RFC 8126 - Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs

Request for Comments: 8126
BCP: 26
Obsoletes: RFC 5226
Category: Best Current Practice
ISSN: 2070-1721

Authors:

• M. Cotton (PTI)
• B. Leiba (Huawei Technologies)
• T. Narten (IBM Corporation)

Date: June 2017

Abstract

Many protocols make use of points of extensibility that use constants to identify various protocol parameters. To ensure that the values in these fields do not have conflicting uses and to promote interoperability, their allocations are often coordinated by a central record keeper. For IETF protocols, that role is filled by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

To make assignments in a given registry prudently, guidance describing the conditions under which new values should be assigned, as well as when and how modifications to existing values can be made, is needed. This document defines a framework for the documentation of these guidelines by specification authors, in order to assure that the provided guidance for the IANA Considerations is clear and addresses the various issues that are likely in the operation of a registry.

This is the third edition of this document; it obsoletes RFC 5226.

Status of This Memo

This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Keep IANA Considerations for IANA
  • 1.2. For Updated Information
  • 1.3. A Quick Checklist Upfront
• 2. Creating and Revising Registries
  • 2.1. Organization of Registries
  • 2.2. Documentation Requirements for Registries
  • 2.3. Specifying Change Control for a Registry
  • 2.4. Revising Existing Registries
• 3. Registering New Values in an Existing Registry
  • 3.1. Documentation Requirements for Registrations
  • 3.2. Updating Existing Registrations
  • 3.3. Overriding Registration Procedures
  • 3.4. Early Allocations
• 4. Choosing a Registration Policy and Well-Known Policies
  • 4.1. Private Use
  • 4.2. Experimental Use
  • 4.3. Hierarchical Allocation
  • 4.4. First Come First Served
  • 4.5. Expert Review
  • 4.6. Specification Required
  • 4.7. RFC Required
  • 4.8. IETF Review
  • 4.9. Standards Action
  • 4.10. IESG Approval
  • 4.11. Using the Well-Known Registration Policies
  • 4.12. Using Multiple Policies in Combination
  • 4.13. Provisional Registrations
• 5. Designated Experts
  • 5.1. The Motivation for Designated Experts
  • 5.2. The Role of the Designated Expert
    • 5.2.1. Managing Designated Experts in the IETF
  • 5.3. Designated Expert Reviews
  • 5.4. Expert Reviews and the Document Lifecycle
• 6. Well-Known Registration Status Terminology
• 7. Documentation References in IANA Registries
• 8. What to Do in "bis" Documents
• 9. Miscellaneous Issues
  • 9.1. When There Are No IANA Actions
  • 9.2. Namespaces Lacking Documented Guidance
  • 9.3. After-the-Fact Registrations
  • 9.4. Reclaiming Assigned Values
  • 9.5. Contact Person vs Assignee or Owner
  • 9.6. Closing or Obsoleting a Registry/Registrations
• 10. Appeals
• 11. Mailing Lists
• 12. Security Considerations
• 13. IANA Considerations
• 14. Changes Relative to Earlier Editions of BCP 26
  • 14.1. 2016: Changes in This Document Relative to RFC 5226
  • 14.2. 2008: Changes in RFC 5226 Relative to RFC 2434
• 15. References
  • 15.1. Normative References
  • 15.2. Informative References
• Acknowledgments for This Document (2017)
• Acknowledgments from the Second Edition (2008)
• Acknowledgments from the First Edition (1998)
• Authors' Addresses