Bundle Protocol Specification
RFC 5050

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Network Working Group                                           K. Scott
Request for Comments: 5050                         The MITRE Corporation
Category: Experimental                                       S. Burleigh
                                          NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
                                                           November 2007

                     Bundle Protocol Specification

Status of This Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
   Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

IESG Note

   This RFC is not a candidate for any level of Internet Standard.  The
   IETF disclaims any knowledge of the fitness of this RFC for any
   purpose and in particular notes that the decision to publish is not
   based on IETF review for such things as security, congestion control,
   or inappropriate interaction with deployed protocols.  The RFC Editor
   has chosen to publish this document at its discretion.  Readers of
   this document should exercise caution in evaluating its value for
   implementation and deployment.  See RFC 3932 for more information.

Abstract

   This document describes the end-to-end protocol, block formats, and
   abstract service description for the exchange of messages (bundles)
   in Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN).

   This document was produced within the IRTF's Delay Tolerant
   Networking Research Group (DTNRG) and represents the consensus of all
   of the active contributors to this group.  See http://www.dtnrg.org
   for more information.

Scott & Burleigh              Experimental                      [Page 1]
RFC 5050             Bundle Protocol Specification         November 2007

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Requirements Notation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Service Description  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1.  Definitions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.2.  Implementation Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.3.  Services Offered by Bundle Protocol Agents . . . . . . . . 11
   4.  Bundle Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     4.1.  Self-Delimiting Numeric Values (SDNVs) . . . . . . . . . . 12
     4.2.  Bundle Processing Control Flags  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.3.  Block Processing Control Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.4.  Endpoint IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     4.5.  Formats of Bundle Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
       4.5.1.  Primary Bundle Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       4.5.2.  Canonical Bundle Block Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       4.5.3.  Bundle Payload Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     4.6.  Extension Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     4.7.  Dictionary Revision  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   5.  Bundle Processing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     5.1.  Generation of Administrative Records . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     5.2.  Bundle Transmission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     5.3.  Bundle Dispatching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     5.4.  Bundle Forwarding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
       5.4.1.  Forwarding Contraindicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
       5.4.2.  Forwarding Failed  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     5.5.  Bundle Expiration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     5.6.  Bundle Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     5.7.  Local Bundle Delivery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
     5.8.  Bundle Fragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     5.9.  Application Data Unit Reassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
     5.10. Custody Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
       5.10.1. Custody Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
       5.10.2. Custody Release  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
     5.11. Custody Transfer Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
     5.12. Custody Transfer Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
     5.13. Bundle Deletion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
     5.14. Discarding a Bundle  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
     5.15. Canceling a Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
     5.16. Polling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   6.  Administrative Record Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
     6.1.  Administrative Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
       6.1.1.  Bundle Status Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
       6.1.2.  Custody Signals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
     6.2.  Generation of Administrative Records . . . . . . . . . . . 44