I am sure most of you would have heard by now that IIESoc have been working behind the scenes for "Connections 2017" - a Pre-IETF 100 forum in bangalore on 8-9 Novemeber 2017, to get protocol developers, academicians and network operators together on the same platform to discuss the latest problems facing the internet and the solutions relevant to them. This is being done with a focus on India and Indian contributions to the Internet.
The event consists of a full-day Conference on 8th November 2017 and a Hackathon on 9th November 2017. There are 4 tracks for the event (both conference and hackathon) - Applications, Security, Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Internet of Things (IoT).
We have star studded lineup of International and Indian speakers such as Fred Baker (former chair of IETF), Paul Wouters, Syam Madanapalli, Elliot Lear, Carsten Bormann, Vishnu Pavan Beeram and many more.
This blog is part of the speaker series that introduces the various amazing speakers that are part of the event. Next in the series is Paul Wouters.
Bio: Paul Wouters is one of the core developers for the Libreswan IPsec VPN project. He is an active IETF member in security and DNS related working groups and author of several RFC's related to IPsec and DNS. He is one of the IETF liaisons for ICANN's Technical Experts Group and was a member of the ICANN DNSSEC Root zone Key Signing Key Design Team. He is the co-chair of the IETF Certificate Transparency working group.
Paul is currently the IPsec VPN maintainer for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and an active Fedora contributor.
Paul would give 2 talks at the Connections event.
Keynote: The IETF Security Area
There are two dozen Working Groups in the Security Area. This talk will give an overview of recently published RFCs and current draft documents that are being discussed, such as TLS 1.3, TLS SNI, IPsec extensions and updated and PostQuantum Cryptography.
Talk in the App Track: Current state of DNS, DNSSEC and DNS Privacy
This talk will give an overview of the recently published RFCs and current draft specifications related to DNS..
Checkout other talks at - https://www.connections.iiesoc.in/abstract
We also asked Paul a few questions regarding his IETF contributions and involvement.
1. How did you get involved in the IETF? Was there a particular issue that led to your involvement? I did some support/community building for IPsec with FreeS/WAN, and Hugh Daniel insisted that they sponsor me to attend IETF 57 in Vienna. I was immediately pulled into DNSSEC items, and a few wellknown people gave me various crash courses in the hallways. I found it a very positive experience - people doing technology for the right reasons. And I have since repaid the karma by sponsoring others into the IETF. 2. What are some of the most interesting changes or impacts you have seen at the IETF? The co-competitor mentality is something that has always been there and that is really the core of the succes of the IETF. It does not matter who you work for. Your opinion is judged on its merit and not on your credentials. It's a great venue to teach and be taught. 3. What is your opinion on the importance of the IETF in the Internet eco-system?
It is essential to internet technologies. And I sometimes worry when good independent people have problems attending IETF due to financial reasons. But also realise that throwing money at this problem would create its own problems. It's a delicate dance of people attending to make technology better and not going because these are pleasure trips, as you also have to make sure the good people continue to show up. 4. What technical / protocol changes do you see coming in the next few years?
Ideally, not that many new ones! But I guess QUIC and IPv6 will still see a lot of work. I wish some of the SPF/DKIM success work would be done faster, as email lists issues are becoming a real problem. It would also be good to get Secure Messaging standarised in the realm of Signal and OTR, but there are a lot of big Walled Garden Players in that game. And related to that, better micropayment standards would be nice, but the problems in that area are not so much technical as legal.
Dont miss this oppurtunity to join us for the event. The tickets for the event are availaible at - https://www.connections.iiesoc.in/tickets