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rfc:rfc4775

Network Working Group S. Bradner Request for Comments: 4775 Harvard BCP: 125 B. Carpenter, Ed. Category: Best Current Practice T. Narten

                                                                   IBM
                                                         December 2006
         Procedures for Protocol Extensions and Variations

Status of This Memo

 This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
 Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
 improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2006).

Abstract

 This document discusses procedural issues related to the
 extensibility of IETF protocols, including when it is reasonable to
 extend IETF protocols with little or no review, and when extensions
 or variations need to be reviewed by the IETF community.  Experience
 has shown that extension of protocols without early IETF review can
 carry risk.  The document also recommends that major extensions to or
 variations of IETF protocols only take place through normal IETF
 processes or in coordination with the IETF.
 This document is directed principally at other Standards Development
 Organizations (SDOs) and vendors considering requirements for
 extensions to IETF protocols.  It does not modify formal IETF
 processes.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ....................................................2
 2. Technical Risks in Extensions ...................................3
 3. General Considerations ..........................................4
    3.1. The Importance of Interoperability .........................4
    3.2. Registered Values and the Importance of IANA Assignments ...5
    3.3. Significant Extensions Require Technical Review ............5
    3.4. Quality and Consistency ....................................6
    3.5. The Role of Formal Liaisons ................................6
 4. Procedure for Review of Extensions ..............................7
 5. Some Specific Issues ...........................................10
 6. Intellectual Property ..........................................10
 7. Security Considerations ........................................10
 8. IANA Considerations ............................................11
 9. Acknowledgements ...............................................11
 10. References ....................................................11
    10.1. Normative References .....................................11
    10.2. Informative References ...................................12

1. Introduction

 BCP 9 [RFC2026] is the current definition of the IETF standards
 track.  This process applies not only to the initial definition of a
 protocol, but also to any subsequent updates, such that continued
 interoperability can be guaranteed.  However, it is not always clear
 whether extensions to a protocol should be made within the IETF
 process, especially when they originate outside the IETF community.
 This document lays down guidelines and procedures for such
 extensions.
 When developing protocols, IETF Working Groups (WGs) typically
 include mechanisms whereby these protocols can be extended in the
 future.  It is, of course, a good principle to design extensibility
 into protocols; a common definition of a successful protocol is one
 that becomes widely used in ways not originally anticipated.  Well-
 designed extensibility mechanisms facilitate the evolution of
 protocols and help make it easier to roll out incremental changes in
 an interoperable fashion.  At the same time, experience has shown
 that extensibility features should be limited to what is clearly
 necessary when the protocol is developed, and any later extensions
 should be done carefully and with a full understanding of the base
 protocol, existing implementations, and current operational practice.
 However, it is not the purpose of this document to describe the
 architectural principles of sound extensibility design.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 When extensions to IETF protocols are made within the IETF, the
 normal IETF process is followed, including the normal processes for
 IETF-wide review and IESG approval.  Extensions developed in this way
 should respect the same architectural principles and technical
 criteria as any other IETF work.
 In addition to the IETF itself, other Standards Development
 Organizations (SDOs), vendors, and technology fora may identify a
 requirement for an extension to an IETF protocol.  The question
 addressed by this document is how such bodies should proceed.  There
 are several possible scenarios:
 1.  The requirement is straightforward and within the scope of
     whatever extension mechanism the base protocol includes.
 2.  The requirement is, or may be, outside that scope, and:
     1.  The IETF still has an active WG in the area;
     2.  The IETF has no active WG, but has relevant expertise;
     3.  The IETF no longer has a nucleus of relevant expertise.
 Especially in the latter three cases, there are technical risks in
 extension design, described in the next section.  These risks are
 higher when extensions to IETF protocols are made outside the IETF
 and without consulting the IETF.
 This document is focused on appropriate procedures and practices to
 minimize the chance that extensions developed outside the IETF will
 encounter these risks and, therefore, become useless or, worse,
 damaging to interoperability.  Architectural considerations are
 documented elsewhere.  This document is directed principally at other
 SDOs and vendors considering requirements for extensions to IETF
 protocols.  It does not modify formal IETF processes.
 The IETF claims no special position.  Everything said here about IETF
 protocols would apply with equal force to protocols specified by any
 SDO.  The IETF should follow whatever procedures another SDO lays
 down for extensions to its own protocols, if the IETF identifies a
 need for such an extension.

