The Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) was a specification that profiled open networking products for procurement by governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Timeline
* 1988 - GOSIP: Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile published by
CCTA, an agency of UK government
* 1988 - UK's CCTA commences work with France and West Germany on European Procurement Handbook (EPHOS)
* 1990 - The US specification requiring
Open Systems Interconnection
The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that 'provides a common basis for the coordination of SOstandards development for the purpose of systems interconnection'. In the OSI reference model, the communications ...
(OSI) protocols was first published as
Federal Information Processing Standards
The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) of the United States are a set of publicly announced standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military, American ...
document FIPS 146-1. The requirement for US Government vendors to demonstrate their support for this profile led them to join the formal
interoperability
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...
and
conformance testing
Conformance testing — an element of conformity assessment, and also known as compliance testing, or type testing — is testing or other activities that determine whether a process, product, or service complies with the requirements of a specifi ...
for networking products, which had been done by industry professionals at the annual InterOp show since 1980.
* 1990 - Publication of European Procurement Handbook (EPHOS), intended to be a European GOSIP
* 1991 - 4th and final version of UK GOSIP released
* 1993 - Australia and New Zealand GOSIP Version 3 - 1993 Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile
* 1995 - FIPS 146-2 allowed "...other specifications based on open, voluntary standards such as those cited in paragraph 3 ("...such as those developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)... and the International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU–T))"
In practice, from 1995 interest in OSI implementations declined, and worldwide the deployment of standards-based networking services since have been predominantly based on the
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the sui ...
.
However, the
Defense Messaging System continued to be based on the OSI protocols
X.400
X.400 is a suite of ITU-T Recommendations that defines the ITU-T Message Handling System (MHS).
At one time, the designers of X.400 were expecting it to be the predominant form of email, but this role has been taken by the SMTP-based Internet e- ...
and
X.500
X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). ITU-T was formerly kno ...
, due to their integrated security capabilities.
See also
*
OSI model
The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that 'provides a common basis for the coordination of SOstandards development for the purpose of systems interconnection'. In the OSI reference model, the communications ...
*
ISO Development Environment (ISODE)
*
Protocol Wars
A long-running debate in computer science known as the Protocol Wars occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s when engineers, organizations and nations became polarized over the issue of which communication protocol would result in the best and most ...
References
{{Authority control
Computer standards