Network Services Confirences NSC'92, November 3 - 5 1992 PISA (Italy)

D. Pimienta - Union Latine, [email protected] D. Dupuy d'Angeac - GSS, [email protected]

1 - ABSTRACT

MULBRI is a software prototype, from Union Latina, to provide a state of the art, PC based, multilingual, network transparent interface to research networks. There is currently two working versions with very similar "a la windows" user interfaces:

1. A version for BITNET based on VM and using SIMPC for communication is internally used by Union Latina, since 1989, as a groupware to link various international branches. This version has been used as support for the REDALC project management.

2. A version for UUCP, using UUPC/Extended, have been set up in

The MULBRI experience have shown the possibility to make easier the use of research networks and to open it to clerical usage. MULBRI makes networking a task similar to other computer assisted activities (spreadsheet, text processing, data base...), thus hiding the network complexity and allowing message processing in the PC environment.

Users directly collected requirements has been keys in the MULBRI transformation process. The product has evolved progressively from a prehistoric form toward a pre-industrial one, crossing the steps of prototype and operational prototype. The environment where MULBRI was designed (REDALC: an international project for research networks in Latin America requiring a lot of travelling and dispersed team management) makes it very open to groupware requirements.

MULBRI is an open development conducted with the support of International Agencies, and is targeting to fulfil the same type of need than have been addressed by the UNESCO data base system ISIS: a free of charge standard to be offered for the Scientific and Technical information users. There is willingness to follow on the developments toward an industrial, up to an advanced product, in various directions:

• Environments (linguistic, host, terminal, terminal attachment, network architecture),
  
• Functions (network, office automation, groupware, connectivity, expertise),
  
• Product management (installation, customising, ease of use, maintenance).

2 - OBJECTIVES

1. From an intelligent terminal (with versatile commonly used environments).
   
2. Easy to use by different people/skills.
3. Comparable to other modern office computer services.
4. Open to the requirements of dispersed working group, home working, and travelling users.
   
5. With a reduced use of telecommunication resources.
6. Independant of the type of network (BITNET, UUCP, Internet).

• Main frame or mini for data base, transaction management, or applications requiring lengthy calculation,
• PCs as user station to mainframe and autonomous processing.

Why should the research network stay aside from that move? Why should not the researchers use the same interface for e-mail and the other computing tasks?
The need for research network access from PC's is already important and the trend is for a steadily growth.

MULBRI first objective is to bring the access to networks from the most commonly used personal computers and operating systems.

2.2 - Ease of use

There is no reason why research networks would not make use of this progress. This evolution will liberate the emergence of new requirements which were constrained by the difficulty to learn traditional network interfaces: the opening of the research networks to the complete academic and research working environment. Clerical employees (secretaries or administrative) are starting to use research networks, first, on behalf the researcher, and more and more, for activities linked to the laboratory management. These new network users will triggered new functional requirements such as document delivery or meeting schedulers.

MULBRI second objective is to remove the barriers which prevent or limit the use of research networks, by making the access appear to users no different than other modern software packages, and by solving the connectivity problems.

2.3 - State of the art PC Software

>From the user point of view, sending or receiving e-mail is just another computer assisted activity. Why should processing e-mail be done a different way than writing a budget in a spreadsheet, or typing a report in a text processor? Why are not the exchanged messages kept retrievable and manageable directly on the PC?

MULBRI aims to make network access benefits from the 80's software revolution and be open to further progress.

2.4 - Groupware orientation

• Team work.
• Teams collaboration.
• Researcher travelling.
• Home work.

2.5 - Reduced Telecommunication usage

MULBRI objective is to minimise the use of telecommunication, directly by reducing the connection time for mail exchanges, and indirectly, by archiving the mails within the PC.

2.6 - Network independance

3 - BACKGROUND

MULBRI initial objectives were to address the followin points:

• Answers the communication requirements of the REDALC team. The REDALC project director depends on communication to manage his team of 25 people spread over the world while travelling in the numerous field missions. These conditions, together with budget constraints, make international telephone calls or fax not appropriate. E-mail, budget and organisation wise, is the best solution. However user interface had to be adapted to the specific environment.

• Satisfies the internal communication requirements within Union Latina. Union Latina have several branches spread over the world, a strong budget limitation and uses PC/Dos as the regular working environment. E-mail was identified as the right tool for communication. It has been considered less expensive to invest in a PC/Dos Interface development rather than to setup a world wide education plan to teach existing network interfaces.

• Addresses the Latin American research network user Interface requirements which is a key element of the REDALC strategy. Prehistoric MULBRI Union Latina decided, in 1988, to open mailboxes in the EARN node of CNUSC (Montpellier, France) for the REDALC team members. The node was reached through international data carriers from Latin countries lacking national networks. Rapidly, it appeared impracticable to teach the VM/CMS host environment to people averagely skilled in PC/DOS. Anyway, an interactive mode of operation would have been, budget wise, unacceptable due to international data carriers cost. So it was decided to conceive, in June 1989, a simple PC/DOS interface to hide the native interface. This was based on the SIMPC program (a 3270 emulation package over asynchronous communication from Simware Inc). The original version consisted in SIMPC procedures and ".bat" command files. Everything was hooked together with a simple key management system. A design was implement in the PC, based on directory partitioning for sending, receiving and archiving the messages (which were organised following specific format rules). This first version we call "prehistoric MULBRI". The prehistoric version allowed more people to get in the e-mail system and opened the requirement for extension to other Union Latina research departments. However, the system which was only experimental, was not satisfactory in term of interfaces and had the terrible limitation of using as freeware some proprietary software. Furthermore, the required improvements implied software development in the host side, a skill not available in Union Latina.

