RFC1100

Network Working Group Internet Activities Board Request for Comments: 1100 April 1989 Obsoletes: RFC 1083

                   IAB OFFICIAL PROTOCOL STANDARDS

Status of this Memo

  This memo describes the state of standardization of protocols used in
  the Internet as determined by the Internet Activities Board (IAB).
  An overview of the standards procedures is presented first, followed
  by discussions of the standardization process and the RFC document
  series, then the explanation of the terms is presented, the lists of
  protocols in each stage of standardization follows, and finally
  pointers to references and contacts for further information.

  This memo is issued quarterly, please be sure the copy you are
  reading is dated within the last three months.  Current copies may be
  obtained from the Network Information Center or from the Internet
  Assigned Numbers Authority (see the contact information at the end of
  this memo).  Do not use this memo after 31-July-89.

  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1. Overview of Standards Procedures

  The Internet Activities Board maintains a list of documents that
  define standards for the Internet protocol suite.  It provides these
  standards with the goal of co-ordinating the evolution of the
  Internet protocols; this co-ordination has become quite important as
  the Internet protocols are increasingly in general commercial use.

  Protocol standards may be proposed by anyone in the Internet
  community, by writing and submitting an RFC.  In general, any
  proposed protocol will be reviewed or developed in the context of
  some Task Force of the IAB, or some working group within that Task
  Force.  The IAB will assign a proposed protocol to a working group if
  official delegation is necessary.

  The recommendation of the working group or task force is given major
  consideration in the decision by the IAB to assign a state and status
  to the protocol.  The general policy is not to designate a protocol
  as an official standard until there is implementation experience with
  it.

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  In cases where there is uncertainty as to the proper decision
  concerning a protocol, the IAB may convene a special review committee
  consisting of interested parties from the working group and members
  of the IAB itself, with the purpose of recommending some explicit
  action to the IAB.

  It is possible to proceed with widespread implementation of a
  standard without the approval of the IAB.  For example, some vendor
  standards have become very important to the Internet community even
  though they have not been proposed or reviewed by the IAB.  However,
  the IAB strongly recommends that the IAB standards process be used in
  the evolution of the protocol suite to maximize interoperability (and
  to prevent incompatible protocol requirements from arising).  The IAB
  reserves the use of the term "standard" in any RFC to only those
  protocols which the IAB has approved.

2. The Standardization Process

  Anyone can invent a protocol, document it, implement it, test it, and
  so on.  The IAB believes that it is very useful to document a
  protocol at an early stage to promote suggestions from others
  interested in the functionality the of protocol and from those
  interested in protocol design.  Once a protocol is implemented and
  tested it is useful to report the results.  The RFC document series
  is the preferred place for publishing these protocol documents and
  testing results.

  The IAB encourages the documenting of every protocol developed in the
  Internet (that is, the publication of the protocol specification as
  an RFC), even if it is never intended that the protocol become an
  Internet standard.  A protocol that is not intended to become a
  standard is called "experimental".

  Protocols that are intended to become standards are first designated
  as "proposed" protocols.  It is expected that while in this state the
  protocol will be implemented and tested by several groups.  It is
  likely that an improved version of the protocol will result from this
  activity.

  Once a proposed protocol has become stable and has a sponsor (an
  individual willing to speak for the protocol to the IAB) it may
  advance to the "draft standard" state.  In this state, it should be
  reviewed by the entire Internet community.  This draft standard state
  is essentially a warning to the community that unless an objection is
  raised or a flaw is found this protocol will become a "standard".

  Once a protocol has been a draft standard for a sufficient time
  (usually 6 months) without serious objections the IAB may act to

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  declare the protocol an official Internet standard.

  Some protocols have been superseded by better protocols or are
  otherwise unused.  Such protocols are designated "historic".

  In addition to a state (like proposed or standard) a protocol is also
  assigned a status.  A protocol can be required, meaning that all
  systems in the Internet must implement it.  For example, the Internet
  Protocol (IP) is required.  A protocol may be recommended, meaning
  that systems should implement this protocol.  A protocol may be
  elective, meaning that systems may implement this protocol; that is,
  if (and only if) the functionality of this protocol is needed or
  useful for a system it must use this protocol to provide the
  functionality.  A protocol may be termed not recommended if it is not
  intended to be generally implemented; for example, experimental or
  historic protocols.

