All the stuff in the "sub-ip" area is a combination of
applications running over IP and lower-layer services
over which IP (and presumably anything else -- after
all what do the "MP" stand for in MPLS?) runs.
The logic which directs that these things be standardized
in the IETF could be used to direct that _any_ lower-layer
technology be standardized in the IETF.
There is also logic that says that these technologies
are "important" to the Internet and, in order to ensure
that they "do the right thing", they should be standardized
in the IETF. This logic is also in error. First, these
efforts have evolved into some of the worst and most
hideous examples of bloatware that I've ever seen. Second,
there are many technologies that are important to the
operation of the Internet -- such as the spacing of the
screw holes in the racks into which the equipment is
mounted -- yet we don't standardize them...
Frank Kastenholz