In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments (RFC) is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.

Through the Internet Society, engineers and computer scientists may publish discourse in the form of an RFC, either for peer review or simply to convey new concepts, information, or (occasionally) engineering humor. The IETF adopts some of the proposals published as RFCs as Internet standards.

Request For Comments documents were invented by Steve Crocker in 1969 to help record unofficial notes on the development of the ARPANET. They have since become the official record for Internet specifications, protocols, procedures, and events.^[1]

History[link]

The inception of the RFC format occurred in 1969 as part of the seminal ARPANET project.^[2] Today, it is the official publication channel for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and—to some extent—the global community of computer network researchers in general.

The authors of the first RFCs typewrote their work and circulated hard copies among the ARPA researchers. Unlike the modern RFCs, many of the early RFCs were actual requests for comments. The RFC leaves questions open and is written in a less formal style. This less formal style is now typical of Internet Draft documents, the precursor step before being approved as an RFC.

In December 1969, researchers began distributing new RFCs via the newly operational ARPANET. RFC 1, entitled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and published on April 7, 1969. Although written by Steve Crocker, the RFC emerged from an early working group discussion between Steve Crocker, Steve Carr and Jeff Rulifson.

In RFC 3, which first defined the RFC series, Crocker started attributing the RFC series to the "Network Working Group". This wasn't so much a formal committee as a loose association of researchers interested in the ARPANET project. In effect, it was anyone who wanted to join in on meetings and discussions about the project.

Many of the subsequent RFCs of the 1970s also came from UCLA, because UCLA was one of the first Interface Message Processors (IMPs) on ARPANET. The Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute, directed by Douglas Engelbart, was another of the four first ARPANET nodes and the source of early RFCs. The ARC became the first Network Information Center, which was managed by Elizabeth J. Feinler to distribute them along with other network information. From 1969 until 1998, Jon Postel served as the RFC editor. (On his death in 1998, his obituary was published as RFC 2468.)

Following the expiration of the original ARPANET contract with the U.S. federal government, the Internet Society (acting on behalf of the IETF) contracted with the Networking Division of the University of Southern California (USC) Information Sciences Institute (ISI) to assume the editorship and publishing responsibilities (under the direction of the IAB). Sandy Ginoza joined USC/ISI in 1999 to work on RFC editing, and Alice Hagens in 2005.^[3] Bob Braden took over the role of RFC project lead, while Joyce K. Reynolds continued to be part of the team until October 13, 2006.

In July 2007, "streams" of RFCs were defined, so the editing duties could be divided. IETF documents came from IETF working groups or submissions sponsored by an IETF area director from the Internet Engineering Steering Group. The IAB can publish its own documents. A research stream of documents comes from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and independent stream includes documents from other outside sources.^[4] A new model was proposed in 2008, refined, and published in August 2009, splitting the task into several roles.^[5] The streams were also refined in December 2009, with standards defined for their style.^[6] In January 2010 the RFC editor function was moved to a contractor, Association Management Solutions with Glenn Kowack serving as interim series editor.^[7]

Production and evolution[link]

The RFC Editor assigns each RFC a unique serial number. Once assigned a number and published, an RFC is never rescinded or modified; if the document requires amendments, the authors publish a revised document. Therefore, some RFCs supersede others; the superseded RFCs are said to be deprecated, obsolete, or obsoleted by the superseding RFC. Together, the serialized RFCs compose a continuous historical record of the evolution of Internet standards and practices. For more details about RFCs and the RFC process, see RFC 2026, "The Internet Standards Process, Revision 3".^[8]

The RFC production process differs from the standardization process of formal standards organizations such as ISO. Internet technology experts may submit an Internet Draft without support from an external institution. Standards-track RFCs are published with approval from the IETF, and are usually produced by experts participating in working groups, which first publish an Internet Draft. This approach facilitates initial rounds of peer review before documents mature into RFCs.

The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standards authorship accomplished by individuals or small working groups can have important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ISO and national standards bodies.

Most RFCs use a common set of terms such as "MUST" and "NOT RECOMMENDED" (as defined by RFC 2119), Augmented Backus–Naur Form (ABNF) (as defined by RFC 5234) as a metalanguage, and simple text-based formatting, in order to keep the RFCs consistent and easy to understand.^[8]

Sub-series[link]

The RFC series contains three sub-series for IETF RFCs:

BCP

Best Current Practice; mandatory IETF RFCs not on standards track, see below.

FYI

For Your Information; informational RFCs promoted by the IETF as specified in RFC 1150 (FYI 1). In 2011 RFC 6360 obsoleted FYI 1 and concluded this sub-series.

STD

Standard; this used to be the third and highest maturity level of the IETF standards track specified in RFC 2026 (BCP 9). In 2011 RFC 6410 (a new part of BCP 9) reduced the standards track to two maturity levels.

