One document matched: draft-lear-ietf-rfc2026bis-00.txt
Network Working Group S. Bradner
Internet-Draft Harvard University
Obsoletes: 2026,3932 (if approved) E. Lear
Expires: March 17, 2007 Cisco Systems GmbH
September 13, 2006
The Internet Standards Process -- Version 4
draft-lear-ietf-rfc2026bis-00.txt
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
This memo documents the process used by the Internet community for
the standardization of protocols and procedures. It defines the
stages in the standardization process, the requirements for moving a
document between stages and the types of documents used during this
process.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1. Internet Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2. The Internet Standards Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3. Organization of This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. INTERNET STANDARDS-RELATED PUBLICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1. Requests for Comments (RFCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2. Internet-Drafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. INTERNET STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1. Technical Specification (TS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2. Applicability Statement (AS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3. Requirement Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4. THE INTERNET STANDARDS TRACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.1. Standards Track Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2. Level One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3. Level 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.4. Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.5. Experimental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.6. Informational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.7. Procedures for Experimental and Informational RFCs . . . . 17
4.8. Historic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5. BEST CURRENT PRACTICE (BCP) RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.1. BCP Review Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6. THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.1. Standards Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.1.1. Initiation of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.1.2. IESG Review and Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.1.3. Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.2. Advancing in the Standards Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.3. Revising a Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.4. Retiring a Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.5. Conflict Resolution and Appeals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.5.1. Working Group Disputes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.5.2. Process Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.5.3. Questions of Applicable Procedure . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.5.4. Appeals Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7. EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.1. Use of External Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.1.1. Incorporation of an Open Standard . . . . . . . . . . 28
7.1.2. Incorporation of Other Specifications . . . . . . . . 29
7.1.3. Assumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8. NOTICES AND RECORD KEEPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
9. VARYING THE PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
9.1. The Variance Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
9.2. Exclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
10. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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12. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
14.2. Informational References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Appendix A. Changes from Previous Versions . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Appendix B. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Appendix C. GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 43
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"We reject kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in
rough consensus and running code."
--Professor Dave Clark
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1. Introduction
This memo documents the process currently used by the Internet
community for the standardization of protocols and procedures. The
Internet Standards process is an activity of the Internet Society
that is organized and managed on behalf of the Internet community by
the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG).
1.1. Internet Standards
The Internet, a loosely-organized international collaboration of
autonomous, interconnected networks, supports host-to-host
communication through voluntary adherence to open protocols and
procedures defined by Internet Standards. There are also many
isolated interconnected networks, which are not connected to the
global Internet but use the Internet Standards.
The Internet Standards Process described in this document is
concerned with all protocols, procedures, and conventions that are
used in or by the Internet, whether or not they are part of the
TCP/IP protocol suite. In the case of protocols developed and/or
standardized by non-Internet organizations, however, the Internet
Standards Process normally applies to the application of the protocol
or procedure in the Internet context, not to the specification of the
protocol itself.
In general, an Internet Standard is a specification that is stable
and well-understood, is technically competent, has multiple,
independent, and interoperable implementations with substantial
operational experience, enjoys significant public support, and is
recognizably useful in some or all parts of the Internet.
1.2. The Internet Standards Process
In outline, the process of creating an Internet Standard is
straightforward: a specification undergoes a period of development
and several iterations of review by the Internet community and
revision based upon experience, is adopted as a Standard by the
appropriate body (see below), and is published. In practice, the
process is more complicated, due to (1) the difficulty of creating
specifications of high technical quality; (2) the need to consider
the interests of all of the affected parties; (3) the importance of
establishing widespread community consensus; and (4) the difficulty
of evaluating the utility of a particular specification for the
Internet community.
The goals of the Internet Standards Process are:
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o technical excellence;
o prior implementation and testing;
o clear, concise, and easily understood documentation;
o openness and fairness; and
o timeliness.
The procedures described in this document are designed to be fair,
open, and objective; to reflect existing (proven) practice; and to be
flexible.
o These procedures are intended to provide a fair, open, and
objective basis for developing, evaluating, and adopting Internet
Standards. They provide ample opportunity for participation and
comment by all interested parties. At each stage of the
standardization process, a specification is repeatedly discussed
and its merits debated in open meetings and/or public electronic
mailing lists, and it is made available for review via world-wide
on-line directories.
o These procedures are explicitly aimed at recognizing and adopting
generally-accepted practices. Thus, a candidate specification
must be implemented and tested for correct operation and
interoperability by multiple independent parties and utilized in
increasingly demanding environments, before it can be adopted as
an Internet Standard.
o These procedures provide a great deal of flexibility to adapt to
the wide variety of circumstances that occur in the
standardization process. Experience has shown this flexibility to
be vital in achieving the goals listed above.
The goal of technical competence, the requirement for prior
implementation and testing, and the need to allow all interested
parties to comment all require significant time and effort. On the
other hand, today's rapid development of networking technology
demands timely development of standards. The Internet Standards
Process is intended to balance these conflicting goals. The process
is believed to be as short and simple as possible without sacrificing
technical excellence, thorough testing before adoption of a standard,
or openness and fairness.
From its inception, the Internet has been, and is expected to remain,
an evolving system whose participants regularly factor new
requirements and technology into its design and implementation.
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Users of the Internet and providers of the equipment, software, and
services that support it should anticipate and embrace this evolution
as a major tenet of Internet philosophy.
The procedures described in this document are the result of a number
of years of evolution, driven both by the needs of the growing and
increasingly diverse Internet community, and by experience.
1.3. Organization of This Document
Section 2 describes the publications and archives of the Internet
Standards Process. Section 3 describes the types of Internet
standard specifications. Section 4 describes the Internet standards
specifications track. Section 5 describes Best Current Practice
RFCs. Section 6 describes the process and rules for Internet
standardization. Section 7 specifies the way in which externally-
sponsored specifications and practices, developed and controlled by
other standards bodies or by others, are handled within the Internet
Standards Process. Section 8 describes the requirements for notices
and record keeping Section 9 defines a variance process to allow one-
time exceptions to some of the requirements in this document Section
10 references rules to protect intellectual property rights in the
context of the development and use of Internet Standards. Section 11
includes acknowledgments of some of the people involved in creation
of this document. Section 12 notes that security issues are not
dealt with by this document. Section 13 contains IANA
considerations.
