Internet DRAFT - draft-petithuguenin-mmusic-ice-sip-sdp
draft-petithuguenin-mmusic-ice-sip-sdp
MMUSIC M. Petit-Huguenin
Internet-Draft Impedance Mismatch
Intended status: Standards Track A. Keranen
Expires: August 29, 2013 Ericsson
February 25, 2013
Using Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) with
Session Description Protocol (SDP) offer/answer and
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
draft-petithuguenin-mmusic-ice-sip-sdp-01
Abstract
This document describes how Interactive Connectivity Establishment
(ICE) is used with Session Description Protocol (SDP) offer/answer
and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
Status of This Memo
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Sending the Initial Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Choosing Default Candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Encoding the SDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Receiving the Initial Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Choosing Default Candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2. Verifying ICE Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3. Determining Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Receipt of the Initial Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. Verifying ICE Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Performing Connectivity Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Concluding ICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1. Procedures for Full Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1.1. Updating states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.2. Freeing Candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.2.1. Full Implementation Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8. Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8.1. "candidate" Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8.2. "remote-candidates" Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8.3. "ice-lite" and "ice-mismatch" Attributes . . . . . . . . 12
8.4. "ice-ufrag" and "ice-pwd" Attributes . . . . . . . . . . 12
8.5. "ice-options" Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9. Subsequent Offer/Answer Exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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9.1. Generating the Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9.1.1. Procedures for All Implementations . . . . . . . . . 13
9.1.2. Procedures for Full Implementations . . . . . . . . . 14
9.1.3. Procedures for Lite Implementations . . . . . . . . . 15
9.2. Receiving the Offer and Generating an Answer . . . . . . 16
9.2.1. Procedures for All Implementations . . . . . . . . . 16
9.2.2. Procedures for Full Implementations . . . . . . . . . 17
9.2.3. Procedures for Lite Implementations . . . . . . . . . 19
9.3. Updating the Check and Valid Lists . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9.3.1. Procedures for Full Implementations . . . . . . . . . 20
9.3.2. Procedures for Lite Implementations . . . . . . . . . 21
10. Keepalives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11. Media Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11.1. Sending Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11.1.1. Procedures for All Implementations . . . . . . . . . 21
11.2. Receiving Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12. Usage with SIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12.1. Latency Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12.1.1. Offer in INVITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
12.1.2. Offer in Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
12.2. SIP Option Tags and Media Feature Tags . . . . . . . . . 24
12.3. Interactions with Forking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
12.4. Interactions with Preconditions . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
12.5. Interactions with Third Party Call Control . . . . . . . 25
13. Relationship with ANAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
14. Setting Ta and RTO for RTP Media Streams . . . . . . . . . . 26
15. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
15.1. Attacks on the Offer/Answer Exchanges . . . . . . . . . 28
15.2. Insider Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
15.2.1. The Voice Hammer Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
15.2.2. Interactions with Application Layer Gateways and SIP 29
16. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
16.1. SDP Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
16.1.1. candidate Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
16.1.2. remote-candidates Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
16.1.3. ice-lite Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
16.1.4. ice-mismatch Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
16.1.5. ice-pwd Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
16.1.6. ice-ufrag Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
16.1.7. ice-options Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
16.2. Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Options
Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
17. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
18. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
18.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
18.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Appendix A. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Appendix B. The remote-candidates Attribute . . . . . . . . . . 37
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Appendix C. Why Is the Conflict Resolution Mechanism Needed? . . 38
Appendix D. Why Send an Updated Offer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1. Introduction
[NOTE: this version of the document shows merely which parts of the
original ICE document could be split to a separate document if the
split of SDP is accepted by the WG. Later versions will define the
additional procedures needed]
This document describes how Interactive Connectivity Establishment
(ICE) is used with Session Description Protocol (SDP) offer/answer
and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The ICE specification
[ICE-BIS] describes procedures that are common to all usages of ICE
and this document gives the additional details needed to use ICE with
SIP and SDP offer/answer.
Note that ICE is not intended for NAT traversal for SIP, which is
assumed to be provided via another mechanism [RFC5626].
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC
2119 [RFC2119].
This document uses the terms defined in [ICE-BIS] and the following:
Default Destination/Candidate: The default destination for a
component of a media stream is the transport address that would be
used by an agent that is not ICE aware. A default candidate for a
component is one whose transport address matches the default
destination for that component. For the RTP component, the
default IP address is in the c line of the SDP, and the port is in
the m line. For the RTCP component, it is in the rtcp attribute
when present, and when not present, the IP address is in the c
line and 1 plus the port is in the m line.
3. Sending the Initial Offer
3.1. Choosing Default Candidates
A candidate is said to be default if it would be the target of media
from a non-ICE peer; that target is called the DEFAULT DESTINATION.
If the default candidates are not selected by the ICE algorithm when
communicating with an ICE-aware peer, an updated offer/answer will be
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required after ICE processing completes in order to "fix up" the SDP
so that the default destination for media matches the candidates
selected by ICE. If ICE happens to select the default candidates, no
updated offer/answer is required.
An agent MUST choose a set of candidates, one for each component of
each in-use media stream, to be default. A media stream is in-use if
it does not have a port of zero (which is used in RFC 3264 to reject
a media stream). Consequently, a media stream is in-use even if it
is marked as a=inactive [RFC4566] or has a bandwidth value of zero.
It is RECOMMENDED that default candidates be chosen based on the
likelihood of those candidates to work with the peer that is being
contacted. It is RECOMMENDED that the default candidates are the
relayed candidates (if relayed candidates are available), server
reflexive candidates (if server reflexive candidates are available),
and finally host candidates.
3.2. Encoding the SDP
The process of encoding the SDP is identical between full and lite
implementations.
The agent will include an m line for each media stream it wishes to
use. The ordering of media streams in the SDP is relevant for ICE.
ICE will perform its connectivity checks for the first m line first,
and consequently media will be able to flow for that stream first.
Agents SHOULD place their most important media stream, if there is
one, first in the SDP.
There will be a candidate attribute for each candidate for a
particular media stream. Section 8 provides detailed rules for
constructing this attribute.
STUN connectivity checks between agents are authenticated using the
short-term credential mechanism defined for STUN [RFC5389]. This
mechanism relies on a username and password that are exchanged
through protocol machinery between the client and server. The
username fragment and password are exchanged in the ice-ufrag and
ice-pwd attributes, respectively.
If an agent is a lite implementation, it MUST include an "a=ice-lite"
session-level attribute in its SDP to indicate this. If an agent is
a full implementation, it MUST NOT include this attribute.
The default candidates are added to the SDP as the default
destination for media. For streams based on RTP, this is done by
placing the IP address and port of the RTP candidate into the c and m
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lines, respectively. If the agent is utilizing RTCP, it MUST encode
the RTCP candidate using the a=rtcp attribute as defined in RFC 3605
[RFC3605]. If RTCP is not in use, the agent MUST signal that using
b=RS:0 and b=RR:0 as defined in RFC 3556 [RFC3556].
The transport addresses that will be the default destination for
media when communicating with non-ICE peers MUST also be present as
candidates in one or more a=candidate lines.
ICE provides for extensibility by allowing an offer or answer to
contain a series of tokens that identify the ICE extensions used by
that agent. If an agent supports an ICE extension, it MUST include
the token defined for that extension in the ice-options attribute.
The following is an example SDP message that includes ICE attributes
(lines folded for readability):
v=0
o=jdoe 2890844526 2890842807 IN IP4 10.0.1.1
s=
c=IN IP4 192.0.2.3
t=0 0
a=ice-pwd:asd88fgpdd777uzjYhagZg
a=ice-ufrag:8hhY
m=audio 45664 RTP/AVP 0
b=RS:0
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=candidate:1 1 UDP 2130706431 10.0.1.1 8998 typ host
a=candidate:2 1 UDP 1694498815 192.0.2.3 45664 typ srflx raddr
10.0.1.1 rport 8998
Once an agent has sent its offer or its answer, that agent MUST be
prepared to receive both STUN and media packets on each candidate.
