Network Working Group P. Thubert
Internet-Draft M. Molteni
Expires: April 11, 2003 Cisco Systems
October 11, 2002
IPv6 Reverse Routing Header and its application to Mobile Networks
draft-thubert-nemo-reverse-routing-header-01
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on April 11, 2003.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
Already existing proposals enable Mobile Networks by extending Mobile
IP to support Mobile Routers. In order to enable nested Mobile
Networks, some involve the overhead of nested tunnels between the
Mobile Routers and their Home Agents.
This proposal allows the building of a nested Mobile Network avoiding
the nested tunnel overhead. This is accomplished by using a new
routing header, called the reverse routing header, and by overlaying
a layer 3 tree topology on the evolving Mobile Network.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1 Extending existing solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology and Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. New Routing Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1 Routing Header Type 2 (MIPv6 RH with extended semantics) . . 10
4.2 Routing Header Type 4 (The Reverse Routing Header) . . . . . 12
4.3 Extension Header order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5. ICMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. Modifications to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.1 Modified Router Advertisement Message Format . . . . . . . . 17
6.2 New Tree Information Option Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7. Binding Cache Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.1 Binding Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2 RRH Heartbeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8. Home Agent Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9. Mobile Router Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
9.1 Processing of ICMP "RRH too small" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.2 Processing of ICMP error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9.3 Processing of RHH for Outbound Packets . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.4 Processing of Tree Information Option . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9.5 Processing of the extended Routing Header Type 2 . . . . . . 25
9.6 Decapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
10. Mobile Host Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
11.1 IPsec Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
11.2 New Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A. Optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A.1 Prefix Scope Binding Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A.2 Path Optimization with RRH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A.3 Packet Size Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
A.3.1 Routing Header Type 3 (HAddr option replacement) . . . . . . 34
B. Multi Homing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
B.1 Multi-Homed Mobile Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
B.2 Multihomed Mobile Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
C. Changes from Previous Version of the Draft . . . . . . . . . 37
Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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1. Introduction
This document assumes the reader is familiar with the Mobile Networks
terminology defined in [2] and with Mobile IPv6 defined in [1].
Generally a Mobile Network may be either simple (a network with one
mobile router) or nested, single or multi-homed. This proposal
starts from the assumption that nested Mobile Networks will be the
norm, and so presents a solution that avoids the tunnel within tunnel
overhead of already existing proposals.
The solution is based on a single bi-directional tunnel between the
first Mobile Router (MR) to forward a packet and its Home Agent (HA).
By using IPsec ESP on that tunnel, home equivalent privacy is
obtained without further encapsulation.
The solution uses a new Routing Header (RH), called the Reverse
Routing Header (RRH), to provide an optimized path for the single
tunnel. RRH is a variant of IPv4 Loose Source and Record Route
(LSRR) [6] adapted for IPv6. RRH records the route out of the nested
Mobile Network and can be trivially converted into a routing header
for packets destined to the Mobile Network.
This version focuses on single-homed Mobile Networks. Hints for
further optimizations and multi-homing are given in the appendixes.
Local Fixed Node (LFN) and Correspondent Node (CN) operations are
left unchanged as in [1]. Specifically the CN can also be a LFN.
Section 3 proposes an example to illustrate the operation of the
proposed solution, leaving detailed specifications to the remaining
chapters. The reader may refer to Section 2.1 for the specific
terminology.
1.1 Extending existing solutions
This proposal extends [1] to support simple and nested Mobile
Networks.
This paper also builds on an other existing proposal, [3], which is
based on nested tunnels, in order to address the following problems,
introduced by that solution:
"Pinball" routing
Both inbound and outbound packets will flow via the HAs of all the
MRs on their path within the Mobile Network, with increased
latency, less resilience and more bandwidth usage.
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Packet size
An extra IPv6 header is added per level of nesting to all the
packets. The header compression suggested in [5] cannot be
applied because both the source and destination (the intermediate
MR and its HA), are different hop to hop.
2. Terminology and Assumptions
2.1 Terminology
Simple Mobile Network
One or more IP subnets attached to a MR and mobile as a unit, with
respect to the rest of the Internet. A simple Mobile Network can
be either single or multi-homed.
The IP subnets may have any kind of topology and may contain fixed
routers. All the access points of the Mobile Network (to which
further MRs may attach) are on the same layer 2 link of the MR.
We like to represent a simple single-homed Mobile Network as an
hanger, because it has only one uplink hook and a bar to which
multiple hooks can be attached. Graphically we use the question
mark "?" to show the uplink hook (interface) connected to the MR,
and the "=" sign to represent the bar:
?
MR1
|
===============
Nested Mobile Network
A group of simple Mobile Networks recursively attached together
and implementing nested Mobility as defined in [2].
?
MR1
|
====?===============?====
MR2 MR3
| |
=========== ===?==========?===
MR4 MR5
| |
========== ============
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IPv6 Mobile Host
A IPv6 Host, with support for MIPv6 MN, and the additional Nemo
capability described in this draft.
Home prefix
Network prefix, which identifies the home link within the Internet
topology.
Mobile Network prefix
Network prefix, common to all IP addresses in the Mobile Network
when the MR is attached to the home link. It may or may not be a
subset of the Home subnet prefix.
Inbound direction:
direction from outside the Mobile Network to inside
Outbound direction:
direction from inside the Mobile Network to outside
2.2 Assumptions
We make the following assumptions:
1. A MR has one Home Agent and one Home Address -> one primary CoA.
2. A MR attaches to a single Attachment Router as default router.
3. A MR may have more than one uplink interface.
4. An interface can be either wired or wireless. The text assumes
that interfaces are wireless for generality.
5. Each simple Mobile Network may have more that one L2 Access
Point, all of them controlled by the same Attachment Router,
which we assume to be the Mobile Router.
Since an MR has only one primary CoA, only one uplink interface can
be used at a given point of time. Since the MR attaches to a single
attachment router, if due care is applied to avoid loops, then the
resulting topology is a tree.
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3. An Example
The nested Mobile Network in the following figure has a tree
topology, according to the assumptions in Section 2.2. In the tree
each node is a simple Mobile Network, represented by its MR.
