Page 66 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

2017 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

parties should exhaust all appeals procedures available under procedures of any relevant subordinate committee or
the Institute’s legal framework prior to initiating legal working group, appeal procedural actions or inactions to the
proceedings. While the ETSI does not maintain a specialized IEEE-SA Standards Board and, subsequently, to the BoG.
dispute resolution body, the General Assembly may facilitate Technical appeals are resolved within the relevant Working
mediation. Groups.
8
9
IEEE- Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
IEEE-SA is one of the Major Boards of the Institute of IETF establishes Internet standards and specifications, i.e.
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a private, non- protocol layers and general applications (i.e. e-mail).
for-profit organization and the largest technical professional Organizational structure of IETF bears little resemblance to
society, having over 423.000 members in nearly 160 formal SDOs, since it has no membership and is not
countries. Although in theory, IEEE-SA operates incorporated in any jurisdiction. IETF standardization
independently from IEEE, it remains accountable to the activity relies on voluntary participation of individual
IEEE’s highest governing body, the Board of Directors, experts, often hardware and software engineers or
which in turn is empowered to propose amendments for academics. Since IETF standardization is ideally based on
IEEE Constitution approve assessments of IEEE members engineering excellence rather than policy and business
and sanction members whose conducts are seriously considerations, experts are not supposed to represent the
prejudicial to the Institute. enterprise of their affiliation. IETF Working Groups
IEEE-SA distinguishes between two types of standards typically take form of a mailing list, to which everybody can
development: individual process, preferred in the most sign up. Each Working Group is assigned to one of eight
standardization activities, and corporate process. IETF areas, coordinated by the Area Directors (ADs).
Accordingly, membership can be obtained by individual Standardization efforts within the IETF typically result in a
experts as well as commercial entities or governmental document termed a Request for Comments (RFC), which is
agencies. Standard-setting within IEEE-SA is managed by published free of charge.
the Board of Governors (BoG), elected biennially by IEEE Although fairly informal, IETF activities require at least a
voting members, who also hold the membership of the IEEE- minimum of coordination. The structure followed by the
SA. The BoG further appoints the other significant body in IETF participants is offered by other organizations. One of
the realm of IEEE standardization, the IEEE-SA Standards the main bodies dealing with the technical work of the IETF
Board, which coordinates standards development processes is the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), which
and approves new projects. The work of the IEEE-SA bears a direct responsibility for the progress of
Standards Board is facilitated by a number of specialized standardization project, including final approval of
Standing Committees, whose officials are appointed by the specifications as Internet Standards and ensuring that the
IEEE-SA Chair. Members serving at the governing bodies documents are of a sufficient quality. Long-range
shall not represent the entity of their affiliation and have a coordination of IETF activities is entrusted to the Internet
fiduciary duty to the IEEE and IEEE-SA. Architecture Board (IAB), concerned with the design of
The BoG and IEEE-SA Standards Board are entitled to Internet and its protocols, review of new IETF Working
amend IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws, a main legal Groups as regards their architectural consistency and
document of the IEEE-SA that provides policies for integrity, and approval of the nominees for the IESG.
management and creation of IEEE standards. Modifications Administrative structure of the IETF Working Groups, IESG
of IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual, which and IAB is provided by the IETF Administrative Support
governs orchestration and working procedures of the Activity (IASA), which also manages financial matters
Standards Board, are carried out by the Standards Board and related to IETF meetings. The scope of IASA’s
do not require approval of the BoG. The general objectives administrative functions is established by the IETF
and policies of IEEE standardization are specified in the Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), who also
IEEE-SA Operations Manual, a document created and bears financial and administrative accountability to the IETF
amended by the BoG. In turn, the IEEE Constitution can only community. The Nominating Committee (NomCom),
be modified by all IEEE voting members, upon a position although not directly involved in IETF standardization, plays
resolution of the Boards of Directors; consent of all IEEE a key role in the IETF governance by selecting candidates for
members is not required for amendments to the IEEE the IESG, IAB and IAOC. Remarkably, an individual can be
Bylaws, which govern operation and administration of the a member of multiple boards or committees.
Institute, since the approval of the Board of Directors is Rules and processes governing standards development
sufficient. Those who are directly and materially affected by within the IETF are established by consensus in dedicated
standards may, upon the exhaustion of the appeals Working Groups and published as Best Current Practices

8 IEEE Constitution and Bylaws (June 2017) retrieved from, 9 IETF Standards Process (October 2004) and Intellectual Property
https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieee_constitution_and_bylaws.pd Policy (May 2017) retrieved from
f; IEEE-SA Governing Documents (May 2017 version of IEEE-SA https://www.ietf.org/about/standards-process.html.
Operations Manual and December2016 version of IEEE-SASB
Bylaws and SASB Operational Manual) retrieved from
http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/.

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