Basic info about Network Standards

1: What is the IETF?

** The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is responsible for developing and maintaining the Internet's technologies, as well as guiding its growth and development. Consequently, the IETF is frequently regarded as the guardian of the Internet and its technologies.

2: What is the difference between open standards and closed, or proprietary, technologies?

** A closed or proprietary technology is one developed in secret. The details about how it is made or how it works are kept a secret. Conversely, an open technology is one developed publicly and whose technical details are shared freely with anyone who would like to know them.

3: What is interoperability?

** Interoperability is the ability to build a functional networked computing environment by interconnecting products from different manufacturers.

4: What is the benefit of interoperability?

** The benefit of interoperability across vendor platforms is that it makes products from different vendors compatible, thus encouraging price-based competition. The result is that it enables communications between dissimilar computer systems.

5: How do you create and maintain the technical standards that enable the Internet and its technologies to be interoperable?

** The IETF creates and maintains the technical standards that enable the Internet and its technologies to remain interoperable. It does so by sanctioning committees to study problems and develop solutions. The solutions are documented publicly in Requests For Comments (RFCs). Products that conform to the standards set forth in the RFCs interoperate regardless of who made them.

6: What is a reference model and why is it needed?

** A reference model is a logical framework that keeps a sequence of events in proper order. Reference models have been indispensable in developing open networks and systems by providing a neutral framework for all to follow.

7: Explain the concept of logical adjacency.

** Logical adjacency means that two compatible applications function as if they are passing data directly back and forth between each other. For example, you use e-mail software to send e-mails to other people using similar software. In reality, the e-mail software packages communicate indirectly. They communicate directly with TCP/IP. Simply stated, the two e-mail packages appear logically adjacent, even though they physically are not.