April Fools' Day Request for Comments

A Request for Comments (RFC), in the context of Internet governance, is a type of publication from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society (ISOC), usually describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.

Almost every April Fools' Day (1 April) since 1989, the Internet RFC Editor has published one or more humorous Request for Comments (RFC) documents, following in the path blazed by the June 1973 RFC 527 called ARPAWOCKY, a parody of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". The following list also includes humorous RFCs published on other dates.

List of April Fools' Day RFCs

1978

  • M. Crispin (1 April 1978). TELNET RANDOMLY-LOSE Option. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC0748. RFC 748. Unknown.
A parody of the TCP/IP documentation style. For a long time it was specially marked in the RFC index with "note date of issue".

1989

  • B. Miller (1 April 1989). TELNET SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE Option. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1097. RFC 1097. Unknown.

1990

  • D. Waitzman (1 April 1990). A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1149. RFC 1149. Experimental.
Updated by RFC 2549 in 1999; see below. Describes protocol for transmitting IP packets by homing pigeon.
In 2001, RFC 1149 was actually implemented[1] by members of the Bergen Linux User Group.
See also RFC 6214, as noted below. Describes the adaptation of RFC 1149 for IPv6.

1991

  • Poorer Richard; Prof. Kynikos (1 April 1991). Gigabit Network Economics and Paradigm Shifts. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1216. RFC 1216. Informational.
  • V. Cerf (1 April 1991). Memo from the Consortium for Slow Commotion Research (CSCR). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1217. RFC 1217. Informational.

1992

  • C. Partridge (1 April 1992). Today's Programming for KRFC AM 1313 Internet Talk Radio. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1313. RFC 1313. Informational.

1993

  • N. Borenstein; M. Linimon (1 April 1993). The Extension of MIME Content-Types to a New Medium. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1437. RFC 1437. Informational.
  • L. Chapin; C. Huitema (1 April 1993). Internet Engineering Task Force Statements Of Boredom (SOBs). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1438. RFC 1438. Informational.

1994

  • W. Shakespeare (1 April 1994). SONET to Sonnet Translation. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1605. RFC 1605. Informational.
Attributed to William Shakespeare.
  • J. Onions (1 April 1994). A Historical Perspective On The Usage Of IP Version 9. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1606. RFC 1606. Informational.
  • V. Cerf (1 April 1994). A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1607. RFC 1607. Informational.

1995

  • S. Crocker (1 April 1995). The Address is the Message. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1776. RFC 1776. Informational.

1996

  • R. Elz (1 April 1996). A Compact Representation of IPv6 Addresses. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1924. RFC 1924. Informational.
  • R. Callon, ed. (1 April 1996). The Twelve Networking Truths. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1925. RFC 1925. Informational.
  • J. Eriksson (1 April 1996). An Experimental Encapsulation of IP Datagrams on Top of ATM. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1926. RFC 1926. Informational.
  • C. Rogers (1 April 1996). Suggested Additional MIME Types for Associating Documents. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1927. RFC 1927. Informational.

1997

  • J. Ashworth (1 April 1997). The Naming of Hosts. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2100. RFC 2100. Informational.

1998

  • A. Bressen (1 April 1998). RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2321. RFC 2321. Informational.
  • K. van den Hout; A. Koopal; R. van Mook (1 April 1998). Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2322. RFC 2322. Informational.
This RFC is not solely for entertainment; the described protocol has regularly been implemented at hacker events in Europe.
  • A. Ramos (1 April 1998). IETF Identification and Security Guidelines. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2323. RFC 2323. Informational.
  • L. Masinter (1 April 1998). Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2324. RFC 2324. Informational. Updated by RFC 7168 in 2014.
  • M. Slavitch (1 April 1998). Definitions of Managed Objects for Drip-Type Heated Beverage Hardware Devices using SMIv2. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2325. RFC 2325. Informational.

