The IEEE 802 / IETF Relationship

This section describes how existing processes within the IETF and IEEE 802 may be used to enable collaboration between the organizations.

IEEE 802 and IETF are similar in some ways, but different in others. When working on projects that are of interest to both organizations, it's important to understand these similarities and differences.

The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) is the standards setting body of the IEEE. The IEEE-SA Standards Board oversees the IEEE standards development process. The IEEE-SA Standards Board supervises what IEEE calls "sponsors" - IEEE entities that develop standards. The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee is a sponsor that develops and maintains networking standards and recommended practices for local, metropolitan, and other area networks, using an open and accredited process, and advocates them on a global basis. The most widely used standards are for Ethernet, Bridging and Virtual Bridged LANs, Wireless LAN, Wireless PAN, Wireless MAN, Wireless Coexistence, Media Independent Handover Services, and Wireless RAN. An individual Working Group provides the focus for each area. In IEEE 802, work is done in Working Groups operating under an Executive Committee. Each Working Group is led by a Working Group Chair. Most Working Groups have one or more Task Groups. A Task Group is responsible for a project or group of projects. The Executive Committee is comprised of the Executive Committee Chair, Executive Committee Officers (e.g., Vice-Chairs, Secretaries, Treasurer) and Working Group Chairs. A good place to learn more is the IEEE 802 Home Page, at <http://www.ieee802.org/>. An IEEE 802 Orientation for new participants that gives an overview of IEEE 802 process is available from the home page. The IEEE 802 Executive Committee and all Working Groups meet three times per year at plenary sessions. Plenary sessions are held in March, July and November. Most Working Groups hold interim meetings, usually in January, May and September. The meeting schedule can be found at <http://www.IEEE802.org/meeting/index.html>. A Study Group is a group formed to consider starting a new project and, if new work is found to be suitable, to develop an IEEE Project Authorization Request (PAR - similar in purpose to an IETF working group charter). A Study Group may operate under a Working Group or under the Executive Committee depending on whether the new work under consideration falls within the scope of an existing Working Group. Study Groups are expected to exist for a limited time, usually for one or two plenary cycles, and must be authorized to continue at each plenary if they have not completed their work. Participation in IEEE 802 Working Groups is at the level of individuals, i.e., participants are human beings and not companies, and is open. Individuals are required to declare their affiliation (i.e., any individual or entity that financially or materially supports the individual's participation in IEEE 802). Working Groups maintain membership rosters, with voting membership attained on the basis of in-person meeting attendance. Retention of voting membership generally requires continued attendance and responsiveness to letter ballots. Voting membership allows one to vote on motions and on Working Group Ballots of drafts. All drafts are also balloted by a Sponsor ballot pool before approval as standards. Joining a Sponsor ballot pool does not require participation in meetings. One does not need to be a voter to comment on drafts and the Working Group is required to consider and respond to all comments submitted during Working Group and Sponsor ballots. To foster ongoing communication between IEEE 802 and IETF, it is important to identify and establish contact points within each organization. IEEE 802 contact points may include: An IEEE 802 Working Group chair is an individual who is assigned to lead the work of IEEE 802 in a particular area. IEEE 802 Working Group chairs are elected by the Working Group and confirmed by the Executive Committee for a 2 year term. Collaboration here provides a stable contact point for work between the two organizations for a given topic. An IEEE 802 Task Group chair is an individual who is assigned to lead the work on a specific project or group of projects within a Working Group. Task Group Chairs often serve for the duration of a project. Collaboration here is beneficial to ensure that work on a particular project is coordinated. An IEEE 802 Study Group Chair is an individual assigned to lead consideration of new work and development of an IEEE 802 Project Authorization Request (PAR). Collaboration here provides input on the scope of new work and to begin coordination. It may be beneficial to establish liaisons as additional contact points for specific topics of mutual interest. These contact points should be established early in the work effort. The IEEE 802 and IETF projects may select the same individual as their contact point, but this is not required, so that two individuals each serve as contact points for one project participating in the liaison relationship. Other informal contacts can provide useful collaboration points. These include project editors who are responsible for editing the drafts and work with the Task Group Chairs to lead tracking and resolution of issues. Joint members who are active in both the IEEE 802 and IETF projects in an area can also aid in collaboration.

