Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Hoffman
Request for Comments: 6322 VPN Consortium
Category: Informational July 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
Datatracker States and Annotations for
the IAB, IRTF, and Independent Submission Streams
Abstract
This document describes extending the IETF Datatracker to capture and
display the progression of Internet-Drafts that are intended to be
published as RFCs by the IAB, IRTF, or Independent Submissions
Editor. The states and annotations that are to be added to the
Datatracker will be applied to Internet-Drafts as soon as any of
these streams identify the Internet-Draft as a potential eventual
RFC, and will continue through the lifetime of the Internet-Draft.
The goal of adding this information to the Datatracker is to give the
whole Internet community more information about the status of these
Internet-Drafts and the streams from which they originate.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6322.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
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material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
1. Introduction
As described in Section 5 of [RFC4844], there are currently four
streams that feed into the RFC publication process: the IETF document
stream, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) document stream, the
Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) document stream, and the
Independent Submissions stream that is administered by the
Independent Submissions Editor (ISE). Each of these streams consist
of Internet-Drafts (often abbreviated "I-Ds") that have been
identified by an organization or role as being part of their stream.
Each stream maintainer progresses documents towards RFC publication
in its own fashion. A document can only be in one stream at a time.
In recent years, there has been a desire by IETF participants and
others to see more of the process used by each stream. For example,
some people want to know how close the IAB is to finishing a
particular document; IETF participants might want to know the
progress of IRTF research documents that are in areas related to
their engineering work; people who have asked for the ISE to publish
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their document want to track its progress. If the IETF Datatracker
("tracker") has more information about each stream's states, this
information is much more easily accessible.
In this document, the term "IETF Datatracker" is used as a generic
name for the existing tool used to track state changes as Internet-
Drafts are processed. The word "IETF" in the name "IETF Datatracker"
is not meant to limit use of the tool to the IETF document stream;
this document expands use of the tool to the other streams described
in RFC 4844.
This document describes the additional tracker states that are
specific to each of the IAB, the IRTF, and the ISE document flows. A
document might also have one or more annotations assigned as well.
Because each stream is controlled by a different organization, this
document separates out the proposed states and annotations for each
stream, and associates specific semantics stream-by-stream.
Annotations may be applied at any time to a document that is intended
for the particular stream. A document may have more than one
annotation applied to it. It is likely that the comments for these
annotations will supply valuable information about the annotation.
Each stream owner needs to have write access to the states and
annotations for all the documents in their stream. They should also
be able to assign others to have the same write privileges.
This document does not describe which person in each stream might be
able to edit these states and annotations; it is assumed that this is
a simple enough task that it can be negotiated between each stream
administrator and the tracker administrator. Also, this document
assumes that whoever is making the edits to the state and annotations
can enter comments that will be publicly visible.
Some streams have comments that are very long, such as document
reviews and document poll results. The tracker needs to be able to
store long annotation comments.
Note that this document does not discuss documents in the IETF
stream. The states and permissions for IETF stream documents that
have been requested for publication are already implemented in the
tracker. A separate set of documents, [RFC6174] and [RFC6175],
describe the tracker states and associated permissions proposed for
documents in the IETF stream that have been adopted, or are being
considered for adoption, by IETF Working Groups.
The intent of this document is to inform an initial development
effort for the tool described here. It is not intended to stand as
the requirements against the tool once it is deployed. That is,
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there is no current intention to update this document frequently as
the tool evolves and small features are added and changed.
This document defines three state machines that fit into the IETF
Datatracker. The Datatracker will have multiple state machines.
This document was prepared in coordination with the IAB, IRTF, and
ISE, at the request of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee
(IAOC).
2. IAB Stream
This section describes the desired states and annotations for the IAB
stream.
2.1. States for the IAB Stream
o Candidate IAB Document -- A document being considered for the IAB
stream.
o Active IAB Document -- This document has been adopted by the IAB
and is being actively developed.
o Parked IAB Document -- This document has lost its author or
editor, is waiting for another document to be written, or cannot
currently be worked on by the IAB for some other reason.
Annotations probably explain why this document is parked.
o IAB Review -- This document is awaiting the IAB itself to come to
internal consensus.
o Community Review -- This document has completed internal consensus
within the IAB and is now under community review. (The IAB
normally allows community input during earlier stages of the
process as well.)
o Approved by IAB, To Be Sent to RFC Editor -- The consideration of
this document is complete, but it has not yet been sent to the RFC
Editor for publication (although that is going to happen soon).
o Sent to a Different Organization for Publication -- The IAB does
not expect to publish the document itself, but has passed it on to
a different organization that might continue work on the document.
The expectation is that the other organization will eventually
publish the document.
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o Sent to the RFC Editor -- The IAB processing of this document is
complete and it has been sent to the RFC Editor for publication.
The document may be in the RFC Editor's queue, or it may have been
published as an RFC; this state doesn't distinguish between
different states occurring after the document has left the IAB.
o Dead IAB Document -- This document was an active IAB document, but
for some reason it is no longer being pursued for the IAB stream.