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2. INTERNET STANDARDS-RELATED PUBLICATIONS
2.1. Requests for Comments (RFCs)
Each distinct version of an Internet standards-related specification
is published as part of the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document
series. This archival series is the official publication channel for
Internet standards documents and other publications of the IESG, IAB,
and Internet community. RFCs can be obtained from a number of
Internet hosts using anonymous FTP, rsync, World Wide Web, and other
Internet document-retrieval systems.
The RFC series of documents on networking began in 1969 as part of
the original ARPA wide-area networking (ARPANET) project (see
Appendix A for glossary of acronyms). RFCs cover a wide range of
topics in addition to Internet Standards, from early discussion of
new research concepts to status memos about the Internet. RFC
publication is the direct responsibility of the RFC Editor, under the
general direction of the IAB.
The rules for formatting and submitting an RFC are defined in [3].
Every RFC is available in ASCII text. Some RFCs are also available
in other formats. The other versions of an RFC may contain material
(such as diagrams and figures) that is not present in the ASCII
version, and it may be formatted differently.
*********************************************************
* *
* A stricter requirement applies to standards-track *
* specifications: the ASCII text version is the *
* definitive reference, and therefore it must be a *
* complete and accurate specification of the standard, *
* including all necessary diagrams and illustrations. *
* *
*********************************************************
The status of Internet protocol and service specifications is
summarized periodically in an RFC entitled "Internet Official
Protocol Standards" [1]. This RFC shows the level of maturity and
other helpful information for each Internet protocol or service
specification (see section 3).
Some RFCs document Internet Standards. These RFCs form the 'STD'
subseries of the RFC series. [2] When a specification has been
adopted as an Internet Standard, it is given the additional label
"STDxxx", but it keeps its RFC number and its place in the RFC
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series. (see section 4.1.3)
Some RFCs standardize the results of community deliberations about
statements of principle or conclusions about what is the best way to
perform some operations or IETF process function. These RFCs form
the specification has been adopted as a BCP, it is given the
additional label "BCPxxx", but it keeps its RFC number and its place
in the RFC series. (see section 5)
Not all specifications of protocols or services for the Internet
should or will become Internet Standards or BCPs. Such non-standards
track specifications are not subject to the rules for Internet
standardization. Non-standards track specifications may be published
directly as "Experimental" or "Informational" RFCs at the discretion
of the RFC Editor in consultation with the IESG (see section 4.2).
*******************************************************
* *
* It is important to note that many RFCs are NOT *
* standards OR BCPs and are NOT endorsed in any way *
* by the IETF, the IRTF, the IAB, or the Internet *
* Society. Such RFCs are published independently *
* and are given only cursory review. *
* *
*******************************************************
2.2. Internet-Drafts
During the development of a specification, draft versions of the
document are made available for informal review and comment by
placing them in the IETF's "Internet-Drafts" directory, which is
replicated on a number of Internet hosts. This makes an evolving
working document readily available to a wide audience, facilitating
the process of review and revision.
An Internet-Draft that is published as an RFC, or that has remained
unchanged in the Internet-Drafts directory for more than six months
without being recommended by the IESG for publication as an RFC, is
simply removed from the Internet-Drafts directory. At any time, an
Internet-Draft may be replaced by a more recent version of the same
specification, restarting the six-month timeout period.
An Internet-Draft is NOT a means of "publishing" a specification in
any permanent way; they are meant to be ephemeral. Specifications
are published only through the RFC mechanism described in the
previous section. Internet-Drafts have no formal status, and are
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subject to change or removal at any time.
********************************************************
* *
* Under no circumstances should an Internet-Draft *
* be referenced by any paper, report, or Request- *
* for-Proposal, nor should a vendor claim compliance *
* with an Internet-Draft. *
* *
********************************************************
Note: It is acceptable to reference a standards-track specification
that may reasonably be expected to be published as an RFC using the
phrase "Work in Progress" without referencing an Internet-Draft.
This may also be done in a standards track document itself as long as
the specification in which the reference is made would stand as a
complete and understandable document with or without the reference to
the "Work in Progress".
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3. INTERNET STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS
Specifications subject to the Internet Standards Process fall into
one of two categories: Technical Specification (TS) and Applicability
Statement (AS).
3.1. Technical Specification (TS)
A Technical Specification is any description of a protocol, service,
procedure, convention, or format. It may completely describe all of
the relevant aspects of its subject, or it may leave one or more
parameters or options unspecified. A TS may be completely self-
contained, or it may incorporate material from other specifications
by reference to other documents (which might or might not be Internet
Standards). A TS shall include a statement of its scope and the
general intent for its use (domain of applicability). Thus, a TS
that is inherently specific to a particular context shall contain a
statement to that effect. However, a TS does not specify
requirements for its use within the Internet; these requirements,
which depend on the particular context in which the TS is
incorporated by different system configurations, are defined by an
Applicability Statement.
3.2. Applicability Statement (AS)
An Applicability Statement specifies how, and under what
circumstances, one or more TSs may be applied to support a particular
Internet capability. An AS may specify uses for TSs that are not
Internet Standards, as discussed in Section 7.
An AS identifies the relevant TSs and the specific way in which they
are to be combined, and may also specify particular values or ranges
of TS parameters or subfunctions of a TS protocol that must be
implemented. An AS also specifies the circumstances in which the use
of a particular TS is required, recommended, or elective (see section
3.3).
An AS may describe particular methods of using a TS in a restricted
"domain of applicability", such as Internet routers, terminal
servers, Internet systems that interface to Ethernets, or datagram-
based database servers.
The broadest type of AS is a comprehensive conformance specification,
commonly called a "requirements document", for a particular class of
Internet systems, such as Internet routers or Internet hosts.
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3.3. Requirement Levels
An AS shall apply one of the following "requirement levels" to each
of the TSs to which it refers:
(a) Required: Implementation of the referenced TS, as specified by
the AS, is required to achieve minimal conformance. For example,
IP and ICMP must be implemented by all Internet systems using the
TCP/IP Protocol Suite. This requirement level is reserved for
only the most critical Internet functions, and thus its use will
be given the most scrutiny during the review process.
