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- Network Working Group Richard Colella (NIST)
- Request for Comments: 1237 Ella Gardner (Mitre)
- Ross Callon (DEC)
- July 1991
-
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- Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet
-
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- Status of This Memo
-
-
- This RFC specifies an IAB standards track protocol for the Internet
- community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.
- Please refer to the current edition of the ``IAB Official Protocol
- Standards'' for the standardization state and status of this protocol.
- Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
-
-
-
-
-
- Abstract
-
-
-
- The Internet is moving towards a multi-protocol environment that
- includes OSI. To support OSI in the Internet, an OSI lower layers
- infrastructure is required. This infrastructure comprises the
- connectionless network protocol (CLNP) and supporting routing
- protocols. Also required as part of this infrastructure are guidelines
- for network service access point (NSAP) address assignment. This paper
- provides guidelines for allocating NSAPs in the Internet.
-
-
- This document provides our current best judgment for the allocation
- of NSAP addresses in the Internet. This is intended to guide initial
- deployment of OSI 8473 (Connectionless Network Layer Protocol) in
- the Internet, as well as to solicit comments. It is expected that
- these guidelines may be further refined and this document updated as a
- result of experience gained during this initial deployment.
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- RFC 1237 Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet July 1991
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- Contents
-
-
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- 1 Introduction 4
-
-
- 2 Scope 4
-
-
- 3 Background 6
-
- 3.1 OSI Routing Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
-
- 3.2 Overview of DIS10589 . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
-
- 3.3 Requirements of DIS10589 on NSAPs . . . . . . . . 11
-
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- 4 NSAP and Routing 13
-
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- 5 NSAP Administration and Routing in the Internet 17
-
- 5.1 Administration at the Area . . . . . . . . . . 19
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- 5.2 Administration at the Leaf Routing Domain . . . . . 21
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- 5.3 Administration at the Transit Routing Domain . . . . 21
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- 5.3.1 Regionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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- 5.3.2 Backbones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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- 5.4 Multi-homed Routing Domains . . . . . . . . . . 24
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- 5.5 Private Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
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- 5.6 Zero-Homed Routing Domains . . . . . . . . . . 30
-
- 5.7 Transition Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
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- 6 Recommendations 34
-
- 6.1 Recommendations Specific to U.S. Parts of the Internet . 35
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- Colella, Gardner, & Callon [Page 2]
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- RFC 1237 Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet July 1991
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- 6.2 Recommendations Specific to Non-U.S. Parts of the Internet 37
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- 6.3 Recommendations for Multi-Homed Routing Domains . . . 37
-
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- 7 Security Considerations 38
-
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- 8 Authors' Addresses 39
-
-
- 9 Acknowledgments 39
-
-
- A Administration of NSAPs 40
-
- A.1 GOSIP Version 2 NSAPs . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
-
- A.1.1 Application for Administrative Authority Identifiers 42
-
- A.1.2 Guidelines for NSAP Assignment . . . . . . . 44
-
- A.2 Data Country Code NSAPs . . . . . . . . . . . 45
-
- A.2.1 Application for Numeric Organization Name . . . 46
-
- A.3 Summary of Administrative Requirements . . . . . . 46
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- Colella, Gardner, & Callon [Page 3]
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- RFC 1237 Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet July 1991
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- 1 Introduction
-
-
-
- The Internet is moving towards a multi-protocol environment that
- includes OSI. To support OSI in the Internet, an OSI lower layers
- infrastructure is required. This infrastructure comprises the
- connectionless network protocol (CLNP) [12] (see also RFC 994 [8])
- and supporting routing protocols. Also required as part of this
- infrastructure are guidelines for network service access point (NSAP)
- address assignment. This paper provides guidelines for allocating
- NSAPs in the Internet (NSAP and NSAP address are used interchangeably
- throughout this paper in referring to NSAP addresses).
-
-
- The remainder of this paper is organized into five major sections and
- an appendix. Section 2 defines the boundaries of the problem addressed
- in this paper and Section 3 provides background information on OSI
- routing and the implications for NSAPs.
-
-
- Section 4 addresses the specific relationship between NSAPs and
- routing, especially with regard to hierarchical routing and data
- abstraction. This is followed in Section 5 with an application of
- these concepts to the Internet environment. Section 6 provides
- recommended guidelines for NSAP allocation in the Internet.
-
-
- Appendix A contains a compendium of useful information concerning
- NSAP structure and allocation authorities. The GOSIP Version 2 NSAP
- structure is discussed in detail and the structure for U.S.-based DCC
- (Data Country Code) NSAPs is described. Contact information for the
- registration authorities for GOSIP and DCC-based NSAPs in the U.S.,
- the General Services Administration (GSA) and the American National
- Standards Institute (ANSI), respectively, is provided.
-
-
-
- 2 Scope
-
-
-
- There are two aspects of interest when discussing OSI NSAP allocation
- within the Internet. The first is the set of administrative require-
- ments for obtaining and allocating NSAPs; the second is the technical
- aspect of such assignments, having largely to do with routing, both
- within a routing domain (intra-domain routing) and between routing
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- Colella, Gardner, & Callon [Page 4]
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- domains (inter-domain routing). This paper focuses on the technical
- issues.
-
-
- The technical issues in NSAP allocation are mainly related to routing.
- This paper assumes that CLNP will be widely deployed in the Internet,
- and that the routing of CLNP traffic will normally be based on the OSI
- ES-IS (end-system to intermediate system) routing protocol applicable
- for point-to-point links and LANs [13] (see also RFC 995 [7]) and
- the emerging intra-domain IS-IS protocol [17]. Also expected is the
- deployment of an inter-domain routing protocol similar to Border
- Gateway Protocol (BGP) [18].
-
-
- The guidelines provided in this paper are intended for immediate
- deployment as CLNP is made available in the Internet. This paper
- specifically does not address long-term research issues, such as
- complex policy-based routing requirements.
-
-
- In the current Internet many routing domains (such as corporate and
- campus networks) attach to transit networks (such as NSFNET regionals)
- in only one or a small number of carefully controlled access points.
- Addressing solutions which require substantial changes or constraints
- on the current topology are not considered.
-
-
- The guidelines in this paper are oriented primarily toward the large-
- scale division of NSAP address allocation in the Internet. Topics
- covered include:
-
-
- * Arrangement of parts of the NSAP for efficient operation of the
- DIS10589IS-IS routing protocol;
-
- * Benefits of some topological information in NSAPs to reduce
- routing protocol overhead;
-
- * The anticipated need for additional levels of hierarchy in
- Internet addressing to support network growth;
-
- * The recommended mapping between Internet topological entities
- (i.e., backbone networks, regional networks, and site networks)
- and OSI addressing and routing components;
-
- * The recommended division of NSAP address assignment authority
- among backbones, regionals (also called mid-levels), and sites;
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- RFC 1237 Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet July 1991
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- * Background information on administrative procedures for registra-
- tion of administrative authorities immediately below the national
- level (GOSIP administrative authorities and ANSI organization
- identifiers); and,
-
-
- * Choice of the high-order portion of the NSAP in leaf routing
- domains that are connected to more than one regional or backbone.
-
-
-
- It is noted that there are other aspects of NSAP allocation, both
- technical and administrative, that are not covered in this paper.
- Topics not covered or mentioned only superficially include:
-
-
-
- * Identification of specific administrative domains in the Internet;
-
-
- * Policy or mechanisms for making registered information known to
- third parties (such as the entity to which a specific NSAP or a
- potion of the NSAP address space has been allocated);
-
-
- * How a routing domain (especially a site) should organize its
- internal topology of areas or allocate portions of its NSAP
- address space; the relationship between topology and addresses is
- discussed, but the method of deciding on a particular topology or
- internal addressing plan is not; and,
-
-
- * Procedures for assigning the System Identifier (ID) portion of the
- NSAP.
-
-
-
- 3 Background
-
-
-
- Some background information is provided in this section that is
- helpful in understanding the issues involved in NSAP allocation. A
- brief discussion of OSI routing is provided, followed by a review
- of the intra-domain protocol in sufficient detail to understand the
- issues involved in NSAP allocation. Finally, the specific constraints
- that the intra-domain protocol places on NSAPs are listed.
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- Colella, Gardner, & Callon [Page 6]
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- RFC 1237 Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet July 1991
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- 3.1 OSI Routing Standards
-
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- OSI partitions the routing problem into three parts:
-
-
- * routing exchanges between end systems and intermediate systems
- (ES-IS),
-
- * routing exchanges between ISs in the same routing domain (intra-
- domain IS-IS), and,
-
- * routing among routing domains (inter-domain IS-IS).
-
-
- ES-IS, international standard ISO9542 [13] approved in 1987, is
- available in vendor products and is planned for the next release of
- Berkeley UNIX (UNIX is a trademark of AT&T). It is also cited in GOSIP
- Version 2 [4], which became effective in April 1991 for all applicable
- federal procurements, and mandatory beginning eighteen months later in
- 1992.
-
-
- Intra-domain IS-IS advanced to draft international standard (DIS)
- status within ISO in November, 1990 as DIS10589 [17]. It is reasonable
- to expect that final text for the intra-domain IS-IS standard will be
- available by mid-1991.
-
-
- There are two candidate proposals which address OSI inter-domain
- routing, ECMA TR/50 [3] and Border Router Protocol (BRP) [19], a
- direct derivative of the IETF Border Gateway Protocol [18]. ECMA TR/50
- has been proposed as base text in the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC6/WG2 committee,
- which is responsible for the Network layer of the ISO Reference Model
- [11 ].X3S3.3, the ANSI counterpart to WG2, has incorporated features
- of TR/50 into BRP and submitted this as alternate base text at the
- WG2 meeting in October, 1990. Currently, it is out for ISO Member
- Body comment. The proposed protocol is referred to as the Inter-domain
- Routing Protocol (IDRP) [20].
-
-
- This paper examines the technical implications of NSAP assignment
- under the assumption that ES-IS, intra-domain IS-IS, and IDRP routing
- are deployed to support CLNP.
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- 3.2 Overview of DIS10589
-
-
-
- The IS-IS intra-domain routing protocol, DIS10589, developed in ISO,
- provides routing for OSI environments. In particular, DIS10589 is
- designed to work in conjunction with CLNP and ES-IS. This section
- briefly describes the manner in which DIS10589 operates.
-
-
- In DIS10589, the internetwork is partitioned into routing domains.
