NomCom Message
From: IETF Executive Director <exec-director@ietf.org>
To: NomCom Chair
Date: June 18, 2009
Subject: Official IESG Requirements for the Nomcom
To: Mary Barnes, 2009-2010 Nomcom Chair On behalf of the IESG, please see below for the official IESG requirements for your consideration and review. These were approved today, June 18, 2009, on the IESG telechat. Kind regards, Alexa Morris IETF Executive Director ------ This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of the IESG members whose terms will expire during the first IETF Meeting in 2010. Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 3777, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below, and is suitable for publication to the community, along with the NomCom request for nominations. We realize that this is a long list of demanding qualifications, and that no one person will be able meet all of the requirements for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualifications and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of these qualifications. GENERIC REQUIREMENTS IESG members are the managers of the IETF standards process. They must understand the way the IETF works, be good at working with other people, be able to inspire and encourage other people to work together as volunteers, and have sound technical judgment about IETF technology and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere. Area Directors (ADs) select and directly manage the Working Group (WG) chairs, so IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 15 to 30 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for one or more directorate or review team. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit them for IETF work is important. Having been a WG chair helps understand the WG chair role, and it will help when trying to resolve problems and issues that a WG chair may have. In addition, all IESG members should have strong technical expertise that crosses two or three IETF areas. Ideally, an IESG member would have made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF area, preferably authoring documents and/or chairing WGs in more than one area. ADs are expected to personally review every Internet-Draft that they sponsor. For other Internet-Drafts, ADs must be satisfied that adequate review has taken place. It is very helpful for an IESG member to have a good working knowledge of the IETF document process and WG creation and chartering process. This knowledge is most likely to be found in experienced IETF WG chairs, but may also be found in authors of multiple documents. IESG members must also have strong verbal and written communications skills. They must have a proven track record of leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. IESG members must deal with many technical topics, so a strong technical background is required, but an IESG members should also have strong management and communication skills. An IESG member should guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future. A FEW COMMENTS ON THE IESG ROLE Serving on the IESG requires a substantial time commitment. The basic IESG activities consume between 25 and 40 hours per week. The time commitment varies by area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately before and during IETF meetings. Historically, many ADs have spent approximately full time on IETF-related activities. Most IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. Even if they do not occupy formal liaison positions, ADs may also need to interact with external groups such as other standards development bodies, which may require travel. It is also imperative that IESG members attend all IETF meetings, typically arriving one or two days early. IESG members also attend one, and sometimes two, IESG retreats per year. Because of the large time and travel commitments, employer support for a full two year term is essential. Because of personal impact, including awkwardly timed conference calls, an IESG member's family must also be supportive. APPLICATIONS AREA The Applications Area has historically focused on three clusters of protocols. The first cluster contains application protocols that have been ubiquitous for some time but which continue to develop (e.g., email and the web). The second cluster contains protocols which are used for Internet infrastructure (e.g., IDNA, EPP, and IRIS). The third cluster contains "building block" protocols which are designed for re-use in a variety of more specific applications (e.g., LDAP, XML namespaces, URI schemes, MIME types, LTRU, HTTP, OAuth, and BEEP). Current topics include: internationalization, email, calendaring, personal address books, web protocols, blogging, directories, registries, and language support. The Applications Area often makes use of technology developed elsewhere, and it often must consider whether the IETF or another SDO is the best home for proposed work. Because of this, an Applications AD needs to be willing and able to relate to a wide range of non-IETF organizations. An Applications AD is also trusted to make these critical decisions about the scope of the IETF's work. Because of the breadth of the Applications Area, an Application AD will have to deal with a large set of Internet applications protocols, including many with which he or she may not have direct experience. An Applications AD needs to be good at evaluating new approaches to new problems and assessing the expertise of the people who bring them to the IETF. Because the set of people in the Applications Area changes with the protocols under development at the time, the ability to clearly explain how the IETF works, and