The IETF Standards Process is defined in . The IETF working group process is defined in . is a helpful description of organizations involved in the IETF standards process. It can still be useful as an overview, although details have changed since 1996. In the IETF, work is done in working groups (WGs), and is mostly carried out through open, public mailing lists rather than face-to-face meetings. WGs are organized into areas, and each area is managed by one or more area directors. Collectively, the area directors comprise the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) . The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) charter assigns the IAB several responsibilities relevant to this document: IESG Appointment Architectural Oversight Standards Process Oversight and Appeal Appointment of RFC Series and Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) roles Oversight of External Liaisons for the IETF IESG and IAB members are selected using the Nomcom process defined in . Working group chairs serve at the pleasure of their Area Directors, as described in . IETF meets in plenary session three times per year. Some working groups schedule additional interim meetings, which may be either face-to-face or "virtual", but this is not true for most IETF working groups. The preferred way to develop specifications is to do work on mailing lists, reserving face-to-face sessions for topics that have not been resolved through previous mailing list discussion. Information about IETF plenary meetings is available at <http://www.ietf.org/meeting/upcoming.html>. Information about IETF working group interim meetings is available on the IETF-Announce mailing list (see <http://www.ietf.org/list/announcement.html> for archives and subscription information). Participation in the IETF is open to anyone (technically, anyone with access to e-mail sufficient to allow subscription to one or more IETF mailing lists). All IETF participants act as individuals. There is no concept of "IETF membership". To foster ongoing communication between IEEE 802 and IETF, it is important to identify and establish contact points within each organization. IETF contact points may include Area Directors, Working Group Chairs, and other points of contact who can help communicate between IEEE 802 and IETF working groups. The IETF is designed to be a "bottom-up" protocol engineering organization - the leadership steers and manages, but does not direct work in a top-down way. Technical agreements with "the IETF" are based on the consensus of working group participants, rather than negotiated with IETF leadership. A good place to learn more is the IETF Home Page, at <http://www.ietf.org/>, and especially the "About the IETF" page at <http://www.ietf.org/about>, selectable from the IETF Home Page. The "Tao of the IETF" is also very helpful, especially for IEEE 802 participants who will also be participating in IETF working groups and attending IETF meetings. It's available from <http://www.ietf.org/tao.html. The current list of IETF area directors and working group chairs can be found in the IETF working group charters, at <http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/>.

IEEE 802 and IETF have similar structures, but the names they use are different, and even conflicting. For example, both IEEE 802 and IETF use the term "Working group", but "working groups" means two very different things in the two organizations.

Thmbnail comparison between IETF and IEEE 802 entities IETF Area is similar to IEEE 802 Working Group IETF Working Group is similar to IEEE 802 Task Group IETF BOF is similar to IEEE 802 Study Group Both IEEE 802 Working Groups and IETF Areas are large, long-lived, and relatively broadly scoped, containing more narrowly chartered entities (IEEE 802 Task Groups and IETF Working Groups), which tend to be short-lived and narrowly chartered. IEEE 802 uses Study Groups to develop proposals for new work, and these are analogous to IETF BOFs.

