[Chapter-delegates] NEWS RELEASE and Q&A on ITU decision

[Anya Chambers]

Dear all

You may have seen a technically focussed statement issued on Friday relating to the ITU's decision on MPLS standards development. 

Please find below a press release issued today and designed both to appeal to a wider, less technical audience and to address some of the issues raised in the ITU's own announcement today.

You can find it on our website here: http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=3297

We have also created a Q&A relating to the ITU decision - you can find it here: http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=3295

Regards

Anya


Internet Engineering Task Force and ITU Diverge on Internet Standard

Parallel standards development poses threat to future Internet health


GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and RESTON, VIRGINIA, USA – 28 February 2011 – theInternet Society, the world’s trusted independent source of Internet leadership and theInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the premier developer of Internet standards, announced plans for the continued development of the IETF’s Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) standard.

In the ongoing pursuit of a globally interoperable solution, the IETF announced that it continues to gather transport requirements and work to extend IETF MPLS forwarding, Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM), survivability, network management, and control plane protocols to meet those requirements through the IETF standards process.

This announcement comes on the heels of a decision taken at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) last Friday to move ahead with parallel technology development for OAM in MPLS transport networks. This step, over time, will affect the flow of Internet traffic, as separate standards will lead to products that are not able to interoperate.

Russ Housley, IETF Chair, commented; “The Internet we know today could not have come about without open, interoperable, global standards. I am surprised and disappointed by the action taken by the ITU. Collaboration on MPLS transport profile specifications have taken longer than expected, but the result is quality specifications, and many vendors are implementing them.”

“The Internet is an unprecedented success thanks to open, globally interoperable standards,” added Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society. “This action takes us away from the path of global interoperability. It will have a detrimental effect on the long term health of the Internet, and reduce the benefits to all of us as users. It is imperative that the IETF continues to move forward to develop the MPLS standard in the appropriate way, to ensure the continued health of the Internet as a source of innovation for the future.”

For more information on the technologies relating to this ITU decision and its implications – read the Q&A




Anya Chambers
Internet Society

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