If there is something that is truly the backbone of current digital communication standards – it’s routing and switching technologies. We decided to look deeper into the standards developed by IETF and contributing companies to understand their role in development of routing & switching technologies.

Our report presents an analysis of the development of Routing & Switching technology from 2003 to 2022 by reviewing the IETF documents: RFCs, Internet-Drafts, and Declared Patent Families.

Report Highlights:

• Trends from key IETF documents across the last two decades.
• A look at filings of RFCs, Drafts, and Patent filings in 3 key areas – Operations and Management Area (ops), Routing Area (rtg), and Internet Area (int)
• Ranking of top contributors, including Cisco and Huawei, and their specific roles.

Findings reveal that Cisco and Huawei are the top contributors, with significant input also from Juniper, Nokia, and Ericsson. The study discusses the competition among these companies as they continually submit new drafts and push for their proposals to be accepted as RFCs.