1999

  • D. Waitzman (1 April 1999). IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2549. RFC 2549. Informational. Updates RFC 1149.
  • S. Glassman; M. Manasse; J. Mogul (1 April 1999). Y10K and Beyond. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2550. RFC 2550. Informational.
  • S. Bradner (1 April 1999). The Roman Standards Process -- Revision III (I April MCMXCIV). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2551. RFC 2551. Worst Current Practice. Obsoletes MCMXCIX.

2000

  • S. Christey (1 April 2000). The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2795. RFC 2795. Informational.
Concerning the practicalities of the infinite monkey theorem.

2001

  • H. Kennedy (1 April 2001). Pi Digit Generation Protocol. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3091. RFC 3091. Informational.
  • D. Eastlake 3rd; C. Manros; E. Raymond (1 April 2001). Etymology of "Foo". Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3092. RFC 3092.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Informational.
  • M. Gaynor; S. Bradner (1 April 2001). Firewall Enhancement Protocol (FEP). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3093. RFC 3093. Informational.

2002

  • B. Rajagopalan (1 April 2002). Electricity over IP. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3251. RFC 3251. Informational.
Parody of "Everything over IP and IP over Everything"[2] and the 2000–2001 California electricity crisis.
  • H. Kennedy (1 April 2002). Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3252. RFC 3252. Informational.

2003

  • S. Bellovin (1 April 2003). The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3514. RFC 3514. Informational.
Proposal for the 'evil bit', as an option in the IPv4 packet header. Later, this became a synonym for all attempts to seek simple technical solutions for difficult human social problems which require the willing participation of malicious actors.

2004

  • S. Bradner (1 April 2004). Omniscience Protocol Requirements. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3751. RFC 3751. Informational.

2005

  • A. Farrel (1 April 2005). Requirements for Morality Sections in Routing Area Drafts. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC4041. RFC 4041. Informational.
  • M. Crispin (1 April 2005). UTF-9 and UTF-18 Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC4042. RFC 4042. Informational.
Notable for containing PDP-10 assembly language code nearly 22 years after the manufacturer ceased production of the PDP-10, and for being technically possible as opposed to many of these other proposals.
  • M. Schulze; W. Lohsen (1 April 2005). IP over Burrito Carriers. IETF. I-D draft-lohsen-ip-burrito-00.

2006

An April 1st RFC was not published this year, but an announcement on the IETF list about the appointment of the Sesame Street character Bert as member of the IAB appears to have been the April Fools' Day 2006 stunt.

2007

  • J. Hofmueller; A. Bachmann; IO. zmoelnig, eds. (1 April 2007). The Transmission of IP Datagrams over the Semaphore Flag Signaling System (SFSS). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC4824. RFC 4824. Informational.

2008

  • A. Falk; S. Bradner (1 April 2008). Naming Rights in IETF Protocols. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC5241. RFC 5241. Informational.
  • J. Klensin; H. Alvestrand (1 April 2008). A Generalized Unified Character Code: Western European and CJK Sections. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC5242. RFC 5242. Informational.

2009

  • A. Farrel (1 April 2009). IANA Considerations for Three Letter Acronyms. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC5513. RFC 5513. Informational.
  • E. Vyncke (1 April 2009). IPv6 over Social Networks. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC5514. RFC 5514. Experimental.
Implemented on Facebook by the author, in the process of writing the RFC.[3]

2010

  • R. Hay; W. Turkal (1 April 2010). TCP Option to Denote Packet Mood. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC5841. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 5841. Informational.

2011

  • T. Ritter (1 April 2011). Regional Broadcast Using an Atmospheric Link Layer. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC6217. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6217. Experimental.

2012

  • C. Pignataro (1 April 2012). The Null Packet. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC6592. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6592. Informational.
  • C. Pignataro; J. Clarke; G. Salgueiro (1 April 2012). Service Undiscovery Using Hide-and-Go-Seek for the Domain Pseudonym System (DPS). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC6593. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6593. Informational.