2. Technical Risks in Extensions

 Extensions may be developed without full understanding of why the
 existing protocol was designed the way that it is -- e.g., what ideas
 were brought up during the original development and rejected because
 of some problem with them.  Also, extensions could unintentionally
 negate some key function of the existing protocol (such as security
 or congestion control).  Design choices can be made without analyzing
 their impact on the protocol as a whole, and basic underlying

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 architectural principles of the protocol can be violated.  Also,
 there is a risk that mutually incompatible extensions may be
 developed independently.
 Of course, the IETF itself is not immune to such mistakes, suggesting
 a need for WGs to document their design decisions (including paths
 rejected) and some rationale for those decisions, for the benefit of
 both those within the IETF and those outside the IETF, perhaps years
 later.
 Documentation of non-IETF extensions can sometimes be hard to obtain,
 so assessing the quality of the specification, verifying
 interoperability, and verifying compatibility with other extensions
 (including past and future extensions) can be hard or impossible.
 A set of interrelated extensions to multiple protocols typically
 carries a greater danger of interoperability issues or
 incompatibilities than a simple extension.  Consequently, it is
 important that such proposals receive earlier and more in-depth
 review than unitary extensions.
 All that can be said about extensions applies with equal or greater
 force to variations -- in fact, by definition, protocol variations
 damage interoperability.  They must, therefore, be intensely
 scrutinized.  An extension adds features and, if well designed,
 allows interoperability between old and new implementations.  A
 variation modifies features in such a way that old and new
 implementations may not interoperate.  Throughout this document, what
 is said about extensions also applies to variations.

3. General Considerations

3.1. The Importance of Interoperability

 According to its Mission Statement [RFC3935], the IETF produces high
 quality, relevant technical and engineering documents, including
 protocol standards.  The mission statement goes on to say that the
 benefit of these standards to the Internet "is in interoperability -
 that multiple products implementing a standard are able to work
 together in order to deliver valuable functions to the Internet's
 users".
 One consequence of this mission is that the IETF designs protocols
 for the single Internet.  The IETF expects its protocols to work the
 same everywhere.  Protocol extensions designed for limited
 environments may be reasonable provided that products with these
 extensions interoperate with products without the extensions.
 Extensions that break interoperability are unacceptable when products

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 with and without the extension are mixed.  It is the IETF's
 experience that this tends to happen on the Internet even when the
 original designers of the extension did not expect this to happen.
 Another consequence of this definition of interoperability is that
 the IETF values the ability to exchange one product implementing a
 protocol with another.  The IETF often specifies mandatory-to-
 implement functionality as part of its protocols so that there is a
 core set of functionality sufficient for interoperability that all
 products implement.  The IETF tries to avoid situations where
 protocols need to be profiled to specify which optional features are
 required for a given environment, because doing so harms
 interoperability on the Internet as a whole.
 The IETF, and in particular the IESG, will apply these considerations
 when evaluating protocol extensions proposed inside or outside the
 IETF.

3.2. Registered Values and the Importance of IANA Assignments

 An extension is often likely to make use of additional values added
 to an existing IANA registry (in many cases, simply by adding a new
 "TLV" (type-length-value) field).  It is essential that such new
 values are properly registered by the applicable procedures,
 including expert review where applicable (see BCP 26, [RFC2434]).
 Extensions may even need to create new IANA registries in some cases.
 Experience shows that the importance of this is often underestimated
 during extension design; designers sometimes assume that a new
 codepoint is theirs for the asking, or even simply for the taking.
 This is hazardous; it is far too likely that someone just taking a
 protocol value will find that the same value will later be formally
 assigned to another function, thus guaranteeing an interoperability
 problem.
 In many cases, IANA assignment requests trigger a thorough technical
 review of the proposal by a designated IETF expert reviewer.
 Requests are sometimes refused after such a review.  Thus, extension
 designers must pay particular attention to any needed IANA
 assignments and to the applicable criteria.

3.3. Significant Extensions Require Technical Review

 Some extensions may be considered minor (e.g., adding a
 straightforward new TLV to an application protocol, which will only
 impact a subset of hosts) and some may be considered major (e.g.,
 adding a new IP option type, which will potentially impact every node
 on the Internet).  This is essentially a matter of judgment.  It

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 could be argued that anything requiring at most Expert Review in
 [RFC2434] is probably minor, and anything beyond that is major.
 However, even an apparently minor extension may have unforeseen
 consequences on interoperability.  Thus, the distinction between
 major and minor is less important than ensuring that the right amount
 of technical review takes place in either case.  In general, the
 expertise for such review lies within the same SDO that developed the
 original protocol.  Therefore, the expertise for such review for IETF
 protocols lies within the IETF.
 There may sometimes be doubt whether a particular proposal is or is
 not truly a protocol extension.  When in doubt, it is preferable to
 err on the side of additional review.  However, it should be noted
 that if an 'extension' only consists of registering a new value with
 IANA in a First Come First Served registry [RFC2434], this document
 is not intended to require formal IETF review.  Informal review by
 experts may, nevertheless, be valuable.  In other cases (Section 5),
 there is a well-specified procedure for extensions that should be
 followed.
 The only safe rule is that, even if an extension appears minor to the
 person proposing it, early review by subject matter experts is
 advisable.  For protocols that have been developed in the IETF, the
 appropriate forum for such review is the IETF, either in the relevant
 WG or Area, or by individual IETF experts if no such WG exists.