(b) Recommended: Implementation of the referenced TS is not required
for minimal conformance, but experience and/or generally accepted
technical wisdom suggest its desirability in the domain of
applicability of the AS. Vendors are strongly encouraged to
include the functions, features, and protocols of Recommended TSs
in their products, and should omit them only if the omission is
justified by some special circumstance. For example, DHCP client
functions allow for ease of device configuration.
(c) Elective: Implementation of the referenced TS is optional within
the domain of applicability of the AS; that is, the AS creates no
explicit necessity to apply the TS. However, a particular vendor
may decide to implement it, or a particular user may decide that
it is a necessity in a specific environment. For example, the
OSPF MIB could be seen as valuable in an environment where the
OSPF protocol is used.
As noted in section 4.1, there are TSs that are not in the
standards track or that have been retired from the standards
track, and are therefore not required, recommended, or elective.
Two additional "requirement level" designations are available for
these TSs:
(d) Limited Use: The TS is considered to be appropriate for use only
in limited or unique circumstances. For example, the usage of a
protocol with the "Experimental" designation should generally be
limited to those actively involved with the experiment.
(e) Not Recommended: A TS that is considered to be inappropriate for
general use is labeled "Not Recommended". This may be because of
its limited functionality, specialized nature, or historic status.
Although TSs and ASs are conceptually separate, in practice a
standards-track document may combine an AS and one or more related
TSs. For example, Technical Specifications that are developed
specifically and exclusively for some particular domain of
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applicability, e.g., for mail server hosts, often contain within a
single specification all of the relevant AS and TS information. In
such cases, no useful purpose would be served by deliberately
distributing the information among several documents just to preserve
the formal AS/TS distinction. However, a TS that is likely to apply
to more than one domain of applicability should be developed in a
modular fashion, to facilitate its incorporation by multiple ASs.
The "Official Protocol Standards" RFC (STD1) lists a general
requirement level for each TS, using the nomenclature defined in this
section. This RFC is updated periodically. In many cases, more
detailed descriptions of the requirement levels of particular
protocols and of individual features of the protocols will be found
in appropriate ASs.
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4. THE INTERNET STANDARDS TRACK
There are two levels of Internet Standards development, level one
(L1) and level two (L2). These two levels indicate ability of
multiple implementations to interoperate, stability of the
specifications, and a general consensus of the community as to how
the specifications are accepted.
This marks a change from the previous version of the standards
process. The rational for this change may be found in an appendix.
The following mapping for documents published prior to this memo
applies:
Previous "Maturity" Current Level
---------------------------------------
Proposed L1
Draft L2
Internet Standard L2
The RFC Editor is requested to assign standard numbers to those L1 TS
specifications, in consultation with the IESG so that specifications
are grouped appropriately.
Once a group of one or more Technical Specifications are approved for
level L1, the group is considered an Internet Standard, and an STD
number is assigned by the RFC Editor, once the associated RFCs are
published. To reach the optional level of L2, a rigorous review of
the L1 specifications is required, as will be specified in Section 6.
Even after a specification has been adopted at level L2, further
evolution often occurs based on experience and the recognition of new
requirements. The nomenclature and procedures of Internet
standardization provide for the replacement of old Internet Standards
with new ones, and the assignment of descriptive labels to indicate
the status of "retired" Internet Standards. A description of these
statuses is defined in section 4.2 to cover these and specifications
other that are not considered to be on the standards track.
4.1. Standards Track Levels
Internet specifications go through stages of development, testing,
and acceptance. Within the Internet Standards Process, these stages
are formally labeled "standards levels". This section describes the
levels and the expected characteristics of specifications at each
level.
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4.2. Level One
The first stage of standardization is known as Level 1 (L1). A
specific action by the IESG is required to move a specification onto
the standards track at L1 before it can advance to L2.
An L1 Standard specification is generally stable, has resolved known
design choices, is believed to be well-understood, has received
significant community review, and appears to enjoy enough community
interest to be considered valuable. However, further experience
might result in a change or even retraction of the specification
before it could advance to L2.
While neither implementation nor operational experience is strictly
required for the designation of a specification as an L1 Standard,
such experience is highly desirable, and will usually represent a
strong argument in favor of advancement.
The IESG may require implementation and/or operational experience
prior to granting L1 Standard status to a specification that
materially affects the core Internet protocols or that specifies
behavior that may have significant operational impact on the
Internet, or in cases where they believe the specification will be
difficult to deploy.
An L1 Standard should have no known technical omissions with respect
to the requirements placed upon it. However, the IESG may waive this
requirement in order to allow a specification to advance to the L1
Standard state when it is considered to be useful and necessary (and
timely) even with known technical omissions. In such cases, the
specification will note such known omissions.
Implementors should expect L1 Standards to change over time. It is
desirable to implement them in order to gain experience and to
validate, test, and clarify the specification. Since the content of
L1 Standards may be changed if problems are found or better solutions
are identified, such standards should be deployed with care in
disruption-sensitive environments.
4.3. Level 2
A specification from which at least three independent and
interoperable implementations from different code bases have been
developed, and for which sufficient successful operational experience
has been obtained, may be elevated to Level 2 (L2). For the purposes
of this section, "interoperable" means to be functionally equivalent
or interchangeable components of the system or process in which they
are used. If patented or otherwise controlled technology is required
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for implementation, the separate implementations must also have
resulted from separate exercise of the licensing process. Elevation
to L2 is a major advance in status, indicating a strong belief that
the specification is mature and will be useful.
The requirement for at least two independent and interoperable
implementations applies to all of the options and features of the
specification. In cases in which one or more options or features
have not been demonstrated in at least two interoperable
implementations, the specification may advance to Level 2 only if
those options or features are removed.
Typically, when a TS is to be advanced to Level 2, a working group is
chartered for this purpose. In such cases, the Working Group chair
is responsible for documenting the specific implementations which
qualify the specification for Level 2 status along with documentation
about testing of the interoperation of these implementations. The
documentation must include information about the support of each of
the individual options and features. This documentation should be
submitted to the Area Director with the protocol action request. (see
Section 6)
In those limited cases where it is felt that a working group is not
needed, an Area Director will designate someone who will provide the
appropriate documentation to indicate that a TS is ready to be
advanced.
