Automatic Extended Route Optimization (AERO)
draft-templin-6man-aero3-03
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Fred Templin | ||
| Last updated | 2024-04-16 | ||
| Replaces | draft-templin-intarea-aero2 | ||
| RFC stream | (None) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
| Formats | |||
| Stream | Stream state | (No stream defined) | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
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draft-templin-6man-aero3-03
Network Working Group F. L. Templin, Ed.
Internet-Draft Boeing Research & Technology
Intended status: Standards Track 16 April 2024
Expires: 18 October 2024
Automatic Extended Route Optimization (AERO)
draft-templin-6man-aero3-03
Abstract
This document specifies an Automatic Extended Route Optimization
(AERO) service for IP internetworking over Overlay Multilink Network
(OMNI) interfaces. AERO/OMNI uses IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (IPv6 ND)
for control plane messaging over the OMNI virtual link. Router
discovery and neighbor coordination are employed for network
admission and to manage the OMNI link forwarding and routing systems.
Secure multilink path selection, multinet traversal, mobility
management, multicast forwarding, multihop operation and route
optimization are naturally supported through dynamic neighbor cache
updates on a per flow basis. Both Provider-Aggregated (PA) and
Provider-Independent (PI) addressing services are supported. AERO is
a widely-applicable service especially well-suited for air/land/sea/
space mobility applications including aviation, intelligent
transportation systems, mobile end user devices, space exploration
and many others.
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
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material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 18 October 2024.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4. Automatic Extended Route Optimization (AERO) . . . . . . . . 20
4.1. AERO Node Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2. The AERO Service over OMNI Links . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2.1. AERO/OMNI Reference Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2.2. Addressing and Node Identification . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2.3. AERO Routing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.2.4. Segment Routing Topologies (SRTs) . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2.5. Segment Routing For OMNI Link Selection . . . . . . . 29
4.3. OMNI Interface Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.4. OMNI Interface Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.1. AERO Gateway Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.2. AERO Proxy/Server and Relay Behavior . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.3. AERO Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4.4. AERO Host Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5. OMNI Interface Neighbor Cache Maintenance . . . . . . . . 34
4.5.1. OMNI ND Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.5.2. OMNI Neighbor Advertisement Message Flags . . . . . . 39
4.5.3. OMNI Neighbor Window Synchronization . . . . . . . . 40
4.6. OMNI Interface Encapsulation and Fragmentation . . . . . 40
4.7. OMNI Interface Decapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.8. OMNI Interface Data Origin Authentication . . . . . . . . 43
4.9. OMNI Interface MTU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.10. OMNI Interface Forwarding Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.10.1. Host Forwarding Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.10.2. Client Forwarding Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.10.3. Proxy/Server and Relay Forwarding Algorithm . . . . 48
4.10.4. Gateway Forwarding Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.11. OMNI Interface Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.12. AERO Mobility Service Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.12.1. AERO Service Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.12.2. AERO Host and Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.12.3. AERO Proxy/Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.13. AERO Address Resolution, Multilink Forwarding and Route
Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
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4.13.1. Multilink Address Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.13.2. Multilink Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.13.3. Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) Forwarding . . . . . . 79
4.13.4. Client/Client Route Optimization . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.13.5. Intra-ANET/ENET Route Optimization for AERO Peers . 82
4.14. Neighbor Unreachability Detection (NUD) . . . . . . . . . 82
4.15. Mobility Management and Quality of Service (QoS) . . . . 84
4.15.1. Mobility Update Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.15.2. Announcing Link-Layer Information Changes . . . . . 86
4.15.3. Bringing New Links Into Service . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.15.4. Deactivating Existing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.15.5. Moving Between Proxy/Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.15.6. Accommodating Path Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.16. Multicast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.16.1. Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.16.2. Any-Source Multicast (ASM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.16.3. Bi-Directional PIM (BIDIR-PIM) . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.17. Operation over Multiple OMNI Links . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.18. DNS Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.19. Transition/Coexistence Considerations . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.20. Proxy/Server-Gateway Bidirectional Forwarding
Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.21. Time-Varying MNPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5. Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Appendix A. Non-Normative Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
A.1. Implementation Strategies for Route Optimization . . . . 109
A.2. Implicit Mobility Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
A.3. Direct Underlying Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A.4. AERO Critical Infrastructure Considerations . . . . . . . 110
A.5. AERO Server Failure Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A.6. AERO Client / Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Appendix B. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
1. Introduction
Automatic Extended Route Optimization (AERO) fulfills the
requirements of Distributed Mobility Management (DMM) [RFC7333] and
route optimization [RFC5522] for air/land/sea/space mobility
applications including aeronautical networking intelligent
transportation systems, home network users, enterprise mobile device
users, space exploration and many others. AERO is a secure
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internetworking and mobility management service that employs the
Overlay Multilink Network Interface (OMNI) [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]
Non-Broadcast, Multiple Access (NBMA) virtual link model.
The OMNI link is an adaptation layer virtual overlay manifested by
IPv6 encapsulation over a network-of-networks concatenation of
underlay Internetworks. Nodes on the link can exchange original IP
packets or parcels
[I-D.templin-6man-parcels2][I-D.templin-intarea-parcels2] as single-
hop neighbors; both IP protocol versions (IPv4 and IPv6) are
supported. The OMNI Adaptation Layer (OAL) supports multilink
operation for increased reliability and path optimization while
providing fragmentation and reassembly services to support improved
performance and Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) diversity. This
specification provides a mobility service architecture companion to
the OMNI specification.
The AERO service connects Hosts and Clients as OMNI link end systems
via Proxy/Servers and Relays as intermediate systems as necessary;
AERO further employs Gateways that interconnect diverse Internetworks
as OMNI link segments through OAL forwarding at a layer below IP.
Each node's OMNI interface supports operation of IPv6 Neighbor
Discovery (IPv6 ND) [RFC4861] as the mobility service control message
protocol. A Client's OMNI interface can be configured over multiple
underlay interfaces, and therefore appears as a single interface with
multiple link layer addresses. Each link layer address is subject to
change due to mobility and/or multilink fluctuations, and link layer
address changes are signaled by ND messaging the same as for any IPv6
link.
AERO provides a secure cloud-based service where mobile node Clients
use Proxy/Servers acting as proxys and/or designated routers while
correspondent nodes on foreign networks may use any Relay on the link
for efficient communications. Foreign network correspondent nodes
forward original IP packets/parcels destined to other AERO nodes via
the nearest Relay, which forwards them through the cloud. Mobile
node Clients discover shortest paths to OMNI link neighbors through
AERO route optimization. Both unicast and multicast communications
are supported.
AERO supports both Provider-Aggregated (PA) and Provider-Independent
(PI)addressing. Correspondent nodes on foreign networks configure PA
addresses from Foreign Network Prefixes (FNPs) advertised by Relays.
AERO Clients instead obtain stable PA addresses from Stable Network
Prefixes (SNPs) assigned to and managed by First Hop Segment (FHS)
Proxy/Servers. Mobile node Clients can also register Mobile Network
Prefixes (MNPs) with Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) Proxy/Servers to
support PI mobile networking.
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AERO Clients receive SNP (PA) addresses and optionally also MNP (PI)
prefix delegations through control message exchanges with Proxy/
Servers over their local networks. Proxy/Servers provide anchor
points for both local network PA operation and global mobility. By
linking mobile PI prefixes with stable PA addresses, the AERO service
supports the best aspects of PA/PI working together.
AERO Gateways peer with Proxy/Servers in a secured private BGP
overlay routing instance to establish a Segment Routing Topology
(SRT) virtual spanning tree over the underlay Internetworks of one or
more disjoint administrative domains concatenated as a single unified
OMNI link. Each OMNI link instance is characterized by a set of
Mobility Service Prefixes (MSPs) common to all mobile nodes. Relays
provide an optimal route from correspondent nodes on foreign links/
networks to mobile or fixed nodes on the local OMNI link. From the
perspective of underlay Internetworks, each Relay appears as the
source of a route to the MSP; hence uplink traffic to mobile nodes is
naturally routed to the nearest Relay.
AERO can be used with OMNI links that span private-use Internetworks
and/or public Internetworks such as the global IPv4 and IPv6
Internets. In both cases, Clients may be located behind Network
Address Translators (NATs) on the path to their associated Proxy/
Servers and/or peers. A means for robust traversal of NATs while
avoiding "triangle routing" and critical infrastructure traffic
concentration through a service known as route optimization is
therefore provided.
AERO assumes the use of PIM Sparse Mode in support of multicast
communication. In support of Source Specific Multicast (SSM) when a
Mobile Node is the source, AERO route optimization ensures that a
shortest-path multicast tree is established with provisions for
mobility and multilink operation. In all other multicast scenarios
there are no AERO dependencies.
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AERO provides a secure aeronautical internetworking service for both
manned and unmanned aircraft, where the aircraft is treated as a
mobile node (MN) that can connect airborne Internet of Things (IoT)
sub-networks. AERO is also applicable to a wide variety of other use
cases. For example, it can be used to coordinate the links of mobile
nodes (e.g., cellphones, tablets, laptop computers, etc.) that
connect into a home enterprise network via public access networks
with Virtual Private Network (VPN) or open Internetwork services
enabled according to the appropriate security model. AERO also
supports terrestrial vehicular, urban air mobility and mobile
pedestrian communication services for intelligent transportation
systems [RFC9365]. Other applicable use cases including home and
small office networks, enterprise networks and many others represent
additional large classes of potential AERO/OMNI users.
Along with OMNI, AERO provides secured optimal routing support for
the "6 M's of Modern Internetworking", including:
1. Multilink - a mobile node's ability to coordinate multiple
diverse underlay data links as a single logical unit (i.e., the
OMNI interface) to achieve the required communications
performance and reliability objectives.
2. Multinet - the ability to span the OMNI link over a segment
routing topology with multiple diverse administrative domain
network segments while maintaining seamless end-to-end
communications between mobile Clients and correspondents such as
air traffic controllers, fleet administrators, other mobile
Clients, etc.
3. Mobility - a mobile node's ability to change network points of
attachment (e.g., moving between wireless base stations) which
may result in an underlay interface address change, but without
disruptions to ongoing communication sessions with peers over the
OMNI link.
4. Multicast - the ability to send a single network transmission
that reaches multiple nodes belonging to the same interest group,
but without disturbing other nodes not subscribed to the interest
group.
5. Multihop - a mobile node vehicle-to-vehicle relaying capability
useful when multiple forwarding hops between vehicles may be
necessary to "reach back" to an infrastructure access point
connection to the OMNI link.
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6. (Performance) Maximization - the ability to exchange large
packets/parcels between peers without loss due to a link size
restriction, and to adaptively adjust packet/parcel sizes to
maintain the best performance profile for each independent
traffic flow.
The following numbered sections present the AERO specification. The
appendices at the end of the document are non-normative.
2. Terminology
The terminology in the normative references applies; especially, the
OMNI specification terminology [I-D.templin-6man-omni3] and the IPv6
Neighbor Discovery (IPv6 ND) [RFC4861] node variables, protocol
constants and message types (including Router Solicitation (RS),
Router Advertisement (RS), Neighbor Solicitation (NS), Neighbor
Advertisement (NA), unsolicited NA (uNA) and Redirect) are cited
extensively throughout.
Throughout the document, the simple terms "Host", "Client", "Proxy/
Server", "Gateway" and "Relay" refer to "AERO/OMNI Host", "AERO/OMNI
Client", "AERO/OMNI Proxy/Server", "AERO/OMNI Gateway" and "AERO/OMNI
Relay", respectively. Capitalization is used to distinguish these
terms from other common Internetworking uses in which they appear
without capitalization, and implies that the node in question both
configures an OMNI interface and engages the OMNI Adaptation Layer.
The terms "All-Routers multicast", "All-Nodes multicast", "Solicited-
Node multicast" and "Subnet-Router anycast" are defined in [RFC4291].
The term "IP" refers generically to either Internet Protocol version
(IPv4 [RFC0791] or IPv6 [RFC8200]) for specification elements that
apply equally to both.
The terms "application layer (L5 and higher)", "transport layer
(L4)", "network layer (L3)", "(data) link layer (L2)" and "physical
layer (L1)" are used consistently with common Internetworking
terminology, with the understanding that reliable delivery protocol
users of UDP are considered as transport layer elements. The OMNI
specification further defines an "adaptation layer" positioned below
the network layer but above the link layer, which may include
physical links and Internet- or higher-layer tunnels. A (network)
interface is a node's attachment to a link (via L2), and an OMNI
interface is therefore a node's attachment to an OMNI link (via the
adaptation layer).
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The terms "IP jumbogram", "advanced jumbo (AJ)" and "IP parcel" refer
to special packet formats that enable a new link model for the
Internet as discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-parcels2]
[I-D.templin-intarea-parcels2].
The following terms are defined within the scope of this document:
IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (IPv6 ND)
a control message service for coordinating neighbor relationships
between nodes connected to a common link. AERO uses the IPv6 ND
messaging service specified in [RFC4861] in conjunction with the
OMNI extensions specified in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
IPv6 Prefix Delegation (IPv6 PD)
a networking service for delegating IPv6 prefixes to nodes on the
link. AERO nodes apply the IPv6 PD service provided by DHCPv6
[RFC8415] in conjunction with OMNI interface IPv6 ND.
L3
The Network layer in the OSI network model. Also known as "layer
3", "IP layer", etc.
L2
The Data Link layer in the OSI network model. Also known as
"layer 2", "link layer", "sub-IP layer", etc.
Adaptation layer
An encapsulation mid-layer that adapts L3 to a diverse collection
of L2 underlay interfaces and their encapsulations. (No layer
number is assigned, since numbering was an artifact of the legacy
reference model that need not carry forward in the modern
architecture.) The adaptation layer sees the network layer as
"L3" and sees all link layer encapsulations as "L2
encapsulations", which may include UDP, IP and true link layer
(e.g., Ethernet, etc.) headers.
Access Network (ANET)
a connected network region (e.g., an aviation radio access
network, corporate enterprise network, satellite service provider
network, cellular operator network, residential WiFi network,
etc.) that connects Clients to the Mobility Service over the OMNI
lin. Physical and/or data link level security is assumed and
sometimes referred to as "protected spectrum" for wireless
domains. Private enterprise networks and ground domain aviation
service networks may provide multiple secured IP hops between the
Client's point of connection and the nearest Proxy/Server.
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Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET)
a connected network region that shares the same properties as an
ANET except that links often have undetermined connectivity
properties, physical and/or data link layer security cannot always
be assumed and adaptation layer multihop forwarding between
Clients acting as MANET routers is often necessary. MANETs use
IPv6 Unique Local Addressing (ULAs) [RFC4193] internally to
support multihop packet forwarding between neighboring node as an
adaptation layer forwarding and addressing service.
Internetwork (INET)
a connected network region with a coherent IP addressing plan that
provides transit forwarding services between (M)ANETs and AERO/
OMNI nodes that coordinate with the Mobility Service over
unprotected media. No physical and/or data link level security is
assumed, therefore security must be applied by the network and/or
higher layers. The global public Internet itself is an example.
End-user Network (ENET)
a simple or complex "downstream" network tethered to a Client as a
single logical unit that travels together. The ENET could be as
simple as a single link connecting a single Host, or as complex as
a large network with many links, routers, bridges and end user
devices. The ENET provides an "upstream" link for arbitrarily
many low-, medium- or high-end devices dependent on the Client for
their upstream connectivity, i.e., as Internet of Things (IoT)
entities. The ENET can also support a recursively-descending
chain of additional Clients such that the ENET of an upstream
Client is seen as the ANET of a downstream Client.
*NET
a "wildcard" term used when a given specification applies equally
to all MANET/ANET/INET cases. From the Client's perspective, *NET
interfaces are "upstream" interfaces that connect the Client to
the Mobility Service, while ENET interfaces are "downstream"
interfaces that the Client uses to connect downstream ENETs, Hosts
and/or other Clients. Local communications between correspondents
within the same *NET can often be conducted based on IPv6 Unique
Local Addresses (ULAs) at a layer below IP but without requiring
adaptation layer encapsulation.
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underlay network/interface
a *NET or ENET network/interface over which an OMNI interface is
configured. The OMNI interface is seen as a network layer (L3)
interface by the IP layer, and the OMNI adaptation layer sees the
underlay interface as a data link layer (L2) interface. The
underlay interface either connects directly to the physical or
virtual communications media or coordinates with another node that
hosts the media.
MANET Interface
a node's underlay interface connection to an ANET with
indeterminant neighborhood properties over which adaptation layer
multihop relaying may be necessary. All MANET interfaces used by
AERO/OMNI are IPv6 interfaces and therefore must configure a
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) at least as large as the IPv6
minimum MTU (1280 octets) even if link-layer fragmentation is
needed.
OMNI link
the same as defined in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The OMNI link
employs IPv6 encapsulation to traverse intermediate systems in a
spanning tree over underlay network segments the same as a bridged
campus LAN. AERO nodes on the OMNI link appear as single-hop
neighbors at the network layer even though they may be separated
by many underlay network hops; AERO nodes can employ Segment
Routing [RFC8402] to navigate between different OMNI links, and/or
to cause packets/parcels to visit selected waypoints within the
same OMNI link.
OMNI link segment
a Proxy/Server and all of its constituent Clients within any
attached *NETs is considered as a leaf OMNI link segment, with
each leaf interconnected via links and "bridge" nodes in
intermediate OMNI link segments. When the *NETs of multiple leaf
segments overlap (e.g., due to network mobility), they can combine
to form larger *NETs with no changes to Client-to-Proxy/Server
relationships. The OMNI link consists of the concatenation of all
OMNI link leaf and intermediate segments as a loop-free spanning
tree.
OMNI Interface
a node's attachment to an OMNI link. Since OMNI interface
addresses are managed for uniqueness, OMNI interfaces do not
require Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) and therefore set the
administrative variable 'DupAddrDetectTransmits' to zero
[RFC4862].
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OMNI Adaptation Layer (OAL)
an OMNI interface sublayer service that encapsulates original IP
packets/parcels admitted into the interface in an IPv6 header and/
or subjects them to fragmentation and reassembly. The OAL is also
responsible for generating MTU-related control messages as
necessary, and for providing addressing context for spanning
multiple segments of an extended OMNI link.
(network) partition
frequently, underlay networks such as large corporate enterprise
networks are sub-divided internally into separate isolated
partitions (a technique also known as "network segmentation").
Each partition is fully connected internally but disconnected from
other partitions, and there is no requirement that separate
partitions maintain consistent Internet Protocol and/or addressing
plans. (Each partition is seen as a separate OMNI link
(multi-)segment as discussed throughout this document.)
(OMNI) L2 encapsulation
the OMNI protocol encapsulation of OAL packets/fragments in an
outer header or headers to form carrier packets that can be routed
within the scope of the local *NET or ENET underlay network
partition. Common L2 encapsulation combinations include UDP/IP/
Ethernet, etc. using a port/protocol/type number for OMNI.
L2 address (L2ADDR)
an address that appears in the L2 encapsulation for an underlay
interface and also in IPv6 ND message OMNI options. L2ADDR can be
either an IP address for IP encapsulations or an IEEE EUI address
[EUI] for direct data link encapsulation. (When UDP/IP
encapsulation is used, the UDP port number is considered an
ancillary extension of the IP L2ADDR.)
original IP packet/parcel
a whole IP packet/parcel or fragment admitted into the OMNI
interface by the network layer prior to OAL encapsulation/
fragmentation, or an IP packet/parcel delivered to the network
layer by the OMNI interface following OAL reassembly/
decapsulation.
OAL packet
an original IP packet/parcel encapsulated in an OAL IPv6 header
with an IPv6 Extended Fragment Header extension that includes an
8-octet (64-bit) OAL Identification value. Each OAL packet is
then subject to OAL fragmentation and reassembly.
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OAL fragment
a portion of an OAL packet following fragmentation but prior to L2
encapsulation/fragmentation, or following L2 reassembly/
decapsulation but prior to OAL reassembly.
(OAL) atomic fragment
an OAL packet that can be forwarded without fragmentation, but
still includes an IPv6 Extended Fragment Header with an 8-octet
(64-bit) OAL Identification value and with Fragment Offset and
More Fragments both set to 0. (Note that control message atomic
fragments also omit the Extended Fragment Header over secured
spanning tree links.)
(L2) carrier packet
an encapsulated OAL packet/fragment following L2 encapsulation or
prior to L2 decapsulation. OAL sources and destinations exchange
carrier packets over underlay interfaces, and may be separated by
one or more OAL intermediate systems. OAL intermediate systems
re-encapsulate OAL packets/fragments during forwarding by removing
the L2 headers of carrier packets from a previous hop underlay
network and replacing them with new L2 headers for the next hop
underlay network. Carrier packets may themselves be subject to
fragmentation and reassembly in L2 underlay networks at a layer
below the OAL. Carrier packets sent over unsecured paths use OMNI
protocol L2 encapsulations, while those sent over the secured
paths use L2 security encapsulations such as IPsec [RFC4301], etc.
OAL source
an OMNI interface acts as an OAL source when it encapsulates
original IP packets/parcels to form OAL packets, then performs OAL
fragmentation and L2 encapsulation to create carrier packets.
Every OAL source is also an OAL end system.
OAL destination
an OMNI interface acts as an OAL destination when it decapsulates
carrier packets, then performs OAL reassembly/decapsulation to
restore the original IP packet/parcel. Every OAL destination is
also an OAL end system.
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OAL intermediate system
an OMNI interface acts as an OAL intermediate system when it
performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation for carrier packets received
from a previous hop, then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation
on the enclosed OAL packets/fragments and forwards these new
carrier packets to the next hop. OAL intermediate systems
decrement the OAL Hop Limit during forwarding, and discard the OAL
packet/fragment if the Hop Limit reaches 0. OAL intermediate
systems do not decrement the TTL/Hop Limit of the original IP
packet/parcel.
Mobility Service Prefix (MSP)
an aggregated IP Global Unicast Address (GUA) prefix (e.g.,
2001:db8::/32, 2002:192.0.2.0::/40, etc.) assigned to the OMNI
link and from which more-specific Mobile and Stable Network
Prefixes (MNPs/SNPs) are delegated, where IPv4 MSPs are
represented as "6to4 prefixes" per [RFC3056]. OMNI link
administrators typically obtain MSPs from an Internet address
registry, however private-use prefixes can alternatively be used
subject to certain limitations (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]).
OMNI links that connect to the global Internet advertise their
MSPs to interdomain routing peers.
Mobile Network Prefix (MNP)
a longer IP prefix derived from an MSP (e.g.,
2001:db8:1000:2000::/56, 2002:192.0.2.8::/48, etc.) and delegated
to an AERO Client.
Stable Network Prefix (SNP)
a global and unique-local IP prefix pair assigned to one or more
Proxy/Servers that connect local *NET Client groups to the rest of
the OMNI link. Clients request address delegations from the SNP
that can be used to support PA communications. Clients
communicate internally within (M)ANETs and INET groups using IPv6
Unique Local Addresses (ULAs) [RFC4193] assigned in 1x1
correspondence to SNP Globally Unique Addresses (GUAs) [RFC4291]
made visible to external peers through IP network address/prefix
translation [RFC6145][RFC6146][RFC6147]
[I-D.bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis].
Foreign Network Prefix (FNP)
a global IP prefix not covered by a MSP and assigned to a link or
network outside of the AERO/OMNI domain. Relays advertise any of
their associated FNPs into the AERO/OMNI routing system and
forward packets between MNP/SNP mobile or fixed nodes on the OMNI
link and FNP correspondent nodes on other links.
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Subnet Router Anycast (SRA) Address
An IPv6 address taken from an FNP/MNP/SNP in which the remainder
of the address beyond the final bit of the prefix is set to the
value "all-zeros". For example, the SRA for 2001:db8:1::/48 is
simply 2001:db8:1:: (i.e., with the 80 least significant bits set
to 0). For IPv4, the IPv6 SRA corresponding to the IPv4 prefix
192.0.2.0/24 is 2002:192.0.2.0::/40 per [RFC3056].
Interface Identifier (IID)
the least significant 64 bits of an IPv6 address, as specified in
the IPv6 addressing architecture [RFC4291].
Link Local Address (LLA)
an IPv6 address beginning with fe80::/64 per the IPv6 addressing
architecture [RFC4291].
Unique Local Address (ULA)
an IPv6 address beginning with fd00::/8 followed by a 40-bit
Global ID followed by a 16-bit Subnet ID per [RFC4193]. (Note
that [RFC4193] specifies a second form of ULAs based on the prefix
fc00::/8, which are referred to as "ULA-C" throughout this
document to distinguish them from the ULAs defined here.)
Globally Unique Address (GUA)
a globally unique IPv6 address per the IPv6 addressing
architecture [RFC4291] or a globally unique IPv4 address that is
not reserved for a special-purpose per [RFC6890].
Hierarchical Host Identity Tag (HHIT)
a 128-bit IPv6 address according to [RFC9374]. Each Client
assigns a unique HHIT used to bootstrap autoconfiguration in the
presence of OMNI link infrastructure or for sustained
communications in the absence of infrastructure. When a Client
receives a PA SNP GUA/ULA delegation from a Proxy/Server or a PI
prefix delegation from a MAP, it can begin using PA/PI addresses
instead of its HHIT for Internetworking communications.
Provider Independent (PI) Address
a global unicast IP address allocated from an MNP delegated to a
Client via a MAP Proxy/Server is considered Provider-Independent
(Proxy/Server-Independent) or "PI".
Provider Aggregated (PA) Address
a global unicast IP address delegated to a Client from a SNP
assigned to a FHS Proxy/Server is considered Provider-Aggregated
(Proxy/Server-Aggregated) or "PA".
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AERO node
a node that is connected to an OMNI link and participates in the
AERO internetworking and mobility service.
(AERO) Host
an AERO node that configures an OMNI interface over an ENET
underlay interface serviced by an upstream Client. The Host does
not assign an LLA or ULA to the OMNI interface, but instead
assigns the address taken from the ENET underlay interface. When
an AERO host forwards an original IP packet/parcel to another AERO
node on the same ENET, it uses simple IP-in-L2 OMNI encapsulation
without including an OAL encapsulation header. The Host is
therefore an OMNI link termination endpoint. (Note: as an
implementation matter, the Host may instead configure the "OMNI
interface" as a virtual sublayer of the underlay interface
itself.)
(AERO) Client
an AERO node that configures an OMNI interface over one or more
underlay interfaces and requests SNP address and/or MNP prefix
delegations from AERO Proxy/Servers. The Client assigns a HHIT
(as well as Proxy/Server-specific ULAs) to the OMNI interface for
use in IPv6 ND exchanges with other AERO nodes and forwards
original IP packets/parcels to correspondents according to OMNI
interface neighbor cache state. The Client coordinates with
Proxy/Servers and/or other Clients over upstream ANET/INET
interfaces and may also provide Proxy/Server services for Hosts
and/or other Clients over downstream ENET interfaces.
(AERO) Proxy/Server
an AERO node that provides a proxying service between AERO Clients
and external peers on its Client-facing (M)ANET interfaces (i.e.,
in the same fashion as for an enterprise network proxy) as well as
designated router services for coordination with correspondents on
its INET-facing interfaces. (Proxy/Servers in the open INET
instead configure only a single INET interface and no (M)ANET
interfaces.) The Proxy/Server configures an OMNI interface and
maintains BGP peerings with Gateways to provide a local anchor
point for its stable and/or mobile Clients. All Proxy/Servers
configure a Stable Network Prefix (SNP) and manage 1x1 mappings of
internal Unique Local Addresses (ULAs) and external Globally
Unique Addresses (GUAs) according to Network Prefix Translation
for IPv6 (NPTv6) [I-D.bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis].
(AERO) Relay
an AERO Proxy/Server that provides forwarding services between
nodes reached via the OMNI link and correspondents on foreign
links/networks. AERO Relays maintain BGP peerings with Gateways
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the same as Proxy/Servers. Relays also run a dynamic routing
protocol to discover any Foreign Network Prefix (FNP) routes in
service on other links/networks, advertise OMNI link MSP(s) to
other links/networks, and redistribute FNPs discovered on other
links/networks into the OMNI link BGP routing system. (Relays
that connect to major Internetworks such as the global IPv6 or
IPv4 Internets can also be configured to advertise "default"
routes into the OMNI link BGP routing system.)
(AERO) Gateway
a BGP hub autonomous system node that also provides OAL forwarding
services for nodes on an OMNI link. Gateways forward OAL packets/
fragments between OMNI link segments as OAL intermediate systems
while decrementing the OAL IPv6 header Hop Limit but without
decrementing the network layer IP TTL/Hop Limit. Gateways peer
with Proxy/Servers and other Gateways to form an IPv6-based OAL
spanning tree over all OMNI link segments and to discover the set
of all FNP/MNP/SNP prefixes in service. Gateways process OAL
packets/fragments received over the secured spanning tree that are
addressed to themselves, while forwarding all other OAL packets/
fragments to the next hop also via the secured spanning tree.