It's worth noting that IEEE 802 and IETF have cultures that are similar, but not identical. Some of the differences include: Both organizations make decisions based on consensus, but in the IETF, "consensus" can mean "rough consensus". In practice, this means that a large part of the community being asked needs to agree. Not everyone has to agree, but if someone disagrees, they need to convince other people of their point of view. If they're not able to do that, they'll be "in the rough" when "rough consensus" is declared. IEEE 802 consensus is usually based on percentage of voting approval. David Clark coined the phrase "we believe in rough consensus and running code" in 1992, to explain IETF culture. Although that's not always true today, the existence of "running code" as a proof of feasibility for a proposal often carries weight during technical discussions. IEEE 802 standards may be less amenable to one-off implementation while the standard is still being developed, whether as hardware or as software. Both organizations use voting as a decision-making tool, but IEEE 802 uses voting within working groups, while IETF working groups do not use voting. Working group chairs may ask for a "show of hands" or "take a hum" to judge backing for a proposal, but this is not considered to be "voting" - The IESG does ballot documents when considering them for publication. This balloting is a final approval for publication. Both organizations make use of mailing lists. IETF working groups rely heavily on mailing lists, where work is done, in addition at formal meetings. The IETF requires all working group decisions to be made (or, often in practice, confirmed) on mailing lists - final decisions aren't made in meetings. IEEE 802 working groups typically meet face-to-face about twice as often as IETF working groups (three IEEE 802 plenaries plus three IETF 802 interim meetings each year, compared to three IETF plenaries per year) and teleconferences are more common in IEEE 802 than in most IETF working groups. Most major decisions in IEEE 802 are made during plenary or interim meetings, except for procedural decisions. Attendance at meetings is critical to influencing decisions and to maintaining membership voting rights. Both organizations use interim meetings (between plenary meetings). IETF working groups schedule interim meetings on an as-needed basis. IETF interim meetings may be face-to-face or virtual. Most IEEE 802 WGs hold regularly interim meetings three times a year in the middle of the interval between two Plenary meetings. The schedules and location of these meetings are typically known many months in advance. IEEE 802 interim meetings are face-to-face only. In addition to regularly scheduled IEEE 802 interim meetings, teleconference and ad hoc meetings are held on an as-needed basis. Because the IETF doesn't make decisions at face-to-face meetings, it's not absolutely necessary to attend face-to-face meetings at all. Some significant contributors don't attend most face-to-face IETF meetings, although in order to find collaborators on a proposal for new work, or solicit backing for your ideas, that's likely easier in a face-to-face conversation, often in a hallway and sometimes in a bar. IEEE 802 significant contributors almost always attend face-to-face meetings. Participation in IEEE 802 meetings is a condition for WG membership. Both IEEE 802 and IETF allow working groups considerable autonomy (within the documented process) in getting chartered work done. EDITOR NOTE: the description of "rough consensus", including hums, may be affected by http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-resnick-on-consensus/ if that draft advances.

The following sections outline a process that can be used to enable each organization to stay informed about the other's active and proposed work items.

The responsibility is on individual IEEE 802 working groups to review the current IETF working groups to determine if there are any topics of mutual interest. Working group charters and active Internet-Drafts can be found on the IETF web site (<http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/>). If an IEEE 802 working group identifies a common area of work, the IEEE 802 working group leadership should contact both the IETF working group chair and the area director(s) responsible. This may be accompanied by a formal liaison statement (see ).

IEEE 802 Working Group status reports are published at the beginning and end of each plenary at <http://IEEE802.org/minutes> on the IEEE 802 website. Each Working Group includes a list of their active projects and the status. The charter of an IEEE 802 project is defined in an approved Project Authorization Request (PAR). PARs are accessible in IEEE Standards myProject, at <https://development.standards.ieee.org/my-site>. Access requires an IEEE web account which is free and has no membership requirement. In myProject, a search on "View Active PARs" for 802 will bring up a list of all active IEEE 802 PARs. The responsibility is on individual IETF working groups to periodically review the information on the IEEE 802 web site to determine if there is work in progress of mutual interest. If an IETF working group identifies a common area of work or a need for coordination, the working group leadership should contact the IEEE 802 Working Group chair and Task Group chair. This may be accompanied by a formal liaison statement (see ).

These principles describe the notification process used by both organizations: For both organizations, the technical group making a proposal for new work that may conflict with, overlap with, or be dependent on the other organization is responsible for informing the top-level coordination body in the other organizaion that coordination may be required. For both organizations, the top-level coordination body receiving that notification is responsible for determining whether coordination is, in fact, required, and informing the specific groups within the organization who may be affected by the proposal for new work. These direct notifications will be the most common way that each organization is informed about proposals for new work in the other organization. Several other ways of identifying proposed new work are described in the following sections. These additional ways act as "belt and suspenders" to reduce the chances that proposals for new work in one organization escapes notice in the other organization when coordination will be required.

