What's new at the IETF?#

Suresh Krishnan, Cisco (IAB)

• Why: A standards radar sweep — and for this reader, the standout is one line item rather than the survey itself: Web Bot Auth, a group in chartering around cryptographic identity for bots/agents as UA- and IP-based signals fail. That is an early standards-body signal on agentic identity, the only one in this entire program.
• What: Operator-relevant IETF developments: newly started AI work — aipref (expressing preferences about AI collection/use of content) and Web Bot Auth (likely a WG before the November IETF); AI agents and networking research-group proposals, agent-to-agent lists, AI agent discovery via DNS; DNS work — DELEG (authoritative servers signaling capabilities via SVCB-like records), Domain Connect (DCONN), DNSOP rechartered around split operations and DNSSEC crypto refresh; the green WG on energy-efficiency metrics; and space networking topics.
• How: Structured as an area/working-group survey (Routing, Internet, Transport, Ops, Security) with a filter for operator impact.
• Where applicable: General context for anyone tracking standards adoption; the Web Bot Auth item is pre-charter/early-charter and worth watching rather than acting on yet.