It is possible that the document might be revived later, possibly
in another stream.
2.2. Annotations for the IAB Stream
o Editor Needed -- The document has lost its editor but it is still
intended to be part of the IAB stream.
o Waiting for Dependency on Other Document -- Activity on this
document is expected to be low or non-existent while waiting for
another document (probably listed in the comments) to progress.
o Waiting for Partner Feedback -- The IAB often produces documents
that need to be socialized with outside organizations (such as the
IEEE) or other internal organizations (such as the IESG or the
IAOC). This document has been sent out for feedback from one of
these partner groups.
o Awaiting Reviews -- Activity on this document is expected to be
low or non-existent while waiting for reviews that were solicited
by the IAB.
o Revised I-D Needed -- Comments that will cause changes have been
submitted, and no processing is expected until a new draft is
issued.
o Document Shepherd Followup -- The document's shepherd is expected
to take some action before the document can proceed.
2.3. Access Control for IAB States and Annotations
Some IAB members, and members of the IAB Executive Directorate, need
to be able to set the states and annotations for IAB documents during
their life cycle. The IAB Chair needs to be able to grant access to
individuals to modify the state and annotations; such access applies
to all IAB Stream documents.
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3. IRTF Stream
This section describes the desired states and annotations for the
IRTF stream. Some of the steps take place in IRTF Research Groups
(RGs), while others take place in the Internet Research Steering
Group (IRSG).
3.1. States for the IRTF Stream
o Candidate RG Document -- This document is under consideration in
an RG for becoming an IRTF document. A document in this state
does not imply any RG consensus and does not imply any precedence
or selection. It's simply a way to indicate that somebody has
asked for a document to be considered for adoption by an RG.
o Active RG Document -- This document has been adopted by an RG and
is being actively developed.
o Parked RG Document -- This document has lost its author or editor,
is waiting for another document to be written, or cannot currently
be worked on by the RG that adopted it for some other reason.
o In RG Last Call -- The document is in its final review in the RG.
o Waiting for Document Shepherd -- IRTF documents have document
shepherds who help RG documents through the process after the RG
has finished with the document.
o Waiting for IRTF Chair -- The IRTF Chair is meant to be performing
some task such as sending a request for IESG Review.
o Awaiting IRSG Reviews -- The document shepherd has taken the
document to the IRSG and solicited reviews from one or more IRSG
members.
o In IRSG Poll -- The IRSG is taking a poll on whether or not the
document is ready to be published.
o In IESG Review -- The IRSG has asked the IESG to do a review of
the document, as described in [RFC5742].
o Sent to the RFC Editor -- The document has been submitted for
publication (and not returned to the IRTF for further action).
The document may be in the RFC Editor's queue, or it may have been
published as an RFC; this state doesn't distinguish between
different states occurring after the document has left the IRTF.
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o Document on Hold Based on IESG Request -- The IESG has requested
that the document be held pending further review, as specified in
RFC 5742, and the IRTF has agreed to such a hold.
o Dead IRTF Document -- This document was an active IRTF document,
but for some reason it is no longer being pursued for the IRTF
stream. It is possible that the document might be revived later,
possibly in another stream.
3.2. Annotations for the IRTF Stream
o Editor Needed -- The document has lost its editor but it still
intended to be the output of an RG.
o Shepherd Needed -- The document needs a shepherd assigned to it.
o Waiting for Dependency on Other Document -- Activity on this
document is expected to be low or non-existent while waiting for
another document (probably listed in the comments) to progress.
o Revised I-D Needed -- Discussion has ensued that is expected to
cause changes, and no progress is expected until a new draft is
issued.
o IESG Review Completed -- The IESG has completed its review on the
document, as described in [RFC5742].
3.3. Access Control for IRTF States and Annotations
An RG Chair needs to be able to set the states and annotations for an
IRTF document before the RG has sent the document to the IRSG for
review. The RG Chair also needs to be able to give the same ability
to a shepherd that is assigned by the RG chair. This access control
is similar to the access control that is specified in [RFC6175] for
IETF WG chairs and their document shepherds.
The RG chairs should be able to modify the state and annotations for
any of that RG's documents at any time. The IRTF Chair should be
able to modify the state and annotations for any IRTF Stream document
at any time.
RG chairs and document shepherds may change at any point in a
document's life cycle. The Datatracker must allow for and log these
changes.
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4. Independent Submission Stream
This section describes the desired states and annotations for the
Independent Submission stream. The ISE will do his or her own
record-keeping for data not related to states and annotations.
Many documents in the Independent Submission stream come from the
other three streams. Because of this, the tracker needs to preserve
previous states and annotations on drafts that come to the
Independent Submission stream.
4.1. States for the Independent Submission Stream
o Submission Received -- The draft has been sent to the ISE with a
request for publication.
o Finding Reviewers -- The ISE is finding initial reviewers for the
document.
o In ISE Review -- The ISE is actively working on the document.
o Response to Review Needed -- One or more reviews have been sent to
the author(s), and the ISE is awaiting response.
o In IESG Review -- The ISE has asked the IESG to do a review on the
document, as described in [RFC5742].
o Sent to the RFC Editor -- The ISE processing of this document is
complete and it has been sent to the RFC Editor for publication.
