Network Working Group                                         P. Eardley
Internet-Draft                                                        BT
Intended status: Informational                                 L. Eggert
Expires: January 1, 2012                                           Nokia
                                                              M. Bagnulo
                                                                    UC3M
                                                               R. Winter
                                                              NEC Europe
                                                           June 30, 2011


     How to Contribute Research Results to Internet Standardization
                draft-weeb-research-to-internet-stds-00

Abstract

   The development of new technology is driven by scientific research.
   The Internet, with its roots in the ARPANET and NSFNet, is no
   exception.  Many of the fundamental, long-term improvements to the
   architecture, security, end-to-end protocols and management of the
   Internet originate in the related academic research communities.
   Even shorter-term, more commercially driven extensions are oftentimes
   derived from academic research.  When interoperability is required,
   the IETF standardizes such new technology.  Timely and relevant
   standardization benefits from continuous input and review from the
   academic research community.

   For an individual researcher, it can however by quite puzzling how to
   begin to most effectively participate in the IETF and - arguably to a
   much lesser degree - in the IRTF.  The interactions in the IETF are
   much different than those in academic conferences, and effective
   participation follows different rules.  The goal of this document is
   to highlight such differences and provide a rough guideline that will
   hopefully enable researchers new to the IETF to become successful
   contributors more quickly .

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.  This document may not be modified,
   and derivative works of it may not be created, except to format it
   for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

   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/.



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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 1, 2012.

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   Copyright (c) 2011 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
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   described in the Simplified BSD License.






























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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Is the IETF the right venue? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  How to get the IETF to start work on your proposal?  . . . . .  6
     3.1.  Identify the right part of the IETF  . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2.  Build a community  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.3.  Outline your protocol  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.4.  Establish a new WG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   4.  How to increase the chances that the IETF successfully
       standardises your proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     4.1.  Commit enough time, energy and perseverance  . . . . . . .  8
     4.2.  Be Open and focus out  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     4.3.  Seek resolution not perfection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     4.4.  Implement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     5.1.  Multipath TCP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     5.2.  Congestion Exposure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   6.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   8.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   9.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13




























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1.  Introduction

   In telecommunications, standards are essential.  More often than not,
   technology interoperability requires an agreement on a single
   standard for a given problem.  However, unlike most research,
   standards developments are driven by particular real-world problems
   and require solutions that are not only theoretically correct, but
   need to be implementable with state of the art technology in a cost-
   effective manner, and must be incrementally deployable in the actual
   Internet by the involved stakeholders.  In other words, standards
   should be both theoretically correct and practically applicable.

   Unlike in the academic world, the latter is often more important than
   the former!  A practically applicable solution that has some well-
   defined and acceptable deficiencies trumps a theoretically complete
   and optimal solution that cannot be deployed.  Likewise, a solution
   to an interesting theoretical problem that does not exist in the
   deployed Internet at large does not require urgent standardization.
   Finally, standardization oftentimes focuses on piecemeal improvements
   to existing technology in order to enhance secondary aspects, which
   does not excite an academic researcher looking to solve juicy
   problems.

   These differences between academic research and Internet
   standardization are the main reason why many researchers initially
   struggle when they begin to participate in the IETF.  Symptoms of
   this struggle occur, for example: :

   o  for ideas that are too far outside the IETF's areas of current
      work

   o  for ideas that are too high-level for the IETF to begin protocol-
      level work on

   o  proposals that solve problems that are not expected to arise for a
      very long time

   o  when giving others a say in how a research idea is being made
      concrete, or giving over change control entirely

   o  feeling that the IETF "does not listen" to them or does not have
      "the right people"

   o  there seems to be no working group or other venue to bring the
      work to

   o  the process is too time consuming




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   o  the researchers do not have the resources to keep the IETF effort
      active for an extended period of time

   o  simulation is not a convincing enough argument for the IETF to
      start working on something

   o  the research idea is just not implementable in today's Internet

   This document attempts to give some basic advice that researchers
   might want to take into account when deciding to approach the IETF
   with their ideas, in order to improve their success probability.  It
   is intended to complement the more general advice in [RFC4144] about
   "How to gain prominence and influence in standards organizations".

