Network Working Group G. Malkin
Request for Comments: 1391 Xylogics, Inc.
FYI: 17 January 1993
The Tao of IETF
A Guide for New Attendees of the Internet Engineering Task Force
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Abstract
Over the last two years, the attendance at Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) Plenary meetings has grown phenomenally. Approximately
38% of the attendees are new to the IETF at each meeting. About 33%
of those go on to become regular attendees. When the meetings were
smaller, it wasn't very difficult for a newcomer to get to know
people and get into the swing of things. Today, however, a newcomer
meets many more new people, some previously known only as the authors
of Request For Comments (RFC) documents or thought provoking email
messages.
The purpose of this For Your Information (FYI) RFC is to explain to
the newcomers how the IETF works. This will give them a warm, fuzzy
feeling and enable them to make the meeting more productive for
everyone. This FYI will also provide the mundane bits of information
which everyone who attends an IETF meeting should know.
Acknowledgments
The IETF Secretariat is made up of the following people: Steve Coya
(Executive Director of the IETF), Cynthia Clark, Megan Davies, Debra
Legare, and Greg Vaudreuil. These are the people behind the
Registration Table, and the success, of the IETF meetings. I thank
them for their hard work, and for their input and review of this
document. Thanks also to Vinton Cerf, Phillip Gross, and Craig
Partridge for their review and comments. And, as always, special
thanks to April Marine and Skippy.
I would also like to thank the management of Xylogics for their
strong, continuing support of my IETF activities.
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Table of Contents
Section 1 - The "Fun" Stuff
What is the IETF? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Humble Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
IETF Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Dress Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Terminal Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Social Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Other General Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Section 2 - The "You've got to know it" Stuff
Registration Bullets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Mailing Lists and Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Important Email Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
IETF Proceedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Be Prepared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
RFCs and Internet-Drafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Frequently Asked Questions (and Their Answers) . . . . . . . 13
Pointers to Useful Documents and Files . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Section 3 - The "Reference" Stuff
Tao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
IETF Area Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
What is the IETF?
The IETF is the protocol engineering, development, and
standardization arm of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Its
mission includes:
o Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and
technical problems in the Internet;
o Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term
architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet;
o Making recommendations to the IAB regarding standardization of
protocols and protocol usage in the Internet;
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o Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task
Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and
o Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the
Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency
contractors, and network managers.
The IETF Plenary meeting is not a conference, although there are
technical presentations. The IETF is not a traditional standards
organization, although many standards are produced. The IETF is the
volunteers who meet three times a year to fulfill the IETF mission.
There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone may register for and
attend any meeting. The closest thing there is to being an IETF
member is being on the IETF mailing lists (see the IETF Mailing Lists
section). This is where the best information about current IETF
activities and focus can be found.
Humble Beginnings
The first IETF meeting was held in January, 1986 at Linkabit in San
Diego with 15 attendees. The 4th IETF, held at SRI in Menlo Park in
October, 1986, was the first at which non-government vendors
attended. The concept of Working Groups (WG) was introduced at the
5th IETF meeting at the NASA Ames Research Center in California in
February, 1987. The 7th IETF, held at MITRE in McLean, Virginia in
July, 1987, was the first meeting with over 100 attendees.
The 14th IETF meeting was held at Stanford University in July, 1989.
It marked a major change in the structure of the IETF universe. The
IAB (then, Internet Activities Board), which until that time oversaw
many Task Forces, changed its structure to leave only two: the IETF
and the IRTF. The IRTF is tasked to consider the long-term research
problems in the Internet. The IETF also changed. Those changes are
visible in today's hierarchy.
The Hierarchy
To completely understand the structure of the IETF, it is useful to
understand the overall structure in which the IETF resides. The
Internet Society (ISOC), formed in January 1992, provides the
official parent organization for the IETF. The ISOC Board of
Trustees appoints the members of the IAB. The IETF and IRTF Chairs
are also IAB members. The IAB provides the final technical review of
Internet standards. They also provide leadership in the IETF, by
virtue of their skills and years of experience.
