Internet Engineering Task Force: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:04, 14 November 2024


Founded:	1986
Ownership:	ISOC
Website:	IETF.org
Key People
Alissa Cooper, Chair

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an open, international community made-up of operators, designers and researchers. Their main concern is the development of the Internet's architecture as well as the development of Internet standards.^[1] It is a part of ISOC.^[2]

Overview[edit | edit source]

In order to develop Internet standards, the IETF cooperates with other communities and institutions like ISO/IEC and W3C for standards related to Internet protocol and TCP/IP. There are no membership requirements, since IETF is an open organization. All participants work voluntarily even if some are sponsored.

IETF's mission is to further enhance the Internet by developing high quality, relevant technical documents that stimulate and influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.^[3]

Position within ISOC[edit | edit source]

The IETF has become part of The Internet Society, which is a non-profit organization created in 1992 to ensure leadership in Internet-related standards, education, and policy. The main objective of ISOC is to ensure an open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people.^[4]

In 2018, the Internet Society formed a single-member LLC, IETF Administration LLC,^[5] to provide a corporate home and administrative support for the IETF, the Internet Architecture Board, and the Internet Research Task Force.^[6]

The ISOC has provided an institutional home for the IETF, but the two have become increasingly independent and evolved a clearer distribution of roles. While the IETF's remit has remained narrow, the Internet Society has greatly expanded its scope. This expansion is partially due to the creation of .org. When it was established, PIR became a subsidiary of the Internet Society, and now most of their revenue comes from .org sales.

IETF History[edit | edit source]

The first IETF meeting took place on January 16th, 1986; 21 US researchers participated. Since 1991 IETF has held 3 meetings per year; and eventually non-governmental entities were invited to participate. During the 1990's the IETF detached itself from the US government to form an independent and international forum; it eventually defined itself as a division of ISOC. ^[7]

IETF Relationship with ICANN[edit | edit source]

IETF has a non-voting liaison seat on the ICANN Board. The task force is not an ICANN body. However, it develops a good chunk of the protocols that ICANN and IANA rely on for DNS and IP Addressing matters.

IETF Working Groups[edit | edit source]

The work of IETF is divided between working groups, which are organized around specific topic areas. Each topic area is managed by an Area Director (AD), each of whom is a member of Internet Engineering Steering Group. The AD is responsible for appointing a chairperson to lead each working group, and in some cases, co-chairs.^[8] Current working groups are listed on the IETF Datatracker.^[9] Areas with currently active working groups are listed below.^[10]

Area	Area Director(s)
Applications and Real-Time Area (art)	Murray Kucherawy, Barry Leiba
General Area (gen)	Alissa Cooper
Internet Area (int)	Erik Kline, Éric Vyncke
Operations and Management Area (ops)	Warren Kumari, Robert Wilton
Routing Area (rtg)	Deborah Brungard, Alvaro Retana, Martin Vigoureux
Security Area (sec)	Roman Danyliw, Benjamin Kaduk
Transport Area (tsv)	Martin Duke, Magnus Westerlund