   The authors have been involved in several research projects,
   including collaborative ones, which have sought to standardize some
   of their results at the IETF, and we hope to pass on some advice
   (sometimes that we have learnt the hard way!).  The advice is split
   into three groups: before you approach the IETF; how to get the IETF
   to start work on your proposal; and finally how to increase the
   chances of success once work has begun.


2.  Is the IETF the right venue?

   A researcher should consider whether the IETF is the right venue
   before bringing a proposal to it.  A good idea is to imagine that the
   IETF has standardized your proposal and it has been deployed, and ask
   yourself two questions:

   1.  How would the Internet be better?

   2.  What Internet nodes would have been upgraded?

   It is very important to have a clear explanation about the motivation
   for your proposal - What would its benefits be?  What problem does it
   solve?  Many ideas do not bring a clear benefit to the Internet in
   the near term (of course they may still be fine pieces of research!).
   In the past the IETF has often developed protocols that ended up not
   being used, so it now thinks harder about the benefits before
   starting new work and makes sure that it solves a current,
   significant problem rather than one that may theoretically arise in
   the future.  It is best to be specific about what improvement your
   proposal would make and the use cases in which this would be seen.

   It is also important to have a simple description of what additions
   or changes are needed and to which nodes (be they end-hosts, routers,
   middleboxes etc).  Is it substituting for an existing IETF protocol



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   or supplementing one?  Again, it is best to be specific - Do both
   ends need to adopt the new protocol?  Can it fall-back or
   interoperate with the existing IETF protocol?  Do the "first movers"
   (the first nodes that include your protocol) get an improvement, or
   do the "last movers" gain most?  What assumptions do you make about
   the network or host (perhaps that the host is multi-homed or there
   are no middleboxes on the path)?

   If it is hard to answer these questions, it may indicate that the
   idea is too high-level or abstract for the IETF.  Then it may be
   better to approach the IRTF (the research arm of the IETF); the IETF
   needs a specific protocol-level proposal before it can begin work,
   whilst the IRTF considers work that is not yet mature enough for
   standardization.  Another danger is that the IETF is the wrong
   standards body, as a different one would need to standardize your
   proposal.

   If your idea involves replacing several IETF protocols and/or
   upgrading several types of node simultaneously, it is probably best
   to re-think: the IETF finds it almost impossible to handle radical,
   "clean slate" proposals that change lots of things at once.  Perhaps
   you can trim off a subset of your idea that's a smaller initial step
   requiring only an incremental change to an existing protocol, but is
   still useful?


3.  How to get the IETF to start work on your proposal?

   Having decided that the IETF is the right venue, you now need to
   persuade the IETF to start work on your idea.  We discuss three steps
   that should help - they can be done in parallel - and then briefly
   how to form a new WG, if that is necessary.

3.1.  Identify the right part of the IETF

   The IETF is a large organization; therefore you need to communicate
   with the right part of it.  The IETF consists of over 100 working
   groups (WGs), each responsible for a specific topic.  So a good step
   is to identify whether there is already a WG where your work would
   fit.

   If yes, then join the WG's mailing list and send email and perhaps
   write an internet draft.  A WG's current set of specific items is
   defined in its "Charter"; be aware that if your proposal falls
   outside the WG's current charter, then it would have to be extended
   before formal work could begin.  Most WGs think about re-chartering
   every year or two, although most are OK for some limited discussion
   on items outside their current charter.



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   If there isn't a relevant WG, then you should identify the right
   Area.  The WGs are clustered into "Areas" with a common theme such as
   security, with one or two Area Directors in charge of each Area.  You
   may have to get a new WG created within the most relevant Area; this
   is a significantly difficult step (see below).

3.2.  Build a community

   Standards require agreement and approval by a wide range of people.
   Therefore you need to persuade others of the merits of your idea.  In
   practice you need to go further and persuade others to do work - at a
   minimum this will be to thoroughly review your proposal and
   preferably it will be to develop and test it with you.  The IETF
   community needs to see evidence of wider support, interest and
   commitment - a lack of reaction means work will not go forward
   (silence is not consent!).  At an early stage support could be
   demonstrated through comments on the mailing list.  It is a very good
   idea to have some internet drafts jointly authored with people from
   beyond your research team, perhaps an industry player - for example,
   you could develop a "use cases" document with a "user", such as an
   operator.

