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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)�

An Overview

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Oct 1, 2023

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IETF

Mission

Make the Internet work better by producing high quality, relevant technical documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet. ��[RFC 3935]

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IETF

Open Internet Standards

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  • Open standards are key to allow devices, services, and applications to interoperate across a interconnected, heterogeneous, and global network of networks
    • All IETF standards are available online at no charge, thus facilitating adoption of them.
    • The IETF determines its success by technical quality and voluntary deployment
  • The IETF process is open, transparent, and relies on a bottom-up consensus-building
    • Everybody may participate, no membership, no dues
    • All work like Internet-Drafts and email archives are publicly available
    • Decisions are based on rough consensus
  • Openness in both the technical standards itself as well as the standards development process is the basis for (permissionless) innovation in and on top of the Internet and key to its success.

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IETF

Work Areas and Key Protocols�

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Link Layers�(IEEE, 3GPP, etc.)

Internet (INT)�how to carry IP packets over different link layers

IPv6, IPv4, DNS, DHCP, NTP, mobility, multihoming

Routing (RTG)�stable paths across dynamically interconnected networks

BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, RSVP, VPNs, SFC, multicast

Transport (TSV)�end-to-end transmission mechanisms over network paths

TCP, UDP, QUIC, congestion control

Applications & Realtime Media (ART)�application protocols over end-to-end transports

HTTP, voice & video, SIP, RTP, email

Operations &� Management� (OPS)

network� management &� operational� best practices�

YANG

NETCONF

SNMP

RADIUS

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Security (SEC)

security & privacy� at all layers &� for all protocols�

TLS

IPsec

PGP

S/MIME

PKIX

cryptography

Internet Applications�(W3C, OASIS, etc.)

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Global IETF Community

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IETF 117 San Francisco, July 2023

1579 onsite and remote participants

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IETF�Processes and Safeguards

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  • Open participation, transparent processes, and distributed decision-making
  • Rough consensus, no voting
  • Judgments on the basis of technical merit and architectural alignment
    • Leadership judges consensus rather than offering personal opinions
  • Leadership nominations committee (“NomCom”)
    • Randomized selection of committee members from pool of active IETF volunteers
    • Two-per-organization limit on committee members
    • Decisions on the basis of community feedback
  • Leadership diversity norms; soft per-company limits

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How does IETF work?

  • You are an individual when you participate at IETF
    • No membership / No dues!
    • Mostly sponsored by companies/institutions
    • But we are individuals, i.e. individual opinion and technical arguments matters only!
  • Areas and Working Groups
  • Mailing List is all that matters
    • All formal decision on the list
  • IETF has 3 meetings per year
    • High-bandwidth F2F communication
    • Cross Area collaboration
  • Rough Consensus
    • Measure of opinions, but no voting!
  • Running Code
    • IETF Hackathon
    • Datatracker Code Sprint

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IETF Areas & Working Groups

  • The IETF divides its work into a number of Areas, each comprised of working groups.
    • Applications and Real-Time Area (art)
    • General Area (gen)
    • Internet Area (int)
    • Operations and Management Area (ops)
    • Routing Area (rtg)
    • Security Area (sec)
    • Transport Area (tsv)
  • Areas have Area Directors (ADs) that forms the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)
  • Working Groups (WGs) are the primary mechanism for development of IETF specifications and guidelines.
    • They are created with a charter that describes the specific problem or deliverables they will deliver.
  • WG have WG co-chairs

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IETF and IRTF�leadership

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Ops & Mgmt�(OPS)

Security�(SEC)

Internet�(INT)�

Routing�(RTG)

Applications�(APP)�

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Transport�(TSV)

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Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)�

14 Area Directors

Working Group

General�(GEN)

Internet Architecture Board�(IAB)

Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)

Research Group

  • Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) = all area directors (ADs)
    • Approves all Internet Standards
    • Starts/Manages/ends technical WGs
  • Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
    • Architectural oversight
    • Liaison management
  • Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
    • Longer term Internet research

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Working Group

Research Group

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What is RFC?

