王朝网络
分享
 
 
 

RFC1602 - The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 2

王朝other·作者佚名  2008-05-31
宽屏版  字体: |||超大  

Network Working Group Internet Architecture Board and

Request for Comments: 1602 Internet Engineering Steering Group

Obsoletes: 1310 March 1994

Category: Informational

The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 2

Status of this Memo

This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo

does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of

this memo is unlimited.

Notice

This informational memo presents the current procedures for creating

and documenting Internet Standards. This document is provisional,

pending legal review and concurrence of the Internet Society

Trustees. It is being published in this form to keep the Internet

Community informed as to the current status of policies and

procedures for Internet Standards work.

Abstract

This document is a revision of RFC1310, which defined the official

procedures for creating and documenting Internet Standards.

This revision (revision 2) includes the following major changes:

(a) The new management strUCture arising from the POISED Working

Group is reflected. These changes were agreed to by the IETF

plenary and by the IAB and IESG in November 1992 and accepted by

the ISOC Board of Trustees at their December 1992 meeting.

(b) Prototype status is added to the non-standards track maturity

levels (Section 2.4.1).

(c) The Intellectual Property Rights section is completely revised,

in accordance with legal advice. Section 5 of this document

replaces Sections 5 and 6 of RFC-1310. The new section 5 has

been reviewed by legal counsel to the Internet Society.

(d) An appeals procedure is added (Section 3.6).

(e) The Wording of sections 1 and 1.2 has been changed to clarify

the relationships that exist between the Internet Society and

the IAB, the IESG, the IETF, and the Internet Standards process.

(f) An Appendix B has been added, listing the contact points for the

RFCeditor, the IANA, the IESG, the IAB and the ISOC. The

"future issues" are now listed in Appendix C.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................. 3

1.1 Internet Standards. ...................................... 4

1.2 Organizations ............................................ 6

1.3 Standards-Related Publications ........................... 8

1.4 Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) ................ 10

2. NOMENCLATURE ................................................. 11

2.1 The Internet Standards Track ............................. 11

2.2 Types of Specifications .................................. 12

2.3 Standards Track Maturity Levels .......................... 13

2.4 Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels ...................... 15

2.5 Requirement Levels ....................................... 17

3. THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS ............................... 19

3.1 Review and Approval ...................................... 19

3.2 Entering the Standards Track ............................. 20

3.3 Advancing in the Standards Track ......................... 21

3.4 Revising a Standard ...................................... 22

3.5 Retiring a Standard ...................................... 22

3.6 Conflict Resolution and Appeals .......................... 23

4. EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS ........................ 24

5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ................................. 26

5.1. General Policy .......................................... 26

5.2. Definitions ............................................. 26

5.3 Trade Secret Rights ...................................... 27

5.4. Rights and Permissions .................................. 27

5.5. Notices ................................................. 30

5.6. Assurances .............................................. 31

6. REFERENCES ................................................... 34

APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS ................................. 35

APPENDIX B: CONTACT POINTS ....................................... 35

APPENDIX C: FUTURE ISSUES ........................................ 36

Security Considerations .......................................... 37

Authors' Addresses ............................................... 37

1. INTRODUCTION

This memo documents the process currently used by the Internet

community for the standardization of protocols and procedures. The

Internet Standards process is an activity of the Internet Society

that is organized and managed on behalf of the Internet community by

the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering

Steering Group.

1.1 Internet Standards

The Internet, a loosely-organized international collaboration of

autonomous, interconnected networks, supports host-to-host

communication through voluntary adherence to open protocols and

procedures defined by Internet Standards. There are also many

isolated internets, i.e., sets of interconnected networks, which

are not connected to the Internet but use the Internet Standards.

Internet Standards were once limited to those protocols composing

what has been commonly known as the "TCP/IP protocol suite".

However, the Internet has been evolving towards the support of

multiple protocol suites, especially the Open Systems

Interconnection (OSI) suite. The Internet Standards process

described in this document is concerned with all protocols,

procedures, and conventions that are used in or by the Internet,

whether or not they are part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. In the

case of protocols developed and/or standardized by non-Internet

organizations, however, the Internet Standards process may apply

only to the application of the protocol or procedure in the

Internet context, not to the specification of the protocol itself.

In general, an Internet Standard is a specification that is stable

and well-understood, is technically competent, has multiple,

independent, and interoperable implementations with substantial

operational eXPerience, enjoys significant public support, and is

recognizably useful in some or all parts of the Internet.

The procedures described in this document are designed to be fair,

open and objective; to reflect existing (proven) practice; and to

be flexible.

o These procedures are intended to provide a fair, open, and

objective basis for developing, evaluating, and adopting

Internet Standards. They provide ample opportunity for

participation and comment by all interested parties. At each

stage of the standardization process, a specification is

repeatedly discussed and its merits debated in open meetings

and/or public electronic mailing lists, and it is made

available for review via world-wide on-line Directories.

o These procedures are explicitly aimed at recognizing and

adopting generally-accepted practices. Thus, a candidate

specification is implemented and tested for correct operation

and interoperability by multiple independent parties and

utilized in increasingly demanding environments, before it

can be adopted as an Internet Standard.

o These procedures provide a great deal of flexibility to adapt

to the wide variety of circumstances that occur in the

standardization process. Experience has shown this

flexibility to be vital in achieving the goals listed above.

The goal of technical competence, the requirement for prior

implementation and testing, and the need to allow all interested

parties to comment, all require significant time and effort. On

the other hand, today's rapid development of networking technology

places an urgency on timely development of standards. The

Internet standardization rules described here are intended to

balance these conflicting goals. The process is believed to be as

short and simple as possible without undue sacrifice of technical

competence, prior testing, or openness and fairness.

In summary, the goals for the Internet standards process are:

* technical Excellence;

* prior implementation and testing;

* clear, short, and easily understandable documentation;

* openness and fairness; and

* timeliness.

In outline, the process of creating an Internet Standard is

straightforward: a specification undergoes a period of development

and several iterations of review by the Internet community and

revision based upon experience, is adopted as a Standard by the

appropriate body (see below), and is published. In practice, the

process is more complicated, due to (1) the difficulty of creating

specifications of high technical quality; (2) the need to consider

the interests of all of the affected parties; (3) the importance

of establishing widespread community consensus; and (4) the

difficulty of evaluating the utility of a particular specification

for the Internet community.

From its inception, the Internet has been, and is expected to

remain, an evolving system whose participants regularly factor new

requirements and technology into its design and implementation.

Users of the Internet and providers of the equipment, software,

and services that support it should anticipate and embrace this

evolution as a major tenet of Internet philosophy.

The procedures described in this document are the result of three

years of evolution, driven both by the needs of the growing and

increasingly diverse Internet community, and by experience.

Comments and suggestions are invited for improving these

procedures.

