GENWiki

Premier IT Outsourcing and Support Services within the UK

User Tools

Site Tools


rfc:rfc4794

Network Working Group B. Fenner Request for Comments: 4794 AT&T Labs - Research Obsoletes: 1264 December 2006 Category: Informational

                        RFC 1264 Is Obsolete

Status of This Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2006).

Abstract

 RFC 1264 was written during what was effectively a completely
 different time in the life of the Internet.  It prescribed rules to
 protect the Internet against new routing protocols that may have
 various undesirable properties.  In today's Internet, there are so
 many other pressures against deploying unreasonable protocols that we
 believe that existing controls suffice, and the RFC 1264 rules just
 get in the way.

Fenner Informational [Page 1] RFC 4794 RFC 1264 Is Obsolete December 2006

1. Introduction

 RFC 1264 [RFC1264] describes various rules to be applied when
 publishing routing protocols on the IETF Standards Track, including
 requirements for implementation, MIBs, security, etc.  These rules
 were written in an attempt to protect the Internet from incomplete or
 unscalable new protocols.
 Today, one of the big problems the IETF faces is timeliness.
 Applying additional rules to a certain class of protocols hurts the
 IETF's ability to publish specifications in a timely manner.
 The current standards process [RFC2026] already permits the IESG to
 require additional implementation experience when it appears to be
 needed.  We do not need any more rules than that.  RFC 2026 says:
    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.

2. RFC 1264 Is Obsolete

 Therefore, this document reclassifies RFC 1264 as historic.  While
 that does not prohibit the Routing Area Directors from requiring
 implementation and/or operational experience under the RFC 2026
 rules, it removes the broad, general requirement from all routing
 documents.

3. Working Group Procedures

 Some working groups within the Routing Area have developed
 procedures, based on RFC 1264, to require implementations before
 forwarding a document to the IESG.  This action does not prevent
 those working groups from continuing with these procedures if the
 working group prefers to work this way.  We encourage working groups
 to put measures in place to improve the quality of their output.
 RFC 1264 required a MIB module to be in development for a protocol;
 this is still encouraged in a broad sense.  This is not meant to be
 limiting, however; protocol management and manageability should be

Fenner Informational [Page 2] RFC 4794 RFC 1264 Is Obsolete December 2006

 considered in the context of current IETF management protocols.  In
 addition, [RTG-REQS] contains a description of a "Manageability
 Requirements" section; this is not currently a requirement but should
 be considered.

4. Security Considerations

 While RFC 1264's rules placed additional constraints on the
 security-related contents of an RFC, current policies (e.g., the
 requirement for a Security Considerations section) suffice.

5. Acknowledgements

 Alex Zinin and Bill Fenner spent a great deal of time trying to
 produce an updated version of the RFC 1264 rules that would apply to
 today's Internet.  This work was eventually abandoned when it was
 realized (after much public discussion at Routing Area meetings,
 Internet Area meetings, and on the Routing Area mailing list) that
 there was just no way to write the rules in a way that advanced the
 goals of the IETF.

6. References

6.1. Normative References

 [RFC1264]  Hinden, R., "Internet Engineering Task Force Internet
            Routing Protocol Standardization Criteria", RFC 1264,
            October 1991.
 [RFC2026]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
            3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

6.2. Informative References

 [RTG-REQS] Farrel, A., Andersson, L., and A. Doria, "Requirements for
            Manageability Sections in Routing Area Drafts", Work in
            Progress, October 2005.

Author's Address

 Bill Fenner
 AT&T Labs - Research
 1 River Oaks Place
 San Jose, CA  95134-1918
 USA
 Phone: +1 408 493-8505
 EMail: fenner@research.att.com

Fenner Informational [Page 3] RFC 4794 RFC 1264 Is Obsolete 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.

Fenner Informational [Page 4]

/data/webs/external/dokuwiki/data/pages/rfc/rfc4794.txt · Last modified: 2006/12/06 18:04 by 127.0.0.1

Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki