Internet Traffic Engineering is defined as that aspect of Internet 
network engineering concerned with the performance optimization of 
traffic handling in operational networks, with the main focus of the 
optimization being minimizing over-utilization of capacity when other 
capacity is available in the network. Traffic Engineering entails that 
aspect of network engineering which is concerned with the design, 
provisioning, and tuning of operational internet networks.  It applies 
business goals, technology and scientific principles to the 
measurement, 
modeling, characterization, and control of internet traffic, and the 
application of such knowledge and techniques to achieve specific 
service 
and performance objectives, including the reliable and expeditious 
movement of traffic through the network, the efficient utilization of 
network resources, and the planning of network capacity.

The Internet Traffic Engineering Working Group defines, develops, 
specifies, and recommends principles, techniques, and mechanisms for 
traffic engineering in the internet.  The working group also serves as 
a 
general forum for discussing improvements to IETF protocols to advance 
the traffic engineering function.

The primary focus of the tewg is the measurement and control aspects of
intra-domain internet traffic engineering.  This includes provisioning,
measurement and control of intra-domain routing, and measurement and 
control aspects of intra-domain network resource allocation. Techniques 
already in use or in advanced development for traffic engineering 
include ATM and Frame Relay overlay models, MPLS based approaches, 
constraint-based routing, and traffic engineering methodologies in 
Diffserv environments.  The tewg describes and characterizes these and 
other techniques, documents how they fit together, and identifies 
scenarios in which they are useful.

The working group may also consider the problems of traffic engineering
across autonomous systems boundaries.

The tewg interacts with the common control and measurement plane 
working
group to abstract and define those parameters, measurements, and 
controls that traffic engineering needs in order to engineer the 
network.

The tewg also interacts with other groups whose scopes intersect, e.g. 
mpls, is-is, ospf, diffserv, ippm, rap, rtfm, policy, rmonmib, disman, 
etc.

The work items to be undertaken by TE WG encompass the following 
categories:

- BCP documents on ISP uses, requirements, desires (TEBCPs)

- Operational TE MIB (TEMIB)

- Document additional measurements needed for TE (TEM)

- TE interoperability & implementation informational notes (TEIMP)

- Traffic Engineering Applicability Statement (TEAPP)

For the time being, it also is covering the area of verification that
diffserv is achievable in traffic engineered SP networks.  This will 
entail verification and review of the Diffserv requirements in the the 
WG Framework document and initial specification of how these 
requirements can be met through use and potentially expansion of 
existing protocols.