IETF 108 proceedings

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) provides a forum for working groups to coordinate technical development of new protocols. Its most important function is the development and selection of standards within the Internet protocol suite.

The IETF began in January 1986 as a forum for technical coordination by contractors for the then US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET, US Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system. Since that time, the IETF has grown into a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.

The IETF mission includes:

• Identifying and proposing solutions to pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet
• Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term architecture, to solve technical problems for the Internet
• Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community;and
• Providing a forum for the exchange of relevant information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers.

Technical activities in the IETF are addressed within working groups. All working groups are organized roughly by function into seven areas. Each area is led by one or more Area Directors who have primary responsibility for that one area of IETF activity. Together with the Chair of the IETF/IESG, these Area Directors comprise the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).

Liaison and ex-officio members include:

The IETF has a Secretariat, which is managed by Association Management Solutions, LLC (AMS) in Fremont, California.The IETF Managing Director is Alexa Morris.

Other personnel that provide full-time support to the Secretariat include:

To contact the Secretariat, please refer to the addresses and URLs provided on the IETF Secretariat Web page.

The IETF also has an Executive Director, Jay Daley exec-director@ietf.org

The working groups conduct their business during the tri-annual IETF meetings, at interim working group meetings, and via electronic mail on mailing lists established for each group. The tri-annual IETF meetings are 4.5 days in duration, and consist of working group sessions, training sessions, and plenary sessions. The plenary sessions include technical presentations, status reports, and an open IESG meeting.

Following each meeting, the IETF Secretariat publishes meeting proceedings, which contain reports from all of the groups that met, as well as presentation slides, where available. The proceedings also include a summary of the standards-related activities that took place since the previous IETF meeting.

Meeting minutes, working group charters (including information about the working group mailing lists), and general information on current IETF activities are available on the IETF Web site at https://www.ietf.org.