Several standards development organizations(including IETF and IEEE 802) have agreed to use a mailing list for the distribution of information about proposals for new work items among these SDOs. Rather than having individual IEEE 802 participants subscribe directly to New-Work, a single IEEE 802 mailing list is subscribed. Leadership of the IEEE 802 working groups may subscribe to this "second-level" IEEE 802 mailing list, which is maintained by the Executive Committee (EC). This mailing list is limited to representatives of SDOs proposing new work that may require coordination with the IETF. Subscription requests may be sent to the IAB Executive Director. EDITOR NOTE: the IAB has a 2013 retreat agenda item to discuss the logistics for the New-Work mailing list. We may be adding information about how to subscribe to that mailing list after the retreat.

Many proposals for new IETF work items can be identified in proposed Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions, as well as draft charters for working groups. The IETF forwards all such draft charters for new and revised working groups and BOF session announcements to the IETF New-Work mailing list.

Each IEEE 802 working group chair, or designated representative, may provide comments on these charters by responding to the IESG mailing list at iesg@ietf.org clearly indicating their IEEE 802 position and the nature of their concern. It should be noted that the IETF turnaround time for new working group charters can be as short as two weeks, although the call for comment period on work items that may require coordination with IEEE 802 can be extended to allow more time for discussion within IEEE 802. This places a burden on both organizations to proactively communicate and avoid "late surprises" to either organization. Although an IEEE 802 working group may not be able to develop a formal consensus response unless the notification arrives during that working group's meeting, the IEEE 802 working group chair can informally let the IETF know that IEEE 802 may have concerns about a proposed work item. The IETF will consider any informal comments received without waiting for a formal liaison statement.

An IEEE 802 project is initiated by approval of a Project Authorization Request (PAR) which includes a description of the scope of the work. Any IEEE 802 PARs which introduce new functionality are required to be available for review no less than 30 days prior to the Monday of the IEEE 802 plenary session where they will be considered. IEEE 802 considers Five Criteria when deciding whether to approve new work: Broad Market Potential, Compatibility, Distinct Identity, Technical Feasibility and Economic Feasibility. The criteria are defined in the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee (LMSC) Operations Manual. The PARs are accompanied by responses on the 5 Criteria. IEEE 802 posts proposed PARs to the New-Work mailing list, prior to the IEEE 802 meetings where the PARs will be discussed. The IETF coordination body will notify technical groups about PARs of interest.

Any comments on proposed PARs should be submitted to the Working Group chair and copied to the Executive Committee chair by e-mail not later than 5:00 PM Tuesday of the plenary session (in the time zone where the plenary is located).

From time to time, IEEE 802 and IETF may agree to use additional mechanisms for coordination between the two groups. As examples of such mechanisms, at the time this document was written, the two organizations are holding periodic conference calls between representatives of the IETF and IEEE 802 leadership teams, and are maintaining a "living list" of shared interests between the two organizations, along with the status of these interests and any related action items. At the time this document was written, the "living list" included about 20 topics being actively discussed, with more expected. These conference calls help the two organizations coordinate more effectively by allowing higher-bandwidth discussions than formal liaison statements would allow, and permitting more timely interactions than waiting for face-to-face meetings. Minutes for these conference calls, and the "living lists" discussed on each call, are available at <http://www.iab.org/activities/joint-activities/iab-ieee-coordination/>. EDITOR NOTE: this document doesn't mention the ieee-ietf-coord mailing list. Is using that list a long-term commitment from both organizations? If so, we should probably include it; if not, we should leave it out.

During the course of IEEE 802 and IETF collaboration, it is important to share internal documents among the technical working groups. In addition, drafts of IEEE 802 standards, Internet Drafts, and RFCs may also be distributed.

