Subject: SC 6 Contribution on Internet and OSI

From: Jean Stride <[email-masked]>
Date: 07 Jun 95 10:47:35 EDT

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 N 9613 
Date: 23 May 1995  

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION 
EXCHANGE BETWEEN SYSTEMS
Secretariat: U.S.A. (ANSI)

Title: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 6 Contribution on "Internet and OSI Lower Layers 
Convergence Strategy"

Source: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 6

Project: --

Status: In accordance with decisions taken at the SC 6 Plenary meeting in 
Beppu, Japan, 23 March 1995 (reference Resolution 110), the attached document 
is being forwarded to the designated point of contact for the Internet 
Society (ISOC) for consideration as an SC 6 liaison contribution in their 
work on the subject shown.

 SC 6 also sends this document to JTC 1/SCs 18, 21, 24, 27 and 29 for 
consideration for information.

Action: This document is being circulated to the membership of SC 6 for 
information and review and to the distribution list identified above.    

 The SC 6 Secretariat has also provided a copy of this document to the 
Secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1 for information.

Distribution:  P and L Members
  Working Group Conveners and Secretariats
  Mr. J. Wheeler, Chairman of SC 6
   Distribution List identified above

Address Reply to:  
Secretariat - ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 - American National Standards Institute, 11 
West 42nd Street, NY, NY 10036
Telephone: 212 642 4931; Facsimile: 212 398 0023; Email:  [email-masked]

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ISO/IEC  JTC 1/SC 6 N 9613
(HoD/C 3 Revision 3)

INTERNET AND OSI LOWER LAYERS CONVERGENCE STRATEGY

LIAISON BETWEEN SC 6 AND INTERNET SOCIETY

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 6 has already established a Class A liaison relationship 
with the Internet Society (ISOC) and has negotiated a Cooperative Agreement 
which defines the operating relationship between SC 6 and the Internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF) in ISOC. 

GOAL OF THE LIAISON

The basic goal of the liaison is to 'converge' the OSI lower layers and the 
lower layers of the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS), generically referred to as 
TCP/IP, and, ultimately, to create a common global networking platform for 
the future. This will avoid wasted effort on uncoordinated development of 
competing protocols within the two organizations and accelerate future 
progress.

STRATEGY FOR ACHIEVING THE GOAL

Currently, the focus of the liaison is on the convergence of the OSI and TCP/
IP networking layers, in particular, the OSI Connectionless Networking 
Protocol (CLNP) and the Internet Protocol part (IP) of TCP/IP. The basic goal 
demands the extension of this liaison effort to embrace convergence at the 
Transport layer. 

At the network layer, the IETF is developing a 'next generation' Networking 
Protocol to replace the current Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). This new 
protocol is referred to as IPng and will become IP version 6 (IPv6 or IP6). 
IP6 has similar functionality to the OSI Connectionless Network Protocol 
(CLNP) but is different in its detailed operation.

Convergence of the network layers involves the creation of mechanisms which 
allow CLNP and IP6 to coexist and the provision of migration mechanisms to 
allow the ongoing development effort in both SC6 and the IETF to focus on one 
of these protocols. IP6 will be the key focus in this area but the deployment 
mechanisms must address the issues of support for CLNP users during migration.

Convergence at the Transport layer has not been addressed fully by either 
organization. Any work on an enhanced Transport Protocol to fulfil new 
requirements to complement the existing Internet TCP and Transport Protocol 
Class 4 (TP4), which is its equivalent in OSI, should support both OSI 
applications and applications from the Internet Protocol Suite. As with 
network layer convergence, carefully designed coexistence and migration 
strategies are required to allow the support of existing implementations.

WORK PROGRAMME

In order to achieve the basic goal, SC 6 will:

a) work on next generation IP (IP6) - review the portfolio of IP6 
specifications and comment from the ISO/IEC perspective;
 
b) consider other associated specifications, e.g. OSI Transport Protocol 
Class 4 (TP4) over IP6;
 
c) consider and document convergence and migration issues, including likely 
starting points, intermediate points, transition mechanisms and migration 
strategies.

ESTABLISHING AN SC 6 RAPPORTEUR GROUP

The IETF development process involves quarterly meetings and on-line 
technical debate between meetings via distribution lists, which are open to 
subscription by all IETF and SC 6 members.

In order that matters regarding convergence might be adressed in a timely 
manner and in concert with the IETF development process, SC 6 shall establish 
a  Rapporteur Group on OSI and Internet Convergence  with the following Terms 
of Reference: 

The Rapporteur Group on OSI and Internet Convergence will utilize the liaison 
relationship which has been facilitated by the approved Cooperative 
Agreement, e.g. conveyance of our technical work to the IETF. The Rapporteur 
on OSI and Internet Convergence shall report and make recommendations to the 
subsequent SC 6 meeting.

Continuation of the Rapporteur Group shall be reviewed at each Plenary 
meeting of SC 6.

The initial membership of the Rapporteur Group is:

[ To be established  ]
(NOTE:  Germany, Finland, Korea, UK, and the US have indicated 
interest in providing experts for the Rapporteur Group)

The initial SC 6 Rapporteur is:

Jack Houldsworth (Internet Address: [email-masked])

Work of the Rapporteur Group will be conducted via electronic mail. Meetings 
will be held in conjunction with regularly scheduled Plenary meetings of ISO/
IEC JTC 1/SC 6.

Members will be expected to subscribe to the relevant IETF mailing lists and, 
in so far as possible, to attend IETF meeetings.

Contributions conveyed by the Rapporteur Group to the IETF shall contain one 
of the following statements:

 This contribution has been authorized as a liaison statement from SC 6 to 
the IETF in accordance with Resolution ____ of the SC 6 Plenary meeting in 
__________. 

or

"From the viewpoint of the SC 6 Rapporteur Group this contribution is":
 
1)  a consensus view of the Rapporteur Group members
 
2)  a result of activity delegated to an individual expert
 
3)  an individual expert opinion

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GOALS OF TECHNICAL WORK:

Basic outcome
---------------------

* Development of a common transport protocol (joint text) to fulfil new 
requirements which operates over both IP6 and CLNP.
 
* Migration to a common networking protocol base with the IETF.

Intermediate steps/work areas

1. Network Layer

1.1. IP6 and CLNP coexistence, interworking and migration mechanisms.

1.2. Refine the IETF draft proposal for OSI coexistence.

2. Transport Layer

2.1. Adopt the existing RFC 1006 to allow OSI transport service based 
applications to run over either IP6 or IP4.

2.2. Develop mechanisms for using TP4 over either IPv6 and CLNP for 
coexistence.

2.3. Consider the use of TUBA (TCP over CLNP) as an intermediate coexistence 
tool.

2.4. Develop a new transport protocol in cooperation with the IETF.
 
2.5. Consider the adoption of migration tools such as the X/Open Transport 
Interface (XTI) and the X/Open Multi-Protocol Transport Networking (XMPTN) 
specifications.

3. Routeing

3.1. IDRP, ES-IS, IS-IS

4. Lower Layers Management

5. Lower Layers Security

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