IETF STEERING GROUP (IESG) REPORT FROM THE TELECONFERENCE July 27th, 1992 Reported by: Greg Vaudreuil, IESG Secretary This report contains IESG meeting notes, positions and action items. For more information please contact the IESG Secretary. iesg-secretary@nri.reston.va.us ATTENDEES --------- Almquist, Philip / Consultant Chiappa, Noel Crocker, Dave / TBO Crocker, Steve / TIS Coya, Steve / CNRI Davin, Chuck / MIT Gross, Philip / ANS Hinden, Robert / SUN Hobby, Russ / UC-DAVIS Reynolds, Joyce / ISI Stockman, Bernard / SUNET/NORDUnet Vaudreuil, Greg / CNRI Regrets Borman, David / Cray Research Huizer, Erik / SURFnet Piscitello, Dave/ Bellcore AGENDA ------- 1. Administrivia o IESG Membership o Bash the Agenda o Next Meeting 2. Protocol Actions o Network Time Protocol o IP over HIPPI o Appletalk/PPP o CLNP/PPP o Privacy in Network Databases o Naming Guidelines o User Friendly Naming o OSI Transport on the TCP o NICNAME/WHOIS o TCP/IP Header Compression o BGP/OSPF Interactions o PPP Authentication o IDPR 3. Technical Management Issues o IAB/IETF Process Working Group 4. Working Group Actions o Charmib to Conclude o IDENT post-mortem o Newcomers Guide to the IETF Minutes --------- 1) Administrivia o IESG membership evolution Susan Estrada and Noel Chiappa have indicated their desire to devote their resources to helping the Internet by increasing their commitments to specific activities and are unable to continue there participation on the IESG. The IESG expressed its gratitude for their valuable service. Phill Gross will begin the process of recruiting a new Operations area director to replace Estrada. A minor reorganization of the Internet Area will move responsibility for Addressing into the Routing Area. Philip Almquist will continue service as Internet Area Director, primarily responsible for router and IP over Foo protocols. Bob Hinden reported the formation of a Routing advisory group to help ensure high quality review of the routing architecture and protocols. Noel was recruited as the first member of the Routing Directorate. Action: Gross -- Announce the departure of Noel Chiappa and Susan Estrada from the IESG. Action: Vaudreuil -- Remove Noel Chiappa and Susan Estrada from the IESG mailing list and other administrative documents. o Agenda bashing Several topics were added, including a discussion of the proposed IAB/IETF process working group and the need for better document review. o Next meeting The IESG set the next meeting at 12 EDT August 10th. 2) Protocol Actions o Network Time Protocol Version 3 The IESG has received a request from Dave Mills to elevate RFC1305, the Network time protocol to Draft Standard status. This RFC is a Postscript-primary document with a substandard, virtually useless ASCII version. The IESG discussed the new IAB requirement that protocol specifications have an ASCII version of the document as the reference version and concluded that the NTP V3 protocol must have an ASCII version before it can be advanced to Draft Standard. Action: Vaudreuil -- Contact Dave Mills and communicate the IESG requirement that a reference ASCII version of the NTP protocol be provided before it can be advanced to Draft Standard status. o IP over HIPPI The IESG did not reviewed the document. ACTION: Almquist, Chiappa -- Review the IP over HIPPI document for technical clarity and architectural soundness. o Appletalk over PPP The IESG did not reviewed the document. ACTION: Almquist, Chiappa -- Review the Appletalk over PPP document for technical clarity and architectural soundness. o CLNP over PPP The IESG did not reviewed the document. ACTION: Almquist, Chiappa -- Review the CLNP over PPP document for technical clarity and architectural soundness. o Privacy and Accuracy in Network Databases This document was created by the NISI working group at the request of the IESG and the IESG Security Area director in particular. It is not intended to be a policy document but rather an exploration of issues related to public availability of NIC databases. The IESG discussed this document and approved it for publication as an Informational RFC. ACTION: Vaudreuil -- Craft and send a notification to the RFC Editor requesting publication of the Internet Draft "Privacy and Accuracy in NIC Databases" as an Informational RFC. o Directory Naming Guidelines o User Friendly Naming IESG consideration of these two OSI X.500 related documents was deferred until the OSI area directors can participate. o OSI Transport over the TCP The IESG approved RFC1006 for Full Standard Status, however, the RFC has a number of relatively minor and non-technical