Scenic Routing for IPv6
RFC 7511
Independent Submission M. Wilhelm
Request for Comments: 7511 1 April 2015
Category: Informational
ISSN: 2070-1721
Scenic Routing for IPv6
Abstract
This document specifies a new routing scheme for the current version
of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in the spirit of "Green
IT", whereby packets will be routed to get as much fresh-air time as
possible.
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/rfc7511.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 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.
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RFC 7511 Scenic Routing 1 April 2015
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Scenic Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Scenic Routing Option (SRO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Routing Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Implications for Hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. Proxy Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. Introduction
In times of Green IT, a lot of effort is put into reducing the energy
consumption of routers, switches, servers, hosts, etc., to preserve
our environment. This document looks at Green IT from a different
angle and focuses on network packets being routed and switched around
the world.
Most likely, no one ever thought about the millions of packets being
disassembled into bits every second and forced through copper wires
or being shot through dark fiber lines by powerful lasers at
continuously increasing speeds. Although RFC 5841 [RFC5841] provided
some thoughts about Packet Moods and began to represent them as a TCP
option, this doesn't help the packets escape their torturous routine.
This document defines another way to deal with Green IT for traffic
and network engineers and will hopefully aid the wellbeing of a
myriad of network packets around the world. It proposes Scenic
Routing, which incorporates the green-ness of a network path into the
routing decision. A routing engine implementing Scenic Routing
should therefore choose paths based on Avian IP Carriers [RFC1149]
and/or wireless technologies so the packets will get out of the
miles/kilometers of dark fibers that are in the ground and get as
much fresh-air time and sunlight as possible.
As of the widely known acceptance of the current version of the
Internet Protocol (IPv6), this document only focuses on version 6 and
ignores communication still based on Vintage IP [RFC791].
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RFC 7511 Scenic Routing 1 April 2015
1.1. Conventions and Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
Additionally, the key words "MIGHT", "COULD", "MAY WISH TO", "WOULD
PROBABLY", "SHOULD CONSIDER", and "MUST (BUT WE KNOW YOU WON'T)" in
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