3.4. Quality and Consistency

 In order to be adequately reviewed by relevant experts, a proposed
 extension must be documented in a clear and well-written
 specification that IETF subject matter experts have access to and can
 review.  Ideally, such a document would be published as an Internet
 Draft, using terminology and content that is sufficiently consistent
 with the unextended specification that these experts can readily
 identify the technical changes proposed at an early stage.

3.5. The Role of Formal Liaisons

 The IETF has formal liaisons in place with a number of SDOs;
 documentation of the liaison process is in [RFC4052], [RFC4053], and
 [RFC4691].  These liaison channels should be used as relevant for
 discussing and reviewing extensions, as should informal communication
 at the engineering level (for example, experts from other SDOs are
 welcome to participate in IETF meetings and mailing lists).  Where
 formal liaison does not exist, the point of contact in the IETF
 should be the Chairs of relevant WGs, the most appropriate Area
 Director, or, in case of doubt, the IESG as a whole.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 6] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

4. Procedure for Review of Extensions

 In some cases, explicit provision is made in the relevant RFCs for
 extending individual IETF protocols.  Nothing in this document
 overrides such procedures.  Some such cases are mentioned in
 Section 5.
 There are several ways in which an extension to an IETF protocol can
 be considered for publication as an RFC:
 1.  Extensions to IETF protocols developed within the IETF will be
     subject to the normal IETF process, exactly like new designs.  It
     is not suggested that this is a panacea; appropriate cross-
     working-group and cross-area review is needed within the IETF to
     avoid oversights and mistakes.
 2.  Extensions to IETF protocols discussed in an IRTF Research Group
     may well be the prelude to regular IETF discussion.  However, a
     Research Group may desire to specify an experimental extension
     before the work is mature enough for IETF processing.  In this
     case, the Research Group is required to involve appropriate IETF
     or IANA experts in their process to avoid oversights.
 3.  Extensions to IETF protocols described in Independent Submissions
     to the RFC Editor are subject to IESG review, currently described
     in BCP 92 [RFC3932].  If appropriate, the IESG advises the RFC
     Editor that full IETF processing is needed, or that relevant IANA
     procedures need to be followed before publication can proceed.
     Note that Independent Submissions cannot be placed on the IETF
     Standards Track; they would need to enter full IETF processing.
 Where vendors or other SDOs identify a requirement for extending an
 IETF protocol, their first step should be to consider the scenarios
 listed in Section 1.  If the requirement is straightforward and
 within the scope of a documented extension mechanism, the way is
 clear, and the documented mechanism must be followed.  If these two
 conditions are not met, the next step should be to contact the
 relevant IETF Area Director to check whether there is an active WG in
 the area or, at least, relevant expertise available in the IETF.  At
 this point, it will be possible to select the most appropriate of the
 above three routes.  Regular IETF process is most likely to be
 suitable, assuming sufficient interest can be found in the IETF
 community.  IRTF process is unlikely to be suitable unless there is a
 genuine research context for the proposed extension.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 7] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 In the event that the IETF no longer has relevant expertise, there
 are still two choices to discuss with the Area Director: bring the
 work to the IETF (i.e., the IETF imports expertise) or reach mutual
 agreement to do the work elsewhere (i.e., the IETF explicitly exports
 change control).
 In the case of an SDO that identifies a requirement for a
 standardized extension, a standards development process within the
 IETF (while maintaining appropriate liaison) is strongly recommended
 in preference to publishing a non-IETF standard.  Otherwise, the
 implementor community will be faced with a standard split into two or
 more parts in different styles, obtained from different sources, with
 no unitary control over quality, compatibility, interoperability, and
 intellectual property conditions.  Note that, since participation in
 the IETF is open, there is no formality or restriction for
 participants in other SDOs choosing to work in the IETF as well.  In
 some cases (see Section 5), the IETF has well-defined procedures for
 this in place.
 Naturally, SDOs can and do develop scenarios, requirements, and
 architectures based on IETF specifications.  It is only actual
 protocol extensions and changes that need to go through the IETF
 process.  However, there is large risk of wasted effort if
 significant investment is made in planning stages for use of IETF
 technology without early review and feedback from the IETF.  Other
 SDOs are encouraged to communicate informally or formally with the
 IETF as early as possible, to avoid false starts.  Early technical
 review in a collaborative spirit is of great value.  Each SDO can
 "own" its ideas and discuss them in its own fora, but should start
 talking to the IETF experts about those ideas the moment the idea is
 well formulated.  It is understood that close collaboration may be
 needed in order that the IETF experts correctly understand the
 systems architecture envisaged by the other SDO.  This is much
 preferable to a situation where another SDO presents the IANA and the
 IETF with a 'fait accompli.'
 Vendors that identify a requirement for an extension are strongly
 recommended to start informal discussion in the IETF and to publish a
 preliminary Internet Draft describing the requirements.  This will
 allow the vendor, and the community, to evaluate whether there is
 community interest and whether there are any major or fundamental
 issues.  However, in the case of a vendor that identifies a
 requirement for a proprietary extension that does not generate
 interest in the IETF (or IRTF) communities, an Independent Submission
 to the RFC Editor is strongly recommended in preference to publishing
 a proprietary document.  Not only does this bring the draft to the

