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RFC2850

IAB Minutes 2017-10-18

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Minutes of the 2017-10-18 IAB Teleconference (Tech Chat & Business Meeting)

1. Roll-call, agenda-bash, administrivia, minutes

1.1. Attendance

Present:
  • Jari Arkko
  • Alissa Cooper
  • Michelle Cotton (IANA Liaison)
  • Heather Flanagan (RFC Editor Liaison)
  • Mat Ford (ISOC Liaison)
  • Ted Hardie (IAB Chair)
  • Joe Hildebrand
  • Lee Howard
  • Allison Mankin (IRTF Chair)
  • Gabriel Montenegro
  • Kathleen Moriarty (IESG Liaison)
  • Cindy Morgan (IAB Executive Administrative Manager)
  • Erik Nordmark
  • Mark Nottingham
  • Jeff Tantsura
  • Martin Thomson
  • Brian Trammell
  • Amy Vezza
  • Suzanne Woolf
Regrets:
  • Robert Sparks
Guests
  • Jonathan Brewer
  • Monique Morrow

1.2. Administrivia

Cindy Morgan reminded the IAB that there are outstanding e-ballots to approve the minutes from the September IAB meetings.

An item on 3GPP and 5G was added to the agenda.

2. Tech Chat: Quo Vadis Our Internet?

Monique Morrow joined the IAB to give a preview of her presentation for the IETF 100 technical plenary.

As a methodology, one does not sit and ruminate on what the future will look like but rather observe patterns with 21st century systems anthropologist lens, and ask the questions of “what if,” “why not,” and “how.” We are confronted by parallel worlds, that which we reside today and that which is developing in front of us.

Whilst technology has been an enabler towards the development of the Internet, there are patterns that may challenge its very existence, such as “control by a few;” a growing trust deficit; the enhanced brain; humans as software; the tension between weapons of mass empowerment and those of mass destruction. With all the human enhancing tools at our disposal including personalized home robots, and the ability to heal ourselves, we can individually detect and respond to a threat. On the other hand, we could be the miscreant actors ourselves. Could we imagine a “stalemate” as the risks are so high towards community-driven mass destruction? Our brain will be the interface to everything. We will no longer type or swipe devices but rather command them with our brain. One could actually think of “reading” the other person’s thoughts where telepathic interactions are used daily. The “creepy” factor will set in very quickly and will require a “do not share” capability controlled by the mind. Ubiquitous telepathy and recording will challenge the expectations of privacy. On the other hand, we will learn languages and absorb knowledge in minutes.

The key message is that we need to assure that what we develop and how we deploy technology results in value to individuals and to our overall society. The IETF certainly has the potential to integrate ethics and governance now, in the future and for the sake of our humanity.

3. Tech Chat: The Future is Up in the Sky

Jonathan Brewer joined the IAB for a tech chat on satellite broadband.

As population density thins out, satellite becomes the least costly and complex method of delivering broadband. However, latency matters a lot in broadband. Users will notice latency if it is slower than 320 ms.

There are three orbital levels: low earth, medium earth, and
geostationary. Most satellite service currently in use today use
geostationary orbits.

Geostationary Earth Orbit:

  • In use since 1965
  • 400+ ms latency
  • 3 satellites needed
  • +/- 82° global coverage
  • Stationary receiver dishes

Medium Earth Orbit:

  • In use since 2014
  • Around 120 ms latency
  • 8+ satellites needed
  • +/- 45° global coverage
  • Receivers must track

Low Earth Orbit:

  • The next Space Race
  • Imperceptible latency
  • 10s of satellites needed
  • Global coverage
  • Today only narrow-band

Waves in the air can travel 40% faster than waves in fiber optic cable, but things in the air (such as rain) can attenuate waves. Different frequencies have different properties; bigger waves behave differently from smaller ones.

Mark Nottingham asked if there are legal or governance issues with this style of Internet. Jonathan Brewer replied that there are some governments (e.g. India) that refuse to allow satellite services, so they may be geo-restricted.

Jonathan Brewer noted that one interesting thing to consider is how the protocols will evolve when broadband services with multiple latencies are working together.

