1.11 RFCs

1.11 RFCs

All the official standards in the internet community are published as a Request for Comment, or RFC. Additionally there are lots of RFCs that are not official standards, but are published for informational purposes. The RFCs range in size from 1 page to almost 200 pages. Each is identified by a number, such as RFC 1122, with higher numbers for newer RFCs.

All the RFCs are available at no charge through electronic mail or using FTP across the Internet. Sending electronic mail as shown here:

 To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU     Subject: getting rfcs          help: ways_to_get_rfcs 

returns a detailed listing of various ways to obtain the RFCs.

The latest RFC index is always a starting point when looking for something. This index specifies when a certain RFC has been replaced by a newer RFC, and if a newer RFC updates some of the information in that RFC.

There are a few important RFCs.

  1. The Assigned Numbers RFC specifies all the magic numbers and constants that are used in the Internet protocols. At the time of this writing the latest version of this RFC is 1340 [Reynolds and Postel 1992]. All the Internet-wide well-known ports are listed here.

    When this RFC is updated (it is normally updated at least yearly) the index listing for 1340 will indicate which RFC has replaced it.

  2. The Internet Official Protocol Standards, currently RFC 1600 [Postel 1994]. This RFC specifies the state of standardization of the various Internet protocols. Each protocol has one of the following states of standardization: standard, draft standard, proposed standard, experimental, informational, or historic. Additionally each protocol has a requirement level: required, recommended, elective , limited use, or not recommended.

    Like the Assigned Numbers RFC, this RFC is also reissued regularly. Be sure you're reading the current copy.

  3. The Host Requirements RFCs, 1122 and 1123 [Braden 1989a, 1989b]. RFC 1122 handles the link layer, network layer, and transport layer, while RFC 1123 handles the application layer. These two RFCs make numerous corrections and interpretations of the important earlier RFCs, and are often the starting point when looking at any of the finer details of a given protocol. They list the features and implementation details of the protocols as either "must," "should," "may," "should not," or "must not."

    [Borman 1993b] provides a practical look at these two RFCs, and RFC 1127 [Braden 1989c] provides an informal summary of the discussions and conclusions of the working group that developed the Host Requirements RFCs.

  4. The Router Requirements RFC. The official version of this is RFC 1009 [Braden and Postel 1987], but a new version is nearing completion [Almquist 1993]. This is similar to the host requirements RFCs, but specifies the unique requirements of routers.



TCP.IP Illustrated, Volume 1. The Protocols
TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)
ISBN: 0201633469
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1993
Pages: 378

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