Each IEEE 802 standardization project is assigned to a Working Group (WG) for development. In IEEE 802, the working methods of the WGs vary in detail. The documentation system is one area in which WG operations differ, based on varying needs and traditions. In some cases, the WGs assign the core development to a subgroup (typically known as a Task Group or Task Force), and the documentation procedures may vary among the subgroups as well. Prior to project authorization, or on topics not directly related to development of a standard, the WG may consider and develop documents itself, or using other subgroups (standing committees, ad hocs, etc.). IEEE 802 also supports Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) that conduct business and develop documents, although not standards. References here to WGs apply to TAGs as well. In addition to allowing IETF participants to access documentation resources within IEEE 802, IEEE 802 can also make selected IEEE 802 documents at any stage of development available to the IETF by attaching them to a formal liaison statement. Although a communication can point to a URL where a non-ASCII document can be downloaded, attachments in proprietary formats to an IETF mailing list are discouraged.

In general, development of standards in IEEE 802 is contribution-driven. Content for drafts of standards is submitted to WGs by individual participants, or groups of participants. Content toward other group documents (such as, for example, external communication statements or foundation documents underlying a draft of a standard) might also be contribution-driven. At some point, the group assembles contributed material to develop group documents, and revision takes place within group meetings or by assignment to editors. For the most part, the contributions toward discussion as well as the group documents (including minutes and other reports) are openly available to the public.

Generally, the archives of minutes and contributions to IEEE 802 groups are publically and freely available. Many IEEE 802 groups use a documentation system provided by IEEE and known as "Mentor". The list of these groups is available at the IEEE 802 Mentor Home Page: <https://mentor.ieee.org/802>. Mentor provides the following features: The documentation system is structured and ordered, with documentation tags and unique numbering and revisioning. On-line documentation is available. Limited search functionality is provided, and publicly-available search engines index the data. The ability to submit documents to Mentor is limited but is generally available to any interested party. An IEEE web account is required but can be easily and freely established using the IEEE Account Request page, at <http://www.ieee.org/go/create_web_account>. If submission is protected, the privilege can be requested via the Mentor system (using the "Join group" link on each WG Mentor page) and would typically be granted by the WG documentation manager in a manual approval. Submitted documents are immediately available to the general public at the same instant they become available for consideration by the group. IEEE 802.1 and IEEE 802.3 do not use Mentor. IEEE 802.1 documents are organized in folders by year at: <http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/>. The file names indicate the relevant project, author, date and version. The file naming conventions and upload link are at: <http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/>. Upload is moderated. IEEE 802.3 documents are accessed from the home pages of the IEEE 802.3 subgroups (i.e., Task Force or Study Group) and are organized in folders by meeting date. Files are uploaded by emailing to the subgroup chair.

IEEE 802 Working Groups are open to contributions. In many cases, a WG or subgroup will issue a call for contributions with a specific technical solicitation, including deadlines and submission instructions. Some groups maintain specific submission procedures and specify a contribution cover sheet to clarify the status of the contribution.

The IEEE owns the copyright to drafts of standards developed within IEEE 802 standardization projects. The IEEE-SA grants permission for an IEEE 802 draft to be distributed without charge to the participants for that IEEE 802 standards development project. Typically, such distribution is on the Internet under password protection, with the password provided to members of the participating WG. Requests to the relevant WG chair for access to a draft for purposes of participation in the project are typically granted. An alternative access mechanism which may more easily enable document access for IETF WGs collaborating with IEEE 802 was established by a liaison statement sent to the IETF in July 2004 by Paul Nikolich, Chair of IEEE 802 (available at <https://datatracker.ietf.org/documents/LIAISON/file41.pdf>), describing the process by which IETF WGs can obtain access to IEEE 802 work-in-progress. IEEE 802 WG Chairs have the authority to grant membership in their WGs, and can use this authority to grant membership to an IETF WG chair upon request. The IETF WG chair will be provided with access to the username/password for the IEEE 802 WG archives, and is permitted to share that information with participants in the IETF WG. Since it is possible to participate in IETF without attending meetings, or even joining a mailing list, IETF WG chairs will provide the information to anyone who requests it. However, since IEEE 802 work-in-progress is copyrighted, incorporating material into IETF documents or posting the username/password on mailing lists or websites is not permitted.