- A routing domain is a collection of ESs and ISs that operate common
- routing protocols and are under the control of a single administra-
- tion. Typically, a routing domain may consist of a corporate network,
- a university campus network, a regional network, or a similar contigu-
- ous network under control of a single administrative organization. The
- boundaries of routing domains are defined by network management by
- setting some links to be exterior, or inter-domain, links. If a link
- is marked as exterior, no DIS10589 routing messages are sent on that
- link.
-
-
- Currently, ISO does not have a standard for inter-domain routing
- (i.e., for routing between separate autonomous routing domains). In
- the interim, DIS10589 uses manual configuration. An inter-domain link
- is statically configured with the set of address prefixes reachable
- via that link, and with the method by which they can be reached (such
- as the DTE address to be dialed to reach that address, or the fact
- that the DTE address should be extracted from the OSI NSAP address).
-
-
- DIS10589 routing makes use of two-level hierarchical routing. A
- routing domain is subdivided into areas (also known as level 1
- subdomains). Level 1 ISs know the topology in their area, including
- all ISs and ESs in their area. However, level 1 ISs do not know the
- identity of ISs or destinations outside of their area. Level 1 ISs
- forward all traffic for destinations outside of their area to a level
- 2 IS within their area.
-
-
- Similarly, level 2 ISs know the level 2 topology and know which
- addresses are reachable via each level 2 IS. The set of all level 2
- ISs in a routing domain are known as the level 2 subdomain, which can
- be thought of as a backbone for interconnecting the areas. Level 2
- ISs do not need to know the topology within any level 1 area, except
- to the extent that a level 2 IS may also be a level 1 IS within a
- single area. Only level 2 ISs can exchange data packets or routing
- information directly with external ISs located outside of their
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- routing domain.
-
-
- As illustrated in Figure 1, ISO addresses are subdivided into the
- Initial Domain Part (IDP) and the Domain Specific Part (DSP), as spec-
- ified in ISO8348/Addendum 2, the OSI network layer addressing standard
- [14 ](also RFC 941 [6]). The IDP is the part which is standardized by
- ISO, and specifies the format and authority responsible for assigning
- the rest of the address. The DSP is assigned by whatever addressing
- authority is specified by the IDP (see Appendix A for more discussion
- on the top level NSAP addressing authorities). The DSP is further
- subdivided, by DIS10589, into a High Order Part of DSP (HO-DSP), a
- system identifier (ID), and an NSAP selector (SEL). The HO-DSP may
- use any format desired by the authority which is identified by the
- IDP. Together, the combination of [IDP,HO-DSP] identify an area within
- a routing domain and, implicitly, the routing domain containing the
- area. The combination of [IDP,HO-DSP] is therefore referred to as the
- area address.
-
- _______________________________________________
- !____IDP_____!_______________DSP______________!
- !__AFI_!_IDI_!_____HO-DSP______!___ID___!_SEL_!
-
-
- IDP Initial Domain Part
- AFI Authority and Format Identifier
- IDI Initial Domain Identifier
- DSP Domain Specific Part
- HO-DSP High-order DSP
- ID System Identifier
- SEL NSAP Selector
-
-
- Figure 1: OSI Hierarchical Address Structure.
-
-
-
- The ID field may be from one to eight octets in length, but must have
- a single known length in any particular routing domain. Each router is
- configured to know what length is used in its domain. The SEL field is
- always one octet in length. Each router is therefore able to identify
- the ID and SEL fields as a known number of trailing octets of the NSAP
- address. The area address can be identified as the remainder of the
- address (after truncation of the ID and SEL fields).
-
-
- Usually, all nodes in an area have the same area address. However,
- sometimes an area might have multiple addresses. Motivations for
- allowing this are several:
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- * It might be desirable to change the address of an area. The most
- graceful way of changing an area from having address A to having
- address B is to first allow it to have both addresses A and B, and
- then after all nodes in the area have been modified to recognize
- both addresses, one by one the ESs can be modified to forget
- address A.
-
- * It might be desirable to merge areas A and B into one area. The
- method for accomplishing this is to, one by one, add knowledge of
- address B into the A partition, and similarly add knowledge of
- address A into the B partition.
-
- * It might be desirable to partition an area C into two areas, A and
- B (where A might equal C, in which case this example becomes one
- of removing a portion of an area). This would be accomplished by
- first introducing knowledge of address A into the appropriate ESs
- (those destined to become area A), and knowledge of address B into
- the appropriate nodes, and then one by one removing knowledge of
- address C.
-
-
-
- Since the addressing explicitly identifies the area, it is very easy
- for level 1 ISs to identify packets going to destinations outside
- of their area, which need to be forwarded to level 2 ISs. Thus, in
- DIS10589 the two types of ISs route as follows:
-
-
- * Level 1 intermediate systems -- these nodes route based on the ID
- portion of the ISO address. They route within an area. Level 1 ISs
- recognize, based on the destination address in a packet, whether
- the destination is within the area. If so, they route towards the
- destination. If not, they route to the nearest level 2 IS.
-
- * Level 2 intermediate systems -- these nodes route based on address
- prefixes, preferring the longest matching prefix, and preferring
- internal routes over external routes. They route towards areas,
- without regard to the internal structure of an area; or towards
- level 2 ISs on the routing domain boundary that have advertised
- external address prefixes into the level 2 subdomain. A level 2 IS
- may also be operating as a level 1 IS in one area.
-
-
-
- A level 1 IS will have the area portion of its address manually
- configured. It will refuse to become a neighbor with an IS whose area
- addresses do not overlap its own area addresses. However, if a level 1
- IS has area addresses A, B, and C, and a neighbor has area addresses
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- B and D, then the level 1 IS will accept the other IS as a level 1
- neighbor.
-
-
- A level 2 IS will accept another level 2 IS as a neighbor, regardless
- of area address. However, if the area addresses do not overlap, the
- link would be considered by both ISs to be level 2 only, and only
- level 2 routing packets would flow on the link. External links (i.e.,
- to other routing domains) must be between level 2 ISs in different
- routing domains.
-
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- DIS10589 provides an optional partition repair function. In the
- unlikely case that a level 1 area becomes partitioned, this function,
- if implemented, allows the partition to be repaired via use of level 2
- routes.
-
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- DIS10589 requires that the set of level 2 ISs be connected. Should the
- level 2 backbone become partitioned, there is no provision for use of
- level 1 links to repair a level 2 partition.
-
-
- In unusual cases, a single level 2 IS may lose connectivity to the
- level 2 backbone. In this case the level 2 IS will indicate in its
- level 1 routing packets that it is not attached, thereby allowing
- level 1 ISs in the area to route traffic for outside of the area
- to a different level 2 IS. Level 1 ISs therefore route traffic to
- destinations outside of their area only to level 2 ISs which indicate
- in their level 1 routing packets that they are attached.
-
-
- An ES may autoconfigure the area portion of its address by extracting
- the area portion of a neighboring IS's address. If this is the case,
- then an ES will always accept an IS as a neighbor. Since the standard
- does not specify that the end system must autoconfigure its area
- address, an end system may be pre-configured with an area address. In
- this case the end system would ignore IS neighbors with non-matching
- area addresses.
-
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- 3.3 Requirements of DIS10589 on NSAPs
-
-
-
- The preferred NSAP format for DIS10589 is shown in Figure 1. A number
- of points should be noted from DIS10589:
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- * The IDP is as specified in ISO 8348/Addendum 2, the OSI network
- layer addressing standard [14];
-
-
- * The high-order portion of the DSP (HO-DSP) is that portion of the
- DSP whose assignment, structure, and meaning are not constrained
- by DIS10589;
-
-
- * The concatenation of the IDP and the HO-DSP, the area address,
- must be globally unique (if the area address of an NSAP matches
- one of the area addresses of a system, it is in the system's area
- and is routed to by level 1 routing);
-
-
- * Level 2 routing acts on address prefixes, using the longest
- address prefix that matches the destination address;
-
-
- * Level 1 routing acts on the ID field. The ID field must be unique
- within an area for ESs and level 1 ISs, and unique within the
- routing domain for level 2 ISs. The ID field is assumed to be
- flat;
-
-
- * The one-octet NSAP Selector, SEL, determines the entity to receive
- the CLNP packet within the system identified by the rest of the
- NSAP (i.e., a transport entity) and is always the last octet of
- the NSAP; and,
-
-
- * A system shall be able to generate and forward data packets
- containing addresses in any of the formats specified by ISO
- 8348/Addendum 2. However, within a routing domain that conforms to
- DIS10589, the lower-order octets of the NSAP should be structured
- as the ID and SEL fields shown in Figure 1 to take full advantage
- of DIS10589 routing. End systems with addresses which do not
- conform may require additional manual configuration and be subject
- to inferior routing performance.
-
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- For purposes of efficient operation of the IS-IS routing protocol,
- several observations may be made. First, although the IS-IS protocol
- specifies an algorithm for routing within a single routing domain, the
- routing algorithm must efficiently route both: (i) Packets whose final
- destination is in the domain (these must, of course, be routed to the
- correct destination end system in the domain); and (ii) Packets whose
- final destination is outside of the domain (these must be routed to a
- correct ``border'' router, from which they will exit the domain).
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- For those destinations which are in the domain, level 2 routing treats
- the entire area address (i.e., all of the NSAP address except the ID
- and SEL fields) as if it were a flat field. Thus, the efficiency of
- level 2 routing to destinations within the domain is affected only by
- the number of areas in the domain, and the number of area addresses
- assigned to each area (which can range from one up to a maximum of
- three).
-
-
- For those destinations which are outside of the domain, level 2
- routing routes according to address prefixes. In this case, there
- is considerable potential advantage (in terms of reducing the amount
- of routing information that is required) if the number of address
- prefixes required to describe any particular set of destinations can
- be minimized.
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- 4 NSAPs and Routing
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- When determining an administrative policy for NSAP assignment, it
- is important to understand the technical consequences. The objective
- behind the use of hierarchical routing is to achieve some level
- of routing data abstraction, or summarization, to reduce the cpu,
- memory, and transmission bandwidth consumed in support of routing.
- This dictates that NSAPs be assigned according to topological
- routing structures. However, administrative assignment falls along
- organizational or political boundaries. These may not be congruent to
- topological boundaries and therefore the requirements of the two may
- collide. It is necessary to find a balance between these two needs.
