[ih] Overlay networks (1980s SRI Reconstitution Protocol)

[John Day]

This topic has come up several times here. Could someone please explain it to me.

My understanding is that this was a protocol to repair network partitions.
If there is a network partition, there are two issues:
1) it can’t be known that it is a partition until it is over. From within the network, a network partition is indistinguishable from a number of hosts being down for some other reason.
2) If it is a network partition, there is no communication between the partitions so how can there be a protocol to repair it?

Thanks,
John Day

> On Aug 21, 2025, at 15:32, John Gilmore via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> Barbara, thank you for reminding us of the Network Reconstitution Protocol.
> 
> Here are two copies of their final report:
> 
>  https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA184755.pdf
>  https://archive.org/details/ADA184755/
> 
> They appear to come from the same (microfiche) source.
> 
> Also here's a brief note by Greg Skinner about this work and report:
> 
>  https://gregbo.medium.com/network-reconstitution-protocol-79bc61067f8e
> 
> 	John
> 
> PS: Due to Greg Skinner's comment at the bottom of this Computer History
> Museum story, I ran across this today, from back when the Internet
> itself was barely an overlay network:
> 
>  "Born in a Van: Happy 40th Birthday to the Internet!
>  40th Anniversary of the First Major TCP Internetwork Demonstration, November 22, 1977"
>  by Marc Weber
>  Nov 22, 2017
>  https://medium.com/chmcore/born-in-a-van-happy-40th-birthday-to-the-internet-d81287f172bf
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