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IAB Minutes 2020-05-13

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Minutes of the 2020-05-13 IAB Teleconference

1. Administrivia

1.1. Attendance

Present:
  • Harald Alvestrand (ICANN Liaison)
  • Jari Arkko
  • Michelle Cotton (IANA Liaison)
  • Alissa Cooper (IETF Chair)
  • Stephen Farrell
  • Wes Hardaker
  • Cullen Jennings
  • Mirja Kühlewind (IAB Chair)
  • John Levine (RFC Series Temporary Project Manager)
  • Zhenbin Li
  • Jared Mauch
  • Cindy Morgan (IAB Executive Administrative Manager)
  • Mark Nottingham
  • Karen O’Donoghue (ISOC Liaison)
  • Tommy Pauly
  • Colin Perkins (IRTF Chair)
  • Alvaro Retana (IESG Liaison)
  • Jeff Tantsura
  • Amy Vezza (IETF Secretariat)
  • Jiankang Yao
Regrets:
  • Ben Campbell
Guests:
  • Rodney Van Meter
  • Wojciech Kozlowski
Observer:
  • Greg Wood

1.2. Agenda bash & announcements

Cindy Morgan noted that the call for feedback on the RFC Editor Future Development Program Chair candidates will go out today.

The feedback deadline for the ICANN Board liaison appointment was 2020-05-12; an e-vote will be sent to the iab-vote list shortly.

1.3. Meeting Minutes

The following meeting minutes were approved:

  • 2020-04-29 business meeting – (draft submitted 2020-04-29)

1.4. Action Item Review

Done:
  • 2020-04-01: All to try to widen the pool of chair candidates for the RFC Editor Future Development Program.
  • 2020-04-29: Cindy Morgan to block out time on the IAB calendar during the first week of June for virtual retreat meetings.
  • 2020-04-29: Stephen Farrell to ask the IETF Trust if there are any changes being considered that would affect the CCG.
  • 2020-04-29: All to fill out the IAB SWOT/PEST survey.
  • 2020-04-29: Tommy Pauly to update the proposed SAA policy for IAB lists based on the discussion on architecture-discuss, and send it to the IAB for review.
  • 2020-04-29: Mirja Kühlewind and Tommy Pauly to update the description for the architecture-discuss list.
In Progress:
  • None
New:
  • 2020-05-13: Cindy Morgan to post the SAA policy on the website.
  • 2020-05-13: Cindy Morgan to post the updated list description for architecture-discuss.
  • 2020-05-13: Cindy Morgan to ask IT to close the caris-attendees, emserv-discuss, inip-discuss, internetgovtech, iotsi, iotsu, marnew, privsec-discuss@iab.org, and stackevo-discuss lists.
  • 2020-05-13: Cindy Morgan to follow up with Jared Mauch regarding the i18n-discuss list.
  • 2020-05-13: Cindy Morgan to update the virtual retreat times in the IAB calendar.
  • 2020-05-13: All to review the Evolving the Internet document.
  • 2020-05-13: Stephen Farrell, Wes Hardaker, Jared Mauch, and Tommy Pauly to interview the RFC Editor Future Development Program chair candidates. (Cindy Morgan to set up a Doodle poll.)

2. Quantum Internet Research Group Review

The chairs of the Quantum Internet Research Group (QIRG), Rodney Van Meter and Wojciech Kozlowski, updated the IAB on the RG’s current activities.

The Quantum Internet provides “entanglement as a service.” Entanglement is a quantum resource used by applications to execute distributed quantum protocols. This will enhance, not replace, the existing non-quantum (classical) Internet. Quantum protocols will be used for tasks which do not have a classical equivalent or that have better big-O scaling than classical counterparts. The Quantum Internet will not bring faster than light communication, nor will it increase bandwidths.

The idea for the QIRG originated with Stephanie Wehner in January 2018. It was first presented remotely at an IRTF Open meeting in March 2018, and was approved as a full Research Group in March 2020. The QIRG held in-person meetings at IETF 103, 104, and 106.

There is currently one active Internet-Draft, Architectural Principles for a Quantum Internet (draft-irtf-qirg-principles), and one under consideration for adoption, Applications and Use Cases for the Quantum Internet (draft-wang-qirg-quantum-internet-use-cases).