As discussed in Section 10.1 of [ICE-BIS], media packets can be sent
to a candidate prior to its appearance as the default destination for
media in an offer or answer.
4. Receiving the Initial Offer
4.1. Choosing Default Candidates
The process for selecting default candidates at the answerer is
identical to the process followed by the offerer, as described in
Section 3.1 for full implementations and 4.2 of [ICE-BIS] for lite
implementations.
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4.2. Verifying ICE Support
The agent will proceed with the ICE procedures defined in [ICE-BIS]
and this specification if, for each media stream in the SDP it
received, the default destination for each component of that media
stream appears in a candidate attribute. For example, in the case of
RTP, the IP address and port in the c and m lines, respectively,
appear in a candidate attribute and the value in the rtcp attribute
appears in a candidate attribute.
If this condition is not met, the agent MUST process the SDP based on
normal RFC 3264 procedures, without using any of the ICE mechanisms
described in the remainder of this specification with the following
exceptions:
1. The agent MUST follow the rules of section 9 of [ICE-BIS], which
describe keepalive procedures for all agents.
2. If the agent is not proceeding with ICE because there were
a=candidate attributes, but none that matched the default
destination of the media stream, the agent MUST include an a=ice-
mismatch attribute in its answer.
3. If the default candidates were relayed candidates learned through
a TURN server, the agent MUST create permissions in the TURN
server for the IP addresses learned from its peer in the SDP it
just received. If this is not done, initial packets in the media
stream from the peer may be lost.
4.3. Determining Role
In unusual cases, described in Appendix C, it is possible for both
agents to mistakenly believe they are controlled or controlling. To
resolve this, each agent MUST select a random number, called the tie-
breaker, uniformly distributed between 0 and (2**64) - 1 (that is, a
64-bit positive integer). This number is used in connectivity checks
to detect and repair this case, as described in Section 7.1.2.2 of
[ICE-BIS].
5. Receipt of the Initial Answer
When ICE is used with SIP, forking may result in a single offer
generating a multiplicity of answers. In that case, ICE proceeds
completely in parallel and independently for each answer, treating
the combination of its offer and each answer as an independent offer/
answer exchange, with its own set of pairs, check lists, states, and
so on. The only case in which processing of one pair impacts another
is freeing of candidates, discussed below in Section 7.2.
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5.1. Verifying ICE Support
The logic at the offerer is identical to that of the answerer as
described in section 5.1 of [ICE-BIS], with the exception that an
offerer would not ever generate a=ice-mismatch attributes in an SDP.
In some cases, the answer may omit a=candidate attributes for the
media streams, and instead include an a=ice-mismatch attribute for
one or more of the media streams in the SDP. This signals to the
offerer that the answerer supports ICE, but that ICE processing was
not used for the session because a signaling intermediary modified
the default destination for media components without modifying the
corresponding candidate attributes. See Section 15.2.2 for a
discussion of cases where this can happen. This specification
provides no guidance on how an agent should proceed in such a failure
case.
6. Performing Connectivity Checks
The possibility for role conflicts described in Section 7.2.1.1 of
[ICE-BIS] applies to this usage and hence all full agents MUST
implement the role conflict repairing mechanism. Also both full and
lite agents MUST utilize the ICE-CONTROLLED and ICE-CONTROLLING
attributes as described in Section 7.1.2.2 of [ICE-BIS].
7. Concluding ICE
Once all of the media streams are completed, the controlling endpoint
sends an updated offer if the candidates in the m and c lines for the
media stream (called the DEFAULT CANDIDATES) don't match ICE's
SELECTED CANDIDATES.
7.1. Procedures for Full Implementations
7.1.1. Updating states
Once the state of each check list is Completed, If an agent is
controlling, it examines the highest-priority nominated candidate
pair for each component of each media stream. If any of those
candidate pairs differ from the default candidate pairs in the most
recent offer/answer exchange, the controlling agent MUST generate an
updated offer as described in Section 9.
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7.2. Freeing Candidates
7.2.1. Full Implementation Procedures
When ICE is used with SIP, and an offer is forked to multiple
recipients, ICE proceeds in parallel and independently with each
answerer, all using the same local candidates. Once ICE processing
has reached the Completed state for all peers for media streams using
those candidates, the agent SHOULD wait an additional three seconds,
and then it MAY cease responding to checks or generating triggered
checks on that candidate. It MAY free the candidate at that time.
Freeing of server reflexive candidates is never explicit; it happens
by lack of a keepalive. The three-second delay handles cases when
aggressive nomination is used, and the selected pairs can quickly
change after ICE has completed.
8. Grammar
This specification defines seven new SDP attributes -- the
"candidate", "remote-candidates", "ice-lite", "ice-mismatch", "ice-
ufrag", "ice-pwd", and "ice-options" attributes.
8.1. "candidate" Attribute
The candidate attribute is a media-level attribute only. It contains
a transport address for a candidate that can be used for connectivity
checks.
The syntax of this attribute is defined using Augmented BNF as
defined in [RFC5234]:
candidate-attribute = "candidate" ":" foundation SP component-id SP
transport SP
priority SP
connection-address SP ;from RFC 4566
port ;port from RFC 4566
SP cand-type
[SP rel-addr]
[SP rel-port]
*(SP extension-att-name SP
extension-att-value)
foundation = 1*32ice-char
component-id = 1*5DIGIT
transport = "UDP" / transport-extension
transport-extension = token ; from RFC 3261
priority = 1*10DIGIT
cand-type = "typ" SP candidate-types
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candidate-types = "host" / "srflx" / "prflx" / "relay" / token
rel-addr = "raddr" SP connection-address
rel-port = "rport" SP port
extension-att-name = byte-string ;from RFC 4566
extension-att-value = byte-string
ice-char = ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "/"
This grammar encodes the primary information about a candidate: its
IP address, port and transport protocol, and its properties: the
foundation, component ID, priority, type, and related transport
address:
<connection-address>: is taken from RFC 4566 [RFC4566]. It is the
IP address of the candidate, allowing for IPv4 addresses, IPv6
addresses, and fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). When parsing
this field, an agent can differentiate an IPv4 address and an IPv6
address by presence of a colon in its value -- the presence of a
colon indicates IPv6. An agent MUST ignore candidate lines that
include candidates with IP address versions that are not supported
or recognized. An IP address SHOULD be used, but an FQDN MAY be
used in place of an IP address. In that case, when receiving an
offer or answer containing an FQDN in an a=candidate attribute,
the FQDN is looked up in the DNS first using an AAAA record
(assuming the agent supports IPv6), and if no result is found or
the agent only supports IPv4, using an A. If the DNS query
returns more than one IP address, one is chosen, and then used for
the remainder of ICE processing.
<port>: is also taken from RFC 4566 [RFC4566]. It is the port of
the candidate.
<transport>: indicates the transport protocol for the candidate.
This specification only defines UDP. However, extensibility is
provided to allow for future transport protocols to be used with
ICE, such as TCP or the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol
(DCCP) [RFC4340].
<foundation>: is composed of 1 to 32 <ice-char>s. It is an
identifier that is equivalent for two candidates that are of the
same type, share the same base, and come from the same STUN
server. The foundation is used to optimize ICE performance in the
Frozen algorithm.
<component-id>: is a positive integer between 1 and 256 that
identifies the specific component of the media stream for which
this is a candidate. It MUST start at 1 and MUST increment by 1
for each component of a particular candidate. For media streams
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based on RTP, candidates for the actual RTP media MUST have a
component ID of 1, and candidates for RTCP MUST have a component
ID of 2. See section 11 in [ICE-BIS] for additional discussion on
extending ICE to new media streams.
<priority>: is a positive integer between 1 and (2**31 - 1).