The remainder of this section describes the organizations and

publications involved in Internet standardization. Section 2

presents the nomenclature for different kinds and levels of

Internet standard technical specifications and their

applicability. Section 3 describes the process and rules for

Internet standardization. Section 4 defines how relevant

externally-sponsored specifications and practices, developed and

controlled by other standards bodies or by vendors, are handled in

the Internet standardization process. Section 5 presents the

rules that are required to protect intellectual property rights

and to assure unrestricted ability for all interested parties to

practice Internet Standards.

1.2 Organizations

The following organizations are involved in the Internet standards

process.

* IETF

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a loosely self-

organized group of people who make technical and other

contributions to the engineering and evolution of the

Internet and its technologies. It is the principal body

engaged in the development of new Internet Standard

specifications, although it is not itself a part of the

Internet Society. The IETF is composed of individual Working

Groups, which are grouped into Areas, each of which is

coordinated by one or more Area Directors. Nominations to

the Internet Architecture Board and the Internet Engineering

Steering Group are made by a nominating committee selected at

random from the ranks of regular IETF meeting attendees who

have volunteered to serve as nominating committee members.

* ISOC

Internet standardization is an organized activity of the

Internet Society (ISOC). The ISOC is a professional society

that is concerned with the growth and evolution of the

worldwide Internet, with the way in which the Internet is and

can be used, and with the social, political, and technical

issues that arise as a result. The ISOC Board of Trustees is

responsible for approving appointments to the Internet

Architecture Board from among the nominees submitted by the

IETF nominating committee.

* IESG

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is responsible

for technical management of IETF activities and the Internet

Standards process. As part of the Internet Society, it

administers the Internet Standards process according to the

rules and procedures given in this document, which have been

accepted and ratified by the Internet Society Trustees. The

IESG is directly responsible for the actions associated with

entry into and movement along the "standards track", as

described in section 3 of this document, including final

approval of specifications as Internet Standards. The IESG

is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the chairperson of

the IETF, who also serves as the chairperson of the IESG.

* IAB

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is a technical advisory

group of the Internet Society. It is chartered by the

Internet Society Trustees to provide oversight of the

architecture of the Internet and its protocols, and to serve

in the context of the Internet Standards process as a body to

which the decisions of the IESG may be appealed (as described

in section 3.6 of this document). The IAB is responsible for

approving appointments to the IESG from among the nominees

submitted by the IETF nominating committee.

Any member of the Internet community with the time and interest is

urged to participate actively in one or more IETF Working Groups

and to attend IETF meetings. In many cases, active Working Group

participation is possible through email alone; furthermore,

Internet video conferencing is being used experimentally to allow

remote participation. Participation is by individual technical

contributors rather than formal representatives of organizations.

The process works because the IETF Working Groups display a spirit

of cooperation as well as a high degree of technical maturity;

IETF participants recognize that the greatest benefit for all

members of the Internet community results from cooperative

development of technically superior protocols and services.

Members of the IESG and IAB are nominated for two-year terms by a

committee that is drawn from the roll of recent participation in

the IETF and chartered by the ISOC Board of Trustees. The

appointment of IESG and of IAB members are made from these

nominations by the IAB and by the ISOC Board of Trustees,

respectively.

The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is not directly part of

the standards process. It investigates topics considered to be

too uncertain, too advanced, or insufficiently well-understood to

be the subject of Internet standardization. When an IRTF activity

generates a specification that is sufficiently stable to be

considered for Internet standardization, the specification is

processed through the IETF using the rules in this document.

1.3 Standards-Related Publications

1.3.1 Requests for Comments (RFCs)

Each distinct version of a specification is published as part

of the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series. This

archival series is the official publication channel for

Internet standards documents and other publications of the

IESG, IAB, and Internet community. RFCs are available for

anonymous FTP from a number of Internet hosts.

The RFCseries of documents on networking began in 1969 as part

of the original ARPA wide-area networking (ARPANET) project

(see Appendix A for glossary of acronyms). RFCs cover a wide

range of topics, from early discussion of new research concepts

to status memos about the Internet. RFCpublication is the

direct responsibility of the RFCEditor, under the general

direction of the IAB.

The rules for formatting and submitting an RFCare defined in

reference [5]. Every RFCis available in ASCII text, but some

RFCs are also available in PostScript. The PostScript version

of an RFCmay contain material (such as diagrams and figures)

that is not present in the ASCII version, and it may be

formatted differently.

*********************************************************

* A stricter requirement applies to standards-track *

* specifications: the ASCII text version is the *

* definitive reference, and therefore it must be a *

* complete and accurate specification of the standard, *

* including all necessary diagrams and illustrations. *

* *

*********************************************************

The status of Internet protocol and service specifications is

summarized periodically in an RFCentitled "Internet Official

Protocol Standards" [1]. This RFCshows the level of maturity

and other helpful information for each Internet protocol or

service specification. See Section 3.1.3 below.

Some RFCs document Internet standards. These RFCs form the

'STD' subseries of the RFCseries [4]. When a specification

has been adopted as an Internet Standard, it is given the

additional label "STDxxxx", but it keeps its RFCnumber and its

place in the RFCseries.

Not all specifications of protocols or services for the

Internet should or will become Internet Standards. Such non-

standards track specifications are not subject to the rules for

Internet standardization. Generally, they will be published

directly as RFCs at the discretion of the RFCeditor and the

IESG. These RFCs will be marked "Prototype", "Experimental" or

"Informational" as appropriate (see section 2.3).

********************************************************

* It is important to remember that not all RFCs *

* are standards track documents, and that not all *

* standards track documents reach the level of *

* Internet Standard. *

********************************************************

1.3.2 Internet Drafts

During the development of a specification, draft versions of

the document are made available for informal review and comment

by placing them in the IETF's "Internet Drafts" directory,

which is replicated on a number of Internet hosts. This makes

an evolving working document readily available to a wide

audience, facilitating the process of review and revision.

An Internet Draft that is published as an RFC, or that has

remained unchanged in the Internet Drafts directory for more

than six months without being recommended by the IESG for

publication as an RFC, is simply removed from the Internet

Draft directory. At any time, an Internet Draft may be

replaced by a more recent version of the same specification,

restarting the six-month timeout period.

An Internet Draft is NOT a means of "publishing" a

specification; specifications are published through the RFC

mechanism described in the previous section. Internet Drafts

have no formal status, are not part of the permanent archival

record of Internet activity, and are subject to change or

removal at any time.

********************************************************

* Under no circumstances should an Internet Draft *

* be referenced by any paper, report, or Request-for-*

* Proposal, nor should a vendor claim compliance *

* with an Internet-Draft. *

********************************************************

Note: It is acceptable to reference a standards-track

specification that may reasonably be expected to be published

as an RFCusing the phrase "Work in Progress", without

referencing an Internet Draft.

1.4 Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA)

Many protocol specifications include numbers, keywords, and other

parameters that must be uniquely assigned. Examples include

version numbers, protocol numbers, port numbers, and MIB numbers.

The IAB has delegated to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

(IANA) the task of assigning such protocol parameters for the

Internet. The IANA publishes tables of all currently assigned

numbers and parameters in RFCs titled "Assigned Numbers" [3].

