Every question of this course

Q1.1 What does a standard oblige a company to do?

• Nothing by itself — it says how, not that you must
• Build the thing it describes, once published
• Buy a licence before implementing it

The IETF describes a standard as a document saying "if you want to do this, here is how". Any obligation comes from a law or a contract, not from the document. RFC 3935

Q1.2 In 3GPP wording, which word marks something you have to do?

• should
• must
• shall

The word shall carries a requirement and should carries a recommendation. The word must is not used at all, so nobody mistakes a specification for a law. TR 21.801, Annex E

Q1.3 An RFC says a field "must be set to zero", in lower case. What binds you?

• The same as MUST — capitals are only a style
• Nothing defined; only the capitalised spelling carries the meaning
• It is a recommendation, like SHOULD

Only the uppercase key words carry their defined meaning. A lower-case "must" is ordinary English. RFC 8174

Q1.4 What is the difference between a Technical Specification and a Technical Report?

• A report is the study, usually a feasibility study, that comes first
• A report is written by the staff, a specification by the members
• A report is shorter than a specification

A study item results in a Technical Report, which typically performs a feasibility study; the specification is what follows if the answer is positive. §6.0.2

Q2.1 In 3GPP, what is a Working Group?

• A company's internal team preparing its proposals
• The permanent staff who edit the documents
• An official subgroup of a Technical Specification Group, reporting to it

A Working Group is an official subgroup of a TSG and reports to that TSG. Sub-groups sit below it again. §2

Q2.2 Who may take part in the IETF?

• Anyone — there is no formal membership
• Any company that pays the annual fee
• Delegates nominated by a national standards body

There is no formal membership in the IETF and participation is open to all; people take part as individual contributors. RFC 2418, section 1

Q2.3 What does a 3GPP rapporteur do?

• Publishes the approved text on the file server
• Chairs the plenary meeting
• Carries one specification — a delegate from a member company who attends the responsible group regularly

Every specification must have a rapporteur, and the role is filled by a delegate from a member company who takes part in the responsible group regularly. §4.2

Q2.4 How does an IETF working group settle a technical question?

• By referring it to the Internet Society
• By a vote of the people in the room
• By rough consensus, which the chair judges

51% is not rough consensus and 99% is better than rough; it is the chair's call whether an objection has been properly answered. RFC 2418, section 3.3

Q3.1 A 3GPP specification is approved for Release 4. What version does it get?

• 1.0.0, and it counts up from there
• 3.0.0, the next number after 2.0.0
• 4.0.0 — the first digit is the Release, so 3.y.z never exists

On approval the draft jumps from 2.0.0 straight to x.0.0, where x is the Release number. A document approved for Release 4 has no 3.y.z. §4.1.1

Q3.2 What happens to a specification's version number when a Change Request is approved?

• The middle number goes up and the last resets — 7.2.1 becomes 7.3.0
• The last number goes up — 7.2.1 becomes 7.2.2
• The first number goes up — 7.2.1 becomes 8.0.0

The middle field counts technical changes and the last field counts editorial ones, so an approved Change Request moves 7.2.1 to 7.3.0. §4.1.1

Q3.3 A serious error is found in a specification, and three older Releases carry the same error. What is written?

• Nothing — frozen Releases are never touched again
• One Change Request, applied to all of them at once
• One independently numbered Change Request per affected Release, decided together

These are mirror Change Requests — one per affected version, grouped for presentation and approved together, so the Releases stay consistent. §4.10.2

Q3.4 An Internet-Draft has been sitting on the IETF's server for a month. What is its standing?

• None — a draft has no formal status and may change or vanish at any time
• It is binding once nobody has objected for two weeks
• It is a published specification of the IETF

An Internet-Draft is not a means of publishing anything; drafts have no formal status and are subject to change or removal at any time. RFC 2026, section 2.2

Q4.1 You are handed the file 29341-420.zip. What is inside it?

• Change Request 420 against specification 29.341
• Release 4 of the 29-series, part 20
• Specification 29.341, version 4.2.0

The file name is the specification number followed by the three fields of the version number, so 29341-420 is 29.341 version 4.2.0. §5A

Q4.2 Where do you find every Change Request that ever changed one 3GPP specification, with the meeting that decided it?

• In the foreword of the following Release
• Nowhere — decisions are not published
• In the change history annex at the end of that specification

Every specification ends with a change history annex naming the Change Requests, their meetings and the version each one produced. §Annex A

Q4.3 What does the first digit of a 3GPP version number tell you?

• Which Release it belongs to
• Which Working Group owns it
• How many times the document has been revised

The first field of x.y.z is the major field, and once a document is under change control that field is the Release. §4.0A

Q4.4 Where is today's list of IETF working groups and areas?

• In the RFC Editor's yearly index
• In RFC 2418, which defines the process
• On the IETF website — the documents say so themselves, because it changes

The process documents deliberately keep the current list out of the published text, because it would be out of date the moment it was printed. The IETF website