   Working with others has the extra benefit that it will help to
   clarify your idea and explain better its benefits and how it works.
   There are many experts at the IETF who can help stress test the idea
   technically and advise about process and culture.  You need to get
   some of them involved as early as possible.

   It may well be worth trying to hold an informal session at an IETF
   meeting - this can help build a community of interest for your idea;
   see the advice in [I-D.eggert-successful-bar-bof].

3.3.  Outline your protocol

   You also need to describe your proposal in a way that others can
   understand.  Your initial document should outline the protocol - it
   is counter-productive to detail every aspect, unless the protocol is
   incredibly simple.  Firstly, too much detail swamps people with
   information that they cannot process - most people understand things
   by learning about them several times at increasing levels of detail.
   Secondly, providing only an outline makes people feel that they have
   a chance of making worthwhile suggestions and changes, so they are
   more likely to actively engage with you.  Thirdly, working out
   details is generally something that a wider group of people is better
   at than an isolated individual.  Fourthly, in order for the IETF to
   start work, it is more important to convince the IETF that there is a
   problem that it needs to solve than to convince it about the merits
   of your solution.



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   A good idea is to document a "protocol model", as described in
   [RFC4101]: "a short description of the system in overview form ... to
   answer three basic questions: 1.  What problem is the protocol trying
   to achieve? 2.  What messages are being transmitted and what do they
   mean? 3.  What are the important, but unobvious, features of the
   protocol?"

3.4.  Establish a new WG

   You only need to establish a new WG if the idea falls outside the
   scope of existing WGs.  Establishing a new WG nearly always requires
   a specific session, called a "BoF" (Birds of a Feather), at one of
   the IETF's face-to-face meetings.  Here the pros and cons of the
   proposed WG are debated.  As part of the preparation for the BoF you
   need to:

   o  Build a community (see above)

   o  Document the benefits - for example, a problem statement and/or
      use cases

   o  Document the architecture - for example covering assumptions and
      requirements on a solution.

   o  Suggest specific work items for the proposed WG - typically the
      protocol to be standardized and the supporting informational
      documents.

   Getting approval to hold a BoF and running a successful BoF meeting
   are both quite difficult.  It is highly recommended to work with
   someone experienced and to read the guidance in [RFC5434].


4.  How to increase the chances that the IETF successfully standardises
    your proposal

   Congratulations, you have got the IETF to agree to start working on
   your proposal.  Now it only remains to do the actual work!  In this
   section we give some advice about ways of working that will increase
   the chances that the standardization runs smoothly.

4.1.  Commit enough time, energy and perseverance

   Those new to standards bodies may be surprised how long and how much
   effort it takes to standardize something.

   Success at the IETF requires active participation - to convince
   others your idea is worthwhile, to build momentum, to gain consensus.



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   Although in theory the IETF progresses mainly through mailing lists,
   in practice face-to-face time is critical, especially for new or
   substantial work - if possible go to the three IETF meetings a year.

   It takes quite a long time for a proposal to turn into an IETF
   standard - even if the proposal is mature when it is first presented.
   There are many steps: building a community of interest, convincing
   the IETF to start work, working through suggestions from technical
   experts and incorporating their improvements, getting detailed
   reviews, going through the formal IETF approval process and so on.
   Even if you can work full time on the proposal, effort is required
   from other people who can't.  Also, the IETF tends to work in
   intensive bursts, with activity concentrated in the run-up to and
   then at the IETF meetings, with lulls of low activity in-between.

   The IETF proceeds by "rough consensus" - unlike some other standards
   bodies, there is no voting and no top-down process from requirements
   to architecture to protocol.  The downside of this is that the IETF
   is not good at making decisions.  Hence you need to persevere and
   guard against decisions unwinding.  On the other hand, if the
   consensus is to reject your proposal or there is little interest in
   it, persevering is likely to be a waste of time - probably you should
   give up or re-start at Section 2.

   All this means that it takes a considerable length of time to
   complete something at the IETF.  Two years is probably a minimum.
   So, although a typical 3 year research project sounds like plenty of
   time to do standardization, if you haven't already raised the idea
   within the first year, you're probably too late to complete before
   your project ends.  Therefore, since it's quite likely that the IETF
   won't be finished when your project ends, it is particularly
   important to convince others to help, so that the work is more likely
   to complete afterwards.

