Internet DRAFT - draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-eng
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-eng
Internet Draft RJ Atkinson
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-eng-06.txt Consultant
Expires: 10 JAN 2013 SN Bhatti
Category: Experimental U. St Andrews
10 July 2012
ILNP Engineering Considerations
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-eng-06.txt
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Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
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documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts
as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in
progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
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This document is not on the IETF standards-track and does not
specify any level of standard. This document merely provides
information for the Internet community.
The ILNP document set has had extensive review within the IRTF
Routing Research Group. ILNP is one of the recommendations made
by the RG Chairs. Separately, various refereed research papers
on ILNP have also been published during this decade. So the
ideas contained herein have had much broader review than
IRTF Routing RG. The views in this document were considered
controversial by the Routing RG, but the RG reached a consensus
that the document still should be published. The Routing RG has
had remarkably little consensus on anything, so virtually all
Routing RG outputs are considered controversial.
Abstract
This document describes common (i.e. version independent)
engineering details for the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol
(ILNP), which is an experimental, evolutionary enhancement to IP.
This document is a product of the IRTF Routing RG.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .........................................?
2. ILNP Identifiers......................................?
3. Encoding of Identifiers and Locators for ILNPv6.......?
4. Transport Layer Changes...............................?
5. ILNP Communication Cache (ILCC).......................?
6. Handling Location/Connectivity Changes................?
7. Subnetting............................................?
8. DNS Considerations....................................?
9. IP Security for ILNP..................................?
10. Backwards Compatibility Incremental Deployment........?
11. Security Considerations...............................?
12. Privacy Considerations................................?
13. Operational Considerations............................?
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14. Referrals and Application Programming Interfaces......?
15. IANA Considerations...................................?
16. References............................................?
1. INTRODUCTION
At present, the Internet research and development community are
exploring various approaches to evolving the Internet
Architecture to solve a variety of issues including, but not
limited to, scalability of inter-domain routing [RFC4984]. A wide
range of other issues (e.g. site multi-homing, node multi-homing,
site/subnet mobility, node mobility) are also active concerns at
present. Several different classes of evolution are being
considered by the Internet research & development community. One
class is often called "Map and Encapsulate", where traffic would
be mapped and then tunnelled through the inter-domain core of the
Internet. Another class being considered is sometimes known as
"Identifier/Locator Split". This document relates to a proposal
that is in the latter class of evolutionary approaches.
The Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP) is an experimental
network protocol that provides evolutionary enhancements to IP.
ILNP is backwards-compatible with IP and also is incrementally
deployable. The best starting point for learning about ILNP is
the ILNP Architectural Description, which includes a document
roadmap [ILNP-ARCH].
1.1 Document roadmap
This document describes engineering and implementation
considerations that are common to both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6.
The ILNP architecture can have more than one engineering
instantiation. For example, one can imagine a "clean-slate"
engineering design based on the ILNP architecture. In separate
documents, we describe two specific engineering instances of
ILNP. The term ILNPv6 refers precisely to an instance of ILNP that
is based upon, and backwards compatible with, IPv6. The term ILNPv4
refers precisely to an instance of ILNP that is based upon, and
backwards compatible with, IPv4.
Many engineering aspects common to both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6 are
described in [ILNP-ENG]. A full engineering specification for
either ILNPv6 or ILNPv4 is beyond the scope of this document.
Readers are referred to other related ILNP documents for details
not described here:
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a) [ILNP-ARCH] is the main architectural description of ILNP,
including the concept of operations.
b) [ILNP-DNS] defines additional DNS resource records that
support ILNP.
c) [ILNP-ICMPv6] defines a new ICMPv6 Locator Update message
used by an ILNP node to inform its correspondent nodes
of any changes to its set of valid Locators.
d) [ILNP-NONCEv6] defines a new IPv6 Nonce Destination Option
used by ILNPv6 nodes (1) to indicate to ILNP correspondent
nodes (by inclusion within the initial packets of an ILNP
session) that the node is operating in the ILNP mode and
(2) to prevent off-path attacks against ILNP ICMP messages.
This Nonce is used, for example, with all ILNP ICMPv6
Locator Update messages that are exchanged among ILNP
correspondent nodes.
e) [ILNP-ICMPv4] defines a new ICMPv4 Locator Update message
used by an ILNP node to inform its correspondent nodes
of any changes to its set of valid Locators.
f) [ILNP-v4OPTS] defines a new IPv4 Nonce Option used by ILNPv4
nodes to carry a security nonce to prevent off-path attacks
against ILNP ICMP messages and also defines a new IPv4
Identifier Option used by ILNPv4 nodes.
g) [ILNP-ARP] describes extensions to ARP for use with ILNPv4.
h) [ILNP-ADV] describes optional engineering and deployment
functions for ILNP. These are not required for the operation
or use of ILNP and are provided as additional options.
1.2 Terminology
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
RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
Several technical terms (e.g., "ILNP session") that are used by
this document are defined in [ILNP-ARCH]. It is strongly
recommended that one read [ILNP-ARCH] before reading this
document.
2. ILNP IDENTIFIERS
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All ILNP nodes must have at least one Node Identifier (or just
"Identifier") value. However, there are various options for
generating those Identifier values. We describe in this section
the relevant engineering issues related to Identifier generation
and usage.
Note well that ILNP Node Identifiers name an ILNP-capable node,
and are NOT bound to a specific interface of that node. So a
given ILNP Node Identifier is valid on all active interfaces of the
node to which that ILNP Identifier is bound. This is true even if
the bits used to form the Identifier value happened to be taken
from a specific interface as an engineering convenience.
2.1 Syntax
ILNP Identifiers are always unsigned 64-bit strings, and may be
realised as 64-bit unsigned integers. Both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6 use
the Modified EUI-64 [IEEE-EUI] syntax that is used by IPv6
Interface Identifiers [RFC4291, Sec 2.5.1], as shown in Figure 2.1.
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 6 id bits | U bit | G bit | 24 id bits |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 32 id bits |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Figure 2.1. Node Identifier format as used for IPv6, using the
same syntax as in RFC4291 Sec 2.5.1.
That syntax contains two special reserved bit flags. One flag
(the U bit) indicates whether the value has "universal" (i.e.
global) scope (1) or "local" (0) scope. The other flag (the G
bit) indicates whether the value is an "individual" address (1)
or "group" (i.e multicast) (0) address.
However, this format does allow other values to be set, by use of
administrative or other policy control, as required, by setting
the U bit to "local".
2.1 Default values for an Identifier
By default, this value, including the U bit and G bit, are set as
described in Sec 2.5.1 of RFC4291 [RFC4291]. Where no other
value of Identifier is available for an ILNP node, this is the
value that MUST be used.
Because ILNP Identifiers might have local scope, and also to
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handle the case where two nodes at different locations happen to
be using the same global scope Identifier (e.g. due to a
manufacturing fault in a network chipset or card), implementers
must be careful in how ILNP Identifiers are handled within an end
system's networking implementation. Some details are discussed in
Section 4 below.
2.2 Local-scoped Identifier values
ILNP Identifiers for a node also MAY have the Scope bit of the
Node Identifier set to "local"" scope. Locally unique identifiers
MAY be Cryptographically Generated, created following the
procedures used for IPv6 Cryptographically Generated Addresses
(CGAs) [RFC3972] [RFC4581] [RFC4982].
Also, locally unique identifiers MAY be used to create the ILNP
equivalent to the Privacy Extensions for IPv6, generating ILNP
Identifiers following the procedures used for IPv6 [RFC4941].
2.3 Multicast Identifiers
An ILNP Identifier with the G bit set to "group" names an ILNP
multicast group, while an ILNP Identifier with the G bit set to
"individual" names an individual ILNP node. However, this usage
of multicast for Identifiers for ILNP is currently undefined:
ILNP uses IPv6 multicast for ILNPv6 and IPv4 multicast for ILNPv4
and uses the multicast address formats defined as appropriate.
The use of multicast Identifiers and design of an enhanced
multicast capability for ILNPv6 and ILNPv4 is currently work
in progress.
2.4 Administration of Identifier values
Note that just as IPv6 does not need global, centralised
administrative management of its interface identifiers, so ILNPv6
does not need global, centralised administrative management of
the NID values.
