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Network Working Group                          Internet Activities Board
Request for Comments: 1310                           Lyman Chapin, Chair
                                                              March 1992


                     The Internet Standards Process

Status of this Memo

   This informational memo presents the current procedures for creating
   and documenting Internet Standards.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

   1.  INTRODUCTION .................................................  2
      1.1. Internet Standards .......................................  2
      1.2. Organization .............................................  3
   2.  THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS ...............................  4
      2.1. Introduction .............................................  4
      2.2. The Internet Standards Track .............................  5
      2.3. Requests for Comments (RFCs) .............................  5
      2.4. Internet Drafts ..........................................  6
      2.5. Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) ................  7
      2.6. Review and Approval ......................................  8
      2.7. Entering the Standards Track .............................  9
      2.8. Advancing in the Standards Track .........................  9
      2.9. Revising a Standard ...................................... 10
   3.  NOMENCLATURE ................................................. 10
      3.1  Types of Specifications .................................. 10
      3.2  Standards Track Maturity Levels .......................... 12
      3.3  Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels ...................... 13
      3.4  Requirement Levels ....................................... 14
   4.  EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS ........................ 15
   5.  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ................................. 17
   6.  PATENT POLICY ................................................ 17
      6.1  Statement from Patent Holder ............................. 18
      6.2  Record of Statement ...................................... 18
      6.3  Notice ................................................... 18
      6.4  Identifying Patents ...................................... 19
   7.  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND REFERENCES ............................... 19
   APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY ............................................. 20
   APPENDIX B: UNRESOLVED ISSUES .................................... 21
   Security Considerations .......................................... 23
   Author's Address ................................................. 23






IAB                                                             [Page 1]

RFC 1310               Internet Standards Process             March 1992


1.  INTRODUCTION

   1.1  Internet Standards

      This memo documents the process currently used for the
      standardization of Internet protocols and procedures.

      The Internet, a loosely-organized international collaboration of
      autonomous, interconnected networks, supports host-to-host
      communication through voluntary adherence to open protocols and
      procedures defined by Internet Standards.  There are also many
      isolated internets, i.e., sets of interconnected networks, that
      are not connected to the Internet but use the Internet Standards.
      The architecture and technical specifications of the Internet are
      the result of numerous research and development activities
      conducted over a period of two decades, performed by the network
      R&D community, by service and equipment vendors, and by government
      agencies around the world.

      In general, an Internet Standard is a specification that is stable
      and well-understood, is technically competent, has multiple,
      independent, and interoperable implementations with operational
      experience, enjoys significant public support, and is recognizably
      useful in some or all parts of the Internet.

      The principal set of Internet Standards is commonly known as the
      "TCP/IP protocol suite".  As the Internet evolves, new protocols
      and services, in particular those for Open Systems Interconnection
      (OSI), have been and will be deployed in traditional TCP/IP
      environments, leading to an Internet that supports multiple
      protocol suites.  This document concerns all protocols,
      procedures, and conventions used in the Internet, not just the
      TCP/IP protocols.

      In outline, the process of creating an Internet Standard is
      straightforward: a specification undergoes a period of development
      and several iterations of review by the Internet community and
      perhaps revision based upon experience, is adopted as a Standard
      by the appropriate body (see below), and is published.

      In practice, the process is somewhat more complicated, due to (1)
      the number and type of possible sources for specifications; (2)
      the need to prepare and revise a specification in a manner that
      preserves the interests of all of the affected parties;  (3) the
      importance of establishing widespread community agreement on its
      technical content; and (4) the difficulty of evaluating the
      utility of a particular specification for the Internet community.




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RFC 1310               Internet Standards Process             March 1992


      Some specifications that are candidates for Internet
      standardization are the result of organized efforts directly
      within the Internet community; others are the result of work that
      was not originally organized as an Internet effort, but which was
      later adopted by the Internet community.

      From its inception, the Internet has been, and is expected to
      remain, an evolving system whose participants regularly factor new
      requirements and technology into the design and implementation of
      the global Internet.  Users of the Internet and providers of the
      equipment, software, and services that support it should
      anticipate and embrace this adaptability as a major tenet of
      Internet philosophy.

      The procedures described in this document are the result of three
      years of evolution, driven both by the needs of the growing and
      increasingly diverse Internet community, and by experience.
      Comments and suggestions are invited for improvement in these
      procedures.

   1.2  Organization

      The Internet Activities Board (IAB) is the primary coordinating
      committee for Internet design, engineering, and management [1].
      The IAB has delegated to its Internet Engineering Task Force
      (IETF) the primary responsibility for the development and review
      of potential Internet Standards from all sources.  The IETF forms
      Working Groups to pursue specific technical issues, frequently
      resulting in the development of one or more specifications that
      are proposed for adoption as Internet Standards.

      Final decisions on Internet standardization are made by the IAB,
      based upon recommendations from the Internet Engineering Steering
      Group (IESG), the leadership body of the IETF.  IETF Working
      Groups are organized into areas, and each area is coordinated by
      an Area Director.  The Area Directors and the IETF Chairman are
      included in the IESG.

