Principles for Operation of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Registries
RFC 8720
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(February 2020; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 7500
Was draft-iab-rfc7500-bis (iab)
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|
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Authors | Russ Housley , Olaf Kolkman | ||
Last updated | 2020-02-27 | ||
Replaces | draft-ietf-iasa2-rfc7500-bis | ||
Stream | IAB | ||
Formats | plain text html xml pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | IAB state | Published RFC | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) |
Internet Architecture Board (IAB) R. Housley, Ed. Request for Comments: 8720 O. Kolkman, Ed. Obsoletes: 7500 February 2020 Category: Informational ISSN: 2070-1721 Principles for Operation of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Registries Abstract This document provides principles for the operation of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registries. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and represents information that the IAB has deemed valuable to provide for permanent record. It represents the consensus of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Documents approved for publication by the IAB are not candidates for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8720. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2020 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 (https://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. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Principles for the Operation of IANA Registries 3. Discussion 3.1. Ensuring Uniqueness, Stability, and Predictability 3.2. Public 3.3. Open and Transparent 3.4. Accountable 4. Security Considerations 5. Changes since RFC 7500 6. Informative References IAB Members at the Time of Approval Acknowledgements Authors' Addresses 1. Introduction The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its predecessors have traditionally separated the publication of protocol specifications in immutable Request for Comments (RFCs) and the registries containing protocol parameters. Traditionally, the registries are maintained by a set of functions known collectively as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Dating back to the earliest days of the Internet, specification publication and the registry operations were tightly coupled: Jon Postel of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California (USC) was responsible for both RFC publication and IANA registry operation. This tight coupling had advantages, but it was never a requirement. Indeed, today, the RFC Editor and IANA registry operation are provided by different entities. Internet registries are critical to the operation of the Internet because they provide a definitive record of the value and meaning of identifiers that protocols use when communicating with each other. Almost every Internet protocol makes use of registries in some form. At the time of writing, the IANA maintains more than two thousand protocol parameter registries. Internet registries hold protocol identifiers consisting of constants and other well-known values used by Internet protocols. These values can be numbers, strings, addresses, and so on. They are uniquely assigned for one particular purpose or use. Identifiers can be maintained in a central list (such as a list of cryptographic algorithms), or they can be hierarchically allocated and assigned by separate entities at different points in the hierarchy (such as IP addresses and domain names). To maximize trust and usefulness of the IANA registries, the principles in this document should be taken into consideration for centralized registries as well as hierarchically delegated registries. In hierarchically delegated registries, entries nearest to top level have broad scope, but lower-level entries have narrow scope. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) will encourage support for these principles in all delegations of Internet identifiers. The registry system is built on trust and mutual cooperation. The use of the registries is voluntary and is not enforced by mandates or certification policies. While the use of registries is voluntary, it is noted that the success of the Internet creates enormous pressure to use Internet protocols and the identifier registries associated with them. This document provides principles for the operation of IANA registries, ensuring that protocol identifiers have consistent meanings and interpretations across all implementations and deployments, thus providing the necessary trust in the IANAShow full document text