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Gap Analysis in Internet Addressing
draft-jia-intarea-internet-addressing-gap-analysis-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Yihao Jia , Dirk Trossen , Luigi Iannone , Nirmala Shenoy , Paulo Mendes
Last updated 2021-10-23
Replaced by draft-iannone-internet-addressing-considerations
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draft-jia-intarea-internet-addressing-gap-analysis-01
Internet Area Working Group                                       Y. Jia
Internet-Draft                                                D. Trossen
Intended status: Informational                                L. Iannone
Expires: 26 April 2022                                            Huawei
                                                               N. Shenoy
                                                                  R.I.T.
                                                               P. Mendes
                                                                  Airbus
                                                         23 October 2021

                  Gap Analysis in Internet Addressing
         draft-jia-intarea-internet-addressing-gap-analysis-01

Abstract

   There exist many extensions to Internet addressing, as it is defined
   in [RFC0791] for IPv4 and [RFC8200] for IPv6, respectively.  Those
   extensions have been developed to fill gaps in capabilities beyond
   the basic properties of Internet addressing.  This document outlines
   those properties as a baseline against which the extensions are
   categorized in terms of methodology used to fill the gap together
   with examples of solutions doing so.

   While introducing such extensions, we outline the issues we see with
   those extensions.  This ultimately leads to consider whether or not a
   more consistent approach to tackling the identified gaps, beyond
   point-wise extensions as done so far, would be beneficial.  The
   benefits are the ones detailed in the companion document
   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing], where, leveraging on
   the gaps identified in this memo and scenarios provided in
   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing], a clear problem
   statement is provided.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 26 April 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
   as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Properties of Internet Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  Property 1: Fixed Address Length  . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Property 2: Ambiguous Address Semantic  . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.3.  Property 3: Limited Address Semantic Support  . . . . . .   5
   3.  Filling Gaps through Extensions to Internet Addressing
           Properties  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Length Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.1.  Shorter Address Length  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.1.2.  Longer Address Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.1.3.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.2.  Identity Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       3.2.1.  Anonymous Address Identity  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.2.2.  Authenticated Address Identity  . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       3.2.3.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     3.3.  Semantic Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       3.3.1.  Utilizing Extended Address Semantics  . . . . . . . .  14
       3.3.2.  Utilizing Existing or Extended Header Semantics . . .  18
       3.3.3.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   4.  Overview of Approaches to Extend Internet Addressing  . . . .  22
   5.  Issues in Extensions to Internet Addressing . . . . . . . . .  24
     5.1.  Limiting Address Semantics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     5.2.  Complexity and Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
       5.2.1.  Repetitive encapsulation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       5.2.2.  Compounding issues with header compression  . . . . .  26
       5.2.3.  Introducing Path Stretch  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
       5.2.4.  Complicating Traffic Engineering  . . . . . . . . . .  26
     5.3.  Security  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     5.4.  Fragility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   6.  Summary of issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28

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   7.  Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   10. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41

1.  Introduction

   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing] outlines scenarios
   and problems in Internet addressing through presenting a number of
   cases of communication that have emerged over the many years of
   utilizing the Internet and for which various extensions to the
   network interface-centric addressing of IPv6 have been developed.  In
   order to continue the discussion on the emerging needs for
   addressing, initiated with
   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing], this memo aims at
   identifying gaps between the Internet addressing model and desirable
   features that have been added by various extensions, in various
   contexts.

   The approach to identifying the gaps is guided by key properties of
   Internet addressing, outlined in Section 2, namely (i) the fixed
   length of the IP addresses, (ii) the ambiguity of IP addresses
   semantic, while still (iii) providing limited IP address semantic
   support.  Those properties are derived directly as a consequence of
   the respective standards that provide the basis for Internet
   addressing, most notably [RFC0791] for IPv4 and [RFC8200] for IPv6,
   respectively.

   Those basic properties, and the potential issues that arise from
   those properties, give way to extensions that have been proposed over
   the course of deploying new Internet technologies.  Section 3
   discusses those extensions, summarized as gaps against the basic
   properties in Section 4.

   Finally, this memo outlines issues that arise with the extension-
   driven approach to the basic Internet addressing, discussed in
   Section 5, arguing that any requirements for solutions that would
   revise the basic Internet addressing would require to address those
   issues.

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2.  Properties of Internet Addressing

   As the Internet Protocol adoption has grown towards the global
   communication system we know today, its characteristics have evolved
   subtly, with [RFC6250] documenting various aspects of the IP service
   model and its frequent misconceptions, including Internet addressing.
   In this section, the three most acknowledged properties related to
   _Internet addressing_ are detailed.  Those are (i) fixed IP address
   length, (ii) ambiguous IP address semantic, and (iii) limited IP
   address semantic support.

   Section 3 elaborates on various extensions that aim to expand
   Internet addressing beyond those properties; those extensions are
   positioned as intentions to close perceived gaps against those key
   properties.

2.1.  Property 1: Fixed Address Length

   The fixed IP address length is specified as a key property of the
   design of Internet addressing, with 32 bits for IPv4 ([RFC0791]), and
   128 bits for IPv6 ([RFC8200]), respectively.  Given the capability of
   the hardware at the time of IPv4 design, a fixed length address was
   considered as a more appropriate choice for efficient packet
   forwarding.  Although the address length was once considered to be
   variable during the design of Internet Protocol Next Generation
   ("IPng", cf., [RFC1752]) in the 1990s, it finally inherited the
   design of IPv4 and adopted a fixed length address towards the current
   IPv6.  As a consequence, the 128-bit fixed address length of IPv6 is
   regarded as a balance between fast forwarding (i.e., fixed length)
   and practically boundless cyberspace (i.e., enabled by using 128-bit
   addresses).

2.2.  Property 2: Ambiguous Address Semantic

   Initially, the meaning of an IP address has been to identify an
   interface on a network device, although, when [RFC0791] was written,
   there were no explicit definitions of the IP address semantic.

   With the global expansion of the Internet protocol, the semantic of
   the IP address is commonly believed to contain at least two notions,
   i.e., the explicit 'locator', and the implicit 'identifier'.  Because
   of the increasing use of IP addresses to both identify a node and to
   indicate the physical or virtual location of the node, the
   intertwined address semantics of identifier and locator was then
   gradually observed and first documented in [RFC2101] as 'locator/
   identifier overload' property.  With this, the IP address is used as
   an identification for host and server, very often directly used,
   e.g., for remote access or maintenance.

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2.3.  Property 3: Limited Address Semantic Support

   Although IPv4 [RFC0791] did not add any semantic to IP addresses
   beyond interface identification (and location), time has proven that
   additional semantics are desirable (c.f., the history of 127/8
   [HISTORY127] or the introduction of private addresses [RFC1918]),
   hence, IPv6 [RFC4291] introduced some form of additional semantics
   based on specific prefix values, for instance link-local addresses or
   a more structured multicast addressing.  Nevertheless, systematic
   support for rich address semantics remains limited and basically
   prefix-based.

3.  Filling Gaps through Extensions to Internet Addressing Properties

   Over the years, a plethora of extensions has been proposed in order
   to move beyond the native properties of IP addresses, outlined in the
   previous section.  The development of those extensions can be
   interpreted as filling gaps between the original properties of
   Internet addressing and desired new capabilities that those
   developing the extensions identified as being missing and yet needed
   and desirable.

3.1.  Length Extensions

   Extensions in this subsection aim at extending the property described
   in Section 2.1, i.e., the fixed IP address length.

   When IPv6 was designed, the main objective was to create an address
   space that would not lead to the same situation as IPv4, namely to
   address exhaustion.  To this end, while keeping the same addressing
   model like IPv4, IPv6 adopted a 128-bit address length with the aim
   of providing a sufficient and future-proof address space.  The choice
   was also founded on the assumption that advances in hardware and
   Moore's law would still allow to make routing and forwarding faster,
   and the IPv6 routing table manageable.

   We observe, however, that the rise of new use cases but also the
   number of new, e.g., industrial/home or small footprint devices, was
   possibly unforeseen.  Sensor networks and more generally the Internet
   of Things (IoT) emerged after the core body of work on IPv6.
   Nevertheless, it was clear from the beginning that, different from
   IPv6 assumptions, 128-bit addresses were costly in certain scenarios.

   At the same time, new use cases emerged, where addresses even bigger
   than 128-bit are useful, like in the context of content centric
   networks, structured addresses, or cryptographically generated
   addresses.

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3.1.1.  Shorter Address Length

3.1.1.1.  Description:

   In the context of IoT [RFC7228], where bandwidth and energy are very
   scarce resources, the static length of 128-bit for an IP address is
   more a hindrance than a benefit since 128-bit for an IP address may
   occupy a lot of space, even to the point of being the dominant part
   of a packet.  In order to use bandwidth more efficiently and use less
   energy in end-to-end communication, solutions have been proposed that
   allow for very small network layer headers instead.

3.1.1.2.  Methodology:

   *Header Compression/Translation*: One of the main approaches to
   reduce header size in the IoT context is by compressing it.  Such
   technique is based on a stateful approach, utilizing what is usually
   called a 'context' on the IoT sensor and the gateway for
   communications between an IoT device and a server placed somewhere in
   the Internet - from the edge to the cloud.

