Illustrated TCP/IP by Matthew G. Naugle Wiley Computer Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 0471196568   Pub Date: 11/01/98

Chapter 12
Why Study the RFCs?

It may seem trivial, but I have expanded this section of the book because everyone seems to be getting away from the RFCs. Also, many people are still getting into the TCP/IP protocol who may have never seen an RFC before.

The Request for Comments are papers (documents) that define the TCP/IP protocol suite. They are the Internet’s technical (mostly) documents; I say “mostly” for some are intellectually humorous (e.g., “A View from the 21st Century” by Vint Cerf, RFC 1607). An RFC can be written and submitted by anyone; However, any document does not automatically become an RFC. A text document becomes a draft RFC first. At this point it is considered a public document. A peer review process is then conducted over a period of time and comments are continually made on the draft. It will then be decided whether or not it becomes an RFC.

Steve Crocker wrote the first RFC in 1969. These memos were intended to be an informal, fast way to share ideas with other network researchers. RFCs were originally printed on paper and distributed via snail mail (postal). As the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) came into use, the RFCs were prepared as online files and accessed via FTP. Existing RFCs (as of this writing) number over 2200 and contain information on any aspect of any Internet protocol. Development engineers read these documents and produce applications based on them.

For systems engineers, most of the RFCs do not need to be studied. However, for a basic understanding of the TCP/IP protocol suite, three RFCs must be read. Therefore, in the spirit of the RFC action words, “you MUST read RFCs 1122, 1123, and 1812 before being able to state that you understand the TCP/IP protocol suite.” There are many RFCs, but the majority can be summed up in those three RFCs. The reading is not difficult, and many things are explained.