The Impact of Transport Header Confidentiality on Network Operation and Evolution of the Internet
draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-encrypt-06
TSVWG G. Fairhurst
Internet-Draft University of Aberdeen
Intended status: Informational C. Perkins
Expires: December 2, 2019 University of Glasgow
May 31, 2019
The Impact of Transport Header Confidentiality on Network Operation and
Evolution of the Internet
draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-encrypt-06
Abstract
This document describes implications of applying end-to-end
encryption at the transport layer. It identifies in-network uses of
transport layer header information. It then reviews the implications
of developing end-to-end transport protocols that use authentication
to protect the integrity of transport information or encryption to
provide confidentiality of the transport protocol header and expected
implications of transport protocol design and network operation.
Since transport measurement and analysis of the impact of network
characteristics have been important to the design of current
transport protocols, it also considers the impact on transport and
application evolution.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on December 2, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Fairhurst & Perkins Expires December 2, 2019 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Transport Encryption May 2019
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Context and Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Current uses of Transport Headers within the Network . . . . 10
3.1. Observing Transport Information in the Network . . . . . 10
3.2. Transport Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3. Use for Network Diagnostics and Troubleshooting . . . . . 20
3.4. Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4. Encryption and Authentication of Transport Headers . . . . . 22
5. Addition of Transport Information to Network-Layer Protocol
Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6. Implications of Protecting the Transport Headers . . . . . . 26
6.1. Independent Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.2. Characterising "Unknown" Network Traffic . . . . . . . . 29
6.3. Accountability and Internet Transport Protocols . . . . . 29
6.4. Impact on Operational Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.5. Impact on Research, Development and Deployment . . . . . 30
7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
11. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Appendix A. Revision information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1. Introduction
There is increased interest in, and deployment of, new protocols that
employ end-to-end encryption at the transport layer, including the
transport layer headers. An example of such a transport is the QUIC
transport protocol [I-D.ietf-quic-transport], currently being
standardised in the IETF. Encryption of transport layer headers and
payload data has many benefits in terms of protecting user privacy.
These benefits have been widely discussed [RFC7258], [RFC7624], and
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