The Internet Engineering Task Force is a loosely self-organized group of people who contribute to the engineering and evolutio

Homework Assignment #5

Assigned:	March 12, 2003, Wednesday
Due:	March 26, 2003, Wednesday

Goal:The goals of this assignment are:

To introduce the student to the IETF and RFC procedures of the Internet, and,
To broaden the knowledge of the student with respect to different protocols.

The following information comes directly from the IETF web-site.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

The Internet Engineering Task Force is a loosely self-organized group of people who contribute to the engineering and evolution of Internet technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet standard specifications. The IETF is unusual in that it exists as a collection of happenings, but is not a corporation and has no board of directors, no members, and no dues.

Its mission includes:

Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet;
Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet;
Making recommendations to the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) regarding the standardization of protocols and protocol usage in the Internet;
Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and
Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers.

The IETF meeting is not a conference, although there are technical presentations. The IETF is not a traditional standards organization, although many specifications are produced that become standards. The IETF is made up of volunteers, many of whom meet three times a year to fulfill the IETF mission.

There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone may register for and attend any meeting. The closest thing there is to being an IETF member is being on the IETF or Working Group mailing list. This is where the best information about current IETF activities and focus can be found.

Of course, no organization can be as successful as the IETF is without having some sort of structure. In the IETF's case, that structure is provided by other organizations, as described in "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process."

Requests for Comments (RFCs)

The Requests for Comments (RFCs) form a series of notes, started in 1969, about the Internet (originally the ARPANET). The notes discuss many aspects of computer communication, focusing on networking protocols, procedures, programs, and concepts but also including meeting notes, opinion, and sometimes humor.

The specification documents of the Internet protocol suite, as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its steering group the IESG, are published as RFCs. Thus, the RFC publication process plays an important role in the Internet standards process.

Information about the IEFT and RFCs can be found at https://www.ietf.org.

Assignment

Go to URL https://www.ietf.org/rfc.html.You will be assigned one of the following RFCs to search.Write a one to two page (typed - 12 point font except drawings) summary about this RFC.THIS IS NOT A GROUP ASSIGNMENT!

Number	Type In:	Will Bring You To:
1	1932	IP over ATM
2	2225	Classical IP and ARP over ATM
3	3484	Default Address Selection for IPv6
4	3467	DNS

Be prepared to discuss your findings in class!

Did you know that:

URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator?

A URL is the address for a resource or site (usually a directory or file) on the World Wide Web and the way web browsers locate files and other services.

Did you know that:

HTTP is an acronym for HyperText Transfer Protocol?

HTTP is the set of standards used to transfer hypertext files (web pages) over the Internet.