errors. Because RFC1006 is so well know by it's RFC Number, the author felt that republication was excessively painful. Dave Piscitello and the RFC editor discussed this with the author and agreed to "silently" update RFC1006 in the rfc directories. Now that this has been completed, the IESG gave the OK to send the announcement to the IAB. ACTION: Vaudreuil -- Confirm that RFC1006 is the version of the protocol the IESG intends for Standard status and then send the announcement to the IAB recommending RFC 1006 for Full Standard Status. o NICNAME/WHOIS The IESG earlier approved WHOIS for Full Standard Status pending a through review of the document. Upon this review and comments from the last call, the IESG concluded that RFC 954 was an inadequate specification for Full Standard Status. The document specifies this protocol by example and does not standardize either the query or the response expected. The IESG tasked the newly forming DREGS working group to produce a new document reflecting current practice. ACTION: Communicate to the IAB that WHOIS will remain as a Draft Standard until a new document can be produced better documenting this protocol. o TCP/IP Header Compression. A bug has been identified during the last call for the Header Compression document and a new feature has been defined for use with PPP. The IESG was unable to determine if these revelations would require a new document. RFC 1144 is a Postscript only RFC and will need an ASCII version before being elevated to Draft Standard. ACTION: Vaudreuil -- Send a note to the PPP mailing list asking for comments on the TCP/IP Header Compression document. o BGP/OSPF Interactions The IESG notified the IAB that there were several changes to the document before it was approved. The IAB, which had already received the recommendation from the IESG had additional comments. These comments and the other changes suggested by the working group were made by the author and the document is back to the IAB for balloting. ACTION: Vaudreuil -- Confirm that the token for the BGP/OSPF Interactions document is in the hands of the IAB. o IDPR The IESG is currently balloting on IDPR. A suggestion was made to form a review panel for IDPR similar to the one convened for BGP. While the IAB has not formally asked for IESG discussion, the IESG explored this issue and for two primary reasons concluded that an independent technical review was not necessary. IDPR has been reviewed by most people with an architectural interest in routing and little additional feedback is likely from such a review. Second, IDPR is intended to be deployed as a supplemental protocol in an elective basis and as such does not have nearly the same operational impact as BGP. BGP is intended to be the primary EGP for the Internet and as such the IESG required a high degree of confidence that it was a solid protocol. POSITION: IDPR does not need a technical review for Proposed Standard because little is likely to be learned and the protocol is not expected to have a severe operational impact. Technical Management Issues o IAB/IETF Interaction/Process Working Group. One of the proposals from the IETF Open Plenary was to create an open working group to explore the working relationship and procedures between the IAB and the IETF and make suggestions for improvement. The IESG discussed this effort and agreed that it was a good idea. It is unclear what form or direction this group should take, and there was strong sentiment that the formation of this group should be done in dialogue with the ISOC Board of Directors. ACTION: Gross -- Discuss the proposed IAB/IETF Process Working Group with Vint Cerf, president of the Internet Society for possible involvement of the ISOC board in any such group. o IETF Newcomers Guide. Discussion has begun in earnest on the IETF mailing list about the need for better education. Gary Malkin has volunteered to write the guide and has begun a mailing list for discussion. The IESG has requested the IETF secretariat to write a "handbook" for IETF and IESG operation, with a focus on the procedures to be used by a working group chairs. The IESG understands this to be a separate effort from the newcomers guide but has asked Steve Coya to work with Gary on this effort. Action: Vaudreuil -- Solicit and compile a wishlist from the IESG for topics to be included in a newcomers guide to the IETF. Working Group Actions o Character MIB Working Group. The Character MIB working group has completed their charter and was retired by the IESG. ACTION: Vaudreuil -- Announce the conclusion of the Character MIB Working Group to the IETF.