A Level 2 Standard must be well-understood and known to be quite
stable, both in its semantics and as a basis for developing an
implementation. An L2 Standard is normally considered to be a final
specification, and changes are likely to be made only to solve
specific problems encountered. Generally it is reasonable for
vendors to deploy implementations of L2 Standards into a disruption
sensitive environment.
4.4. Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels
Not every specification is on the standards track. A specification
may not be intended to be an Internet Standard, or it may be intended
for eventual standardization but not yet ready to enter the standards
track. A specification may have been superseded by a more recent
Internet Standard, or have otherwise fallen into disuse or disfavor.
Specifications that are not on the standards track are labeled with
one of three "off-track" maturity levels: "Experimental",
"Informational", or "Historic". The documents bearing these labels
are not Internet Standards in any sense.
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4.5. Experimental
The "Experimental" designation typically denotes a specification that
is part of some research or development effort. Such a specification
is published for the general information of the Internet technical
community and as an archival record of the work, subject only to
editorial considerations and to verification that there has been
adequate coordination with the standards process (see below). An
Experimental specification may be the output of an organized Internet
research effort (e.g., a Research Group of the IRTF), an IETF Working
Group, or it may be an individual contribution.
4.6. Informational
An "Informational" specification is published for the general
information of the Internet community, and does not represent an
Internet community consensus or recommendation. The Informational
designation is intended to provide for the timely publication of a
very broad range of responsible informational documents from many
sources, subject only to editorial considerations and to verification
that there has been adequate coordination with the standards process
(see section 4.2.3).
Specifications that have been prepared outside of the Internet
community and are not incorporated into the Internet Standards
Process by any of the provisions of BCP 78 and 79 may be published as
Informational RFCs, with the permission of the owner and the
concurrence of the RFC Editor.
4.7. Procedures for Experimental and Informational RFCs
Unless they are the result of IETF Working Group action, documents
intended to be published with Experimental or Informational status
should be submitted directly to the RFC Editor. All such documents
must first exist as Internet-Drafts. In order to differentiate these
Internet-Drafts they will be labeled or grouped in the I-D directory
so they are easily recognizable. The RFC Editor will wait four weeks
after this publication for comments before proceeding further. The
RFC Editor is expected to exercise his or her judgment concerning the
editorial suitability of a document for publication with Experimental
or Informational status, and may refuse to publish a document which,
in the expert opinion of the RFC Editor, is unrelated to Internet
activity or falls below the technical and/or editorial standard for
RFCs.
To ensure that the non-standards track Experimental and Informational
designations are not misused to circumvent the Internet Standards
Process, the IESG and the RFC Editor have agreed that the RFC Editor
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will refer to the IESG any document submitted for Experimental or
Informational publication which, in the opinion of the RFC Editor,
may be related to work being done, or expected to be done, within the
IETF community. The IESG shall review such a referred document
within a reasonable period of time, and recommend either that it be
published as originally submitted or referred to the IETF as a
contribution to the Internet Standards Process.
If (a) the IESG recommends that the document be brought within the
IETF and progressed within the IETF context, but the author declines
to do so, or (b) the IESG considers that the document proposes
something that conflicts with, or is actually inimical to, an
established IETF effort (be that standard or experimental), or (c)
the IESG considers that the document specifies or recommends behavior
that could be harmful to the Internet in a deployment, the document
may still be published at the discretion of the RFC Editor. However,
in such cases, the IESG may insert appropriate "disclaimer" text into
the RFC either in or immediately following the "Status of this Memo"
section in order to make the circumstances of its publication clear
to readers. The purpose of this restriction is not to prohibit
points of view that differ from that of the IESG, but to protect
against misleading or dangerous behavior, either by authors or by
implementations.
Documents proposed for Experimental and Informational RFCs by IETF
Working Groups go through IESG review. The review is initiated using
the process described in section 6.1.1.
4.8. Historic
A specification that has been superseded by a more recent
specification or is for any other reason considered to be obsolete is
assigned to the "Historic" level. (Purists have suggested that the
word should be "Historical"; however, at this point the use of
"Historic" is historical.)
Note: Standards track specifications must not depend on non-standards
track specifications, other than those referenced specifications from
other standards bodies (See Section 7). Furthermore, it is strongly
recommended that L2 standards not depend on L1 standards. Where such
cases exist, they should be clearly noted as a risk in the L2
specification.
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5. BEST CURRENT PRACTICE (BCP) RFCs
The BCP subseries of the RFC series is designed to be a way to
standardize practices and the results of community deliberations. A
BCP document is subject to the same basic set of procedures as
standards track documents and thus is a vehicle by which the IETF
community can define and ratify the community's best current thinking
on a statement of principle or on what is believed to be the best way
to perform some operations or IETF process function.
Historically Internet standards have generally been concerned with
the technical specifications for hardware and software required for
computer communication across interconnected networks. However,
since the Internet itself is composed of networks operated by a great
variety of organizations, with diverse goals and rules, good user
service requires that the operators and administrators of the
Internet follow some common guidelines for policies and operations.
While these guidelines are generally different in scope and style
from protocol standards, their establishment needs a similar process
for consensus building.
While it is recognized that entities such as the IAB and IESG are
composed of individuals who may participate, as individuals, in the
technical work of the IETF, it is also recognized that the entities
themselves have an existence as leaders in the community. As leaders
in the Internet technical community, these entities should have an
outlet to propose ideas to stimulate work in a particular area, to
raise the community's sensitivity to a certain issue, to make a
statement of architectural principle, or to communicate their
thoughts on other matters. The BCP subseries creates a smoothly
structured way for these management entities to insert proposals into
the consensus-building machinery of the IETF while gauging the
community's view of that issue.
Finally, the BCP series may be used to document the operation of the
IETF itself. For example, this document defines the IETF Standards
Process and is published as a BCP.
5.1. BCP Review Process
Unlike standards-track documents, the mechanisms described in BCPs
are not well suited to the phased roll-in nature of the two stage
standards track and instead generally only make sense for full and
immediate instantiation.
The BCP process is similar to that for proposed standards. The BCP
is submitted to the IESG for review, (see section 6.1.1) and the
existing review process applies, including a Last-Call on the IETF
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Announce mailing list. However, once the IESG has approved the
document, the process ends and the document is published. The
resulting document is viewed as having the technical approval of the
IETF.
