Liaisons

The IETF has a limited number of liaison relationships with other organizations. Liaisons are appointed by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) when the IAB feels that conditions warrant appointing a specific person to such a task.

Key Info

Establishing a liaison relationship can provide the framework for ongoing communications to:

  • Prevent inadvertent duplication of effort, without obstructing either organization from pursuing its own mandate
  • Provide authoritative information of one organization’s dependence on the other’s work

Note that such appointments are rare as the best way for organizations to work with the IETF is to do so within the working groups. The primary contact on liaison negotiation is the IAB.

For more information about the procedures that govern IETF liaisons, please see RFC 4052 “IAB Liaison Management” and RFC 4053 (BCP 103) “Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF.”

A list of liaison statements is available on the IETF Datatracker.

To submit a liaison statement:

  • Outgoing: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an outgoing liaison here after logging into the datatracker
  • Incoming: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an incoming liaison here after logging into the datatracker
  • Submit a liaison statement via email to statements@ietf.org if you prefer not to use the tool

The list of current liaisons appears below: 

    SDO IETF Liaison Manager IAB Liaison Shepherd
    3GPP Gonzalo Camarillo Robert Sparks
    Broadband Forum David Sinicrope Brian Trammell
    CableLabs Jason Weil Brian Trammell
    Community Coordination Group Russ Housley, Barry Leiba, Tim Wicinski Robert Sparks
    ECMA TC39 Matt Miller Martin Thomson
    ICANN Board of Directors Jonne Soininen Suzanne Woolf
    ICANN NomCom Ole Jacobsen Suzanne Woolf
    ICANN RSSAC Daniel Migault Ted Hardie
    ICANN RZERC Jim Reid Ted Hardie, Suzanne Woolf
    ICANN TLG Tim Wicinski, Paul Wouters Ted Hardie
    IEEE 802.1 Eric Gray Erik Nordmark
    IEEE-SA Russ Housley Erik Nordmark
    ISO/IEC JTC1 SC2 Patrik Fältström Ted Hardie
    ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 Stephan Wenger Ted Hardie
    ISO/IEC JTC1 SC6 Allison Mankin Robert Sparks
    ISO/TC46 John Klensin Allison Mankin
    ISO/TC204 Alexandre Petrescu Gabriel Montenegro
    ITU-T Scott Mansfield Mark Nottingham
    ITU-T SG15 (optical control plane) John Drake Jeff Tantsura
    Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) Barry Leiba Suzanne Woolf
    Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation Mat Ford, Andrei Robachevsky Gabriel Montenegro
    Unicode Patrik Fältström Ted Hardie
    W3C Mark Nottingham Martin Thomson

    Bibliography

    • [1] RFC 4052
      IAB Processes for Management of IETF Liaison Relationships

      This document discusses the procedures used by the IAB to establish and maintain liaison relationships between the IETF and other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), consortia and industry fora. This document also discusses the appointment and responsibilities of IETF liaison managers an...

    • [2] RFC 4053
      Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF

      This document describes the procedure for proper handling of incoming liaison statements from other standards development organizations (SDOs), consortia, and industry fora, and for generating liaison statements to be transmitted from IETF to other SDOs, consortia and industry fora. This procedur...