[ih] "The Internet runs on Proposed Standards"

[Jack Haverty]

Another part of the "process" of deploying TCP was to force its adoption 
by existing network users, who may have viewed TCP as a needless 
distraction and likely impediment to their ongoing work. That meant 
"turning off" the old NCP mechanisms so that only the new TCP would 
function.

I recall discussions with ARPA of exactly how to accomplish that. We 
ended up using the fact that the ARPANET was always in the network path, 
and by slight changes to the code in the ARPANET IMPs it was possible to 
make NCP no longer work.  There was a rather elaborate schedule over a 
year or so with multiple test sessions before the final cutover was made 
in early 1983.   Andy Malis probably remembers a lot more.   We 
(actually IIRC Jon P) even issued commemorative buttons, something like 
"I Survived the TCP Transition".   I still have mine somewhere.

All that was part of the deployment process to get TCP to become "the" 
standard in all the computers in the Internet at the time.  We were 
lucky to have the ARPANET as an available enforcement mechanism.

I can't imagine how you could similarly "turn off" BGP (or any other 
mechanism) in the Internet today.  Even if you were serious about doing 
it.   AFAIK, there's no "process" to do such things.

Jack

On 12/3/22 13:34, Tony Li wrote:
>
>
>> On Dec 3, 2022, at 12:37 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history 
>> <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>
>> I still have doubts about "The Internet runs on Proposed 
>> Standards".   Does anybody know -- Is it true?  How do you know? 
>> Personally I haven't found any way, at least as a User, to tell what 
>> technology is inside all the equipment, software, services, 
>> protocols, algorithms, et al that are operating between my 
>> keyboard/screen and yours.  It could be all Standards of some ilk, or 
>> it could all be Proprietary.   It might conform to the spec, or have 
>> some zero-day flaw.  How do you tell?
>
>
> Data point: BGP is still a draft standard.
>
> Some might argue that the Internet cannot run without BGP.
>
> I’m not quite convinced.  I suggest we turn it off and find out.  It 
> should be an interesting experiment.
>
> Regards,
> Tony
>