-
-
- Routing data abstraction occurs at the boundary between hierarchically
- arranged topological routing structures. An element lower in the
- hierarchy reports summary routing information to its parent(s). Within
- the current OSI routing framework [16] and routing protocols, the
- lowest boundary at which this can occur is the boundary between an
- area and the level 2 subdomain within a DIS10589 routing domain. Data
- abstraction is designed into DIS10589 at this boundary, since level 1
- ISs are constrained to reporting only area addresses, and a maximum
- number of three area addresses are allowed in one area (This is an
- architectural constant in DIS10589. See [17], Clause 7.2.11 and Table
- 2 of Clause 7.5.1).
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- Level 2 routing is based upon address prefixes. Level 2 ISs dis-
- tribute, throughout the level 2 subdomain, the area addresses of the
- level 1 areas to which they are attached (and any manually configured
- reachable address prefixes). Level 2 ISs compute next-hop forwarding
- information to all advertised address prefixes. Level 2 routing is
- determined by the longest advertised address prefix that matches the
- destination address.
-
-
- At routing domain boundaries, address prefix information is exchanged
- (statically or dynamically) with other routing domains. If area
- addresses within a routing domain are all drawn from distinct NSAP
- assignment authorities (allowing no abstraction), then the boundary
- prefix information consists of an enumerated list of all area
- addresses.
-
-
- Alternatively, should the routing domain ``own'' an address prefix
- and assign area addresses based upon it, boundary routing information
- can be summarized into the single prefix. This can allow substantial
- data reduction and, therefore, will allow much better scaling (as
- compared to the uncoordinated area addresses discussed in the previous
- paragraph).
-
-
- If routing domains are interconnected in a more-or-less random (non-
- hierarchical) scheme, it is quite likely that no further abstraction
- of routing data can occur. Since routing domains would have no defined
- hierarchical relationship, administrators would not be able to assign
- area addresses out of some common prefix for the purpose of data
- abstraction. The result would be flat inter-domain routing; all
- routing domains would need explicit knowledge of all other routing
- domains that they route to. This can work well in small- and medium-
- sized internets, up to a size somewhat larger than the current IP
- Internet. However, this does not scale to very large internets. For
- example, we expect growth in the future to an international Internet
- which has tens or hundreds of thousands of routing domains in the U.S.
- alone. This requires a greater degree of data abstraction beyond that
- which can be achieved at the ``routing domain'' level.
-
-
- In the Internet, however, it should be possible to exploit the
- existing hierarchical routing structure interconnections, as discussed
- in Section 5. Thus, there is the opportunity for a group of routing
- domains each to be assigned an address prefix from a shorter prefix
- assigned to another routing domain whose function is to interconnect
- the group of routing domains. Each member of the group of routing
-
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- domains now ``owns'' its (somewhat longer) prefix, from which it
- assigns its area addresses.
-
-
- The most straightforward case of this occurs when there is a set
- of routing domains which are all attached only to a single regional
- (or backbone) domain, and which use that regional for all external
- (inter-domain) traffic. A small address prefix may be assigned to
- the regional, which then assigns slightly longer prefixes (based
- on the regional's prefix) to each of the routing domains that it
- interconnects. This allows the regional, when informing other
- routing domains of the addresses that it can reach, to abbreviate
- the reachability information for a large number of routing domains
- as a single prefix. This approach therefore can allow a great deal
- of hierarchical abbreviation of routing information, and thereby can
- greatly improve the scalability of inter-domain routing.
-
-
- Clearly, this approach is recursive and can be carried through several
- iterations. Routing domains at any ``level'' in the hierarchy may
- use their prefix as the basis for subsequent suballocations, assuming
- that the NSAP addresses remain within the overall length and structure
- constraints. The GOSIP Version 2 NSAP structure, discussed later in
- this section, allows for multiple levels of routing hierarchy.
-
-
- At this point, we observe that the number of nodes at each lower
- level of a hierarchy tends to grow exponentially. Thus the greatest
- gains in data abstraction occur at the leaves and the gains drop
- significantly at each higher level. Therefore, the law of diminishing
- returns suggests that at some point data abstraction ceases to
- produce significant benefits. Determination of the point at which data
- abstraction ceases to be of benefit requires a careful consideration
- of the number of routing domains that are expected to occur at each
- level of the hierarchy (over a given period of time), compared to the
- number of routing domains and address prefixes that can conveniently
- and efficiently be handled via dynamic inter-domain routing protocols.
-
-
- There is a balance that must be sought between the requirements
- on NSAPs for efficient routing and the need for decentralized NSAP
- administration. The NSAP structure from Version 2 of GOSIP (Figure 2)
- offers an example of how these two needs might be met. The AFI,
- IDI, DFI, and AA fields provide for administrative decentralization.
- The AFI/IDI pair of values 47/0005 identify the U.S. government
- as the authority responsible for defining the DSP structure and
- allocating values within it (see Appendix A for more information on
- NSAP structure).
-
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- [Note: It is not important that NSAPs be allocated from the
- GOSIP Version 2 authority under 47/0005. The ANSI format under
- the Data Country Code for the U.S. (DCC=840) and formats
- assigned to other countries and ISO members or liaison
- organizations are also expected to be used, and will work
- equally well. For parts of the Internet outside of the U.S.
- there may in some cases be strong reasons to prefer a local
- format rather than the GOSIP format. However, GOSIP addresses
- are used in most cases in the examples in this paper because:
-
- * The DSP format has been defined and allows hierarchical
- allocation; and,
-
- * An operational registration authority for suballocation of
- AA values under the GOSIP address space has already been
- established at GSA.]
-
-
-
- GOSIP Version 2 defines the DSP structure as shown (under DFI=80h) and
- provides for the allocation of AA values to administrations. Thus, the
- fields from the AFI to the AA, inclusive, represent a unique address
- prefix assigned to an administration.
-
- _______________
- !<--__IDP_-->_!___________________________________
- !AFI_!__IDI___!___________<--_DSP_-->____________!
- !_47_!__0005__!DFI_!AA_!Rsvd_!_RD_!Area_!ID_!Sel_!
- octets !_1__!___2____!_1__!_3_!__2__!_2__!_2___!_6_!_1__!
-
-
- IDP Initial Domain Part
- AFI Authority and Format Identifier
- IDI Initial Domain Identifier
- DSP Domain Specific Part
- DFI DSP Format Identifier
- AA Administrative Authority
- Rsvd Reserved
- RD Routing Domain Identifier
- Area Area Identifier
- ID System Identifier
- SEL NSAP Selector
-
- Figure 2: GOSIP Version 2 NSAP structure.
-
-
- Currently, a proposal is being progressed in ANSI for an American
- National Standard (ANS) for the DSP of the NSAP address space
-
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- administered by ANSI. This will provide an identical DSP structure
- to that provided by GOSIP Version 2. The ANSI format, therefore,
- differs from that illustrated above only in that the IDP is based
- on an ISO DCC assignment, and in that the AA will be administered
- by a different organization (ANSI secretariat instead of GSA).
- The technical considerations applicable to NSAP administration are
- independent of whether a GOSIP Version 2 or an ANSI value is used for
- the NSAP assignment.
-
-
- Similarly, although other countries may make use of slightly different
- NSAP formats, the principles of NSAP assignment and use are the same.
-
-
- In the low-order part of the GOSIP Version 2 NSAP format, two
- fields are defined in addition to those required by DIS10589. These
- fields, RD and Area, are defined to allow allocation of NSAPs along
- topological boundaries in support of increased data abstraction.
- Administrations assign RD identifiers underneath their unique address
- prefix (the reserved field is left to accommodate future growth and
- to provide additional flexibility for inter-domain routing). Routing
- domains allocate Area identifiers from their unique prefix. The result
- is:
-
-
- * AFI+IDI+DFI+AA = administration prefix,
-
- * administration prefix(+Rsvd)+RD = routing domain prefix, and,
-
- * routing domain prefix+Area = area address.
-
-
-
- This provides for summarization of all area addresses within a routing
- domain into one prefix. If the AA identifier is accorded topological
- significance (in addition to administrative significance), an
- additional level of data abstraction can be obtained, as is discussed
- in the next section.
-
-
-
- 5 NSAP Administration and Routing in the Internet
-
-
- Internet routing components---backbones, regionals, and sites
- or campuses---are arranged hierarchically for the most part. A
- natural mapping from these components to OSI routing components
- is that backbones, regionals, and sites act as routing domains.
-
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- (Alternatively, a site may choose to operate as an area within a
- regional. However, in such a case the area is part of the regional's
- routing domain and the discussion in Section 5.1 applies. We assume
- that some, if not most, sites will prefer to operate as routing
- domains. By operating as a routing domain, a site operates a level 2
- subdomain as well as one or more level 1 areas.)
-
-
- Given such a mapping, where should address administration and alloca-
- tion be performed to satisfy both administrative decentralization and
- data abstraction? Three possibilities are considered:
-
- 1. at the area,
-
- 2. at the leaf routing domain, and,
-
- 3. at the transit routing domain (TRD).
-
- Leaf routing domains correspond to sites, where the primary purpose is
- to provide intra-domain routing services. Transit routing domains are
- deployed to carry transit (i.e., inter-domain) traffic; backbones and
- regionals are TRDs.
-
-
- The greatest burden in transmitting and operating on routing informa-
- tion is at the top of the routing hierarchy, where routing information
- tends to accumulate. In the Internet, for example, regionals must man-
- age the set of network numbers for all networks reachable through the
- regional. Traffic destined for other networks is generally routed to
- the backbone. The backbones, however, must be cognizant of the network
- numbers for all attached regionals and their associated networks.
-
-
- In general, the advantage of abstracting routing information at a
- given level of the routing hierarchy is greater at the higher levels
- of the hierarchy. There is relatively little direct benefit to the
- administration that performs the abstraction, since it must maintain
- routing information individually on each attached topological routing
- structure.
-
-
- For example, suppose that a given site is trying to decide whether
- to obtain an NSAP address prefix based on an AA value from GSA
- (implying that the first four octets of the address would be those
- assigned out of the GOSIP space), or based on an RD value from its
- regional (implying that the first seven octets of the address are
- those assigned to that regional). If considering only their own
-
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- self-interest, the site itself, and the attached regional, have
- little reason to choose one approach or the other. The site must use
- one prefix or another; the source of the prefix has little effect
- on routing efficiency within the site. The regional must maintain
- information about each attached site in order to route, regardless of
- any commonality in the prefixes of the sites.
-
-
- However, there is a difference when the regional distributes routing
- information to backbones and other regionals. In the first case, the
- regional cannot aggregate the site's address into its own prefix;
- the address must be explicitly listed in routing exchanges, resulting
- in an additional burden to backbones and other regionals which must
- exchange and maintain this information.