   The role of the 'context' is to provide a way to 'compress' the
   original IP header into a smaller one, using shorter address
   information and/or dropping some field(s); the context here serves as
   a kind of dictionary.

   *Separate device from locator identifier*: Approaches that can offer
   customized address length that is adequate for use in such
   constrained domains are preferred.  Using different namespaces for
   the 'device identifier' and the 'routing' or 'locator identifier' is
   one such approach.

3.1.1.3.  Examples

   *Header Compression/Translation*: Considering one base station is
   supposed to serve hundreds of user devices, maximizing the
   effectiveness for specific spectrum directly improves user quality of
   experience.  To achieve the optimal utilization of the spectrum
   resource in the wireless area, the RObust Header Compression (ROHC)
   [RFC5795] mechanism, which has been widely adopted in cellar network
   like WCDMA, LTE, and 5G, utilizes header compression to shrink
   existing IPv6 headers onto shorter ones.

   Similarly, header compression techniques for IPv6 over Low-Power
   Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) have been around for
   several years now, constituting a main example of using the notion of
   a 'shared context' in order to reduce the size of the network layer
   header ([RFC6282], [RFC7400], [ITU9959]).  More recently, other

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   compression solution have been proposed for Low Power Wide Area
   Networks (LPWAN - [RFC8376]), but they basically rely on the same
   'context' approach ([RFC8724]).

   Also, constraints coming from either devices or carrier links would
   lead to mixed scenarios and compound requirements for extraordinary
   header compression.  For native IPv6 communications on DECT ULE and
   MS/TP Networks [RFC6282], dedicated compression mechanisms are
   specified in [RFC8105] and [RFC8163], while the transmission of IPv6
   packets over NFC and PLC, specifications are being developed in
   [I-D.ietf-6lo-nfc] and [I-D.ietf-6lo-plc].

   *Separate device from locator identifier*: Solutions such as proposed
   in [EIBP] and [I-D.ietf-lisp-rfc6830bis] can utilize a separation of
   device from locator, where only the latter is used for routing
   between the different domains using the same technology, therefore
   enabling the use of shorter addresses in the (possibly constrained)
   local environment.  Device IDs used within such domains are carried
   as part of the payload by EIBP and hence can be of shorter size
   suited to the domain, while, for instance, in LISP a flexible address
   encoding [RFC8060] allows shorter addresses to be supported in the
   LISP control plane [I-D.ietf-lisp-rfc6833bis].

3.1.2.  Longer Address Length

3.1.2.1.  Description

   To address current networking demands, it may be preferred to use
   variable and longer address lengths.  For example in content delivery
   networks, longer addresses such as URLs are required to fetch
   content, an approach that Information-Centric Networking (ICN)
   applied for any data packet sent in the network, using information-
   based addressing at the network layer.  Further, as an approach to
   address the routing challenges faced in the Internet, structured
   addresses may be used, avoiding the need for routing protocols.

   Further, as an approach to address the routing challenges such as
   scalability, stability, and the complex interworking between OSPF,
   eBGP and iBGP faced in the Internet, structured addresses may be
   used, limiting (or avoiding) the need for routing protocols overall.

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3.1.2.2.  Methodology

   The crucial need for longer address lengths comes from _semantic
   extensions_ to IP addresses, where the extensions themselves do not
   fit within the length limitation of the IP address.  Section 3.3
   discusses those extensions, divided into those where limitations
   stemming from the IP address lengths are considered and those where
   information is either represented through a longer address and/or
   additional header information.

3.1.2.3.  Examples

   See Section 3.3 for examples of solutions that consider extended
   address and header information to represent extended semantics that
   are not limited by the IP address length.

3.1.3.  Summary

   Table 1 summarizes methodologies and examples towards filling gaps on
   IP address length extensions.

      +========================+======================+=============+
      |                        | Methodology          | Examples    |
      +========================+======================+=============+
      | Shorter Address Length | Header compression/  | 6LoWPAN,    |
      |                        | translation          | ROHC        |
      +------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
      |                        | Separate device from | EIBP, LISP, |
      |                        | locator identifier   | ILNP, HIP   |
      +------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
      | Longer Address Length  | Same as Semantic     |             |
      |                        | Extension Table 3    |             |
      +------------------------+----------------------+-------------+

                     Table 1: Summary Length Extensions

3.2.  Identity Extensions

   Extensions in this subsection attempt extending the property
   described in Section 2.2, i.e., 'locator/identifier overload' of the
   ambiguous address semantic.

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   From the perspective of Internet users, on the one hand, the implicit
   identifier semantic results in a privacy issue due to network
   behavior tracking and association.  Despite that IP address
   assignments may be dynamic, they are nowadays considered as 'personal
   data' and as such undergoes privacy protection regulations like
   General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR" [GDPR]).  Hence,
   additional mechanisms are necessary in order to protect end user
   privacy.

   For network regulation of sensitive information, on the other hand,
   dynamically allocated IP addresses are not sufficient to guarantee
   device or user identification.  As such, different address allocation
   systems, with stronger identification properties are necessary where
   security and authentication are at highest priority.  Hence, in order
   to protect information security within a network, additional
   mechanism are necessary to identify the users or the devices attached
   to the network.

3.2.1.  Anonymous Address Identity

3.2.1.1.  Description

   As discussed in Section 2.2, IP addresses reveal both 'network
   locations' as well as implicit 'identifier' information to both
   traversed network elements and destination nodes alike.  This enables
   recording, correlation, and profiling of user behaviors and
   historical network traces, possibly down to individual real user
   identity.  The IETF, e.g., in [RFC7258], has taken a clear stand on
   preventing any such pervasive monitoring means by classifying them as
   an attack on end users' right to be left alone (i.e., privacy).
   Regulations such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation
   (GDPR) classifies, for instance, the 'online identifier' as personal
   data which must be carefully protected; this includes end users' IP
   addresses [GDPR].

   Even before pervasive monitoring [RFC7258], IP addresses have been
   seen as something that some organizational owners of networked system
   may not want to reveal at the individual level towards any non-member
   of the same organization.  Beyond that, if forwarding is based on
   semantic extensions, like other fields of the header, extension
   headers, or any other possible extension, if not adequately protected
   it may introduce privacy leakage and/or new attack vectors.

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3.2.1.2.  Methodology:

   *Traffic Proxy*: Detouring the traffic to a trusted proxy is a
   heuristic solution.  Since nodes between trusted proxy and
   destination (including the destination per se) can only observe the
   source address of the proxy, the 'identification' of the origin
   source can thereby be hidden.  To obfuscate the nodes between origin
   and the proxy, the traffic on such route would be encrypted via a key
   negotiated either in-band or off-band.  Considering that all
   applications' traffic in such route can be seen as a unique flow
   directed to the same 'unknown' node, i.e., the trusted proxy,
   eavesdroppers in such route have to make more efforts to correlate
   user behavior through statistical analysis even if they are capable
   of identifying the users via their source addresses.  The protection
   lays in the inability to isolate single application specific flows.
   According to the methodology, such approach is IP version independent
   and works for both IPv4 and IPv6.

   *Source Address Rollover*: Privacy issues related to address
   'identifier' semantic can be mitigated through regular change (beyond
   the typical 24 hours lease of DHCP).  Due to the semantics of
   'identifier' that an IP address carries, such approach promotes to
   change the source IP address at a certain frequency.  Under such
   methodology, the refresh cycling window may reach to a balance
   between privacy protection and address update cost.  Due to the
   limited space that IPv4 contains, such approach usually works for
   IPv6 only.

   *Private Address Spaces*: Their introduction in [RFC1918] foresaw
   private addresses (assigned to specific address spaces by the IANA)
   as a means to communicate purely locally, e.g., within an enterprise,
   by separating private from public IP addresses.  Considering that
   private addresses are never directly reachable from the Internet,
   hosts adopting private addresses are invisible and thus 'anonymous'
   for the Internet.  Besides, hosts for purely local communication used
   the latter while hosts requiring public Internet service access would
   still use public IP addresses.

   *Address Translation*: The aforementioned original intention for
   using private IP addresses, namely for purely local communication,
   resulted in a lack of flexibility in changing from local to public
   Internet access on the basis of what application would require which
   type of service.

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   If eventually every end-system in an organization would require some
   form of public Internet access in addition to local one, an adequate
   number of public Internet addresses would be required for providing
   to all end systems.  Instead, address translation enables to utilize
   many private IP addresses within an organization, while only relying
   on one (or few) public IP addresses for the overall organization.

   In principle, address translation can be applied recursively.  This
   can be seen in modern broadband access where Internet providers may
   rely on carrier-grade address translation for all their broadband
   customers, who in turn employ address translation of their internal
   home or office addresses to those (private again) IP addresses
   assigned to them by their network provider.

   Two benefits arise from the use of (private to public IP) address
   translation, namely (i) the hiding of local end systems at the level
   of the (address) assigned organization, and (ii) the reduction of
   public IP addresses necessary for communication across the Internet.
   While the latter has been seen for long as a driver for address
   translation, we focus on the first issue in this section, also since
   we see such privacy benefit as well as objective as still being valid
   in addressing systems like IPv6 where address scarcity is all but
   gone [GNATCATCHER].

