NIC - third level ideas and other noise
A 1970 note describing a proposed remote logger connection and a shared console format.
Crocker, S.D., "NIC - third level ideas and other noise", RFC 66, DOI 10.17487/RFC0066, August 1970, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc66>.
@misc{rfc66,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 66,
howpublished = {RFC 66},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC0066},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc66},
author = {S.D. Crocker},
title = {{NIC - third level ideas and other noise}},
pagetotal = 3,
year = 1970,
month = aug,
} RFC text
Network Working Group S. Crocker
Request for Comments #66 UCLA
26 August 70
3rd Level Ideas and other Noises
On 12 August 70, I met a BBN with representatives from BBN and MIT and
we discussed third llevel protocol.
Dial-up The following proposed dial-up protocol was agreed upon at the
meeting.
The purpose of this piece of protocol is to get a process at one site
(hereafter the using site) in contact with the logger at the other site
(hereafter the serving site).
To initiate contact, the using process attaches a receive socket US and
requests connection to socket 1 in the serving host. The using NCP thus
sends
1 4 4 1
---------------------------------------------------
|RTS | US | 1 | p|
---------------------------------------------------
|ALL | P | space |
-------------------------------
over link 1, where US is the user's receive socket, p is the link, and
space is some nominal spae allocation.
The serving Host may decide to refuse contact, in which case it will
respond with the standard CLS. If it accepts contact, however, it will
send exactly an even 32 bit number over the connection and close the
connection. This even 32 bit number is the name of a receive socket in
the serving Host. This socket and the next higher numbered socket are
Network Working Group S. Crocker
Request for Comments #66 UCLA
26 August 70
reserved for contact with the user. Thus the serving NCP sends
1 4 1
----------------------------
| STR | 1 | US|
----------------------------
on link 1, followed by
4
-----------
| SS |
-----------
on link p. Note that SS must be even.
After sending the server socket number, SS, the NCP sends
1 4 4
-------------------------------------
|CLS | 1 | US |
-------------------------------------
|STR | SS+1 | US |
------------------------------------------
|RTS | SS | US+1 | q |
------------------------------------------
|ALL | q | space |
-----------------------------
Network Working Group S. Crocker
Request for Comments #66 UCLA
26 August 70
The using Host also sets up these connections by sending
1 4 4
----------------------------------------
| CLS | US | 1 |
----------------------------------------
| STR | US+1 | SS |
--------------------------------------------
| RTS | US | SS+1 | r |
--------------------------------------------
At this point the user should be connected to the logger at the serving
site.
Standard Console
We next agreed on an initial network standard console: 7-bit ASCII
in 8 bit fields with the eight bit on, transmitted in contiguous
streams. The speific codes are listed in appendix H of the IMP
Operations manual, BBN report #1877. This seems to work only some
hardship on PDP-10's and be fine for all others.
For break or interrupt many systems use one of the standard
characters; for those which need another kind of signal,
1 1
------------
|INR | r |
------------
sent over the control link should suffice.
[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
[ into the online RFC archives by Gottfried Janik 2/98 ]
ISO Plain Language
On this page
§1The Proposed Dial-Up Procedure
RFC 66 records ideas discussed at a meeting with representatives from BBN and MIT. The dial-up procedure is intended to connect a process at a using site to the logger at a serving site.
The using process requests a connection from its receive socket to socket 1 on the serving host. The serving host may refuse with a standard close. If it accepts, it sends an even 32-bit number naming a receive socket; that socket and the next higher-numbered socket are reserved for contact with the user.
The local host asks the remote host's contact socket for service. If accepted, the remote host gives back a pair of socket numbers for the session.
§1Setting Up the Logger Connections
After sending its socket number, the serving NCP closes the initial connection and requests the contact connections using the returned socket and its successor. The using host sets up matching connections from its own receive socket and the next socket.
Once these connections are established, the user should be connected to the serving host's logger. The RFC illustrates the process with RTS, STR, CLS, and ALL protocol messages.
The two hosts use the returned socket pair to establish the logger connection. The first contact connection is then closed.
§2The Standard Console
The note records agreement on an initial network console standard: 7-bit ASCII carried in 8-bit fields with the eighth bit set, sent in contiguous streams. The specific character codes are referred to in appendix H of the IMP Operations manual.
For break or interrupt, many systems can use a standard character. A system needing another signal can send an INR message over the control link.
The console text uses ASCII carried in fixed-size fields. A control-link message can signal an interrupt when a standard character is not suitable.