The IETF has traditionally developed application protocols directly on top of a raw TCP stream.  However, there is a growing set of problems which many application protocols have to solve regardless of what the protocols do.  This WG will identify the common problems that deployed IETF protocols have solved, identify the successes and failures that deployed IETF protocols made when addressing these problems and design a simple core protocol to address these problems.  This core protocol may then be used by future application protocols to simplify both the process of protocol design and the complexity of implementing multi-protocol clients or servers. In order to keep the WG in focus, the following items are explicitly out-of-scope: * Backwards compatibility with existing application protocols   Backwards compatibility often compromises correct design.  If this   WG is successful it will impact a great number of future protocols,   and thus the design errors which backwards compatibility might   dictate must be avoided. * Transport layers other than TCP/IP   This has been a rathole in too many other WGs. * Protocol models outside the traditional IETF client-server TCP   application protocol model.   The IETF doesn't have sufficient past experience in these areas. * New features   If a problem hasn't been solved in at least two deployed IETF   application protocols, then it is out-of-scope for the base core   protocol spec.  This does not preclude individuals or other groups   from doing extensions to the core protocol which might be used by   multiple future application protocols; it just limits the scope of   the core spec. * Normative references to other application protocols or non-public specs. The core protocol has to stand by itself.  It may reference protocol   building blocks that have been used by several other application   protocols such as ABNF, language tags, UTF-8, domain names, URLs,   MIME, SASL, GSSAPI and TLS.  It must avoid normative references to   full application protocols such as ACAP, HTTP, IMAP, LDAP, and SMTP.   It must avoid normative references to any document which is not   freely and publicly available on the Internet.