+---------------------+
| Internet |---CN
+---------------|-----+
/ Access Router
MR3_HA |
======?======
MR1
|
====?=============?==============?===
MR5 MR2 MR6
| | |
=========== ===?========= =============
MR3
|
==|=========?== <-- Mobile Network3
LFN1 MR4
|
=========
An example nested Mobile Network
This example focuses on a Mobile Network node at depth 3 (Mobile
Network3) inside the tree, represented by its mobile router MR3. The
path to the Top Level Mobile Router (TLMR) MR1 and then the Internet
is
MR3 -> MR2 -> MR1 -> Internet
Consider the case where a LFN belonging to Mobile Network3 sends a
packet to a CN in the Internet, and the CN replies back. With the
tunnel within tunnel approach described by [3], we would have three
bi-directional nested tunnels:
-----------.
--------/ /-----------.
-------/ | | /-----------
CN ------( - - | - - - | - - - | - - - | - - - (-------- LFN
MR3_HA -------\ | | \----------- MR3
MR2_HA --------\ \----------- MR2
MR1_HA ----------- MR1
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Depending on the relative location of MR1_HA, MR2_HA and MR3_HA, this
may lead to a very inefficient "pinball" routing in the
Infrastructure.
On the other hand, with the RRH approach we would have only one bi-
directional tunnel:
--------------------------------- MR1 ---- MR2 ---- MR3
CN ------( - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (-------- LFN
MR3_HA --------------------------------- MR1 ---- MR2 ---- MR3
The first mobile router on the path, MR3, in addition to tunneling
the packet to its HA, adds a reverse routing header with N = 3 pre-
allocated slots. Choosing the right value for N is discussed in
Section 6.2. The bottom slot is equivalent to the MIPv6 Home Address
option. MR3 inserts its home address MR3_HAddr into slot 0.
The outer packet has source MR3's CareOf Address (CoA), MR3_CoA and
destination MR3's Home Agent, MR3_HA:
<-------------- outer IPv6 header -------------------->
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
|oSRC |oDST |: :|oRRH| slot2 | slot1 | slot0 | |
|MR3_CoA|MR3_HA |:oEXT:|type| | |MR3_HAddr| |iPACKET
| | |: :| 4 | | | | |
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
The second router on the path, MR2, notices that the packet already
contains an RRH, and so it overwrites the source address of the
packet with its own address, MR2_CoA, putting the old source address,
MR3_CoA, in the first free slot of the RRH.
The outer packet now has source MR2_CoA and destination MR3_HA; the
RRH from top to bottom is MR3_CoA | MR3_HAddr:
<-------------- outer IPv6 header -------------------->
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
|oSRC |oDST |: :|oRRH| slot2 | slot1 | slot0 | |
|MR2_CoA|MR3_HA |:oEXT:|type| |MR3_CoA|MR3_HAddr| |iPACKET
| | |: :| 4 | | | | |
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
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In general the process followed by the second router is repeated by
all the routers on the path, including the TLMR (in this example
MR1). When the packet leaves MR1 the source address is MR1_CoA and
the RRH is MR2_CoA | MR3_CoA | MR3_HAddr:
<-------------- outer IPv6 header -------------------->
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
|oSRC |oDST |: :|oRRH| slot2 | slot1 | slot0 | |
|MR1_CoA|MR3_HA |:oEXT:|type|MR2_CoA|MR3_CoA|MR3_HAddr| |iPACKET
| | |: :| 4 | | | | |
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
In a colloquial way we may say that while the packet travels from MR3
to MR3_HA, the Mobile Network tunnel end point "telescopes" from MR3
to MR2 to MR1.
When the home agent MR3_HA receives the packet it notices that it
contains a RRH and it looks at the bottom entry, MR3_HAddr. This
entry is used as if it were a MIPv6 Home Address destination option,
i.e. as an index into the Binding Cache. When decapsulating the
inner packet the home agent performs the checks described in Section
8, and if successful it forwards the inner packet to CN.
MR3_HA stores two items in the Bind Cache Entry associated with MR3:
the address entries from RRH, to be used to build the RH, and the
packet source address MR1_CoA, to be used as the first hop.
Further packets from the CN to the LFN are plain fixed IPv6 packets.
Destination is LFN, and so the packet reaches MR3's home network.
MR3_HA intercepts it, does a Bind Cache prefix lookup and obtains as
match the MR3 entry, containing the first hop and the information
required to build the RH. It then puts the packet in the tunnel
MR3_HA -- MR3 as follows: source address MR3_HA and destination
address the first hop, MR1_CoA. The RH is trivially built out of the
previous RRH: MR2_CoA | MR3_CoA | MR3_HAddr:
<-------------- outer IPv6 header -------------------->
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
|oSRC |oDST |: :|oRH | | | | |
|MR3_HA |MR1_CoA|:oEXT:|type|MR2_CoA|MR3_CoA|MR3_HAddr| |iPACKET
| | |: :| 2 | | | | |
+-------+-------++ -- ++----+-------+-------+---------+ +-------
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The packet is routed with plain IP routing up to the first
destination MR1_CoA.
The RH of the outer packet is type 2 as in [1], but has additional
semantics inherited from type 0: it contains the path information to
traverse the nested Mobile Network from the TLMR to the tunnel
endpoint MR. Each intermediate destination forwards the packet to
the following destination in the routing header. The security
aspects of this are treated in Section 11.2.
MR1, which is the initial destination in the IP header, looks at the
RH and processes it according to Section 9, updating the RH and the
destination and sending it to MR2_CoA. MR2 does the same and so on
until the packet reaches the tunnel endpoint, MR3.
When the packet reaches MR3, the source address in the IP header is
MR3_HA, the destination is MR3_CoA and in the RH there is one segment
left, MR3_HAddr. As a consequence the packet belongs to the MR3_HA -
- MR3 tunnel. MR3 decapsulates the inner packet, applying the rules
described in Section 9 and sends it to LFN. The packet that reaches
LFN is the plain IPv6 packet that was sent by CN.
