RFC 945

RFC 945: A DoD Statement on the NRC Report ✨

okay bestie, this one is a letter, not a protocol spec 💌 It's by Postel from ISI, dated May 1985, and it's the DoD's official response to a National Research Council report about transport protocols. It doesn't obsolete or update any other RFC, and nothing in it is listed as doing so. The original labels it as distributed for information only, so that's the vibe 🎀

STATUS OF THIS MEMO 📋

This RFC reproduces a letter from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (ASDC3I) to the Director of the Defense Communications Agency (DCA). It's distributed for information only, and distribution of this memo is unlimited 🦋

CONTEXT 🧠

okay so here's the backstory 🫶

In December 1978, Gerald P. Dinneen, the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USDR&E), issued a memo requiring TCP/IP for all packet-oriented data networks where host-to-host connectivity across network or subnetwork boundaries was possible. It also made the Defense Communications Agency the DoD Executive Agent for computer communications protocols (see IEN-152) 💅

In April 1980, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence, Gerald P. Dinneen, ASDC3I, issued a memo that reaffirmed the TCP/IP requirement, confirmed DCA's role as Executive Agent, and approved a plan for how the Executive Agent would be organized and run (see IEN-152) 🌸

In March 1982, Richard D. DeLauer, ASDC3I, issued a memo reaffirming the TCP/IP requirement and DCA's role as Executive Agent (see IEN-207) ✨

BUT here's the plot twist 😭 DoD also has a long-standing policy of using non-DoD standards when they're available and meet military requirements. DeLauer's memo cites this policy.

Then people started asking questions about DoD using TCP/IP as its protocol standard, because the ISO was developing a different set of standards, and the NBS was working toward making the ISO standards into FIPS. So in May 1983, DoD and NBS jointly asked the National Research Council (NRC) to study the issues and recommend a course of action. The NRC committee published its final report in February 1985 (see RFC-942) 🔥

Last step: Donald C. Latham (ASDC3I) sent a letter to DCA. It passes along the NRC report and asks for specific actions based on the report's recommendations 💜

The Enclosed Letter 💌

RFC 945                                      DOD Statement on NRC Report

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE                                         April 1985
                     Assistant Secretary of Defense
                     Washington, D.C.,  20301-3040
Command, Control,
Communications
     and
Intelligence

MEMORANDUM FOR DIRECTOR, DEFENSE COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY

SUBJECT:  National Research Council Report on Transport Protocols for
          DoD Data Networks

Okay, the memo itself 🎀 It attaches the final report, "Transport Protocols for Department of Defense Data Networks," from the National Research Council (Board on Telecommunications and Computer Applications, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems). The report recommends that DoD immediately adopt the International Standards Organization Transport Protocol (TP-4) and Internetwork Protocol (IP) as a DoD co-standard alongside the current DoD standards, TCP and IP, and then move ultimately toward using only TP-4 🦋

Whenever international standards are available and can support military requirements, they'll be implemented as fast as possible to get the maximum economic and interoperability benefits. BUT, and this is the tea ☕ TP isn't available as a proven commercial product yet. Its progress will be watched closely, and once it's commercially available, it'll be tested and evaluated for military use 👑

To make sure DoD is ready to evaluate TP once it's more widely used in the commercial sector, the letter asks DCA to start the following actions 🧚

1. Develop the DoD military requirement specification for TP, so industry knows what DoD needs as TP gets commercially implemented.
2. Make sure appropriate advisory representation is provided to the commercial standards working groups currently refining TP under the auspices of the National Bureau of Standards.
3. Make sure the DCA protocol test facility can accommodate TP testing as required once commercial implementations are available.
4. Develop a transition strategy for Option 2 of the report, including estimated resource requirements.
5. Evaluate the detailed recommendations in the Report (pages 61-64) as they apply to Option 2.

                                                        Donald C. Latham