The Impact of Transport Header Confidentiality on Network Operation and Evolution of the Internet
draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-encrypt-08
TSVWG G. Fairhurst
Internet-Draft University of Aberdeen
Intended status: Informational C. Perkins
Expires: February 24, 2020 University of Glasgow
August 23, 2019
The Impact of Transport Header Confidentiality on Network Operation and
Evolution of the Internet
draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-encrypt-08
Abstract
This document describes some implications of applying end-to-end
encryption at the transport layer. It first identifies in-network
uses of transport layer header information. Then, it reviews some
implications of developing end-to-end transport protocols that use
encryption to provide confidentiality of the transport protocol
headers, or that use authentication to protect the integrity of
transport header information. Since measurement and analysis of the
impact of network characteristics on transport protocols has been
important to the design of current transports, it also considers the
impact of transport encryption on transport and application
evolution.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on February 24, 2020.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Fairhurst & Perkins Expires February 24, 2020 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Transport Encryption August 2019
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Context and Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Use of Transport Header Information in the Network . . . 4
2.2. Encryption of Transport Header Information . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Encryption tradeoffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Current uses of Transport Headers within the Network . . . . 8
3.1. Observing Transport Information in the Network . . . . . 9
3.2. Transport Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3. Use for Network Diagnostics and Troubleshooting . . . . . 19
3.4. Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4. Encryption and Authentication of Transport Headers . . . . . 21
5. Addition of Transport Information to Network-Layer Protocol
Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6. Implications of Protecting the Transport Headers . . . . . . 25
6.1. Independent Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.2. Characterising "Unknown" Network Traffic . . . . . . . . 28
6.3. Accountability and Internet Transport Protocols . . . . . 28
6.4. Impact on Operational Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.5. Impact on Research, Development and Deployment . . . . . 29
7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
11. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Appendix A. Revision information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
1. Introduction
There is increased interest in, and deployment of, protocols that
employ end-to-end encryption at the transport layer, including the
transport layer headers. An example of such a transport is the QUIC
transport protocol [I-D.ietf-quic-transport], currently being
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