Internet Engineering Task Force

Internet Engineering Task Force Profile and History

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an open standards organization, which develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and managers are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors. The IETF start ed out as an activity supported by the US Federal Government, but since 1993 it has operated as a standards development function under the auspices of the Internet Society, an international membership-based non-profit organization.