Updated Specification of the IPv4 ID Field
draft-ietf-intarea-ipv4-id-update-06

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Internet Area WG                                               J. Touch
Internet Draft                                                 USC/ISI
Updates: 791,1122,2003                                  October 9, 2012
Intended status: Proposed Standard
Expires: April 2013

                Updated Specification of the IPv4 ID Field
                 draft-ietf-intarea-ipv4-id-update-06.txt

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 9, 2013.

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   Copyright (c) 2012 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
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Abstract

   The IPv4 Identification (ID) field enables fragmentation and
   reassembly, and as currently specified is required to be unique
   within the maximum lifetime for all datagrams with a given
   source/destination/protocol tuple. If enforced, this uniqueness
   requirement would limit all connections to 6.4 Mbps. Because
   individual connections commonly exceed this speed, it is clear that
   existing systems violate the current specification. This document
   updates the specification of the IPv4 ID field in RFC791, RFC1122,
   and RFC2003 to more closely reflect current practice and to more
   closely match IPv6 so that the field's value is defined only when a
   datagram is actually fragmented. It also discusses the impact of
   these changes on how datagrams are used.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................3
   2. Conventions used in this document..............................3
   3. The IPv4 ID Field..............................................4
      3.1. Uses of the IPv4 ID Field.................................4
      3.2. Background on IPv4 ID Reassembly Issues...................5
   4. Updates to the IPv4 ID Specification...........................6
      4.1. IPv4 ID Used Only for Fragmentation.......................7
      4.2. Encourage Safe IPv4 ID Use................................8
      4.3. IPv4 ID Requirements That Persist.........................8
   5. Impact of Proposed Changes.....................................9
      5.1. Impact on Legacy Internet Devices.........................9
      5.2. Impact on Datagram Generation............................10
      5.3. Impact on Middleboxes....................................11
         5.3.1. Rewriting Middleboxes...............................11

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         5.3.2. Filtering Middleboxes...............................12
      5.4. Impact on Header Compression.............................13
   6. Updates to Existing Standards.................................13