[ih] The history of "This" 0.0.0.0/8 network?

[Alex McKenzie]

If you want to know about NCP, see RFC # 6529.  The NCP spec was not
originally an RFC, since it was a specification, not a "request" for
comments.  RFC # 6529 moved the spec into the RFC series about 40 years
after the spec was published.

Cheers,
Alex

On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 2:28 PM Michael Kjörling <michael at kjorling.se>
wrote:

> On 12 Feb 2019 09:42 -0700, from
> internet-history at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net (Grant Taylor):
> >   - To me, "0.0.0.0" represents and as such implies IPv4.  So "early
> > IPv4 transition days" sounds like the transition /to/ IPv4.  Yet 0.0.0.0
> > is an IPv4 address to me.  So what are we transitioning from and to?
>
> NCP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Control_Program
>
> The final transition from NCP to TCP/IP was in January 1983. RFC 801
> may be of interest.
>
>
> > Admittedly I'm not familiar with the addressing that was used on ARPAnet
> > prior to IPv4.  But I suspect that it's addressing did not take the form
> > of 0.0.0.0.
>
> I wasn't around at the time, but the January 1970 RFC 33 says on page
> 6 that NCP addressing was 24 bits of "user number" plus 8 bits of
> "host number" plus 8 bits of "another eight-bit number", 7 of which
> seem like they function largely as what we today refer to as "ports";
> one end of a connection was therefore identified by a total of 48
> bits, 8 of which describe the host. I don't see anything obvious
> actually specifying a format for how these addresses would be entered
> by or displayed to a user, only hints that hexadecimal notation may
> have been common.
>
> This format allowed up to 2^8 hosts on the network, each with 2^24
> users, each with 2^7 simultaneous active bidirectional connections.
>
> Note that "port" in NCP seems to have been a very different concept
> from "port" in TCP. My understanding is that NCP "ports" refer more to
> the physical links than to a logical property of a data connection.
>
> --
> Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael at kjorling.se
>   “The most dangerous thought that you can have as a creative person
>               is to think you know what you’re doing.” (Bret Victor)
> _______
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