Mar 24
What is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) all about? How does it work to create the open standards that power the Internet? What does it do specifically? How can you participate?
At IETF 92 this week in Dallas, Texas, USA, long-time IETF participant Scott Bradner delivered a tutorial as part of the IETF 92 for Newcomers program. His session was streamed live and is now available for viewing. In the 1.5 hour session Scott covers:
Mar 24
THAT is the fundamental question of the Internet Video Codec (NETVC) Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) happening at IETF 92 in Dallas today, March 24, 2015, from 9:00-11:30 CDT (UTC-5). You can listen and participate live using the following links:
You also may want to view the presentation that will be used during the session.
The goal of the overall effort is defined as this:
- Development of a video codec that is:
- Optimized for real-time communications over the public Internet
- Competitive with or superior to existing modern codecs
- Viewed as having IPR licensing terms that allow for wide implementation and deployment
- Developed under the IPR rules in BCP 78 (RFC 5378) and BCP 79 (RFCs 3979 and 4879)
- Replicate the success of the CODEC WG in producing the Opus audio codec.
The BOF proposal contains more of a narrative:
The Internet needs a royalty-free (RF) video codec that can become the backbone for universal deployment of video related technologies. Royalty-bearing codecs put constraints on implementors that are unacceptable, but current RF codecs are not yet competitive with royalty-bearing offerings. This dilemma stalls innovation in the space and means large sets of consumers don't have access to the best video technology.
There are efforts underway by several groups to produce a next-generation, royalty-free (RF) video codec, including VP10 by Google and Daala by Mozilla/Xiph.Org. While far from complete, these efforts aim to surpass the royalty-bearing competition. Efforts within other standards organizations like MPEG to create RF video standards have been unsuccessful so far, but have showed that many consumer device manufacturers would support an RF codec.
The success of Opus from the CODEC WG has also shown that collaboration, based on the IETF's principals of open participation, can produce better results than competition between patented technologies. The IPR rules in BCP 78 and 79 are also critical for success. They impose a duty to disclose, and require exact patent or patent application numbers, in addition to basic licensing terms. This allows participants to evaluate the risk of infringement and, if appropriate, design work arounds, in any technology adopted, and assess the cost of adopting such technology. Because it does not force participants to agree to license their patents under RF terms, it helps to encourage participation even by those opposed to such terms (instead of guaranteeing they stay away). In addition to an environment which encourages third-party disclosures, this provides much better chances of success than SDOs which have a "patent-blind" process or which require blanket RF grants.
And the NETVC BOF agenda outlines the plan for the session today.
I do believe that creating this kind of royalty-free codec for Internet video is a critical step to enabling video to be used everywhere across the Internet... not just where people are able to pay to license royalty-bearing codecs. I'd like to see even more developer creativity and innovation unleashed with this action.
I'll be listening and participating remotely. I hope that many of you will join in as well. 9:00am US CDT today (10:00am for me on the US East Coast).
P.S. If you have no idea what the IETF is all about, you may want to skim The Tao of IETF first...
If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:
Mar 24
The second day of IETF 92 is a big one for DNSSEC with both the DNSOP and DANE working groups meeting back to back in the afternoon. There’s also the 6LO working group looking at IPv6 in “resource constrained” environments such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and the day begins with Homenet exploring how we create better home networks based on IPv6. And in the midst of that will be the IDR working group working to improve the Internet’s routing infrastruture! Here’s what today looks like for us…
NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.
We start in the 0900-1130 CDT block in the International Room where the Homenet working group will be meeting. As Phil Roberts explained in his Rough Guide to IETF 92 post about IPv6:
the Homenet working group is doing a lot of interesting work producing open standards for protocols to implement robust networks in homes of the future, all based on IPv6. The topics include routing, addressing, naming, and security. It’s exciting to see new standards work for such a potentially huge area for extending the reach of open standards in networks that matter to people around the world.
Beyond IPv6, we’re also monitoring Homenet for possibilities where DNSSEC and TLS can help improve the security of those home networks.
As was curiously the case yesterday, the 1300-1500 CDT session block does not contain any of the regular groups we follow, but you might find us in HTTPBIS hearing about the next version of HTTP, in NETCONF learning about network configuration proposals (the zero touch provisioning draft looks interesting), or over in ACE understanding new ideas to make the Internet of Things (IoT) more secure.
Speaking of IoT, the 1520-1720 CDT session block is one in which we’ll be split across three different working group sessions, one of which will be IoT focused. The 6LO working group, formally known as the IPv6 over Networks of Resource Constrained Nodes WG, has a packed agenda looking at how IPv6 works in IoT environments. Transmitting IPv6 packets over near field communications (NFC), security and privacy, multicast technologies and multiple discussions of the IoT bootstrapping process… it all should make for an interesting discussion for those folks looking to get IP everywhere!
Simultaneously over in the Far East Room, the Inter-Domain Routing (IDR) working group will be looking at ways to improve the Internet’s routing infrastructure. Andrei wrote more about some of the routing discussions happening at IETF 92. I’m interested in the draft here about route leaks, as I find that area fascinating.
However, I’ll be over in the Gold Room (virtually, as I am remote for this meeting) for the DNS Operations (DNSOP) working group that has a VERY packed agenda looking at how to improve the operations of the Domain Name System (DNS). As I wrote in my Rough Guide to IETF 92 post, this session has a good number of drafts related to “DNS security” in general. I expect there to be some vigorous discussion around the restriction of “meta queries” such as the ANY query. There are multiple drafts on the agenda about reserving new top-level domains (TLDs) such as .onion, which inevitably gets discussion. The QNAME minimization is important for DNS privacy/confidentiality… and there are a range of other discussions that will be had related to making DNS work better, faster and be more secure.
We’ll end the day in the 1730-1830 CDT block with the DANE Working Group focused on the DANE protocol and how it can be used to add a layer of trust to TLS and SSL certificates. This is incredibly important work and while the agenda for today has only one presentation about DANE and S/MIME, I expect based on the strong activity on the DANE mailing list that other topics will be brought up.
When the sessions are all over, Chris and the many folks in Dallas will no doubt head to the IETF Social Event, while those of us who are remote will have a bit of break before heading into Day 3. Speaking of attending remotely, please do remember that multiple options to participate are available at http://www.ietf.org/live/
For some more background, please read these Rough Guide posts from Andrei, Phil and I:
For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:
If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.
Image: a photo by Chris Grundemann of the 6man working group.
The post Deploy360@IETF92, Day 2: DNSSEC, DANE, IPv6, IoT and Homenet appeared first on Internet Society.
Mar 24
The second day of IETF 92 is a big one for DNSSEC with both the DNSOP and DANE working groups meeting back to back in the afternoon. There’s also the 6LO working group looking at IPv6 in “resource constrained” environments such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and the day begins with Homenet exploring how we create better home networks based on IPv6. And in the midst of that will be the IDR working group working to improve the Internet’s routing infrastruture! Here’s what today looks like for us…
NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.
We start in the 0900-1130 CDT block in the International Room where the Homenet working group will be meeting. As Phil Roberts explained in his Rough Guide to IETF 92 post about IPv6:
the Homenet working group is doing a lot of interesting work producing open standards for protocols to implement robust networks in homes of the future, all based on IPv6. The topics include routing, addressing, naming, and security. It’s exciting to see new standards work for such a potentially huge area for extending the reach of open standards in networks that matter to people around the world.
Beyond IPv6, we’re also monitoring Homenet for possibilities where DNSSEC and TLS can help improve the security of those home networks.
As was curiously the case yesterday, the 1300-1500 CDT session block does not contain any of the regular groups we follow, but you might find us in HTTPBIS hearing about the next version of HTTP, in NETCONF learning about network configuration proposals (the zero touch provisioning draft looks interesting), or over in ACE understanding new ideas to make the Internet of Things (IoT) more secure.
Speaking of IoT, the 1520-1720 CDT session block is one in which we’ll be split across three different working group sessions, one of which will be IoT focused. The 6LO working group, formally known as the IPv6 over Networks of Resource Constrained Nodes WG, has a packed agenda looking at how IPv6 works in IoT environments. Transmitting IPv6 packets over near field communications (NFC), security and privacy, multicast technologies and multiple discussions of the IoT bootstrapping process… it all should make for an interesting discussion for those folks looking to get IP everywhere!
Simultaneously over in the Far East Room, the Inter-Domain Routing (IDR) working group will be looking at ways to improve the Internet’s routing infrastructure. Andrei wrote more about some of the routing discussions happening at IETF 92. I’m interested in the draft here about route leaks, as I find that area fascinating.
However, I’ll be over in the Gold Room (virtually, as I am remote for this meeting) for the DNS Operations (DNSOP) working group that has a VERY packed agenda looking at how to improve the operations of the Domain Name System (DNS). As I wrote in my Rough Guide to IETF 92 post, this session has a good number of drafts related to “DNS security” in general. I expect there to be some vigorous discussion around the restriction of “meta queries” such as the ANY query. There are multiple drafts on the agenda about reserving new top-level domains (TLDs) such as .onion, which inevitably gets discussion. The QNAME minimization is important for DNS privacy/confidentiality… and there are a range of other discussions that will be had related to making DNS work better, faster and be more secure.
We’ll end the day in the 1730-1830 CDT block with the DANE Working Group focused on the DANE protocol and how it can be used to add a layer of trust to TLS and SSL certificates. This is incredibly important work and while the agenda for today has only one presentation about DANE and S/MIME, I expect based on the strong activity on the DANE mailing list that other topics will be brought up.
When the sessions are all over, Chris and the many folks in Dallas will no doubt head to the IETF Social Event, while those of us who are remote will have a bit of break before heading into Day 3. Speaking of attending remotely, please do remember that multiple options to participate are available at http://www.ietf.org/live/
For some more background, please read these Rough Guide posts from Andrei, Phil and I:
For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:
If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.
Image: a photo by Chris Grundemann of the 6man working group.