   *Separate device from locator identifier*: Solutions that make a
   clear separation between the routing locator and the identifier, can
   allow for a device ID of any size, which in turn can be encrypted by
   a network element deployed at the border of routing domain (e.g.,
   access/edge router).  Both source and end-domain addresses can be
   encrypted and transported, as in the routing domain, only the routing
   locator is used.

3.2.1.3.  Examples:

   *Traffic Proxy*: Although not initially designed as a traffic proxy
   approach, a Virtual Private Network (VPN [VPN]) is widely utilized
   for packets origin hiding as a traffic detouring methodology.  As it
   evolved, VPN derivatives like WireGuard [WireGuard] have become a
   mainstream instance for user privacy and security enhancement.

   With such methodology in mind, onion routing [ONION], instantiated in
   the TOR Project [TOR], achieves high anonymity through traffic hand
   over via intermediates, before reaching the destination.  Since the
   architecture of TOR requires at least three proxies, none of them is
   aware of the entire route.  Given that the proxies themselves can be
   deployed all over cyberspace, trust is not the prerequisite if
   proxies are randomly selected.

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   In addition, dedicated protocols are also expected to be customized
   for privacy improvement via traffic proxy.  For example, Oblivious
   DNS over HTTPS (ODoH [ODoH]) use a third-party proxy to obscure
   identifications of user source addresses during DNS over HTTPS (DoH
   [RFC8484]) resolution.  Similarly, Oblivious HTTP [OHTTP] involve
   proxy alike in the HTTP environment.

   *Source Address Rollover*: As for source address rollover, it has
   been standardized that IP addresses for Internet users should be
   dynamic and temporary every time they are being generated [RFC8981].
   This benefits from the available address space in the case of IPv6,
   through which address generation or assignment should be
   unpredictable and stochastic for outside observers.

   More radically, [EPHEMERALv6] advocates an 'ephemeral address',
   changing over time, for each process.  Through this, correlating user
   behaviors conducted by different identifiers (i.e., source address)
   becomes much harder, if not impossible, if based on the IP packet
   header alone.

   *Private Addresses*: The use and assignment of private addresses for
   IPv4 is laid out in [RFC1918], while unique local addresses (ULAs) in
   IPv6 [RFC4193] take over the role of private address spaces in IPv4.

   *Network Address Translation*: The translation from one IP address
   realm into another is laid out in [RFC2663], using a stateful address
   binding to translate between the realms, e.g., from a private into a
   public address space.  As outlined in [RFC2663], basic address
   translation is usually extended to include port information in the
   translation process, support bidirectional or simple outbound traffic
   only.  Given address translation can be performed several times in
   cascade, NATs may exist as part of existing customer premise
   equipment (CPE), such as a cable or an Ethernet router, with private
   wired/wireless connectivity, or may be provided in a carrier
   environment to further translate ISP-internal private addresses to a
   pool of (assigned) public IP addresses.  The latter is often
   dynamically assigned to CPEs during its bootstrapping.

   *Separate device from locator identifier*: EIBP [EIBP] utilizes a
   structured approach to addressing.  It separates the routing ID from
   the device ID, where only the former is used for routing.  As such,
   the device IDs can be encrypted, protecting the end device identity.
   Similarly, LISP uses separate namespaces for routing and
   identification allowing to 'hide' identifiers in encrypted LISP
   packets that expose only known routing information [RFC8061].

3.2.2.  Authenticated Address Identity

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3.2.2.1.  Description

   In some scenarios (e.g., corporate networks) it is desirable to being
   able authenticate IP addresses in order to prevent malicious
   attackers spoofing IP addresses.  This is usually achieved by using a
   mechanism that allows to prove ownership of the IP address.

3.2.2.2.  Methodology

   *Self-certified addresses*: This method is usually based on the use
   of nodes' public/private keys.  A node creates its own interface ID
   (IID) by using a cryptographic hash of its public key (with some
   additional parameters).  Messages are then signed using the nodes'
   private key.  The destination of the message will verify the
   signature through the information in the IP address.  Self-
   certification has the advantage that no third party or additional
   security infrastructure is needed.  Any node can generate its own
   address locally and then only the address and the public key are
   needed to verify the binding between the public key and the address.

   *Third party granted addresses*: DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
   Protocol) is widely used to provide IP addresses, however, in its
   basic form, it does not perform any check and even an unauthorized
   user without the right to use the network can obtain an IP address.
   To solve this problem, a trusted third party has to grant access to
   the network before generating an address (via DHCP or other) that
   identifies the user.  User authentication done securely either based
   on physical parameters like MAC addresses or based on an explicit
   login/password mechanism.

3.2.2.3.  Examples

   *Self-certified Addresses*: As an example of this methodology serves
   [RFC3972], defining IPv6 cryptographically Generated Addresses (CGA).
   The original specs have been already amended (cf., [RFC4581] and
   [RFC4982]) in order to support multiple (stronger) cryptographic
   algorithms.

   *Third party granted addresses*: [RFC3118] defines a DHCP option
   through which authorization tickets can be generated and newly
   attached hosts with proper authorization can be automatically
   configured from an authenticated DHCP server.  Solutions exist where
   separate servers are used for user authentication ([UA-DHCP],
   [RFC4014]).

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3.2.3.  Summary

   Table 2, summarize the methodologies and the examples towards filling
   the gaps on identity extensions.

    +============================+======================+=============+
    |                            | Methodology          | Examples    |
    +============================+======================+=============+
    | Anonymous Address Identity | Traffic Proxy        | VPN, TOR,   |
    |                            |                      | ODoH        |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                            | Source Address       | SLAAC       |
    |                            | Rollover             |             |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                            | Private Address      | ULA         |
    |                            | Spaces               |             |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                            | Address Translation  | NAT         |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                            | Separate device from | EIBP, LISP  |
    |                            | locator identifier   |             |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    | Authenticated Address      | Self-certified       | CGA         |
    | Identity                   | Addresses            |             |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                            | Third party granted  | DHCP-Option |
    |                            | addresses            |             |
    +----------------------------+----------------------+-------------+

                    Table 2: Summary Identity Extensions

3.3.  Semantic Extensions

   Extensions in this subsection try extending the property described in
   Section 2.3, i.e., limited address semantic support.

   As explained in Section 2.2, IP addresses carry both locator and
   interface identification semantic.  Some efforts exist that try to
   separate these semantics either in different address spaces or
   through different address formats.  Beyond just identification,
   location, and the fixed address size, other efforts extended the
   semantic through existing or additional header fields (or header
   options) outside the Internet address.

3.3.1.  Utilizing Extended Address Semantics

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3.3.1.1.  Description

   Several extensions have been developed to extend beyond the limited
   IPv6 semantics.  Those approaches may include to apply structure to
   the address, utilize specific prefixes, or entirely utilize the IPv6
   address for different semantics, while re-encapsulating the original
   packet to restore the semantics in another part of the network.  For
   instance, structured addresses have the capability to introduce
   delimiters to identify semantic information in the header, therefore
   not constraining any semantic by size limitations of the address
   fields.

   We note here that extensions often start out as being proposed as an
   extended header semantic, while standardization may drive the
   solution to adopt an approach to accommodate their semantic within
   the limitations of an IP address.  This section does include examples
   of this kind.

3.3.1.2.  Methodology

   *Semantic prefixes*: Semantic prefixes are used to separate the IPv6
   address space.  Through this, new address families, such as for
   information-centric networking [HICN], service routing or other
   semantically rich addressing, can be defined, albeit limited by the
   prefix length and structure as well as the overall length limitation
   of the IPv6 address.

   *Separate device/resource from locator identifier*: The option to use
   separate namespaces for the device address would offer more freedom
   for the use of different semantics.  For instance, the static binding
   of IP addresses to servers creates a strong binding between IP
   addresses and service/resources, which may be a limitation for large
   Content Distribution networks (CDNs).  As an extreme form of
   separating resource from locator identifier, recent engineering
   approaches, described in [CLOUDFLARE_DECOUPLE_IP], decouple web
   service (semantics) from the routing address assignments by using
   virtual hosting capabilities, thereby effectively mapping possibly
   millions of services onto a single IP address.

   *Structured addressing*: One approach to address the routing
   challenges faced in the Internet is the use of structured addresses,
   e.g., to void the need for routing protocols.  Benefits of this
   approach can be significant, with the structured addresses capturing
   the relative physical or virtual position of routers in the network
   as well as being variable in length.  Key to the approach, however,
   is that the structured addresses capturing the relative physical or
   virtual position of routers in the network, or networks in an
   internetwork may not fit within the fixed and limited IP address

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   length (cf., Section 3.1.2).  Other structured approaches may be the
   use of application-specific structured binary components for
   identification, generalizing URL schema used for HTTP-level
   communication but utilized at the network level for traffic steering
   decisions.

   *Localized forwarding semantics*: Layer 2 hardware, such as SDN
   switches, are limited to the use of specific header fields for
   forwarding decisions.  Hence, devising new localized forwarding
   mechanisms may be based on re-using differently existing header
   fields, such as the IPv6 source/destination fields, to achieve the
   desired forwarding behavior, while encapsulating the original packets
   in order to be restored at the local forwarding network boundary.
   Networks in those solutions are limited by the size of the utilized
   address field, e.g., 256 bits for IPv6, thereby limiting the way such
   techniques could be used.