Specifically, a document to be considered for the status of BCP must
undergo the procedures outlined in sections 6.1, and 6.4 of this
document. The BCP process may be appealed according to the
procedures in section 6.5.
Because BCPs are meant to express community consensus but are arrived
at more quickly than standards, BCPs require particular care.
Specifically, BCPs should not be viewed simply as stronger
Informational RFCs, but rather should be viewed as documents suitable
for a content different from Informational RFCs.
A specification, or group of specifications, that has, or have been
approved as a BCP is assigned a number in the BCP series while
retaining its RFC number(s).
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6. THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS
The mechanics of the Internet Standards Process involve decisions of
the IESG concerning the elevation of a specification onto the
standards track or the movement of a standards-track specification
from one maturity level to another. Although a number of reasonably
objective criteria (described below and in section 4) are available
to guide the IESG in making a decision to move a specification onto,
along, or off the standards track, there is no algorithmic guarantee
of elevation to or progression along the standards track for any
specification. The experienced collective judgment of the IESG
concerning the technical quality of a specification proposed for
elevation to or advancement in the standards track is an essential
component of the decision-making process.
6.1. Standards Actions
A "standards action" -- entering a particular specification into,
advancing it within, or removing it from, the standards track -- must
be approved by the IESG.
6.1.1. Initiation of Action
A specification that is intended to enter or advance in the Internet
standards track shall first be posted as an Internet-Draft (see
section 2.2) unless it has not changed since publication as an RFC.
It shall remain as an Internet-Draft for a period of time, not less
than two weeks, that permits useful community review, after which a
recommendation for action may be initiated.
A standards action is initiated by a recommendation by the IETF
Working group responsible for a specification to its Area Director,
copied to the IETF Secretariat or, in the case of a specification not
associated with a Working Group, a recommendation by an individual to
the IESG. As a practical matter, the IESG requires that individual
submissions be sponsored by an Area Director. The wisdom behind this
is simply that if the author(s) cannot find at least one AD to
support a draft, they certainly not be able to find support for
advancement.
6.1.2. IESG Review and Approval
The IESG shall determine whether or not a specification submitted to
it according to section 6.1.1 satisfies the applicable criteria for
the recommended action (see sections 4.1 and 4.2), and shall in
addition determine whether or not the technical quality and clarity
of the specification is consistent with that expected for the
maturity level to which the specification is recommended.
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In order to obtain all of the information necessary to make these
determinations, particularly when the specification is considered by
the IESG to be extremely important in terms of its potential impact
on the Internet or on the suite of Internet protocols, the IESG may,
at its discretion, commission an independent technical review of the
specification.
The IESG will send notice to the IETF of the pending IESG
consideration of the document(s) to permit a final review by the
general Internet community. This "Last-Call" notification shall be
via electronic mail to the IETF Announce mailing list. Comments on a
Last-Call shall be accepted from anyone, and should be sent as
directed in the Last-Call announcement.
The Last-Call period shall be no shorter than two weeks except in
those cases where the proposed standards action was not initiated by
an IETF Working Group, in which case the Last-Call period shall be no
shorter than four weeks. If the IESG believes that the community
interest would be served by allowing more time for comment, it may
decide on a longer Last-Call period or to explicitly lengthen a
current Last-Call period.
The IESG is not bound by the action recommended when the
specification was submitted. For example, the IESG may decide to
consider the specification for publication in a different category
than that requested. If the IESG determines this before the Last-
Call is issued then the Last-Call should reflect the IESG's view.
The IESG could also decide to change the publication category based
on the response to a Last-Call. If this decision would result in a
specification being published at a "higher" level than the original
Last-Call was for, a new Last-Call should be issued indicating the
IESG recommendation. In addition, the IESG may decide to recommend
the formation of a new Working Group in the case of significant
controversy in response to a Last-Call for specification not
originating from an IETF Working Group.
In a timely fashion after the expiration of the Last-Call period, the
IESG shall make its final determination of whether or not to approve
the standards action, and shall notify the IETF of its decision via
electronic mail to the IETF Announce mailing list.
6.1.3. Publication
If a standards action is approved, notification is sent to the RFC
Editor and copied to the IETF with instructions to publish the
specification as an RFC. The specification shall at that point be
removed from the Internet-Drafts directory.
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An official summary of standards actions completed and pending shall
appear in each issue of the Internet Society's newsletter. This
shall constitute the "publication of record" for Internet standards
actions.
The RFC Editor shall publish periodically an "Internet Official
Protocol Standards" RFC [1], summarizing the status of all Internet
protocol and service specifications.
6.2. Advancing in the Standards Track
The procedure described in section 6.1 is followed for each action
that attends the advancement of a specification along the standards
track.
A specification shall remain at Level 1 for at least one year. This
minimum period is intended to ensure adequate opportunity for
community review without severely impacting timeliness. This
interval shall be measured from the date of publication of the
corresponding RFC(s), or, if the action does not result in RFC
publication, the date of the announcement of the IESG approval of the
action.
When a specification is advanced from Level 1 to Level 2, it may be
(indeed, is likely to be) revised. The IESG shall determine the
scope and significance of the revision to the specification, and, if
necessary and appropriate, modify the recommended action. Minor
revisions are expected, but a significant revision may require that
the specification accumulate more experience at Level 1 before
progressing.
Change of status shall result in republication of the specification
as an RFC, except in the rare case that there have been no changes at
all in the specification since the last publication. Generally,
desired changes will be "batched" for incorporation at the next level
in the standards track. However, deferral of changes to the next
standards action on the specification will not always be possible or
desirable; for example, an important typographical error, or a
technical error that does not represent a change in overall function
of the specification, may need to be corrected immediately. In such
cases, the IESG or RFC Editor may be asked to republish the RFC (with
a new number) with corrections, and this will not reset the minimum
time-at-level clock.