Each category of assigned numbers typically arises from some

protocol that is on the standards track or is an Internet

Standard. For example, TCP port numbers are assigned because TCP

is a Standard. A particular value within a category may be

assigned in a variety of circumstances; the specification

requiring the parameter may be in the standards track, it may be

Experimental, or it may be private. Note that assignment of a

number to a protocol is independent of, and does not imply,

acceptance of that protocol as a standard.

Chaos could result from accidental conflicts of parameter values,

so we urge that every protocol parameter, for either public or

private usage, be explicitly assigned by the IANA. Private

protocols often become public. Programmers are often tempted to

choose a "random" value or to guess the next unassigned value of a

parameter; both are hazardous.

The IANA is expected to avoid frivolous assignments and to

distinguish different assignments uniquely. The IANA accomplishes

both goals by requiring a technical description of each protocol

or service to which a value is to be assigned. Judgment on the

adequacy of the description resides with the IANA. In the case of

a standards track or Experimental protocol, the corresponding

technical specifications provide the required documentation for

IANA. For a proprietary protocol, the IANA will keep confidential

any writeup that is supplied, but at least a short (2 page)

writeup is still required for an assignment.

2. NOMENCLATURE

2.1 The Internet Standards Track

Specifications that are destined to become Internet Standards

evolve through a set of maturity levels known as the "standards

track". These maturity levels -- "Proposed Standard", "Draft

Standard", and "Standard" -- are defined and discussed below in

Section 3.2.

Even after a specification has been adopted as an Internet

Standard, further evolution often occurs based on experience and

the recognition of new requirements. The nomenclature and

procedures of Internet standardization provide for the replacement

of old Internet Standards with new ones, and the assignment of

descriptive labels to indicate the status of "retired" Internet

Standards. A set of maturity levels is defined in Section 3.3 to

cover these and other "off-track" specifications.

2.2 Types of Specifications

Specifications subject to the Internet standardization process

fall into two categories: Technical Specifications (TS) and

Applicability Statements (AS).

2.2.1 Technical Specification (TS)

A Technical Specification is any description of a protocol,

service, procedure, convention, or format. It may completely

describe all of the relevant ASPects of its subject, or it may

leave one or more parameters or options unspecified. A TS may

be completely self-contained, or it may incorporate material

from other specifications by reference to other documents

(which may or may not be Internet Standards).

A TS shall include a statement of its scope and the general

intent for its use (domain of applicability). Thus, a TS that

is inherently specific to a particular context shall contain a

statement to that effect. However, a TS does not specify

requirements for its use within the Internet; these

requirements, which depend on the particular context in which

the TS is incorporated by different system configurations, is

defined by an Applicability Statement.

2.2.2 Applicability Statement (AS)

An Applicability Statement specifies how, and under what

circumstances, one or more TSs are to be applied to support a

particular Internet capability. An AS may specify uses for TSs

that are not Internet Standards, as discussed in Section 4.

An AS identifies the relevant TSs and the specific way in which

they are to be combined, and may also specify particular values

or ranges of TS parameters or subfunctions of a TS protocol

that must be implemented. An AS also specifies the

circumstances in which the use of a particular TS is required,

recommended, or elective.

An AS may describe particular methods of using a TS in a

restricted "domain of applicability", such as Internet routers,

terminal servers, Internet systems that interface to Ethernets,

or datagram-based database servers.

The broadest type of AS is a comprehensive conformance

specification, commonly called a "requirements document", for a

particular class of Internet systems, such as Internet routers

or Internet hosts.

An AS may not have a higher maturity level in the standards

track than any standards-track TS to which the AS applies. For

example, a TS at Draft Standard level may be referenced by an

AS at the Proposed Standard or Draft Standard level, but not by

an AS at the Standard level.

An AS may refer to a TS that is either a standards-track speci-

fication or is "Informational", but not to a TS with a maturity

level of "Prototype", "Experimental", or "Historic" (see

section 2.4).

Although TSs and ASs are conceptually separate, in practice a

standards-track document may combine an AS and one or more related

TSs. For example, Technical Specifications that are developed

specifically and exclusively for some particular domain of

applicability, e.g., for mail server hosts, often contain within a

single specification all of the relevant AS and TS information.

In such cases, no useful purpose would be served by deliberately

distributing the information among several documents just to

preserve the formal AS/TS distinction. However, a TS that is

likely to apply to more than one domain of applicability should be

developed in a modular fashion, to facilitate its incorporation by

multiple ASs.

2.3 Standards Track Maturity Levels

ASs and TSs go through stages of development, testing, and

acceptance. Within the Internet standards process, these stages

are formally labeled "maturity levels".

This section describes the maturity levels and the expected

characteristics of specifications at each level.

2.3.1 Proposed Standard

The entry-level maturity for the standards track is "Proposed

Standard". A Proposed Standard specification is generally

stable, has resolved known design choices, is believed to be

well-understood, has received significant community review, and

appears to enjoy enough community interest to be considered

valuable. However, further experience might result in a change

or even retraction of the specification before it advances.

Usually, neither implementation nor operational experience is

required for the designation of a specification as a Proposed

Standard. However, such experience is highly desirable, and

will usually represent a strong argument in favor of a Proposed

Standard designation.

The IESG may require implementation and/or operational

experience prior to granting Proposed Standard status to a

specification that materially affects the core Internet

protocols or that specifies behavior that may have significant

operational impact on the Internet. Typically, such a

specification will be published initially with Experimental or

Prototype status (see below), and moved to the standards track

only after sufficient implementation or operational experience

has been oBTained.

A Proposed Standard should have no known technical omissions

with respect to the requirements placed upon it. However, the

IESG may recommend that this requirement be explicitly reduced

in order to allow a protocol to advance into the Proposed

Standard state, when a specification is considered to be useful

and necessary (and timely), even absent the missing features.

Implementors should treat Proposed Standards as immature

specifications. It is desirable to implement them in order to

gain experience and to validate, test, and clarify the

specification. However, since the content of Proposed

Standards may be changed if problems are found or better

solutions are identified, deploying implementations of such

standards into a disruption-sensitive customer base is not

normally advisable.

2.3.2 Draft Standard

A specification from which at least two independent and

interoperable implementations have been developed, and for

which sufficient successful operational experience has been

obtained, may be elevated to the "Draft Standard" level. This

is a major advance in status, indicating a strong belief that

the specification is mature and will be useful.

A Draft Standard must be well-understood and known to be quite

stable, both in its semantics and as a basis for developing an

implementation. A Draft Standard may still require additional

or more widespread field experience, since it is possible for

implementations based on Draft Standard specifications to

demonstrate unforeseen behavior when subjected to large-scale

use in production environments.

2.3.3 Internet Standard

A specification for which significant implementation and

successful operational experience has been obtained may be

elevated to the Internet Standard level. An Internet Standard

(which may simply be referred to as a Standard) is

characterized by a high degree of technical maturity and by a

generally held belief that the specified protocol or service

provides significant benefit to the Internet community.

A Draft Standard is normally considered to be a final

specification, and changes are likely to be made only to solve

specific problems encountered. In most circumstances, it is

reasonable for vendors to deploy implementations of draft

standards into the customer base.

