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In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments (RFC) is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks

Through the Internet Society, engineers and computer scientists may publish discourse in the form of an RFC, either for peer review or simply to convey new concepts, information, or (occasionally) engineering humor. The Internet Society or ISOC is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards education and policy Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion Peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work research or Ideas to the scrutiny of others who are The IETF adopts some of the proposals published as RFCs as Internet standards. In Computer network Engineering, an Internet Standard (STD is a Specification, put forward by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF for

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RFC production and evolution

The RFC Editor assigns each RFC a unique serial number. A serial number is a unique Number assigned for Identification which varies from its Successor or Predecessor by a fixed discrete Integer Once assigned a number and published, an RFC is never rescinded or modified; if the document requires amendments, the authors publish a revised document. Therefore, some RFCs supersede others; the superseded RFCs are said to be deprecated, obsolete, or even obsoleted (sic). Together, the serialized RFCs compose a continuous historical record of the evolution of Internet standards and practices.

Note that the term RFC is not unique to this series. Several other organizations have published documents using the term RFC. However, the IETF RFCs are by far the best-known RFCs series on the Internet.

The RFC production process differs from the standardization process of formal standards organizations such as ISO. Standardization (or standardisation) is the process of developing and agreeing upon technical standards. Internet technology experts may submit an Internet Draft without support from an external institution. Internet Drafts (or I-D s is a series of working documents published by the IETF. Standards-track RFCs are published with approval from the IETF, and are usually produced by experts participating in working groups, which first publish an Internet Draft. An IETF working group, or WG for short is a Working group of the IETF. This approach facilitates initial rounds of peer review before documents mature into RFCs.

The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standards authorship accomplished by individuals or small working groups has important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ISO and national standards bodies.

Emblematic of some of these advantages is the existence of a flourishing tradition of joke RFCs. Almost every April Fools' Day ( 1 April) since 1989 the Internet Engineering Task Force has published one or more humorous RFC documents following in the Typically at least one is published each year, usually on April Fools' Day. This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool.

Most RFCs use a common set of terms such as "MUST" and "NOT RECOMMENDED" (as defined by RFC 2119), Augmented Backus–Naur Form (ABNF) (as defined by RFC 5234) as a metalanguage, and simple text-based formatting, in order to keep the RFCs consistent and easy to understand. In Computer science, Augmented Backus–Naur Form (ABNF is a Metalanguage based on Backus–Naur Form (BNF but consisting of its own syntax and derivation [1]

For more details about RFCs and the RFC process, see RFC 2026, "The Internet Standards Process, Revision 3". [1]

History

The inception of the RFC format occurred in 1969 as part of the seminal ARPANET project. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense, was the world's first operational Today, it is the official publication channel for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and—to some extent—the global community of computer network researchers in general. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and Engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society

The authors of the first RFCs typewrote their work and circulated hard copies among the ARPA researchers. A typewriter is a mechanical or Electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that when pressed cause characters to be printed on a medium Hard Copy is an American tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999 Unlike the modern RFCs, many of the early RFCs were requests for comments. The RFC leaves questions open and is written in a less formal style. This less formal style is now typical of Internet Draft documents, the precursor step before being approved as an RFC. Internet Drafts (or I-D s is a series of working documents published by the IETF.

In December 1969, researchers began distributing new RFCs via the newly-operational ARPANET. RFC 1, entitled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and published on April 7, 1969. Steve Crocker (born October 15, 1944 in Pasadena California) is the inventor of the Request for Comments series authoring the very first RFC The University of California Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Westwood Los Angeles, California, United Events 529 - First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in Jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Although written by Steve Crocker, the RFC emerged from an early working group discussion between Steve Crocker, Steve Carr, Jeff Rulifson. Working Group can mean Working group, an interdisciplinary group of researchers or Working Group (dogs, kennel club designation for Steve Carr (III is a director and producer He has directed several well known movies in the comedy and family genres Johns F (Jeff Rulifson (born August 20, 1941) is a Computer scientist largely known for his involvement at the Augmentation Research Center (The document lists Bill Duvall as having attended only the final working group meeting prior to publication. )

In RFC 3, which first defined the RFC series, Steve Crocker started attributing the RFC series to the "Network Working Group". This group seems never to have had a formal existence, being rather defined as "this group of people", but the attribution remains on RFCs to this day.