<cand-type>: encodes the type of candidate. This specification
defines the values "host", "srflx", "prflx", and "relay" for host,
server reflexive, peer reflexive, and relayed candidates,
respectively. The set of candidate types is extensible for the
future.
<rel-addr> and <rel-port>: convey transport addresses related to the
candidate, useful for diagnostics and other purposes. <rel-addr>
and <rel-port> MUST be present for server reflexive, peer
reflexive, and relayed candidates. If a candidate is server or
peer reflexive, <rel-addr> and <rel-port> are equal to the base
for that server or peer reflexive candidate. If the candidate is
relayed, <rel-addr> and <rel-port> is equal to the mapped address
in the Allocate response that provided the client with that
relayed candidate (see section Appendix B.3 of [ICE-BIS] for a
discussion of its purpose). If the candidate is a host candidate,
<rel-addr> and <rel-port> MUST be omitted.
The candidate attribute can itself be extended. The grammar allows
for new name/value pairs to be added at the end of the attribute. An
implementation MUST ignore any name/value pairs it doesn't
understand.
8.2. "remote-candidates" Attribute
The syntax of the "remote-candidates" attribute is defined using
Augmented BNF as defined in RFC 5234 [RFC5234]. The remote-
candidates attribute is a media-level attribute only.
remote-candidate-att = "remote-candidates" ":" remote-candidate
0*(SP remote-candidate)
remote-candidate = component-ID SP connection-address SP port
The attribute contains a connection-address and port for each
component. The ordering of components is irrelevant. However, a
value MUST be present for each component of a media stream. This
attribute MUST be included in an offer by a controlling agent for a
media stream that is Completed, and MUST NOT be included in any other
case.
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8.3. "ice-lite" and "ice-mismatch" Attributes
The syntax of the "ice-lite" and "ice-mismatch" attributes, both of
which are flags, is:
ice-lite = "ice-lite"
ice-mismatch = "ice-mismatch"
"ice-lite" is a session-level attribute only, and indicates that an
agent is a lite implementation. "ice-mismatch" is a media-level
attribute only, and when present in an answer, indicates that the
offer arrived with a default destination for a media component that
didn't have a corresponding candidate attribute.
8.4. "ice-ufrag" and "ice-pwd" Attributes
The "ice-ufrag" and "ice-pwd" attributes convey the username fragment
and password used by ICE for message integrity. Their syntax is:
ice-pwd-att = "ice-pwd" ":" password
ice-ufrag-att = "ice-ufrag" ":" ufrag
password = 22*256ice-char
ufrag = 4*256ice-char
The "ice-pwd" and "ice-ufrag" attributes can appear at either the
session-level or media-level. When present in both, the value in the
media-level takes precedence. Thus, the value at the session-level
is effectively a default that applies to all media streams, unless
overridden by a media-level value. Whether present at the session or
media-level, there MUST be an ice-pwd and ice-ufrag attribute for
each media stream. If two media streams have identical ice-ufrag's,
they MUST have identical ice-pwd's.
The ice-ufrag and ice-pwd attributes MUST be chosen randomly at the
beginning of a session. The ice-ufrag attribute MUST contain at
least 24 bits of randomness, and the ice-pwd attribute MUST contain
at least 128 bits of randomness. This means that the ice-ufrag
attribute will be at least 4 characters long, and the ice-pwd at
least 22 characters long, since the grammar for these attributes
allows for 6 bits of randomness per character. The attributes MAY be
longer than 4 and 22 characters, respectively, of course, up to 256
characters. The upper limit allows for buffer sizing in
implementations. Its large upper limit allows for increased amounts
of randomness to be added over time.
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8.5. "ice-options" Attribute
The "ice-options" attribute is a session-level attribute. It
contains a series of tokens that identify the options supported by
the agent. Its grammar is:
ice-options = "ice-options" ":" ice-option-tag
0*(SP ice-option-tag)
ice-option-tag = 1*ice-char
9. Subsequent Offer/Answer Exchanges
Either agent MAY generate a subsequent offer at any time allowed by
RFC 3264 [RFC3264]. The rules in Section 7 will cause the
controlling agent to send an updated offer at the conclusion of ICE
processing when ICE has selected different candidate pairs from the
default pairs. This section defines rules for construction of
subsequent offers and answers.
Should a subsequent offer be rejected, ICE processing continues as if
the subsequent offer had never been made.
9.1. Generating the Offer
9.1.1. Procedures for All Implementations
9.1.1.1. ICE Restarts
An agent MAY restart ICE processing for an existing media stream. An
ICE restart, as the name implies, will cause all previous states of
ICE processing to be flushed and checks to start anew. The only
difference between an ICE restart and a brand new media session is
that, during the restart, media can continue to be sent to the
previously validated pair.
An agent MUST restart ICE for a media stream if:
o The offer is being generated for the purposes of changing the
target of the media stream. In other words, if an agent wants to
generate an updated offer that, had ICE not been in use, would
result in a new value for the destination of a media component.
o An agent is changing its implementation level. This typically
only happens in third party call control use cases, where the
entity performing the signaling is not the entity receiving the
media, and it has changed the target of media mid-session to
another entity that has a different ICE implementation.
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These rules imply that setting the IP address in the c line to
0.0.0.0 will cause an ICE restart. Consequently, ICE implementations
MUST NOT utilize this mechanism for call hold, and instead MUST use
a=inactive and a=sendonly as described in [RFC3264].
To restart ICE, an agent MUST change both the ice-pwd and the ice-
ufrag for the media stream in an offer. Note that it is permissible
to use a session-level attribute in one offer, but to provide the
same ice-pwd or ice-ufrag as a media-level attribute in a subsequent
offer. This is not a change in password, just a change in its
representation, and does not cause an ICE restart.
An agent sets the rest of the fields in the SDP for this media stream
as it would in an initial offer of this media stream (see
Section 3.2). Consequently, the set of candidates MAY include some,
none, or all of the previous candidates for that stream and MAY
include a totally new set of candidates.
9.1.1.2. Removing a Media Stream
If an agent removes a media stream by setting its port to zero, it
MUST NOT include any candidate attributes for that media stream and
SHOULD NOT include any other ICE-related attributes defined in
Section 8 for that media stream.
9.1.1.3. Adding a Media Stream
If an agent wishes to add a new media stream, it sets the fields in
the SDP for this media stream as if this was an initial offer for
that media stream (see Section 3.2). This will cause ICE processing
to begin for this media stream.
9.1.2. Procedures for Full Implementations
This section describes additional procedures for full
implementations, covering existing media streams.
The username fragments, password, and implementation level MUST
remain the same as used previously. If an agent needs to change one
of these, it MUST restart ICE for that media stream.
Additional behavior depends on the state ICE processing for that
media stream.
9.1.2.1. Existing Media Streams with ICE Running
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If an agent generates an updated offer including a media stream that
was previously established, and for which ICE checks are in the
Running state, the agent follows the procedures defined here.
An agent MUST include candidate attributes for all local candidates
it had signaled previously for that media stream. The properties of
that candidate as signaled in SDP -- the priority, foundation, type,
and related transport address -- SHOULD remain the same. The IP
address, port, and transport protocol, which fundamentally identify
that candidate, MUST remain the same (if they change, it would be a
new candidate). The component ID MUST remain the same. The agent
MAY include additional candidates it did not offer previously, but
which it has gathered since the last offer/answer exchange, including
peer reflexive candidates.
The agent MAY change the default destination for media. As with
initial offers, there MUST be a set of candidate attributes in the
offer matching this default destination.
9.1.2.2. Existing Media Streams with ICE Completed
If an agent generates an updated offer including a media stream that
was previously established, and for which ICE checks are in the
Completed state, the agent follows the procedures defined here.
The default destination for media (i.e., the values of the IP
addresses and ports in the m and c lines used for that media stream)
MUST be the local candidate from the highest-priority nominated pair
in the valid list for each component. This "fixes" the default
destination for media to equal the destination ICE has selected for
media.
