The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS)
RFC 2795
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(April 2000; No errata)
Was draft-christey-imps (individual)
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Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2795 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group S. Christey Request for Comments: 2795 MonkeySeeDoo, Inc. Category: Informational 1 April 2000 The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS) Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. Abstract This memo describes a protocol suite which supports an infinite number of monkeys that sit at an infinite number of typewriters in order to determine when they have either produced the entire works of William Shakespeare or a good television show. The suite includes communications and control protocols for monkeys and the organizations that interact with them. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Objects In The Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. IMPS Packet Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Infinite Threshold Accounting Gadget (I-TAG) Encoding . . 5 5. KEEPER Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5.1 KEEPER Message Request Codes (ZOO-to-SIMIAN) . . . . . . 7 5.2 KEEPER Message Response Codes (SIMIAN-to-ZOO) . . . . . 8 5.3 Requirements for KEEPER Request and Response Codes . . . 8 5.4 Example ZOO-to-SIMIAN Exchanges using KEEPER . . . . . . 9 6. CHIMP Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6.1 SIMIAN Client Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6.2 ZOO Server Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6.3 Example SIMIAN-to-ZOO Session using CHIMP . . . . . . . 11 7. IAMB-PENT SPECIFICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7.1 ZOO Client Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7.2 BARD Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7.3 Example ZOO-to-BARD Session using IAMB-PENT . . . . . . 13 8. PAN Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 8.1 ZOO Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 8.2 CRITIC Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Christey Informational [Page 1] RFC 2795 The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS) 1 April 2000 8.3 Table of CRITIC Reject Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 8.4 Example ZOO-to-CRITIC Session using PAN . . . . . . . . 16 9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 12. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 13. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 1. Introduction It has been posited that if an infinite number of monkeys sit at an infinite number of typewriters and randomly press keys, they will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare [1] [2]. But if such a feat is accomplished, how would anybody be able to know? And what if the monkey has flawlessly translated Shakespeare's works into Esperanto? How could one build a system that obtains these works while addressing the basic needs of monkeys, such as sleep and food? Nobody has addressed the practical implications of these important questions [3]. In addition, it would be a waste of resources if such a sizable effort only focused on Shakespeare. With an infinite number of monkeys at work, it is also equally likely that a monkey could produce a document that describes how to end world poverty, cure disease, or most importantly, write a good situation comedy for television [4]. Such an environment would be ripe for innovation and, with the proper technical design, could be effectively utilized to "make the world a whole lot brighter" [5]. The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS) is an experimental set of protocols that specifies how monkey transcripts may be collected, transferred, and reviewed for either historical accuracy (in the case of Shakespearean works) or innovation (in the case of new works). It also provides a basic communications framework for performing normal monkey maintenance. 2. Objects in the Suite There are four primary entities that communicate within an IMPS network. Groups of monkeys are physically located in Zone Operations Organizations (ZOOs). The ZOOs maintain the monkeys and their equipment, obtain transcripts from the monkeys' typewriters, and interact with other entities who evaluate the transcripts. A SIMIAN (Semi-Integrated, Monkey-Interfacing Anthropomorphic Node) is a device that is physically attached to the monkey. It provides the communications interface between a monkey and its ZOO. It isShow full document text