Hello Fred,

Sorry for the delay...

> I would like to invite you to review Section 3.1.3 of the AERO spec:
> 
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-templin-aerolink/
> 
> which is titled: "AERO Interface MTU and Fragmentation" and presents an 
> alternate
> viewpoint. In particular, it allows for leveraging operational assurance of 
> sufficient
> MTU (RC4459, Section 3.3) and path MTU discovery from within the tunnel 
> (RFC4459,
> Section 3.2) in environments where it is assured that those techniques will 
> not result
> in black holes.
> 
> In other cases, the tunnel ingress makes sure that packets of minimum sizes 
> get
> through even if a little fragmentation and reassembly are needed, and allows
> larger packet into the tunnel unfragmented at risk that they may be dropped
> silently. It is therefore up to the original source to ensure that PLPMTUD is 
> used
> when it sends large packets.


I don't know the exact motivations for this proposal, and therefore won't 
comment on
this aspect. I "just" read the current I-D, section 13, and here are some 
comments.


** 3.13 Intro: it is said:
  "Although IPv4 specifies a smaller minimum link MTU of 68 bytes [RFC0791], 
AERO
   interfaces also observe a 1280 byte minimum for IPv4 even if some 
fragmentation
   is needed."

I fully agree! We observed on our side that Linux/Windows hosts react badly to
ICMP PTB announcing PMTUs below 576 (this is not the exact value). So this idea
of imposing a minimum MTU that is larger is fine, and aligning it with IPv6 can 
make
sense.


** 3.13 Intro: it is said:
  "Original source hosts have therefore become
   conditioned to expect that IP packets up to 1500 bytes in length will
   either be delivered to the final destination or a suitable PTB
   message returned."

Really? Isn't "conditioned to expect" a bit too strong? This is true for 
standard
links but with the multiplication of "virtual links" (e.g., tunnels) I wouldn't 
make
such a claim.


** 3.13.2 vs. 3.13.3 criteria
I understand that behind:
   "When the original source, ingress and egress are all within the same 
well-managed
    administrative domain"
there is in fact the idea of having a guaranty that there is no ICMP blackhole, 
and therefore
PMTUD is effective. Is it really what you mean? In that case why don't you say 
that clearly?
And could a "well managed admin. domain" decide to filter or not generate 
ICMP(v6) PTB
for some legitimate reason (or assumed so)?
In summary, we need a definition of what is meant by "well-managed" (I think 
it's not the
case in previous sections).


** 3.13.2: notions of L3 versus L2 PTB message not defined.
I understand that L3 PTB refers to ICMP(v6) PTB sent to the source, while L2 
PTB refers
to ICMP(v6) PTB exchanged within the tunnel, seen as a link. Is it what you 
mean?
I'd suggest to say that explicitly in the I-D.


** 3.13.3, first bullet:
   "... i.e., unless lost due to congestion or routing errors."
Don't try to provide an exhaustive list of reasons why a packet won't arrive, 
it's impossible.


** 3.13.3, 2nd bullet:
By "minimum number of non-overlapping fragments", I guess you mean two. Say 
that.
Also, I don't really understand why you recommend the egress to be capable of 
reassembling
at least 2KB. Why 2KB rather than, say, 1500+100? It looks like a magic number.


** 3.13.3, 4th bullet, 1)
This I-D is about tunneling, so why should it RECOMMEND that end-host use 
PLPMTUD?
It's out of scope. A lower case "recommended" would be preferable.


** 3.13.3, last two paragraphs:
Once again, the following paragraph seem to assume that ICMP(v6) PTB is 
operational.
Say that, especially as it can be the case even if ingress/egress are not in 
the same
"well-managed admin domain". Same comment for the last paragraph.


Cheers,

  Vincent

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