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Message from the IETF Chair

By: Russ Housley

Date: September 7, 2009

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I was quite pleased by the success of IETF 75. Despite the worldwide economic downturn, 1,084 people from 50 different countries attended, signifying a continuing relevance of and enthusiasm for the work of the IETF. Significant progress had been made by many of the working groups (WGs).

The wonderful people at .SE hosted the meeting, which was held in Stockholm in July 2009. The meeting opened with a welcome reception hosted by Stockholm mayor Sten Nordin at Stockholm city hall, a beautiful brick edifice on Lake Mälaren. The building is reminiscent of a medieval palace and is one of the Swedish capital’s most emblematic structures; the impressive, Nobel Prize Banquet is held every December in the same room in the building. During the reception, the mayor made a toast for a successful meeting, which certainly came to pass.

On Tuesday, .SE hosted a social event at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a 17th-century regal warship that was salvaged from the bottom of the sea just outside the port of Stockholm, where it sank on its maiden journey. Today it stands as a reminder of the ramifications of placing political ego ahead of sound engineering.

The IETF 75 meeting-site network was subcontracted to VeriLAN Networks; and VeriLAN’s staff, working with dedicated volunteers, provided a robust and reliable network.

Since IETF 74, eight new WGs were chartered, and six WGs were closed. About 112 WGs are currently chartered. Between IETF 74 and IETF 75, the WGs and individual contributors produced 517 new Internet-Drafts and updated 955 Internet-Drafts, some more than once. The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) approved 108 Internet-Drafts for publication as RFCs. The RFC Editor published 90 new RFCs.

Like IETF 74, one of the hot topics during IETF 75 involved tools to facilitate the transition from IPv4 and IPv6, with discussions continuing about the requirements for NAT-PT. Throughout the week, an IPv6-only network was available so that attendees could experience the Internet without IPv4.

I look forward to IETF 76 in Hiroshima, Japan, scheduled for 8-13 November 2009. The meeting will be hosted by the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project. Beyond that, IETF 77 will be held in Anaheim, California, 21-26 March 2010. As always, scheduling information for future IETF meetings can be found here, and I look forward to seeing you at those meetings.