CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Vladimir Sukonnik/Process Software Corporation Minutes of the TP/IX Working Group (TPIX) The TPIX Working Group met jointly with the TUBA Working Group and also met in a second independent session. The agenda for that meeting was: o Introduce and discuss CATNIP o Review TP/IX charter and name The meeting started with Ross Callon introducing the concept of the Forward Cache Identifier, or handle, to be used to speed up processing in routers. A downstream router may send an ICMP message offering an FCI for a particular source, destination, and type of service. The source may then use the FCI in its packet instead of fully specified source and destination addresses. Using the FCI will achieve two goals: smaller packet size and faster processing in the router. CATNIP Robert Ullmann introduced CATNIP. CATNIP is a revision of the TP/IX proposal. The TP/IX packet has been extended to include a Forward Cache Identifier and NSAP-style source and destination addresses. Using a NSAP-style address, CATNIP could be used to represent IPv4, IPX and OSI protocols. CATNIP could also be used to connect CLNP systems to IPv4 and IPX systems. Several people suggested that placing the Forward Cache Identifier in the first longword of the packet may speed up processing. Robert pointed out two reasons for not doing so. First, the first byte must be reserved for NLPID field. Second, it was observed that any current or future processor will be loading at least 64 bits in parallel anyway. It is also easier to make FCI fixed field rather than a variable size. TCP used to be part of the TP/IX proposal. The working group felt that it would be better to separate TCP (and UDP) from the CATNIP proposal and have them addressed as separate issues. The working group decided to remove RAP (RFC 1476) from its charter, to be developed separately. It was noted by Dave Katz and others that IS-IS will work fine with CATNIP, as will the IDRP and other methods; the existing OSI routing could be used for CATNIP's addressing scheme without any changes. A concern was raised that the selection field in the CATNIP header may not be long enough. It seems, however, that 16 bits is a reasonable size for fields that assign one code point to each of a set of protocols (at least below application layer). It's hard to see us designing more than 65000 transport layer protocols. The TP/IX working group also defined milestones for Seattle: o Rob will add additional details and publish CATNIP as an Internet-Draft. o Rob will write the white paper requested by the IPng directorate as soon as the outline is available. o Vladimir will rewrite TP/IX charter and work with Scott Bradner on renaming the working group to CATNIP. o The group will plan on meeting jointly with TUBA for one session in Seattle, and will continue to coordinate efforts to find as much common ground as possible. Attendees Nick Alfano alfano@mpr.ca Vadim Antonov avg@icm1.icp.net Susie Armstrong susie@mentat.com Jules Aronson aronson@nlm.nih.gov Erik-Jan Bos erik-jan.bos@surfnet.nl Rebecca Bostwick bostwick@es.net Scott Bradner sob@harvard.edu Glen Cairns cairns@mprgate.mpr.ca Ross Callon rcallon@wellfleet.com Peter Cameron cameron@xylint.co.uk George Chang gkc@ctt.bellcore.com John Chang jrc@uswest.com Enke Chen enke@merit.edu Richard Colella colella@nist.gov Michael Collins collins@es.net David Conrad davidc@iij.ad.jp Matt Crawford crawdad@fncent.fnal.gov John Curran jcurran@nic.near.net Michael Davis mike@dss.com Chuck de Sostoa chuckd@cup.hp.com Stephen Deering deering@parc.xerox.com Avri Doria avri@locus.com Robert Fink rlfink@lbl.gov Eric Fleischman ericf@atc.boeing.com Peter Furniss p.furniss@ulcc.ac.uk Eugene Geer ewg@cc.bellcore.com Robert Gilligan Bob.Gilligan@Eng.Sun.Com Chris Gunner gunner@dsmail.lkg.dec.com Denise Heagerty denise@dxcoms.cern.ch Phil Irey pirey@relay.nswc.navy.mil Kevin Jackson kjackson@concord.com David Jacobson dnjake@vnet.ibm.com Dave Katz dkatz@cisco.com Elizabeth Kaufman kaufman@biomded.med.yale.edu Edwin King eek@atc.boeing.com Jian Li jian@rice.edu Kanchei Loa loa@sps.mot.com E. Paul Love epl@sdsc.edu Tracy Mallory tracym@3com.com David Marlow dmarlow@relay.nswc.navy.mil Jun Matsukata jm@eng.isas.ac.jp Doug Montgomery dougm@osi.ncsl.nist.gov Dan Nordell Erik Nordmark nordmark@eng.sun.com William Palter palter@tgv.com Andrew Partan asp@uunet.uu.net Radia Perlman perlman@novell.com Eric Peterson elpeterson@eng.xyplex.com David Piscitello wk04464@worldlink.com James Quigley Quigley@cup.hp.com Martin Schulman schulman@smtp.sprint.com Vincent Shekher vin@sps.mot.com Erik Sherk sherk@sura.net Uttam Shikarpur uttam@zk3.dec.com Keith Sklower sklower@cs.berkeley.edu Frank Solensky solensky@ftp.com Vladimir Sukonnik sukonnik@process.com Steve Suzuki steve@fet.com Larry Tepper ltepper@compatible.com Richard Thomas rjthomas@bnr.ca Robert Ullmann ariel@world.std.com William Warner warner@ohio.gov Chris Wheeler cwheeler@cac.washington.edu Gerry White gerry@lancity.com Cathy Wittbrodt cjw@barrnet.net David Woodgate David.Woodgate@its.csiro.au