The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was formed in 1986 to serve as a forum for technical coordination by contractors for DARPA working on ARPANET, U.S. Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system. The work of the IETF is coordinated by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the IAB which are affiliated with the Internet Society. Among the key technical standards the IETF has worked on is the next generation of the Internet Protocol (IP), the foundation of the Internet — IP Version 6 (IPv6).