IRTF - Definition and Overview

The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is a sister group to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Its stated mission is “To promote research of importance to the evolution of the future Internet by creating focused, long-term and small Research Groups working on topics related to Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology”.

It is composed of research groups that study long-term issues relating to the Internet and related technologies. The list of current groups can be found on IRTF's homepage.

The IRTF is managed by the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG) which corresponds to the similar organization called Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) on the IETF side. The chair of the IRTF is appointed by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) for a two year term. The current IRTF chair is Vern Paxson.

See also

• Internet research

External links

• IRTF (http://www.irtf.org/)
• The IRTF Research Groups guidelines and procedures are described more fully in RFC 2014 (BCP 8) (ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2014.txt).