3.0 ENCODING OF IDENTIFIERS AND LOCATORS FOR ILNPv6
3.1 Encoding of I and L values
With ILNPv6, the Identifier and Locator values within a packet
are encoded in the the existing space for the IPv6 address. In general,
the ILNPv6 Locator has the same syntax and semantics as the current
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IPv6 unicast routing prefix, as shown in Figure 3.1:
/* IPv6 */
| 64 bits | 64 bits |
+-------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| IPv6 Unicast Routing Prefix | Interface Identifier |
+-------------------------------------+-------------------------+
/* ILNPv6 */
| 64 bits | 64 bits |
+-------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| Locator | Node Identifier (NID) |
+-------------------------------------+-------------------------+
Figure 3.1 The general format of encoding of I/NID and L values
for ILNPv6 into theIPv6 address bits.
The syntactical structure of the IPv6 address spaces remains as given
in section 2.5.4 of [RFC4291], and an example is shown in Figure 3.2,
which is based in part on [RFC3177].
/* IPv6 */
| 3 | 45 bits | 16 bits | 64 bits |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
|001|global routing prefix| subnet ID | Interface Identifier |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
/* ILNPv6 */
| 64 bits | 64 bits |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
| Locator (L64) | Node Identifier (NID) |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
Figure 3.2: Example of IPv6 address format as used in ILNPv6.
The global routing prefix bits and subnet ID bits above are
as for [RFC3177], but could be different, e.g. as for [RFC6177].
The ILNPv6 Locator uses the upper 64-bits of the 128-bit IPv6
address space. It has the same syntax and semantics as today's
IPv6 routing prefix. So, an ILNPv6 packet carrying a Locator
value can be used just like an IPv6 packet today as far as core
routers are concerned.
The example in Figure 3.2 happens to use a /48 prefix,
as was recommended by [RFC3177]. However, more recent advice
is that prefixes need not be fixed at /48 and could be up
to /64 [RFC6177]. This change, however, does not impact
the syntax or semantics of the Locator value.
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The ILNPv6 Identifier value uses the lower 64-bits of the 128-bit
IPv6 address. It has the same syntax as an IPv6 identifier, but
different semantics. This provides a fixed-length non-topological
name for a node. Identifiers are bound to nodes, not to
interfaces of a node. All ILNP Identifiers MUST comply with the
modified EUI-64 syntax already specified for IPv6's "Interface
Identifier" values, as described in Section 2.1.
IEEE EUI-64 Identifiers can have either global-scope or
local-scope. So ILNP Identifiers also can have either
global-scope or local-scope. A reserved bit in the modified
EUI-64 syntax clearly indicates whether a given Identifier has
global-scope or local-scope. A node is not required to
use a global-scope Identifier, although that is the recommended
practice. Note that the syntax of the Node Identifier field has
exactly the same syntax as that defined for IPv6 address in
Section 2.5.1 of RFC 4291 [RFC4291]. (This is based on the IEEE
EUI-64 syntax [IEEE-EUI], but is not the same.)
Most commonly, Identifiers have global-scope and are derived
from one or more IEEE 802 or IEEE 1394 'MAC Addresses' (sic)
already associated with the node, following the procedure
already defined for IPv6 [RFC4291]. Global-scope identifiers
have a high probability of being globally unique. This approach
eliminates the need to manage Identifiers, among other benefits.
Local-scope Identifiers MUST be unique within the context of
their Locators. The existing mechanisms of the IPv4 Address
Resolution Protocol [RFC826] and IPv6 State-Less Address
Auto-Configuration (SLAAC) [RFC4862] automatically enforce this
constraint.
For example, on an Ethernet-based IPv4 subnetwork the ARP Reply
message is sent via link-layer broadcast, thereby advertising the
current binding between an IPv4 address and a MAC address to all
nodes on that IPv4 subnetwork. (Note also that a well-known,
long standing, issue with ARP is that it cannot be
authenticated.) Local-scope Identifiers MUST NOT be used with
other Locators without first ensuring uniqueness in the context
of those other Locators e.g. by using IPv6 Neighbour Discovery's
Duplicate Address Detection mechanism when using ILNPv6 or by
sending an ARP Request when using ILNPv4.
Other methods might be used to generate local-scope Identifiers.
For example, one might derive Identifiers using some form of
cryptographic generation or using the methods specified in the
IPv6 Privacy Extensions [RFC4941] to State-Less Address Auto-
Configuration (SLAAC) [RFC4862]. When cryptographic generation of
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Identifiers using methods described in RFC3972 is in use, only
the Identifier is included, never the Locator, thereby preserving
roaming capability. One could also imagine creating a local-scope
Identifier by taking a cryptographic hash of a node's public key.
Of course, in the unlikely event of a Identifier collision, for
example when a node has chosen to use a local- scope Identifier
value, the node remains free to use some other local-scope
Identifier value(s).
It is worth remembering here that an IPv6 address names a
specific network interface on a specific node, but an ILNPv6
Identifier names the node itself, not a specific interface on the
node. This difference in definition is essential to providing
seamless support for mobility and multi-homing, which are
discussed in more detail later in this note.
3.2 Network-level packet formats
ILNPv6 Locator and Identifier values are encoded into IPv6
address space and ILNPv6 uses directly the Classic IPv6 packet
format, as shown in Figure 3.3. This is also the view of an
ILNPv6 packet as seen by core routers - they simply use the
Locator value (top 64-bits of the address field) just as they
would use an IPv6 prefix today (e.g. either as /48 or as /64
when using sub-network routing).
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|Version| Traffic Class | Flow Label |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Payload Length | Next Header | Hop Limit |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source Address |
+ +
| |
+ +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Destination Address |
+ +
| |
+ +
| |
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+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 3.3: Existing ("Classic") IPv6 Header
In essence, the Locator names a subnetwork. (Locators can also be
referred to as Routing Prefixes if discussing Classic IPv6). Of
course, backwards compatibility requirements mean that ILNPv6
Locators use the same number space as IPv6 routing prefixes.
This ensures that no changes are needed to deployed IPv6 routers
when deploying ILNPv6.
The low-order 64-bits of the IPv6 address become the Identifier.
Details of the Identifier were discussed above. The Identifier is
only used by end-systems, so Figure 3.4 shows the view of the
same packet format, but as viewed by an ILNPv6 node. As this
only needs to be parsed in this way by the end-system, so ILNPv6
deployment is enabled incrementally by updating end-systems
as required.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|Version| Traffic Class | Flow Label |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Payload Length | Next Header | Hop Limit |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source Locator |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source Identifier |
| |
+ +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Destination Locator |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Destination Identifier |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 3.4: ILNPv6 Header as seen by ILNPv6-enabled end-systems
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3.3 Encoding of identifiers and locators for ILNPv4
Encoding of Identifier and Locator values for ILNPv4 is not as
straight-forward as for ILNPv6. In analogy to ILNPv6, in ILNPv4,
the Locator value is a routing prefix for IPv4, but is at most 30
bits. Source Locator values are carried in the source address
field of the IPv4 header, and destination Locator values in the
destination address field. So, just like for ILNPv6, for ILNPv4,
packet routing can be performed by routers examining existing
prefix values in the IPv4 header.
However, for ILNPv4, additional option headers have to be used to
carry the Identifier value as there is not enough room in the
normal IPv4 header fields. A 64-bit Identifier value is carried
in an option header. So, the detailed explanation of the ILNPv4
packet header is to be found in [ILNP-v4OPTS].
4. TRANSPORT-LAYER CHANGES
ILNP uses an Identifier value in order to form the invariant
end-system state for end-to-end protocols. Currently, transport
protocols such as TCP and UDP use all the bits of an IP address
to form such state. So, transport protocol implementations MUST
be modified in order to operate over ILNP.
4.1 End-system state
Currently, TCP and UDP, for example, use the 4-tuple:
<local port, remote port, local IP address, remote IP address>
for the end-system state for a transport layer end-point. For
ILNP, implementations must be modified to instead use:
<local port, remote port, local Identifier, remote Identifier>
4.2 TCP/UDP Checksum Handling
In IP-based implementations, the TCP or UDP pseudo-header
checksum calculations include all the bits of the IP address.
By contrast, when calculating the TCP or UDP pseudo-header
checksums for use with ILNP, only the Identifier values are
included in the TCP or UDP pseudo-header checksum calculations.
