Subject: Protocol Action: Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs to BCP

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 08:20:12 -0400

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft Guidelines for Writing an IANA
Considerations Section in RFCs <draft-iesg-iana-considerations-06.txt>
as a BCP.  This document is the product of the Internet Engineering
Steering Group.  The IESG contact person is Fred Baker.

Technical Summary

    Historically, document writers have worked closely with the Internet
    Assigned Numbers Authority to make sure that numbers used by protocols,
    such as IP Protocol Numbers, TCP Ports, PPP PIDs, ASN.1 prefixes, and
    other identifiers, are uniquely chosen and adequately documented. As the
    internet community has grown, problems have arisen where people have
    chosen numbers without reference to IANA, sometimes choosing the same
    number.

    Mitigating this has been the presence of Joyce Reynolds in the IESG, who
    also works in the RFC Editor's office and in the IANA. This is not a
    permanent arrangement, and better suited to simpler times.

    In essence, the IESG and the IANA would like RFCs that specify fields
    that IANA is expected to administer, to give IANA advice on how to do
    that. If certain values are not permissible (as in PPP PIDs), or other
    specific expectations need to be met, these need to be clearly
    documented. We are asking RFC authors in such cases to add a section
    calling out the relevant fields and detailing the expectations.

Working Group Summary

    The IESG had no dissent in discussion. It was requested by IANA.

Protocol Quality

    An example of such a section is in RFC 2207. The document was written
    for the IESG by Tom Narten and Harald Alvestrand.