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The IETF is divided into nine functional Areas. They are:
Applications, Internet Services, Network Management, Operational
Requirements, OSI Integration, Routing, Security, Transport and
Services, and User Services. Each Area has at least one Area
Director. There is also an Area Director who oversees Standards
Management. The Area Directors, along with the IETF Chair, form the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Phillip Gross has been
the IETF Chair since the IETF's 7th meeting. He founded the IESG and
serves as its Chair as well. The IESG provides the first technical
review of Internet standards. They are also responsible for the
day-to-day "management" of the IETF.
Each Area has several Working Groups. A Working Group is a group of
people who work under a charter to achieve a certain goal. That goal
may be the creation of an informational document, the creation of a
protocol standard, or the resolution of problems in the Internet.
Most Working Groups have a finite lifetime. That is, once a Working
Group has achieved its goal, it disbands. As in the IETF, there is
no official membership for a Working Group. Unofficially, a Working
Group member is somebody who's on that Working Group's mailing list.
Anyone may attend a Working Group meeting (see the Be Prepared
section below).
Areas may also have Birds of a Feather (BOF) groups. They generally
have the same goals as Working Groups, except that they have no
charter and usually only meet once or twice. BOFs are often held to
determine if there is enough interest to form a Working Group.
IETF Mailing Lists
Anyone who plans to attend an IETF meeting should join the IETF
announcements mailing list. This is where all of the meeting
information, new and revised Internet-Draft and RFC announcements,
IESG Recommendations, and Last Calls are posted. People who'd like
to "get technical" may also join the IETF discussion list,
"
[email protected]". This was the only list before the
announcement list was created and is where discussions of cosmic
significance are held (most Working Groups have their own mailing
lists for discussions relating to their work). To join the IETF
announcement list, send a request to:
[email protected]
To join the IETF discussion list, send a request to:
[email protected]
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To join both of the lists, simply send a single message, to either
"-request" address, and indicate that you'd like to join both mailing
lists.
Do not, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason, send a request
to join a list to the list itself! The thousands of people on the
list don't need, or want, to know when a new person joins.
Similarly, when changing email addresses or leaving a list, send your
request only to the "-request" address, not to the main list. This
means you!!
The IETF discussion list is unmoderated. This means that anyone can
express their opinions about issues affecting the Internet. However,
it is not a place for companies or individuals to solicit or
advertise. Only the Secretariat can send a message to the
announcement list.
Even though the IETF mailing lists "represent" the IETF membership at
large, it is important to note that attending an IETF meeting does
not automatically include addition to either mailing list.
Registration
As previously mentioned, all meeting announcements are sent to the
IETF announcement list. Within the IETF meeting announcement is a
Registration Form and complete instructions for registering,
including, of course, the cost. The Secretariat highly recommends
that attendees preregister. Early registration, which ends about one
month before the meeting, carries a lower registration fee. As the
size of the meetings has grown, so has the length of the lines at the
registration desk. Fortunately, there are three lines: the
"preregistered and prepaid" line (which moves very quickly); the
"preregistered and on-site payment" line (which moves a little more
slowly); and the "registration and on-site payment" line (take a
guess).
Registration is open all week. However, the Secretariat highly
recommends that attendees arrive for early registration, beginning at
6:00 P.M. (meeting local time), on the Sunday before the opening
plenary. Not only will there be fewer people, but there will also be
a reception at which people can get a byte to eat. If the
registration lines are long, one can eat first and try again when the
lines are shorter. Newcomers are encouraged to attend the IETF
Orientation on Sunday at 4:30 P.M.
Registered attendees (and there isn't any other kind) receive a
Registration Packet. It contains a general orientation sheet, the
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At-A-Glance sheet, a list of Working Group acronyms, the most recent
Agenda, and a name tag. The At-A-Glance is a very important
reference and is used throughout the week. It contains Working
Group/BOF room assignments and a map of room locations. Attendees
who prepaid will also find their receipt in their packet.
Dress Code
Since attendees must wear their name tags, they must also wear shirts
or blouses. Pants or skirts are also highly recommended. Seriously
though, many newcomers are often embarrassed when they show up Monday
morning in suits, to discover that everybody else is wearing T-
shirts, jeans (shorts, if weather permits) and sandals. There are
those in the IETF who refuse to wear anything other than suits.
