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Internet Engineering Task Force

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Internet Engineering Task Force
AbbreviationIETF[1]
FormationJanuary 14, 1986;38 years ago(1986-01-14)[2]
Type
PurposeCreating voluntary standards to maintain and improve theusabilityandinteroperabilityof theInternet
Parent organization
Internet Society
Websiteietf.org
Internet
Visualization of Internet routing paths
AnOpte Projectvisualization ofrouting pathsthrough a portion of the Internet
General
Governance
Information infrastructure
Services
History
Guides
iconInternet portal
Internet history timeline

Early research and development:

Merging the networks and creating the Internet:

Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet:

Examples of Internet services:

TheInternet Engineering Task Force(IETF) is astandards organizationfor theInternetand is responsible for thetechnical standardsthat make up theInternet protocol suite(TCP/IP).[3]It has no formal membership roster or requirements and all its participants are volunteers. Their work is usually funded by employers or other sponsors.

The IETF was initially supported by thefederal government of the United Statesbut since 1993 has operated under the auspices of theInternet Society,anon-profit organizationwith local chapters around the world.

Organization

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There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone can participate by signing up to a working group mailing list, or registering for an IETF meeting.[4]

The IETF operates in a bottom-up task creation mode, largely driven by working groups.[2]Each working group normally has appointed two co-chairs (occasionally three); a charter that describes its focus; and what it is expected to produce, and when. It is open to all who want to participate and holds discussions on an openmailing list.Working groups hold open sessions at IETF meetings, where the onsite registration fee in 2024 was betweenUS$875 (early registration) and $1200 per person for the week.[5]Significant discounts are available for students and remote participants. As working groups do not make decisions at IETF meetings, with all decisions taken later on the working groupmailing list,meeting attendance is not required for contributors.

Rough consensusis the primary basis for decision making. There are no formal voting procedures. Each working group is intended to complete work on its topic and then disband. In some cases, the working group will instead have its charter updated to take on new tasks as appropriate.[2]

The working groups are grouped into areas by subject matter (see§ Steering group,below). Each area is overseen by an area director (AD), with most areas having two ADs. The ADs are responsible for appointing working group chairs. The area directors, together with the IETF Chair, form theInternet Engineering Steering Group(IESG), which is responsible for the overall operation of the IETF.[citation needed]

Governance structure of the IETF

TheInternet Architecture Board(IAB) oversees the IETF's external relationships.[6]The IAB provides long-range technical direction for Internet development. The IAB also manages theInternet Research Task Force(IRTF), with which the IETF has a number of cross-group relations.[7]

A nominating committee (NomCom) of ten randomly chosen volunteers who participate regularly at meetings, a non-voting chair and 4-5 liaisons, is vested with the power to appoint, reappoint, and remove members of the IESG, IAB, IETF Trust and the IETF LLC.[8]To date, no one has been removed by a NomCom, although several people have resigned their positions, requiring replacements.[9]

In 1993 the IETF changed from an activity supported by the US federal government to an independent, international activity associated with theInternet Society,a US-based501(c)(3) organization.[10]In 2018 the Internet Society created a subsidiary, the IETF Administration LLC, to be the corporate, legal and financial home for the IETF.[11]IETF activities are funded by meeting fees, meeting sponsors and by the Internet Society via its organizational membership and the proceeds of thePublic Interest Registry.[12]

In December 2005, the IETF Trust was established to manage the copyrighted materials produced by the IETF.[13]

Steering group

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The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) chair and area directors. It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF. It receives appeals of the decisions of the working groups, and the IESG makes the decision to progress documents in thestandards track.[14]

The chair of the IESG is the area director of the general area, who also serves as the overall IETF chair. Members of the IESG include the two directors, sometimes three, of each of the following areas:[15]

  • Applications and real-time (art)
  • General (gen)
  • Internet (int)
  • Operations and management (ops)
  • Routing (rtg)
  • Security (sec)
  • Web and Internet transport (wit)

