ISOC Press Release

[ISOC Secretariat <isoc () isoc org>]

                        INTERNET SOCIETY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Internet Society
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA 22091
+1.703.648.9888
+1.703.620.0913 fax
Internet: isoc () isoc org

July 2, 1993


        Global Internetworking Standards Body Meets at Amsterdam



The world's predominant standards body for open computer internetworking
standards - known as the Internet Engineering Task Force or just IETF-
meets 12-16 July 1993 in Amsterdam. The IETF brings together engineers
and computer experts from around the globe to develop the techniques and
standards that allow different kinds of computers, networks, and
programmes to communicate with each other and form vast open
internetworks.

Today, more than 43,000 of these internetworks are used by countless
enterprises, educational institutions, and government agencies in every
major country of the world for daily information sharing and
collaboration of staff. It has grown very rapidly to constitute a
multibillion dollar market. In addition, nearly 13,000 are connected
together to form the vast information mesh called "The Internet."

Because of the increasing global scale of this activity, the IETF is
meeting for the first time in Europe.

The Internet, a loosely-organized international collaboration of
autonomous, interconnected networks, supports host-to-host communication
through voluntary adherence to open protocols and procedures defined by
Internet Standards, a subset of which is commonly known as "the TCP/IP
protocol suite." The Internet Standards Process is defined in standards
that are published as part of the well known Request for Comments (RFC)
publication series.

The primary responsibility for the development and review of potential
Internet Standards from all sources is carried out by the Internet
Society through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and overseen
by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Managed by an Internet
Engineering Steering Group (IESG), the IETF is a large open community of
network designers, hardware manufacturers, software manufacturers,
operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the Internet and the
Internet protocol suite. The Corporation for National Research
Initiatives (CNRI) in Reston, VA runs the IETF Secretariat which
organizes IETF activities. Support for the IETF Secretariat is provided
by agencies of the US Government which participate in the development
and evolution of the Internet system.

The recognition of the importance of the TCP/IP protocol suite (which
includes standards such as SNMP) as an open standard, and the IETF as an
important standardization body is increasing fast, especially in the
commercial environment. The IETF does most of its work in Working Groups
via Electronic Mail and in three plenary meetings per year. At the three
IETF meetings in 1992, the average attendance was about 600 participants
(with over 50% coming from commercial companies in computer hardware and
software, communications equipment and services, information service
provision, and other related industries). All of the 26 IETF meetings so
far have been held in North America.

The Internet is a fast growing network, expanding from what used to be a
researchers network into a network that serves all kinds of
organizations (e.g. 50% of the registered and 30% of the connected
networks are from commercial companies). Currently there are well over
1.700.000 hosts connected to the Internet, in more than 50 countries.

Internet Electronic mail connectivity stretches even to 127 countries
around the world. The Internet community has worked hard to achieve that
same internationalization for the Internet Standards work. That effort
has proven to be a success, leading to the first IETF meeting outside of
North America, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

> From 12 to 16 July 1993, the 27th IETF will be held in the RAI
conference center in Amsterdam. One of the charter members of the
Internet Society, RARE (The European Research Networks Association) has
agreed to work with the IETF Secretariat to organize this first meeting
in Europe. RARE has delegated the local organization to SURFnet (The
Dutch academic and research network).

At the Amsterdam IETF about 600 network experts are expected to
participate in the 60 Working Groups that will meet there to discuss a
variety of topics, that include:

            - The next generation IP protocol;
            - Support for IP over ATM;
            - Audio Video multicasting;
            - X.500 usage for X.400 routing;
            - Deployment of SNMPv2;
            - Integrated Information Retrieval;

and many others.

Several of the Working Group meetings will be recorded with video
cameras and microphones and will be multicast in real time over the
Internet from the RAI conference center.

The IETF Secretariat is responsible for the logistics of every IETF
meeting. SURFnet as a local organizer is responsible for the Audio Video
Multicast and a well-equipped demo and terminal room. Unique for this
event is the Amsterdam IETF information server that SURFnet has put up
on the Internet. This information server is accessible from all over the
Internet. It not only contains all the information on the Amsterdam
IETF, but it also contains up-to-date tourist information on Amsterdam
and The Netherlands, provided by the Amsterdam Tourist Information (VVV)
and The Netherlands Board of Tourism (NBT).

The organization of the Amsterdam IETF has taken place in a relatively
small timeframe thanks to a close cooperation between CNRI in the USA
and RARE and SURFnet in the Netherlands. The Internet itself proved once
again to be an invaluable tool for the communication between these
parties.

The terminal room has been equipped thanks to contributions from various
organizations:

SURFnet bv
Sun Microsystems (The Netherlands)
Digital Equipment Corporation (The Netherlands)
Cisco Systems Europe
Computer Science, Twente University
DNPAP, Fac. of Electrical Engineering, Delft Univ. of Technology
ftp Software, Inc.
Foundation SURF
Geveke Electronics BV
RIPE NCC
SARA (Academic Computer Center Amsterdam)
Source Information Technology BV
Tadpole Technology Plc.

For more information please contact:

About Internet Society and IETF:

- Internet Society Secretariat
            1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
            Reston, VA 22091 USA

            +1 703 648-9888
            +1 703 620-0913 fax
            isoc () isoc org

- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
            Chairman:            Phill Gross
            Executive Director:  Steve Coya
            c/o CNRI
            1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
            Reston, VA 22091 USA
            +1 703 620-8990
            +1 703 620-0913
            ietf.secretariat () isoc org

About IETF Registration:

-  IETF Secretariat
            c/o CNRI
            1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
            Reston, VA 22091 USA

            Attention: IETF Registration
            +1 703 620-8990
            +1 703 620-0913
            rsvp () cnri reston va us

Amsterdam Local Arrangements (and Dutch press contact):

- SURFnet bv
            Erik Huizer
            SURFnet bv
            P.O. Box 19035
            3501 DA  Utrecht
            The Netherlands
            Tel: +31 30 514332
            Fax: +31 30 340903
            Erik.Huizer () SURFnet nl
            C=nl; A=400net; P=surf; O=SURFnet; S=Huizer; G=Erik

Note: The IETF is a working meeting, not a conference. There will be no
special press facilities. Only registered participants are allowed to
attend [although limited attendance by the press can be provided].