Given the stiff formality of many of the messages on this topic, and the absence of description of who did what and why, I suspect the problem is some sort of a split regarding what approach (or which particular solution) should be taken in OAM for MPLS. And that the two factions were probably backed by different commercial interests. And that one faction had the upper hand within the IETF and the other faction had the upper hand within the ITU. The former committee was to provide the ITU faction with an official or de-facto veto power over the IETF output, so that the ITU faction's agreement would be required for "IETF consensus". Eventually, the IETF faction got sick of the fact that they weren't going to convert the ITU faction to their solution, so the veto arrangement was summarily terminated from the IETF side, and now the IETF faction can reach "consensus". So we will get two standards, one from the IETF and one from the ITU, and the winner will be determined in the marketplace. "The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!" Dale _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf