From OSI Layers to Evolution Layers via UNIX



Undoubtedly the OSI model is no help for beginners of Networking, it does not tell you how to play with network technology. Due to lack of any other didactic means it has became the de facto introductory material until books began to appear around the early 90s.


Its strong point is that it pushed the case for standards at times where the big computer makers like DEC and IBM battled to establish their own proprietary computer-network technology like DNA and SNA correspondingly. Amongst the positive achievements of OSI are ASN.1, a data structure modelling tool and the fist ever go at fixing Networking concepts.



In this battle for the network the other opposite was the telecommunication industry which did push for standards but also their own agenda, its main feature was to obstruct competition in this new world of computer-networks. The most powerful weapon, in fact a Trojan horse, was UNIX.

My OSI entry to Networking and final exit (re-entry) with TCPIP with some co-existence in between.

Etching a course following the Internet Wave as a developer and part-time theorist


In the year 1999 I have two results of my own NET8 and Internet Systematics. Although quite esoteric these terms map to real networking issues. The need of Network Theory, Fundamentals of Networking, Origin of big problems of Internet, Innovation pattern, Architectural issues.

The problem of Internet Security, a paradigm of Learning with Open source

What the new Internet will look like (OSI had a point)

From SASL to COSINE via TURCHIN (*)





In 1986 I enrolled to a real life course on Networking then sometime later I started to look for its fundamentals.

The experimental platform was a French UNIX network station prototype TELMAT SM90, a TELEFILE desktop X.25 switch and Packet-Assembler-Disassembler device and a bunch of QUME TTYs at the end of some leased 9.6Kbps telecom analog lines. Two SUN 4/430 and a CISCO AGS+ (the first shipped to Greece) were added to the platform around 1991.

At some point in time of self-checking my learning path I concluded that in addition
to being an Internet Evangelist I bound myself to the problem of Network understanding.

Modeling Network Evolution.

I can give many different departure points but one thing is certain, linking my practice to theory is ultimately related to Valentin Turchin' book the Phenomenon of Science.

From 1986 to about 1999 I struggled with the idea of using Turchin´s Metasystem Transition as a vehicle to understand Networking. A self set problem while being employed to develop an academic Network, starting from
packets versus circuits and ISO's OSI versus IETF's TCPIP.

I had may doubts whether my approach made sense but occasionally I came across some resource mainly through network browsing that would support it and enable my next step.

In fact more than one step unfolded because of harvesting resources of encouragement such as an email by IAB's chair F. Baker of CISCO stating the need to establish "Pseudo-Areas" in addition to the classic knowledge "IETF Areas". Inside a Pseudo-Area its members keep a distance from the nitty gritty of the work done. For example about Layer 2 deliberations. I interpreted "distance" to mean abstraction and this was my approach.

David Turner's's code, his SASL programming examples, his abstractSECD machine implementation and the SKI machine based on Combinatory Logic where even the difficult concept of Recursion gets wrapped up by a couple of symbol shifting techniques (pls see previous post) then I say that I am adequately equipped to apply abstraction power to whatever network comprehension problems
I had in front of me.

Here the raw concepts (**) were:

Packets, Circuits, Protocols, Layers, Distributed systems. Network Services, Remote Logins, UNIX sockets,
File transfers, X.25 nodes, Telecom communication lines, Modems ...


This was effectively triggered when I grasped the basics of OSI and met ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation) a language to encode protocol data. I immediately linked ASN.1 to Turchin's REFAL (much later Turchin did the same and linked it to XML). Researching the fundamentals I turned to whatever shed light on the entity network

examples ?

Saunders McLane (Mathematics is a network from his book "Mathematics, Form and Function"),

Alvin Toffler (technology waves),

Seymour Papert (transitive objects), Edward De Bono (Lateral thinking) and much later Kevin
Kelly.

Phase one of the learning course is participating in Network Working Groups (*) where leaders drive the course and simple members like my self bring the
message back to the locality.

Next post will be about phase two where I manage to identify the major evolution points

of Networking and construct its abstraction.



(*) SASL - St. Andrews Static Language (aka SASL). A software platform which I tinkered
with for several years both SECD and SKI machine implementations
created by David Turner.

COSINE - Cooperation for Open Systems IN Europe, the master programme (1984 - 1992) of the EU DGXIII/EUREKA to Network computers from Universities, Industry and Government. Open Systems means X.25 and OSI technology to be used by Communities such as RARE. I attended RARE WG Messaging, RARE WG directories, RARE subWG Networked Information Resources & User Services. EBONE technical committee, CERN CHEOPS group for High Speed via Satellite, the RIPE group and the DANTE Access Point Managers group.


TURCHIN - My main influence was Turchin the inventor of REFAL - Recursive Functions Algorithmic Language and of the Supercompiler a system about automating automation (software that processes software).


(**) I had to learn about all these the hardest possible way, so pls do not repeat, just go
to a place and ask for help and be generous to ACK it.