A One-way Active Measurement Protocol (OWAMP)
RFC 4656

Network Working Group                                        S. Shalunov
Request for Comments: 4656                                 B. Teitelbaum
Category: Standards Track                                        A. Karp
                                                                J. Boote
                                                            M. Zekauskas
                                                               Internet2
                                                          September 2006

             A One-way Active Measurement Protocol (OWAMP)

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 (2006).

Abstract

   The One-Way Active Measurement Protocol (OWAMP) measures
   unidirectional characteristics such as one-way delay and one-way
   loss.  High-precision measurement of these one-way IP performance
   metrics became possible with wider availability of good time sources
   (such as GPS and CDMA).  OWAMP enables the interoperability of these
   measurements.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Relationship of Test and Control Protocols .................3
      1.2. Logical Model ..............................................4
   2. Protocol Overview ...............................................5
   3. OWAMP-Control ...................................................6
      3.1. Connection Setup ...........................................6
      3.2. Integrity Protection (HMAC) ...............................11
      3.3. Values of the Accept Field ................................11
      3.4. OWAMP-Control Commands ....................................12
      3.5. Creating Test Sessions ....................................13
      3.6. Send Schedules ............................................18
      3.7. Starting Test Sessions ....................................19
      3.8. Stop-Sessions .............................................20
      3.9. Fetch-Session .............................................24

Shalunov, et al.            Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 4656          One-way Active Measurement Protocol     September 2006

   4. OWAMP-Test .....................................................27
      4.1. Sender Behavior ...........................................28
           4.1.1. Packet Timings .....................................28
           4.1.2. OWAMP-Test Packet Format and Content ...............29
      4.2. Receiver Behavior .........................................33
   5. Computing Exponentially Distributed Pseudo-Random Numbers ......35
      5.1. High-Level Description of the Algorithm ...................35
      5.2. Data Types, Representation, and Arithmetic ................36
      5.3. Uniform Random Quantities .................................37
   6. Security Considerations ........................................38
      6.1. Introduction ..............................................38
      6.2. Preventing Third-Party Denial of Service ..................38
      6.3. Covert Information Channels ...............................39
      6.4. Requirement to Include AES in Implementations .............39
      6.5. Resource Use Limitations ..................................39
      6.6. Use of Cryptographic Primitives in OWAMP ..................40
      6.7. Cryptographic Primitive Replacement .......................42
      6.8. Long-term Manually Managed Keys ...........................43
      6.9. (Not) Using Time as Salt ..................................44
      6.10. The Use of AES-CBC and HMAC ..............................44
   7. Acknowledgements ...............................................45
   8. IANA Considerations ............................................45
   9. Internationalization Considerations ............................46
   10. References ....................................................46
      10.1. Normative References .....................................46
      10.2. Informative References ...................................47
   Appendix A: Sample C Code for Exponential Deviates ................49
   Appendix B: Test Vectors for Exponential Deviates .................54

1.  Introduction

   The IETF IP Performance Metrics (IPPM) working group has defined
   metrics for one-way packet delay [RFC2679] and loss [RFC2680] across
   Internet paths.  Although there are now several measurement platforms