3.3.1.3.  Examples

   *Semantic prefixes*: Newer approaches to IP anycast suggest the use
   of service identification in combination with a binding IP address
   model [SFCANYCAST] as a way to allow for metric-based traffic
   steering decisions; approaches for Service Function Chaining (SFC)
   [RFC7665] utilize the Network Service Header (NSH) information and
   packet classification to determine the destination of the next
   service.

   Another example of the usage of different packet header extensions
   based on IP addressing is Segment Routing.  In this case, the source
   chooses a path and encodes it in the packet header as an ordered list
   of segments.  Segments are encoded using new Routing Extensions
   Header type, the Segment Routing Header (SRH), which contains the
   Segment List, similar to what is already specified in [RFC2460],
   i.e., a list of segment ID (SID) that dictate the path to follow in
   the network.  Such segment IDs are coded as 128 bit IPv6 addresses
   [RFC8986].

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   Approaches such as [HICN] utilize semantic prefixing to allow for ICN
   forwarding behavior within an IPv6 network.  In this case, an HICN
   name is the hierarchical concatenation of a name prefix and a name
   suffix, in which the name prefix is encoded as an IPv6 128 bits word
   and carried in IPv6 header fields, while the name suffix is encoded
   in transport headers fields such as TCP.  However, it is a challenge
   to determine which IPv6 prefixes should be used as name prefixes.  In
   order to know which IPv6 packets should be interpreted based on an
   ICN semantic, it is desirable to be able to recognize that an IPv6
   prefix is a name prefix, e.g. to define a specific address family
   (AF_HICN, b0001::/16).  This establishment of a specific address
   family allows the management and control plane to locally configure
   HICN prefixes and announce them to neighbors for interconnection.

   *Separate device from locator identifier*: EIBP [EIBP] separates the
   routing locator from the device identifier, relaxing therefore any
   semantic constraints on the device identifier.  Similarly, LISP uses
   a flexible encoding named LISP Canonical Address Format (LCAF
   [RFC8061]), which allows to associate to routing locators any
   possible form (and length) of identifier.  ILNP [RFC6740] introduces
   as well a different semantic of IP addresses, while aligning to the
   IPv6 address format (128 bits).  Basically, ILNP introduces a sharper
   logical separation between the 64 most significant bits and the 64
   least significant bits of an IPv6 address.  The former being a global
   locator, while the latter being an identifier that can have different
   semantics (rather than just being an interface identifier).

   *Structured addressing*: Network topology captures the physical
   connectivity among devices in the network.  There is a structure
   associated with the topology.  Examples are the core-distribution-
   access router structure commonly used in enterprise networks and clos
   topologies that are used to provide multiple connections between Top
   of Rack (ToR) devices and multiple layers of spine devices.  Internet
   service providers use a tier structure that defines their business
   relationships.  A clear structure of connected networks can be
   noticed in the Internet.  EIBP [EIBP] proposes to leverage the
   physical structure (or a virtual structure overlaid on the physical
   structure) to auto assign addresses to routers in a network or
   networks in an internetwork to capture their relative position in the
   physical/virtual topology.  EIBP proposes to administratively
   identify routers/networks with a tier value based on the structure.

   *Localized forwarding semantics*: Approaches such as those outlined
   in [REED] suggest using a novel forwarding semantic based on path
   information carried in the packet itself, said path information
   consists in a fixed size bitfield (see [REED] for more information on
   how to represent the path information in said bitfield).  In order to
   utilize existing, e.g., SDN-based, forwarding switches, the direct

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   use of the IPv6 source/destination address is suggested for building
   appropriate match-action rules (over the suitable binary information
   representing the local output ports), while preserving the original
   IPv6 information in the encapsulated packet.  As mentioned above,
   such use of the existing IPv6 address fields limits the size of the
   network to a maximum of 256 bits (therefore paths in the network over
   which such packets can be forwarded).  [ICNIP], however, goes a step
   further by suggesting to use the local forwarding as direct network
   layer mechanism, removing the IP packet and only leaving the
   transport/application layer, with the path identifier constituting
   the network-level identifier albeit limited by using the existing IP
   header for backward compatibility reasons (the next section outlines
   the removal of this limitation).

3.3.2.  Utilizing Existing or Extended Header Semantics

3.3.2.1.  Description:

   While the former sub-section explored extended address semantic,
   thereby limiting any such extended semantic with that of the existing
   IPv6 semantic and length, additional semantics may also be placed
   into the header of the packet or the packet itself, utilized for the
   forwarding decision to the appropriate endpoint according to the
   extended semantic.

   Reasons for embedding such new semantics may be related to traffic
   engineering since it has long been shown that the IP address itself
   is not enough to steer traffic properly since the IP address itself
   is not semantically rich enough to adequately describe the forwarding
   decision to be taken in the network, not only impacting WHERE the
   packet will need to go but also HOW it will need to be sent.

3.3.2.2.  Methodology:

   *In-Header extensions*: One way to add additional semantics besides
   the address fields is to use other fields already present in the
   header.

   *Headers option extensions*: Another mechanism to add additional
   semantics is to actually add additional fields, e.g., through Header
   Options in IPv4 or through Extension Headers in IPv6.

   *Re-encapsulation extension*: A more radical approach for additional
   semantics is the use of a completely new header that is designed so
   to carry the desired semantics in an efficient manner (often as a
   shim header).

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   *Structured addressing*: Similar to the methodology that structures
   addresses within the limitations of the IPv6 address length, outlined
   in the previous sub-sections, structured addressing can also be
   applied within existing or extended header semantics, e.g., utilizing
   a dedicated (extension) header to carry the structured address
   information.

   *Localized forwarding semantics*: This set of solutions applies
   capabilities of newer (programmable) forwarding technology, such as
   [P4], to utilize any header information for a localized forwarding
   decision.  This removes any limitation to use existing header or
   address information for embedding a new address semantic into the
   transferred packet.

3.3.2.3.  Examples:

   *In-Header extensions:* In order to allow additional semantic with
   respect to the pure Internet addressing, the original design of IPv4
   included the field 'Type of Service' [RFC2474], while IPv6 introduced
   the 'Flow label' and the 'Traffic Class' [RFC8200].  In a certain
   way, those fields can be considered 'semantic extensions' of IP
   addresses, and they are 'in-header' because natively present in the
   IP header (differently from options and extension headers).  However,
   they proved not to be sufficient.  Very often a variety of network
   operation are performed on the well-known 5-tuple (source and
   destination addresses; source and destination port number; and
   protocol number).  In some contexts all of the above mentioned fields
   are used in order to have a very fine grained solution ([RFC8939]).

   *Headers option extensions:* Header options have been largely under-
   exploited in IPv4.  However, the introduction of the more efficient
   extension header model in IPv6 along with technology progress made
   the use of header extensions more widespread in IPv6.  Segment
   Routing re-introduced the possibility to add path semantic to the
   packet by encoding a loosely defined source routing ([RFC8402]).
   Similarly, in the aim to overcome the inherent shortcoming of the
   multi-homing in the IP context, SHIM6 ([RFC5533]) also proposed the
   use of an extension header able to carry multi-homing information
   which cannot be accommodated natively in the IPv6 header.

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   To serve a moving endpoint, mechanisms like Mobile IPv6 [RFC6275] are
   used for maintaining connection continuity by a dedicated IPv6
   extension header.  In such case, the IP address of the home agent in
   Mobile IPv6 is basically an identification of the on-going
   communication.  In order to go beyond the interface identification
   model of IP, the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) tries to introduce an
   identification layer to provide (as the name says) host
   identification.  The architecture here relies on the use of another
   type of extension header [RFC7401].

   *Re-encapsulation extension:* Differently from the previous approach,
   re-encapsulation prepends complete new IP headers to the original
   packet introducing a completely custom shim header between the outer
   and inner header.  This is the case for LISP, adding a LISP specific
   header right after an IP+UDP header ([I-D.ietf-lisp-rfc6830bis]).  A
   similar design is used by VxLAN ([RFC7348]) and GENEVE ([RFC8926]),
   even if they are designed for a data center context.  IP packets can
   also be wrapped with headers using more generic and semantically rich
   names, for instance with ICN [ICNIP].

   *Structured addressing:* Solutions such as those described in the
   previous sub-section, e.g., EIBP [EIBP], can provide structured
   addresses that are not limited to the IPv6 address length but instead
   carry the information in an extension header to remove such
   limitation.

   Also Information-Centric Networking (ICN) naming approaches usually
   introduce structures in the (information) names without limiting
   themselves to the IP address length; more so, ICN proposes its own
   header format and therefore radically breaks with not only IP
   addressing semantic but the format of the packet header overall.  For
   this, approaches such as those described in [RFC8609] define a TLV-
   based binary application component structure that is carried as a
   'name' part of the CCN messages.  Such a name is a hierarchical
   structure for identifying and locating a data object, which contains
   a sequence of name components.  Names are coded based on 2-level
   nested Type-Length-Value (TLV) encodings, where the name-type field
   in the outer TLV indicates this is a name, while the inner TLVs are
   name components including a generic name component, an implicit
   SHA-256 digest component and a SHA-256 digest of Interest parameters.
   For textual representation, URIs are normally used to represent
   names, as defined in [RFC3986].

