‘Wave’ is an extension of XMPP.
- http://www.waveprotocol.org/whitepapers/google-wave-architecture
The core of XMPP is ratified by the IETF and the XSF (XMPP Standards Foundation) manages the process of adding new functionality via XMPP Extension Protocols (XEPs)
- http://xmpp.org/extensions/
Hopefully Google will get Wave into the XSF process as a XEP.