Streams[link]

There are four streams of RFCs: (1) IETF, (2) IRTF, (3) IAB, and (4) independent submission. Only the IETF creates BCPs and RFCs on standards track. An independent submission is checked by the IESG for conflicts with IETF work; the quality is assessed by an independent submission editorial board. In other words, IRTF and independent  RFCs are supposed to contain relevant info or experiments for the Internet at large not in conflict with IETF work, compare RFC 4846, RFC 5742, and RFC 5744.

Obtaining RFCs[link]

The official source for RFCs on the World Wide Web is the RFC Editor. Almost any individual published RFC, for example RFC 5000, can be retrieved via the URL: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5000.txt

Every RFC is submitted as plain ASCII text and is published in that form, but may also be available in other formats. However, as of 2008^[update] the definitive version of any standards-track specification is the ASCII version.

For easy access to the metadata of an RFC, including abstract, keywords, author(s), publication date, errata, status, and especially later updates, the RFC Editor site offers a search form with many features. A redirection sets some efficient parameters, example: http://purl.net/net/rfc/5000

The official International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) of the RFC series is 2070-1721.^[6]

Status[link]

Not all RFCs are standards.^[9] Each RFC is assigned a designation with regard to status within the Internet standardization process. This status is one of the following: Informational, Experimental, Best Current Practice (BCP), Standards Track, or Historic (sic). Standards-track documents are further divided into Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, and Internet Standard documents. The term Historic is applied to deprecated standards-track documents or obsolete RFCs that were published before the standards track was established. Only the IETF, represented by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), can approve standards-track RFCs.

Each RFC is static; if the document is changed, it is submitted again and assigned a new RFC number. If an RFC becomes an Internet Standard (STD), it is assigned an STD number but retains its RFC number; however, when an Internet Standard is updated, its number stays the same and it simply refers to a different RFC or set of RFCs. A given Internet Standard, STD n, may be RFCs x and y at a given time, but later the same standard may be updated to be RFC z instead. For example, in 2007 RFC 3700 was an Internet Standard—STD 1—and in May 2008 it was replaced with RFC 5000, so RFC 3700 changed to Historic, RFC 5000 became an Internet Standard, and as of May 2008^[update] STD 1 is RFC 5000. When STD 1 is updated again, it will simply refer to a newer RFC that will have completed the standards track, but it will still be STD 1. Best Current Practices work in a similar fashion; BCP n refers to a certain RFC or set of RFCs, but which RFC or RFCs may change over time.

The definitive list of Internet Standards is itself an Internet Standard, STD 1: Internet Official Protocol Standards.^[10]

Status "informational"[link]

An informational RFC can be nearly anything from April 1 jokes over proprietary protocols up to widely recognized essential RFCs like Domain Name System Structure and Delegation (RFC 1591). Some informational RFCs formed the FYI sub-series. Some old FYIs are still interesting, e.g., the Internet User's Glossary  RFC 1983 (FYI 18), and The Tao of IETF  RFC 4677 (FYI 17).

Status "experimental"[link]

An experimental RFC can be an IETF document or an individual submission to the 'RFC Editor'. A draft is designated experimental if it is unclear the proposal will work as intended or unclear if the proposal will be widely adopted. Experimental RFCs may be promoted to standards track if it becomes popular and works well.^[11]

Status "best current practice"[link]

The best current practice (BCP) subseries collects administrative documents and other texts which are considered as official rules and not only informational, but which do not affect over the wire data. The border between standards track and BCP is often unclear. If a document only affects the Internet Standards Process, like BCP 9,^[12] or IETF administration, it is clearly a BCP. If it only defines rules and regulations for Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registries it is less clear; most of these documents are BCPs, but some are on the standards track.

The BCP series also covers technical recommendations for how to practice Internet standards; for instance the recommendation to use source filtering to make DoS attacks more difficult (RFC 2827: "Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing") is BCP 38.

Status "historic"[link]

A historic RFC is one that has been made obsolete by a newer version, documents a protocol that is not considered interesting in the current Internet, or has been removed from the standards track for other reasons. Some obsolete RFCs are not classified as historic, because the Internet standards process generally does not allow normative references from a standards track RFC to another RFC with lower status. Also, few are interested in working through the required procedural details to get RFCs classified as historic and update all RFCs normatively depending on it.

Status "unknown"[link]

Status unknown is used for some very old RFCs, where it is unclear which status the document would get if it were published today. Some of these RFCs would not be published at all today; an early RFC was often just that: a simple request for comments, not intended to specify a protocol, administrative procedure, or anything else for which the RFC series is used today.

See also[link]

• April Fools' Day RFC
• Internet Experiment Note
• List of HTTP status codes
• List of RFCs

References[link]

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.