   In geographic addressing, position based routing protocols use the
   geographic location of nodes as their addresses, and packets are
   forwarded when possible in a greedy manner towards the destination.
   For this purpose, the packet header includes a field coding the
   geographic coordinates (x, y, z) of the destination node, as defined

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   in [RFC2009].  Some proposals also rely on extra fields in the packet
   header to code the distance towards the destination, in which case
   only the geographic coordinates of neighbors are exchanged.  This way
   the location of the destination is protected even if routing packets
   are eavesdropped.

   *Localized forwarding semantics:* Unlike the original suggestion in
   [REED] to use existing SDN switches, the proliferation of P4 [P4]
   opens up the possibility to utilize a locally limited address
   semantic, e.g., expressed through the path identifier, as an entirely
   new header (including its new address) with an encapsulation of the
   IP packet for E2E delivery (including further delivery outside the
   localized forwarding network or positioning the limited address
   semantic directly as the network address semantic for the packet,
   i.e., removing any IP packet encapsulation from the forwarded packet,
   as done in [ICNIP].  Removing the IPv6 address size limitation by not
   utilizing the existing IP header for the forwarding decision also
   allows for extensible length approaches for building the path
   identifier with the potential for increasing the supported network
   size.  On the downside, this approach requires to encapsulate the
   original IP packet header for communication beyond the local domain
   in which the new header is being used, such as discussed in the
   previous point above on 're-encapsulation extension'.

3.3.3.  Summary

   Table 3, summarize the methodologies and the examples towards filling
   the gaps on semantic extensions.

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    +===========================+======================+=============+
    |                           | Methodology          | Examples    |
    +===========================+======================+=============+
    | Utilizing Extended        | Semantic prefixes    | HICN        |
    | Address Semantics         |                      |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Separate device from | EIBP, ILNP, |
    |                           | locator identifier   | LISP, HIP   |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Structured           | EIBP, ILNP  |
    |                           | addressing           |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Localized forwarding | REED        |
    |                           | semantics            |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    | Utilizing Existing or     | In-Header extensions | DetNet      |
    | Extended Header Semantics |                      |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Headers option       | SHIM6,      |
    |                           | extensions           | SRv6, HIP   |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Re-encapsulation     | VxLAN,      |
    |                           | extension            | ICNIP       |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Structured           | EIBP        |
    |                           | addressing           |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+
    |                           | Localized forwarding | REED        |
    |                           | semantics            |             |
    +---------------------------+----------------------+-------------+

                   Table 3: Summary Semantic Extensions

4.  Overview of Approaches to Extend Internet Addressing

   The following Table 4 describes the objectives of the extensions
   discussed in this memo with respect to the properties of Internet
   addressing (Section 2}. As summarized, extensions may aim to extend
   one property of the Internet addressing, or extend other properties
   at the same time.

    +============+==================+====================+===========+
    |            | Length Extension | Identity Extension | Semantic  |
    |            |                  |                    | Extension |
    +============+==================+====================+===========+
    | 6LoWPAN    | x                |                    |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | ROHC       | x                |                    |           |

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    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | TOR        |                  | x                  |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | ODoH       |                  | x                  |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | SLAAC      |                  | x                  |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | CGA        |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | NAT        | x                | x                  |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | HICN       |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | ICNIP      | x                | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | CCNx names | x                | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | EIBP       | x                | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | Geo        | x                |                    | x         |
    | addressing |                  |                    |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | REED       | x (with P4)      |                    | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | DetNet     |                  | x                  |           |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | Mobile IP  |                  |                    | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | SHIM6      |                  |                    | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | SRv6       |                  |                    | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | HIP        |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | VxLAN      |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | LISP       |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+
    | SFC        |                  | x                  | x         |
    +------------+------------------+--------------------+-----------+

     Table 4: Relationship between Extensions and Internet Addressing

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5.  Issues in Extensions to Internet Addressing

   While the extensions to the original Internet properties, discussed
   in Section 3, demonstrate the benefits of more flexibility in
   addressing, they also bring with them a number of issues, which are
   discussed in the following section.  To this end, the problems
   hereafter outlined link to the approaches to extensions summarized in
   Section 4.

5.1.  Limiting Address Semantics

   Many approaches changing the semantics of communication, e.g.,
   through separating host identification from network node
   identification [RFC7401], separating the device identifier from the
   routing locator ([EIBP], [I-D.ietf-lisp-introduction]), or through
   identifying content and services directly [HICN], are limited by the
   existing packet size and semantic constraints of IPv6, e.g., in the
   form of its source and destination network addresses.

   While approaches such as [ICNIP] may override the addressing
   semantics, e.g., by replacing IPv6 source and destination information
   with path identification, a possible unawareness of endpoints still
   requires the carrying of other address information as part of the
   payload.

   Also, the expressible service or content semantic may be limited, as
   in [HICN] or the size of supported networks [REED] due to relying on
   the limited bit positions usable in IPv6 addresses.

5.2.  Complexity and Efficiency

   A crucial issue is the additional complexity introduced for realizing
   the additional addressing semantics.  This is particularly an issue
   since we see those additional semantics particularly at the edge of
   the Internet, utilizing the existing addressing semantic of the
   Internet to interconnect the domains that require those additional
   semantics.

   Furthermore, any additional complexity often comes with an efficiency
   and cost penalty, particularly at the edge of the network, where
   resource constraints may play a significant role.  Compression
   processes, taking [ROHC] as an example, require additional resources
   both for the sender generating the compressed header but also the
   gateway linking to the general Internet by re-establishing the full
   IP header.

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   Conversely, the performance requirements of core networks, in terms
   of packet processing speed, makes the accommodation of extensions to
   addressing often prohibitive.  This is not only due to the necessary
   extra processing that is specific to the extension, but also due to
   the complexity that will need to be managed in doing so at
   significantly higher speeds than at the edge of the network.  The
   observations on the dropping of packets with IPv6 extension headers
   in the real world is (partially) due to such a implementation
   complexity [RFC7872].

   Another example for lowering the efficiency of packet forwarding is
   the routing in systems like TOR [TOR].  As detailed before, traffic
   in TOR, for anonymity purposes, should be handed over by at least
   three intermediates before reaching the destination.  Frequent
   relaying enhances the privacy, however, because such kind of
   solutions are implemented at application level, they come at the cost
   of lower communication efficiency.  May be a different privacy
   enhanced address semantic would enable efficient implementation of
   TOR-like solutions at network layer.

5.2.1.  Repetitive encapsulation

   Repetitive encapsulation is an issue since it bloats the packets size
   due to additional encapsulation headers.  Addressing proposals such
   as those in [ICNIP] utilize path identification within an alternative
   forwarding architecture that acts upon the provided path
   identification.  However, due to the limitation of existing flow-
   based architectures with respect to the supported header structures
   (in the form of IPv4 or IPv6 headers), the new routing semantics are
   being inserted into the existing header structure, while repeating
   the original, sender-generated header structure, in the payload of
   the packet as it traverses the local domain, effectively doubling the
   per-packet header overhead.

   The problem is also present in a number of solutions tackling
   different issues, e.g., mobility [I-D.ietf-lisp-mn], DC networking
   ([RFC8926], [RFC7348], [I-D.ietf-intarea-gue]), traffic engineering
   [RFC8986], and privacy ([TOR], [SPHINX]).  Certainly these solutions
   are able to avoid other issues, like path lengthening or privacy
   issues, as described before, but they come at the price of multiple
   encapsulations that reduce the effective payload.  This, not only
   hampers efficiency in terms of header-to-payload ratio, but also
   introduces 'encapsulation points', which in turn add complexity to
   the (often edge) network as well as fragility due to the addition of
   possible failure points; this aspect is discussed in further details
   in Section 5.4.

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5.2.2.  Compounding issues with header compression

   IP header overhead requires header compression in constrained
   environments, such as wireless sensor networks and IoT in general.
   Together with fragmentation, both tasks constitute significant energy
   consumption, as shown in [HEADER_COMP_ISSUES1], negatively impacting
   resource limited devices that often rely on battery for operation.
   Further, the reliance on the compression/decompression points creates
   a dependence on such gateways, which may be a problem for
   intermittent scenarios.

   According to the implementation of _contiki-ng_ [CONTIKI], an example
   of operating system for IoT devices, the source codes for 6LowPan
   requires at least 600Kb to include a header compression process.  In
   certain use cases, such requirement can be an obstacle for extremely
   constrained devices, especially for the RAM and energy consumption.

5.2.3.  Introducing Path Stretch

   Mobile IP [RFC6275], which was designed for connection continuity in
   the face of moving endpoints, is a typical case for path stretch.
   Since traffic must follow a triangular route before arriving at the
   destination, such detour routing inevitably impacts transmission
   efficiency as well as latency.

