Subject: AIW 8 MINUTES

From: "Charles H. Brotman (919-254-7204)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 95 17:42:39 EDT

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 Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) Implementers' Workshop

                   AIW 8 -- Meeting Minutes

OVERVIEW:

The eighth meeting of the APPN Implementers' Workshop (AIW) was
held at the North Raleigh Hilton on August 21-24, 1995.  A total
of one hundred and twelve people attended this AIW.   Twenty-one,
of the more than forty, AIW member companies were represented at
this AIW.  This AIW included tutorials, plenary speakers, and
working groups.

Topics of major interest were HPR over ATM, Border Node,
Discovery (LAN Address Resolution), and a submission on adding
non-LU resources to the APPN directory.  Additional topics
included an "Industry Perspective" by David J. Berman of Bay
Networks, Networking Performance Birds of a Feather (BOF) led by
Steve Joyce of Ganymede Software, APPN and HPR MIBs Special
Interest Group (SIG), HPR SIG, Data Link Switching Related
Interest Group (DLSw RIG), the APPN Reference SIG, and a
presentation on SNA to APPN migration by Jim Fletcher.

Please note, these minutes are meant to give a high level view of
the activities of the AIW.  More detailed meeting minutes are, or
should shortly be, available on the various AIW mail exploders.

DAY 1 - TUTORIALS

Monday, August 21, was Tutorial Day.  Introductory tutorials
given included an APPN Overview,  Border Node, Dependent Logical
Unit Requester (DLUR), Network Management, and Data Link
Switching (DLSw).  Intermediate level tutorials were given for
High-Performance Routing (HPR) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM).  Advanced, in-depth tutorials were given for HPR's
Adaptive Rate-Based (ARB) algorithm, APPN's Topology Routing
Services (TRS), and for DLSw.

DAY 1 - WORKING GROUPS

AIW working groups are either APPN Special Interest Groups
(SIGs), Related Interest Groups (RIGs) -- for items that are not
APPN but are a related networking topic -- or Birds of a Feather
(BOF) sessions, which are informal meetings on topics of interest
to the AIW members.

Monday, the APPN/HPR Management Information Bases (MIBs) SIG met,
as did the first part of the DLSw RIG.  Work from both groups
continued throughout the conference.  The APPN/HPR MIBs SIG
worked on creating standardized MIBs for network management of
APPN and HPR products. The DLSw RIG also worked on a MIB and
additionally looked at additional transport connections besides
TCP/IP, planned the "DLSw V1 Interoperability test," explored
possibilities for improved scalability, and cleaned up some loose
ends of the Version 1 specification.

DAY 2 - PLENARY SESSIONS

Our first plenary speaker at the AIW was David J. Berman, Bay
Networks Director of "IBM internetworking products."  David
shared Bay's vision for APPN networks and his view of the
direction the industry should take with APPN.

David was followed by Steve Joyce of Ganymede Software who
discussed the possibility of new networking benchmarks that would
provide more realistic, application-level measurements rather
than today's "packets-per-second" benchmarks. Steve believes the
new benchmarks would provide measures that the customer would
find more applicable and valuable.

DAY 2 - WORKING SESSIONS

The active discussion started in Steve Joyce's Network
Performance talk was continued in the Network Performance BOF.

The Discovery BOF met and Mark McCorry of IBM distributed the
specification, gave a tutorial, and led the discussion of the LAN
Address Resolution protocols that IBM made public.  Interest was
expressed in looking at possible extensions to this work.

The APPN Reference SIG met to discuss items relating to APPN
maintenance and improvements. On behalf of Wall Data and
Insession, Wall Data's Ron Sanders presented a requirements
statement and initial proposal for expanding APPN directory
services to be able to handle non-LU resources.  The SIG members
showed much interest in moving this work forward.

DAY 3 - PLENARY SESSIONS

Mike Evans, from Data Connection Limited (DCL) provided a glimpse
of DCL's experience in implementing APPN's High Performance
Routing (HPR) function.  His talk illustrated the importance of
good instrumentation and tuning to achieve optimal performance.

IBM's Jim Fletcher discussed strategies and issues related to
migrating customers from SNA subarea networking to APPN, a topic
important to all APPN implementers.

Erika Lewis, also of IBM, gave an overview/tutorial of the Multi-
vendor Connectivity Test (MVCT).  While, by agreement of the MVCT
participants, she could not discuss the specific results, Erika
illustrated the importance and usefulness of getting several
vendors together in a loosely organized way.  This kind of work
goes a long way to ensuring that various APPN implementations can
work well together.

DAY 3 - WORKING SESSIONS

The High-Performance Routing (HPR) SIG met to discuss fixes and
updates to HPR.  Jim Cobban of NORTEL submitted a proposal for an
LLC2-free HPR option set.  The group agreed to continue working
as a SIG, and to extend their charter to develop an HPR/RTP-based
native-ATM-access architecture for APPN.

