Suggested IETF 125 Sessions for Getting Familiar with New Topics

If you are a new IETF participant, or if you are an experienced participant who would like to get familiar with a new topic, there are many sessions at the IETF 125 Shenzhen meeting that will include interesting discussions. Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions in particular may be interesting as BoFs are one way for potential new work to be discussed in the IETF community. A full agenda is available on the IETF Datatracker. Additional information about and links to session agendas will be added to this page as they are available. 

If you are new to the IETF or just new to IETF meetings, please be sure to consider registering for the expanded New Participant Program. Once you’ve registered for the IETF 125 meeting, additional sign up is required via your participant dashboard for this free full-day program on Sunday, 15 March 2026 at the meeting venue and via remote participation.

Updated 2025-03-02

This post will be updated as more information for IETF 125 is available. Of particular note, agendas and other materials for sessions are posted very close to agenda times so please check the IETF Datatracker for the latest information.

Note: All times are CST (GMT+8)

SATURDAY, 14 March 2026

10:30-11:00

IETF Hackathon Kickoff (separate free registration required)
Shangri-la Ballroom 1
The IETF Hackathon is a two-day event where participants develop and test that their code can interoperate with others, or where new code is written, often to implement recent IETF work. The kickoff meeting describes all the projects that will go on this week; they are also already listed on the Hackathon wiki. Feel free to join an existing team to squash some bugs! You do not need to bring code; you can simply join a topic of interest and contribute to existing code, help with testing or in many other ways.

SUNDAY, 15 March 2026

09:30-15:30
New Participants’ Program
Grand Ballroom 3
This free of charge full-day program on Sunday, 15 March 2026 will take place at the meeting venue. After registering for the IETF 125 meeting, additional sign up is required via your participant dashboard. Participation in all sessions will be available via Meetecho. See the expanded New Participant Program webpage for details about all the sessions.

10:00-12:00

Internet Engineering and Planning Group (IEPG)
Guangdong
The IEPG is an informal gathering that meets on the Sunday prior to IETF meetings. The IEPG sessions cover a wide range of operator and operational topics, and often include real-world measurements, discussions around deployment issues, as well as more academic research type presentations. Unlike IETF working groups, it does not work on or generate Internet-Drafts.

14:00-16:00

Hackathon Results Presentations
Shangri-la Ballroom 1/2

IETF Hackathon participants brief the group about what they accomplished.

16:00-17:00
New Participants' Quick Connections (Open to new participants only)
Chairman: Outdoor Area
The Quick Connections is a simple and effective way for new participants to be introduced to a variety of experienced IETF participants—often working group (WG) chairs, Area Directors,and Internet Architecture Board (IAB) members —who can help you get more involved in your areas of interest. Pre-registration is required and available on your participant dashboard after you have registered for the IETF 125 meeting.

17:00-19:00

Welcome Reception
Grand Ballroom 1/2
This is the official opening session of the IETF meeting week. Come by and meet some new people with drinks and free snacks.

18:00-20:00

HotRFC Lightning Talks
Grand Ballroom 3
See rapid-fire presentations about new standards work or new research topics, updates on cross-area IETF work and relevant technologies, and industry advances that could affect IETF participants.

MONDAY, 16 March 2026

09:00-11:00 Monday Session I

Dispatch (dispatch)
Grand Ballroom 3

This is a joint session of ART and SEC Dispatch. Run in DISPATCH-style (see RFC7957), it is intended to consider proposals for new work in the in the ART and SEC Areas and if the work is appropriate for the IETF and there is sufficient interest, to identify or help create an appropriate venue for the work.

Quantum Internet Research Group (qirg)
Shangri-la Ballroom 1
Overall the goal of the QIRG is to address the question of how to design and build quantum networks. Among its work, QIRG is developing an architectural framework delineating network node roles and definitions, to build a common vocabulary and serve as the first step toward a quantum network architecture.

11:30-12:30 Monday Session II

Domain Name System Operations (dnsop)
Grand Ballroom 2
The DNS Operations working group develops guidelines for the operation of DNS software and services and for the administration of DNS zones. These guidelines provide technical information relating to the implementation of the DNS protocol by the operators and administrators of DNS zones. Discussion about how to structure DNS maintenance work vs. operational matters are handled as part of the ongoing DNS consultation work.

14:00-16:00 Monday Session III

Operations and Management Area Open Meeting (opsarea)
Grand Ballroom 3
The OPSAREA open meeting provides an overview of the OPS Area activities and presentations covering deployments and sharing operational experience. This session will provide an update on IETF OPS work, status of the work related to handling operational considerations in IETF specifications, and a report about consensus conclusions of the DNS consultation. The session will also include a slot with three operators sharing their perspectives and challenges for AI and Network Operational Integration (AINETOPS).

16:30-18:00 Monday Session IV

PKI, Logs, And Tree Signatures (plants)
Grand Ballroom 3
The PLANTS Working Group, meeting for the first time, aims to address the impact of large post-quantum signatures on PKIs with Certificate Transparency (CT; RFC 6962 and RFC 9162), when used in interactive protocols like TLS (RFC 8446).

19:00-20:00

Hackdemo Happy Hour
Level 2 Foyer
A social gathering to highlight work accomplished during the preceding IETF Hackathon.

19:30-21:30

New Participants’ Dinner (Open to new participants only)
Shang Garden
This dinner is a chance to meet other newcomers to IETF meetings and is organized by the Secretariat. Please note that pre-registration is required, and a US$15 fee will be charged. More information is available on the New Participants webpage.

