Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Internet Standards

•       While there are many standards organizations in the world, the two that produce most of other standards relevant to network programming are Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

•       The mission of the IETF is make the Internet work better by producing high quality, relevant technical documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet.

•       The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite.

•       It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and managers are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors

•       Founded in 1986, the IETF is a non-membership, open, voluntary standards organization dedicated to identifying problems and opportunities in IP data networks and proposing technical solutions to the Internet community.

•       The work of the IETF is done in working groups that are chartered to explore specific tasks.

•       The groups are organized into areas, each with two directors. The directors, along with the IETF Chair, form the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). The IESG charters working groups and evaluates the proposals they develop.

•       The IETF works under the auspices of the Internet Society, which provides a legal framework and financial support.

•       A small secretariat, provided by CNRI, supports the work of the IETF. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is an IETF committee that provides architectural advice to the IETF and deals with IETF relationships with other standards organizations.

•       The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is made up of research groups that explore new technologies, some of which are later proposed to the IETF.

•       The IETF is a large, open international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers whose purpose is to coordinate the operation, management and evolution of the Internet and to resolve short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues.

•       It is a major source of proposals for protocol standards which are submitted to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) for final approval. The IETF meets three times a year and extensive minutes are included in the IETF Proceedings.