Comcast's Web Notification System Design
RFC 6108
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,
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