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RFC 80 - Protocols and Data Formats

  • Status: Unknown
  • Published: 1 December 1970
  • Stream: Legacy
  • Errata: No Errata

Document Information​

  • RFC Number: 80
  • Title: Protocols and Data Formats
  • Authors: E. Harslem, J. Heafner (RAND)
  • Date: 1 December 1970
  • Category: Unknown

Abstract​

RFC 80 sets out the current attitudes and investigations of E. Harslem and J. Heafner of RAND with respect to protocols and data formats on the ARPANET, laying emphasis on general solutions rather than on specifics. It makes two points about Initial Connection Protocols (IPCs): it identifies the only technical error in the IPC of NWG/RFC #66 -- both the Server and the User send all messages before the connections are established, which is inconsistent with Network Document No. 1 -- and restates that IPC with the process name field of the server socket made a parameter, and it proposes a variant ICP that deletes two steps and so reduces the number of network messages by two. It records the authors' wish to adopt the data format suggestions of NWG/RFC #42 and #63, and describes an adaptable (not adaptive) mechanism for bringing programs and terminals that do not share protocols and data formats onto the Network: the Form Machine, which adapts to data formats, and the Protocol Manager, which adapts to NCP command sequences. It closes with a request for comment on the notion of adaptation to data formats and protocol.

Table of Contents​