RFC 10014: Guidelines for Characterizing the Term "OAM"
In plain English — editorial summary, not part of the RFC
As the IETF continues to produce and standardize different Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocols and technologies, various qualifiers and modifiers are prepended to the OAM abbreviation. While, at first glance, the most used qualifiers appear to be well understood, the same qualifier may be interpreted differently in different contexts. A case in point is the qualifiers "in-band" and "out-of-band", which have their origins in the radio lexicon, and which have been extrapolated into other communication networks. This document recommends not to use these two terms when referring to OAM. This document considers some common qualifiers and modifiers that are prepended, within the context of packet networks, to the OAM abbreviation and lays out guidelines for their use in IETF documents. This document extends RFC 6291 by adding to the guidelines for the use of the term "OAM" with qualifiers. It does not modify any part of RFC 6291.
Document record
- Document ID
- RFC10014
- Published
- June 2026
- Authors
- C. Pignataro; A. Farrel; T. Mizrahi
- Status
- BEST CURRENT PRACTICE
- Stream
- IETF
- Area
- ops
- Pages
- 12
- Also known as
- BCP161
- Updates:
- RFC 6291
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The document record above — title, authors, date, status, stream, area, relationships, DOI and errata — is imported verbatim from the public RFC Editor index. The “in plain English” section is editorial: written by The metasystema editorial team, not part of the RFC. Where the two differ, the RFC text governs.
Last checked against the RFC Editor index on . RFCs are never revised after publication; changes are issued as new documents.
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