RFC 3109

RFC 3109: Request to Move STD 39 to Historic Status 🦋

Okay bestie, this one is a "retiring a legend" kind of RFC. 💅

• RFC number: 3109
• Title: Request to Move STD 39 to Historic Status
• Authors: R. Braden (ISI), R. Bush (RGnet), J. Klensin (AT&T)
• Category: Informational
• Date: May 2001
• Obsoletes / Updates: none listed

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Status of This Memo ✨

Here's the official legal-ish stuff, kept exactly as written:

This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice 🔒

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract 💜

Okay so, the whole point of this memo is that STD 39, BBN Report 1822, "Specification of the Interconnection of a Host and an IMP", is changing status from Standard to Historic. That's it. Iconic retirement arc. 👑

1. Introduction 🌸

Okay, history time, and it's honestly so good. The Internet grew out of the super early packet-switched network called the ARPAnet. It was mostly a US national network, built out of minicomputer packet switches called Interface Message Processors (IMPs), which were linked together by 56kbps leased telephone lines. Bolt, Beranek, and Neumann (BBN) designed and built the IMPs under contract with ARPA, starting in 1968. One of BBN's very first jobs was to define the standard hardware interface between a host and its colocated IMP. That interface was written up in BBN Report 1822 [BBN1822], which basically became the bible for the admins of all the different hosts plugging into the ARPAnet. 📖✨

Now, the Report 1822 host/IMP hardware interface was bit-serial and asynchronous. In 1968 the 8-bit byte hadn't become an industry standard yet 🙈, so the interface had to handle word-based machines with all kinds of word lengths. Some common ones were 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, and 60, but there were others too. From the software side, Report 1822 defined what we'd today call the link-layer access protocol for the ARPAnet. Honestly, so chaotic and so impressive. 🧚

Fast forward to 1983: the US DoD moved the ARPAnet technology over to TCP/IP and split off parts of the ARPAnet to form a production facility called MILNET. The DoD required a byte-oriented, X.25-based interface for the MILNET IMPs. But the machines on the research-oriented ARPAnet kept using the 1822 interface under the new Internet protocol suite. So BBN Report 1822 got made an Internet Standard, STD 39 💅, even though the report itself never got republished as an RFC. Main character plot twist. 🎀

2. Action 🦋

Since the ARPAnet technology and the BBN 1822 interface are no longer in use, the IESG is moving BBN Report 1822 from Standard to Historic status. And the STD number 39 is retired. 🫶

3. Security Considerations 🔥

Moving STD 39 to historic has no known effect on the security of the Internet. 🌈

Bestie, that's the whole security section, and that's a clean result. No known effect, no drama. 💀

4. References 📚

Here's the reference, with every detail kept:

[BBN1822] STD 39 is BBN Report 1822 "Specification for the
          Interconnection of a Host and an IMP".  This can be ordered
          from Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, 10 Moulton Street,
          Cambridge, MA 02138.

5. Authors' Addresses 🍓

Here are the three authors and their contact info, copied exactly so you can reach out:

Robert Braden
USC/Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695

Phone: +1 310-822-1511
EMail: braden@isi.edu


Randy Bush
5147 Crystal Springs
Bainbridge Island, WA US-98110

Phone: +1 206-780-0431
EMail: randy@psg.com


John C. Klensin
1770 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 322
Cambridge, MA 02140, USA

EMail: klensin@jck.com

6. Full Copyright Statement 🔒💜

This is the legal section, so I'm keeping it word-for-word, no cap 🙏:

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement ⭐

Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. 🌸✨