Many of the subsequent RFCs of the 1970s also came from UCLA, not only because of the quality of the scholarship, but also because UCLA was one of the first Interface Message Processors (IMPs) on ARPANET. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. Scholarly method &mdash or as it is more commonly called scholarship &mdash is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as The Interface Message Processor (IMP was the Packet-switching node used to connect computers to the original ARPANET in the late 1960s and 1970s

Douglas Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute was another of the four first ARPANET nodes, as well as the first Network Information Centre, and (as noted by the sociologist Thierry Bardini) the source of a large number of early RFCs. Dr Douglas C Engelbart (born January 30 1925 is an American Inventor. Stanford Research Institute 's Augmentation Research Center (ARC was founded by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart to develop and experiment with new tools SRI International, based in the United States is one of the world's largest contract Research institutes. A node ( Latin nodus, ‘knot’ is a critical element of any Computer network. A domain name registry, also called Network Information Centre (NIC is part of the Domain Name System (DNS of the Internet which converts Domain Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Thierry Bardini is a French Sociologist who did all his academic career outside France

From 1969 until 1998, Jon Postel served as the RFC editor. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Jonathan Bruce Postel (pəˈstɛl August 6 1943 – October 16 1998 made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly in the area Editing Language, Images or Sound through correction condensation organization and other modifications in various media Following the expiration of the original ARPANET contract with the U. S. federal government, the Internet Society (acting on behalf of the IETF) contracted with the Networking Division of the USC Information Sciences Institute to assume the editorship and publishing responsibilities (under the direction of the IAB). The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California, and incorrectly The Information Sciences Institute ( ISI) of the University of Southern California (USC is a prominent research organization in the field of Information science Jon Postel continued to serve as the RFC Editor until his death. Later, Bob Braden has taken over the role of project lead, while Joyce K. Reynolds has continued to be part of the team. Robert Braden is an American Computer scientist who played a role in the development of the Internet. Joyce K Reynolds is a Computer scientist. Reynolds holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California, United States.

Obtaining RFCs

The official source for RFCs on the World Wide Web is the RFC Editor. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Unofficially, they are obtainable from a multitude of mirrors accessible via the HyperText Transfer Protocol, anonymous FTP, the gopher protocol, and other prominent application layer protocols. Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. For other uses see Gopher. Gopher is a distributed Document search and retrieval Network protocol designed The Application Layer is the seventh level of the seven-layer OSI model, and the top layer of the TCP/IP model In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing

One may retrieve almost any individual, published RFC, like RFC 5000, via a URL in the form of the following example: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5000.txt

Every RFC is submitted as plain ASCII text and is published in that form, but may also be available in other formats. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it American Standard Code for Information Interchange ( ASCII) A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a Computer file. However, as of 2008 the definitive version of any standards-track specification is the ASCII version. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common In Computer network Engineering, an Internet Standard (STD is a Specification, put forward by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF for

For easy access to the metadata of an RFC, including abstract, keywords, author(s), publication date, errata, status, and especially later updates, the RFC Editor site offers a search form with many features. A redirection sets some efficient parameters, example: http://purl.net/net/rfc/5000

