Guidelines and Registration Procedures for Interface Types and Tunnel Types
RFC 8892

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         D. Thaler
Request for Comments: 8892                                     Microsoft
Updates: 2863                                               D. Romascanu
Category: Standards Track                                    Independent
ISSN: 2070-1721                                              August 2020

 Guidelines and Registration Procedures for Interface Types and Tunnel
                                 Types

Abstract

   This document provides guidelines and procedures for those who are
   defining, registering, or evaluating definitions of new interface
   types ("ifType" values) and tunnel types.  The original definition of
   the IANA interface type registry predated the use of IANA
   Considerations sections and YANG modules, so some confusion arose
   over time.  Tunnel types were added later, with the same requirements
   and allocation policy as interface types.  This document updates RFC
   2863 and provides updated guidance for these registries.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   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).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8892.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 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
   (https://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.  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
   2.  Terminology
   3.  Problems
   4.  Interface Sub-layers and Sub-types
     4.1.  Alternate Values
   5.  Available Formats
   6.  Registration
     6.1.  Procedures
     6.2.  Media-Specific OID-Subtree Assignments
     6.3.  Registration Template
       6.3.1.  ifType
       6.3.2.  tunnelType
   7.  IANA Considerations
     7.1.  MIB and YANG Modules
     7.2.  Transmission Number Assignments
   8.  Security Considerations
   9.  References
     9.1.  Normative References
     9.2.  Informative References
   Authors' Addresses

1.  Introduction

   The IANA IfType-MIB, which contains the list of interface type
   (ifType) values, was originally defined in [RFC1573] as a separate
   MIB module together with the Interfaces Group MIB (IF-MIB) module.
   The IF-MIB module was subsequently updated and is currently specified
   in [RFC2863], but the latest IF-MIB RFC no longer contains the IANA
   IfType-MIB.  Instead, the IANA IfType-MIB is maintained by IANA as a
   separate module.  Similarly, [RFC7224] created an initial IANA
   Interface Type YANG Module, and the current version is maintained by
   IANA.

   The current IANA IfType registry is at [ifType-registry], with the
   same values also appearing in both [yang-if-type] and the IANAifType
   textual convention at [IANAifType-MIB].

   Although the ifType registry was originally defined in a MIB module,
   the assignment and use of interface type values are not tied to MIB
   modules or any other management mechanism.  An interface type value
   can be used as the value of a data model object (MIB object, YANG
   object, etc.), as part of a unique identifier of a data model for a
   given interface type (e.g., in an OID), or simply as a value exposed
   by local APIs or UIs on a device.

   The TUNNEL-MIB was defined in [RFC2667] (now obsoleted by [RFC4087]),
   which created a tunnelType registry ([tunnelType-registry] and the
   IANAtunnelType textual convention at [IANAifType-MIB]), and it
   defined the assignment policy for tunnelType values to always be
   identical to the policy for assigning ifType values.

2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

3.  Problems

   This document addresses the following issues:

   1.  As noted in Section 1, the original guidance was written with
       wording specific to MIB modules; accordingly, some confusion has