Concluded Program IP Stack Evolution (stackevo)

During the IETF 105 meeting in Montreal, the IAB decided to close the Stack Evolution program in its present form.

The initial concept behind the IP Stack Evolution program was to investigate how changes to the whole stack, especially to the transport layer, could be deployed in the big-I Internet, and explore the impact of encryption at the transport layer on evolution of the stack. At the time the program started in 2014, there was not much work yet in and around the IETF in this space.

That has changed. QUIC has demonstrated that it is possible to deploy a new transport protocol at scale, and the QUIC WG has nearly finished an IETF standard version of that protocol. TAPS was chartered, and is well on its way to defining an abstract interface that reduces the rigidness of the binding between interfaces and transports. Conversations (many conversations) have started about the balance between measurability and confidentiality, and some of these have found shape in protocols (e.g., in the form of the QUIC spin bit).

The discussion isn't over, though; the appropriate place for further discussion on stackevo's topics (or adjacent ones) is on the architecture-discuss@ietf.org list.