A short introduction to the IETF

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A short introduction to the IETF

• Harald Alvestrand
• IETF chair

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IETF History
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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

• Historical developer of Internet-related
  protocols
• Http//www.ietf.org
• Consortium of individuals from
• Research, Education, Network operators, and
  Internet vendors

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Changed IETF composition and roles
2500
2000
1500
Research/Education primarily US
Attendance
1000
Vendor/International
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Actual
Avg..
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IETF Growth by Country
Other
Italy
Netherlands
Other
Sweden
Germany
8
2
3
5.5
1.8
1.9
France
Canada
2.0
3
Netherlands
2.2
France
USA
Canada
4
3.1
48
JAPAN
Finland
UK
USA
7.6
4.2
71.6
4
Germany
5
Norway
Japan
UK
Sweden
5
6
6
6

• December 1996 (San Jose)
• 11 Countries

• July 1999 (Oslo)
• 33 Countries

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IETF structure
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IETF structures and key forums

• Internet Architecture Board
• Internet Engineering Steering Group
• Working groups in eight areas

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Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

• Mission
• Oversight of IETF, IRTF, IANA, liaisons
• Think tank for future Internet activities
• Recent activities
• Really worried right now about
• Integrity of the infrastructure
• Impact of unbridled creativity
• Wireless communications

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Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)

• Mission
• Assure open-ness and adherence to process
• Working group chartering and management
• Quality assurance on specifications
• Activities and trends
• Making sure mobile networks are part of the
  Internet
• Trying to grow the network (v6, routing)

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Working groups in eight areas

• Internet
• Routing
• Transport
• Applications
• (Sub-IP)

• Security
• Operations and management
• General

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Working group summary

• We have more than 100 working groups
• Not all currently active
• Maintain the v4 Internet
• Enable the v6 Internet
• Create the mobile Internet
• Make all the Internet useful and secure

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IETF process
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Membership

• IETF members are people
• As opposed to nations or companies
• Communications tend to be among people
• As opposed to working groups, boards, etc.
• Have trouble understanding liaison

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Fundamental working principle
We reject kings, presidents, and voting. We
believe in rough consensus and running code.
Dr. David C. Clark, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
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Fundamental perspective of enlightened
self-interest

• There is no one organization or company which has
  a corner on intelligence or expertise
• Good ideas that help our markets come from
  everywhere and anywhere
• Growing the Internet is good for all of us
• A larger Internet creates larger markets.
• Larger markets create cheaper products.
• Cheaper products create more end-user value.

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Two types of documents

• Internet drafts
• RFC - request for comments

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Internet drafts

• Most analogous to ITU contributions and
  working papers
• Not necessarily work items
• Half of all Internet drafts are simply documents
  people have chosen to post
• Nine out of ten I-Ds do NOT result in RFCs
• Types of drafts
• Working group documents
• Submissions to working groups
• Individual submissions

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RFCs

• Historical archive
• Many kinds of documents
• Informational
• Historical
• Experimental
• Standards

• Standards
• Proposed, draft, full
• Best current practice

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Development process

• Bottom-up
• Working Group charters developed to support work
  people want to do
• Development process
• Working groups develop
• IESG reviews
• RFC editor publishes

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Relations among standards bodies

• Anyone who likes legislation or sausage should
  watch neither one being made
• Baron von Bismarck

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IETF infrastructure protocols

• Some link layer
• PPP
• Network layer
• IPv4, IPv6
• Routing protocols
• Transport layer
• TCP, UDP, RTP

• Security services
• Transport layer security, IPSEC, ISAKMP
• Telephony signaling
• Signaling transport
• Quality support
• Differentiated services
• Integrated services

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IETF infrastructure applications

• SNMP management
• SMTP mail
• DNS name services
• LDAP directory services

• SSH virtual terminal protocol
• FTP file transfer
• HTTP web transfer
• And more...

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How IETF sees work divided
W3C
HTML
Telephony
Voice/ Video Data
HTTP
Signaling
Mail
SNMP
UDP
RTP
TCP
Internet Protocol
IEEE
MPLS
Ethernet
ATM
Frame Relay
PPP
ETSI
A variety of physical layers and interfaces
Cellular Radio
ITU-T

• Applications come from all over
• IETF
• Provides network infrastructure
• Tends to use interfaces defined by other bodies
• Wants to make sure the whole thing works

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Questions?