When a standards-track specification has not reached the an L2
Standard level but has remained at the same maturity level for
twenty-four (24) months or at any time thereafter, the IESG may at
its sole discretion and in a manner of its choosing review the
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viability of the standardization effort responsible for that
specification and the usefulness of the technology. Following each
such review, the IESG shall approve termination or continuation of
the development effort, at the same time the IESG shall decide to
maintain the specification at the same maturity level or to move it
to Historic status. This decision shall be communicated to the IETF
by electronic mail to the IETF Announce mailing list to allow the
Internet community an opportunity to comment. This provision is not
intended to threaten a legitimate and active Working Group effort,
but rather to provide an administrative mechanism for terminating a
moribund effort.
6.3. Revising a Standard
A new version of an established Internet Standard must progress
through the full Internet standardization process as if it were a
completely new specification. A new L1 Standard will retire an old
L1 Standard. However, only a new L2 Standard can retire an old L2
Standard. Retired standards are moved to Historic status. Once the
new version has reached the Standard level, it will usually replace
the previous version, which will be moved to Historic status.
However, in some cases both versions may remain as Internet Standards
to honor the requirements of an installed base. In this situation,
the relationship between the previous and the new versions must be
explicitly stated in the text of the new version or in another
appropriate document (e.g., an Applicability Statement; see section
3.2).
6.4. Retiring a Standard
As the technology changes and matures, it is possible for a new
Standard specification to be so clearly superior technically that one
or more existing standards track specifications for the same function
should be retired. In this case, or when it is felt for some other
reason that an existing standards track specification should be
retired, the IESG shall approve a change of status of the old
specification(s) to Historic. This recommendation shall be issued
with the same Last-Call and notification procedures used for any
other standards action. A request to retire an existing standard can
originate from a Working Group, an Area Director or some other
interested party.
6.5. Conflict Resolution and Appeals
Disputes are possible at various stages during the IETF process. As
much as possible the process is designed so that compromises can be
made, and genuine consensus achieved, however there are times when
even the most reasonable and knowledgeable people are unable to
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agree. To achieve the goals of openness and fairness, such conflicts
must be resolved by a process of open review and discussion. This
section specifies the procedures that shall be followed to deal with
Internet standards issues that cannot be resolved through the normal
processes whereby IETF Working Groups and other Internet Standards
Process participants ordinarily reach consensus.
6.5.1. Working Group Disputes
An individual (whether a participant in the relevant Working Group or
not) may disagree with a Working Group recommendation based on his or
her belief that either (a) his or her own views have not been
adequately considered by the Working Group, or (b) the Working Group
has made an incorrect technical choice which places the quality
and/or integrity of the Working Group's product(s) in significant
jeopardy. The first issue is a difficulty with Working Group
process; the latter is an assertion of technical error. These two
types of disagreement are quite different, but both are handled by
the same process of review.
A person who disagrees with a Working Group recommendation shall
always first discuss the matter with the Working Group's chair(s),
who may involve other members of the Working Group (or the Working
Group as a whole) in the discussion.
If the disagreement cannot be resolved in this way, any of the
parties involved may bring it to the attention of the Area
Director(s) for the area in which the Working Group is chartered.
The Area Director(s) shall attempt to resolve the dispute. If the
disagreement cannot be resolved by the Area Director(s) any of the
parties involved may then appeal to the IESG as a whole. The IESG
shall then review the situation and attempt to resolve it in a manner
of its own choosing.
If the disagreement is not resolved to the satisfaction of the
parties at the IESG level, any of the parties involved may appeal the
decision to the IAB. The IAB shall then review the situation and
attempt to resolve it in a manner of its own choosing.
The IAB decision is final with respect to the question of whether or
not the Internet standards procedures have been followed and with
respect to all questions of technical merit.
6.5.2. Process Failures
This document sets forward procedures required to be followed to
ensure openness and fairness of the Internet Standards Process, and
the technical viability of the standards created. The IESG is the
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principal agent of the IETF for this purpose, and it is the IESG that
is charged with ensuring that the required procedures have been
followed, and that any necessary prerequisites to a standards action
have been met.
If an individual should disagree with an action taken by the IESG in
this process, that person should first discuss the issue with the
IESG Chair. If the IESG Chair is unable to satisfy the complainant
then the IESG as a whole should re-examine the action taken, along
with input from the complainant, and determine whether any further
action is needed. The IESG shall issue a report on its review of the
complaint to the IETF.
Should the complainant not be satisfied with the outcome of the IESG
review, an appeal may be lodged to the IAB. The IAB shall then
review the situation and attempt to resolve it in a manner of its own
choosing and report to the IETF on the outcome of its review.
If circumstances warrant, the IAB may direct that an IESG decision be
annulled, and the situation shall then be as it was before the IESG
decision was taken. The IAB may also recommend an action to the
IESG, or make such other recommendations as it deems fit. The IAB
may not, however, pre-empt the role of the IESG by issuing a decision
which only the IESG is empowered to make.
The IAB decision is final with respect to the question of whether or
not the Internet standards procedures have been followed.
6.5.3. Questions of Applicable Procedure
Further recourse is available only in cases in which the procedures
themselves (i.e., the procedures described in this document) are
claimed to be inadequate or insufficient to the protection of the
rights of all parties in a fair and open Internet Standards Process.
Claims on this basis may be made to the Internet Society Board of
Trustees. The President of the Internet Society shall acknowledge
such an appeal within two weeks, and shall at the time of
acknowledgment advise the petitioner of the expected duration of the
Trustees' review of the appeal. The Trustees shall review the
situation in a manner of its own choosing and report to the IETF on
the outcome of its review.
The Trustees' decision upon completion of their review shall be final
with respect to all aspects of the dispute.
6.5.4. Appeals Procedure
All appeals must include a detailed and specific description of the
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facts of the dispute.
All appeals must be initiated within two months of the public
knowledge of the action or decision to be challenged.
At all stages of the appeals process, the individuals or bodies
responsible for making the decisions have the discretion to define
the specific procedures they will follow in the process of making
their decision.
In all cases a decision concerning the disposition of the dispute,
and the communication of that decision to the parties involved, must
be accomplished within a reasonable period of time. [NOTE: These
procedures intentionally and explicitly do not establish a fixed
maximum time period that shall be considered "reasonable" in all
cases. The Internet Standards Process places a premium on consensus
and efforts to achieve it, and deliberately foregoes
deterministically swift execution of procedures in favor of a
latitude within which more genuine technical agreements may be
reached.]