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 8] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 attention of the community, but it also ensures a minimum of review
 [RFC3932], and (if published as an RFC) makes the proprietary
 extension available to the whole community.
 If, despite these recommendations, a vendor or SDO does choose to
 publish its own specification for an extension to an IETF protocol,
 the following guidance applies:
 o  Extensions to IETF protocols should be well, and publicly,
    documented, and reviewed at an early stage by the IETF community
    to be sure that the extension does not undermine basic assumptions
    and safeguards designed into the protocol (such as security
    functions) or its architectural integrity.
 o  Vendors and other SDOs are formally requested to submit any such
    proposed publications for IETF review, and are invited to actively
    participate in the IETF process.  Submission may be by an
    established liaison channel if it exists, or by direct
    communication with the relevant WG or the IESG.  This should be
    done at an early stage, before a large investment of effort has
    taken place, in case basic problems are revealed.  When there is a
    formal liaison in place between the other SDO and the IETF, the
    liaison channel should be used to ensure that review takes place,
    both by relevant experts and by established review teams or
    Directorates within the IETF.  If there is no formal liaison, the
    other SDO or vendor should ask the IESG (or a relevant Area
    Director) to obtain such reviews.  Note that general aspects such
    as security, internationalization, and management may need review,
    as well as the protocol as such.
 o  In the case of extensions involving only routine IANA parameter
    assignments, for which there is an underlying IETF specification
    containing clear IANA Considerations, this request is satisfied as
    long as those considerations are satisfied (see [RFC2434]).
    Anything beyond this requires an explicit protocol review by
    experts within the IETF.
 o  Note that, like IETF specifications, such proposed publications
    must include an IANA Considerations section to ensure that
    protocol parameter assignments that are needed to deploy
    extensions are not made until after a proposed extension has
    received adequate review, and then to ensure that IANA has precise
    guidance on how to make those assignments.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 9] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

5. Some Specific Issues

 It is relatively common for MIB modules, which are all, in effect,
 extensions of the SMI data model, to be defined or extended outside
 the IETF.  BCP 111 [RFC4181] offers detailed guidance for authors and
 reviewers.
 A number of protocols have foreseen experimental values for certain
 IANA parameters, so that experimental usages and extensions may be
 tested without need for a special parameter assignment.  It must be
 stressed that such values are not intended for production use or as a
 way to evade the type of technical review described in this document.
 See [RFC3692] and [RFC4727].
 RADIUS [RFC2865] is designed to carry attributes and allow definition
 of new attributes.  But it is important that discussion of new
 attributes involve the IETF community of experts knowledgeable about
 the protocol's architecture and existing usage in order to fully
 understand the implications of a proposed extension.  Adding new
 attributes without such discussion creates a high risk of
 interoperability or functionality failure.  For this reason among
 others, the IETF has an active RADIUS Extensions WG at the time of
 writing.
 There are certain documents that specify a change process for
 specific IETF protocols, such as:
    The SIP change process [RFC3427]
    The (G)MPLS change process [CHANGEPROC]
 This document does not override such specific change processes.