To minimise the changes required within transport protocol
implementations, and to maximise interoperability, current
implementations are modified to zero the Locator fields (only for
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the purpose of TCP or UDP checksum calculations). For example,
for ILNPv6, this means that the existing code for IPv6 can be
used, with the ILNPv6 Identifier bits occupying the lower 64 bits
of the IPv6 address field, and the upper 64 bits of the IPv6
address filed being set to zero. For ILNPv4, the Identifier
fields are carried in an IPv4 Option [ILNP-v4OPTS].
Section 7 describes methods for incremental deployment of this
ILNP-specific change and backwards compatibility with non-
upgraded nodes (e.g. classic IPv4 or IPv6 nodes) in more detail.
4.3 ICMP Checksum Handling
To maximise backwards compatibility, the ILNPv6 ICMP checksum is
always calculated in the same way as for IPv6 ICMP. Similarly,
the ILNPv4 ICMP checksum is always calculated in the same way as
for IPv4 ICMP.
5. ILNP COMMUNICATION CACHE (ILCC)
For operational purposes, implementations need to have a local
cache of state information that allow communication end-points to
be constructed and for communication protocols to operate. Such
cache information is common today, e.g. IPv4 nodes commonly
maintain an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache with
information relating to current and recent Correspondent Nodes;
IPv6 nodes maintain a Neighbor Discovery (ND) table with
information relating to current and CNs. Likewise, ILNP maintains
an Identifier-Locator Communication Cache (ILCC) with information
relating to the operation of ILNP.
The ILCC is a (logical) set of data values required for ILNP to
operate. These values are maintained by the endpoints of each
ILNP session.
In theory, this cache is within the ILNP network-layer. However,
many network protocol implementations do not have strict protocol
separation or layering. So there is no requirement that the ILCC
be kept partitioned from transport-layer protocols.
Note that in many implementations, much of the information
required for the ILCC may already be present. Where some
additional information is required for ILNP, from an engineering
viewpoint, the ILCC could be implemented by extending or
enhancing existing data structures within existing
implementations. For example, by adding appropriate flags to the
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data structures in existing implementations.
Note that the ILCC does not impose any extra state maintenance
requirements for applications or applications servers. For
example, in the case of, say, HTTP, there will be no additional
state for a server to maintain, and any TCP state will be handled
by the ILNP code in the OS just as for IP.
5.1 Formal Definition
The ILCC contains information about both the local node and also
about current or recent correspondent nodes, as follows.
Information about the local node:
- Each currently valid Identifier value,
including its Identifier Precedence
and whether it is active at present.
- Each currently valid Locator value, including
its associated local interface(s),
its Locator Precedence, and
whether it is active at present.
- Each currently valid IL Vector (I-LV), including
whether it is active at present.
Information about each correspondent node:
- Most recent set of Identifiers,
including lifetime and validity for each.
- Most recent set of Locators,
including lifetime and validity for each.
- Nonce value for packets from the local host
to the correspondent.
- Nonce value for packets from the correspondent
to the local host.
In the above list for the ILNP Communication Cache:
- A "valid" item is usable, from an administrative point of
view, but might or might not be in use at present.
- The "validity" parameter for the correspondent node indicates
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one of several different states for a datum. These include at
least the following:
- "valid" : data is usable and has not expired.
- "active" : data is usable, has not expired,
and is in active use at present.
- "expired" : data is still in use at present,
but is beyond its expiration (i.e.
without a replacement value).
- "aged" : data was recently in use, but is not
in active use at present, and is
beyond its expiration.
- The "lifetime" parameter is an implementation-specific
representation of the validity lifetime for the associated
data element. In normal operation, the Lifetime for a
correspondent node's Locator(s) are learned from the DNS
Time-To-Live (DNS TTL) value associated with DNS records
(NID, L32, L64 etc) of the FQDN owner name of the
correspondent node. For time, a node might use UTC
(e.g. via Network Time Protocol) or perhaps some
node-specific time (e.g. seconds since node boot).
5.2 Ageing ILCC Entries
As a practical engineering matter, it is not sensible to flush
all Locator values associated with an existing ILNP session's
correspondent node even if the DNS TTL associated with those
Locator values expires.
In some situations, a CN might be disconnected briefly when
moving location (e.g. immediate handover, which sometimes is
called "break before make"). If this happens, there might be a
brief pause before the Correspondent Node can (a) update its own
L values in the DNS, and (b) send an ICMP Locator Update message
to the local node with information about its new
location. Implementers ought to try to maintain ILNP sessions
even when such events occur.
Instead, Locator values cached for a correspondent node SHOULD be
marked as "aged" when their TTL has expired, but retained until
either the next Locator Update message is received, there is
other indication that a given Locator is not working any longer,
there is positive indication that the Correspondent Node has
terminated the ILNP session (e.g. TCP RST if the only
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transport-layer session for this ILNP session is a TCP session),
until some appropriate timeout (e.g. 2*MSL for TCP if the only
transport-layer session for this ILNP session is a TCP session),
or the ILNP session has been inactive for several minutes
(e.g. no transport-layer session exists for this ILNP session)
and the storage space associated with the aged entry needs to be
reclaimed.
Separately, received authenticated Locator Update messages cause
the ILCC entries listed above to be updated.
Similarly, if there is indication that an ILNP session with a
Correspondent Node remains active and the DNS TTL associated with
that Correspondent Node's active Identifier value(s) has expired,
those remote Identifier value(s) ought to be marked as "expired",
but retained since they are in active use.
5.3 Large Numbers of Locators
Implementers should keep in mind that a node or site might have a
large number of concurrent Locators, and should ensure that a
system fault does not arise if the system receives an authentic
ICMP Locator Update containing a large number of Locator values.
5.4 Lookups into the ILCC
For received packets containing an ILNP Nonce Option, lookups in
the ILCC MUST use the <remote Identifier, Nonce> tuple as the
lookup key.
For all other ILNP packets, lookups in the ILNP Correspondent
Cache MUST use the <remote Locator, remote Identifier> tuple,
i.e. the remote I-LV, as the lookup key.
These two checks between them facilitate situations where,
perhaps due to deployment of Local-scope Identifiers, more than
one correspondent node is using the same Identifier value.
(NOTE: Other mechanisms, such as IPv6 Neighbor Discovery, ensure
that 2 different nodes are incapable of using a given IL-V
at the same location i.e., on the same link.)
While Locators are omitted from the transport-layer checksum, an
implementation SHOULD use Locator values to distinguish between
correspondents coincidentally using the same Identifier value
(e.g. due to deployment of Local-scope Identifier values) when
demultiplexing to determine which application(s) should receive
the user data delivered by the transport-layer protocol.
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6. HANDLING LOCATION/CONNECTIVITY CHANGES
In normal operation, an ILNP node uses the DNS for initial
rendezvous in setting up ILNP sessions. The use of DNS for
initial rendezvous with mobile nodes was earlier proposed by
others [PHG02] and then separately re-invented by the current
authors later on.
6.1 Node Location/Connectivity Changes
To handle the move of a node or a change to the upstream
connectivity of a multi-homed node, we add a new ICMP control
message [ILNP-ICMPv4] [ILNP-ICMPv6]. The ICMP Locator Update (LU)
message is used by a node to inform its existing CNs that the set
of valid Locators for the node has changed. This mechanism can
be used to add newly valid Locators, to remove no longer valid
Locators, or to do both at the same time. The LU mechanisms is
analogous to the Binding Update mechanism in Mobile IPv6, but in
ILNP, such messages are used any time Locator value changes need
to be notified to CNs, e.g. for multi-homed hosts as well as for
mobile hosts.
Further, if the node wishes to be able to receive new incoming
ILNP sessions, the node normally uses Secure Dynamic DNS Update
[RFC3007] to ensure that a correct set of Locator values are
present in the appropriate DNS records (i.e. L32, L64) in the DNS
for that node [ILNP-DNS]. This enables any new correspondents to
correctly initiate a new ILNP session with the node at its new
location.
While the Locator Update control message could be an entirely new
protocol running over UDP, for example, there is no obvious
advantage to creating a new protocol rather than using a new ICMP
message. So ILNP defines a new ICMP Locator Update message
for both IPv4 and IPv6.