      Any member of the Internet community with the time and interest is
      urged to attend IETF meetings and to participate actively in one
      or more IETF Working Groups.  Participation is by individual
      technical contributors, rather than formal representatives of
      organizations.  The process works because the IETF Working Groups
      display a spirit of cooperation as well as a high degree of
      technical maturity; most IETF members agree that the greatest
      benefit for all members of the Internet community results from
      cooperative development of technically superior protocols and
      services.



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RFC 1310               Internet Standards Process             March 1992


      A second body under the IAB, the Internet Research Task Force
      (IRTF), investigates topics considered to be too uncertain, too
      advanced, or insufficiently well-understood to be the subject of
      Internet standardization.  When an IRTF activity generates a
      specification that is sufficiently stable to be considered for
      Internet standardization, it is processed through the IETF.

      Section 2 of this document describes the process and rules for
      Internet standardization.  Section 3 presents the nomenclature for
      different kinds and levels of Internet standard technical
      specifications and their applicability.  Section 4 defines how
      relevant externally-sponsored specifications and practices that
      are developed and controlled by other bodies or by vendors are
      handled in the Internet standardization process.  Section 5
      presents the requirement for prior disclosure of the existence of
      intellectual property rights.  Section 6 describes the rules for
      Internet Standards that involve patents.

2.  THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS

   2.1. Introduction

      The procedures described in this document are intended to provide
      a clear, open, and objective basis for developing, evaluating, and
      adopting Internet Standards for protocols and services.  The
      procedures provide ample opportunity for participation and comment
      by all interested parties.  Before an Internet Standard is
      adopted, it is repeatedly discussed (and perhaps debated) in open
      open meetings and/or public electronic mailing lists, and it is
      available for review via world-wide on-line directories.

      These procedures are explicitly aimed at developing and adopting
      generally-accepted practices.  Thus, a candidate for Internet
      standardization is implemented and tested for correct operation
      and interoperability by multiple, independent parties, and
      utilized in increasingly demanding environments, before it can be
      adopted as an Internet Standard.

      The procedures that are described here provide a great deal of
      flexibility to adapt to the wide variety of circumstances that
      occur in the Internet standardization process.  Experience has
      shown this flexibility to be vital in achieving the following
      goals for Internet standardization:








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      *    high quality,

      *    prior implementation and testing,

      *    openness and fairness, and

      *    timeliness.

   2.2.  The Internet Standards Track

      Specifications that are destined to become Internet Standards
      evolve through a set of maturity levels known as the "standards
      track".  These maturity levels -- "Proposed Standard", "Draft
      Standard", and "Standard" -- are defined and discussed below in
      Section 3.2.

      Even after a specification has been adopted as an Internet
      Standard, further evolution often occurs based on experience and
      the recognition of new requirements.  The nomenclature and
      procedures of Internet standardization provide for the replacement
      of old Internet Standards with new ones, and the assignment of
      descriptive labels to indicate the status of "retired" Internet
      Standards.  A set of maturity levels is defined in Section 3.3 to
      cover these and other "off-track" specifications.

   2.3.  Requests for Comments (RFCs)

      Each distinct version of a specification is published as part of
      the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series.

      RFCs form a series of publications of networking technical
      documents, begun in 1969 as part of the original DARPA wide-area
      networking (ARPANET) project (see Appendix A for glossary of
      acronyms).  RFCs cover a wide range of topics, from early
      discussion of new research concepts to status memos about the
      Internet.  The IAB views the RFC publication process to be
      sufficiently important to warrant including the RFC Editor in the
      IAB membership.

      The status of specifications on the Internet standards track is
      summarized periodically in a summary RFC entitled "IAB Official
      Protocol Standards" [2].  This RFC shows the level of maturity and
      other helpful information for each Internet protocol or service
      specification.






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RFC 1310               Internet Standards Process             March 1992


             ********************************************************
             *   The "IAB Official Protocol Standards" RFC is the   *
             *   authoritative statement of the status of any       *
             *   particular Internet specification,                 *
             ********************************************************

      and it is the "Publication of Record" with respect to Internet
      standardization.

      The STD documents form a subseries of the RFC series.  When a
      specification has been adopted as a Standard, its RFC is labeled
      with a STDxxx number [9] in addition to its RFC number.

      Not all specifications of protocols or services for the Internet
      should or will become Internet Standards.  Such non-standards
      track specifications are not subject to the rules for Internet
      standardization; generally, they will be published directly as
      RFCs at the discretion of the RFC editor.  These RFCs will be
      marked as "Experimental" or "Informational" (see section 3.3).

             ********************************************************
             *   It is important to remember that not all RFCs      *
             *   are standards track documents, and that not all    *
             *   standards track documents reach the level of       *
             *   Standard.                                          *
             ********************************************************

   2.4.  Internet Drafts

      During the development of a specification, draft versions of the
      document are made available for informal review and comment by
      placing them in the IETF's "Internet Drafts" directory, which is
      replicated on a number of Internet hosts.  This makes an evolving
      working document readily available to a wide audience,
      facilitating the process of review and revision.

      After completion to the satisfaction of its author and the