[ih] More Topology, Packet Radio

[Steve Crocker]

I believe Brian Boesch is still accessible.  I don't know if he's on this
list.

Steve


On Thu, Sep 2, 2021 at 4:10 PM Barbara Denny via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

>  Dave Beyer let me know that Brian Boesch was the DARPA pm at the end of
> SURAN. He doesn't remember right now if there was anyone between Barry and
> Brian.
> barbara
>     On Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 09:05:03 AM PDT, Barbara Denny <
> b_a_denny at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   As far as I remember,  Barry was running the PRNET/SURAN programs for
> most of the time I was at SRI and BBN.   I didn't work much  on SURAN but I
> seem to remember someone else might have eventually taken over from Barry
> on the SURAN contract. I am trying to verify this and get a name but the
> person I am asking is out of town and no response to my email yet.  Barry
> wasn't in Germany when I did the demo with the LPRs at the Warrior Prep
> center.  There was a different DARPA guy in Germany but I have this memory
> he was only involved for this particular demonstration.   I also don't
> think this is the same DARPA guy whose name I am trying to remember.
> barbara
>
>     On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, 12:38:09 PM PDT, vinton cerf <
> vgcerf at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  that must have been when Barry Leiner was running the PRNET/SURAN
> programs?
> v
>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 3:07 PM Barbara Denny via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>  Upon reflection I want to mention I think 6.2 supported multiple stations
> in a Packet Radio network.  I believe an earlier release supported a single
> station. I just don't remember if that version was something like Cap5
> versus Cap6.
> barbara
>     On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, 09:01:55 AM PDT, Barbara Denny <
> b_a_denny at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   Eventually under the SURAN contract we/SRI got a version of the radio
> code.  What we received was probably BCPL because at this point I am
> thinking I got asked to do a modification because I was probably the only
> one around with BCPL experience from the Packet Radio station software.
> There is a chance it was in C.  The big thing I remember was the code
> reminded me of more like something that might have been written by people
> used to a lower level language, like assembler.
> My memory might be wrong but I seem to remember Packet Radio had 256 byte
> packets.
> The different CAP version numbers indicated functionality in the Packet
> Radio network so if I remember correctly CAP6.2 included the Packet Radio
> Station while CAP7 was stationless.
> barbara
>     On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, 05:56:47 AM PDT, Lawrence Stewart via
> Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>  I can contribute a few bits of information about the Packet Radio Network.
>
> In 1978 I designed the 1822 interface for the Xerox Alto.  It was used to
> connect to the Bay Area Packet Radio Network and for connecting PARC-MAXC2
> to the Arpanet.
>
> The Radios used an entirely different low level protocol than the IMPs.
> It was called CAP, for Channel Access Protocol.  CAP was notable for a very
> small MTU - it had an 11 (16-bit) word header and up to 116 words of data.
>
> PARC used the PRNet for a while to encapsulate PUP traffic between the
> PARC building and the Xerox Advanced Systems Devision (Ben Wegbreit and
> Charles Simonyi) building.
>
> I wrote the CAP driver in Mesa, for connection to Hal Murray’s Mesa
> Gateway code.  It may still be around, in the files Paul McJones put up on
> the CHM servers at
> http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/Indigo/Alto-1822/.index.html <
> http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/Indigo/Alto-1822/.index.html>
> The BCPL test software for the 1822 is definitely there.
>
> I don’t know what language the radio code used. It was written by Collins
> Radio and they had (from SRI accounts) a truly stone age attitude about
> it.  The master version was kept in a box of cards in the manager’s office.
>
> I found the writeup of the Xerox work in IEN-78 at
> http://www.watersprings.org/pub/rfc/ien/ien78.pdf <
> http://www.watersprings.org/pub/rfc/ien/ien78.pdf>
>
> -Larry
>
> I guess I am surprised by the comments here about the subleties of the
> 1822 distant host signaling.  I don’t think the Alto board had
> optoisolaters and it did work in both local and distant host modes, but was
> never tried with very long cables or ground problems.
>
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