INTERNET-DRAFT                                                G. Hiddink
Expires: October 17, 1997                                     april 1997
draft-hiddinkg-wwcp-part2-01.txt


                  WWCP Part 2: Network Interface Layer

Status of this Memo

This document is an Internet Draft.  Internet Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and
its Working Groups.  Note that other groups may also distribute working
documents as Internet Drafts.

Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months.
Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
documents at any time.  It is not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as
reference material or to cite them other than as a ``working draft'' or
``work in progress``.

To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the 1id-
abstracts.txt listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow
Directories on ds.internic.net, nic.nordu.net, ftp.isi.edu, or
munnari.oz.au.

A revised version of this draft document will be submitted to the RFC
editor as a Proposed Standard for the Internet Community.  Discussion
and suggestions for improvement are requested.  This document will
expire before October 1996.  Distribution of this draft is unlimited,
but all copyrights are reserved to G. Hiddink. The ideas contained
herein are intellectual property of G. Hiddink.


Abstract

   The Network Interface Layer is a thin adaptation layer that takes
   care of making, maintaining and removing network connections. It is a
   multi- protocol layer, in the sense that it accepts connections from
   different ``entities'' (eg. an IRC client, a WWCP client or a peer
   conferencing server) and directs the protocol messages via the
   appropriate handler to the next layer.


CONTENTS

1. Introduction ............................................





Hiddink                                                         [Page 1]





Internet Draft                 WWCP Part 2                 18 april 1997


2. Making a connection .......................................

   2.1 The "IAM" message .........................................
   2.2 Protocol versions .........................................
   2.3 Connection flags ..........................................
   2.4 Error responses ...........................................

3. Accepting a connection

   3.1 Authentication ............................................


4. Keeping a connection alive .....................................




1. Introduction

   The Network Interface Layer takes care of everything that needs to be
   done in order to setup a connection across any network, receive and
   send data on it, and disconnecting it. Connections can be made across
   any network offering a reliable data transport layer, for example using
   the TCP/IP protocol. But also connections across other networks are
   possible. The Network Interface Layer (NIL) is designed to provide a
   uniform interface towards the protocol layers above. It is a protocol to
   setup one on one connections between so-called `nodes'. A node is a
   process that is capable of communicating using the NIL protocol. It is
   identified using a unique 32-bit numerical ID, which is assigned `for
   life', i.e. an ID is never reused (see also section 4.2 of part 1).


2. Making a connection

2.1 Protocol versions

2.2 Connection flags

2.3 Error responses


3. Accepting a connection

3.1 Authentication



4. Keeping a connection alive



Hiddink                                                         [Page 2]





Internet Draft                 WWCP Part 2                 18 april 1997





















































Hiddink                                                         [Page 3]