IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the premier body for developing and promoting Internet standards. Organized as a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers, the IETF produces the Request for Comments (RFC) document series — the foundational specifications of the Internet, covering TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, HTTP, BGP, SMTP, and every other core Internet protocol. The IETF also maintains three sub-series overlays on top of RFCs: STD (Internet Standards — RFCs that have reached full standardization), BCP (Best Current Practices — RFCs documenting community-agreed practices), and FYI (For Your Information — RFCs providing introductory and explanatory material, now mostly historical).
Document Types 5
Components 4
Structured elements that make up a IETF identifier:
Series
Series prefix: RFC, BCP, STD, FYI (or nil for Internet-Drafts)
RFCNumber
Sequence number within the sub-series (RFC, BCP, STD, FYI)
2119Draft Name
Internet-Draft name (e.g. 'draft-giuliano-treedn'), without version suffix
:nameVersion
Internet-Draft two-digit version suffix (e.g. '02'), nil when absent
:versionPubID Algebra 5
Relationships between IETF identifiers:
| Relation | Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFC | Standard RFC citation | RFC <number> | RFC 2119 |
| BCP | Best Current Practice | BCP <number> | BCP 3 |
| STD | Internet Standard (sub-series) | STD <number> | STD 66 |
| FYI | For Your Information | FYI <number> | FYI 1 |
| Internet-Draft | Work-in-progress draft, optional version suffix | <draft-name>[-<version>] | draft-giuliano-treedn-02 |