*> From owner-ietf-outbound(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org Tue Jul 17 13:21:47 2001
*> Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 14:58:35 -0500 (CDT)
*> From: "Timothy J. Salo" <salo(_at_)saloits(_dot_)com>
*> To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
*> Subject: [Hist Trivia] IP Protocol Layers
*> X-Loop: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
*>
*> Can anyone point me to an early reference describing the Internet
*> protocol layers in IP terms, rather than OSI terms?
*>
*> One recent text used the following terms. However, I don't know whether
*> this description has a long history, or is simply revisionist history.
*>
*> Application
*> Transport (TCP, UDP)
*> Internet (IP, etc.)
*> Network Interface (LAN and WAN technologies).
Tim,
This is the Internet protocol stack as understood by the creators of
TCP/IP. It is documented (at least) in section 1.1.3 ("Internet
Architecture") of RFC 1122, a document that encapsulates a great deal
of the early wisdom on the Internet protocols.
Note, however, that RFC 1122 deliberately "OSIzed" the terminology
by using "Link Layer" instead of "Network Interface". Also, the
term "transport" was imported from OSIland; we did not really have
a name for that layer. See RFC 793, for example.
*>
*> By 1983 the Internet protocols were already being recast in OSI terms.
*> Vint Cerf, in "The DoD Internet Architecture Model", described the
*> following layers:
*>
*> Application
*> Utility
*> Transport
*> Internetwork
*> Network
*> Link
*> Physical
*>
*> In May 1979, Jon Postel in IEN-94 ("Internet Protocol Handbook"; it was
*> small then - 1209 bytes) use the following layers:
These were not layers, they were categories.
*>
*>
*> > Internet Protocol Handbook
*> > Table of Contents
*> >
*> > Gateway Level
*> > Internet Datagram Protocol IEN-80
*> > Gateway Routing: An Implementation Specification IEN-30
*> >
*> > Host Level
*> > User Datagram Protocol IEN-88
*> > Transmission Control Protocol IEN-81
*> > Multiplexing Protocol IEN-90
*> >
*> > Application Level
*> > Name Server Protocol IEN-89
*> > Internet Message Protocol IEN-85
*> >
*> > Appendices
*> > Protocol Options IEN-92
*> > Address Mappings IEN-91
*> > Assigned Numbers IEN-93
*>
*> Does anyone have a pointer to an early, more "traditional", non-OSI
*> description of the TCP/IP protocol layers?
*>
*> (By the way, I found the concept behind RFC 157, "Invitation to the Second
*> Symposium on Problems in the Optimization of Data Communications Systems",
*> rather interesting. I must admit that I hadn't thought of submitting
*> spam as an RFC.)
!? Hardly spam. The early RFCs were used for all sorts of informal notes
and announcements among the small set of early participants in the ARPAnet.
There are several one-line RFCs that announce meetings, for example.
Bob Braden
*>
*> Thanks,
*> -tjs
*>