-
-
- In the second case, each other regional and backbone sees a single
- address prefix for the regional, which encompasses the new site. This
- avoids the exchange of additional routing information to identify the
- new site's address prefix. Thus, the advantages primarily accrue to
- other regionals and backbones which maintain routing information about
- this site and regional.
-
-
- One might apply a supplier/consumer model to this problem: the higher
- level (e.g., a backbone) is a supplier of routing services, while
- the lower level (e.g., an attached regional) is the consumer of these
- services. The price charged for services is based upon the cost of
- providing them. The overhead of managing a large table of addresses
- for routing to an attached topological entity contributes to this
- cost.
-
-
- The Internet, however, is not a market economy. Rather, efficient
- operation is based on cooperation. The guidelines discussed below
- describe reasonable ways of managing the OSI address space that
- benefit the entire community.
-
-
-
- 5.1 Administration at the Area
-
-
- If areas take their area addresses from a myriad of unrelated NSAP
- allocation authorities, there will be effectively no data abstraction
- beyond what is built into DIS10589. For example, assume that within a
- routing domain three areas take their area addresses, respectively,
- out of:
-
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- * the GOSIP Version 2 authority assigned to the Department of
- Commerce, with an AA of nnn:
-
- AFI=47, IDI=0005, DFI=80h, AA=nnn, ... ;
-
- * the GOSIP Version 2 authority assigned to the Department of the
- Interior, with an AA of mmm:
-
- AFI=47, IDI=0005, DFI=80h, AA=mmm, ... ; and,
-
- * the ANSI authority under the U.S. Data Country Code (DCC) (Section
- A.2) for organization XYZ with ORG identifier = xxx:
-
- AFI=39, IDI=840, DFI=dd, ORG=xxx, ....
-
-
- As described in Section 3.3, from the point of view of any particular
- routing domain, there is no harm in having the different areas in
- the routing domain use addresses obtained from a wide variety of
- administrations. For routing within the domain, the area addresses are
- treated as a flat field.
-
-
- However, this does have a negative effect on inter-domain routing,
- particularly on those other domains which need to maintain routes to
- this domain. There is no common prefix that can be used to represent
- these NSAPs and therefore no summarization can take place at the
- routing domain boundary. When addresses are advertised by this routing
- domain to other routing domains, an enumerated list must be used
- consisting of the three area addresses.
-
-
- This situation is roughly analogous to the dissemination of routing
- information in the TCP/IP Internet. Areas correspond roughly to
- networks and area addresses to network numbers. The result of allowing
- areas within a routing domain to take their NSAPs from unrelated
- authorities is flat routing at the area address level. The number
- of address prefixes that leaf routing domains would advertise is on
- the order of the number of attached areas; the number of prefixes a
- regional routing domain would advertise is approximately the number of
- areas attached to the client leaf routing domains; and for a backbone
- this would be summed across all attached regionals. Although this
- situation is just barely acceptable in the current Internet, as the
- Internet grows this will quickly become intractable. A greater degree
- of hierarchical information reduction is necessary to allow continued
- growth in the Internet.
-
-
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- 5.2 Administration at the Leaf Routing Domain
-
-
-
- As mentioned previously, the greatest degree of data abstraction comes
- at the lowest levels of the hierarchy. Providing each leaf routing
- domain (that is, site) with a unique prefix results in the biggest
- single increase in abstraction, with each leaf domain assigning area
- addresses from its prefix. From outside the leaf routing domain, the
- set of all addresses reachable in the domain can then be represented
- by a single prefix.
-
-
- As an example, assume NSF has been assigned the AA value of zzz
- under ICD=0005. NSF then assigns a routing domain identifier to a
- routing domain under its administrative authority identifier, rrr. The
- resulting prefix for the routing domain is:
-
-
- AFI=47, IDI=0005, DFI=80h, AA=zzz, Rsvd=0, RD=rrr.
-
-
- All areas attached to this routing domain would have area addresses
- comprising this prefix followed by an Area identifier. The prefix
- represents the summary of reachable addresses within the routing
- domain.
-
-
- There is a close relationship between areas and routing domains
- implicit in the fact that they operate a common routing protocol and
- are under the control of a single administration. The routing domain
- administration subdivides the domain into areas and structures a level
- 2 subdomain (i.e., a level 2 backbone) which provides connectivity
- among the areas. The routing domain represents the only path between
- an area and the rest of the internetwork. It is reasonable that
- this relationship also extend to include a common NSAP addressing
- authority. Thus, the areas within the leaf RD should take their NSAPs
- from the prefix assigned to the leaf RD.
-
-
-
- 5.3 Administration at the Transit Routing Domain
-
-
-
- Two kinds of transit routing domains are considered, backbones and
- regionals. Each is discussed separately below.
-
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- 5.3.1 Regionals
-
-
-
- It is interesting to consider whether regional routing domains should
- be the common authority for assigning NSAPs from a unique prefix to
- the leaf routing domains that they serve. The benefits derived from
- data abstraction are less than in the case of leaf routing domains,
- and the additional degree of data abstraction provided by this is
- not necessary in the short term. However, in the long term the number
- of routing domains in the Internet will grow to the point that it
- will be infeasible to route on the basis of a flat field of routing
- domains. It will therefore be essential to provide a greater degree of
- information abstraction.
-
-
- Regionals may assign prefixes to leaf domains, based on a single
- (shorter length) address prefix assigned to the regional. For example,
- given the GOSIP Version 2 address structure, an AA value may be
- assigned to each regional, and routing domain values may be assigned
- by the regional to each attached leaf routing domain. A similar
- hierarchical address assignment based on a prefix assigned to each
- regional may be used for other NSAP formats. This results in regionals
- advertising to backbones a small fraction of the number of address
- prefixes that would be necessary if they enumerated the individual
- prefixes of the leaf routing domains. This represents a significant
- savings given the expected scale of global internetworking.
-
-
- Are leaf routing domains willing to accept prefixes derived from
- the regional's? In the supplier/consumer model, the regional is
- offering connectivity as the service, priced according to its costs
- of operation. This includes the ``price'' of obtaining service from
- one or more backbones. In general, backbones will want to handle as
- few address prefixes as possible to keep costs low. In the Internet
- environment, which does not operate as a typical marketplace, leaf
- routing domains must be sensitive to the resource constraints of the
- regionals and backbones. The efficiencies gained in routing clearly
- warrant the adoption of NSAP administration by the regionals.
-
-
- The mechanics of this scenario are straightforward. Each regional
- is assigned a unique prefix, from which it allocates slightly longer
- routing domain prefixes for its attached leaf routing domains.
- For GOSIP NSAPs, this means that a regional would be assigned an
- AA identifier. Attached leaf routing domains would be assigned RD
- identifiers under the regional's unique prefix. For example, assume
-
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- NIST is a leaf routing domain whose sole inter-domain link is via
- SURANet. If SURANet is assigned an AA identifier kkk, NIST could be
- assigned an RD of jjj, resulting in a unique prefix for SURANet of:
-
-
- AFI=47, IDI=0005, DFI=80h, AA=kkk
-
-
- and a unique prefix for NIST of
-
-
- AFI=47, IDI=0005, DFI=80h, AA=kkk, (Rsvd=0), RD=jjj.
-
-
- A similar scheme can be established using NSAPs allocated under
- DCC=840. In this case, a regional applies for an ORG identifier from
- ANSI, which serves the same purpose as the AA identifier in GOSIP.
- The current direction in ANSI is to standardize on an NSAP structure
- identical to GOSIP Version 2 (see Section A.2).
-
-
-
- 5.3.2 Backbones
-
-
-
- There does not appear to be a strong case for regionals to take their
- address spaces from the the NSAP space of a backbone. The benefit in
- routing data abstraction is relatively small. The number of regionals
- today is in the tens and an order of magnitude increase would not
- cause an undue burden on the backbones. Also, it may be expected that
- as time goes by there will be increased direct interconnection of the
- regionals, leaf routing domains directly attached to the backbones,
- and international links directly attached to the regionals. Under
- these circumstances, the distinction between regionals and backbones
- may become blurred.
-
-
- An additional factor that discourages allocation of NSAPs from a
- backbone prefix is that the backbones and their attached regionals are
- perceived as being independent. Regionals may take their long-haul
- service from one or more backbones, or may switch backbones should
- a more cost-effective service be provided elsewhere (essentially,
- backbones can be thought of the same way as long-distance telephone
- carriers). Having NSAPs derived from the backbone is inconsistent with
- the nature of the relationship.
-
-
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- 5.4 Multi-homed Routing Domains
-
-
-
- The discussions in Section 5.3 suggest methods for allocating NSAP
- addresses based on regional or backbone connectivity. This allows a
- great deal of information reduction to be achieved for those routing
- domains which are attached to a single TRD. In particular, such
- routing domains may select their NSAP addresses from a space allocated
- to them by the regional. This allows the regional, when announcing the
- addresses that it can reach to other regionals and backbones, to use
- a single address prefix to describe a large number of NSAP addresses
- corresponding to multiple routing domains.
-
-
- However, there are additional considerations for routing domains
- which are attached to multiple regionals and backbones. Such ``multi-
- homed'' routing domains may, for example, consist of single-site
- campuses and companies which are attached to multiple backbones, large
- organizations which are attached to different regionals at different
- locations in the same country, or multi-national organizations which
- are attached to backbones in a variety of countries worldwide. There
- are a number of possible ways to deal with these multi-homed routing
- domains.
-
-
- One possible solution is to assign addresses to each multi-homed
- organization independently from the regionals and backbones to which
- it is attached. This allows each multi-homed organization to base its
- NSAP assignments on a single prefix, and to thereby summarize the set
- of all NSAPs reachable within that organization via a single prefix.
- The disadvantage of this approach is that since the NSAP address
- for that organization has no relationship to the addresses of any
- particular TRD, the TRDs to which this organization is attached will
- need to advertise the prefix for this organization to other regionals
- and backbones. Other regionals and backbones (potentially worldwide)
- will need to maintain an explicit entry for that organization in their
- routing tables.
-
-
- For example, suppose that a very large U.S.-wide company ``Mega
- Big International Incorporated'' (MBII) has a fully interconnected
- internal network and is assigned a single AA value under the U.S.