The agent MUST include candidate attributes for candidates matching
the default destination for each component of the media stream, and
MUST NOT include any other candidates.
In addition, if the agent is controlling, it MUST include the a
=remote-candidates attribute for each media stream whose check list
is in the Completed state. The attribute contains the remote
candidates from the highest-priority nominated pair in the valid list
for each component of that media stream. It is needed to avoid a
race condition whereby the controlling agent chooses its pairs, but
the updated offer beats the connectivity checks to the controlled
agent, which doesn't even know these pairs are valid, let alone
selected. See Appendix B for elaboration on this race condition.
9.1.3. Procedures for Lite Implementations
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9.1.3.1. Existing Media Streams with ICE Running
This section describes procedures for lite implementations for
existing streams for which ICE is running.
A lite implementation MUST include all of its candidates for each
component of each media stream in an a=candidate attribute in any
subsequent offer. These candidates are formed identically to the
procedures for initial offers, as described in section 4.2 of
[ICE-BIS].
A lite implementation MUST NOT add additional host candidates in a
subsequent offer. If an agent needs to offer additional candidates,
it MUST restart ICE.
The username fragments, password, and implementation level MUST
remain the same as used previously. If an agent needs to change one
of these, it MUST restart ICE for that media stream.
9.1.3.2. Existing Media Streams with ICE Completed
If ICE has completed for a media stream, the default destination for
that media stream MUST be set to the remote candidate of the
candidate pair for that component in the valid list. For a lite
implementation, there is always just a single candidate pair in the
valid list for each component of a media stream. Additionally, the
agent MUST include a candidate attribute for each default
destination.
Additionally, if the agent is controlling (which only happens when
both agents are lite), the agent MUST include the a=remote-candidates
attribute for each media stream. The attribute contains the remote
candidates from the candidate pairs in the valid list (one pair for
each component of each media stream).
9.2. Receiving the Offer and Generating an Answer
9.2.1. Procedures for All Implementations
When receiving a subsequent offer within an existing session, an
agent MUST reapply the verification procedures in Section 4.2 without
regard to the results of verification from any previous offer/answer
exchanges. Indeed, it is possible that a previous offer/answer
exchange resulted in ICE not being used, but it is used as a
consequence of a subsequent exchange.
9.2.1.1. Detecting ICE Restart
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If the offer contained a change in the a=ice-ufrag or a=ice-pwd
attributes compared to the previous SDP from the peer, it indicates
that ICE is restarting for this media stream. If all media streams
are restarting, then ICE is restarting overall.
If ICE is restarting for a media stream:
o The agent MUST change the a=ice-ufrag and a=ice-pwd attributes in
the answer.
o The agent MAY change its implementation level in the answer.
An agent sets the rest of the fields in the SDP for this media stream
as it would in an initial answer to this media stream (see
Section 3.2). Consequently, the set of candidates MAY include some,
none, or all of the previous candidates for that stream and MAY
include a totally new set of candidates.
9.2.1.2. New Media Stream
If the offer contains a new media stream, the agent sets the fields
in the answer as if it had received an initial offer containing that
media stream (see Section 3.2). This will cause ICE processing to
begin for this media stream.
9.2.1.3. Removed Media Stream
If an offer contains a media stream whose port is zero, the agent
MUST NOT include any candidate attributes for that media stream in
its answer and SHOULD NOT include any other ICE-related attributes
defined in Section 8 for that media stream.
9.2.2. Procedures for Full Implementations
Unless the agent has detected an ICE restart from the offer, the
username fragments, password, and implementation level MUST remain
the same as used previously. If an agent needs to change one of
these it MUST restart ICE for that media stream by generating an
offer; ICE cannot be restarted in an answer.
Additional behaviors depend on the state of ICE processing for that
media stream.
9.2.2.1. Existing Media Streams with ICE Running and no remote-
candidates
If ICE is running for a media stream, and the offer for that media
stream lacked the remote-candidates attribute, the rules for
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construction of the answer are identical to those for the offerer as
described in Section 9.1.2.1.
9.2.2.2. Existing Media Streams with ICE Completed and no remote-
candidates
If ICE is Completed for a media stream, and the offer for that media
stream lacked the remote-candidates attribute, the rules for
construction of the answer are identical to those for the offerer as
described in Section 9.1.2.2, except that the answerer MUST NOT
include the a=remote-candidates attribute in the answer.
9.2.2.3. Existing Media Streams and remote-candidates
A controlled agent will receive an offer with the a=remote-candidates
attribute for a media stream when its peer has concluded ICE
processing for that media stream. This attribute is present in the
offer to deal with a race condition between the receipt of the offer,
and the receipt of the Binding response that tells the answerer the
candidate that will be selected by ICE. See Appendix B for an
explanation of this race condition. Consequently, processing of an
offer with this attribute depends on the winner of the race.
The agent forms a candidate pair for each component of the media
stream by:
o Setting the remote candidate equal to the offerer's default
destination for that component (e.g., the contents of the m and c
lines for RTP, and the a=rtcp attribute for RTCP)
o Setting the local candidate equal to the transport address for
that same component in the a=remote-candidates attribute in the
offer.
The agent then sees if each of these candidate pairs is present in
the valid list. If a particular pair is not in the valid list, the
check has "lost" the race. Call such a pair a "losing pair".
The agent finds all the pairs in the check list whose remote
candidates equal the remote candidate in the losing pair:
o If none of the pairs are In-Progress, and at least one is Failed,
it is most likely that a network failure, such as a network
partition or serious packet loss, has occurred. The agent SHOULD
generate an answer for this media stream as if the remote-
candidates attribute had not been present, and then restart ICE
for this stream.
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o If at least one of the pairs is In-Progress, the agent SHOULD wait
for those checks to complete, and as each completes, redo the
processing in this section until there are no losing pairs.
Once there are no losing pairs, the agent can generate the answer.
It MUST set the default destination for media to the candidates in
the remote-candidates attribute from the offer (each of which will
now be the local candidate of a candidate pair in the valid list).
It MUST include a candidate attribute in the answer for each
candidate in the remote-candidates attribute in the offer.
9.2.3. Procedures for Lite Implementations
If the received offer contains the remote-candidates attribute for a
media stream, the agent forms a candidate pair for each component of
the media stream by:
o Setting the remote candidate equal to the offerer's default
destination for that component (e.g., the contents of the m and c
lines for RTP, and the a=rtcp attribute for RTCP).
o Setting the local candidate equal to the transport address for
that same component in the a=remote-candidates attribute in the
offer.
It then places those candidates into the Valid list for the media
stream. The state of ICE processing for that media stream is set to
Completed.
Furthermore, if the agent believed it was controlling, but the offer
contained the remote-candidates attribute, both agents believe they
are controlling. In this case, both would have sent updated offers
around the same time. However, the signaling protocol carrying the
offer/answer exchanges will have resolved this glare condition, so
that one agent is always the 'winner' by having its offer received
before its peer has sent an offer. The winner takes the role of
controlled, so that the loser (the answerer under consideration in
this section) MUST change its role to controlled. Consequently, if
the agent was going to send an updated offer since, based on the
rules in section 8.2 of [ICE-BIS], it was controlling, it no longer
needs to.
Besides the potential role change, change in the Valid list, and
state changes, the construction of the answer is performed
identically to the construction of an offer as described in
Section 9.1.3.
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9.3. Updating the Check and Valid Lists
9.3.1. Procedures for Full Implementations
9.3.1.1. ICE Restarts
The agent MUST remember the highest-priority nominated pairs in the
Valid list for each component of the media stream, called the
previous selected pairs, prior to the restart. The agent will
continue to send media using these pairs, as described in
Section 11.1. Once these destinations are noted, the agent MUST
flush the valid and check lists, and then recompute the check list
and its states as described in section 6.3 of [ICE-BIS].