The QIRG community is made up of physicists and networking experts. The virtual interim meeting that replaced IETF 107 had 60+ attendees; previous in-person meetings had up to 100 attendees. There are 340 addresses on the mailing list.

The QIRG faces the following challenges:

  • The group has an unusual composition of networking experts who have limited quantum experience and physicists who have limited networking experience.
  • The cross-section of the two groups is small
  • Nobody is really equally expert in both fields
  • There is a lack of hands-on examples.
  • Real hardware is currently limited to a few experimental groups.
  • Simulators go some way to solve the problem, but usage is currently limited.
  • Three simulators are from QIRG regulars.
  • Enthusiasm and interest is there, but the lack of expertise makes it difficult to channel into results.
  • Expired drafts are an example – when presented at meetings, many questions are asked, but little contribution follows on the mailing list.
  • The solution is to heavily focus on the educational/informational role for now.

Looking forward, the QIRG’s primary goal is to build community and expertise while at the same time pushing work forward on informational and experimental drafts which will hopefully turn into RFCs. The QIRG also hopes to learn how to leverage the community with its unique composition and influence the test-beds currently being built.

Stephen Farrell asked what kind of non-IRTF venues there are for this work. Rodney Van Meter replied that there are several workshops dedicated to things at the lower level as well as the CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics) conference. There are also a number of quantum information theory, computing, algorithms, networking, engineering, and education journals, listed at <https://rdvlivefromtokyo.blogspot.com/2019/11/quantum-information-theory- computing.html>.

Alissa Cooper asked if quantum Internet has the concept of a network of networks, like the big-I “Internet.” Rodney Van Meter replied that he expects that the network will evolve in the same way the Internet did, with multiple administrative domains. Wojciech Kozlowski added that this is not a service that runs like a virtual network; it manages the physical connectivity at a higher level. Colin Perkins noted that that sounds like a classic MPLS setup. Wojciech replied that there are a lot of similarities.

Tommy Pauly asked if there are people with physical setups, and what the plan looks like to move out of just having simulations. Wojciech Kozlowski replied that there are some people with access to physical setups. They are trying to build a network and have it online in the first half of this decade. One of the goals is to open it up to others for hands-on programming.

Mirja Kühlewind asked whether the QIRG has the right people participating. Rodney Van Meter replied they have a number of the world’s most important experimentalists on the mailing lists, but not very many of the physicists have joined the IETF work in person. The original plan was to meet one or two times a year at IETF, with additional meetings at physics conferences. However, with in-person conferences cancelled due to COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, that has not happened yet.

Mirja Kühlewind asked whether the intent is to design a protocol or to figure out how to use existing protocols. Wojciech Kozlowski replied that it will probably be a combination of both.

3. Monthly Reports

3.1. IRTF Chair Report

–Begin IRTF Chair Report, Colin Perkins–

IRTF chair report to the IAB for the month ending 13 May 2020

# Research Groups

* QIRG charter update posted; IAB review will occur on 13 May
* Virtual interim meetings held by NMRG, T2TRG, ICNRG, GAIA, CFRG

# ANRP

Nothing to report; has been awaiting decision on whether IETF 108 would 
go ahead in person.

# ANRW

28 submissions received; reviews underway.

# Documents and Errata

draft-irtf-icnrg-disaster with RFC Editor
draft-irtf-icnrg-terminology with RFC Editor
draft-irtf-icnrg-deployment-guidelines -> RFC 8763
draft-irtf-nwcrg-network-coding-satellites-11 in IRTF final poll
draft-irtf-cfrg-argon2 in IRSG review
draft-irtf-cfrg-randomness-improvements-10 in IRSG review
draft-irtf-icnrg-icn-lte-4g-05 in IRTF chair review
draft-irtf-icnrg-icnlowpan-07 in IRTF chair review
draft-irtf-icnrg-nrs-requirements-03 in IRTF chair review
draft-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations-04 in IRTF chair review

14 RFC errata awaiting review, relating to 7 RFCs produced by CFRG. 

# Other

* Discussions re IETF 108 in-person meeting cancellation 
* Discussions re ITU NewIP proposals
* Discussions re ETSI Non-IP networking proposals
* Diversity travel grants postponed to IETF 109 in Bangkok

–End IRTF Chair Report, Colin Perkins–

3.2. IANA Liaison Report

–Begin IANA Liaison Report, Michelle Cotton–

IANA Services Liaison Report – 13 May 2020
 
SLA Deliverables Update:
 
