Internet Engineering Task Force

Since attendees must wear their name tags, they must also wear shirts or blouses. Pants or skirts are also highly recommended. Seriously though, many newcomers are often embarrassed when they show up Monday morning in suits, to discover that everybody else is wearing t- shirts, jeans (shorts, if weather permits) and sandals.

There are those in the IETF who refuse to wear anything other than suits. Fortunately, they are well known (for other reasons) so they are forgiven this particular idiosyncrasy. The general rule is 'dress for the weather' (unless you plan to work so hard that you won't go outside, in which case, 'dress for comfort' is the rule!).

Tasked with improvement of the Internet technology standards.

In 1986, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was created by the Internet Architecture Board. The IETF consists of Internet administrators, designers, vendors, and researchers interested in the evolution of the Internet architecture, and is open to membership from individuals. The culture of the IETF has always been open and informal, an influence taken from its predecessor, the Network Working Group.

The mission of the IETF is to study operational and technical problems with the Internet, specify protocols and architectural solutions for these problems, and make recommendations to its steering committee, the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). The recommendations of the IETF are formalized in the documents called Request For Comments. Many of these documents become standards that define how the Internet works.

The IETF consists of the following ten working groups, each of which is responsible for a different part of the Internet.

Applications
General
Internet
Internet Protocol: Next Generation
Network Management
Operational Requirements
Routing
Security
Transport
User Services
The IETF also facilitates technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force, and provides a forum for the exchange of information between Internet vendors, users, researchers, contractors, and managers.


The first IETF meeting was held in January, 1986 in San Diego, and had 15 attendees. The seventh meeting was hosted by the MITRE corporation in McLean, Virginia, in July, 1987, and had more than 100 attendees.

The fourteenth meeting was hosted by Stanford University in July, 1989, and led the Internet Architecture Board to consolidate many task forces into just the IETF and the IRTF. The first IETF meeting help in Europe was in Amsterdam in July, 1993.

Overview of the IETF
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is 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. It is open to any interested individual.
The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g., routing, transport, security, etc.). Much of the work is handled via mailing lists. The IETF holds meetings three times per year.

The IETF working groups are grouped into areas, and managed by Area Directors, or ADs. The Ads are members of the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Providing architectural oversight is the Internet Architecture Board, (IAB). The IAB also adjudicates appeals when someone complains that the IESG has failed. The IAB and IESG are chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) for these purposes. The General Area Director also serves as the chair of the IESG and of the IETF, and is an ex-officio member of the IAB.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols. The IANA is chartered by the Internet Society (ISOC) to act as the clearinghouse to assign and coordinate the use of numerous Internet protocol parameters.


First-time attendees might find it helpful to read The Tao of the IETF.


Note Well
All statements of a technical or standards-related nature addressed to the IETF plenary session, any IETF working group or portion thereof, the IESG or any member thereof, the IAB or any member thereof, or any participant in the IETF, at an IETF meeting or other IETF function (other than personal communications outside of meeting sessions not intended to be shared with the IETF membership at-large), are deemed to be part of an IETF standards-related discussion and, as such, are subject to allprovisions of Section 10 of RFC 2026, granting certain licences and rights in such statments to IETF and its participants.

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