Comcast's Web Notification System Design
RFC 6108
Document | Type | RFC - Informational (February 2011; No errata) | |
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Authors | Nirmal Mody , Alex Kasyanov , Jason Livingood , Brian Lieu , Chae Chung | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | Independent Submission | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | ISE state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 6108 (Informational) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
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Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Peter Saint-Andre | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Independent Submission C. Chung Request for Comments: 6108 A. Kasyanov Category: Informational J. Livingood ISSN: 2070-1721 N. Mody Comcast B. Van Lieu Unaffiliated February 2011 Comcast's Web Notification System Design Abstract The objective of this document is to describe a method of providing critical end-user notifications to web browsers, which has been deployed by Comcast, an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Such a notification system is being used to provide near-immediate notifications to customers, such as to warn them that their traffic exhibits patterns that are indicative of malware or virus infection. There are other proprietary systems that can perform such notifications, but those systems utilize Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology. In contrast to DPI, this document describes a system that does not rely upon DPI, and is instead based in open IETF standards and open source applications. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at its discretion and makes no statement about its value for implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by the RFC Editor are not 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/rfc6108. Chung, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 6108 Comcast's Web Notification System February 2011 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2011 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 to this document. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................3 2. High-Level Design of the System .................................3 3. Design Requirements .............................................3 3.1. General Requirements .......................................4 3.2. Web Proxy Requirements .....................................6 3.3. ICAP Server Requirements ...................................7 3.4. Messaging Service Requirements .............................8 4. Implementation Details ..........................................8 4.1. Functional Components Described, as Implemented ............9 4.2. Functional Diagram, as Implemented ........................10 5. High-Level Communication Flow, as Implemented ..................11 6. Communication between Web Proxy and ICAP Server, as Implemented ....................................................12 7. End-to-End Web Notification Flow, as Implemented ...............13 7.1. Step-by-Step Description of the End-to-End Web Notification Flow .........................................14 7.2. Diagram of the End-to-End Web Notification Flow ...........15 8. Example HTTP Headers and JavaScript for a Web Notification .....16 9. Deployment Considerations ......................................18 10. Security Considerations .......................................19 11. Debating the Necessity of Such a Critical Notification System ........................................................19 12. Suggesting a Walled Garden as an Alternative ..................20 13. Intended Next Steps ...........................................21 14. Acknowledgements ..............................................21 15. References ....................................................21 15.1. Normative References .....................................21 15.2. Informative References ...................................23 Chung, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 6108 Comcast's Web Notification System February 2011 1. Introduction Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a need for a system that is capable of communicating with customers in a nearly immediate manner,Show full document text