Update and a new life beat for GISD.
- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 18:07:06 +0100
Okay,
to get GISD up and running please find an FAQ that I've put together
for GISD in preparation for next weeks first WG meeting. I will post an agenda
tomorrow. Hopefully you will find this usual as an introduction to GISD. Until
now the GISD work has been a little unclear. I hope to rectify this and get
GISD near to completion with your help. Please note some changes including the
mailing list address, an update to the draft (not much though) and a pointer
to the working group charter. We have a Monday afternoon slot for GISD. The
plan is for the meeting to be part free-form looking at the defined aspects
and areas once more and then a hope of some volunteers to take on an aspect or
two. All comments are of course welcome before, during and after the IETF.
As I said Agenda tomorrow.
I will also give a short presentation of GISD as it stands at the session.
Cheers,
--Tony.
GISD Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQ)
Tony Bates 26th October 1993
Questions with answers:
1) What does GISD stand for ?
2) What is GISD ?
3) Who is GISD aimed at ?
4) What is the purpose of GISD ?
5) How is GISD Structured ?
6) So what does the GISD structure look like ?
7) What does GISD not cover ?
8) What are the areas of GISD ?
9) Who can contribute to GISD ?
10) How can I help with GISD ?
11) Why does GISD have an IETF working group ?
12) What is the goal of the IETF GISD working group ?
13) What is the current status of the GISD document ?
14) Does GISD have a mailing list ?
15) Is the list archived ?
16) Where did the idea for GISD come from ?
---
1) What does GISD stand for ?
GISD stands for "Generic Internet Service Description"
2) What is GISD ?
GISD is an attempt to collect short descriptions of Internet
Service aspects. Internet service here means the interac-
tion of Internet service providers among themselves and with
their customers. GISD aims to provide a common frame of
reference and vocabulary to talk about an Internet service.
GISD is merely descriptive and does not proscribe or man-
date. GISD is intended to be a living document collecting
work of many contributors.
3) Who is GISD aimed at ?
GISD is aimed at service providers and how they interact
with other service providers as well as with their custo-
mers. Here a customer is taken to mean more than a single
user, generally it will mean some form of organisation who
has a need to use the global Internet and does this via a
service provider. In an effort to get things started GISD
concentrates on `Internet Service' in terms of service at
the IP layer itself rather than at the application layer. It
does not describe services run on top of the IP layer unless
they are used to manage the Internet service itself, like
using SNMP for monitoring or E-mail to report problems.
October 26, 1993
- 2 -
4) What is the purpose of GISD ?
GISD is not intended to be a mandating document but a docu-
ment that describes various aspects a service provider
should consider and how some of these aspects can be
addressed and are currently being addressed in the Internet.
It is entirely up to the service providers and their custo-
mers to agree on each aspect of service. Considering the
rapid changes the Internet is undergoing at present it is
clear that GISD cannot be static. It must be updated regu-
larly if it is going to remain useful. With the current
changes in technology and organisational aspects of the
Internet an update every six months appears to be a reason-
able timescale.
5) How is GISD Structured ?
GISD provides a general framework to describe an Internet
service according to six areas. Within each area an list of
service aspects is described. Each aspect is described
independently according to a fixed format: The what section
describes what the particular aspect being described is.
The why section describes in which way it is relevant to an
Internet Service. Following the what and why sections is a
description of one or more commonly used options to provide
this aspect of service. If there are many options they will
be categorised as minimal, common or maximal solutions wher-
ever possible in order to provide some guidance on the rela-
tive completeness and service quality of the different
options. Wherever the choice of an option may depend on
other issues such as geographic location this will be
flagged as well. Following the options if there is addi-
tional documentation of relevance a see also section is
provided. An optional SOAP BOX section is available for
controversial but relevant items to the aspect. There is a
references section will provide pointers to relevant docu-
ments Finally the contributors section will list the contri-
butors to the particular service aspect description.
6) So what does the GISD structure look like ?
So the general structure of GISD is:
October 26, 1993
- 3 -
GISD
Area
Aspect
What
Why
Options
(Minimal)
(Common)
(Maximal)
(Regional)
See Also
Soap Box
References
Contributors
...
...
7) What does GISD not cover ?
GISD does not cover any details relevant to cost. It does
not as has been done in other document provide a list of
Internet service providers. It does not give any guidance as
to how you may wish to choose a service provider.
8) What are the areas of GISD ?
The areas of GISD try to encompass as much as possible all
the relevant areas of Internet Service. Each area is
categorised with a conscious effort to align with the
natural way in which one should consider Internet Services.
There are currently six areas in GISS. They are as follows:
1) Access.
2) Generic Services.
3) Connectivity.
4) Operations.
5) Information Provision and Coordination.
6) Security.
For a more detailed look at the areas you will have to con-
sult the GISD draft.
9) Who can contribute to GISD ?
Anyone. In fact, the goal is to make it easy for members of
the community to contribute their knowledge and experiences
while receiving proper credit. The more people that
October 26, 1993
- 4 -
contribute to GISD the better the description will be
become. Some editorial control is exercised just to keep
GISD manageable. Currently that control lies with the chairs
of the GISD IETF working group.
10) How can I help with GISD ?
Currently there are many outstanding aspects that need to be
contributed for the first draft. Pick an aspect, send a mail
to the list telling the authors you plan to submit an aspect
and let's get it written.
11) Why does GISD have an IETF working group ?
The Internet Engineering Task force is a good place to
interact with many of todays service providers. By making
use of two previous BOFs the scope, structure and initial
areas and aspects were mapped out.
12) What is the goal of the IETF GISD working group ?
Basically to get a first completed GISD document out. The
charter for the group can be found on:
ftp.ripe.net:ietf/gisd/gisd-charter.txt
13) What is the current status of the GISD document ?
The document is far from complete. Many aspects still need
to be completed. However, the current version of the docu-
ment can be found on:
ftp.ripe.net:ripe/docs/ripe-drafts/giss.{txt,ps}
14) Does GISD have a mailing list ?
Yes, it is all automatic so you can subscribe and unsub-
scribe as much as you like. This is done by sending a mail
to:
majordomo@localhost
With the following in the text:
subscribe gisd-wg
15) Is the list archived ?
Yes, and this can be retrieved via e-mail by sending a mail
to:
majordomo@localhost
With the following in the text:
October 26, 1993
- 5 -
index gisd-wg
16) Where did the idea for GISD come from ?
GISD arises from a joint RARE/RIPE project funded by SURFnet
originally known as GISS. For details of this see the final
project report. This can be found on:
ftp.ripe.net:ripe/docs/ripe-docs/ripe-094.ps
October 26, 1993
