Internet Standards are defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (
IETF) and Internet Architecture Board (IAB
?). They are documents that start out as Internet-Draft
?s, become "Requests for Comments" (
RFCs), and then after this consulting process (generally) get approved by the IAB
? as a standard.
Generally internet standards cover interoperability of systems on the internet through defining protocols, messages formats, schemas, and languages. The most fundamental of the standards are the ones defining the internet protocol.
See also standardization.