Category: IETF

Nov 08

Big Day (Seven Hours!) Of IPv6 Meetings at IETF85 Today

IETF LogoToday’s a big day for IPv6-related meetings at IETF85 in Atlanta. In fact, there are five hours of dedicated IPv6 working groups, along with another two hours of a meeting with much IPv6 content. So yes, that’s a good seven hours of IPv6 goodness!

Reminder – if you aren’t at IETF85 in Atlanta, you can still participate remotely using streaming audio and Jabber chatrooms.  (Note: if you have no clue about how IETF meetings work, you may want to scan the Tao of IETF first.)

Dynamic Host Configuration (dhc)

The day is starting right now (9:00-11:30 US EST) with the DHC working group focused on issues related to DHCP. Today’s DHC meeting agenda is not entirely about DHCP for IPv6, but almost.  Should be some interesting discussions about failover between DHCPv6 servers and some other good topics around IPv6 address distribution.

IPv6 Operations (v6ops)

This is the big one today. Two back-to-back meeting sessions of the v6ops working group totaling four hours of time starting at 1:00pm US EST and wrapping up at 5:10pm US EST.  A great agenda full of drafts and presentations around operational experience with IPv6.  Some excellent pieces of work that we’re looking forward to seeing move forward.  You can expect to see more about many of those drafts written about here on the Deploy360 in the weeks ahead.

IPv6 Site Renumbering (6renum)

The day concludes with a 1-hour session of the 6renum working group at 5:30pm US EST addressing issues around IPv6 address renumbering within an enterprise or other network.  Should be some good discussion about the gap analysis document and also the next steps for the working group.  I’m also intrigued by the slides around using IPv6 with an operational support system (OSS).

All in all, for those who are interested in IPv6 it will be quite a great (and long) day today. Looking forward to hearing more about the work people are doing to move IPv6 deployment forward!

Nov 05

Meet The Deploy360 Team At IETF85!

If you are at IETF 85 this week in Atlanta, the Deploy360 team will be represented by Megan Kruse. She’s very much interested in speaking to people about their challenges with deploying IPv6 and DNSSEC – and how we can help with accelerating that deployment.

You can expect to find Megan in many of the IPv6-related sessions and other associated events.  If you’d like to reach her directly to coordinate a time to connect, your best route will be either:

Email:  deploy360@isoc.org

Twitter:  @deploy360

She’ll be monitoring both channels and can get back to you to arrange a time to meet.

As to the other Deploy360 team members, Richard Jimmerson is speaking today in Toronto as part of the Canadian ISP Summit and I’ve unfortunately had to stay home due to some family medical issues.  I will be participating remotely via Jabber, though, so if you are in the chat rooms for various sessions you’ll probably see me there.  I will look forward to meeting up with many of you at IETF 86 in March in Orlando.

It’s looking like a great week in Atlanta with all sorts of activities going on.  If you are there and can meet up with Megan, she’d be glad to get your feedback and understand how we can help you with your deployment of IPv6 and DNSSEC!

 

Nov 01

Sadly, The Big "C" Curtails My Participation Next Week At IETF 85

IetflogoSadly, the Big "C", the current unwelcome guest in our family, has claimed another activity that I enjoy. Next week is the 85th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Some 1,200+ engineers will gather in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss/debate/argue/evolve the open standards that make up the Internet. Things like TCP, HTTP, DNS, SIP, IPv6... all those protocols and their many, many offspring.

For people who enjoy the process that creates these standards - and who enjoy the people that make up the IETF - these three-times-yearly face-to-face meetings are amazing places to be. One of the many aspects I enjoy of my work with the Internet Society is that I get to go to the IETF meetings and be part of all that is going on.

Unfortunately, I won't be in Atlanta.