6.2 Network Connectivity/Locator Changes
As a DNS performance optimisation, the LP DNS resource record MAY
be used to avoid requiring each node on a subnetwork to update
its DNS L64 record entries when that subnetwork's location
(e.g. upstream connectivity) changes [ILNP-DNS]. This can reduce
the number of DNS updates required when a subnetwork moves from
Order(number of nodes on subnetwork) to Order(1).
In this case, the nodes on the subnetwork each would have an LP
record pointing to a common Fully-Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
used to name that subnetwork. In turn, that subnetwork's domain
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name would have one or more L64 record(s) in the DNS. Since the
contents of an LP record are stable, relatively long DNS TTL
values can be associated with these records facilitating DNS
caching. By contrast, the DNS TTL of an L32 or L64 record for a
mobile or multi-homed node should be small. Experimental work at
the University of St Andrews indicates that the DNS continues to
work well even with very low (e.g. zero) DNS TTL values [BA11].
Correspondents of a node on a mobile subnetwork using this DNS
performance optimisation would initially perform a normal FQDN
lookup for a node. If that lookup returned another FQDN in an LP
record as additional data, then the correspondent would perform a
lookup on that FQDN and expect an L32 or L64 record returned as
additional data, in order to learn the Locator value to use to
reach that target node. (Of course, a lookup that did not return
any ILNP-related DNS records would result in an ordinary IPv4
session or ordinary IPv6 session being initiated, instead.)
7. SUBNETTING
For ILNPv4 and ILNPv6, the Locator value includes the subnetting
information, as that also is topological information. As well as
being architecturally correct, the placement of subnetting as
part of the Locator is also convenient from an engineering point
of view in both IPv4 and IPv6.
We consider that a Locator value, L consists of two parts:
- L_pp: the Locator prefix part, which occupies the most
significant bits in the address (for both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6).
- L_ss: Locator subnetwork selector, which occupies bits just
after the L_pp.
For each of ILNPv4 and ILNPv6, L_pp gets its value from the
provider-assigned routing prefix for IPv4 and IPv6, respectively.
For L_ss, in each case of ILNPv4 and ILNPv6, the L_ss bits are
located in the part of the address space which you might expect
them to be located if IPv4 or IPv6 addresses were being used,
respectively.
7.1 Subnetting for ILNPv6
For ILNPv6, recall that the Locator value is encoded to be
syntactically similar to an IPv6 address prefix, as shown in
Figure 7.1.
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/* IPv6 */
| 3 | 45 bits | 16 bits | 64 bits |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
|001|global routing prefix| subnet ID | Interface Identifier |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
/* ILNPv6 */
| 64 bits | 64 bits |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
| Locator (L64) | Node Identifier (NID) |
+---+---------------------+-----------+-------------------------+
+<-------- L_pp --------->+<- L_ss -->+
L_pp = Locator prefix part (assigned IPv6 prefix)
L_ss = Locator subnet selector (locally managed subnet ID)
Figure 7.1: IPv6 address format [RFC3587] as used in ILNPv6,
showing how subnets can be identified.
Note that the subnet ID forms part of the Locator value. Note
also that [RFC6177] allows the global routing prefix to be more
than 45 bits, and for the subnet ID to be smaller, but still
preserving the 64-bit size of the Locator.
7.2 Subnetting for ILNPv4
For ILNPv4, the L_pp value is an IPv4 routing prefix as used
today, which is typically less than 32 bits. However, the ILNPv4
Locator value is carried in the 32-bit IP address space, so the
bits not used for the routing prefix could be used for L_ss, e.g.
for a /24 IPv4 prefix, the situation would be as shown in Fig
7.2.
24 bits 8 bits
+------------------------+----------+
| Locator (L32) |
+------------------------+----------+
+<------- L_pp --------->+<- L_ss ->+
L_pp = Locator prefix part (assigned IPv4 prefix)
L_ss = Locator subnet selector (locally managed subnet ID)
Figure 7.2: IPv4 address format for /24 IPv4 prefix, as used in
ILNPv4, showing how subnets can be identified.
Note that the L_ss occupies bits that in an IPv4 address would
normally be the host part of the address, which the site network
could use for sub-netting in any case.
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7.3 Subnetting for router-router links in IPv6/ILNPv6
There is a special case of /127 prefixes used in router-router,
point-to-point links links for IPv6 [RFC6164]. ILNPv6 does not
preclude such use.
8. DNS CONSIDERATIONS
ILNP makes use of DNS for name resolution, as does IP. Unlike
IP, ILNP also uses DNS to support features such as mobility and
multi-homing. While such usage is appropriate use of the DNS, it
is important to discuss operational and engineering issues that
may impact DNS usage.
8.1 Secure Dynamic DNS Update
When a host that expects incoming connections changes one or more
of its Locator values, the host normally uses the IETF Secure
Dynamic DNS Update protocol [RFC3007] to update the set of
currently valid Locator values associated with its Fully
Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). This ensures that the authoritative
DNS server for its FQDN will be able to generate an accurate set
of Locator values if the DNS server receives DNS name resolution
request for its FQDN.
Liu & Albitz [LA06] report that Secure Dynamic DNS Update has
been supported on the client-side for several years now in widely
deployed operating systems (e.g. MS Windows, Apple MacOS X, UNIX,
and Linux) and also in DNS server software (e.g. BIND). Publicly
available product data sheets indicate that some other DNS server
software packages, such as that from Nominum, also support this
capability.
For example, Microsoft Windows XP (and later versions), the
freely distributable BIND DNS software package (used in Apple
MacOS X and in most UNIX systems), and the commercial Nominum DNS
server all implement support for Secure Dynamic DNS Update and
are known to interoperate [LA06]. There are credible reports
that when a site deploys Microsoft's Active Directory, the site
(silently) automatically deploys Secure Dynamic DNS Update
[LA06]. So, many sites have already deployed Secure Dynamic DNS
Update even though they are not actively using it (and might not
be aware they have already deployed that protocol) [LA06].
So DNS update via Secure Dynamic DNS Update is not only
standards-based, but also readily available in widely deployed
systems today.
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8.3 New DNS RR types
As part of this proposal, additional DNS Resource Records have
been proposed in a separate document [ILNP-DNS]. These new
records are summarised in Table 6.1.
new DNS RR type | Purpose
-----------------+------------------------------------------------
NID | store the value of a Node Identifier
L32 | store the value of a 32-bit Locator for ILNPv4
L64 | store the value of a 64-bit Locator for ILNPv6
LP | points to a (several) L32 and/or L64 record(s)
-----------------+------------------------------------------------
Table 6.1: Summary of new DNS RR types for ILNP
With this proposal, mobile or multi-homed nodes and sites are
expected to use the existing "Secure Dynamic DNS Update" protocol
to keep their Node Identifier (NID) and Locator (L32 and/or L43)
records correct in their authoritative DNS server(s) [RFC3007]
[ILNP-DNS].
Reverse DNS lookups, to find a node's Fully Qualified Domain Name
from the combination of a Locator and related Identifier value,
can be performed as at present.
8.4 DNS TTL values for ILNP RRS types
Existing DNS specifications require that DNS clients and DNS
resolvers honour the TTL values provided by the DNS servers. In
the context of this proposal, short DNS TTL values are assigned
to particular DNS records to ensure that the ubiquitous DNS
caching resolvers do not cache volatile values (e.g. Locator
records of a mobile node) and consequently return stale
information to new requestors.
The time-to-live (TTL) values for L32 and L64 records may have to
be relatively low (perhaps a few seconds) in order to support
mobility and multi-homing. Low TTL values may be of concern to
administrators who might think that this would reduce efficacy of
DNS caching increase DNS load significantly.
Previous research by others indicates that DNS caching is largely
ineffective, with the exception of NS records and the addresses
of DNS servers referred to by NS records [SBK02]. This means
DNS caching performance and DNS load will not be adversely
affected by assigning very short TTL values (down to zero) to the
Locator records of typical nodes for a edge site [BA11]. It
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also means that it is preferable to deploy the DNS server
function on nodes that have longer DNS TTL values, rather than on
nodes that have shorter DNS TTL values.
LP records normally are stable and will have relatively long TTL
values, even if the L32 or L64 records they point to have values
that have relatively low TTL values.