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7. EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS
Many standards groups other than the IETF create and publish
standards documents for network protocols and services. When these
external specifications play an important role in the Internet, it is
desirable to reach common agreements on their usage -- i.e., to
establish Internet Standards relating to these external
specifications.
There are two categories of external specifications:
(1) Open Standards Various national and international standards
bodies, such as ANSI, ISO, IEEE, and ITU-T, develop a variety of
protocol and service specifications that are similar to Technical
Specifications defined here. National and international groups
also publish "implementors' agreements" that are analogous to
Applicability Statements, capturing a body of implementation-
specific detail concerned with the practical application of their
standards. All of these are considered to be "open external
standards" for the purposes of the Internet Standards Process.
(2) Other Specifications Other proprietary specifications that have
come to be widely used in the Internet may be treated by the
Internet community as if they were a "standards". Such a
specification is not generally developed in an open fashion, is
typically proprietary, and is controlled by the vendor, vendors,
or organization that produced it.
7.1. Use of External Specifications
To avoid conflict between competing versions of a specification, the
Internet community will not standardize a specification that is
simply an "Internet version" of an existing external specification
unless an explicit cooperative arrangement to do so has been made.
However, there are several ways in which an external specification
that is important for the operation and/or evolution of the Internet
may be adopted for Internet use.
7.1.1. Incorporation of an Open Standard
An Internet Standard TS or AS may incorporate an open external
standard by reference. For example, many Internet Standards
incorporate by reference the ANSI standard character set "ASCII". [4]
Whenever possible, the referenced specification shall be available
online.
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7.1.2. Incorporation of Other Specifications
Other proprietary specifications may be incorporated by reference to
a version of the specification as long as the proprietor meets the
requirements of BCPs 78 and 79. If the other proprietary
specification is not widely and readily available, the IESG may
request that it be published as an Informational RFC.
The IESG generally should not favor a particular proprietary
specification over technically equivalent and competing
specification(s) by making any incorporated vendor specification
"required" or "recommended".
7.1.3. Assumption
An IETF Working Group may start from an external specification and
develop it into an Internet specification. This is acceptable if (1)
the specification is provided to the Working Group in compliance with
the requirements of BCPs 78 and 79, and (2) change control has been
conveyed to IETF by the original developer of the specification for
the specification or for specifications derived from the original
specification.
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8. NOTICES AND RECORD KEEPING
Each of the organizations involved in the development and approval of
Internet Standards shall publicly announce, and shall maintain a
publicly accessible record of, every activity in which it engages, to
the extent that the activity represents the prosecution of any part
of the Internet Standards Process. For purposes of this section, the
organizations involved in the development and approval of Internet
Standards includes the IETF, the IESG, the IAB, all IETF Working
Groups, and the Internet Society Board of Trustees.
For IETF and Working Group meetings announcements shall be made by
electronic mail to the IETF Announce mailing list and shall be made
sufficiently far in advance of the activity to permit all interested
parties to effectively participate. The announcement shall contain
(or provide pointers to) all of the information that is necessary to
support the participation of any interested individual. In the case
of a meeting, for example, the announcement shall include an agenda
that specifies the standards- related issues that will be discussed.
The formal record of an organization's standards-related activity
shall include at least the following:
o the charter of the organization (or a defining document equivalent
to a charter);
o complete and accurate minutes of meetings;
o the archives of Working Group electronic mail mailing lists; and
o all written contributions from participants that pertain to the
organization's standards-related activity.
As a practical matter, the formal record of all Internet Standards
Process activities is maintained by the IETF Secretariat, and is the
responsibility of the IETF Secretariat except that each IETF Working
Group is expected to maintain their own email list archive and must
make a best effort to ensure that all traffic is captured and
included in the archives. Also, the Working Group chair is
responsible for providing the IETF Secretariat with complete and
accurate minutes of all Working Group meetings. Internet-Drafts that
have been removed (for any reason) from the Internet-Drafts
directories shall be archived by the IETF Secretariat for the purpose
of preserving an historical record of Internet standards activity.
The Secretariat may make such drafts available as directed by a court
order, or as otherwise directed by the IAD in order to further the
purposes of the IETF, IESG, IAB, or Internet Society.
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9. VARYING THE PROCESS
This document, which sets out the rules and procedures by which
Internet Standards and related documents are made is itself a product
of the Internet Standards Process (as a BCP, as described in section
5). It replaces a previous version, and in time, is likely itself to
be replaced.
While, when published, this document represents the community's view
of the proper and correct process to follow, and requirements to be
met, to allow for the best possible Internet Standards and BCPs, it
cannot be assumed that this will always remain the case. From time
to time there may be a desire to update it, by replacing it with a
new version. Updating this document uses similar open procedures as
are used for any other BCP.
In addition, there may be situations where following the procedures
leads to a deadlock about a specific specification, or there may be
situations where the procedures provide no guidance. In these cases
it may be appropriate to invoke the variance procedure described
below.
9.1. The Variance Procedure
Upon the recommendation of the responsible IETF Working Group (or, if
no Working Group is constituted, upon the recommendation of an ad hoc
committee), the IESG may enter a particular specification into, or
advance it within, the standards track even though some of the
requirements of this document have not or will not be met. The IESG
may approve such a variance, however, only if it first determines
that the likely benefits to the Internet community are likely to
outweigh any costs to the Internet community that result from
noncompliance with the requirements in this document. In exercising
this discretion, the IESG shall at least consider (a) the technical
merit of the specification, (b) the possibility of achieving the
goals of the Internet Standards Process without granting a variance,
(c) alternatives to the granting of a variance, (d) the collateral
and precedential effects of granting a variance, and (e) the IESG's
ability to craft a variance that is as narrow as possible. In
determining whether to approve a variance, the IESG has discretion to
limit the scope of the variance to particular parts of this document
and to impose such additional restrictions or limitations as it
determines appropriate to protect the interests of the Internet
community.
The proposed variance must detail the problem perceived, explain the
precise provision of this document which is causing the need for a
variance, and the results of the IESG's considerations including
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consideration of points (a) through (d) in the previous paragraph.
The proposed variance shall be issued as an Internet Draft. The IESG
shall then issue an extended Last-Call, of no less than 4 weeks, to
allow for community comment upon the proposal.
