Technical Summary
This document provides recommendations to application and
service designers on how to use the transport protocol port
number space. It complements (but does not update) RFC 6335,
which focuses on IANA process.
Working Group Summary
The usual collection of controversial topics was raised and
discussed in the working group (for example, the need to
conserve assigned ports, given the current usage rate).
The document provides guidance to protocol and application
designers on best current practices for requesting and using
ports; BCP status clearly conveys the nature, importance and
relevance of that guidance.
Some reviewers have noted that this application of BCP
status may not be aligned with their understanding of BCP
status (RFC 2026, Section 5) and/or with current IETF usage
of BCP status in practice.
The responsible AD is OK with doing this document as a BCP.
Document Quality
After IETF Last Call, Spencer asked Martin and Wes (current
and former TSV ADs, and both active port registry expert reviewers)
to re-review the document, making sure it describes the way
other port expert reviewers work. We did get IETF Last Call
comments that asked for more clarity on the relationship
between this document and RFC 6335, resulting in the RFC
Editor Note below.
Personnel
The Document Shepherd is G Fairhurst (TSVWG Co-Chair).
The Responsible Area Director is Spencer Dawkins (TSV AD).
RFC Editor Note
In the Abstract
--- OLD
This document provides recommendations to application and service
designers on how to use the transport protocol port number space. It
complements (but does not update) RFC6335, which focuses on IANA process.
--- NEW
This document provides recommendations to application and service
protocol designers on how to use the transport protocol port number
space and when to request a port assignment from IANA. It provides
designer guidelines on how to interact with the IANA processes defined
in RFC6335, thus serving to complement (but not update) that document.