- ICANN met 100% of processing goal times for the April 2020 monthly 
statistics report, 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.  
Monthly reports can be found at: 
https://www.iana.org/performance/ietf-statistics
 
Other News:
 
There will be a webinar on 14 May 2020 regarding the PTI FY21-FY24 
Strategic Plan.
Below you will find the link to the announcement and webinar 
information:
 
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2020-04-30-en
  
IANA Services Operator and IETF Leadership Meeting Minutes:
   
None to Report.
Meeting minutes from 30 April 2020 call are currently being reviewed and 
will be reported at the next IAB business meeting.

–End IANA Liaison Report, Michelle Cotton–

3.3. RFC Editor Liaison Report

–Begin RFC Editor Liaison Report, John Levine–

This month the [Temporary RFC Series Project Manager] continued to 
oversee the production center.  Document production continues to become 
routine although there is still a steady stream of software issues that 
cause format problems in rendered documents.  At this point they are 
minor enough and Henrik [Levkowetz] is addressing them quickly enough 
that they aren't delaying the process.

He discovered that the published PDF versions of RFCs were not in the 
intended archival PDF/A-3U format.  That turned out to be due to passing 
the wrong flags to the Callas software that produces it.  The RPC 
corrected the flags, reran the PDF/A software, and has republished the 
PDFs.  Just to be sure, he recreated all of the PDFs from scratch 
starting from the published XML RFCs, running them through xml2rfc and 
the Callas software and was relieved to find it all worked.

He is still working with Julian Resche to update 7991bis to include XML 
changes since we cut over to V3 XML.  At Jay's suggestion Henrik 
Levkowetz, Peter St Andre, Robert Sparks, and he set up an informal 
group to review and manage updates to the XML grammar.  It plans to meet 
next week.

–End RFC Editor Liaison Report, John Levine–

4. IAB Mailing Lists

The IAB agreed on the text for the IAB mailing list policy. Cindy Morgan will post the text on the IAB website.

The IAB agreed on the updated list description for architecture-discuss@ietf.org. Cindy Morgan will update the list description.

The IAB briefly discussed whether to set up an IAB-Announce list, but agreed to continue using IETF-Announce and architecture-discuss for now instead.

As previously announced, the IAB will close the following mailing lists:

  • caris-attendees@iab.org
  • emserv-discuss@iab.org
  • inip-discuss@iab.org
  • internetgovtech@iab.org
  • iotsi@iab.org
  • iotsu@iab.org
  • marnew@iab.org
  • privsec-discuss@iab.org
  • stackevo-discuss@iab.org

Jared Mauch was unable to send the pending closure notice to the i18n- discuss list. Cindy Morgan will follow up with Jared to get this notice sent.

5. IAB Virtual Retreat Planning

The full IAB will meet at the following times for their virtual retreat:

  • 1330-1430 UTC on Monday, 2020-06-01
  • 2130-2230 UTC on Wednesday, 2020-06-03
  • 1330-1430 UTC on Friday, 2020-06-05.

Additionally, optional virtual coffee breaks/happy hours were scheduled for 0700-0730 UTC, 1700-1730 UTC, and 2300-2330 UTC on Tuesday, 2020-06-02 and Thursday, 2020-06-04.

A list of proposed topics that came out of the SWOT/PEST analysis has been posted on the retreat wiki page but needs further discussion; IAB members were encouraged to sign up for topics they are interested in working on.

The IAB will further refine their plans for retreat breakout sessions at the next IAB meeting.

6. ICANN’s Decision on Proposed PIR Transaction

This topic was deferred to a future IAB business meeting.

7. Possible Statement to NIST about FIPS140 and TLS1.3

Stephen Farrell reported that there was no action needed from the IAB at this time.

8. Evolving the Internet document

The IAB discussed possible publication paths for the “Evolving the Internet” document. The IAB will review the current document and discuss it further at their next meeting.

9. Next IAB Meeting

The next IAB meeting will be on 2020-05-20 at 1330 UTC.

10. RFC Editor Future Development Program Chairs

Stephen Farrell, Wes Hardaker, Jared Mauch, and Tommy Pauly will interview the RFC Editor Future Development Program chair candidates. Cindy Morgan will set up a Doodle poll to schedule the interviews.