2013

  • R. Barnes; S. Kent; E. Rescorla (1 April 2013). Further Key Words for Use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC6919. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6919. Experimental.
  • R. Hinden (1 April 2013). Design Considerations for Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Communication. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC6921. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6921. Informational.

2014

  • I. Nazar (1 April 2014). The Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol for Tea Efflux Appliances (HTCPCP-TEA). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC7168. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7168. Informational.
Updates RFC 2324 for coffee machines which are also capable of brewing tea. Also defines the HTTP response code 418 I'm a Teapot, for teapots to use when unable to brew coffee.
  • S. Turner (1 April 2014). The NSA (No Secrecy Afforded) Certificate Extension. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC7169. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7169. Informational.

2015

  • M. Wilhelm (1 April 2015). Scenic Routing for IPv6. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC7511. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7511. Experimental.
Green IT has become increasingly important. In a win-win proposition, for packets and the environment alike, this RFC defines a way to allow packets to be routed through the air, to get as much sunlight and fresh air possible. Sending packets over Wi-Fi or by pidgeons will help them escape their torturous routine of assembly and disassembly, and being shot through dark fibers and copper cables all the time.
  • M. Luckie (1 April 2015). Really Explicit Congestion Notification (RECN). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC7514. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7514. Experimental. An RECN message SHOULD be sent by a router in response to a host that is generating traffic at a rate persistently unfair to other competing flows and that has not reacted to previous packet losses or ECN marks.
In an approach similar to the now deprecated ICMP Source Quench, it reuses that packet's 'Type' field (4) to (really more explicitly than ECN) tell the sender to shut up. The user responsible for the traffic MUST be made aware of the contents of an RECN message by means of text-to-speech, or pop-ups if the audio channel is muted.

2016

An April 1st RFC was not published this year.[4]

2017

  • M. Danielson; M. Nilsson (1 April 2017). Complex Addressing in IPv6. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8135. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8135. Experimental.
Takes a rather mathematical approach to use the 128-bit IPv6 address space in other ways than the traditional one, to ultimately arrive at Complex Addresses. You may use the imaginary part of a complex address (with polar coordinates as the real part) to reach Santa Claus, for example. It also proposes to use Flying Addresses for end hosts using IP over avian carriers.
  • B. Carpenter; R. Hinden (1 April 2017). Additional Transition Functionality for IPv6. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8136. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8136. Informational.
As the Internet Architecture Board intends to relax requirements for compatibility with IPv4 for new or extended protocols, this RFC helps the adoption of IPv6 by setting the evil bit for all IPv4 packets to 1, making sure that dual stack hosts will favor IPv6, as will the Happy Eyeballs algorithm. To maintain functional equivalence between IPv4 and IPv6, the 'security flag' of RFC 3514 should be included in the IPv6 header. Advanced security options may be specified in a new hop-by-hop option header.
  • A. Farrel (1 April 2017). The Arte of ASCII: Or, An True and Accurate Representation of an Menagerie of Thynges Fabulous and Wonderful in Ye Forme of Character. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8140. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8140. Informational.
ASCII art in its most splendid form. Depicts and annotates fruit bats, the Loch Ness monster, some fundamental Bauhaus elements, and even a flock of avian carriers.

2018

  • T. Mizrahi; J. Yallouz (1 April 2018). Wrongful Termination of Internet Protocol (IP) Packets. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8367. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8367. Informational.
A heartfelt cry to end packet discrimination at the IP level, where they frequently (even in this day and age) are terminated prematurely, based on color,[5] length, age, etcetera, or even by IP version!
  • H. Kaplan (1 April 2018). Internationalizing IPv6 Using 128-Bit Unicode. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8369. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8369. Informational.
Proposes to use 128-bit Unicode to facilitate internationalization of IPv6, since the 1.114.112 code points of the current implementation of Unicode is deemed insufficient for the future. IPv6 addresses may be represented by a single U+128 glyph, to reduce stress on the eyes of network administrators.
If implemented, it would obsolete RFC 8135, because "[i]t was found to be too complex to implement anyway".

