Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!ucbvax!CS.UCL.AC.UK!J.Crowcroft
From: J.Crowcroft@CS.UCL.AC.UK (Jon Crowcroft)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Internet routing Europe - USA -} Europe...
Message-ID: <9009110037.AA26096@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 10 Sep 90 13:23:36 GMT
References: <9009072143.AA06850@braden.isi.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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 >Actually, this is a highly questionable view of history.  I worked at
 >UCL in 1981-82, when the forerunner of JANET was getting going (I wrote
 >the first terminal gateway at UCL, between the TCP/IP-based Satnet
 >connection and the JNT X.25 network).  I doubt that there was any stage
 >where the JNT-sponsored academic X.25 kit delivered better service than
 >TCP/IP was delivering to universities in the US.  The often-expressed

Bob,

 Several years ago, when the Internet was under the congestive collapse 
that was only saved by certain very clever people fixing TCP, I believe 
that JANET was offering a comparable service:-)

 The state of recent UK sadness can be seen from the continual
tired comparisons of FTP and NIFTP, ignorance of BFTP, failure to 
mention NFS, AFS, RFS etc; The 
non-existence of a networked window system in the UK; the absence of a 
remote execution (not job submission) protocol in colour book, the failure 
to design and install a decent distributed name service, etc etc;
the absurd problems of setting up 40 digit NSAPs for an X.25 on LAN
service, instead of using an elegant scheme like ARP (still waiting
for 10030)... the lack of a CONS routing scheme...

meanwhile, the Internet bounds ahead with full management, multi-media
conferencing experiments, the White Pages pilot and so on -

but hold! we are putting up X.[4|5]00 as pilot services, there is a
small bit of hope; we have a model for X Windows on OSI; someone is
working on FTAM file access regime in the kernel somewhere (i hope)

what has this to do with Europe? not a lot, but - well, I guess if NSF 
and the European countries carrying UK - Europe traffic on their leased 
lines started accounting and billing the JNT, they might effect a
change - ULCC (the actual UK-US gateway, *not* UCL) had some software
to do this...

of course, this is all modulo policy based routing and accounting
research.

 jon