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 Research 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.
The IETF mission includes:
1. Identifying and proposing solutions to pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet;
2. Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term architecture, to solve technical problems for the Internet;
3. Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and
4. Providing a forum for the exchange of relevant information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers.
Technical activity on any specific topic in the IETF is addressed within working groups. All working groups are organized roughly by function into seven 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).
|
Name |
Area |
|
|
Harald Alvestrand |
IETF Chair |
<chair@ietf.org> |
|
Steve Bellovin |
Security |
<smb@cs.columbia.edu> |
|
Bill Fenner |
Routing |
<fenner@research.att.com> |
|
Ted Hardie |
Applications |
<hardie@qualcomm.com> |
|
Scott Hollenbeck |
Applications |
<sah@428cobrajet.net> |
|
Russ Housley |
Security |
<housley@vigilsec.com> |
|
David Kessens |
Operations and Management |
<david.kessens@nokia.com> |
|
Allison Mankin |
Transport |
<mankin@psg.com> |
|
Thomas Narten |
Internet |
<narten@us.ibm.com> |
|
Jon Peterson |
Transport |
<jon.peterson@neustar.biz> |
|
Margaret Wasserman |
Internet |
<margaret@thingmagic.com> |
|
Bert Wijnen |
Operations and Management |
<bwijnen@lucent.com> |
|
Alex Zinin |
Routing |
<zinin@psg.com> |
Liaison and ex-officio members include:
|
Leslie Daigle |
IAB Chair |
|
|
Rob Austein |
IAB Liaison |
|
|
Michelle Cotton |
IANA Liaison |
|
|
Joyce Reynolds |
RFC Editor Liaison |
|
|
Barbara Fuller |
IETF Secretariat Liaison |
|
The IETF has a Secretariat, headquartered at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives in Reston, Virginia. The IETF Executive Director is Barbara Fuller (Exec-Director@ietf.org).
Other personnel that support the Secretariat or provide services on an
as needed basis include:
|
Senior Meeting Planner |
Marcia Beaulieu |
|
|
IETF Internet-Drafts Administrator |
Dinara Suleymanova |
|
|
Meeting Registrar and Manager Finance/Administration |
Dawn Thomas |
|
|
Database Developer |
Michael Lee |
|
|
System Administrator |
Gregory Cunningham |
|
|
System/Network Engineer |
Stanley Weilnau |
|
|
Web Administrator |
Amy Vezza |
|
|
Administrative Support and IETF Proceedings Administrator |
Rebecca Bunch |
|
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 minutes, working group charters (which include the working group mailing lists), and general information on current IETF activities are available on-line via HTTP or anonymous FTP from several IETF shadow sites hosts, including ftp.ietf.org.