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Network Working Group C. Huitema Internet Draft IAB Expiration Date: December 1993 June 1993 Liaison between Internet and other standardization agencies Status of this Memo This document is an Internet Draft, issued by the Internet Architec- ture Board (IAB). Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months. Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as a "work- ing draft" or "work in progress." Please check the 1id-abstracts.txt listing contained in the internet-drafts Shadow Directories on nic.ddn.mil, nnsc.nsf.net, nic.nordu.net, ftp.nisc.sri.com, or munnari.oz.au to learn the current status of any Internet Draft. [Huitema] [Page 1] Internet Draft ISO and IETF June 1993 Abstract The IAB has been working toward establishing a liaison relationship between the Internet Society and the other standards making organi- zation, such as the ISO and the ITU. This memo presents a rationale for establishing such a liaison. It also presents a summary of past actions and a status report on the current progress. The Internet will benefit from cooperative relationships with other international organizations on a broad range of common interests and activities. These liaisons will enhance the recognition of the IETF as an important source of international computer communication stan- dards. The benefits of the liaisons have to be weighted against their cost. The agreements, if any, should not affect the IETF process, nor pre- clude in any way the results of the IPng discussions. 1. International cooperation As the Internet grows in size, it also grows in visibility and importance. Decisions which could in the early days be made by small committees of researchers now may have a profound influence on industries and markets, and must now be made in a manner which is "demonstrably open and fair". This requirement for openness and fairness has already been taken into account in the organization of the IETF process: open working groups are the norm, and the dif- ferent steps of the standardization process are formalized and pub- licized in RFC-1310. However, the "openess" and "fairness" of the process may not be suf- ficient for acceptance of the Internet standards by some important potential users. This is in particular the case in government agen- cies, where different "GOSIP" or equivalent profiles still only man- date OSI standards -- although user communities generally recognize that they would benefit from using TCP-IP based products. It is clearly very important for the development of the Internet that the Internet standards and products be recognized by government bodies [Huitema] [Page 2] Internet Draft ISO and IETF June 1993 and authorized in government markets! One way to enhance the acceptability of the Internet standards is to establish liaison between the Internet Society (ISOC) and other standardization agencies, notably ISO and the ITU. According to its charter, the IAB is in charge of establishing these liaisons. It should be noted that the Internet Society (ISOC) has more motiva- tions than "acceptibility of standards" for liaising with other organizations. For example, the cooperation being pursued with the ITU also extend to another area of mutual interest: the development of the infrastructure. 2. A brief history Preliminary contacts between IAB, ISOC, ISO and the ITU have already taken place, in the framework of the "Interregional Telecommunica- tions Standards Conferences" (ITSC): (1) Vint Cerf, then IAB Chair, participated to the 1st ITSC (Freder- icksburg, Virginia, 20 February 1990), and during a panel described IAB/IETF standards making process and the potential for cooperation with other standards bodies, including the use of the Internet by all bodies. (2) Lyman Chapin, which had succeeded to Vint Cerf as IAB Chair, attended ITSC-2 (Nice, France, September 1991) representing the IAB/IETF. He presented the IAB/IETF process and the possible usages of the Internet during the meeting Plenary. One result of these contacts was the decision to experiment the dif- fusion of CCITT recommendations through the Internet. This was announced by the ITU Secretary-General in a joint videoconference with Internet representatives to INTEROP and Telecom'91 congres- sists, in October 1991. Contacts have been pursued at the initiative of Vint Cerf (now ISOC president) and Tony Rutkowski (ISOC vice-president), and a number of [Huitema] [Page 3] Internet Draft ISO and IETF June 1993 letters have already been exchanged: (1) On 15 June 1992, in Kobe Japan, the ISOC Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to establish a cooperative relationship with the ITU. Vint Cerf forwarded this resolution to Pekka J. Tarjanne, secretary general of the ITU in a letter dated August 12, 1992. Several letters and faxes have been exchanged since that date. The matter has however been slowed down by the current reorganization of the ITU. (2) In a letter dated December 12, 1992 to Dr. Lawrence D. Eicher, Secretary-General of the ISO, Vint Cerf requested a "category A" liaison between ISOC and ISO. Several letters and faxes have been exchanged since that date between Vint Cerf and Mr. Keith Brannon (ISO/IEC Information Technology Task Force). In parallel, and perhaps in relation with the proposal by some IETF participants to promote an ISO standard, CLNP, as "the next genera- tion IP", a subcommittee of ISO (SC-6) took upon itself to propose to the IAB a "category C" liaison. A representative of ISO SC-6, Jack Houldsworth, was invited to the open IAB meeting during the IETF meeting in Columbus, OH, on Tuesday evening March 30, 1993, during which a single topic was discussed: the proposals for liaison between the Internet Society/IETF standards process and the Interna- tional Standards Organization (ISO). The pros and cons of these proposals were frankly and thoroughly discussed by the IAB and some 30 attendees; one of the outcome was to better understand the difference between "category A" and "category C" liaison: (1) Category A means that ISO and ISOC would liaise on a "peer to peer" basis, (2) Category C means that IETF working group will have more facili- ties to submit their works as contributions to ISO working groups. The IAB members considered that the meeting was essentially informa- tional, and no decision was made -- although contrary information erroneously appeared in the "Open Systems Communication" newsletter dated April 19, 1993 (page 2-3). This article inaccurately reported [Huitema] [Page 4] Internet Draft ISO and IETF June 1993 that the IAB agreed "to press ahead with the Category C relationship immediately". In fact, no decision was made at that time. The IAB later considered the matter in consultation with the President of the Internet Society, and decided to defer action upon the ISO category C liaison offer until negotiations on Category A are concluded. 3. Pending actions The IAB discussed the pursuit of these liaisons, and came out with a set of recommendations: (1) The primary purpose of any such relationship, if it were to be established, should be to benefit the Internet through official recognition of the reality that the IETF is an important source of international computer communication standards. (2) No agreement should or will be made with another standards body that will in any way impede progress or change the style of operation of the IETF. (3) The outcome of the "Next Generation of IP" (IPng) discussions should in no way be tied to the progress of this relationship. The IAB decided to request that the ISOC president, Vint Cerf, pur- sue this liaison on its behalf. [Huitema] [Page 5]