On 2012-05-29 19:40, Theo de Raadt wrote:
http://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2011-10-2011-12.html#The-New-CARP

Look at that last entry about talking to IANA!

The entry in question is:
"4. Work with IANA to get an official protocol number. gnn@ to handle."

This shows ignorance about how IANA works. You cannot "work with IANA". IANA is a clerk. It maintains registries. It is a bookkeeping job. It cannot make decisions of its own.

The IETF, and its steering group the IESG, are the ones who lay down the rules that IANA must obey.

Protocol numbers are maintained at:
http://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers/protocol-numbers.xml

The important bit is the "Registration Procedures", which are:
"IESG Approval or Standards Action"

These terms are defined here:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226#section-4.1

      IESG Approval - New assignments may be approved by the IESG.
            Although there is no requirement that the request be
            documented in an RFC, the IESG has discretion to request
            documents or other supporting materials on a case-by-case
            basis.

      Standards Action - Values are assigned only for Standards Track
            RFCs approved by the IESG.

See also this RFC which specifically applies to protocol-numbers:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5237

Even though the IESG Approval route may look easier, in practice it is exceptional for registrations to go through this path. There needs to be some justification for not writing an RFC, usually based on urgency. In the present case I don't see how they could present such a justification.

Simon

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