University and corporate researchers publish RFC documents to get feedback from others regarding new Internet technologies, and many of the most widely implemented networking standards such as IP and Ethernet have been documented in RFCs.

The first RFC is thought to have been published in April 1969. Though today the RFCÂ’s plaintext format has remained the same as it was in the early days, as the Internet technologies have evolved, the need for RFCs has markedly decreased. Some RFCs are still being developed for cutting-edge research regarding Internet-based networking, however.

See Also: Ethernet; Internet; Internet Protocol (IP).