Meet our new IETF NOC Lead

You may have seen the announcement from the IETF Executive Director that I have been appointed as the new IETF NOC Lead. Before I say anything else, I want to thank Sean Croghan. Sean led the NOC for seven years and cared about getting the network right for every meeting. Anyone who worked with him knows the standard he set. On behalf of the whole NOC, thank you, Sean.

For those unfamiliar with the IETF Network Operations Center, we build and operate the IETF Network during IETF Meetings. We are a group of volunteers from the IETF community, a specialist contractor in Linespeed who provide similar services for organizations such as NANOG, and our Remote Participation Services Provider, Meetecho. I have been a contributor to the IETF community for many years, co-chair of opsawg, reviewer for the OPS Directorate, YANG Catalog guy, and a member of the IETF NOC for 13 years. My appointment marks a return to a volunteer-managed IETF NOC, and I am glad for the chance to lead it.

Since COVID, the IETF Network sits in the critical path for a successful meeting. My view is simple: the network has to work. That reality shapes where I want to take things, and I hope to hit the ground running with changes starting at IETF 127 in San Francisco.

The first thing I want to bring is greater transparency for the community. At IETF 126 in Vienna, we unveiled a new dashboard landing page that gives the community a window into how the network is performing, including general network stats and the number of users online at any given time. This dashboard will keep growing, and one recent addition came straight from a community request. When we were asked to monitor ECN use on the internet, we added that data to the dashboard for everyone to see.

The network behind that dashboard is a modern one that puts IETF standards into production use. We have made IPv6 Mostly (RFC 8925) part of the production meeting network on the main SSID, and we began offering WiFi 7 at IETF 126 with plans to keep it going. Over the years we have fostered experiments on MAC address randomization (madinas WG), RPKI (RFC 8210), and DANE (RFC 6698), and we continue to run RPKI along with other security measures such as BCP 38. When we deploy or experiment with these technologies, we bring what we learn back to the IETF, whether through a document, a presentation, or discussion in the relevant working group. We will continue to work with the IESG and the community on approved network experiments going forward. As an operations team, we are also looking for ways to innovate in how we run the network itself, and one recent step was using an AI agent to help with meeting network deployments. This is a network with services you will not find on a typical hotel or conference network.

The second thing I want to build is a talent pipeline. The NOC has always drawn its strength from the community, and I want to keep that door open. If you are interested in what we do and want to get involved, I would like to hear from you. Redundancy and fresh perspectives are essential to keeping the volunteer side of the NOC healthy for the long term, and staying connected with the people who care about this network is the best way to find them.

If you have questions, suggestions, or just want to talk about where the IETF Network goes next, please reach out. I would like to hear from you.