Hemant:

Sorry that the re-posting got interjected with the thread of thought
that you want to carry forward. The intention wasn't to derail it.
Rather, it is a result of my own posting frustrations. Please continue
the discussion on reachability detection....

Regards,

Srihari Varada

Hemant Singh (shemant) wrote:

>Srihari,
>
>I think we are de-focusing the discussion again and going into the same circle 
>from last week all over again. I said the bug is in the peer as to why peer 
>did not respond with an NA to the NUD NS from PPP client? James agreed with 
>me. I also said, having any node, not just a PPP client, skip NUD before 
>communicating with another node, is an orthogonal discussion for 2461bis folks 
>- just because a PPP peer didn't respond to a NUD NS, we can't jump to having 
>a PPP client skip NUD. So far the PPP discussion is related to strictly 
>reachability detection. Your email below relates to address resolution. That 
>is yet another orthogonal topic because as per RFC 2461bis a PPP client has to 
>behave just like any other IPv6 client.
>
>Regards.
>
>Hemant
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: srihari varada [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 11:14 AM
>To: IETF IPv6 Mailing List
>Subject: Re: Neighbor Discovery and PPP links
>
>[Resending the message that couldn't get posted on July 18, 2007 ...]
>
>All:
>
>Followed the thread on the subject, and noted the interoperability problem 
>between link partners, with no link-level addresses, on a point-to-point link 
>(such as PPP).
>
>It is gathered that the implementation interoperability arose due to varying 
>interpretations of the RFC 2461 specification, specifically, how one should 
>model point-to-point links from the perspective of the Neighbor Discovery 
>protocol support (refer to the Section 3.2, "point-to-point links."). It seems 
>to have been aggrevated as the connotation in the section 7.2.2, first 
>sentence, the "address resolution" is relevant where neighbors have link-layer 
>addresses, lead to the following question .... why one should perfrom address 
>resolution on point-to-point links that do not have the notion of link-layer 
>addresses (PPP, X.85 LAPS, GFP etc.)?
>
>Based on my judgement, which is also reflected in the thread, the issue is not 
>with the RFC 2472 and that Neighbor Discovery protocol support (specifically, 
>the address resolution issue) needs to be tackled for all other point-to-point 
>links with no notion of link-layer addresses. I will support any effort that 
>clarifies it whether it is an I-D or draft-ietf-ipv6-rfc2461bis.
>
>Regards,
>
>Srihari Varada
>
>James Carlson wrote:
>
>  
>
>>JINMEI Tatuya / 神明達哉 writes:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>At Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:35:33 -0400,
>>>James Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>If you're going to somehow omit ND for address resolution, but use it 
>>>>for everything else, what exactly does that look like on the wire, 
>>>>and what support in the existing RFC is there for this sort of operation?
>>>>     
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>What the BSD (KAME) implementation does is as follows:
>>>
>>>- when it first sends a packet to the other end of a point-to-point
>>> (including PPP) link it creates a placeholder of a neighbor cache
>>> with the state of STALE
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I understand the desire, but I don't think the current RFC supports 
>>that behavior.  Section 5.2 sets out the basic operation:
>>
>>  Once the IP address of the next-hop node is known, the sender
>>  examines the Neighbor Cache for link-layer information about that
>>  neighbor.  If no entry exists, the sender creates one, sets its state
>>  to INCOMPLETE, initiates Address Resolution, and then queues the data
>>  packet pending completion of address resolution.  For multicast-
>>  capable interfaces Address Resolution consists of sending a Neighbor
>>  Solicitation message and waiting for a Neighbor Advertisement.  When
>>
>>And, as documented in 2.2, point-to-point links (such as PPP) are 
>>assumed to be multicast-capable:
>>
>>  point-to-point - a link that connects exactly two interfaces.  A
>>                   point-to-point link is assumed to have multicast
>>                   capability and have a link-local address.
>>
>>The implication is that a trip through INCOMPLETE isn't optional.  I 
>>agree that it (at least in theory) could be, but I don't see how the 
>>existing text supports what you're describing.
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>- the packet is sent to the p2p link immediately since there is no
>>> need to perform address resolution
>>>- eventually the state of the neighbor cache entry is changed to PROBE
>>> and NUD is performed
>>>
>>>(this description is a bit simplified to concentrate on the main point 
>>>of this discussion)
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Sure.
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I believe this is a reasonable behavior, although as far as I know the 
>>>protocol specification does not specify this level of details (e.g. 
>>>what should be the initial state of such a cache entry).
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Actually, it does.  Section 7.2.2 specifies that new entries are 
>>created in INCOMPLETE state.
>>
>>It might be possible to carve out an exception for point-to-point, but 
>>I don't see one there now.  I *think* that you're hanging your argument 
>>on this phrase from section 7.2.2:
>>
>>  When a node has a unicast packet to send to a neighbor, but does not
>>  know the neighbor's link-layer address, it performs address
>>
>>I believe that this needs to be cleared up.  If it really means that 
>>point-to-point links should not send NS and wait for NA, then it should 
>>say so and it should not go on to explain what "multicast-capable" 
>>interfaces (which include point-to-point) links should do.
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>In any case, it's totally pointless for an implementation to hold the 
>>>packet during an exchange of NS/NA for address resolution (which 
>>>itself is meaningless) on such a link.  Furthermore, if the
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I agree that it seems pointless, but it's what the current text says.
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>originally tried to indicate.  I don't know of an implementation that 
>>>performs the meaningless NS/NA for address resolution on a p2p link, 
>>>but I know an implementation that doesn't respond to an NS (whether 
>>>it's for address resolution or for NUD) on a p2p link, so I won't be 
>>>surprised if the problem actually happens.
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>It doesn't respond to a valid NS?  How is that a viable implementation.
>>
>>In this part, I think you're just describing a bug.  I don't see 
>>anything in the RFC that supports simply ignoring an NS.  (And if you 
>>do that, then how can NUD possibly work?)
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>As far as I can see the current specification is pretty clear to 
>>>prevent such a pointless behavior, but if there is an implementation 
>>>that behaves that way (Dave's message seems to indicate there is) it 
>>>may make sense to write a short I-D that clarifies this point.  In 
>>>this case I believe it should be a generic note on point-to-point link 
>>>that doesn't have the notion of L2 address (and thus doesn't require
>>>L2 address resolution) rather than a part of a document for a specific 
>>>link type such as ipv6-over-ppp-v2.
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>The part I support is clarifying the document.  I don't think I support 
>>changing the functionality described in the document.
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>
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