RFC 1127 (rfc1127) - Page 2 of 20

Perspective on the Host Requirements RFCs

RFC 1127           Perspective on Host Requirements         October 1989


   (1)  to give the Internet technical community some insight into the
        results of the host requirements effort;

   (2)  to inform the community of areas that need further work; and

   (3)  to preserve some history and context of the effort as a starting
        point for a future revision.

1.1  GOALS OF THE HOST REQUIREMENTS RFCs

   The basic purpose of the Host Requirements RFCs is to define the
   requirements for Internet host software.  However, the document goes
   far beyond a simple prescription of requirements, to include:

   (a)  a bibliography of the documents essential to an implementor;

   (b)  corrections and updates to the original standards RFC's;

   (c)  material to fill gaps in the previous specifications;

   (d)  limitations on implementation choices, where appropriate;

   (e)  clarification of important issues and the intent of the
        protocols; and

   (f)  documentation of known solutions to recurring problems as well
        as implementation hints.

   Broadly speaking, the Host Requirements working group started from
   the following goals for Internet host software:

   (1)  Interoperability

   (2)  Extensibility

   (3)  Functionality

   (4)  Efficiency

   (5)  Architectural Purity

   Of these, interoperability was clearly preeminent, while
   architectural purity had the lowest priority.  It is more difficult
   to assign relative importance to extensibility, functionality, and
   efficiency, as it varied from one topic to another.

   At a more technical level, the working group pursued a set of general
   goals that included the following:



Braden