IEEE 802 standards, once approved, are published and made available for sale. They can be purchased from the IEEE Standards Store, at <http://www.techstreet.com/IEEEgate.html>. They are also available from other outlets, including the IEEE Xplore digital library, at <http://IEEExplore.IEEE.org>. The Get IEEE 802 program, at <http://standards.ieee.org/about/get>, grants public access to download individual IEEE 802 standards at no charge. IEEE 802 standards are added to the Get IEEE 802 program six months after publication.

IETF Internet-Drafts may be located using IETF "Datatracker" interface at <https://datatracker.ietf.org>, or via the IETF tools site at <http://tools.ietf.org>. RFCs may be located at either of the above, or via the RFC Editor site at <http://www.rfc-editor.org>. It should be recognized that the official/athoritative versions of all IETF documents are in ASCII.

During the course of IEEE 802 and IETF collaboration, it is important for technical experts to review documents of mutual interest and, when appropriate, to provide review comments to the approving body as the document moves through the approval process.

IEEE 802 drafts are reviewed and balloted at multiple stages in the draft. Any ballot comments received from non-voters before the close of the ballot are required to be considered in the comment resolution process. The Editors, Task Group Chairs or Working Group Chairs responsible for the project will facilitate the entering of comments from non-voters. IEEE 802 draft reviews and ballots sometimes produce a large volume of comments. In order to handle them efficiently, spreadsheets or a comment database tool are used. It is highly recommended that balloters and others submitting comments do so with a file that can be imported into these tools. A file with the correct format is normally referenced in the ballot announcement or can be obtained from the Editor, Task Group Chair or Working Group Chair responsible for the project. Comments on a draft should be copied to the Editor, Task Group Chair and Working Group Chair.

During draft development, informal task group reviews (task group ballots) are conducted. Though these are called "ballots" by some Working Groups, the focus is on collecting and resolving comments on the draft rather than on trying to achieve a specific voting result.

Once the draft is substantially complete, Working Group ballots are conducted. Working Group voting members are entitled and required to vote in Working Group ballots. Any disapprove votes are required to be accompanied by comments that indicate what the objection is and a proposed resolution. Approve votes may also be accompanied by comments. The comments submitted with a disapprove vote may be marked to indicate which comments need to "be satisfied" to change the vote. Initial Working Group ballots are at least 30 days. Recirculation ballots to review draft changes and comment resolutions are at least 10 days. In order to submit a Working Group ballot, contact the WG chair for the submission tool currently in use, as the tools may change over time.

When a draft has successfully completed Working Group ballot, it proceeds to Sponsor ballot. One may participate in IEEE 802 Sponsor ballots with an individual membership in the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) or by paying a per-ballot fee. Participants are also required to state their affiliation and the category of their relationship to the scope of the standards activity (e.g., producer, user, general interest). Information about IEEE-SA membership can be found at <http://standards.ieee.org/membership/>. Sponsor ballot is a public review. An invitation is sent to any parties known to be interested in the subject matter of the ballot. One can indicate interest in IEEE myProject (<https://development.standards.ieee.org/myproject/bp/StartPage>). An IEEE web account is freely available, and is required for login. To select interest areas, go to the Projects tab and select Manage Activity Profile and check any areas of interest. IEEE 802 projects are under Computer Society; LAN/MAN Standards Committee. The Sponsor ballot pool is formed from those that accept the invitation during the invitation period. As with other ballot levels, the IETF participants who want to comment on Sponsor ballots need not be members in the Sponsor ballot pool. The Editors, Task Group Chairs or Working Group Chairs responsible for the project will facilitate the entering of comments from IETF participants who are not members in the Sponsor ballot pool. Any "disapprove" votes are required to be accompanied by comments that indicate what the objection is, along with a proposed resolution. Approve votes may also be accompanied by comments. The comments submitted with a disapprove vote may be marked to indicate which comments need to "be satisfied" for the commenter to change the vote from "disapprove". Initial Sponsor ballot are open for at least 30 days. Recirculation ballots to review draft changes and proposed comment resolutions are at least 10 days.

