Belated Network Meeting Report
A meeting report from the early network working group
Cerf, V.G., "Belated Network Meeting Report", RFC 63, DOI 10.17487/RFC0063, July 1970, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc63>.
@misc{rfc63,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 63,
howpublished = {RFC 63},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC0063},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc63},
author = {V.G. Cerf},
title = {{Belated Network Meeting Report}},
pagetotal = 2,
year = 1970,
month = jul,
} RFC text
Network Working Group V. Cerf
Request for Comments #63 31 July 70
Belated Network Meeting Report
On 8 May 1970, a Network Working Group meeting was hosted at Lincoln Labs.
The topics under discussion were:
1) Lincoln Lab's Local Interaction Language (LIL)
2) Records, Messages, and Format in HOST-HOST information exchange.
3) Miscellaneous gripes
The first topic is thoroughly summarized in Lincoln Lab's Semi annual
Technical Summary titled "Graphics", dated May 31, 1970 (document id.
ESD-TR-70-151).
The second topic involved considerable discussion of NWG/RFC #42 in which
it was proposed that all messages be preceded by an 8-bit type byte which
would declare the format of the message which followed.
The following decisions were reached:
a) Records may begin anywhere within a message.
b) The first 8 bits of a record are reserved for type information.
c) The first transmission on a connection starts a record.
Type 0 is agreed to mean that the transmission that follows consists of an
arbitrarily long record, and that no further type bytes will be present.
The notions of messages and records are independent of the flow-control
protocol. Thus the receipt of a message does not carry any semantic
importance. The receipt of a record, however, may initiate some interpre-
tation process.
After some discussion, the proposals in NWG/RFC #42 were permuted as follows:
type 0 = bit string of arbitrary length follows
type 1 = 8-bit ASCII follows
type 2 = EBCDIC follows
type 3 = MOD 33 TTY 7-bit ASCII
Network Working Group V. Cerf
Request for Comments #63 31 July 70
type 4 = YOUR Local
followed by another type byte
type 5 = MY Local
followed by another type byte
The praise or blame for the preceding decisions rests on the attendees at
the meeting, to wit:
E. Ancona (LL)
T. J. Barkalow (LL)
D. B. Black (Harvard)
Jack Bouknight (UI)
Howard Brodie (MAC)
Vint Cerf (UCLA)
Steve Crocker (UCLA)
Jim Curry (UTAH)
A. Evans (LL, MAC)
Robert Flegal (UTAH)
Jim Frogie (LL)
J. D. Fry (MITRE)
John Heafner (RAND)
Bob Hoffman (RAND)
Richard Kalin (LL)
William Kantrowitz (LL)
Peggy Karp (MITRE)
Abe Landsberg (SDC)
Robert Long (SDC)
James Madden (UI)
John Melvin (SRI)
Alan Nemeth (LL)
John Newkirk (Harvard)
Jon Postel (UCLA)
Tom O'Sullivan (Raytheon)
Ari Shoshani (SDC)
Joel Winett (LL)
Instead of sending NWG/RFC's to Chuck Rose at Case University, Jim Torson
will be receiving them.
[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
[ into the online RFC archives by Tammy and Ofer Porat 1/97 ]
AI ELI5
On this page
§1A Meeting Report from Lincoln Labs
RFC 63 records what was discussed at a Network Working Group meeting held on 8 May 1970 at Lincoln Labs. Vint Cerf wrote the report, listing three main topics: the Local Interaction Language, messages and record formats for host-to-host exchange, and miscellaneous issues.
The most significant discussion involved RFC 42's proposal that all messages start with an 8-bit type byte to declare the message format. The group made concrete decisions about how records should be structured within network messages.
Scientists met to talk about how to send messages between computers. They decided that each message needs a label at the start saying what kind of message it is.
§2Type Bytes and Message Structure
The group agreed that records could begin anywhere within a message, and that the first 8 bits of a record are reserved for type information. The first transmission on a connection starts a record.
Type 0 means an arbitrarily long bit string follows with no further type bytes. Types 1 through 3 specify different character encodings: 8-bit ASCII, EBCDIC, and MOD 33 TTY 7-bit ASCII. Types 4 and 5 allow local format extensions, each followed by another type byte.
They agreed on simple labels: type 0 means raw data, type 1 means regular text, types 2 and 3 mean different computer text codes, and types 4 and 5 are for special local formats.
§3Document Status and Attribution
The report credits all attendees, including researchers from Lincoln Labs, Harvard, UCLA, UTAH, MITRE, RAND, SDC, SRI, and Raytheon. Notably, the document also records that Jim Torson would take over receiving RFC submissions from Chuck Rose at Case University.
This document is an early example of how the network working group documented consensus decisions and provides historical context for early ARPANET protocol development.
The note lists all the scientists who were at the meeting and says who would handle paperwork for future notes.