  Few protocols are required to be implemented in all systems.  This is
  because there is such a variety of possible systems; for example,
  gateways, terminal servers, workstations, multi-user hosts.  It is
  not necessary for a gateway to implement TCP and the protocols that
  use TCP (though it may be useful).  It is expected that general
  purpose hosts will implement at least IP (including ICMP), TCP and
  UDP, Telnet, FTP, SMTP, Mail, and the Domain Name System (DNS).

3. The Request for Comments Documents

  The documents called Request for Comments (or RFCs) are the working
  notes of the Internet research and development community.  A document
  in this series may be on essentially any topic related to computer
  communication, and may be anything from a meeting report to the
  specification of a standard.  All standards are published as RFCs,
  but not all RFCs specify standards.

  Anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC.  Submissions
  must be made via electronic mail to the RFC Editor (see the contact
  information at the end of this memo).

  While RFCs are not refereed publications, they do receive technical
  review form the task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC
  Editor, as appropriate.

  Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published, that RFC is
  never revised or re-issued with the same number.  There is never a
  question of having the most recent version of a particular RFC.
  However, a protocol (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) may be
  improved and re-documented many times in several different RFCs.  It
  is important to verify that you have the most recent RFC on a

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  particular protocol.  This "IAB Official Protocol Standards" memo is
  the reference for determining the correct RFC to refer to for the
  current specification of each protocol.

  The RFCs are available from the Network Information Center at SRI
  International.  For more information about obtaining RFCs see the
  contact information at the end of this memo.

4. Other Reference Documents

  There are four other reference documents of interest in checking the
  current status of protocol specifications and standardization.  These
  are the Assigned Numbers, the Official Protocols, the Gateway
  Requirements, and the Host Requirements.  Note that these documents
  are revised and updated at different times; in case of differences
  between these documents, the most recent must prevail.

  Also one should be aware of the MIL-STD publications on IP, TCP,
  Telnet, FTP, and SMTP.  These are described in section 4.5.

4.1. Assigned Numbers

  This document lists the assigned values of the parameters used in the
  various protocols.  For example, IP protocol codes, TCP port numbers,
  Telnet Option Codes, ARP hardware types, and Terminal Type names.
  Assigned Numbers was most recently issued as RFC-1010.

  Another document, Internet Numbers, lists the assigned IP network
  numbers, and the autonomous system numbers.  Internet Numbers was
  most recently issued as RFC-1062.

4.2. Official Protocols

  This document list the protocols and describes any known problems and
  ongoing experiments.  Official Protocols was recently issued as RFC-
  1011.

4.3. Gateway Requirements

  This document reviews the specifications that apply to gateways and
  supplies guidance and clarification for any ambiguities. Gateway
  Requirement was recently issued as RFC-1009.

4.4. Host Requirements

  This document reviews the specifications that apply to hosts and
  supplies guidance and clarification for any ambiguities. Host
  Requirements is in preparation and will be issued soon.

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4.5. The MIL-STD Documents

  The Internet community specifications for IP (RFC-791) and TCP (RFC-
  793) and the DoD MIL-STD specifications are intended to describe
  exactly the same protocols.  Any difference in the protocols
  specified by these sets of documents should be reported to DCA and to
  the IAB.  The RFCs and the MIL-STDs for IP and TCP differ in style
  and level of detail.  It is strongly advised that the two sets of
  documents be used together.

  The IAB and the DoD MIL-STD specifications for the FTP, SMTP, and
  Telnet protocols are essentially the same documents (RFCs 765, 821,
  854).The MIL-STD versions have been edited slightly.  Note that the
  current Internet specification for FTP is RFC-959.

         Internet Protocol (IP)                      MIL-STD-1777
         Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)         MIL-STD-1778
         File Transfer Protocol (FTP)                MIL-STD-1780
         Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)        MIL-STD-1781
         Telnet Protocol and Options (TELNET)        MIL-STD-1782

5. Explanation of Terms

  There are two independent categorizations of protocols.  The first is
  the state of standardization which is one of "standard", "draft
  standard", "proposed", "experimental", or "historic".  The second is
  the status of this protocol which is one of "required",
  "recommended", "elective", or "not recommended".  One could expect a
  particular protocol to move along the scale of status from elective
  to required at the same time as it moves along the scale of
  standardization from proposed to standard.

