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RFC 91 - A Proposed User-User Protocol

  • Status: Unknown
  • Published: December 27, 1970
  • Stream: Legacy
  • Errata: No Errata

Document Information​

  • RFC Number: 91
  • Title: A Proposed User-User Protocol
  • Authors: G.H. Mealy (Harvard University)
  • Date: December 27, 1970
  • Category: Unknown

Abstract​

RFC 91 proposes a USER-USER protocol that treats communication over the Network as a special case of input/output. It argues that the logical record, rather than the message, should be the unit visible to user programs; that existing user programs should be able to reach files anywhere in the Network without modification; and that the protocol should be implementable at the SVC or UUO level without specific knowledge of the other HOST. The protocol itself defines a four-bit OPERATION field followed by an optional COUNT field and data block, and assigns the sixteen flag values to whyte flags (NUL, RS, GS, FS, ESC, EOM, SIZE, IGNORE) and block flags (SYS, CONTROL, STATUS, LABEL, KEY, ASCII, BLOCK), leaving their interpretation largely to local agreement between the communicating processes. The note then sketches the implementation being built at Harvard for the PDP-10, describing the PUTF, PUTD, PUT, GETFD and GET UUOs and working through the flag sequence used to fetch a file from another PDP-10 in the Network. It closes with a brief discussion of the space required and of the LOGON and interrupt questions left open.

Table of Contents​