9.3.1.2. New Media Stream
If the offer/answer exchange added a new media stream, the agent MUST
create a new check list for it (and an empty Valid list to start of
course), as described in section 6.3 of [ICE-BIS].
9.3.1.3. Removed Media Stream
If the offer/answer exchange removed a media stream, or an answer
rejected an offered media stream, an agent MUST flush the Valid list
for that media stream. It MUST terminate any STUN transactions in
progress for that media stream. An agent MUST remove the check list
for that media stream and cancel any pending ordinary checks for it.
9.3.1.4. ICE Continuing for Existing Media Stream
The valid list is not affected by an updated offer/answer exchange
unless ICE is restarting.
If an agent is in the Running state for that media stream, the check
list is updated (the check list is irrelevant if the state is
completed). To do that, the agent recomputes the check list using
the procedures described in section 6.3 of [ICE-BIS]. If a pair on
the new check list was also on the previous check list, and its state
was Waiting, In-Progress, Succeeded, or Failed, its state is copied
over. Otherwise, its state is set to Frozen.
If none of the check lists are active (meaning that the pairs in each
check list are Frozen), the full-mode agent sets the first pair in
the check list for the first media stream to Waiting, and then sets
the state of all other pairs in that check list for the same
component ID and with the same foundation to Waiting as well.
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Next, the agent goes through each check list, starting with the
highest-priority pair. If a pair has a state of Succeeded, and it
has a component ID of 1, then all Frozen pairs in the same check list
with the same foundation whose component IDs are not 1 have their
state set to Waiting. If, for a particular check list, there are
pairs for each component of that media stream in the Succeeded state,
the agent moves the state of all Frozen pairs for the first component
of all other media streams (and thus in different check lists) with
the same foundation to Waiting.
9.3.2. Procedures for Lite Implementations
If ICE is restarting for a media stream, the agent MUST start a new
Valid list for that media stream. It MUST remember the pairs in the
previous Valid list for each component of the media stream, called
the previous selected pairs, and continue to send media there as
described in Section 11.1. The state of ICE processing for each
media stream MUST change to Running, and the state of ICE processing
MUST change to Running.
10. Keepalives
The keepalives MUST be sent regardless of whether the media stream is
currently inactive, sendonly, recvonly, or sendrecv, and regardless
of the presence or value of the bandwidth attribute. An agent can
determine that its peer supports ICE by the presence of a=candidate
attributes for each media session.
11. Media Handling
11.1. Sending Media
Note that the selected pair for a component of a media stream may not
equal the default pair for that same component from the most recent
offer/answer exchange. When this happens, the selected pair is used
for media, not the default pair. When ICE first completes, if the
selected pairs aren't a match for the default pairs, the controlling
agent sends an updated offer/answer exchange to remedy this
disparity. However, until that updated offer arrives, there will not
be a match. Furthermore, in very unusual cases, the default
candidates in the updated offer/answer will not be a match.
11.1.1. Procedures for All Implementations
ICE has interactions with jitter buffer adaptation mechanisms. An
RTP stream can begin using one candidate, and switch to another one,
though this happens rarely with ICE. The newer candidate may result
in RTP packets taking a different path through the network -- one
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with different delay characteristics. As discussed below, agents are
encouraged to re-adjust jitter buffers when there are changes in
source or destination address of media packets. Furthermore, many
audio codecs use the marker bit to signal the beginning of a
talkspurt, for the purposes of jitter buffer adaptation. For such
codecs, it is RECOMMENDED that the sender set the marker bit
[RFC3550] when an agent switches transmission of media from one
candidate pair to another.
11.2. Receiving Media
ICE implementations MUST be prepared to receive media on each
component on any candidates provided for that component in the most
recent offer/answer exchange (in the case of RTP, this would include
both RTP and RTCP if candidates were provided for both).
It is RECOMMENDED that, when an agent receives an RTP packet with a
new source or destination IP address for a particular media stream,
that the agent re-adjust its jitter buffers.
RFC 3550 [RFC3550] describes an algorithm in Section 8.2 for
detecting synchronization source (SSRC) collisions and loops. These
algorithms are based, in part, on seeing different source transport
addresses with the same SSRC. However, when ICE is used, such
changes will sometimes occur as the media streams switch between
candidates. An agent will be able to determine that a media stream
is from the same peer as a consequence of the STUN exchange that
proceeds media transmission. Thus, if there is a change in source
transport address, but the media packets come from the same peer
agent, this SHOULD NOT be treated as an SSRC collision.
12. Usage with SIP
12.1. Latency Guidelines
ICE requires a series of STUN-based connectivity checks to take place
between endpoints. These checks start from the answerer on
generation of its answer, and start from the offerer when it receives
the answer. These checks can take time to complete, and as such, the
selection of messages to use with offers and answers can affect
perceived user latency. Two latency figures are of particular
interest. These are the post-pickup delay and the post-dial delay.
The post-pickup delay refers to the time between when a user "answers
the phone" and when any speech they utter can be delivered to the
caller. The post-dial delay refers to the time between when a user
enters the destination address for the user and ringback begins as a
consequence of having successfully started ringing the phone of the
called party.
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Two cases can be considered -- one where the offer is present in the
initial INVITE and one where it is in a response.
12.1.1. Offer in INVITE
To reduce post-dial delays, it is RECOMMENDED that the caller begin
gathering candidates prior to actually sending its initial INVITE.
This can be started upon user interface cues that a call is pending,
such as activity on a keypad or the phone going off-hook.
If an offer is received in an INVITE request, the answerer SHOULD
begin to gather its candidates on receipt of the offer and then
generate an answer in a provisional response once it has completed
that process. ICE requires that a provisional response with an SDP
be transmitted reliably. This can be done through the existing
Provisional Response Acknowledgment (PRACK) mechanism [RFC3262] or
through an optimization that is specific to ICE. With this
optimization, provisional responses containing an SDP answer that
begins ICE processing for one or more media streams can be sent
reliably without RFC 3262. To do this, the agent retransmits the
provisional response with the exponential backoff timers described in
RFC 3262. Retransmits MUST cease on receipt of a STUN Binding
request for one of the media streams signaled in that SDP (because
receipt of a Binding request indicates the offerer has received the
answer) or on transmission of the answer in a 2xx response. If the
peer agent is lite, there will never be a STUN Binding request. In
such a case, the agent MUST cease retransmitting the 18x after
sending it four times (ICE will actually work even if the peer never
receives the 18x; however, experience has shown that sending it is
important for middleboxes and firewall traversal). If no Binding
request is received prior to the last retransmit, the agent does not
consider the session terminated. Despite the fact that the
provisional response will be delivered reliably, the rules for when
an agent can send an updated offer or answer do not change from those
specified in RFC 3262. Specifically, if the INVITE contained an
offer, the same answer appears in all of the 1xx and in the 2xx
response to the INVITE. Only after that 2xx has been sent can an
updated offer/answer exchange occur. This optimization SHOULD NOT be
used if both agents support PRACK. Note that the optimization is
very specific to provisional response carrying answers that start ICE
processing; it is not a general technique for 1xx reliability.
Alternatively, an agent MAY delay sending an answer until the 200 OK;
however, this results in a poor user experience and is NOT
RECOMMENDED.
Once the answer has been sent, the agent SHOULD begin its
connectivity checks. Once candidate pairs for each component of a
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media stream enter the valid list, the answerer can begin sending
media on that media stream.
However, prior to this point, any media that needs to be sent towards
the caller (such as SIP early media [RFC3960]) MUST NOT be
transmitted. For this reason, implementations SHOULD delay alerting
the called party until candidates for each component of each media
stream have entered the valid list. In the case of a PSTN gateway,
this would mean that the setup message into the PSTN is delayed until
this point. Doing this increases the post-dial delay, but has the
effect of eliminating 'ghost rings'. Ghost rings are cases where the
called party hears the phone ring, picks up, but hears nothing and
cannot be heard. This technique works without requiring support for,
or usage of, preconditions [RFC3312], since it's a localized
decision. It also has the benefit of guaranteeing that not a single
packet of media will get clipped, so that post-pickup delay is zero.
