A formal liaison relationship is established when it is mutually agreeable and required for some specific purposes, as viewed by the other organization, the IAB, and the IETF participants conducting the work.
A formal liaison relationship is only required if there are formal requirements from the other SDO or an extended need for collaboration, e.g.,
Also note that liaison statements can be sent and received without a formal relationship and liaison manager. In these cases please reach out to the IAB liaison coordinators (laision-coordination@iab.org) for further support.
For the IETF, a liaison statement (LS) is a sent or received message/email/formal letter that is recorded in our liaison management tool, i.e. the value of sending a LS for an organization compared to a mail, is that it is officially recorded to be received.
Other organizations might have other requirements, e.g. the format, etc.. By allowing for the upload of attachments we provide maximum flexibility on what we can receive (and record). Besides the content (as text body or attachment) we only require for our record: a subject line, the sender and receiver groups in each organization, and the corresponding contacts in the form of at least an email address.
There can be different reasons to send a liaison statements to another SDO, such as
However, not all communication with other SDOs require sending liaison statements. Generally, direct collaboration on expert level is preferred since most communications will be technical in nature (for example, Working Group (WG) or mailing list discussions) and direct collaboration, e.g. on the mailing list, integrates better into the IETF processes. As such it is recommended to apprise other SDO of status of ongoing work in a formal manner only if they really require it.
A liaison statement does not automatically imply any level of consensus but it is usually advisable to indicate if there is consensus explicitly in the statement. The WG chairs or responsible AD have to figure out if working groups consensus should be strived. In a lot of cases no additional call for consensus is needed, e.g. if the statement is based on already existing IETF consensus such as an RFC or IETF document that has some level of agreement or the statement requests general information about process or (WG) scope. Consensus may or may not be needed if the statement requests information that are considered helpful for the group's progress, e.g. requesting to access to certain documents of other organizations, or
soliciting comments for a standards track WG Internet Draft. However, it’s always good to inform the respective group or individuals to create early awareness!
Statements are sent “through” the IETF Datatracker. WG chairs, Area Directors, and liaison managers can enter new outgoing liaison statements.
If a liaison manager for the respective SDO exists (see the full list of all liaison managers), please contact the liaison manager before sending a liaison. For all other liaison statements, please reach out to the IAB liaison coordinators, especially if the “To” contacts is not known.
All incoming LSs need to be recorded in the datatracker LS tool! Usually incoming LS should be sent by the other SDO to the liaison manager or IAB liaison coordinators, who upload the LS into the datatracker. WGs and WG chairs then receive the LS when it is sent out by the datatracker. However, we also sometimes received LSs directly to ADs, WG chairs, WG mailing lists. WG Chairs need to spot such cases and ensure that the LS gets recorded in the datatracker:
Whether there is an official liaison relationship (with a liaison manager) or not, IETF does not automatically reply to all LSs. However, we should always consider sending a reply as that ensures a good relationship with the other SDO as they usually have a reason to send a liaison statement. Sometimes a reply might just be pointing to existing information or a friendly “No, thanks”. If a reply is expected (Purpose: for action) but “the IETF” decides to not send a reply, please inform the liaison manager such that he/she can communicate it informally to the peer organization. Generally, the reception and recording of the liaison statement should be (informally) acknowledged to the sending party via email, usually by the liaison manager or liaison coordinators. In case of doubt, please reach out to the IAB liaison coordinators!