As I've mentioned in the past and written about publicly, my wife is in the second year of treatment for breast cancer. Every three weeks she goes in for an infusion of a drug called Herceptin, which is an antibody that goes after the HER2 protein. She has the treatment on a Monday and then is usually extremely fatigued for the next few days. Generally by Wednesday afternoon or Thursday she's feeling a bit better, but still fatigued. Unfortunately it seems that she's perhaps experiencing more of a "cumulative fatigue," as the recent treatments seem to have had more of an effect - it seems like they are getting harder instead of easier. As a spouse, it's rather painful to watch what these treatments do to her. We can only hope that these are in fact helping fight her cancer.[1]

Next week happens to line up with one of those treatment weeks. I was away for a couple days during the last treatment week and while we have truly incredible friends and family around to help (and they have been helping), the reality is that they can't be there all the time. And so with me away my wife is single-parenting two very active children while feeling like she is moving through molasses.

So I need to be here. The good news is that we only have a few more of these treatments and she'll be free of them by mid-January. Hopefully after that our lives can start to return to a bit more of a normal routine, albeit our "new normal" of a post-chemo-and-still-taking-Tamoxifen world.

The other good news is that the IETF provides multiple ways for people to participate remotely in the meetings. With thousands of engineers all around the globe participating in IETF activities, I'm obviously not the only person who can't attend a given meeting face-to-face. Some people can't travel for family or work reasons... some can't for financial reasons... some can't because they can't get visas to visit the country where the meeting is taking place. Many folks need to participate remotely.

The great aspect for me is that Atlanta is in the same time zone as I am so I won't need to be up in the middle of the night to participate. I can just work "regular" hours and be listening to the audio streams and participating in the jabber chat rooms.

No, it's not as good as being there. You miss out on all the hallway conversations, side meetings, meals, etc., and you can't be there at the microphones to make your points in your own voice. But it is at least possible to participate.

To all the folks I know who will be there in Atlanta, I hope you have a great and productive event! I'll look forward to seeing you all at IETF 86 in March... meanwhile, I'll see you all online during IETF 85. :-)

[1] And yes, sometime I need to write a rant in my series of cancer columns about the fact that the current research regarding Herceptin has so far only shown that "52 weeks" of treatment is effective. It might, in fact, be equally effective in a much shorter timeframe... but the studies have apparently not yet been done to show that.

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Oct 31

How To Participate in IETF 85 Remotely

IETF LogoNext week is the 85th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and, as we mentioned last week, there will be some IPv6 sessions at IETF85 we’ll be monitoring as well as many, many other meetings about various aspects of the Internet’s infrastructure.  There will be 1,200+ engineers from all over the world gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, to listen, learn, discuss, argue… and generally make the Internet that much better by being part of those meetings.

But what if you can’t physically be there in Atlanta?  Can you still participate?

The answer is… yes!  The IETF provides multiple ways that you can listen in to the sessions and also provide your comments and feedback.  The basic steps are:

  • Find the sessions you want to participate in on the agenda.
  • Download the Internet Drafts and associated slides and other meeting materials.
  • Listen in via either a live audio stream or a live WebEx or MeetEcho session.
  • Provide comments/feedback via the Jabber chatroom for a working group, or via WebEx/MeetEcho.

Let’s take a look at each of those in a bit more detail.

1. Review the IETF 85 agenda

The first step is to look at the IETF85 agenda to figure out which of the many working groups you want to attend and what times those groups are meeting.  Atlanta is in the US Eastern time zone, and daylight savings time is ENDING on Sunday, November 4th.  Atlanta will be back to “standard” time of UTC-5. Check one of the many time sites online to be sure you have the correct time offset from your location.

The main IETF 85 meeting page will bring you to this agenda page:

https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/85/agenda.html

But I personally prefer the “tools-style” agenda found at:

http://tools.ietf.org/agenda/85/

My reason is that if you scroll down to the line for a working group, you have fast access to all the different ways in which you can participate in the working group.  For example:

From here you can download the Internet Drafts to be discussed in a working group, listen to the live audio stream, join the Jabber chat room and view the agenda.  I find the tools-style agenda an extremely useful way to join in to the various sessions.  I will note that the other datatracker.ietf.org agenda page will also let you download the drafts as a PDF file.

There are also excellent “IETFers” applications for iPad/iPhone and for Android that let you easily see the agenda and map out what sessions you want to attend from your mobile device.