5.2.4.  Complicating Traffic Engineering

   While many extensions to the original IP address semantic target to
   enrich the decisions that can be taken to steer traffic, according to
   requirements like QoS, mobility, chaining, compute/network metrics,
   flow treatment, path usage, etc., the realization of the mechanisms
   as individual solutions likely complicates the original goal of
   traffic engineering when individual solutions are being used in
   combination.  Ultimately, this may even prevent the combined use of
   more than one mechanism and/or policy with a need to identify and
   prevent incompatibilities of mechanisms.  Key here is not the issue
   arising from using conflicting traffic engineering policies, rather
   conflicting realizations of policies that may well generally work
   well alongside ([ROBUSTSDN], [TRANSACTIONSDN]).

   This not only increases fragility, as discussed separately in
   Section 5.4, but also requires careful planning of which mechanisms
   to use and in which combination, likely needing human-in-the-loop
   approaches alongside possible automation approaches for the
   individual solutions.

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5.3.  Security

   The properties described in Section 2 have, obviously, also
   consequences in terms of security and privacy related issues, as
   already mentioned in other parts of this document.

   For instance, in the effort of being somehow backward compatible, HIP
   [RFC7401] uses a 128-bit Host Identity, which may be not sufficiently
   cryptographically strong in the future because of the limited size
   (future computational power may erode 128-bit security).  Similarly,
   CGA [RFC3972] also aligns to the 128-bit limit, but may use only 59
   bits of them, hence, the packet signature may not be sufficiently
   robust to attacks [I-D.rafiee-6man-cga-attack].

   IP addresses, even temporary ones meant to protect privacy, have been
   long recognized as a 'Personal Identification Information' that
   allows even to geolocate the communicating endpoints [RFC8280].  The
   use of temporary addresses provides sufficient privacy protection
   only if the renewal rate is high [EPHEMERALv6].  However, this causes
   additional issues, like the large overhead due to the Duplicate
   Address Detection, the impact on the Neighbor Discovery mechanism, in
   particular the cache, which can even lead to communication
   disruption.  With such drawbacks, the extensions may even lead to
   defeat the target, actually lowering security rather than increasing
   it.

   The introduction of alternative addressing semantics has also been
   used to help in (D)DoS attacks mitigation.  This leverages on
   changing the service identification model so to avoid topological
   information exposure, making the potential disruptions likely remain
   limited [ADDRLESS].  However, this increased robustness to DDoS comes
   at the price of important communication setup latency and fragility,
   as discussed next.

5.4.  Fragility

   From the extensions discussed in Section 3, it is evident that having
   alternative or additional address semantic and formats available for
   making routing as well as forwarding decisions dependent on these, is
   common place in the Internet.  This, however, adds many extension-
   specific translation/adaptation points, mapping the semantic and
   format in one context into what is meaningful in another context, but
   also, more importantly, creating a dependency towards an additional
   component, often without explicit exposure to the endpoints that
   originally intended to communicate.

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   For instance, the re-writing of IP addresses to facilitate the use of
   private address spaces throughout the public Internet, realized
   through network address translators (NATs), conflicts with the end-
   to-end nature of communication between two endpoints.  Additional
   (flow) state is required at the NAT middlebox to smoothly allow
   communication, which in turn creates a dependency between the NAT and
   the end-to-end communication between those endpoints, thus increasing
   the fragility of the communication relation.

   A similar situation arises when supporting constrained environments
   through a header compression mechanism, adding the need for, e.g., a
   ROHC [RFC5795] element in the communication path, with communication-
   related compression state being held outside the communicating
   endpoints.  Failure will introduce some inefficiencies due to context
   regeneration, which may affects the communicating endpoints,
   increasing fragility of the system overall.

   Such translation/adaptation between semantic extensions to the
   original 'semantic' of an IP address is generally not avoidable when
   accommodating more than a single universal semantic.  However, the
   solution-specific nature of every single extension is likely to
   noticeably increase the fragility of the overall system, since
   individual extensions will need to interact with other extensions
   that may be deployed in parallel, but were not designed taking into
   account such deployment scenario (cf., [I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]).
   Considering that extensions to traditional per-hop-behavior (based on
   IP addresses) can essentially be realized over almost 'any' packet
   field, the possible number of conflicting behaviors or diverging
   interpretation of the semantic and/or content of such fields, among
   different extensions, may soon become an issue, requiring careful
   testing and delineation at the boundaries of the network within which
   the specific extension has been realized.

6.  Summary of issues

   Table 5, derived from Section 5, summarizes the issues related to
   each extension.  While each extension involves at least one issue,
   some others, like ICNIP, may create several issues at the same time.

   +============+==================+============+==========+===========+
   |            | Limiting         | Complexity | Security | Fragility |
   |            | Address          | and        |          |           |
   |            | Semantics        | Efficiency |          |           |
   +============+==================+============+==========+===========+
   | 6LoWPAN    |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | ROHC       |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+

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   | TOR        |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | ODoH       |                  | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | SLAAC      |                  | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | CGA        | x                |            | x        |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | NAT        |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | HICN       | x                |            |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | ICNIP      | x                | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | CCNx name  | x                |            |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | EIBP       | x                | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | Geo        | x                |            |          | x         |
   | addressing |                  |            |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | REED       | x                |            |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | DetNet     |                  | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | Mobile IP  |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | SHIM6      |                  |            |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | SRv6       |                  |            |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | HIP        |                  |            | x        | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | VxLAN      |                  | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | LISP       | x                | x          |          |           |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+
   | SFC        |                  | x          |          | x         |
   +------------+------------------+------------+----------+-----------+

            Table 5: Issues in Extensions to Internet Addressing

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7.  Conclusions

   The examples of extensions discussed in Section 3 to the original
   Internet addressing scheme show that extensibility beyond the
   original model (and its underlying per-hop behavior) is a desired
   capability for networking technologies and has been so for a long
   time.  Generally, we can observe that those extensions are driven by
   the requirements of stakeholders, expecting a desirable extended
   functionality from the introduction of the specific extension.  If
   interoperability is required, those extensions require
   standardization of possibly new fields, new semantics as well as
   (network and/or end system) operations alike.

   The issues we identified in this document with the extension-specific
   solution approach, point to the need for a discussion on Internet
   addressing, as formulated in the companion document
   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing] that formalizes the
   problem statement through scenarios that highlight the shortcomings
   of the Internet addressing model.

   It is our conclusion that the existence of the many extensions to the
   original Internet addressing is clear evidence for gaps that have
   been identified over time by the wider Internet community, each of
   which come with a raft of issues that we need to deal with daily: We
   believe that it is time to develop an architectural but more
   importantly a sustainable approach to make Internet addressing
   extensible in order to capture the many new use cases that will still
   be identified for the Internet to come.  Any inaction on our side in
   that regard will only compound the issues identified, eventually
   hampering the future Internet's readiness for those new uses.

8.  Security Considerations

   The present memo does not introduce any new technology and/or
   mechanism and as such does not introduce any security threat to the
   TCP/IP protocol suite.

   As an additional note, and as discussed in this document, security
   and privacy aspects were not considered as part of the key properties
   for Internet addressing, which led to the introduction of a number of
   extensions intending to fix those gaps.  The analysis presented in
   this memo (non-exhaustively) shows those issues are either solved in
   an ad-hoc manner at application level, or at transport layer, while
   at network level only few extensions tackling specific aspects exist,
   albeit often with limitations due to the adherence to the Internet
   addressing model and its properties.

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9.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not include any IANA request.

10.  Informative References

   [ADDRLESS] Hao, S., Liu, R., Weng, Z., Chang, D., Bao, C., and X. Li,
              "Addressless: A new internet server model to prevent
              network scanning", PLOS ONE Vol. 16, pp. e0246293,
              DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0246293, February 2021,
              <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246293>.

   [CLOUDFLARE_DECOUPLE_IP]
              Fayed, M., Bauer, L., Giotsas, V., Kerola, S., Majkowski,
              M., Odintsov, P., Sitnicki, J., Chung, T., Levin, D.,
              Mislove, A., Wood, C., and N. Sullivan, "The ties that un-
              bind: decoupling IP from web services and sockets for
              robust addressing agility at CDN-scale", Proceedings of
              the 2021 ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Conference,
              DOI 10.1145/3452296.3472922, August 2021,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/3452296.3472922>.

   [CONTIKI]  "Contiki-NG: The OS for Next Generation IoT Devices",
              n.d., <https://github.com/contiki-ng/contiki-ng>.

   [EIBP]     Willis, N.Shenoy, S.Chandraiah, P., "A Structured Approach
              to Routing in the Internet", June 2021, <First Intl
              Workshop on Semantic Addressing and Routing for Future
              Networks>.

   [EPHEMERALv6]
              Gont, F. and G. Gont, "IPv6 Addressing Considerations",
              Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-gont-v6ops-ipv6-
              addressing-considerations-01, 21 February 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-gont-v6ops-ipv6-
              addressing-considerations-01.txt>.

   [EXPRESSIVE-POWER]
              Clark, D., "The expressive power of the Internet design",
              April 2009, <http://groups.csail.mit.edu/ana/People/DDC/
              Expressive%20power%205.pdf>.