Gateways forward OAL packets/fragments received over the unsecured
spanning tree to the next hop either via the unsecured spanning
tree or via direct encapsulation if the next hop is on the same
OMNI link segment. It is important to note that all Gateways are
also Proxy/Servers, but only those Proxy/Servers configured as
intermediate nodes in the spanning tree are considered Gateways.
First-Hop Segment (FHS) Client
a Client that initiates communications with a target peer by
sending an NS message to establish reverse-path multilink
forwarding state in OMNI link intermediate systems on the path to
the target. Note that in some arrangements the Client's (FHS)
Proxy/Server (and not the Client itself) initiates the NS.
Last-Hop Segment (LHS) Client
a Client that responds to a communications request from a source
peer's NS by returning an NA response to establish forward-path
multilink forwarding state in OMNI link intermediate systems on
the path to the source. Note that in some arrangements the
Client's (LHS) Proxy/Server (and not the Client itself) returns
the NA.
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First-Hop Segment (FHS) Proxy/Server
a Proxy/Server for an FHS Client's underlay interface that
forwards the Client's OAL packets into the segment routing
topology. FHS Proxy/Servers also act as intermediate forwarding
systems to facilitate RS/RA exchanges between a Client and its MAP
Proxy/Server.
Last-Hop Segment (LHS) Proxy/Server
a Proxy/Server for an underlay interface of an LHS Client that
forwards OAL packets received from the segment routing topology to
the Client over that interface.
Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) Proxy/Server
a single Proxy/Server selected by a Client that injects the
Client's MNP into the BGP routing system and provides a designated
router service for all of the Client's underlay interfaces.
Clients often select the first FHS Proxy/Server they coordinate
with to serve in the MAP role (as all FHS Proxy/Servers are
equally capable candidates to serve as a MAP), however the Client
can also select any available Proxy/Server for the OMNI link (as
there is no requirement that the MAP must also be one of the
Client's FHS Proxy/Servers). This flexible arrangement supports a
fully distributed mobility management service.
Segment Routing Topology (SRT)
a Multinet OMNI link forwarding region between FHS and LHS Proxy/
Servers. FHS/LHS Proxy/Servers and SRT Gateways span the OMNI
link on behalf of communicating peer nodes. The SRT maintains a
spanning tree established through BGP peerings between Gateways
and Proxy/Servers. Each SRT leaf segment includes Gateways in a
"hub" and Proxy/Servers in "spokes", while adjacent segments are
interconnected by Gateway-Gateway peerings. The BGP peerings are
configured over both secured and unsecured underlay network paths
such that a secured spanning tree is available for critical
control messages while other messages can use the unsecured
spanning tree.
Mobile Node (MN)
an AERO Client and all of its downstream-attached networks that
move together as a single unit, i.e., an end system and its
connected IoT sub-networks.
Mobile Router (MR)
a MN's on-board router that forwards original IP packets/parcels
between any downstream-attached networks and the OMNI link. The
MR is the MN entity that hosts the AERO Client.
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Address Resolution Source (ARS)
the node nearest the original source that initiates OMNI link
address resolution. The ARS may be a Proxy/Server or Relay for
the source, or may be the source Client itself. The ARS is often
(but not always) also the same node that becomes the FHS source
during route optimization.
Address Resolution Target (ART)
the node toward which address resolution is directed. The ART may
be a Relay or the target Client itself. The ART is often (but not
always) also the same node that becomes the LHS target during
route optimization.
Address Resolution Responder (ARR)
the node that responds to address resolution requests on behalf of
the ART. The ARR may be a Relay, the ART itself, or the ART's
current MAP Proxy/Server. Note that a MAP Proxy/Server can assume
the ARR role even if it is located on a different SRT segment than
the ART. The MAP Proxy/Server assumes the ARR role only when it
receives an RS message from the ART with the 'ARR' flag set (see:
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]).
Potential Router List (PRL)
a geographically and/or topologically referenced list of addresses
of all Proxy/Servers within the same OMNI link. Each OMNI link
has its own PRL.
Distributed Mobility Management (DMM)
a BGP-based overlay routing service coordinated by Proxy/Servers
and Gateways that tracks all Proxy/Server-to-Client associations.
Mobility Service (MS)
the collective set of all Proxy/Servers, Gateways and Relays that
provide the AERO Service to Clients.
AERO Forwarding Information Base (AFIB)
A forwarding table on each OAL source, destination and
intermediate system that includes AERO Forwarding Vectors (AFV)
with both multilink forwarding instructions and context for
reconstructing compressed headers for specific communicating peer
underlay interface pairs. The AFIB also supports route
optimization where one or more OAL intermediate systems in the
path can be "skipped" to reduce path stretch and decrease load on
critical infrastructure elements.
AERO Forwarding Vector (AFV)
An AFIB entry that includes soft state for each underlay interface
pairwise communication session between peer neighbors. AFVs are
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identified by an AFV Index (AFVI) paired with the previous hop L2
address, with the pair established based on an IPv6 NS/NA or RS/RA
exchanges. The AFV also caches underlay interface Identification
sequence number parameters to support carrier packet filtering.
AERO Forwarding Vector Index (AFVI)
A 2-octet or 4-octet integer value supplied by a first hop OAL
node when it requests a next hop OAL node to create an AFV. (The
AFVI is always processed as a 4-octet value, but may be
transmitted as only the 2 least significant octets when the 2 most
significant octets are 0.) The next hop OAL node caches the AFVI
and L2 address supplied by the previous hop as header compression/
decompression state for future OAL packets with compressed
headers. The first hop OAL node must ensure that the AFVI values
it assigns to the next hop via a specific underlay interface are
distinct and reused only after their useful lifetimes expire. The
special AFVI value 0 means that no AFVI is assigned.
flow
A sequence of packets sent from a particular source to a
particular unicast, anycast, or multicast destination that a node
desires to label as a flow. The 3-tuple of the Flow Label, Source
Address and Destination Address fields enable efficient IPv6 flow
classification. The IPv6 Flow Label Specification is observed per
[RFC6437] [RFC6438].
3. Requirements
OMNI interfaces limit the size of their IPv6 ND control plane
messages (plus any original IP packet/parcel attachments) to the
minimum IPv6 link MTU minus overhead for adaptation and link layer
encapsulation. If there are sufficient OMNI parameters and/or IP
packet/parcel attachments that would exceed this size, the OMNI
interface forwards the information as multiple smaller IPv6 ND
messages and the recipient accepts the union of all information
received. This allows the messages to travel without loss due to a
size restriction over secured control plane paths that include IPsec
tunnels [RFC4301], secured direct point-to-point links and/or
unsecured paths that require an authentication signature.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
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4. Automatic Extended Route Optimization (AERO)
The following sections specify the operation of IP over OMNI links
using the AERO service:
4.1. AERO Node Types
AERO Hosts configure an OMNI interface over an underlay interface
connected to a Client's ENET and coordinate with both other AERO
Hosts and Clients over the ENET. As an implementation matter, the
Host either assigns the same (MNP-based) IP address from the underlay
interface to the OMNI interface, or configures the "OMNI interface"
as a virtual sublayer of the underlay interface itself. AERO Hosts
treat the ENET as an ANET, and treat the upstream Client for the ENET
as a Proxy/Server. AERO Hosts are seen as OMNI link termination
endpoints.
AERO Clients can be deployed as fixed infrastructure nodes close to
end systems, or as Mobile Nodes (MNs) that can change their network
attachment points dynamically. AERO Clients configure OMNI
interfaces over underlay interfaces with addresses that may change
due to mobility. AERO Clients receive Provider-Aggregated (PA) SNP
addresses from their Proxy/Servers. AERO Clients that obtain
Provider-Independent (PI) Mobile Network Prefixes (MNPs) register
them with the AERO service, and distribute the MNPs to ENETs (which
may connect AERO Hosts and other Clients). AERO Clients provide
Proxy/Server-like services for Hosts and other Clients on downstream-
attached ENETs.
AERO Gateways, Proxy/Servers and Relays are critical infrastructure
elements in fixed (i.e., non-mobile) *NET boundary (or standalone
INET) deployments and hence have permanent and unchanging INET
addresses. Together, they provide access to the AERO service OMNI
link virtual overlay for connecting AERO Clients and Hosts. AERO
Gateways (together with Proxy/Servers and Relays) provide the secured
backbone supporting infrastructure for a Segment Routing Topology
(SRT) spanning tree for the OMNI link.
AERO Gateways are Proxy/Servers deployed as OMNI link intermediate
systems that forward packets both within the same SRT segment and
between disjoint SRT segments based on an IPv6 encapsulation mid-
layer known as the OMNI Adaptation Layer (OAL). The OMNI interface
and OAL provide an adaptation layer forwarding service that the
network layer perceives as L2 bridging, since the inner IP TTL/Hop
Limit is not decremented. Each Gateway peers with Proxy/Servers,
Relays and other Gateways in a dynamic routing protocol instance as a
Distributed Mobility Management (DMM) service for the list of active
MNPs (see: Section 4.2.3). Gateways assign one or more Mobility
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Service Prefixes (MSPs) to the OMNI link and configure secured
tunnels with Proxy/Servers, Relays and other Gateways; they further
maintain forwarding table entries for each FNP/MNP/SNP prefix in
service on the OMNI link.
AERO Proxy/Servers distributed across one or more SRT segments
provide default forwarding and mobility/multilink services for AERO
Client mobile nodes. Each Proxy/Server acts as either an OMNI link
intermediate system or end system according to the service model
selected by each Client. Proxy/Servers also peer with Gateways in an
adaptation layer dynamic routing protocol instance to advertise its
list of associated MNPs (see Section 4.2.3). MAP Proxy/Servers
provide prefix delegation services and track the mobility/multilink
profiles of each of their associated Clients, where each delegated
prefix becomes an MNP taken from an MSP. Proxy/Servers at *NET
boundaries provide a primary forwarding service for (M)ANET Client/
Host communications with peers in external INETs, while Proxy/Servers
in open INETs provide an authentication service for IPv6 ND messages
but should be used only as a last resort data plane forwarding
service when a Client cannot forward directly to an INET peer or
Gateway. Source Clients securely coordinate with target Clients by
sending control messages via a First-Hop Segment (FHS) Proxy/Server
which forwards them over the SRT spanning tree to a Last-Hop Segment
(LHS) Proxy/Server which finally forwards them to the target.
AERO Relays are Proxy/Servers that provide forwarding services to
exchange original IP packets/parcels between the OMNI link and fixed
or mobile nodes on other links/networks. Relays run a dynamic
routing protocol to discover any FNP prefixes in service on foreign
links/networks, and Relays that connect to larger Internetworks (such
as the Internet) may originate default routes. The Relay
redistributes OMNI link MSP(s) into other links/networks, and
redistributes FNPs via OMNI link Gateway BGP peerings.
4.2. The AERO Service over OMNI Links
4.2.1. AERO/OMNI Reference Model
Figure 1 presents the basic OMNI link reference model:
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+-----------------+
| AERO Gateway G1 |
| Nbr: S1, S2, P1 |
|(X1->S1; X2->S2) |
| MSP M1 |
+--------+--------+
+--------------+ | +--------------+
| AERO P/S S1 | | | AERO P/S S2 |
| Nbr: C1, G1 | | | Nbr: C2, G1 |
| default->G1 | | | default->G1 |
| X1->C1 | | | X2->C2 |
+-------+------+ | +------+-------+
| OMNI link | |
X===+===+==================+===================+===+===X
| |
+-----+--------+ +--------+-----+
|AERO Client C1| |AERO Client C2|
| Nbr: S1 | | Nbr: S2 |
| default->S1 | | default->S2 |
| MNP X1 | | MNP X2 |
+------+-------+ +-----+--------+
| |
.-. .-.
,-( _)-. +-------+ +-------+ ,-( _)-.
.-(_ IP )-. | AERO | | AERO | .-(_ IP )-.
(__ ENET )--|Host H1| |Host H2|--(__ ENET )
`-(______)-' +-------+ +-------+ `-(______)-'
Figure 1: AERO/OMNI Reference Model
In this model:
* the OMNI link is an overlay network service configured over one or
more underlay SRT segments which may be managed by diverse
administrative domains using incompatible protocols and/or
addressing plans.
* AERO Gateway G1 aggregates Mobility Service Prefix (MSP) M1,
discovers Mobile Network Prefixes (MNPs) X* and advertises the MSP
via BGP peerings over secured tunnels to other Gateways in the SRT
(not shown). Together, the set of all Gateways provide the
backbone for an SRT spanning tree for the OMNI link.
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* AERO Proxy/Servers S1 and S2 configure secured tunnels with
Gateway G1 and also provide mobility, multilink, multicast and
default router services for the MNPs of their associated Clients
C1 and C2. (Proxy/Servers that act as Relays can also advertise
FNP routes for non-mobile correspondent nodes the same as for MNP
Clients.)
* AERO Clients C1 and C2 associate with Proxy/Servers S1 and S2,
respectively. They receive MNP delegations X1 and X2, and also
act as default routers for their associated physical or internal
virtual ENETs.
* AERO Hosts H1 and H2 attach to the ENETs served by Clients C1 and
C2, respectively.
An OMNI link configured over a single underlay network appears as a
single unified link with a consistent addressing plan; all nodes on
the link can exchange carrier packets via simple L2 encapsulation
(i.e., following any necessary NAT traversal) since the underlay is
connected. In common practice, however, OMNI links are often
configured over an SRT spanning tree that bridges multiple distinct
underlay network segments managed under different administrative
authorities (e.g., as for worldwide aviation service providers such
as ARINC, SITA, Inmarsat, etc.). Individual underlay networks may
also be partitioned internally, in which case each internal partition
appears as a separate segment.
The addressing plan of each SRT segment is consistent internally but
will often bear no relation to the addressing plans of other
segments. Each segment is also likely to be separated from others by
network security devices (e.g., firewalls, proxys, packet filtering
gateways, etc.), and disjoint segments often have no common physical
link connections. Therefore, nodes can only be assured of exchanging
carrier packets directly with correspondents in the same segment, and
not with those in other segments. The only means for joining the
segments therefore is through inter-domain peerings between AERO
Gateways.
The OMNI link spans multiple SRT segments using the OMNI Adaptation
Layer (OAL) to provide the network layer with a virtual abstraction
similar to a bridged campus LAN. The OAL is an OMNI interface
sublayer that inserts a mid-layer IPv6 encapsulation header for
inter-segment forwarding (i.e., bridging) without decrementing the
network layer TTL/Hop Limit of the original IP packet/parcel. An
example OMNI link SRT is shown in Figure 2:
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
. .
. .-(::::::::) .-(::::::::) .-(::::::::) .
. .-(::::::::::::)-. +-+ .-(::::::::::::)-. +-+ .-(::::::::::::)-. .
. (:::: FHS :::)--|G|--(::: Intermediate ::)--|G|--(:::: LHS :::) .
. `-(::::::::::::)-' +-+ `-(::Segments::)-' +-+ `-(::::::::::::)-' .
. `-(::::::)-' `-(::::::)-' `-(::::::)-' .
. | | .
. +---+ +---+ .
. |P/S| |P/S| .
. +---+ +---+ .
. | | .
. .-(::::::::) .-(::::::::) .
. .-(: First Hop :)-. +-------+ +-------+ .-(: Last Hop :)-. .
. (:::: Access ::::)--| Source| | Target|--(:::: Access ::::) .
. `-(:: Network ::)-' | Client| | Client| (:: Network ::)-' .
. `-(::::::)-' +-------+ +-------+ `-(::::::)-' .
. .
. .
. <-- Segment Routing Topology (SRT) Spanned by OMNI Link --> .
. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Figure 2: OMNI Link Segment Routing Topology (SRT)
In the Segment Routing Topology, a source Client connects via a first
hop access network served by a First Hop Segment (FHS) Proxy/Server.
The FHS Proxy/Server then forwards to an FHS Gateway which connects
to an arbitrarily complex set of Intermediate Segments. Adjacent
intermediate Segments are joined by intermediate Gateways (not shown)
that serve as adaptation layer IPv6 routers, with the final segment
connected by a Last Hop Segment (LHS) Gateway. The LHS Gateway then
forwards to an LHS Proxy/Server which in turn connects to the last
hop access network where the target Client resides.
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Gateway, Proxy/Server and Relay OMNI interfaces are configured over
both secured tunnels and open INET underlay interfaces within their
respective SRT segments. Within each segment, Gateways configure
"hub-and-spokes" BGP peerings with Proxy/Servers and Relays as
"spokes". Adjacent SRT segments are joined by Gateway-to-Gateway
peerings to collectively form a spanning tree over the entire SRT.
The "secured spanning tree" supports authentication and integrity for
critical control plane messages (and any trailing data plane message
extensions). The "unsecured spanning tree" conveys ordinary carrier
packets without security codes and that must be examined by
destinations according to data origin authentication procedures.
AERO nodes can employ route optimization to cause carrier packets to
take more direct paths between OMNI link neighbors without having to
follow strict spanning tree paths.
The AERO Multinet service concatenates SRT segments to form a larger
network through Gateway-to-Gateway peerings as originally suggested
in the "Catenet Model for Internetworking" [IEN48]; especially
Figure 2 follows directly from the illustrations in [IEN48-2]. The
Catenet concept suggested a "network-of-networks" concatenation of
independent and diverse Internetwork "segments" to form a much larger
network supporting end-to-end services.
The Catenet concept first articulated in the 1970's was distorted
through the evolution of the Internet in the decades that followed,
since the adaptation layer was a critical element missing from the
architecture. As a result, while the Internet has been successful
beyond measure it has evolved as a monolithic public routing and
addressing service interconnecting private domains instead of a true
network-of-networks which has impeded flexibility and inhibited end-
to-end services. The adaptation layer manifested by AERO and OMNI
now provides the means to address these limitations as well as the
other "6 Ms of Modern Internetworking" according to the original
Catenet network-of-networks vision.
4.2.2. Addressing and Node Identification
AERO nodes on OMNI links use the Link-Local Address (LLA) prefix
fe80::/64 [RFC4291] to assign LLAs to the OMNI interface to satisfy
the requirements of [RFC4861]. AERO node LLAs only need to be unique
on the local OMNI link segment, however, since there is no way to
coordinate duplicate address detection between disjoint OMNI link
segments. Therefore, OMNI interface intermediate systems should not
forward packets with LLA source and/or destination addresses.
AERO Clients also use the Unique Local Address (ULA) prefix fd00::/8
followed by a pseudo-random 40-bit Global ID to form the prefix
{ULA}::/48, then include a 16-bit Subnet ID '*' to form the prefix
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{ULA*}::/64 [RFC4291]. AERO Proxy/Servers assign ULAs to Clients as
*NET internal addresses in 1x1 correspondence with Globally-Unique
Addresses (GUAs) as *NET external addresses according to NPTv6
[I-D.bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis].
AERO MSPs, FNPs, MNPs and SNPs are typically based on Global Unicast
Addresses (GUAs), but in some cases may be based on IPv4 private
addresses [RFC1918] or IPv6 ULA-C's [RFC4193]. See
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3] for a full specification of LLAs, ULAs, GUAs
and anycast addresses used by AERO nodes on OMNI links.
Finally, AERO Clients configure HHITs as specified in
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3] to bootstrap the process of receiving ULA
delegations from Proxy/Servers.
4.2.3. AERO Routing System
The AERO routing system comprises a private Border Gateway Protocol
(BGP) [RFC4271] service coordinated between Gateways as interior
nodes and Proxy/Servers and Relays as leaf nodes of a spanning tree.
The service supports OAL packet/fragment forwarding at a layer below
IP and does not interact with the public Internet BGP routing system,
but supports redistribution of information for other links and
networks connected by Relays.
In a reference deployment, each Proxy/Server is configured as an
Autonomous System Border Router (ASBR) for a stub Autonomous System
(AS) using a 32-bit AS Number (ASN) [RFC4271] that is unique within
the BGP instance, and each Proxy/Server further uses eBGP to peer
with one or more Gateways but does not peer with other Proxy/Servers.
Each SRT segment in the OMNI link must include one or more Gateways
in a "hub" AS, which peer with the Proxy/Servers within that segment
as "spoke" ASes. All Gateways within the same segment are members of
the same hub AS, and use iBGP to maintain a consistent view of all
active routes currently in service. The Gateways of different
segments peer with one another using eBGP.
Gateways maintain forwarding table entries for the SNP prefixes
assigned to Proxy/Serves and the set of all FNP/MNP routes that are
currently active; Gateways also maintain black-hole routes for the
OMNI link MSPs so that OAL packets/fragments destined to non-existent
more-specific routes are flushed from the routing system. In this
way, Proxy/Servers and Relays have only partial topology knowledge
(i.e., they only maintain routing information for their directly
associated Clients and foreign links) and they forward all other OAL
packets/fragments to Gateways which have full topology knowledge.
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Each OMNI link segment assigns a unique sub-prefix of the MSP known
as the "SRT prefix". For example, a first segment could assign
2001:db8::/48, a second could assign 2001:db8:1::/48, a third could
assign 2001:db8:2::/48, etc. Within each segment, each Proxy/Server
and Gateway configures an SNP within the segment's SRT prefix, e.g.,
the SNPs 2001:db8::/64, 2001:db8:0:1::/64 2001:db8:0:2::/64 all
belong to the SRT prefix 2001:db8::/48.
The administrative authorities for each segment must therefore
coordinate to assure mutually-exclusive SNP assignments, but internal
provisioning of SNPs is an independent local consideration for each
administrative authority. For each SRT prefix, the Gateway(s) that
connect that segment assign the all-zero's address of the prefix as a
Subnet Router Anycast (SRA) address. For example, the SRA address
for 2001:db8::/48 is simply 2001:db8::. All Proxy/Servers also assign
the SRA address taken from their uniquely-assigned more-specific SNP,
e.g., the SRA address for the SNP 2001:db8:0:1::/64 is simply
2001:db8:0:1::.
SRT prefixes (and their SNP sub-prefixes) are statically represented
in Gateway forwarding tables. Gateways join multiple SRT segments
into a unified OMNI link over multiple diverse network administrative
domains. They support a virtual bridging service by first
establishing forwarding table entries for their SRT prefixes either
via standard BGP routing or static routes. For example, if three
Gateways ('A', 'B' and 'C') from different segments serviced
2001:db8::/48, 2001:db8:1::/48 and 2001:db8:2::/48 respectively, then
the forwarding tables in each gateway appear as follows:
A: 2001:db8::/48->local, 2001:db8:1::/48->B, 2001:db8:2::/48->C
B: 2001:db8::/48->A, 2001:db8:1::/48->local, 2001:db8:2::/48->C
C: 2001:db8::/48->A, 2000:db8:1::/48->B, 2001:db8:2::/48->local
These forwarding table entries rarely change, since they correspond
to fixed infrastructure elements in their respective segments.
FNP and MNP routes are instead dynamically advertised in the AERO
routing system by Proxy/Servers and Relays that provide anchor points
for their corresponding prefixes. For example, if three Proxy/
Servers ('D', 'E' and 'F') service the MNPs 2001:db8:1000:1::64/,
2001:db8:1000:2::/64 and 2001:db8:1000:2::/48 then the routing system
would include:
D: 2001:db8:1000:1::/64
E: 2001:db8:1000:2::/64
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F: 2001:db8:1000:3::/64
A full discussion of the BGP-based routing system used by AERO is
found in [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-atn-bgp].
4.2.4. Segment Routing Topologies (SRTs)
The distinct GUA prefixes in an OMNI link domain identify distinct
Segment Routing Topologies (SRTs). Each SRT is a mutually-exclusive
OMNI link overlay instance using a distinct set of GUAs, and emulates
a bridged campus LAN service for the OMNI link. In some cases (e.g.,
when redundant topologies are needed for fault tolerance and
reliability) it may be beneficial to deploy multiple SRTs that act as
independent overlay instances. A communication failure in one
instance therefore will not affect communications in other instances.
Each SRT is identified by a distinct GUA prefix and assigns an IPv6
Subnet Router Anycast (SRA) address used for OMNI interface
determination in Safety-Based Multilink (SBM) as discussed in
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. Each OMNI interface further applies
Performance-Based Multilink (PBM) internally.
The Gateways and Proxy/Servers of each independent SRT engage in BGP
peerings to form a spanning tree with the Gateways in non-leaf nodes
and the Proxy/Servers in leaf nodes. The spanning tree is configured
over both secured and unsecured underlay network paths. The secured
spanning tree is used to convey secured control messages (and
sometimes data message extensions) between Proxy/Servers and
Gateways, while the unsecured spanning tree forwards bulk data
messages and/or unsecured control messages.
Each SRT segment is identified by a unique GUA prefix used by all
Proxy/Servers and Gateways in the segment. Each AERO node must
therefore discover an SRT prefix that correspondents can use to
determine the correct segment, and must publish the SRT prefix in
IPv6 ND messages.
Note: The distinct GUA prefixes in an OMNI link domain can be carried
either in a common BGP routing protocol instance for all OMNI links
or in distinct BGP routing protocol instances for different OMNI
links. In some SBM environments, such separation may be necessary to
ensure that distinct OMNI links do not include any common
infrastructure elements as single points of failure. In other
environments, carrying the GUAs of multiple OMNI links within a
common routing system may be acceptable.
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4.2.5. Segment Routing For OMNI Link Selection
Original IPv6 sources can direct IPv6 packets/parcels to an AERO node
by including a standard IPv6 Segment Routing Header (SRH) [RFC8754]
with the IPv6 SRA address for the selected OMNI link as either the
IPv6 destination or as an intermediate hop within the SRH. This
allows the original source to determine the specific OMNI link SRT an
original IPv6 packet/parcel will traverse when there may be multiple
alternatives.
When an AERO node processes the SRH and forwards the original IPv6
packet/parcel to the correct OMNI interface, the OMNI interface
writes the next IPv6 address from the SRH into the IPv6 destination
address and decrements Segments Left. If decrementing would cause
Segments Left to become 0, the OMNI interface deletes the SRH before
forwarding. This form of Segment Routing supports Safety-Based
Multilink (SBM).
4.3. OMNI Interface Characteristics
OMNI interfaces are virtual interfaces configured over one or more
underlay interfaces classified as follows:
* (M)ANET interfaces connect to a protected and secured ANET or an
open MANET that connects to an INETs via Proxy/Servers. The
(M)ANET interface may be either on the same L2 link segment as a
Proxy/Server, or separated from a Proxy/Server by multiple IP
hops. (Note that NATs may appear internally within a (M)ANET and
may require NAT traversal on the path to the Proxy/Server the same
as for the INET case.) MANETs are special cases of ANETs in which
adaptation layer multihop forwarding may be necessary, and
protected secured underlay links cannot always be assumed.
* INET interfaces connect to an INET either natively or through one
or several IPv4 Network Address Translators (NATs). Native INET
interfaces have global IP addresses that are reachable from
correspondent on the same INET. NATed INET interfaces typically
have private IP addresses and connect to a private network behind
one or more NATs with the outermost NAT providing INET access.
* ENET interfaces connect a Client's downstream-attached networks,
where the Client provides forwarding services for ENET Host and
Client communications to remote peers. An ENET can be as simple
as a small IoT sub-network that travels with a mobile Client to as
complex as a large private enterprise network that the Client
connects to a larger ANET or INET.
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* VPN interfaces use security encapsulations (e.g. IPsec tunnels)
over underlay networks to connect Clients, Proxy/Servers and/or
Gateways. VPN interfaces provide security services at lower
layers of the architecture (L2/L1) the same as for Direct point-
to-point interfaces.
* Direct point-to-point interfaces securely connect Clients, Proxy/
Servers and/or Gateways over physical or virtual media that does
not transit any open Internetwork paths. Examples include a line-
of-sight link between a remote pilot and an unmanned aircraft, a
fiberoptic link between Gateways, etc.
OMNI interfaces use OAL encapsulation and fragmentation as discussed
in Section 4.6. OMNI interfaces use L2 encapsulation (see:
Section 4.6) to exchange carrier packets with OMNI link neighbors
over INET interfaces and IPsec tunnels as well as over ANET
interfaces for which the Client and neighbor may be multiple IP hops
away. OMNI interfaces use link layer encapsulation only (i.e., and
no other L2 encapsulations) over Direct underlay interfaces or
(M)ANET interfaces when the Client and neighbor are known to be on
the same underlay link.
OMNI interfaces maintain an adaptation layer neighbor cache for
tracking per-neighbor state. OMNI interfaces use IPv6 ND messages
including Router Solicitation (RS), Router Advertisement (RA),
Neighbor Solicitation (NS), Neighbor Advertisement (NA), unsolicited
Neighbor Advertisement (uNA) and Redirect to manage the neighbor
cache. OMNI neighbors invoke per-flow OAL Identification window
synchronization in their IPv6 ND message exchanges to enable source
address verification, header compression and robust fragmentation/
reassembly.