2.4 Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels

Not every TS or AS is on the standards track. A TS may not be

intended to be an Internet Standard, or it may be intended for

eventual standardization but not yet ready to enter the standards

track. A TS or AS may have been superseded by more recent

Internet Standards, or have otherwise fallen into disuse or

disfavor.

Specifications not on the standards track are labeled with one of

four off-track maturity levels: "Prototype, "Experimental",

"Informational", and "Historic". There are no time limits

associated with these non-standard track labels, and the documents

bearing these labels are not Internet standards in any sense. As

the Internet grows, there is a growing amount of credible

technical work being submitted directly to the RFCEditor without

having been gone through the IETF. It is possible that such

outside submissions may overlap or even conflict with ongoing IETF

activities. In order for the best technical result to emerge for

the community, we believe that the such outside submissions should

be given the opportunity to work within IETF to gain the broadest

possible consensus.

It is also possible that supporters of a view different from the

IETF may wish to publish their divergent view. For this reason,

it is important that, ultimately, authors should have the

opportunity to publish Informational and Experimental RFCs should

they wish to. However, it is also possible that this could open a

loophole in which developers could try to bypass the IETF

consensus process completely by publishing an Informational RFC

(and relying on the prestige of the RFCseries to gain community

support for their document).

For all these reasons, the IESG and the RFCEditor have agreed to

the following policy for publishing Info and Exp RFCs:

1. The RFCEditor will bring to the attention of the IESG all

Informational and Experimental submissions that the RFC

Editor feels may be related to, or of interest to, the IETF

community.

2. The IESG will review all such referrals within a fixed length

of time and make a recommendation on whether to publish, or

to suggest that the author bring their work within the IETF.

3. If the IESG recommends that the work be brought within the

IETF, but the author declines the invitation, the IESG may

add disclaimer text into the standard boilerplate material

added by the RFCEditor (e.g., "Status of this memo").

2.4.1 Prototype

For new protocols which affect core services of the

Internet or for which the interactions with existing

protocols are too complex to fully assimilate from the

written specification, the IESG may request that

operational experience be obtained prior to advancement to

Proposed Standard status. In these cases, the IESG will

designate an otherwise complete specification as

"Prototype". This status permits it to be published as an

RFCbefore it is entered onto the standards track. In

this respect, "Prototype" is similar to "Experimental",

except that it indicates the protocol is specifically

being developed to become a standard, while "Experimental"

generally indicates a more exploratory phase of

development.

2.4.2 Experimental

The "Experimental" designation on a TS typically denotes a

specification that is part of some research or development

effort. Such a specification is published for the general

information of the Internet technical community and as an

archival record of the work. An Experimental

specification may be the output of an organized Internet

research effort (e.g., a Research Group of the IRTF), or

it may be an individual contribution.

Documents intended for Experimental status should be

submitted directly to the RFCEditor for publication. The

procedure is intended to expedite the publication of any

responsible Experimental specification, subject only to

editorial considerations, and to verification that there

has been adequate coordination with the standards process.

2.4.3 Informational

An "Informational" specification is published for the

general information of the Internet community, and does

not represent an Internet community consensus or

recommendation. The Informational designation is intended

to provide for the timely publication of a very broad

range of responsible informational documents from many

sources, subject only to editorial considerations and to

verification that there has been adequate coordination

with the standards process.

Specifications that have been prepared outside of the

Internet community and are not incorporated into the

Internet standards process by any of the provisions of

Section 4 may be published as Informational RFCs, with the

permission of the owner.

2.4.4 Historic

A TS or AS that has been superseded by a more recent

specification or is for any other reason considered to be

obsolete is assigned to the "Historic" level. (Purists

have suggested that the word should be "Historical";

however, at this point the use of "Historic" is

historical.)

2.5 Requirement Levels

An AS may apply one of the following "requirement levels" to

each of the TSs to which it refers:

(a) Required: Implementation of the referenced TS, as specified

by the AS, is required to achieve minimal conformance. For

example, IP and ICMP must be implemented by all Internet

systems using the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.

(b) Recommended: Implementation of the referenced TS is not

required for minimal conformance, but experience and/or

generally accepted technical wisdom suggest its desirability

in the domain of applicability of the AS. Vendors are

strongly encouraged to include the functions, features, and

protocols of Recommended TSs in their products, and should

omit them only if the omission is justified by some special

circumstance.

(c) Elective: Implementation of the referenced TS is optional

within the domain of applicability of the AS; that is, the AS

creates no explicit necessity to apply the TS. However, a

particular vendor may decide to implement it, or a particular

user may decide that it is a necessity in a specific

environment.

As noted in Section 2.4, there are TSs that are not in the

standards track or that have been retired from the standards

track, and are therefore not required, recommended, or elective.

Two additional "requirement level" designations are available for

such TSs:

(d) Limited Use: The TS is considered appropriate for use only

in limited or unique circumstances. For example, the usage

of a protocol with the "Experimental" designation should

generally be limited to those actively involved with the

experiment.

(e) Not Recommended: A TS that is considered to be inappropriate

for general use is labeled "Not Recommended". This may be

because of its limited functionality, specialized nature, or

historic status.

The "Official Protocol Standards" RFClists a general requirement

level for each TS, using the nomenclature defined in this section.

In many cases, more detailed descriptions of the requirement

levels of particular protocols and of individual features of the

protocols will be found in appropriate ASs.

3. THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS

3.1 Review and Approval

A "standards action" -- entering a particular specification into,

advancing it within, or removing it from, the standards track --

must be approved by the IESG.

3.1.1 Initiation of Action

Typically, a standards action is initiated by a recommendation

to the appropriate IETF Area Director by the individual or

group that is responsible for the specification, usually an

IETF Working Group.

After completion to the satisfaction of its author and the

cognizant Working Group, a document that is expected to enter

or advance in the Internet standardization process shall be

made available as an Internet Draft. It shall remain as an

Internet Draft for a period of time that permits useful

community review, at least two weeks, before submission to the

IESG with a recommendation for action.

3.1.2 IESG Review and Approval

The IESG shall determine whether a specification satisfies the

applicable criteria for the recommended action (see Sections

3.2 and 3.3 of this document).

The IESG shall determine if an independent technical review of

the specification is required, and shall commission one when

necessary. This may require creating a new Working Group, or

an existing group may agree to take responsibility for

reviewing the specification. When a specification is

sufficiently important in terms of its potential impact on the

Internet or on the suite of Internet protocols, the IESG shall

form an independent technical review and analysis committee to

prepare an evaluation of the specification. Such a committee

is commissioned to provide an objective basis for agreement

within the Internet community that the specification is ready

for advancement.

The IESG shall communicate its findings to the IETF to permit a

final review by the general Internet community. This "last-

call" notification shall be via electronic mail to the IETF

mailing list. In addition, for important specifications there

shall be a presentation or statement by the appropriate Working

Group or Area Director during an IETF plenary meeting. Any

significant issues that have not been resolved satisfactorily

during the development of the specification may be raised at

this time for final resolution by the IESG.

