[RFCs/IDs] [Plain Text]
Obsoleted by: 1200 HISTORIC
Network Working Group Internet Activities Board
Request for Comments: 1140 J. Postel, Editor
Obsoletes: RFCs 1130, May 1990
1100, 1083
IAB OFFICIAL PROTOCOL STANDARDS
Status of this Memo
This memo describes the state of standardization of protocols used in
the Internet as determined by the Internet Activities Board (IAB).
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1. The Standardization Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. The Request for Comments Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Other Reference Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. Assigned Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Annotated Internet Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3. Gateway Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4. Host Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.5. The MIL-STD Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Explanation of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Definitions of Protocol State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1.1. Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1.2. Draft Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.3. Proposed Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.4. Experimental Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.5. Historic Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2. Definitions of Protocol Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2.1. Required Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2.2. Recommended Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.3. Elective Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.4. Limited Use Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.5. Not Recommended Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. The Standards Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.1. The RFC Processing Decision Table . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2. The Standards Track Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6. The Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Recent Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1.1. New RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1.2. Other Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.2. Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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6.3. Network-Specific Standard Protocols . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.4. Draft Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.5. Proposed Standard Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.6. Experimental Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.7. Historic Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7. Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.1. IAB, IETF, and IRTF Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.1.1. Internet Activities Board (IAB) Contact . . . . . . . 23
7.1.2. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Contact . . . . 23
7.1.3. Internet Research Task Force (IETF) Contact . . . . . 24
7.2. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Contact . . . 24
7.3. Request for Comments Editor Contact . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.4. Network Information Center Contact . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.5. Other Sources for Requests for Comments . . . . . . . . 26
7.5.1. NSF Network Service Center (NNSC) . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.5.2. NSF Network Information Service (NIS) . . . . . . . . 26
7.5.3. CSNET Coordination and Information Center (CIC) . . . 26
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
9. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introduction
Discussion of the standardization process and the RFC document series
is presented first, then the explanation of the terms is presented,
the lists of protocols in each stage of standardization follows and
finally come pointers to references and contacts for further
information.
This memo is issued quarterly, please be sure the copy you are
reading is dated within the last three months. Current copies may be
obtained from the Network Information Center or from the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (see the contact information at the end of
this memo). Do not use this edition after 31-Aug-90.
See Section 6.1 for a description of recent changes.
1. The Standardization Process
The Internet Activities Board maintains this list of documents that
define standards for the Internet protocol suite (see RFC-1120 for an
explanation of the role and organization of the IAB and its
subsidiary groups, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the
Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)). The IAB provides these
standards with the goal of co-ordinating the evolution of the
Internet protocols; this co-ordination has become quite important as
the Internet protocols are increasingly in general commercial use.
The majority of Internet protocol development and standardization
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activity takes place in the working groups of the Internet
Engineering Task Force.
Protocols which are to become standards in the Internet go through a
series of states (proposed standard, draft standard, and standard)
involving increasing amounts of scrutiny and experimental testing.
At each step, the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) of the
IETF must make a recommendation for advancement of the protocol and
the IAB must ratify it. If a recommendation is not ratified, the
protocol is remanded to the IETF for further work.
To allow time for the Internet community to consider and react to
standardization proposals, the IAB imposes a minimum delay of 4
months before a proposed standard can be advanced to a draft standard
and 6 months before a draft standard can be promoted to standard.
It is general IAB practice that no proposed standard can be promoted
to draft standard without at least two independent implementations
(and the recommendation of the IESG). Promotion from draft standard
to standard generally requires operational experience and
demonstrated interoperability of two or more implementations (and the
recommendation of the IESG).
In cases where there is uncertainty as to the proper decision
concerning a protocol the IAB may convene a special review committee
consisting of experts from the IETF, IRTF and the IAB with the
purpose of recommending an explicit action to the IAB.
Advancement of a protocol to proposed standard is an important step
since it marks a protocol as a candidate for eventual standardization
(it puts the protocol "on the standards track"). Advancement to
draft standard is a major step which warns the community that, unless
major objections are raised or flaws are discovered, the protocol is
likely to be advanced to standard in six months.
Some protocols have been superseded by better ones or are otherwise
unused. Such protocols are still documented in this memorandum with
the designation "historic".
Because the IAB believes it is useful to document the results of
early protocol research and development work, some of the RFCs
document protocols which are still in an experimental condition. The
protocols are designated "experimental" in this memorandum. They
appear in this report as a convenience to the community and not as
evidence of their standardization.