OMNI interfaces send IPv6 ND messages with an OMNI option formatted
as specified in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The OMNI option includes
prefix registration information, Interface Attributes and/or
Multilink Vectors containing link information parameters for the OMNI
interface's underlay interfaces (as well as any other per-neighbor
information). The presence of the OMNI option identifies each IPv6
ND message as an adaptation layer (i.e., and not a network layer)
control message.
A Host's OMNI interface is configured over an underlay interface
connected to an ENET provided by an upstream Client. From the Host's
perspective, the ENET appears as an ANET and the upstream Client
appears as a Proxy/Server. The Host does not provide OMNI
intermediate system services and is therefore a logical termination
point for the OMNI link.
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A Client's OMNI interface may be configured over multiple *NET
underlay interfaces. For example, common mobile handheld devices
have both wireless local area network ("WLAN") and cellular wireless
links. These links are often used "one at a time" with low-cost WLAN
preferred and highly-available cellular wireless as a standby, but a
simultaneous-use capability could provide benefits. In a more
complex example, aircraft frequently have many wireless data link
types (e.g. satellite-based, cellular, terrestrial, air-to-air
directional, etc.) with diverse performance and cost properties.
If a Client's multiple *NET underlay interfaces are used "one at a
time" (i.e., all other interfaces are in standby mode while one
interface is active), then successive IPv6 ND messages all include
OMNI option Interface Attributes, Traffic Selector and/or Multilink
Vector sub-options with the same underlay interface ifIndex. In that
case, the Client would appear to have a single underlay interface but
with a dynamically changing link layer address.
If the Client has multiple active *NET underlay interfaces, then from
the perspective of IPv6 ND it would appear to have multiple link
layer addresses. In that case, IPv6 ND message OMNI options MAY
include sub-options with different underlay interface ifIndexes.
Proxy/Servers on the open Internet include only a single INET
underlay interface. INET Clients therefore discover only the L2ADDR
information for the Proxy/Server's INET interface. Proxy/Servers on
a (M)ANET/INET boundary include both (M)ANET and INET underlay
interfaces. (M)ANET Clients therefore must discover both the (M)ANET
and INET L2ADDR information for their Proxy/Servers.
Gateway and Proxy/Server OMNI interfaces are configured over underlay
interfaces that provide both secured tunnels for carrying IPv6 ND and
BGP protocol control plane messages and open INET access for carrying
unsecured data plane messages. The OMNI interface configures a GUA
and acts as an OAL source to encapsulate original IP packets/parcels,
then fragments the resulting OAL packets, performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and sends the resulting carrier packets over the
secured or unsecured underlay paths. Note that Gateway and Proxy/
Server end-to-end transport protocol sessions used by the BGP run
directly over the OMNI interface and use SNP GUA SRA source and
destination addresses. The GUA addresses that appear in the original
IP packets/parcels of a BGP protocol session may therefore be the
same as those that appear in the OAL IPv6 encapsulation header.
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4.4. OMNI Interface Initialization
AERO Proxy/Servers, Clients and Hosts configure OMNI interfaces as
their point of attachment to the OMNI link. AERO nodes assign the
MSPs for the link to their OMNI interfaces (i.e., as a "route-to-
interface") to ensure that original IP packets/parcels with
destination addresses covered by an MNP not explicitly associated
with another interface are directed to an OMNI interface.
OMNI interface initialization procedures for Gateways, Proxy/Servers,
Clients and Hosts and are discussed in the following sections.
4.4.1. AERO Gateway Behavior
AERO Gateways configure an OMNI interface and assign an SNP with
corresponding SRA GUA for their OMNI link SRT segments. Gateways
configure underlay interface secured tunnels with Proxy/Servers in
the same SRT segment and other Gateways in the same (or an adjacent)
SRT segment. Gateways then engage in a BGP routing protocol session
with neighbors over the secured spanning tree (see: Section 4.2.3).
4.4.2. AERO Proxy/Server and Relay Behavior
When a Proxy/Server enables an OMNI interface, it assigns an SNP GUA/
ULA prefix pair. The Proxy/Server then configures an SRA GUA
appropriate for the given OMNI link SRT segment externally and
configures an SRA ULA appropriate for the locally attached *NET
internally. The Proxy/Server also configures secured underlay
interface tunnels and engages in BGP routing protocol sessions over
the OMNI interface with one or more neighboring Gateways.
The OMNI interface provides a single interface abstraction to the
network layer, but internally serves as an NBMA nexus for exchanging
carrier packets with other OMNI nodes over underlay interfaces and/or
secured tunnels. The Proxy/Server further configures a service to
facilitate IPv6 ND exchanges with AERO Clients and manages per-Client
neighbor cache entries and IP forwarding table entries based on
control message exchanges.
Relays are simply Proxy/Servers that run a dynamic routing protocol
to redistribute routes between the OMNI interface and foreign
networks/links (see: Section 4.2.3). The Relay provisions MNPs and
advertises the MSP(s) for the OMNI link over its foreign network
interface attachments. The Relay further provides an OMNI link
attachment point for FNP-based topologies.
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4.4.3. AERO Client Behavior
When a Client enables an OMNI interface, it assigns a HHIT and sends
OMNI-encapsulated RS messages over its *NET underlay interfaces to an
FHS Proxy/Server, which allocates an SNP ULA/GUA address pair and
optionally coordinates with a MAP Proxy/Server that delegates one or
more MNPs. The MAP/FHS Proxy/Servers then return an RA message to
the Client. The RS/RA messages may pass through one or more NATs in
the path between the Client and FHS Proxy/Server. (Note: if the
Client used a HHIT in its initial RS messages, it will discover ULAs
in the corresponding RAs that it receives from FHS Proxy/Servers and
begin using these new addresses. If the Client is operating outside
the context of AERO infrastructure such as in a Mobile Ad-hoc Network
(MANET), however, it may continue using HHITs for Client-to-Client
communications either indefinitely or at least until it encounters an
infrastructure element that can delegate SNP ULA/GUA pairs and/or
MNPs.)
A Client can further extend the OMNI link over its (downstream) ENET
interfaces where it provides a first-hop router for Hosts and other
AERO Clients connected to the ENET. A downstream Client that
connects via the ENET serviced by an upstream Client can in turn
service further downstream ENETs that connect other Hosts and
Clients. This OMNI link extension can be applied recursively over a
"chain" of ENET Clients.
4.4.4. AERO Host Behavior
When a Host enables an OMNI interface, it assigns an address taken
from the ENET underlay interface which may itself be a GUA delegated
by the upstream Client. The Host does not assign a link-local
address to the OMNI interface, since no autoconfiguration is
necessary on that interface. (As an implementation matter, the Host
could instead configure the "OMNI interface" as a virtual sublayer of
the ENET underlay interface itself.)
The Host sends OMNI-encapsulated RS messages over its ENET underlay
interface to the upstream Client, which returns encapsulated RAs and
provides routing services in the same fashion that Proxy/Servers
provides services for Clients. Hosts represent the leaf end systems
in recursively-nested chain of concatenated ENETs, i.e., they
represent terminating endpoints for the OMNI link.
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4.5. OMNI Interface Neighbor Cache Maintenance
Each Client and Proxy/Server OMNI interface maintains a network layer
conceptual neighbor cache per [RFC1256] or [RFC4861] the same as for
any IP interface. The OMNI interface network layer neighbor cache is
maintained through static and/or dynamic neighbor cache entry
configurations.
Each OMNI interface also maintains a separate internal adaptation
layer conceptual neighbor cache that includes a Neighbor Cache Entry
(NCE) for each of its active OAL neighbors per [RFC4861]. IPv6 ND
messages that update the adaptation layer neighbor cache include ULA
addresses as well as one or more OMNI options. Throughout this
document, the terms "neighbor cache" and "NCE" refer to this
adaptation layer neighbor cache unless otherwise specified.
Each OMNI interface NCE is indexed by the IPv6 address of a neighbor
found in the ND message IPv6 header and determines the context for
Identification verification. Clients and Proxy/Servers maintain NCEs
through dynamic RS/RA message exchanges, and also maintain NCEs for
any active correspondent peers through dynamic NS/NA message
exchanges.
Hosts maintain NCEs for Clients and other Hosts through the exchange
of RS/RA, NS/NA or Redirect messages. Each NCE is indexed by the IP
address assigned to the Host ENET interface, which is the same
address used for L2 encapsulation (i.e., without the insertion of an
OAL header). This encapsulation format identifies the NCE as a Host-
based entry where the Host is a leaf end system in the recursively
extended OMNI link.
Clients establish NCEs for their associated FHS and MAP Proxy/Servers
through the exchange of RS/RA messages. When a Client and Proxy/
Server establish NCEs, they set a ReachableTime timer to
REACHABLE_TIME seconds. Clients determine the service profiles for
their FHS and MAP Proxy/Servers by setting the NUD/ARR/RPT flags in
RS messages and also by setting/clearing the FMT-Forward and FMT-Mode
flags in the Interface Attributes sub-option. When the NUD/ARR/RPT
flags are clear, Proxy/Servers forward all NS/NA messages to the
Client, while the Client performs mobility update signaling through
the transmission of uNA messages to all active neighbors following a
mobility event. However, in some environments this may result in
excessive NS/NA control message overhead especially for Clients
connected to low-end data links.
Clients can therefore set the NUD/ARR/RPT flags in RS messages they
send to select their Proxy/Server service profiles. If the NUD flag
is set, the FHS Proxy/Server that forwards the RS message assumes the
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role of responding to NS messages and maintains peer NCEs associated
with the NCE for this Client. If the ARR flag is set, the MAP Proxy/
Server that processes the RS message assumes the role of responding
to NS for Address Resolution (NS(AR)) messages on behalf of this
Client NCE. If the RPT flag is set, the MAP Proxy/Server that
processes the RS message becomes responsible for maintaining a
"Report List" for each Client NCE for the source addresses of NS(AR)
messages it forwards or responds to on behalf of this Client.
When a Client sets the RPT flag, the MAP Proxy/Server maintains
Report List entries based on a ReportTime timer initialized to
REACHABLE_TIME seconds upon receipt of an NS(AR) and decremented once
per second while no additional NS(AR)s arrive. The MAP Proxy/Server
then sends uNA Mobility Management (MM) messages to each Report List
entry when it receives a Client mobility update indication (e.g.,
through receipt of an RS with updated Interface Attributes and/or
Traffic Selectors). When a Report List entry ReportTime timer
expires, the MAP Proxy/Server deletes the entry. When a Client NCE
timer expires, the MAP Proxy/Server deletes the NCE along with its
associated Report List.
Clients can also set/clear the FMT-Forward and FMT-Mode flags in the
Interface Attributes sub-option of each RS message to express their
desired service profile from each FHS Proxy/Server for a specific
underlay interface. The FHS Proxy/Server will consider the Client's
preferences and either accept or override by setting/clearing the
flags in the corresponding RA message reply. Implications for these
bit settings are discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
Both the Client and its MAP Proxy/Server have full knowledge of the
Client's current underlay Interface Attributes and Traffic Selectors,
while FHS Proxy/Servers acting in "proxy" mode have knowledge of only
the individual Client underlay interfaces they service. Clients
determine their FHS and MAP Proxy/Server service models by setting
the NUD/ARR/RPT flags in the RS messages they send as discussed
above.
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When an Address Resolution Source (ARS) sends an NS(AR) message
toward an Address Resolution Target (ART) Client/Relay, the OMNI link
routing system directs the NS(AR) to a MAP Proxy/Server for the ART.
The MAP then either acts as an Address Resolution Responder (ARR) on
behalf of the ART or forwards the NS(AR) to the ART which acts as an
ARR on its own behalf. The ARR returns an NA(AR) response to the
ARS, which creates or updates a NCE for the ART while caching L3 and
L2 addressing information. The ARS then (re)sets ReachableTime for
the NCE to REACHABLE_TIME seconds and performs NS/NA multilink
forwarding exchanges over specific underlay interface pairs to
determine paths for sending carrier packets directly to the ART. The
ARS otherwise decrements ReachableTime while no further solicited NA
messages arrive.
Proxy/Servers add an additional state DEPARTED to the list of NCE
states found in Section 7.3.2 of [RFC4861]. When a Client terminates
its association, the Proxy/Server OMNI interface sets a DepartTime
variable for the NCE to DEPART_TIME seconds. DepartTime is
decremented unless a new IPv6 ND message causes the state to return
to REACHABLE. While a NCE is in the DEPARTED state, the Proxy/Server
forwards OAL packets/fragments destined to the target Client to the
Client's new FHS/MAP Proxy/Server instead.
It is RECOMMENDED that REACHABLE_TIME be set to the default constant
value 30 seconds as specified in [RFC4861]. It is RECOMMENDED that
DEPART_TIME be set to the default constant value 10 seconds to accept
any carrier packets that may be in flight. When ReachableTime or
DepartTime decrement to 0, the NCE is deleted.
AERO nodes also use the value MAX_UNICAST_SOLICIT to limit the number
of NS messages sent when a correspondent may have gone unreachable,
the value MAX_RTR_SOLICITATIONS to limit the number of RS messages
sent without receiving an RA and the value MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT
to limit the number of uNAs that can be sent based on a single event.
It is RECOMMENDED that MAX_UNICAST_SOLICIT, MAX_RTR_SOLICITATIONS and
MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT be set to 3 the same as specified in
[RFC4861].
Different values for the above constants MAY be administratively set;
however, if different values are chosen, all nodes on the link MUST
consistently configure the same values.
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4.5.1. OMNI ND Messages
OMNI interfaces use IPv6 ND messages as the secured control plane
messaging service for all adaptation layer neighbor coordination
exchanges. OMNI interfaces prepare IPv6 ND messages the same as for
standard IPv6 ND, but also include a new option type termed the OMNI
option [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. OMNI interfaces use ULAs/GUAs
instead of LLAs as adaptation layer IPv6 ND message source and
destination addresses. This allows multiple different OMNI links/
segments to be joined into a single link/segment at some future time
without requiring a global renumbering event.
For each IPv6 ND message, the OMNI interface includes one or more
OMNI options (and any other ND message options) then completely
populates all sub-option information. If the OMNI interface includes
an authentication sub-option, it first writes the value 0 into the
authentication signature field then calculates the signature
beginning with the first IPv6 ND message octet following the header
Checksum field and continuing over the entire length of the message.
The OMNI interface next writes the authentication signature value
into the appropriate OMNI authentication option field, then
calculates the IPv6 ND message checksum per [RFC4443] beginning with
a pseudo-header of the IPv6 header and writes the value into the
Checksum field. The IPv6 ND message checksum therefore provides
integrity assurance for the message, while the authentication
signature covers the entire packet or super-packet. OMNI interfaces
verify integrity and authentication of each message received, and
process the message further only following successful verification.
OMNI options include per-neighbor information that provides multilink
forwarding, link layer address and traffic selector information for
the neighbor's underlay interfaces. This information is stored in
both the neighbor cache and AERO Forwarding Information Base (AFIB)
as basis for the forwarding algorithm specified in Section 4.10. The
information is cumulative and reflects the union of the OMNI
information from the most recent IPv6 ND messages received from the
neighbor.
The OMNI option is distinct from any Source/Target Link-Layer Address
Options (S/TLLAOs) that may appear in an IPv6 ND message according to
the appropriate IPv6 over specific link layer specification (e.g.,
[RFC2464]). If both OMNI options and S/TLLAOs appear, the former
pertains to the adaptation layer to underlay interface address
mappings while the latter pertains to the native L2 address format of
the underlay media.
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OMNI interface IPv6 ND messages may also include other IPv6 ND
options. In particular, solicitation messages may include a Nonce
option if required for verification of advertisement replies. If an
OMNI IPv6 ND solicitation message includes a Nonce option, the
advertisement reply must echo the same Nonce. If an OMNI IPv6 ND
solicitation message includes a Timestamp option, the recipient must
also include a Timestamp option in its advertisement reply. All
unsolicited advertisement and redirect messages should include a
Timestamp option.
AERO Clients send RS messages to the link-scoped All-Routers
multicast address or the ULA/GUA (SRA) address of a Proxy/Server
while using unicast or anycast OAL/L2 addresses. AERO Proxy/Servers
respond by returning unicast RA messages. During the RS/RA exchange,
AERO Clients and Proxy/Servers include state synchronization
parameters to establish Identification windows and other state.
AERO Hosts and Clients on ENET underlay networks send RS messages to
the link-scoped All-Routers multicast address, a GUA (SRA) address of
a remote MAP Proxy/Server or the MNP (SRA) address of an upstream
Client while using unicast or anycast OAL/L2 addresses. The upstream
AERO Client responds by returning a unicast RA message.
AERO nodes use NS/NA messages for the following purposes:
* NS/NA(AR) messages are used for address resolution. The ARS sends
an NS(AR) to the unicast address of the ART, and an ARR with
addressing information for the ART returns a unicast NA(AR) that
contains current, consistent and authentic target address
resolution information. NS/NA(AR) messages must be secured.
* Other NS/NA message exchanges are used to determine target
reachability (NS/NA(NUD)), establish/maintain Route Optimization
state (NS/NA(RO)) or establish/maintain multilink forwarding state
(NS/NA(MF)). The source sends an NS to the unicast address of the
target while optionally including an OMNI Multilink Vector sub-
option naming a specific underlay interface pair, and the target
returns a responsive NA. NS/NA messages that use an in-window
sequence number and do not update any other state need not include
an authentication signature but must include an IPv6 ND message
checksum. NS/NA messages used to establish or update NCE and/or
AFIB state must be secured.
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* Unsolicited NA (uNA) messages are used to signal addressing and/or
other mobility management (uNA(MM)) neighbor state changes (e.g.,
address changes due to mobility, signal degradation, traffic
selector updates, etc.). uNA messages can also be also used to
acknowledge receipt of other IPv6 ND messages (uNA(ACK)) as well
as to securely convey ICMP error information (uNA(ERR)). uNA
messages that update state information must be secured.
* NS/NA(DAD) messages are not used in AERO, since Duplicate Address
Detection is not required.
AERO and OMNI together support an added reliability feature not
available in ordinary IPv6 ND messaging. In particular, nodes can
set the OMNI Neighbor Coordination SNR flag or Window Synchronization
SYN/TST flag in unicast non-solicitation IPv6 ND messages (including
RA, NA and Redirect) to request a synchronous (but "unsolicited")
uNA(ACK) acknowledgement response (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]).
The node that processes an SNR/SYN/TST message prepares the response
the same as for an ordinary uNA as specified in [RFC4861], including
the setting of the R/S/O flags as discussed below. The node sets the
uNA(ACK) Target Address to the unicast destination and uNA(ACK)
destination address to the unicast source of the original message.
The node then sets the uNA(ACK) source address to its own address and
includes any necessary OMNI sub-options but MUST NOT itself set the
SNR/SYN/TST flags. If the SNR/SYN/TST message included a Nonce and/
or Timestamp option, the node includes matching Nonce/Timestamp
options in the uNA(ACK) response. The node finally returns the uNA
message to the source of the SNR/SYN/TST message.
4.5.2. OMNI Neighbor Advertisement Message Flags
As discussed in Section 4.4 of [RFC4861] NA messages include three
flag bits R, S and O. OMNI interface NA messages treat the flags as
follows:
* R: The R ("Router") flag is set to 1 in the NA messages sent by
all AERO forwarding nodes on the OMNI link. (AERO Hosts are by
definition the only non-forwarding nodes on the OMNI link and
therefore set the R flag to 0.)
* S: The S ("Solicited") flag is set exactly as specified in
Section 4.4. of [RFC4861], i.e., it is set to 1 for Solicited NAs
and set to 0 for uNAs (both unicast and multicast).
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* O: The O ("Override") flag is set to 0 for solicited NAs returned
by a Proxy/Server ARR and set to 1 for all other solicited and
unsolicited NAs.
4.5.3. OMNI Neighbor Window Synchronization
In secured environments (e.g., between secured spanning tree
neighbors, between neighbors on the same secured ANET, etc.), OMNI
interface neighbors can exchange AERO control messages without
including Identification values. In environments where spoofing is
considered a threat, OMNI interface neighbors instead invoke
Identification window synchronization by including OMNI Multilink
Vector sub-options in RS/RA and NS/NA message exchanges to maintain
send/receive window state in their respective neighbor caches as well
as in AFIB entries of all OAL intermediate nodes in the forward and
reverse paths.
In common arrangements, OAL Identification window synchronization is
necessary for Client to Client, Client to Proxy/Server or Proxy/
Server to Proxy/Server message exchanges conducted over unsecured
Internetwork paths. Conversely, Proxy/Server to Proxy/Server, Proxy/
Server to Gateway and Gateway to Gateway message exchanges carried
over the secured spanning tree do not require window synchronization.
OAL end system and intermediate nodes verify Identification values of
OAL packets that traverse the unsecured spanning tree according to
their populated AFIB state. This allows each OAL node to exclude
spurious packets injected into the OMNI link from an off-path
adversary.
4.6. OMNI Interface Encapsulation and Fragmentation
When the network layer forwards an original IP packet/parcel into an
OMNI interface, the interface locates or creates a Neighbor Cache
Entry (NCE) that matches the destination. The OMNI interface then
invokes the OMNI Adaptation Layer (OAL) as discussed in
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3] which encapsulates the packet/parcel in an
IPv6 header to produce an OAL packet with ULA/GUA addresses taken
from a SNP assigned by a Proxy/Server.
Following encapsulation, the OAL source then fragments the OAL packet
while including an identical Identification value for each fragment
that must be within the window for the flow over the interface pair
selected for the neighbor. The OAL source includes any necessary OAL
IPv6 extension headers including an identical Compressed Routing
Header (CRH) [I-D.ietf-6man-comp-rtg-hdr] with each fragment
containing an AERO Forwarding Vector Index (AFVI) as discussed in
Section 4.13. (The OAL source includes AFVIs no larger than 65535 as
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2-octet values and includes larger AFVIs as 4-octet values when it
prepares the CRH.) The OAL source can instead invoke OAL header
compression by replacing the full OAL IPv6 header (OFH), CRH and
Extended Fragment Header with an OAL Compressed Header (OCH) (see:
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]).
For messages that will traverse unsecured paths, the OAL source
finally performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation on each resulting OAL
fragment to form a carrier packet, with source address set to its own
L2 address (e.g., 192.0.2.100) and destination set to the L2 address
of the next hop OAL intermediate system or destination (e.g.,
192.0.2.1). The carrier packet encapsulation format in the above
example is shown in Figure 3:
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| L2 Headers |
~ src = 192.0.2.100 ~
| dst = 192.0.2.1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
~ L2 IPv6 Extension Headers ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| OAL IPv6 Header |
~ src={ULA,GUA}-1 ~
| dst={ULA,GUA}-2 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
~ OAL IPv6 Extension Headers ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Original IP Header |
~ (first-fragment only) ~
~ src={ULA,GUA}-3 ~
| dst={ULA,GUA}-4 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
~ ~
~ Original Packet Body/Fragment ~
~ ~
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 3: Carrier Packet Format
(Note that carrier packets exchanged by ENET Hosts do not include the
OAL IPv6 or CRH headers, i.e., the OAL encapsulation is NULL and only
the L2 encapsulations including any L2 IPv6 extension headers are
included.)
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In this format, the OAL source encapsulates the original IP header
and packet/parcel body/fragment in an OAL IPv6 header, the CRH is a
Routing Header extension of the OAL header, the Extended Fragment
Header identifies each fragment, and the L2 headers are prepared as
discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The OAL source sends each
such carrier packet into the SRT unsecured spanning tree, where they
may be forwarded over multiple OAL intermediate systems until they
arrive at the OAL destination. These carrier packets may themselves
be subject to L2 fragmentation and reassembly along the path.
The OMNI link control plane service distributes Client MNP prefix
information that may change occasionally due to regional node
mobility, as well as more static information for Relay FNPs and per-
segment SNPs that rarely change. OMNI link Gateways and Proxy/
Servers use the information to establish and maintain a forwarding
plane spanning tree that connects all nodes on the link. The
spanning tree supports a virtual bridging service according to link
layer (instead of network layer) information, but may often include
longer paths than necessary.
Each OMNI interface therefore also includes an AERO Forwarding
Information Base (AFIB) that caches AERO Forwarding Vectors (AFVs)
which can provide both carrier packet Identification context and more
direct forwarding "shortcuts" that avoid strict spanning tree paths.
As a result, the spanning tree is always available but OMNI
interfaces can often use the AFIB entries established through route
optimization to greatly improve performance and reduce load on
critical infrastructure elements.
For OAL packets/fragments undergoing L2 re-encapsulation at an OAL
intermediate system, the OMNI interface performs L2 reassembly/
decapsulation followed by Identification verification and OAL
reassembly only if the OAL packet/fragment is addressed to itself.
The OMNI interface then decrements the OAL IPv6 header Hop Limit and
discards the packet/fragment if the Hop Limit reaches 0. Otherwise,
the OMNI interface updates the OAL addresses if necessary, includes
an appropriate Identification, performs OAL fragmentation then for
each OAL fragment performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation to produce
carrier packets appropriate for next segment forwarding.
OAL packets/fragments that travel over secured spanning tree hops do
not include OMNI L2 encapsulations. They are instead admitted into
secured links such as IPsec tunnels or direct links where they may be
subject to L2 security encapsulations as secured carrier packets.
(Note that OMNI protocol L2 encapsulations could be used above the L2
security services, but this could result in excessive encapsulation
in some instances.)
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4.7. OMNI Interface Decapsulation
When an OAL node receives OAL packets/fragments addressed to another
node, it discards the L2 headers and includes new L2 headers
appropriate for the next hop in the forwarding path to the OAL
destination (after first performing any necessary L2 fragmentation or
reassembly). The node then sends these new carrier packets into the
next hop underlay interface.
When an OAL node receives OAL packets/fragments addressed to itself,
it performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification,
then performs OAL reassembly/decapsulation to obtain the original OAL
packet or super-packet (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]). Next, if the
enclosed original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) are destined either to
itself or to a destination reached via an interface other than the
OMNI interface, the OAL node discards the OAL encapsulation and
forwards the original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) to the network layer.
If the original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) are destined to another node
reached by the OMNI interface, the OAL node instead changes the OAL
source to its own address, changes the OAL destination to the address
of the next-hop node over the OMNI interface, decrements the Hop
Limit, then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards
these new carrier packets into the next hop underlay interface.
Further OMNI link decapsulation details are specified in
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. Further OMNI link forwarding procedures
are specified in Section 4.10.
4.8. OMNI Interface Data Origin Authentication
AERO nodes employ simple data origin authentication procedures. In
particular:
* AERO Gateways and Proxy/Servers accept carrier packets received
from the secured spanning tree.
* AERO Proxy/Servers and Clients accept carrier packets and original
IP packets/parcels that originate from within the same secured
ANET.
* AERO Clients and Relays accept original IP packets/parcels from
downstream network correspondents based on ingress filtering.
* AERO Hosts, Clients, Relays, Proxy/Servers and Gateways verify
carrier packet L2 encapsulation addresses according to
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
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* OAL end systems and intermediate systems forward/accept OAL
packets/fragments with Identification values within the current
window for the OAL source neighbor for a specific underlay
interface pair and drop any packets with out-of-window
Identification values.
AERO nodes silently drop any packets/parcels that do not satisfy the
above data origin authentication procedures. Further security
considerations are discussed in Section 7.
4.9. OMNI Interface MTU
The OMNI interface observes the link nature of tunnels, including the
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), Effective MTU to Receive (EMTU_R)
and the role of fragmentation and reassembly
[I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]. The OMNI interface employs an OMNI
Adaptation Layer (OAL) that accommodates multiple underlay links with
diverse MTUs. OMNI interface packet sizing considerations are
specified in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3], where the OMNI interface MTU
can essentially be considered "unlimited".
When the network layer presents an original IP packet/parcel to the
OMNI interface, the OAL source encapsulates and fragments the packet/
parcel if necessary. When the network layer presents the OMNI
interface with multiple original IP packets/parcels addressed to the
same IPv6 flow, the OAL source can concatenate them as a single OAL
super-packet as discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3] before applying
fragmentation. The OAL source then submits each OAL fragment for L2
encapsulation/fragmentation for transmission as carrier packets over
an underlay interface connected to either a physical link (e.g.,
Ethernet, WiFi, Cellular, etc.) or a virtual link such as an Internet
or higher-layer tunnel.
4.10. OMNI Interface Forwarding Algorithm
Original IP packets/parcels enter a node's OMNI interface either from
the network layer (i.e., from a local application or the IP
forwarding system) while carrier packets enter from the link layer
(i.e., from an OMNI interface neighbor). All original IP packets/
parcels and carrier packets entering a node's OMNI interface first
undergo data origin authentication as discussed in Section 4.8.
