1. What Is the IETF?

The Internet Engineering Task Force is a loosely self-organized group of people who contribute to the engineering and evolution of Internet technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet standard specifications. The IETF is unusual in that it exists as a collection of happenings, but is not a corporation and has no board of directors, no members, and no dues.

Its mission includes:

• Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet;
• Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet;
• Making recommendations to the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) regarding the standardization of protocols and protocol usage in the Internet;
• Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and
• Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers.

The IETF meeting is not a conference, although there are technical presentations. The IETF is not a traditional standards organization, although many specifications are produced that become standards. The IETF is made up of volunteers, many of whom meet three times a year to fulfill the IETF mission.

There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone may register for and attend any meeting. The closest thing there is to being an IETF member is being on the IETF or Working Group mailing lists (see Section 1.3). This is where the best information about current IETF activities and focus can be found.

Of course, no organization can be as successful as the IETF is without having some sort of structure. In the IETF's case, that structure is provided by other organizations, as described in BCP 11 (RFC-2028), "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process." If you participate in the IETF and only read one BCP, this is the one you should read.

1.1. Humble Beginnings

The first IETF meeting was held in January, 1986, at Linkabit in San Diego, with 21 attendees. The 4th IETF, held at SRI in Menlo Park in October, 1986, was the first that non-government vendors attended. The concept of Working Groups was introduced at the 5th IETF meeting at the NASA Ames Research Center in California in February, 1987. The 7th IETF, held at MITRE in McLean, Virginia in July, 1987, was the first meeting with over 100 attendees.

The 14th IETF meeting was held at Stanford University in July 1989. It marked a major change in the structure of the IETF universe. The IAB (then Internet Activities Board, now Internet Architecture Board), which until that time oversaw many "task forces," changed its structure to leave only two: the IETF and the IRTF. The IRTF is tasked to consider long-term research problems in the Internet. The IETF also changed at that time.

After the Internet Society (ISOC) was formed in January, 1992, the IAB proposed to ISOC that the IAB's activities should take place under the auspices of the Internet Society. During INET92 in Kobe, Japan, the ISOC Trustees approved a new charter for the IAB to reflect the proposed relationship.

The IETF met in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in July 1993. This was the first IETF meeting held in Europe, and the US/non-US attendee split was nearly 50/50. One in five IETF meetings are now held in Europe or Asia, and the number of non-US attendees continues to be high -- about 50%, even at meetings held in the US.

1.2. The Hierarchy

1.2.1. ISOC (Internet Society)

The Internet Society is an international, non-profit, membership organization that fosters the expansion of the Internet. One of the ways that ISOC does this is through financial and legal support of the other "I" groups described here, particularly the IETF. ISOC's oversight of the IETF is remarkably hands-off, so many IETF participants don't even know about it. ISOC provides insurance coverage for many of the people in the IETF process, and acts as a public relations channel for the times that one of the "I" groups wants to say something to the press. The ISOC is one of the major unsung (and under-funded) heroes of the Internet.

1.2.2. IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group)

The IESG is responsible for technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards process. It administers the process according to the rules and procedures that have been ratified by the ISOC Trustees. However, the IESG doesn't do much direct leadership, such as the kind you will find in many other standards organizations. The IESG ratifies or corrects the output from the IETF's Working Groups, gets WGs started and finished, and makes sure that non-WG drafts that are about to become RFCs are correct.

The IESG consists of the Area Directors ("ADs"), who are selected by the Nominations Committee (which is usually called "Nomcom") and are appointed for two years. The process for choosing the members of the IESG is detailed in BCP 10(RFC-2727(-> 3777)), "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees."

The current areas and abbreviations are:

   -  Applications (APP)   Protocols seen by user programs, such as
                           e-mail and the Web
   -  General (GEN)        Catch-all for WGs that don't fit in other
                           areas (which is very few)
   -  Internet (INT)       Different ways of moving IP packets and DNS
                           information
   -  Operations and       Operational aspects, network monitoring,
      Management (OPS)     and configuration
   -  Routing (RTG)        Getting packets to their destinations
   -  Security (SEC)       Authentication and privacy
   -  Transport (TSV)      Special services for special packets
   -  User Services (USV)  Support for end users and user support
                           organizations

Because the IESG has a great deal of influence on whether Internet Drafts become RFCs, many people look at the ADs as somewhat godlike creatures. IETF participants sometimes reverently ask an Area Director for their opinion on a particular subject. However, most ADs are nearly indistinguishable from mere mortals and rarely speak from mountaintops. In fact, when asked for specific technical comments, the ADs may often defer to members at large whom they feel have more knowledge than they do in that area.

The ADs for a particular area are expected to know more about the combined work of the WGs in that area than anyone else. On the other hand, the entire IESG discusses each Internet Draft that is proposed to become an RFC. At least two IESG members must express concerns before a draft can be blocked from moving forward. These checks help ensure that an AD's "pet project" doesn't make it onto the standards track if it will have a negative effect on the rest of the IETF protocols.

This is not to say that the IESG never wields power. When the IESG sees a Working Group veering from its charter, or when a WG asks the IESG to make the WG's badly designed protocol a standard, the IESG will act. In fact, because of its high workload, the IESG usually moves in a reactive fashion. It approves most WG requests for Internet Drafts to become RFCs, and usually only steps in when something has gone very wrong. Another way to think about this is that the ADs are selected to think, not to just run the process. The quality of the IETF standards comes both from the review they get in the Working Groups and the review that the WG review gets from the ADs.

