rfc1602.txt

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Network Working Group                    Internet Architecture Board and
Request for Comments: 1602           Internet Engineering Steering Group
Obsoletes: 1310                                               March 1994
Category: Informational


              The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 2

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Notice

   This informational memo presents the current procedures for creating
   and documenting Internet Standards.  This document is provisional,
   pending legal review and concurrence of the Internet Society
   Trustees.  It is being published in this form to keep the Internet
   Community informed as to the current status of policies and
   procedures for Internet Standards work.

Abstract

   This document is a revision of RFC 1310, which defined the official
   procedures for creating and documenting Internet Standards.

   This revision (revision 2) includes the following major changes:

   (a)  The new management structure arising from the POISED Working
        Group is reflected.  These changes were agreed to by the IETF
        plenary and by the IAB and IESG in November 1992 and accepted by
        the ISOC Board of Trustees at their December 1992 meeting.

   (b)  Prototype status is added to the non-standards track maturity
        levels (Section 2.4.1).

   (c)  The Intellectual Property Rights section is completely revised,
        in accordance with legal advice.  Section 5 of this document
        replaces Sections 5 and 6 of RFC-1310.  The new section 5 has
        been reviewed by legal counsel to the Internet Society.







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   (d)  An appeals procedure is added (Section 3.6).

   (e)  The wording of sections 1 and 1.2 has been changed to clarify
        the relationships that exist between the Internet Society and
        the IAB, the IESG, the IETF, and the Internet Standards process.

   (f)  An Appendix B has been added, listing the contact points for the
        RFC editor, the IANA, the IESG, the IAB and the ISOC. The
        "future issues" are now listed in Appendix C.








































IAB - IESG                                                      [Page 2]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

   1.  INTRODUCTION .................................................  3
      1.1  Internet Standards. ......................................  4
      1.2  Organizations ............................................  6
      1.3  Standards-Related Publications ...........................  8
      1.4  Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) ................ 10
   2.  NOMENCLATURE ................................................. 11
      2.1  The Internet Standards Track ............................. 11
      2.2  Types of Specifications .................................. 12
      2.3  Standards Track Maturity Levels .......................... 13
      2.4  Non-Standards Track Maturity Levels ...................... 15
      2.5  Requirement Levels ....................................... 17
   3.  THE INTERNET STANDARDS PROCESS ............................... 19
      3.1  Review and Approval ...................................... 19
      3.2  Entering the Standards Track ............................. 20
      3.3  Advancing in the Standards Track ......................... 21
      3.4  Revising a Standard ...................................... 22
      3.5  Retiring a Standard ...................................... 22
      3.6  Conflict Resolution and Appeals .......................... 23
   4.  EXTERNAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS ........................ 24
   5.  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ................................. 26
      5.1.  General Policy .......................................... 26
      5.2.  Definitions ............................................. 26
      5.3  Trade Secret Rights ...................................... 27
      5.4.  Rights and Permissions .................................. 27
      5.5.  Notices ................................................. 30
      5.6.  Assurances .............................................. 31
   6.  REFERENCES ................................................... 34
   APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS ................................. 35
   APPENDIX B: CONTACT POINTS ....................................... 35
   APPENDIX C: FUTURE ISSUES ........................................ 36
   Security Considerations .......................................... 37
   Authors' Addresses ............................................... 37

1.  INTRODUCTION

   This memo documents the process currently used by the Internet
   community for the standardization of protocols and procedures.  The
   Internet Standards process is an activity of the Internet Society
   that is organized and managed on behalf of the Internet community by
   the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering
   Steering Group.






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   1.1  Internet Standards

      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, which
      are not connected to the Internet but use the Internet Standards.

      Internet Standards were once limited to those protocols composing
      what has been commonly known as the "TCP/IP protocol suite".
      However, the Internet has been evolving towards the support of
      multiple protocol suites, especially the Open Systems
      Interconnection (OSI) suite.  The Internet Standards process
      described in this document is concerned with all protocols,
      procedures, and conventions that are used in or by the Internet,
      whether or not they are part of the TCP/IP protocol suite.  In the
      case of protocols developed and/or standardized by non-Internet
      organizations, however, the Internet Standards process may apply
      only to the application of the protocol or procedure in the
      Internet context, not to the specification of the protocol itself.

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

      The procedures described in this document are designed to be fair,
      open and objective; to reflect existing (proven) practice; and to
      be flexible.


















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      o    These procedures are intended to provide a fair, open, and
           objective basis for developing, evaluating, and adopting
           Internet Standards.  They provide ample opportunity for
           participation and comment by all interested parties.  At each
           stage of the standardization process, a specification is
           repeatedly discussed and its merits debated in open meetings
           and/or public electronic mailing lists, and it is made
           available for review via world-wide on-line directories.

      o    These procedures are explicitly aimed at recognizing and
           adopting generally-accepted practices.  Thus, a candidate
           specification 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.

      o    These procedures provide a great deal of flexibility to adapt
           to the wide variety of circumstances that occur in the
           standardization process.  Experience has shown this
           flexibility to be vital in achieving the goals listed above.

      The goal of technical competence, the requirement for prior
      implementation and testing, and the need to allow all interested
      parties to comment, all require significant time and effort.  On
      the other hand, today's rapid development of networking technology
      places an urgency on timely development of standards.  The
      Internet standardization rules described here are intended to
      balance these conflicting goals.  The process is believed to be as
      short and simple as possible without undue sacrifice of technical
      competence, prior testing, or openness and fairness.

      In summary, the goals for the Internet standards process are:

      *    technical excellence;

      *    prior implementation and testing;

      *    clear, short, and easily understandable documentation;

      *    openness and fairness; and

      *    timeliness.

      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



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      revision based upon experience, is adopted as a Standard by the
      appropriate body (see below), and is published.  In practice, the
      process is more complicated, due to (1) the difficulty of creating
      specifications of high technical quality; (2) the need to consider
      the interests of all of the affected parties; (3) the importance
      of establishing widespread community consensus; and (4) the
      difficulty of evaluating the utility of a particular specification
      for the Internet community.