4. New Routing Headers
This draft modifies the MIPv6 Routing Header type 2 and introduces
two new Routing Headers, type 3 and 4. Type 3 will be discussed in
Appendix A.3.1. The draft presents their operation in the context of
Mobile Routers although the formats are not tied to MIP and could be
used in other situations.
4.1 Routing Header Type 2 (MIPv6 RH with extended semantics)
Mobile IPv6 uses a Routing header to carry the Home Address for
packets sent from a Correspondent Node to a Mobile Node. In [1],
this Routing header (Type 2) is restricted to carry only one IPv6
address. The format proposed here extends the Routing Header type 2
to be multi-hop.
The processing of the multi-hop RH type 2 inherits from the RH type 0
described in [10]. Specifically: the restriction on multicast
addresses is the same; a RH type 2 is not examined or processed until
it reaches the node identified in the Destination Address field of
the IPv6 header; in that node, the RH type 0 algorithm applies, with
added security checks.
The construction of the multi-hop RH type 2 by the HA is described in
Section 8; the processing by the MRs is described in Section 9.5; and
the security aspects are treated in Section 11.2.
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The multi-hop Routing Header type 2, as extended by this draft, has
the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Next Header | Hdr Ext Len | Routing Type=2| Segments Left |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Reserved |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Address[1] +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Address[2] +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
. . .
. . .
. . .
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Address[n] +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Next Header
8-bit selector. Identifies the type of header immediately
following the Routing header. Uses the same values as the IPv4
Protocol field [13].
Hdr Ext Len
8-bit unsigned integer. Length of the Routing header in 8-octet
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units, not including the first 8 octets. For the Type 2 Routing
header, Hdr Ext Len is equal to two times the number of addresses
in the header.
Routing Type
8-bit unsigned integer. Set to 2.
Segments Left
8-bit unsigned integer. Number of route segments remaining, i.e.,
number of explicitly listed intermediate nodes still to be visited
before reaching the final destination.
Reserved
32-bit reserved field. Initialized to zero for transmission;
ignored on reception.
Address[1..n]
Vector of 128-bit addresses, numbered 1 to n.
The destination node of a packet containing a RH type 2 can be a MR
or some other kind of node. If it is a MR it will perform the
algorithm described in Section 9.5, otherwise it will operate as
prescribed by IPv6 [10] when the routing type is unrecognized.
4.2 Routing Header Type 4 (The Reverse Routing Header)
The Routing Header type 4, or Reverse Routing Header (RRH), is a
variant of IPv4 loose source and record route (LSRR) [6] adapted for
IPv6.
Addresses are added from bottom to top (0 to n-1 in the picture).
The RRH is designed to help the destination build an RH for the
return path.
When a RRH is present in a packet, the rule for upper-layer checksum
computing is that the source address used in the pseudo-header is
that of the original source, located in the slot 0 of the RRH, unless
the RRH slot 0 is empty, in which case the source in the IP header of
the packet is used.
As the 'segment left' field of the generic RH is reassigned to the
number of segments used, a IPv6 Host that does not support RRH will
discard the packet, unless the RRH is empty.
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The Type 4 Routing Header has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Next Header | Hdr Ext Len | Routing Type=4| Segments Used |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Sequence Number |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Slot[n-1] +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
. . .
. . .
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Slot[1] (1st MR CoA) +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Slot[0] (Home address) +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Next Header
8-bit selector. Identifies the type of header immediately
following the Routing header. Uses the same values as the IPv4
Protocol field [13].
Hdr Ext Len
8-bit unsigned integer. Length of the Routing header in 8-octet
units, not including the first 8 octets. For the Type 4 Routing
header, Hdr Ext Len is equal to two times the number of addresses
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in the header.
Routing Type
8-bit unsigned integer. Set to 4.
Segments Used
8-bit unsigned integer. Number of slots used. Initially set to 1
by the MR when only the Home Address is there. Incremented by the
MRs on the way as they add the packets source addresses to the
RRH.
Sequence Number
32-bit unsigned integer. The Sequence Number starts at 0, and is
incremented by the source upon each individual packet. Using the
Radia Perlman's lollipop algorithm, values between 0 and 255 are
'negative', left to indicate a reboot or the loss of HA
connectivity, and are skipped when wrapping and upon positive
Binding Ack. The sequence number is used to check the freshness
of the RRH; anti-replay protection is left to IPsec AH.
Slot[n-1..0]
Vector of 128-bit addresses, numbered n-1 to 0.
When applied to the Nemo problem, the RRH can be used to update the
HA on the actual location of the MR. Only MRs forwarding packets on
an egress interface while not at home update it on the fly.
A RRH is inserted by the first MR on the Mobile Network outbound
path, as part of the reverse tunnel encapsulation; it is removed by
the associated HA when the tunneled packet is decapsulated. The RRH
contains n pre-allocated address slots, to be filled by each MR in
the path.
4.3 Extension Header order
The RH type 2 is to be placed as any RH as described in [10] section
4.1. If a RH type 0 is present in the packet, then the RH type 2 is
placed immediately after the RH type 0, and the RH type 0 MUST be
consumed before the RH type 2.
RH type 3 and 4 are mutually exclusive. They are to be placed right
after the Hop-by-Hop Options header if any, or else right after the
IPv6 header.
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As a result, the order prescribed in section 4.1 of RFC 2460 becomes:
IPv6 header
Hop-by-Hop Options header
Routing header type 3 or 4
Destination Options header (note 1)
Routing header type 0
Routing header type 2
Fragment header
Authentication header (note 2)
Encapsulating Security Payload header (note 2)
Destination Options header (note 3)
upper-layer header
5. ICMP
The RRH could have fewer slots than the number of MRs in the path
because either the nested Mobile Network topology is changing too
quickly or the MR that inserted the RRH could have a wrong
representation of the topology.
To solve this problem a new ICMP message is introduced, "RRH
Warning", type 64. Note that this ICMP message creates a new class
of warning messages besides the error messages and the control
messages of ICMP.
This message allows a MR on the path to propose a larger number of
slots to the MR that creates the RRH. The Proposed Size MUST be
larger than the current size and MUST NOT be larger than 8.