4. Monthly Reports

4.1. ISOC Liaison Report

–Begin ISOC Liaison Report, Mat Ford–

Internet Society Liaison Report to the IAB
13 October 2017

Topics:

I. Policy papers
Promoting the African Internet Economy
Spectrum Approaches for Community Networks

II. Upcoming submissions and applications
IGF Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) 2018 Selection Process
NDSS Workshops Announced

III. Engagements
Armenian & Ukrainian IGFs
The Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Global Meeting 2017
ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference
International Institute of Communications Annual Conference 2017
EPC Trans-Atlactic Policy Dialogue
RIPE75
Euro-IX Forum
Innovation Africa 2017
Roundtable in collaboration with Chatham House on Encryption and Lawful Access
APT Cybersecurity Forum (CSF)
UN Expert Group Meeting on Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
Digital Accessibility Workshop
ICANN 60

IV. Highlights of recent activities
InterCommunity 2017
IXP Assistance
Georgian Community Network Launch
Digital Citizen Summit
Community Networks Exchange
Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation
Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa
Namibia inaugural national IGF

I. Policy papers

Promoting the African Internet Economy: This paper focuses on developing
an Internet economy in Africa by bringing all companies, services and
governments online. The paper is currently out for review with ISOC's
community and expected to be launched during the African Union
Ministerial meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Spectrum Approaches for Community Networks: This newly released policy
brief focuses on spectrum approaches specific to community networks and
provides recommendations to community networks, policy-makers and
regulators, and operators. The paper was launched in conjunction with
the ITU WTDC-17. See https://www.internetsociety.org/policybriefs/
spectrum/ and https://www.internetsociety.org/news/press-releases/
2017/61665/

II. Upcoming submissions and applications

IGF Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) 2018 Selection Process: The
IGF Secretariat has published the process for nominations to the 2018
MAG [https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/mag-2018-renewal],
with the goal to have the new appointments announced before the IGF
meeting in December of this year. Information about individual
nominations, or nominations via organized processes from the various
stakeholder groups processes, will be available soon.

NDSS Workshops Announced: Four workshops have been selected to be co-
located with NDSS 2018. These four workshops are:

— Binary Analysis Research (BAR)
— Decentralized IoT Security and Standards (DISS)
— DNS Privacy: Increasing Usability and Decreasing Traceability
(DNSPRIV)
— Usable Security (USEC)

The DISS and DNSPRIV workshops both have active IETF community
participation. The CFPs for all four workshops are now available on the
new NDSS website: https://www.ndss-symposium.org/

III. Engagements

Armenian & Ukrainian IGFs: Internet Society is supporting the Armenian
and Ukrainian IGF meetings and the European Regional Bureau will
contribute to discussions. For more information: (Armenia)
http://armigf.am/en/home/#schedule (Ukraine) http://igf-ua.org

The Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Global Meeting 2017: This
annual meeting is a platform for discussions of major social and
economic issues from women's perspectives. ISOC has been invited to
speak about emerging security challenges. For more information:
http://www.womens-forum.com/meetings/global-meeting-2017

ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference: The Internet Society
will be participating in the 7th ITU WTDC in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The WTDC sets the work plan for the development sector for the next 4
years. ISOC's main objectives are to encourage policymakers to consider
new policies for connectivity such as community networks to address the
digital divide. Additionally, we want to invite policymakers to use
ISOC's framework for an open and trusted Internet as a guide for
addressing some of the more difficult challenges in building trust in an
open environment such as the Internet. During the conference we will
launch our Spectrum, and Landlocked Developing Country (LLDCs) papers
and promote various resources including the 2017 Global Internet Report.
Furthermore, we will share stories of everyday heroes that are shaping
the future Internet as we advance our Shape Tomorrow Campaign.