Fortunately, they are well known (for other reasons) so they are
forgiven this particular idiosyncrasy.
The general rule is: "dress for the weather."
Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes
Some of the people at the IETF will have a little colored dot on
their name tags. A few people have more than one. These dots
identify people who are silly enough to volunteer to do a lot of
extra work. The colors have the following meanings:
red - IAB member
yellow - IESG member
blue - Working Group/BOF chair
green - Local host
Local hosts are the people who can answer questions about the
terminal room, and restaurants and points of interest in the area.
It is important that newcomers to the IETF not be afraid to strike up
conversations with people who wear these dots. If the IAB and IESG
members, and Working Group and BOF chairs, didn't want to talk to
anybody, they wouldn't be wearing the dots in the first place.
To make life simpler for the Secretariat, Registration Packets are
also coded with little colored dots. These are only for Secretariat
use, so the nobody else needs to worry about them.
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Terminal Room
One of the most important (depending on your point of view) things
the local host does is provide Internet access to the meeting
attendees. In general, the connectivity is excellent. This is
entirely due to the Olympian efforts of the local hosts, and their
ability to beg, borrow and steal. The people and companies who
donate their equipment, services, and time are to be heartily
congratulated and thanked.
While preparation far in advance of the meeting is encouraged, there
may be some unavoidable "last minute" things which can be
accomplished in the terminal room. It may also be useful to people
who need to make trip reports or status reports while things are
still fresh in their minds.
Social Event
Another of the most important things organized and managed by the
local hosts is the IETF social event. The social event has become
something of a tradition at the IETF meetings. It has been
immortalized by Marshal Rose with his reference to "many fine lunches
and dinners" [ROSE], and by Claudio and Julia Topolcic with their
rendition of "Nerds in Paradise" on a pink T-shirt.
Newcomers to the IETF are encouraged to attend the social event.
Everyone is encouraged to wear their name tags. The social event is
designed to give people a chance to meet on a social, rather than
technical, level.
Sometimes, the social event is a computer or high-tech related event.
At the Boston IETF, for example, the social was dinner at the
Computer Museum. Other times, the social might be a dinner cruise or
a trip to an art gallery.
Agenda
The Agenda for the IETF meetings is a very fluid thing. It is sent,
in various forms, to the IETF announcement list three times prior to
the meeting. The final Agenda is included in the Registration
Packets. Of course, "final" in the IETF doesn't mean the same thing
as it does elsewhere in the world. The final Agenda is simply the
version that went to the printers.
The Secretariat will announce Agenda changes during the morning
plenary sessions. Changes will also be posted on the bulletin board
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near the IETF Registration Table (not the hotel registration desk).
Assignments for breakout rooms (that's where the Working Groups and
BOFs meet) and a map showing the room locations make up the At-A-
Glance sheet (included in the Registration Packets). Room
assignments are as flexible as the Agenda. Some Working Groups meet
multiple times during a meeting and every attempt is made to have a
Working Group meet in the same room each session. Room assignment
changes are not necessarily permanent for the week. Always check the
At-A-Glance first, then the bulletin board. When in doubt, check
with a member of the Secretariat at the Registration Table.
Other General Things
The opening Plenary on Monday morning is the most heavily attended
session. It is where important introductory remarks are made, so
people are encouraged to attend.
The guy wearing the suit is probably Vint Cerf, the President of the
Internet Society and an IAB member. If you see a guy doing a strip
tease out of a suit, it's definitely Vint (but don't come just to see
him do it again; he's only done it once in the Internet's 20 year
history).
The IETF Secretariat, and IETFers in general, are very approachable.
Never be afraid to approach someone and introduce yourself. Also,
don't be afraid to ask questions, especially when it comes to jargon
and acronyms!
Hallway conversations are very important. A lot of very good work
gets done by people who talk together between meetings and over
lunches and dinners. Every minute of the IETF can be considered work
time (much to some people's dismay).
"Bar BOFs" are unofficial get-togethers, usually in the late evening,
during which a lot of work gets done over drinks.
