RFC 1673 (rfc1673) - Page 1 of 4
Electric Power Research Institute Comments on IPng
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Skelton
Request for Comments: 1673 EPRI
Category: Informational August 1994
Electric Power Research Institute Comments on IPng
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This document was submitted to the IETF IPng area in response to RFC
1550. Publication of this document does not imply acceptance by the
IPng area of any ideas expressed within. Comments should be
submitted to the mailing list.
Executive Summary
The question of the future of the Internet protocol (IP) is an issue
of national if not international concern. It is critical to the
building of a National Information Infrastructure, comparable to the
adoption of basic standards for the industrial era such as railways,
highways and electricity.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is a non-profit
organization, with 700 voluntary utility members, managing a
technical research and development program for the electric utility
industry to improve power production, distribution and use. The
electric power industry is a major user of computing and
communications and is fully committed to open systems.
While the industry is today a heavy user of the Internet Protocol
Suite (IPS) it is following a long term strategy based on
international standards developed by ISO and CCITT and national
standards developed by the IEEE, ANSI and other standards bodies that
employ formal review and voting procedures.
This strategy is based on a survey of needs in all aspects of the
electrical power supply enterprise. It concluded that these needs
are met more effectively by the current suite of OSI protocols and
international standards under development. Therefore, EPRI developed
the Utility Communications Architecture (UCA) specification for
communications and the Database Access Integrated Services
specification for data exchange both based on the OSI model and
Skelton