ISOC’s Background Paper on WTDC 2017: https://www.internetsociety.org/
resources/doc/2017/wtdc-2017-background-paper/
ISOC’s WTDC 2017 Page: https://www.internetsociety.org/events/wtdc-2017/
ISOC’s official contribution to WTDC: https://www.itu.int/md/D14-WTDC17-
C-0048/en

International Institute of Communications Annual Conference 2017,
Brussels
The IIC's annual conference addresses trends in converged
communications: opportunities and realities of cross-border, cross-
sector, cross-cultural, digital ecosystems. ISOC will speak in a panel
session on cyber security and the European Regional Bureau will attend
the event. For more information: https://www.iicom.org/events/category/
annual-conference-2017-brussels

EPC Trans-Atlactic Policy Dialogue, Brussels

European Policy Centre will organise a panel discussion named "Europe's
Response to Growing Cybersecurity Threats - Lessons from the US". ISOC
will speak in this panel session and the European Regional Bureau will
attend. For more information: http://www.epc.eu/calendar.php

RIPE75, Dubai
ISOC will participate in the activities of the RIPE 75 meeting and are
organising an informal BoF, "Measuring the health of the routing system
(and its players)”. The objective of this meeting is to explore metrics
that could accurately reflect the security posture of a network and the
routing system as a whole in quantitative terms, and to explore whether
existing or new data sources/measurements can support such metrics. The
Internet Society will also be co-organizing the Women in Tech lunch
featuring speakers from the region.

Euro-IX Forum
The MANRS IXP partnership program will be discussed at the upcoming
EURO-IX Forum. This is the latest stop for the "roadshow" that already
included AfPIF and LAC-IX intended to shape a set of actions that IXPs
will be required to take in order to join the MANRS initiative.

Innovation Africa 2017, Mozambique
Internet Society will be represented at Innovation Africa 2017. This
event is the continent's largest gathering of Ministers and senior
officials responsible for education, science & technology, tertiary,
vocational & professional education and ICT. More than 30 African
Ministers have confirmed attendance to this years' event. ISOC will
present on a panel titled: Developing National Research & Education
Networks together with Ministers from Burundi, Cameroon, Mozambique and
Brazil. http://innovation-africa.com/2017/

Roundtable in collaboration with Chatham House on Encryption and Lawful
Access: ISOC together with Chatham House is organizing a roundtable on
encryption and lawful access. ISOC will participate in the discussions,
which will explore the benefits of encryption, the challenges that it
poses to law enforcement, and try to reconcile these two aspects. For
more information: https://www.chathamhouse.org/event/encryption-and-
lawful-access

APT Cybersecurity Forum (CSF), Dhaka, Bangladesh
ISOC’s Asia-Pacific Bureau is conducting a workshop on ethical data
handling and privacy at the 8th CSF organised by the Asia-Pacific
Telecommunity. ISOC will also participate in a high-level roundtable on
security.

UN Expert Group Meeting on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Port
Vila, Vanuatu
ISOC’s Asia-Pacific Bureau is participating in an expert group meeting
on 'Resilient urban development in SIDS: harnessing opportunities for
enhanced connectivity' to review the status of connectivity and identify
strategies for ICT development in the small island developing states,
organised by the UN.

Digital Accessibility Workshop, Jakarta, Indonesia
ISOC’s Asia-Pacific Bureau is holding a one-day workshop on Digital
Accessibility, engaging with persons with disability to help build
awareness among policymakers, developers and other stakeholders on how
to better integrate and enable accessibility into digital platforms. The
event will co-locate with IGF Indonesia.

ICANN 60, Abu Dhabi
Internet Society chapter members attending ICANN 60 will meet during a
networking event organized by ISOC. During this event, the "Digital
Opportunities for the Middle East" booklet will be launched. This
booklet is the first attempt to bring forth the Middle Eastern point of
view to the digital challenges facing the region. The booklet is the
product of a collaborative effort between many stakeholders, technical
experts, and Internet Society Chapter members from the region.

IV. Highlights of Recent Activities

InterCommunity 2017: In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we took
time to look back, to celebrate with our community and to look ahead to
the future. For more information about the event, please visit:
https://www.internetsociety.org/intercommunity/2017/

IXP Assistance: ISOC held joint IXP Training with APNIC in Papua New
Guinea. Papua New Guinea launched an IXP in Port Moresby in May after
two years of training and work with ISOC and APNIC. Recent training
activities focused on advanced BGP and routing activities.