2019

  • E. Fokschaner (1 April 2019). Hypertext Jeopardy Protocol (HTJP/1.0). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8565. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8565. Informational.
A 'response/request' protocol similar to HTTP/1.1 but where clients send a response to the server (e.g. "Hello World. My payload includes a trailing CRLF.") to which the server answers with a request (e.g. GET /hello.txt), like in the Jeopardy! game. The Hypertext Double Jeopardy Protocol (HTJ2P) (described in Appendix A) inverses the semantics of HTJP again.
  • E. Rye; R. Beverly (1 April 2019). Customer Management DNS Resource Records. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8567. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8567. Informational.
The authors contend that the DNS (secured with DNSSEC) is most suited to globally and reliably provide information to help maintain a high quality of experience for CPE (among others). With the definition of four new DNS RR types (password, credit card number, social security number, and an SSN pointer record) they hope to create end-to-end, holistic network management.

2020

  • A. Mayrhofer; J. Hague (1 April 2020). The Internationalized Deliberately Unreadable Network NOtation (I-DUNNO). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8771. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8771. Experimental.
A proposal to use UTF-8 to obfuscate (and help replace) textual IP addresses, to coerce a small minority of people to use the DNS instead of sticking to (and mixing up) plain IP addresses.
  • M. Welzl (1 April 2020). The Quantum Bug. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8774. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8774. Informational.
Dismisses RFC 6921 with the notion that considering time travel for faster-than-light packet delivery is "amusing" but impossible as a concept. Instead, it focuses on real life quantum entanglement in relation to packet round trip times, which (depending on the observer) could reach zero. This may cause havoc among several protocols, which should be fixed "in time" before things break.

2021

  • G. Grover; N. ten Oever; C. Cath; S. Sahib (1 April 2021). Establishing the Protocol Police. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC8962. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8962. Informational. Send all your reports of possible violations and all tips about wrongdoing to /dev/null. The Protocol Police are listening and will take care of it.
Since the Internet Engineering Task Force claims it "is not the Protocol Police", it is formally established here. It polices various aspects of protocol definitions laid out by the RFC series, and enforces adherence to them. They are sanctioned to access walled gardens and may even resort to traffic imprisonment. By the way: if you are interested in joining the Protocol Police, contact your localhost.

2022

  • J. Snijders; C. Morrow; R. van Mook (1 April 2022). Software Defects Considered Harmful. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9225. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9225. Informational.
Discourages the practice of introducing software defects, to reduce costs and lessen security impacts. By introducing some best current practices the authors hope to get rid of them: "Authors MUST NOT implement bugs. If bugs are introduced in code, they MUST be clearly documented."
  • M. Breen (1 April 2022). Bioctal: Hexadecimal 2.0. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9226. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9226. Experimental.
Known problems with hexadecimal representation of numbers can be avoided by replacing its alphabet of 0-9 and A-F with two octal ranges: 0-7 and the letters 'cjzwfsbv' (to represent values 8-15 in a bitwise elegant way).

2023

  • S. Toyosawa (1 April 2023). The Addition of the Death (DTH) Flag to TCP. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9401. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9401. Informational.
As is customary in light novels, a 'death flag' indicates the increased likelihood of a swift demise of the character. Transferred to TCP, the DTH flag in the packet header could lead to smoother and more attractive session narratives.
  • M. Basaglia; J. Bernards; J. Maas (1 April 2023). Concat Notation. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9402. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9402. Informational.
Finally, a formalized way (with a ABNF grammar description) to properly describe the interaction between cats and containers, including the occasional ball of yarn.
  • C. GPT (1 April 2023). R. L. Barnes (ed.). AI Sarcasm Detection: Insult Your AI without Offending It. Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9405. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9405. Informational.
The AI Sarcasm Detection Protocol (ASDP) is a framework for detecting sarcasm in AI systems (written with the help of ChatGPT). Detecting sarcasm may help improve AI - human intercommunication.