Status

Not all RFCs are standards. [2] Each RFC is assigned a status with regard to the Internet standardization process. This status is one of the following: Informational, Experimental, Best Current Practice (BCP), Standards Track, or Historic (sic). Standards-track documents are further divided into Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, and Internet Standard documents. The term Historic is applied to deprecated standards-track documents or obsolete RFCs that were published before the standards track was established. Only the IETF, represented by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), can approve standards-track RFCs. The Internet Engineering Steering Group is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force Chair and Area Directors Applications Area (app In Computer network Engineering, an Internet Standard (STD is a Specification, put forward by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF for Each RFC is static; if the document is changed, it is submitted again and assigned a new RFC number. If an RFC becomes an Internet Standard (STD), it is assigned an STD number but retains its RFC number; however, when an Internet Standard is updated, its number stays the same and it simply refers to a different RFC or set of RFCs. A given Internet Standard, STD n, may be RFCs x and y at a given time, but later the same standard may be updated to be RFC z instead. For example, in 2007 RFC 3700 was an Internet Standard—STD 1—and in May 2008 it was replaced with RFC 5000, so RFC 3700 changed to Historic, RFC 5000 became an Internet Standard, and as of May 2008 STD 1 is RFC 5000. International holidays May 1 - Labour Day ( Pakistan) May 1 - Labour Day ( Singapore) When STD 1 is updated again, it will simply refer to a newer RFC that will have completed the standards track, but it will still be STD 1. Best Current Practices work in a similar fashion; BCP n refers to a certain RFC or set of RFCs, but which RFC or RFCs may change over time.

The definitive list of Internet Standards is itself an Internet Standard, STD 1: Internet Official Protocol Standards. [3]

An informational RFC can be nearly anything from April 1st jokes over proprietary protocols up to widely recognized essential RFCs like RFC 1591. Some informational RFCs form the subseries "for your information" (FYI). While rarely added to today, some old FYIs are still interesting, for example FYI 18 aka RFC 1983, the "Internet User's Glossary". FYI 17 or "The Tao of IETF" is now RFC 4677, published in 2006.

An experimental RFC can be an IETF document or an individual submission to the RFC Editor. In theory it is indeed experimental; in practice some documents are not promoted on standards track because there are no volunteers for the procedural details.

The best current practice (BCP) subseries collects administrative documents and other texts which are considered as official rules and not only informational, but which do not affect over the wire data. The border between standards track and BCP is often unclear. If a document only affects the "Internet Standards Process", like BCP 9, or IETF administration, it is clearly a BCP. If it only defines rules and regulations for IANA registries it is less clear; most of these documents are BCPs, but some are on the standards track. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, DNS root zone management, media types

The BCP series also covers technical recommendations for how to practice Internet standards; for instance the recommendation to use source filtering to make DoS attacks more difficult (RFC 2827: "Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing") is BCP 38.

A historic RFC is one that is obsoleted by a newer version, documents a protocol that is not considered interesting in the current Internet, or has been removed from the standards track for other reasons. Some obsolete RFCs are not classified as historic, because the "Internet Standards Process" generally does not allow normative references from a standards track RFC to another RFC with lower status. Also, few are interested in working through the required procedural details to get RFCs classified as historic and update all RFCs normatively depending on it.

Status unknown is used for some very old RFCs, where it is unclear which status the document would get if it were published today. Some of these RFCs wouldn't be published at all today; an early RFC was often just that: a simple request for comments, not intended to specify a protocol, administrative procedure, or anything else for which the RFC series is used today.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b RFC Index. RFC Editor (2008-05-25). 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. Retrieved on 2008-05-26. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place
  2. ^ Huitema, C. ; Postel, J. ; Crocker, S. (April 1995). Not All RFCs are Standards (RFC 1796). The Internet Engineering Task Force. Retrieved on 2008-05-19. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and  “[E]ach RFC has a status…: Informational, Experimental, or Standards Track (Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, Internet Standard), or Historic. ”
  3. ^ Internet Official Protocol Standards (STD 1) (plain text). RFC Editor (April 1995). Retrieved on 2008-05-19. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing ( FOLDOC) is an online searchable encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing subjects The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software

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