Subject: [mpls-tp] JWT Agreement and the Source of Requirements

From: "Adrian Farrel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:06:27 +0100

Several emails have recently stated that the JWT agreement directs that "the 
IETF will take MPLS-TP requirements from the ITU-T" [my paraphrase].

I would like to add a little precision to this statement by copying some 
text from the Joint Working Team Agreement as recorded in RFC 5317.

The Abstract states:
   The IETF and the ITU-T jointly agree to work
   together and bring transport requirements into the IETF and extend
   IETF MPLS forwarding, OAM (Operations, Administration, and
   Management), survivability, network management and control plane
   protocols to meet those requirements through the IETF Standards
   Process.

This is repeated in Section 2 "Executive Summary"
   The JWT achieved consensus on the recommendation of Option 1: to
   jointly agree to work together and bring transport requirements into
   the IETF and extend IETF MPLS forwarding, OAM, survivability, network
   management, and control plane protocols to meet those requirements
   through the IETF Standards Process.

I interpret "work together to bring requirements" to mean discuss and debate 
as a joint team. I do not interpret it to mean that requirements will be 
served up as a package that must be included in the MPLS-TP work because 
they were previously discussed in the ITU-T.

Of course, we *are* interested in the work on packet transport networks 
already done in the ITU-T. And we do take seriously the expertise (our own 
expertise, in many cases :-) present in the ITU-T. But the joint team needs 
to evaluate and discuss all requirements taking them on merit and with an 
understanding of what they are trying to achieve.

I would like to hear other opinions on the meaning of the language in the 
JWT agreement (have I missed any important sentences anywhere?), and I hope 
we can continue to work together as a joint team without reference to "them" 
or "us".

Thanks,
Adrian