4.2.  Be Open and focus out

   It is helpful to come to the IETF with an open mind-set.

   Co-authorship is good.  Some standards bodies value trophy authors,
   who indicate their support but don't actually do any work.  In the
   IETF, it is much better if co-authors are actually investing cycles
   on developing the proposal, whereas simple indications of support can
   be made on the mailing list or at the meetings.

   In particular, if the IETF is going to standardize something, then in
   effect it takes ownership of it - it is no longer "yours".  Indeed a
   good milestone of success is when your individual document becomes a
   WG draft, as then it is owned by the WG.  The research mentality is a



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   bit different, as it prizes authorship and confidentiality-until-
   publication.

   It is very important to be open to working with others.
   Collaborative research projects sometimes find this difficult for two
   reasons.  Firstly, such projects typically have a consortium
   agreement about confidentiality - it must not prevent you engaging
   properly day-to-day with people outside the project.  Secondly, you
   may have to spend considerable effort on intra-project coordination -
   but an individual researcher only has so much energy and enthusiasm
   for collaborating, so if you spend a lot of time liaising between
   Work package 2 and Work package 3, then you have little left for
   working with the IETF .

4.3.  Seek resolution not perfection

   The research mind-set is often to investigate very thoroughly all
   possible details about an idea - to seek perfection - sometimes with
   no particular deadline.  The IETF mind-set is to get something done
   and out there that works, albeit imperfectly; if people find it
   useful, then there'll be another iteration to improve it, probably to
   meet needs that only become apparent on widescale deployment.  The
   philosophy is to find a reasonable solution to the problem that
   currently exists - time spent over-optimizing may simply mean that
   the solution has been superseded (perhaps the problem has been solved
   in some other way, or perhaps the problem was so significant that a
   different approach had to be found to avoid the problem).

4.4.  Implement

   The IETF is very impressed by actual implementations: "running code".
   It helps smooth the standards process, it helps people believe it
   really works, and it helps you and others discover any issues.

   An implementation that others can download and try is extremely
   helpful in getting your protocol actually deployed - and presumably
   that is your real objective, not simply to get an IETF standard!  In
   the longer term, you may need to think how to get it incorporated in
   the Linux kernel, for instance.

   Overall it is very hard to get a protocol in actual widespread use.
   There are far more IETF protocols on paper than in use.


5.  Examples

   In this section, we include some examples where the authors have been
   deeply involved and have managed (we believe) to bring the research



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   output of a collaborative research project successfully into the
   IETF.

5.1.  Multipath TCP

   Multipath TCP enables a regular TCP connection to use multiple paths
   simultaneously.  It extends TCP to allow the use of multiple IP
   addresses by each endpoint.  This work is one output of the Trilogy
   research project which was brought to the IETF for standardization
   and it is currently making good progress.  We provide a brief
   overview of the steps taken.

   The first stage was doing some early socialization of the main ideas
   of MPTCP.  Presentations were made in several relevant WGs: the
   Routing Research Group (July 2008) and the Transport Area Open
   meeting (July 2008 and March 2009).  In addition, a mailing list was
   created, open to anyone who was interested in discussing Multipath
   TCP related issues in the IETF context, and a public web page was
   created containing Multipath TCP related material, including papers,
   Internet Drafts, presentations and code.  The feedback received was
   encouraging enough to continue with the effort of bringing the work
   to the IETF.

   Once we had verified that the proposed ideas had potential traction
   in the IETF, the next step was to identify the proper venue for the
   proposed work.  There were two choices, namely, to go for a BoF, with
   a view to a new WG, or to try to add additional work items to an
   existing WG, in particular TCPM seemed a good candidate.  After
   talking to the Area Directors, it seemed that having a BoF was the
   right approach, at least for the initial discussion stage.  So, a BoF
   proposal was submitted to the Transport ADs for the IETF 75 meeting
   held in Stockholm on July 2009.  The initial BoF proposal was crafted
   by Trilogy people, but was sent to the open mailing list for
   discussion and modification from the rest of the community.  The BoF
   request was approved and the MPTCP BoF was held at the IETF 75
   meeting.