The IETF Working Group Process is defined in . The overall IETF standards process is defined in . As noted in , IETF working groups do not "ballot" to determine working group consensus to forward documents to the IESG for approval, but the IESG does, as they consider documents for approval. Technical contributions are welcome at any point in the IETF document review and approval process, but there are some points where contribution is more likely to be effective. When a working group is considering adoption of an individual draft. Adoption is often signaled on the working group's mailing list. When a working group issues a "Working Group Last Call" ("WGLC") for a draft. Although this is not a mandatory step in the document review and approval process for Internet-Drafts, most IETF working groups do issue WGLCs for most working group documents. WGLC would be signaled on the working group's mailing list. When the Internet Engineering Steering Group issues an "IETF Last Call" ("Last Call") for a draft. This is similar in spirit to WGLC, but is a request for review and approval that is addressed to the larger IETF community. IETF Last Call is signaled on the IETF-Announce Mailing List, and comments and feedback are ordinarily directed to the IETF Discussion Mailing List. In practice, earlier input is more likely to be effective input. IEEE 802 participants who are interested in work within the IETF should be monitoring that work and providing input long before Working Group Last Calls and IETF Last Calls, for best results. Some IETF working group charters direct the working group to communicate with relevant IEEE 802 task groups.

With the number of areas of cooperation between IEEE 802 and IETF increasing, the document review process has extended beyond the traditional subjects of SMI MIB modules and AAA (authentication, authorization and accounting) described in . IESG members routinely solicit directorate reviews as a means to solicit the opinion of specialized experts on specific aspects of documents in IESG review (examples include security, MIB doctors, or congestion management reviews). Area Directors may also require solicited reviews from IEEE 802 or IEEE 802 Working Groups when it becomes clear that the Internet-Draft has implications that impact some area of IEEE 802's responsibility and expertise. IEEE 802 leadership can also solicit similar reviews, but these reviews are not included as part of the formal IEEE 802 process.

Both IEEE 802 and IETF work best when people participate directly in work of mutual interest, but that's not always possible, and individuals speaking as individuals may not provide effective communication between the two SDOs. From time to time, it may be appropriate for a technical body in one SDO to communicate as a body with a technical body in the other SDO. This section describes the mechanisms used to provide formal communication between the two organizations, should that become necessary. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is responsible for liaison relationship oversight for the IETF. In IEEE 802, liaison relationship oversight is distributed, and each organization appointing liaison managers is responsible for oversight of its own liaison relationships. The reader should note that the role of a liaison manager in both IEEE 802 and IETF is not to "speak for" the appointing organization. A liaison manager is most helpful in ensuring that neither organization is surprised by what's happening in the other organization, helping to identify the right people to be talking to in each organization, and making sure that formal liaison statements don't "get lost" between the two organizations. The IAB's guidance to liaison managers is available in . IEEE 802 organizations appointing each liaison manager also provide guidance to those liaison managers. There is no global guidance for all IEEE 802 liaison managers.

The IAB appoints IETF Liaison Managers using the process described in . The current list of the IETF's liaison relationships, and the liaison managers responsible for each of these relationships is available at <http://www.ietf.org/liaison/managers.html>. IEEE liaison managers are selected by the organizations they represent, either in an election or by working group or task group chair appointment. The current list of IEEE 802's liaison relationships and the liaison managers responsible for each of these relationships is available at <http://www.ieee802.org/liaisons.shtml>.

The IEEE 802 procedure for sending and receiving liaison statements is defined by the Procedure for Coordination with Other Standards Bodies in the IEEE 802 LMSC Operations Manual (<http://ieee802.org/devdocs.shtml>). The IETF process for sending and receiving liaison statements is defined in .