Those that satisfy data origin authentication are processed further,
while all others are dropped silently.
Original IP packets/parcels that enter the OMNI interface from the
network layer are forwarded to an OMNI interface neighbor using OAL
encapsulation and fragmentation to produce carrier packets for
transmission over underlay interfaces. (If forwarding state
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indicates that the original IP packet/parcel should instead be
forwarded back to the network layer, the packet/parcel is dropped to
avoid looping). Carrier packets that enter the OMNI interface from
the link layer are either re-encapsulated and re-admitted into the
link layer, or reassembled and forwarded to the network layer where
they are subject to either local delivery or IP forwarding.
When the network layer of a router forwards an original IP packet/
parcel into the OMNI interface, it decrements the TTL/Hop Limit
following standard IP router conventions. Once inside the OMNI
interface, however, the OAL does not further decrement the original
IP packet/parcel TTL/Hop Limit since its adaptation layer forwarding
actions occur below the network layer. The original IP packet/
parcel's TTL/Hop Limit will therefore be the same when it exits the
destination OMNI interface as when it first entered the source OMNI
interface.
When an OAL intermediate system receives a carrier packet, it
performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation to obtain the enclosed OAL
packet/fragment. When the intermediate system forwards an OAL
packet/fragment not addressed to itself, it decrements the OAL Hop
Limit without decrementing the network layer IP TTL/Hop Limit. If
decrementing would cause the OAL Hop Limit to become 0, the OAL
intermediate system drops the OAL packet/fragment. This ensures that
original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) cannot enter an endless loop.
OMNI interfaces may have multiple underlay interfaces and/or neighbor
cache entries for neighbors with multiple underlay interfaces (see
Section 4.3). The OAL uses Interface Attributes and/or Traffic
Selectors to select an outbound underlay interface for each OAL
packet and also to select segment routing and/or link layer
destination addresses based on the neighbor's target underlay
interfaces. AERO implementations SHOULD permit network management to
dynamically adjust Traffic Selector values at runtime.
If an OAL packet/fragment matches the Interface Attributes and/or
Traffic Selectors of multiple outgoing interfaces and/or neighbor
interfaces, the OMNI interface replicates the packet and sends a
separate copy via each of the (outgoing / neighbor) interface pairs;
otherwise, it sends a single copy via an interface with the best
matching attributes/selectors. (While not strictly required, the
likelihood of successful reassembly may improve when the OMNI
interface sends all fragments of the same fragmented OAL packet/
fragment consecutively over the same underlay interface pair to avoid
complicating factors such as delay variance and reordering.) AERO
nodes keep track of which underlay interfaces are currently
"reachable" or "unreachable", and only use "reachable" interfaces for
forwarding purposes.
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In addition to standard forwarding based on Interface Attributes and/
or Traffic Selectors, nodes may employ a policy engine that would
provide further guidance to the forwarding algorithm. For example
the policy engine may suggest a load balancing profile over multiple
underlay interface pairs, with portions of a traffic flow spread
between multiple paths according to Equal Cost MultiPath or Link
Aggregation Groups (LAGs) [RFC6438] (note that Interface Attributes
include an underlay interface group identifier). Other policies may
suggest the use of paths with the least cost, best performance, etc.
This document therefore specifies mechanisms without mandating any
particular policies.
All Clients, Proxy/Servers and Gateways serve as OAL intermediate
nodes for the purpose of forwarding OAL packets/fragments that
include a CRH or OCH with non-zero AFVI over the unsecured spanning
tree based on AFIB entries. When an OAL intermediate node forwards
an OAL packet/fragment with an L2 source address and AFVI that
matches an AFV, the node first verifies that the Identification is in
sequence. The OAL intermediate node then rewrites the packet's AFVI
with a value that will be recognized by the next OAL hop and forwards
the packet. (For OAL packets/fragments that do not include a non-
zero AFVI, the OAL intermediate node instead forwards based on
matching the OAL IPv6 destination address with a standard IPv6
forwarding table entry.) The chain of OAL source, intermediate and
destination nodes may therefore traverse many Clients, Proxy/Servers
and Gateways on the path.
The following sections discuss the OMNI interface-specific forwarding
algorithms for Hosts, Clients, Proxy/Servers and Gateways. In the
following discussion, an original IP packet/parcel's destination
address is said to "match" if it is the same as a cached address, or
if it is covered by a cached FNP/SNP/MNP.
4.10.1. Host Forwarding Algorithm
When an original IP packet/parcel enters a Host's OMNI interface from
the network layer the Host searches for a NCE that matches the
destination. If there is a matching NCE, the Host performs OMNI L2
encapsulation/fragmentation as discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]
then forwards the resulting carrier packets into the ENET addressed
to the L2 address of the neighbor. If there is no match, the host
instead sends the carrier packets to its upstream Client.
After sending carrier packets, the Host may receive an OAL Redirect
message from its upstream Client to inform it of another AERO node on
the same ENET that would provide a better first hop. The Host
authenticates the Redirect message, then updates its neighbor cache
accordingly.
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4.10.2. Client Forwarding Algorithm
When an original IP packet/parcel enters a Client's OMNI interface
from the network layer the Client searches for a NCE that matches the
destination. If there is a matching NCE for a neighbor reached via a
*NET interface (i.e., an upstream interface), the Client selects one
or more "reachable" neighbor interfaces in the entry for forwarding
purposes. Otherwise, the Client performs OAL encapsulation and
fragmentation if necessary, forwards the resulting OAL packet/
fragments to an FHS Proxy/Server, then either invokes address
resolution and multilink forwarding procedures per Section 4.13 or
allows the FHS Proxy/Server to invoke these procedures on its behalf.
If there is a matching NCE for a neighbor reached via an ENET
interface (i.e., a downstream interface), the Client instead forwards
the original IP packet/parcel to the downstream Host or Client using
L2 encapsulation and fragmentation if necessary.
When a carrier packet enters a Client's OMNI interface from the link
layer, the Client performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation if necessary
to obtain the OAL packet/fragment then examines the OAL destination
(i.e., after locating the correct AFV if the OAL packet header is
OCH). If the OAL destination matches one of the Client's ULAs the
Client (acting as an OAL destination) verifies that the
Identification is in-window for the matching AFV, then reassembles/
decapsulates as necessary and delivers the original IP packet/parcel
to the network layer. If the OAL destination matches a NCE for a
dependent peer Client on an ENET interface, the Client instead
forwards the OAL packet/fragment to the peer while decrementing the
OAL Hop Limit. If the OAL destination matches a NCE for a Host on an
ENET interface, the Client instead reassembles then forwards the
original IP packet/parcel to the Host while using L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation (i.e., without invoking the OAL) if necessary. If the
OAL destination does not match, the Client drops the original IP
packet/parcel and MAY return a network layer ICMP Destination
Unreachable message subject to rate limiting (see: Section 4.11).
When a Client forwards an OAL packet/fragment from an ENET Host to a
neighbor connected to the same ENET, it also returns a Redirect
message to inform the Host that it can reach the neighbor directly as
an ENET peer.
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Note: The forwarding table entries established in peer Clients of a
MANET multihop forwarding region are based on ULAs and/or HHITs used
to seed the multihop routing protocols. When ULAs are used, the
subnet ID in the ULA /64 prefix provides topological relevance for
the multihop forwarding region, while the 64-bit Interface Identifier
encodes the 1x1 mapping of the MANET-internal ULA to the MANET-
external GUA maintained by the Proxy/Server that configures the GUA/
ULA SNP.
Note: Clients within MANETs support Client-to-Client multihop
forwarding when necessary to reach destinations or FHS Proxy/Servers
that may be multiple OAL hops away. In this way, forwarding Clients
act as OAL intermediate nodes and forward using OCH compression based
on AFV state that is indexed by the AFVIs included in each OAL
packet/fragment. ULA-based communications are sufficient for Client-
to-Client communications within a MANET, while packets that enter or
exit the MANET via a FHS Proxy/Server may be subject to NPTv6
[I-D.bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis].
4.10.3. Proxy/Server and Relay Forwarding Algorithm
When the network layer admits an original IP packet/parcel into a
Proxy/Server's OMNI interface, the OAL drops the packet/parcel to
avoid looping if forwarding state indicates that it should be
forwarded back to the network layer. Otherwise, the OAL examines the
IP destination address to determine if it matches the SNP SRA GUA of
a neighboring Gateway found in the OMNI interface's network layer
neighbor cache. If so, the Proxy/Server performs OAL encapsulation
and fragmentation then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and
forwards the resulting carrier packets to the Gateway over a secured
link (e.g., an IPsec tunnel, Direct link, etc.) to support control
plane functions such as the operation of the BGP routing protocol.
If the destination matches an FNP/MNP associated with a (foreign)
Proxy/Server or Client, the (local) Proxy/Server instead assumes the
Relay role and forwards the original IP packet/parcel in a similar
manner as for Clients. Specifically, if there is a matching NCE the
Proxy/Server selects one or more "reachable" neighbor interfaces in
the entry for forwarding purposes; otherwise, the Proxy/Server
performs OAL encapsulation/fragmentation followed by L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets while invoking address resolution and multilink forwarding
procedures per Section 4.13.
When the Proxy/Server receives/reassembles carrier packets on
underlay interfaces that contain OAL packets/fragments with both a
source and destination OAL address that correspond to the same
Client's delegated MNP or SNP GUA, the Proxy/Server drops the carrier
packets regardless of their OMNI link point of origin. The Proxy/
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Server also drops original IP packets/parcels received on underlay
interfaces either directly from a (M)ANET Client or following
reassembly of carrier packets received from a *NET Client if the
original IP destination corresponds to the same Client's delegated
MNP or SNP GUA. Proxy/Servers also drop carrier packets that contain
OAL packets/fragments with foreign OAL destinations that do not match
the SNP/MNP GUA associated with one of their local *NET Clients.
These checks are essential to prevent forwarding inconsistencies from
accidentally or intentionally establishing endless loops that could
congest nodes and/or *NET links.
Proxy/Servers process carrier packets that contain OAL packets/
fragments with OCH headers or with destinations that match their SNP
SRA ULA/GUA and also include a CRH header that encodes AFVI
information. The Proxy/Server examines the L2 source address and
AFVI to locate the corresponding AFV entry in the AFIB. The Proxy/
Server then forwards them according to the AFV state while
decrementing the OAL packet/fragment Hop Limit.
For OAL packets/fragments with destinations that match their SNP SRA
ULA/GUA but do not include a CRH/OCH with a non-zero AFVI, the Proxy/
Server instead performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the
Identification and performs OAL reassembly to obtain the original IP
packet/parcel. For data packets/parcels addressed to its own GUA
that arrived via the secured spanning tree, the Proxy/Server delivers
the original IP packet/parcel to the network layer to support secured
BGP routing protocol control messaging. For data packets/parcels
originating from one of its dependent Clients, the Proxy/Server
instead performs OAL encapsulation/fragmentation followed by L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and sends the resulting carrier packets
while invoking address resolution and multilink forwarding procedures
per Section 4.13. For IPv6 ND control messages, the Proxy/Server
instead authenticates the message and processes it as specified in
later sections of this document while updating neighbor cache and/or
AFIB state accordingly.
When the Proxy/Server receives a carrier packet that contains an OAL
packet/fragment with OAL destination set to an SNP ULA or MNP GUA of
one of its Client neighbors established through RS/RA exchanges, it
accepts the carrier packet only if data origin authentication
succeeds. If the NCE state is DEPARTED, the Proxy/Server changes the
OAL destination address to the SNP SRA GUA of the new Proxy/Server,
decrements the OAL Hop Limit, then performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier packets into the
spanning tree which will eventually deliver them to the new Proxy/
Server. If the neighbor cache state for the Client is REACHABLE and
the Proxy/Server is a MAP responsible for serving as the Client's
address resolution responder and/or default router, it verifies the
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Identification then submits the OAL packet/fragment for reassembly.
The Proxy/Server then decapsulates and processes the resulting IPv6
ND message or original IP packet/parcel accordingly. Otherwise, the
Proxy/Server decrements the OAL Hop Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and sends the carrier packets to the Client which must
then perform data origin verification and reassembly. (In the latter
case, the Client may receive fragments of the same original IP
packet/parcel from different Proxy/Servers but this will not
interfere with reassembly.)
When the Proxy/Server receives a carrier packet that contains an OAL
packet/fragment with OAL destination set to a FNP address that does
not match the MSP, it accepts the carrier packet only if data origin
authentication succeeds and if there is a network layer forwarding
table entry for the FNP. The Proxy/Server then performs L2
reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification, performs OAL
reassembly/decapsulation to obtain the original IP packet/parcel,
then presents it to the network layer (as a Relay) where it will be
delivered according to standard IP forwarding.
When a Proxy/Server receives a carrier packet from the secured
spanning tree, it considers the message as authentic without having
to verify network or higher layer authentication signatures.
If the Proxy/Server has multiple original IP packets/parcels to send
to the same neighbor, it can concatenate them as a single OAL super-
packet [I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
4.10.4. Gateway Forwarding Algorithm
When the network layer admits an original IP packet/parcel into the
Gateway's OMNI interface, the OAL drops the packet if routing
indicates that it should be forwarded back to the network layer to
avoid looping. Otherwise, the Gateway examines the IP destination
address to determine if it matches the SNP SRA GUA of a neighboring
Gateway or Proxy/Server by examining the OMNI interface's network
layer neighbor cache. If so, the Gateway performs OAL encapsulation/
fragmentation followed by L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards
the resulting carrier packets to the neighboring Gateway or Proxy/
Server over a secured link (e.g., an IPsec tunnel, etc.) to support
the operation of control plane functions (including the BGP routing
protocol) between OAL neighbors.
Gateways forward OAL packets/fragments reassembled from spanning tree
carrier packets while decrementing the OAL Hop Limit but not the
original IP header TTL/Hop Limit. Gateways send carrier packets that
contain OAL packets/fragments with critical IPv6 ND control messages
or BGP routing protocol control messages via the SRT secured spanning
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tree, and may send other carrier packets via the secured/unsecured
spanning tree or via more direct paths according to AFIB information.
When the Gateway receives a carrier packet, it reassembles/
decapsulates to obtain the OAL packet/fragment then searches for an
AFIB entry that matches the OAL header AFVI or an IP forwarding table
entry that matches the OAL destination address.
Gateways process carrier packets that contain OAL packets/fragments
with OAL destinations that do not match their SNP/SRT SRA GUA in the
same manner as for traditional IP forwarding within the OAL, i.e.,
they forward packets not explicitly addressed to themselves.
Gateways locally process OAL packets/fragments with OCH headers or
full OAL headers with their SNP/SRT SRA GUA as the OAL destination.
If the OAL packet/fragment contains an OCH or a full OAL header with
a CRH extension, the Gateway examines the AFVI to locate the AFV
entry in the AFIB for next hop forwarding. If an AFV is found, the
Gateway uses the next hop AFVI to forward the OAL packet/fragment to
the next hop while decrementing the OAL Hop Limit but without
reassembling. When the Gateway forwards the OAL packet/fragment, it
rewrites the OCH/CRH AFVI with the value it will represent to the
next OAL hop.
If the OAL packet/fragment includes a full OAL header addressed to
itself but does not include an AFVI, the Gateway instead reassembles
if necessary and processes the OAL packet further. The Gateway first
determines whether the OAL packet includes an NS/NA message then
processes the message according to the multilink forwarding
procedures discussed in Section 4.13. If the carrier packets arrived
over the secured spanning tree and the enclosed OAL packets/fragments
are addressed to its SNP/SRT SRA GUA, the Gateway instead reassembles
then discards the OAL header and forwards the original IP packet/
parcel to the network layer to support secured BGP routing protocol
control messaging. The Gateway instead drops all other OAL packets.
Gateways forward OAL packets/fragments received in carrier packets
that arrived from a first segment via the secured spanning tree to
the next segment also via the secured spanning tree. Gateways
forward OAL packets/fragments received in carrier packets that
arrived from a first segment via the unsecured spanning tree to the
next segment also via the unsecured spanning tree. Gateways
configure a single IPv6 routing table that determines the next hop
for a given OAL destination, where the secured/unsecured spanning
tree is determined through the selection of the underlay interface to
be used for transmission (e.g., an IPsec tunnel or an open INET
interface).
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As for Proxy/Servers, Gateways must verify that the L2 source
addresses of carrier packets not received from the secured spanning
tree are "trusted" before forwarding according to an AFV (otherwise,
the carrier packet must be dropped).
4.11. OMNI Interface Error Handling
When an AERO node admits an original IP packet/parcel into the OMNI
interface, it may receive link and/or network layer error
indications. The AERO node may also receive OMNI link error
indications in OAL-encapsulated uNA(ERR) messages that include
authentication signatures.
A link layer error indication is an ICMP error message generated by a
router in an underlay network on the path to the neighbor or by the
neighbor itself. The message includes an IP header with the address
of the node that generated the error as the source address and with
the link layer address of the AERO node as the destination address.
The IP header is followed by an ICMP header that includes an error
Type, Code and Checksum. Valid type values include "Destination
Unreachable", "Time Exceeded", "Parameter Problem" etc.
[RFC0792][RFC4443].
The ICMP header is followed by the leading portion of the carrier
packet that generated the error, also known as the "packet-in-error".
For ICMPv6, [RFC4443] specifies that the packet-in-error includes:
"As much of invoking packet as possible without the ICMPv6 packet
exceeding the minimum IPv6 MTU" (i.e., no more than 1280 bytes). For
ICMPv4, [RFC0792] specifies that the packet-in-error includes:
"Internet Header + 64 bits of Original Data Datagram", however
[RFC1812] Section 4.3.2.3 updates this specification by stating: "the
ICMP datagram SHOULD contain as much of the original datagram as
possible without the length of the ICMP datagram exceeding 576
bytes".
The link layer error message format is shown in Figure 4:
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+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
~ IP Header of link layer ~
~ error message ~
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
~ ICMP Header ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ---
| | P
~ carrier packet L2 and OAL ~ a
~ encapsulation headers ~ c
| | k
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ e
| | t
~original IP packet/parcel hdrs ~
~ (first-fragment only) ~ i
| | n
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | e
~ Portion of the body of ~ r
~ the original IP packet/parcel ~ r
~ (all fragments) ~ o
| | r
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ---
Figure 4: OMNI Interface Link-Layer Error Message Format
The AERO node rules for processing these link layer error messages
are as follows:
* When an AERO node receives a link layer Parameter Problem message,
it processes the message the same as described as for ordinary
ICMP errors in the normative references [RFC0792][RFC4443].
* When an AERO node receives persistent link layer Time Exceeded
messages, the IP ID field may be wrapping before earlier fragments
awaiting reassembly have been processed. In that case, the node
should begin including integrity checks and/or institute rate
limits for subsequent carrier packets.
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* When an AERO node receives persistent link layer Destination
Unreachable messages in response to carrier packets that it sends
to one of its neighbor correspondents, the node should process the
message as an indication that a path may be failing, and
optionally initiate NUD over that path. If it receives
Destination Unreachable messages over multiple paths, the node
should allow future carrier packets destined to the correspondent
to flow through a default route and re-initiate route
optimization.
* When an AERO Client receives persistent link layer Destination
Unreachable messages in response to carrier packets that it sends
to one of its neighbor Proxy/Servers, the Client should mark the
path as unusable and use another path. If it receives Destination
Unreachable messages on many or all paths, the Client should
associate with a new Proxy/Server and release its association with
the old Proxy/Server as specified in Section 4.15.5.
* When an AERO Proxy/Server receives persistent link layer
Destination Unreachable messages in response to carrier packets
that it sends to one of its neighbor Clients, the Proxy/Server
should mark the underlay path as unusable and use another underlay
path.
* When an AERO Proxy/Server receives link layer Destination
Unreachable messages in response to a carrier packet that it sends
to one of its permanent neighbors, it treats the messages as an
indication that the path to the neighbor may be failing. However,
the dynamic routing protocol should soon re-converge and correct
the temporary outage.
When an AERO Gateway receives a carrier packet for which the network
layer destination address is covered by an MSP assigned to a black-
hole route, the Gateway drops the carrier packet if there is no more-
specific routing information for the destination and returns an OMNI
interface Destination Unreachable message subject to rate limiting.
When an AERO node receives a carrier packet for which OAL reassembly
is currently congested, it returns an OMNI interface Packet Too Big
(PTB) message as discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3] (note that the
PTB messages could indicate either "hard" or "soft" errors).
AERO nodes include ICMPv6 error messages intended for an OAL source
as sub-options in the OMNI option of secured uNA(ERR) messages. When
the OAL source receives the uNA(ERR) message, it can extract the
ICMPv6 error message enclosed in the OMNI option and either process
it locally or translate it into a network layer error to return to
the original source.
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4.12. AERO Mobility Service Coordination
AERO nodes observes the Router Discovery and Prefix Registration
specifications found in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. AERO nodes further
coordinate their autoconfiguration actions with the mobility service
as discussed in the following sections.
4.12.1. AERO Service Model
Each AERO Proxy/Server on the OMNI link is configured to respond to
Client prefix delegation/registration requests. Each Proxy/Server is
provisioned with a database of MNP-to-Client ID mappings for all
Clients enrolled in the AERO service, as well as any information
necessary to authenticate each Client. The Client database is
maintained by a central administrative authority for the OMNI link
and securely distributed to all Proxy/Servers, e.g., via the
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC4511], via static
configuration, etc. Clients receive the same service regardless of
the Proxy/Servers they select. (Note: an OMNI link can instead
delegate non-correlated MNPs to Clients instead of maintaining such a
database. In that case, each Client may be delegated a different MNP
each time it registers with the OMNI domain and may need to renumber
its downstream-attached ENETs.)
Clients associate each of their *NET underlay interfaces with FHS
Proxy/Servers. Each FHS Proxy/Server locally services one or more of
the Client's underlay interfaces, and the Client typically selects
one among them to serve as the MAP Proxy/Server (the Client may
instead select a "third-party" MAP Proxy/Server that does not
directly service any of its underlay interfaces). All of the
Client's other FHS Proxy/Servers forward proxyed copies of RS/RA
messages between the MAP Proxy/Server and Client without assuming the
MAP role functions themselves.
Each Client typically associates with a single MAP Proxy/Server,
while all other Proxy/Servers are candidates for providing the MAP
role for other Clients. An FHS Proxy/Server assumes the MAP role
when it receives an RS message with its own SNP SRA GUA/ULA or link-
scoped All-Routers multicast as the destination. An FHS Proxy/Server
assumes the proxy role when it receives an RS message with the SNP
SRA GUA of another Proxy/Server as the destination. (An FHS Proxy/
Server can also assume the proxy role when it receives an RS message
addressed to link-scoped All-Routers multicast if it can determine
the SNP SRA GUA of a better candidate Proxy/Server to serve as a
MAP.)
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Hosts and Clients on ENET interfaces associate with an upstream
Client on the ENET the same as a Client would associate with an ANET
Proxy/Server. Specifically, the Host/Client sends an RS message via
the ENET which directs the message to the upstream Client. The
upstream Client then responds to the RS message by returning an RA.
In this way, the downstream nodes see the ENET as an ANET and see the
upstream Client as a Proxy/Server for that ANET.
AERO Hosts, Clients and Proxy/Servers use IPv6 ND messages to
maintain adaptation layer NCEs. AERO Proxy/Servers configure their
OMNI interfaces as advertising NBMA interfaces, and therefore send
unicast RA messages with a short Router Lifetime value (e.g.,
ReachableTime seconds) in response to a Client's RS message.
Thereafter, Clients send additional RS messages to keep Proxy/Server
state alive.
AERO Clients and FHS/MAP Proxy/Servers include SNP ULA/GUA address
delegation (and optionally also MNP prefix delegation) DHCPv6
parameters in RS/RA messages. The IPv6 ND messages are exchanged
between the Client and any FHS Proxy/Servers acting as proxys for the
MAP Proxy/Server as specified in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3] according
to the address/prefix management schedule required by the service.
If the Client knows its MNP in advance, it can include the MNP in its
DHCPv6 prefix delegation request. If the MAP Proxy/Server accepts
the Client's MNP assertion (or if it delegates a new MNP for the
Client), it injects the MNP into the routing system and establishes
the necessary neighbor cache state.
AERO Clients and their FHS Proxy/Servers on MANETs and open INETs
must establish and maintain Identification synchronization windows in
their RS/RA exchanges. The window synchronization provides a well-
managed Identification value that the Client and Proxy/Server can use
for validating IPv6 ND messages with authentication signatures.
All Host, Client and Proxy/Server behaviors for the exchange of RS/RA
messages are conducted according to the Router Discovery and Prefix
Registration specifications found in Section 15 of
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The following sections observe all of the
OMNI specifications, and include additional specifications of the
interactions of Client-Proxy/Server RS/RA exchanges with the AERO
mobility service.
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4.12.2. AERO Host and Client Behavior
AERO Hosts and Clients discover the addresses of candidate FHS Proxy/
Servers as specified in Section 15 of [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The
Host/Client then performs RS/RA exchanges over each of its underlay
interfaces to associate with an FHS Proxy/Server for each interface
and a single MAP Proxy/Server if necessary. The Host/Client sends
each RS (either directly via Direct interfaces, via an IPsec tunnel
for VPN interfaces, via an access router for (M)ANET interfaces or
via INET encapsulation for INET interfaces) and waits up to
RetransTimer milliseconds for an RA message reply (see
Section 4.12.3) while retrying up to MAX_RTR_SOLICITATIONS if
necessary. If the Host/Client receives no RAs, or if it receives an
RA with Router Lifetime set to 0, the Client SHOULD abandon attempts
through the first candidate Proxy/Server and try another Proxy/
Server.
After the Host/Client registers its underlay interfaces, it may wish
to change one or more registrations, e.g., if an interface changes
address or becomes unavailable, if traffic selectors change, etc. To
do so, the Host/Client prepares an RS message to send over any
available underlay interface as above. The RS includes an OMNI
option with prefix registration/delegation information and with an
Interface Attributes sub-option specific to the selected underlay
interface. When the Host/Client receives the MAP Proxy/Server's RA
response, it has assurance that both the MAP and FHS Proxy/Servers
have been updated with the new information.
If the Host/Client wishes to discontinue use of a MAP Proxy/Server it
issues an RS message over any underlay interface with an OMNI Proxy/
Server Departure sub-option that encodes the (old) MAP Proxy/Server's
SNP SRA GUA. When the MAP Proxy/Server processes the message, it
releases any MNPs, sets the NCE state for the Host/Client to DEPARTED
and returns an RA reply with Router Lifetime set to 0. After a short
delay (e.g., 2 seconds), the MAP Proxy/Server withdraws the MNP from
the routing system. (Alternatively, when the Host/Client associates
with a new FHS/MAP Proxy/Server it can include an OMNI "Proxy/Server
Departure" sub-option in RS messages with the SNA SRA GUAs of the Old
FHS/MAP Proxy/Servers.)
4.12.3. AERO Proxy/Server Behavior
AERO Proxy/Servers act as both IP routers and IPv6 ND proxys, and
support address and prefix delegation services for Clients. When a
FHS/MAP Proxy/Server receives a prospective Client's secured RS
message, it SHOULD return an immediate RA reply with Router Lifetime
set to 0 if it is currently too busy or otherwise unable to service
the Client; otherwise, it processes the RS and performs DHCPv6
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address delegation for SNP ULA/GUA pairs while returning the ULA/GUA
prefixes per [RFC8028] as specified in Section 15 of
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. If the RS message also contains DHCPv6
prefix delegation parameters the FHS Proxy/Server processes the
prefix delegations locally as a MAP or forwards a proxyed version of
the RS to another candidate MAP Proxy/Server.
When the MAP Proxy/Server processes the RS, it determines the correct
MNPs for the Client by processing OMNI DHCPv6 sub-option(s). When
the MAP Proxy/Server returns the MNPs, it also creates forwarding
table entries for the MNP resulting in BGP updates (see:
Section 4.2.3). The MAP Proxy/Server then returns an RA to the
Client via the FHS Proxy/server as specified in Section 15 of
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
After the initial RS/RA exchange, the MAP Proxy/Server maintains a
ReachableTime timer for each of the Client's underlay interfaces
individually (and for the Client's NCE collectively) set to expire
after ReachableTime seconds. If the Client (or an FHS Proxy/Server)
issues additional RS messages, the MAP Proxy/Server sends an RA
response and resets ReachableTime. If the MAP Proxy/Server receives
an IPv6 ND message with a prefix release indication it sets the
Client's NCE to the DEPARTED state and withdraws the MNP route from
the routing system after a short delay (e.g., 2 seconds). If
ReachableTime expires before a new RS is received on an individual
underlay interface, the MAP Proxy/Server marks the interface as DOWN.