In a timely fashion, but no sooner than two weeks after issuing

the last-call notification to the IETF mailing list, the IESG

shall make its final determination on whether or not to approve

the standards action, and shall notify the IETF of its decision

via email.

3.1.3 Publication

Following IESG approval and any necessary editorial work, the

RFCEditor shall publish the specification as an RFC. The

specification shall then be removed from the Internet Drafts

directory.

An official summary of standards actions completed and pending

shall appear in each issue of the Internet Society Newsletter.

This shall constitute the "journal of record" for Internet

standards actions. In addition, the IESG shall publish a

monthly summary of standards actions completed and pending in

the Internet Monthly Report, which is distributed to all

members of the IETF mailing list.

Finally, the IAB shall publish quarterly an "Internet Official

Protocol Standards" RFC, summarizing the status of all Internet

protocol and service specifications, both within and outside

the standards track.

3.2 Entering the Standards Track

A specification that is potentially an Internet Standard may

originate from:

(a) an ISOC-sponsored effort (typically an IETF Working Group),

(b) independent activity by individuals, or

(c) an external organization.

Case (a) accounts for the great majority of specifications that

enter the standards track. In cases (b) and (c), the work might

be tightly integrated with the work of an existing IETF Working

Group, or it might be offered for standardization without prior

IETF involvement. In most cases, a specification resulting from

an effort that took place outside of an IETF Working Group will be

submitted to an appropriate Working Group for evaluation and

refinement. If necessary, an appropriate Working Group will be

created.

For externally-developed specifications that are well-integrated

with existing Working Group efforts, a Working Group is assumed to

afford adequate community review of the accuracy and applicability

of the specification. If a Working Group is unable to resolve all

technical and usage questions, additional independent review may

be necessary. Such reviews may be done within a Working Group

context, or by an ad hoc review committee established specifically

for that purpose. Ad hoc review committees may also be convened

in other circumstances when the nature of review required is too

small to require the formality of Working Group creation. It is

the responsibility of the appropriate IETF Area Director to

determine what, if any, review of an external specification is

needed and how it shall be conducted.

3.3 Advancing in the Standards Track

A specification shall remain at the Proposed Standard level for at

least six (6) months.

A specification shall remain at the Draft Standard level for at

least four (4) months, or until at least one IETF meeting has

occurred, whichever comes later.

These minimum periods are intended to ensure adequate opportunity

for community review without severely impacting timeliness. These

intervals shall be measured from the date of publication of the

corresponding RFC(s), or, if the action does not result in RFC

publication, the date of IESG approval of the action.

A specification may be (indeed, is likely to be) revised as it

advances through the standards track. At each stage, the IESG

shall determine the scope and significance of the revision to the

specification, and, if necessary and appropriate, modify the

recommended action. Minor revisions are expected, but a

significant revision may require that the specification accumulate

more experience at its current maturity level before progressing.

Finally, if the specification has been changed very significantly,

the IESG may recommend that the revision be treated as a new

document, re-entering the standards track at the beginning.

Change of status shall result in republication of the

specification as an RFC, except in the rare case that there have

been no changes at all in the specification since the last

publication. Generally, desired changes will be "batched" for

incorporation at the next level in the standards track. However,

deferral of changes to the next standards action on the

specification will not always be possible or desirable; for

example, an important typographical error, or a technical error

that does not represent a change in overall function of the

specification, may need to be corrected immediately. In such

cases, the IESG or RFCEditor may be asked to republish the RFC

with corrections, and this will not reset the minimum time-at-

level clock.

When a standards-track specification has not reached the Internet

Standard level but has remained at the same status level for

twenty-four (24) months, and every twelve (12) months thereafter

until the status is changed, the IESG shall review the viability

of the standardization effort responsible for that specification.

Following each such review, the IESG shall approve termination or

continuation of the development. This decision shall be

communicated to the IETF via electronic mail to the IETF mailing

list, to allow the Internet community an opportunity to comment.

This provision is not intended to threaten a legitimate and active

Working Group effort, but rather to provide an administrative

mechanism for terminating a moribund effort.

3.4 Revising a Standard

A new version of an established Internet Standard must progress

through the full Internet standardization process as if it were a

completely new specification. Once the new version has reached

the Standard level, it will usually replace the previous version,

which will move to Historic status. However, in some cases both

versions may remain as Internet Standards to honor the

requirements of an installed base. In this situation, the

relationship between the previous and the new versions must be

explicitly stated in the text of the new version or in another

appropriate document (e.g., an Applicability Statement; see

Section 2.2.2).

3.5 Retiring a Standard

As the technology changes and matures, it is possible for a new

Standard specification to be so clearly superior technically that

one or more existing Internet Standards for the same function

should be retired. In this case, the IESG shall approve a change

of status of the superseded specification(s) from Standard to

Historic. This recommendation shall be issued with the same

Last-Call and notification procedures used for any other standards

action.

3.6 Conflict Resolution and Appeals

IETF Working Groups are generally able to reach consensus, which

sometimes requires difficult compromises between differing

technical solutions. However, there are times when even

reasonable and knowledgeable people are unable to agree. To

achieve the goals of openness and fairness, such conflicts must be

resolved with a process of open review and discussion.

Participants in a Working Group may disagree with Working Group

decisions, based either upon the belief that their own views are

not being adequately considered or the belief that the Working

Group made a technical choice which essentially will not work.

The first issue is a difficulty with Working Group process, and

the latter is an assertion of technical error. These two kinds of

disagreements may have different kinds of final outcome, but the

resolution process is the same for both cases.

Working Group participants always should first attempt to discuss

their concerns with the Working Group chair. If this proves

unsatisfactory, they should raise their concerns with an IESG Area

Director or other IESG member. In most cases, issues raised to

the level of the IESG will receive consideration by the entire

IESG, with the relevant Area Director or the IETF Chair being

tasked with communicating results of the discussion.

For the general community as well as Working Group participants

seeking a larger audience for their concerns, there are two

opportunities for explicit comment. (1) When appropriate, a

specification that is being suggested for advancement along the

standards track will be presented during an IETF plenary. At that

time, IETF participants may choose to raise issues with the

plenary or to pursue their issues privately, with any of the

relevant IETF/IESG management personnel. (2) Specifications that

are to be considered by the IESG are publicly announced to the

IETF mailing list, with a request for comments.

Finally, if a problem persists, the IAB may be asked to adjudicate

the dispute.

* If a concern involves questions of adequate Working Group

discussion, the IAB will attempt to determine the actual

nature and extent of discussion that took place within the

Working Group, based upon the Working Group's written record

and upon comments of other Working Group participants.

* If a concern involves questions of technical adequacy, the

IAB may convene an appropriate review panel, which may then

recommend that the IESG and Working Group re-consider an

alternate technical choice.

* If a concern involves a reasonable difference in technical

approach, but does not substantiate a claim that the Working

Group decision will fail to perform adequately, the Working

Group participant may wish to pursue formation of a separate

Working Group. The IESG and IAB encourage alternative points

of view and the development of technical options, allowing

the general Internet community to show preference by making

its own choices, rather than by having legislated decisions.

4. EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS

Many standards groups other than the IETF create and publish

standards documents for network protocols and services. When these

external specifications play an important role in the Internet, it is

desirable to reach common agreements on their usage -- i.e., to

establish Internet Standards relating to these external

specifications.

There are two categories of external specifications:

(1) Open Standards

Accredited national and international standards bodies, such as

ANSI, ISO, IEEE, and ITU-TS, develop a variety of protocol and

service specifications that are similar to Technical

Specifications defined here. National and international groups

also publish "implementors' agreements" that are analogous to

Applicability Statements, capturing a body of implementation-

specific detail concerned with the practical application of

their standards.

(2) Vendor Specifications

A vendor-proprietary specification that has come to be widely

used in the Internet may be treated by the Internet community as

if it were a "standard". Such a specification is not generally

developed in an open fashion, is typically proprietary, and is

controlled by the vendor or vendors that produced it.

To avoid conflict between competing versions of a specification, the

Internet community will not standardize a TS or AS that is simply an

"Internet version" of an existing external specification unless an

explicit cooperative arrangement to do so has been made. However,

there are several ways in which an external specification that is

important for the operation and/or evolution of the Internet may be

adopted for Internet use.

(a) Incorporation of an Open Standard

An Internet Standard TS or AS may incorporate an open external

standard by reference. The reference must be to a specific

version of the external standard, e.g., by publication date or

by edition number, according to the prevailing convention of the

organization that is responsible for the specification.

For example, many Internet Standards incorporate by reference

the ANSI standard character set "ASCII" [2]. Whenever possible,

the referenced specification shall be made available online.

(b) Incorporation of a Vendor Specification

Vendor-proprietary specifications may be incorporated by

reference to a specific version of the vendor standard. If the

vendor-proprietary specification is not widely and readily

available, the IESG may request that it be published as an

Informational RFC.

For a vendor-proprietary specification to be incorporated within

the Internet standards process, the proprietor must meet the

requirements of section 5 below, and in general the

specification shall be made available online.

The IESG shall not favor a particular vendor's proprietary

specification over the technically equivalent and competing

specifications of other vendors by making it "required" or

"recommended".

(c) Assumption

An IETF Working Group may start from an external specification

and develop it into an Internet TS or AS. This is acceptable if

(1) the specification is provided to the Working Group in

compliance with the requirements of section 5 below, and (2)

change control has been conveyed to IETF by the original

developer of the specification. Continued participation in the

IETF work by the original owner is likely to be valuable, and is

encouraged.

The following sample text illustrates how a vendor might convey

change control to the Internet Society:

"XXXX Organization asserts that it has the right to transfer to

the Internet Society responsibility for further evolution of the

YYYY protocol documented in References (1-n) below. XXXX

Organization hereby transfers to the Internet Society

responsibility for all future modification and development of

the YYYY protocol, without reservation or condition."

5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

5.1. General Policy

In all matters of intellectual property rights and procedures, the

intention is to benefit the Internet community and the public at

large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others.

5.2. Definitions

As used in this section, the following terms have the indicated

meanings:

o "Trade secrets" are confidential, proprietary information.

o "Contribution" means any disclosure of information or ideas,

whether in oral, written, or other form of expression, by an

individual or entity ("Contributor").

o "Standards track documents" are specifications and other

documents that have been elevated to the Internet standards

track in accordance with the Internet Standards Process.

o "Copyrights" are purportedly valid claims to copyright in all

or part of a contribution to standards work, whether or not

the contribution becomes a standards track document,

including but not limited to any works by third parties that

the contribution is based on or incorporates.

o "ISOC" refers to the Internet Society and its trustees,

Officers, employees, contractors, and agents, as well as the

IAB, IETF, IESG, IRTF, IRSG, and other task forces,

committees, and groups coordinated by the Internet Society.

o "Standards work" is work involved in the creation, testing,

development, revision, adoption, or maintenance of an

Internet standard that is carried out under the auspices of

ISOC.

o "Internet community" refers to the entire set of persons,

whether individuals or entities, including but not limited to

technology developers, service vendors, and researchers, who

use the Internet, either directly or indirectly, and users of

any other networks which implement and use Internet

Standards.

5.3 Trade Secret Rights

Except as otherwise provided under this section, ISOC will not

accept, in connection with standards work, any idea, technology,

information, document, specification, work, or other contribution,

whether written or oral, that is a trade secret or otherwise

subject to any commitment, understanding, or agreement to keep it

confidential or otherwise restrict its use or dissemination; and,

specifically, ISOC does not assume any confidentiality obligation

with respect to any such contribution.

5.4. Rights and Permissions

In the course of standards work, ISOC receives contributions in

various forms and from many persons. To facilitate the wide

dissemination of these contributions, it is necessary to establish

specific understandings concerning any copyrights, patents, patent

applications, or other rights in the contribution. The procedures

set forth in this section apply to contributions submitted after 1

April 1994. For Internet standards documents published before

this date (the RFCseries has been published continuously since

April 1969), information on rights and permissions must be sought

directly from persons claiming rights therein.

5.4.1. All Contributions

By submission of a contribution to ISOC, and in consideration

of possible dissemination of the contribution to the Internet

community, a contributor is deemed to agree to the following

terms and conditions:

l. Contributor agrees to grant, and does grant to ISOC, a

perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right

and license under any copyrights in the contribution to

reproduce, distribute, perform or display publicly and

prepare derivative works that are based on or incorporate

all or part of the contribution, and to reproduce,

distribute and perform or display publicly any such

derivative works, in any form and in all languages, and to

authorize others to do so.

2. Contributor acknowledges that ISOC has no duty to publish

or otherwise use or disseminate every contribution.

3. Contributor grants ISOC permission to reference the

name(s) and address(s) of the contributor as well as other

persons who are named as contributors.

4. Where the contribution was prepared jointly with others,

or is a work for hire, the contributor represents and

warrants that the other owner(s) of rights have been

informed of the rights and permissions granted to ISOC and

that any required authorizations have been obtained.

Copies of any such required authorizations will be

furnished to ISOC, upon request.

5. Contributor acknowledges and agrees that ISOC assumes no

obligation to maintain any confidentiality with respect to

any aspect of the contribution, and warrants that the the

contribution does not violate the rights of others.

6. All material objects in which contributions are submitted

to ISOC become the property of ISOC and need not be

returned to the contributor.

Where appropriate, written confirmation of the above terms and

conditions will be obtained in writing by ISOC, usually by

electronic mail; however, a decision not to obtain such

confirmation in a given case shall not act to revoke the prior

grant of rights and permissions with respect to the

contribution as provided herein. Except as provided below, the

Executive Director of the IETF Secretariat, or a person

designated by the Executive Director, will be responsible for

obtaining written confirmations.