The originating MR must rate-limit the ICMP messages to avoid
excessive ICMP traffic in the case of the source failing to operate
as requested.
The originating MR must insert an RH type 2 based on the RRH in the
associated IP header, in order to route the ICMP message back to the
source of the reverse tunnel. A MR that receives this ICMP message
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is the actual destination and it MUST NOT forward it to the (LFN)
source of the tunneled packet.
The type 64 ICMP has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type = 64 | Code = 0 | Checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Current Size | Proposed Size | Reserved |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| As much of invoking packet |
+ as will fit without the ICMPv6 packet +
| exceeding the minimum IPv6 MTU |
. .
. .
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Type
64 [To Be Assigned]
Code 0: RRH too small
The originating MR requires the source to set the RRH size to a
larger value. The packet that triggered the ICMP will still be
forwarded by the MR, but the path cannot be totally optimized (see
Section 9.3).
Checksum
The ICMP checksum [12].
Current Size
RRH size of the invoking packet, as a reference.
Proposed Size
The new value, expressed as a number of IPv6 addresses that can
fit in the RRH.
Reserved
16-bit reserved field. Initialized to zero for transmission;
ignored on reception.
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6. Modifications to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
6.1 Modified Router Advertisement Message Format
Mobile IPv6 [1] modifies the format of the Router Advertisement
message [11] by the addition of a single flag bit (H) to indicate
that the router sending the Advertisement message is serving as a
home agent on this link.
This draft adds another single flag bit (N) to indicate that the
router sending the advertisement message is a MR. This means that
the link on which the message is sent is a Mobile Network, which may
or may not be at home.
The Router Advertisement message has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Code | Checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Cur Hop Limit |M|O|H|N|Reservd| Router Lifetime |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Reachable Time |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Retrans Timer |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Options ...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
This format represents the following changes over that originally
specified for Neighbor Discovery [11]:
Home Agent (H)
The Home Agent (H) bit is set in a Router Advertisement to
indicate that the router sending this Router Advertisement is also
functioning as a Mobile IP home agent on this link.
NEMO Capable (N)
The NEMO Capable (N) bit is set in a Router Advertisement to
indicate that the router sending this Router Advertisement is also
functioning as a Mobile Router on this link, so that the link is a
Mobile Network, possibly away from home.
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6.2 New Tree Information Option Format
This draft defines a new Tree Information Option, used in Router
Advertisement messages. Fields set by the TLMR are propagated
transparently by the MRs.
The Tree Information option has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Length = 5 | Tree_Prefer. | TreeDepth |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|F|H| Reserved | Bandwidth | DelayTime |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MRPreference | BootTimeRandom |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| PathCRC |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Tree TLMR Identifier +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Tree Group +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Type
8-bit unsigned integer set to 7 by the TLMR.
Length
8-bit unsigned integer set to 6 by the TLMR. The length of the
option (including the type and length fields) in units of 8
octets.
Tree_Preference
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8-bit unsigned integer set by the TLMR to its configured
preference. Range from 0 = lowest to 255 = maximum.
TreeDepth
8-bit unsigned integer set to 0 by the TLMR and incremented by 1
by each MR down the tree.
Fixed (F)
1-bit flag. Set by the TLMR to indicate that it is either
attached to a fixed network or at home.
Home (H)
1-bit flag. Set by the TLMR to indicate that it is also
functioning as a HA, for re-homing purposes.
Reserved
6-bit unsigned integer, set to 0 by the TLMR.
Bandwidth
8-bit unsigned integer set by the TLMR and decremented by MRs with
lower egress bandwidth. This is a power of 2 so that the
available egress bandwidth in bps is between 2^Bandwidth and
2^(Bandwidth+1). 0 means 'unspecified' and can not be modified
down the tree.
DelayTime
16-bit unsigned integer set by the TLMR. Tree time constant in
milliseconds.
MRPreference
8-bit signed integer. Set by each MR to its configured
preference. Range from 0 = lowest to 255 = maximum.
BootTimeRandom
24-bit unsigned integer set by each MR to a random value that the
MR generates at boot time.
PathCRC
Updated by each MR. This is the result of a CRC-32 computation on
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a bit string obtained by appending the received value and the MR
CareOf Address. TLMRs use a 'previous value' of zeroes to
initially set the pathCRC.
Tree TLMR Identifier
IPv6 global address, set by the TLMR. Identifier of the tree.
Tree Group
IPv6 global address, set by the TLMR. Identifier of the tree
group. A MR may use the Tree Group in its tree selection
algorithm.
The TLMR MUST include this option in its Router Advertisements.
A MR receiving this option from its Attachment Router MUST update the
TreeDepth, MRPreference, BootTimeRandom and PathCRC fields, and MUST
propagate it on its ingress interface(s), as described in Section
9.4.
The alignment requirement of the Tree Information Option is 8n.
7. Binding Cache Management
7.1 Binding Updates
Binding Updates are still used as described in MIPv6 [1] for Home
Registration and de-registration, but only when the MR registers for
the first time with its HA.
Since the BU doesn't contain the full NEMO path to the MR, it cannot
be used in this design of nested Mobile Networks.
7.2 RRH Heartbeat
Subsequent updates (or just refreshes) to the CoA binding are
obtained as one of the results of processing the RRH by the HA.
When the MR becomes aware of a topology change in the tree (for
examples it changes point of attachment, it obtains a new CoA, it
receives a Tree Information message) or in the absence of traffic
(detected by a timeout) to the HA, it must send an RRH Heartbeat (IP
packet with the RRH and empty payload).
Security issues are discussed in Section 11.2.
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8. Home Agent Operation
This section inherits from chapter 10 [1], which is kept unmodified
except for parts 10.5 and 10.6 which are extended. This draft mostly
adds the opportunity for an MN to update the Binding Cache of its
Home Agent using RRH, though it does not change the fact that MNs
still need to select a home agent, register and deregister to it,
using the MIP Bind Update.
