[Chapter-delegates] ITU bashes ISOC, IETF

Veni Markovski veni at veni.com
Tue Mar 15 07:20:05 PDT 2011


doesn't look good development...

http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/technology/45793-itu-blasts-ietf-over-mpls-standards-stoush

for those of you via phones:


    ITU blasts IETF over MPLS standards stoush
    <http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/technology/45793-itu-blasts-ietf-over-mpls-standards-stoush>


By Stuart Corner <http://www.itwire.com/journalist/63-stuart-corner>
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:19

The ITU has fired a second salvo in its war of words against the IETF 
over their split on standards for operation and management of MPLS 
networks, laying the blame squarely on the IETF.

The spat became public at the end of February when the IETF and the 
Internet Society (ISOC) published, in ISOC's monthly newsletter 
<http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=3287> an attack on the ITU's decision 
to develop standards for OAM in MPLS networks separate from those being 
developed by the IETF. IETF chairman, Russ Housley, said he was 
"disappointed at the action taken by the ITU,"

The article described the split between the two organisations - that 
have a long history of technical collaboration -as being "without 
precedent," and said: "This step, over time, will affect the flow of 
Internet traffic, as separate standards will lead to products that are 
not able to interoperate."

The ITU was quick to respond with its own announcement 
<http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/newslog/Experts+Cast+Doubt+On+Jeopardize+Internet+Statement.aspx>, 
playing down claims that the different standards would cause major 
problems and blaming IETF for bringing about the divergence between the 
two organisations.

IETF and ISOC appear not to have made any further public statements on 
the matter, but the ITU has now issued a lengthy statement 
<http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/newslog/MPLSTP+The+Facts.aspx>, 'MPLS-TP the 
Facts' saying: "With ITU's recent announcement on an OAM standard for 
MPLS in transport networks generating claims from the Internet Society 
that it will jeopardise the Internet, counter claims and much press 
coverage it seems the right time to set the record straight." It pulls 
no punches in blaming IETF for the situation.

The ITU and the IETF have successfully collaborated on MPLS 
standardisation and several years ago, both organisations created a 
joint working team (JWT) to examine the feasibility of developing a 
single, collaborative solution to MPLS transport requirements.

According to IETF, "The JWT provided a report that stated not only that 
a single solution was possible but also confirmed that it was possible 
to extend the existing MPLS architecture to meet additional 
requirements. The JWT report went on to recommend that protocol 
development for this enhanced MPLS, to be known as MPLS-TP, should be 
undertaken by the IETF. Both organisations subsequently endorsed these 
findings and formally accepted the JWT report in December 2008.

However according to the ITU "it is the IETF who have chosen to 
characterise the ITU actions as breaking the agreement despite the fact 
that they have already ignored the proposals in the JWT report…Despite 
all this effort on the part of ITU to collaborate with IETF it is now 
falsely claiming that ITU reneged on the JWT agreement."

*This article first appeared in ExchangeDaily, iTWire's daily newsletter 
for telecommunications professionals. Register here for your free trial. 
<http://itwire.com/exchange> *





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