The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
provides a forum for working groups to coordinate technical developments
of new protocols. Its most important function is the development
and selection of standards within the Internet protocol suite.
The IETF began in January 1986 as a forum
for technical coordination by contractors for the then US Defense
Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET, US Defense
Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system. Since
that time, the IETF has grown into a large open international
community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers
concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and
the smooth operation of the Internet.
Technical activity on any specific topic
in the IETF is addressed within working groups. All working groups
are organized roughly by function into nine areas. Each is led
by one or more area directors who have primary responsibility
for that one area of IETF activity. Together with the Chair of
the IETF/IESG, these technical directors compose the Internet
Engineering Steering Group (IESG).
The current areas and directors which compose
the IESG are:
IETF/IESG Chair
Fred Baker fred@cisco.com
Applications
Harald Alvestrand Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
Keith Moore moore+iesg@cs.utk.edu
Internet
Frank Kastenholz kasten@ftp.com
Jeffrey Burgan jburgan@baynetworks.com
IP: Next Generation
Scott Bradner sob@harvard.edu
Allison Mankin mankin@isi.edu
Network Management
Deirdre Kostick kostick@qsun.att.com
Operational Requirements
Scott Bradner sob@harvard.edu
Michael O'Dell mo@uunet.uu.net
Routing
Joel Halpern jhalpern@newbridge.com
Security
Jeff Schiller jis@mit.edu
Transport
Allison Mankin mankin@isi.edu
User Services
Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu
The IETF has a Secretariat, headquartered
at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives in Reston,
Virginia, with the following staff:
IETF Executive Director
Steve Coya scoya@ietf.org
IETF Meeting Coordinator
Marcia Beaulieu mbeaulie@ietf.org
IETF Proceedings Editor/Webmaster
Gehrett W. Ellis gellis@ietf.org
IETF Meeting Registrar
Julie Kirchhoff juliek@ietf.org
IETF Internet-Drafts Administrator
Cynthia Clark cclark@ietf.org
The working groups conduct business during
plenary meetings of the IETF, during meetings outside of the IETF,
and via electronic mail on mailing lists established for each
group. The IETF holds 4.5 day meetings three times a year. These
meetings are composed of working group sessions, technical presentations,
network status reports, working group reporting, and an open IESG
meeting. A Proceedings of each IETF plenary is published, which
includes reports from each area, each working group, and each
technical presentation. The Proceedings include a summary of all
current standardization activities.
Meeting reports, charters (which include
the working group mailing lists), and general information on current
IETF activities are available on-line for anonymous FTP from several
Internet hosts, including ds.internic.net.