to help new WGs work well within the IETF framework is also important. The Applications Area most often intersects with, and sometimes swaps WGs or work items with, the Security Area, the RAI Area, and the Transport Area, so cross-area expertise in any of these areas would be particularly useful. INTERNET AREA The primary technical topics covered by the Internet Area include: IP layer (both IPv4 and IPv6), implications of IPv4 address depletion, co-existence between the IP versions, DNS, host and router configuration, DHCP, mobility, multihoming, identifier-locator separation, VPNs and pseudowires along with related MPLS issues, and various link-layer technologies. The Internet Area is also responsible for specifying how IP will run over new link layer protocols as they are defined. Between them, the Internet ADs are expected to have a solid understanding of these technologies, including issues related to IP addressing, forwarding, tunneling, and fragmentation. The Internet Area has one of the broadest ranges of technical topics. The Internet Area ADs typically divide the WGs that they manage based on workload and expertise. To assist the ADs, there are active Mobility, DNS, and IP directorates. However, with the large number of WGs and high rate of BOF proposals, the Internet Area has historically required considerable time commitment and breadth of expertise from its ADs. The Internet Area intersects most frequently with the Transport, Routing, Operations & Management, and Security Areas. Interaction with the Transport Area is related to work on address translation, IPv4-IPv6 co-existence, and multihoming mechanisms. Interaction with the Routing Area concentrates mainly on the relationship between the operation of the IP layer and routing functionality. Interaction with the Operations & Management Area is focused on operations required for IPv6 adoption, MIB development, and AAA interactions. Interaction with the Security Area is focused on topics such as IPsec usage, DNS security, and network access control. Cross-area expertise in any of these Areas is particularly useful. The Internet Area is also often involved in the adaptation of a variety of technologies to IP. Expertise with liaison processes and an understanding of how Internet Area protocols are used in various access networks, including Broadband (DSL and Cable), wireless and cellular networks, low-power, satellite, and so on is desirable. Similarly, interaction with the ITU on various topics is often required. OPERATIONS & MANAGEMENT AREA The primary technical areas covered by the Operations & Management Area include: Network Management, AAA, and various operational issues facing the Internet such as DNS operations, IPv6 operations, and Routing operations. Unlike most IETF Areas, the Operations & Management Area is logically divided into two separate functions: Network Management and Operations. Rob Bonica is currently responsible for the Operations portion of the OPS Area, and NomCom will select a person who will be responsible for the Management portion of the OPS Area. Specific expertise required for this open position would include a strong understanding of Internet management and AAA, of the related protocols, including but not limited to NETCONF, SNMP, RADIUS, Diameter, and CAPWAP, and of data modeling and data modeling languages used in management such as SMI and YANG (from the netmod WG). A strong architectural background is desirable taking into account that the evolution of the management architecture of the Internet is expected to be one of the principal subjects of interest and work for the OPS Area in the coming years. Another important role of the Management AD is to identify potential or actual management issues regarding IETF protocols and documents in all Areas, and to work with the other Areas to resolve those issues. This requires a strong understanding of how new and updated protocols should be managed, including aspects related to configuration, monitoring and alarms. It also requires a good understanding of the operational environment and a strong cross-area understanding of the Internet architecture and of the IETF protocols. The Management portion of the OPS Area intersects with all Areas, specifically in reviewing and assisting with documents related to management or AAA aspects (for example documents defining MIB modules or usage of RADIUS and Diameter). Thus, cross-area expertise in any Area would be useful. Security of network management is a particularly important topic. The OPS Area also interacts with the operations community, operator organizations like NANOG, and other SDOs doing work in network management such as the ITU-T or the IEEE 802. REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURE AREA The Real-Time Applications and Infrastructure (RAI) Area develops protocols and architectures for delay-sensitive interpersonal communications. Work in the RAI Area serves an industry whose applications and services include voice and video over IP, instant messaging, and presence. These applications and services are "real-time" in the sense described in RFC 1889. The infrastructure applications needed to support real-time interpersonal communication are also part of the RAI Area, as are discussions of operational concerns specific to these protocols. For example, work might relate to presence services, to session signaling protocols and emergency call routing solutions, or to work on the "layer five" issues for Internet telephony. Historically, RAI ADs have spent approximately full time on IETF-related activities. Like all Areas of the IETF, the RAI Area draws on the work of numerous other Areas, and