RFC 1157

RFC 1157
Title	RFC 1157
Year	1990
Author	David L. Curry, Marshall T. Rose
Status	Historic
Category	Standards Track

RFC 1157 is the Internet Engineering Task Force document that specifies the Simple Network Management Protocol used for network management across diverse systems. It defines protocol behavior, message formats, and operational considerations for managing devices from vendors such as IBM, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell. The specification influenced subsequent standards and implementations in environments ranging from enterprise campuses to research networks like ARPANET and service providers such as AT&T.

Background

RFC 1157 emerged from work within the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Networking Working Group to address requirements identified by operators at Stanford University, MIT, Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It codified prior experimental practice exemplified by protocols developed at University of California, Berkeley and by vendors including DEC and Sun Microsystems. The document reflects contemporaneous interoperability efforts alongside other milestones such as RFC 791 and RFC 1123, and sits within the lineage of standards including input from groups like IAB and IETF Applications Area.

Protocol Specification

The protocol defined in RFC 1157 specifies message exchange semantics between managed nodes and managers compatible with devices produced by Cisco Systems, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, and Digital Equipment Corporation. It uses underlying transport services from User Datagram Protocol as defined in RFC 768, and depends on addressing schemes in Internet Protocol per RFC 791. The document enumerates protocol operations for retrieval and update of management information modeled via structures akin to those designed by ISO in the OSI model and influenced by data modeling efforts at Sun Microsystems and X/Open.

Message Formats and Types

RFC 1157 prescribes specific message formats including GetRequest, GetNextRequest, GetResponse, SetRequest, and Trap messages, which interact with Management Information Bases conceptually similar to schemas used by MIB-II and database systems found at institutions such as Oracle Corporation and Sybase. The encoding uses Basic Encoding Rules derived from ASN.1 specifications advocated by ITU-T and ISO, and aligns with syntax decisions influenced by implementations at Digital Equipment Corporation and Sun Microsystems. Message error mapping and PDU handling were tested in demonstration environments at Stanford Research Institute and among vendors including Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard.

Security Considerations

Security approaches in RFC 1157 rely on community-based authentication mechanisms paralleling access control practices at organizations such as CERT Coordination Center and influenced by risk assessments from National Institute of Standards and Technology. The document anticipates environments encountered by institutions such as NASA and DARPA where confidentiality, integrity, and authentication were evolving concerns. Later threats addressed by follow-on work involved contributions from entities like IETF Security Area and research groups at MITRE Corporation and SRI International, prompting extensions and replacements that reference standards from ISO and guidance from NIST.

Implementation and Deployment

Implementations were produced by vendors and research groups including Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, Digital Equipment Corporation, and academic sites such as University of California, Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Deployments spanned enterprise networks operated by Procter & Gamble, telecommunications backbones run by AT&T, and campus networks at Stanford University and MIT. Management systems integrated RFC 1157-compliant agents into network management platforms used by companies like HP Enterprise and consultants from Accenture and Capgemini.

Legacy and Impact

RFC 1157 served as the foundation for subsequent developments including security and protocol revisions adopted by work items in the IETF and implementations influenced by standards such as SNMPv2 and SNMPv3. Its influence is evident in management systems developed by IBM, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems, and in operational practices at research networks like ARPANET successor projects and commercial providers such as Sprint. The evolution toward more secure and extensible frameworks engaged contributors from IETF Security Area, NIST, and vendors collaborating through forums such as IEEE and ISO.

Category:Internet standards