In the case of IETF Working Groups, the responsibility for

identifying the principal contributor(s) for purposes of

obtaining written confirmation of the above rights and

permissions will be assumed by the Editor or Chair of the

particular Group. While only those persons named as principal

contributor(s) will generally be requested to provide written

confirmation, it is the responsibility of all contributors to

standards work to inform the IETF Secretariat of any

proprietary claims in any contributions and to furnish the

Secretariat with any required confirmation.

Where any person participating in standards work asserts any

proprietary right in a contribution, it is the responsibility

of such person to so inform the Editor or Chair of the group,

promptly, in writing. The Editor or Chair will then determine

whether to list the person as a principal contributor, or to

revise the document to omit the particular contribution in

question.

5.4.2. Standards Track Documents

(A) ISOC will not propose, adopt, or continue to maintain any

standards, including but not limited to standards labelled

Proposed, Draft or Internet Standards, which can only be

practiced using technology or works that are subject to

known copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other

rights, except with the prior written assurance of the

owner of rights that:

l. ISOC may, without cost, freely implement and use the

technology or works in its standards work;

2. upon adoption and during maintenance of an Internet

Standard, any party will be able to obtain the right

to implement and use the technology or works under

specified, reasonable, non-discriminatory terms; and

3. the party giving the assurance has the right and

power to grant the licenses and knows of no other

copyrights, patents, patent applications, or other

rights that may prevent ISOC and members of the

Internet community from implementing and operating

under the standard.

(B) ISOC disclaims any responsibility for identifying the

existence of or for evaluating any copyrights, patents,

patent applications, or other rights, on behalf of or for

the benefit of any member of the Internet community, and

ISOC takes no position on the validity or scope of any

such rights. Further, ISOC will take no position on the

ownership of inventions made during standards work, except

for inventions of which an employee or agent of the

Internet Society is a joint inventor. In the latter case,

the Internet Society will make its rights available under

license to anyone in the Internet community in accordance

with the written assurances set forth below.

5.5. Notices

(A) When a written assurance has been obtained as set forth

below, the relevant standards track documents shall include

the following notice:

"__________(name of rights' owner) has provided written

assurance to the Internet Society that any party will be

able to obtain, under reasonable, nondiscriminatory

terms, the right to use the technology covered

by__________(list copyrights, patents, patent

applications, and other rights) to practice the

standard. A copy of this assurance may be obtained from

the Executive Director of the IETF Secretariat. The

Internet Society takes no position on the validity or

scope of the copyrights, patents, patent applications,

or other rights, or on the appropriateness of the terms

and conditions of the assurances. The Internet Society

does not make any representation there are no other

rights which may apply to the practice of this standard,

nor that it has made any effort to identify any such

rights. For further information on the Internet

Society's procedures with respect to rights in standards

and standards-related documentation, see RFC_____,

dated________."

(B) ISOC encourages all interested parties to bring to its

attention, at the earliest possible time, the existence of

any copyrights, patents, patent applications, or other rights

pertaining to Internet Standards. For this purpose, each

standards document will include the following invitation:

"The Internet Society invites any interested party to

bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent

applications, or other proprietary rights which purport

to cover technology or works that may be required to

practice this standard. Please address the information

to the Executive Director of the Internet Engineering

Task Force Secretariat."

(C) When applicable, the following sentence will be included in

the notice:

"As of __________, no information about any copyrights,

patents or patent applications, or other proprietary

rights has been received."

(D) The following copyright notice and disclaimer will be

included in all ISOC standards-related documentation:

"Copyright (c) ISOC (year date). Permission is granted

to reproduce, distribute, transmit and otherwise

communicate to the public any material subject to

copyright by ISOC, provided that credit is given to the

source. For information concerning required

permissions, please contact the Executive Director of

the Internet Engineering Task Force Secretariat."

ISOC hereby informs the Internet community and other

persons that any standards, whether or not elevated to

the Internet Standard level of maturity, or any

standards-related documentation made available under the

auspices of ISOC are provided on an "AS IS" basis and

ISOC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,

INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF

MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR

THAT ANY STANDARD OR DOCUMENTATION DOES NOT VIOLATE THE

RIGHTS OF OTHERS.

5.6. Assurances

The agreement on assurances set forth below will normally be

entered into between the owner of rights and ISOC at the time a

standards track document in which proprietary rights are claimed

reaches the "Proposed Standard" stage of maturity:

This is an agreement between ______________(hereinafter

called "Rights Holder") and the Internet Society on behalf of

itself and its trustees, officers, employees, contractors and

agents, the Internet Architecture Board, Internet Engineering

Steering Group, Internet Engineering Task Force, and other task

forces, committees and groups coordinated by the Internet Society

(hereinafter called "ISOC"), and for the benefit of all users of

the Internet and users of any other networks which implement and

use Internet Standards (hereinafter together with ISOC called

"Internet community"). This agreement takes effect when signed on

behalf of the Rights Holder and the Internet Society.

The Rights Holder represents that it has or will have rights

in patent applications, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and

other proprietary rights in various countries (hereinafter called

"Rights") which may block or impede the ability of the Internet

community to implement and operate under the standards set forth

in ISOC standards document ____,____, and ____(the listed

standards and any similar or related standards now existing or

later developed are together hereinafter called "Standards"). The

Rights as they presently exist are listed on attached Schedule A.

The Rights Holder further agrees to review the Rights listed in

Schedule A from time to time, and, in particular, immediately

prior to the elevation of the Standards to the Internet Standard

level of maturity in accordance with the Internet Standards

Process, and to inform the Executive Director of the Internet

Engineering Task Force Secretariat promptly upon learning of any

new Rights in the Standards that should be added to the list in

Schedule A.

The Rights Holder believes and affirms that it will derive

benefits by permitting ISOC and the Internet community to

implement and operate under the Standards without interference of

any of the Rights. The policy of ISOC is not to propose, adopt,

or continue to maintain the Standards unless written assurances

are given by the Rights Holder with respect to proprietary rights.

Accordingly, in consideration of the benefits noted above and

other good and valuable consideration, the Rights Holder makes the

assurances set forth herein.

The Rights Holder grants to ISOC a cost-free, perpetual,

non-exclusive, world-wide license under the Rights with respect to

implementing and operating under the Standards. The license

extends to all activities of ISOC involving the Standards without

limit, including the rights to reproduce, distribute, propose,

test, develop, analyze, enhance, revise, adopt, maintain,

withdraw, perform and display publicly, and prepare derivative

works in any form whatsoever and in all languages, and to

authorize others to do so. The Rights Holder also grants ISOC

permission to use the name and address of Rights Holder in

connection with the Standards.

The Rights Holder relinquishes any right or claim in any

trade secret which is part of the Rights, and makes the trade

secrets available without restriction to the Internet community.

The Rights Holder hereby acknowledges that ISOC assumes no

obligation to maintain any confidentiality with respect to any

aspect of the Standards, and warrants that the Standards do not

violate the rights of others.

