RFC 1130 (rfc1130) - Page 2 of 17

IAB official protocol standards

RFC 1130                     IAB Standards                  October 1989


   Given the important role of the Internet Engineering Task Force in
   the evolution of the Internet Architecture, all proposed protocols
   will be reviewed by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)
   which is composed of the Technical Area Directors.

   The recommendation of the IESG and working group or research group is
   given major consideration in the decision by the IAB to assign a
   state and status to the protocol.  The general policy is to gain
   implementation experience with a protocol before considering a
   possible designation as an official standard.

   In cases where there is uncertainty as to the proper decision
   concerning a protocol, the IAB may convene a special review committee
   consisting of interested parties from the working group and members
   of the IAB itself, with the purpose of recommending some explicit
   action to the IAB.

   A few protocols have achieved widespread implementation without the
   approval of the IAB.  For example, some vendor protocols have become
   very important to the Internet community even though they have not
   been proposed or reviewed by the IAB.  However, the IAB strongly
   recommends that the IAB standards process be used in the evolution of
   the protocol suite to maximize interoperability (and to prevent
   incompatible protocol requirements from arising).  The IAB reserves
   the use of the term "standard" in any RFC to only those protocols
   which the IAB has approved.

2.  The Standardization Process

   Anyone can invent a protocol, document it, implement it, test it, and
   so on.  The IAB believes that it is very useful to document a
   protocol at an early stage to promote suggestions from others
   interested in the functionality the of protocol and from those
   interested in protocol design.  Once a protocol is implemented and
   tested it is useful to report the results.  The RFC document series
   is the preferred place for publishing these protocol documents and
   testing results.

   The IAB encourages the documenting of every protocol developed in the
   Internet (that is, the publication of the protocol specification as
   an RFC), even if it is never intended that the protocol become an
   Internet standard.  A protocol that is not intended to become a
   standard is called "experimental".

   Protocols that are intended to become standards are first designated
   as "proposed" protocols.  It is expected that while in this state the
   protocol will be implemented and tested by several groups.  It is
   likely that an improved version of the protocol will result from this



Internet Activities Board