It's unwise to get between a hungry IETFer (and there isn't any other
kind) and coffee break brownies and cookies, no matter how
interesting a hallway conversation is.
IETFers are fiercely independent. It's always safe to question an
opinion and offer alternatives, but don't expect an IETFer to follow
an order.
The IETF, and the plenary sessions in particular, are not places for
vendors to try to sell their wares. People can certainly answer
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questions about their company and its products, but bear in mind that
the IETF is not a trade show. This does not preclude people from
recouping costs for IETF related T-shirts, buttons and pocket
protectors.
Registration Bullets
Registration is such an important topic, that it's in this RFC twice!
This is the "very important registration bullets" section.
o To attend an IETF meeting: you have to register and you have to
pay the registration fee.
o All you need to do to be registered is to send in a completed
Registration Form.
o You may register by mail, email or fax. Email and fax
registration forms will be accepted until 1:00 P.M. ET on the
Friday before the meeting.
o You may preregister and pay, preregister and pay later,
preregister and pay on-site, or register and pay on-site.
o To get the lower registration fee, you must register by the early
registration deadline (about one month before the meeting). You
can still pay later or on-site.
o If you don't register by the early registration deadline, a late
fee is added.
o Everyone pays the same fees. There are no education or group
discounts. There are no discounts for attending only part of the
week.
o Register only ONE person per registration form. Substitutions are
NOT allowed.
o You may register then pay later, but you may not pay then register
later. Payment MUST be accompanied by a completed registration
form.
o Purchase orders are NOT accepted. DD Form 1556 IS accepted.
o Refunds are subject to a $20 service charge. Late fees will not
be refunded.
o The registration fee covers a copy of the meeting's Proceedings,
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Sunday evening reception (cash bar), a daily continental
breakfast, and two daily coffee breaks.
Mailing Lists and Archives
As previously mentioned, the IETF announcement and discussion mailing
lists are the central mailing lists for IETF activities. However,
there are many other mailing lists related to IETF work. For
example, every Working Group has its own discussion list. In
addition, there are some long-term technical debates which have been
moved off of the IETF list onto lists created specifically for those
topics. It is highly recommended that everybody follow the
discussions on the mailing lists of the Working Groups which they
wish to attend. The more work that is done on the mailing lists, the
less work that will need to be done at the meeting, leaving time for
cross pollination (i.e., attending Working Groups outside one's
primary area of interest in order to broaden one's perspective).
The mailing lists also provide a forum for those who wish to follow,
or contribute to, the Working Groups' efforts, but cannot attend the
IETF meetings.
All IETF discussion lists have a "-request" address which handles the
administrative details of joining and leaving the list. It is
generally frowned upon when such administrivia appears on the
discussion mailing list.
Most IETF discussion lists are archived. That is, all of the
messages sent to the list are automatically stored on a host for
anonymous FTP access. To find out where a particular list is
archived, send a message to the list's "-request" address, NOT to the
list itself.
Important Email Addresses
There are some important IETF email addresses with which everyone
should be familiar. They are all located at "cnri.reston.va.us"
(e.g., "
[email protected]"). To personalize things, the
names of the Secretariat staff who handle the lists are given.
o ietf-info general queries about the IETF-
Greg Vaudreuil, Megan Davies and Cynthia Clark
o ietf-rsvp queries about meeting locations and fees,
emailed Registration Forms-
Debra Legare
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o proceedings queries about previous Proceedings availability,
orders for copies of the Proceedings-
Debra Legare
o ietf-announce-request
requests to join/leave IETF announcement list-
Cynthia Clark
o ietf-request requests to join/leave IETF discussion list-
Cynthia Clark
o internet-drafts Internet-Draft submissions-
Cynthia Clark
o iesg-secretary Greg Vaudreuil
IETF Proceedings
The IETF Proceedings are compiled in the two months following each
IETF meeting. The Proceedings usually start with a message from
Phill Gross, the Chair of the IETF. Each contains the final
(hindsight) Agenda, an IETF overview, a report from the IESG, Area
and Working Group reports, network status briefings, slides from the
protocol and technical presentations, and the attendees list. The
attendees list includes an attendee's name, affiliation, work phone
number, work fax number, and email address, as provided on the
Registration Form.
