The IETF-ISOC Relationship
Ericsson
Gonzalo.Camarillo@ericsson.com
Comcast
jason_livingood@comcast.com
General
IETF Administrative Support Activity 2
IASA
This document summarizes the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) -
Internet Society (ISOC) relationship, following a major revision to
the structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) in
2018. The IASA was revised under a new "IASA 2.0" structure by the
IASA2 Working Group, which changed the IETF's administrative, legal,
and financial structure. As a result, it also changed the relationship
between the IETF and ISOC, which made it necessary to revise RFC 2031.
Introduction and History
The Internet Society provides a corporate home for the administrative
entity that supports the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the
Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and the Internet Research Task
Force (IRTF), and supports the work of these groups through a variety
of programs.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the body that is
responsible for the development and maintenance of the Internet
Standards. The IETF is primarily a volunteer organization. Its driving
force is a group of dedicated, high-quality engineers from all over the
world. In a structure of working groups, these engineers exchange
ideas and experience, and through discussion and collaboration (both
electronically and face-to-face), they strive to achieve rough
consensus and implement the standards through running code.
The growth of the Internet over several decades has also led to the
growth of the IETF. More and more people, organizations, and companies
rely on Internet Standards. Nontechnical issues, such as legal,
administrative, and financial issues had long been an undesirable but
unavoidable part of the IETF. To address these issues, the IETF
established the Poised95 Working Group in 1995. Its goal was to structure and
document the IETF processes in order to maximize the flexibility and
freedom of IETF engineers so that they could work in the way the IETF
had always been most successful and to honor the IETF credo: "Rough
consensus and running code".
The Poised95 Working Group concluded that the Internet Society (ISOC),
which was formed in 1992, was the best organization to handle all of
these legal, administrative, and financial tasks on behalf of, and in
close cooperation with, the IETF. This led to documenting things such
as the IETF standards process , the IETF
organizational structure , the IETF Nominating
Committee (NomCom) procedures , and the IETF-ISOC
relationship .
As time passed and operational experience accumulated, additional
structure was necessary. As a result, the Internet Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) was defined in 2005 and documented in and .
In 2018, the IASA was revised under a new "IASA 2.0" structure by the
IASA2 Working Group, which made significant revisions to the IETF's
administrative, legal, and financial structure. One critical outcome
was the formation, in close cooperation between the IETF and
ISOC, of the IETF Administration Limited Liability Company (IETF LLC)
as a subsidiary of ISOC.
As a result of the IASA 2.0 structure and formation of the IETF LLC, the
relationship between the IETF and ISOC has changed. This document
summarizes the current state of the IETF-ISOC relationship at a high
level and replaces .
Philosophical Relationship with ISOC
ISOC and the IETF have historically been philosophically
aligned. ISOC's connection with the IETF community has always played
an important role in its policy work, which has not changed. ISOC has always been and
continues to be an advocate
for multistakeholder processes, which includes the technical
community. Open standards are an explicit part of one of the focus
areas in ISOC's mission: advancing the development and application of
Internet infrastructure, technologies, and open standards .
Main Division of Responsibilities between IETF and ISOC
The IETF remains responsible for the development and quality of the
Internet Standards. Apart from the roles described below, the IETF and
ISOC acknowledge that ISOC as an organization has no direct influence whatsoever on the
technical content of Internet Standards (though ISOC employees may independently continue to
make technical contributions as individuals).
ISOC's Role in the IETF Standards Process
ISOC plays a small role in the IETF standards process. In particular,
ISOC assists the standards process by appointing the IETF NomCom chair
and by confirming IAB candidates who are put forward by the IETF
NomCom, as described in , and by acting as the
last resort in the appeals process, as described in .
ISOC maintains liaison relationships and memberships in other
Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and related organizations,
which directly benefits the IETF. For example, ISOC is a Sector Member
of the ITU-T. As a result, ISOC delegates are afforded the same rights
as other ITU-T Sector Members .
ISOC also supports the IETF standards process indirectly (e.g.,
by promoting it in relevant communities) through several
programs. For example, ISOC's Policymakers Programme to the IETF
(usually referred to simply as ISOC's IETF Policy Program) gives
policy experts an opportunity to interact directly with the IETF
technical community. ISOC also performs technical work using the
standards developed in the IETF as its basis. An example of that is
ISOC's work in encouraging and supporting the deployment
of IETF standards.
Otherwise, the involvement of ISOC's employees in the IETF standards
process (e.g., as document editors or in leadership positions) is as
individual contributors rather than on institutional grounds.
The IETF's Role in ISOC
The IETF plays a role in the governance of ISOC. Per ISOC's bylaws,
the IETF appoints a set of trustees to the ISOC Board. The process by
which the IETF makes those appointments is defined in .
The charter of the IAB (Internet Architecture Board) states that "the IAB acts as a source of advice and
guidance to the Board of Trustees and Officers of the Internet Society
concerning technical, architectural, procedural, and (where
appropriate) policy matters pertaining to the Internet and its
enabling technologies". This connection between the IAB and ISOC
ensures that ISOC's proposals in the policy area are based on a sound
understanding of the relevant technologies and architectures. ISOC's
strong connection to the Internet technical community has always been
one of its main strengths.
Legal Relationship with ISOC
The IETF LLC is a disregarded Limited Liability Company (LLC) of the Internet Society that was
established to provide a corporate legal framework for facilitating current and
future activities related to the IETF, IAB, and IRTF. It was established by the
ISOC / IETF LLC Agreement on August 27, 2018, and
governs the relationship between the IETF LLC and ISOC.
The IETF Trust, documented in , and updated in
and , provides legal protection for
the RFC Series of documents and other aspects of the IETF. This
includes things such as protection for trademarks, copyrights, and
intellectual property rights. As part of the IETF Trust arrangement,
IETF standards documents can be freely downloaded, copied, and
distributed without financial or other distribution restrictions,
though all rights to change these documents lie with the IETF. The
IETF Trust also provides legal protection in case of disputes over
intellectual property rights and other rights. The creation of the
IETF LLC has changed the way that the IETF Trust's trustees are
selected but did not change the purpose or operation of the Trust. One
of the IETF Trust's trustees is appointed by the ISOC's Board of
Trustees.
Financial and Administrative Relationship with ISOC
Under the terms of the Operating Agreement between ISOC and the IETF, ISOC has agreed to
provide significant funding support for the IETF. In addition,
the IETF LLC is responsible for creating and
managing an annual operating budget for the IETF; for negotiating,
signing, and overseeing contracts; for fundraising; for maintaining
bank accounts; and for liability insurance. The IETF LLC is managed by
a Board of Directors, one of whom is appointed by the ISOC's Board of
Trustees. The intention is that ISOC and the IETF LLC operate at arm's
length.
The IETF LLC establishes contracts with third parties to provide
different types of services to the IETF. Note that it is possible that
some of those services may be provided by ISOC or involve ISOC staff.
Under the new IASA 2.0 structure, the IETF LLC is solely responsible for
its administration, including the IETF Trust, IAB, IESG, IETF
working groups, and other IETF processes. A further exploration of
this can be found in .
IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
Security Considerations
This document introduces no new security considerations.
Privacy Considerations
This document introduces no new privacy considerations.
References
Normative References
Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0
Informative References
IAB, IESG, IETF Trust, and IETF LLC Selection,
Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the IETF Nominating
and Recall Committees
Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust
IETF Administrative Support Activity 2.0: Update to the
Process for Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust
Internet Society Mission
Internet Society
Limited Liability Company
Agreement of IETF Administration LLC
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank for his contribution as
the author of , which this document
replaces.