[Irtf-rr] Where next for the IRTF RRG

[avri]

Hi,

I am grateful to Vern for giving me the chance to work with the RRG as 
its chair anda chance to try and get it back on a useful track.  I also 
thank Frank and Sean for the efforts they have put into the RRG over 
the last few years.

While talking to Vern about the group, we came up with an approach.  
This approach is by no means complete, and will the need the 
participation of many individuals in this group to be viable.

Elements of that approach are:

1. Get the requirements document published.  I have just submitted an 
update that takes into account the comments received based on the -00 
version.   It should show up shortly.  I would like to get this 
published as an Informational RFC in the near future.

2. Get the history document updated and published as an Informational 
RFC in relatively short time. I have asked the co-editor of that draft, 
Elwyn Davies to usher this to completion as its primary editor.  He 
will, however, need the help of reviewers, especially from among those 
who 'were there' while the current routed network was being created.

3. Most importantly, get some research sub-projects established within 
the RRG.  I believe there is much that needs be researched, both for 
the near term and for the longer term and I believe the RRG can still 
have a useful role to play in that research.

The immediate goal is to decide which specific routing research issues 
should be focused on now.  I think we need to find projects in both the 
near term, and the longer term categories.

- in terms of the near term, I plan to consult with the IETF Routing, 
and Routing involved, ADs and others to find out which are the specific 
research issues that would be useful for the RRG to take on.  I 
envision that these projects should mostly be the sort where we can 
achieve results within a year or so.

- in terms of the longer term, I include projects that attempt to 
respond to the issues and questions raised in the requirements 
document.  While these projects might include the grand new 
architecture as envisioned by the requirements, or at least subset of 
them, they might also consist of more focused projects that contribute 
to solving the long term problems in an evolutionary manner. These 
project could also concern issues in mobility and other issues and can 
involve non traditional approaches to network organization.

I would like to ask the participants who have research idea for the 
group  to contribute paragraphs to the list, or to me, describing 
research issues they think are important and the reasons they think 
they are useful.

So, in the near future, I would like to see several projects initiated 
that range from the immediately practical to the far range and 
speculative.    While it depends on the number of people willing to get 
involved, I think that initially we would initiate no more then 5 
efforts and possibly many fewer.

Once a few sub-projects have been started up  the charter will get 
updated to reflect the goals.  I see the charter as flexible, so that 
if a new idea for a sub-project comes up and there are qualified people 
who want to participate we can look at updating the charter.

I would like to structure the sub-projects along the same lines as has 
been done in the RRG in the past, i.e. closed membership in the 
sub-groups but an open general mailing list.  I would, however, like to 
have all of the closed sub-group produce periodic updates to the list 
so that everyone can know what is going and can participate in some of 
the discussions of issues on the open list.  I would also like for the 
list to become a place where research questions can be posed and where 
there  can be an open sharing of ideas, opinions, speculation and maybe 
even knowledge.

thanks

a.