Fwd: Re: [ih] European and Asian participation around 1989

[dave o'leary]

Per Craig's suggestion.  I would not be surprised if others have
alternate recollections; I was not sleeping a whole lot in those
days... :-)

                                         dave

>Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 10:58:26 -0500
>From: Craig Simon <cls at rkey.com>
>To: "dave o'leary" <doleary at juniper.net>
>Subject: Re: [ih] European and Asian participation around 1989
>
>Hi,
>
>Thanks very much for your response.
>
>I've been picking up bits and pieces here and there about the early 
>internationalization of the Internet, but no confirmation yet of the 
>"thrown off" incident.
>
>It seems that your answer might be of interest to people on the IH list. 
>Since you already made the effort of writing it, I wonder if you would 
>consider reposting it there as a response to my thread. This might have 
>the side benefit of prompting further responses from others.
>
>In any case, thanks again.
>
>Craig
>
>dave o'leary wrote:
>>At 10:37 AM 2/21/2003 -0500, Craig Simon wrote:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>Thanks for responding,
>>>
>>>There was no answer from anyone on the list. I've contacted at least 
>>>three other people off the list who I thought might be able to confirm 
>>>what Don Mitchell had told me, but they had no recollection of this.
>>>
>>>Anything you can add would be huge help.
>>
>>In the fall of 1989 I went to work as the technical manager
>>at SURAnet, based in College Park, Maryland.  We hosted
>>an NSFnet node on campus at the University of Maryland.
>>In the spring of 1990 we added ESnet (DoE backbone)
>>and NSI (NASA backbone) nodes, and established
>>FIX-East.  We also had an ARPAnet connection, but it
>>was decommissioned along with the remaining nodes
>>and connections.
>>In the summer of 1990, we moved to a building just off
>>campus, and in addition to the other connections listed
>>above, we added a Milnet connection and other links
>>including what was called the "UK Fat Pipe".  This was
>>a multiplexed T1 which ran from University College London
>>to NASA Goddard where some of the channels (768kb?)
>>were dropped off and then the rest of the channels were
>>terminated on a router connected to FIX-East.  I know that
>>this wasn't the first Internet connection from the US to the UK,
>>but I know that once it came up (pretty sure this was mid-1990)
>>we didn't bring it back down for any policy reasons as
>>described below.  The reason that the connection was split
>>between Goddard and FixEast is because there were multiple
>>agencies involved in paying for the connection, but I don't
>>remember which ones.  I left SURAnet in late March of 1992,
>>and the UK connection was definitely still in place.
>>I definitely remember the registry funding conversations,
>>but I don't remember any time that connectivity was dropped.
>>The scenario you describe might have happened earlier in 1989,
>>and may have been the motivation for the multi-agency UK Fat
>>Pipe.  Tony Hain who is now at Cisco or Steve Wolff (who I think
>>is also still at Cisco) might know more.  Tony was responsible
>>for engineering at ESnet back then and Steve was the program
>>manager at NSF.  Also Milo Medin who was running the NSI
>>backbone and had responsibility for FIX West.
>>In addition to the UK connection at FIX-East, there was also
>>another connection from Germany, but I can't remember where
>>it terminated in the US.
>>Connectivity to Asia was pretty sparse in those days,
>>only Japan and Australia I think.  Jun Marai (Japan) and
>>Geoff Huston who built AARnet and the initial US connectivity
>>would remember the specific dates of when their connections
>>came up.  I do remember that FIX-West at NASA Ames came
>>up a little before FIX-East, because we were moving our
>>facility off campus, so the Japan and Australia connections
>>might have come up early enough to in turn be taken down
>>for some policy reason.
>>I'm pretty sure that I have some network maps at my house
>>somewhere, and some notes from meetings, etc. back in those
>>days, which might help sort through some of this.
>>I hope this helps; as I think about this I am beginning to
>>recollect more... let me know if I can help you track down
>>any of the folks above.
>>                                         dave
>>
>>>Craig
>>>
>>>dave o'leary wrote:
>>>
>>>>At 01:13 PM 2/11/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>>I recently heard about an incident in which a number of European and 
>>>>>Asian networks briefly lost their connections to the Internet in 1989 
>>>>>or 1990. Someone in the US Government apparently decided that the 
>>>>>registry functions then being sponsored through the DOD should not be 
>>>>>used to support services for connections outside the US. This 
>>>>>presumably accelerated the process of transferring responsibility for 
>>>>>the funding of registry services to the NSF.
>>>>>
>>>>>Is this story on the mark at all? Can anyone here clarify the 
>>>>>background of this?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Did you receive any responses on this?  If so, I am interested
>>>>in a summary.
>>>>I can provide insight from my perspective as a network operator
>>>>back then, but I doubt I will capture any behind the scenes political
>>>>intrigue.
>>>>                                                 dave