The PPP Multilink Protocol (MP)
RFC 1990
Document | Type |
RFC - Draft Standard
(August 1996; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 1717
|
|
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Authors | David Carr , Thomas Coradetti , Brian Lloyd , Glenn McGregor , Keith Sklower | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 1990 (Draft Standard) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group K. Sklower Request for Comments: 1990 University of California, Berkeley Obsoletes: 1717 B. Lloyd Category: Standards Track G. McGregor Lloyd Internetworking D. Carr Newbridge Networks Corporation T. Coradetti Sidewalk Software August 1996 The PPP Multilink Protocol (MP) Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This document proposes a method for splitting, recombining and sequencing datagrams across multiple logical data links. This work was originally motivated by the desire to exploit multiple bearer channels in ISDN, but is equally applicable to any situation in which multiple PPP links connect two systems, including async links. This is accomplished by means of new PPP [2] options and protocols. The differences between the current PPP Multilink specification (RFC 1717) and this memo are explained in Section 11. Any system implementing the additional restrictions required by this memo will be backwards compatible with conforming RFC 1717 implementations. Acknowledgements The authors specifically wish to thank Fred Baker of ACC, Craig Fox of Network Systems, Gerry Meyer of Spider Systems, Dan Brennan of Penril Datability Networks, Vernon Schryver of SGI (for the comprehensive discussion of padding), and the members of the IP over Large Public Data Networks and PPP Extensions working groups, for much useful discussion on the subject. Sklower, et. al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 1990 PPP Multilink August 1996 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................ 2 1.1. Motivation ................................................ 2 1.2. Functional Description .................................... 3 1.3. Conventions ............................................... 4 2. General Overview ............................................ 4 3. Packet Formats .............................................. 7 3.1. Padding Considerations .................................... 10 4. Trading Buffer Space Against Fragment Loss .................. 10 4.1. Detecting Fragment Loss ................................... 11 4.2. Buffer Space Requirements ................................. 12 5. PPP Link Control Protocol Extensions ........................ 13 5.1. Configuration Option Types ................................ 13 5.1.1. Multilink MRRU LCP option ............................... 14 5.1.2. Short Sequence Number Header Format Option .............. 15 5.1.3. Endpoint Discriminator Option ........................... 15 6. Initiating use of Multilink Headers ......................... 19 7. Closing Member links ........................................ 20 8. Interaction with Other Protocols ............................ 20 9. Security Considerations ..................................... 21 10. References ................................................. 21 11. Differences from RFC 1717 .................................. 22 11.1. Negotiating Multilink, per se ............................ 22 11.2. Initial Sequence Number defined .......................... 22 11.3. Default Value of the MRRU ................................ 22 11.4. Config-Nak of EID prohibited ............................. 22 11.5. Uniformity of Sequence Space ............................. 22 11.6. Commencing and Abating use of Multilink Headers .......... 23 11.7. Manual Configuration and Bundle Assignment ............... 23 12. Authors' Addresses ......................................... 24 1. Introduction 1.1. Motivation Basic Rate and Primary Rate ISDN both offer the possibility of opening multiple simultaneous channels between systems, giving users additional bandwidth on demand (for additional cost). Previous proposals for the transmission of internet protocols over ISDN have stated as a goal the ability to make use of this capability, (e.g., Leifer et al., [1]). There are proposals being advanced for providing synchronizationShow full document text