In a timely fashion after the expiration of the Last-Call period, the
IESG shall make its final determination of whether or not to approve
the proposed variance, and shall notify the IETF of its decision via
electronic mail to the IETF Announce mailing list. If the variance
is approved it shall be forwarded to the RFC Editor with a request
that it be published as a BCP.
This variance procedure is for use when a one-time waving of some
provision of this document is felt to be required. Permanent changes
to this document shall be accomplished through the normal BCP
process.
The appeals process in section 6.5 applies to this process.
9.2. Exclusions
No use of this procedure may lower any specified delays, nor exempt
any proposal from the requirements of openness, fairness, or
consensus, nor from the need to keep proper records of the meetings
and mailing list discussions.
Specifically, the following sections of this document must not be
subject of a variance: 5.1, 6.1, 6.1.1 (first paragraph), 6.1.2, 6.3
(first sentence), 6.5 and 9. XXX-check numbering.
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10. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
The previous version of this memo specified Intellectual Property
Rights of individuals and the Internet community. Experience has
shown that this is still an evolving area. The Internet process
specified in this memo incorporates by reference BCPs 78 and 79.
These are important documents that should be well understood by
participants prior to submitting specifications for standardization.
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11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There have been a number of people involved with the development of
the documents defining the IETF Standards Process over the years.
The process was first described in RFC 1310 then revised in RFC 1602
before the current effort (which relies heavily on its predecessors).
The next version lived on in RFC 2026 for over ten years, something
that amazes the current authors. In particular, thanks go to Lyman
Chapin, Phill Gross and Christian Huitema as the editors of the
previous versions, to Jon Postel, Dave Crocker, John Stewart, Robert
Elz, and Steve Coya for their inputs to those versions, and to Sam
Hartman, Joel Halpern, Fred Baker, Spencer Dawkins, and Leslie Daigle
for their input into this version (for both what is there and what is
not).
In addition much of the credit for the refinement of the details of
the IETF processes belongs to the many members of the various
incarnations of the POISED Working Group.
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12. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
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13. IANA Considerations
While there are no specific IANA considerations in this memo, when
the IESG chooses to retire a standard based on the guidance contained
here-in, it should provide IANA with specific requests relating to
those standards.
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14. References
14.1. Normative References
[1] Reynolds, J. and S. Ginoza, "Internet Official Protocol
Standards", STD 1, RFC 3700, July 2004.
[2] Postel, J., "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC 1311,
March 1992.
[3] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Instructions to RFC Authors",
RFC 2223, October 1997.
14.2. Informational References
[4] American National Standards Institute, "Coded Character Set -
7-bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange",
ANSI X3.4, 1986.
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Appendix A. Changes from Previous Versions
The following changes have been made to this document since RFC 2026:
o The standards track has been revamped to be a two-step process,
where the second step is optional. The reasoning behind this is
that few if any documents were making it beyond the first step in
the standards process. A second step remains for those who wish
to demonstrate that a particular standard is very stable. The
authors expect further review to occur as we get experience with
the new process.
o All Technical Specifications approved by the IESG are now
Standards. In practice, nobody treated a Proposed Standard as
anything other than a standard, and so we are recognizing this
fact.
o A mapping of old to new is discussed.
o The IESG no longer is required to review standards that have not
achieved L2 status. These timelines may have made sense ten years
ago, but in practice since then there has only been a single
review. At its sole discretion and in a manner of its choosing,
the IESG may review specifications below L2 after a period of 24
months.
o Intellectual Property Rights have been moved out of the document
and incorporated by reference.
o Portions of text have been revised to reflect the current state of
the Internet. References to DECNET and FTP have been removed.
o All submissions to the RFC Editor must be in the form of Internet-
Drafts.
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Appendix B. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
xxx IETF Area - A management division within the IETF. An Area
consists of Working Groups related to a general topic such as
routing. An Area is managed by one or two Area Directors.
Area Director - The manager of an IETF Area. The Area Directors
along with the IETF Chair comprise the Internet Engineering Steering
Group (IESG).
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - An Internet application used to
transfer files in a TCP/IP network.
gopher - An Internet application used to interactively select and
retrieve files in a TCP/IP network.
Internet Architecture Board (IAB) - An appointed group that assists
in the management of the IETF standards process.
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) - A group comprised of the
IETF Area Directors and the IETF Chair. The IESG is responsible for
the management, along with the IAB, of the IETF and is the standards
approval board for the IETF.
interoperable - For the purposes of this document, "interoperable"
means to be able to interoperate over a data communications path.
Last-Call - A public comment period used to gage the level of
consensus about the reasonableness of a proposed standards action.
(see section 6.1.2)
online - Relating to information made available over the Internet.
When referenced in this document material is said to be online when
it is retrievable without restriction or undue fee using standard
Internet applications such as anonymous FTP, gopher or the WWW.
Working Group - A group chartered by the IESG and IAB to work on a
specific specification, set of specifications or topic.
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Appendix C. GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS
ANSI: American National Standards Institute
ARPA: (U.S.) Advanced Research Projects Agency
AS: Applicability Statement
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ITU-T: Telecommunications Standardization sector of the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN
treaty organization; ITU-T was formerly called CCITT.
IAB: Internet Architecture Board
IANA: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ICMP: Internet Control Message Protocol
IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
IP: Internet Protocol
IRSG Internet Research Steering Group
IRTF: Internet Research Task Force
ISO: International Organization for Standardization
ISOC: Internet Society
MIB: Management Information Base
OSI: Open Systems Interconnection
RFC: Request for Comments
TCP: Transmission Control Protocol
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TS: Technical Specification
WWW: World Wide Web
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Authors' Addresses
Scott O. Bradner
Harvard University
Holyoke Center, Room 813
1350 Mass. Ave.
Cambridge,, MA 02138
USA
Phone: +1 617 495 3864
Email: sob@harvard.edu
Eliot Lear
Cisco Systems GmbH
Glatt-com
Glattzentrum, ZH CH-8301
Switzerland
Phone: +41 1 878 9200
Email: lear@cisco.com
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Intellectual Property Statement
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pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at
ietf-ipr@ietf.org.
Disclaimer of Validity
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
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ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). This document is subject
to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.
Acknowledgment
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
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