[apnic-talk] RFC 8200 – IPv6 has been standardized
IETF works with documents that start with an Internet Draft (ID). Once the ID is accepted by a Working Group, then it becomes “IETF work” (before that is just an individual contribution).
Most of the vendors, since many years ago, implement code for IDs once they become stable (sometimes even from earlier document versions if they want to “try” the concept), and almost every vendor implement a stable version when a document becomes an RFC (the step after the ID becomes stable).
Today we use many protocols that are “just” RFCs.
However, there is one more step, which is STD (standard), which is done only once code for an RFC has been running globally in Internet for a few years, and it is proven that it is interoperable and stable among several vendors/products.
As you may guess, the move from RFC to STD is more an administrative task (reporting such universal deployment and interoperability) than a technical task or change. In fact for an RFC to move to STD it must be stable, so no “last minute” changes, unless is just clarifying text in the document, etc.
What that means in the context of IPv6 and why this clarifications are important? Because it may appear to people not knowing very well the IETF process that IPv6 was not “useful” until now, or not a standard, or anything like that, which is not true. IPv6 has been stable for many years and it has been successfully deployed in many networks since so early as 2003 (big intercontinental networks, for example Telefonica and Orange) and that’s why we can say today is “more than just an RFC”.
Remember that we all use today many IETF protocols that are “just” RFCs, it is the way it works, we don’t have at IETF spare time to move most of those RFCs to STDs, but we did the extra effort in the case of IPv6 to remark the protocol maturity.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Jordi
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