The AddressOrPrefix Derived AVP Data Format For Diameter
draft-taylor-dime-addressorprefix-00

Abstract

Section 4.3.1 of the Diameter base specification [RFC6733] defines a number of derived AVP data formats. This collection includes the Address format, which is suitable for encoding complete addresses. In some potential applications, however, there is a requirement to encode a prefix rather than a complete address. This document defines the AddressOrPrefix derived AVP data format, modelled after the Address format defined in [RFC6733], but allowing the same AVP to represent a prefix of any length up to a full address. This document updates RFC 6733.

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 January 26, 2015.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2014 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
• 1.1. Requirements Language
• 2. Derived AVP Data Formats
• 3. IANA Considerations
• 4. Security Considerations
• 5. Normative References
• Author's Address

1. Introduction

AVP data formats are used in Diameter [RFC6733] to specify AVP syntax for non-grouped AVPs. Section 4.3.1 of [RFC6733] defines the Address data format for the encoding of full addresses. However, no AVP data format has been defined to encode prefixes, which are required in some potential applications. This document defines the AddressOrPrefix derived AVP data format, which is modelled on the Address format but provides for a prefix length varying from zero to a full address.

Section 4.3 of [RFC6733] introduces the topic of derived AVP data formats, and provides direction for specifying additional such formats. The present document conforms to the stated requirements.

1.1. Requirements Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2. Derived AVP Data Formats

This section defines a new derived AVP data format, AddressOrPrefix, according to the rules given in Section 4.3 of [RFC6733].

AddressOrPrefix

• The AddressOrPrefix data format is an extension of the Address data format defined in Section 4.3.1 of [RFC6733]. Like the Address data format, it is derived from the OctetString basic AVP format. As well as an AddressType, it contains a PrefixLength field. The detailed specification is as follows:
  • As with the Address AVP, the first two octets represent the AddressType, which contains an Address Family, defined in [IANAADFAM].
  • The next two octets are interpreted as a 16-bit unsigned integer representing the PrefixLength. Valid values of PrefixLength are from 0 to 32 for IPv4 and from 0 to 128 for IPv6. The value 0 is included in each range to allow for presentation of a "null prefix", the meaning of which MUST be defined by applications that use AVPs based on the AddressOrPrefix data format.
  • The remaining octets present the prefix or address, most significant octet first. If the prefix does not extend to an octet boundary, the low-order bits of the final octet MUST be padded with zeroes.

3. IANA Considerations

This memo contains no actions for IANA.

4. Security Considerations

The definition of the AddressOrPrefix AVP data format has no security implications in itself. AVPs defined using this format may be sensitive and require security anaqlysis.

5. Normative References

Author's Address