Georgian Community Network Launch: ISOC, working with the Georgian
government and other local stakeholders, launched a community network in
the Tusheti region of Georgia in early September. This work relates to
ISOC’s access activities to scale community network development,
deployment, and sustainability.

Digital Citizen Summit: ISOC’s Asia-Pacific Bureau participated in this
summit, organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation in Delhi, India,
to discuss access, privacy, freedom of expression and digital literacy
concerns. ISOC also presented as part of the opening plenary.

Community Networks Exchange (CNX): ISOC’s Asia-Pacific Bureau, along
with APC and the Digital Empowerment Foundation, co-organised the first
CNX in Asia-Pacific in Delhi, India, as a platform where community
network providers can share learnings and experiences. More details can
be found at http://cnxapac.org/

Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation: ISOC participated in the group's
fourth meeting which discussed additional proposals from members of the
group. For more information about the meeting, including the
contributions, please visit the CSTD website here:
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/CSTD/WGEC-2016-to-2018.aspx

Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFA): Internet Society supported
the FIFA event jointly organised by CIPESA and APC. ISOC presented on a
panel titled: "Business of Big Data – exploring ethics, consent, data
privacy and policy". ISOC also sponsored 4 fellows from LAC to the
event. More details can be found on this website:
https://cipesa.org/fifafrica/fifafrica-2017

Namibia inaugural national IGF: Namibia held its inaugural Internet
Governance forum (NamIGF) which coincided with the 2017 commemoration of
the International Day for Universal Access to Information. The forum
opened by Namibia's Minister of Information, Tjekero Tweya was co-hosted
by the newly formed ISOC Namibia Chapter:
http://namibia.intgovforum.org/

–End ISOC Liaison Report, Mat Ford–

4.2. IANA Liaison Report

–Begin IANA Liaison Report, Michelle Cotton–

IANA Services Liaison Report – 18 October 2017

SLA Deliverables Update:

- ICANN met 100% of processing goal times for the August 2017 and
September 2017 monthly statistics reports, exceeding the SLA goal to
meet 90% of processing goal times. These times include the steps that
ICANN has control over and not time it is waiting on requesters,
document authors or other experts.

- The draft 2018 SLA is currently being reviewed and revised.

Other News:

- ICANN continues the interview process candidates for the PTI President
position.

- The public comment period for the Draft PTI and IANA FY19 Operating
Plans and Budgets is open.

https://www.icann.org/public-comments/draft-pti-iana-fy19-2017-10-09-en

IANA Services Operator and IETF Leadership Meeting Minutes:

None to report

–End IANA Liaison Report, Michelle Cotton–

4.3. RFC Editor Liaison Report

–Begin RFC Editor Liaison Report, Heather Flanagan–

RFC Series Editor Update

- Format
The IETF is discussing, at length, the recent non-ASCII publications,
RFCs 8187, 8264, 8265, and 8266. In particular, the community is
debating the addition of a BOM at the start of the .txt file. To
summarize the issue, see Unicode Consortium's FAQ
(http://www.unicode.org/faq/utf_bom.html#bom1)
on the matter:

"Can a UTF-8 data stream contain the BOM character (in UTF-8 form)? If
yes, then can I still assume the remaining UTF-8 bytes are in big-endian
order?

A: Yes, UTF-8 can contain a BOM. However, it makes no difference as to
the endianness of the byte stream. UTF-8 always has the same byte order.
An initial BOM is only used as a signature — an indication that an
otherwise unmarked text file is in UTF-8. Note that some recipients of
UTF-8 encoded data do not expect a BOM. Where UTF-8 is used
transparently in 8-bit environments, the use of a BOM will interfere
with any protocol or file format that expects specific ASCII characters
at the beginning, such as the use of "#!" of at the beginning of Unix
shell scripts."

Some people are arguing that a BOM should _only_ be used when absolutely
necessary, and that all things that would read or display a text
document should assume that text documents are UTF-8 encoded and
therefore would never actually require a BOM (thus making it not
necessary). Anything else is considered by these people to be an
inappropriate use of a BOM.