This draft extends [1] section 10.6 as follows:
o The entry point of the tunnel is now checked against the TLMR as
opposed to the primary CoA.
o The Binding Cache can be updated based on RRH with proper AH
authentication.
As further explained in Section 7.1, this specification modifies MIP
so that HA can rely on the RH type 4 (RRH) to update its the Bind
Cache Entry (BCE), when the Mobile Node moves. The conceptual
content of the BCE is extended to contain a sequence counter, and the
sequence of hops within the -potentially nested- Mobile Network to a
given Mobile Node. The sequence counter is initially set to 0.
When the HA gets a packet destined to itself, it checks for the
presence of a Routing Header of type 3 or 4. Both contain as least
the entry for the home address of the MN in slot 0; this replaces the
MIP Home Address Option and allows the HA to determine the actual
source of the packet, to access the corresponding security
association.
As explained in Section 11.2, the HA MUST verify the authenticity of
the packet using IPSEC AH and drop packets that were not issued by
the proper Mobile Node. An RRH is considered only if the packet is
authenticated and if its sequence number is higher than the one saved
in the BCE.
Also, an RRH is considered only if an initial Bind Update exchange
has been successfully completed between the Mobile Node and its Home
Agent for Home Registration. If the RRH is valid, then the Bind
Cache Entry is revalidated for a lifetime as configured from the
initial Bind Update.
The BCE abstract data is updated as follows:
The first hop for the return path is the last hop on the path of
the incoming packet, that is between the HA and the Top Level
Mobile Router (TLMR) of the Mobile Network. The HA saves the IP
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address of the TLMR from the source field in the IP header.
The rest of the path to the MN is found in the RRH.
The sequence counter semantics is changed as described in Section
4.2
This draft extends [1] section 10.5 as follows:
A Home Agent advertises the prefixes of its registered Mobile
Routers, during the registration period, on the local Interior
Gateway Protocol (IGP).
The Routing Header type 2 is extended to be multi-hop.
The Home Agent is extended to support routes to prefixes that are
owned by Mobile Routers. This can be configured statically, or can
be exchanged using a routing protocol as in [3], which is out of the
scope of this document. As a consequence of this process, the Home
Agent which is selected by a Mobile Router advertises reachability of
the MR prefixes for the duration of the registration over the local
IGP.
When a HA gets a packet for which the destination is a node behind a
Mobile Router, it places the packet in the tunnel to the associated
MR. This ends up with a packet which destination address in the IP
Header is the TLMR, and with a Routing Header of type 2 for the rest
of the way to the Mobile Router, which may be multi-hop.
To build the RH type 2 from the RRH, the HA sets the type to 2, and
clears the bits 32-63 (byte 4 to 7).
9. Mobile Router Operation
This section inherits from chapter 11 of [1], which is extended to
support Mobile Networks and Mobile Routers as a specific case of
Mobile Node.
This draft extends section 11.2.1 of [1] as follows:
o When not at home, an MR uses a reverse tunnel with its HA for all
the traffic that is sourced in its mobile network(s); traffic
originated further down a nested network is not tunneled twice but
for exception cases.
o The full path to and within the Mobile Network is piggy-backed
with the traffic on a per-packet basis to cope with rapid
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movement. This makes the packet construction different from
MIPv6.
The MR when not at home sets up a bi-directional tunnel with its HA.
The reverse direction MR -> HA is needed to assure transparent
topological correctness to LFNs, as in [3]. But, as opposed to that
solution, nested tunnels are generally avoided.
9.1 Processing of ICMP "RRH too small"
The New ICMP message "RRH too Small" is presented in Section 5. This
message is addressed to the MR which performs the tunnel
encapsulation and generates the RRH.
Hence, a MR that receives the ICMP "RRH too small" MUST NOT propagate
it to the originating LFN or inner tunnel source, but MUST process it
for itself.
If the Current Size in the ICMP messages matches the actual current
number of slots in RRH, and if the ICMP passes some safety checks as
described in Section 5, then the MR MAY adapt the number of slots to
the Proposed Size.
9.2 Processing of ICMP error
ICMP back {
if RRH is present {
compute RH type 2 based on RRH
get packet source from IP header
send ICMP error to source including RH type 2.
}
else {
get packet source from IP header
send ICMP error to source with no RH.
}
}
When the MR receives an ICMP error message, it checks whether it is
the final destination of the packet by looking at the included
packet. If the included packet has an RRH, then the MR will use the
RRH to forward the ICMP to the original source of the packet.
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9.3 Processing of RHH for Outbound Packets
if no RRH in outer header /* First Mobile Router specific */
or RRH present but saturated { /* Need a nested encapsulation */
if RRH is saturated {
do ICMP back (RRH too small)
}
/* put packet in sliding reverse tunnel */
insert new IP header plus RRH
set source address to the MR Home Address
set destination address to the MR Home Agent Address
add an RRH with all slots zeroed out
compute IPsec AH on the resulting packet
}
/* All MRs including first */
if packet size <= MTU {
select first free slot in RRH bottom up
set it to source address from IP header
overwrite source address in IP header with MR CareOf
transmit packet
} else {
do ICMP back (Packet too Big)
}
If the packet already contains an RRH in the outer header, and has a
spare slot, the MR adds the source address from the packet IP header
to the RRH and overwrites the source address in the IP header with
its CoA. As a result, the packets are always topologically correct.
Else, if the RRH is present but is saturated, and therefore the
source IP can not be added, the MR sends a ICMP 'RRH too small' to
the tunnel endpoint which originated the outer packet, using the RRH
info to route it back. The ICMP message is a warning, and the packet
is not discarded. Rather, the MR does a nested encapsulation of the
packet in its own reverse tunnel home with an additional RRH.
Else, if the packet does not have an RRH, the MR puts it in its
reverse tunnel, sourced at the CoA, with an RRH indicating in slot 0
the Home Address of the MR, and with proper IPsec AH as described
further in Section 11.1.
9.4 Processing of Tree Information Option
The Tree Information Option in Router Advertisement messages allows
the Mobile Router to select a tree and learn about its capabilities.
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The treeDepth can be used to compute the optimum number of slots in
the RRH.
