N-1-1-040.20 Internet Engineering Task Force Report, by Phillip Gross* This is the first report on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in an Internet Society publication. Therefore, I'd like to start by saying how exciting it is for the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and IETF to be part of the formation of a new professional society concerned with something very important to us all -- the global communications network called the Internet. The IETF has played a key role under the Internet Activities Board (IAB) in many important Internet development activities. We all look forward to working within the Internet Society in the future. Since this is an initial report on the IETF, I feel it is important to give an overview of the IETF, how it operates, and how to become more involved in the open IETF activities. I will also give a brief report on the most recent IETF meeting, which took place in November 1991 in Santa Fe New Mexico, USA. IETF Overview The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol engineering, development, and standardization arm of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). The IETF began in January 1986 as a forum for technical coordination by contractors for the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET, U.S. Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system. Since that time, the IETF has grown into a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet protocol architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. The IETF mission includes: 1. Identifying and proposing solutions to pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet, 2. Specifying the development (or usage) of protocols and the near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet, 3. Making recommendations to the IAB regarding standardization of protocols and protocol usage in the Internet, 4. Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force to the wider Internet community, and 5. Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers. Technical activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed within Working Groups (WG). All Working Groups are organized roughly by function into nine technical areas. Each is led by an Area Director who has primary responsibility for that one area of IETF activity. Together with the Chair of the IETF, these nine technical Directors (plus, a director for Standards Procedures) compose the IESG. The current Areas and Directors, which compose the IESG, are: IETF and IESG Chair: Phill Gross/ANS Applications: Russ Hobby/UC-Davis Internet: Noel Chiappa/Consultant Philip Almquist/Consultant Network Management: James Davin/ MIT OSI Integration: David Piscitello/Bellcore Ross Callon/DEC (retiring) Operational Requirements: Susan Estrada/CERFnet Phill Gross/ANS Bernard Stockman/Nordunet Routing: Robert Hinden/BBN Security: Steve Crocker/TIS Transport and Services Dave Borman/Cray Research User Services Joyce Reynolds/ISI Standards Management: Dave Crocker/DEC The IETF has a secretariat, headquartered at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives in Reston Virginia, with the following staff: IETF Executive Director: Steve Coya IESG Secretary: Greg Vaudreuil IETF Coordination: Megan Davies Administrative Support: Debra Legare Cynthia Clark The Working Groups conduct business during plenary meetings of the IETF, during meetings outside of the IETF, and via electronic mail on mailing lists established for each group. The IETF holds 4.5 day plenary sessions three times a year. These plenary meetings are composed of Working Group sessions, technical presentations, network status briefings, WG reporting, and an open IESG meeting. A Proceeding of each IETF plenary is published, which includes reports from each area, each WG, and each technical presentation. The Proceedings includes a summary of all current standardization activities. Mailing Lists Much of the daily work of the IETF is conducted on electronic mailing lists. There are mailing lists for each of the Working Groups, as well as a general IETF list. Mail on the Working Group mailing lists is expected to be technically relevant to the Working Groups supported by that list. To join a mailing list, send a request to the associated request list. All internet mailing lists have a companion "-request" list. Send requests to join a list to -request@. Information and logistics about upcoming meetings of the IETF are distributed on the general IETF mailing list. For general inquiries about the IETF, send a request to ietf-request@isi.edu. An archive of mail sent to the IETF list is available for anonymous ftp from the directory ~ftp/irg/ietf on venera.isi.edu On Line IETF Information The Internet Engineering Task Force maintains up-to-date on-line information on all its activities. There is a directory containing Internet-Draft documents and a directory containing IETF working group information. All this information is available in identical format for public access at several locations globally. (See below for locations.) The "IETF" directory contains a general description of the IETF, summaries of ongoing working group activities and provides information on past and upcoming meetings. The directory generally reflects information contained in the most recent IETF Proceedings and Working Group Reports. The "Internet-Drafts" directory makes available for review and comment draft documents that will be submitted ultimately to the IAB for standardization and/or submitted to the RFC Editor to be considered for publishing as an RFC. Comments on Internet-Drafts from the wider Internet community (i.e., in addition to those attending the WG sessions at the IETF plenaries) are strongly encouraged and should be addressed to the responsible person whose name and electronic mail addresses are listed on the first page of the respective draft. The IETF Directory Below is a list of the files available in the IETF directory and a short synopsis of what each file contains. Files prefixed with a 0 contain information about upcoming meetings. Files prefixed with a 1 contain general information about the IETF, the working groups, and the internet-drafts. FILE NAME 0mtg-agenda the current agenda for the upcoming quarterly IETF plenary, which contains what Working Groups will be meeting and at what times, and the technical presentations and network status reports to be given. 0mtg-logistics the announcement for the upcoming quarterly IETF plenary, which contains specific information on the date/location of the meeting, hotel/airline arrangements, meeting site accommodations and travel directions. 0mtg-rsvp a standardized RSVP form to be used to notify the support staff of your plans to attend the upcoming IETF meeting. 0mtg-schedule current and future meeting dates and sites for IETF plenaries. 1id-abstracts the internet drafts current on-line in the internet-drafts directory. 1id-guidelines instructions for authors of internet drafts. 1ietf-overview a short description of the IETF, the IESG and how to participate. 1wg-summary a listing of all current Working Groups, the working group chairmen and their email addresses, working group mailing list addresses, and, where applicable, documentation produced. This file also contains the standard acronym for the working groups by which the IETF and Internet-Drafts directories are keyed. Finally, Working Groups have individual files dedicated to their particular activities which contain their respective Charters and Meeting Reports. Each Working Group file is named in this fashion: -charter.txt -minutes-date.txt Using FTP, the "dir" or "ls" command will permit you to review what Working Group files are available. The Internet-Drafts Directory The Internet-Drafts directory contains the current working documents of the IETF. These documents are indexed in the file 1id-abstracts.txt in the Internet-Drafts directory. The documents are named according to the following conventions. If the document was generated in an IETF working group, the filename is: draft-ietf---.txt , or .ps where is the working group acronym, is a very short name, and is the revision number. If the document was submitted for comment by a non-ietf group or author, the filename is: draft----.txt, or .ps where is the organization sponsoring the work and is the author's name. For more information on writing and installing an Internet-Draft, see the file 1id-guidelines, "Guidelines to Authors of Internet-Drafts". Directory Locations The directories are maintained primarily at the NSFnet Service Center (NNSC). There are several official "shadow" machines which contain the IETF and INTERNET-DRAFTS directories in identical format. These machines may be more convenient than nnsc.nsf.nsf. (Plus, there are numerous "unofficial" sites, that may also be more convenient for specific users.) To access these directories, use FTP. After establishing a connection, Login with username ANONYMOUS and password GUEST. When logged in, change to the directory of your choice with the following commands: cd internet-drafts cd ietf Individual files can then be retrieved using the GET command: get e.g., get 00README readme.my.copy IETF Directory Locations NSF Network Service Center Address: nnsc.nsf.net The Defense Data Network NIC Address: nic.ddn.mil Internet-drafts are also available by mail server from this machine. For more information mail a request: To: service@nic.ddn.mil Subject: Help NIC staff are happy to assist users with any problems that they may encounter in the process of obtaining files by FTP or "SERVICE". For assistance, phone the NIC hotline at 1-800-235-3155 between 6 am and 5 pm Pacific time. Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au The Internet-drafts on this machine are stored in Unix compressed form (.Z). Europe Address: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17) *Advanced Network and Services