   The general feedback received during the BoF was that there was
   enough interest and energy in the community to do this work within
   the IETF.  A first charter draft was posted on the mailing list for
   comments a couple of months after the BoF.  After a month or so of
   charter discussion on the mailing list, the MPTCP Working Group was
   created in October 2009.  The charter includes deliverables due to
   March 2011.

   The MPTCP working group has, so far, made significant progress and
   most of the milestones have been delivered on schedule [MPTCP].




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5.2.  Congestion Exposure

   Congestion Exposure enables sending end-hosts to inform the network
   about the congestion encountered by previous packets on the same
   flow.  This allows the network devices to act upon the congestion
   information and the perceived user behaviour.  Like the MPTCP work,
   it is an output of the Trilogy research project and has been
   successfully brought to the IETF.  We next describe the steps
   followed to do so.

   In this case, early socialization included presentations at the
   Internet Congestion Control Research Group and the Internet Area
   meeting at the IETF 75 meeting in July 2009, the creation of an open
   mailing list to discuss Congestion Exposure related issues in the
   IETF and posting the related materials such as papers, Internet
   drafts, and code in a public web page.  In addition, an informal,
   open meeting (sometimes called a Bar-BoF in IETF parlance) was held
   during the IETF 75 meeting.

   After processing the feedback received in the Bar-BoF, a BoF proposal
   was submitted to the Internet Area ADs for the IETF 76 meeting in
   November 2009.  The BoF was accepted and was held as planned.  While
   the feedback received in the BoF was positive, the IESG was uncertain
   about chartering a Working Group on this topic.  (The IESG is the
   IETF's management body and consists of all the Area Directors.)  In
   order to address the remaining concerns of the IESG, another BoF was
   held at the following IETF meeting.

   After much debate, the CONEX WG was approved by the IESG but the
   scope of its charter was limited compared with the original proposal.
   The CONEX WG [CONEX] held its first meeting at the IETF 78 meeting in
   July 2010.  Its charter contains deliverables up to November 2011.


6.  IANA Considerations

   This document raises no IANA considerations.

   [Note to the RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon
   publication.]


7.  Security Considerations

   This document has no known security implications.

   [Note to the RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon
   publication.]



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8.  Acknowledgments

   Part of this work was funded by the Trilogy Project [TRILOGY], a
   research project supported by the European Commission under its
   Seventh Framework Program.

   Similar material was accepted for publication in ACM CCR, July 2011
   [CCR].


9.  Informative References

   [CCR]      Bagnulo, M., Eardley, P., Eggert, L., and R. Winter, "How
              to Contribute Research Results to Internet
              Standardization", ACM CCR July, July 2011.

   [CONEX]    "Congestion Exposure working group",
               http://tools.ietf.org/wg/conex/.

   [I-D.eggert-successful-bar-bof]
              Eggert, L. and G. Camarillo, "Considerations for Having a
              Successful "Bar BOF" Side Meeting",
              draft-eggert-successful-bar-bof-05 (work in progress),
              May 2011.

   [MPTCP]    "Multipath TCP working group",
               http://tools.ietf.org/wg/mptcp/.

   [RFC4101]  Rescorla, E. and IAB, "Writing Protocol Models", RFC 4101,
              June 2005.

   [RFC4144]  Eastlake, D., "How to Gain Prominence and Influence in
              Standards Organizations", RFC 4144, September 2005.

   [RFC5434]  Narten, T., "Considerations for Having a Successful Birds-
              of-a-Feather (BOF) Session", RFC 5434, February 2009.

   [TRILOGY]  "Trilogy Project",  http://www.trilogy-project.org/.













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Authors' Addresses

   Philip Eardley
   BT
   Adastral Park, Martlesham Heath
   Ipswich
   England

   Phone:
   Email: philip.eardley@bt.com
   URI:


   Lars Eggert
   Nokia Research Center
   P.O. Box 407
   Nokia Group  00045
   Finland

   Phone: +358 50 48 24461
   Email: lars.eggert@nokia.com
   URI:   http://research.nokia.com/people/lars_eggert/


   Marcelo Bagnulo
   Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
   Av. Universidad 30
   Madrid
   Spain

   Phone:
   Email: marcelo@it.uc3m.es
   URI:


   Rolf Winter
   NEC Europe
   Heidelberg
   Germany

   Phone:
   Email: rolf.winter@neclab.eu
   URI:








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