- GOSIP Version 2 address space. It is likely that outside of the U.S.,
- a single entry may be maintained in routing tables for all U.S. GOSIP
- addresses. However, within the U.S., every backbone and regional
- will need to maintain a separate address entry for MBII. If MBII
-
-
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- is in fact an international corporation, then it may be necessary
- for every backbone worldwide to maintain a separate entry for MBII
- (including backbones to which MBII is not attached). Clearly this
- may be acceptable if there are a small number of such multi-homed
- routing domains, but would place an unacceptable load on routers
- within backbones if all organizations were to choose such address
- assignments. This solution may not scale to internets where there are
- many hundreds of thousands of multi-homed organizations.
-
-
- A second possible approach would be for multi-homed organizations to
- be assigned a separate NSAP space for each connection to a TRD, and
- to assign a single address prefix to each area within its routing
- domain(s) based on the closest interconnection point. For example, if
- MBII had connections to two regionals in the U.S. (one east coast, and
- one west coast), as well as three connections to national backbones
- in Europe, and one in the far east, then MBII may make use of six
- different address prefixes. Each area within MBII would be assigned a
- single address prefix based on the nearest connection.
-
-
- For purposes of external routing of traffic from outside MBII to a
- destination inside of MBII, this approach works similarly to treating
- MBII as six separate organizations. For purposes of internal routing,
- or for routing traffic from inside of MBII to a destination outside of
- MBII, this approach works the same as the first solution.
-
-
- If we assume that incoming traffic (coming from outside of MBII, with
- a destination within MBII) is always to enter via the nearest point to
- the destination, then each TRD which has a connection to MBII needs
- to announce to other TRDs the ability to reach only those parts of
- MBII whose address is taken from its own address space. This implies
- that no additional routing information needs to be exchanged between
- TRDs, resulting in a smaller load on the inter-domain routing tables
- maintained by TRDs when compared to the first solution. This solution
- therefore scales better to extremely large internets containing very
- large numbers of multi-homed organizations.
-
-
- One problem with the second solution is that backup routes to multi-
- homed organizations are not automatically maintained. With the first
- solution, each TRD, in announcing the ability to reach MBII, specifies
- that it is able to reach all of the NSAPs within MBII. With the second
- solution, each TRD announces that it can reach all of the NSAPs based
- on its own address prefix, which only includes some of the NSAPs
- within MBII. If the connection between MBII and one particular TRD
-
-
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- were severed, then the NSAPs within MBII with addresses based on that
- TRD would become unreachable via inter-domain routing. The impact
- of this problem can be reduced somewhat by maintenance of additional
- information within routing tables, but this reduces the scaling
- advantage of the second approach.
-
-
- The second solution also requires that when external connectivity
- changes, internal addresses also change.
-
-
- Also note that this and the previous approach will tend to cause
- packets to take different routes. With the first approach, packets
- from outside of MBII destined for within MBII will tend to enter via
- the point which is closest to the source (which will therefore tend to
- maximize the load on the networks internal to MBII). With the second
- solution, packets from outside destined for within MBII will tend to
- enter via the point which is closest to the destination (which will
- tend to minimize the load on the networks within MBII, and maximize
- the load on the TRDs).
-
-
- These solutions also have different effects on policies. For example,
- suppose that country ``X'' has a law that traffic from a source
- within country X to a destination within country X must at all
- times stay entirely within the country. With the first solution, it
- is not possible to determine from the destination address whether
- or not the destination is within the country. With the second
- solution, a separate address may be assigned to those NSAPs which are
- within country X, thereby allowing routing policies to be followed.
- Similarly, suppose that ``Little Small Company'' (LSC) has a policy
- that its packets may never be sent to a destination that is within
- MBII. With either solution, the routers within LSC may be configured
- to discard any traffic that has a destination within MBII's address
- space. However, with the first solution this requires one entry;
- with the second it requires many entries and may be impossible as a
- practical matter.
-
-
- There are other possible solutions as well. A third approach is to
- assign each multi-homed organization a single address prefix, based on
- one of its connections to a TRD. Other TRDs to which the multi-homed
- organization are attached maintain a routing table entry for the
- organization, but are extremely selective in terms of which other
- TRDs are told of this route. This approach will produce a single
- ``default'' routing entry which all TRDs will know how to reach
-
-
-
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- (since presumably all TRDs will maintain routes to each other), while
- providing more direct routing in some cases.
-
-
- There is at least one situation in which this third approach is
- particularly appropriate. Suppose that a special interest group of
- organizations have deployed their own backbone. For example, lets
- suppose that the U.S. National Widget Manufacturers and Researchers
- have set up a U.S.-wide backbone, which is used by corporations
- who manufacture widgets, and certain universities which are known
- for their widget research efforts. We can expect that the various
- organizations which are in the widget group will run their internal
- networks as separate routing domains, and most of them will also
- be attached to other TRDs (since most of the organizations involved
- in widget manufacture and research will also be involved in other
- activities). We can therefore expect that many or most of the
- organizations in the widget group are dual-homed, with one attachment
- for widget-associated communications and the other attachment for
- other types of communications. Let's also assume that the total number
- of organizations involved in the widget group is small enough that
- it is reasonable to maintain a routing table containing one entry
- per organization, but that they are distributed throughout a larger
- internet with many millions of (mostly not widget-associated) routing
- domains.
-
-
- With the third approach, each multi-homed organization in the widget
- group would make use of an address assignment based on its other
- attachment(s) to TRDs (the attachments not associated with the widget
- group). The widget backbone would need to maintain routes to the
- routing domains associated with the various member organizations.
- Similarly, all members of the widget group would need to maintain a
- table of routes to the other members via the widget backbone. However,
- since the widget backbone does not inform other general worldwide TRDs
- of what addresses it can reach (since the backbone is not intended
- for use by other outside organizations), the relatively large set
- of routing prefixes needs to be maintained only in a limited number
- of places. The addresses assigned to the various organizations which
- are members of the widget group would provide a ``default route'' via
- each members other attachments to TRDs, while allowing communications
- within the widget group to use the preferred path.
-
-
- A fourth solution involves assignment of a particular address prefix
- for routing domains which are attached to precisely two (or more)
- specific routing domains. For example, suppose that there are two
- regionals ``SouthNorthNet'' and ``NorthSouthNet'' which have a very
-
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- large number of customers in common (i.e., there are a large number
- of routing domains which are attached to both). Rather than getting
- two address prefixes (such as two AA values assigned under the GOSIP
- address space) these organizations could obtain three prefixes. Those
- routing domains which are attached to NorthSouthNet but not attached
- to SouthNorthNet obtain an address assignment based on one of the
- prefixes. Those routing domains which are attached to SouthNorthNet
- but not to NorthSouthNet would obtain an address based on the second
- prefix. Finally, those routing domains which are multi-homed to both
- of these networks would obtain an address based on the third prefix.
- Each of these two TRDs would then advertise two prefixes to other
- TRDs, one prefix for leaf routing domains attached to it only, and one
- prefix for leaf routing domains attached to both.
-
-
- This fourth solution is likely to be important when use of public data
- networks becomes more common. In particular, it is likely that at some
- point in the future a substantial percentage of all routing domains
- will be attached to public data networks. In this case, nearly all
- government-sponsored networks (such as some current NSFNET regionals)
- may have a set of customers which overlaps substantially with the
- public networks.
-
-
- There are therefore a number of possible solutions to the problem
- of assigning NSAP addresses to multi-homed routing domains. Each
- of these solutions has very different advantages and disadvantages.
- Each solution places a different real (i.e., financial) cost on the
- multi-homed organizations, and on the TRDs (including those to which
- the multi-homed organizations are not attached).
-
-
- In addition, most of the solutions described also highlight the need
- for each TRD to develop policy on whether and under what conditions
- to accept addresses that are not based on its own address prefix, and
- how such non-local addresses will be treated. For example, a somewhat
- conservative policy might be that non-local NSAP prefixes will be
- accepted from any attached leaf RD, but not advertised to other TRDs.
- In a less conservative policy, a TRD might accept such non-local
- prefixes and agree to exchange them with a defined set of other TRDs
- (this set could be an a priori group of TRDs that have something in
- common such as geographical location, or the result of an agreement
- specific to the requesting leaf RD). Various policies involve real
- costs to TRDs, which may be reflected in those policies.
-
-
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- 5.5 Private Links
-
-
-
- The discussion up to this point concentrates on the relationship
- between NSAP addresses and routing between various routing domains
- over transit routing domains, where each transit routing domain
- interconnects a large number of routing domains and offers a more-or-
- less public service.
-
-
- However, there may also exist a large number of private point-to-point
- links which interconnect two private routing domains. In many cases
- such private point-to-point links may be limited to forwarding packets
- directly between the two private routing domains.
-
-
- For example, let's suppose that the XYZ corporation does a lot of
- business with MBII. In this case, XYZ and MBII may contract with a
- carrier to provide a private link between the two corporations, where
- this link may only be used for packets whose source is within one of
- the two corporations, and whose destination is within the other of the
- two corporations. Finally, suppose that the point-to-point link is
- connected between a single router (router X) within XYZ corporation
- and a single router (router M) within MBII. It is therefore necessary
- to configure router X to know which addresses can be reached over
- this link (specifically, all addresses reachable in MBII). Similarly,
- it is necessary to configure router M to know which addresses can be
- reached over this link (specifically, all addresses reachable in XYZ
- Corporation).
-
-
- The important observation to be made here is that such private
- links may be ignored for the purpose of NSAP allocation, and do not
- pose a problem for routing. This is because the routing information
- associated with private links is not propagated throughout the
- internet, and therefore does not need to be collapsed into a TRD's
- prefix.
-
-
- In our example, lets suppose that the XYZ corporation has a single
- connection to an NSFNET regional, and has therefore received an
- address allocation from the space administered by that regional.
- Similarly, let's suppose that MBII, as an international corporation
- with connections to six different backbones or regionals, has chosen
- the second solution from Section 5.4, and therefore has obtained six
- different address allocations. In this case, all addresses reachable
- in the XYZ Corporation can be described by a single address prefix
-
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- (implying that router M only needs to be configured with a single
- address prefix to represent the addresses reachable over this point-
- to-point link). All addresses reachable in MBII can be described by
- six address prefixes (implying that router X needs to be configured
- with six address prefixes to represent the addresses reachable over
- the point-to-point link).
-
-
- In some cases, such private point-to-point links may be permitted
- to forward traffic for a small number of other routing domains,
- such as closely affiliated organizations. This will increase the
- configuration requirements slightly. However, provided that the number
- of organizations using the link is relatively small, then this still
- does not represent a significant problem.
