Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop)
RFC 5881
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. Katz
Request for Comments: 5881 D. Ward
Category: Standards Track Juniper Networks
ISSN: 2070-1721 June 2010
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop)
Abstract
This document describes the use of the Bidirectional Forwarding
Detection (BFD) protocol over IPv4 and IPv6 for single IP hops.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5881.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Katz & Ward Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 5881 BFD for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop) June 2010
1. Introduction
One very desirable application for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
(BFD) [BFD] is to track IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity between directly
connected systems. This could be used to supplement the detection
mechanisms in routing protocols or to monitor router-host
connectivity, among other applications.
This document describes the particulars necessary to use BFD in this
environment. Interactions between BFD and other protocols and system
functions are described in the BFD Generic Applications document
[BFD-GENERIC].
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [KEYWORDS].
2. Applications and Limitations
This application of BFD can be used by any pair of systems
communicating via IPv4 and/or IPv6 across a single IP hop that is
associated with an incoming interface. This includes, but is not
limited to, physical media, virtual circuits, and tunnels.
Each BFD session between a pair of systems MUST traverse a separate
network-layer path in both directions. This is necessary for
demultiplexing to work properly, and also because (by definition)
multiple sessions would otherwise be protecting the same path.
If BFD is to be used in conjunction with both IPv4 and IPv6 on a
particular path, a separate BFD session MUST be established for each
protocol (and thus encapsulated by that protocol) over that link.
If the BFD Echo function is used, transmitted packets are immediately
routed back towards the sender on the interface over which they were
sent. This may interact with other mechanisms that are used on the
two systems that employ BFD. In particular, ingress filtering
[BCP38] is incompatible with the way Echo packets need to be sent.
Implementations that support the Echo function MUST ensure that
ingress filtering is not used on an interface that employs the Echo
function or make an exception for ingress filtering Echo packets.
An implementation of the Echo function also requires Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) that may not exist on all systems. A
system implementing the Echo function MUST be capable of sending
Katz & Ward Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 5881 BFD for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop) June 2010
packets to its own address, which will typically require bypassing
the normal forwarding lookup. This typically requires access to APIs
that bypass IP-layer functionality.
Please note that BFD is intended as an Operations, Administration,
and Maintenance (OAM) mechanism for connectivity check and connection
verification. It is applicable for network-based services (e.g.
router-to-router, subscriber-to-gateway, LSP/circuit endpoints, and
service appliance failure detection). In these scenarios it is
Show full document text