Identifier values might be very long-lived (e.g. days) when they
have been generated from an IEEE MAC address on the
system. Identifier values might have a shorter lifetime
(e.g. hours or minutes) if they have been cryptographically-
generated [RFC3972], or have been created by the IPv6 Privacy
Extensions [RFC4941], or otherwise have the EUI-64 scope bit set
to "local-scope". Note that when ILNP is used, the cryptographic
generation method described in RFC 3972 is used only for the
Identifier, omitting the Locator, thereby preserving roaming
capability. Note that a given ILNP session normally will use a
single Identifier value for the lifetime of that ILNP session.
8.5 IP/ILNP dual operation and transition
During a long transition period, a node that is ILNP-capable
SHOULD have not only have NID and L32/L64 (or NID and LP) records
present in its authoritative DNS server, but also SHOULD have
A/AAAA records in the DNS for the benefit of non-upgraded
nodes. Then, when any CN performs an FQDN lookup for that node,
it will receive the A/AAAA with the appropriate NID, L32/L64
and/or LP records as "additional data".
Existing DNS specifications require that a DNS resolver or DNS
client ignore unrecognised DNS record types. So gratuitously
appending NID and Locator (i.e., L32, L64, or LP) records as
"additional data" in DNS responses to A/AAAA queries ought not to
create any operational issues. So, IP only nodes would use the
A/AAAA RRs, but ILNP-capable nodes would be able to use the NID,
L32/L64 and/or LP records are required.
There is nothing to prevent this capability being implemented
strictly inside a DNS server, whereby the DNS server synthesises
a set of A/AAAA records to advertise from the NID and Locator
(i.e., L32, L64, or LP) values that the node has kept updated in
that DNS server. Indeed, such a capability may be desirable,
reducing the amount of manual configuration required for a site,
and reducing the potential for errors as the A/AAAA records would
be automatically generated.
9. IP Security for ILNP
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The primary conceptual difference from ordinary IP Security
(IPsec) is that ILNP IP Security omits all use of, and all
reference to, Locator values. This leads to several small,
but important, changes to IP Security when it is used with
ILNP sessions.
9.1 IPsec Security Associations enhancements for ILNP
IPsec Security Associations for ILNP only include the Identifier
values for the endpoints, and omit the Locator values. As an
implementation detail, ILNP implementations MUST be able to
distinguish between different Security Associations with ILNP
correspondents (at different locations, with different ILNP Nonce
values in use) that happen to use the same Identifier values
(e.g. due to an inadvertent Identifier collision when using
identifier values generated by using the IPv6 Privacy Addressing
extension). One possible way to distinguish between such
different ILNP sessions is to maintain a mapping between the IPsec
Security Association Database (SAD) entry and the corresponding
ILCC entry.
Consistent with this enhancement to the definition of an IPsec
Security Association, when processing received IPsec packets
associated with an ILNP session, ILNP implementations ignore the
Locator bits of the received packet and only consider the
Identifier bits. This means, for example, that if an ILNP
correspondent node moves to a different subnetwork, and thus is
using a different Source Locator in the header of its ILNP IPsec
packets, the ILNP session will continue to work and will continue
to be secure.
Since implementations of ILNP are also required to support IP,
implementers need to ensure that ILNP IPsec Security Associations
can be distinguished from ordinary IPsec Security Associations.
The details of this are left to the implementer. As an example,
one possible implementation strategy would be to retain a single
IPsec Security Association Database (SAD), but add an internal
flag bit to each entry of that IPsec Security Association
Database (SAD) to indicate whether ILNP is in use for that
particular IPsec Security Association.
9.2 IP Authentication Header enhancements for ILNP
Similarly, for an ILNP session using IPsec, the IPsec
Authentication Header (AH) only includes the Identifier values
for the endpoints in its authentication calculations, and omits
the Source Locator and Destination Locator fields from its
authentication calculations. This enables IPsec AH to work well
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even when used with ILNP localised numbering [ILNP-ADV] or other
situations where a Locator value might change while the packet
travels from origin to destination.
9.3 Key Management Considerations
In order to distinguish at the network-layer between multiple
ILNP nodes that happen to be using the same Node Identifier
values (e.g. because the identifier values were generated using
the IPv6 Privacy Addressing method), key management packets being
used to setup an ILNP IPsec session MUST include the ILNP Nonce
option.
Similarly, key management protocols used with IPsec are enhanced
to deprecate use of IP addresses as identifiers and to substitute
the use of the new Node Identifier values for that purpose. This
results in an ILNP IPsec Security Association that is independent
of the Locator values that might be used.
For ILNPv6 implementations, the ILNP Node Identifier (64-bits) is
smaller than the IPv6 Address (128-bits). So support for ILNPv6
IPsec is accomplished by zeroing the upper-64 bits of the IPv6
Address fields in the application-layer key management protocol,
while retaining the Node Identifier value in the lower-64 bits of
the application-layer key management protocol.
For ILNPv4 implementations, enhancements to the key management
protocol likely will be needed, because existing key management
protocols rely on 32-bit IPv4 addresses, while ILNP Node
Identifiers are 64-bits. Such enhancements are beyond the scope
of this specification.
10. BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY & INCREMENTAL DEPLOYMENT
Experience with IPv6 deployment over the past many years has
shown that it is important for any new network protocol to
provide backwards compatibility with the deployed IP base and
should be incrementally deployable, ideally requiring
modification of only those nodes that wish to use ILNP and not
requiring the modification of nodes that do not intend to use
ILNP. The two instances of ILNP, ILNPv4 and ILNPv6, are intended
to be, respectively, backwards compatible with, and incrementally
deployable on, the existing IPv4 and IPv6 installed bases.
Indeed, ILNPv4 and ILNPv6 can each be seen, from an engineering
viewpoint, as supersets of the IPv4 and IPv6, respectively.
However, in some cases, ILNP introduces functions that supersede
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equivalent functions available in IP. For example, ILNP has a
mobility model, and so does not need to use the models for Mobile
IPv4 or Mobile IPv6.
As ILNP changes the use of end-to-end namespaces, for the most
part, it is only end-systems that need to be modified. However,
in order to leverage existing engineering (e.g. existing
protocols), in some cases, there is a compromise, and these are
highlighted in this section.
10.1 Priorities in the design of ILNPv6 and ILNPv4
In the engineering design of ILNPv6 and ILNPv4, we have used the
following priorities. In some ways, this choice is arbitrary, and
it may be equally valid to "invert" these priorities for a
different architectural and engineering design.
1. Infrastructure
As much of the deployed IP network infrastructure should be
used without change. That is, routers and switches should
require minimal or zero modifications in order to run
ILNP. As much as possible of the existing installed base of
core protocols should be re-used.
2. Core protocols
As much of the deployed network control protocols, such as
routing, should be used without change. That is, existing
routing protocols and switch configuration should require
minimal or zero modifications in order to run ILNP.
3. Scope of end-system changes
Any nodes that do not need to run ILNP should not need to be
upgraded. It should be possible to have a site network that
has a mix of IP-only and ILNP-capable nodes without any
changes required to the IP-only nodes.
4. Applications
There should be minimal impact on applications, even though
ILNP requires end-to-end protocols to be upgraded. Indeed,
for those applications that are "well-behaved" (e.g. do not
use IP address values directly for application state or
application configuration), there should be little or no
effort required in enabling them to operate over ILNP.
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Each of these items is discussed in its own section below.
10.2 Infrastructure
ILNP is designed to be deployed on existing infrastructure. No
new infrastructure is required to run ILNP as it will be
implemented as a software upgrade impacting only end-to-end
protocols. Existing routing protocols can be re-used: no new
routing protocols are required. This means that network operators
and service providers do not need to learn about, test, and
deploy new protocols, or change the structure of their network in
order for ILNP to be deployed. Exceptionally, edge routers
supporting ILNPv4 hosts will need to support an enhanced version
of ARP.
10.3 Core protocols
Existing routing and other control protocols should not need to
change in devices such as switches and routers. We believe this
to be true for ILNPv6. However, for ILNPv4, we believe that ARP
will need to be enhanced in edge routers (or layer-3 switches)
that support ILNPv4 hosts. Backbone and transit routers still
ought not require changes for either ILNPv4 or ILNPv6.