  At any given time a protocol is a cell of the following matrix.
  Protocols are likely to be in cells in about the following
  proportions (indicated by the number of Xs).  Most will be on the
  main diagonal.  A new protocol is most likely to start in the
  (proposed, elective) cell, or the (experimental, not recommended)
  cell.

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                    Req   Rec   Ele   Not
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+
          Std     | XXX |  XX |  X  |     |
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+
          Draft   |     |  X  |  XX |     |
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+
          Prop    |     |     | XXX |  X  |
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+
          Expr    |     |     |  X  | XXX |
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+
          Hist    |     |     |     | XXX |
                  +-----+-----+-----+-----+

  Some protocol are particular to hosts and some to gateways; a few
  protocols are used in both.  The definitions of the terms below will
  refer to a "system" which is either a host or a gateway (or both).
  It should be clear from the context of the particular protocol which
  types of systems are intended.

5.1. Definitions

  5.1.1.  Standard Protocol

     The IAB has established this as an official standard protocol for
     the Internet.  These are separated into two groups: (1) IP
     protocol and above, protocols that apply to the whole Internet;
     and (2) network-specific protocols, generally specifications of
     how to do IP on particular types of networks.

  5.1.2.  Draft Standard Protocol

     The IAB is actively considering this protocol as a possible
     Standard Protocol.  Substantial and widespread testing and comment
     is desired.  Comments and test results should be submitted to the
     IAB.  There is a possibility that changes will be made in a Draft
     Standard Protocol before it becomes a Standard Protocol.

  5.1.3.  Proposed Protocol

     These are protocol proposals that may be considered by the IAB for
     standardization in the future.  Implementation and testing by
     several groups is desirable.  Revisions of the protocol
     specification are likely.

  5.1.4.  Experimental Protocol

     A system should not implement an experimental protocol unless it

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     is participating in the experiment and has coordinated its use of
     the protocol with the developer of the protocol.

     Typically, experimental protocols are those that are developed as
     part of a specific ongoing research project not related to an
     operational service offering.  While they may be proposed as a
     service protocol at a later stage, and thus become proposed,
     draft, and then standard protocols, the designation of a protocol
     as experimental is meant to suggest that the protocol, although
     perhaps mature, is not intended for operational use.

  5.1.5.  Historic Protocol

     These are protocols that are unlikely to ever become standards in
     the Internet either because they have been superseded by later
     developments or due to lack of interest.  These are protocols that
     are at an evolutionary dead end.

  5.1.6.  Required Protocol

     All systems must implement the required protocols.

  5.1.7.  Recommended Protocol

     All systems should implement the recommended protocols.

  5.1.8.  Elective Protocol

     A system may or may not implement an elective protocol. The
     general notion is that if you are going to do something like this,
     you must do exactly this.

  5.1.9.  Not Recommended Protocol

     These protocols are not recommended for general use.  This may be
     because of their limited functionality, specialized nature, or
     experimental or historic state.

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6. The Protocols

6.1. Standard Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

          Assigned Numbers                          Required       1010
          Gateway Requirements                      Required       1009

IP Internet Protocol Required 791

           as amended by:
            IP Subnet Extension                     Required        950
            IP Broadcast Datagrams                  Required        919
            IP Broadcast Datagrams with Subnets     Required        922

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol Required 792 UDP User Datagram Protocol Recommended 768 TCP Transmission Control Protocol Recommended 793 DOMAIN Domain Name System Recommended 1034,1035 TELNET Telnet Protocol Recommended 854 FTP File Transfer Protocol Recommended 959 SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Recommended 821 MAIL Format of Electronic Mail Messages Recommended 822 EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol Recommended 904 NETBIOS NetBIOS Service Protocols Elective 1001,1002 ECHO Echo Protocol Recommended 862 DISCARD Discard Protocol Elective 863 CHARGEN Character Generator Protocol Elective 864 QUOTE Quote of the Day Protocol Elective 865 USERS Active Users Protocol Elective 866 DAYTIME Daytime Protocol Elective 867 TIME Time Server Protocol Elective 868