If ReachableTime expires before any new RS is received on any
individual underlay interface, the MAP Proxy/Server sets the NCE
state to STALE and sets a 10 second timer. If the MAP Proxy/Server
has not received a new RS or uNA(MM) message with a prefix release
indication before the 10 second timer expires, it deletes the NCE and
withdraws the MNP from the routing system.
The MAP Proxy/Server processes any IPv6 ND messages pertaining to the
Client while forwarding to the Client or responding on the Client's
behalf as necessary. The MAP Proxy/Server may also issue unsolicited
RA messages, e.g., with reconfigure parameters to cause the Client to
renegotiate its prefix delegation/registrations, with Router Lifetime
set to 0 if it can no longer service this Client, etc. The MAP
Proxy/Server may also receive carrier packets via the secured
spanning tree that contain initial data sent while route optimization
is in progress. The MAP Proxy/Server reassembles the enclosed OAL
packets/fragments, then re-encapsulates/re-fragments and sends the
carrier packets to the target Client via an FHS Proxy/Server if
necessary. Finally, If the NCE is in the DEPARTED state, the old MAP
Proxy/Server forwards any OAL packets/fragments it receives from the
secured spanning tree and destined to the Client to the new MAP
Proxy/Server, then deletes the entry after DepartTime expires.
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Note: Clients SHOULD arrange to notify former MAP Proxy/Servers of
their departures, but MAP Proxy/Servers are responsible for expiring
neighbor cache entries and withdrawing MNP routes even if no
departure notification is received (e.g., if the Client leaves the
network unexpectedly). MAP Proxy/Servers SHOULD therefore set Router
Lifetime to ReachableTime seconds in solicited RA messages to
minimize persistent stale cache information in the absence of Client
departure notifications. A short Router Lifetime also ensures that
proactive RS/RA messaging between Clients and FHS Proxy/Servers will
keep any NAT state alive (see above).
Note: All Proxy/Servers on an OMNI link MUST advertise consistent
values in the RA Cur Hop Limit, M and O flags, Reachable Time and
Retrans Timer fields the same as for any link, since unpredictable
behavior could result if different Proxy/Servers on the same link
advertised different values.
4.12.3.1. Additional Proxy/Server Considerations
AERO Clients register with FHS Proxy/Servers for each underlay
interface. Each of the Client's FHS Proxy/Servers in turn inform a
single MAP Proxy/Server of the Client's underlay interface(s) that it
services. For Clients on Direct and VPN/IPsec underlay interfaces,
the FHS Proxy/Server for each interface is directly connected, for
Clients on (M)ANET underlay interfaces the FHS Proxy/Server is
located on the (M)ANET/INET boundary, and for Clients on INET
underlay interfaces the FHS Proxy/Server is located somewhere in the
connected Internetwork. When FHS Proxy/Server "B" processes a Client
registration, it must either assume the MAP role or forward a proxyed
registration to another Proxy/Server "A" acting as the MAP. Proxy/
Servers satisfy these requirements as follows:
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* when FHS Proxy/Server "B" receives a Client RS message, it first
verifies that the OAL Identification is within the window for the
flow AFV associated with the NCE for this Client and authenticates
the message. If no NCE was found, Proxy/Server "B" instead
creates one in the STALE state and caches the Client-supplied
Interface Attributes, Origin Indication and Multilink Vector sub-
option parameters as well as the Client's observed L2 address
(noting that it may differ from the Origin address if there were
NATs on the path). Proxy/Server "B" then examines the RS
destination address. If the destination address is the SNP SRA
GUA of a different Proxy/Server "A", Proxy/Server "B" prepares a
separate proxyed version of the RS message with an OAL header with
source set to its own SNP SRA GUA and destination set to Proxy/
Server A's SNP SRA GUA. Proxy/Server "B" also writes its own L2
address information over the Interface Attributes sub-option L2
information supplied by the Client, omits or zeros the Origin
Indication sub-option, omits the Multilink Vector sub-option then
forwards the message into the OMNI link secured spanning tree.
* when MAP Proxy/Server "A" receives the RS, it assumes the MAP
role, delegates MNPs for the Client if necessary, and creates/
updates a NCE indexed by the Client's MNP SRA GUA(s) with FHS
Proxy/Server "B"'s Interface Attributes as the link layer address
information for this FHS ifIndex. MAP Proxy/Server "A" then
prepares an RA message with source set to its own SNP SRA GUA,
destination set to the Client's SNP GUA, and with OMNI option
DHCPv6 sub-options with the prefix delegation results. MAP Proxy/
Server "A" then encapsulates the RA in an OAL header with source
set to its own SNP SRA GUA and destination set to the SNP SRA GUA
of FHS Proxy/Server "B", then finally performs fragmentation if
necessary and sends the resulting carrier packets into the secured
spanning tree.
* when FHS Proxy/Server "B" reassembles the RA, it locates the
Client NCE based on the RA destination. If the RA message
includes an OMNI "Proxy/Server Departure" sub-option with non zero
old FHS/MAP Proxy/Server SNP GUAs that do not match its own GUA,
FHS Proxy/Server "B" first sends a uNA(MM) to the old FHS/MAP
Proxy/Servers named in the sub-option. Proxy/Server "B" then re-
inserts the cached Multilink Vector sub-option for this Client
while updating the window synchronization parameters. If the RA
message delegates a new SNP ULA/GUA pair, Proxy/Server "B" then
resets the RA destination to the corresponding Client SNP ULA for
this interface.
* Proxy/Server "B" then re-encapsulates the message with OAL source
set to its own ULA and OAL destination set to the address that
appeared in the Client's RS message OAL source, with an
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appropriate Identification value, with an authentication signature
if necessary, with the Client's Interface Attributes sub-option
echoed and with the cached observed L2 addresses written into an
Origin Indication sub-option. Proxy/Server "B" sets the P flag in
the RA flags field to indicate that the message has passed through
a proxy [RFC4389] then fragments the RA if necessary and returns
the fragments to the Client.
* The Client repeats this process over each of its additional
underlay interfaces while treating each additional FHS Proxy/
Server "C", "D", "E", etc. as a proxy to facilitate RS/RA
exchanges between MAP "A" and the Client. The Client creates/
updates NCEs for each such FHS Proxy/Server as well as the MAP
Proxy/Server in the process.
After the initial RS/RA exchanges each FHS Proxy/Server forwards any
of the Client's carrier packets that contain OAL packets/fragments
with destinations for which there is no matching NCE to a Gateway
using OAL encapsulation with its own SNP SRA GUA as the source and
with destination determined by the Client. The Proxy/Server instead
forwards any OAL packets/fragments destined to a neighbor cache
target directly to the target according to the OAL or link layer
information - the process of establishing neighbor cache entries is
specified in Section 4.13.
While the Client is still associated with FHS Proxy/Servers "B", "C",
"D", "E", etc., each FHS Proxy/Server can send NS, RS and/or uNA
messages to update the NCEs of other AERO nodes on behalf of the
Client based on changes in Interface Attributes, Traffic Selectors,
Multilink Vectors, etc. This allows for higher-frequency Proxy-
initiated RS/RA messaging over well-connected INET infrastructure
supplemented by lower-frequency Client-initiated RS/RA messaging over
constrained (M)ANET data links.
If the MAP Proxy/Server "A" ceases to send solicited RAs, FHS Proxy/
Servers "B", "C", "D", "E", etc. can send unsolicited RAs over to the
Client with destination set to (link-local) All-Nodes multicast and
with Router Lifetime set to zero to announce the MAP Proxy/Server
failure. Although Proxy/Servers "B", "C", "D", "E", etc. can engage
in IPv6 ND exchanges on behalf of the Client, the Client can also
send IPv6 ND messages on its own behalf, e.g., if it is in a better
position to convey state changes. The IPv6 ND messages sent by the
Client include the Client's MNP SRA GUA as the source in order to
differentiate them from the IPv6 ND messages sent by a FHS Proxy/
Server.
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If the Client becomes unreachable over all underlay interfaces it
serves, the MAP Proxy/Server sets the NCE state to DEPARTED and
retains the entry for DepartTime seconds. While the state is
DEPARTED, the MAP Proxy/Server forwards any OAL packets/fragments
destined to the Client to a new MAP Proxy/Server if known; otherwise,
it discards the OAL packets/fragments. When DepartTime expires, the
MAP Proxy/Server deletes the NCE, withdraws the MNP route and
discards any further carrier packets that contain OAL packets/
fragments destined to the former Client.
Note: When a Proxy/Server alters the IPv6 ND message contents before
forwarding (e.g., such as altering the OMNI option contents), the
original IPv6 ND message checksum and authentication signature values
are invalidated and must be re-calculated.
4.12.3.2. Detecting and Responding to Proxy/Server Failures
In environments where fast recovery from Proxy/Server failure is
required, FHS Proxy/Servers SHOULD use proactive Neighbor
Unreachability Detection (NUD) to track MAP Proxy/Server reachability
in a fashion that parallels Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
[RFC5880]. Each FHS Proxy/Server can then quickly detect and react
to failures so that cached information is re-established through
alternate paths. The NS/NA control messaging is carried only over
well-connected ground domain networks (i.e., and not low-end
aeronautical radio links) and can therefore be tuned for rapid
response.
FHS Proxy/Servers can perform continuous NS/NA exchanges with the MAP
Proxy/Server, e.g., one exchange per N seconds. The FHS Proxy/Server
sends the NS message via the spanning tree with its own SNP SRA GUA
as the source and the SNP SRA GUA of the MAP Proxy/Server as the
destination, and the MAP Proxy/Server responds with an NA. When the
FHS Proxy/Server also sends RS messages to a MAP Proxy/Server on
behalf of Clients, the resulting RA responses can be considered as
equivalent hints of forward progress. This means that the FHS Proxy/
Server need not also send a periodic NS if it has already sent an RS
within the same period. If the MAP Proxy/Server fails (i.e., if the
FHS Proxy/Server ceases to receive advertisements), the FHS Proxy/
Server can quickly inform Clients by sending unsolicited RA messages
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The FHS Proxy/Server sends unsolicited RA messages with source
address set to the MAP Proxy/Server's address, destination address
set to (link-local) All-Nodes multicast, and Router Lifetime set to
0. The FHS Proxy/Server SHOULD send MAX_FINAL_RTR_ADVERTISEMENTS RA
messages separated by small delays [RFC4861]. Any Clients that had
been using the failed MAP Proxy/Server will receive the RA messages
and select a different Proxy/Server to assume the MAP role (i.e., by
sending an RS with destination set to the SNP SRA GUA of the new
MAP).
4.13. AERO Address Resolution, Multilink Forwarding and Route
Optimization
AERO nodes invoke address resolution, multilink forwarding and route
optimization when they need to forward the initial original IP
packets/parcel of a new flow to new neighbors over (M)ANET/INET
interfaces and for ongoing multilink forwarding coordination with
existing neighbors.
Possible source and destination addresses for original IP packets
that traverse a local (M)MANET/INET and/or the rest of the OMNI link
include addresses taken from an FNP or MNP, or the SNP ULA/GUA
assigned to a Client. (No other IP address types should appear in
original packets forwarded over the OMNI link.) The flow is then
identified by the 3-tuple consisting of the IPv6 flow label along
with the source and destination address.
Address resolution is based on an IPv6 ND NS/NA(AR) messaging
exchange between an Address Resolution Source (ARS) as the NS(AR)
source and the target neighbor as the Address Resolution Target
(ART). Either the original source or the original source's current
FHS Proxy/Server serves as the ARS. Either the ART itself or the
ART's current FHS/MAP Proxy/Server (or Relay) serves as the Address
Resolution Responder (ARR), i.e., the NA(AR) source.
If the original IP packet uses an FNP/MNP address as the source, the
NS(AR) source and NA(AR) destination are set to the corresponding
FNP/MNP Subnet Router Anycast (SRA) address. If the original IP
packet uses an SNP GUA as the source, the NS(AR) source and NA(AR)
destination are set to the SNP GUA. The original IP packet
destination address appears in the NS(AR) destination as well as the
Target Address of each NS/NA(AR). The NA(AR) source is set to the
ARR's SNP GUA.
Address resolution is initiated by the first eligible ARS closest to
the original source as follows:
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* For Clients on VPN/IPsec and Direct interfaces, the Client's FHS
Proxy/Server is the ARS.
* For Clients on (M)ANET interfaces, either the FHS Proxy/Server or
the Client itself may be the ARS.
* For Clients on INET interfaces, the Client itself is the ARS.
* For FNP correspondent nodes on foreign links/networks serviced by
a Relay, the Relay is the ARS.
* For Clients that engage the MAP Proxy/Server in "mobility anchor"
mode, the MAP Proxy/Server is the ARS.
* For peers within the same (M)ANET/ENET, address resolution and
route optimization is through receipt of Redirect messages.
The AERO routing system directs an address resolution request sent by
the ARS to the ARR. The ARR then returns an address resolution reply
which must include information that is complete, current, consistent
and authentic. Both the ARS and ARR are then jointly responsible for
periodically refreshing the address resolution, and for quickly
informing each other of any changes. Following address resolution,
the ARS and ART perform subsequent multilink forwarding and route
optimization exchanges to maintain optimal forwarding profiles for
each distinct flow.
During address resolution, multilink forwarding and/or route
optimization an NS/NA message source may attach a small number of
original IP packets/parcels associated with the message exchange as
super-packet extensions per [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The
authentication signatures and/or lower-layer security features
employed at the OAL source and each OAL intermediate system will
provide authorization and integrity services for both the NS/NA
messages and their IP packet/parcel attachments. The final OAL
intermediate system in the path will then securely forward the NS/NA
message IP packet/parcel attachments to the target.
The source can attach original IP packets/parcels to the subject NS/
NA message, but this may cause the message size to exceed the IPv6
minimum MTU and/or result in sub-optimal forwarding for the IP
packet/parcel attachments. In that case, the source can instead
create small uNA "pilot" messages used to transport attachments as
"passengers" over shortest paths determined by routing. The OAL
source can attach as many IP packets/parcels as will fit without
causing the OAL packet to exceed the minimum OAL Fragment Size (OFS)
using the "super-packet" construct discussed in
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
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If an original IP packet/parcel is larger than the minimum OFS, the
OAL source performs OAL encapsulation and fragmentation using an
Extended Fragment Header with a randomly-chosen 8-octet
Identification (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]) then attaches each
fragment to a different pilot uNA. The source then sets the uNA
source to its own SNP GUA and destination to the address of the final
destination. The uNA source next calculates an authentication
signature over the length of the entire message (including the uNA
and any attachments) if necessary and forwards each message to the
next hop subject to rate limiting (see: [RFC4443]).
When the target Proxy/Server or Client receives a pilot uNA, it
removes all passenger attachment packets, performs OAL reassembly and
decapsulation if necessary, then delivers the original IP packet(s)
to the destination. This service supports assured (but sub-optimal)
short-term delivery of protocol data while neighbor coordination is
in progress without creating network state.
The address resolution, multilink forwarding and route optimization
procedures are specified in the following sections.
4.13.1. Multilink Address Resolution
When one or more original IP packets/parcels for a flow 3-tuple are
forwarded into an OMNI interface, the ARS checks for a NCE with an
FNP/MNP SRA prefix or SNP GUA that matches the target destination.
If there is a NCE in the REACHABLE state, the ARS invokes the OAL and
forwards the resulting carrier packets according to the cached state
then returns from processing.
Otherwise, if there is no NCE the ARS creates one in the INCOMPLETE
state. The ARS then prepares an NS message for Address Resolution
(NS(AR)) to send toward an ART while (optionally) attaching the
original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) to the end of the NS(AR) as an OAL
super-packet (see above). The resulting NS(AR) message must be sent
securely and includes source, destination and target addresses as
discussed above. If the source address is an MNP SRA address, the
NS(AR) message also includes Route Information Options (RIOs)
[RFC4191] for any of the source Client's MNPs.
The ARS then includes an OMNI option with an authentication sub-
option (if necessary), Interface Attributes and/or Traffic Selectors
for all of the source Client's underlay interfaces. The ARS then
calculates and includes an authentication signature (if necessary)
followed by the checksum, then submits the NS(AR) message for OAL
encapsulation.
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When the ARS is a FHS Proxy/Server, it sets the OAL source to its own
SNP GUA and sets the OAL destination according to the Client's RS
message "RPT" flag (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]). If the "RPT"
flag was set, the ARS sets the OAL destination to the SNP SRA GUA of
its MAP Proxy/Server which maintains a Report List; otherwise, the
ARS sets the OAL destination to the FNP/MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA
corresponding to the ART. The ARS then performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and sends the resulting carrier packets into the SRT
secured spanning tree without decrementing the network layer TTL/Hop
Limit field.
When the ARS is a Client, it must instead use its own SNP ULA as the
OAL source and the SNP SRA ULA of the interface-specific FHS Proxy/
Server as the OAL destination. If the Client is in a MANET or an
open INET, it next calculates and includes an authentication
signature and includes an OAL IPv6 Extended Fragment Header with
Identification set to an in-window value for this FHS Proxy/Server.
The ARS Client then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and
forwards the carrier packets to the FHS Proxy/Server.
The FHS Proxy/Server then performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation,
verifies the Identification, verifies the NS(AR) checksum/
authentication signature and confirms that the Client's claimed MNP
RIOs and SNP ULA source address are correct. The FHS Proxy/Server
then changes the OAL source to its own SNP SRA GUA and changes the
OAL destination to the SNP SRA GUA of the MAP Proxy/Server or FNP/MNP
SRA GUA or SNP GUA corresponding to the ART as specified above. The
FHS Proxy/Server next removes the OAL IPv6 Extended Fragment Header,
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and sends the resulting
carrier packets into the secured spanning tree on behalf of the
Client.
Note: both the source and target Client/Relay and their MAP Proxy/
Servers include current and accurate information for their multilink
Interface Attributes profile. The MAP Proxy/Servers can be trusted
to provide an authoritative ARR response and/or mobility update
message on behalf of the source/target should the need arise. While
the source or target itself has no such trust basis, any attempt to
mount an attack by providing false Interface Attributes information
would only result in black-holing of return traffic, i.e., the
"attack" could only result in denial of service to the source/target
itself. The source/target's asserted Interface Attributes therefore
do not need to be validated by the MAP Proxy/Server.
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4.13.1.1. ARS MAP Proxy/Server NS(AR) Processing
If the ARS Client's MAP Proxy/Server maintains a Report List, the
carrier packets containing the NS(AR) will first arrive at the MAP
due to the OAL destination address supplied by the ARS (see above).
This source MAP then performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation and records
the NS(AR) Target Address in the Report List for this source Client.
The MAP then leaves the OAL source address unchanged, but changes the
OAL destination address to the FNP/MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA
corresponding to the ART. The MAP then decrements the OAL header Hop
Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and sends the
resulting carrier packets into the secured spanning tree.
4.13.1.2. Relaying the NS(AR)
When a Gateway receives carrier packets containing the NS(AR), it
performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation and determines the next hop by
consulting its standard IPv6 forwarding table for the OAL header
destination address. The Gateway next decrements the OAL header Hop
Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and sends the carrier
packet(s) via the secured spanning tree the same as for any IPv6
router where they may traverse multiple intermediate OMNI link
segments interconnected by Gateways. The final Gateway will deliver
the carrier packets via the secured spanning tree to the LHS/MAP
Proxy/Server (or Relay) that services the ART.
4.13.1.3. NS(AR) Processing at the ARR/ART
When the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server (or Relay) of the ART receives the
NS(AR) secured carrier packets with the FNP/MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA of
the ART as the OAL destination, it performs L2 reassembly/
decapsulation then either forwards the NS(AR) to the ART or processes
it locally if it is acting as the ART's designated ARR. The LHS/MAP
Proxy/Server (or Relay) processes the message as follows:
* if the NS(AR) target matches a Client NCE in the DEPARTED state,
the (old) MAP Proxy/Server resets the OAL destination address to
the SNP SRA GUA of the Client's new MAP Proxy/Server. The old MAP
Proxy/Server then decrements the OAL header Hop Limit, performs L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets over the secured spanning tree.
* If the NS(AR) target matches a Client NCE in the REACHABLE state,
the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server (or Relay) notes whether the NS(AR)
arrived from the secured spanning tree. If the message arrived
via the secured spanning tree the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server (or Relay)
verifies the NS(AR) checksum only; otherwise, it must also verify
the message authentication signature.
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* If the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server maintains a Report List for the ART,
it next records the NS(AR) source address in the Report List for
this ART. If the MAP Proxy/Server is the ART's designated ARR, it
forwards any original IP packet(s)/parcel(s) attached to the
NS(AR) super-packet to the ART and prepares to return an NA(AR) as
discussed below; otherwise, the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server determines
the underlay interface for the ART and proceeds as follows:
- If the LHS/MAP Proxy/Server is also the ART's FHS Proxy/Server
on the underlay interface used to convey the NS(AR) to the ART,
it includes an OAL IPv6 Extended Fragment Header with an in-
window Identification for the ART Client and authentication
signature if necessary then recalculates the NS(AR) checksum.
The Proxy/Server then changes the OAL source to its own SNP SRA
ULA and OAL destination to the ULA of the ART, decrements the
OAL Hop Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and
forwards the resulting carrier packets over the underlay
interface to the ART.
- If the MAP Proxy/Server is not the LHS Proxy/Server on the
underlay interface used to convey the NS(AR) to the ART, it
instead changes the OAL source to its own SNP SRA GUA and
changes the OAL destination to the SNP SRA GUA of the LHS
Proxy/Server for this ART interface. The MAP Proxy/Server next
decrements the OAL Hop Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier packets over
the secured spanning tree.
- When the LHS Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets, it
performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the NS(AR)
checksum, then forwards to the ART while changing the OAL
addresses to ULAs and including an authentication signature and
IPv6 Extended Fragment Header if necessary while recalculating
the checksum the same as described above.
* If the NS(AR) target matches one of its FNP routes, the MAP Proxy/
Server serves as both a Relay and an ARR, since the Relay forwards
original IP packets/parcels toward foreign target nodes at the
network layer.
* Note: when the target's MAP Proxy/Server acts as the ARR, it
detaches any original IP packets attached to the NS(AR) and
attaches them to a uNA message addressed to the ART. The MAP
Proxy/Server then forwards the resulting super-packet into the
secured spanning tree or includes an authentication signature if
the MAP is also a FHS Proxy/Server of the ART.
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If the ARR is a Relay or the ART itself, it first creates or updates
a NCE for the NS(AR) source address while caching all RIOs, Interface
Attributes and Traffic Selector information. Next, the ARR prepares
a solicited NA(AR) message to return to the ARS with the IPv6 source,
destination and target addresses set as described above.
The ARR then includes RIOs for all of the ART's MNPs plus Interface
Attributes and Traffic Selector sub-options for all of the ART's
underlay interfaces with current information for each interface. The
ARR next sets the NA(AR) message R flag to 1 (as a router) and S flag
to 1 (as a response to a solicitation) and sets the O flag to 1 (as
an authoritative responder).
The ARR finally includes an authentication signature and IPv6
Extended Fragment Header if necessary, calculates the NA(AR) message
checksum, then submits the NA(AR) for encapsulation with OAL source
set to its own ULA and destination set to the ULA that appeared in
the NS(AR) OAL source. The ARR then performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation, and forwards the resulting carrier packets.
When the ART's FHS Proxy/Server receives carrier packets sent by an
ART acting as an ARR on its own behalf, it performs L2 reassembly and
decapsulation then verifies the OAL Identification and NA (AR)
message checksum/authentication signature. The Proxy/Server then
verifies that any RIO information is acceptable, changes the OAL
source address to its own SNP SRA GUA and changes the OAL destination
to the FNP/MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA corresponding to the NA(AR)
destination. The Proxy/Server next decrements the OAL Hop Limit,
removes the OAL Extended Fragment Header, then performs L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets into the secured spanning tree.
4.13.1.4. Relaying the NA(AR)
When a Gateway receives NA(AR) carrier packets, it performs L2
reassembly/decapsulation and determines the next hop by consulting
its standard IPv6 forwarding table for the OAL header destination
address. The Gateway then decrements the OAL header Hop Limit,
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting
carrier packets via the SRT secured spanning tree where they may
traverse multiple intermediate OMNI link segments interconnected by
other Gateways. The final-hop Gateway will deliver the carrier
packets via the secured spanning tree to a Proxy/Server for the ARS.
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4.13.1.5. Processing the NA(AR) at the ARS
When the ARS receives NA(AR) carrier packets, it performs L2
reassembly/decapsulation then searches for a NCE that matches the
NA(AR) target address. The ARS then processes the message the same
as for standard IPv6 Address Resolution [RFC4861]. In the process,
it caches all RIO and OMNI option information in the NCE for the ART
(including Interface Attributes, Traffic Selectors, etc.), and caches
the NA(AR) source address plus any RIO/MNP SRA GUAs as ART addresses.
When the ARS is a Client, the SRT secured spanning tree will first
deliver the solicited NA(AR) message to the Client's FHS Proxy/
Server, which rewrites the OAL header addresses, includes an OAL
Extended Fragment Header with an in-window Identification for this
Client, and forwards the message to the Client. If the Client is on
a well-managed ANET, physical security and protected spectrum ensures
security for the NA(AR) without needing an additional authentication
signature or Identification; if the Client is in a MANET or in the
open INET the Proxy/Server must instead include an Identification and
authentication signature (while adjusting the OMNI option size, if
necessary). The Proxy/Server uses its own SNP SRA ULA as the OAL
source and the SNP ULA of the Client as the OAL destination when it
forwards the NA(AR). The Proxy/Server then decrements the OAL Hop
Limit, performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the
resulting carrier packets over the underlay interface to the Client.
4.13.1.6. Reliability
After the ARS transmits the first NS(AR), it should wait up to
RETRANS_TIMER seconds to receive a responsive NA(AR). The ARS can
then retransmit the NS(AR) up to MAX_UNICAST_SOLICIT times before
giving up.
4.13.2. Multilink Forwarding
Following address resolution, the ARS and ART (i.e., the end system
Clients or their respective Proxy/Servers) can assert per-flow
multilink forwarding paths through underlay interface pairs serviced
by the same source/destination ULAs by sending NS/NA messages for
Multilink Forwarding (MF) with OMNI Multilink Vector sub-options.
The NS/NA(MF) messages establish per-flow multilink forwarding and
header compression state in OAL intermediate systems in the path
between the ARS and ART. Note that either the ARS or ART can
independently initiate multilink forwarding by sending NS(MF)
messages on behalf of specific flows over underlay interface pairs.
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If the original IP packet uses an FNP/MNP GUA as the source, the
source Client or Proxy/Server uses the same FNP/MNP GUA as the NS(MF)
source. If the original IP packet uses an SNP GUA as the source, the
source Client or Proxy/Server uses the same SNP GUA as the NS(MF)
source. In both cases, the source Client or Proxy/Server uses the
original IP packet destination address as the destination address and
uses the SNP GUA associated with the destination as the Target
Address of the NS(MF). The source then includes the original IP
packet flow label as the final element of the flow 3-tuple. When the
target Client or Proxy/Server returns an NA(MF), it sets the
destination to the same address that appeared in the NS(MF) source,
sets the Target Address to the same address that appeared in the
NS(MF) target and sets the source address to the SNP GUA of the
target Client.
When an OAL source asserts a multilink forwarding path through the
transmission of an NS(MF) message, it includes an IPv6 Minimum Path
MTU Hop-by-Hop Option for the (adaptation layer) IPv6 header per
[RFC9268]. Each OAL intermediate node along the path then updates
the minimum MTU per the specification. When the OAL destination
responds with an NA(MF) message, it returns an IPv6 Minimum Path MTU
Option based on the one it received in the NS(MF) message per
[RFC9268]. This allows the OAL source to discover any OAL Fragment
Size (OFS) limitations for this OAL destination (see:
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]). For this reason, OAL nodes that connect
SRT segments MUST implement [RFC9268].
The multilink forwarding profile provides support for redundant paths
that each OAL node can harness to its best advantage. For example,
OAL nodes can use traffic selectors to guide the dispersal of
different traffic types over available multilink paths, while other
factors such as metrics, cost, provider, etc. can also provide useful
decision points. OAL nodes can also employ multilink forwarding for
fault tolerance by sending redundant data over multiple paths
simultaneously, or for load balancing where the individual packets of
a single traffic flow are spread across multiple independent paths.
OAL nodes that engage in multilink forwarding therefore must
incorporate a policy engine that selects both inbound and outbound
multilink paths for a given traffic profile at a given point in time.
This specification therefore provides multilink forwarding mechanisms
without mandating any specific multilink policy.
