Case Study in Generating RFC Maps of IETF Standards

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) have developed many Internet Standards, described by RFCs (Request for Comments). As time goes by, some RFCs were obsoleted, some were updated, and some were developed for new concepts, functions, or options. Today, there are more than 9000 RFCs. It is not easy to figure out how many RFCs are related to a specific Internet standard, such as Domain Name Systems (DNS) or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and to understand the roles these RFCs play in the standard. In this study, given an Internet Standard name, we aim to generate an IETF standard map of RFCs. An experimental system is built. RFC maps of several Internet standards are generated and discussed.