Using and Extending the NSIS Protocol Family
RFC 5978

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         J. Manner
Request for Comments: 5978                              Aalto University
Category: Informational                                         R. Bless
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                      KIT
                                                             J. Loughney
                                                                   Nokia
                                                          E. Davies, Ed.
                                                        Folly Consulting
                                                            October 2010

              Using and Extending the NSIS Protocol Family

Abstract

   This document gives an overview of the Next Steps in Signaling (NSIS)
   framework and protocol suite created by the NSIS Working Group during
   the period of 2001-2010.  It also includes suggestions on how the
   industry can make use of the new protocols and how the community can
   exploit the extensibility of both the framework and existing
   protocols to address future signaling needs.

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 represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and 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/rfc5978.

Copyright Notice

   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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect

Manner, et al.                Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 5978              NSIS User and Extension Guide         October 2010

   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  The NSIS Architecture  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  The General Internet Signaling Transport . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.  Quality-of-Service NSLP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   5.  NAT/Firewall Traversal NSLP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   6.  Deploying the Protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     6.1.  Deployment Issues Due to Use of RAO  . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     6.2.  Deployment Issues with NATs and Firewalls  . . . . . . . . 15
     6.3.  Incremental Deployment and Workarounds . . . . . . . . . . 15
   7.  Security Features  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  Extending the Protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     8.1.  Overview of Administrative Actions Needed When
           Extending NSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     8.2.  GIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
       8.2.1.  Use of Different Message Routing Methods . . . . . . . 18
       8.2.2.  Use of Different Transport Protocols or Security
               Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
       8.2.3.  Use of Alternative Security Services . . . . . . . . . 19
       8.2.4.  Query Mode Packet Interception Schemes . . . . . . . . 19
       8.2.5.  Use of Alternative NAT Traversal Mechanisms  . . . . . 20
       8.2.6.  Additional Error Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       8.2.7.  Defining New Objects To Be Carried in GIST . . . . . . 21
       8.2.8.  Adding New Message Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.3.  QoS NSLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.4.  QoS Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.5.  NAT/Firewall NSLP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.6.  New NSLP Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   9.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
   10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
   11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28