2024

  • M. Blanchet (1 April 2024). Faster Than Light Speed Protocol (FLIP). Independent Submission. doi:10.17487/RFC9564. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9564. Informational.
The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) such as large language models enable the design of the Faster than Light speed Protocol (FLIP) for Internet. FLIP provides a way to avoid congestion, enhance security, and deliver faster packets on the Internet by using AI to predict future packets at the receiving peer before they arrive. This document describes the protocol, its various encapsulations, and some operational considerations.

Other humorous RFCs

  • V. Cerf (21 January 1973). PARRY Encounters the DOCTOR. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC0439. RFC 439. Status Unknown. NIC 13771.
Transcript of a talk of the schizophrenic chatbot PARRY with the computer simulated psychiatrist ELIZA (a.k.a 'The Doctor') which both fail the Turing test with flying colours.
  • D.L. Covill (22 June 1973). R. Merryman (ed.). ARPAWOCKY. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC0527. RFC 527. Status Unknown.
A very 'ARPA-ish' parody of Lewis Caroll's nonsense poem 'Jabberwocky'.
  • V. Cerf (December 1985). 'Twas the Night Before Start-up'. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC0968. RFC 968. Status Unknown.
A poem that discusses problems that arise, and debugging techniques used, in bringing a new network into operation. It shows that array indexing is problematic since the olden days.
  • B. Hancock (December 1995). The 12-Days of Technology Before Christmas. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1882. RFC 1882. Informational.
A parody of the Christmas carol 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', where computer problems pile up and the IT staff is swamped, like on a regular day.
  • R. Glenn; S. Kent (November 1998). The NULL Encryption Algorithm and Its Use With IPsec. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2410. RFC 2410. Proposed Standard.
Introducing the NULL encryption algorithm, mathematically defined as the Identity function: NULL(b) = I(b) = b, provides the means for Encapsulating Security Payload to provide authentication and integrity, but without confidentiality.

Submission of April Fools' Day RFCs

The RFC Editor accepts submission of properly formatted April Fools' Day RFCs from the general public, and considers them for publication in the same year if received at least two weeks prior to April 1st.[6][7] This practice of publishing April Fool's Day RFCs is specifically acknowledged in the instructions memo for RFC authors, with a tongue-in-cheek note saying: "Note that in past years the RFC Editor has sometimes published serious documents with April 1 dates. Readers who cannot distinguish satire by reading the text may have a future in marketing."[6]

References

  1. ^ "RFC 1149 implemented". Blug.linux.no. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
  2. ^ D. Thaler; B. Aboba (July 2008). What Makes for a Successful Protocol?. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC5218. RFC 5218. Informational.
  3. ^ E. Vyncke. "IPv6 over the Facebook Social Network".
  4. ^ Flanagan, Heather (2 April 2016). "hey, guys, where 1 april 2016 RFC. Ups..." rfc-i (Mailing list).
  5. ^ O. Aboul-Magd; S. Rabie (July 2005). A Differentiated Service Two-Rate, Three-Color Marker with Efficient Handling of in-Profile Traffic. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC4115. RFC 4115. Informational.
  6. ^ a b "Instructions to Request for Comments (RFC) Authors". Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
  7. ^ "IETF RFC-Editor FAQ, Q20: How can I submit an April 1st RFC?". Rfc-editor.org. 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2012-03-18.

Further reading

  • RFC Editor home page – hosts individual RFCs

External links

  • Marsan, Carolyn Duffy (April 1, 2005). "Yet Another Foolish Network Protocol". Network World – on RFC 3751 and April Fools' Day RFCs in general.
  • Limoncelli, Thomas A.; Peter H. Salus (2007). The Complete April Fools' Day RFCs. Peer-to-Peer Communications. ISBN 978-1-57398-042-5.
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