The document may be in the RFC Editor's queue, or it may have been
published as an RFC; this state doesn't distinguish between
different states occurring after the document has left the ISE.
o No Longer In Independent Submission Stream -- This document was
actively considered in the Independent Submission stream, but the
ISE chose not to publish it. It is possible that the document
might be revived later. A document in this state may have a
comment explaining the reasoning of the ISE (such as if the
document was going to move to a different stream).
o Document on Hold Based on IESG Request -- The IESG has requested
that the document be held pending further review, as specified in
RFC 5742, and the ISE has agreed to such a hold.
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4.2. Annotations for the Independent Submission Stream
o Waiting for Dependency on Other Document -- Activity on this
document is expected to be low or non-existent while waiting for
another document (probably listed in the comments) to progress.
The other documents may or may not be in the Independent
Submission stream.
o Awaiting Reviews -- Activity on this document is expected to be
low or non-existent while waiting for reviews that were solicited
by the ISE.
o Revised I-D Needed -- Requests for revisions have been sent to the
author(s), and no further ISE processing is expected until a new
draft is issued.
o IESG Review Completed -- The IESG has completed its review on the
document, as described in [RFC5742].
5. Display in the Datatracker
When the Datatracker displays the metadata for an individual draft in
the IAB stream, IRTF stream, or ISE stream, it should show at least
the following information:
Document stream: IAB / IRTF / Independent Submission
I-D availability status: Active / Expired / Withdrawn / RFC
Replaces / Replaced I-D or RFC
(if applicable)
Last updated: year-mm-dd (e.g. 2010-07-25)
IRTF RG status: * Applicable RG state *and* name of
RG (or RGs)
Intended RFC status: Informational / Experimental / etc.
Document shepherd: ** Name of Document Shepherd (if assigned)
Approval status: Name of applicable state from the IAB /
IRTF / Independent Submission stream
* The "IRTF RG status" is only shown for the IRTF stream; it is to
be completely removed for the IAB and Independent Stream
** This field displays the name and email of the person assigned as
the shepherd for the I-D; the line is omitted if the shepherd has
not yet been assigned
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6. Movement between Streams
Internet-Drafts sometimes move between streams. For example, a draft
might start out in the IETF stream but then move to the Independent
Submission stream, or a draft might move from an IRTF RG to the IETF
stream. Thus, the IETF Datatracker needs to be able to change the
designated stream of a draft. It is expected that this will be done
by the stream managers. In addition, the IETF Datatracker should
preserve all data from the earlier stream(s) when a document moves
between streams.
Internet-Drafts sometimes move out of a stream into a non-stream
state. For example, a draft that is in the "Candidate IAB Document",
"Candidate RG Document", or "Submission Received" state might not be
adopted by the stream and revert back to having no stream-specific
state. The IETF Datatracker needs to be able to handle the
transition from having a stream-related state to a null state.
New streams may be added in the future, and the tool needs to be able
to handle additional streams.
7. IESG Mail Sent for the IRTF and Independent Stream
After the IESG performs a review of potential RFCs from the IRTF and
Independent streams, as described in RFC 5742, the IETF Datatracker
sends out email to the IANA, the IESG, ietf-announce@ietf.org, and
the stream manager with the results of the IESG's review. In the
past, the subject line and body of that message has been misleading
about the scope and purpose of the message. There is now a
requirement that the message clearly state that the message is about
the IETF-conflict review of a particular Internet-Draft.
Note that these letters have effects on the state machine for the
IESG, although those effects are not covered in this document.
8. Security Considerations
Changing the states in the Datatracker does not affect the security
of the Internet in any significant fashion.
9. Review of These Requirements
The IAB has reviewed this document and agrees that this document
meets the IAB's consent requirements.
The IRTF Chair has reviewed this document and agrees that this
document meets the requirements for the IRTF stream.
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The ISE has reviewed this document and agrees that this document
meets the requirements of the technical community, as represented by
the Independent Submission stream.
10. Acknowledgements
This document draws heavily on, including wholesale copying from,
earlier work done by Henrik Levkowetz, Phil Roberts, and Aaron Falk.
Additional significant input has been received from Aaron Falk, Nevil
Brownlee, Olaf Kolkman, Ross Callon, Ed Juskevicius, Subramanian SM
Moonesamy, and Alfred Hoenes.
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[RFC4844] Daigle, L., Ed., and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC
Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.
11.2. Informative References
[RFC5742] Alvestrand, H. and R. Housley, "IESG Procedures for
Handling of Independent and IRTF Stream Submissions", BCP
92, RFC 5742, December 2009.
[RFC6174] Juskevicius, E., "Definition of IETF Working Group
Document States", RFC 6174, March 2011.
[RFC6175] Juskevicius, E., "Requirements to Extend the Datatracker
for IETF Working Group Chairs and Authors", RFC 6175,
March 2011.
Author's Address
Paul Hoffman
VPN Consortium
EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org
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