Liaison andex officiomembers include:[citation needed]

Early leadership and administrative history

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The Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures (GADS) Task Force was the precursor to the IETF. Its chairman wasDavid L. Millsof theUniversity of Delaware.[16]

In January 1986, the Internet Activities Board (IAB; now called the Internet Architecture Board) decided to divide GADS into two entities: an Internet Architecture (INARC) Task Force chaired by Mills to pursue research goals, and the IETF to handle nearer-term engineering and technology transfer issues.[16]The first IETF chair was Mike Corrigan, who was then the technical program manager for theDefense Data Network(DDN).[16]Also in 1986, after leaving DARPA, Robert E. Kahn founded theCorporation for National Research Initiatives(CNRI), which began providing administrative support to the IETF.

In 1987, Corrigan was succeeded as IETF chair by Phill Gross.[17]

Effective March 1, 1989, but providing support dating back to late 1988, CNRI and NSF entered into a cooperative agreement, No. NCR-8820945, wherein CNRI agreed to create and provide a "secretariat" for the "overall coordination, management and support of the work of the IAB, its various task forces and, particularly, the IETF".[18]

In 1992, CNRI supported the formation and early funding of the Internet Society, which took on the IETF as a fiscally sponsored project, along with the IAB, the IRTF, and the organization of annual INET meetings. Gross continued to serve as IETF chair throughout this transition. Cerf, Kahn, and Lyman Chapin announced the formation of ISOC as "a professional society to facilitate, support, and promote the evolution and growth of the Internet as a global research communications infrastructure".[19]At the first board meeting of the Internet Society, Cerf, representing CNRI, offered, "In the event a deficit occurs, CNRI has agreed to contribute up to USD$10,2000 to offset it."[20]In 1993, Cerf continued to support the formation of ISOC while working for CNRI,[21]and the role of ISOC in "the official procedures for creating and documenting Internet Standards" was codified in the IETF'sRFC1602.[22]

In 1995, IETF'sRFC2031describes ISOC's role in the IETF as being purely administrative, and ISOC as having "no influence whatsoever on the Internet Standards process, the Internet Standards or their technical content".[23]

In 1998, CNRI established Foretec Seminars, Inc. (Foretec), a for-profit subsidiary to take over providing secretariat services to the IETF.[18]Foretec provided these services until at least 2004.[18]By 2013, Foretec was dissolved.[24]

In 2003, IETF'sRFC3677described IETFs role in appointing three board members to the ISOC's board of directors.[25]

In 2018, ISOC established The IETF Administration LLC, a separate LLC to handle the administration of the IETF.[26]In 2019, the LLC issued a call for proposals to provide secretariat services to the IETF.[27]

Meetings

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The first IETF meeting was attended by 21 US federal government-funded researchers on 16 January 1986. It was a continuation of the work of the earlier GADS Task Force. Representatives from non-governmental entities (such as gateway vendors[28]) were invited to attend starting with the fourth IETF meeting in October 1986. Since that time all IETF meetings have been open to the public.[2]

Initially, the IETF met quarterly, but from 1991, it has been meeting three times a year. The initial meetings were very small, with fewer than 35 people in attendance at each of the first five meetings. The maximum attendance during the first 13 meetings was only 120 attendees. This occurred at the twelfth meeting, held during January 1989. These meetings have grown in both participation and scope a great deal since the early 1990s; it had a maximum attendance of 2810 at the December 2000 IETF held inSan Diego, California.Attendance declined with industry restructuring during the early 2000s, and is currently around 1200.[29][2]

The locations for IETF meetings vary greatly. A list of past and future meeting locations is on the IETF meetings page.[30]The IETF strives to hold its meetings near where most of the IETF volunteers are located. IETF meetings are held three times a year, with one meeting each in Asia, Europe and North America. An occasional exploratory meeting is held outside of those regions in place of one of the other regions.[31]