The Rights Holder assures ISOC that the Rights Holder shall

grant to any member of the Internet community, as a beneficiary of

this agreement, a non-exclusive, perpetual, world-wide license

under the Rights, with respect to operating under the Standards

for a reasonable royalty and under other terms which are

reasonable considering the objective of ISOC to assure that all

members of the Internet community will be able to operate under

the Standards at a minimal cost. The license discussed in this

paragraph shall permit the licensee to make, have made, test,

enhance, implement, and use methods, works, computer programs, and

hardware as needed or desirable for operating under the Standards.

Every license shall include a clause automatically modifying the

terms of the license to be as favorable as the terms of any other

license under the Rights previously or later granted by the Rights

Holder.

A form of the license shall always be publicly Accessible on

the Internet, and shall become effective immediately when the

member of the Internet community executes it and posts it for

delivery to the Rights Holder either by mail or electronically.

The initial version of the license shall be in the form attached

as Schedule B.

The Rights Holder represents and warrants that its rights are

sufficient to permit it to grant the licenses and give the other

assurances recited in this agreement. The Rights Holder further

represents and warrants that it does not know of any rights of any

other party in any country which would block or impede the ability

of ISOC and the Internet community to implement or operate under

the Standards, or that would prevent the Rights Holder from

granting the licenses and other assurances in this agreement.

This agreement shall not be construed to obligate the ISOC to

propose, adopt, develop, or maintain any of the Standards or any

other standard.

6. REFERENCES

[1] Postel, J., "Internet Official Protocol Standards", STD 1, RFC

1600, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.

[2] ANSI, Coded Character Set -- 7-Bit American Standard Code for

Information Interchange, ANSI X3.4-1986.

[3] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC

1340, USC/Information Sciences Institute, July 1992.

[4] Postel, J., "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC1311,

USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1992.

[5] Postel, J., "Instructions to RFCAuthors", RFC1543,

USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1993.

APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

ANSI: American National Standards Institute

ARPA: (U.S.) Advanced Research Projects Agency

AS: Applicability Statement

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ITU-T: Telecommunications Standardization sector of the International

Telecommunications Union (ITU), a UN treaty organization;

ITU-T was formerly called CCITT.

IAB: Internet Architecture Board

IANA: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

ICMP: Internet Control Message Protocol

IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group

IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force

IP: Internet Protocol

IRTF: Internet Research Task Force

ISO: International Organization for Standardization

ISOC: Internet Society

MIB: Management Information Base

OSI: Open Systems Interconnection

RFC: Request for Comments

TCP: Transmission Control Protocol

TS: Technical Specification

APPENDIX B: CONTACT POINTS

To contact the RFCEditor, send an email message to: "rfc-

editor@isi.edu".

To contact the IANA for information or to request a number, keyword or

parameter assignment send an email message to: "iana@isi.edu".

To contact the IESG, send an email message to: "iesg@cnri.reston.va.us".

To contact the IAB, send an email message to: "iab-contact@isi.edu".

To contact the Executive Director of the ISOC, send an email message to

"amr@isoc.org".

APPENDIX C: FUTURE ISSUES

It has been suggested that additional procedures in the following areas

should be considered.

o Policy Recommendations and Operational Guidelines

Internet standards have generally been concerned with the technical

specifications for hardware and software required for computer

communication across interconnected networks. The Internet itself

is composed of networks operated by a great variety of

organizations, with diverse goals and rules. However, good user

service requires that the operators and administrators of the

Internet follow some common guidelines for policies and operations.

While these guidelines are generally different in scope and style

from protocol standards, their establishment needs a similar

process for consensus building. Specific rules for establishing

policy recommendations and operational guidelines for the Internet

in an open and fair fashion should be developed, published, and

adopted by the Internet community.

o Industry Consortia

The rules presented in Section 4 for external standards should be

expanded to handle industry consortia.

o Tracking Procedure

It has been suggested that there should be a formal procedure for

tracking problems and change requests as a specification moves

through the standards track. Such a procedure might include

written responses, which were cataloged and disseminated, or simply

a database that listed changes between versions. At the present

time, there are not sufficient resources to administer such a

procedure.

A simpler proposal is to keep a change log for documents.

o Time Limit

An explicit time limit (e.g., 3 months) has been suggested for IESG

resolution concerning a standards action under the rules of Section

3.1.2. If it were necessary to extend the time for some reason,

the IETF would have to be explicitly notified.

o Bug Reporting

There is no documented mechanism for an individual community member

to use to report a problem or bug with a standards-track

specification. One suggestion was that every standards RFCshould

include an email list for the responsible Working Group.

Security Considerations

Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Authors' Addresses

Christian Huitema, IAB Chairman

INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis

2004 Route des Lucioles

BP 109

F-06561 Valbonne Cedex

France

Phone: +33 93 65 77 15

EMail: Christian.Huitema@MIRSA.INRIA.FR

Phill Gross, IESG Chairman

Director of Broadband Engineering

MCI Data Services Division

2100 Reston Parkway, Room 6001

Reston, VA 22091

Phone: +1 703 715 7432

Fax: +1 703 715 7436

 
 
 
免责声明:本文为网络用户发布,其观点仅代表作者个人观点,与本站无关,本站仅提供信息存储服务。文中陈述内容未经本站证实,其真实性、完整性、及时性本站不作任何保证或承诺,请读者仅作参考,并请自行核实相关内容。
2023年上半年GDP全球前十五强
 百态   2023-10-24
美众议院议长启动对拜登的弹劾调查
 百态   2023-09-13
上海、济南、武汉等多地出现不明坠落物
 探索   2023-09-06
印度或要将国名改为“巴拉特”
 百态   2023-09-06
男子为女友送行,买票不登机被捕
 百态   2023-08-20
手机地震预警功能怎么开?
 干货   2023-08-06
女子4年卖2套房花700多万做美容:不但没变美脸,面部还出现变形
 百态   2023-08-04
住户一楼被水淹 还冲来8头猪
 百态   2023-07-31
女子体内爬出大量瓜子状活虫
 百态   2023-07-25
地球连续35年收到神秘规律性信号,网友:不要回答!
 探索   2023-07-21
全球镓价格本周大涨27%
 探索   2023-07-09
钱都流向了那些不缺钱的人,苦都留给了能吃苦的人
 探索   2023-07-02
倩女手游刀客魅者强控制(强混乱强眩晕强睡眠)和对应控制抗性的关系
 百态   2020-08-20
美国5月9日最新疫情:美国确诊人数突破131万
 百态   2020-05-09
荷兰政府宣布将集体辞职
 干货   2020-04-30
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案逍遥观:鹏程万里
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案神机营:射石饮羽
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案昆仑山:拔刀相助
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案天工阁:鬼斧神工
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案丝路古道:单枪匹马
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案镇郊荒野:与虎谋皮
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案镇郊荒野:李代桃僵
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案镇郊荒野:指鹿为马
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案金陵:小鸟依人
 干货   2019-11-12
倩女幽魂手游师徒任务情义春秋猜成语答案金陵:千金买邻
 干货   2019-11-12
 
>>返回首页<<
推荐阅读
 
 
频道精选
 
静静地坐在废墟上,四周的荒凉一望无际,忽然觉得,凄凉也很美
© 2005- 王朝网络 版权所有