I'll attempt (with help from Peter Wery and Malcolm Betts) to explain what is meant by "consent". It is a state of a document which reflects agreement by all participants within a group. Within the ITU-T there are Study Groups (14 of them). Within a Study Group (SG) there are Working Parties (WPs), and each Working Party has rapporteur groups called "Questions". Consent is agreement at the Study Group level that a Recommendation is complete. This causes the Director to initiate last call (across all SGs), if no substantive comments are received then the Recommendation is approved.
The term 'Consent' is used in the context of the ITU-T 'Alternate Approval Process' (AAP), described in Recommendation A.8. The AAP is, for most Study Groups developing technical Recommendations, now the rule rather than the exception.
Consent can be reached at a stand-alone WP meeting or at a SG meeting (mostly the case in SG 15). In this context consent means that the WP or SG is of the opinion that the draft Recommendation text is mature and should be submitted to the AAP, with the expectation that it will be approved without further comments.
Prior to consent by a stand-alone WP or a SG, the Rapporteur Group, and in case of consent at a SG, also the WP 'propose' the draft text for consent at the higher level (Rapp. Group --> WP; WP --> SG). Actual formal consent is then given at the highest level meeting, either stand-alone WP or SG meeting, usually at the closing plenary session.
My experience with the consent process is quite positive. Unlike other SDOs, there is no voting. Anyone can object and block the consent process. This motivates the group to resolve problems. At the SG level, representation is by county and so consent by a Study Group reflects an international level of understanding.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kireeti Kompella [mailto:kireeti@juniper.net]
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 18:46
To: ccamp@ops.ietf.org
Cc: Stephen Trowbridge; Wijnen, Bert; zinin@psg.com; Ronald P. Bonica; Kireeti Kompella
Subject: ASON RSVP-TE extensions
Hi All,
We would like to send the following as a Liaison to the ITU-T from the CCAMP WG.
Please comment on the text. Ideally, we would like to send this out before the interim meeting in Chicago, and discuss it there.
It would be helpful in this context to know what it means procedurally that a document "has been consented" in the ITU.
Kireeti.