Internet Engineering Task Force                                 H. Stenn
Internet-Draft                                                  D. Mills
Intended status: Standards Track                          P. Prindeville
Expires: January 3, 2019                         Network Time Foundation
                                                            July 2, 2018


                  Network Time Protocol: TCP Services
                    draft-stenn-ntp-tcp-services-00

Abstract

   NTP was assigned port number 123 in 1985, in RFC 960.  Traditionally,
   it has only used the UDP port as while UDP is useful for time
   synchronization, TCP is not suitable for time synchronization.  UDP
   packet have length limits, and there are rate limits imposed by the
   protocol specification.  Between the UDP packet length and rate
   limits, some other mechanism must be provided for efficient exchange
   of larger data packets.  A TCP connection can be used for these uses.
   Additionally, we can perform better authentication and authorization
   checks using a TCP connection.

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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 3, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents



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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  NTP TCP Services  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

1.  Introduction

   NTP was assigned port number 123 in 1985, in RFC 960.  The NTP
   protocol only uses UDP for its work, and UDP is an appropriate
   protocol for time synchronization.  However, there are other needs
   for NTP, including monitoring and control, and ephemeral key
   exchange.

   For some of these cases, a TCP connection is much better.

   This specification describes a high-level framework for providing TCP
   services for NTP.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

2.  NTP TCP Services

   To provide NTP TCP Services, an NTP instance establishes
   communications with a TCP Listener.  This could be a separate process
   or it could be part of the NTP daemon.  Support STARTTLS.  RFC 5705
   [RFC5705] RFC 7301 [RFC7301]

3.  IANA Considerations

   TBD






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4.  Security Considerations

   Additional information TBD

5.  Normative References

   [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>.

   [RFC5705]  Rescorla, E., "Keying Material Exporters for Transport
              Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 5705, DOI 10.17487/RFC5705,
              March 2010, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5705>.

   [RFC5905]  Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch,
              "Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
              Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5905>.

   [RFC5906]  Haberman, B., Ed. and D. Mills, "Network Time Protocol
              Version 4: Autokey Specification", RFC 5906,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5906, June 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5906>.

   [RFC7301]  Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.

Authors' Addresses

   Harlan Stenn
   Network Time Foundation
   P.O. Box 918
   Talent, OR  97540
   US

   Email: stenn@nwtime.org


   David L. Mills
   Network Time Foundation
   P.O. Box 918
   Talent, OR  97540
   US

   Email: mills@udel.edu



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   Philip Prindeville
   Network Time Foundation
   P.O. Box 918
   Talent, OR  97540
   US

   Email: prindeville@ntp.org












































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