Concluded Program IP Stack Evolution (stackevo)
Note: The data for concluded Programs is occasionally incorrect.
| Program | Name | IP Stack Evolution | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acronym | stackevo | ||
| State | Concluded | ||
| Document dependencies | |||
| Additional resources | IP Stack Evolution Program | ||
| Personnel | Lead | Brian Trammell | |
| Members |
Aaron Falk Brian Trammell Dave Thaler Eliot Lear Erik Nordmark Gabriel Montenegro Jeff Tantsura Joe Hildebrand Lee Howard Mark Nottingham Martin Thomson Mirja Kühlewind Natasha Rooney Ralph Droms Robert Sparks Spencer Dawkins Suresh Krishnan Ted Hardie Wes Hardaker Zhenbin Li |
Closing note for Program
During the IETF 105 meeting in Montreal, the IAB decided to close the Stack Evolution program in its present form. The initial concept behind the IP Stack Evolution program was to investigate how changes to the whole stack, especially to the transport layer, could be deployed in the big-I Internet, and explore the impact of encryption at the transport layer on evolution of the stack. At the time the program started in 2014, there was not much work yet in and around the IETF in this space. That has changed. QUIC has demonstrated that it is possible to deploy a new transport protocol at scale, and the QUIC WG has nearly finished an IETF standard version of that protocol. TAPS was chartered, and is well on its way to defining an abstract interface that reduces the rigidness of the binding between interfaces and transports. Conversations (many conversations) have started about the balance between measurability and confidentiality, and some of these have found shape in protocols (e.g., in the form of the QUIC spin bit). The discussion isn't over, though; the appropriate place for further discussion on stackevo's topics (or adjacent ones) is on the architecture-discuss@ietf.org list.Final Group description
The IP Stack Evolution program covers various topics in the evolution of IPv4 and IPv6, the transport protocols running over IP, and the overall protocol stack architecture. The program addresses challenges that affect the stack in some way and where the IETF community requires architectural guidance, responding to community requests as well as actively monitoring work within IETF WGs which touch on relevant topics. Where a working group relevant to a particular aspect of IP stack evolution exists, the program will facilitate cross-group and cross-area coordination. The program also produces documents on the IAB stream providing general guidance on and covering architectural aspects of stack evolution.
The diversity of “endpoints” in the Internet — applications, transport-layer ports, hosts, gateways and tunnel ends — is far greater than that the IP protocol stack was originally intended to serve. This has impacts on protocol design, because former assumptions about the properties of these endpoints may no longer hold. The program is currently focusing on the stress this places on the architecture.
The program has focused for the past few years on the problem of ossification in the IP protocol stack, specifically at the transport layer. There is now significant new work in the IETF’s transport area addressing this issue. The program’s members participate in the work in the IETF and will provide a point of contact should architectural issues arise from interactions between these new transport protocols and the diversity of link layers deployed in the Internet.
The program will continue to follow up on the results of the Stack Evolution in a Middleboxed Internet (SEMI, Zurich, January 2015) and Managing Radio Networks in an Encrypted World (MaRNEW, Atlanta, September 2015) workshops, to negotiate the tussle between privacy through ubiquitous confidentiality and opportunistic encryption, and the manageability of networks of all kinds.
Past Workshops, BoFs, etc.
The Program has organized several workshops, Birds of a Feather sessions, and proposed Research Groups on topics related to its areas of work:
- The IAB workshop on Stack Evolution in a Middlebox Internet (SEMI) in Zurich, January 2015. Read the Workshop Report, RFC 7663
- The Substrate Protocol for User Datagrams (SPUD) BoF at IETF 92 in Dallas, March 2015; which in turn led to the Path Layer UDP Substrater (PLUS) BoF at IETF 96 in Berlin, July 2016.
- The Managing Radio Networks in an Encrypted World (MaRNEW) Workshop in Atlanta, September 2015, together with GSMA; which in turn led to the Alternatives to Content Classification for Operator Resource Deployment (ACCORD) BoF at IETF 95 in Buenos Aires, April 2016.
- The Measurement and Analysis for Protocols (MAP) proposed Research Group has been meeting since IETF 93 in Prague (until IETF 94 in Yokohama as “How Ossified is the Protocol Stack?” (HOPS) proposed RG). Discussion is at <maprg@irtf.org>.
Documents Published
- Technical Considerations for Internet Service Blocking and Filtering (RFC 7754),
- Planning for Protocol Adoption and Subsequent Transitions (RFC 8170)
This program has itself evolved from the IP Evolution Program, which looked at general architectural issues in the evolution of IPv4 and IPv6 and the overall protocol stack architecture, and produced the following documents:
- IAB Thoughts on IPv6 Network Address Translation (RFC 5902)
- Evolution of the IP Model (RFC 6250)
- Smart Objects Workshop Report (RFC 6574)
- Architectural Considerations of IP Anycast (RFC 7094)
- Report from the IAB Workshop on Internet Technology Adoption and Transition (ITAT) (RFC 7305)