Network Working Group                                   B. Haberman, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                   JHU APL
Intended status: Standards Track                               R. Hinden
Expires: October 15, 2007                                          Nokia
                                                          April 13, 2007


                 IPv6 Router Advertisement Flags Option
                 draft-haberman-ipv6-ra-flags-option-01

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

   The IPv6 Neighbor Discovery's Router Advertisement message contains
   an 8-bit field reserved for single-bit flags.  Several protocols have
   reserved flags in this field and others are preparing to reserve a
   sufficient number of flags to exhaust the field.  This document
   defines an option to the Router Advertisement message that expands
   the available number of flag bits available.




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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Current Router Advertisement Flags  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4.  Flags Expansion Option  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements  . . . . . . . . . . 7






































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1.  Introduction

   The IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol's [1] Router Advertisement
   message contains an 8-bit field reserved for single-bit flags.
   Several protocols have reserved flags in this field and others are
   preparing to reserve a sufficient number of flags to exhaust the
   field.

   This document defines an option for the Router Advertisement message
   that expands the available number of flag bits by adding an
   additional 48 flag bits to NDP messages.


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 [2].


3.  Current Router Advertisement Flags

   Currently, the NDP Router Advertisement message contains the
   following one-bit flags defined in published RFCs:

    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |M|O|H|Prf|P|R|R|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                   Figure 1: Router Advertisement Flags

   o  M - Managed Address Configuration Flag [1]

   o  O - Other Configuration Flag [1]

   o  H - Mobile IPv6 Home Agent Flag [3]

   o  Prf - Router Selection Preferences [4]

   o  P - Neighbor Discovery Proxy Flag [5]

   o  R - Reserved

   With other protocols in the works (e.g., Detecting Network
   Attachment) that are wanting to use flags in the NDP messages, it is
   necessary to define an expansion capability to support new features.




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4.  Flags Expansion Option

   The Neighbor Discovery specification [1] contains the capability to
   define NDP options.  The following (Figure 2) is the definition of
   the Expanded Flags Option (EFO) for NDP Router Advertisement
   messages.

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     Type      |    Length     |         Bit fields available ..
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   ... for assignment                                              |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

           Figure 2: Router Advertisement Expanded Flags Option

   o  Type - TBD (to be assigned by IANA)

   o  Length = 1; The length MUST be checked when processing the option
      in order to allow for future expansion of this option if the need
      arises.

   o  Bits - allocated by IANA

   The definition and usage of these bits is to be found in the document
   requesting their allocation.

   This option:

   o  MUST only occur in Router Advertisement messages

   o  MUST be the first option immediately following the Router
      Advertisement message header

   o  MUST only occur once in the Router Advertisement message.

   The bit fields within the option are numbered from left to right from
   8 to 47 and follow the numbering of the flag bits in the RA option
   described in Figure 1.  Flag bits 0 to 7 are found in the Router
   Advertisement message header defined in [1]


5.  IANA Considerations

   The IANA is requested to define a new IPv6 Neighbor Discovery option
   for the option defined in this document of the form:




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             +------+---------------------------+-----------+
             | Type | Description               | Reference |
             +------+---------------------------+-----------+
             | TBA  | RA Flags Extension Option | [RFCXXXX] |
             +------+---------------------------+-----------+

   The registry for these options can be found at:
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/icmpv6-parameters

   The IANA is requested to create a new registry for IPv6 ND Router
   Advertisement flags.  This should include the current flags in the RA
   option and in the extension option defined in this document.  It is
   suggested the new registry be added to the icmpv6-parameters as shown
   above.  The format for the registry is:

   +---------------+---------------------------------------+-----------+
   | RA Option Bit | Description                           | Reference |
   +---------------+---------------------------------------+-----------+
   | 0             | M - Managed Address Configuration     | [1]       |
   |               | Flag                                  |           |
   | 1             | O - Other Configuration Flag          | [1]       |
   | 2             | H - Mobile IPv6 Home Agent Flag       | [3]       |
   | 3             | Prf - Router Selection Preferences    | [4]       |
   | 4             | Prf - Router Selection Preferences    | [4]       |
   | 5             | P - Neighbor Discovery Proxy Flag     | [5]       |
   | 6-54          | R - Reserved; Available for           |           |
   |               | assignment                            |           |
   | 55-56         | Private Experimentation               |           |
   +---------------+---------------------------------------+-----------+

   The assignment of new RA flags in the RA option header and for the
   bits defined in the RA extension option defined in this document
   require standards action or IESG approval.


6.  Security Considerations

   This protocol shares the security issues of NDP that are documented
   in the "Security Considerations" section of [1].

   The inclusion of additional optional bit fields provides a potential
   covert channel useful for passing information.


7.  References






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7.1.  Normative References

   [1]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E., and W. Simpson, "Neighbor Discovery
        for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December 1998.

   [2]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
        Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

7.2.  Informative References

   [3]  Johnson, D., Perkins, C., and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support in
        IPv6", RFC 3775, June 2004.

   [4]  Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences and More-
        Specific Routes", RFC 4191, November 2005.

   [5]  Thaler, D., Talwar, M., and C. Patel, "Neighbor Discovery
        Proxies (ND Proxy)", RFC 4389, April 2006.


Authors' Addresses

   Brian Haberman (editor)
   Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
   11100 Johns Hopkins Road
   Laurel, MD  20723-6099
   USA

   Phone: +1 443 778 1319
   Email: brian@innovationslab.net


   Robert Hinden
   Nokia
   313 Fairchild Drive
   Mountain View, CA  94043
   USA

   Phone: +1 650 625 2004
   Email: bob.hinden@nokia.com











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   Administrative Support Activity (IASA).





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