IABOPEN

Summary

The IAB Open session at IETF 125 featured status updates on IAB activities, a liaison report from M3AAWG, a summary of the recent IAB Workshop on IP Address Geolocation, and an invited technical talk regarding internet resilience and trust in the era of AI. Key highlights included the transition of the IAB leadership, updates on the WSIS+20 process, and architectural discussions regarding privacy and consent in geolocation services.

Key Discussion Points

Welcome and Status Update

Dhruv Dhody (incoming IAB Chair) and Ying-Zhen Qu opened the session. Tommy Pauly (outgoing Chair) provided remarks on his six-year tenure.

Administrative Updates: The IAB highlighted the importance of the Note Well and encouraged community engagement via the architecture-discuss and iab mailing lists.
Document Status:
- The IAB adopted draft-iab-protocol-greasing from the EDM (Evolvability, Deployability, and Maintainability) technical program.
- Work continues on 4052bis and 4053bis regarding liaison processes.
WSIS+20: The UN General Assembly reaffirmed the multi-stakeholder model and secured a permanent mandate for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
Outreach: Yaroslav Rosomakho was introduced as the new outreach coordinator. Recent activities included engagements at ICANN Mumbai (GAC/ALAC) and operator communities (APRICOT/APNIC).

Liaison Update: M3AAWG

Bron Gondwana presented the M3AAWG Liaison Summary.

M3AAWG focuses on anti-abuse for email, SMS, and RCS.
While the meetings operate under "Chatham House-style" rules to protect sensitive anti-abuse techniques, the organization regularly publishes public Best Common Practices (BCPs).
Discussion included current threats like "SMS Blasters" (mobile infrastructure used for localized SMS spam/attacks).

Workshop Report: IAB Workshop on IP Address Geolocation

Jason Livingood and Tommy Pauly summarized the IAB Workshop on IP Address Geolocation.

Use Cases: IP geolocation is widely used for service optimization (finding nearby pizza), CDN traffic steering, content rights enforcement (licensing/jurisdiction), and emergency alerting.
Mechanisms: Current standards include CSV formats (RFC 8005) and discovery/authentication updates (RFC 9632).
Challenges: The rise of CGNAT, VPN proxies (e.g., Apple Private Relay), and LEO satellite providers (e.g., Starlink) complicates location accuracy.
Technical Debate:
- Eric Rescorla expressed concern that unconsented geolocation is a privacy bug and argued against creating new "consensual" mechanisms that may simply augment existing tracking. He advocated for a "break-before-make" approach to force privacy-preserving alternatives.
- Mallory Knodel highlighted the need for greater involvement from Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), noting that geographic allocation is a major pain point for groups like AFRINIC.
- Cullen Jennings noted that while distinct architectural principles (separating routing from location) are clear, they face friction from regulatory requirements like e-911.

Resilient and Trusted Internet

Prof. Xing Li delivered an invited talk on Resilient and Trusted Internet.

Evolution of CERNET: Discussed the transition to IPv6-only backbones and the need to combat "walled gardens" at the network layer.
The 8th Layer: Li argued that AI represents a new layer above the application layer and below the human user.
Fragmentation: Technical (IPv4/IPv6 incompatibility), commercial (walled gardens), and geopolitical factors are fragmenting the internet.
IPv6 and AI Agents: Li proposed that AI agents will be the primary "users" of the future and will require unique IPv6 addresses to maintain end-to-end connectivity without relying on cloud relays.
Proposal: Li suggested that every new RFC should include an "AI Considerations" section, similar to Security or IANA considerations.

Decisions and Action Items

IGF Mandate: The technical community will continue to engage in the WSIS+20 process following the reaffirmed IGF mandate.
EDM Program: The IAB will continue work on protocol greasing (draft-iab-protocol-greasing).

Next Steps

Architecture Discussion: The community is encouraged to continue the debate on IP geolocation and the role of AI agents on the architecture-discuss@ietf.org mailing list.
IAB Help Desk: A second Help Desk session is scheduled for Thursday at the IETF meeting for further community dialogue.
Liaison Management: The IAB will finalize the update to the liaison BCPs (4052bis and 4053bis) for submission to the IESG.

Automatic IETF Minutes