Network Working Group Internet Architecture Board
Request for Comments: 1410 J. Postel, Editor
Obsoletes: RFCs 1360, 1280, 1250, March 1993
1100, 1083, 1130, 1140, 1200
STD: 1
IAB OFFICIAL PROTOCOL STANDARDS
Status of this Memo
This memo describes the state of standardization of protocols used in
the Internet as determined by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1. The Standardization Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. The Request for Comments Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Other Reference Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. Assigned Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Gateway Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3. Host Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4. The MIL-STD Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Explanation of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Definitions of Protocol State (Maturity Level) . . . . . . 8
4.1.1. Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1.2. Draft Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.3. Proposed Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.4. Experimental Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.5. Informational Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.6. Historic Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2. Definitions of Protocol Status (Requirement Level) . . . 9
4.2.1. Required Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.2. Recommended Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.3. Elective Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.4. Limited Use Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.5. Not Recommended Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. The Standards Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.1. The RFC Processing Decision Table . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2. The Standards Track Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6. The Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Recent Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1.1. New RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1.2. Other Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.2. Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Internet Architecture Board [Page 1]
RFC 1410 IAB Standards March 1993
6.3. Network-Specific Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.4. Draft Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.5. Proposed Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.6. Telnet Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.7. Experimental Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.8. Informational Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.9. Historic Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7. Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.1. IAB, IETF, and IRTF Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.1.1. Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Contact . . . . . . 31
7.1.2. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Contact . . . . 31
7.1.3. Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Contact . . . . . 32
7.2. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Contact . . . 33
7.3. Request for Comments Editor Contact . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.4. Network Information Center Contact . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.5. Sources for Requests for Comments . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
9. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Introduction
Discussion of the standardization process and the RFC document series
is presented first, followed by an explanation of the terms.
Sections 6.2 - 6.9 contain the lists of protocols in each stage of
standardization. Finally come pointers to references and contacts
for further information.
This memo is intended to be issued approximately quarterly; please be
sure the copy you are reading is current. Current copies may be
obtained from the Network Information Center or from the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (see the contact information at the end of
this memo). Do not use this edition after 31-July-93.
See Section 6.1 for a description of recent changes. In the official
lists in sections 6.2 - 6.9, an asterisk (*) next to a protocol
denotes that it is new to this document or has been moved from one
protocol level to another, or differs from the previous edition of
this document.
1. The Standardization Process
The Internet Architecture Board maintains this list of documents that
define standards for the Internet protocol suite. See RFC-1358 for
the charter of the IAB and RFC-1160 for an explanation of the role
and organization of the IAB and its subsidiary groups, the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Research Task Force
(IRTF). Each of these groups has a steering group called the IESG
and IRSG, respectively. The IAB provides these standards with the
Internet Architecture Board [Page 2]
RFC 1410 IAB Standards March 1993
goal of co-ordinating the evolution of the Internet protocols; this
co-ordination has become quite important as the Internet protocols
are increasingly in general commercial use. The definitive
description of the Internet standards process is found in RFC-1310.
The majority of Internet protocol development and standardization
activity takes place in the working groups of the Internet
Engineering Task Force.
Protocols which are to become standards in the Internet go through a
series of states or maturity levels (proposed standard, draft
standard, and standard) involving increasing amounts of scrutiny and
testing. When a protocol completes this process it is assigned a STD
number (see RFC-1311). At each step, the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG) of the IETF must make a recommendation for
advancement of the protocol and the IAB must ratify it. If a
recommendation is not ratified, the protocol is remanded to the IETF
for further work.
To allow time for the Internet community to consider and react to
standardization proposals, the IAB imposes a minimum delay of 6
months before a proposed standard can be advanced to a draft standard
and 4 months before a draft standard can be promoted to standard.
It is general IAB practice that no proposed standard can be promoted
to draft standard without at least two independent implementations
(and the recommendation of the IESG). Promotion from draft standard
to standard generally requires operational experience and
demonstrated interoperability of two or more implementations (and the
recommendation of the IESG).
In cases where there is uncertainty as to the proper decision
concerning a protocol the IAB may convene a special review committee
consisting of experts from the IETF, IRTF and the IAB with the
purpose of recommending an explicit action to the IAB.
Advancement of a protocol to proposed standard is an important step
since it marks a protocol as a candidate for eventual standardization
(it puts the protocol "on the standards track"). Advancement to
draft standard is a major step which warns the community that, unless
major objections are raised or flaws are discovered, the protocol is
likely to be advanced to standard in six months.
Some protocols have been superseded by better ones or are otherwise
unused. Such protocols are still documented in this memorandum with
th
