Subject: [RAI] More on RFC 3427bis - needs step-by-step guidance for registering new headers

From: Dan York <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:35:18 -0400

Jon & Cullen,

A problem I had with the existing RFC 3427 ( http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3427 
  ) which continues over into your RFC 3427bis ( http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-peterson-rai-rfc3427bis-01 
  ) is that neither document really provides good guidance for someone  
who just wants to know how to register a new SIP header with IANA.     
For someone who is just trying to do what seems like should be a  
relatively simple task, it's hard to find the guidance of precisely  
HOW to do this.

Section 4.1 of the original RFC 3427 provides overall guidance and  
hints at the process in steps 1 and 6, but having gone through this  
(and still being in it) for P-Charge-Info, I found the actual  
*existing* process was more of this:

----
1. Create an Internet-Draft documenting the SIP header you wish to  
register.  In this draft, be sure to include:
      a. an applicability statement about the scope of the usage of  
the SIP header
      b. a detailed analysis of security issues related to the header
      c. a request to IANA for how this header should be published

2. Circulate this Internet-Draft to the SIPPING mailing list for  
comment and incorporate appropriate feedback.

3. When review cycles are complete, contact the SIPPING Working Group  
chairs to request Expert Review.

4. After incorporating comments from the Expert Review, contact the  
IESG (email addr?) to request publication as an Informational RFC.   
(It would also be best to find an Area Director who might sponsor your  
draft or, I am told, be prepared to wait a long time.)
----

This process (which may or may not be complete/correct) was not  
documented anywhere I could really find but seemed to be in the  
collective consciousness of all of those folks who have been involved  
with IETF for a while.

For IETF newbies, it would, in my opinion, be VERY useful to have this  
documented in a simple way in the RFC 3427 document.

In RFC 3427bis, section 4.1 is modified and the criteria are reduced  
to two and the process of registering a SIP header new references RFC  
5226:

   Instead, the registration of SIP headers in Informational IETF
    specifications, or in documents outside the IETF, is now permitted
    under the Designated Expert (per RFC5226) criteria.

However, reading RFC 5226 ( http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226 ) does  
not provide easy guidance for the newcomer.   In RFC 5226 section 4.1,  
you can see the "Designated Expert" criteria:

         Expert Review (or Designated Expert) - approval by a Designated
             Expert is required.  The required documentation and review
             criteria for use by the Designated Expert should be  
provided
             when defining the registry.  For example, see Sections 6  
and
             7.2 in [RFC3748].

And this is discussed further in Section 3.  Section 5.1 of RFC 5226  
then gets into what to put into documents to register values.

What's not clear in all this is *exactly* what the process is in RFC  
3427bis.

Is an Internet-Draft still required? (I would assume so.) Does it need  
to become an Informational RFC?  What process should this go through?   
Is it something like this:

1. Create an Internet-Draft (with criteria like above)
2. Request Expert Review from _______
3. Incorporate comments and then request header registration from  
________

A step-by-step process around how to register a new SIP header would  
be a great addition to this document.

My 2 cents,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, Director of Conversations
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