as such there cannot be knife edge boundaries delineating the work in the RAI Area from the rest of the IETF. ROUTING AREA The Routing Area is responsible for ensuring continuous operational status of the Internet routing system by maintaining the scalability and stability characteristics of the existing routing protocols, as well as developing new protocols, extensions, and bug fixes in a timely manner. In particular, forwarding methods (such as destination-based unicast and multicast forwarding, and MPLS) as well as associated routing and signalling protocols (such as OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RSVP-TE, PIM, L1- and L3-VPNs) are within the scope of the Routing Area. The Routing Area also works on Generalized MPLS used in the control plane of optical networks and security aspects of the routing system. A Routing AD must have solid knowledge of the Internet routing system and its operations. A Routing AD must be proficient in at least one of the mainstream routing protocols/technologies such as BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, GMPLS, or multicast. Implementation and deployment experience as well as significant contributions to the WGs in the Routing Area are highly desirable. The Routing Area intersects most frequently with the Internet Area (particularly for IP forwarding, multicast, and VPN), the Operations & Management Area (for MIB development), and the Security Area (for routing protocol security). Cross-area expertise in any of those areas would be particularly useful. Current work in the Routing Area has some overlap with work in other SDOs, in particular the ITU-T. This requires careful interaction through the liaison process and may require attending ITU-T meetings. A willingness to participate in these meetings is an advantage, and a knowledge of the workings of the ITU-T would be beneficial. SECURITY AREA The WGs within the Security Area are primarily focused on security protocols. They provide one or more of the security services: integrity, authentication, non-repudiation, confidentiality, and access control. Since many of the security mechanisms needed to provide these security services employ cryptography, key management is also vital. Specific expertise required for a Security AD includes a strong knowledge of IETF security protocols, and a good working knowledge of security protocols and mechanisms that have been developed in the Security Area, other Areas of the IETF, and outside the IETF. Between them, the Security ADs should have a strong understanding of security technologies under active development including: IPsec, TLS, SASL, Kerberos, GSS-API, EAP, CMS, and S/MIME. A strong candidate will have significant experience with a number of these protocols. The Security Area intersects with all other IETF areas, and its ADs are expected to read and understand the security implications of documents in all IETF areas, from providing security for higher-level protocols and applications to securing the network infrastructure such as routing and IP. Security ADs are both personally involved and coordinate the involvement of other security experts in the work of other IETF Areas. Broad knowledge of IETF technologies and the ability to assimilate new information quickly are imperative for a Security AD. It is also important for Security ADs to understand the broader aspects of network and Internet security and the practical issues in securing Internet resources, including matching the cost of security to the value of the resources being protected and balancing security against usability. TRANSPORT AREA The technical topics covered by the Transport Area are those with data transport goals or with transport design issues and impact on congestion in the Internet. To illustrate the latter: the Pseudowire Emulation Edge to Edge Working Group (PWE3) was initially in Transport Area until the architecture was developed, and then moved to the Internet Area. The major topics in the Transport Area are protocols (TCP, UDP, SCTP, DCCP), congestion control, multicast and forward-error-correction transports, QoS and reservation signaling, DiffServ and congestion control for unresponsive flows, performance metrics, NAT regularization and specification, and NFS. The Transport Area is considering future work on transport mechanisms to support applications that exchange large volumes of traffic at potentially high bandwidths, investigating the interactions between transport protocols and network-layer extensions for mobility, multihoming and new routing approaches, experimentation with congestion control schemes arriving via the IRTF, multipath extensions to the existing transport protocols and extensions to the IETF's current protocols for multimedia transport, including peer-to-peer live streaming. A Transport AD should have a good understanding of core end-to-end transport topics such as congestion control, flow control, real-time transport protocols, NATs, and firewalls. The AD also needs to be familiar with the end-to-end aspects of various applications and application layer protocols in order to have a view on how Transport Area efforts will impact the users of the Area's work. A Transport AD needs to be familiar with the IP-layer technologies and protocols on top of which most Transport Area work occurs. Finally, some topics in the Transport Area have strong ties to the research community, therefore a research background can be helpful. The Transport Area intersects most frequently with the Internet, RAI, Applications, and Security Areas, as well as several IRTF research groups. Cross-area expertise in any of these Areas would be particularly useful.