A copy of the Proceedings will be sent to everyone who registered for
the IETF. The cost is included in the registration fee. The
Proceedings are sent to the mailing addresses provided on the
Registration Forms.
For those who could not attend a meeting but would like a copy of the
Proceedings send a check for $35 (made payable to CNRI) to:
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Attn: Accounting Department - IETF Proceedings
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA 22091
Please indicate which meeting Proceedings you would like to receive
by specifying the meeting date (e.g., July 1992) or meeting number
and location (e.g., 24th meeting in Boston). Availability of
previous meeting Proceedings is limited, so check BEFORE sending
payment.
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Be Prepared
This topic cannot be stressed enough. As the IETF grows, it becomes
more and more important for attendees to arrive prepared for the
Working Groups meetings they plan to attend. This doesn't apply only
to newcomers; everybody should come prepared.
Being prepared means having read the documents which the Working
Group or BOF Chair has distributed. It means having followed the
discussions on the Working Group's mailing list or having reviewed
the archives. For the Working Group/BOF Chairs, it means getting all
of the documents out early enough (i.e., several weeks) to give
everybody time to read them. It also means announcing an agenda and
sticking with it.
At the Chair's discretion, some time may be devoted to bringing new
Working Group attendees up to speed. In fact, long lived Working
Groups have occasionally held entire sessions which were introductory
in nature. As a rule, however, a Working Group is not the place to
go for training. Observers are always welcome, but they must realize
that the work effort cannot be delayed for education. Anyone wishing
to attend a Working Group for the first time might seek out the Chair
prior to the meeting and ask for some introduction.
Another thing, for everybody, to consider is that Working Groups go
through phases. In the initial phase (say, the first two meetings),
all ideas are welcome. The idea is to gather all the possible
solutions together for consideration. In the development phase, a
solution is chosen and developed. Trying to reopen issues which were
decided more than a couple of meetings back is considered bad form.
The final phase (the last two meetings) is where the "spit and
polish" are applied to the architected solution. This is not the
time to suggest architectural changes or open design issues already
resolved. It's a bad idea to wait until the last minute to speak out
if a problem is discovered. This is especially true for people whose
excuse is that they hadn't read the documents until the day before a
comments period ended.
Time at the IETF meetings is a precious thing. Working Groups are
encouraged to meet between IETF meetings, either in person or by
video or telephone conference. Doing as much work as possible over
the mailing lists would also reduce the amount of work which must be
done at the meeting.
RFCs and Internet-Drafts
Originally, RFCs were just what the name implies; they were requests
for comments. The early RFCs were messages between the ARPANET
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architects about how to resolve certain problems. Over the years,
RFCs became more formal. It reached the point that they were being
cited as standards, even when they weren't.
Internet Experiment Notes (IEN) were created to become a new informal
document series about the early experimental work on TCP and IP. It
was thought that having "Notes" as part of the name would prevent
them from being cited as standards. As the work matured, the
documentation was done as RFCs.
RFCs continue to be the important documents about the Internet; there
are now two special sub-series within the RFCs: FYIs and STDs. The
For Your Information RFC sub-series was created to document overviews
and things which are introductory. Frequently, FYIs are created by
the IETF User Services Area. The STD RFC sub-series is new. It was
created to identify those RFCs which do specify full Internet
Standards. RFCs of every type have an RFC number by which they are
indexed and by which they can be retrieved. FYIs and STDs have FYI
numbers and STD numbers, respectively, in addition to RFC numbers.
This makes it easier for a new Internet user, for example, to find
all of the helpful, informational documents, by looking in the FYI
index. In addition, FYI and STD numbers never change across a
document revision, while the RFC number does.
Internet-Drafts (I-D) are working documents of the IETF. Any group
(e.g., Working Group, BOF) or individual may submit a document for
distribution as an I-D. An I-D is valid for six months. Recent
guidelines require that an expiration date appear on every page of an
I-D. An I-D may be updated, replaced or obsoleted at any time. It
is not appropriate to use I-Ds as reference material or to cite them,
other than as a "working draft" or "work in progress".
