Draft Charter 5/19/93 - md

One of the problems with terminal servers attached to a LAN is the
large number of small packets they can generate.  Frequently, most of 
these packets are destined for only one or two hosts.  The large number of
small packets causes performance problems not only with the terminal
servers generating the packets, but also with the hosts receiving the
packets.  The receiving hosts must pass all these small packets through
their TCP/IP protocol stacks and send the data to the destination
applications.  A standard solution to this overhead problem would be 
useful to both terminal servers and host nodes.  

One proposed solution to this problem is the CMP protocol.  CMP is defined
in the Internet-Draft document draft-cameron-cmp-00.txt.  CMP is a protocol 
which allows multiple Telnet and Rlogin connections, between a server and a 
host, to share a single TCP connection.  With simple extensions this can 
be expanded to include other TCP protocols.  Other solutions that address 
part of the problem have been proposed.

(An email list has been set up for discussion of the CMP protocol.  To
join the list, send a request to cmp-id-request@xylint.co.uk)

Proposed Agenda for the BOF:

- presentation and discussion of the problem, including typical
    hardware and system conditions

- presentation and discussion of CMP

- discussion of performance and dynamics implications

- discussion of other proposals 

- discussion of architecture issues and solution requirements

- determine level of interest and whether to form a working group