Subject: n-1-4-070.10 The Internet Society President Replies [ed. In a recent issue of Info World, publisher Bob Metcalf wrote an editorial based on a luncheon meeting with Internet Society President Vint Cerf. Bob, who developed Ethernet and founded the 3COM Corporation, is also an old friend who enjoys making probing remarks - in this case about the Internet world. The following reply by ISOC's President is a useful primer on the multiprotocol character of the Internet, as well as the much broader base of internetworking technology in general.] The Internet is a global phenomenon and, in its present form, it supports a multiprotocol environment which includes TCP/IP but also CLNP from the OSI suite and a variety of proprietary protocols. The protocols of the TCP/IP suite are by far the most uniformly distributed in the system and the TCP and IP layers are often used to support "tunneling" of other protocols across the Internet. In addition to the million hosts on the global Internet, some 30,000 other network numbers have been assigned by the Network Information Center. These nets are not on the global Internet but form a collection of private internets. To characterize the Internet Society as a cult is silly. There are millions of people who make use of the technology either on the global Internet or in private internets. Their interests range from the evolution of the protocols, which are changing and adapting to new demands, such as packet audio and video multicasting and multimedia email, to applications, to economics and sociology, English literature, physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy. It's simply a cross-section of people in research, education, and, increasingly, the business community. Interest in the Internet and its technology is based on real utility and excitement about a system which accommodates innovation. With respect to OSI, and in particular X.400 and X.500, you might not be aware that much of the X.400 email on the Internet runs above the TCP/IP protocols (a thin TP0 emulation layer - see RFC1006 - is used to accomplish this). The Corporation for Open Systems, a founding organizational member of the Internet Society, has linked the OSINet to the Internet to allow both systems to be used to support tests of OSI protocols in the Internet. CLNP is supported on the NSFNET backbone and in a number of other constituent networks. In the multiprotocol environment, it seems to me perfectly reasonable to continue the exploration and evolution of the TCP/IP protocols. They have been adapted to operate at gigabit speeds, some excellent work on multicasting and flow management in the routers has opened the door for audio and video transmission, multi-user games and work group applications are emerging. This is a vibrant development environment. With respect to privatization of the Internet, it is already happening. A number of for-profit Internet service providers have emerged such as Performance Systems International, ANS Co+RE, UUNET Technologies, CERFNET [I am not connected with this General Atomics subsidiary], Sprint International's Sprintlink, Infonet's Infolan, GES (the former JVNCNET). These will be joined by many of the RBOCs offering frame relay, SMDS and ultimately ATM services on top of which TCP/IP runs (standards and implementations exist and are in use). MCI and AT&T are also involved in offering such services and outside the US, a number of start-ups or PTTs are also offering Internet services. There is a Commercial Internet Exchange, chaired by Mitch Kapor, which forms a commercial backbone by linking most of the for-profit service providers in the US. The federal contribution to the US part of the Internet is probably on the order of 10% of its total cost (especially if you include the institutional and corporate investment for LANs). The NSFNET and the regional networks which it fostered were critical to the expansion of the system and the NSFNET is still a very important component. But NSFNET is a service running on the ANSNET which services an increasing customer base beyond the US Government. The US Government investment has been absolutely essential for the development and spread of this technology and it continues to be fundamental to the continued evolution of the protocols. These funds have been highly leveraged by industry investments - a partnership we should all be proud of. Finally, with regard to the development of networking protocols, I continue to believe that the "develop, test, standardize" paradigm is best - make it work first. That's how the Internet Architecture Board and the Internet Engineering Task Force work. This activity involves well over a thousand people and is as powerful a technology transfer vehicle as any I have ever seen. Commercial implementations of the TCP/IP protocols emerge very quickly out of the standards process because of the requirement for implementation along with specification. "Bakeoffs" and "Connectathons" continue to be a critical part of the culture of the Internet Standards community and act as a reality check for all would-be standards. The Internet Society is devoted to the continued evolution and growth of a multiprotocol computer communications infrastructure on a world-wide scale. There is room for more than one protocol in this environment, and that includes TCP/IP.