For additional information, read the following documents:
o Request for Comments on Request for Comments [RFC1111]
o F.Y.I. on F.Y.I: Introduction to the F.Y.I notes [RFC1150]
o Introduction to the STD Notes [RFC1311]
o Guidelines to Authors of Internet Drafts [GAID]
o The Internet Activities Board [RFC1160]
o The Internet Standards Process [RFC1310]
o IAB Official Protocol Standards [STD1]
Frequently Asked Questions (and Their Answers)
Q: My Working Group moved this morning. Where is it now?
A: Not all room assignment changes are permanent. Check the At-A-
Glance sheet and the message board for announcements.
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Q: Where is Room A?
A: Check the map on the At-A-Glance sheet. An enlarged version is on
the bulletin board.
Q: Where can I get a copy of the Proceedings?
A: The Proceedings are automatically sent to each attendee about two
months after the meeting.
Q: When is on-site registration?
A: The IETF registration table is set up Sunday night from 6:00 p.m.
- 8:00 p.m. and Monday - Thursday from about 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Starting time in the mornings and Friday's hours may vary
depending on the meeting schedule.
Q: Where is lunch served?
A: The meeting does not include lunch or dinner. Ask a local host
(somebody with a green dotted badge) for a recommendation.
Q: Where are the receipts for the social event?
A: The social is not managed by the IETF Secretariat. Ask a local
host.
Pointers to Useful Documents and Files
This is a list of documents and files that provide useful information
about the IETF meetings, Working Groups, and documentation. These
files reside in the "ietf" directory on the Anonymous FTP sites
listed below. Files with names beginning with "0" (zero) pertain to
IETF meetings. These may refer to a recently held meeting if the
first announcement of the next meeting has not yet been sent to the
IETF mailing list. Files with names beginning with "1" (one) contain
general IETF information. This is only a partial list of the
available files.
o 0mtg-agenda.txt Agenda for the meeting
o 0mtg-at-a-glance.txt Logistics information for the meeting
o 0mtg-rsvp.txt Meeting registration form
o 0mtg-sites.txt Future meeting sites and dates
o 0mtg-traveldirections.txt Directions to the meeting site
o 1directories.txt The IETF Shadow directory locations and
contents.
o 1id-guidelines.txt Guidelines to Authors of Internet-Drafts
Contains information on writing and
submitting I-Ds.
o 1ietf-description.txt Short description of the IETF and IESG,
including a list of Area Directors.
Internet Engineering Task Force [Page 14]
RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
o 1nonwg-discuss.txt A list of mailing lists created to
discuss specific IETF issues.
o 1proceedings-request.txt A Proceedings order form for the
current and previous meetings
o 1wg-summary.txt List of all Working Groups, by Area,
including the name and address of the
chairperson, and the mailing list
address.
Additionally, the charters and minutes of the Working Groups and BOFs
are archived in the "ietf" directory.
All of these documents are available by anonymous FTP from the
following sites:
o DDN NIC Address: nic.ddn.mil (192.112.36.5)
o East Coast (US) Address: nnsc.nsf.net (128.89.1.178)
o West Coast (US) Address: ftp.nisc.sri.com (192.33.33.22)
o Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21)
o Europe Address: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)
The files are also available via email from various mail servers. To
to get the agenda and meeting summary from the mail server at SRI
International, for example, you would send the following message:
To:
[email protected] Message header
Subject: anything you want
send 0mtg-agenda.txt Body of the message
send 0mtg-at-a-glance.txt
Residing on the same archive sites are the RFCs and Internet-Drafts.
They are in the "rfc" and "internet-drafts" directories,
respectively. The file "rfc-index.txt" contains the latest
information about the RFCs (e.g., which have been obsoleted by
which). In general, only the newest version of an Internet-Draft is
available.