The IETF also organizeshackathonsduring the IETF meetings. The focus is on implementing code that will improve standards in terms of quality and interoperability.[32]

Operations

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The details of IETF operations have changed considerably as the organization has grown, but the basic mechanism remains publication of proposed specifications, development based on the proposals, review and independent testing by participants, and republication as a revised proposal, a draft proposal, or eventually as an Internet Standard. IETF standards are developed in an open, all-inclusive process in which any interested individual can participate. All IETF documents are freely available over the Internet and can be reproduced at will. Multiple, working, useful, interoperable implementations are the chief requirement before an IETF proposed specification can become a standard.[2]Most specifications are focused on single protocols rather than tightly interlocked systems. This has allowed the protocols to be used in many different systems, and its standards are routinely re-used by bodies which create full-fledged architectures (e.g.3GPPIMS).[citation needed]

Because it relies on volunteers and uses "rough consensus and running code" as its touchstone, results can be slow whenever the number of volunteers is either too small to make progress, or so large as to make consensus difficult, or when volunteers lack the necessary expertise. For protocols likeSMTP,which is used to transport e-mail for a user community in the many hundreds of millions, there is also considerable resistance to any change that is not fullybackward compatible,except forIPv6.Work within the IETF on ways to improve the speed of the standards-making process is ongoing but, because the number of volunteers with opinions on it is very great, consensus on improvements has been slow to develop.[citation needed]

The IETF cooperates with theW3C,ISO/IEC,ITU,and other standards bodies.[10]

Statistics are available that show who the top contributors by RFC publication are.[33]While the IETF only allows for participation by individuals, and not by corporations or governments, sponsorship information is available from these statistics.[citation needed]

Chairs

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The IETF chairperson is selected by the NomCom process for a two-year renewable term.[34]Before 1993, the IETF Chair was selected by the IAB.[35]

A list of the past and current chairs of the IETF:

Topics of interest

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The IETF works on a broad range of networking technologies which provide foundation for the Internet's growth and evolution.[37]

Automated network management

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It aims to improve the efficiency in management of networks as they grow in size and complexity. The IETF is alsostandardizingprotocols for autonomic networking that enables networks to be self managing.[38]

Internet of things

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It is a network of physical objects or things that are embedded with electronics, sensors, software and also enables objects to exchange data with operator, manufacturer and other connected devices. Several IETF working groups are developing protocols that are directly relevant toIoT.[39]

