Request for Comments

Request for Comments
Name	Request for Comments
Abbreviation	RFC
Caption	Typical cover format used for RFC publications
Introduced	1969
Status	Active
Publisher	Internet Engineering Task Force
Discipline	Computer networking

Request for Comments

Request for Comments are a series of technical and organizational notes that have documented the development of ARPANET, Internet, TCP/IP, SMTP, DNS, HTTP, and related protocols and practices since 1969. Originating from early work at DARPA and the U.S. Department of Defense, the series has become a central archival corpus for standardization, experimental designs, and community discussion among engineers affiliated with organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Research Task Force, Internet Architecture Board, CNRI, and historical stakeholders including BBN Technologies and Stanford University.

History

The RFC series began in 1969 when researchers at ARPA and participants in ARPANET needed a lightweight publication mechanism to circulate notes; the initial editors included figures associated with John Postel and institutions such as UCLA and RAND Corporation. Early RFCs captured specifications for host-to-host protocols that later informed work at Xerox PARC, MIT, and Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN). As the network community expanded through the 1970s and 1980s, contributors from University College London, Carnegie Mellon University, Bell Labs, and NASA used the series to propose innovations adopted by projects at ISOC and contemporary standards bodies. The stewardship of the series evolved alongside the creation of the Internet Society and the IETF; editorial roles migrated from individual editors to organizational management under entities such as ICANN-adjacent groups and the RFC Editor function.

Purpose and Scope

RFCs serve as archival records, informational documents, best-current-practice statements, and standards-track specifications for internet technologies developed by communities including the IETF, IRTF, and independent researchers from institutions like MITRE Corporation and UC Berkeley. The scope encompasses protocol specifications for stacks implemented by vendors such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, operational guidance used by operators at AT&T and Verizon Communications, and historical accounts by contributors affiliated with Microsoft and IBM. RFCs also record experimental proposals from groups at ETH Zurich, University of Cambridge, and Tsinghua University, providing an authoritative reference point for implementers at firms like Google and Facebook.

Publication and Numbering

Each RFC receives a unique, sequential number and a stable text file published by the RFC Editor, with archival copies held by organizations such as Library of Congress and research libraries at Stanford University and MIT. Numbering began at 1 and proceeds without semantic grouping, so sequential RFCs may vary in topic, author affiliation, and maturity; contributors have included authors associated with Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, Jon Postel, and later working groups chaired by figures affiliated with Philips, Nokia, and Ericsson. Publication formats have evolved from plain ASCII to PDF and XML representations used by repositories maintained by institutions such as ISOC and IETF Trust. Errata, updates, and obsoleting relationships are tracked by the RFC Editor and reflected in metadata consumed by implementers at Mozilla Foundation and Apache Software Foundation projects.

Governance and Standards Process

The RFC stream encompasses distinct tracks: informational, experimental, best current practice, and standards-track documents produced by consensus-driven processes inside bodies such as the IETF and the IAB. Working groups chartered by the IETF—often composed of participants from companies like Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Google, and Apple Inc.—develop drafts that are reviewed through mechanisms involving area directors, the IESG, and review boards with members from Princeton University, University of Oxford, and Cambridge University. The standards process uses stages—Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, Internet Standard—with formal approvals recorded in the RFC series; some approvals have required coordination with regulatory or oversight institutions such as NTIA in historical contexts.

Impact and Adoption

RFCs have had profound influence on the interoperable implementation of technologies by vendors, operators, and research labs across the globe. Protocols documented in RFCs underlie products and services from Cisco Systems, Huawei Technologies, Amazon (company), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and telecommunications providers including Deutsche Telekom. Academic adoption is evident in curricula at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley, while research extensions from ETH Zurich and University of Tokyo often cite RFCs as foundational work. The series has shaped internet governance debates involving ICANN and policy dialogues with bodies like the European Commission and practitioners at IETF meetings regularly attended by delegates from major technology firms and research institutes.

Notable RFCs and Categories

Notable standards-track RFCs include seminal protocol specifications attributed to authors connected with Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, and Jon Postel, as well as key application-layer documents used by operators at CERN and implementers at Microsoft. Famous informational RFCs have been written by contributors from Bell Labs, MIT, and Xerox PARC and include wide-ranging topics from addressing to mail delivery. Categories within the series—Standards Track, Informational, Experimental, Historic, Best Current Practice—map to practice in organizations like IETF and research produced at Carnegie Mellon University and University College London. Collections of RFCs have been influential in projects at Apache Software Foundation, Free Software Foundation, and corporate standards groups within Intel and AMD.

Category:Internet standards Category:Technical documents