Prototype MULBRI

The new users and the managing of a listserv by the REDALC team drove new requirements. Most of them were in term of usability and off-line message management (import/export, archives retrieval, etc.). Also, the difficult telecommunication conditions in some Latin American countries called for improvements in the control of flow management. All that leaded to the next phase.

Operational Prototype MULBRI

The operational prototype version was informally presented at INET91 in Copenhagen. In July 1991, as part of the REDALC workshop, held in Santo Domingo, two MULBRI groups were set up. The first one was user oriented, with a mix of people from naive to experimented MULBRI users, and the second one reserved for designers and network specialists. This effort generated a considerable mass of inputs for the MULBRI process and the product started to be considered as a possible candidate for a Latin America standard, within the frame of the REDALC project. Several directions for product improvements were identified, and it was decided to start investigations on the possibility to derive an UUCP version capitalising, as much as possible, on previous developments while maintening a unique user interface.

By the end of 1991, the user base (internal to Union Latina) increased to 20 peoples. The average daily flow reached 15 messages (3 of them being documents in PC text processing or spreadsheets). The concept of MULBRI operator (serving several users) was formalised. The operational prototype reached its last release (version 3.12), incorporating a great deal of the workshop requirements. The consultant offered the second qualitative jump in term of interfaces (mouse support, windowing facilities, contextual help). This product level was satisfactory for Union Latina internal messaging requirements and could concentrate on becoming more industrial (installation, upgrade, customising, etc.). The new functional developments would be, from then, REDALC project oriented. This is why Union Latina asked the designer for the creation of a UUCP version to be ready for the launching of the national research network of Dominican Republic (a REDALC team activity).

Pre-Industrial MULBRI

Our strategy is now to look after funds to pursue the development toward a real industrial freeware. MULBRI future is widely open and will depend on the capability of Union Latina to obtain funding.

4 - MULBRI FUNCTIONALITIES

4.2 - FUNCTIONS

• Automatic node connection, send and/or receive mails. The VM version has the ability to take back a report of current waiting mails and to manage dynamically the flow from this report.

• Extended edition capability for multiple concurrent messages while reviewing incoming mails.
• Alias/Nick names, distribution lists management.
• Easy Messages management (Sent, received, archived)
• Multiple sort capability.
• Compaction, Encryption capability.
• Automatic Naming and sequential numbering
• Environment management (import/export to other tools, DOS functions access).
  
• Document/Binary support through mail.

• The Core Control Engine
• The Set of Functional Procedures
• The External Products Specifics

• Screen interactions
• Screens/Menus Definition
• Actions on Events
• File Browser/Editor
• Operating System interface
• Files/Directories Management
• External Programs/Commands execution
• Swap Out mechanism to free System resources when invoking external products

• Screens, Pop-Up Menus contents and appearance
• Actions to be executed or menus to be invoked on events
• Messages building and management
• Generic Communication Product Interface
• File Management Functions Interface

Among the various categories of these Script files, we can mention:

• Scenarios, Modems configuration files, etc. (for the communication Packages)
• Host co-operative procedures (terminal emulation mode)
• File Facilities (compression, encryption, etc.)

MULBRI/UUCP represents less than 200 Locs for configuration tables in the PC.

6 - PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

6.2 - Installation

6.3 - Customisation

• Station/User Identification
• Communication Parameters
• Language

6.5 - Test procedures

6.6 - Documentation

7 - CURRENT STATUS

• MULBRI/VM: Host/Terminal environment

This version is essentially used by Union Latina branches in Europe connected to EARN nodes. This represents a population of about 25 users.

• MULBRI/UUCP: Peer-To-Peer environment Based on UUPC/Extended as communication package.
  

• Dominican Network users (about 100 users by year end)
• Union Latin agencies in Latin America and Caraobes (10 users)

8.1 - USER FUNCTIONS

1. The network functions, those related to the use of e-mail, conferencing, accessing data base or remote computers.

2. The office functions, which improve the user productivity in the office environment.
   Here we first find most of the activities which can be performed off- line from the network, like mail consulting and preparation, mail archiving and retrieval, mail access scheduling.

3. The working group functions which are supposed to facilitate team working beyond the Office environment (include home working and travelling users support).
   This is a relatively new domain deserving special attention to meet the evolution of working habits.

4. Experts functions supposed to provide the user with a jump in functionnality of all the previous one. For example, expertise is required for connectivity:

• At the physical level (how to get connected in a new country?)
• At the logical level (how to reach a colleague?),
• At the information level (how to obtain a piece of information?).

1. Mail Station Environment (PC/DOS, PC/Windows, PC/OS2, PC/UNIX, Mac Intosh, etc.).
   
2. Host Environments(UNIX, VM, VMS, MVS, Etc.)
3. Communication architecture environment (RJE/RSCS, UUCP, TCP-IP, etc.) and the various application layer options (X400/FTAM/X500, SMTP/FTP/TELNET).
   
4. Mail Station to Host Relationship

This classification only addresses development environment. Adapting this classification to a complete Achitectural view is a more complex task yet to be done.

8.3 - PRODUCT ENVIRONMENT

• Test procedures.
• Installation/upgrade.
• Customisation/tailorisation.
• User interfaces.
• National character support.
• Maintenance/update.
• On-line help.
• Documentation.
• Hardware requirements.
• Usage Statistics.

It is worth notice than Union Latina received a 1000 US$ seeding fund from EARN France.

The product making extensive use of the disk, it is recommended to use a disk cache.