Telecommunications Protocols, Second Edition
The Big Picture of Telecommunications Networking - Today and Tomorrow
TABLE OF CONTENTS Telecommunications Protocols, Second Edition
Section 4.2: TCP/IP Standards
Section 4.2: TCP/IP Standards
TCP/IP is a national standard, developed and standardized in the United States. Standardization is important because it ensures that various vendors' equipment will be compatible within the same network (provided the vendors followed the standards). TCP/IP standards are a little harder to track than other standards, partly because there is no central authority responsible for developing and writing the standards [as in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)] and partly because of the way standards evolve.
In this section we will discuss how TCP/IP standards are written and how they evolve from contributions to standards.
Section 4.2.1: Standards Documentation
TCP/IP standards are submitted in the form of a Request for Comments (RFCs). An RFC can be submitted by anyone and does not become a standard right away. In fact, there are thousands of RFCs available on various subjects regarding TCP/IP, but not all of them are standards. Many of them have not been implemented. This makes it very difficult to determine which are approved standards and which are not.
The first step in the standards process is the submission of a preliminary draft RFC. The draft is made available to anyone wishing to add to or comment on it (which is why it is called a Request for Comments). Drafts can be found on the Internet at ds.internic.net (an AT&T server) and can be freely downloaded. Many network providers also provide access to these RFCs through their own servers.
Once an RFC has been submitted, the...
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