The Option contains an entry for the home address in slot 0, and one
for every CareOf on the way but that of the last Mobile Router
(TLMR). As the TLMR sets the treeDepth to 0 and each MR increments
it on the way down the tree, the optimum number of slots is normally
(treeDepth+1), where treeDepth is the depth advertised by the MR over
its Mobile Networks.
9.5 Processing of the extended Routing Header Type 2
if Segments Left = 0 {
/* new check: packet must be looped back internally */
if packet doesn't come from a loopback interface {
discard the packet
return
}
proceed to process the next header in the packet, whose type is
identified by the Next Header field in the Routing header
}
else if Hdr Ext Len is odd {
send an ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 0, message to the Source
Address, pointing to the Hdr Ext Len field, and discard the
packet
}
else {
compute n, the number of addresses in the Routing header, by
dividing Hdr Ext Len by 2
if Segments Left is greater than n {
send an ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 0, message to the Source
Address, pointing to the Segments Left field, and discard the
packet
}
else {
decrement Segments Left by 1;
compute i, the index of the next address to be visited in
the address vector, by subtracting Segments Left from n
if Address [i] or the IPv6 Destination Address is multicast {
discard the packet
}
else {
/* new security check */
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if Address [i] doesn't belong to one of the Mobile Network prefixes {
discard the packet
return
}
/* new check: keep MIPv6 behavior: prevent packets from being
* forwarded outside the node.
*/
if Segments Left equals 0 and Address[i] isn't the node's own
home address {
discard the packet
return
}
swap the IPv6 Destination Address and Address[i]
if the IPv6 Hop Limit is less than or equal to 1 {
send an ICMP Time Exceeded -- Hop Limit Exceeded in
Transit message to the Source Address and discard the
packet
}
else {
decrement the Hop Limit by 1
resubmit the packet to the IPv6 module for transmission
to the new destination;
}
}
}
}
9.6 Decapsulation
A MR when decapsulating a packet from its HA must perform the
following checks
1. Destination address
The destination address of the inner packet must belong to one of
the Mobile Network prefixes.
10. Mobile Host Operation
When it is at Home, a Mobile Host issues packets with source set to
its home address and with destination set to its CN, in a plain IPv6
format.
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When a MH is not at home but is attached to a foreign link in the
Fixed Infrastructure, it SHOULD use MIPv6 as opposed to this draft to
manage its mobility.
When a MH is visiting a foreign Mobile Network, it forwards its
outbound packets over the reverse tunnel (including RRH) to its HA.
One can view that operation as a first MR process applied on a plain
IPv6 packet issued by an LFN.
As a result, the encapsulating header include:
with source set to the MH COA and destination set to the MH HA
with slot 0 set to the MH Home Address
The inner packet is the plain IPv6 packet from the MH Home Address to
the CN.
11. Security Considerations
This section is not complete; further work is needed to analyse and
solve the security problems of record and source route.
Compared to MIPv6, the main security problem seems to be the fact
that the RRH can be modified in transit by an in-axis attacker. It
has to be noted that an in-axis attacker (for example any MR in the
Mobile Network) can perform more effective attacks than modifying the
RRH.
Selecting the tree to attach to is a security critical operation
outside of the scope of this draft.
11.1 IPsec Processing
The IPsec [7] AH [8] and ESP [9] can be used in tunnel mode to
provide different security services to the tunnel between a MR and
its HA. ESP tunnel mode SHOULD be used to provide confidentiality
and authentication to the inner packet. AH tunnel mode MUST be used
to provide authentication of the outer IP header fields, especially
the RH.
The Routing Header Type 2 is treated as Type 0, namely as mutable but
predictable [8], and so will be included in the Authentication Data
calculation. As per IPsec, the sender must order the field so that
it appears as it will at the receiver, prior to performing the
Integrity Check Value (ICV) computation.
The Routing Header Type 4 is "partially mutable", and as such can be
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included in the Authentication Data calculation. Given the way Type
4 is processed, the sender cannot order the field so that it appears
as it will at the receiver; this means the receiver will have to
shuffle the fields.
The sender (the MR) will zero out all the slots and the Segment Used
field of the RRH, and will put as source address of the outer packet
its Home Address, and then will perform the ICV computation.
The receiver (the HA) will put the entry in slot 0 (the MR Home
Address) in the source address and will zero out all the slots and
the Segment Used field of the RRH, and then will perform the ICV
verification.
11.2 New Threats
The RH type 4 is used to construct a MIPv6 RH type 2 with additional
semantics, as described in Section 4.1. Since RH type 2 becomes a
multi hop option like RH type 0, care must be applied to avoid the
spoofing attack that can be performed with the IPv4 source route
option. This is why IPv6 [10] takes special care in responding to
packets carrying Routing Headers.
AH authenticates the MR Home Address identity and the RRH sequence
number. The RRH sequence number is to be used to check the freshness
of the RRH; anti-replay protection can be obtained if the receiver
enables the anti-replay service of AH [8].
As a consequence, the only kind of successful attack seems to require
to be able to modify the packet in flight.
If one of the RRH entry is faked either to an address outside the
tree or to an address that doesn't match the tree topology (not
belonging to one of the Mobile Network prefixes at that level) then
the reply packet containing a RH type 2 built out of the previous RRH
will be dropped by the first MR that processes that entry, as
described in Section 9.
It is still an issue how to validate that the source of the outer
packet is the actual TLMR as opposed to a forged IP address put by an
on-axis attacker outside the Mobile Network.
12. Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank David Auerbach, Fred Baker, Dana Blair,
Steve Deering, Dave Forster, Thomas Fossati, Francois Le Faucheur,
Kent Leung, Massimo Lucchina, Dan Shell and Patrick Wetterwald -last
but not least :)-.
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References
[1] Perkins, C., Johnson, D. and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support in
IPv6", draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-18 (work in progress), July
2002.
[2] Ernst, T. and H. Lach, "Network Mobility Support Terminology",
draft-ernst-monet-terminology-01 (work in progress), July 2002.
[3] Kniveton, T., "Mobile Router Support with Mobile IP", draft-
kniveton-mobrtr-02 (work in progress), July 2002.
