The Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF celebrates its 25th year last January 16. The IETF is responsible for making the internet work such as Domain Name System (DNS), Internet Protocol (IP), Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
The IETF already published at least 4,500 documents on how the internet works and these are used daily by network operators as reference. Unlike other standards bodies, the IETF leaders are volunteers and come from various networking companies such as Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper, Nokia, and Huawei.
IETF chair Russ Housley said that the IETF avoids formal hierarchy if possible and members don’t have any requirements or fees. The group invites interested parties to work for the stability of the internet. Proposals must already have a working prototype before the IETF votes and approves it as a standard. IETF’s standards are available online for free.
The IETF has its roots in the U.S. Defense Department but has since distanced away from it and it became more global and commercial throughout the years. The group has been led by network engineers from the United States, Great Britain and Norway.
The IETF is now working in two upgrades. IPv6 is a new version of the Internet Protocol. Then there’s DNSSEC, a more secure DNS.
