CBI Networking Activity at MITRE (RFC0321)

Network Working Group Peggy M. Karp Request for Comments: 321 MITRE NIC #9608 24 March 1972 Related RFCs: 313 Categories: F

CBI Networking Activity at MITRE

This RFC is in response to Tom O’Sullivan’s probe for comments

on Computer Based Instruction. MITRE is currently doing some pre-

liminary work in the area,at the present time limited to use of CAI-

related network resources.

The most expedient way for me to respond is by attaching excerpts

taken from a recent status report prepared for internal MITRE use,

intended for staff not generally familiar with the ARPANET. Comments

directed at specific items in Tom’s attachment will follow in a future

RFC.

We welcome comments on our activities and would like to partici-

pate in any CBI dialogs that take place.

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STATUS OF IR&D TASK 9780 ARPA NETWORK STUDIES AND EXPERIMENTS

1.0 OBJECTIVES

MITRE/Washington became a node in the ARPA computer network in

September 1971 when a Terminal Interface Message Processor (TIP) was

installed. Since that time MITRE’s use of the network has largely

been supported by IR&D funds. The objectives of the IR&D Network

Studies are:

(a) to promote the use of the network resources in an

operational mode within MITRE to increase the computer

capabilities available for supporting sponsor’s work;

(b) to use the ARPANET itself as a research tool for

conducting computer networking experiments; and

(c) to demonstrate the use of ARPANET resources to extend

the capabilities of existing systems.

Specifically, the proposed objectives are:

(1) to select ARPANET resources that can be used to support

identified MITRE projects and to demonstrate how these

resources can be used;

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(2) to use the ARPANET as a research tool to conduct data

sharing experiments to study techniques for data handling

on a computer network; and

(3) to demonstrate the feasibility of using remote

resources on the ARPANET to augment the capabilities

of the TICCIT* system.

*The principle use of the TICCIT (Time-Shared Interactive Computer Controlled Information Television) system has been for Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI). A TICCIT/CAI system is currently being developed by MITRE under a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.

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2.0 APPROACH

The IR&D Network Studies and Experiments project requires soft-

ware development on selected ARPANET Host computers and extensive

exercising of network resources. The approach taken to fulfill the

project objectives involves effort in three areas.

Task area I is designed to build up ARPANET usage by MITRE.

Task II involves conducting data sharing experiments on the network

utilizing software being built by MITRE at several network sites.

Task III is intended to demonstrate the use of CAI-related network

resources to augment the TICCIT/CAI system.

The specific activities involved in each task area are discussed

below.

2.3 Task III - Demonstrate Extensions to TICCIT System Capabilities --------------------------------------------------------------- Tha...