DNS NSAP Resource Records
RFC 1706
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(October 1994; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 1637
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
| Stream | Legacy | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 1706 (Informational) | |
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Network Working Group B. Manning
Request for Comments: 1706 ISI
Obsoletes: 1637, 1348 R. Colella
Category: Informational NIST
October 1994
DNS NSAP Resource Records
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
OSI lower layer protocols, comprising the connectionless network
protocol (CLNP) and supporting routing protocols, are deployed in
some parts of the global Internet. Maintenance and debugging of CLNP
connectivity is greatly aided by support in the Domain Name System
(DNS) for mapping between names and NSAP addresses.
This document defines the format of one new Resource Record (RR) for
the DNS for domain name-to-NSAP mapping. The RR may be used with any
NSAP address format.
NSAP-to-name translation is accomplished through use of the PTR RR
(see STD 13, RFC 1035 for a description of the PTR RR). This paper
describes how PTR RRs are used to support this translation.
This document obsoletes RFC 1348 and RFC 1637.
Manning & Colella [Page 1]
RFC 1706 DNS NSAP RRs October 1994
1. Introduction
OSI lower layer protocols, comprising the connectionless network
protocol (CLNP) [5] and supporting routing protocols, are deployed in
some parts of the global Internet. Maintenance and debugging of CLNP
connectivity is greatly aided by support in the Domain Name System
(DNS) [7] [8] for mapping between names and NSAP (network service
access point) addresses [6] [Note: NSAP and NSAP address are used
interchangeably throughout this memo].
This document defines the format of one new Resource Record (RR) for
the DNS for domain name-to-NSAP mapping. The RR may be used with any
NSAP address format.
NSAP-to-name translation is accomplished through use of the PTR RR
(see RFC 1035 for a description of the PTR RR). This paper describes
how PTR RRs are used to support this translation.
This memo assumes that the reader is familiar with the DNS. Some
familiarity with NSAPs is useful; see [1] or Annex A of [6] for
additional information.
2. Background
The reason for defining DNS mappings for NSAPs is to support the
existing CLNP deployment in the Internet. Debugging with CLNP ping
and traceroute has become more difficult with only numeric NSAPs as
the scale of deployment has increased. Current debugging is supported
by maintaining and exchanging a configuration file with name/NSAP
mappings similar in function to hosts.txt. This suffers from the lack
of a central coordinator for this file and also from the perspective
of scaling. The former describes the most serious short-term
problem. Scaling of a hosts.txt-like solution has well-known long-
term scaling difficiencies.
3. Scope
The methods defined in this paper are applicable to all NSAP formats.
As a point of reference, there is a distinction between registration
and publication of addresses. For IP addresses, the IANA is the root
registration authority and the DNS a publication method. For NSAPs,
Annex A of the network service definition, ISO8348 [6], describes the
root registration authority and this memo defines how the DNS is used
as a publication method.
Manning & Colella [Page 2]
RFC 1706 DNS NSAP RRs October 1994
4. Structure of NSAPs
NSAPs are hierarchically structured to allow distributed
administration and efficient routing. Distributed administration
permits subdelegated addressing authorities to, as allowed by the
delegator, further structure the portion of the NSAP space under
their delegated control. Accomodating this distributed authority
requires that there be little or no a priori knowledge of the
structure of NSAPs built into DNS resolvers and servers.
For the purposes of this memo, NSAPs can be thought of as a tree of
identifiers. The root of the tree is ISO8348 [6], and has as its
immediately registered subordinates the one-octet Authority and
Format Identifiers (AFIs) defined there. The size of subsequently-
defined fields depends on which branch of the tree is taken. The
depth of the tree varies according to the authority responsible for
Show full document text