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Internet Standard

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An Internet standard is a specification for an innovative internetworking technology or methodology, which the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) ratified as an open standard after the innovation underwent peer review.

An Internet standard begins as an Internet Draft, which may then be published (usually after several revisions) as a Request for Comments (RFC) memorandum. RFCs that are intended to become Internet standards evolve through a series of three maturation stages: proposed standard, draft standard, and standard. Collectively, these stages of evolution are known as the standards track, and are defined in RFC 2026. RFCs also include other things, such like lists of previous RFCs and basic introductions by TCP.

Not all RFCs are on the standards track, for a complete list of the statuses see the RFC article.

Standardization process

Becoming a standard is a three step process within the industry[citation needed]. Assuming of course, that the RFC is part of a proposal by standards, then at the first stage, the standard is proposed : and subsequently organizations decide whether to implement this proposed standard, which will require three separate implementations before the proposal becomes a standard. At the final stage, the RFC becomes a standard.

Proposed standard

A proposed standard specification is generally stable, has resolved known design choices, is believed to be well-understood, has received significant community review, and appears to enjoy enough community interest to be considered valuable. However, further experience might result in a change or even retraction of the specification before it advances. Usually, neither implementation nor operational experience is required.

Draft standard

A specification from which at least two independent and interoperable implementations from different code bases have been developed, and for which sufficient successful operational experience has been obtained, may be elevated to the draft standard level.

A Draft Standard is normally considered to be a final specification, and changes are likely to be made only to solve specific problems encountered. In most circumstances, it is reasonable for vendors to deploy implementations of Draft Standards into a disruption sensitive environment.

STD - The Established Internet Standard

A specification for which significant implementation and successful operational experience has been obtained may be elevated to the Internet standard level. An Internet standard, which may simply be referred to as a standard, is characterized by a high degree of technical maturity and by a generally held belief that the specified protocol or service provides significant benefit to the Internet community.

Generally Internet standards cover interoperability of systems on the internet through defining protocols, messages formats, schemas, and languages. The most fundamental of the standards are the ones defining the Internet Protocol.

All Internet standards are given a number in the STD series - The first document in this series, STD 1, describes the remaining documents in the series, and has a list of proposed standards. Often, documents in the STD series are copies of RFCs or are a few RFCs collected together. For example, STD 8 defines the core of the telnet protocol and comprises RFCs 854 and 855.

Usage and Examples

The most current RFC index is also published as an RFC. Not only does this list all the RFCs, but will also indicate if an RFC has been replaced, and by which one.

One of the most important standards for the Internet and other TCP/IP systems deals with Ethernet. The encapsulation (packaging) to IP datagrams is defined by Ethernet onto RFC 894. Developed at 1982 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel and Xerox Ethernet (spelled with a capital) is a standard, rather than a physical entity. Several years later, the 802 Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE or I-triple E), published standards of its own which differed many ways from the original Ethernet standard. Collectively, these are referred to as the 802 IEEE standards. The 802.3 standard covers networks similar to Ethernet. The IEEE 802 encapsulation was defined in RFC 1042 (whose authors also devised the internet domain names within RFC 920). Both of these standards use an access method called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection or CSMA/CD.

Both of these framing types (RFC 894 and RFC 1042) use a 48-bit addressing scheme, and this scheme is generally referred to as the MAC or hardware address. The six bytes of both the destination and source machine are included into the header of both framing types, but the remainder of the frame is different. This layer as the header is responsible for sending and receiving the IP datagrams, and it is also responsible for sending and receiving other kinds of packets also, such as those from the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), or the Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP).

See also

References

The Internet Standards Process is defined in a "Best Current Practice" document BCP 9 ( currently RFC 2026 ).

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