STEAM: BOF proposal for Berlin
You may have noticed a recent trend in the IETF towards very
lightweight protocols for the Internet of Everything.
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-draft-draft is the most fully
developed proposal on the table today. It is extremely lightweight by
simply using UDP and nothing else.
Recently, however, that draft has been criticized for lack of
congestion control. And rightly so, because the only way to have
congestion control is to use TCP. And, TCP is all you need.
But then, clearly, there aren't enough RFCs about TCP yet [RFC4627].
A new WG will therefore develop "Secure TCP Extensions for Application
and Management" (STEAM).
Again, TCP is all you need, but it hasn't been used for Provisioning
very much yet. The main objective of the new WG is therefore an
informational document for "Secure Provisioning for Applications and
Management using TCP Reimagined as an Attractive Protocol", SPAM-TRAP.
We aren't quite sure yet whether STEAM will be in the Security,
Transport, Application, or Management Areas, or whether it should have
its own area (EVG for Internet of Everything). We will use the BOF in
Berlin to figure out, and to set up the new EVG area in the IETF, and
to restyle the IETF to "Internet of Everything Task Force".
One other field that STEAM will be working in is IETF process innovation.
(We also figure you can't post to the IETF mailing list without
including at least one process improvement suggestion. So we make two.)
1) You might notice there is no R in STEAM. This is because we have
to increase collaboration within a diverse IETF.
The RTG area already has the ROLL working group, which has been very
innovative in getting routing protocols to standards track RFC before
there is even a glimpse of security, applicability or management.
Doing standardization in smoke-filled backrooms is unhealthy, and
STEAM has many of the properties needed for a replacement process.
We don't want to spill the beans just yet, but can already say the
process innovation will be named in honor of the two WGs, STEAM/ROLL.
2) Finally, preparing for the global deployment of the
Internet-Enabled Smart Grid (IESG), and to further increase diversity,
we probably want to enable the use of steam-powered typewriters for
IETF work.
The STEAM WG will enhance the RFC format and process to allow direct
publishing from typewritten sheets and scanned printouts of Word
documents.
See you at the STEAM BOF in Berlin,
Daniel Raft