One word of caution:

IETF agendas are always subject to change, including during a meeting.

Sessions occasionally get rearranged. Sometimes a session is cancelled. Things happen.  So just realize that you may want to be refreshing the page from time to time.

2. View working group agendas and download the drafts

Once you have identified the working group meetings in which you want to participate, you’ll want to look at the individual agendas and then download the associated Internet Drafts to review prior to the meeting. As noted above, the overall agenda pages provide a way to download a ZIP file or tarball that includes all the drafts to be discussed.  The individual agenda pages typically (but not always) provide links to the individual drafts.

3. Download slides and other meeting materials

As the meetings start, you will be able to download the slides that presenters are using from this URL:

https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/85/materials.html

Note: It is very common for presentations to NOT be listed there until right about the time the meeting is starting.  It depends, quite frankly, on how aggressively the working group chairs pursue their presenters and how responsive those presenters are to providing slides.  You may need to frequently refresh the page to see the latest materials.

4. Listen to the live audio streams

Every meeting room at IETF 85 will have a live audio stream coming out of it.  You can find the list of available streams at:

http://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/remote-participation.html

You should just be able to click on the stream and hear the participants as the meeting gets going.  The chairs and presenters will have microphones and then mics are scattered around the meeting rooms for participants to use.

5. Join the Jabber chat room(s)

If you want to provide any comments, or even just to get more information about what is going on, every working group has an associated Jabber/XMPP chat room.  Someone in the meeting room will volunteer as the “Jabber scribe” and will relay questions from the Jabber chat room to the meeting room using one of the microphones.  He or she will also usually provide notes in the chat room about what presentation is being discussed, who the speaker is, etc.

As noted above, the tools-style agenda makes it easy to join the Jabber chat room for a session.

If you are note familiar with using Jabber for IM, the IETF has a page about Jabber services. You will need to have a Jabber IM account with some service.  If you have a GMail account, that can work. There are thousands of other XMPP servers where you may be able to get an account.  You will also need some kind of Jabber client.  There are again, MANY Jabber clients available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and mobile platforms.  Some of the ones I personally have used include Adium (Mac), Miranda (Windows), Monal (iOS), Pidgin (all) and Psi (all). Apple’s built-in iChat (now called “Messages”) also supports Jabber.

Even if you don’t intend to comment – or even if you use other methods mentioned below – I still recommend joining in the Jabber chat rooms as they can provide a great way to understand what is going on in the actual meeting room and to reach someone who may be in the actual room.

6. Use WebEx or MeetEcho

As an alternative to listening to the audio stream, a few of the working groups have been using WebEx and a few more have been using a similar service called MeetEcho.  The advantage is that you have the presentation slides synchronized with the audio and also an integrated chat window.  The groups using WebEx can be found at:

http://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/remote-participation.html

That page also lists the groups using MeetEcho, but there is also a separate page focused on MeetEcho support at:

http://ietf85.conf.meetecho.com/

Use of WebEx or MeetEcho is something that individual working group chairs decide to use and so it is only available for some of the groups.

Final Notes

That’s really all there is to participating remotely: figuring out the agenda, downloading the meeting materials and drafts, listening to the live audio and participating in the Jabber chat room.

With those tools, you can effectively participate remotely in an IETF meeting.  You do, of course, miss out on all the hallway conversations that occur in the IETF meeting area.  You don’t get to join in the social event and you do miss out on the cookies. (An important part ;-) )  No, it’s not quite as good as being there, but it can work out well.

I’d also note that every working group has a corresponding mailing list, and much discussion happens on that list leading up to the meeting and after the meeting (and even sometimes during the meeting).  If you are interested in the activities of a given working group, you can find information about how to join the mailing list on the charter page for the specific working group.  (In the tools-style agenda, click on the name of the working group, then on the tab across the top for “Charters”.)

 

 

 

Oct 25

Four IPv6 Sessions Coming Up at IETF 85 in Atlanta

IETF LogoWhat’s happening with IPv6 at the 85th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) coming up in Atlanta November 4-9, 2012? Which working groups will be meeting?

