(Corrections, notes, and links for Usenet RKT.)
by Mib Software, INN customization and consulting
This section describes the overall scheme of USENET and the algorithm followed by hosts in propagating news to the entire logical network. Since all hosts are affected by incorrectly formatted messages and by propagation errors, it is important for the method to be standardized.
USENET is a directed graph. Each node in the graph is a host computer, and each arc in the graph is a transmission path from one host to another host. Each arc is labeled with a newsgroup pattern, specifying which newsgroup classes are forwarded along that link. Most arcs are bidirectional, that is, if host A sends a class of newsgroups to host B, then host B usually sends the same class of newsgroups to host A. This bidirectionality is not, however, required.
USENET is made up of many subnetworks. Each subnet has a name, such as comp or btl. Each subnet is a connected graph, that is, a path exists from every node to every other node in the subnet. In addition, the entire graph is (theoretically) connected. (In practice, some political considerations have caused some hosts to be unable to post messages reaching the rest of the network.)
A message is posted on one machine to a list of newsgroups. That machine accepts it locally, then forwards it to all its neighbors that are interested in at least one of the newsgroups of the message. (Site A deems host B to be "interested" in a newsgroup if the newsgroup matches the pattern on the arc from A to B. This pattern is stored in a file on the A machine.) The hosts receiving the incoming message examine it to make sure they really want the message, accept it locally, and then in turn forward the message to all their interested neighbors. This process continues until the entire network has seen the message.
An important part of the algorithm is the prevention of loops. The above process would cause a message to loop along a cycle forever. In particular, when host A sends a message to host B, host B will send it back to host A, which will send it to host B, and so on. One solution to this is the history mechanism. Each host keeps track of all messages it has seen (by their Message-ID) and whenever a message comes in that it has already seen, the incoming message is discarded immediately. This solution is sufficient to prevent loops, but additional optimizations can be made to avoid sending messages to hosts that will simply throw them away.
One optimization is that a message should never be sent to a machine listed in the Path line of the header. When a machine name is in the Path line, the message is known to have passed through the machine. Another optimization is that, if the message originated on host A, then host A has already seen the message. Thus, if a message is posted to newsgroup misc.misc, it will match the pattern misc.all (where all is a metasymbol that matches any string), and will be forwarded to all hosts that subscribe to misc.all (as determined by what their neighbors send them). These hosts make up the misc subnetwork. A message posted to btl.general will reach all hosts receiving btl.all, but will not reach hosts that do not get btl.all. In effect, the messages reaches the btl subnetwork. A messages posted to newsgroups misc.misc,btl.general will reach all hosts subscribing to either of the two classes.
RFC1036: [Source:"RFC-1036"] [Last Changed:December 1987] [Copyright: 1987 M. Horton, R. Adams]
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