Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!AUDUCVAX!OWEN From: OWEN@AUDUCVAX.BITNET (Larry Owen) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.nodmgt-l Subject: Re: BITNET Restructuring Proposal Message-ID: Date: 9 Feb 90 13:46:00 GMT Sender: Node Management Discussion Reply-To: Node Management Discussion Lines: 43 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway X-VMS-To: IN%"NODMGT-L@UGA.BITNET" Mark Wood writes: >May I point out that one of the "Core Site Guidelines" is unnecessarily >restrictive: >> 1. The machine must run VM with FAL, VMNET, and RSCS Version 2. >Other hardware/software combinations may be equivalent and should not be >disqualified without examination. For example, VAX/VMS systems running Jnet >V3.4, Jnet TCP NJE, and TGV MultiNet or Wollongong WIN/TCP should be able to >communicate with VMNET hosts: TCP NJE was specifically designed for this >purpose. See Joiner's press release dated 1-Nov-1989. >I don't wish to contest the published choice of core sites. I *do* wish to >point out that other choices are feasible, and perhaps even desirable, if the >quoted condition is relaxed. As I was reading the proposal, I initially had the same reaction; I think it tends to perpetuate the IBM/VM-centric world view of Bitnet. But, if you allow the validity of the requirement that the core sites also run a LISTSERV, then you're pretty much "stuck" with VM/RSCS machines as the core sites. I have not looked at the choice of core sites in terms of BITNET and NSF/ regional topological maps, but (being in the southeast), the choice of sites for the southeast region appears to have a strong "upper right corner" geographic bias, although intelligent choice of mid-level sites using either VM/FAL/RSCS or VMS/JNET/MULTINET(or WOLLONGONG) combos could place almost everyone "close" to the backbone. Those of us who find themselves currently 10 or 12 hops from CUNYVM have to see this as an improvement; if done right, we could end up with a network where no 2 nodes are more than, say, 8 hops from each other. If nothing else, this reduces the difficulty in following list discussions that seem to arrive in almost perfect reverse order. I don't want to volunteer Auburn as a core site either, but I would be *very* interested in being a mid-level site. Larry Owen Mgr., Network Support Auburn University Bitnet: owen@auducvax Internet: owen@ducvax.auburn.edu