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6.2. Specific Standard Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

ARP Address Resolution Protocol Elective 826 RARP A Reverse Address Resolution Protocol Elective 903 IP-ARPA Internet Protocol on ARPANET Elective BBN 1822 IP-WB Internet Protocol on Wideband Network Elective 907 IP-X25 Internet Protocol on X.25 Networks Elective 877 IP-E Internet Protocol on Ethernet Networks Elective 894 IP-EE Internet Protocol on Exp. Ethernet Nets Elective 895 IP-IEEE Internet Protocol on IEEE 802 Elective 1042 IP-DC Internet Protocol on DC Networks Elective 891 IP-HC Internet Protocol on Hyperchannnel Elective 1044 IP-ARC Internet Protocol on ARCNET Elective 1051 IP-SLIP Transmission of IP over Serial Lines Elective 1055 IP-NETBIOS Transmission of IP over NETBIOS Elective 1088

Note: It is expected that a system will support one or more physical networks and for each physical network supported the appropriate protocols from the above list must be supported. That is, it is elective to support any particular type of physical network, and for the physical networks actually supported it is required that they be supported exactly according to the protocols in the above list.

6.3. Draft Standard Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol Recommended 1098 CMOT Common Management Information Services Recommended 1095

          and Protocol over TCP/IP

MIB Management Information Base Recommended 1066 SMI Structure of Management Information Recommended 1065 NTP Network Time Protocol Elective 1059 IGMP Internet Group Multicast Protocol Recommended 1054 BOOTP Bootstrap Protocol Recommended 951,1048,1084

The Internet Activities Board has designated two different network management protocols with the same status of "Draft Standard" and "Recommended". The two protocols are the Common Management Information Services and Protocol over TCP/IP (CMOT) [RFC-1095] and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [RFC-1098]. The IAB intends each of these two protocols to receive the attention of implementers and experimenters. The IAB seeks reports of experience with these two protocols from system builders and users. By this action, the IAB recommends that all IP and TCP implementations be network manageable (e.g., implement the Internet MIB [RFC-1066], and that implementations

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that are network manageable are expected to adopt and implement at least one of these two Internet Draft Standards.

6.4. Proposed Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

SUN-NFS Network File System Protocol Elective 1094 POP3 Post Office Protocol, Version 3 Elective 1081,1082 RIP Routing Information Protocol Elective 1058 SUN-RPC Remote Procedure Call Protocol Elective 1057 PCMAIL Pcmail Transport Protocol Elective 1056 VMTP Versatile Message Transaction Protocol Elective 1045 NFILE A File Access Protocol Elective 1037

          Mapping between X.400 and RFC-822        Elective    987,1026

STATSRV Statistics Server Elective 996 NNTP Network News Transfer Protocol Elective 977 NICNAME WhoIs Protocol Elective 954 HOSTNAME HOSTNAME Protocol Elective 953 POP2 Post Office Protocol, Version 2 Elective 937 SFTP Simple File Transfer Protocol Elective 913 RLP Resource Location Protocol Elective 887 RTELNET Remote Telnet Service Elective 818 TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol Elective 783 FINGER Finger Protocol Elective 742 SUPDUP SUPDUP Protocol Elective 734 NETED Network Standard Text Editor Elective 569 RJE Remote Job Entry Elective 407

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6.5. Experimental Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

IP-DVMRP IP Distance Vector Multicast Routing Not Recommended 1075 IP-MTU IP MTU Discovery Options Not Recommended 1063 NETBLT Bulk Data Transfer Protocol Not Recommended 998 IMAP2 Interactive Mail Access Protocol Not Recommended 1064 COOKIE-JAR Authentication Scheme Not Recommended 1004 IRTP Internet Reliable Transaction Protocol Not Recommended 938 AUTH Authentication Service Not Recommended 931 RATP Reliable Asynchronous Transfer Protocol Not Recommended 916 THINWIRE Thinwire Protocol Not Recommended 914 LDP Loader Debugger Protocol Not Recommended 909 RDP Reliable Data Protocol Not Recommended 908 ST Stream Protocol Not Recommended IEN 119 NVP-II Network Voice Protocol Not Recommended ISI memo