For both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6, the basic packet format for packets
re-uses that format that is seen by routers for IPv4 and IPv6
respectively. Specifically, as the ILNP Locator value is always a
routing prefix (either IPv4 or IPv6), routing protocols should
work unchanged.
Both ILNPv4 and ILNPv6 introduce new header options (e.g Nonce
Option messages) and ICMP messages (e.g. Locator Update messages)
which are used to enable end-to-end signalling. For packet
forwarding, depending on the forwarding policies used by some
providers or site border routers, there may need to be
modifications to those policies to allow the new header options
and new ICMP messages to be forwarded. However, as the header
options and new ICMP messages are end-to-end, such modifications
are likely to be in configuration files (or firewall policy on
edge routers), as core routers do NOT need to parse and act upon
the information contained in the header options or ICMP messages.
10.4 Scope of end-system changes
Only end-systems that need to use ILNP need to be updated in
order for ILNP to be used at a site.
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There are three exceptions to this statement as follows:
a) ILNPv4 ARP: as the Identifier value for IPv4 cannot fit into
the normal 20-byte IPv4 packet header (a header extension is
used), ARP must be modified. This only impacts end-systems
that use ILNPv4 and those switches or site-border routers
that are the first hop from an ILNPv4 node. For ILNPv6, as
the I and L values fit into the existing basic IPv6 packet,
IPv6 Neighbour Discovery can operate without modification
b) Use of IP NAT: Where IP NAT or NAPT is in use for a site,
existing NAT/NAPT device will re-write address fields in
ILNPv4 packets or ILNPv6 packets. To avoid this, the NAT
should either (i) be configured to allow the pass-through of
packets originating from ILNP-capable nodes (e.g. by
filtering on source address fields in the IP header);
or (ii) should be enhanced to recognise ILNPv4 or ILNPv6
packets (e.g. by looking for the ILNP Nonce option).
c) Site border routers (SBRs) in ILNP Advanced Deployment
scenarios: There are options to use an ILNP-capable site
border router (SBR) as described in another document
[ILNP-ADV]. In such scenarios, the SBR(s) need to be
ILNP-capable.
Other than these exceptions, it is entirely possible to have a
site that uses a mix of IP and ILNP nodes and requires no changes
to nodes other than the nodes that wish to use ILNP. For example,
if a user on a site wishes to have his laptop use ILNPv6, only
that laptop would need to have an upgraded stack: no other
devices (end-systems, layer-2 switches or routers) at that site
would need to be upgraded.
10.5 Applications
As noted, in the Architecture Description [ILNP-ARCH], those
applications that do not use IP address values in application
state or configuration data are considered to be "well-behaved".
Applications that work today through a NAT or NAPT device without
application-specific support are also considered "well behaved".
Such applications might use DNS FQDNs or application-specific
name spaces. (Note Well: application-specific name spaces should
not be derived from IP address values).
For well-behaved applications, replacing IP with ILNP should have
no impact. That is, well-behaved applications should work
unmodified over ILNP.
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Those applications that use directly IP address values in
application state or configuration will need to be modified for
operation over ILNP. Examples of such applications include:
- FTP: which uses IP address values in the application layer
protocol. In practice, use of Secure Copy (SCP) is growing,
while use of FTP is either flat or declining, in part due
to the improved security provided by SCP.
- SNMP: which uses IP address values in MIB definitions, and
values derived from IP address values in SNMP object names.
Further experimentation in this area is planned to validate
these details.
10.6 Interworking between IP and ILNP
A related topic is interworking: for example, how would an IPv6
node communicate with an ILNPv6 node? Currently, we make the
assumption that ILNP nodes "drop down" to using IP when
communicating with a non-ILNP capable node, i.e. there is no
interworking as such. In the future, it may be beneficial to
define interworking scenarios that do not rely on having ILNP
nodes fall back to IP, for example by the use of suitable
protocol translation gateways or middleboxes.
For now, a simplified summary of the process for interaction
between ILNP hosts and non-ILNP hosts is as follows:
a) For a host initiating communication using DNS, the resolution
of the FQDN for the remote host will return at least one NID
record and at least one of an L32 record (for ILNPv4) or an
L64 record (for ILNPv6). Then the host knows that the remote
host supports ILNP.
b) When a host has I and L values for a remote host, the initial
packet to initiate communication MUST contain a Nonce Header
[ILNP-v4OPTS] [ILNP-NONCEv6] which indicates to the remote
host that this packet is attempting to set-up an ILNP session.
c) When a receiving host sees a Nonce Header, if it DOES support
ILNP it will proceed to set-up an ILNP session.
d) When a receiving host sees a Nonce Header, if it DOES NOT
support ILNP it will reject the packet and this will be
indicated to the sender through an ICMP message [ILNP-ICMPv6]
[ILNP-ICMPv4]. Upon receiving the ICMP messages, the sender
will re-initiate communication using standard IPv4 or IPv6.
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Many observers in the community expect IPv4 to remain in place
for a long time even though IPv6 has been available for over a
decade. With a similar anticipation, it is likely that in the
future there will be a mixed environment of both IP and ILNP
hosts. Until there is a better understanding of the deployment
and usage scenarios that will develop, it is not clear what
interworking scenarios would be useful to define and focus on
between IP and ILNP.
11. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
There are numerous security considerations for ILNP from an
engineering viewpoint. Overall, ILNP and its capabilities are no
less secure than IP and equivalent IP capabilities. In some
cases, ILNP has the potential to be more secure, or offer
security capability in a more harmonised manner, for example with
ILNP's use of IPsec in conjunction with multi-homing and mobility.
[ILNP-ARCH] describes several security considerations that apply
to ILNP and is included here by reference.
ILNP offers an enhanced version of IP Security (IPsec). The
details of IP Security for ILNP were described separately above.
All ILNP implementations MUST support the use of the IP
Authentication Header (AH) for ILNP and also the IP Encapsulating
Security Payload (ESP) for ILNP, but deployment and use of IPsec
for ILNP remains a matter for local operational security policy.
11.1 Authenticating ICMP Messages
Separate documents propose a new IPv4 Option [ILNP-v4OPTS] and
a new IPv6 Destination Option [ILNP-NONCEv6]. Each of these
options can be used to carry a ILNP Nonce value end-to-end
between communicating nodes. That nonce provides protection
against off-path attacks on an ILNP session. These ILNP Nonce
options are used ONLY for ILNP and not for IP. The nonce values
are exchanged in the initial packets of an ILNP session by
including them in those initial/handshake packets.
ALL ICMP Locator Update messages MUST include an ILNP Nonce
option and also MUST include the correct ILNP Nonce value for the
claimed sender and intended recipient of that ICMP Locator Update
message. There are no exceptions to this rule. ICMP Locator
Update messages MAY be protected by IP Security (IPsec), but
still MUST include an ILNP Nonce option and the ILNP Nonce
option still MUST include the correct ILNP Nonce value.
When a node has an active ILNP session, and that node changes its
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Locator set, it SHOULD include the apropriate ILNP Nonce Option
in the first few data packets sent using a new Locator value,
so that the recipient can validate the received data packets
as valid (despite having an unexpected Source Locator value).
Any ILNP Locator Update messages received without an ILNP Nonce
option MUST be discarded as forgeries.
Any ILNP Locator Update messages received with an ILNP Nonce
option, but do NOT have the correct ILNP Nonce value inside the
ILNP Nonce option, MUST be discarded as forgeries.
When the claimed sender of an ICMP message is known to be a
current ILNP correspondent of the recipient (e.g. has a valid,
non-expired, ILCC entry), then any ICMP error messages from that
claimed sender MUST include the ILNP Nonce option and MUST
include the correct ILNP Nonce value (i.e. correct for that
sender recipient pair) in that ILNP Nonce option.
When the claimed sender of an ICMP error message is known to be
a current ILNP correspondent of the recipient (e.g. has a valid,
non-expired, ILCC entry), then any ICMP error messages from that
claimed sender that are received without an ILNP Nonce option
MUST be discarded as forgeries.
When the claimed sender of an ICMP error message is known to be
a current ILNP correspondent of the recipient (e.g. has a valid,
non-expired, ILCC entry), then any ICMP error messages from that
claimed sender that contain an ILNP Nonce option, but do NOT
have the correct ILNP Nonce value inside the ILNP Nonce option,
MUST be discarded as forgeries.
