This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
Packet White Papers
THIS DOCUMENT IS UNFINISHED - PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER
Packet White Papers (PWPs) are a Packet Radio version of the Internet RFC (Request For Comment) series.
They are mainly intended for sharing ideas and information between persons interested in Packet Radio development, and for stimulating discussion and development.
PWPs are also a canonical record of prior art and Packet Radio history.
Motivation
- Collation and sharing of ideas and knowledge
- Requests for Comment
- Stimulation of development
- Historical record of prior art
Origin of PWPs
In the early days of Amateur Packet Radio there wasn't much information sharing, because there was no global network to facilitate it. There may have been some ad-hoc sharing of ideas on academic networks and telephone bulletin boards, but most development was independent.
De-facto “standards” were created by Packet software such as KA9Q, WA7MBL, W0RLI, G8BPQ, G8PZT, G1NNA, F6FBB, SV1AGW etc., but hardly ever written down, let alone shared. There was no “open source” back then. Developers observed and mimicked the actions of each others' products, as best they could.
In many ways, this was healthy. It encouraged developers to THINK, instead of robotically copying each others' code. But there was a great danger that incompatible standards would arise. And it slowed the pace of development because it took a long time for each idea to catch on.
By the early 1990s, a global Packet network existed. Some useful text documents began to circulate on Packet, although the major developers still held on to their secrets. Crumbs of information were grabbed by sysops and placed in BBS file areas. But there was no agreed naming convention. Each sysop named the file as best they could within the constraints of DOS “8.3” file names. Thus, although information was available, it was hard to find.
At one of the UK Packet Sysop or IP meetings, someone suggested assigning numbers to the files, to create a Packet version of the internet RFC's. The acronym RFF (Request For Flamage) was suggested. A few RFF documents were published, but the idea never caught on.
Meanwhile, Paula G8PZT was building a library of Packet documents on her BBS, and chose to name the files numerically, with an index for quick reference. Each new file that wasn't a duplicate was assigned a serial number, and added to the index. Thus at that stage they were ordered roughly by date of reception, rather than by date of creation. In order to distinguish them from RFC's and other BBS files etc, they were given the prefix PWP - Packet White Paper.
Why Not Simply Use RFCs?
Conventional RFC's are concerned with Internet development, not Packet Radio. It is doubtful whether any RFC submitted by a radio amateur would be accepted. Plus there is too much “noise” - it would be hard to find Packet documents among the mountain of Internet-related ones.
Having our own system for Packet documents allows us more freedom, much like the early days of RFC's.
Where Are PWPs Stored?
So far, they have been randomly stored on assorted floppy disks, hard drives, pen drives, scraps of paper etc.
The plan is to retrieve as many as possible and store them on this wiki.