   [GDPR]     Voigt, P. and A. von dem Bussche, "The EU General Data
              Protection Regulation (GDPR)", Springer International
              Publishing book, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57959-7, 2017,
              <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57959-7>.

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   [GNATCATCHER]
              "Global Network Address Translation Combined with Audited
              and Trusted CDN or HTTP-Proxy Eliminating
              Reidentification", n.d.,
              <https://github.com/bslassey/ip-blindness>.

   [HEADER_COMP_ISSUES1]
              Mesrinejad, F., Hashim, F., Noordin, N., Rasid, M., and R.
              Abdullah, "The effect of fragmentation and header
              compression on IP-based sensor networks (6LoWPAN)", The
              17th Asia Pacific Conference on Communications,
              DOI 10.1109/apcc.2011.6152926, October 2011,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/apcc.2011.6152926>.

   [HICN]     Muscariello, L., "Hybrid Information-Centric Networking:
              ICN inside the Internet Protocol", March 2018,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/interim-2018-icnrg-
              01/materials/slides-interim-2018-icnrg-01-sessa-hybrid-
              icn-hicn-luca-muscariello>.

   [HISTORY127]
              "History of 127/8 as localhost/loopback addresses", n.d.,
              <https://elists.isoc.org/pipermail/internet-
              history/2021-January/006920.html>.

   [I-D.ietf-6lo-nfc]
              Choi, Y., Hong, Y., Youn, J., Kim, D., and J. Choi,
              "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Near Field
              Communication", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-6lo-nfc-17, 23 August 2020,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-6lo-nfc-
              17.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-6lo-plc]
              Hou, J., Liu, B., Hong, Y., Tang, X., and C. E. Perkins,
              "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over PLC Networks", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-6lo-plc-06, 20 April
              2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-6lo-plc-
              06.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-intarea-gue]
              Herbert, T., Yong, L., and O. Zia, "Generic UDP
              Encapsulation", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-intarea-gue-09, 26 October 2019,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-intarea-gue-
              09.txt>.

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   [I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]
              Touch, J. and M. Townsley, "IP Tunnels in the Internet
              Architecture", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-intarea-tunnels-10, 12 September 2019,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-intarea-
              tunnels-10.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-lisp-introduction]
              Cabellos, A. and D. S. (Ed.), "An Architectural
              Introduction to the Locator/ID Separation Protocol
              (LISP)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              lisp-introduction-15, 20 September 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-lisp-
              introduction-15.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-lisp-mn]
              Farinacci, D., Lewis, D., Meyer, D., and C. White, "LISP
              Mobile Node", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-lisp-mn-10, 8 August 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-lisp-mn-
              10.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-lisp-rfc6830bis]
              Farinacci, D., Fuller, V., Meyer, D., Lewis, D., and A.
              Cabellos, "The Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP)",
              Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-lisp-
              rfc6830bis-36, 18 November 2020,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-lisp-
              rfc6830bis-36.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-lisp-rfc6833bis]
              Farinacci, D., Maino, F., Fuller, V., and A. Cabellos,
              "Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) Control-Plane",
              Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-lisp-
              rfc6833bis-30, 18 November 2020,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-lisp-
              rfc6833bis-30.txt>.

   [I-D.jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-addressing]
              Jia, Y., Trossen, D., Iannone, L., Shenoy, N., Mendes, P.,
              3rd, D. E. E., and P. Liu, "Challenging Scenarios and
              Problems in Internet Addressing", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-jia-intarea-scenarios-problems-
              addressing-01, 12 July 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-jia-intarea-
              scenarios-problems-addressing-01.txt>.

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   [I-D.rafiee-6man-cga-attack]
              Rafiee, H. and C. Meinel, "Possible Attack on
              Cryptographically Generated Addresses (CGA)", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-rafiee-6man-cga-attack-03,
              8 May 2015, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-rafiee-
              6man-cga-attack-03.txt>.

   [ICNIP]    Trossen, D., Robitzsch, S., Reed, M., Al-Naday, M., and J.
              Riihijarvi, "Internet Services over ICN in 5G LAN
              Environments", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              trossen-icnrg-internet-icn-5glan-04, 1 October 2020,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-trossen-icnrg-
              internet-icn-5glan-04.txt>.

   [ITU9959]  Badenhop, C., Fuller, J., Hall, J., Ramsey, B., and M.
              Rice, "Evaluating ITU-T G.9959 Based Wireless Systems Used
              in Critical Infrastructure Assets", IFIP Advances in
              Information and Communication Technology pp. 209-227,
              DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-26567-4_13, 2015,
              <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26567-4_13>.

   [ODoH]     Kinnear, E., McManus, P., Pauly, T., Verma, T., and C. A.
              Wood, "Oblivious DNS Over HTTPS", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-pauly-dprive-oblivious-doh-07, 2
              September 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-
              pauly-dprive-oblivious-doh-07.txt>.

   [OHTTP]    Thomson, M. and C. A. Wood, "Oblivious HTTP", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-thomson-http-oblivious-02,
              24 August 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-
              thomson-http-oblivious-02.txt>.

   [ONION]    Goldschlag, D., Reed, M., and P. Syverson, "Onion
              routing", Communications of the ACM Vol. 42, pp. 39-41,
              DOI 10.1145/293411.293443, February 1999,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/293411.293443>.

   [OPENFLOW] McKeown, N., Anderson, T., Balakrishnan, H., Parulkar, G.,
              Peterson, L., Rexford, J., Shenker, S., and J. Turner,
              "OpenFlow: enabling innovation in campus networks", ACM
              SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Vol. 38, pp. 69-74,
              DOI 10.1145/1355734.1355746, March 2008,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/1355734.1355746>.

   [P4]       Bosshart, P., Daly, D., Gibb, G., Izzard, M., McKeown, N.,
              Rexford, J., Schlesinger, C., Talayco, D., Vahdat, A.,
              Varghese, G., and D. Walker, "P4: programming protocol-
              independent packet processors", ACM SIGCOMM Computer

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              Communication Review Vol. 44, pp. 87-95,
              DOI 10.1145/2656877.2656890, July 2014,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/2656877.2656890>.

   [POSTEL]   Postel, J., "Internetwork Protocol Approaches", IEEE
              Transactions on Communications Vol. 28, pp. 604-611,
              DOI 10.1109/tcom.1980.1094705, April 1980,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/tcom.1980.1094705>.

   [REED]     Reed, M., Al-Naday, M., Thomos, N., Trossen, D.,
              Petropoulos, G., and S. Spirou, "Stateless multicast
              switching in software defined networks", 2016 IEEE
              International Conference on Communications (ICC),
              DOI 10.1109/icc.2016.7511036, May 2016,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/icc.2016.7511036>.

   [RFC0791]  Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0791, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc791>.

   [RFC1752]  Bradner, S. and A. Mankin, "The Recommendation for the IP
              Next Generation Protocol", RFC 1752, DOI 10.17487/RFC1752,
              January 1995, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1752>.

   [RFC1918]  Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, B., Karrenberg, D., de Groot, G.
              J., and E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private
              Internets", BCP 5, RFC 1918, DOI 10.17487/RFC1918,
              February 1996, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1918>.

   [RFC2009]  Imielinski, T. and J. Navas, "GPS-Based Addressing and
              Routing", RFC 2009, DOI 10.17487/RFC2009, November 1996,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2009>.

   [RFC2101]  Carpenter, B., Crowcroft, J., and Y. Rekhter, "IPv4
              Address Behaviour Today", RFC 2101, DOI 10.17487/RFC2101,
              February 1997, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2101>.

   [RFC2460]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC2460,
              December 1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2460>.

   [RFC2474]  Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F., and D. Black,
              "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
              Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2474, December 1998,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2474>.

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   [RFC2663]  Srisuresh, P. and M. Holdrege, "IP Network Address
              Translator (NAT) Terminology and Considerations",
              RFC 2663, DOI 10.17487/RFC2663, August 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2663>.

   [RFC3118]  Droms, R., Ed. and W. Arbaugh, Ed., "Authentication for
              DHCP Messages", RFC 3118, DOI 10.17487/RFC3118, June 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3118>.

   [RFC3972]  Aura, T., "Cryptographically Generated Addresses (CGA)",
              RFC 3972, DOI 10.17487/RFC3972, March 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3972>.

   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

   [RFC4014]  Droms, R. and J. Schnizlein, "Remote Authentication Dial-
              In User Service (RADIUS) Attributes Suboption for the
              Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Relay Agent
              Information Option", RFC 4014, DOI 10.17487/RFC4014,
              February 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4014>.

   [RFC4193]  Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast
              Addresses", RFC 4193, DOI 10.17487/RFC4193, October 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4193>.

   [RFC4291]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
              Architecture", RFC 4291, DOI 10.17487/RFC4291, February
              2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4291>.

   [RFC4581]  Bagnulo, M. and J. Arkko, "Cryptographically Generated
              Addresses (CGA) Extension Field Format", RFC 4581,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4581, October 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4581>.

   [RFC4982]  Bagnulo, M. and J. Arkko, "Support for Multiple Hash
              Algorithms in Cryptographically Generated Addresses
              (CGAs)", RFC 4982, DOI 10.17487/RFC4982, July 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4982>.