All Client, Proxy/Server and Gateway nodes that configure OMNI
interfaces and engage in multilink coordination include an additional
forwarding table termed the AERO Forwarding Information Base (AFIB)
that supports OAL packet/fragment forwarding based on original IP
packet flows over specific OMNI neighbor interface pairs. The AFIB
contains per-flow AERO Forwarding Vectors (AFVs) identified by the L2
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address of the previous OAL hop plus a value known as the AFV Index
(AFVI). The AFVs cache uncompressed OAL header information to
support forwarding of packets with compressed headers as well as
previous/next-hop addressing and AFVI information. The AFVs also
cache window synchronization state (i.e., the starting sequence
number and window size) for each specific flow. Using the window
synchronization state, simple Identification-based data origin
authentication is enabled at each OAL source, intermediate system and
target node.
Client and Proxy/Server OMNI interfaces manage end system AFIB
entries in conjunction with their internal Neighbor Cache, where the
NCEs link to (possibly) multiple AFVs with one per flow over a
specific FHS/LHS interface ifIndex pair. When OMNI interface peers
need to coordinate, they locate a NCE for the peer (established
through address resolution) then use the NCE as a nexus that
aggregates potentially many AVFs which cache AFVIs to be used for
multilink forwarding on a per-flow basis. Gateway OMNI interfaces
and the OMNI interfaces of Clients or Proxy/Servers acting as OAL
intermediate nodes manage transit AFIB entries independently of their
internal Neighbor Caches. These transit AFVs are indexed by the L2
address and AFVI supplied by the previous hop.
OAL source, intermediate system and target nodes create AFVs/AFVIs
when they process an NS/NA(MF) initiator or responsive message with
an OMNI Multilink Vector sub-option (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]).
The OAL source of the initiating NS/NA(MF) (which is also the OAL
destination of the responsive NA(MF)) is considered to reside in the
"First Hop Segment (FHS)", while the OAL destination of the NS/NA(MF)
(which is also the OAL source of the responsive NA(MF)) is considered
to reside in the "Last Hop Segment (LHS)".
The FHS and LHS roles are determined on a per-flow and per-interface-
pair basis. After address resolution, either peer is equally capable
of initiating multilink forwarding on behalf of a specific flow. The
peer that sends the initiating NS/NA(MF) message with Multilink
Vector for a specific pair becomes the FHS peer while the one that
returns the responsive NA(MF) becomes the LHS peer for that (flow,
interface pair) only. It is therefore commonplace that peers may
assume the FHS role for some flows while assuming the LHS role for
others, i.e., even though each peer maintains only a single NCE.
When an OAL node sends/forwards an initiating NS/NA(MF) or responsive
NA(MF) with a Multilink Vector sub-option, it creates an AFV, caches
the Identification window information, caches the NS/NA(MF) and OAL
IPv6 headers, records the previous hop L2 address and AFVI, then
generates a new next hop AFVI. The next hop AFVI should be selected
within the range [1 - (2**16-1)] unless all values within that range
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are already in active use for this next hop; otherwise, the AFVI must
be selected within the range [2**16 - (2**32-1)]. (Note that the
AFVI value 0 is used to indicate the NULL AFV, i.e., one that always
matches but includes NULL header compression or forwarding
information.) When the OAL node forwards future OAL packets/
fragments that include the previous hop L2 address and AFVI, it can
unambiguously locate the correct AFV and use the cached forwarding
information to forward to the next OAL hop.
OAL nodes cache AFVs for up to ReachableTime seconds following their
initial creation. If the node processes another NS/NA(MF) message
specific to an AFV, it resets ReachableTime to REACHABLE_TIME
seconds, i.e., the same as for NCEs. If ReachableTime expires, the
node deletes the AFV.
The following sections provide the detailed specifications of these
NS/NA(MF) exchanges for all nodes along the forward and reverse
paths.
4.13.2.1. FHS Client-Proxy/Server NS(MF) Forwarding
When an FHS OAL source has an original IP packet/parcel to send
toward an LHS OAL target, it first performs address resolution
resulting in the creation of a NCE for the SNP GUA of the target then
selects a source and target underlay interface pair. The FHS source
then uses its cached information for the target interface as LHS
information then prepares an NS(MF) message with a Multilink Vector
sub-option while setting the NS(MF) source, target and destination
addresses as specified above.
The FHS source next creates an AFV then generates and assigns an AFVI
for the flow over this interface pair; the AFVI must be unique for
its communications to this next OAL hop. The FHS source then
includes the AFVI and window synchronization parameters in the
Multilink Vector sub-option and prepares the NS(MF) message for
transmission while also caching the window synchronization parameters
in the local AFV.
If the FHS source is the FHS Proxy/Server, it performs OAL
encapsulation while setting the OAL source to the Client's SNP GUA
and setting the OAL destination to the SNP GUA determined through
address resolution for the target. The FHS Proxy/Server then
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation then forwards the resulting
carrier packets into the secured spanning tree which will deliver
them to an FHS Gateway.
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If the FHS source is the FHS Client, it instead includes an
authentication signature and OAL Extended Fragment Header with an in-
window Identification for its FHS Proxy/Server if necessary. If FMT-
Forward and FMT-Mode are both set, the Client sets the Multilink
Vector LHS ifIndex to the ifIndex of the target; otherwise, it sets
the ifIndex to 0 to allow the FHS Proxy/Server to select the target
ifIndex. The FHS Client then calculates the NS(MF) message checksum,
performs OAL encapsulation and sets the OAL source to its own SNP ULA
and sets the OAL destination to the SNP SRA ULA of the FHS Proxy/
Server. The FHS Client finally performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier packets to the FHS
Proxy/Server.
When the FHS Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets, it performs
L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification, and
verifies the NS(MF) checksum and authentication signature. The FHS
Proxy/Server then creates an AFV (i.e., the same as the FHS Client
had done) while caching the FHS Client addressing, AFVI and window
synchronization information as previous hop information for this AFV.
The FHS Proxy/Server next generates a new unique AFVI to forward to
the next OAL hop, then both caches the AFVI in the AFV and writes it
into the Multilink Vector sub-option, i.e., while over-writing the
value supplied by the FHS Client. The FHS Proxy/Server then
calculates the NS(MF) checksum and sets the OAL source address to the
Client's SNP GUA and destination address to the SNP GUA corresponding
to the NS(MF) Target Address. The FHS Proxy/Server finally
decrements the OAL Hop Limit, removes the OAL Extended Fragment
Header, performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the
resulting carrier packets into the secured spanning tree.
4.13.2.2. FHS/intermediate/LHS Gateway NS(MF) Forwarding
Gateways in the spanning tree forward OAL packets/fragments not
explicitly addressed to themselves, while forwarding those that
arrived via the secured spanning tree to the next hop also via the
secured spanning tree and forwarding all others via the unsecured
spanning tree. When an FHS Gateway receives an OAL packet/fragment
over the secured spanning tree, it performs L2 reassembly/
decapsulation then verifies the NS(MF) checksum. The FHS Gateway
next creates an AFV and caches the previous hop Multilink Vector
information, i.e. the same as the FHS Proxy/Server had done. The
FHS Gateway then generates a locally-unique AFVI for the next hop and
both caches the value in the AFV and copies it into the Multilink
Vector sub-option.
The FHS Gateway then examines the SRT prefixes corresponding to both
the FHS and LHS. If the FHS Gateway has a local interface connection
to both the FHS and LHS (whether they are the same or different
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segments), the FHS/LHS Gateway caches the NS(MF) Multilink Vector
information in the AFV, and writes a new locally-unique AFVI for the
next hop into the AFV and Multilink Vector. The FHS Gateway then
decrements the OAL Hop Limit, recalculates the NS(MF) checksum,
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting
carrier packets into the secured spanning tree.
When the FHS and LHS Gateways are different, the LHS Gateway will
receive carrier packets over the secured spanning tree from the FHS
Gateway, noting there may be many intermediate Gateways in the path
between FHS and LHS which will update their transit AFVs in the same
fashion while selecting new locally-unique AFVIs for the next hop and
caching/updating Multilink Vector information. The LHS Gateway then
performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification,
verifies the NS(MF) checksum then creates an AFV (i.e., the same as
all previous hop Gateways had done) while caching the Multilink
Vector information from the previous hop and creating a new AFVI for
the next hop. The LHS Gateway then decrements the OAL Hop Limit,
recalculates the NS(MF) checksum, performs L2 encapsulation/
fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier packets into the
secured spanning tree.
4.13.2.3. LHS Proxy/Server-Client NS/NA(MF) Receipt/Forwarding
When the LHS Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets from the
secured spanning tree, it performs L2 reassembly/decapsulation,
verifies the NS(MF) checksum then creates an AFV and caches the
previous hop Multilink Vector and addressing information.
If the NS(MF) destination matches the SNP GUA of the target and the
LHS Proxy/Server is configured to respond on the target's behalf,
(i.e., if FMT-Forward is set) it next prepares to return a responsive
NA(MF). The LHS Proxy/Server next creates or updates an NCE for the
SRA corresponding to the NS(MF) source address (if necessary) with
state set to STALE.
The LHS Proxy/Server then creates an NA(MF) while copying the NS(MF)
Multilink Vector sub-option into the NA(MF) and including responsive
window synchronization information. The LHS Proxy/Server then
encapsulates the NA(MF) with OAL source set to the NS(MF) OAL
destination and with OAL destination set to the NS(MF) OAL source.
The LHS Proxy/Server then calculates the NA(MF) checksum, performs L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets into the secured spanning tree.
The LHS Proxy/Server then creates a locally-unique AFVI for the
Client and both caches it in the newly-created AFV and writes it into
the Multilink Vector. If FMT-Forward is clear and FMT-Mode is set,
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the LHS Proxy/Server next resets the Multilink Vector FHS ifIndex to
0 and changes the OAL source to its own SNP SRA ULA. The LHS Proxy/
Server next includes an authentication signature in the NS(MF) if
necessary, then recalculates the NS(MF) checksum, changes the OAL
source to its own SNP SRA ULA and changes the OAL destination to the
SNP ULA of the LHS Client. The LHS Proxy/Server then decrements the
OAL Hop Limit, includes an OAL Extended Fragment Header with an
appropriate Identification value if necessary, performs L2
encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets to the LHS Client.
When the LHS Client receives the carrier packets, it performs L2
reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification, then verifies
the NS(MF) checksum/authentication signature. The LHS Client then
creates a NCE for the NS(MF) source address (if necessary) in the
STALE state and caches the NS(MF) Multilink Vector information in a
new AFV associated with the NCE corresponding to the NS(MF) source.
If the LHS Client will request reverse path state establishment, it
finally generates and assigns a locally-unique AFVI for a flow to be
forwarded to the previous hop, which it caches in the new AFV.
The LHS Client then prepares an NA(MF) using the same procedures as
for the LHS Proxy/Server above (while including responsive window
synchronization information and the new AFVI in the Multilink Vector
sub-option). The LHS Client includes an authentication signature if
necessary, calculates the NA(MF) message checksum, then encapsulates
the NA(MF) with OAL source set to its own SNP ULA and OAL destination
set to the SNP SRA ULA of the LHS Proxy/Server. The LHS Client
finally includes an appropriate Identification if necessary, performs
L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the resulting carrier
packets to the LHS Proxy/Server.
4.13.2.4. Reverse Path Forwarding of the NA(MF)
When the LHS Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets, it performs
L2 reassembly/decapsulation, verifies the Identification and verifies
the NA(MF) checksum/authentication signature. If the reverse path
state must be established (i.e., if the SYN flag is set in the NA(MF)
Multilink Vector sub-option) the LHS Proxy/Server then creates an AFV
that caches the Client's AFVI and other Multilink Vector information
in the same manner as the FHS Proxy/Server had done. The LHS Proxy/
Server then removes the OAL Extended Fragment Header and forwards the
NA(MF) over the reverse path toward the initiating FHS node, where it
may traverse many intermediate Gateways.
Each Gateway along the reverse path processes the Multilink Vector
information in the NA(MF) message in the same way that the Gateways
in the forward path had processed the NS(MF). In the end, the NA(MF)
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will arrive at the initiating FHS node and AFV state will be
established in all end and intermediate systems in both the forward
and reverse paths.
The forward and reverse paths between the FHS initiator and LHS
responder may be different and may therefore have different OAL path
MTUs. If the LHS responder included a SYN directive in the Multilink
Vector sub-option, it will also require a responsive ACK. For this
reason, the FHS initiator returns a secured uNA(MF) that includes an
IPv6 Minimum Path MTU Option based on the one it received in the
NA(MF) message per [RFC9268]. This provides the LHS responder with
both a responsive ACK and a measurement of the LHS->FHS OAL path MTU.
Note: NS/NA(MF) exchanges often establish state only on the forward
path from the FHS to the LHS, i.e., they are often unidirectional.
Only in cases where the LHS also has packets to return to the FHS
will bidirectional state establishment occur in both the forward and
reverse directions.
4.13.2.5. OAL End System Exchanges Following Synchronization
Following the initial NS/NA (plus optional uNA(MF)) exchange OAL end
systems can begin exchanging ordinary carrier packets for
synchronized flows that include AFVIs and with Identification values
within their respective send windows without requiring security
signatures and/or secured spanning tree traversal. OAL end and
intermediate systems can also consult their AFIBs when they receive
carrier packets that contain OAL packets/fragments with AFVIs to
unambiguously locate the correct AFV and can use the AFV state to
forward OAL packets/fragments to the next hop. OAL end systems must
then perform continuous NS/NA(MF) exchanges to update window state,
register new flows for optimized multilink forwarding, confirm
reachability and/or refresh AFIB cache state in the path before
ReachableTime expires.
While the OAL end systems continue to actively exchange OAL packets,
they are jointly responsible for updating cache state and per-
interface reachability before expiration. Window synchronization
state is performed on a per-flow basis and tracked in the AFVs which
are also linked to the appropriate NCE. However, the window
synchronization exchange only confirms target Client reachability
over the specific underlay interface pair. Reachability for other
underlay interfaces that share the must be determined individually
using additional NS/NA(MF) messages that include Multilink Vectors.
OAL sources can the begin including CRHs in OAL packets/fragments
with an AFVI that OAL intermediate systems can use for shortest-path
forwarding based on AFVIs instead of spanning tree OAL IPv6
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addresses. OAL sources and intermediate systems can instead forward
OAL packets/fragments with OCH/OFH headers that include an AFVI since
all OAL nodes in the path up to (and sometimes including) the OAL
destination have already established AFVs.
When a Proxy/Server receives OAL packets/fragments destined to a
local SRT segment Client or forwards OAL packets/fragments received
from a local segment Client, it first locates the correct AFV. If
the OAL packet/fragment includes a secured IPv6 ND message, the
Proxy/Server uses the Client's NCE established through RS/RA
exchanges to re-encapsulate/re-fragment while sending outbound
secured carrier packets via the secured spanning tree and sending
inbound secured carrier packets while including an authentication
signature/checksum. For ordinary OAL packets/fragments, the Proxy/
Server uses the same AFV if directed by AFVI and/or OAL addressing.
Otherwise it locates an AFV established through an NS/NA(MF) exchange
between the Client and the remote SRT segment peer, and forwards the
OAL packet/fragments without first reassembling/decapsulating.
When a source Client forwards OAL packets/fragments it can employ
header compression according to the AFVs established through an NS/
NA(MF) exchange with a remote or local peer. When a target Client
receives carrier packets that contain OAL packets/fragments that
match a local AFV, the Client first verifies the Identification then
decompresses the headers if necessary, reassembles to obtain the OAL
packet then decapsulates and delivers the original IP packet/parcel
to the network layer.
When synchronized peer Clients in the same SRT segment with FMT-
Forward and FMT-Mode set discover each other's NATed L2ADDR
addresses, they can exchange carrier packets that contain OAL
packets/fragments directly with header compression using AFVIs
discovered as above (see: Section 4.13.4).
When the FHS Client or FHS Proxy/Server sends an NS(MF) for the
purpose of establishing multilink forwarding state, it should wait up
to RETRANS_TIMER seconds to receive a responsive NA(MF). The FHS
node can then retransmit the NS(MF) up to MAX_UNICAST_SOLICIT times
before giving up. Note that each successive attempt establishes new
AFV state in the OAL intermediate systems, but that any abandoned
stale AFV state will be quickly reclaimed.
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4.13.3. Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) Forwarding
Clients with OMNI interfaces configured over underlay interfaces with
indeterminant neighborhood properties may be connected to a Mobile
Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET). Each MANET may be either completely outside
of the range of any OMNI link Proxy/Servers or may require multihop
traversal between Clients acting as MANET routers to reach Proxy/
Servers that connect to the rest of the OMNI link. The former class
of MANETs must operate in isolation solely based on the HHIT unique
IPv6 addresses they configure locally. The latter class allows MANET
routers to extend infrastructure-based addressing information
including MNPs over multiple OMNI link hops as discussed in the OMNI
specification.
MANET Clients configure their OMNI interfaces over one or more MANET
interfaces where multihop forwarding may be necessary. Routing
protocols suitable for use over MANET interfaces include OSPFv3
[RFC5340] with MANET Designated Router (OSPF-MDR) extensions
[RFC5614], OLSR [RFC7181], AODV [I-D.perkins-manet-aodvv2] and
others. Other services specific to MANET link-local and/or site-
local operations (including SMF [RFC6621], DLEP [RFC8175] and others)
are also considered in-scope. These services strive for optimal use
of available radio bandwidth and power consumption in their control
message transmissions, but efficient data plane operation is also
essential.
Clients must therefore reduce overhead through minimal encapsulation
and effective header compression whenever possible. For this reason,
when the MANET routing protocol discovers a new route the Client
configures a lesser-preferred forwarding table entry over the
corresponding MANET interface and a more-preferred forwarding table
entry over the OMNI interface. This will cause the network layer to
direct outbound packets to the OMNI interface, which can apply header
compression and underlay MANET interface selection.
Proxy/Servers that connect a MANET to the rest of the OMNI link act
as regular Proxy/Servers for exchanges with external INETs, but act
as Clients over their MANET interfaces. Each such Proxy/Server
therefore has at least two underlay interfaces, including an INET
interface and a MANET interface. The Proxy/Server therefore services
the MANET as if it were an ordinary Client but presents itself as a
Proxy/Server to external facing INETs.
The process for a multihop Client to establish multilink forwarding
and header compression AFV state in the MANET is conducted in the
same fashion as described above and using the same NS/NA(MF) message
exchanges. Each intermediate MANET node in the path configures AFV
state and assigns AFVIs in the same fashion as for intermediate
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Gateways in the secured spanning tree except that the NS/NA(MF)
messages requires an authentication signature (unless neighboring
MANET nodes configure IPsec tunnels) and an Identification that is
within the window for its serving Proxy/Server if the destination is
outside of the local MANET. The NS/NA(MF) messages extend from the
initiating FHS MANET Client, then across any intermediate FHS MANET
Clients to the FHS Proxy/Server, then across the secured SRT spanning
tree, then to the LHS Proxy/Server, then finally across any
intermediate LHS MANET Clients to the responding LHS Client. The LHS
responder then returns an NA(MF) along the reverse path. In all
other ways, the NS/NA(MF) exchanges are the same as discussed in
Section 4.13.2.
Following the NS/NA(MF) exchanges, each MANET router in the forward
(and optionally also reverse) paths in both the FHS and LHS MANETs
will have established AFVs containing multilink forwarding and header
compression state for the flow. The AFVs determine AFVI-based
forwarding based on the OCH header contents, and each MANET router
only forwards packets with in-window Identification values for the
flow. MANET routers maintain AFVs for up to ReachableTime seconds
unless they are refreshed by an NS/NA(MF) TST/ACK exchange. New
window synchronization exchanges must also be performed periodically
to avoid window exhaustion and/or spoofing based on predictable
Identifications.
Note: while the MANET routing protocol runs directly over the node's
MANET interfaces to discover routing information, the node configures
lesser-preferred forwarding table entries over the MANET interface
and corresponding more-preferred forwarding table entries over the
OMNI interface. This causes the network layer to forward outbound
packets via the OMNI interface which applies encapsulation,
fragmentation and/or header compression as necessary before
forwarding over the underlying MANET interface. The OMNI protocol
designator in the UDP port, IP protocol or Ethernet EtherType field
will then cause the packets to visit the OMNI interface of each
successive next-hop MANET node.
4.13.4. Client/Client Route Optimization
When the FHS/LHS Clients are both located on the same SRT segment,
Client-to-Client route optimization is possible following the
establishment of any necessary state in NATs in the path. Both
Clients will have already established state via their respective
shared segment Proxy/Servers (and possibly also any shared segment
Gateways) and can begin sending carrier packets directly via NAT
traversal while avoiding any Proxy/Server and/or Gateway hops.
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When the FHS/LHS Clients on the same SRT segment perform initial NS/
NA(MF) exchanges to establish AFIB state, they first examine the FMT-
Forward and FMT-Mode settings to determine whether direct-path
forwarding is even possible for one or both Clients (direct-path
forwarding is only possible for one or both when FMT-Forward and FMT-
Mode are both set). The NS/NA(MF) messages then include an Origin
Indication (i.e., in addition to a Multilink Vector sub-option) with
the mapped addresses discovered during the RS/RA exchanges with their
respective Proxy/Servers. After the AFV paths have been established,
both Clients can begin sending carrier packets via strict AFV paths
while establishing a direct path for Client-to-Client route
optimization.
To establish the direct path, either Client (acting as the source)
transmits a bubble to the mapped L2 address for the target Client
which primes the local chain of NATs for reception of future carrier
packets from that L2 address (see: [RFC4380] and
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]). The source Client then prepares an NS(RO)
message with its own MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA as the source, with the
MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA of the target as the destination and with an
OMNI option with an Interface Attributes sub-option. The source
Client then encapsulates the NS(RO) in an OAL header with its own SNP
ULA as the source, with the SNP ULA of the target Client as the
destination and with an in-window Identification for the target. The
source Client then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation with L2
headers addressed to its Proxy/Server then sends the resulting
carrier packets to the Proxy/Server.
When the Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets, it re-
encapsulates and sends them as unsecured carrier packets according to
AFIB state where they will eventually arrive at the target Client
which can perform L2 reassembly/decapsulation. Following reassembly,
the target Client prepares an NA(RO) message with its own MNP SRA GUA
or SNP GUA as the source, with the MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA of the
source Client as the destination and with an OMNI option with an
Interface Attributes sub-option. The target Client then encapsulates
the NA(RO) in an OAL header with its own SNP ULA as the source, with
the SNP ULA of the source Client as the destination and with an in-
window Identification for the source Client. The target Client then
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation then forwards the resulting
carrier packets directly to the source Client.
Following the initial NS/NA(RO) exchange, both Clients mark their
respective (source, target) underlay interface pairs as "trusted" for
no more than ReachableTime seconds. The Clients can then begin
exchanging ordinary data packets as OCH encapsulated carrier packets.
While the Clients continue to exchange packets via the direct path
avoiding all Proxy/Servers and Gateways, they should perform
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additional NS/NA(RO) exchanges via their local Proxy/Servers to
refresh NCE state as well as send additional bubbles to the peer's
Origin address information if necessary to refresh NAT state.
Note: these procedures are suitable for a widely-deployed but basic
class of NATs. Procedures for advanced NAT classes are outlined in
[RFC6081], which provides mechanisms that can be employed equally for
AERO using the corresponding sub-options specified by OMNI.
Note: each communicating pair of Clients may need to maintain NAT
state for peer to peer communications via multiple underlay interface
pairs and/or multiple flows. It is therefore important that Origin
Indications are maintained with the correct peer interface and that
the NCE may cache information for multiple peer interfaces.
Note: the source and target Client exchange Origin information during
the secured NS/NA(RO) multilink route optimization exchange. This
allows for subsequent NS/NA(RO) exchanges to proceed using only the
Identification value as a data origin confirmation. However, Client-
to-Client peerings that require stronger security may also include
authentication signatures for mutual authentication.
4.13.5. Intra-ANET/ENET Route Optimization for AERO Peers
When a Client forwards an OAL packet (or an original IP packet/
parcel) from a Host or another Client connected to one of its
downstream ENETs to a peer within the same downstream ENET, the
Client returns an IPv6 ND Redirect message to inform the source that
that target can be reached directly. The contents of the Redirect
message are the same as specified in [RFC4861], and should also
include any RIOs with MNP information corresponding to the target.
In the same fashion, when a Proxy/Server forwards an OAL packet (or
original IP packet/parcel) from a Host or Client connected to one of
its downstream *NETs to a peer within the same downstream *NET, the
Proxy/Server returns an IPv6 ND Redirect message.
All other route optimization functions are conducted per the NS/
NA(RO) messaging discussed in the previous sections.
4.14. Neighbor Unreachability Detection (NUD)
AERO nodes perform Neighbor Unreachability Detection (NUD) per
[RFC4861] either reactively in response to persistent link layer
errors (see Section 4.11) or proactively to confirm reachability.
The NUD algorithm is based on periodic control message exchanges and
may further be seeded by IPv6 ND hints of forward progress, but care
must be taken to avoid inferring reachability based on spoofed
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information. For example, IPv6 ND message exchanges that include
authentication codes and/or in-window Identifications may be
considered as acceptable hints of forward progress, while spurious
random carrier packets should be ignored.
AERO nodes can perform NS/NA(NUD) exchanges over the OMNI link
secured spanning tree (i.e. the same as described above) to test
reachability without risk of DoS attacks from nodes pretending to be
a neighbor. These NS/NA(NUD) messages use the unicast GUAs/ULAs of
the parties involved in the NUD test. When only reachability
information is required without updating any other NCE state, AERO
nodes can instead perform NS/NA(NUD) exchanges directly between
neighbors without employing the secured spanning tree as long as they
include in-window Identifications and an authentication signature/
checksum.
After route optimization directs a source FHS peer to a target LHS
peer with one or more link layer addresses, either node may invoke
multilink forwarding state initialization to establish authentic
intermediate system state between specific underlay interface pairs
which also tests their reachability. Thereafter, either node acting
as the source may perform additional reachability probing through
NS(NUD) messages over the SRT secured or unsecured spanning tree, or
through NS(NUD) messages sent directly to an underlay interface of
the target itself. While testing a target underlay interface for a
given flow, the source can optionally continue to forward OAL
packets/fragments via alternate interfaces or maintain a small queue
of carrier packets until target reachability is confirmed.
NS(NUD) messages are encapsulated, fragmented and transmitted as
carrier packets the same as for ordinary original IP data packets/
parcels. The source encapsulates the NS(NUD) message the same as
described in Section 4.13.2 and includes an Interface Attributes sub-
option with ifIndex set to identify its underlay interface used for
forwarding. The source then includes an in-window Identification,
performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation then forwards the resulting
carrier packets into the unsecured spanning tree directly to the
target if it is in the local segment.
When the target receives the NS(NUD) carrier packets, it performs L2
reassembly/decapsulation, verifies that it has a NCE for this source
and that the Identification is in-window then performs OAL
reassembly. The target next verifies the NS(NUD) checksum/
authentication signature, then searches for Interface Attributes in
its NCE for the source that match the NS for the NA(NUD) reply. The
target then prepares the NA(NUD) with the source and destination
addresses reversed, encapsulates and sets the OAL source and
destination, includes an Interface Attributes sub-option in the
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NA(NUD) to identify the ifIndex of the underlay interface the NS(NUD)
arrived on and sets the Target Address to the same value included in
the NS(NUD). The target next sets the R flag to 1, the S flag to 1
and the O flag to 1, then includes an in-window Identification for
the source. The node then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation
and forwards the resulting carrier packets into the unsecured
spanning tree directly to the source if it is in the local segment.
When the source receives the NA(NUD), it marks the target underlay
interface tested as "trusted". Note that underlay interface states
are maintained independently of the overall NCE REACHABLE state, and
that a single NCE may have multiple target underlay interfaces in
various "trusted/untrusted" states while the NCE state as a whole
remains REACHABLE.
Communicating peer nodes can also use NUD to test forward path AFV
state for individual flows. To test flow state, the OAL source can
send an NS message with a Multilink Vector OMNI sub-option with the
TST flag set and with a current Sequence Number and next hop AFVI for
the flow. If the OAL destination receives the NS message, it returns
a responsive NA with Multilink Vector with the ACK flag set and with
the OAL source's Sequence Number in the Acknowledgement field. If
the OAL source receives the NA, it considers the flow state as
viable; otherwise, it should issue a new NS/NA(MF) exchange to
establish new flow state.
4.15. Mobility Management and Quality of Service (QoS)
AERO is a fully Distributed Mobility Management (DMM) service in
which each Proxy/Server is responsible for only a small subset of the
Clients on the OMNI link. This is in contrast to a Centralized
Mobility Management (CMM) service where there are only one or a few
network mobility collective entities for large Client populations.
Clients coordinate with their associated FHS and MAP Proxy/Servers
via RS/RA exchanges to maintain the DMM profile, and the AERO routing
system tracks all current Client/Proxy/Server peering relationships.
