Request for Comments (RFC)

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Definition of Request for Comments (RFC) in Network Encyclopedia.

What is RFC (Request for Comments)?

RFC (stands for Request For Comments) is a document that describes the standards, protocols, and technologies of the Internet and TCP/IP. Since 1969, about 2400 Requests for Comments (RFCs) have been published on various networking protocols, procedures, applications, and concepts. The first RFC was published by Steve Crocker and was entitled “Host Software.”

RFC - Rquest For Comments
RFC – Request For Comments

Internet and TCP/IP standards are generated by consensus rather than by committee. Any member of the Internet Society (ISOC) can submit an RFC for consideration, although submission is usually done through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Once published, an RFC is reviewed by various technical groups and given one of five classifications:

  • Required
  • Recommended
  • Elective
  • Limited Use
  • Not Recommended

Once an RFC is classified, it is published as an Internet Draft and is discussed and tested by research and technical groups and individuals. It might eventually go through the following stages of development:

  1. Proposed standard: Stable, well understood, and generally considered useful 
  2. Draft standard: Stable enough to develop implementations of the standard in applications and networking technology 
  3. Internet standard: Technically mature, widely implemented, and significantly beneficial to the Internet community 

RFCs are sequentially numbered and published by the RFC Editor at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California.

RFC - How the Internet Works
RFC – How the Internet Works

NOTE


Old RFCs are not updated, so several RFCs might relate to the same Internet protocol or technology, and some of them might be obsolete. To find the current RFC for a protocol or technology, see the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Official Protocol Standard published quarterly by the IAB. The following table shows some of the important RFCs for commonly used Internet protocols.


Some Important RFCs for Internet Protocols

ProtocolRFC(s)
ARP826
DHCP2131, 2132
DNS1034, 1035
FTP959
HTTP-1.12068
ICMP792
IGMP1112
IMAP42060
IP791, 919, 922, 950
IPv61883
Kerberos1510
LDAPv32251
MIME2045, 2046, 2047, 2049
NetBIOS1001, 1002
NNTP977
OSPFv22328
POP31939
PPP1661, 1662
PPP-CHAP1994
PPP-MP1990
RADIUS2138
RMON1757
RSVP2205
SMTP821, 822, 974, 1869, 1870
SNMP1157
SNMPv21441
TCP793
Telnet854, 855
UDP768

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