ESCC Charter

The Energy Sciences Net (ESnet) Steering Committee (ESSC) charters the ESnet Site Coordinating Committee (ESCC) to serve within the ESnet community to:

advance the planning, development and implementation of the needed networking and collaborative infrastructure to support ESnet Community programatic goals;
advise the ESnet Steering Committee on the broad range of technical issues related to ESnet Community scientific computer networks and collaboratories,
serve as a forum for
- information interchange on ESnet activities and plans and site needs and plans,
- interaction with the ESnet manager and staff,
- consideration of technical networking and collaboratory issues connected to ESnet for which coordinated multiple-site involvement is necessary or advantageous,
- interacting with ESnet Community program-specific networking and collaboratory activities that use or would like to use ESnet facilities,
provide a body to supply complementary network and collaboratory infrastructure management to the ESnet manager and staff,
and form collaborations to
- improve quality,
- broaden utility,
- make available unique or expensive DOE facilities, experiments, and instruments remotely over the network, and
- foster the reduction and equitable sharing of costs where possible.

The ESCC will create working groups and task forces as required to fulfill its mission.

A working group will exist for an extended period of time to address issues within a general category. The membership of working groups is subject to approval by ESCC. Working groups in conjunction with the ESCC Chair choose their chair, subject to approval by ESCC.
Task forces may have a more flexible structure depending on the issue, but in any case the leadership and membership is subject to the approval of ESCC.

Current (January 1997) Working Groups and Task Forces include:

Applications (AWG)
Distributed System Management (DSMWG)
- Authentication (ATF)
- DCE/DFS/AFS (DCEWG)
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKIWG)
E-mail (EMTF)
ESnet Networking (ENWG)
- IPng (IPNGWG)
- Network Monitoring (NMTF)
Remote Conferencing (RCWG)

The chair of ESCC is appointed by MICS from within the committee, with the advice and consent of both the ESSC and ESCC.

As the ESCC is a forum for discussion and consensus, ESCC membership consists of the members of all of the working groups and task forces plus other interested members of the ESnet Community. Membership in working groups and task forces is based as follows:

Working group and task force membership in general is based on active participation.
- In some cases such as the ENWG, a working group may choose that there must be one official member from each site to be appointed by the associate director responsible for that activity for the site.
- Working groups may also choose that there must be an offically named site contact to be appointed by the appropriate management level at the site.
  - An example is the RCWG which in conjunction with ESnet Management has chosen that each participating site in the ESnet video collaboratory activity must have a named contact.
    - These site contacts may or may not be ESCC members.

The ESCC shall form effective relationships with elements in the networking and collboratory communities beneficial to the ESnet Community. Examples include

Energy Research Supercomputer Users Group (ERSUG)
Other DOE Neworking and Collaboratory Groups
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Global Internet Community
Commercial Enterprises