In message <20000807070512.8947.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net>, Sean Donelan writes:

I didn't get to the IETF this time, but apparently the US and Japanese governments asked the IETF to work on an Internet disaster plan. ... I not really sure I understand what the technical problem is. It seems to be mostly and administrative issue how to use the existing tools.

The key document is ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-folts-ohno-ieps-considerations-00.txt And the likely answer is you don't want to go there. Short summary (I had to review this document). ITU has some standards (IEPS from ITU-T E.106) for priority access to communications networks (i.e., whose phone call gets through and whose gets blocked) during emergency situations. The IEPS proposal, as presented, suggests that we should impose the telephony requirements on the Internet (because of IP telephony) and should further rework all key TCP/IP protocols to handle IEPS prioritization (to ensure authorities near guaranteed access to web sites, DNS, in the face of a disaster which may reduce communications bandwidth, etc). Vast number of problems trying to contemplate supporting IEPS over the Internet. More important, from my perspective, is that the folks who are asking for IEPS support are going at it the wrong way. They're working from the "throw a switch to say there's an emergency and everyone starts looking at a priority bit" approach, which requires changing ALL relevant Internet protocols and also arranging for uniform treatment across all the thousand-odd ISPs. That approach is almost certainly infeasible. A better approach would be to take what we have now and ask, how do you provide some higher assurance without redoing all the protocol standards? Craig Partridge Chief Scientist, BBN Technologies Member, IETF Transport Directorate