Mail servers can also be used to retrieve RFCs and I-Ds. To use
SRI's mail server to get an RFC, simply include a "send command" in
the body of the message for the desired RFC. For example:
send rfc1150
or use a special RFC shorthand:
rfc 1150
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RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
For Internet-Drafts, include the name (yes, they are very long) in a
"send" command line. For example:
send draft-ietf-ripv2-mibext-03.txt
RFCs may also be retrieved, using email, from ISI's RFC-Info server
at "
[email protected]". To get a specific RFC, include the following
in the body of the message:
Retrieve: RFC
Doc-ID: RFC0951
This example would cause a copy of RFC 951 (the leading zero in the
Doc-ID is required) to be emailed to the requestor.
To get a list of available RFCs which match certain criteria, include
the following in the body of the message:
LIST: RFC
Keywords: Gateway
This example would email a list of all RFCs with "Gateway" in the
title, or as an assigned keyword, to the requestor.
To get a copy of the RFC-Info manual:
HELP: Manual
To get information on other ways to get RFCs:
HELP: ways_to_get_rfcs
Internet Engineering Task Force [Page 16]
RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
Tao
Pronounced "Dow", Tao means "the Way." It is the basic principle
behind the teachings of Lao-tse, a Chinese master. Its familiar
symbol is the black and white Yin-Yang circle.
IETF Area Abbreviations
APP Applications
INT Internet Services
MGT Network Management
OPS Operational Requirements
OSI OSI Integration
RTG Routing
SEC Security
TSV Transport and Services
USV User Services
Acronyms
:-) Smiley face
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ARPANET Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
AS Autonomous System
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
BGP Border Gateway Protocol
BOF Birds Of a Feather
BSD Berkeley Software Distribution
BTW By The Way
CCIRN Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks
CCITT International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Comittee
CNI Coalition for Networked Information
CREN The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking
DARPA U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DDN U.S. Defense Data Network
DISA U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency
EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol
FAQ Frequently Asked Question
FARNET Federation of American Research NETworks
FIX U.S. Federal Information Exchange
FNC U.S. Federal Networking Council
FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name
FYI For Your Information (RFC)
GOSIP U.S. Government OSI Profile
IAB Internet Architecture Board
IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
I-D Internet-Draft
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RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
IEN Internet Experiment Note
IESG Internet Engineering Steering Group
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IGP Interior Gateway Protocol
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IMR Internet Monthly Report
IR Internet Registry
IRSG Internet Research Steering Group
IRTF Internet Research Task Force
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISOC Internet Society
ISODE ISO Development Environment
ITU International Telecommunication Union
MIB Management Information Base
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
NIC Network Information Center
NIS Network Information Services
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
NOC Network Operations Center
NREN National Research and Education Network
NSF National Science Foundation
OSI Open Systems Interconnection
PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail
PTT Postal, Telegraph and Telephone
RARE Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne
RFC Request For Comments
RIPE Reseaux IP Europeenne
SIG Special Interest Group
STD Standard (RFC)
TLA Three Letter Acronym
TTFN Ta-Ta For Now
UTC Universal Time Coordinated
WG Working Group
WRT With Respect To
WYSIWYG What You See is What You Get
Internet Engineering Task Force [Page 18]
RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
References
GAID "Guidelines to Authors of Internet Drafts",
1id-guidelines.txt.
ROSE Rose, M., "The Open Book: A Practical Perspective on OSI",
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
RFC1111 Postel, J., "Request for Comments on Request for Comments",
RFC 1111, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1989.
RFC1150 Malkin, G., and J. Reynolds, "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.", FYI 1, RFC
1150, Proteon, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March
1990.
RFC1160 Cerf, V., "The Internet Activities Board", RFC 1160, NRI, May
1990.
RFC1310 Chapin, L., Chair, "The Internet Standards Process", RFC
1310, Internet Activities Board, March 1992.
RFC1311 Postel, J., Editor, "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC
1311, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1992.
STD1 Postel, J., Editor, "IAB Official Protocol Standards", STD 1,
RFC1360, Internet Architecture Board, September 1992.
Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
Author's Address
Gary Scott Malkin
Xylogics, Inc.
53 Third Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
Phone: (617) 272-8140
EMail:
[email protected]
Internet Engineering Task Force [Page 19]