As noted in our recently published “Internet Society’s Rough Guide to IETF 85′s Hot Topics” there are 4 working groups meeting at IETF 85 specifically on IPv6 issues:

  • v6ops (IPv6 Operations)
  • 6renum (IPv6 Site Renumbering)
  • 6man (IPv6 Maintenance)
  • sunset4 (Sunsetting IPv4)

Descriptions and links for each group are included below.  Given that IPv6 is the way forward for the Internet, you can expect IPv6-related topics to come up in working groups all across the IETF, but these four working groups are specifically focusing on aspects of IPv6.

(Text taken directly from the Internet Society’s Rough Guide to IETF 85)

v6ops (IPv6 Operations) WG

The v6ops WG continues to be active in describing operational considerations of IPv6 deployment. A couple of interesting drafts that are being discussed by the working group apply in particular to IPv6 on mobile networks:
Both have generated a lot of comment and it will be interesting to see how they proceed. There are also some proposed design guidelines for IPv6 and deployment guidelines for enterprises.
(8 November 2012, 1300-1500; 1510-1710)

6renum (IPv6 Site Renumbering) WG

The 6renum WG is chartered to perform an analysis of IPv6 site renumbering. If the analysis leads to conclusions that are also applicable to IPv4 that will be an advantage, but it is not an objective of the WG to make its outputs more widely available than IPv6. Similarly the WG is targeting enterprise networks, but the analysis may also be applicable to SOHO or other (e.g. ad-hoc) scenarios.
The working group has issued last calls on each of its 3 working group documents:
An iteration of the static problem draft has been made based on WGLC but as of today revisions have not been published on the other two. Presumably any final comments will be discussed on these documents.
Agenda: Not yet posted – check https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/85/agenda.html
(8 November 2012, 1730-1830)

6man (IPv6 Maintenance) WG

The 6man Working Group is charged with the maintenance, upkeep  and advancement of the IPv6 protocol specifications and addressing architecture, which is especially relevant as IPv6 begins to be deployed around the world at scale this year. Reflective of that, the 6man working group has 14 working group documents currently being considered. These are likely to be discussed in Vancouver, as well as some cross items with the 6lowmpan (v6 for low power networks) WG, which is not meeting at IETF 84.
(5 November 2012, 0900-1130)

sunset4 (Sunsetting IPv4) WG

sunset4 is a new working group in the Internet Area. In short the formation of the working group is an acknowledgement that the Internet is still largely IPv4, but in the presence of address exhaustion it cannot continue to be the Internet that we know today. The Internet will transition to IPv6 but there will be an interval where the Internet’s performance degrades as more coping mechanisms are adopted and before a complete transition to IPv6. This working group hopes to develop techniques to mitigate some of that pain. The immediate activity is to evaluate various CGN (carrier-grade NAT proposals) and determine whether there is a work item around CGN that functions as a suitable IPv4 sunsetting mechanism.
As a result of discussion at IETF 84, the gap analysis document has been made a working group document:
(5 November 2012, 15200-1720)

Jul 25

Hiring! Looking For An IETFer To Join ISOC’s Deploy360 Programme

Deploy360logo 300Do you want to help get open standards like IPv6 and DNSSEC more widely deployed? Would you like to see other technologies developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) more rapidly adopted by network operators?

Are you passionate about the need to preserve the open nature of the Internet? Do you like to write, speak and create other forms of content? Would you like to be part of the Internet Society, the global nonprofit that serves as the organizational home of the IETF?

If so, the team I'm part of that is behind the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme is looking for YOU!

As we noted on the Deploy360 blog, we're currently hiring a new position into the team specifically to interact with network operators and help accelerate the deployment of open Internet standards.

You can read read the job description for what is called the "Operational Engagement Programme Manager". As noted in the document:

The Operational Engagement Programme Manager is a newly created position within the Internet Society. This position will report to the Director, Deployment and Operationalization. The primary focus areas of this position will be to: 1) develop and coordinate increased industry collaboration and conversations about the operationalization of Internet technologies; 2) work with targeted audiences around the globe to develop operational documentation on technology topics covered by the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme including, but not limited to, IPv6 and DNSSEC.

