RFC 91 (rfc91) - Page 2 of 12
Proposed User-User Protocol
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 91 A Proposed User-User Protocol December 1970
1. The notion of a (logical) _record_ should be present, and the
notion of a _message_ should be suppressed. (To a FORTRAN pro-
grammer, that which is written using one WRITE statement with no
accompanying FORMAT is a record; to an OS/360 machine language
programmer, PUT writes a record).
2. It should be possible to so implement the protocol in HOST sys-
tems and/or library routines that now existing user programs can
access files anywhere in the Network without program modifica-
tion. (Initially, at least, this ability must be restricted to
HOST systems of the same type).
3. The protocol should be implementable (not necessarily imple-
mented) in any HOST system at the SVC or UUO level. Specific
knowledge of the characteristics of the other HOST involved
should be unnecessary.
It should be noted that the above imply that some user programs must
be aware of the nature of the other HOST -- at least in each case
where the second criterion fails. As we make progress in (or give up
on) the cases where the failure now occurs, the burden of accommodat-
ing system differences will shift toward implementation in protocols
(i.e., the HOST systems) or, by default, in user programs.
Quite clearly, any proposal initiated today should be suspect as to
the extent to which it "solves" ultimate problems. How ambitious to
be is strictly a matter of taste. At this stage, I prefer to try
something which I believe can be used by all of us (and, hence, is
worth doing), goes a reasonable distance towards solving our short-
range problems, is easy to do, and offers hope of viability in the
long range view. In the following, I intend to describe the proposal
itself with, I hope, proper motivational arguments for its pieces. I
will then sketch the specific implementation we at Harvard are making
for the PDP-10 and describe how we intend to apply it in the specific
case of storage of files on other PDP-10's in the Network.
USER-USER PROTOCOL (PROPOSAL)
The following protocol is intended to apply to the data bits in mes-
sages between the end of the marking bits and the beginning of the
padding bits. _The present IMP-IMP and HOST-HOST protocols are unaf-
fected by this proposal_.
The general principle is that each segment (this is not a technical
term) of data is preceded by control information specifying its
nature and extent. The basic scheme has been evolved from that used
in the SOS buffering system (see the papers in JACM, April 1959 and
especially that by O.R. Mock).
Mealy