Updating When Standards Track Documents May Refer Normatively to Documents at a Lower Level
draft-leiba-3967upd-downref-03
The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
| Document | Type | RFC Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Barry Leiba | ||
| Last updated | 2017-01-24 (Latest revision 2016-12-09) | ||
| Stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Formats | plain text xml htmlized pdfized bibtex | ||
| Reviews |
OPSDIR Last Call review
Has Nits
SECDIR Last Call review
(of
-01)
Has Nits
GENART Last Call review
(of
-00)
Ready with Nits
|
||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 8067 (Best Current Practice) | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
| Responsible AD | Ben Campbell | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
| IANA action state | No IANA Actions | ||
| RFC Editor | RFC Editor state | AUTH48-DONE | |
| Details |
draft-leiba-3967upd-downref-03
Network Working Group B. Leiba
Internet-Draft Huawei Technologies
Updates: 3967 (if approved) December 09, 2016
Intended status: Best Current Practice
Expires: June 10, 2017
Updating when Standards Track Documents may Refer Normatively to
Documents at a Lower Level
draft-leiba-3967upd-downref-03
Abstract
RFC 3967 specifies a process for allowing normative references to
documents at lower maturity levels ("downrefs"), which involves
calling out the downref explicitly in the last call notice. That
requirement has proven to be unnecessarily strict, and this document
updates RFC 3967, allowing the IESG more flexibility in accepting
downrefs in Standards Track documents.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on June 10, 2017.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/
license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components
extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
1. Introduction
Leiba Expires June 10, 2017 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Document Down-Ref Update December 2016
[RFC3967] notes the importance of assuring that normative references
from Standards Track and Best Current Practice (BCP) documents are
appropriately mature, and specifies a process for allowing normative
references to documents at lower maturity levels ("downrefs"). That
process starts at Last Call (see Section 3 of [RFC3967]):
For Standards Track or BCP documents requiring normative reference
to documents of lower maturity, the normal IETF Last Call
procedure will be issued, with the need for the downward reference
explicitly documented in the Last Call itself. Any community
comments on the appropriateness of downward references will be
considered by the IESG as part of its deliberations.
Section 2 of [RFC3967] lists some conditions under which downrefs may
make sense. In addition to those, it has become common for working
groups to produce foundational documents at Informational status,
which contain important information such as terminology definitions
and architectural design and considerations, and those documents are
often needed as normative references in the Standards Track protocol
documents that follow.
The requirement to explicitly mention the downrefs and the need for
them in the Last Call message has proven to be unnecessarily
restrictive, and has often resulted in unnecessary repetitions of
Last Call, with the corresponding delay and with no real benefit.
2. The IESG's Responsibility with Respect to Downrefs
The process in RFC 3967 is hereby updated to specify that explicitly
documenting the downward references in the Last Call message is
strongly recommended, but not required. The responsible AD should
still check for downrefs before sending out the last call notice, but
if an undetected downref is noticed during last call or IESG review,
any need to repeat the last call is at the discretion of the IESG.
However, the process in RFC 3967 is not fundamentally altered: If the
IESG decides not to repeat the last call, the status of the affected
downrefs is not changed, and the process in RFC 3967 will still apply
if those downrefs are used in the future.
This gives the IESG the responsibility to determine the actual
maturity level of the downward reference with respect to the document
at hand, and to decide whether or not it is necessary to explicitly
ask the IETF community for comments on the downref on a case-by-case
basis. In making that decision, the IESG should take into account
the general discussion in RFC 3967. The responsible AD should make
sure that the omission is recorded as a comment in the datatracker.
3. IANA Considerations
There are no IANA considerations for this document.
4. Security Considerations
Leiba Expires June 10, 2017 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Document Down-Ref Update December 2016
Referencing immature protocols can have security and stability
implications, and the IESG should take that into account when
deciding whether re-consulting the community is useful.
5. Normative References
[RFC3967] Bush, R. and T. Narten, "Clarifying when Standards Track
Documents may Refer Normatively to Documents at a Lower
Level", BCP 97, RFC 3967, DOI 10.17487/RFC3967, December
2004, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3967>.
Author's Address
Barry Leiba
Huawei Technologies
Phone: +1 646 827 0648
Email: barryleiba@computer.org
URI: http://internetmessagingtechnology.org/
Leiba Expires June 10, 2017 [Page 3]