External links[link]

• RFC Editor
  • RFC Database
  • RFC Errata
  • RFC Frequently Asked Questions
  • RFC Index (text)
  • Official RFC standardization status
• IETF's RFC page
• RFC Index (HTML) With the text of each RFC, also mentions what other RFCs this one "updates" or is "updated by".

Trey Songz
Background information
Birth name	Tremaine Aldon Neverson
Born	(1984-11-28) November 28, 1984 (age 27) Petersburg, Virginia, United States
Genres	R&B, hip hop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, actor
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, sampler
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Atlantic, Songbook
Associated acts	Drake, Troy Taylor, Twista, Juvenile, Bun B, Rick Ross, Plies
Website	www.treysongz.com

Tremaine "Trey" Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), better known by his stage name Trey Songz, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. His debut album, I Gotta Make It, was released in 2005, while his second album, Trey Day, was released in 2007. His third album, Ready, was released in 2009 while his fourth studio album, Passion, Pain & Pleasure, was released on September 14, 2010.

Life and career[link]

1984–2004: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Songz was born Tremaine Aldon Neverson on November 28, 1984, in Petersburg, Virginia.^[1] Raised as a military brat, Songz did not have aspirations to have a musical career as a child due to his shyness, saying "Singing wasn't a reality for me, until other people started noticing I sounded good."^[2] He recognized his vocal abilities at the age of 14.^[2] Reluctant to sing, he began performing with encouragement by friends and family in high school. Record producer Troy Taylor discovered Songz during a talent show in 2000, which led him to signing a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 2002.^[2] After graduating from high school in 2002, Songz moved to New Jersey to begin recording his debut album, though recording didn't actually begin until 2003.^[1]

[edit] 2004–2008I Gotta Make It and Trey Day

While recording his debut album in 2004, Songz released multiple mixtapes under the alias Prince of Virginia.^[1] One of the mixtapes featured an "answer track" to R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet", entitled "Open the Closet". The song gave Trey some notoriety.^[3] His debut album, I Gotta Make It was released on July 26, 2005.^[4] It debuted at #20 on the Billboard 200, selling 40,000 copies in its first week of sales.^[5] It has sold 300,000 records in the US, but was never certified by the RIAA. Songz's debut single, Gotta Make It, featuring Twista, was released in March 2005 and reached #87 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #21 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It garnered success in the R&B/urban community but failed to make a mark in mainstream music. The album's second and final single, Gotta Go, was released in July 2005 and reached #67 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming even more successful than his debut single in the R&B/urban community and in the mainstream community. After promotion for his debut concluded, he was featured on the lead single from Twista's fifth album, The Day After. The single, "Girl Tonite", reached #14 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming a huge hit.

Trey Songz performing in 2007.

In mid-2006, Songz began work on a follow-up album to his debut with longtime collaborator Troy Taylor and also employed hitmakers Bryan-Michael Cox, Danja, Stargate (production team) and R. Kelly to help create the album. Trey aimed for the album to be more mainstream-oriented than his debut album. His second studio album, Trey Day, was released on October 2, 2007. The album reached #11 on the Billboard 200,^[6] selling 73,000 copies in its first week. It has since sold 400,000 records in the US, becoming his second album not to be certified by the RIAA. The album was going to be released on May 8, 2007, but was continually delayed in order for a successful single to precede the album, as the lead single failed to impact charts.

His second album was preceded by the lead single, "Wonder Woman", which was released in February 2007. It reached #54 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but failed to impact the Hot 100. Because of the single's failure, his second album was delayed from May 2007 to October 2007. The album's second single, "Can't Help but Wait", was released in August 2007 and was released to promote his second album and the film Step Up 2 the Streets soundtrack as a single for it. The single reached #14 on the Hot 100, and #2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It became Songz's first Top 20 hit on the Hot 100, and helped to boost his second album's sales. The single was also nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 2008 50th Grammy Awards. The third single from the album, "Last Time", was released in January 2008 and reached #69 on the Hot 100, and #9 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The fourth and final single from the album, "Missin' You", was released in May 2008, but failed to chart completely. In mid-2008, Songz was nominated for a BET Award for Best Male R&B Artist but did not win the award.^[7]

[edit] 2009–2011: Ready and Passion, Pain & Pleasure

In late 2008, Trey began work on his third studio album with Bryan-Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, Stargate and Troy Taylor and aimed for the record to be more mature than his first two. Before releasing his third album, Songz released a mixtape titled Anticipation in June 2009 through his blog, which featured songs from his third album.^[8] Another mixtape from Trey was released in the summer of 2009, called Genesis. Genesis was a collection of Trey Songz's first recordings when he was fifteen years old and was released to show his fans the dedication that he had to making a record when he was young.^[9] Trey released his third studio album, Ready, on August 31, 2009. The album reached #3 on the Billboard 200, selling 131,000 copies in its first week.^[10] These are his best first week sales to date and the album was his first to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. The album has since sold over 800,000 records in the US, earning a Gold certification from the RIAA in February 2010, becoming his first album to be certified by the RIAA.

