SNMP over IPX
draft-ietf-snmp-snmpoveripx-00

INTERNET-DRAFT                                            R. Wormley
                                                                  Novell, Inc
                                                                  August 1990

                                    SNMP Over IPX

       Status Of This Memo

         This memo defines a convention for encapsulating Simple Network
         Management Protocol (SNMP) [1] packets over the transport mechanism
         provided via the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol [5].
         Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

       Introduction

         The SNMP protocol has been specified as the official network
         management protocol of the Internet.  Its widespread acceptance and
         implementation by developers, both inside and outside the Internet
         community, is fostering synergetic growth to a variety of protocols
         and platforms.

         This memo addresses the use of SNMP over Novell's proprietary IPX
         protocol.  Roughly equivalent to UDP in function, IPX provides
         connectionless, unacknowledged datagram service over a variety of
         physical media and protocols.

         Although modifications have been made elsewhere in Novell's protocol
         suite, IPX is identical to the Xerox Internet Datagram Protocol
         (IDP) [8].  The socket address space authority is administered by
         Novell.

       Conventions

         Unless explicitly mentioned, all numerical quantities in this
         document are represented in base 10.  In addition, it should be
         noted that all fields in an IPX packet header are encoded in little-
         endian [4] order.

       Port Assignment

         SNMP packets will always set the Packet Type field in the IPX header
         to 4 (i.e., Packet Exchange Packet).  SNMP protocol entities will
         receive GetRequest-PDU, GetNextRequest-PDU, and SetRequest-PDU
         messages on socket 36879 (Destination Socket field set to
         hexadecimal 900F), and Trap-PDU messages on socket 36880
         (Destination Socket field set to hexadecimal 9010).  The Destination
         Socket field in the IPX header is at offset 16.

       Maximum Packet Length

         Although SNMP does not require conformant implementations to accept
         messages whose length exceed 484 bytes, it is recommended that



       DRAFT                    SNMP Over IPX                 August 1990

         implementations support a maximum SNMP message size of 546 bytes
         (the maximum size allowed under IPX).

       Network Addressing

         The address of a node on an IPX network is specified by a 4-byte
         network number and a 6-byte node number.  As some SNMP PDUs may
         contain an Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) [6] [7] encoded
         network address (NetworkAddress [2]), the following mapping will be
         performed. A new ASN.1 application-wide type (defined below) will be
         added to the NetworkAddress type for this purpose, called
         IpxAddress.

         An IpxAddress will be the concatenation of the Network number
         followed by the Node number, comprising a 10-byte application-wide
         definition.  The order of both components of the IpxAddress will be
         big endian (i.e., the same order as is found in the IPX header).

         As IPX can run over a variety of subnet architectures, the physical
         network address [5] (node address) may not require 6 bytes.  As
         specified in [5], the physical network address will occupy the least
         significant portion of the node address, and the remaining bits will
         be set to zero.

            IpxAddress ::= -- 4 octets net num, 6 octets of node num
                      OCTET STRING (SIZE (10))

       Document Procurement

         This section provides contact points for procurement of selected
         documents.

         A complete description of IPX may be secured at the following
         address:

           Novell, Inc.
           122 East 1700 South
           P. O. Box 5900
           Provo, Utah 84601 USA
           (800) 526-5463
           Novell Part # 100-000405-001

       The specification for IDP (part of XNS) may be ordered from:

           Xerox System Institute
           475 Oakmead Parkway
           Sunnyvale, CA 94086
           Attn: Fonda Pallone
           (408)737-4652

       Wormley                                                     [Page 2]



       DRAFT                    SNMP Over IPX                 August 1990

       References

         [1]  Case J., Fedor M., Schoffstall M., and J. Davin, "A Simple
              Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 1157, SNMP Research,
              Performance Systems International, Performance Systems
              International, and MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, May
              1990.

         [2]  Rose M., and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification of
              Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets:, RFC 1155,
              Performance Systems International, Hughes LAN Systems, May
              1990.

         [3]  McCloghrie K., and M. Rose, "Management Information Base for
              Network Management of TCP/IP-based Internets", RFC 1156, Hughes
              LAN Systems, Performance Systems International, May 1990.

         [4]  Cohen D., "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace", Computer, IEEE,
              October 1981

         [5]  Novell, Inc., "Netware V2.1 Internetwork Packet Exchange
              Protocol (IPX) With Asynchronous Event Scheduler (AES)",
              February 1988

         [6]  Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection,
              "Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)",
              International Organization for Standardization, International
              Standard 8824, December 1987.

         [7]  Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection,
              "Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for Abstract Syntax
              Notation One (ASN.1)", International Organization for
              Standardization , International Standard 8825, December 1987.

         [8]  Xerox System Integration Standard, "Internet Transport
              Protocols", XSIS 028112, Xerox Corporation, December 1981.

       Author's Address

            Raymond Brett Wormley
            Novell, Inc.
            2180 Fortune Drive
            Mail Stop NWC-31
            San Jose, CA 95131

            Phone: (408) 473-8208

            EMail: bwormley@novell.com

       Wormley                                                     [Page 3]