The IETF is run by rough consensus, and it is the IESG that decides if a WG has come up with a result that has a real consensus. Because of this, one of the main reasons that the IESG might block something that was produced in a WG is that the result did not really gain consensus in the IETF as a whole, that is, among all of the Working Groups in all areas. For instance, the result of one WG might clash with a technology developed in a different Working Group. An important job of the IESG is to watch over the output of all the WGs to help prevent IETF protocols that are at odds with each other. This is why ADs are supposed to review the drafts coming out of areas other than their own.

1.2.3. IAB (Internet Architecture Board)

The IAB is responsible for keeping an eye on the "big picture" of the Internet, and focuses on long-range planning and coordination among the various areas of IETF activity. The IAB stays informed about important long-term issues in the Internet, and brings these topics to the attention of people they think should know about them.

IAB members pay special attention to emerging activities in the IETF. When a new IETF working group is proposed, the IAB reviews its charter for architectural consistency and integrity. Even before the group is chartered, the IAB members are more than willing to discuss new ideas with the people proposing them.

The IAB also sponsors and organizes the Internet Research Task Force, and convenes invitational workshops that provide in-depth reviews of specific Internet architectural issues. Typically, the workshop reports make recommendations to the IETF community and to the IESG.

The IAB also:

• Approves Nomcom's IESG nominations
• Acts as the appeals board for appeals against IESG actions
• Appoints and oversees the RFC Editor
• Approves the appointment of the IANA
• Acts as an advisory body to the ISOC
• Oversees IETF liaisons with other standards bodies

Like the IESG, the IAB members are selected for multi-year positions by the Nomcom, and are approved by the Board of Trustees of the ISOC.

1.2.4. IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)

The core registrar for the IETF's activities is the IANA. Many Internet protocols require that someone keep track of protocol items that were added after the protocol came out. Typical examples of the kinds of registries needed are for TCP port numbers and MIME types. The IAB has designated the IANA organization to perform these tasks, and the IANA's activities are financially supported by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Five years ago, no one would have expected to ever see the IANA mentioned on the front page of a newspaper. IANA's role had always been very low key. The fact that IANA was also the keeper of the root of the domain name system forced it to become a much more public entity, one which was badly maligned by a variety of people who never looked at what its role was. Nowadays the IETF is generally no longer involved in the IANA's domain name and IP address assignment functions, which are overseen by ICANN.

Even though being a registrar may not sound interesting, many IETF participants will testify to how important IANA has been for the Internet. Having a stable, long-term repository run by careful and conservative operators makes it much easier for people to experiment without worrying about messing things up. IANA's founder, Jon Postel, was heavily relied upon to keep things in order while the Internet kept growing by leaps and bounds, and he did a fine job of it until his untimely death in 1998.

1.2.5. RFC Editor

The RFC Editor edits, formats, and publishes Internet Drafts as RFCs, working in conjunction with the IESG. An important secondary role is to provide one definitive repository for all RFCs (see http://www.rfc-editor.org). Once an RFC is published, it is never revised. If the standard it describes changes, the standard will be re-published in another RFC that "obsoletes" the first.

One of the most popular misconceptions in the IETF community is that the role of the RFC Editor is performed by IANA. In fact, the RFC Editor is a separate job, although both the RFC Editor and IANA involved the same people for many years. The IAB approves the organization that will act as RFC Editor and the RFC Editor's general policy. The RFC Editor is funded by ISOC and can be contacted by e- mail at rfc-ed@rfc-editor.org.

1.2.6. IETF Secretariat

There are, in fact, a few people who are paid to maintain the IETF. The IETF Secretariat provides day-to-day logistical support, which mainly means coordinating face-to-face meetings and running the IETF-specific mailing lists (not the WG mailing lists). The Secretariat is also responsible for keeping the official Internet Drafts directory up to date and orderly, maintaining the IETF Web site, and for helping the IESG do its work. The IETF Secretariat is financially supported by the fees of the face-to-face meetings.

1.3. IETF Mailing Lists

Anyone who plans to attend an IETF meeting should join the IETF announcement mailing list, "ietf-announce@ietf.org". This is where all of the meeting information, Internet Draft and RFC announcements, and IESG Protocol Actions and Last Calls are posted. People who would like to "get technical" may also join the IETF discussion list, "ietf@ietf.org". This is where discussions of cosmic significance are held (Working Groups have their own mailing lists for discussions related to their work).

Subscriptions to these and other IETF mailing lists are handled by a program called Majordomo. Majordomo tends to be somewhat finicky about the format of subscription messages, and interacts poorly with email programs that make all email messages into HTML files. Majordomo will treat you well, however, if you format your messages just the way it likes. To join the IETF announcement list, for example, send email to:

      ietf-announce-request@ietf.org

Enter the word 'subscribe' (without the quotes) in the Subject line of the message and in the message body. To join the IETF discussion list, send email to:

      ietf-request@ietf.org

and enter the word 'subscribe' as explained above. If you decide to withdraw from either list, use the word 'unsubscribe.' Your messages to Majordomo should have nothing other than the commands 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in them.

Both lists are archived on the IETF web site:

      http://www.ietf.org/maillist.html

Do not, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason, send a request to join a list to the list itself! The thousands of people on the list don't need, or want, to know when a new person joins. Similarly, when changing e-mail addresses or leaving a list, send your request only to the "-request" address, not to the main list. This means you!!

The IETF discussion list is unmoderated. This means that anyone can express their opinions about issues affecting the Internet. However, it is not a place for companies or individuals to solicit or advertise, as noted in "IETF Discussion List Charter," RFC 3005. It is a good idea to read the whole RFC (it's short!) before posting to the IETF discussion list.

Only the Secretariat can send messages to the announcement list.

Even though the IETF mailing lists "represent" the IETF membership at large, it is important to note that attending an IETF meeting does not mean you'll be automatically added to either mailing list.