Subject: AIW 11 Meeting Minutes Highlights

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 10:56:27 EST

APPN IMPLEMENTERS WORKSHOP (AIW) 11 MINUTES HIGHLIGHTS            
                                                                     
This report is to capture the overall activities and summarize       
the accomplishments of AIW 11.  You can find detailed minutes on     
the mail exploders of the various SIG, RIG, and BOF groups, or on    
the AIW Home Page http://www.raleigh.ibm.com/app/aiwhome.htm.        
                                                                     
OVERVIEW                                                             
========                                                             

AIW 11 was held from July 15-18, 1996, at the North Raleigh Hilton 
in Raleigh, North Carolina.  There were approximately 75 attendees 
representing 18 different organizations or individuals.  The       
purpose of the meeting was to continue cooperative work on the     
Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) architecture and related   
technologies and implementations.                                  
                                                                   
APPN is an open architecture that extends the capabilities of      
IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) to provide dynamic but    
predictable, reliable and cost-efficient peer-to-peer networking.  
                                                                   
The purpose of the APPN Implementers Workshop (AIW) is to          
facilitate the availability of fully interoperable, high quality   
APPN products from a wide variety of vendors.  The AIW serves as   
a forum for members to share information about APPN, its           
implementations and customer experiences; to help one another      
with implementation problems; to develop any necessary             
enhancements; and to promote the use of APPN.                      
                                                                   
TUTORIALS                                                          
=========                                                          
                                                                   
The following tutorials were presented:                             
                                                                    
     APPN Intro/Intermediate       -    Marcia Peters, IBM          
     HPR  Intro/Intermediate       -    Ray Bird, IBM               
     HPR/ATM  Intro/Intermediate   -    Gary Dudley, IBM            
     Frame Relay Tutorial          -    Gene Cox, IBM               
     Border Node Tutorial          -    Roy Brabson, IBM            
                                                                    
As usual the tutorials were generally quite well received.          
                                                                    
SIG/RIG/BOF WORKING SESSIONS:                                       
=============================                                       
                                                                    
--  APPN MIBS SIG (was APPN MIB and HPR MIB SIG)   --               
                                                                    
The MIBs SIG, chaired by Bill Kwan of Jupiter technologies,         
made further progress in the SNMP management information            
base (MIB) definition arena.  The group stepped up to               
responsibility for definition of the EBN MIB.  The group changed    
their name and charter to embrace the expanded work scope which     
now includes the SNA NAU, APPC, APPN, HPR, DLUR and EBN MIBs.       
The group is an excellent example of low profile but highly         
effective cooperation between two different standards bodies,       
the AIW and the IETF.                                              
                                                                   
Status wise, the HPR MIB is now at AP, and the DLUR MIB is CP.     
Good work folks!                                                   
                                                                   
--  APPN Reference SIG  --                                         
                                                                   
The APPN reference SIG continued its ongoing work of maintaining   
the APPN Architecture.  Several technical issues were raised and   
discussed; please see their minutes for details.                   
                                                                   
--  Border Node SIG  --                                            
                                                                   
Work on this important piece of architecture continued in the SIG  
as Mike Fox and Marcia Peters, both of IBM, reviewed and clarified 
the many additions and changes in latest version of the document,  
which is working towards Approved Pages (AP) status.               
                                                                   
--  HPR/ATM SIG  --                                                
                                                                   
The HPR SIG, chaired by Marcia Peters, completed a major milestone.
After a review of the ATM-05 document the SIG reached consensus for   
Closed Pages (CP) status.  It was agreed that the SIG would delay     
asking the AIW Plenary for Closed Pages status until the AIW-ATM      
Forum Liaison (Gary Dudley) had reviewed the document with the ATM    
Forum at the August ATM Forum meeting.  It is expected that the       
plenary's final acceptance of CP status will occur electronically     
in September.                                                         
                                                                      
Congratulations to Gary Dudley and the HPR/ATM SIG for this important 
step!!!                                                               
                                                                      
Additionaly, other HPR maintainence items were discussed, including   
an interesting bug reported by Ray Bird.                              
                                                                      
--  Validation BOF  --                                                
                                                                      
Erika Lewis, IBM, led the discussions in the Validation BOF.  Nancy   
Agosta from MCNC (Microelectronics Center of North Carolina) gave a   
presentaion about the MCNC and discussed some of the services and     
joint efforts that might be possible.  The BOF is looking forward     
to hearing back from her regarding the cost of these alternatives.    
                                                                      
--  Alerts in Traps BOF  --                                          
                                                                     
Bob Moore, IBM, presented a description of how some IBM products     
are using SNMP traps to send CMIP alerts to IBM's System 390 based   
management platforms.  Adoption of this method by other vendors'     
products would allow those products to be managed by IBMs network    
management sytems.  Dave Bryant, 3COM, suggested a BOF at AIW12 to   
discuss standardization.                                             
                                                                     
--  JAVA/CPI-C API BOF  --                                           
                                                                     
Matt MacKinnon, IBM, discussed a set of Java "classes" which         
provide a programming interface to allow Java programmers access to  
CPI-C calls and function.  A key message was that with these         
additions, Java is no longer limited to TCP/IP - it can now take     
advantage of the business-critical features of APPC and APPN via     
this Java/CPI-C API.                                                 
                                                                     
--  DLSw RIG  --                                                     
                                                                     
The DLSw RIG, chaired by Louise Herndon Wells (ITI), concentrated    
their work primarily on Dave Bryant's (3COM) scalability proposal     
and fleshing out the contents of Version 1.1 of the specification.    
They expect to reach AP status electronically soon, and CP status     
at AIW 12.  They also began work on version 1.2.                      
                                                                      
--   CPI-C RIG  --                                                    
                                                                      
The CPI-C RIG (a.k.a. CIW) chaired by John C Broughton III (IBM),     
had presentations on CPI-C extensions for Domain Name Server (DNS)    
usage and security by IBMers Mike Wambolt and Kathryn Britton,        
respectively.                                                         
                                                                      
*** Thanks ***                                                        
                                                                      
On behalf of the AIW, and myself, thanks to the many people who       
helped make this AIW successful.  Thanks to Barb Sampair, our         
conference administrator; to Andy Barclay, the technical and agenda   
coordinator; to members of the AIW production team; to all of the SIG,
RIG, and BOF Chairs (and substitutes), editors, note takers, and      
participants.  Thanks to all of you for yet                           
another successful AIW.                                               
                                                                      
See you next time.     
                       
Best regards,          
Chuck Brotman          
AIW Chair