draft-zhao-sipping-mip-00.txt

An interesting draft was released in the IETF the other day. It does not contain much. It is I think even funny. Have a look yourself at draft-zhao-sipping-mip-00.txt.

The problem this draft try to solve is probably similar (or exactly the same) as is discussed in draft-tschofenig-mip6-ice-00.txt.

There are many reasons why a draft like this is posted. First of all people might think a draft must be approved before it is released. That is only the case if the draft is a work item of a working group. One see whether it is on the name of the draft. If the draft start with draft-ietf-, then the next word is the name of the working group. If the second word is not ietf (as in the case of draft-zhao-sipping-mip-00.txt), then it is an individual submission and there is no requirements on the content at all.

It might have been the case that the editor submitted the wrong file of course, but it can also be the case the draft is a so called version 00 (first version) and there is a cut-off date before an IETF Meeting (that is held three times a year) for such new documents. I.e. it might be a placeholder to make sure what the document describe can be discussed at the meeting.

An Internet-Draft is valid for 6 months, is work in progress, and have no formal status at all in the IETF. Because of that one should be extremely careful when referencing an Internet-Draft.