The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is "a committee of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an advisory body of the Internet Society (ISOC). Its responsibilities include architectural oversight of IETF activities, Internet Standards Process oversight and appeal, and the appointment of the Request for Comments (RFC) Editor. The IAB is also responsible for the management of the IETF protocol parameter registries."[1]
The body which eventually became the IAB was created originally by Vint Cerf in 1979 with the name Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB) while he was working at the United States Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1983, the ICCB was reorganized by Barry Leiner, Cerf's successor at DARPA, around a series of task forces considering different technical aspects of internetting. The re-organized group was named the Internet Activities Board.[2][3][4]
The IAB set for itself seven principal foci for the period of 1989 to 1990. These were namely:[5]
It finally became the Internet Architecture Board, under ISOC, during January 1992, as part of the Internet's transition from a U.S.-government entity to an international, public entity.
The IAB is responsible for:
In its work, the IAB strives to:
Activities of the IAB include:
Workshops
Technical programs and administrative support groups
IAB appointments and confirmations
The IAB's current responsibilities include:[6]
The IAB takes a formal stance on what constitutes proper use of the Internet in their 1989 memo, RFC 1087: “Ethics and the Internet.” [7] They introduce their contemporary version of the Internet, which at the time was in its nascent stages, serving primarily as a tool for communication of research in the scientific community, and identify the use of this internet as a “privilege.”
The IAB then proclaims as unethical any activity which:
This memo was written at a time during which the Internet existed in the general research milieu, but since that time the Internet has evolved greatly and expanded in its user-base. The IAB has accordingly taken new stances on ethical and secure Internet use, such as in RFC 8890, where the IAB identifies protecting end users as the first priority in their maintenance of the Internet.[8]
As such, though their core principles are the same, the IAB's priority for protection has shifted from the technical and scientific community to the community of day-to-day users. In another memo RFC7624, the IAB takes a firm stance against pervasive mass surveillance through the use of the Internet on the part of national intelligence agencies, saying that it is necessary that the Internet technical community, including itself, “address the vulnerabilities exploited [by mass surveillance campaigns]...to ensure that the Internet can be trusted by [its] users.” [9]
RFC 2850 establishes the structure and purpose of the IAB. The RFC specifies the following:[10]
The Internet Standards process is an activity of the Internet Society that is organized and managed on behalf of the Internet community by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). The Internet Standards Process is concerned with all protocols, procedures, and conventions that are used in or by the Internet. The process of creating an Internet Standard is straightforward: a specification undergoes a period of development and several iterations of review by the Internet community and revision based upon experience, is adopted as a Standard by the appropriate body (either the IAB or the IESG), and is published. Each distinct version of an Internet standards-related specification is published as part of the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series. This archival series is the official publication channel for Internet standards documents and other publications of the IESG, IAB, and Internet community. The complete Internet Standards Process is itself specified by an RFC, namely RFC 2026.[11]
The RFC 8980 workshop was held in February 2021, where the IAB discussed several topics around security protocols, including:[12]
The workshop resulted in the following recommendations by the IAB:
The following people have served as chair of the IAB:[13]
| Members[14] | Background |
|---|---|
| Deborah Brungard | Deborah Brungard is a Lead Member of Technical Staff in Wireless and Access Technology at AT&T, where she has worked since 1984. She's been very active in the IETF's routing sector and has made many meaningful contributions there. She received a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. When off the clock, she can often be found escaping in her Silver Bullet. |
| Ben Campbell | Ben Campbell is an independent consultant and an IAB liaison to the Internet Engineering Steering Group. He's spent time at many different companies and organizations, most notably Oracle Communication, Tekelec, and Estacado Systems. He received his bachelor's degree and His MBA from Texas A&M University and now resides in Irving, Texas. In his free time he sails as much as he can and also enjoys listening to middle eastern percussion. |
| Jari Arkko | Jari Arkko is originally from Kauniainen, Finland but now resides in Jorvas, Finland where he is employed at Ericsson Research, a Swedish mobile equipment manufacturer. He has also served at the IETF as one of the Internet Area Directors in the Internet Engineering Steering Group. He is also an avid family man and enjoys skiing, climbing, and photography. |
| Jiankang Yao | Jiankang Yao is a senior research engineer leading the team in charge of technology standardization at the China Internet Network Information Center. He received his master's degree in computer science from the University of Singapore and went on to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Software and Theory from Chinese Academy of Sciences. |
| Lars Eggert | Lars Eggert is currently based in Helsinki, Finland, where he works as the Technical Director for Networking at NetApp. He has served on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for over two decades, including a stint as the chair of its research arm, the IRTF. He currently serves as the chair of the IETF. He received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Southern California and has previously served as the CTO at Nokia. |
| Wes Hardaker | Wes Hardaker is a computer scientist at USC's Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI). He primarily researches Internet security and is currently leading two NSF-funded projects on DNS and DDoS attacks. He is also active within the IETF and ICANN. |
| Cullen Jennings | Cullen Jennings is a software development manager at Cisco Systems, where he builds collaboration systems used on the Internet. Cullen is also involved with discussions surrounding open source and internet standards. |
| Mirja Kühlewind | Mirja Kühlewind received her PhD in 2015 on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) from the University of Stuttgart and now researches transport protocol evolution. Mirja also was selected as IETF Transport Area Director in 2016. |
| Zhenbin Li | Zhenbin Li received his bachelor's degree of Information and Communication Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University and his Masters of Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University. Now Zhenbin works as a network engineer and system architect for Huawei. |
| Jared Mauch | Jared was appointed to the IAB as a 2020-2021 candidate. He currently works for Akamai Technologies as a Network Architect. Past work includes founding White Box Optical Inc and Washtenaw Fiber Properties LLC. |
| Tommy Pauly | Tommy was appointed to the IAB as a 2020-2021 candidate. He currently works for Apple on their networking stack for client operating systems, focusing on areas including secure transport protocols and APIs, VPNs, IPv6, and DNS. He currently co-chairs the HTTP and IPPM Working Groups. He received a BS in Computer Science and a BA in music, both from Stanford University. |
| David Schinazi | David Schinazi is an engineer at Google. He currently works primarily as the Chrome Tech Lead for QUIC, and helps out with various standardization efforts at the IETF and W3C. Previously, David worked at Apple on many networking technologies at the heart of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS including networking APIs, TCP, IPv6, IKEv2/IPsec, and routing protocols. |
| Russ White | Russ White began working with computers in the mid-1980s, and computer networks in 1990. He has experience in designing, deploying, breaking, and troubleshooting large scale networks, and is a strong communicator from the white board to the board room. He has co-authored more than forty software patents, participated in the development of several Internet standards, helped develop the CCDE and the CCAr, and worked in Internet governance with the Internet Society. Russ has a background covering a broad spectrum of topics, including radio frequency engineering and graphic design, and is an active student of philosophy and culture. |