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 | businesses      =
 | website         = [http://www.ietf.org/ IETF.org]
-| keypeople       =
+| keypeople       = [[Alissa Cooper]], Chair
 }}
+The '''Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)''' is an open, international community made-up of operators, designers and researchers.  Their main concern is the development of the Internet's architecture as well as the development of Internet standards.<ref>[http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/IETF.html IETF definition]</ref> It is a part of [[ISOC]].<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF.org]</ref>
-'''IETF''' is the acronym for '''Internet Engineering Task Force''', which is an open, international community made-up of operators, designers and researchers; their main concern is the development of the Internet's architecture as well as the development of Internet standards.<ref>[http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/IETF.html IETF definition]</ref> It is a part of [[ISOC]].<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF.org]</ref>
+==Overview==
+In order to develop Internet standards, the IETF cooperates with other communities and institutions like ISO/IEC and [[W3C]] for standards related to Internet protocol and [[TCP/IP]].
+There are no membership requirements, since IETF is an open organization. All participants work voluntarily even if some are sponsored.
-==Overview==
+IETF's mission is to further enhance the Internet by developing high quality, relevant technical documents that stimulate and influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF mission]</ref>
-In order to develop Internet standards, the IETF cooperates with other communities and institutions like ISO/IEC and W3C for standards related to the Internet protocol([[IP]]) suite and TCP/IP.
-There is no imposed membership or membership requirements because IETF is an open organization. All participants work voluntarily even if some are sponsored.
+==Position within ISOC==
+The IETF has become part of [[ISOC|The Internet Society]], which is a non-profit organization created in 1992 to ensure leadership in Internet-related standards, education, and policy. The main objective of [[ISOC]] is to ensure an open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF part of ISOC]</ref>
-IETF's mission is to make the Internet work better by developing high quality, relevant technical documents that stimulate and influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF mission]</ref>
+In 2018, the Internet Society formed a single-member LLC, [[IETF Administration LLC]],<ref>[https://ietf.org/media/documents/IETF_LLC_Certificate_of_Formation.pdf IETF LLC Certificate of Formation]</ref> to provide a corporate home and administrative support for the IETF, the [[IAB|Internet Architecture Board]], and the [[IRTF|Internet Research Task Force]].<ref>[https://ietf.org/about/administration/overview/ IETF LLC Overview on IETF.org]</ref>
-The IETF is part of Internet Society ([[ISOC]]) which in its turn is a non-profit organization created in 1992 to ensure leadership in Internet-related standards, education, and policy. The main objective of [[ISOC]] is to ensure an open development, evolution and use of Internet in the benefit of people all over the world.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/ IETF part of ISOC]</ref>
+The ISOC has provided an institutional home for the IETF, but the two have become increasingly independent and evolved a clearer distribution of roles. While the IETF's remit has remained narrow, the Internet Society has greatly expanded its scope. This expansion is partially due to the creation of [[.org]]. When it was established, [[PIR]] became a subsidiary of the Internet Society, and now most of their revenue comes from .org sales.
 ==IETF History==
-After its foundation, the first IETF meeting took place in January 16 year 1986 when 21 US researchers participated. Since 1991 there were only 3 meetings organized on a yearly basis and non-governmental entities were invited to participate as well. This is how IETF became an open international community.
+The first IETF meeting took place on January 16th, 1986; 21 US researchers participated. Since 1991 IETF has held 3 meetings per year; and eventually non-governmental entities were invited to participate. During the 1990's the IETF detached itself from the US government to form an independent and international forum; it eventually defined itself as a division of [[ISOC]]. <ref>[http://www.ietf.org/25years.html IETF History]</ref>
-During the 1990's IETF changed its institutional from a US government form to an independent and international activity being subordinated to the Internet Society (ISOC).
+==IETF Relationship with ICANN==
+IETF has a non-voting liaison seat on the [[ICANN Board]]. The task force is not an [[ICANN Bodies|ICANN body]]. However, it develops a good chunk of the protocols that [[ICANN]] and [[IANA]] rely on for [[DNS]] and [[IP]] Addressing matters.
 ==IETF Working Groups==
-The work of IETF is based on working groups which are being organized based on the area/topic such as: management, security,transport, etc. Even if the IETF organized three meetings on a yearly basis, the working groups maintain communication by means of mailing lists. All members of the working groups must agree and accept the IETF rules of process.
+The work of IETF is divided between working groups, which are organized around specific topic areas. Each topic area is managed by an Area Director (AD), each of whom is a member of [[IESG|Internet Engineering Steering Group]]. The AD is responsible for appointing a chairperson to lead each working group, and in some cases, co-chairs.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/old/2009/overview.html IETF organization]</ref> Current working groups are listed on the [https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/ IETF Datatracker].<ref>[https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/ IETF Datatracker]</ref> Areas with currently active working groups are listed below.<ref>Current as of Dec. 30. 2020</ref>
-However, when the number of volunteers is small there are difficulties and the results can be slowed down due to lack of progress. Similarly, when the number of volunteers is too large there are also problems because a consensus is achieved harder. There are also cases when volunteers lack experience and basic knowledge in that specific area and all these factors influence progress.
-Moreover, each working group is being managed and coordination by an Area Director (AD) who are members of [[IESG]] (Internet Engineering Steering Group). In the same time, for each working group there is appointed a chairperson or in some cases co-chairs. The AD's are responsible with appointing the chairpersons for each working groups. In this way the ADs and the chairperson form the IESG(Internet Engineering Steering Group) and are responsible for the whole IETF work.
+{| class="wikitable"
+! Area !! Area Director(s)
-The submission made by IETF is considered as IETF Contribution. In this way, all IETF Contributions must comply with provisions of [[RFC 5378]] and [[RFC 4879]].<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/old/2009/overview.html IETF organization]</ref>
+|-
+| [[Applications and Real-Time Area]] (art) || [[Murray Kucherawy]], [[Barry Leiba]]
+|-
+| [[General Area]] (gen) || [[Alissa Cooper]]
+|-
+| [[Internet Area]] (int) || [[Erik Kline]], [[Éric Vyncke]]
+|-
+| [[Operations and Management Area]] (ops) || [[Warren Kumari]], [[Robert Wilton]]
+|-
+| [[Routing Area]] (rtg) || [[Deborah Brungard]], [[Alvaro Retana]], [[Martin Vigoureux]]
+|-
+| [[Security Area]] (sec) || [[Roman Danyliw]], [[Benjamin Kaduk]]
+|-
+| [[Transport Area]] (tsv) || [[Martin Duke]], [[Magnus Westerlund]]
+|}
 ==References==
 {{Reflist}}
-[[Category: Glossary]]
+==See also==
+* [[IESG]]
+* [[Internet Standards Process]]
+[[Category: Organizations]]
+[[Category: Acronym]]
+__NOTOC__