Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Celebrating 50 Years of the RFCs that Define How the Internet Works

posted by martyb on Friday April 12 2019, @02:17AM   Printer-friendly

canopic jug writes:

The specifications defining the Internet and most of the technologies running on top of it began just over 50 years ago. These specifications, called RFCs (Request For Comments) cover everything. That includes from TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) to HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), TLS (Transport Layer Security), and even SSH (Secure SHell). The first RFC was dated April 7th, 1969.

Today there are over 8,500 RFCs whose publication is managed through a formal process by the RFC Editor team. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is responsible for the vast majority (but not all) of the RFCs – and there is [a] strong process through which documents move within the IETF from ideas (“Internet-Drafts” or “I-Ds”) into published standards or informational documents[2].

50 years ago, one of the fundamental differences of the RFC series from other standards at the time was that:

  • anyone could write an RFC for free.
  • anyone could read the RFCs for free. They were open to all to read, without any fee or membership.

[...][2] For more explanation of the different types of RFCs, see “How to Read a RFC“.

The current RFC Editor, Heather Flanagan, also has some remarks on 50 years of RFCs.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Celebrating 50 Years of the RFCs that Define How the Internet Works | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 3 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @01:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @01:18PM (#828575)

    https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-flanagan-fiftyyears/ [ietf.org]

    It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
    ...

    Table of Contents

          1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
          2. Key Moments in RFC History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
          3. Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
                  3.1. The Origins of RFCs - by Stephen D. Crocker . . . . . 5
                  3.2. The RFC Management and Editing Team - Vint Cerf . . . . 10
                  3.3. Formalizing the RFC Editor Model - Leslie Daigle
                              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
                  3.4. The Continuation, or Creation, of a Stream - Nevil
                              Brownlee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
                  3.5. A View from Inside the RFC Editor - Sandy Ginoza
                              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
          4. The Next Fifty Years of RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
                  4.1. Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
                  4.2. Evolution of the RFC Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
                  4.3. Stream Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
          5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
          6. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
          Appendix A. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
          Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

    Full text available at the link

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   1