Guidelines for Characterizing the Term "OAM"

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Publisher: IETF
Doc Type: Best Practice
Pages: 12
Abstract: 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.
Publication Date: 2026-06-01
Status Note: Best Current Practice
DOI: 10.17487/RFC10014
Link: https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC10014
Author(s): Carlos Pignataro
Adrian Farrel
Tal Mizrahi

Latest version of IETF RFC 10014

Document Versions — IETF RFC 10014

▶ IETF RFC 10014 (2026-06-01)

THIS DOC [ACTIVE] [LATEST VERSION]

Normative Reference(s)

IETF RFC 2119 [Active*]
IETF RFC 6291 [Active*]
RFC7799 — RFC7799 EXTERNAL
IETF RFC 8174 [Active*]

Bibliographic Reference(s)

The P4.org Applications Working Group, "In-band Network Telemetry (INT) Dataplane Specification", Version 2.1, 11 November 2020, <https://p4.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/p4-spec/docs/INT_v2_1.pdf>. EXTERNAL
IETF RFC 4733 [Active*]
IETF RFC 5085 [Active*]
IETF RFC 5880 [Active*]
IETF RFC 6374 [Active*]
RFC6669 — RFC6669 EXTERNAL
RFC7276 — RFC7276 EXTERNAL
IETF RFC 8029 [Active*]
RFC9197 — RFC9197 EXTERNAL
RFC9232 — RFC9232 EXTERNAL
RFC9341 — RFC9341 EXTERNAL
RFC9551 — RFC9551 EXTERNAL

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IETF RFC 6291 [Active*]

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IETF RFC 10014, Guidelines for Characterizing the Term "OAM"
doi: 10.17487/RFC10014
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<cite id="bib-rfc10014">IETF RFC 10014</cite>, Guidelines for Characterizing the Term &quot;OAM&quot;
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