The job description goes on to list out the responsibilities and desired qualifications... the key point is that we're looking for someone who can help us expand the work we're doing in creating content that helps people deploy technologies such as IPv6 and DNSSEC. We're a small, fast-moving team that is highly focused on finding and creating the best possible content and promoting that through many different channels.

If you join our team, you'll be writing for the Deploy360 site and probably working with video, too. You'll be interacting with network operators through various online channels, including social media. You'll be speaking at events scattered all around the world.

And you'll be having fun while doing it! And serving the incredibly important mission of promoting the value of the open Internet!

Additionally, THIS IS A "TELEWORKING"/VIRTUAL POSITION! You do NOT have to be located in our Geneva, Switzerland, or Reston, Virginia, offices, but can be located anywhere. You can, just like me, work out of a home office. (There's this wee little thing called the Internet that makes this possible!)

One note - you MUST have experience with the IETF, so if you have never interacted with the IETF... well... don't bother applying! Experience with other operator groups is also very important.

If you're interested, the job description has contact information and instructions. We're also going to be out at IETF 84 in Vancouver next week speaking to people about this new role and would be glad to meet with you there. We have already received applications, so if you are interested, please contact us soon!

We've got a lot of great plans ahead of us... and we're looking for the right person to join our team. Please do check it out and consider applying!

P.S. The Internet Society is also hiring a Senior Director of IT Development and several other roles. It's a great organization with great benefits, great people and a great mission!

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Jun 21

June 23 Deadline For Submissions to Invite-Only WebRTC/RTCWEB Congestion Control Workshop

Iab logoHow do we manage network congestion as we move real-time voice, video, chat and data communication into web browsers? How do we make sure browser-based voice/video doesn't overwhelm the local network?

If you've been following the excellent work of the WebRTC/RTCWEB initiative you'll know that developers are already using developer builds of browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox to move real-time communications (RTC) directly into web browsers - without using Flash or Java plugins.

It's a powerful step to bake real-time communications into the very fabric of the Web. It stands to open up a zillion new opportunities for innovative uses of voice and video... and can fundamentally disrupt so many aspects of today's telecommunications.

It also stands a chance of completely swamping today's networks with RTC traffic!

So what do we do? How do make sure that browser-based RTC plays nice with other traffic? How do we help it succeed?

Those are the type of topics to be discussed and debated in a "Workshop on Congestion Control for Interactive Real-Time Communication" taking place on Saturday, July 28, 2012, in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the weekend before the start of the week-long IETF 84 standards meeting.

The workshop is free of charge, and even has the possibility for remote participation, but you must be invited to attend. It is a working session and the organizers, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), are requiring all potential attendees to submit a position paper basically explaining why they want to attend. More information and details can be found here:

http://www.iab.org/cc-workshop/

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING POSITION PAPERS IS SATURDAY, JUNE 23!

So if you want to participate in what should be an extremely interesting session, you need to go now and submit a paper for consideration.

It's an extremely important topic - and one that must be addressed for WebRTC/RTCWEB to truly be the innovative force that it can be. I hope you'll consider participating!

P.S. If you can't attend that particular day, the outcome of the event will definitely be discussed on the IETF's rtcweb mailing list (Warning - high traffic!!!). Anyone can join that list so you subscribe if you'd like to monitor what is going on. (Did I mention that the list has a high volume of traffic?)

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Jun 06

IPv6 Is Now REQUIRED In All IP-Capable Nodes – And Standards

IETF LogoLooking for another great reason to advocate IPv6 support within your organization or company?  Consider this – the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has now stated clearly that IPv6 is REQUIRED in all “IP-capable” devices and systems.

On a practical level, the IETF cannot, of course, flip a magical switch that just makes everything IPv6 (if only!!)… but what this means is that you can pretty much expect that all new standards coming out of the IETF will require IPv6 – and it’s not too hard to think that there will be some new technologies/services that may come out (and be standardized) that are IPv6-only. So if you want to keep your company/organization on the leading edge of technology, this is another reason to look at how you can can transition your company’s products and services to work with IPv6.