New transport technology

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Its development provides the ability of internet applications to send data over the Internet. There are some well-established transport protocols such as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) which are continuously getting extended and refined to meet the needs of the global Internet.[40]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Jacobsen, O.; Lynch, D. (March 1991).A Glossary of Networking Terms.IETF. p. 7.doi:10.17487/RFC1208.ISSN2070-1721.RFC1208.
  2. ^abcdef"Internet Engineering Task Force"ArchivedDecember 28, 2014, at theWayback Machine,Scott Bradner,Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution,O'Reilly, 1st Edition, January 1999,ISBN1-56592-582-3.Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  3. ^"Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)".RIPE Network Coordination Centre.August 10, 2012.Archivedfrom the original on November 1, 2018.RetrievedAugust 22,2018.
  4. ^"IETF Introduction".IETF.RetrievedJanuary 20,2024.
  5. ^"IETF Registration".IETF.RetrievedJanuary 20,2024.
  6. ^"Charter of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)", RFC 2850, B. Carpenter, May 2000. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  7. ^Board, Charter of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)."RFC Editor".RFC Editor.{{cite web}}:Check|archive-url=value (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^"Nominating Committee"ArchivedAugust 24, 2024, at theWayback Machine,IETF. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  9. ^"RFC 3777 Update for Vacancies".WaterSprings.org.November 1, 2012.
  10. ^ab"IETF and the Internet Society"ArchivedJuly 29, 2014, at theWayback Machine,Vint Cerf, Internet Society, 18 July 1995.
  11. ^"IETF Administration LLC"ArchivedAugust 24, 2024, at theWayback Machine,IETF. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  12. ^"History"ArchivedJuly 26, 2014, at theWayback Machine,Your Public Internet Registry. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  13. ^"IETF Trust",IETF. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  14. ^"About".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on June 24, 2021.RetrievedJune 3,2021.
  15. ^"IETF Areas".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on August 24, 2024.RetrievedAugust 30,2024.
  16. ^abcJohn S. Quarterman (1990).Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide(2 ed.). Digital Press. pp.185–186.ISBN1-55558-033-5.
  17. ^"Phill Gross recognized with the Internet Society's Postel Award".Internet Society.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2021.RetrievedJune 11,2021.
  18. ^abc"IETF: Proposed Organizational Changes".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on September 18, 2021.RetrievedJune 11,2021.
  19. ^Cerf, Vint; Kahn, Bob; Chapin, Lyman (1992)."Announcing the Internet Society".Archivedfrom the original on July 29, 2020.RetrievedDecember 15,2019.
  20. ^"Board Meeting No. 1 – Minutes | Internet Society".Internetsociety.org.Archivedfrom the original on February 4, 2017.RetrievedFebruary 4,2017.
  21. ^dave."Footnotes to History".netpolicynews.Archivedfrom the original on February 4, 2017.RetrievedFebruary 4,2017.
  22. ^Internet Engineering Steering Group; Internet Architecture Board (March 1994)."The Internet Standards Process — Revision 2".tools.ietf.org.doi:10.17487/RFC1602.Archivedfrom the original on October 18, 2020.RetrievedOctober 4,2020.
  23. ^Huizer, Erik (October 1996)."RFC 2031 – IETF-ISOC relationship".IETF Datatracker.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2021.RetrievedJune 12,2021.
  24. ^"FORETEC SEMINARS INC.:: Virginia (US)".OpenCorporates.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2021.RetrievedJune 12,2021.
  25. ^Daigle, Leslie (December 2003)."RFC 3677 – IETF ISOC Board of Trustee Appointment Procedures".IETF Datatracker.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2021.RetrievedJune 12,2021.
  26. ^"Limited Liability Company Agreement of IETF Administration LLC"(PDF).IETF.Archived(PDF)from the original on June 29, 2021.RetrievedAugust 14,2020.
  27. ^"The IETF Administration LLC: On behalf of The Internet Engineering Task Force"(PDF).IETF.June 24, 2019.Archived(PDF)from the original on June 29, 2021.RetrievedMarch 1,2022.
  28. ^John S. Quarterman (1990).google: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide(2 ed.). Digital Press. pp. 185–186.ISBN9781555580339.
  29. ^"Past Meetings".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on August 25, 2014.RetrievedJuly 21,2014.
  30. ^"IETF Meetings".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on January 15, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 17,2012.
  31. ^S. Krishnan (February 2020).High-Level Guidance for the Meeting Policy of the IETF.IETF.doi:10.17487/RFC8719.RFC8719.RetrievedAugust 24,2024.
  32. ^"IETF Hackathon".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on September 5, 2015.RetrievedOctober 23,2017.
  33. ^"IETF document statistics (all documents)"ArchivedJuly 6, 2013, at theWayback Machine,Jari Arkko. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  34. ^"IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees", RFC 3777, J. Galvin (Ed.), June 2004. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  35. ^"Past IESG Members and IETF Chairs".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on July 26, 2014.RetrievedJuly 21,2014.
  36. ^"IETF Profile: Alissa Cooper".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on March 21, 2019.RetrievedMay 30,2017.
  37. ^"Topics of interest".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on September 17, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 16,2018.
  38. ^"Automated network management".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on January 13, 2018.RetrievedJanuary 16,2018.
  39. ^"The Internet of Things".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2021.RetrievedJanuary 16,2018.
  40. ^"New transport technology".IETF.Archivedfrom the original on December 31, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 16,2018.
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