Special-Purpose Address Registries
draft-bonica-special-purpose-02

Abstract

This memo instructs IANA to restructure its IPv4 and IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registries. Upon restructuring, the aforementioned registries will record all special-purpose address blocks, maintaining a common set of information regarding each address block.

This memo updates RFC 5736 and RFC 4773, which define the current structure of the IPv4 and IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registries. It also obsoletes RFC 5735 and RFC 5156 which document special-purpose address blocks that are not currently, but will in the future, be recorded in the IPv4 and IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registries.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http:/⁠/⁠datatracker.ietf.org/⁠drafts/⁠current/⁠.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

This Internet-Draft will expire on March 30, 2013.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http:/⁠/⁠trustee.ietf.org/⁠license-⁠info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. IANA Considerations
• 2.1. Information Requirements
• 2.2. IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry Entries
• 2.3. IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry Entries
• 3. Security Considerations
• 4. Acknowledgements
• 5. References
• Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction

In order to support new protocols and practices, the IETF occasionally reserves an address block a for special purpose. For example, [RFC1122] reserves an IPv4 address block (0.0.0.0/8) to represent the local (i.e., "this") network. Likewise, [RFC4291] reserves an IPv6 address block (fe80::/10) to represent link-scoped unicast addresses.

Periodically, the IETF publishes an RFC that catalogs special-purpose address blocks. Currently, [RFC5735] catalogs all IPv4 special-purpose address blocks and [RFC5156] catalogs all IPv6 special-purpose address blocks.

[RFC5736] assigns an IPv4 address block (192.0.0.0/24) to IANA and instructs IANA to allocate special-purpose address blocks from this space. [RFC5736] also instructs IANA to create an IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry that records allocations from this address space. However, [RFC5736] does not instruct IANA to record special-purpose address block reservations from outside of the aforementioned space in the IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry.

Likewise, [RFC2928] assigns an IPv6 address block (2001:0000::/23) to IANA and instructs IANA to allocate special-purpose address blocks from this space. [RFC4773] instructs IANA to create an IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry that records allocations from this address space. However, [RFC4773] does not instruct IANA to record special-purpose address block reservations from outside of the aforementioned space in the IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry.

This memo instructs IANA to restructure its IPv4 and IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registries. Therefore, this document updates [RFC5736] and [RFC4773] which define the current structure of the aforementioned registries.

Specifically, this memo instructs IANA to record all special-purpose address blocks in the aforementioned registries. These include, but are not limited to, IPv4 allocations from 192.0.0.0/24 and IPv6 allocations from 2001:0000::/23. When the aforementioned registries include all special-purpose address blocks, [RFC5735] and [RFC5156] will become redundant with the registries. Therefore, this memo obsoletes [RFC5735] and [RFC5156].

Furthermore, this memo defines:

• a common set of information that the registries will maintain regarding each special-purpose address block
• a common set of requirements for future entries

2. IANA Considerations

IANA will restructure the following registries:

• IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry
• IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry

The IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry will record all IPv4 special-purpose address blocks. These reservations will include, but not be limited to, allocations from the 192.0.0.0/24 address block. Likewise, the IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry will record all IPv6 special-purpose address blocks. These reservations will include, but not be limited to, allocations from the 2001:0000::/23 address block.

Section 2.1 of this document describes information that both registries will maintain for each entry. Initially, IANA will populate the IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry with information taken from Section 2.2 of this document. Likewise, IANA will populate the IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry with information taken from Section 2.3 of this document.

IANA will update the aforementioned registries as requested in the "IANA Considerations" section of an IESG-reviewed document. The " IANA Considerations" section must include all of the information specified in Section 2.1 of this document.

2.1. Information Requirements

The IPv4 and IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registries will maintain the following information regarding each entry:

• Prefix - An IPv4 or IPv6 prefix that identifies the special-purpose address block
• Name - A descriptive name for the special-purpose address block
• RFC - The RFC though which the special-purpose address block was requested
• Allocation Date - The date upon which the special purpose address block was allocated
• Termination Date - The date upon which the allocation is to be terminated. This field is applicable for limited-use allocations only.
• Source - A boolean value indicated whether an address from the allocated special-purpose address block is valid when used as the source address of an IP datagram that transits two devices
• Destination - A boolean value indicated whether an address from the allocated special-purpose address block is valid when used as the destination address of an IP datagram that transits two devices
• Routable - A boolean value indicating whether a IP datagram whose destination address is drawn from the allocated special-purpose address block is routable (i.e., may traverse more than a single IP interface)
• Global - A boolean value indicating whether a IP datagram whose destination address is drawn from the allocated special-purpose address block is routable beyond a specified administrative domain.

If the value of "Destination" is FALSE, the values of "Routable" and "Global" must also be false.

2.2. IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry Entries

Table 1 though Table 17, below, represent entries with which the IANA will initially populate the IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry.

[1] Not useable unless by virtue of a more specific reservation.

[2] See [RFC5771] for details.

2.3. IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry Entries

Table 18 through Table 30, below, represent entries with which the IANA will initially populate the IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry.

[3] Unless allowed by a more specific allocation

[4] See [RFC3056] for details.

[5] See [RFC4007] for global scoping details

3. Security Considerations

Security of the Internet's routing system relies on the ability to authenticate an assertion of unique control of an address block. Measures to authenticate such assertions rely on validation that the address block forms part of an existing allocated address block, and that there is a trustable and unique reference in the IANA address registries.

The proposed registry is intended to provide an authoritative source of information regarding the currency and intended purpose of special purpose address blocks that are designated from the IANA-administered Special Purpose registry. This is a small step towards the creation of a comprehensive registry framework that can be used as a trust point for commencing a chain of address validation. Consideration should be given to IANA registry publication formats that are machine parseable, and also the use of file signatures and associated certificate mechanisms to allow applications to confirm that the registry contents are current, and that they have been published by the IANA.

4. Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge an anonymous donor, without whom this document would not have been written.

5. References

Authors' Addresses