  • Request for Comment
    • The name is historic
      • it was created as a way to share notes among researchers.
    • RFC Series has a longer history (1969) than the IETF (1986)
      • By Steve Crocker
      • Internet Pioneer Jon Postel was RFC Editor for 28 years!
  • Now the discussion is on the mailing list
  • Ideas are published as Internet-drafts
    • If you want to contribute to IETF, this is where you start!
  • The final consensus ideas are published as RFCs
    • An archival document
    • Over 9400; around 200 RFCs per year!
    • RFCs can be from other streams (apart from IETF)

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Internet-Drafts (I-Ds)

  • Working documents
    • Capture ideas or discussion points
    • Multiple revision leading upto RFCs
  • I-Ds are posted (not published)
    • Anyone can do it
  • Starting point for discussion
    • Don't have to complete/perfect
    • They may go many changes, completely re-written, merged or abandoned!
  • I-Ds expire in 6 months
    • Referenced as “work in progress”
  • Working Group Adopted I-Ds
    • When a WG is ready to develop a particular document, it "adopts" an existing individual document as a starting point.
    • Leads to change in the name
      • draft-ietf-<wgname>-... from draft-<lastname>-...

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IETF�Document Types Summary

Internet-Draft (I-D)

  • Active working documents
    • Not finalized and not stable
  • Anyone can submit an I-D
    • draft-yourname-...
  • Only some I-Ds are Working Group documents
    • draft-ietf-wgname-...

RFC (Request For Comment)

  • Archival publication series
    • RFCs never change once published
  • Not all RFCs are standards
    • Also: Informational, Experimental
  • Not all RFCs are IETF documents
    • Also Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), others

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Towards Consensus

  • You need to get agreement and support from across the WG
    • It could be rough! It is NOT a majority rule!
  • Consensus doesn't require that everyone is happy and agrees that the chosen solution is the best one. Consensus is when everyone is sufficiently satisfied with the chosen solution, such that they no longer have specific objections to it.
  • You must address any valid technical objection
    • Address, not necessarily accommodate!
  • Read more
    • RFC 7282: On Consensus and Humming in the IETF

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Key Areas of Interest at IETF

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  • DNS
  • HTTP
  • Routing - BGP, OSPF, ISIS
  • IoT
  • IPv6
  • MPLS
  • Segment Routing
  • Traffic Engineering
  • Security - TLS, IPSec..
  • Transport - QUIC, TCP..
  • Real Time communication - WebRTC
  • Network Management - YANG, NetConf..
  • Autonomic Networking
  • Data Center Networking
  • Measurements

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Ways to participate in the IETF

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IETF & Internet Governance

  • While the IETF primarily focuses on technical standards, its work indirectly influences Internet governance.
    • By developing open and interoperable protocols, the IETF contributes to the decentralized and cooperative nature of the Internet, which has implications for how the Internet is governed and how data flows across borders
      • Technical Foundation
      • Openness and Decentralization
      • Global Collaboration
      • Security & Privacy
      • Interoperability & Innovation
      • Internet Governance Principles
      • Thinking about Policy and Human rights implications.

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thank you.

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IETF – Activities by Regions�Document authors over time (I-Ds and RFCs)

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Source: https://www.arkko.com/tools/rfcstats/countrydistrhist.html October 2022

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IETF – Most Active Organizations�By I-Ds in the last 5 years

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Source:https://datatracker.ietf.org/stats/document/authors/ October 2022

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IETF – Activities by Regions�Document (I-Ds and RFCs) authors by continent

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https://www.arkko.com/tools/allstats/contdistr.html Oct. 2022

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IETF – Most Active Organizations�By RFCs Over Time

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Source: https://www.arkko.com/tools/rfcstats/companydistrhist.html October 2022

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Last 5 years

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In India

  • IIESoc (India Internet Engineering Society) is a non-profit entity that brings together different stakeholders from the computer networking community across industry, academia, service providers and government.
    • It exists to further the adoption of IETF standards and increase awareness & participation in the IETF process.
  • Established in 2017 by some of us regular IETFers from India and diaspora.
  • Aim to bridge the gap between India and Internet Standards
  • Organize various events
    • IPv6 Webinar Series
    • Regular RFCsWeLove Meetup
    • Annual Connections Event
    • Indian Community @ IETF get together
  • Provide
    • Help and guidance to anyone interested in participating in IETF from India
    • Mentor during the IETF week
    • Informal discussions on any technical internet topic
  • Helped many
    • with writing their first draft and attending meetings!

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https://www.iiesoc.in/