[4] Ernst, T., Castelluccia, C., Bellier, L., Lach, H. and A.
Olivereau, "Mobile Networks Support in Mobile IPv6 (Prefix
Scope Binding Updates)", draft-ernst-mobileip-v6-network-03
(work in progress), March 2002.
[5] Deering, S. and B. Zill, "Redundant Address Deletion when
Encapsulating IPv6 in IPv6", draft-deering-ipv6-encap-addr-
deletion-00 (work in progress), November 2001.
[6] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791, September
1981.
[7] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "Security Architecture for the
Internet Protocol", RFC 2401, November 1998.
[8] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Authentication Header", RFC 2402,
November 1998.
[9] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Encapsulating Security Payload
(ESP)", RFC 2406, November 1998.
[10] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)
Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.
[11] Narten, T., Nordmark, E. and W. Simpson, "Neighbor Discovery
for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December 1998.
[12] Conta, A. and S. Deering, "Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
Specification", RFC 2463, December 1998.
[13] Reynolds, J., "Assigned Numbers: RFC 1700 is Replaced by an On-
line Database", RFC 3232, January 2002.
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Authors' Addresses
Pascal Thubert
Cisco Systems Technology Center
Village d'Entreprises Green Side
400, Avenue Roumanille
Biot - Sophia Antipolis 06410
FRANCE
EMail: pthubert@cisco.com
Marco Molteni
Cisco Systems Technology Center
Village d'Entreprises Green Side
400, Avenue Roumanille
Biot - Sophia Antipolis 06410
FRANCE
EMail: mmolteni@cisco.com
Appendix A. Optimizations
A.1 Prefix Scope Binding Updates
[4] suggests modifications to MIPv6 to enable support for LFNs in
non-nested Mobile Networks, leaving for later investigation more
complex scenarios like MNs behind the MR or nested Mobile Networks.
The solution described there has bi-directional route optimization as
in MIPv6: the CN to MR direction uses the RH type 2, while the MR to
CN direction uses the home address destination option. Route
optimization is obtained by introducing a new kind of binding update,
the Prefix Scope BU (PSBU) and by modifying the CN and MR operations
in order to exploit it.
The MR has to keep track of all the pending communications between
hosts in his Mobile Network and their CNs, in order to send to the
CNs a PSBU each time the MR changes its point of attachment.
If we extend [4] in such a way that each MR in a nested Mobile
Network sends a full set of PSBUs each time it changes its point of
attachment, then each CN by receiving all the PSBUs and processing
them can infer a partial topology of the nested Mobile Network,
sufficient to build a multi-hop routing header for packets sent to
nodes inside the nested Mobile Network.
However, this extension seems to come at a too high price:
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1. PSBU storm
when one MR changes its point of attachment, it needs to send a
PSBU to all the CNs of each node behind him. When the Mobile
Network is nested, the number of nodes and relative CNs can be
huge. In order to send the PSBUs, the MR has to keep track of
all the traffic it forwards to maintain his list of CNs.
2. CN operation
The computation burden of the CN becomes heavy, because it has to
analyze each PSBU in a recursive fashion in order to deduct
nested Mobile Network topology required to build a multi hop
routing header.
3. Missing PSBU
If a CN doesn't receive the full set of PSBU sent by the MR, it
will not be able to infer the full path to a node inside the
nested Mobile Network. The RH will be incomplete and the packet
may or may not be delivered. If PSBU are sent asynchronously by
each MR, then, when the relative position of MRs and/or the TLMR
point of attachment change rapidly, the image of Mobile Network
that the CN maintains is highly unstable.
A conclusion is that the path information must be somehow aggregated
to provide the CN with consistent snapshots of the full path across
the Mobile Network. If this is achieved by a series of stacked Home
Address Options, then the problem turns into a format war and about
the opportunity to insert headers in a packet as opposed to
tunneling. Either way is a route record, which is why defining a
real V6 version of LSRR is relevant in the first place.
A.2 Path Optimization with RRH
The body of the draft presents RRH as a header that circulates in the
reverse tunnel exclusively. The RRH format by itself has no such
limitation. This section illustrates a potential optimization for
end-to-end traffic between a Mobile Network Node and its
Correspondent Node.
The MNN determines that it is part of a Mobile Network by screening
the Tree Information option in the RA messages from its Attachment
Router. In particular, the MNN knows the TreeDepth as advertised by
the AR. An initial test phase could be derived from MIPv6 to decide
whether optimization with a given CN is possible.
When an MNN performs end-to-end optimization with a CN, the MNN
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inserts an empty RRH inside its packets, as opposed to tunneling them
home, which is the default behavior of a Mobile Host as described in
Section 10. The number of slots in the RRH is initially the AR
treeDepth plus 1, but all slots are clear as opposed to the MR
process as described in Section 9. The source address in the header
is the MNN address, and the destination is the CN.
The AR of the MNN is by definition an MR. Since an RRH is already
present in the packet, the MR does not put the packets from the MNN
on its reverse tunnel, but acts as an intermediate MR; it adds the
source address of the packet (the MNN's address) in the RRH (in slot
0) and stamps its careOf instead in the IP header source address
field. Recursively, all the MRs on a nested network trace in path in
the RRH and take over the source IP.
The support required on the CN side extends MIPv6 in a way similar to
the extension that this draft proposes for the HA side. The CN is
required to parse the RRH when it is valid, refresh its BCE
accordingly, and include an RH type 2 with the full path to its
packets to the MNN.
Note that there is no Bind Update between the MNN and the CN. The
RRH must be secured based on tokens exchanged in the test phase. For
the sake of security, it may be necessary to add fields to the RRH or
to add a separate option in the Mobility Header.
A.3 Packet Size Optimization
RRH allows to update the Correspondent BCE on a per packet basis,
which is the highest resolution that we can achieve. While this may
cope with highly mobile and nested configurations, it can also be an
overkill in some situations.
The RRH comes at a cost: it requires processing in all intermediate
Mobile Routers and in the Correspondent Node. Also, a RRH increases
the packet size by more than the size of an IP address per hop in the
Mobile Network.