The Validation BOF met and discussed plans for the next
Multivendor Connectivity Test, slated for first quarter of 1996.
Additionally, they examined the possibility of creating an APPN
experimental network that would allow vendors around the world to
connect and check interoperability with other vendors on the net.

DAY 4 WORKING SESSIONS

At the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) BOF, Gary Dudley of IBM
presented and walked through an IBM draft proposal for HPR
extensions that would provide HPR native access to ATM. The AIW
members agreed with the assumptions and direction underlying the
proposal and will review the document in detail for expected AD
approval at AIW 9.  The group came to a consensus that the
schedule for the work was "more than adequately aggressive" and
that the work should continue as part of the HPR SIG.

At the Border Node SIG, Mike Fox (IBM) presented a detailed
tutorial about the Session Services Extension Network Node Server
(SSE NNS) function, which is prerequisite for Extended Border
Node (EBN).  This function allows non-APPC SNA traffic to
traverse different subnetworks using EBN.  After the tutorial, Ed
Tremblay discussed the continuing work and schedules, and
distributed the first issue of the draft EBN specification.
There was discussion about whether SSE NNS was a requirement or
could be an option.  The consensus was to leave that decision
until the document was complete and the AIW members were more
educated about EBN and the customer requirements.

AIW MILESTONES:

The APPN/HPR MIBs SIG requested and received Approved Direction
(AD) status for the HPR MIB. Work on getting the larger APPN MIB
to AD is ongoing.

The AIW approved the ATM BOF's recommendation for
interoperability agreements for LAN Emulation and Frame Relay
emulation over ATM.

Additionally, this AIW saw a new high in submissions and
participation with at least seven significant new submissions
from six different companies.

SOME FINAL COMMENTS:

Most of the documents mentioned above can be found in the AIW
Document Repository. This is most easily found from the AIW's
World Wide Web Home page, which has the Universal Resource
Locator "http://www.raleigh.ibm.com/app/aiwhome.htm." The AIW
Home page has a wealth of other information, including documents,
mail logs, registration information, and meeting minutes, like
these.

THANKS (AGAIN)

The AIW production was the joint effort of many people.  At the
risk of omitting someone (unintentional, be assured in advance) I
would like to thank several people for their participation, help,
and leadership.  These are in no particular order.

The AIW production team, consisted of Ed Tremblay, Marcia Peters,
Susan Venderbush, Gary Schultz, and Ralph Case.  Susan
Venderbush, our Conference Administrator, did her  usual
excellent job and seemed unhindered by the fact that she was due
to give birth in just a few weeks.  (Thanks again and good luck
Susan!)  Marcia Peters' work in compiling and analyzing the AIW
feedback was, as always extremely valuable.  Gary Schultz, the
AIW's Technical Coordinator and Ed Tremblay -- AIW Organizational
Genius and detail guru extraordinaire, did great jobs organizing
the agenda, soliciting presenters, reviewing technical content,
getting the AIW 8 document published, and helping deal with the
myriad other details involved in running an AIW.

Thanks to the IBM Professional Binder Stuffing Team, consisting
of Ray Bird, Marcia Peters, Tim Hefel, Gary Schultz, Barb
Sampair, Ralph Case, and Andy Barclay who did the physical
construction of each of the 135 binders and helped carry them to
the hotel.

Appreciation to David Berman, Ray Bird, Roy Brabson, Dave Bryant,
Ralph Case, Rao Cherukcuri, Jim Cobban, Gene Cox, Rich Daugherty,
Gary Dudley, Candace Elder, Mike Evans, Jim Fletcher, Mike Fox,
Peter Gayek, Tim Hefel, Lap Huynh, Steve Joyce, Erika Lewis, Mark
McCorry, Bob Moore, Marcia Peters, Ron Sanders, Ed Tremblay, and
Louise Herndon Wells, for their tutorials, presentations,
technical contributions and leadership, and/or SIG, RIG, or BOF
chairing.

Additionally, thanks to all of you, AIW Members and attendees
from the various vendors and product areas who attended to
educate, learn, participate, and promote APPN's implementation
and growth.

AND FINALLY . . .

A summary follows of AIW Day-Three Evening Outing to the Durham
Bulls game, written by the AIW Chair in the agenda style of Gary
Schultz, our Beloved Bard:

By 5:00, a bevy of the brilliant beaus and belles boarded buses
bound for Bulls' ball game and ballpark-bash, bringing better
brotherhood besides burger-buffet and beer-based bonding.
Between barbeque and baseball, the barometric balance broke,
bringing bedlam -- besprinkling and bespattering the bedraggled
businessfolk. Bench-sitting brought bad blues because the Bulls
were basically badly bemired, bruised, and beaten, be-seven to
be-one (Bingo!). But, beauteously, the balmy bash belied being a
beastly bust.

Bye-Bye!

                              Bestowing Brotman's best,
                              Chuck
                              AIW Chair