   [RFC5533]  Nordmark, E. and M. Bagnulo, "Shim6: Level 3 Multihoming
              Shim Protocol for IPv6", RFC 5533, DOI 10.17487/RFC5533,
              June 2009, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5533>.

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   [RFC5795]  Sandlund, K., Pelletier, G., and L-E. Jonsson, "The RObust
              Header Compression (ROHC) Framework", RFC 5795,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5795, March 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5795>.

   [RFC6250]  Thaler, D., "Evolution of the IP Model", RFC 6250,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6250, May 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6250>.

   [RFC6275]  Perkins, C., Ed., Johnson, D., and J. Arkko, "Mobility
              Support in IPv6", RFC 6275, DOI 10.17487/RFC6275, July
              2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6275>.

   [RFC6282]  Hui, J., Ed. and P. Thubert, "Compression Format for IPv6
              Datagrams over IEEE 802.15.4-Based Networks", RFC 6282,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6282, September 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6282>.

   [RFC6740]  Atkinson, RJ. and SN. Bhatti, "Identifier-Locator Network
              Protocol (ILNP) Architectural Description", RFC 6740,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6740, November 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6740>.

   [RFC7228]  Bormann, C., Ersue, M., and A. Keranen, "Terminology for
              Constrained-Node Networks", RFC 7228,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7228, May 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7228>.

   [RFC7258]  Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive Monitoring Is an
              Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258, DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7258>.

   [RFC7348]  Mahalingam, M., Dutt, D., Duda, K., Agarwal, P., Kreeger,
              L., Sridhar, T., Bursell, M., and C. Wright, "Virtual
              eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN): A Framework for
              Overlaying Virtualized Layer 2 Networks over Layer 3
              Networks", RFC 7348, DOI 10.17487/RFC7348, August 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7348>.

   [RFC7400]  Bormann, C., "6LoWPAN-GHC: Generic Header Compression for
              IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks
              (6LoWPANs)", RFC 7400, DOI 10.17487/RFC7400, November
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7400>.

   [RFC7401]  Moskowitz, R., Ed., Heer, T., Jokela, P., and T.
              Henderson, "Host Identity Protocol Version 2 (HIPv2)",
              RFC 7401, DOI 10.17487/RFC7401, April 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7401>.

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   [RFC7665]  Halpern, J., Ed. and C. Pignataro, Ed., "Service Function
              Chaining (SFC) Architecture", RFC 7665,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7665, October 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7665>.

   [RFC7872]  Gont, F., Linkova, J., Chown, T., and W. Liu,
              "Observations on the Dropping of Packets with IPv6
              Extension Headers in the Real World", RFC 7872,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7872, June 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7872>.

   [RFC8060]  Farinacci, D., Meyer, D., and J. Snijders, "LISP Canonical
              Address Format (LCAF)", RFC 8060, DOI 10.17487/RFC8060,
              February 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8060>.

   [RFC8061]  Farinacci, D. and B. Weis, "Locator/ID Separation Protocol
              (LISP) Data-Plane Confidentiality", RFC 8061,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8061, February 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8061>.

   [RFC8105]  Mariager, P., Petersen, J., Ed., Shelby, Z., Van de Logt,
              M., and D. Barthel, "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over
              Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) Ultra
              Low Energy (ULE)", RFC 8105, DOI 10.17487/RFC8105, May
              2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8105>.

   [RFC8163]  Lynn, K., Ed., Martocci, J., Neilson, C., and S.
              Donaldson, "Transmission of IPv6 over Master-Slave/Token-
              Passing (MS/TP) Networks", RFC 8163, DOI 10.17487/RFC8163,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8163>.

   [RFC8200]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.

   [RFC8280]  ten Oever, N. and C. Cath, "Research into Human Rights
              Protocol Considerations", RFC 8280, DOI 10.17487/RFC8280,
              October 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8280>.

   [RFC8376]  Farrell, S., Ed., "Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN)
              Overview", RFC 8376, DOI 10.17487/RFC8376, May 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8376>.

   [RFC8402]  Filsfils, C., Ed., Previdi, S., Ed., Ginsberg, L.,
              Decraene, B., Litkowski, S., and R. Shakir, "Segment
              Routing Architecture", RFC 8402, DOI 10.17487/RFC8402,
              July 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8402>.

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   [RFC8484]  Hoffman, P. and P. McManus, "DNS Queries over HTTPS
              (DoH)", RFC 8484, DOI 10.17487/RFC8484, October 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8484>.

   [RFC8609]  Mosko, M., Solis, I., and C. Wood, "Content-Centric
              Networking (CCNx) Messages in TLV Format", RFC 8609,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8609, July 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8609>.

   [RFC8724]  Minaburo, A., Toutain, L., Gomez, C., Barthel, D., and JC.
              Zuniga, "SCHC: Generic Framework for Static Context Header
              Compression and Fragmentation", RFC 8724,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8724, April 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8724>.

   [RFC8926]  Gross, J., Ed., Ganga, I., Ed., and T. Sridhar, Ed.,
              "Geneve: Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation",
              RFC 8926, DOI 10.17487/RFC8926, November 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8926>.

   [RFC8939]  Varga, B., Ed., Farkas, J., Berger, L., Fedyk, D., and S.
              Bryant, "Deterministic Networking (DetNet) Data Plane:
              IP", RFC 8939, DOI 10.17487/RFC8939, November 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8939>.

   [RFC8981]  Gont, F., Krishnan, S., Narten, T., and R. Draves,
              "Temporary Address Extensions for Stateless Address
              Autoconfiguration in IPv6", RFC 8981,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8981, February 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8981>.

   [RFC8986]  Filsfils, C., Ed., Camarillo, P., Ed., Leddy, J., Voyer,
              D., Matsushima, S., and Z. Li, "Segment Routing over IPv6
              (SRv6) Network Programming", RFC 8986,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8986, February 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8986>.

   [ROBUSTSDN]
              Canini, M., Kuznetsov, P., Levin, D., and S. Schmid, "A
              distributed and robust SDN control plane for transactional
              network updates", 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer
              Communications (INFOCOM),
              DOI 10.1109/infocom.2015.7218382, April 2015,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/infocom.2015.7218382>.

   [ROHC]     Fitzek, F., Rein, S., Seeling, P., and M. Reisslein,
              "RObust Header Compression (ROHC) Performance for
              Multimedia Transmission over 3G/4G Wireless Networks",

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              Wireless Personal Communications Vol. 32, pp. 23-41,
              DOI 10.1007/s11277-005-7733-2, January 2005,
              <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-005-7733-2>.

   [SFCANYCAST]
              Wion, A., Bouet, M., Iannone, L., and V. Conan,
              "Distributed Function Chaining with Anycast Routing",
              Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Symposium on SDN Research,
              DOI 10.1145/3314148.3314355, April 2019,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/3314148.3314355>.

   [SPHINX]   Danezis, G. and I. Goldberg, "Sphinx: A Compact and
              Provably Secure Mix Format", 2009 30th IEEE Symposium on
              Security and Privacy, DOI 10.1109/sp.2009.15, May 2009,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/sp.2009.15>.

   [TOR]      "The Tor Project", n.d., <https://www.torproject.org/>.

   [TRANSACTIONSDN]
              Curic, M., Despotovic, Z., Hecker, A., and G. Carle,
              "Transactional Network Updates in SDN", 2018 European
              Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC),
              DOI 10.1109/eucnc.2018.8442793, June 2018,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/eucnc.2018.8442793>.

   [UA-DHCP]  Komori, T. and T. Saito, "The secure DHCP system with user
              authentication", 27th Annual IEEE Conference on Local
              Computer Networks, 2002. Proceedings. LCN 2002.,
              DOI 10.1109/lcn.2002.1181774, n.d.,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/lcn.2002.1181774>.

   [VPN]      Khanvilkar, S. and A. Khokhar, "Virtual private networks:
              an overview with performance evaluation", IEEE
              Communications Magazine Vol. 42, pp. 146-154,
              DOI 10.1109/mcom.2004.1341273, October 2004,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2004.1341273>.

   [WireGuard]
              Donenfeld, J., "WireGuard: Next Generation Kernel Network
              Tunnel", Proceedings 2017 Network and Distributed System
              Security Symposium, DOI 10.14722/ndss.2017.23160, 2017,
              <https://doi.org/10.14722/ndss.2017.23160>.

Acknowledgments

   Thanks to Carsten Bormann for useful conversations.

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Authors' Addresses

   Yihao Jia
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd
   156 Beiqing Rd.
   Beijing
   100095
   P.R. China

   Email: jiayihao@huawei.com

   Dirk Trossen
   Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH
   Riesstr. 25C
   80992 Munich
   Germany

   Email: dirk.trossen@huawei.com

   Luigi Iannone
   Huawei Technologies France S.A.S.U.
   18, Quai du Point du Jour
   92100 Boulogne-Billancourt
   France

   Email: luigi.iannone@huawei.com

   Nirmala Shenoy
   Rochester Institute of Technology
   New-York,  14623
   United States of America

   Email: nxsvks@rit.edu

   Paulo Mendes
   Airbus
   Willy-Messerschmitt Strasse 1
   81663 Munich
   Germany

   Email: paulo.mendes@airbus.com

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