MAP Proxy/Servers provide a designated router service for their
dependent Clients, while FHS Proxy/Servers provide a proxy conduit
between the Client and both the MAP and OMNI link in general.
Clients are responsible for maintaining neighbor relationships with
their Proxy/Servers through periodic RS/RA exchanges, which also
serves to confirm neighbor reachability. When a Client's underlay
interface attributes change, the Client is responsible for updating
the MAP Proxy/Server through new RS/RA exchanges using the FHS Proxy/
Server as a first-hop conduit. The FHS Proxy/Server can also act as
a proxy to perform some IPv6 ND exchanges on the Client's behalf
without consuming bandwidth on the Client underlay interface.
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Note: when a Client's underlay interface address changes, the Client
and/or its (former) FHS Proxy/Server for this interface must
invalidate any AFVs based on the (changed) interface. Future data
packet forwarding will then trigger a new multilink forwarding NS/
NA(MF) exchange to re-seed new AFVs in the path.
Mobility management considerations are specified in the following
sections.
4.15.1. Mobility Update Messaging
Mobile Clients (and/or their MAP Proxy/Servers) accommodate mobility
and/or multilink change events by sending secured uNA Mobility
Management (MM) messages to each active neighbor. When a node sends
a uNA(MM) message to each specific neighbor on behalf of a mobile
Client, it sets the IPv6 source address to its own MNP SRA GUA or SNP
ULA/GUA, sets the destination and target address to the neighbor's
SNP ULA/GUA or one of the mobile Client's MNP SRA GUAs. The uNA(MM)
also includes an OMNI option with OMNI Interface Attributes and
Traffic Selector sub-options for the mobile Client's underlay
interfaces and includes an authentication signature if necessary.
The node then sets the uNA(MM) R flag to 1, S flag to 0 and O flag to
1, then encapsulates the message in an OAL header with source set to
its own SNP GUA/ULA and destination set to either the specific
neighbor's SNP ULA/GUA or the FHS Proxy/Server's SNP SRA ULA.
Following OAL and L2 encapsulation/fragmentation, the carrier packets
containing the uNA(MM) message will then follow the secured spanning
tree and arrive at the specific neighbor.
As discussed in Section 7.2.6 of [RFC4861], the transmission and
reception of uNA(MM) messages is unreliable but provides a useful
optimization. In well-connected Internetworks with robust data links
uNA(MM) messages will be delivered with high probability, but in any
case the node can optionally send up to MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT
uNA(MM)s to each neighbor to increase the likelihood that at least
one will be received. Alternatively, the node can set the SNR flag
in the uNA(MM) OMNI option header to request a uNA(ACK) response
(see: Section 4.5.1).
When the FHS/LHS Proxy/Server receives a secured uNA(MM) message
prepared as above, if the uNA(MM) destination was its own SNP SRA ULA
the Proxy/Server uses the included OMNI option information to update
its NCE for the target but does not reset ReachableTime since the
receipt of a uNA(MM) message does not provide confirmation that any
forward paths to the target Client are working. If the destination
was the SNP GUA of the FHS/LHS Client, the Proxy/Server instead
changes the OAL source to its own SNP SRA GUA/ULA, includes an
authentication signature if necessary, and includes an in-window
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Identification for this Client. Finally, if the uNA(MM) message SNR
flag was set, the node that processes the uNA(MM) also returns a
uNA(ACK) response (see: Section 4.5.1).
4.15.2. Announcing Link-Layer Information Changes
When a Client needs to change its underlay Interface Attributes and/
or Traffic Selectors for one or more underlay interfaces (e.g., due
to a mobility event), the Client sends RS messages to its MAP Proxy/
Server (via first-hop FHS Proxy/Servers if necessary). Each RS
includes an OMNI option with Interface Attributes and/or Traffic
Selector sub-options for the ifIndex in question.
Note that the first FHS Proxy/Server may change due to the underlay
interface change. If the Client RS includes an OMNI Proxy/Server
Departure sub-option for the former FHS Proxy/Server, the new FHS
Proxy/Server can send a departure indication (see Section 4.15.5);
otherwise, any stale state in the former FHS Proxy/Server will simply
expire after ReachableTime expires with no effect on the MAP Proxy/
Server.
Up to MAX_RTR_SOLICITATIONS RS messages MAY be sent in parallel with
sending carrier packets containing user data in case one or more RAs
are lost. If all RAs are lost, the Client SHOULD re-associate with a
new Proxy/Server.
After performing the RS/RA exchange, the Client sends uNA(MM)
messages to all neighbors the same as described in the previous
section.
4.15.3. Bringing New Links Into Service
When a Client needs to bring new underlay interfaces into service
(e.g., when it activates a new data link), it sends an RS message to
the MAP Proxy/Server via a FHS Proxy/Server for the underlay
interface (if necessary) with an OMNI option that includes an
Interface Attributes sub-option with interface parameters and with
link layer address information for the new link. The Client then
again sends uNA(MM) messages to all neighbors the same as described
above.
4.15.4. Deactivating Existing Links
When a Client needs to deactivate an existing underlay interface, it
sends a uNA(MM) message toward the MAP Proxy/Server via an FHS Proxy/
Server with an OMNI option with appropriate Interface Attributes
values for the deactivated link.
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If the Client needs to send uNA(MM) messages over an underlay
interface other than the one being deactivated, it MUST include
Interface Attributes for any underlay interfaces being deactivated.
The Client then again sends uNA(MM) messages to all neighbors the
same as described above.
Note that when a Client deactivates an underlay interface, neighbors
that receive the ensuing uNA(MM) messages need not purge all
references for the underlay interface from their neighbor cache
entries. The Client may reactivate or reuse the underlay interface
and/or its ifIndex at a later point in time, when it will send new RS
messages to an FHS Proxy/Server with fresh interface parameters to
update any neighbors. The manner in which the Client dynamically
manages its local ifIndex to interface mappings is a local decision,
but should not be done in a manner that could cause state
inconsistencies in the network.
4.15.5. Moving Between Proxy/Servers
The Client performs the procedures specified in Section 4.12.2 when
it first associates with a new MAP Proxy/Server or renews its
association with an existing MAP Proxy/Server.
When a Client associates with a new MAP Proxy/Server, it sends RS
messages to register its underlay interfaces with the new MAP while
including the old MAP's GUA in the "Old MAP Proxy/Server GUA" field
of a Proxy/Server Departure OMNI sub-option. When the new MAP Proxy/
Server returns the RA message via the FHS Proxy/Server (acting as a
proxy), the FHS Proxy/Server sends a uNA(MM) to the old MAP Proxy/
Server (i.e., if the GUA is non-zero and different from its own).
The uNA(MM) has the MNP SRA GUA of the Client as the source and the
SNP SRA GUA of the old MAP as the destination and with an OMNI Proxy/
Server Departure sub-option as above. The FHS Proxy/Server
encapsulates the uNA(MM) in an OAL header with the SNP SRA GUA of the
new MAP as the source and the SNP SRA GUA of the old MAP as the
destination, then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and
forwards the resulting carrier packets via the secured spanning tree.
When the old MAP Proxy/Server receives the carrier packets, it
decapsulates and reassembles if necessary to obtain the uNA(MM) then
changes the Client's NCE state to DEPARTED, resets DepartTime and
caches the new MAP Proxy/Server GUA. After a short delay (e.g., 2
seconds) the old MAP Proxy/Server withdraws the Client's MNP(s) from
the routing system. While in the DEPARTED state, the old MAP Proxy/
Server forwards any carrier packets received via the secured spanning
tree destined to the Client's MNP GUAs or SNP GUA to the new MAP
Proxy/Server's SNP GUA. When DepartTime expires, the old MAP Proxy/
Server deletes the Client's NCE.
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Mobility events may also cause a Client to change to a new FHS Proxy/
Server over a specific underlay interface at any time such that a
Client RS/RA exchange over the underlay interface will engage the new
FHS Proxy/Server instead of the old. The Client can arrange to
inform the old FHS Proxy/Server of the departure by including a
Proxy/Server Departure sub-option with a GUA for the "Old FHS Proxy/
Server GUA", and the new FHS Proxy/Server will issue a uNA(MM) using
the same procedures as outlined for the MAP above while using its own
SNP SRA GUA as the source address. This can often result in
successful delivery of carrier packets that would otherwise be lost
due to the mobility event.
Clients SHOULD NOT move rapidly between MAP Proxy/Servers in order to
avoid causing excessive oscillations in the AERO routing system.
Examples of when a Client might wish to change to a different MAP
Proxy/Server include a MAP Proxy/Server that has become unresponsive,
topological movements of significant distance, movement to a new
geographic region, movement to a new OMNI link segment, etc.
4.15.6. Accommodating Path Changes
After AFV state has been established for a flow, all OAL intermediate
systems in the forward path will have AFVs with header compression
state and (AFVI, L2ADDR) information for the next hop. However,
paths can fluctuate due to factors such as node mobility, routing
changes, network membership, etc. If an OAL intermediate system
forwarding OAL packets with OCH headers detects that the next hop in
the path has changed, it immediately reverts to sending the packets
with header compression disabled by including full OFH and IPv6
Extended Fragment Headers (plus full original IP headers) in future
packets.
If the OAL intermediate system receives an OCH1 packet with the Q bit
set and M bit clear during a path change event, it first decompresses
the original IP headers of each payload packet in the (packed) OAL
packet while retaining the packets as attachments to the (full) OAL
header. The OAL intermediate system then processes the OAL packet
further.
If an OAL packet is larger than the minimum OFS, the OAL intermediate
system applies OAL fragmentation to produce (sub-)fragments no larger
than the OFS. If the original OAL packet/fragment had a fragment
ordinal value N, the OAL intermediate node writes the same value N
into each of the (sub-)fragments produced. If the original OAL
packet was a first fragment, the OAL intermediate node instead writes
the value 0 into each of the non-first (sub-)fragments produced
(i.e., those with non-zero Fragment Offset) without updating the
(sub-)fragment with zero offset.
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The OAL intermediate node then encapsulates the OAL packet or
fragments as attachments to OAL-encapsulated uNA messages (i.e., the
same as for initial packets during a multilink forwarding exchange)
but also includes an OMNI Neighbor Control sub-option with the "Path
Change (PCH)" bit set (see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. The OAL
intermediate node then applies an authentication signature and
includes an IPv6 Extended Fragment Header if necessary or admits the
uNA-encapsulated packet/fragments into the secured spanning tree.
These (sub-)fragments (along with any other OAL fragments) will not
be further fragmented by other OAL intermediate nodes on the path and
will be reassembled by the OAL destination.
When the OAL destination begins to receive OAL packets with full
headers and with the PCH bit set, it assumes that the network path
has changed and begins sending uNA messages to the OAL source. The
OAL destination sends the uNA messages subject to rate limiting, and
includes a Multilink Vector OMNI sub-option with both the ACK and RST
flags set and with the most recent OAL packet Identification written
into the Acknowledgment field.
When the OAL source receives the uNA messages with ACK and RST set,
it re-initiates multilink forwarding for this flow by issuing a new
NS/NA(MF) exchange the same as for a new flow as specified in
Section 4.13.2. The AFV state in the former path then simply becomes
stale and is soon purged by the former OAL intermediate nodes.
4.16. Multicast
Each Client provides an IGMP (IPv4) [RFC2236] or MLD (IPv6) [RFC3810]
proxy service for its ENETs and/or hosted applications [RFC4605] and
acts as a Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse-Mode (PIM-SM, or
simply "PIM") Designated Router (DR) [RFC7761] on the OMNI link.
Proxy/Servers act as OMNI link PIM routers for Clients on ANET, VPN/
IPsec or Direct interfaces, and Relays also act as OMNI link PIM
routers on behalf of nodes on other links/networks.
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Clients on VPN/IPsec, Direct or (M)ANET underlay interfaces for which
the *NET has deployed native multicast services forward IGMP/MLD
messages into the *NET. The IGMP/MLD messages may be further
forwarded by a first-hop *NET access router acting as an IGMP/MLD-
snooping switch [RFC4541], then ultimately delivered to a *NET (FHS)
Proxy/Server. The FHS Proxy/Server then acts as an ARS to send
NS(AR) messages to an ARR for the multicast source. Clients on *NET
underlay interfaces without native multicast services instead send
NS(AR) messages as an ARS to cause their FHS Proxy/Server to forward
the message to an ARR. When the ARR prepares an NA(AR) response, it
initiates PIM protocol messaging according to the Source-Specific
Multicast (SSM) and Any-Source Multicast (ASM) operational modes as
discussed in the following sections.
4.16.1. Source-Specific Multicast (SSM)
When an ARS "X" (i.e., either a Client or Proxy/Server) acting as PIM
router receives a Join/Prune message from a node on its downstream
interfaces containing one or more ((S)ource, (G)roup) pairs, it
updates its Multicast Routing Information Base (MRIB) accordingly.
For each S belonging to a prefix reachable via X's non-OMNI
interfaces, X then forwards the (S, G) Join/Prune to any PIM routers
on those interfaces per [RFC7761]. The same as for unicast
destinations, the 3-tuple of source, destination and flow label
identifies a flow for multicast group G.
For each S belonging to a prefix reachable via X's OMNI interface, X
sends an NS(AR) message (see: Section 4.13) using its own MNP SRA GUA
or SNP GUA as the source address and the MNP/SNP GUA of S as both the
destination and target addresses. X then encapsulates the NS(AR) in
an OAL header with source address set to its own GUA/ULA and
destination address set to the GUA/ULA for S, then forwards the
message into the secured spanning tree which delivers it to ARR "Y"
that services S. Y will then return an NA(AR) that includes an OMNI
option with Interface Attributes for any underlay interfaces that are
currently servicing S.
When X processes the NA(AR) it selects one or more underlay
interfaces for S and performs an NS/NA(MF) multilink forwarding
exchange over the secured spanning tree while including a PIM Join/
Prune message for each multicast group of interest in the OMNI
option. If S is located behind any Proxys "Z"*, each Z* then updates
its MRIB accordingly and maintains the MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA of X as
the next hop in the reverse path. Since Gateways forward messages
not addressed to themselves without examining them, this means that
the (reverse) multicast tree path is simply from each Z* (and/or S)
to X with no other multicast-aware routers in the path.
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Following the initial combined Join/Prune and NS/NA(MF) messaging, X
maintains a NCE for each S the same as if X was sending unicast data
traffic to S. In particular, X performs additional NS/NA(MF)
exchanges to keep the NCE alive for up to t_periodic seconds
[RFC7761]. If no new Joins are received within t_periodic seconds, X
allows the NCE to expire. Finally, if X receives any additional
Join/Prune messages for (S,G) it forwards the messages over the
secured spanning tree.
Client C that holds an MNP for source S may later depart from a first
Proxy/Server Z1 and/or connect via a new Proxy/Server Z2. In that
case, Y sends a uNA(MM) message to X the same as specified for
unicast mobility in Section 4.15. When X receives the uNA(MM)
message, it updates its NCE for the XLA for source S and sends new
Join messages in NS/NA(MF) exchanges addressed to the new target
Client underlay interface connection for S. There is no requirement
to send any Prune messages to old Proxy/Server Z1 since source S will
no longer source any multicast data traffic via Z1. Instead, the
multicast state for (S,G) in Proxy/Server Z1 will soon expire since
no new Joins will arrive.
4.16.2. Any-Source Multicast (ASM)
When an ARS "X" acting as a PIM router receives Join/Prune messages
from a node on its downstream interfaces containing one or more (*,G)
pairs, it updates its Multicast Routing Information Base (MRIB)
accordingly. X first performs an NS/NA(AR) exchange to receive
address resolution information for Rendezvous Point (RP) "R" for each
G. X then includes a copy of each Join/Prune message in the OMNI
option of an NS(MF) message with its own MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA as
the source address and the MNP SRA GUA or SNP GUA for R as the
destination and target address, then encapsulates the NS(MF) message
in an OAL header with its own GUA/ULA as the source and the GUA/ULA
of R's Proxy/Server as the destination then sends the message into
the secured spanning tree.
For each source "S" that sends multicast traffic to group G via R,
Client S* that aggregates S (or its Proxy/Server) encapsulates the
original IP packets/parcels in PIM Register messages, includes the
PIM Register messages in the OMNI options of uNA(MM) messages,
performs OAL encapsulation and fragmentation with Identification
values within the receive window for Client R* that aggregates R,
then performs L2 encapsulation/fragmentation and forwards the
resulting carrier packets. Client R* may then elect to send a PIM
Join to S* in the OMNI option of a uNA(MM) over the secured spanning
tree. This will result in an (S,G) tree rooted at S* with R as the
next hop so that R will begin to receive two copies of the original
IP packet/parcel; one native copy from the (S, G) tree and a second
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copy from the pre-existing (*, G) tree that still uses uNA(MM) PIM
Register encapsulation. R can then issue a uNA(MM) PIM Register-stop
message over the secured spanning tree to suppress the Register-
encapsulated stream. At some later time, if Client S* moves to a new
Proxy/Server, it resumes sending original IP packets/parcels via
uNA(MM) PIM Register encapsulation via the new Proxy/Server.
At the same time, as multicast listeners discover individual S's for
a given G, they can initiate an (S,G) Join for each S under the same
procedures discussed in Section 4.16.1. Once the (S,G) tree is
established, the listeners can send (S, G) Prune messages to R so
that multicast original IP packets/parcels for group G sourced by S
will only be delivered via the (S, G) tree and not from the (*, G)
tree rooted at R. All mobility considerations discussed for SSM
apply.
4.16.3. Bi-Directional PIM (BIDIR-PIM)
Bi-Directional PIM (BIDIR-PIM) [RFC5015] provides an alternate
approach to ASM that treats the Rendezvous Point (RP) as a Designated
Forwarder (DF). Further considerations for BIDIR-PIM are out of
scope.
4.17. Operation over Multiple OMNI Links
An AERO Client can connect to multiple OMNI links the same as for any
data link service. In that case, the Client maintains a distinct
OMNI interface for each link, e.g., 'omni0' for the first link,
'omni1' for the second, 'omni2' for the third, etc. Each OMNI link
would include its own distinct set of Gateways and Proxy/Servers,
thereby providing redundancy in case of failures.
Each OMNI link could utilize the same or different ANET/INET link
layer connections. The links can be distinguished at the link layer
via the SRT prefix in a similar fashion as for Virtual Local Area
Network (VLAN) tagging (e.g., IEEE 802.1Q) and/or through assignment
of distinct sets of MSPs on each link. This gives rise to the
opportunity for supporting multiple redundant networked paths (see:
Section 4.2.4).
The Client's network layer can select the outbound OMNI interface
appropriate for a given traffic profile while (in the reverse
direction) correspondent nodes must have some way of steering their
original IP packets/parcels destined to a target via the correct OMNI
link.
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In a first alternative, if each OMNI link services different MSPs the
Client can receive a distinct MNP from each of the links. IP routing
will therefore assure that the correct OMNI link is used for both
outbound and inbound traffic. This can be accomplished using
existing technologies and approaches, and without requiring any
special supporting code in correspondent nodes or Gateways.
In a second alternative, if each OMNI link services the same MSP(s)
then each link could assign a distinct "OMNI link Anycast" address
that is configured by all Gateways on the link. Correspondent nodes
can then perform Segment Routing to select the correct SRT, which
will then direct the original IP packet/parcel over multiple hops to
the target.
4.18. DNS Considerations
AERO Client MNs and INET correspondent nodes consult the Domain Name
System (DNS) the same as for any Internetworking node. When
correspondent nodes and Client MNs use different IP protocol versions
(e.g., IPv4 correspondents and IPv6 MNs), the INET DNS must maintain
A records for IPv4 address mappings to MNs which must then be
populated in Relay NAT64 mapping caches. In that way, an IPv4
correspondent node can send original IPv4 packets/parcels to the IPv4
address mapping of the target MN, and the Relay will translate the
IPv4 header and destination address into an IPv6 header and IPv6
destination address of the MN.
When an AERO Client registers with an AERO Proxy/Server, the Proxy/
Server can return the address(es) of DNS servers in RDNSS options
[RFC6106]. The DNS server provides the IP addresses of other MNs and
correspondent nodes in AAAA records for IPv6 or A records for IPv4.
4.19. Transition/Coexistence Considerations
OAL encapsulation ensures that dissimilar INET partitions can be
joined into a single unified OMNI link, even though the partitions
themselves may have differing protocol versions and/or incompatible
addressing plans. However, a commonality can be achieved by
incrementally distributing globally routable (i.e., native) IP
prefixes to eventually reach all nodes (both mobile and fixed) in all
OMNI link segments. This can be accomplished by incrementally
deploying AERO Gateways on each INET partition, with each Gateway
distributing its MNPs and/or discovering FNPs on its INET links.
This gives rise to the opportunity to eventually distribute native IP
addresses to all nodes, and to present a unified OMNI link view even
if the INET partitions remain in their current protocol and
addressing plans. In that way, the OMNI link can serve the dual
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purpose of providing a mobility/multilink service and a transition/
coexistence service. Alternatively, if an INET partition is
transitioned to a native IP protocol version and addressing scheme
compatible with the OMNI link MNP-based addressing scheme, the
partition and OMNI link can be joined by Gateways.
Relays that connect INETs/ENETs with dissimilar IP protocol versions
may need to employ a network address and protocol translation
function such as NAT64 [RFC6146].
4.20. Proxy/Server-Gateway Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
In environments where rapid failure recovery is essential, Proxy/
Servers and Gateways SHOULD use Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
(BFD) [RFC5880]. Nodes that use BFD can quickly detect and react to
failures so that cached information is re-established through
alternate nodes. BFD control messaging is carried only over well-
connected ground domain networks (i.e., and not low-end radio links)
and can therefore be tuned for rapid response.
Proxy/Servers and Gateways can maintain BFD sessions in parallel with
their BGP peerings. If a Proxy/Server or Gateway fails, BGP peers
will quickly re-establish routes through alternate paths the same as
for common BGP operational practice.
4.21. Time-Varying MNPs
In some use cases, it is desirable, beneficial and efficient for the
Client to receive a constant MNP that travels with the Client
wherever it moves. For example, this would allow air traffic
controllers to easily track aircraft, etc. In other cases, however
(e.g., intelligent transportation systems), the MN may be willing to
sacrifice a modicum of efficiency in order to have time-varying MNPs
that can be changed every so often to defeat adversarial tracking.
The DHCPv6 service offers a way for Clients that desire time-varying
MNPs to obtain short-lived prefixes (e.g., on the order of a small
number of minutes). In that case, the identity of the Client would
not be bound to the MNP but rather to a Node Identification value
(see: [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]) that can serve as a Client ID seed
for MNP prefix delegation. The Client would then be obligated to
renumber its internal networks whenever its MNP changes. This should
not present problems for Clients with automated network renumbering
services, however it can limit the durations of ongoing sessions that
would prefer to use a constant address.
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5. Implementation Status
AERO/OMNI Release-3.2 was tagged on March 30, 2021, and was subject
to internal testing. The implementation is not planned for public
release.
A new implementation architecture based on a clean-slate has been
developed and will incorporate updated aspects of the AERO/OMNI
specs, with the goal of producing a reference implementation for
future release.
6. IANA Considerations
The IANA has assigned the UDP port number "8060" for an experimental
first edition of AERO [RFC6706]. This document together with OMNI
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3] reclaims UDP port number "8060" as the
service port for AERO/OMNI UDP/IP encapsulation. This document makes
no IANA request, since the OMNI specification already provides IANA
guidance. (Note: although [RFC6706] was not widely implemented or
deployed, it need not be obsoleted since its messages use the invalid
ICMPv6 message type number '0' which implementations of this
specification can easily distinguish and ignore.)
No further IANA actions are required.
7. Security Considerations
AERO Gateways establish security associations with AERO Proxy/Servers
and Relays within their local OMNI link segments using secured
tunnels over underlay interfaces. The AERO Gateways of all OMNI link
segments in turn configure secured tunnels with neighboring AERO
Gateways for other OMNI link segments in a secured spanning tree
topology. Applicable security services include IPsec [RFC4301] with
IKEv2 [RFC7296], etc. (Note that secured direct point-to-point links
can also be used instead of or in addition to network layer
security.) Together, these services are responsible for assuring
connectionless integrity and data origin authentication with optional
protection against replays for control messages that traverse the
secured spanning tree.
To prevent unauthorized local applications from congesting the
secured spanning tree, Proxy/Servers and Gateways configure local
access controls to permit only the BGP protocol service daemon to
source routing protocol control messages with the ULA assigned to the
OMNI interface as the source over the secured spanning tree. This
could be implemented as a port/address filtering configuration that
permits only TCP port 179 (as defined in the IANA "Service Names and
Port Numbers" registry) when using the ULA assigned to the OMNI
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interface. To prevent malicious Clients from congesting the secured
spanning tree, Proxy/Servers should also rate-limit the secured IPv6
ND NS/NA messages they process for the same (source, target) pair,
e.g., by applying IPv6 ND MAX_UNICAST_SOLICIT;
MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT limits.
To prevent spoofing, Proxy/Servers MUST silently discard without
responding to any unsecured IPv6 ND messages with OMNI sub-options
that would otherwise affect state. Also, Proxy/Servers MUST silently
discard without forwarding any original IP packets/parcels received
from one of their own Clients (whether directly or following OAL
reassembly) with a source address that does not match the Client's
MNP and/or a destination address that does match the Client's MNP.
Finally, Proxy/Servers MUST silently discard without forwarding any
carrier packets that include an OAL packet/fragment with source and
destination that both match the same MNP.
AERO Clients that connect to secured ANETs need not apply additional
security to their IPv6 ND messages, since the messages will be
accepted and forwarded by a perimeter Proxy/Server that applies
security over its INET-facing interface to the secured spanning tree
(see above). AERO Clients that connect to MANETs or open INETs can
use network and/or transport layer security services such as VPNs
(e.g., IPsec tunnels) or can by some other means establish a secured
direct link to a Proxy/Server. When a VPN or direct link may be
impractical, however, INET Clients and Proxy/Servers SHOULD include
and verify authentication signatures for IPv6 ND messages as
specified in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3].
End systems SHOULD apply transport or higher layer security services
such as QUIC-TLS [RFC9000], TLS/SSL [RFC8446], DTLS [RFC6347], etc.
to provide a level of protection comparable to critical secured
Internet services. End systems that require host-based VPN services
SHOULD use network and/or transport layer security services such as
IPsec, TLS/SSL, DTLS, etc. AERO Proxy/Servers and Clients can also
provide a network-based VPN service on behalf of end systems, e.g.,
if the end system is located within a secured enclave and cannot
establish a VPN on its own behalf.
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For INET partitions that require strong network layer security in the
data plane, two options for securing communications include 1)
disable route optimization and direct all traffic over the secured
spanning tree, or 2) enable on-demand secure tunnel establishment
between Client neighbors. Option 1) would result in longer routes
than necessary and impose traffic concentration on critical
infrastructure elements. Option 2) could be coordinated between
Clients using NS/NA messages with OMNI Host Identity Protocol (HIP)
"Initiator/Responder" message sub-options [RFC7401]
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3] or QUIC-TLS protocol message sub-options
[RFC9000][RFC9001] [RFC9002] to establish secured sessions.
AERO Proxy/Servers and Gateways present targets for traffic
amplification Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. This concern is no
different than for widely-deployed VPN security gateways in the
Internet, where attackers could send spoofed packets to the gateways
at high data rates. This can be mitigated through the AERO/OMNI data
origin authentication procedures, as well as connecting Proxy/Servers
and Gateways over dedicated links with no connections to the Internet
and/or when connections to the Internet are only permitted through
well-managed firewalls. Traffic amplification DoS attacks can also
target an AERO Client's low data rate links. This is a concern not
only for Clients located on the open Internet but also for Clients in
secured enclaves. AERO Proxy/Servers and Proxys can institute rate
limits that protect Clients from receiving carrier packet floods that
could DoS low data rate links.
AERO Relays must implement ingress filtering to avoid a spoofing
attack in which spurious messages with ULA addresses are injected
into an OMNI link from an outside attacker. AERO Clients MUST ensure
that their connectivity is not used by unauthorized nodes on their
ENETs to gain access to a protected network, i.e., AERO Clients that
act as routers MUST NOT provide routing services for unauthorized
nodes. (This concern is no different than for ordinary hosts that
receive an IP address delegation but then "share" the address with
other nodes via some form of Internet connection sharing such as
tethering.)
The AERO service for MANET and open INET Clients depends on a public
key distribution service in which Client public keys and identities
are maintained in a shared database accessible to Proxy/Servers and
potential correspondent peer nodes. Similarly, each Client must be
able to determine the public key of each Proxy/Server, e.g. by
consulting an online database.
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The PRL contains only public information, but MUST be well-managed
and secured from unauthorized tampering. The PRL can be conveyed to
the Client in a similar fashion as in [RFC5214] (e.g., through data
link layer login messaging, secure upload of a static file, DNS
lookups, etc.).
