IETF Draft

IETF Draft
Name	IETF Draft
Subject	Internet standards and protocols
Established	1994
Owner	Internet Engineering Task Force
Related	Request for Comments, Internet Architecture Board, Internet Research Task Force

IETF Draft is a temporary technical document circulated within the Internet standards community and among standards bodies to propose, describe, or refine protocols, formats, and operational procedures. Drafts function as working artifacts used by researchers, engineers, and standards participants associated with organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Architecture Board, Internet Research Task Force, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, and major technology companies like Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (company). They often precede formal publication as a Request for Comments or as informational or standards-track documents adopted by standards organizations including the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the International Telecommunication Union.

Overview

IETF Drafts serve as provisional contributions within the ecosystem of standards development alongside influential documents from Request for Comments, RFC Editor, and repositories maintained by bodies like the Internet Society. Drafts are authored by participants from academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and industry labs including Bell Labs and IBM Research. Contributors also include engineers affiliated with regional registries like RIPE NCC, APNIC, and ARIN. The draft mechanism is linked to milestone-driven processes used in projects coordinated with organizations like W3C and IEEE Standards Association.

Purpose and Types

The primary purpose of drafts is to present new ideas, protocol designs, interoperability guidance, security analyses, and operational recommendations. Types include individual submissions by authors such as those from IETF Working Group chairs or independent contributors, and working group drafts backed by groups like the Routing Area Working Group and the Security Area committees. Drafts may address subjects ranging from transport-layer mechanisms related to Transmission Control Protocol and QUIC to application-layer formats used by Hypertext Transfer Protocol and Session Initiation Protocol. They also include experimental proposals, informational pieces on deployment like those referenced by IANA registries, and errata or clarifications for standards influenced by historic texts such as early RFCs authored by figures including Vint Cerf and Jon Postel.

Publication and Revision Process

Publication of drafts follows a workflow coordinated by the IETF Secretariat and editors associated with the RFC Editor program. Authors submit drafts to repositories and mailing lists such as those maintained by the IETF and tools integrated with version control systems used by enterprises like GitHub and foundations like the Linux Foundation. Revisions occur through iterative review cycles involving peer reviewers, area directors including members of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee, and responses from operational communities such as network operators within NOGs and registry operators. Milestones may be tied to meetings of bodies like the Internet Engineering Task Force plenary, the IETF Hackathon, or joint workshops with standards groups such as the World Wide Web Consortium.

IETF Working Group and Individual Drafts

Working group drafts represent consensus proposals emerging from designated IETF working groups, often shepherded by designated chairs and approved through processes involving area directors and community review. Notable working groups have spawned standards that impacted projects from Apache Software Foundation implementations to Linux kernel subsystems. Individual drafts allow researchers and engineers from companies like Apple Inc. and Facebook to propose innovations without a working group mandate; such drafts can influence standards when integrated into working group efforts or cited by standards-track RFCs authored by luminaries such as Scott Bradner and Leslie Daigle.

Status, Obsolescence, and RFC Transition

A draft's lifecycle includes states where it may be active, revised, expired, or superseded. Drafts typically expire unless updated, and many become obsolete when superseded by newer drafts or by formal publication as an RFC. Transition from draft to RFC often follows approval steps including consensus calls, last-call reviews, and IETF meetings, with oversight from entities like the Internet Architecture Board and publication coordination involving the RFC Editor. Some drafts are designated experimental or informational and remain as archival artifacts similar to early engineering notes associated with pioneers such as David Clark and Steve Crocker.

Legal, Copyright, and Intellectual Property Considerations

Draft authors and contributors must navigate intellectual property policies administered by the IETF Trust and governed by disclosure procedures tied to patent policies of organizations such as European Patent Office and national patent offices. Contributors often provide licensing statements or follow disclosure rules to address claims governed by bodies like the World Intellectual Property Organization. The IETF's intellectual property framework interacts with open-source licensing models maintained by organizations such as the Open Source Initiative and foundations like the Linux Foundation; implementers frequently reconcile draft provisions with permissive licenses used by projects in ecosystems established by entities such as Mozilla Foundation.

Category:Internet standards documents