RFC3638

Network Working Group J. Flick Request for Comments: 3638 Hewlett-Packard Company Obsoletes: 1643 C. Heard Category: Informational Consultant

                                                      September 2003

        Applicability Statement for Reclassification of
                  RFC 1643 to Historic Status

Status of this Memo

This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This memo recommends that RFC 1643 be reclassified as an Historic document and provides the supporting motivation for that recommendation.

Details

STD 50, RFC 1643 RFC1643, "Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-like Interface Types", and its SMIv2 equivalent, RFC 1650 RFC1650, are applicable to half-duplex 10 Mb/s Ethernet interfaces only. Subsequent to the 1994 publication of these documents, 100 Mb/s, 1000 Mb/s, and 10 Gb/s Ethernet interface types have been developed, and full-duplex operation at 10 Mb/s has been standardized. Updates to RFC 1650 have been produced to accommodate these new technologies RFC2358 RFC2665 RFC2666 RFC3635. These updates define new MIB objects to supplement those defined in RFC 1643 and RFC 1650 and in addition deprecate some of the objects in RFC 1643 and RFC 1650 that are no longer considered useful. They also levy a requirement for implementations of the EtherLike-MIB to support the MAU-MIB RFC2239 RFC2668 RFC3636 as well.

RFC 1643 is an obsolete specification, overtaken by events. Its SMIv2 equivalent, RFC 1650, was officially retired in 1998. New implementations -- even those that support only half-duplex 10 Mb/s interfaces -- should comply with in the latest version of the specification, currently RFC 3635 RFC3635 and RFC 2666 RFC2666, instead of RFC 1643. It is therefore recommended that RFC 1643 be reclassified as an Historic document.

Effect on Other Standards Track Documents

Reclassification of RFC 1643 will have no impact on the status of any standards track RFC because no standards track RFC cites it as a normative reference. An RFC content search made with the tools available at http://www.rfc-editor.org reveals the following standards track documents that cite RFC 1643:

  Document               Title
  --------               -----

  RFC 2020         IEEE 802.12 Interface MIB

  RFC 2358         Definitions of Managed Objects for the
                   Ethernet-like Interface Types

  RFC 2665         Definitions of Managed Objects for the
                   Ethernet-like Interface Types

  RFC 2720         Traffic Flow Measurement: Meter MIB

  RFC 3635         Definitions of Managed Objects for the
                   Ethernet-like Interface Types

RFC 2020 RFC2020 contains DOT12-IF-MIB, which is the MIB module for managing IEEE 802.12 100VG-AnyLAN interfaces. It refers to RFC 1643 in the context of an admonition not to implement the EtherLike-MIB for any interface where the DOT12-IF-MIB is implemented.

RFC 2358 RFC2358, RFC 2665 RFC2665, and RFC 3635 RFC3635 all contain updated versions of the EtherLike-MIB. They refer to RFC 1643 in the context of explaining the history of the EtherLike-MIB, and the citation in RFC 3635 is explicitly listed as a non-normative reference.

RFC 2720 RFC2720 contains the FLOW-METER-MIB. It refers to RFC 1643 only in an ASN.1 comment in the MIB module. Omission of that comment would not preclude correct implementation of the MIB module.

Clearly, none of these citations are normative.

Security Considerations

Reclassification of RFC 1643 will not, in and of itself, have any effect on the security of the Internet.

Normative References

RFC1643 Kastenholz, F., "Definitions of Managed Objects for the

           Ethernet-like Interface Types", STD 50, RFC 1643, July
           1994.

RFC1650 Kastenholz, F., "Definitions of Managed Objects for the

           Ethernet-like Interface Types using SMIv2", RFC 1650,
           August 1994.

RFC2020 Flick, J., "IEEE 802.12 Interface MIB", RFC 2020, October

           1996.

RFC2239 de Graaf, K., Romascanu, D., McMaster, D., McCloghrie, K.

           and S. Roberts, "Definitions of Managed Objects for IEEE
           802.3 Medium Attachment Units (MAUs) using SMIv2", RFC
           2239, November 1997.

RFC2358 Flick, J. and J. Johnson, "Definitions of Managed Objects

           for the Ethernet-like Interface Types", RFC 2358, June
           1998.

RFC2665 Flick, J. and J. Johnson, "Definitions of Managed Objects

           for the Ethernet-like Interface Types", RFC 2665, August
           1999.

RFC2666 Flick, J., "Definitions of Object Identifiers for

           Identifying Ethernet Chip Sets", RFC 2666, August 1999.

RFC2668 Smith, A., Flick, J., deGraaf, K., Romascanu, D.,

           McMaster, D., McCloghrie, K. and S. Roberts, "Definitions
           of Managed Objects for IEEE 802.3 Medium Attachment Units
           (MAUs)", RFC 2668, August 1999.

RFC2720 Brownlee, N., "Traffic Flow Measurement: Meter MIB", RFC

           2720, October 1999.

RFC3635 Flick, J., "Definitions of Managed Objects for the

           Ethernet-like Interface Types", RFC 3635, September 2003.

RFC3636 Flick, J., "Definitions of Managed Objects for IEEE 802.3

           Medium Attachment Units (MAUs)", RFC 3636, September
           2003.

Authors' Addresses

John Flick Hewlett-Packard Company 8000 Foothills Blvd. M/S 5557 Roseville, CA 95747-5557 USA

Phone: +1 916 785 4018 Fax: +1 916 785 1199 EMail: [email protected]

C. M. Heard 600 Rainbow Dr. #141 Mountain View, CA 94041-2542 USA

Phone: +1 650 964 8391 EMail: [email protected]

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