Re: capacity v bandwidth

Jack Haverty via Internet-history <[email protected]> Tue, 2 Jun 2026 10:30:48 -0700
Newsgroups	gmane.culture.internet.history
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Not quite what I remember.

The ICCB was the Internet Configuration Control Board.  Bob Kahn called 
it "Vint's Cabinet".   The name was chosen explicitly to make it sound 
bureaucratic and boring.   Otherwise everyone would have wanted to be on 
it, and a big problem at the time (late 1970s) was the size of the 
various "internet meetings".  Dave Clark was a member of the ICCB, but 
Vint was clearly the Chair.  I don't recall a single meeting not run by 
Vint.

The ICB was the International Collaboration Board (or something like 
that).  There was overlap (e.g., Vint) in the ICB and ICCB memberships.  
The ICCB focussed on planning and execution of the steps needed to 
target a "January 1983" Internet capable of handling "heavy load".   The 
ICB focussed on issues specific to trans-national connectivity, e.g., 
between the US and Europe, and had members such as John Laws (RSRE), 
Horst Klaussen (DFVLR), Peter Kirstein (UCL), and Paal Spilling (NDRE).  
May have been others too.  Someone from CNUCE (Italy) was probably 
involved but I never met him or her.

The earliest ICCB meeting I can find so far in my notes was on September 
21, 1981.  I think it may have been the first meeting of the ICCB, based 
on what's in the notes I took.  I recall at some point around then 
getting an email from Vint asking if I could come a day early to the 
next Internet Meeting, which turned out to be the first meeting of the 
new ICCB.  I'm not sure, but think it was that September 1981 meeting.  
  My notes don't have an attendee list, but IIRC the ICCB meetings 
included Jim Mathis, Dave Clark, Jon Postel, Dave Mills, Bob Braden, Ed 
Cain, Ray McFarland, myself (Jack Haverty), and of course Vint.

Meetings of the ICCB were usually held the day before a scheduled 
Internet Meeting.  We were typically considering what had to happen 
near-term for a January 1983 target of an Internet capable of handling 
"heavy load", as well as long-term issues that needed more research.  
The 1983 target was clearly associated with the intent to replace NCP on 
the ARPANET with TCP, and the adoption of TCP as a DoD Standard.

It was less than two years away -- not a lot of time to get everything 
in place.   There was a clear conflict between "Research" and 
"Operations".  Research seeks to study and try new ideas; Operations 
seeks to get something in place and working as a service.  The Internet 
needed to do both.

After an ICCB meeting we all returned to our regular activities and did 
whatever we could to get the near-term actions to happen and the 
long-term issues to get as much attention as possible.  The 
prioritization helped also for Vint to control the Internet Meeting 
which immediately followed.   "Herding Cats" comes to mind....

I was on the ICCB until Vint's departure from ARPA and Barry Leiner 
reorganized the ICCB to become the IAB.   There had been a major 
re-organization at BBN in July 1983 and I was no longer to be involved 
in the "research" contracts.

I can't remember if this list accepts attachments -- so I've put my 
notes from that 1981 ICCB meeting online for History's sake.  The last 
page starts my notes for the Internet Meeting of 9/22, but JonP's 
minutes are much better.

Here's a link for anyone who's interested:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sxKhB-11jkVaVNCPVGwit3PTQDdta-Qr/view?usp=sharing

/Jack Haverty

On 6/2/26 08:53, D Waitzman via Internet-history wrote:
> Regarding the history subtopic:
>
> https://www.iab.org/about/history/
> has:
>> The origin of today’s IAB lies in the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB), which was created in 1979 by Vint Cerf, at that time program manager at DARPA, to advise him on technical issues. The ICCB was chaired by David Clark, MIT.
>>
>> In September 1984, after the ICCB meeting held at RSRE in Malvern, UK, the ICCB was disbanded and replaced by the Internet Advisory Board (IAB). This change was initiated by Dave Clark and Barry Leiner, who had taken over management of the Internet research program at DARPA. The IAB consisted of the chairs of the newly-formed research task forces and Jon Postel (ISI), as RFC editor and “protocol czar”. The first set of chairs of the task forces were the members of the ICCB. The IAB was chaired by Dave Clark.
>
> I thought it was called the ICB, not ICCB.  I attended a meeting in The Hague at NATO's STC around 1991.  MAJ (or COL by then?) Pullen was funding us.
>
> Noel Chiappa wrote:
>> There's a reason that, for professional historians, contemporaneous written records are the 'gold standard'. All other sources - especially human memory - are very inferior.
>
> Circa 1989 on a Friday afternoon, Steve Storch asked me to fly to California for a Monday ICB or IETF Host Requirements meeting to take notes.
> Fortunately, BBN had a capable onsite travel agent in our building (10 Moulton) who quickly booked me tickets (pre-web this was a big deal).
> I emailed out the next on Tuesday to Bob Braden, who emailed them out to the team with a subject line like "Shazam!" since the notes usually took longer to be written up and distributed.
> (I was amused by the cost of a note taker for that contract.)
>
> Those certainly meet Noel's gold standard, but I cannot find that email.
>
> --
> David Waitzman
>

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