RFC 1100 (rfc1100) - Page 3 of 14

IAB official protocol standards

RFC 1100                     IAB Standards                    April 1989


   declare the protocol an official Internet standard.

   Some protocols have been superseded by better protocols or are
   otherwise unused.  Such protocols are designated "historic".

   In addition to a state (like proposed or standard) a protocol is also
   assigned a status.  A protocol can be required, meaning that all
   systems in the Internet must implement it.  For example, the Internet
   Protocol (IP) is required.  A protocol may be recommended, meaning
   that systems should implement this protocol.  A protocol may be
   elective, meaning that systems may implement this protocol; that is,
   if (and only if) the functionality of this protocol is needed or
   useful for a system it must use this protocol to provide the
   functionality.  A protocol may be termed not recommended if it is not
   intended to be generally implemented; for example, experimental or
   historic protocols.

   Few protocols are required to be implemented in all systems.  This is
   because there is such a variety of possible systems; for example,
   gateways, terminal servers, workstations, multi-user hosts.  It is
   not necessary for a gateway to implement TCP and the protocols that
   use TCP (though it may be useful).  It is expected that general
   purpose hosts will implement at least IP (including ICMP), TCP and
   UDP, Telnet, FTP, SMTP, Mail, and the Domain Name System (DNS).

3.  The Request for Comments Documents

   The documents called Request for Comments (or RFCs) are the working
   notes of the Internet research and development community.  A document
   in this series may be on essentially any topic related to computer
   communication, and may be anything from a meeting report to the
   specification of a standard.  All standards are published as RFCs,
   but not all RFCs specify standards.

   Anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC.  Submissions
   must be made via electronic mail to the RFC Editor (see the contact
   information at the end of this memo).

   While RFCs are not refereed publications, they do receive technical
   review form the task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC
   Editor, as appropriate.

   Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published, that RFC is
   never revised or re-issued with the same number.  There is never a
   question of having the most recent version of a particular RFC.
   However, a protocol (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) may be
   improved and re-documented many times in several different RFCs.  It
   is important to verify that you have the most recent RFC on a



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