ICMP messages (not including ICMP Locator Update messages) with
a claimed sender that is NOT known to be a current ILNP
correspondent of the recipient (e.g. does not have a valid,
non-expired, ILCC entry) MAY include the ILNP Nonce option,
but in this case the ILNP Nonce option is ignored by the
recipient upon receipt, since the recipient has no way to
authenticated the received ILNP Nonce value.
Received ICMP messages (not including ICMP Locator Update
messages) with a claimed sender that is NOT known to be a current
ILNP correspondent of the recipient (e.g. does not have a valid,
non-expired, ILCC entry) do NOT require the ILNP Nonce option,
because the security risks are no different than for deployed
IPv4 and IPv6 -- provided that the received ICMP message is not
an ICMP Locator Update message. Such ICMP messages
(e.g. Destination Unreachable, Packet Too Big) might legitimately
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originate in an intermediate system along the path of an ILNP
session. That intermediate system might not be ILNP capable.
Even if ILNP capable itself, that intermediate system might not
know which packets it forwards are part of ILNP sessions.
When ILNP is in use, IP Security for ILNP also MAY be used to
protect stronger protections for ICMP packets associated with an
ILNP session. Even in this case, the ILNP Nonce option also MUST
be present and MUST contain the correct ILNP Nonce value. This
simplifies packet processing, and also enables rapid discard of
any forged packets from an off-path attacker that lack either the
ILNP Nonce option or the correct ILNP Nonce value -- without
requiring computationally-expensive IPsec processing. Received
ICMP messages that are protected by ILNP IP Security, but fail
the recipient's IP Security checks, MUST be dropped as forgeries.
If a deployment chooses to use ILNP IPsec ESP to protect its ICMP
messages and is NOT also using ILNP IPsec AH with those messages,
then the ILNP Nonce option MUST be placed in the ILNP packet
after the ILNP IPsec ESP header, rather than before the ILNP
IPsec ESP header, to ensure that the Nonce option is protected in
transit.
Receipt of any ICMP message that is dropped or discarded as a
forgery SHOULD cause the details of the received forged ICMP
packet (e.g. Source and Destination Locators / Source and
Destination Identifiers / Source and Destination IP addresses,
ICMP message type, receiving interface, receive date, receive
time) to be logged in the receiving system's security logs.
Implementations MAY rate-limit such logging in order to reduce
operational risk of denial-of-service attacks on the system
logging functions. The details of system logging are
implementation-specific.
11.2 Forged Identifier Attacks
The ILNP Communication Cache (ILCC) contains two unidirectional
nonce values (one used in control messages sent by this node, a
different one used to authenticate messages from the other node)
for each active or recent ILNP session. The ILCC also contains
the currently valid set of Locators and set of Identifiers for
each correspondent node.
If a received ILNP packet contains valid Identifier values and a
valid Destination Locator, but contains a Source Locator value
that is not present in the ILCC, the packet MUST be dropped as an
invalid packet and a security event SHOULD be logged, UNLESS the
packet also contains a Nonce Destination Option with the correct
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value used for packets from the node with that Source Identifier
to this node. This prevents an off-path attacker from stealing an
existing ILNP session.
12. PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS
There are no additional privacy issues created by ILNP compared
to IP. Please see Section 10 of [ILNP-ARCH] for more detailed
discussion of Privacy Considerations.
ILNPv6 supports use of the IPv6 Privacy Extensions for Stateless
Address Auto-configuration in IPv6 [RFC4941] to enable identity
privacy (see also Section 2).
Location Privacy can be provided by locator re-writing techniques
as described in Section 7 of [ILNP-ADV].
A description of various possibilities for obtaining both identity
privacy and location privacy with ILNP can be found in [BAK11].
13. OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
This section covers various operational considerations relating
to ILNP, including potential session liveness and reachability
considerations and Key Management considerations. Again, the
situation is similar to IP, but it is useful to explain the
issues in relation to ILNP nevertheless.
13.1 Session Liveness and Reachability
For bi-directional flows, such as a TCP/ILNP session, each node
knows whether the current path in use is working by the reception
of data packets, acknowledgements, or both. Therefore, as with
TCP/IP, TCP/ILNP does not need special path probes. UDP/ILNP
sessions with acknowledgements work similarly, and also do not
need special path probes.
In the deployed Internet, the sending node for a UDP/IP session
without acknowledgements does not know for certain that all
packets are received by the intended receiving node. Such
UDP/ILNP sessions have the same properties as UDP/IP sessions in
this respect. The receiver(s) of such an UDP/ILNP session SHOULD
send a gratuitous IP packet containing an ILNP Nonce option to
the sender, in order to enable the receiver to subsequently send
ICMP Locator Updates if appropriate [ILNP-NONCEv6]. In this case,
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UDP/ILNP sessions fare better than UDP/IP sessions, still without
using network path probes.
A mobile (or multi-homed) node may change its connectivity more
quickly than DNS can be updated. This situation is unlikely,
particularly given the widespread use of link-layer mobility
mechanisms (e.g. GSM, IEEE 802 bridging) in combination with
network-layer mobility. However, the situation is equivalent to
the situation where a traditional IP node is moving faster than
the Mobile IPv4 or Mobile IPv6 agents/servers can be updated with
the mobile node's new location. So the issue is not new in any
way to ILNP. In all cases, Mobile IPv4 and Mobile IPv6 and ILNP,
a node moving that quickly might be temporarily unreachable until
it remains at a given network-layer location (e.g. IP subnetwork,
ILNP Locator value) long enough for the location update
mechanisms (for Mobile IPv4, for Mobile IPv6, or ILNP) to catch
up.
Another potential issue for IP is what is sometimes called "Path
Liveness" or, in the case of ILNP, "Locator Liveness". This
refers to the question of whether an IP packet with a particular
destination Locator value will be able to reach the intended
destination network or not, given that some otherwise valid paths
might be unusable by the sending node (e.g. due to security
policy or other administrative choice). In fact, this issue has
existed in the IPv4 Internet for decades.
For example, an IPv4 server might have multiple valid IP
addresses, each advertised to the world via an DNS A
record. However, at a given moment in time, it is possible that a
given sending node might not be able to use a given (otherwise
valid) destination IPv4 address in an IP packet to reach that
IPv4 server.
Indeed, for ILNPv6, as the ILNP packet reuses the IPv6 packet
header and uses IPv6 routing prefixes as Locator values, such
liveness considerations are no worse than they are for IPv6
today. For example, for IPv6, if a host, H, performs a DNS lookup
for an FQDN for remote host F, and receives a AAAA RR with IPv6
address F_A, this does not mean necessarily that H can reach F on
its F_A using its current connectivity, i.e. an IPv6 path may not
be available from H to F at that point in time.
So we see that using an Identifier/Locator Split architecture
does not create this issue, nor does it make this issue worse
than it is with the deployed IPv4 Internet.
In ILNP, the same conceptual approach described in [RFC5534]
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(Locator Pair Exploration for SHIM6) can be reused.
Alternatively, an ILNP node can reuse the existing IPv4 methods
for determining whether a given path to the target destination is
currently usable, for which existing methods leverage
transport-layer session state information that the communicating
end systems are already keeping for transport-layer protocol
reasons.
Lastly, it is important to note that the ICMP Locator Update
mechanism described in [ILNP-ICMPv6] [ILNP-ICMPv4] is a
performance optimisation, significantly shortening the
network-layer handoff time if/when a correspondent changes
location. Architecturally, using ICMP is no different from
using UDP, of course.
13.2 Key Management Considerations
ILNP potentially has advantages over either form of Mobile IP
with respect to key management, given that ILNP is using Secure
Dynamic DNS Update -- which capability is much more widely
available today in deployed desktop and server environments
(e.g. Microsoft Windows, MacOS X, Linux, other UNIX), as well as
being widely available today in deployed DNS server software
(e.g. Microsoft and the freely available BIND) and appliances
[LA06], than the Security enhancements needed by either Mobile
IPv4 or Mobile IPv6.
IETF work in progress is addressing use of DNS to support key
management for entities having DNS Fully-Qualified Domain Names.