-
-
- Note that the relationship between routing and NSAP addressing
- described in other sections of this paper is concerned with problems
- in scaling caused by large, essentially public transit routing domains
- which interconnect a large number of routing domains. However, for
- the purpose of NSAP allocation, private point-to-point links which
- interconnect only a small number of private routing domains do not
- pose a problem, and may be ignored. For example, this implies that
- a single leaf routing domain which has a single connection to a
- ``public'' backbone (e.g., the NSFNET), plus a number of private
- point-to-point links to other leaf routing domains, can be treated
- as if it were single-homed to the backbone for the purpose of NSAP
- address allocation.
-
-
-
- 5.6 Zero-Homed Routing Domains
-
-
-
- Currently, a very large number of organizations have internal
- communications networks which are not connected to any external
- network. Such organizations may, however, have a number of private
- point-to-point links that they use for communications with other
- organizations. Such organizations do not participate in global
- routing, but are satisfied with reachability to those organizations
- with which they have established private links. These are referred to
- as zero-homed routing domains.
-
-
- Zero-homed routing domains can be considered as the degenerate case
- of routing domains with private links, as discussed in the previous
- section, and do not pose a problem for inter-domain routing. As above,
-
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- the routing information exchanged across the private links sees very
- limited distribution, usually only to the RD at the other end of the
- link. Thus, there are no address abstraction requirements beyond those
- inherent in the address prefixes exchanged across the private link.
-
-
- However, it is important that zero-homed routing domains use valid
- globally unique NSAP addresses. Suppose that the zero-homed routing
- domain is connected through a private link to an RD. Further, this
- RD participates in an internet that subscribes to the global OSI
- addressing plan (i.e., Addendum 2 to ISO8348). This RD must be able
- to distinguish between the zero-homed routing domain's NSAPs and any
- other NSAPs that it may need to route to. The only way this can be
- guaranteed is if the zero-homed routing domain uses globally unique
- NSAPs.
-
-
-
- 5.7 Transition Issues
-
-
-
- Allocation of NSAP addresses based on connectivity to TRDs is
- important to allow scaling of inter-domain routing to an internet
- containing millions of routing domains. However, such address
- allocation based on topology also implies that a change in topology
- may result in a change of address.
-
-
- This need to allow for change in addresses is a natural, inevitable
- consequence of routing data abstraction. The basic notion of routing
- data abstraction is that there is some correspondence between the
- address and where a system (i.e., a routing domain, area, or end
- system) is located. Thus if the system moves, in some cases the
- address will have to change. If it were possible to change the
- connectivity between routing domains without changing the addresses,
- then it would clearly be necessary to keep track of the location of
- that routing domain on an individual basis.
-
-
- In the short term, due to the rapid growth and increased commer-
- cialization of the Internet, it is possible that the topology may be
- relatively volatile. This implies that planning for address transition
- is very important. Fortunately, there are a number of steps which can
- be taken to help ease the effort required for address transition. A
- complete description of address transition issues is outside of the
- scope of this paper. However, a very brief outline of some transition
- issues is contained in this section.
-
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- Also note that the possible requirement to transition addresses
- based on changes in topology imply that it is valuable to anticipate
- the future topology changes before finalizing a plan for address
- allocation. For example, in the case of a routing domain which is
- initially single-homed, but which is expecting to become multi-homed
- in the future, it may be advantageous to assign NSAP addresses based
- on the anticipated future topology.
-
-
- In general, it will not be practical to transition the NSAP addresses
- assigned to a routing domain in an instantaneous ``change the address
- at midnight'' manner. Instead, a gradual transition is required in
- which both the old and the new addresses will remain valid for a
- limited period of time. During the transition period, both the old and
- new addresses are accepted by the end systems in the routing domain,
- and both old and new addresses must result in correct routing of
- packets to the destination.
-
-
- Provision for transition has already been built into DIS10589.
- As described in Section 3, DIS10589 allows multiple addresses to
- be assigned to each area specifically for the purpose of easing
- transition.
-
-
- Similarly, there are provisions in OSI for the autoconfiguration of
- area addresses. This allows OSI end systems to find out their area
- addresses automatically by observing the ISO9542 IS-Hello packets
- transmitted by routers. If the ID portion of the address is assigned
- by using IEEE style ``stamped in PROM at birth'' identifiers, then
- an end system can reconfigure its entire NSAP address automatically
- without the need for manual intervention. However, routers will still
- need manual address reconfiguration.
-
-
- During the transition period, it is important that packets using
- the old address be forwarded correctly, even when the topology has
- changed. This is facilitated by the use of ``best match'' inter-domain
- routing.
-
-
- For example, suppose that the XYZ Corporation was previously connected
- only to the NorthSouthNet NSFNET regional. The XYZ Corporation
- therefore went off to the NorthSouthNet administration and got a
- routing domain assignment based on the AA value assigned to the
- NorthSouthNet regional under the GOSIP address space. However, for
- a variety of reasons, the XYZ Corporation decided to terminate its
- association with the NorthSouthNet, and instead connect directly to
-
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- the NewCommercialNet public data network. Thus the XYZ Corporation
- now has a new address assignment under the ANSI address assigned to
- the NewCommercialNet. The old address for the XYZ Corporation would
- seem to imply that traffic for the XYZ Corporation should be routed to
- the NorthSouthNet, which no longer has any direct connection with XYZ
- Corporation.
-
-
- If the old TRD (NorthSouthNet) and the new TRD (NewCommercialNet) are
- adjacent and cooperative, then this transition is easy to accomplish.
- In this case, packets routed to the XYZ Corporation using the old
- address assignment could be routed to the NorthSouthNet, which would
- directly forward them to the NewCommercialNet, which would in turn
- forward them to XYZ Corporation. In this case only NorthSouthNet
- and NewCommercialNet need be aware of the fact that the old address
- refers to a destination which is no longer directly attached to
- NorthSouthNet.
-
-
- If the old TRD and the new TRD are not adjacent, then the situation
- is a bit more complex, but there are still several possible ways to
- forward traffic correctly.
-
-
- If the old TRD and the new TRD are themselves connected by other
- cooperative transit routing domains, then these intermediate domains
- may agree to forward traffic for XYZ correctly. For example, suppose
- that NorthSouthNet and NewCommercialNet are not directly connected,
- but that they are both directly connected to the NSFNET backbone.
- In this case, all three of NorthSouthNet, NewCommercialNet, and
- the NSFNET backbone would need to maintain a special entry for XYZ
- corporation so that traffic to XYZ using the old address allocation
- would be forwarded via NewCommercialNet. However, other routing
- domains would not need to be aware of the new location for XYZ
- Corporation.
-
-
- Suppose that the old TRD and the new TRD are separated by a non-
- cooperative routing domain, or by a long path of routing domains. In
- this case, the old TRD could encapsulate traffic to XYZ Corporation in
- order to deliver such packets to the correct backbone.
-
-
- Also, those locations which do a significant amount of business with
- XYZ Corporation could have a specific entry in their routing tables
- added to ensure optimal routing of packets to XYZ. For example,
- suppose that another commercial backbone ``OldCommercialNet'' has a
- large number of customers which exchange traffic with XYZ Corporation,
-
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- and that this third TRD is directly connected to both NorthSouthNet
- and NewCommercialNet. In this case OldCommercialNet will continue
- to have a single entry in its routing tables for other traffic
- destined for NorthSouthNet, but may choose to add one additional (more
- specific) entry to ensure that packets sent to XYZ Corporation's old
- address are routed correctly.
-
-
- Whichever method is used to ease address transition, the goal is that
- knowledge relating XYZ to its old address that is held throughout the
- global internet would eventually be replaced with the new information.
- It is reasonable to expect this to take weeks or months and will be
- accomplished through the distributed directory system. Discussion of
- the directory, along with other address transition techniques such as
- automatically informing the source of a changed address, are outside
- the scope of this paper.
-
-
-
- 6 Recommendations
-
-
-
- We anticipate that the current exponential growth of the Internet will
- continue or accelerate for the foreseeable future. In addition, we
- anticipate a rapid internationalization of the Internet. The ability
- of routing to scale is dependent upon the use of data abstraction
- based on hierarchical NSAP addresses. As OSI is introduced in the
- Internet, it is therefore essential to choose a hierarchical structure
- for NSAP addresses with great care.
-
-
- It is in the best interests of the internetworking community that the
- cost of operations be kept to a minimum where possible. In the case of
- NSAP allocation, this again means that routing data abstraction must
- be encouraged.
-
-
- In order for data abstraction to be possible, the assignment of NSAP
- addresses must be accomplished in a manner which is consistent with
- the actual physical topology of the Internet. For example, in those
- cases where organizational and administrative boundaries are not
- related to actual network topology, address assignment based on such
- organization boundaries is not recommended.
-
-
- The intra-domain IS-IS routing protocol allows for information
- abstraction to be maintained at two levels: systems are grouped
-
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- into areas, and areas are interconnected to form a routing domain.
- For zero-homed and single-homed routing domains (which are expected
- to remain zero-homed or single-homed), we recommend that the NSAP
- addresses assigned for OSI use within a single routing domain use
- a single address prefix assigned to that domain. Specifically, this
- allows the set of all NSAP addresses reachable within a single domain
- to be fully described via a single prefix.
-
-
- We anticipate that the total number of routing domains existing on a
- worldwide OSI Internet to be great enough that additional levels of
- hierarchical data abstraction beyond the routing domain level will be
- necessary.
-
-
- In most cases, network topology will have a close relationship with
- national boundaries. For example, the degree of network connectivity
- will often be greater within a single country than between countries.
- It is therefore appropriate to make specific recommendations based on
- national boundaries, with the understanding that there may be specific
- situations where these general recommendations need to be modified.
-
-
-
- 6.1 Recommendations Specific to U.S. Parts of the Internet
-
-
-
- NSAP addresses for use within the U.S. portion of the Internet are
- expected to be based primarily on two address prefixes: the IDP format
- used by NIST for GOSIP Version 2, and the DCC=840 format defined by
- ANSI.
-
-
- We anticipate that, in the U.S., public interconnectivity between
- private routing domains will be provided by a diverse set of TRDs,
- including (but not necessarily limited to):
-
- * the NSFNET backbone;
-
- * a number of NSFNET regional networks; and,
-
- * a number of commercial Public Data Networks.
-
- It is also expected that these networks will not be interconnected
- in a strictly hierarchical manner (for example, there is expected
- to be direct connectivity between NSFNET regionals, and all three of
- these types of networks may have direct international connections).