As stated in RFC 6540 published in April 2012:

 Given the global lack of available IPv4 space, and limitations in
   IPv4 extension and transition technologies, this document advises
   that IPv6 support is no longer considered optional.  It also cautions
   that there are places in existing IETF documents where the term “IP”
   is used in a way that could be misunderstood by implementers as the
   term “IP” becomes a generic that can mean IPv4 + IPv6, IPv6-only, or
   IPv4-only, depending on context and application.

The full RFC can be found at:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6540

The key “best practices” recommended in the document include:

  • New IP implementations must support IPv6.
  • Updates to current IP implementations should support IPv6.
  • IPv6 support must be equivalent or better in quality and functionality when compared to IPv4 support in a new or updated IP implementation.
  • New and updated IP networking implementations should support IPv4 and IPv6 coexistence (dual-stack), but must not require IPv4 for proper and complete function.
  • Implementers are encouraged to update existing hardware and software to enable IPv6 wherever technically feasible.

As we saw with World IPv6 Launch last week, IPv6 is now becoming “the new normal” for the Internet. If you aren’t looking at how you can move your organization to IPv6, you will be left behind.

May 11

Video: What is the role of the IETF? How does it help the Internet and open standards?

What does the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) do? What role does it play in setting Internet standards?

As readers are probably aware, I've been a long-time supporter and advocate of the IETF's work on open standards, writing about it both here on Disruptive Telephony and previously quite extensively over on Voxeo's Speaking of Standards blog. In my new role with the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme, of course, I'm even more directly involved and am now regularly attending IETF meetings.

For those who aren't familiar with the IETF, I recently came across this great video that explains the basics of what the IETF does:

The IETF is a great organization that is truly open to anyone to get involved. All you need to do is sign up for one of the mailing lists for one of the working groups and start reading and then participating. You can also attend one of the face-to-face IETF meetings to get even more involved.

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the IETF, do check out this video as it is a great intro!

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Apr 25

Want To Make Your Web Content Available over IPv6? Check Out The Excellent RFC 6589

IETF Logo Are you a “content provider,” such as a website operator, seeking to understand how to ensure your content is available over IPv6? Would you like to know what challenges you can expect? What kind of migration strategies you can use?  What you should do for an implementation plan?

If so, the IETF recently published an excellent guide in RFC 6589, “Considerations for Transitioning Content to IPv6“ available at:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6589

The primary author is Jason Livingood of Comcast but many others have contributed to creating an excellent document! It explains both the issues with moving content to IPv6 and offers suggestions for migration plans and implementation tactics. With World IPv6 Launch fast approaching on June 6, 2012, it is excellent to have this document available to help content providers understand what they need to do!

From the introduction to the RFC:

This document describes considerations for the transition of end-user content on the Internet to IPv6. While this is tailored to address end-user content, which is typically web-based, many aspects of this document may be more broadly applicable to the transition to IPv6 of other applications and services. The issues explored herein will be of particular interest to major web content sites (sometimes described hereinafter as “high-service-level domains”), which have specific and unique concerns related to maintaining a high-quality user experience for all of their users during their transition to IPv6. This document explores the challenges involved in the transition to IPv6, potential migration tactics, possible migration phases, and other considerations. Some sections of this document also include information about the potential implications of various migration tactics or phased approaches to the transition to IPv6.

You can see from the table of contents the range of topics covered in the document:

1. Introduction
2. Challenges When Transitioning Content to IPv6
3. IPv6 Adoption Implications
4. Potential Migration Tactics
5. Potential Implementation Phases
6. Other Considerations
6.1. Security Considerations
6.2. Privacy Considerations
6.3. Considerations with Poor IPv4 and Good IPv6 Transport

The document is an excellent guide for content providers and anyone seeking to understand how to make their content available over IPv6. We’ve now added RFC 6589 to our list of resources and look forward to learning how it may help many of you get your content ready for IPv6!