[ih] questions on arpane

[Craig Partridge]

In message <743374743881.743881743374 at luiss.it>, rdandi at luiss.it writes:

>1) Email traffic: is there any statistics on the use of email in arpanet in=
> the period 1972-1978? In some documents I found reference to a study=
> according to which in 1973 email traffic was about 75% of the whole=
> traffic in arpanet. Do you know where can I find this study? In RFCs I=
> found only traffic statistics (by McKenzie) that do not distinguish email=
> traffic.=0D

I believe that number is right, but I don't recall how it was collected.

>2) Host network traffic: is there any statistics on the transfer of=
> information from host to host? I mean, for example, how many data UCLA=
> transferred from/to SRI or from/to other nodes? (in the period 1969-1978).=
> Again, RFCs by McKenzie report synthetic traffic statistics, they do not=
> specify the one to one relations.=0D

Those numbers were reported weekly, as I recall, by BBN's network
operations center right through the 1980s.  The reports tended to be by
IMP port (i.e. connection to an IMP) and what I remember seeing most of
the time was simply per-port traffic counts, but there were also IMP-to-IMP
traffic counts.   We knew, for instance, that traffic from CSNET Relay's
IMP to SEISMO's IMP (the UUCP gateway) was very heavy.

[These reports where used in DNS debugging to realize that
people weren't updating their root files -- it was discovered that
ISI-C's old IMP port was getting blasted with traffic long after the
machine (which had been a root server) was disconnected]

The reports were sent via email.  I have no clue if anyone kept them
(Dave Mills perhaps?).  I suspect they also were part of the monthly
status reports to DARPA -- I don't know where those status reports are
(I'd assume in the US National Archives by now).

>3) The hardest question (I think): members affiliations and status.=
> Studying RFCs I found the affiliations of the RFC authors in NWG (see=
> attached file). I am interested also in finding which are the previous=
> affiliations of these authors (before entering the arpanet) and the status=
> they had during arpanet (senior or junior researcher). Does anybody know=
> how can I fill in the blank spaces in my XL file?

I suspect this is actually the easiest -- send a list of names to this
list and I'll bet we can collectively fill it in (certainly status, in
some cases with titles).  It is still a small world :-)

Thanks!

Craig Partridge
Chief Scientist, BBN Technologies