On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 7:05 PM Fred Baker <fredbaker.ietf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So voila! IPv4 has existed more than ten years, so we don’t need it any more... Also DNS, DHCP, TCP, Ethernet, SMTP - wow, that rule really clears the deck. And heck - even IETF chairs produce internet drafts.
Quite. This leads me to re-suggest a proposal I have made from time to time which is that every area have a DISPATCH working group and every area also have a maintenance group.
This has (sorta) happened in security with LAMPS. Faced with the need to update cipher suites across the board, a new WG was formed which has been tweaking every protocol in active use not in active development.
The objection generally raised is of course that this allows people to 'mess' with existing protocols adding features that shouldn't be there. But that objection presupposes that the job of the IETF is to control permission for permissionless innovation.
One of the reasons some WGs linger is that their function requires continuous tweakage, GSSAPI/KITTEN being an example. Better to have one WG with the purpose of lingering than four lingering past their sell-by.