In addition to the working groups of the IETF, protocol development
and experimentation may take place as a result of the work of the
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research groups of the Internet Research Task Force, or the work of
other individuals interested in Internet protocol development. The
IAB encourages the documentation of such experimental work in the RFC
series, but none of this work is considered to be on the track for
standardization until the IESG has made a recommendation to advance
the protocol to the proposed standard state, and the IAB has approved
this step.
A few protocols have achieved widespread implementation without the
approval of the IESG and the IAB. For example, some vendor protocols
have become very important to the Internet community even though they
have not been recommended by the IESG or ratified by the IAB.
However, the IAB strongly recommends that the IAB standards process
be used in the evolution of the protocol suite to maximize
interoperability (and to prevent incompatible protocol requirements
from arising). The IAB reserves the use of the terms "standard",
"draft standard", and "proposed standard" in any RFC or other
publication of Internet protocols to only those protocols which the
IAB has approved.
In addition to a state (like "proposed standard") a protocol is also
assigned a status, or requirement level. A protocol can be required,
meaning that all systems in the Internet must implement it. For
example, the Internet Protocol (IP) is required. A protocol may be
recommended, meaning that systems should implement this protocol. A
protocol may be elective, meaning that systems may implement this
protocol; that is, if (and only if) the functionality of this
protocol is needed or useful for a system it must use this protocol
to provide the functionality. A protocol may be termed limited use
or even not recommended if it is not intended to be generally
implemented; for example, experimental or historic protocols.
When a protocol is on the standards track, that is in the proposed
standard, draft standard, or standard state (see Section 5), the
status is the current status. However, the IAB will also endeavor to
indicate the eventual status this protocol will have when the
standardization is completed.
The IAB realizes that a one word label is not sufficient to
characterize the implementation requirements for a protocol in all
situations. In many cases, an additional paragraph about the status
will be provided, and in some cases reference will be made to
separate requirements documents.
Few protocols are required to be implemented in all systems. This is
because there is such a variety of possible systems; for example,
gateways, terminal servers, workstations, multi-user hosts. It is
not necessary for a gateway to implement TCP or the protocols that
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use TCP (though it may be useful). It is expected that general
purpose hosts will implement at least IP (including ICMP and IGMP),
TCP and UDP, Telnet, FTP, NTP, SMTP, Mail, and the Domain Name System
(DNS).
2. The Request for Comments Documents
The documents called Request for Comments (or RFCs) are the working
notes of the "Network Working Group", that is the Internet research
and development community. A document in this series may be on
essentially any topic related to computer communication, and may be
anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard.
Notice:
All standards are published as RFCs, but not all RFCs specify
standards.
Anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC. Submissions
must be made via electronic mail to the RFC Editor (see the contact
information at the end of this memo).
While RFCs are not refereed publications, they do receive technical
review from the task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC
Editor, as appropriate.
The RFC series comprises a wide range of documents such as
informational documents of general interests to specifications of
standard Internet protocols. In cases where submission is intended
to document a proposed standard, draft standard, or standard
protocol, the RFC Editor will publish the document only with the
approval of both the IESG and the IAB. For documents describing
experimental work, the RFC Editor will typically request review
comments from the relevant IETF working group or IRTF research group
and provide those comments to the author prior to committing to
publication. See Section 5.1 for more detail.
Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published, that RFC is
never revised or re-issued with the same number. There is never a
question of having the most recent version of a particular RFC.
However, a protocol (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) may be
improved and re-documented many times in several different RFCs. It
is important to verify that you have the most recent RFC on a
particular protocol. This "IAB Official Protocol Standards" memo is
the reference for determining the correct RFC to refer to for the
current specification of each protocol.
The RFCs are available from the Network Information Center at SRI
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International, and a number of other sites. For more information
about obtaining RFCs, see Sections 7.4 and 7.5.
3. Other Reference Documents
There are four other reference documents of interest in checking the
current status of protocol specifications and standardization. These
are the Assigned Numbers, the Annotated Internet Protocols, the
Gateway Requirements, and the Host Requirements. Note that these
documents are revised and updated at different times; in case of
differences between these documents, the most recent must prevail.
Also, one should be aware of the MIL-STD publications on IP, TCP,
Telnet, FTP, and SMTP. These are described in Section 3.5.
3.1. Assigned Numbers
This document lists the assigned values of the parameters used in the
various protocols. For example, IP protocol codes, TCP port numbers,
Telnet Option Codes, ARP hardware types, and Terminal Type names.
Assigned Numbers was most recently issued as RFC-1060.
