On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Keith Moore <mo...@network-heretics.com>wrote:
>
> On Jul 30, 2013, at 3:23 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> > The IETF doesn't have a police force, or any enforcement mechanism.
>
> That's true, but people do sometimes cite IETF specifications as
> requirements for equipment procurement. And in many cases it is possible
> to test equipment for conformance to specifications.
>
>
{{citation-needed}} - I've only ever seen specification conformance in
procurement documents for military systems, never for anything else.
And moreover, I suspect that this doesn't matter; the kinds of people
who're procuring, as such - rather than either buying or just living with
what someone else bought - are a tiny minority. Real people, who drive most
of the internet's use, wouldn't know or care if their new router supported
RFC 6592.
Maybe this could be addressed by having a Marketing Label™ to attach to
internet access, in the same way that WiFi™ has helped 802.11a/b/g/n do so
well. I'm pretty sure than if (for example) Skype stamped on its box that
you were recommended to have Halfway Decent™ bandwidth, that an ISP could
start to market their Halfway Decent™ offering, and would be procuring
Halfway Decent™ equipment. And for what it's worth, I'd happily pay -
indeed, do happily pay - a premium to have Halfway Decent™ internet access.
But I'm not sure this is an IETF activity - perhaps an ISOC one though.
Dave.