If an agent chooses to delay local alerting in this way, it SHOULD
generate a 180 response once alerting begins.
12.1.2. Offer in Response
In addition to uses where the offer is in an INVITE, and the answer
is in the provisional and/or 200 OK response, ICE works with cases
where the offer appears in the response. In such cases, which are
common in third party call control [RFC3725], ICE agents SHOULD
generate their offers in a reliable provisional response (which MUST
utilize RFC 3262), and not alert the user on receipt of the INVITE.
The answer will arrive in a PRACK. This allows for ICE processing to
take place prior to alerting, so that there is no post-pickup delay,
at the expense of increased call setup delays. Once ICE completes,
the callee can alert the user and then generate a 200 OK when they
answer. The 200 OK would contain no SDP, since the offer/answer
exchange has completed.
Alternatively, agents MAY place the offer in a 2xx instead (in which
case the answer comes in the ACK). When this happens, the callee
will alert the user on receipt of the INVITE, and the ICE exchanges
will take place only after the user answers. This has the effect of
reducing call setup delay, but can cause substantial post-pickup
delays and media clipping.
12.2. SIP Option Tags and Media Feature Tags
[RFC5768] specifies a SIP option tag and media feature tag for usage
with ICE. ICE implementations using SIP SHOULD support this
specification, which uses a feature tag in registrations to
facilitate interoperability through signaling intermediaries.
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12.3. Interactions with Forking
ICE interacts very well with forking. Indeed, ICE fixes some of the
problems associated with forking. Without ICE, when a call forks and
the caller receives multiple incoming media streams, it cannot
determine which media stream corresponds to which callee.
With ICE, this problem is resolved. The connectivity checks which
occur prior to transmission of media carry username fragments, which
in turn are correlated to a specific callee. Subsequent media
packets that arrive on the same candidate pair as the connectivity
check will be associated with that same callee. Thus, the caller can
perform this correlation as long as it has received an answer.
12.4. Interactions with Preconditions
Quality of Service (QoS) preconditions, which are defined in RFC 3312
[RFC3312] and RFC 4032 [RFC4032], apply only to the transport
addresses listed as the default targets for media in an offer/answer.
If ICE changes the transport address where media is received, this
change is reflected in an updated offer that changes the default
destination for media to match ICE's selection. As such, it appears
like any other re-INVITE would, and is fully treated in RFCs 3312 and
4032, which apply without regard to the fact that the destination for
media is changing due to ICE negotiations occurring "in the
background".
Indeed, an agent SHOULD NOT indicate that QoS preconditions have been
met until the checks have completed and selected the candidate pairs
to be used for media.
ICE also has (purposeful) interactions with connectivity
preconditions [RFC5898]. Those interactions are described there.
Note that the procedures described in Section 12.1 describe their own
type of "preconditions", albeit with less functionality than those
provided by the explicit preconditions in [RFC5898].
12.5. Interactions with Third Party Call Control
ICE works with Flows I, III, and IV as described in [RFC3725]. Flow
I works without the controller supporting or being aware of ICE.
Flow IV will work as long as the controller passes along the ICE
attributes without alteration. Flow II is fundamentally incompatible
with ICE; each agent will believe itself to be the answerer and thus
never generate a re-INVITE.
The flows for continued operation, as described in Section 7 of RFC
3725, require additional behavior of ICE implementations to support.
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In particular, if an agent receives a mid-dialog re-INVITE that
contains no offer, it MUST restart ICE for each media stream and go
through the process of gathering new candidates. Furthermore, that
list of candidates SHOULD include the ones currently being used for
media.
13. Relationship with ANAT
RFC 4091 [RFC4091], the Alternative Network Address Types (ANAT)
Semantics for the SDP grouping framework, and RFC 4092 [RFC4092], its
usage with SIP, define a mechanism for indicating that an agent can
support both IPv4 and IPv6 for a media stream, and it does so by
including two m lines, one for v4 and one for v6. This is similar to
ICE, which allows for an agent to indicate multiple transport
addresses using the candidate attribute. However, ANAT relies on
static selection to pick between choices, rather than a dynamic
connectivity check used by ICE.
This specification deprecates RFC 4091 and RFC 4092. Instead, agents
wishing to support dual-stack will utilize ICE.
14. Setting Ta and RTO for RTP Media Streams
During the gathering phase of ICE (section 4.1.1 [ICE-BIS]) and while
ICE is performing connectivity checks (section 7 [ICE-BIS]), an agent
sends STUN and TURN transactions. These transactions are paced at a
rate of one every Ta milliseconds, and utilize a specific RTO. This
section describes how the values of Ta and RTO are computed with a
real-time media stream (such as RTP). When ICE is used for a stream
with a known maximum bandwidth, the following computation MAY be
followed to rate-control the ICE exchanges.
The values of RTO and Ta change during the lifetime of ICE
processing. One set of values applies during the gathering phase,
and the other, for connectivity checks.
The value of Ta SHOULD be configurable, and SHOULD have a default of:
For each media stream i:
Ta_i = (stun_packet_size / rtp_packet_size) * rtp_ptime
1
Ta = MAX (20ms, ------------------- )
k
----
\ 1
> ------
/ Ta_i
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----
i=1
where k is the number of media streams. During the gathering phase,
Ta is computed based on the number of media streams the agent has
indicated in its offer or answer, and the RTP packet size and RTP
ptime are those of the most preferred codec for each media stream.
Once an offer and answer have been exchanged, the agent recomputes Ta
to pace the connectivity checks. In that case, the value of Ta is
based on the number of media streams that will actually be used in
the session, and the RTP packet size and RTP ptime are those of the
most preferred codec with which the agent will send.
In addition, the retransmission timer for the STUN transactions, RTO,
defined in [RFC5389], SHOULD be configurable and during the gathering
phase, SHOULD have a default of:
RTO = MAX (100ms, Ta * (number of pairs))
where the number of pairs refers to the number of pairs of candidates
with STUN or TURN servers.
For connectivity checks, RTO SHOULD be configurable and SHOULD have a
default of:
RTO = MAX (100ms, Ta*N * (Num-Waiting + Num-In-Progress))
where Num-Waiting is the number of checks in the check list in the
Waiting state, and Num-In-Progress is the number of checks in the In-
Progress state. Note that the RTO will be different for each
transaction as the number of checks in the Waiting and In-Progress
states change.
These formulas are aimed at causing STUN transactions to be paced at
the same rate as media. This ensures that ICE will work properly
under the same network conditions needed to support the media as
well. See section B.1 of [ICE-BIS] for additional discussion and
motivations. Because of this pacing, it will take a certain amount
of time to obtain all of the server reflexive and relayed candidates.
Implementations should be aware of the time required to do this, and
if the application requires a time budget, limit the number of
candidates that are gathered.
The formulas result in a behavior whereby an agent will send its
first packet for every single connectivity check before performing a
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retransmit. This can be seen in the formulas for the RTO (which
represents the retransmit interval). Those formulas scale with N,
the number of checks to be performed. As a result of this, ICE
maintains a nicely constant rate, but becomes more sensitive to
packet loss. The loss of the first single packet for any
connectivity check is likely to cause that pair to take a long time
to be validated, and instead, a lower-priority check (but one for
which there was no packet loss) is much more likely to complete
first. This results in ICE performing sub-optimally, choosing lower-
priority pairs over higher-priority pairs. Implementors should be
aware of this consequence, but still should utilize the timer values
described here.
