NOTE: This charter is accurate as of the 29th IETF Meeting in Seattle. It may now be out-of-date. (Consider this a "snapshot" of the working group from that meeting.) Up-to-date charters for all active working groups can be found elsewhere in this Web server.

Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP) Charter

Chair(s)

Mailing List Information

Description of Working Group

Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP) is one of the candidates being considered in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for the next version of the Internet Protocol (IP). The current version of IP is usually referred to as IPv4. The purpose of the working group is to finalize the SIPP and IPAE specifications, foster the early development and experimentation of this protocol, and to work toward having SIPP selected as the IETF's IPng.

SIPP is a new version of IP which is designed to be an evolutionary step from IPv4. It is a natural increment to IPv4. It can be installed as a normal software upgrade in internet devices and is interoperable with the current IPv4. Its deployment strategy is designed to not have any ``flag'' days. SIPP is designed to run well on high performance networks (e.g., ATM) and at the same time is still efficient for low bandwidth networks (e.g., wireless). In addition, it provides a platform for new internet functionality that will be required in the near future.

Background:

The SIPP Working Group represents the evolution and merger of three different IETF working groups focused on developing an IPng. The first was called IP Address Encapsulation (IPAE) and was chaired by Dave Crocker and Robert Hinden. It proposed extensions to IPv4 which would carry larger addresses. Much of its work was focused on developing transition mechanisms. Somewhat later Steve Deering proposed a new protocol evolved from IPv4 called the Simple Internet Protocol (SIP). A working group was formed to work on this proposal which was chaired by Steve Deering and Christian Huitema. SIP had 64-bit addresses, a simplified header, and options in separate extension headers. After lengthy interaction between the two working groups, and the realization that IPAE and SIP had a number of common elements and the transition mechanisms developed for IPAE would apply to SIP, the groups decided to merge and concentrate their efforts. The chairs of the new SIP Working Group were Steve Deering and Robert Hinden. In parallel to SIP, Paul Francis (formerly Paul Tsuchiya) had founded a working group to develop the ``P'' Internet Protocol (PIP). PIP was a new Internet Protocol based on a new architecture. The motivation behind PIP was that the opportunity for introducing a new Internet Protocol does not come very often and given that opportunity important new features should be introduced. PIP supported variable length addressing in 16-bit units, separation of addresses from identifiers, support for provider selection, mobility, and efficient forwarding. It included a transition scheme similar to IPAE. After considerable discussion among the leaders of the PIP and SIP Working Groups, they came to realize that the advanced features in PIP could be accomplished in SIP without changing the base SIP protocol, as well as keeping the IPAE transition mechanisms. In essence, it was possible to keep the best features of each protocol. Based on this, the groups decided to merge their efforts. The new protocol was called Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP).

Goals and Milestones

Feb 1994
Post SIPP Specification as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post IPAE specification as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post revised specification for SIPP-RIP as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post revised specification for SIPP-OSPF as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post SIPP ICMP Specification as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post SIPP Routing and Addressing Specification as an I-D
Feb 1994
Post SIPP Discover and Auto-Configuration specifications as an I-D
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Specification to IESG as Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Routing and Addressing Specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit IPAE-SIPP Interoperability and Transition Mechanism specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP ICMP Specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP DNS Specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Auto Configuration specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Neighbor Discover specification to IESG as an Experimental protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP OSPF Specification to IESG as an experimental protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP RIP specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP IDRP Specification to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Security Architecture document to IESG as an Experimental protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Authentication Payload document to IESG as an Experimental Protocol
Mar 1994
Submit SIPP Encapsulating Security Payload to IESG as Experimental Protocol
Apr 1994
SIPP-MIB posted as an Internet-Draft. Detail the operation of SNMP over SIP.
May 1994
Submit SIPP MIB to IESG as an Experimental protocol
NOTE: The Internet-Draft(s) listed below may have been deleted since they are only good for six months.

Internet-Drafts

RFCs