Another document, Internet Numbers, lists the assigned IP network
numbers, and the autonomous system numbers. Internet Numbers was
most recently issued as RFC-1117.
3.2. Annotated Internet Protocols
This document lists the protocols and describes any known problems
and ongoing experiments. This document was most recently issued as
RFC-1011 under the title "Official Internet Protocols".
3.3. Gateway Requirements
This document reviews the specifications that apply to gateways and
supplies guidance and clarification for any ambiguities. Gateway
Requirements is RFC-1009. A working group of the IETF is actively
preparing a revision.
3.4. Host Requirements
This pair of documents reviews the specifications that apply to hosts
and supplies guidance and clarification for any ambiguities. Host
Requirements was recently issued as RFC-1122 and RFC-1123.
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3.5. The MIL-STD Documents
The Internet community specifications for IP (RFC-791) and TCP (RFC-
793) and the DoD MIL-STD specifications are intended to describe
exactly the same protocols. Any difference in the protocols
specified by these sets of documents should be reported to DCA and to
the IAB. The RFCs and the MIL-STDs for IP and TCP differ in style
and level of detail. It is strongly advised that the two sets of
documents be used together.
The IAB and the DoD MIL-STD specifications for the FTP, SMTP, and
Telnet protocols are essentially the same documents (RFCs 765, 821,
854). The MIL-STD versions have been edited slightly. Note that the
current Internet specification for FTP is RFC-959.
Internet Protocol (IP) MIL-STD-1777
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) MIL-STD-1778
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) MIL-STD-1780
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) MIL-STD-1781
Telnet Protocol and Options (TELNET) MIL-STD-1782
These documents are available from the Naval Publications and Forms
Center. Requests can be initiated by telephone, telegraph, or mail;
however, it is preferred that private industry use form DD1425, if
possible. These five documents are included in the 1985 DDN Protocol
Handbook (available from the Network Information Center, see Section
7.4).
Naval Publications and Forms Center, Code 3015
5801 Tabor Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19120
Phone: 1-215-697-3321 (order tape)
1-215-697-4834 (conversation)
4. Explanation of Terms
There are two independent categorization of protocols. The first is
the STATE of standardization which is one of "standard", "draft
standard", "proposed standard", "experimental", or "historic". The
second is the STATUS of this protocol which is one of "required",
"recommended", "elective", "limited use", or "not recommended".
The IAB notes that the status or requirement level is difficult to
portray in a one word label. These status labels should be
considered only as an indication, and a further description should be
consulted.
When a protocol is advanced to proposed standard or draft standard,
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it is labeled with a current status and when possible, the IAB also
notes the status that that protocol is expected to have when it
reaches the standard state.
At any given time a protocol is a cell of the following matrix.
Protocols are likely to be in cells in about the following
proportions (indicated by the relative number of Xs). A new protocol
is most likely to start in the (proposed standard, elective) cell, or
the (experimental, not recommended) cell.
S T A T U S
Req Rec Ele Lim Not
S +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Std | X | XXX | XXX | | |
T +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Draft | X | X | XXX | | |
A +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Prop | | X | XXX | X | |
T +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Expr | | | X | XXX | X |
E +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Hist | | | | X | XXX |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
What is a "system"?
Some protocols are particular to hosts and some to gateways; a few
protocols are used in both. The definitions of the terms below
will refer to a "system" which is either a host or a gateway (or
both). It should be clear from the context of the particular
protocol which types of systems are intended.
4.1. Definitions of Protocol State
There are two independent categorizations of protocols. The first is
the STATE of standardization, which is one of "standard", "draft
standard", "proposed standard", "experimental", or "historic".
4.1.1. Standard Protocol
The IAB has established this as an official standard protocol for
the Internet. These are separated into two groups: (1) IP
protocol and above, protocols that apply to the whole Internet;
and (2) network-specific protocols, generally specifications of
how to do IP on particular types of networks.
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4.1.2. Draft Standard Protocol
The IAB is actively considering this protocol as a possible
Standard Protocol. Substantial and widespread testing and comment
are desired. Comments and test results should be submitted to the
IAB. There is a possibility that changes will be made in a Draft
Standard Protocol before it becomes a Standard Protocol.
4.1.3. Proposed Standard Protocol
These are protocol proposals that may be considered by the IAB for
standardization in the future. Implementation and testing by
several groups is desirable. Revision of the protocol
specification is likely.
4.1.4. Experimental Protocol
A system should not implement an experimental protocol unless it
is participating in the experiment and has coordinated its use of
the protocol with the developer of the protocol.
