www.dante.net/jobs.html. The
deadline for applications is 26 February.
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DANTE - Lockton House - Clarendon Road - Cambridge - CB2 2BH - UK
Telephone +44 1223 302992
Fax +44 1223 303005
E-mail dante@dante.org.uk
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WWW server http://www.dante.net/
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