Liaisons

The IETF has a limited number of liaison relationships with other organizations. Liaisons are appointed by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) when the IAB feels that conditions warrant appointing a specific person to such a task.

Key Info

Establishing a liaison relationship can provide the framework for ongoing communications to:

  • Prevent inadvertent duplication of effort, without obstructing either organization from pursuing its own mandate
  • Provide authoritative information of one organization’s dependence on the other’s work

Note that such appointments are rare as the best way for organizations to work with the IETF is to do so within the working groups. The primary contact on liaison negotiation is the IAB.

For more information about the procedures that govern IETF liaisons, please see RFC 4052 “IAB Liaison Management” and RFC 4053 (BCP 103) “Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF.”

A list of liaison statements is available on the IETF Datatracker.

To submit a liaison statement:

  • Outgoing: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an outgoing liaison here after logging into the datatracker
  • Incoming: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an incoming liaison here after logging into the datatracker
  • Submit a liaison statement via email to [email protected] if you prefer not to use the tool

    mailto:[email protected].

The list of current liaisons appears below: 

3GPP

Broadband Forum

  • IETF Liaison Manager: David Sinicrope
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Brian Trammell

CableLabs

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Jason Weil
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Brian Trammell

Community Coordination Group (CCG)

ECMA TC39

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Matt Miller
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Martin Thomson

ICANN Board of Directors

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Jonne Soininen
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Suzanne Woolf

ICANN NomCom 

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Ole Jacobsen
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Suzanne Woolf

ICANN RSSAC

ICANN RZERC

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Jim Reid
  • IAB Liaison Shepherds: Ted Hardie, Suzanne Woolf

ICANN TLG

IEEE 802.1

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Eric Gray
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Erik Nordmark

IEEE-SA

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Russ Housley
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Erik Nordmark

ISO/IEC JTC1 SC2

ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Stephan Wenger
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Ted Hardie

ISO/IEC JTC1 SC6 

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Allison Mankin
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Robert Sparks

ISO/TC46 

  • IETF Liaison Manager: John Klensin
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Allison Mankin

ISO/TC204

ITU-T

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Scott Mansfield
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Mark Nottingham

ITU-T, SG15 (optical control plane)

  • IETF Liaison Manager: John Drake
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Jeff Tantsura

Messaging Malware Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG)

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Barry Leiba
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Suzanne Woolf

Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation

Unicode

W3C

  • IETF Liaison Manager: Mark Nottingham
  • IAB Liaison Shepherd: Martin Thomson

    Bibliography

    • [1] RFC 4052
      IAB Processes for Management of IETF Liaison Relationships

      This document discusses the procedures used by the IAB to establish and maintain liaison relationships between the IETF and other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), consortia and industry fora. This document also discusses the appointment and responsibilities of IETF liaison managers an...

    • [2] RFC 4053
      Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF

      This document describes the procedure for proper handling of incoming liaison statements from other standards development organizations (SDOs), consortia, and industry fora, and for generating liaison statements to be transmitted from IETF to other SDOs, consortia and industry fora. This procedur...

      Stephen Trowbridge