MIB for the UDP-Lite protocol
RFC 5097

Network Working Group                                          G. Renker
Request for Comments: 5097                                  G. Fairhurst
Category: Standards Track                         University of Aberdeen
                                                            January 2008

                     MIB for the UDP-Lite Protocol

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document specifies a Management Information Base (MIB) module
   for the Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite).  It defines a
   set of new MIB objects to characterise the behaviour and performance
   of transport layer endpoints deploying UDP-Lite.  UDP-Lite resembles
   UDP, but differs from the semantics of UDP by the addition of a
   single option.  This adds the capability for variable-length data
   checksum coverage, which can benefit a class of applications that
   prefer delivery of (partially) corrupted datagram payload data in
   preference to discarding the datagram.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Relationship to the UDP-MIB ................................2
      1.2. Relationship to HOST-RESOURCES-MIB and SYSAPPL-MIB .........4
      1.3. Interpretation of the MIB Variables ........................5
      1.4. Conventions ................................................8
   2. The Internet-Standard Management Framework ......................8
   3. Definitions .....................................................8
   4. Security Considerations ........................................19
   5. IANA Considerations ............................................20
   6. Acknowledgments ................................................20
   7. References .....................................................20
      7.1. Normative References ......................................20
      7.2. Informative References ....................................21

Renker & Fairhurst          Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 5097             MIB for the UDP-Lite Protocol          January 2008

1.  Introduction

   The Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite) [RFC3828] (also
   known as UDPLite) is an IETF standards-track transport protocol.  The
   operation of UDP-Lite is similar to the User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
   [RFC768], but can also serve applications in error-prone network
   environments that prefer to have partially damaged payloads delivered
   rather than discarded.  This is achieved by changing the semantics of
   the UDP Length field to that of a Checksum Coverage field.  If this
   feature is not used, UDP-Lite is semantically identical to UDP.

   The interface of UDP-Lite differs from that of UDP by the addition of
   a single option, which communicates a length value.  At the sender
   this specifies the intended datagram checksum coverage; at the
   receiver it signifies a minimum coverage threshold for incoming
   datagrams.  This length value may also be modified during the
   lifetime of a connection.  UDP-Lite does not provide mechanisms to
   negotiate the checksum coverage between the sender and receiver.
   Where required, this needs to be communicated by another protocol.
   The Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) [RFC4340] for
   instance includes a capability to negotiate checksum coverage values.

   This document defines a set of runtime statistics (variables) that
   facilitate network management/monitoring as well as unified
   comparisons between different protocol implementations and operating
   environments.  To provide a common interface for users and
   implementors of UDP-Lite modules, the definitions of these runtime
   statistics are provided as a MIB module using the SMIv2 format
   [RFC2578].

1.1.  Relationship to the UDP-MIB

   The similarities between UDP and UDP-Lite suggest that the MIB module
   for UDP-Lite should resemble that of UDP [RFC4113], with extensions
   corresponding to the additional capabilities of UDP-Lite.  The UDP-
   Lite MIB module is placed beneath the mib-2 subtree, adhering to the
   familiar structure of the UDP-MIB module to ease integration.

   In particular, these well-known basic counters are supported:

      o  InDatagrams

      o  NoPorts

      o  InErrors

      o  OutDatagrams

Renker & Fairhurst          Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 5097             MIB for the UDP-Lite Protocol          January 2008