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Considerations For Maintaining Protocols Using Grease and Variability
draft-edm-protocol-greasing-06

Document Type Replaced Internet-Draft (individual)
Expired & archived
Authors Lucas Pardue , Tommy Pauly , Dave Thaler
Last updated 2026-01-12 (Latest revision 2025-10-19)
Replaced by draft-iab-protocol-greasing
RFC stream Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
Intended RFC status Informational
Formats
Additional resources GitHub Repository
Stream IAB state Replaced
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
IAB shepherd (None)

This Internet-Draft is no longer active. A copy of the expired Internet-Draft is available in these formats:

Abstract

Active use and maintenance of network protocols is an important way to ensure that protocols remain interoperable and extensible over time. Techniques such as intentionally exercising extension points with non-meaningful values (referred to as "grease") or adding variability to how protocol elements are used help generate this active use. Grease and variability are used across various protocols developed by the IETF. This document discusses considerations when designing and deploying grease and variability mechanisms, and provides advice for making them as effective as possible.

Authors

Lucas Pardue
Tommy Pauly
Dave Thaler

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)