Appletalk Standards at UIC

As part of an effort to standardize Appletalk LANs, the following set of standards for Appletalk should be followed.

• AppleTalk Network Number Assignments
• AppleTalk Zone Names

Each AppleTalk 16-bit network number will be bitmapped as follows.

1. Bits 0-2 will be used as campus identifier.

This gives the following overall ranges for each site: (8192 nets each excluding ranges which contain nets reserved by AppleTalk).

2. Bit 3 will be reserved for future use and/or expansion of networks. Must be set to 0 (zero) by convention.

3. Bit 4 will be used to distinguish between the set of class B addresses assigned at each site, and can be specified as seen fit by each site. For example, UIC's class B address domains are 128.248.x.x and 131.193.x.x. We will use '0' for the 128.248.x.x domain and '1' for 131.193.x.x domain.

4. Bits 5-15 can be assigned by each campus as it sees fit. UIC will assign the bits in the following way.

Bits 5-12 will be used for the third octet of the IP subnet routing AppleTalk to the ADN-ii at large.

Bits 13-15 will be used to assign up to eight individual AppleTalk networks for use within a particular subnet. Depending on the subnet, we will use either '000'-'000' or '000'-'001' for the start/end of the extended network range.

Other networks will be used as LocalTalk/non-extended network numbers (routed locally), and will be assigned in conjunction with network administration. Network numbers belonging to IP subnets which cannot exist (128.248.0.0, etc.) are reserved for use by the Academic Computing and Communications Center.

For example: A machine at UIC with an IP address of 128.248.5.105 would find itself on the following AppleTalk network:

Bit 0-2: the machine is at UIC: 010

Bit 3: not used: 0

Bit 4:The machine is on the 128.248.0.0 network: 0

Bit 5-12: The machine is on the 128.248.5.0 subnet: 5 = 00000101 (binary)

Bit 13-15: Let's say the subnet contains only one AppleTalk network: 000

Putting all the bits together, we get: 010 0 0 00000101 000 = 16424

 Each zone name should have the following form:

with:

1. Organization representing an organization's acronym or abbreviation (not to exceed eight characters) and to be determined by the organization (for example, "UIC", "UIS", "UIUC", "Admin" (for, as an example, cross-campus administrative nets).
2. A non-optional space.
3. Department representing an approved department name (not to exceed sixteen characters). For example, "Computer Ctr", "Library", "History", "SCAILAB", etc. The department name is to be determined by the department owning the "third octet" subnet in which the zone lives (be it a simple wire, an AppleTalk internet router connected to a set of LocalTalk networks, or a Novell server). All zones owned by a particular department must agree even if the department owns more than one "third octet" subnet (for example, 128.248.5.x and 128.248.172.x own different sets of zones, but each zone set should contain the Computer Center's approved department string) -- this rule is to be broken only when an alternative can be shown to possess substantial clarity when compared to that which the rule prescribes.
4. A non-optional space (if an optional "subset" or "service" is specified).
5. An optional Subset or Service. A Subset provides for AppleTalk Internet routers, such as some departments own. When a "third octet" subnet contains an AppleTalk Internet router, there has to be some way of logically splitting zone names to handle multiple network ranges. Also, departments (such as the ACCC) which own many subnets need some way of creating different zone names, which need to be distinct, while making it obvious that all zones are owned by the same department. A Service implies something along the lines of a Novell file server (or another device which is, physically, one unit) but which acts as an AppleTalk Internet router and which advertises itself as a "virtual" AppleTalk network.

The total zone string must not exceed thirty-two characters

Such a scheme produces zones which have the following appearances:

UIC Computer Ctr CSO
UIC Computer Ctr GRC
UIC Computer Ctr SEL
UIC Computer Ctr FDDI
UIC Computer Ctr Server Services
UIC Computer Ctr Lab Services 2
UIC Computer Ctr Lab Services 4
UIC Computer Ctr Lab Services 6
UIC Computer Ctr SEL2263 Lab
UIC Library (Main)
UIC Library (Health Sciences)
UIC Library (Science Library)
UIC SCAILAB Lab Services
UIC Art and Arch

etc. Zone names are case-sensitive in AppleTalk; therefore, great care should be taken with regard to the choice of zone name.