6.6. Historic Protocols

Protocol Name Status RFC

---

---- ------ ---

SGMP Simple Gateway Monitoring Protocol Not Recommended 1028 HEMS High Level Entity Management Protocol Not Recommended 1021 HMP Host Monitoring Protocol Not Recommended 869 GGP Gateway Gateway Protocol Not Recommended 823 CLOCK DCNET Time Server Protocol Not Recommended 778 MPM Internet Message Protocol Not Recommended 759 NETRJS Remote Job Service Elective 740 XNET Cross Net Debugger Elective IEN 158 NAMESERVER Host Name Server Protocol Not Recommended IEN 116 MUX Multiplexing Protocol Not Recommended IEN 90 GRAPHICS Graphics Protocol Not Recommended NIC 24308

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7. Contacts

7.1. Internet Activities Board Contact

     Contact:

        Jon Postel
        Deputy Internet Architect
        USC Information Sciences Institute
        4676 Admiralty Way
        Marina del Rey, CA  90292-6695

        1-213-822-1511

        [email protected]

  Please send your comments about this list of protocols and especially
  about the Draft Standard Protocols to the Internet Activities Board
  care of the Deputy Internet Architect.

7.2. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority Contact

     Contact:

        Joyce K. Reynolds
        Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
        USC Information Sciences Institute
        4676 Admiralty Way
        Marina del Rey, CA  90292-6695

        1-213-822-1511

        [email protected]

  The protocol standards are managed for the IAB by the Internet
  Assigned Numbers Authority.

  Please refer to the documents "Assigned Numbers" (RFC-1010) and
  "Official Internet Protocols" (RFC-1011) for further information
  about the status of protocol documents.  There are two documents that
  summarize the requirements for host and gateways in the Internet,
  "Host Requirements" (RFC in preparation) and "Gateway Requirements"
  (RFC-1009).

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     How to obtain the most recent edition of this "IAB Official
     Protocol Standards" memo:

        The file "in-notes/iab-standards.txt" may be copied via FTP
        from the VENERA.ISI.EDU computer using the FTP username
        "anonymous" and FTP password "guest".

7.3. Request for Comments Editor Contact

     Contact:

        Jon Postel
        RFC Editor
        USC Information Sciences Institute
        4676 Admiralty Way
        Marina del Rey, CA  90292-6695

        1-213-822-1511

        [email protected]

  Documents may be submitted via electronic mail to the RFC Editor for
  consideration for publication as RFC.  If you are not familiar with
  the format or style requirements please request the "Instructions for
  RFC Authors".  In general, the style of any recent RFC may be used as
  a guide.

7.4. The Network Information Center and Requests for Comments Contact

     Contact:

        SRI International
        DDN Network Information Center
        333 Ravenswood Avenue
        Menlo Park, CA  94025

        1-800-235-3155
        1-415-859-3695

        [email protected]

  The Network Information Center (NIC) provides many information
  services for the Internet community.  Among them is maintaining the
  Requests for Comments (RFC) library.

  RFCs can be obtained via FTP from SRI-NIC.ARPA with the pathname
  RFC:RFCnnnn.TXT where "nnnn" refers to the number of the RFC. A list

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  of all RFCs may be obtained by copying the file RFC:RFC-INDEX.TXT.
  Log in with FTP username ANONYMOUS and password GUEST.

  The NIC also provides an automatic mail service for those sites which
  cannot use FTP.  Address the request to [email protected] and in
  the subject field of the message indicate the RFC number, as in
  "Subject: RFC nnnn".

     How to obtain the most recent edition of this "IAB Official
     Protocol Standards" memo:

        The file RFC:IAB-STANDARDS.TXT may be copied via FTP from the
        SRI-NIC.ARPA computer following the same procedures used to
        obtain RFCs.

Author's Address:

  Jon Postel
  USC/Information Sciences Institute
  4676 Admiralty Way
  Marina del Rey, CA 90292

  Phone: (213) 822-1511

  Email: [email protected]

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