This is why an additional Routing Header is proposed (type 3). The
semantics of type 3 are very close to type 4 but:
o Type 3 has only one slot, for the Home Address of the source.
o When it can not add the source to the RH type 3 of an outbound
packet, an intermediate MR:
* MR MUST NOT send ICMP (RRH too small)
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* MUST NOT put the packet in a reverse tunnel
Rather, it simply overwrites the source and forwards the packet up
the tree as if the RRH had been properly updated.
/* MR processing on outbound packet with RH type 3 support */
{
if no RH type 3 or 4 in outer header /* First Mobile Router specific */
or RH type 4 present but saturated { /* Need a nested encapsulation */
if RRH is saturated {
do ICMP back (RRH too small)
}
/* put packet in sliding reverse tunnel */
insert new IP header plus RRH
set source address to the MR Home Address
set destination address to the MR Home Agent Address
add an RRH with all slots zeroed out
compute IPsec AH on the resulting packet
}
/* All MRs including first */
if packet size > MTU {
do ICMP back (Packet too Big)
} else if RRH {
select first free slot in RRH bottom up
set it to source address from IP header
overwrite source address in IP header with MR CareOf
transmit packet
} else if RH type 3 {
if slot 0 is still free {
/* this is end-to-end optimization */
set it to source address from IP header
}
overwrite source address in IP header with MR CareOf
transmit packet
}
}
o Since the path information is not available, the correspondent
MUST NOT update its BCE based on the RH type 3. The CN (or HA)
identifies the source from the entry in slot 0 and may reconstruct
the initial packet using the CareOf in slot 1 as source for AH
purposes.
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A.3.1 Routing Header Type 3 (HAddr option replacement)
This is an RH-based alternative to the Home Address destination
option. Its usage is described in Appendix A.3.
The Type 3 Routing Header has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Next Header | Hdr Ext Len | Routing Type=3| Segments Used |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Reserved |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
| |
+ Home Address +
| |
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Next Header
8-bit selector. Identifies the type of header immediately
following the Routing header. Uses the same values as the IPv4
Protocol field [13].
Hdr Ext Len
8-bit unsigned integer. Length of the Routing header in 8-octet
units, not including the first 8 octets. For the Type 3 Routing
header, Hdr Ext Len is always 2.
Routing Type
8-bit unsigned integer. Set to 3.
Segment Used
8-bit unsigned integer. Number of slots used. Either 0 or 1.
When the field is zero, then there is no MR on the path and it is
valid for a CN that does not support RRH to ignore this header.
Reserved
32-bit reserved field. Initialized to zero for transmission;
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ignored on reception.
Home Address
128-bit home address of the source of the packet.
The decision to sent RH type 3 or type 4 is up to the source of the
RRH. Several algorithms may apply, one out of N being the simplest.
IPsec HA processing is done as described in Section 11.1 for Type 4.
Appendix B. Multi Homing
B.1 Multi-Homed Mobile Network
Consider difference between situation A and B in this diagram:
===?== ==?===
MR1 MR2
| |
==?=====?== ==?====== situation A
MR3 MR4 MR5
| | |
=== === ===
===?== ==?===
MR1 MR2
| |
==?=====?=======?====== situation B
MR3 MR4 MR5
| | |
=== === ===
Going from A to B, MR5 may now choose between MR1 and MR2 for its
Attachment (default) Router. In terms of Tree Information, MR5, as
well as MR3 and MR4, now sees the MR1's tree and MR2's tree. Once
MR5 selects its AR, MR2, say, MR5 belongs to the associated tree and
whether MR1 can be reached or not makes no difference.
As long as each MR has a single default router for all its outbound
traffic, 2 different logical trees can be mapped over the physical
configurations in both situations, and once the trees are
established, both cases are equivalent for the processing of RRH.
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Note that MR5 MUST use a CareOf based on a prefix owned by its AR as
source of the reverse tunnel, even if other prefixes are present on
the Mobile Network, to ensure that a RH type 2 can be securely routed
back.
B.2 Multihomed Mobile Router
Consider the difference between situation B and C in this diagram:
===?== ==?===
MR1 MR2
| |
==?=====?=======?====== situation B
MR3 MR4 MR5
| | |
=== === ===
==? ?==
MR1
|
==?=====?=======?====== situation C
MR3 MR4 MR5
| | |
=== === ===
In situation C, MR2's egress interface and its properties are
migrated to MR1. MR1 has now 2 different Home Addresses, 2 Home
Agents, and 2 active interfaces.
If MR1 uses both CareOf addresses at a given point of time, and if
they belong to different prefixes to be used via different attachment
routers, then MR1 actually belongs to 2 trees. It must perform some
routing logic to decide whether to forward packets on either egress
interface. Also, it MUST advertise both tree information sets in its
RA messages.
The difference between situations C and B is that when an attached
router (MR5, say) selects a tree and forwards egress packets via MR1,
it can not be sure that MR1 will actually forward the packets over
that tree. If MR5 has selected a given tree for a specific reason,
then a new source route header is needed to enforce that path on MR1.
The other way around, MR5 may leave the decision up to MR1. If MR1
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uses the same attachment router for a given flow or at least a given
destination, then the destination receives consistent RRHs.
Otherwise, the BCE cache will flap, but as both paths are valid, the
traffic still makes it through.
The RRH seems compatible with the various cases of multi-homing
exposed here, though in some cases, some additional work is needed.
Appendix C. Changes from Previous Version of the Draft
This appendix briefly lists some of the major changes in this draft
relative to the previous version of this same draft, draft-thubert-
nemo-reverse-routing-header-00.txt:
Added new Tree Information Option fields:
A 8 bits Bandwidth indication that provides an idea of the
egress bandwidth.
A CRC-32 that changes with the egress path out of the tree.
a 32 bits unsigned integer, built by each MR out of a high
order configured preference and 24 bits random constant. This
can help as a tie break in Attachment Router selection.
Reduced the 'negative' part of the lollipop space to 0..255
Fixed acknowledgements (sorry Patrick :)
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