15. Security Considerations
15.1. Attacks on the Offer/Answer Exchanges
An attacker that can modify or disrupt the offer/answer exchanges
themselves can readily launch a variety of attacks with ICE. They
could direct media to a target of a DoS attack, they could insert
themselves into the media stream, and so on. These are similar to
the general security considerations for offer/answer exchanges, and
the security considerations in RFC 3264 [RFC3264] apply. These
require techniques for message integrity and encryption for offers
and answers, which are satisfied by the SIPS mechanism [RFC3261] when
SIP is used. As such, the usage of SIPS with ICE is RECOMMENDED.
15.2. Insider Attacks
In addition to attacks where the attacker is a third party trying to
insert fake offers, answers, or stun messages, there are several
attacks possible with ICE when the attacker is an authenticated and
valid participant in the ICE exchange.
15.2.1. The Voice Hammer Attack
The voice hammer attack is an amplification attack. In this attack,
the attacker initiates sessions to other agents, and maliciously
includes the IP address and port of a DoS target as the destination
for media traffic signaled in the SDP. This causes substantial
amplification; a single offer/answer exchange can create a continuing
flood of media packets, possibly at high rates (consider video
sources). This attack is not specific to ICE, but ICE can help
provide remediation.
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Specifically, if ICE is used, the agent receiving the malicious SDP
will first perform connectivity checks to the target of media before
sending media there. If this target is a third-party host, the
checks will not succeed, and media is never sent.
Unfortunately, ICE doesn't help if its not used, in which case an
attacker could simply send the offer without the ICE parameters.
However, in environments where the set of clients is known, and is
limited to ones that support ICE, the server can reject any offers or
answers that don't indicate ICE support.
15.2.2. Interactions with Application Layer Gateways and SIP
Application Layer Gateways (ALGs) are functions present in a NAT
device that inspect the contents of packets and modify them, in order
to facilitate NAT traversal for application protocols. Session
Border Controllers (SBCs) are close cousins of ALGs, but are less
transparent since they actually exist as application layer SIP
intermediaries. ICE has interactions with SBCs and ALGs.
If an ALG is SIP aware but not ICE aware, ICE will work through it as
long as the ALG correctly modifies the SDP. A correct ALG
implementation behaves as follows:
o The ALG does not modify the m and c lines or the rtcp attribute if
they contain external addresses.
o If the m and c lines contain internal addresses, the modification
depends on the state of the ALG:
If the ALG already has a binding established that maps an
external port to an internal IP address and port matching the
values in the m and c lines or rtcp attribute, the ALG uses
that binding instead of creating a new one.
If the ALG does not already have a binding, it creates a new
one and modifies the SDP, rewriting the m and c lines and rtcp
attribute.
Unfortunately, many ALGs are known to work poorly in these corner
cases. ICE does not try to work around broken ALGs, as this is
outside the scope of its functionality. ICE can help diagnose these
conditions, which often show up as a mismatch between the set of
candidates and the m and c lines and rtcp attributes. The ice-
mismatch attribute is used for this purpose.
ICE works best through ALGs when the signaling is run over TLS. This
prevents the ALG from manipulating the SDP messages and interfering
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with ICE operation. Implementations that are expected to be deployed
behind ALGs SHOULD provide for TLS transport of the SDP.
If an SBC is SIP aware but not ICE aware, the result depends on the
behavior of the SBC. If it is acting as a proper Back-to-Back User
Agent (B2BUA), the SBC will remove any SDP attributes it doesn't
understand, including the ICE attributes. Consequently, the call
will appear to both endpoints as if the other side doesn't support
ICE. This will result in ICE being disabled, and media flowing
through the SBC, if the SBC has requested it. If, however, the SBC
passes the ICE attributes without modification, yet modifies the
default destination for media (contained in the m and c lines and
rtcp attribute), this will be detected as an ICE mismatch, and ICE
processing is aborted for the call. It is outside of the scope of
ICE for it to act as a tool for "working around" SBCs. If one is
present, ICE will not be used and the SBC techniques take precedence.
16. IANA Considerations
16.1. SDP Attributes
Original ICE specification defined seven new SDP attributes per the
procedures of Section 8.2.4 of [RFC4566]. The registration
information is reproduced here.
16.1.1. candidate Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: candidate
Long Form: candidate
Type of Attribute: media-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and provides one of many possible candidate
addresses for communication. These addresses are validated with
an end-to-end connectivity check using Session Traversal Utilities
for NAT (STUN).
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.1.2. remote-candidates Attribute
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Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: remote-candidates
Long Form: remote-candidates
Type of Attribute: media-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and provides the identity of the remote
candidates that the offerer wishes the answerer to use in its
answer.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.1.3. ice-lite Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: ice-lite
Long Form: ice-lite
Type of Attribute: session-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and indicates that an agent has the minimum
functionality required to support ICE inter-operation with a peer
that has a full implementation.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.1.4. ice-mismatch Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: ice-mismatch
Long Form: ice-mismatch
Type of Attribute: session-level
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Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and indicates that an agent is ICE capable,
but did not proceed with ICE due to a mismatch of candidates with
the default destination for media signaled in the SDP.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.1.5. ice-pwd Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: ice-pwd
Long Form: ice-pwd
Type of Attribute: session- or media-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and provides the password used to protect
STUN connectivity checks.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.1.6. ice-ufrag Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: ice-ufrag
Long Form: ice-ufrag
Type of Attribute: session- or media-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and provides the fragments used to construct
the username in STUN connectivity checks.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
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16.1.7. ice-options Attribute
Contact Name: Jonathan Rosenberg, jdrosen@jdrosen.net.
Attribute Name: ice-options
Long Form: ice-options
Type of Attribute: session-level
Charset Considerations: The attribute is not subject to the charset
attribute.
Purpose: This attribute is used with Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE), and indicates the ICE options or extensions
used by the agent.
Appropriate Values: See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.
16.2. Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Options Registry
IANA maintains a registry for ice-options identifiers under the
Specification Required policy as defined in "Guidelines for Writing
an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs" [RFC5226].
ICE options are of unlimited length according to the syntax in
Section 8.5; however, they are RECOMMENDED to be no longer than 20
characters. This is to reduce message sizes and allow for efficient
parsing.
A registration request MUST include the following information:
o The ICE option identifier to be registered
o Name, Email, and Address of a contact person for the registration
o Organization or individuals having the change control
o Short description of the ICE extension to which the option relates
o Reference(s) to the specification defining the ICE option and the
related extensions
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17. Acknowledgments
A large part of the text in this document was taken from RFC 5245,
authored by Jonathan Rosenberg.
Some of the text in this document was taken from RFC 6336, authored
by Magnus Westerlund and Colin Perkins.
18. References
18.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC3261] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,
A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
June 2002.
[RFC3262] Rosenberg, J. and H. Schulzrinne, "Reliability of
Provisional Responses in Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP)", RFC 3262, June 2002.
[RFC3264] Rosenberg, J. and H. Schulzrinne, "An Offer/Answer Model
with Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3264, June
2002.
[RFC3312] Camarillo, G., Marshall, W., and J. Rosenberg,
"Integration of Resource Management and Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP)", RFC 3312, October 2002.
[RFC3550] Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V.
Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, July 2003.
[RFC3556] Casner, S., "Session Description Protocol (SDP) Bandwidth
Modifiers for RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Bandwidth", RFC
3556, July 2003.
[RFC3605] Huitema, C., "Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP) attribute
in Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3605, October
2003.
[RFC4032] Camarillo, G. and P. Kyzivat, "Update to the Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP) Preconditions Framework", RFC
4032, March 2005.
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[RFC4091] Camarillo, G. and J. Rosenberg, "The Alternative Network
Address Types (ANAT) Semantics for the Session Description
Protocol (SDP) Grouping Framework", RFC 4091, June 2005.
[RFC4092] Camarillo, G. and J. Rosenberg, "Usage of the Session
Description Protocol (SDP) Alternative Network Address
Types (ANAT) Semantics in the Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP)", RFC 4092, June 2005.
[RFC4566] Handley, M., Jacobson, V., and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session
Description Protocol", RFC 4566, July 2006.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
[RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.
