The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was since November 2020 on the Search for a new chairman. The main candidates for the position were employees of large IT companies, including Huawei and Cisco. Won the election to the chairman, according to a Press release now surprisingly Lars Eggert, who is the first German to head the IETF.
In his main job, Eggert is Technical Director at storage specialist NetApp. It is expected that Eggert, like his predecessors Jari Arkko (Ericsson) and Alissa Cooper (Cisco), will try to modernize the working methods and structures of the standardization organization for the maintenance and further development of the Internet protocols.
Head of the Transport Area
Until now, Eggert, who earned his doctorate in computer science two decades ago at the University of Southern California, has headed the IETF's Transport Area. This area is responsible for the further development of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Eggert is also chairman of the QUIC working group, the planned successor to TCP.
In his main job at NetApp, Eggert also holds a position between research and application. In addition to development, his work there also includes attracting funding.
GitHub instead of mailing list
Among the expected changes that Eggert, as chair, will most likely implement is collaboration via GitHub instead of using mailing lists. This will be especially popular with young developers who have practically grown up with GitHub. Especially in the working group for the standardization of the transport protocol QUIC, the average age is ten to 15 years below the IETF age average.
Election avoids dispute with Huawei
The election of Eggert by the 17-member NomCom also makes it clear that the IETF wants to avoid a dispute with the Chinese network supplier Huawei and its research subsidiary Futurewei. These companies want to address weaknesses in the current Internet architecture by introducing the "New IP" standard. However, these technical proposals have been controversial within the IETF. From a political point of view, the election of Eggert therefore promises peace within the IETF.
The handover of the baton from current chair Alissa Cooper will take place in March. Eggert will then have to give up his previous tasks in the IETF. This will especially affect the Working Group QUIC, which worked under high pressure on the new standard under his previous leadership. However, version 1 of the transport protocol should still be finished before Eggert has to leave the group.