6. Intellectual Property

 All IETF documents fall under the IETF's intellectual property rules,
 BCP 78 [RFC3978] and BCP 79 [RFC3979], as amended.  In particular,
 there are restrictions on the production of derivative works, and
 there are rights that remain with the original authors.  Anybody
 outside the IETF considering an extension based on an IETF document
 must bear these legal restrictions and rights in mind.

7. Security Considerations

 An extension must not introduce new security risks without also
 providing an adequate counter-measure, and in particular it must not
 inadvertently defeat security measures in the unextended protocol.
 This aspect must always be considered during IETF review.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 10] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

8. IANA Considerations

 The IETF requests IANA to pay attention to the requirements of this
 document when requested to make protocol parameter assignments for
 vendors or other SDOs, i.e., to respect the IANA Considerations of
 all RFCs that contain them, and the general considerations of BCP 26
 [RFC2434].

9. Acknowledgements

 This document is heavily based on an earlier draft under a different
 title by Scott Bradner and Thomas Narten.
 That earlier draft stated: The initial version of this document was
 put together by the IESG in 2002.  Since then, it has been reworked
 in response to feedback from John Loughney, Henrik Levkowetz, Mark
 Townsley, Randy Bush, Bernard Aboba, and others.
 Ted Hardie, Scott Brim, Dan Romascanu, Jari Arkko, Loa Andersson,
 Adrian Farrel, Roy Fielding, Keith Moore, Bernard Aboba, Elwyn
 Davies, Stephen Trowbridge, and Ted Ts'o also made valuable comments
 on this document.
 Sam Hartman contributed the section on interoperability.
 This document was produced using the xml2rfc tool [RFC2629].

10. References

10.1. Normative References

 [RFC2026]    Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
              3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
 [RFC2434]    Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434,
              October 1998.
 [RFC3427]    Mankin, A., Bradner, S., Mahy, R., Willis, D., Ott, J.,
              and B. Rosen, "Change Process for the Session Initiation
              Protocol (SIP)", BCP 67, RFC 3427, December 2002.
 [RFC3692]    Narten, T., "Assigning Experimental and Testing Numbers
              Considered Useful", BCP 82, RFC 3692, January 2004.
 [RFC3932]    Alvestrand, H., "The IESG and RFC Editor Documents:
              Procedures", BCP 92, RFC 3932, October 2004.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 11] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

 [RFC3935]    Alvestrand, H., "A Mission Statement for the IETF",
              BCP 95, RFC 3935, October 2004.
 [RFC3978]    Bradner, S., "IETF Rights in Contributions", BCP 78,
              RFC 3978, March 2005.
 [RFC3979]    Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
              Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.
 [RFC4052]    Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "IAB
              Processes for Management of IETF Liaison Relationships",
              BCP 102, RFC 4052, April 2005.
 [RFC4053]    Trowbridge, S., Bradner, S., and F.  Baker, "Procedures
              for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF",
              BCP 103, RFC 4053, April 2005.
 [RFC4181]    Heard, C., "Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers of MIB
              Documents", BCP 111, RFC 4181, September 2005.
 [RFC4727]    Fenner, B., "Experimental Values In IPv4, IPv6, ICMPv4,
              ICMPv6, UDP, and TCP Headers", RFC 4727, November 2006.

10.2. Informative References

 [CHANGEPROC] Andersson, L. and A. Farrel, "Change Process for
              Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Generalized
              MPLS  (GMPLS) Protocols and Procedures", Work in
              Progress, October 2006.
 [RFC2629]    Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629,
              June 1999.
 [RFC2865]    Rigney, C., Willens, S., Rubens, A., and W. Simpson,
              "Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)",
              RFC 2865, June 2000.
 [RFC4691]    Andersson, L., "Guidelines for Acting as an IETF Liaison
              to Another Organization", RFC 4691, October 2006.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 12] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

Authors' Addresses

 Scott Bradner
 Harvard University
 29 Oxford St.
 Cambridge, MA  02138
 US
 EMail: sob@harvard.edu
 Brian Carpenter, Ed.
 IBM
 8 Chemin de Blandonnet
 1214 Vernier
 Switzerland
 EMail: brc@zurich.ibm.com
 Thomas Narten
 IBM
 3039 Cornwallis Ave.
 PO Box 12195 - BRQA/502
 Research Triangle Park, NC  27709-2195
 US
 EMail: narten@us.ibm.com

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 13] RFC 4775 Procedures for Protocol Extensions December 2006

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2006).
 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
 retain all their rights.
 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST,
 AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES,
 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT
 THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY
 IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
 Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
 this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
 might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
 made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
 on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
 found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
 Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
 assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
 attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
 such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
 specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
 http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
 rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
 this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
 ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Bradner, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 14]

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