[RFC5389] Rosenberg, J., Mahy, R., Matthews, P., and D. Wing,
"Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN)", RFC 5389,
October 2008.
[RFC5768] Rosenberg, J., "Indicating Support for Interactive
Connectivity Establishment (ICE) in the Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP)", RFC 5768, April 2010.
[ICE-BIS] Keranen, A. and J. Rosenberg, "Interactive Connectivity
Establishment (ICE): A Protocol for Network Address
Translator (NAT) Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols",
draft-keranen-mmusic-rfc5245bis-01 (work in progress),
February 2013.
18.2. Informative References
[RFC3725] Rosenberg, J., Peterson, J., Schulzrinne, H., and G.
Camarillo, "Best Current Practices for Third Party Call
Control (3pcc) in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)",
BCP 85, RFC 3725, April 2004.
[RFC3960] Camarillo, G. and H. Schulzrinne, "Early Media and Ringing
Tone Generation in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)",
RFC 3960, December 2004.
[RFC4340] Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram
Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340, March 2006.
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[RFC5626] Jennings, C., Mahy, R., and F. Audet, "Managing Client-
Initiated Connections in the Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP)", RFC 5626, October 2009.
[RFC5898] Andreasen, F., Camarillo, G., Oran, D., and D. Wing,
"Connectivity Preconditions for Session Description
Protocol (SDP) Media Streams", RFC 5898, July 2010.
Appendix A. Examples
For the example shown in Section 13 of [ICE-BIS] the resulting offer
(message 5) encoded in SDP looks like:
v=0
o=jdoe 2890844526 2890842807 IN IP4 $L-PRIV-1.IP
s=
c=IN IP4 $NAT-PUB-1.IP
t=0 0
a=ice-pwd:asd88fgpdd777uzjYhagZg
a=ice-ufrag:8hhY
m=audio $NAT-PUB-1.PORT RTP/AVP 0
b=RS:0
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=candidate:1 1 UDP 2130706431 $L-PRIV-1.IP $L-PRIV-1.PORT typ host
a=candidate:2 1 UDP 1694498815 $NAT-PUB-1.IP $NAT-PUB-1.PORT typ
srflx raddr $L-PRIV-1.IP rport $L-PRIV-1.PORT
The offer, with the variables replaced with their values, will look
like (lines folded for clarity):
v=0
o=jdoe 2890844526 2890842807 IN IP4 10.0.1.1
s=
c=IN IP4 192.0.2.3
t=0 0
a=ice-pwd:asd88fgpdd777uzjYhagZg
a=ice-ufrag:8hhY
m=audio 45664 RTP/AVP 0
b=RS:0
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=candidate:1 1 UDP 2130706431 10.0.1.1 8998 typ host
a=candidate:2 1 UDP 1694498815 192.0.2.3 45664 typ srflx raddr
10.0.1.1 rport 8998
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The resulting answer looks like:
v=0
o=bob 2808844564 2808844564 IN IP4 $R-PUB-1.IP
s=
c=IN IP4 $R-PUB-1.IP
t=0 0
a=ice-pwd:YH75Fviy6338Vbrhrlp8Yh
a=ice-ufrag:9uB6
m=audio $R-PUB-1.PORT RTP/AVP 0
b=RS:0
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=candidate:1 1 UDP 2130706431 $R-PUB-1.IP $R-PUB-1.PORT typ host
With the variables filled in:
v=0
o=bob 2808844564 2808844564 IN IP4 192.0.2.1
s=
c=IN IP4 192.0.2.1
t=0 0
a=ice-pwd:YH75Fviy6338Vbrhrlp8Yh
a=ice-ufrag:9uB6
m=audio 3478 RTP/AVP 0
b=RS:0
b=RR:0
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=candidate:1 1 UDP 2130706431 192.0.2.1 3478 typ host
Appendix B. The remote-candidates Attribute
The a=remote-candidates attribute exists to eliminate a race
condition between the updated offer and the response to the STUN
Binding request that moved a candidate into the Valid list. This
race condition is shown in Figure 1. On receipt of message 4, agent
L adds a candidate pair to the valid list. If there was only a
single media stream with a single component, agent L could now send
an updated offer. However, the check from agent R has not yet
generated a response, and agent R receives the updated offer (message
7) before getting the response (message 9). Thus, it does not yet
know that this particular pair is valid. To eliminate this
condition, the actual candidates at R that were selected by the
offerer (the remote candidates) are included in the offer itself, and
the answerer delays its answer until those pairs validate.
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Agent A Network Agent B
|(1) Offer | |
|------------------------------------------>|
|(2) Answer | |
|<------------------------------------------|
|(3) STUN Req. | |
|------------------------------------------>|
|(4) STUN Res. | |
|<------------------------------------------|
|(5) STUN Req. | |
|<------------------------------------------|
|(6) STUN Res. | |
|-------------------->| |
| |Lost |
|(7) Offer | |
|------------------------------------------>|
|(8) STUN Req. | |
|<------------------------------------------|
|(9) STUN Res. | |
|------------------------------------------>|
|(10) Answer | |
|<------------------------------------------|
Figure 1: Race Condition Flow
Appendix C. Why Is the Conflict Resolution Mechanism Needed?
When ICE runs between two peers, one agent acts as controlled, and
the other as controlling. Rules are defined as a function of
implementation type and offerer/answerer to determine who is
controlling and who is controlled. However, the specification
mentions that, in some cases, both sides might believe they are
controlling, or both sides might believe they are controlled. How
can this happen?
The condition when both agents believe they are controlled shows up
in third party call control cases. Consider the following flow:
A Controller B
|(1) INV() | |
|<-------------| |
|(2) 200(SDP1) | |
|------------->| |
| |(3) INV() |
| |------------->|
| |(4) 200(SDP2) |
| |<-------------|
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|(5) ACK(SDP2) | |
|<-------------| |
| |(6) ACK(SDP1) |
| |------------->|
Figure 2: Role Conflict Flow
This flow is a variation on flow III of RFC 3725 [RFC3725]. In fact,
it works better than flow III since it produces fewer messages. In
this flow, the controller sends an offerless INVITE to agent A, which
responds with its offer, SDP1. The agent then sends an offerless
INVITE to agent B, which it responds to with its offer, SDP2. The
controller then uses the offer from each agent to generate the
answers. When this flow is used, ICE will run between agents A and
B, but both will believe they are in the controlling role. With the
role conflict resolution procedures, this flow will function properly
when ICE is used.
At this time, there are no documented flows that can result in the
case where both agents believe they are controlled. However, the
conflict resolution procedures allow for this case, should a flow
arise that would fit into this category.
Appendix D. Why Send an Updated Offer?
Section 11.1 describes rules for sending media. Both agents can send
media once ICE checks complete, without waiting for an updated offer.
Indeed, the only purpose of the updated offer is to "correct" the SDP
so that the default destination for media matches where media is
being sent based on ICE procedures (which will be the highest-
priority nominated candidate pair).
This begs the question -- why is the updated offer/answer exchange
needed at all? Indeed, in a pure offer/answer environment, it would
not be. The offerer and answerer will agree on the candidates to use
through ICE, and then can begin using them. As far as the agents
themselves are concerned, the updated offer/answer provides no new
information. However, in practice, numerous components along the
signaling path look at the SDP information. These include entities
performing off-path QoS reservations, NAT traversal components such
as ALGs and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), and diagnostic tools
that passively monitor the network. For these tools to continue to
function without change, the core property of SDP -- that the
existing, pre-ICE definitions of the addresses used for media -- the
m and c lines and the rtcp attribute -- must be retained. For this
reason, an updated offer must be sent.
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Authors' Addresses
Marc Petit-Huguenin
Impedance Mismatch
Email: petithug@acm.org
Ari Keranen
Ericsson
Jorvas 02420
Finland
Email: ari.keranen@ericsson.com
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