TUESDAY, 17 March 2026

09:00-11:00 Tuesday Session I

Operationalizing Network & SErvice abstractioNs BoF (onsen)
Grand Ballroom 1
The working group forming ONSEN BoF will determine if there is support for establishing a dedicated working group to focus on operationalising service and network abstractions with a focus on how they can be operationalized across diverse deployments and external systems. The session will explore problem statements, scope, enhancements to YANG service and network data models, and potential directions for YANG-based API. 

Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Open Meeting (irtfopen)
Grand Ballroom 3
The Tuesday session of the IRTF Open Meeting will focus on the topic Internetworking Challenges for AI.

11:30-12:30 Tuesday Session II

Crypto Forum (cfrg)
Grand Ballroom 3
The Crypto Forum Research Group considers cryptographic protocols, primitives and their parameters that are useful for IETF work. Current CFRG work is focused on signature schemes with specific properties, AEAD mechanisms, Password Authenticated Key Establishment (PAKE) and multi-party computation (MPC) protocols, as well as general questions (guidelines for writing cryptography specifications) and implementation guidance documents.

14:00-15:30 Tuesday Session III

Proposed Sustainability and the Internet Proposed Research Group (sustain)
Guangdong
This working group aims to develop a mechanism to allow an application to receive notifications containing throughput advice for both upstream and downstream traffic. The throughput advice serves as a guideline to enhance user experience and represents the maximum bitrate manageable by a single network element for that user's current connection.

Measurement and Analysis for Protocols Research Group (maprg)
Grand Ballroom 2

WEDNESDAY, 18 March 2026

09:00-11:00 Wednesday Session I

Coordinating Agent To Agent List of efforts (catalist) BoF
Grand Ballroom 1
This is a non-WG-forming effort to coordinate among the various initiatives to develop IETF work on AI agent-to-agent communications. This BoF provides an opportunity to: summarize the ecosystem, including work occurring outside the IETF at W3C, 3GPP, and the Linux Foundation; summarize work occurring in IETF side meetings and progressing on mailing lists; identify what work could be pursued in the IETF; and identify and share existing IETF working groups that are addressing use cases related to agent communication.

11:30-12:30 Wednesday Session II

IAB Open Meeting (iabopen)
Grand Ballroom 2
In this session, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) provides a detailed update on their technical programs, workshops, and current work-in-process architectural guidance documents, and seeks community input.

14:00-16:00 Wednesday Session III

Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Open Meeting (irtfopen)
Shangri-la Ballroom 2
News and updates from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), along with talks by recent Applied Networking Research Prize winners.

16:30-18:30

IETF Plenary
Grand Ballroom 1/2
The plenary is the one meeting addressed to the entire IETF community. There are leadership reports about the state of the IETF, as well as “open mic” sessions for community feedback on a broad range of topics.

18:45-23:00

IETF Board Game Night
Chairman: Outdoor Area
Please join us after the IETF Plenary for an evening of board games, light snacks, and non-alcoholic beverages. Some board games and puzzles will be provided, though bringing your own game to share is encouraged. We offer games that vary in difficulty and game play length.

THURSDAY, 19 March 2026

09:00-11:00 Thursday Session I

Routing Area Working Group (rtgwg)
Grand Ballroom 2
This session is a venue to discuss, evaluate, support, and develop proposals for new work in the Routing Area. This working group also works on fast-reroute, YANG models, and other general routing topics.

11:30-12:30 Thursday Session II

12:45-13:45

Host Speaker Series
Shangri-la Ballroom 2

14:00-16:00 Thursday Session III

16:30-18:00 Thursday Session IV

General Area Dispatch (gendispatch)
Grand Ballroom 3
Discussion of items being proposed for work in the General (GEN) Area. GEN Area work typically includes  proposals for changes or improvements to the IETF process and process documents. GENDISPATCH is chartered to identify, or to help create, an appropriate venue for new work. GENDISPATCH will not consider any technical standardization work.

Internet Area Working Group (intarea)
Guangdong
The Internet Area Working Group acts primarily as a forum for discussing far-ranging topics that affect the entire area. Such topics include, for instance, address space issues, basic IP layer functionality, and architectural questions. The group also serves as a forum to distribute information about ongoing activities in the area, create a shared understanding of the challenges and goals for the area, and to enable coordination.

Domain Name System Operations (dnsop)
Grand Ballroom 2
The DNS Operations working group develops guidelines for the operation of DNS software and services and for the administration of DNS zones. These guidelines provide technical information relating to the implementation of the DNS protocol by the operators and administrators of DNS zones.

18:15-19:15 

New Participants’ Social Hour (Open to new participants only)
Cafe Zen Outdoor Area
This gathering is a great opportunity for new participants to share their experiences and discuss topics of interest with IETF leadership. More information is available on the New Participants webpage.

FRIDAY, 20 March 2026

09:00-11:00 Friday Session I

Transport and Services Working Group (tsvwg)
Grand Ballroom 2
The Transport and Services Working Group (TSVWG) is the forum for development and publication of RFCs dealing with transport-layer topics that are not in scope of an existing working group or do not justify the formation of a new working group.

11:30-12:30 Friday Session II

Security Area Open Meeting (saag)
Shangri-la Ballroom 1
The Security Area Advisory Group (SAAG) is an open forum of the Security Area to discuss security and privacy issues. It typically meets during the face-to-face IETF meeting. SAAG is not a working group and does not adopt or publish documents.

14:00-16:00 Friday Session III

16:00-17:00

Farewell Reception
Grand Ballroom 1/2