Session Date/Time: 05 Nov 2025 19:30

WITAREA

Summary

The WITAREA session provided an update from the Area Directors on the status of working groups, document pipelines, and review teams. Key technical discussions included the progress and challenges of the Happy Eyeballs Version 3 (HEv3) working group, particularly regarding new protocol considerations like QUIC and ECH, and the complexities of error reporting with privacy implications. A significant portion of the meeting addressed the WebBot-Auth working group's initial meeting, where its chartered scope received considerable pushback, leading to a decision to first develop a requirements document. The open mic session highlighted the need for more guidance on using QUIC in diverse contexts across the IETF and emphasized the value of early community engagement in draft reviews and chartering discussions.

Key Discussion Points

ADs' Report and WIT Area Status:
- The Web and Internet Transport (WIT) area comprises 18 working groups.
- Six new RFCs have been published since the last IETF meeting.
- Working group charter updates are ongoing for several groups (e.g., HGP, Mask is starting, WebBot-Auth is new and may require further updates).
- ADs presented their respective document pipelines, noting documents in Working Group Last Call, IETF Last Call, IESG Evaluation, and the RFC Editor queue.
Transport Area Review Team (TART):
- TART reviews drafts with potential transport protocol challenges, primarily during IETF Last Call, but encourages early review requests.
- 19 documents have been reviewed in the last three months.
- Reviewers' skill sets are matched to documents for optimal outcomes.
- A call was made for more reviewers to join the team.
HTTP Directorate:
- Provides reviews for HTTP-related issues across the IETF, including extensions and applications using HTTP.
- The directorate is relatively small and actively seeks more contributors due to increasing demand and the importance of cross-area reviews for IETF leadership development.
Happy Eyeballs Version 3 (HEv3) Working Group Update:
- The WG is developing an update to Happy Eyeballs Version 2 (RFC 8305) to ensure optimal connection establishment for users to a single hostname.
- New considerations include the prevalence of IPv6-only/mostly networks, the QUIC protocol, SVCB/HTTPS records for alternative endpoints/protocols, and Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) which introduces privacy considerations.
- The connection establishment flow is being updated to include asynchronous DNS resolution, grouping (e.g., prioritizing ECH), sorting (SVCB priorities), and racing connection attempts through the entire TLS handshake (which aligns with QUIC's integrated handshake).
- Ongoing discussions and uncertainties include prioritizing synthesized IPv6 addresses, balancing server and client preferences in grouping/sorting, handling network changes, caching historical data, and the use of Optimistic DNS.
- A significant discussion point is error reporting: while HEv3 aims to improve user experience, it might hide underlying network problems (e.g., consistently falling back from broken IPv6 to IPv4). There is a desire to provide feedback to networks/destinations about breakage, but this must be done in a privacy-sensitive way, with potential solutions involving ICMP or syslog-style mechanisms.
WebBot-Auth Working Group Update:
- The WG was chartered to define a way to cryptographically authenticate automated clients (bots) and provide operator information.
- Its first meeting revealed significant pushback and discussion regarding the scope of the work, indicating that the initial charter was "not correct."
- A sense of those present indicated that the group does not lack clear ideas of scope, but rather possesses "multiple clear ideas of the scope," creating competing interests and challenges in defining what the WG should achieve versus what it should carefully avoid enabling.
- The ADs emphasized the importance of community members providing early input on mailing lists for new work to avoid such scoping issues.
Open Mic - Cross-Area QUIC Usage:
- Spencer expressed appreciation for the Happy Eyeballs update and noted that ABT-CORE is approaching discussions on RTP over QUIC in WebRTC, encouraging attention from interested parties.
- Lucas Padu (Quick co-chair) highlighted that many groups outside the WIT area are using QUIC and seeking feedback. He stressed the need for better guidance on "how to use QUIC" in practice beyond basic applicability documents, citing specific examples like QUIC stream states that might defy common expectations.
- The ADs seconded the call for early review of documents utilizing QUIC and suggested that a tutorial on "surprising things about the use of Quick streams" would be a valuable topic for a future WIT area meeting.

Decisions and Action Items

WebBot-Auth Working Group: The working group will pause efforts on its core protocol definition and first develop a requirements document, to be led by Mark. This will be followed by an architectural document, to clarify the group's scope and purpose before proceeding or potentially re-chartering.

Next Steps

For WIT Area ADs:
- Continue to support the WebBot-Auth WG in its process of defining requirements and scope, facilitating discussions towards a clearer path forward.
- Work with the Quick Working Group co-chairs and community to identify and potentially host a tutorial or create resources (e.g., slide decks, recorded talks) on practical aspects and "surprising" details of using QUIC, as suggested for a future WIT area meeting.
- Remind the IESG and other Area Directors about the importance of early reviews for documents, particularly those involving cross-area dependencies like QUIC.
For Community Members:
- Review Teams: Individuals interested in contributing to IETF leadership development and document quality are encouraged to volunteer for the Transport Area Review Team (contact [email protected]) or the HTTP Directorate.
- Happy Eyeballs v3: Participate in the WG's discussions on the main draft, metrics, testing, and especially the challenging topic of privacy-sensitive error reporting.
- WebBot-Auth: Provide constructive input and feedback on the developing requirements document to help shape the future direction and scope of this important work.
- ABT-CORE: Pay attention to upcoming discussions in ABT-CORE regarding RTP over QUIC in WebRTC.
- General: Engage early and often on mailing lists for new work and document reviews to help shape work and avoid late-stage scoping issues.