An IRTF Primer for IETF Participants

A number of proposals from experienced IETF participants for new IRTF RGs have encountered problems because the IETF participants were making proposals appropriate for the IETF, but not for the IRTF. describes the origin of IRTF RGs but doesn't provide much detail about the process, which is intended to be flexible and accommodate new types of RGs. Lacking that detail, experienced IETF participants fall back on what they know, assume that chartering an IRTF RG will be similar to chartering an IETF working group (WG), follow the suggestions in to gather a group of interested parties, and then follow the suggestions in to prepare for a successful BOF and eventually, a chartered WG. Both of these documents are excellent references for proposals in the IETF, but their suggestions may result in a proposal that is almost the opposite of what the IRTF Chair is looking for in a proposal for an IRTF RG. The mismatches fall into some consistent categories, and this document lists the ones that come up repeatedly. The target audience of this document is IETF participants bringing proposals to the IRTF. It's worth noting that the IRTF Chair has substantial autonomy on what RGs are chartered and how they reach that stage. The IRTF Chair at the time of writing is Lars Eggert.

"To me, the fundamental outcome of research is understanding, and the fundamental outcome of engineering is a product." - Fred Baker In some ways, research is about a journey, and engineering is about a destination. If a researcher answers a question in a way that opens another question, that can be success. If an engineer keeps working on a product without finishing it, that is usually a failure. Research can be open-ended, while engineering can come to a stopping point when the result is "good enough" -- good enough to ship. "If it has to work when you're finished, it wasn't research, it was engineering." - attributed to Dave Clark

IRTF RGs have a scope large enough to interest researchers, attract them to the IRTF, and keep them busy doing significant work. Their charters are therefore usually much broader than IETF WG charters, and RGs often discuss different topics underneath the charter umbrella at different times, based on current research interests in the field. IETF WGs are chartered with a limited scope and specific deliverables. If deliverables and milestones are known, the proposal is likely too limited for the IRTF.

IRTF RGs bring researchers together to work on significant problems. That takes time. The effort required by a RG is likely to take at least three to five years, significantly longer than IETF WGs envision when they are chartered.

IRTF RGs are encouraged to explore more than one alternative approach to the chartered problem area. There is no expectation that the RG will "come to consensus" on one approach. The RG may publish multiple competing proposals as research produces results. IETF WGs normally use the IETF consensus process (as described in ) to drive interoperable solutions into the market place. That often includes reducing the number of approaches to something manageable for an implementer, preferably one, whether that means starting with an approach the WG participants agree on, or considering alternatives with a view to picking one rather than spending significant effort on alternatives that won't go forward. The IRTF, as an organization, may also charter multiple RGs with somewhat overlapping areas of interest, which the IETF tries very hard to avoid.

All IRTF participants have the obligation to disclose IPR and otherwise follow the IRTF's IPR policies, which closely mirror the IETF's IPR policies; in all other aspects, IRTF RG operation is much less constrained than IETF WG operation. Each IRTF RG is permitted (and encouraged) to agree on a way of working together that best supports the specific needs of the group. This freedom allows IRTF RGs to bypass fundamental IETF ways of working, such as the need to reach at least rough consensus, which IRTF RGs need not do. Therefore, the mode of operation of IRTF RGs can also change over time, for example, perhaps becoming more like IETF WG operation as the research the group has been progressing matures.

The purpose of charters in the IRTF is to broadly sketch the field of research that a group is interested in pursuing and to serve as an advertisement to other researchers who may be wondering if the group is the right place to participate. IETF WG charters tend to be very narrow. They are intended to constrain the work that the working group will be doing, and they may contain considerable text about what the working group will not be working on.

There is no expectation that IRTF RGs publish RFCs, although many do. Some IRTF research groups produce IRTF-stream RFCs, while others produce Internet-Drafts that form the basis of IETF-stream RFCs, and still others may deliver reports, white papers, academic journal articles, or even carry out relevant high-level discussions that aren't ever published but influence other research. IRTF RGs are successful when they stimulate discussion, produce relevant outputs, and impact the research community. IETF WG deliverables tend to be specific protocol, deployment, and operational specifications, along with problem statements, use cases, requirements, and architectures that inform those specifications. Almost all IETF working groups are chartered to deliver Internet standards, which isn't an option for IRTF RGs.

IRTF RGs may produce the outputs they expected to produce when they were chartered, but it also happens that researchers consider what they've learned and start work on better solutions. This can happen whether or not the research underway has been completed, and the process can continue until the RG itself decides that it is time to conclude or when the IRTF Chair determines that there is no more energy in the group to do research. IETF WGs will typically conclude when they meet their chartered milestones, allowing participants to focus on implementation and deployment, although the WG mailing list may remain open for a time.