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Week1: RFC Paper
Short for Request for Comments, a series of notes about the Internet, started in 1969 (when the Internet was the ARPANET). An Internet Document can be submitted to the IETF by anyone, but the IETF decides if the document becomes an RFC. Eventually, if it gains enough interest, it may evolve into an Internet standard.
Each RFC is designated by an RFC number. Once published, an RFC never changes. Modifications to an original RFC are assigned a new RFC number.
A Request for Comments (RFC) is a formal document from the Internet Engineering Task Force ( IETF ) that is the result of committee drafting and subsequent review by interested parties. Some RFCs are informational in nature. Of those that are intended to become Internet standards, the final version of the RFC becomes the standard and no further comments or changes are permitted. Change can occur, however, through subsequent RFCs that supersede or elaborate on all or parts of previous RFCs.
RFC documents have been used on the Internet for more than 30 years. Researchers from universities and corporations publish these documents to solicit feedback on new technologies for the Internet. Most popular networking technologies like IP and Ethernet have been historically documented in RFCs.
The very first RFC, RFC1, was published in April 1969. Although the "host software" technology discussed has long since become obsolete, documents like this one offer a very interesting glimpse into the early days of computer networking. Even today, the plain text format of the RFC remains essentially the same as it has since the beginning.
As the basic technologies of the Internet have matured, and the Internet has grown to include many non-technical people, the need for RFCs has diminished. Yet a few RFCs are still being produced for leading-edge research in Internet-based networking.
An RFC is authored by engineers and computer scientists in the form of a memorandum describing...