Security considerations for IPv6 fragmentation and reassembly are
discussed in [I-D.templin-6man-omni3]. In environments where
spoofing is considered a threat, all OAL nodes SHOULD employ
Identification window synchronization and OAL end systems SHOULD
configure an (end-system-based) firewall.
Security considerations for accepting link layer ICMP messages and
reflected carrier packets are discussed throughout the document.
8. Acknowledgements
Discussions in the IETF, aviation standards communities and private
exchanges helped shape some of the concepts in this work.
Individuals who contributed insights include Mikael Abrahamsson, Mark
Andrews, Fred Baker, Bob Braden, Stewart Bryant, Scott Burleigh,
Brian Carpenter, Wojciech Dec, Pavel Drasil, Ralph Droms, Adrian
Farrel, Nick Green, Sri Gundavelli, Brian Haberman, Bernhard Haindl,
Joel Halpern, Tom Herbert, Bob Hinden, Sascha Hlusiak, Lee Howard,
Christian Huitema, Zdenek Jaron, Andre Kostur, Hubert Kuenig, Eliot
Lear, Ted Lemon, Andy Malis, Satoru Matsushima, Tomek Mrugalski,
Thomas Narten, Madhu Niraula, Alexandru Petrescu, Behcet Saikaya,
Michal Skorepa, Dave Thaler, Joe Touch, Bernie Volz, Ryuji Wakikawa,
Tony Whyman, Lloyd Wood and James Woodyatt. Members of the IESG also
provided valuable input during their review process that greatly
improved the document. Special thanks go to Stewart Bryant, Joel
Halpern and Brian Haberman for their shepherding guidance during the
publication of the AERO first edition.
This work has further been encouraged and supported by Boeing
colleagues including Akash Agarwal, Kyle Bae, M. Wayne Benson, Dave
Bernhardt, Cam Brodie, John Bush, Balaguruna Chidambaram, Irene Chin,
Bruce Cornish, Claudiu Danilov, Sean Dickson, Don Dillenburg, Joe
Dudkowski, Wen Fang, Samad Farooqui, Anthony Gregory, Jeff Holland,
Seth Jahne, Brian Jaury, Greg Kimberly, Ed King, Madhuri Madhava
Badgandi, Laurel Matthew, Gene MacLean III, Kyle Mikos, Rob
Muszkiewicz, Sean O'Sullivan, Satish Raghavendran, Vijay Rajagopalan,
Kristina Ross, Greg Saccone, Ron Sackman, Bhargava Raman Sai Prakash,
Rod Santiago, Madhanmohan Savadamuthu, Kent Shuey, Brian Skeen, Mike
Slane, Carrie Spiker, Katie Tran, Brendan Williams, Amelia Wilson,
Julie Wulff, Yueli Yang, Eric Yeh and other members of the Boeing
mobility, networking and autonomy teams. Akash Agarwal, Kyle Bae,
Wayne Benson, Madhuri Madhava Badgandi, Vijayasarathy Rajagopalan,
Templin Expires 18 October 2024 [Page 98]
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Bhargava Raman Sai Prakash, Katie Tran and Eric Yeh are especially
acknowledged for their work on the AERO implementation. Chuck
Klabunde is honored for his support and guidance, and we mourn his
untimely loss.
This work was inspired by the support and encouragement of countless
outstanding colleagues, managers and program directors over the span
of many decades. Beginning in the late 1980s,' the Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC) Ultrix Engineering and DECnet Architects groups
identified early issues with fragmentation and bridging links with
diverse MTUs. In the early 1990s, engagements at DEC Project Sequoia
at UC Berkeley and the DEC Western Research Lab in Palo Alto included
investigations into large-scale networked filesystems, ATM vs
Internet and network security proxys. In the mid-1990s to early
2000s employment at the NASA Ames Research Center (Sterling Software)
and SRI International supported early investigations of IPv6, ONR UAV
Communications and the IETF. An employment at Nokia where important
IETF documents were published gave way to a present-day engagement
with The Boeing Company. The work matured at Boeing through major
programs including Future Combat Systems, Advanced Airplane Program,
DTN for the International Space Station, Mobility Vision Lab, CAST,
Caravan, Airplane Internet of Things, the NASA UAS/CNS program, the
FAA/ICAO ATN/IPS program and many others. An attempt to name all who
gave support and encouragement would double the current document size
and result in many unintentional omissions - but to all a humble
thanks.
Earlier works on NBMA tunneling approaches are found in
[RFC2529][RFC5214][RFC5569].
Many of the constructs presented in this second edition of AERO are
based on the author's earlier works, including:
* Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP) [RFC5214]
* The Subnetwork Encapsulation and Adaptation Layer (SEAL) [RFC5320]
* Virtual Enterprise Traversal (VET) [RFC5558]
* Routing and Addressing in Networks with Global Enterprise
Recursion (RANGER) [RFC5720][RFC6139]
* The Internet Routing Overlay Network (IRON) [RFC6179]
* AERO, First Edition [RFC6706]
Templin Expires 18 October 2024 [Page 99]
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Note that these works cite numerous earlier efforts that are not
included here due to space limitations. The authors of those earlier
works are acknowledged for their insights.
This work is aligned with the NASA Safe Autonomous Systems Operation
(SASO) program under NASA contract number NNA16BD84C.
This work is aligned with the FAA as per the SE2025 contract number
DTFAWA-15-D-00030.
This work is aligned with the Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA)
Airplane Internet of Things (AIoT) and autonomy programs.
This work is aligned with the Boeing Information Technology (BIT)
MobileNet program.
Honoring life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[I-D.templin-6man-omni3]
Templin, F., "Transmission of IP Packets over Overlay
Multilink Network (OMNI) Interfaces", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-templin-6man-omni3-03, 15 April
2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-
templin-6man-omni3-03>.
[RFC0791] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791,
DOI 10.17487/RFC0791, September 1981,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc791>.
[RFC0792] Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
RFC 792, DOI 10.17487/RFC0792, September 1981,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc792>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC4191] Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences and
More-Specific Routes", RFC 4191, DOI 10.17487/RFC4191,
November 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4191>.
Templin Expires 18 October 2024 [Page 100]
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[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>.
[RFC4271] Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed., "A
Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.
[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>.
[RFC4443] Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, Ed., "Internet
Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet
Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", STD 89,
RFC 4443, DOI 10.17487/RFC4443, March 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4443>.
[RFC4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
"Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4861, September 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861>.
[RFC4862] Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4862, September 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4862>.
[RFC6437] Amante, S., Carpenter, B., Jiang, S., and J. Rajahalme,
"IPv6 Flow Label Specification", RFC 6437,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6437, November 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6437>.
[RFC6438] Carpenter, B. and S. Amante, "Using the IPv6 Flow Label
for Equal Cost Multipath Routing and Link Aggregation in
Tunnels", RFC 6438, DOI 10.17487/RFC6438, November 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6438>.
[RFC6890] Cotton, M., Vegoda, L., Bonica, R., Ed., and B. Haberman,
"Special-Purpose IP Address Registries", BCP 153,
RFC 6890, DOI 10.17487/RFC6890, April 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6890>.
[RFC8028] Baker, F. and B. Carpenter, "First-Hop Router Selection by
Hosts in a Multi-Prefix Network", RFC 8028,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8028, November 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8028>.
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[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[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>.
[RFC8415] Mrugalski, T., Siodelski, M., Volz, B., Yourtchenko, A.,
Richardson, M., Jiang, S., Lemon, T., and T. Winters,
"Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)",
RFC 8415, DOI 10.17487/RFC8415, November 2018,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8415>.
[RFC9268] Hinden, R. and G. Fairhurst, "IPv6 Minimum Path MTU Hop-
by-Hop Option", RFC 9268, DOI 10.17487/RFC9268, August
2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9268>.
9.2. Informative References
[BGP] Huston, G., "BGP in 2015, http://potaroo.net", January
2016.
[EUI] "IEEE Guidelines for Use of Extended Unique Identifier
(EUI), Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI), and
Company ID, https://standards.ieee.org/wp-
content/uploads/import/documents/tutorials/eui.pdf", 3
August 2017.
[I-D.bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis]
Cullen, M., Baker, F., Trøan, O., and N. Buraglio, "RFC
6296bis IPv6-to-IPv6 Network Prefix Translation", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis-02,
26 January 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-bctb-6man-rfc6296-bis-02>.
[I-D.ietf-6man-comp-rtg-hdr]
Bonica, R., Kamite, Y., Alston, A., Henriques, D., and L.
Jalil, "The IPv6 Compact Routing Header (CRH)", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-6man-comp-rtg-hdr-05,
10 April 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-ietf-6man-comp-rtg-hdr-05>.
Templin Expires 18 October 2024 [Page 102]
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[I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]
Touch, J. D. and M. Townsley, "IP Tunnels in the Internet
Architecture", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
ietf-intarea-tunnels-13, 26 March 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-intarea-
tunnels-13>.
[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-atn-bgp]
Templin, F., Saccone, G., Dawra, G., Lindem, A., and V.
Moreno, "A Simple BGP-based Mobile Routing System for the
Aeronautical Telecommunications Network", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-rtgwg-atn-bgp-26, 29
March 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-
ietf-rtgwg-atn-bgp-26>.
[I-D.perkins-manet-aodvv2]
Perkins, C. E., Dowdell, J., Steenbrink, L., and V.
Pritchard, "Ad Hoc On-demand Distance Vector Version 2
(AODVv2) Routing", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
draft-perkins-manet-aodvv2-04, 3 March 2024,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-perkins-
manet-aodvv2-04>.
[I-D.templin-6man-parcels2]
Templin, F., "IPv6 Parcels and Advanced Jumbos (AJs)",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-templin-6man-
parcels2-03, 12 April 2024,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-templin-6man-
parcels2-03>.
[I-D.templin-intarea-parcels2]
Templin, F., "IPv4 Parcels and Advanced Jumbos (AJs)",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-templin-intarea-
parcels2-03, 12 April 2024,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-templin-
intarea-parcels2-03>.
[IEN48] Cerf, V., "The Catenet Model For Internetworking,
https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien48.txt", July 1978.
[IEN48-2] Cerf, V., "The Catenet Model For Internetworking (with
figures), http://www.postel.org/ien/pdf/ien048.pdf", July
1978.
[RFC1035] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, DOI 10.17487/RFC1035,
November 1987, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1035>.
Templin Expires 18 October 2024 [Page 103]
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[RFC1256] Deering, S., Ed., "ICMP Router Discovery Messages",
RFC 1256, DOI 10.17487/RFC1256, September 1991,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1256>.
[RFC1812] Baker, F., Ed., "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers",
RFC 1812, DOI 10.17487/RFC1812, June 1995,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1812>.
[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>.
[RFC2236] Fenner, W., "Internet Group Management Protocol, Version
2", RFC 2236, DOI 10.17487/RFC2236, November 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2236>.
[RFC2464] Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
Networks", RFC 2464, DOI 10.17487/RFC2464, December 1998,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2464>.
[RFC2529] Carpenter, B. and C. Jung, "Transmission of IPv6 over IPv4
Domains without Explicit Tunnels", RFC 2529,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2529, March 1999,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2529>.
[RFC3056] Carpenter, B. and K. Moore, "Connection of IPv6 Domains
via IPv4 Clouds", RFC 3056, DOI 10.17487/RFC3056, February
2001, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3056>.
[RFC3810] Vida, R., Ed. and L. Costa, Ed., "Multicast Listener
Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2) for IPv6", RFC 3810,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3810, June 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3810>.
[RFC4301] Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the
Internet Protocol", RFC 4301, DOI 10.17487/RFC4301,
December 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4301>.
[RFC4380] Huitema, C., "Teredo: Tunneling IPv6 over UDP through
Network Address Translations (NATs)", RFC 4380,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4380, February 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4380>.
[RFC4389] Thaler, D., Talwar, M., and C. Patel, "Neighbor Discovery
Proxies (ND Proxy)", RFC 4389, DOI 10.17487/RFC4389, April
2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4389>.
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[RFC4511] Sermersheim, J., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP): The Protocol", RFC 4511,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4511, June 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4511>.
[RFC4541] Christensen, M., Kimball, K., and F. Solensky,
"Considerations for Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Snooping
Switches", RFC 4541, DOI 10.17487/RFC4541, May 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4541>.
[RFC4605] Fenner, B., He, H., Haberman, B., and H. Sandick,
"Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) / Multicast
Listener Discovery (MLD)-Based Multicast Forwarding
("IGMP/MLD Proxying")", RFC 4605, DOI 10.17487/RFC4605,
August 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4605>.
[RFC5015] Handley, M., Kouvelas, I., Speakman, T., and L. Vicisano,
"Bidirectional Protocol Independent Multicast (BIDIR-
PIM)", RFC 5015, DOI 10.17487/RFC5015, October 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5015>.
[RFC5214] Templin, F., Gleeson, T., and D. Thaler, "Intra-Site
Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)", RFC 5214,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5214, March 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5214>.
[RFC5320] Templin, F., Ed., "The Subnetwork Encapsulation and
Adaptation Layer (SEAL)", RFC 5320, DOI 10.17487/RFC5320,
February 2010, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5320>.
[RFC5340] Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J., and A. Lindem, "OSPF
for IPv6", RFC 5340, DOI 10.17487/RFC5340, July 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5340>.
[RFC5522] Eddy, W., Ivancic, W., and T. Davis, "Network Mobility
Route Optimization Requirements for Operational Use in
Aeronautics and Space Exploration Mobile Networks",
RFC 5522, DOI 10.17487/RFC5522, October 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5522>.
[RFC5558] Templin, F., Ed., "Virtual Enterprise Traversal (VET)",
RFC 5558, DOI 10.17487/RFC5558, February 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5558>.
[RFC5569] Despres, R., "IPv6 Rapid Deployment on IPv4
Infrastructures (6rd)", RFC 5569, DOI 10.17487/RFC5569,
January 2010, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5569>.
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[RFC5614] Ogier, R. and P. Spagnolo, "Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET)
Extension of OSPF Using Connected Dominating Set (CDS)
Flooding", RFC 5614, DOI 10.17487/RFC5614, August 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5614>.
[RFC5720] Templin, F., "Routing and Addressing in Networks with
Global Enterprise Recursion (RANGER)", RFC 5720,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5720, February 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5720>.
[RFC5880] Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
(BFD)", RFC 5880, DOI 10.17487/RFC5880, June 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5880>.
[RFC6081] Thaler, D., "Teredo Extensions", RFC 6081,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6081, January 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6081>.
[RFC6106] Jeong, J., Park, S., Beloeil, L., and S. Madanapalli,
"IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration",
RFC 6106, DOI 10.17487/RFC6106, November 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6106>.
[RFC6139] Russert, S., Ed., Fleischman, E., Ed., and F. Templin,
Ed., "Routing and Addressing in Networks with Global
Enterprise Recursion (RANGER) Scenarios", RFC 6139,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6139, February 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6139>.
[RFC6145] Li, X., Bao, C., and F. Baker, "IP/ICMP Translation
Algorithm", RFC 6145, DOI 10.17487/RFC6145, April 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6145>.
[RFC6146] Bagnulo, M., Matthews, P., and I. van Beijnum, "Stateful
NAT64: Network Address and Protocol Translation from IPv6
Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6146, DOI 10.17487/RFC6146,
April 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6146>.
[RFC6147] Bagnulo, M., Sullivan, A., Matthews, P., and I. van
Beijnum, "DNS64: DNS Extensions for Network Address
Translation from IPv6 Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6147,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6147, April 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6147>.
[RFC6179] Templin, F., Ed., "The Internet Routing Overlay Network
(IRON)", RFC 6179, DOI 10.17487/RFC6179, March 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6179>.
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[RFC6221] Miles, D., Ed., Ooghe, S., Dec, W., Krishnan, S., and A.
Kavanagh, "Lightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent", RFC 6221,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6221, May 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6221>.
[RFC6347] Rescorla, E. and N. Modadugu, "Datagram Transport Layer
Security Version 1.2", RFC 6347, DOI 10.17487/RFC6347,
January 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6347>.
[RFC6621] Macker, J., Ed., "Simplified Multicast Forwarding",
RFC 6621, DOI 10.17487/RFC6621, May 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6621>.
[RFC6706] Templin, F., Ed., "Asymmetric Extended Route Optimization
(AERO)", RFC 6706, DOI 10.17487/RFC6706, August 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6706>.
[RFC7181] Clausen, T., Dearlove, C., Jacquet, P., and U. Herberg,
"The Optimized Link State Routing Protocol Version 2",
RFC 7181, DOI 10.17487/RFC7181, April 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7181>.
[RFC7296] Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., Eronen, P., and T.
Kivinen, "Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2
(IKEv2)", STD 79, RFC 7296, DOI 10.17487/RFC7296, October
2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7296>.
[RFC7333] Chan, H., Ed., Liu, D., Seite, P., Yokota, H., and J.
Korhonen, "Requirements for Distributed Mobility
Management", RFC 7333, DOI 10.17487/RFC7333, August 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7333>.
[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>.
[RFC7761] Fenner, B., Handley, M., Holbrook, H., Kouvelas, I.,
Parekh, R., Zhang, Z., and L. Zheng, "Protocol Independent
Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification
(Revised)", STD 83, RFC 7761, DOI 10.17487/RFC7761, March
2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7761>.
[RFC8175] Ratliff, S., Jury, S., Satterwhite, D., Taylor, R., and B.
Berry, "Dynamic Link Exchange Protocol (DLEP)", RFC 8175,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8175, June 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8175>.
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[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>.
[RFC8446] Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.
[RFC8754] Filsfils, C., Ed., Dukes, D., Ed., Previdi, S., Leddy, J.,
Matsushima, S., and D. Voyer, "IPv6 Segment Routing Header
(SRH)", RFC 8754, DOI 10.17487/RFC8754, March 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8754>.
[RFC9000] Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based
Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, May 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.
[RFC9001] Thomson, M., Ed. and S. Turner, Ed., "Using TLS to Secure
QUIC", RFC 9001, DOI 10.17487/RFC9001, May 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9001>.
[RFC9002] Iyengar, J., Ed. and I. Swett, Ed., "QUIC Loss Detection
and Congestion Control", RFC 9002, DOI 10.17487/RFC9002,
May 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9002>.
[RFC9365] Jeong, J., Ed., "IPv6 Wireless Access in Vehicular
Environments (IPWAVE): Problem Statement and Use Cases",
RFC 9365, DOI 10.17487/RFC9365, March 2023,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9365>.
[RFC9374] Moskowitz, R., Card, S., Wiethuechter, A., and A. Gurtov,
"DRIP Entity Tag (DET) for Unmanned Aircraft System Remote
ID (UAS RID)", RFC 9374, DOI 10.17487/RFC9374, March 2023,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9374>.
Appendix A. Non-Normative Considerations
AERO can be applied to a multitude of Internetworking scenarios, with
each having its own adaptations. The following considerations are
provided as non-normative guidance:
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A.1. Implementation Strategies for Route Optimization
Address resolution and route optimization as discussed in
Section 4.13 results in the creation of NCEs. The NCE state is set
to REACHABLE for at most ReachableTime seconds. In order to refresh
the NCE lifetime before the ReachableTime timer expires, the
specification requires implementations to issue a new NS/NA(AR)
exchange to reset ReachableTime while data messages are still
flowing. However, the decision of when to initiate a new NS/NA(AR)
exchange and to perpetuate the process is left as an implementation
detail.
One possible strategy may be to monitor the NCE watching for data
messages for (ReachableTime - 5) seconds. If any data messages have
been sent to the neighbor within this timeframe, then send an NS(AR)
to receive a new NA(AR). If no data messages have been sent, wait
for 5 additional seconds and send an immediate NS(AR) if any data
packets are sent within this "expiration pending" 5 second window.
If no additional data messages are sent within the 5 second window,
reset the NCE state to STALE.
The monitoring of the neighbor data traffic therefore becomes an
ongoing process during the NCE lifetime. If the NCE expires, future
data messages will trigger a new NS/NA(AR) exchange while the
messages themselves may be delivered over longer paths until route
optimization state is re-established.
A.2. Implicit Mobility Management
OMNI interface neighbors MAY provide a configuration option that
allows them to perform implicit mobility management in which no IPv6
ND messaging is used. In that case, the Client only transmits
carrier packets over a single interface at a time, and the neighbor
always observes carrier packets arriving from the Client from the
same L2 source address.
If the Client's underlay interface address changes (either due to a
readdressing of the original interface or switching to a new
interface) the neighbor immediately updates the NCE for the Client
and begins accepting and sending carrier packets according to the
Client's new address. This implicit mobility method applies to use
cases such as cellphones with both WiFi and Cellular interfaces where
only one of the interfaces is active at a given time, and the Client
automatically switches over to the backup interface if the primary
interface fails.
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A.3. Direct Underlying Interfaces
When a Client's OMNI interface is configured over a Direct interface,
the neighbor at the other end of the Direct link can receive original
IP packets/parcels without any encapsulation. In that case, the
Client sends packets/parcels over the Direct link according to
traffic selectors. If the Direct interface is selected, then the
Client's packets/parcels are transmitted directly to the peer without
traversing an ANET/INET. If other interfaces are selected, then the
Client's packets/parcels are transmitted via a different interface,
which may result in the inclusion of Proxy/Servers and Gateways in
the communications path. Direct interfaces must be tested
periodically for reachability, e.g., via NUD.
A.4. AERO Critical Infrastructure Considerations
AERO Gateways can be either Commercial off-the Shelf (COTS) standard
IP routers or virtual machines in the cloud. Gateways must be
provisioned, supported and managed by the INET administrative
authority, and connected to the Gateways of other INETs via inter-
domain peerings. Cost for purchasing, configuring and managing
Gateways is nominal even for very large OMNI links.
AERO INET Proxy/Servers can be standard dedicated server platforms,
but most often will be deployed as virtual machines in the cloud.
The only requirements for INET Proxy/Servers are that they can run
the AERO/OMNI code and have at least one network interface connection
to the INET. INET Proxy/Servers must be provisioned, supported and
managed by the INET administrative authority. Cost for purchasing,
configuring and managing cloud Proxy/Servers is nominal especially
for virtual machines.
AERO ANET Proxy/Servers are most often standard dedicated server
platforms with one underlay interface connected to the ANET and a
second interface connected to an INET. As with INET Proxy/Servers,
the only requirements are that they can run the AERO/OMNI code and
have at least one interface connection to the INET. ANET Proxy/
Servers must be provisioned, supported and managed by the ANET
administrative authority. Cost for purchasing, configuring and
managing Proxys is nominal, and borne by the ANET administrative
authority.
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AERO Relays are simply Proxy/Servers connected to INETs and/or ENETs
that provide forwarding services for non-MNP destinations. The Relay
connects to the OMNI link and engages in eBGP peering with one or
more Gateways as a stub AS. The Relay then injects its MNPs and/or
non-MNP prefixes into the BGP routing system, and provisions the
prefixes to its downstream-attached networks. The Relay can perform
ARS/ARR services the same as for any Proxy/Server, and can route
between the MNP and non-MNP address spaces.
A.5. AERO Server Failure Implications
AERO Proxy/Servers do not present a single point of failure in the
architecture since all Proxy/Servers on the link provide identical
services and loss of a Proxy/Server does not imply immediate and/or
comprehensive communication failures. Proxy/Server failure can be
quickly detected and conveyed by Bidirectional Forward Detection
(BFD) and/or proactive NUD allowing Clients to migrate to new Proxy/
Servers.
If a Proxy/Server fails, peer carrier packet forwarding to Clients
will continue by virtue of the neighbor cache entries that have
already been established through address resolution and route
optimization. If a Client also experiences mobility events at
roughly the same time the Proxy/Server fails, uNA(MM) messages may be
lost but neighbor cache entries in the DEPARTED state will ensure
that carrier packet forwarding to the Client's new locations will
continue for up to DepartTime seconds.
If a Client is left without a Proxy/Server for a considerable length
of time (e.g., greater than ReachableTime seconds) then existing
neighbor cache entries will eventually expire and both ongoing and
new communications will fail. The original source will continue to
retransmit until the Client has established a new Proxy/Server
relationship, after which time communications can continue .
Therefore, links that provide many Proxy/Servers with high
availability profiles are responsive to loss of individual
infrastructure elements, since Clients can quickly establish new
Proxy/Server relationships in event of failures.
A.6. AERO Client / Server Architecture
The AERO architectural model is client / server in the control plane,
with route optimization in the data plane. The same as for common
Internet services, the AERO Client discovers the addresses of AERO
Proxy/Servers and connects to one or more of them. The AERO service
is analogous to common Internet services such as google.com,
yahoo.com, cnn.com, etc. However, there is only one AERO service for
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the link and all Proxy/Servers provide identical services.
Common Internet services provide differing strategies for advertising
server addresses to clients. The strategy is conveyed through the
DNS resource records returned in response to name resolution queries.
As of January 2020 Internet-based 'nslookup' services were used to
determine the following:
* When a client resolves the domainname "google.com", the DNS always
returns one A record (i.e., an IPv4 address) and one AAAA record
(i.e., an IPv6 address). The client receives the same addresses
each time it resolves the domainname via the same DNS resolver,
but may receive different addresses when it resolves the
domainname via different DNS resolvers. But, in each case,
exactly one A and one AAAA record are returned.
* When a client resolves the domainname "ietf.org", the DNS always
returns one A record and one AAAA record with the same addresses
regardless of which DNS resolver is used.
* When a client resolves the domainname "yahoo.com", the DNS always
returns a list of 4 A records and 4 AAAA records. Each time the
client resolves the domainname via the same DNS resolver, the same
list of addresses are returned but in randomized order (i.e.,
consistent with a DNS round-robin strategy). But, interestingly,
the same addresses are returned (albeit in randomized order) when
the domainname is resolved via different DNS resolvers.
* When a client resolves the domainname "amazon.com", the DNS always
returns a list of 3 A records and no AAAA records. As with
"yahoo.com", the same three A records are returned from any
worldwide Internet connection point in randomized order.
The above example strategies show differing approaches to Internet
resilience and service distribution offered by major Internet
services. The Google approach exposes only a single IPv4 and a
single IPv6 address to clients. Clients can then select whichever IP
protocol version offers the best response, but will always use the
same IP address according to the current Internet connection point.
This means that the IP address offered by the network must lead to a
highly-available server and/or service distribution point. In other
words, resilience is predicated on high availability within the
network and with no client-initiated failovers expected (i.e., it is
all-or-nothing from the client's perspective). However, Google does
provide for worldwide distributed service distribution by virtue of
the fact that each Internet connection point responds with a
different IPv6 and IPv4 address. The IETF approach is like google
(all-or-nothing from the client's perspective), but provides only a
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single IPv4 or IPv6 address on a worldwide basis. This means that
the addresses must be made highly-available at the network level with
no client failover possibility, and if there is any worldwide service
distribution it would need to be conducted by a network element that
is reached via the IP address acting as a service distribution point.
In contrast to the Google and IETF philosophies, Yahoo and Amazon
both provide clients with a (short) list of IP addresses with Yahoo
providing both IP protocol versions and Amazon as IPv4-only. The
order of the list is randomized with each name service query
response, with the effect of round-robin load balancing for service
distribution. With a short list of addresses, there is still
expectation that the network will implement high availability for
each address but in case any single address fails the client can
switch over to using a different address. The balance then becomes
one of function in the network vs function in the end system.
The same implications observed for common highly-available services
in the Internet apply also to the AERO client/server architecture.
When an AERO Client connects to one or more ANETs, it discovers one
or more AERO Proxy/Server addresses through the mechanisms discussed
in earlier sections. Each Proxy/Server address presumably leads to a
fault-tolerant clustering arrangement such as supported by Linux-HA,
Extended Virtual Synchrony or Paxos. Such an arrangement has
precedence in common Internet service deployments in lightweight
virtual machines without requiring expensive hardware deployment.
Similarly, common Internet service deployments set service IP
addresses on service distribution points that may relay requests to
many different servers.
For AERO, the expectation is that a combination of the Google/IETF
and Yahoo/Amazon philosophies would be employed. The AERO Client
connects to different ANET access points and can receive 1-2 Proxy/
Server ULAs at each point. It then selects one AERO Proxy/Server
address, and engages in RS/RA exchanges with the same Proxy/Server
from all ANET connections. The Client remains with this Proxy/Server
unless or until the Proxy/Server fails, in which case it can switch
over to an alternate Proxy/Server. The Client can likewise switch
over to a different Proxy/Server at any time if there is some reason
for it to do so. So, the AERO expectation is for a balance of
function in the network and end system, with fault tolerance and
resilience at both levels.
Appendix B. Change Log
<< RFC Editor - remove prior to publication >>
Changes from earlier versions:
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* Submit for review.
Author's Address
Fred L. Templin (editor)
Boeing Research & Technology
P.O. Box 3707
Seattle, WA 98124
United States of America
Email: fltemplin@acm.org
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