Trey Songz performing at Summer Jam on June 5, 2010.

The lead single from the album, "I Need a Girl", was released in April 2009 and reached #5 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and #59 on the Hot 100, becoming an R&B/urban hit but not a mainstream hit. A promotional single, "Successful", featuring rapper Drake, was released in June 2009 and reached #17 on the Hot 100, becoming Songz's third Top 20 hit. The single also served as the second and final single from Drake's EP, So Far Gone. The second official single from his third album, "LOL Smiley Face", featuring Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and Gucci Mane, was released in August 2009 and reached #51 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single from the album, "I Invented Sex", featuring Drake, was released in October 2009 and reached #42 on the Hot 100 but #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming his first single to top that chart. Like the first two singles from the album, it achieved success in the R&B/urban community but only some mainstream success. charted within the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the R&B chart. The fourth single from the album, "Say Aah", featuring rapper Fabolous, was released in January 2010 and reached #9 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The single has become Trey's highest charting single on the Hot 100 and one of his most successful singles on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The fifth and final single from the album, "Neighbors Know My Name", was released in February 2010 and reached #43 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. A sixth single, "Yo Side of the Bed", was going to be released in June 2010, but its release was canceled due to unknown reasons. A music video, featuring singer Keri Hilson, was filmed and released, however. Songz was also the opening act for Jay-Z on his Jay-Z Fall Tour in late 2009. The album was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010, but lost to Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce. On April 1, 2010, he recorded an episode of MTV Unplugged, which aired on April 26, 2010.^[11] A documentary-series about Trey, Trey Songz: My Moment, began in June 2010 to positive reviews and high ratings. The 10-part series will end in August 2010 and follows Trey during his time as opening act on Jay-Z's Jay-Z Fall Tour in late 2009.

Songz's fourth studio album, Passion, Pain & Pleasure, was released on September 14, 2010.^[12] Trey began work on the album in early 2010 with Sean Garrett, Troy Taylor and Stargate and has stated that the album will be his most personal to date. The album was completed in July 2010. The album's lead single, "Bottoms Up", featuring female rapper Nicki Minaj, was released on July 27, 2010 and has reached number twenty-four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and was shared enough on Facebook to appear as a trending video on ItsTrending. Its video was filmed on July 31, 2010 and is pending release.^[13] Trey also filmed the video for the album's second single, "Can't Be Friends", on August 1, 2010.^[13] "Can't Be Friends" was released as the album's second single in August 2010.^[13] Songz embarked on the Passion, Pain & Pleasure Tour on August 6, 2010 with singer Monica. The tour is his first headlining tour to date and consists of shows in venues that seat 3,000 to 5,000 people. Songz also contributed the song "Already Taken" to the Step Up 3D soundtrack, which was released on July 27, 2010. He filmed a video for the song, which was released in July 2010. The leading lady in the video is former girlfriend and professional dancer Helen Gedlu. Songz appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.^[14] Songz performed at BET Awards 2011 which broadcasted on June 26, 2011.^[15]

In July 2011, he was cast in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D as Ryan, the male lead role.^[16]

[edit] 2011–present: Inevitable and Chapter 5

On August 18, 2011, it was announced Songz will be working on his fifth studio titled Chapter 5.^[17] In an interview Trey said the album, which will act as the follow-up to Passion, Pain & Pleasure, is said to be nearing completion. He also carried on to say "It’s my sixth year in the game so I’ve been here for a while now. You can expect the best me you’ve ever heard. I don’t have any release dates in mind right now but I’m just making music and enjoying myself in the studio and having fun. When I get to a place where I feel comfortable saying a date or all of that, people will definitely know. I have a few dream collaborations on that album that I want, but they say if you blow out your candle and make a wish you can’t tell people what you ask for or it won’t come true."^[18]

On November 28, 2011, on his birthday, Songz released his Inevitable EP to prepare for the release of his album. In February 2012, Songz will embark on his Anticipation 2our to promote his mixtape Anticipation 2 and to raise awareness of his new album.

Discography[link]

• I Gotta Make It (2005)
• Trey Day (2007)
• Ready (2009)
• Passion, Pain & Pleasure (2010)
• Chapter V (2012)

Tours[link]

• Passion, Pain & Pleasure Tour (headliner) (2010)
• OMG Tour (opening for Usher) (2010)
• Anticipation 2our (headliner) (2012)

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trey Songz

• Official website
• Trey Songz at the Internet Movie Database