The department of defense data protocol standardization program

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has, for some years now, been pursuing the objective of implementing a new data communications system responsive to its requirements. In consonance with this goal, it has also been heavily involved in developing data communications protocol standards. It has participated in related research, test, and development of a Transmission Control Protocol and an Internet Protocol and has plans for developing other protocols in layers 4–7 of the OSI model.

This paper is essentially structured into two parts. The first part will provide background information for the DoD protocol standardization program, which describes policy issues, status, and problems inherent in the development of such a program. This background description is then followed by an outline of current DoD planning for future work in this area. The point being made here is that the DoD by virtue of its needs, investigations, and accomplishments to date, is eminently qualified to contribute significantly to the development of data protocol standards. The second part of the paper describes the actual current DoD activities for developing data protocol standards, as well as its efforts to coordinate with NATO, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), and commercial standards groups.