However, on the other hand, we have existence proof (research done by
Dave Thaler and posted by the RSE to the IETF list on September 19,
2017) that not all document readers (in particular some Microsoft tools)
are assuming UTF-8 for plain-text files, and are not displaying the
non-ASCII characters unless there is a BOM at the start of the file,
acting as that signature described above to give the tools the hint they
need to display everything correctly.

To add a final complication into the mix, a few community members have
pointed out that protocols such as FTP rely on the file extension to
suggest what encoding is being used, and as such, assume ASCII-only when
a .txt extension is used, regardless of the addition of the BOM.

At this time, no additional RFCs will be published with non-ASCII
characters, giving the community time to debate this further. Until new
information is offered, however, the RFC Editor will continue to use the
BOM when we start publishing documents with non-ASCII characters again
in the future (after the format tools are complete).

Timeline: For an update on the planning timeline for the tools aspect of
this project, see:

https://trac.tools.ietf.org/tools/ietfdb/wiki/FormatToolsPlan

Note that the tools noted with an asterix are expected to be
significantly delayed.

- Style Guide
An updated draft was posted for the Style Guide
(draft-flanagan-7322bis-02). The goal is to move ahead with the
publication process when the content of the draft and the abilities of
the tools used by the RPC and the community align. (For example, what
the Style Guide requires for reference formats for multi-document
sub-series cannot be supported by xml2rfc v2.)

RPC Update

- SLA
See: https://www.rfc-editor.org/report-summary/

The RPC currently is trending to be in Tier1 for Q3.
The Tier structure is a measure of the incoming workload. The expected
turnaround time is adjusted based on the incoming workload. The streams
have expressed they are content with the current rate of production.

From the Reports page notes:
Q3 2017: The RPC continues to work on their systems and tools in
preparation for the transition to host multiple file formats. The
editors continued id2xml testing and have started to use id2xml to
generate XML files when an author-submitted source file is not
available. In addition, the RPC tested how the existing system and tools
handle UTF-8 and made updates where possible. The editors completed
testing and worked with authors of selected documents through the AUTH48
process. The first RFCs that contain UTF-8 characters were published as
follows:

RFC 8187: Indicating Character Encoding and Language for HTTP Header
Field Parameters
RFC 8264: PRECIS Framework: Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of
Internationalized Strings in Application Protocols
RFC 8265: Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized
Strings Representing Usernames and Passwords
RFC 8266: Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized
Strings Representing Nicknames

The number of pages submitted and moved to EDIT has declined since Q1
2017 (see Figure 2). The decrease in submissions allowed the editors
more time to focus on testing and to prepare for the transition to new
format-related tools.

The RFC Editor responded to two legal requests.

–End RFC Editor Liaison Report, Heather Flanagan–

5. BOF Coverage at IETF 100

The IAB discussed coverage for BOFs and proposed RGs at IETF 100, noting that the final agenda has not yet been published.

6. IAB Agenda at IETF 100

The IAB reviewed and discussed their agenda for IETF 100. Cindy Morgan will update the wiki and calendar based on the discussions.

The IAB plans to review the Measurement and Analysis for Protocols Research Group (MAPRG) on Thursday morning in Singapore.

7. RFC Series Editor

The IAB confirmed the RSOC’s recommendation for the RFC Series Editor (RSE) via e-vote. Ted Hardie will follow up with the IAOC.

8. ISE Announcement

Ted Hardie will announce that the IAB has appointed Adrian Farrel as the Independent Submission Editor (ISE) as of 15 February 2018.

9. 3GPP and 5G

Jari Arkko reported that there was a call on 13 October between the
3GPP-IETF liaisons, 3GPP leadership, and IETF experts on HTTP/2 usage
for 3GPP’s new Service Based Architecture (SBA).

The purpose of the call was to inform the experts on 3GPP’s efforts in designing the SBA, to get advice regarding general approaches to requirements that are likely to come up, and get an understanding of what the process is from the IETF side on any extensions, should there be need for some. 3GPP will use HTTP2 for their new 5G core network signaling.

Jari Arkko noted that they are trying to set up a similar call with people involved in using EAP in 5G networks.