RFC 942 (rfc942) - Page 2 of 68
Transport protocols for Department of Defense data networks
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 942 February 1985 Report Transport on Protocols has well satisfied its requirements by its own tried and proven protocols, the agency has invested heavily in systems operating successfully with TCP, and the Armed Forces is increasingly adopting the protocol. Thus, although DOD's policy is to use commercial standards whenever suitable, it is hesitant about converting to the ISO TP-4 protocols. In addition, the DOD is not certain whether the ISO TP-4 completely satisfies military requirements. In 1983 both DOD and the ICST agreed that an objective study of the situation was needed. Each requested assistance from the National Research Council. The National Research Council, through its Board on Telecommunications and Computer Applications (BOTCAP), appointed a special Committee on Computer-Computer Communication Protocols to study the issues and develop recommendations and guidelines for ways to resolve the differences in a mutually beneficial manner. The six items composing the committee's scope of work are as follows: 1. Review the technical aspects of the DOD transmission control and ICST transport protocols. 2. Review the status of the implementation of these protocols. 3. Review the industrial and government markets for these protocols. 4. Analyze the technical and political implications of the DOD and ICST views on the protocols. 5. Report on time and cost implications to the DOD, other federal entities, and manufacturers of the DOD and ICST positions. 6. Recommend courses of action toward resolving the differences between the DOD and ICST on these protocol standards. The committee devoted considerable effort to reviewing the objectives and goals of the DOD and NBS that relate to data communications, the technical aspects of the two protocols, the status of their implementation in operating networks, and the market conditions pertaining to their use. This process included hearing government and industry presentations and reviewing pertinent literature. The results of this part of the study are presented in Sections II through VII. Concurrent with this research and analysis, the committee developed ten possible options that offered plausible resolutions of the problem. These ranged from maintaining the status quo to an immediate switchover from one protocol to the other. From these ten initial options three were determined to hold the greatest potential for resolving the problem. Section VIII describes the three options, Section IX provides a cost comparison, and Section X provides an overall evaluation of the three options. Section XI presents the committee's basic and detailed recommendations for how best the DOD might approach the differences between its protocol and the ISO protocol. National Research Council