-
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- However, the total number of such TRDs is expected to remain (for the
- foreseeable future) small enough to allow addressing of this set of
- TRDs via a flat address space. These TRDs will be used to interconnect
- a wide variety of routing domains, each of which may comprise a single
- corporation, part of a corporation, a university campus, a government
- agency, or other organizational unit.
-
-
- In addition, some private corporations may be expected to make use of
- dedicated private TRDs for communication within their own corporation.
-
-
- We anticipate that the great majority of routing domains will be
- attached to only one of the TRDs. This will permit hierarchical
- address abbreviation based on TRD. We therefore strongly recommend
- that addresses be assigned hierarchically, based on address prefixes
- assigned to individual TRDs.
-
-
- For the GOSIP address format, this implies that Administrative
- Authority (AA) identifiers should be assigned to all TRDs (explicitly
- including the NSFNET backbone, the NSFNET regionals, and other major
- government backbones). For those leaf routing domains which are
- connected to a single TRD, they should be assigned a Routing Domain
- (RD) value from the space assigned to that TRD.
-
-
- We recommend that all TRDs explicitly be involved in the task of
- address administration for those leaf routing domains which are
- single-homed to them. This will offer a valuable service to their
- customers, and will also greatly reduce the resources (including
- human and network resources) necessary for that TRD to take part in
- inter-domain routing.
-
-
- Each TRD should develop policy on whether and under what conditions to
- accept addresses that are not based on its own address prefix, and how
- such non-local addresses will be treated. Policies should reflect the
- issue of cost associated with implementing such policies.
-
-
- We recommend that a similar hierarchical model be used for NSAP
- addresses using the DCC-based address format. The structure for
- DCC=840-based NSAPs is provided in Section A.2.
-
-
- For routing domains which are not attached to any publically-
- available TRD, there is not the same urgent need for hierarchical
- address abbreviation. We do not, therefore, make any additional
- recommendations for such ``isolated'' routing domains, except to
-
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- note that there is no technical reason to preclude assignment of
- GOSIP AA identifier values or ANSI organization identifiers to such
- domains. Where such domains are connected to other domains by private
- point-to-point links, and where such links are used solely for routing
- between the two domains that they interconnect, again no additional
- technical problems relating to address abbreviation is caused by such
- a link, and no specific additional recommendations are necessary.
-
-
-
- 6.2 Recommendations Specific to Non-U.S. Parts of the Internet
-
-
-
- For the part of the Internet which is outside of the U.S., it is
- recommended that the DSP format be structured similarly to that
- specified within GOSIP Version 2 no matter whether the addresses are
- based on DCC or ICD format.
-
-
- Further, in order to allow aggregation of NSAPs at national boundaries
- into as few prefixes as possible, we further recommend that NSAPs
- allocated to routing domains should be assigned based on each routing
- domain's connectivity to a national Internet backbone.
-
-
-
- 6.3 Recommendations for Multi-Homed Routing Domains
-
-
-
- Some routing domains will be attached to multiple TRDs within the
- same country, or to TRDs within multiple different countries. We
- refer to these as ``multi-homed'' routing domains. Clearly the strict
- hierarchical model discussed above does not neatly handle such routing
- domains.
-
-
- There are several possible ways that these multi-homed routing domains
- may be handled. Each of these methods vary with respect to the amount
- of information that must be maintained for inter-domain routing
- and also with respect to the inter-domain routes. In addition, the
- organization that will bear the brunt of this cost varies with the
- possible solutions. For example, the solutions vary with respect to:
-
- * resources used within routers within the TRDs;
-
- * administrative cost on TRD personnel; and,
-
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-
- * difficulty of configuration of policy-based inter-domain routing
- information within leaf routing domains.
-
-
- Also, the solution used may affect the actual routes which packets
- follow, and may effect the availability of backup routes when the
- primary route fails.
-
-
- For these reasons it is not possible to mandate a single solution for
- all situations. Rather, economic considerations will require a variety
- of solutions for different routing domains, regionals, and backbones.
-
-
-
- 7 Security Considerations
-
-
-
- Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
- 8 Authors' Addresses
-
-
-
- Richard P. Colella
- National Institute of Standards & Technology
- Building 225/Room B217
- Gaithersburg, MD 20899
-
-
- Phone: (301) 975-3627
- EMail: colella@osi3.ncsl.nist.gov
-
-
-
- EllaP. Gardner
- The MITRE Corporation
- 7525 Colshire Drive
- McLean, VA 22102
-
-
- Phone: (703) 883-5826
- EMail: epg@gateway.mitre.org
-
-
-
- Ross Callon
- c/o Digital Equipment Corporation, 1-2/A19
- 550 King Street
- Littleton, MA 01460-1289
-
-
- Phone: (508) 486-5009
- Email: Callon@bigfut.enet.dec.com
-
-
-
- 9 Acknowledgments
-
-
-
- The authors would like to thank the members of the IETF OSI-NSAP
- Working Group for the helpful suggestions made during the writing of
- this paper.
-
-
-
-
-
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- A Administration of NSAPs
-
-
-
- NSAPs represent the endpoints of communication through the Network
- Layer and must be globally unique [5]. Addendum 2 to ISO8348 defines
- the semantics of the NSAP and the abstract syntaxes in which the
- semantics of the Network address can be expressed [14].
-
-
- The NSAP consists of the initial domain part (IDP) and the domain
- specific part (DSP). The initial domain part of the NSAP consists
- of an authority and format identifier (AFI) and an initial domain
- identifier (IDI). The AFI specifies the format of the IDI, the network
- addressing authority responsible for allocating values of the IDI,
- and the abstract syntax of the DSP. The IDI specifies the addressing
- subdomain from which values of the DSP are allocated and the network
- addressing authority responsible for allocating values of the DSP from
- that domain. The structure and semantics of the DSP are determined by
- the authority identified by the IDI. Figure 3 shows the NSAP address
- structure.
- _______________
- !_____IDP_____!________________________________
- !__AFI_!_IDI__!______________DSP______________!
-
-
- IDP Initial Domain Part
- AFI Authority and Format Identifier
- IDI Initial Domain Identifier
- DSP Domain Specific Part
-
- Figure 3: NSAP address structure.
-
-
- The global network addressing domain consists of all the NSAP
- addresses in the OSI environment. Within that environment, seven
- second-level addressing domains and corresponding IDI formats are
- described in ISO8348/Addendum 2:
-
- * X.121 for public data networks
-
- * F.69 for telex
-
- * E.163 for the public switched telephone network numbers
-
- * E.164 for ISDN numbers
-
- * ISO Data Country Code (DCC), allocated according to ISO3166 [9]
-
-
-
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-
-
- * ISO International Code Designator (ICD), allocated according to
- ISO6523 [10]
-
- * Local to accommodate the coexistence of OSI and non-OSI network
- addressing schemes.
-
-
- For OSI networks in the U.S., portions of the ICD subdomain are
- available for use through the U.S. Government, and the DCC subdo-
- main is available for use through The American National Standards
- Institute (ANSI). The British Standards Institute is the registration
- authority for the ICD subdomain, and has registered four IDIs for
- the U.S. Government: those used for GOSIP, DoD, OSINET, and the OSI
- Implementors Workshop. ANSI, as the U.S. ISO Member Body, is the
- registration authority for the DCC domain in the United States. (The
- U.S. Government is registered as an organization by ANSI under the
- DCC, and in turn, will register object identifiers and X.400 names
- under this authority.)
-
-
-
- A.1 GOSIP Version 2 NSAPs
-
-
-
- GOSIP Version 2 makes available for government use an NSAP addressing
- subdomain with a corresponding address format as illustrated in
- Figure 2 on page 16. The ``47'' signifies that it is based on the ICD
- format and uses a binary syntax for the DSP. The 0005 is an IDI value
- which has been assigned to the U.S. Government. Although GOSIP Version
- 2 NSAPs are intended primarily for U.S. government use, requests from
- non-government and non-U.S. organizations will be considered on a
- case-by-case basis.
-
-
- The format for the DSP under ICD=0005 has been established by the
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the authority
- for the ICD=0005 domain, in GOSIP Version 2 [4] (see Figure 2,
- page 16). NIST has delegated the authority to register AA identifiers
- for GOSIP Version 2 NSAPs to the General Services Administration
- (GSA).
-
-
- Addendum 2 to ISO8348 allows a maximum length of 20 octets for the
- NSAP. The AFI of 47 occupies one octet, and the IDI of 0005 occupies
- two octets. The DSP is encoded as binary as indicated by the AFI of
- 47. One octet is allocated for a DSP Format Identifier, three octets
- for an Administrative Authority identifier, two octets for Routing
-
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- Domain, two octets for Area, six octets for the System Identifier,
- and one octet for the NSAP selector. Note that two octets have been
- reserved to accommodate future growth and to provide additional
- flexibility for inter-domain routing. The last seven octets of the
- GOSIP NSAP format are structured in accordance with DIS10589 [17], the
- intra-domain IS-IS routing protocol. The DSP Format Identifier (DFI)
- identifies the format of the remaining DSP structure and may be used
- in the future to identify additional DSP formats; the value 80h in the
- DFI identifies the GOSIP Version 2 NSAP structure.
-
-
- The Administrative Authority identifier names the administrative
- authority which is responsible for registration within its domain.
- The administrative authority may delegate the responsibility for
- registering areas to the routing domains, and the routing domains
- may delegate the authority to register System Identifiers to the
- areas. The main responsibility of a registration authority at any
- level of the addressing hierarchy is to assure that names of entities
- are unambiguous, i.e., no two entities have the same name. The
- registration authority is also responsible for advertising the names.
-
-
- A routing domain is a set of end systems and intermediate systems
- which operate according to the same routing procedures and is wholly
- contained within a single administrative domain. An area uniquely
- identifies a subdomain of the routing domain. The system identifier
- names a unique system within an area. The value of the system
- field may be a physical address (SNPA) or a logical value. Address
- resolution between the NSAP and the SNPA may be accomplished by an ES-
- IS protocol [13], locally administered tables, or mapping functions.
- The NSAP selector field identifies the end user of the network layer
- service, i.e., a transport layer entity.
-
-
-
- A.1.1 Application for Administrative Authority Identifiers
-
-
-
- The steps required for an agency to acquire an NSAP Administrative
- Authority identifier under ICD=0005 from GSA will be provided in the
- updated GOSIP users' guide for Version 2 [2] and are given below.
