First draft charter for combined dnsind/dnssec

[Robert Elz <kre@MUNNARI.OZ.AU>]

To all DNSIND and DNSSEC members...

Here is the (long awaited) first draft of a proposal for a charter
for the (to be) new combined working group.

Note that the WG name has not yet been determined.   It is possible
it might remain dnsind, it is possible that it might become dnsext
(as suggested in the draft below) or it could become something else
entirely.

Keeping dnsind has the advbantage that less stuff needs to be altered.
It has the disadvantage that the "ind" part has pretty much become
meaningless, for some time now.

Switching to dnsext would mean a more relevant name, but maeans a name
switch with essentially no real practical benefits.

On something else - we'll only know if/when it is proposed.

Aside from that issue, on which reasoned comments are welcome, please
look at the rest of the draft charter, and supply any missing information.
Also please consider the milestones, and see which of them you believe
we can make, where we can perhaps go quicker, ...   Also, any that I
have missed, or any active work I have missed (and should be being
continued).   Work from dnssec is an obvious candidate for that.

Lastly, for credit where it is due - most of the substance of this
draft charter came from Thomas Narten (one of our ADs) - I added the
work items and milestones (which are the parts most likely in need of
correction).

This draft has not yet been to the IESG for consideration, that will
happen after any WG concerns are addressed (from either of the merging
working groups).

kre

ps: I already know from comments on the draft agenda for the Oslo WG
meeting that some of the specific work items will ened updating.


DNS Extensions (dnsext)
---------------------------------------------------
 
 Charter 
 Last Modified: 11-May-1999
 
 Current Status: Active Working Group (being rechartered)
 
 Chair(s):
     Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
     Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au>
 
 Internet Area Director(s): 
     Thomas Narten  <narten@raleigh.ibm.com>
     Erik Nordmark <nordmark@eng.sun.com>
 
 Internet Area Advisor: 
     Erik Nordmark <nordmark@eng.sun.com>
     
 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion: namedroppers@internic.net
     To Subscribe:       namedroppers-request@internic.net
     Archive:            ftp://rs.internic.net/archives/namedroppers
 
Description of Working Group:
 
This working group is concerned with all DNS protocol and data format
issues, as opposed to operational issues which are handled elsewhere
(e.g., the DNSOP WG).

Current work is focused on the following areas:

Defining protocol extensions that allow DNS resolvers and servers to
support new versions of the DNS protocols. Needed extensions include
the ability to expand the size of some fixed size fields (e.g., error
codes), a mechanism to indicate support for larger than current DNS
payloads, compression mechanism for new RRs, etc.

Securing the DNS protocol (i.e., DNSSEC). The groundwork for DNSSEC
was laid down by the DNSSEC WG. That WG has been closed with the
remaining work picked up by DNSEXT. 

Advancing DNS specifications (rfc1982, rfc1995, rfc1996, rfc2136, rfc2137
rfc2181, rfc2308, rfc2535, rfc2536, rfc2537, rfc2538, rfc2539, rfc2541)
along the Standards Track.

Serving as a place to review DNS-related documents produced by other
working groups.

New work items may be added from time to time with the approval of
the working group and the responsible AD.


Specific activities taking place at present:

  Designing extensions to the basic DNS protocol to allow for
  bigger packets, more error codes, new label types, multiple queries (etc).
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-edns0-NN.txt> and <draft-ietf-dnsind-edns1-NN.txt>

  Revising RFC 2052 (SRV records) and placing it on the Standards Track.
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-rfc2052bis-NN.txt>

  Allowing DNS name compression that can survive caching and redistribution
  by caches that do not understand the format.
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-local-compression-NN.txt>

  Permitting dynamic DNS delete operations to be deferred to a later
  time.   <draft-ietf-dnsind-dddd-NN.txt>

  Designing a RR to store address prefix lists.
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-apl-rr-NN.txt>

  Defining an simple shared secret key based mechanism for
  authenticating DNS transactions <draft-ietf-dnsind-tsig-NN.txt>.

  Using that mechanism to allow for simplified security of dynamic
  updates.   <draft-ietf-dnsind-simple-secure-update-NN.txt>

  Providing a method to establish a shared secret key (suitable for tsig).
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-tkey-NN.txt>

  Attempting to allow verification of unknown RR types, which might
  contain (case insensitive) domain names.  <draft-ietf-dnsind-verify-NN.txt>

  Dealing with the problems of rollover of the timestamps in keys and
  signatures.  <draft-ietf-dnsind-rollover-NN.txt>

  Avoiding the need to have zone keys stored in the parent zone file.
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-keyreferral-NN.txt>

  Allowing keys to contain a key reference, rather than the key itself.
  <draft-ietf-dnsind-indirect-key-NN.txt>

Goals and Milestones:

  Where there is no milestone for a work item mentioned above,
  the working group has not yet decided upon the priority for
  the item, or, in some cases, whether active work will be undertaken,
  and no target milestone has yet been set.

 Aug 99  Basic extensions to the DNS (edns0) resubmitted to the IESG
 Aug 99  local compression ready for IESG consideration
 Nov 99  notify and dynamic update interoperability testing complete
 Dec 99  tsig ready for iesg consideration
 May 00  simple secure update completed
 Mar 00	 ixfr interoperability testing complete
 Dec 00  More DNS extensions (edns1) submitted to IESG
 Apr 13  rfc2052bis (SVR RRs) finally meets the IESG requirements