IP over Avian Carriers

IP over Avian Carriers or RFC 1149 is a humorous Request For Comments by the internet engineering taskforce IETF. It describes how Internet Protocol traffic may be carried by carrier pigeons. It was written by D. Waitzman and released on April Fool's Day 1990; it is one of the April 1st RFCs.

RFC1149 was actually implemented by the Bergen Linux User Group on April 28, 2001.

Waitzman released an improvement of his protocol on April 1, 1999: RFC 2549, IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service.

Subsequently, an unrelated 26 March, 2002 BBC news story reported that India's Police Pigeon Service messenger system in Orissa state was to be replaced with an IP network.

External links:

• Full text of RFC 1149 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt) Standard for the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers. D. Waitzman. Apr-01-1990.
• http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1892000/1892085.stm