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authorThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
committerThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
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+Network Working Group R. Hinden
+Request for Comments: 4311 Nokia
+Updates: 2461 D. Thaler
+Category: Standards Track Microsoft
+ November 2005
+
+ IPv6 Host-to-Router Load Sharing
+
+Status of This Memo
+
+ This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
+ Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
+ improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
+ Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
+ and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
+
+Copyright Notice
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
+
+Abstract
+
+ The original IPv6 conceptual sending algorithm does not do load
+ sharing among equivalent IPv6 routers, and suggests schemes that can
+ be problematic in practice. This document updates the conceptual
+ sending algorithm in RFC 2461 so that traffic to different
+ destinations can be distributed among routers in an efficient
+ fashion.
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ In the conceptual sending algorithm in [ND] and in the optional
+ extension in [ROUTERSEL], a next hop is chosen when no destination
+ cache entry exists for an off-link destination or when communication
+ through an existing router is failing. Normally, a router is
+ selected the first time traffic is sent to a specific destination IP
+ address. Subsequent traffic to the same destination address
+ continues to use the same router unless there is some reason to
+ change to a different router (e.g., a redirect message is received,
+ or the router is found to be unreachable).
+
+ In addition, as described in [ADDRSEL], the choice of next hop may
+ also affect the choice of source address, and hence indirectly (and
+ to a lesser extent) may affect the router used for inbound traffic as
+ well.
+
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+
+Hinden & Thaler Standards Track [Page 1]
+
+RFC 4311 IPv6 Host-to-Router Load Sharing November 2005
+
+
+ In both the base sending algorithm and in the optional extension,
+ sometimes a host has a choice of multiple equivalent routers for a
+ destination. That is, all other factors are equal and a host must
+ break a tie via some implementation-specific means.
+
+ It is often desirable when there is more than one equivalent router
+ that hosts distribute their outgoing traffic among these routers.
+ This shares the load among multiple routers and provides better
+ performance for the host's traffic.
+
+ On the other hand, load sharing can be undesirable in situations
+ where sufficient capacity is available through a single router and
+ the traffic patterns could be more predictable by using a single
+ router; in particular, this helps to diagnose connectivity problems
+ beyond the first-hop routers.
+
+ [ND] does not require any particular behavior in this respect. It
+ specifies that an implementation may always choose the same router
+ (e.g., the first in the list) or may cycle through the routers in a
+ round-robin manner. Both of these suggestions are problematic.
+
+ Clearly, always choosing the same router does not provide load
+ sharing. Some problems with load sharing using naive tie-breaking
+ techniques such as round-robin and random are discussed in
+ [MULTIPATH]. While the destination cache provides some stability
+ since the determination is not per packet, cache evictions or
+ timeouts can still result in unstable or unpredictable paths over
+ time, lowering the performance and making it harder to diagnose
+ problems. Round-robin selection may also result in synchronization
+ issues among hosts, where in the worst case the load is concentrated
+ on one router at a time.
+
+ In the remainder of this document, the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT",
+ "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT",
+ "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as
+ described in [RFC2119].
+
+2. Load Sharing
+
+ When a host chooses from multiple equivalent routers, it SHOULD
+ support choosing using some method that distributes load for
+ different destinations among the equivalent routers rather than
+ always choosing the same router (e.g., the first in the list). This
+ memo takes no stance on whether the support for load sharing should
+ be turned on or off by default. Furthermore, a host that does
+ attempt to distribute load among routers SHOULD use a hash-based
+ scheme that takes (at least) the destination IP address into account,
+ such as those described in [MULTIPATH], for choosing a router to use.
+
+
+
+Hinden & Thaler Standards Track [Page 2]
+
+RFC 4311 IPv6 Host-to-Router Load Sharing November 2005
+
+
+ Note that traffic for a given destination address will use the same
+ router as long as the Destination Cache Entry for the destination
+ address is not deleted. With a hash-based scheme, traffic for a
+ given destination address will use the same router over time even if
+ the Destination Cache Entry is deleted, as long as the list of
+ equivalent routers remains the same.
+
+3. Security Considerations
+
+ As mentioned in [MULTIPATH], when next-hop selection is predictable,
+ an application can synthesize traffic that will all hash the same,
+ making it possible to launch a denial-of-service attack against the
+ load-sharing algorithm, and overload a particular router. This can
+ even be done by a remote application that can cause a host to respond
+ to a given destination address. A special case of this is when the
+ same (single) next-hop is always selected, such as in the algorithm
+ allowed by [ND]. Introducing hashing can make such an attack more
+ difficult; the more unpredictable the hash is, the harder it becomes
+ to conduct a denial-of-service attack against any single router.
+
+ However, a malicious local application can bypass the algorithm for
+ its own traffic by using mechanisms such as raw sockets, and remote
+ attackers can still overload the routers directly. Hence, the
+ mechanisms discussed herein have no significant incremental impact on
+ Internet infrastructure security.
+
+4. Acknowledgements
+
+ The authors of this document would like to thank Erik Nordmark, Brian
+ Haberman, Steve Deering, Aron Silverton, Christian Huitema, and Pekka
+ Savola.
+
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+Hinden & Thaler Standards Track [Page 3]
+
+RFC 4311 IPv6 Host-to-Router Load Sharing November 2005
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+5. Normative References
+
+ [ND] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., and W. Simpson, "Neighbor
+ Discovery for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December
+ 1998.
+
+ [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
+ Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
+
+ [ADDRSEL] Draves, R., "Default Address Selection for Internet
+ Protocol version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 3484, February 2003.
+
+ [ROUTERSEL] Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences
+ and More-Specific Routes", RFC 4191, November 2005.
+
+6. Informative References
+
+ [MULTIPATH] Thaler, D. and C. Hopps, "Multipath Issues in Unicast
+ and Multicast Next-Hop Selection", RFC 2991, November
+ 2000.
+
+Authors' Addresses
+
+ Robert Hinden
+ Nokia
+ 313 Fairchild Drive
+ Mountain View, CA 94043
+
+ Phone: +1 650 625-2004
+ EMail: bob.hinden@nokia.com
+
+
+ Dave Thaler
+ Microsoft Corporation
+ One Microsoft Way
+ Redmond, WA 98052
+
+ Phone: +1 425 703 8835
+ EMail: dthaler@microsoft.com
+
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+Hinden & Thaler Standards Track [Page 4]
+
+RFC 4311 IPv6 Host-to-Router Load Sharing November 2005
+
+
+Full Copyright Statement
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
+
+ This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
+ contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
+ retain all their rights.
+
+ This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
+ "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
+ OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
+ ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
+ INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
+ INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
+ WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Intellectual Property
+
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+
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+
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+
+Acknowledgement
+
+ Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
+ Internet Society.
+
+
+
+
+
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+Hinden & Thaler Standards Track [Page 5]
+