Note: The IP Stack Evolution Program closed in August 2019.
Description
The IP Stack Evolution program covers various topics in the evolution of IPv4 and IPv6, the transport protocols running over IP, and the overall protocol stack architecture. The program addresses challenges that affect the stack in some way and where the IETF community requires architectural guidance, responding to community requests as well as actively monitoring work within IETF WGs which touch on relevant topics. Where a working group relevant to a particular aspect of IP stack evolution exists, the program will facilitate cross-group and cross-area coordination. The program also produces documents on the IAB stream providing general guidance on and covering architectural aspects of stack evolution.
The diversity of “endpoints” in the Internet — applications, transport-layer ports, hosts, gateways and tunnel ends — is far greater than that the IP protocol stack was originally intended to serve. This has impacts on protocol design, because former assumptions about the properties of these endpoints may no longer hold. The program is currently focusing on the stress this places on the architecture.
The program has focused for the past few years on the problem of ossification in the IP protocol stack, specifically at the transport layer. There is now significant new work in the IETF’s transport area addressing this issue. The program’s members participate in the work in the IETF and will provide a point of contact should architectural issues arise from interactions between these new transport protocols and the diversity of link layers deployed in the Internet.
The program will continue to follow up on the results of the Stack Evolution in a Middleboxed Internet (SEMI, Zurich, January 2015) and Managing Radio Networks in an Encrypted World (MaRNEW, Atlanta, September 2015) workshops, to negotiate the tussle between privacy through ubiquitous confidentiality and opportunistic encryption, and the manageability of networks of all kinds.
Past Workshops, BoFs, etc.
The Program has organized several workshops, Birds of a Feather sessions, and proposed Research Groups on topics related to its areas of work:
- The IAB workshop on Stack Evolution in a Middlebox Internet (SEMI) in Zurich, January 2015. Read the Workshop Report, RFC 7663
- The Substrate Protocol for User Datagrams (SPUD) BoF at IETF 92 in Dallas, March 2015; which in turn led to the Path Layer UDP Substrater (PLUS) BoF at IETF 96 in Berlin, July 2016.
- The Managing Radio Networks in an Encrypted World (MaRNEW) Workshop in Atlanta, September 2015, together with GSMA; which in turn led to the Alternatives to Content Classification for Operator Resource Deployment (ACCORD) BoF at IETF 95 in Buenos Aires, April 2016.
- The Measurement and Analysis for Protocols (MAP) Research Group has been meeting since IETF 93 in Prague (until IETF 94 in Yokohama as “How Ossified is the Protocol Stack?” (HOPS) proposed RG). Discussion is at maprg@irtf.org.
Documents Published
- Technical Considerations for Internet Service Blocking and Filtering (RFC 7754)
- Planning for Protocol Adoption and Subsequent Transitions (RFC 8170)
This program has itself evolved from the IP Evolution Program, which looked at general architectural issues in the evolution of IPv4 and IPv6 and the overall protocol stack architecture, and produced the following documents:
- IAB Thoughts on IPv6 Network Address Translation (RFC 5902)
- Evolution of the IP Model (RFC 6250)
- Smart Objects Workshop Report (RFC 6574)
- Architectural Considerations of IP Anycast (RFC 7094)
- Report from the IAB Workshop on Internet Technology Adoption and Transition (ITAT) (RFC 7305)
Members
IAB Members
- Brian Trammell (Lead)
- Wes Hardaker
- Ted Hardie
- Zhenbin Li
- Gabriel Montenegro
- Erik Nordmark
- Mark Nottingham
- Robert Sparks
- Jeff Tanstura
- Martin Thomson
Non-IAB Members
- Spencer Dawkins
- Ralph Droms
- Aaron Falk
- Joe Hildebrand
- Lee Howard
- Suresh Krishnan
- Mirja Kuehlewind
- Eliot Lear
- Tommy Pauly
- Natasha Rooney
- Dave Thaler