IETF Overview



The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol engineering,
development, and standardization arm of the Internet Architecture Board
(IAB). The IETF began in January 1986 as a forum for technical
coordination by contractors for the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects
Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET, U.S. Defense Data Network (DDN),
and the Internet core gateway system.  Since that time, the IETF has
grown into a large open international community of network designers,
operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the
Internet protocol architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.

The IETF mission includes:


  1. Identifying and proposing solutions to pressing operational and
     technical problems in the Internet,

  2. Specifying the development (or usage) of protocols and the
     near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for the
     Internet,

  3. Making recommendations to the IAB regarding standardization of
     protocols and protocol usage in the Internet,

  4. Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task
     Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community, and
 
  5. Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the
     Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency
     contractors, and network managers.
 
 
Technical activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed within
working groups.  All working groups are organized roughly by function
into nine technical areas.  Each is led by an Area Director who has
primary responsibility for that one area of IETF activity.  Together
 
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with the Chair of the IETF, these nine technical Directors (plus, a
Director for Standards Procedures) compose the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG).
 
 
The current Areas and Directors, which compose the IESG, are:
 
 
       IETF and IESG Chair:      Phill Gross/ANS
       Applications:             Brewster Kahle/Wais Inc.
                                 Erik Huizer/SURFnet
       Internet:                 Dave Piscitello/Bellcore
                                 Stev Knowles/FTP Software
       Network Management:       Marshall Rose/DBC 
       Operational Requirements: Scott Bradner/Harvard
                                 Bernhard Stockman/SUNET
       Routing:                  Robert Hinden/Sun
       Security:                 Steve Crocker/TIS
       Service Applications:     Dave Crocker/SGI
       Transport:                Alison Mankin/NRL
       User Services:            Joyce K. Reynolds/ISI
       Standards Management:     A. Lyman Chapin/BBN
 
 
 
The IETF has a Secretariat, headquartered at the Corporation for
National Research Initiatives in Reston, Virginia, with the following
staff:
 
 
       IETF Executive Director:  Steve Coya
       IESG Secretary:           Greg Vaudreuil
       IETF Coordinator:         Megan Davies
       Administrative Support:   Debra Legare
                                 Cynthia Clark
 
 
 
The working groups conduct business during plenary meetings of the IETF,
during meetings outside of the IETF, and via electronic mail on mailing
lists established for each group.  The IETF holds 4.5 day plenary
sessions three times a year.  These plenary sessions are composed of
Working Group Sessions, Technical Presentations, Network Status Reports,
working group reporting, and an open IESG meeting.  A Proceedings of
each IETF plenary is published, which includes reports from each Area,
each working group, and each Technical Presentation.  The Proceedings
include a summary of all current standardization activities.
 
Meeting reports, Charters (which include the working group mailing
lists), and general information on current IETF activities are available
on-line for anonymous FTP from several Internet hosts including
nnsc.nsf.net.
 
 
 
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Mailing Lists
 
Much of the daily work of the IETF is conducted on electronic mailing
lists.  There are mailing lists for each of the working groups, as well
as the IETF mailing lists.   Mail on the working group mailing lists is
expected to be technically relevant to the working groups supported
by that list.   There are two kinds of IETF mailing lists.
1) IETF General Discussion list and 2) IETF Announcement list.
 
To join the IETF Announcement list, send a request to:
<ietf-announce-request@cnri.reston.va.us>.
 
To join the IETF General Discussion, send a request to:
<ietf-request@cnri.reston.va.us>.
 
To join a mailing list, send a request to the associated request list.
All internet mailing lists have a companion ``-request'' list.  Send
requests to join a list to <listname>-request@<listhost>.
 
Information and logistics about upcoming meetings of the IETF are
distributed on the IETF Announcement mailing list.  For general inquiries
about the IETF, requests should be sent to ietf-info@cnri.reston.va.us.
An archive of mail sent to the IETF list is available for anonymous ftp
from the directory ~ftp/irg/ietf on venera.isi.edu