Typically, experimental protocols are those that are developed as
part of an ongoing research project not related to an operational
service offering. While they may be proposed as a service
protocol at a later stage, and thus become proposed standard,
draft standard, and then standard protocols, the designation of a
protocol as experimental may sometimes be meant to suggest that
the protocol, although perhaps mature, is not intended for
operational use.
4.1.5. Historic Protocol
These are protocols that are unlikely to ever become standards in
the Internet either because they have been superseded by later
developments or due to lack of interest.
4.2. Definitions of Protocol Status
There are two independent categorizations of protocols. The
second is the STATUS of this protocol which is one of "required",
"recommended", "elective", "limited use", or "not recommended".
4.2.1. Required Protocol
A system must implement the required protocols.
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4.2.2. Recommended Protocol
A system should implement the recommended protocols.
4.2.3. Elective Protocol
A system may or may not implement an elective protocol. The
general notion is that if you are going to do something like this,
you must do exactly this. There may be several elective protocols
in a general area, for example, there are several electronic mail
protocols, and several routing protocols.
4.2.4. Limited Use Protocol
These protocols are for use in limited circumstances. This may be
because of their experimental state, specialized nature, limited
functionality, or historic state.
4.2.5. Not Recommended Protocol
These protocols are not recommended for general use. This may be
because of their limited functionality, specialized nature, or
experimental or historic state.
5. The Standards Track
This section discusses in more detail the procedures used by the RFC
Editor and the IAB in making decisions about the labeling and
publishing of protocols as standards.
5.1. The RFC Processing Decision Table
Here is the current decision table for processing submissions by RFC
Editor. The processing depends on who submitted it, and the status
they want it to have.
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+==========================================================+
|++++++++++++++| S O U R C E |
+==========================================================+
| Desired | IAB | IESG | IRSG | Other |
| Status | | | or RG | |
+==========================================================+
| | | | | |
| Full or | Publish | Vote | Bogus | Bogus |
| Draft | (1) | (3) | (2) | (2) |
| Standard | | | | |
| | | | | |
+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | | | | |
| | Publish | Vote | Refer | Refer |
| Proposed | (1) | (3) | (4) | (4) |
| Standard | | | | |
| | | | | |
+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | | | | |
| | Publish | Notify | Notify | Notify |
| Experimental | (1) | (5) | (5) | (5) |
| Protocol | | | | |
| | | | | |
+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | | | | |
| Information | Publish |Discretion|Discretion|Discretion|
| or Opinion | (1) | (6) | (6) | (6) |
| Paper | | | | |
| | | | | |
+==========================================================+
(1) Publish.
(2) Bogus. Inform the source of the rules. RFCs specifying
Standard, or Draft Standard must come from the IAB, only.
(3) Vote by the IAB. If approved then do Publish (1), else do
Refer (4).
(4) Refer to an Area Director for review by a WG. Expect to see
the document again only after approval by the IESG and the
IAB.
(5) Notify both the IESG and IRSG. If no protest in 1 week then
do Discretion (6), else do undefined.
(6) RFC Editor's discretion. The RFC Editor decides if a review
is needed and if so by whom. RFC Editor decides to publish or
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not.
Of course, in all cases the RFC Editor can request or make minor
changes for style, format, and presentation purposes.
The IESG has designated Greg Vaudreuil as its agent for forwarding
documents with IESG approval and for registering protest in response
to notifications (5) to the RFC Editor. Documents from Area
Directors or Working Group Chairs may be considered in the same way
as documents from "other".
5.2. The Standards Track Diagram
There is a part of the STATUS and STATE categorization that is called
the standards track. Actually, only the changes of state are
significant to the progression along the standards track, though the
status assignments may be changed as well.
The states illustrated by single line boxes are temporary states,
those illustrated by double line boxes are long term states. A
protocol will normally be expected to remain in a temporary state for
several months (minimum four months for proposed standard, minimum
six months for draft standard). A protocol may be in a long term
state for many years.
A protocol may enter the standards track only on the recommendation
of the IESG and by action of the IAB; and may move from one state to
another along the track only on the recommendation of the IESG and by
action of the IAB. That is, it takes both the IESG and the IAB to
either start a protocol on the track or to move it along.
Generally, as the protocol enters the standards track a decision is
made as to the eventual STATUS (elective, recommended, or required)
the protocol will have, although a somewhat less stringent current
status may be assigned, and it then is placed in the the proposed
standard STATE with that status. So the initial placement of a
protocol is into state 1. At any time the STATUS decision may be
revisited.
Internet Activities Board