RFC management by streams and status

RFC

A Request for Comments (RFC) is a numbered technical document that describes Internet protocols, procedures, research and standards. The series began in 1969 (RFC 1, by Steve Crocker). Each RFC gets a permanent number and is never changed; if a document needs changing, a new RFC that obsoletes or updates the old one is published. RFCs are public and free, which is a main reason the Internet grew with open, interoperable protocols. The RFC Editor publishes and archives them.

Management by streams

The RFC Editor accepts documents from four main streams (RFC 4844):

1. IETF stream: documents produced by IETF working groups, reviewed by the IESG. This stream produces all standards-track documents (e.g. HTTP, TCP, IPv6).
2. IAB stream: documents on Internet architecture and policy from the Internet Architecture Board.
3. IRTF stream: documents from research groups of the Internet Research Task Force; they are research results, not standards.
4. Independent Submission stream: documents sent directly by individuals outside the other streams; reviewed by the Independent Submissions Editor for technical soundness and not conflicting with IETF work.

(Since 2022, RFC 9280 also defines an Editorial stream for documents about the RFC series itself.)

Management by status (maturity level)

Every RFC has a status category.

Standards Track

• Proposed Standard: stable, well understood and reviewed, but not yet widely tested. Most RFCs start here.
• Internet Standard (STD): a specification with significant implementation and operational experience. It is given an STD number. (The old Draft Standard level was retired in 2011.)

Non-standards Track

• Best Current Practice (BCP): guidelines and procedures that the community accepts.
• Informational: general information, no standards status.
• Experimental: protocols under trial, not for production use.
• Historic: obsolete specifications that have been replaced.

An RFC moves up from Proposed Standard to Internet Standard after at least two independent interoperable implementations and proven operation, as decided by the IESG. RFC 2026 also defines requirement levels for specifications (Required, Recommended, Elective, Limited Use and Not Recommended) to show how widely a protocol should be implemented; these were mainly used in the older Internet Official Protocol Standards lists.

Summary table

An RFC can be searched by number at rfc-editor.org. Related terms: STD (Internet Standard number), BCP (best current practice number) and FYI (older informational series).