Requirements for a Protocol to Replace the AppleTalk Name Binding Protocol (NBP)
RFC 6760

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       S. Cheshire
Request for Comments: 6760                                   M. Krochmal
Category: Informational                                       Apple Inc.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            February 2013

                 Requirements for a Protocol to Replace
               the AppleTalk Name Binding Protocol (NBP)

Abstract

   One of the goals of the authors of Multicast DNS (mDNS) and DNS-Based
   Service Discovery (DNS-SD) was to retire AppleTalk and the AppleTalk
   Name Binding Protocol (NBP) and to replace them with an IP-based
   solution.  This document presents a brief overview of the
   capabilities of AppleTalk NBP and outlines the properties required of
   an IP-based replacement.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   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).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see 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/rfc6760.

Cheshire & Krochmal           Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 6760              Replacement of AppleTalk NBP         February 2013

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 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
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   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.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
   2. Zero Configuration Networking ...................................4
   3. Requirements ....................................................4
      3.1. Name-to-Address Mapping ....................................5
      3.2. Name Services, Not Hardware ................................5
      3.3. Address Services, Not Hardware -- or -- Escape the
           Tyranny of Well-Known Ports ................................6
      3.4. Typed Name Space ...........................................8
      3.5. User-Friendly Names ........................................9
      3.6. Zeroconf Operation .........................................9
      3.7. Name Space Management -- or -- Name Conflict Detection ....10
      3.8. Late Binding ..............................................11
      3.9. Simplicity ................................................11
      3.10. Network Browsing .........................................11
      3.11. Browsing and Registration Guidance .......................12
      3.12. Power Management Support .................................12
      3.13. Protocol Agnostic ........................................13
      3.14. Distributed Cache Coherency Protocol .....................13
      3.15. Immediate and Ongoing Information Presentation ...........13
   4. Existing Protocols .............................................14
   5. IPv6 Considerations ............................................14
   6. Security Considerations ........................................14
   7. Informative References .........................................15

Cheshire & Krochmal           Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 6760              Replacement of AppleTalk NBP         February 2013

1.  Introduction

   An important goal of the participants working on Zeroconf, Multicast
   DNS, and DNS-Based Service Discovery was to provide a viable IP-based
   replacement for AppleTalk and the AppleTalk Name Binding Protocol
   (NBP).

   There are many who are experts in the Domain Name System (DNS) who
   know nothing about the AppleTalk Name Binding Protocol (NBP).
   Without some background on how AppleTalk and NBP worked, it may be
   difficult to understand the reasoning and motivations that led to the
   design decisions in Multicast DNS and DNS-Based Service Discovery.

   This document seeks to remedy this problem by clearly stating the
   requirements for an IP-based replacement for AppleTalk and NBP.
   Replacing NBP was not the sole goal of Multicast DNS; therefore,
   these requirements are not the sole design considerations.  However,