[ih] bufferbloat and modern congestion control (was 4004)

[Greg Skinner]

On Oct 6, 2024, at 2:04 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> Yes, I agree, that's how it works.
> 
> But I think that the Service Model has changed over time; the original goals in the early 80s were to provide multiple types of service, e.g., one for interactive needs where timeliness was most important, and another for bulk transfers where accurate delivery of everything sent was crucial.  That's why TCP was split from IP to enable services such as UDP.
> 
>  At some point that goal was apparently abandoned.  It might be of historical interest to know when that occurred and if it was an explicit decision and if so who made it.
> 
> Another main difference now is in the Management of "The Internet".   It has also changed over the decades.
> 
> In the 80s, ARPA was in charge of the Internet.  Users knew who to call if they had problems.  The first "real" User I remember was Peter Kirstein and his crew at UCL, who relied on the Internet to do their everyday work.
> 
> When Peter had a problem, he would call or email Vint at ARPA.  If the problem look like it might be related to the "core gateways", I then got a call or email from Vint.  Peter figured this process out and would then simply CC me on his first complaint.
> 
> The "Gateway Group" at BBN (usually Hinden, Brescia, and/or Sheltzer) would get to work and figure it all out.  Perhaps it was a SATNET issue, but Dale McNeill was down the hall with the SATNET team if needed.   Same with the Arpanet.
> 
> When NSF entered the scene, I suspect Steve Wolff's phone number became more popular.   Problems probably cascaded to Dave Mills or other NSF researchers?
> 
> In today's Internet, who is in charge?     When you have a phantasmal Internet experience, "Who Ya Gonna Call?"  Where are the Internet's Ghostbusters?
> 
> Jack
> 

On some of the NOG (network operators group) mailing lists I follow, people who are having problems and can’t reach the NOC of the provider they’re having problems with post requests to the lists for provider contacts.  Major problems are reported on lists such as the outages list (with a companion list, outages-discussion).  If it’s determined that some protocol needs to be fixed, vendors are contacted, and instructions are made available on how to obtain the update.

There are companies such as Kentik and Thousand Eyes (part of Cisco) that monitor various providers and services.

As far as NSFnet goes, there are people on the NANOG list who were around back in the Merit/NSFnet days.  You might pose a question on that list to find out how escalation responsibilities transitioned from the researchers to the NOCs, etc.

--gregbo