IAB Thoughts on the Role of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
RFC 4440
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(March 2006; No errata)
Was draft-iab-irtf
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IAB | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Stream | IAB state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
Network Working Group S. Floyd, Ed.
Request for Comments: 4440 V. Paxson, Ed.
Category: Informational A. Falk, Ed.
IAB
March 2006
IAB Thoughts on the Role of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
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 Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
This document is an Internet Architecture Board (IAB) report on the
role of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), both on its own and
in relationship to the IETF. This document evolved from a discussion
within the IAB as part of a process of appointing a new chair of the
IRTF.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. The Relationship between the IRTF, the IAB, and the IETF ........2
2.1. Differences between IRTF and IETF Groups ...................3
2.2. Research Groups as Non-blocking Entities ...................3
3. The Range of IRTF Groups ........................................4
4. Issues for the Future ...........................................5
4.1. IRTF Groups and Network Architecture .......................5
4.2. The Relationship between the IETF and the IRTF .............6
4.3. Relationships between the Research and Development
Communities ................................................8
4.3.1. What's in a Name: On the Name `Research Group' .....8
4.4. The RFC Track for IRTF Documents ...........................9
5. Security Considerations .........................................9
6. Acknowledgements ................................................9
7. Normative References ...........................................10
8. Informative References .........................................10
Floyd, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 4440 IAB Thoughts on IRTF Role March 2006
1. Introduction
As part of the process of appointing a new chair of the Internet
Research Task Force (IRTF), the IAB considered the future role of the
IRTF both on its own and in relationship to the IETF. The IAB has
expanded this discussion into this IAB report on the role of the
IRTF, and circulated this document for wider community review. (As
one result of this discussion, Aaron Falk was appointed the new chair
of the IRTF in March 2005.)
2. The Relationship between the IRTF, the IAB, and the IETF
Before 1989, the IAB (then called the Internet Activities Board)
oversaw a number of task forces. In 1989, organizational changes
were made to coalesce these task forces into two groups, the IETF and
the IRTF. The IRTF was tasked to consider long-term research
problems in the Internet, and the IETF was to concentrate on short-
to medium-term engineering issues related to the Internet. At this
time, all of the task forces except the IETF were restructured as
IRTF research groups. For example, the End-to-End Task Force became
the IRTF's End-to-End Research Group (E2ERG) and the Privacy &
Security Task Force became the IRTF's Privacy & Security Research
Group (PSRG) [IABWebPages] [RFC3160] [E2ERG].
Much of the early participation in the IETF as well as in the IRTF
was from the academic and research communities. (We don't have a
citation from this, but a look at the members of the IAB from the
1980's and early 1990's shows IAB members from institutions such as
MIT, UCLA, BBN, UCL, SDSC, and the like, while IAB members from the
last few years were more likely to list their organizations at the
time of service as Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, and
Verisign [IABWebPages]. We expect that a study of authors of RFCs
would show a similar trend over time, with fewer authors from the
academic and research communities, and more authors from the
commercial world.) While the IRTF has continued to have significant
participation from the academic and research communities, the IETF
has focused on standards development and has become dominated by the
needs of the commercial sector.
The IRTF has generally focused on investigation into areas that are
not considered sufficiently mature for IETF standardization, as well
as investigation of areas that are not specifically the subject of
standardization, but could guide future standards efforts.
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