L3ND Upper-Layer Protocol Configuration Arrcus & IIJ
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Arrcus
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This document uses the Layer-3 Neighbor Discovery protocol to communicate the parameters needed to exchange inter-device Upper Layer Protocol Configuration for upper-layer protocols such as the BGP family. 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 BCP 14 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
Massive Data Centers (MDCs) which use upper-layer protocols such as BGP4 and other routing protocols may use the Layer-3 Neighbor Discovery Protocol, L3ND, to reveal the inter-device links of the topology. It is desirable for devices to facilitate the configuration parameters of those upper layer protocols to enable more hands-free configuration. This document defines a new L3ND PDU to communicate these Upper-Layer Protocol Configuration parameters.
The reader is assumed to have read Layer-3 Neighbor Discovery . The terminology and PDUs there are assumed here. Familiarity with the BGP4 Protocol is assumed.
To communicate parameters required to configure peering and operation of Upper-Layer Protocols at IP layer-3 and above, e.g., BGP sessions on a link, a neutral sub-TLV based Upper-Layer Protocol PDU is defined as follows:
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 = 0 | Type = 8 | Payload Length | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | ULPC Type | AttrCount | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Attribute List ... | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The Type and Payload Length are defined in apply to this PDU. As the ULPC PDU may contain keying material, e.g. , it SHOULD BE over TLS. Any keying material in the PDU SHOULD BE salted and hashed. The BGP Authentication sub-TLV provides for provisioning MD5, which is a quite weak hash, horribly out of fashion, and kills puppies. But, like it or not, it has been sufficient against the kinds of attacks BGP TCP sessions have endured. So it is what BGP deployments use.
This document requests the IANA create a new entry in the L3DL PDU Type registry as follows:
PDU Code PDU Name ---- ------------------- 9 ULPC
This document requests the IANA create a registry for L3DL ULPC Type, which may range from 0 to 255. The name of the registry should be L3DL-ULPC-Type. The policy for adding to the registry is RFC Required per , either standards track or experimental. The initial entries should be the following:
Value Name ----- ------------------- 0 Reserved 1 BGP 2-255 Reserved
The authors thank Rob Austein and Sue Hares.