Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!ucbvax!rsre.mod.UK!LAWS From: LAWS@rsre.mod.UK (John Laws, on UK.MOD.RSRE) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Internet Uselessness Message-ID: <12.JUL.1987.21:53:25.LAWS@RSRE> Date: Mon, 13-Jul-87 00:53:00 EDT Article-I.D.: RSRE.12.JUL.1987.21:53:25.LAWS Posted: Mon Jul 13 00:53:00 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jul-87 05:12:35 EDT References: <8707090344.aa02151@SEM.BRL.ARPA> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 38 Doug, I also have suffered (not quietly) for the last 10 months with the terrible state of the Internet. I know some people in DARPA/BBN/DCA but seemingly not the ones who "can make it happen" - (no offence intended to those I know). More than the Internet getting a black eye consider the following. The Internet uses TCP/IP. There are elements of the Internet (Arpanet, Milnet) that are under-resourced for the traffic - the performance can be so bad that my remote host timeouts on me whem I'm trying to login. TCP/IP is pushed by many members of DOD as the right protocol to be used for networks in a military environment. Yes, they are going to transition to ISO OSI - same protocols almost, TP4 and IP (via NBS). Now my vision of a military Internet is that it starts off in peacetime with JUST enough resource for peacetime traffic (budget problems on the Defence Vote we'll plug it next year etc (I think you call it Get Well Later in the US)). Then the action starts to warm up a little (the Gulf - Iraq/Iran) and the Internet falls over the knee of the curve. In part this is a consequence of some very stupid implementations of TCP/IP, some elements of the protocol which if implemented in a straightforward way cause congestion once it has occured, and seemingly a complete failure to develop some other concepts (access control sensitive to traffic volume, precedence and priority) to the same degree. While the PTT X25 solution does potentially have its problems in a hostile environment (note - X25 is more an interface than an end-to-end protocol and the spec does not forbid self-healing nets being built - it just needs the market to pay for it) its performance is generally to a high standard. For good reason, revenue depends on connection time AND traffic volume. Maybe the answer is to fund the Internet a different way - the PTT way. John