Integration of Robust Header Compression over IPsec Security Associations
RFC 5856

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        E. Ertekin
Request for Comments: 5856                                     R. Jasani
Category: Informational                                      C. Christou
ISSN: 2070-1721                                      Booz Allen Hamilton
                                                              C. Bormann
                                                 Universitaet Bremen TZI
                                                                May 2010

             Integration of Robust Header Compression over
                      IPsec Security Associations

Abstract

   IP Security (IPsec) provides various security services for IP
   traffic.  However, the benefits of IPsec come at the cost of
   increased overhead.  This document outlines a framework for
   integrating Robust Header Compression (ROHC) over IPsec (ROHCoIPsec).
   By compressing the inner headers of IP packets, ROHCoIPsec proposes
   to reduce the amount of overhead associated with the transmission of
   traffic over IPsec Security Associations (SAs).

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It has been approved for publication by the Internet
   Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents approved by the
   IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section
   2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5856.

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   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

Ertekin, et al.               Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 5856           Integration of ROHC over IPsec SAs           May 2010

   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
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   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
   2. Audience ........................................................3
   3. Terminology .....................................................3
   4. Problem Statement: IPsec Packet Overhead ........................4
   5. Overview of the ROHCoIPsec Framework ............................5
      5.1. ROHCoIPsec Assumptions .....................................5
      5.2. Summary of the ROHCoIPsec Framework ........................5
   6. Details of the ROHCoIPsec Framework .............................7
      6.1. ROHC and IPsec Integration .................................7
           6.1.1. Header Compression Protocol Considerations ..........9
           6.1.2. Initialization and Negotiation of the ROHC Channel ..9
           6.1.3. Encapsulation and Identification of Header
                  Compressed Packets .................................10
           6.1.4. Motivation for the ROHC ICV ........................11
           6.1.5. Path MTU Considerations ............................11
      6.2. ROHCoIPsec Framework Summary ..............................12
   7. Security Considerations ........................................12
   8. IANA Considerations ............................................12
   9. Acknowledgments ................................................13
   10. Informative References ........................................14

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RFC 5856           Integration of ROHC over IPsec SAs           May 2010

1.  Introduction

   This document outlines a framework for integrating ROHC [ROHC] over
   IPsec [IPSEC] (ROHCoIPsec).  The goal of ROHCoIPsec is to reduce the