- Requests from non-government and non-U.S. organizations should
- originate from a senior official, such as a vice-president or chief
- operating officer.
-
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- * Identify all end systems, intermediate systems, subnetworks, and
- their topological and administrative relationships.
-
- * Designate one individual (usually the agency head) within an
- agency to authorize all registration requests from that agency
- (NOTE: All agency requests must pass through this individual).
-
- * Send a letter on agency letterhead and signed by the agency head
- to GSA:
-
-
- Telecommunications Customer Requirements Office
- U. S. General Services Administration
- Information Resource Management Service
- Office of Telecommunications Services
- 18th and F Streets, N.W.
- Washington, DC 20405
-
- Fax 202 208-5555
-
-
- The letter should contain the following information:
-
- - Requestor's Name and Title,
-
- - Organization,
-
- - Postal Address,
-
- - Telephone and Fax Numbers,
-
- - Electronic Mail Address(es), and,
-
- - Reason Needed (one or two paragraphs explaining the intended
- use).
-
-
- * If accepted, GSA will send a return letter to the agency head
- indicating the NSAP Administrative Authority identifier as-
- signed,effective date of registration, and any other pertinent
- information.
-
- * If rejected, GSA will send a letter to the agency head explaining
- the reason for rejection.
-
- * Each Authority will administer its own subaddress space in
- accordance with the procedures set forth by the GSA in Section
- A.1.2.
-
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- * The GSA will maintain, publicize, and disseminate the assigned
- values of Administrative Authority identifiers unless specifically
- requested by an agency not to do so.
-
-
-
- A.1.2 Guidelines for NSAP Assignment
-
-
-
- Recommendations which should be followed by an administrative
- authority in making NSAP assignments are given below.
-
-
-
- * The authority should determine the degree of structure of the
- DSP under its control. Further delegation of address assignment
- authority (resulting in additional levels of hierarchy in the
- NSAP) may be desired.
-
- * The authority should make sure that portions of NSAPs that it
- specifies are unique, current, and accurate.
-
- * The authority should ensure that procedures exist for dissemi-
- nating NSAPs to routing domains and to areas within each routing
- domain.
-
- * The systems administrator must determine whether a logical or a
- physical address should be used in the System Identifier field
- (Figure2, page 16). An example of a physical address is a 48-bit
- MAC address; a logical address is merely a number that meets the
- uniqueness requirements for the System Identifier field, but bears
- no relationship to an address on a physical subnetwork.
-
- * The network address itself contains no routing information [15].
- Information that enables next-hop determination based on NSAPs
- is gathered and maintained by each intermediate system through
- routing protocol exchanges.
-
- * GOSIP end systems and intermediate systems in federal agencies
- must be capable of routing information correctly to and from any
- subdomain defined by ISO8348/Addendum 2.
-
- * An agency may request the assignment of more than one Administra-
- tive Authority identifier. The particular use of each should be
- specified.
-
-
-
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- A.2 Data Country Code NSAPs
-
-
-
- NSAPs from the Data Country Code (DCC) subdomain will also be common
- in the international Internet. Currently, there is a draft proposed
- American National Standard (dpANS) in the U.S. for the DSP structure
- under DCC=840 [1]. Subsequent to an upcoming ANSI X3 Committee ballot,
- the dpANS will be distributed for public comment.
-
-
- In the dpANS, the DSP structure is identical to that specified in
- GOSIP Version 2, with the Administrative Authority identifier replaced
- by the numeric form of the ANSI-registered organization name, as shown
- in Figure 4.
-
-
- Referring to Figure 4, when the value of the AFI is 39, the IDI
- denotes an ISO DCC and the abstract syntax of the DSP is binary
- octets. The value of the IDI for the U.S. is 840, the three-digit
- numeric code for the United States under ISO3166 [9]. The numeric
- form of organization name is analogous to the Administrative Authority
- identifier in the GOSIP Version 2 NSAP.
-
- ______________
- !<--_IDP_-->_!_____________________________________
- !AFI_!__IDI__!____________<--_DSP_-->_____________!
- !_39_!__840__!DFI_!_ORG_!Rsvd_!RD_!Area_!_ID_!Sel_!
- octets !_1__!___2___!_1__!__3__!_2___!_2_!__2__!_6__!_1__!
-
-
-
- IDP Initial Domain Part
- AFI Authority and Format Identifier
- IDI Initial Domain Identifier
- DSP Domain Specific Part
- DFI DSP Format Identifier
- ORG Organization Name (numeric form)
- Rsvd Reserved
- RD Routing Domain Identifier
- Area Area Identifier
- ID System Identifier
- SEL NSAP Selector
-
-
- Figure 4: NSAP format for DCC=840 as proposed in ANSI X3S3.3.
-
-
-
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-
- A.2.1 Application for Numeric Organization Name
-
-
-
- The procedures for registration of numeric organization names in
- the U.S. have been defined and are operational. To register a
- numeric organization name, the applicant must submit a request for
- registration and the $1,000 (U.S.) fee to the registration authority,
- the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI will register a
- numeric value, along with the information supplied for registration,
- in the registration database. The registration information will be
- sent to the applicant within ten working days. The values for numeric
- organization names are assigned beginning at 113527.
-
-
- The application form for registering a numeric organization name may
- be obtained from the ANSI Registration Coordinator at the following
- address:
-
-
- Registration Coordinator
- American National Standards Institute
- 11 West 42nd Street
- New York, NY 10036
- +1 212 642 4976 (tel)
- +1 212 398 0023 (fax)
-
-
- Once an organization has registered with ANSI, it becomes a registra-
- tion authority itself. In turn, it may delegate registration authority
- to routing domains, and these may make further delegations, for in-
- stance, from routing domains to areas. Again, the responsibilities of
- each Registration Authority are to assure that NSAPs within the domain
- are unambiguous and to advertise them as applicable.
-
-
-
- A.3 Summary of Administrative Requirements
-
-
-
- NSAPs must be globally unique, and an organization may assure this
- uniqueness for OSI addresses in two ways. The organization may
- apply to GSA for an Administrative Authority identifier. Although
- registration of Administrative Authority identifiers by GSA primarily
- serves U.S. Government agencies, requests for non-Government and
- non-U.S. organizations will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- Alternatively, the organization may apply to ANSI for a numeric
-
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- organization name. In either case, the organization becomes the
- registration authority for its domain and can register NSAPs or
- delegate the authority to do so.
-
-
- In the case of GOSIP Version 2 NSAPs, the complete DSP structure is
- given in GOSIP Version 2. For ANSI DCC-based NSAPs, there is a draft
- proposed American National Standard that specifies the DSP structure
- under DCC=840. The dpANS specifies a DSP structure that is identical
- to that specified in GOSIP Version 2.
-
-
-
- References
-
-
-
- [1] ANSI. American National Standard for the Structure and Semantics
- of the Domain Specific Part (DSP) of the OSI Network Service
- Access Point (NSAP) Address. Draft Proposed American National
- Standard, 1991 (pending final approval by ANSI).
-
-
- [2] Tim Boland. Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile
- Users' Guide Version 2 [DRAFT]. NIST Special Publication,
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Computer Systems
- Laboratory, Gaithersburg, MD, June 1991.
-
-
- [3] ECMA. Inter-Domain Routeing. Technical Report 50, ISO/IEC JTC 1,
- Switzerland, 1989.
-
-
- [4] GOSIP Advanced Requirements Group. Government Open Systems
- Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) Version 2. Federal Information
- Processing Standard 146-1, U.S. Department of Commerce, National
- Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, April
- 1991.
-
-
- [5] Christine Hemrick. The OSI Network Layer Addressing Scheme, Its
- Implications, and Considerations for Implementation. NTIA Report
- 85-186, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications
- and Information Administration, 1985.
-
-
- [6] ISO. Addendum to the Network Service Definition Covering Network
- Layer Addressing. RFC 941,Network Working Group, April 1985.
-
-
-
- Colella, Gardner, & Callon [Page 47]
-
-
-
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-
-
-
- [7] ISO. End System to Intermediate System Routing Exchange Protocol
- for use in conjunction with ISO 8473. RFC 995, Network Working
- Group, April 1986.
-
- [8] ISO. Final Text of DIS 8473, Protocol for Providing the
- Connectionless-mode Network Service. RFC 994, Network Working
- Group, March 1986.
-
- [9] ISO/IEC. Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries.
- International Standard 3166, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland, 1984.
-
- [10] ISO/IEC. Data Interchange - Structures for the Identification
- of Organization. International Standard 6523, ISO/IEC JTC 1,
- Switzerland, 1984.
-
- [11] ISO/IEC. Information Processing Systems - Open Systems Intercon-
- nection- Basic Reference Model. International Standard 7498,
- ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland, 1984.
-
- [12] ISO/IEC. Protocol for Providing the Connectionless-mode Network
- Service. International Standard 8473, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland,
- 1986.
-
- [13] ISO/IEC. End System to Intermediate System Routing Exchange
- Protocol for use in Conjunction with the Protocol for the Provi-
- sion of the Connectionless-mode Network Service. International
- Standard 9542, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland, 1987.
-
- [14] ISO/IEC. Information Processing Systems -- Data Communications
- -- Network Service Definition Addendum 2: Network Layer Address-
- ing. International Standard 8348/Addendum 2, ISO/IEC JTC 1,
- Switzerland, 1988.
-
- [15] ISO/IEC. Information Processing Systems - OSI Reference Model
- - Part3: Naming and Addressing. Draft International Standard
- 7498-3, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland, March 1989.
-
- [16] ISO/IEC. Information Technology - Telecommunications and
- Information Exchange Between Systems - OSI Routeing Framework.
- Technical Report 9575, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Switzerland, 1989.
-
- [17] ISO/IEC. Intermediate System to Intermediate System Intra-Domain
- Routeing Exchange Protocol for use in Conjunction with the
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
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-
-
- Protocol for Providing the Connectionless-mode Network Service
- (ISO 8473). Draft International Standard 10589, ISO/IEC JTC 1,
- Switzerland, November 1990.
-
-
- [18] K. Loughheed and Y. Rekhter. A Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
- RFC 1105, Network Working Group, 1989.
-
-
- [19] K. Loughheed and Y. Rekhter. A Border Router Protocol(BRP).
- Draft, Network Working Group, February 1990.
-
-
- [20] ASC X3S3.3. Intermediate System to Intermediate System Inter-
- Domain Routeing Exchange Protocol. Working Document 90-216, ANSI,
- New York, July 1990.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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