13.3 Point-to-Point Router Links
As a special case, for the operational reasons described in
[RFC6164], ILNPv6 deployments MAY continue to use classic IPv6
with a /127 routing prefix on router to router point-to-point
links (e.g. SONET/SDH). Because an ILNPv6 packet and an IPv6
packet are indistinguishable for forwarding purposes to a transit
router, this should not create any operational difficulty for
ILNPv6 traffic travelling over such links.
14. REFERRALS & APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES
This section is concerned with support for using existing
("legacy") applications over ILNP, including both referrals and
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
ILNP does NOT require well-behaved applications be modified to
use a new networking API, nor does it require applications be
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modified to use extensions to an existing API. Existing
well-behaved IP applications should work over ILNP without
modification using existing networking APIs.
14.1 BSD Sockets APIs
The existing BSD Sockets API can continue to be used with ILNP
underneath the API. That API can be implemented in a manner that
hides the underlying protocol changes from the applications. For
example, the combination of a Locator and an Identifier can be
used with the API in the place of an IPv6 address.
So it is believed that existing IP address referrals can continue
to work properly in most cases. For a rapidly moving target node,
referrals might break in at least some cases. The potential for
referral breakage is necessarily dependent upon the specific
application and implementation being considered.
It is suggested, however, that a new, optional, more abstract, C
language API be created so that new applications may avoid
delving into low-level details of the underlying network
protocols. Such an API would be useful today, even with the
existing IPv4 and IPv6 Internet, whether or not ILNP were ever
widely deployed.
14.2 Java (and other) APIs
Most existing Java APIs already use abstracted network
programming interfaces, for example in the java.Net.URL
class. Because these APIs already hide the low-level
network-protocol details from the applications, the applications
using these APIs (and the APIs themselves) don't need any
modification to work equally well with IPv4, IPv6, ILNP, and
probably also HIP.
Other programming languages, such as C++, python and ruby, also
provide higher-level APIs that abstract away from sockets, even
though sockets may be used beneath those APIs.
14.3 Referrals in the Future
The approach proposed in [ID-Referral] appears to be very
suitable for use with ILNP, in addition to being suitable for use
with the deployed Internet. Protocols using that approach would
not need modification to have their referrals work well with
IPv4, IPv6, ILNP, and probably also other network protocols
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(e.g. HIP).
A sensible approach to referrals is to use Fully-Qualified Domain
Names (FQDNs), as is commonly done today with web URLs. This
approach is highly portable across different network protocols,
even with both the IPv4 Internet or the IPv6 Internet.
15. IANA CONSIDERATIONS
There are no IANA considerations.
(The RFC Editor is requested to remove this section prior to
publication.)
16. REFERENCES
16.1 Normative References
[IEEE-EUI] IEEE, "Guidelines for 64-bit Global Identifier
(EUI-64) Registration Authority",
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/tutorials/EUI64.html,
IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, March 1997.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to
Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
March 1997.
[RFC3007] B. Wellington, "Secure Domain Name System
Dynamic Update", RFC3007, November 2000.
[RFC3177] IAB and IESG, "IAB/IESG Recommendations on IPv6
Address Allocations to Sites", RFC3177,
September 2001.
[RFC4219] R. Hinden & S. Deering, "IP Version 6
Addressing Architecture", RFC4219,
February 2006.
[RFC4862] S. Thomson, T. Narten & T. Jimnei, "IPv6 Stateless
Address Autoconfiguration", RFC4862, Sep 2007
[RFC6177] T. Narten, G. Huston, & L. Roberts, "IPv6 Address
Assignment to End Sites", RFC6177, March 2011.
[ILNP-ARCH] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti,
"ILNP Architectural Description",
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-arch, 10 July 2012.
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[ILNP-ARP] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti, "ARP Extension for
ILNPv4", draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-arp, 10 July 2012.
[ILNP-DNS] R.J. Atkinson, S.N. Bhatti, & S Rose,
"DNS Resource Records for ILNP",
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-dns, 10 July 2012.
[ILNP-ICMPv4] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti,
"ICMPv4 Locator Update message"
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-icmpv4, 10 July 2012.
[ILNP-ICMPv6] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti,
"ICMPv6 Locator Update message"
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-icmpv6, 10 July 2012.
[ILNP-NONCEv6] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti,
"IPv6 Nonce Destination Option for ILNPv6",
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-noncev6, 10 July 2012.
[ILNP-v4OPTS] R.J. Atkinson & S.N. Bhatti,
"IPv4 Options for ILNP",
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-v4opts, 10 July 2012.
16.2 Informative References
[BA11] S. Bhatti & R. Atkinson, "Reducing DNS Caching",
Proceedings of IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI2011),
Shanghai, P.R. China. 15 April 2011.
[BAK11] S.N. Bhatti, R. Atkinson, J. Klemets,
"Integrating Challenged Networks", Proceedings of
IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM),
IEEE, Baltimore, MD, USA. Nov 2011.
[LA06] Cricket Liu and Paul Albitz, "DNS and Bind",
5th Edition, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol,
CA, USA. 2006. ISBN 0-596-10057-4.
[PHG02] A. Pappas, S. Hailes, & R. Giaffreda,
"Mobile Host Location Tracking through DNS",
Proceedings of IEEE London Communications
Symposium, IEEE, September 2002, London,
England, UK.
[SBK02] Alex C. Snoeren, Hari Balakrishnan, & M. Frans
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Kaashoek, "Reconsidering Internet Mobility",
Proceedings of 8th Workshop on Hot Topics in
Operating Systems, IEEE, Elmau, Germany, May 2001.
[ID-Referral] B. Carpenter and others, "A Generic Referral
Object for Internet Entities",
draft-carpenter-behave-referral-object-01,
20 October 2009.
[RFC3972] T. Aura, "Cryptographically Generated Addresses
(CGAs)", RFC3972, March 2005.
[RFC4291] R. Hinden & S. Deering, "IP version 6 Addressing
Architecture", RFC4291, February 2006.
[RFC4581] M. Bagnulo & J. Arkko, "Cryptographically Generated
Addresses Extension Field Format", RFC4581,
October 2006.
[RFC4941] T. Narten, R. Draves, & S. Krishnan, "Privacy
Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
in IPv6", RFC4941, Sep 2007.
[RFC4982] M. Bagnulo & J. Arkko, "Support for Multiple Hash
Algorithms in Cryptographically Generated
Addresses", RFC4982, July 2007.
[RFC5534] J. Arkko & I. van Beijnum, "Failure Detection
and Locator Pair Exploration Protocol for IPv6
Multihoming", RFC5534, June 2009.
[RFC6164] M. Kohno and others, "Using 127-bit IPv6 Prefixes
on Inter-Router Links", RFC6164, April 2011.
[ILNP-ADV] R. Atkinson & S. N. Bhatti,
"Optional Advanced Deployment Scenarios for ILNP",
draft-irtf-rrg-ilnp-adv, July 2012.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Steve Blake, Stephane Bortzmeyer, Mohamed Boucadair, Noel
Chiappa, Wes George, Steve Hailes, Joel Halpern, Mark Handley,
Volker Hilt, Paul Jakma, Dae-Young Kim, Tony Li, Yakov Rehkter,
Bruce Simpson, Robin Whittle and John Wroclawski (in alphabetical
order) provided review and feedback on earlier versions of this
document. Steve Blake provided an especially thorough review of
an early version of the entire ILNP document set, which was
extremely helpful. We also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers
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of the various ILNP papers for their feedback.
Roy Arends provided expert guidance on technical and procedural
aspects of DNS issues.
RFC EDITOR NOTE
This section is to be removed prior to publication.
Please note that this document is written in British English, so
British English spelling is used throughout. This is consistent
with existing practice in several other RFCs, for example
RFC-5887.
This document tries to be very careful with history, in the
interest of correctly crediting ideas to their earliest
identifiable author(s). So in several places the first published
RFC about a topic is cited rather than the most recent published
RFC about that topic.
Author's Address
RJ Atkinson
Consultant
San Jose, CA
95125 USA
Email: rja.lists@gmail.com
SN Bhatti
School of Computer Science
University of St Andrews
North Haugh, St Andrews
Fife, Scotland
KY16 9SX, UK
Email: saleem@cs.st-andrews.ac.uk
Expires: 10 JAN 2013
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