Best current practice

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A Best Current Practice (BCP) [1] is a de facto level of performance in engineering and information technology. It is more flexible than a standard, since techniques and tools are continually evolving.

Contents

The Internet Engineering Task Force publishes Best Current Practice documents in a numbered document series. Each document in this series is paired with the currently valid Request for Comments (RFC) document. BCP was introduced in RFC-1818. [2]

BCPs are document guidelines, processes, methods, and other matters not suitable for standardization. The Internet standards process itself is defined in a series of BCPs, as is the formal organizational structure of the IETF, Internet Engineering Steering Group, Internet Architecture Board, and other groups involved in that process.

IETF's separate Standard Track (STD) document series defines the fully standardized network protocols of the Internet, such as the Internet Protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol, and the Domain Name System.

Each RFC number refers to a specific version of a document Standard Track, but the BCP number refers to the most recent revision of the document. Thus, citations often reference both the BCP number and the RFC number.

Example citations for BCPs are: BCP 38, RFC 2827.

Significant fields of application

BCP numberTitle
BCP157 IPv6 Address Assignment to End Sites
BCP177 IPv6 Support Required for All IP-Capable Nodes
BCP198 IPv6 Prefix Length Recommendation for Forwarding
BCP numberTitle
BCP016 Selection and Operation of Secondary DNS Servers
BCP017 Use of DNS Aliases for Network Services
BCP020 Classless IN-ADDR.ARPA delegation
BCP032 Reserved Top Level DNS Names
BCP042 Domain Name System (DNS) IANA Considerations
BCP049 Delegation of IP6.ARPA
BCP052 Management Guidelines & Operational Requirements for the Address and Routing Parameter Area Domain ("arpa")
BCP065 Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Part Five: URI.ARPA Assignment Procedures
BCP080 Delegation of E.F.F.3.IP6.ARPA
BCP091 DNS IPv6 Transport Operational Guidelines
BCP109 Deprecation of "ip6.int"
BCP123 Observed DNS Resolution Misbehavior
BCP152 DNS Proxy Implementation Guidelines
BCP155 Nameservers for IPv4 and IPv6 Reverse Zones
BCP163 Locally Served DNS Zones
BCP numberTitle
BCP021 Expectations for Computer Security Incident Response
BCP038 Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing
BCP046 Recommended Internet Service Provider Security Services and Procedures
BCP061 Strong Security Requirements for Internet Engineering Task Force Standard Protocols
BCP072 Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations
BCP106 Randomness Requirements for Security
BCP136 Secure Connectivity and Mobility Using Mobile IPv4 and IKEv2 Mobility and Multihoming (MOBIKE)
BCP140 Preventing Use of Recursive Nameservers in Reflector Attacks
BCP188 Pervasive Monitoring Is an Attack
BCP194 BGP Operations and Security
BCP195 Recommendations for Secure Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
BCP199 DHCPv6-Shield: Protecting against Rogue DHCPv6 Servers
BCP numberTitle
BCP047 Tags for Identifying Languages (IETF language tag)

See also

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References

  1. Li, Tony; Postel, Jon; Rekhter, Yakov (August 1995). "Best Current Practices". ietf.org. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  2. rfc:1818