BIG networks

[leichterj at rani.DEC]

> Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
> Path: decwrl!decvax!wivax!cadmus!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr
>	!tgr!root%bostonu.csnet at csnet-relay.arpa
> Subject: Re:  What irks me about Unix mail
> Posted: Fri Dec  7 20:11:58 1984

> 	If you mean that VAX MAIL under VMS using DECNET
> 	is more reliable in its routing it is because it
> 	encompasses a trivial network, what do you have?
> 	5 or 10 VMS/VAXes on a single simple spine or point-point?
> 	Anyone can solve networking as long as they limit
> 	the problem enough which is largely what decnet does.
>
> 	When you have hundreds, maybe thousands of nodes with
> 	no centralized administrative control (as you would
> 	need with decnet)...
>
> 	...
>			-Barry Shein, Boston University

Congratulations.  You have just described DEC's internal DECnet network, the
EASYNET.  Last time I looked, it had something like 3,700 active nodes on it,
ranging in size from small 11's running RT-11 to large VAXes to TOPS-10 and
TOPS-20 systems.  The EASYNET started out as the "Engineering Net", linking
various development machines.  These days, just about every machine at DEC is
on the net, or will be soon - growth is still rapid.  As you can see from this
message, the EASYNET has links to UUCP; it also connects to ARPANET and CSNET.

Those 3,700 nodes, by the way, are pretty well distributed.  Earlier today,
I received a note from someone on a machine in Tokyo about 68000 C compilers.
There are a lot of EASYNET machines in Europe.  Other places I've had reason
to have contact with are Israel and Tokyo.

Unlike UUCP, EASYNET is:

	(a) a full routing network.  Except in some corners of the net where
		for various reasons - ranging from old machines to security -
		restrictions are placed, I need know only the name of the node
		I want to reach, not a path to it.  EASYNET knows that.  (It's
		pretty good at finding those paths.  At one point, traffic
		between Maynard, Mass. and Nashua, Hew Hampshire was noticed
		to be slow.  It turned out that the direct lines were down -
		so packets were going through England!)

	(b) more than a mail network.  First off, it's at least two mail net-
		works.  DEC provides VAX MAIL for free with VMS.  VMS MAIL is
		admittedly a rather simple-minded mail system, though vastly
		improved in Version 4 of VMS.  DEC also sells some more
		sophisticated mailers which use a product called Message
		Router, which provides services like queing and guaranteed
		delivery.

		Beyond that, EASYNET provides things like remote file access -
		transparently on VMS - and various distributed products, such
		as VAX VTX, a Videotext product.

By now, you are probably wondering about the army of people needed to run all
this.  Well, central administration of the EASYNET is done by about 5 people.
Most of what they do is concerned with getting and maintaining various back-
bone lines, helping new systems get attached to the EASYNET, and tracking down
and correcting various bugs and problems that local personal can't resolve.
They also maintain a node name/number registry - something you obviously need
if you are going to have automatic routing.
							-- Jerry