Middlebox Communication (MIDCOM) Protocol Semantics
RFC 5189
| Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(March 2008; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 3989
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 5189 (Proposed Standard) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Magnus Westerlund | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Network Working Group M. Stiemerling
Request for Comments: 5189 J. Quittek
Obsoletes: 3989 NEC
Category: Standards Track T. Taylor
Nortel
March 2008
Middlebox Communication (MIDCOM) Protocol Semantics
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 semantics for a Middlebox Communication
(MIDCOM) protocol to be used by MIDCOM agents for interacting with
middleboxes such as firewalls and Network Address Translators (NATs).
The semantics discussion does not include any specification of a
concrete syntax or a transport protocol. However, a concrete
protocol is expected to implement the specified semantics or, more
likely, a superset of it. The MIDCOM protocol semantics is derived
from the MIDCOM requirements, from the MIDCOM framework, and from
working group decisions. This document obsoletes RFC 3989.
Stiemerling, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 5189 MIDCOM Protocol Semantics March 2008
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................4
1.1. Terminology ................................................5
1.2. Transaction Definition Template ............................7
2. Semantics Specification .........................................8
2.1. General Protocol Design ....................................8
2.1.1. Protocol Transactions ...............................8
2.1.2. Message Types .......................................9
2.1.3. Session, Policy Rule, and Policy Rule Group ........10
2.1.4. Atomicity ..........................................11
2.1.5. Access Control .....................................11
2.1.6. Middlebox Capabilities .............................12
2.1.7. Agent and Middlebox Identifiers ....................12
2.1.8. Conformance ........................................13
2.2. Session Control Transactions ..............................13
2.2.1. Session Establishment (SE) .........................14
2.2.2. Session Termination (ST) ...........................16
2.2.3. Asynchronous Session Termination (AST) .............16
2.2.4. Session Termination by Interruption of Connection ..17
2.2.5. Session State Machine ..............................17
2.3. Policy Rule Transactions ..................................18
2.3.1. Configuration Transactions .........................19
2.3.2. Establishing Policy Rules ..........................19
2.3.3. Maintaining Policy Rules and Policy Rule Groups ....20
2.3.4. Policy Events and Asynchronous Notifications .......21
2.3.5. Address Tuples .....................................21
2.3.6. Address Parameter Constraints ......................23
2.3.7. Interface-Specific Policy Rules ....................25
2.3.8. Policy Reserve Rule (PRR) ..........................25
2.3.9. Policy Enable Rule (PER) ...........................30
2.3.10. Policy Rule Lifetime Change (RLC) .................36
2.3.11. Policy Rule List (PRL) ............................38
2.3.12. Policy Rule Status (PRS) ..........................39
2.3.13. Asynchronous Policy Rule Event (ARE) ..............41
2.3.14. Policy Rule State Machine .........................42
2.4. Policy Rule Group Transactions ............................43
2.4.1. Overview ...........................................43
2.4.2. Group Lifetime Change (GLC) ........................44
2.4.3. Group List (GL) ....................................46
2.4.4. Group Status (GS) ..................................47
3. Conformance Statements .........................................48
3.1. General Implementation Conformance ........................49
3.2. Middlebox Conformance .....................................50
3.3. Agent Conformance .........................................50
4. Transaction Usage Examples .....................................50
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