GENWiki

Premier IT Outsourcing and Support Services within the UK

User Tools

Site Tools


rfc:rfc3452

Network Working Group M. Luby Request for Comments: 3452 Digital Fountain Category: Experimental L. Vicisano

                                                                 Cisco
                                                            J. Gemmell
                                                             Microsoft
                                                              L. Rizzo
                                                            Univ. Pisa
                                                            M. Handley
                                                                  ICIR
                                                          J. Crowcroft
                                                       Cambridge Univ.
                                                         December 2002
           Forward Error Correction (FEC) Building Block

Status of this Memo

 This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
 community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
 Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document generally describes how to use Forward Error Correction
 (FEC) codes to efficiently provide and/or augment reliability for
 data transport.  The primary focus of this document is the
 application of FEC codes to one-to-many reliable data transport using
 IP multicast.  This document describes what information is needed to
 identify a specific FEC code, what information needs to be
 communicated out-of-band to use the FEC code, and what information is
 needed in data packets to identify the encoding symbols they carry.
 The procedures for specifying FEC codes and registering them with the
 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) are also described.  This
 document should be read in conjunction with and uses the terminology
 of the companion document titled, "The Use of Forward Error
 Correction (FEC) in Reliable Multicast".

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 1] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
 2.  Rationale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
 3.  Functionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.1 FEC Encoding ID and FEC Instance ID. . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.2 FEC Payload ID and FEC Object Transmission Information .   6
 4.  Applicability Statement . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
 5.  Packet Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.1 Small Block, Large Block and Expandable FEC Codes. . . .   8
   5.2 Small Block Systematic FEC Codes . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
 6.  Requirements from other building blocks. . . . . . . . . .  11
 7.  Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
 8.  IANA Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   8.1 Explicit IANA Assignment Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . .  12
 9.  Intellectual Property Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
 10. Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
 11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
 12. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
 13. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16

1. Introduction

 This document describes how to use Forward Error Correction (FEC)
 codes to provide support for reliable delivery of content using IP
 multicast.  This document should be read in conjunction with and uses
 the terminology of the companion document [4], which describes the
 use of FEC codes within the context of reliable IP multicast
 transport and provides an introduction to some commonly used FEC
 codes.
 This document describes a building block as defined in RFC 3048 [9].
 This document is a product of the IETF RMT WG and follows the general
 guidelines provided in RFC 3269 [3].
 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119 [2].
 Statement of Intent
    This memo contains part of the definitions necessary to fully
    specify a Reliable Multicast Transport protocol in accordance with
    RFC 2357. As per RFC 2357, the use of any reliable multicast
    protocol in the Internet requires an adequate congestion control
    scheme.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 2] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

    While waiting for such a scheme to be available, or for an
    existing scheme to be proven adequate, the Reliable Multicast
    Transport working group (RMT) publishes this Request for Comments
    in the "Experimental" category.
    It is the intent of RMT to re-submit this specification as an IETF
    Proposed Standard as soon as the above condition is met.

2. Rationale

 FEC codes are a valuable basic component of any transport protocol
 that is to provide reliable delivery of content.  Using FEC codes is
 valuable in the context of IP multicast and reliable delivery because
 FEC encoding symbols can be useful to all receivers for
 reconstructing content even when the receivers have received
 different encoding symbols.  Furthermore, FEC codes can ameliorate or
 even eliminate the need for feedback from receivers to senders to
 request retransmission of lost packets.
 The goal of the FEC building block is to describe functionality
 directly related to FEC codes that is common to all reliable content
 delivery IP multicast protocols, and to leave out any additional
 functionality that is specific to particular protocols.  The primary
 functionality described in this document that is common to all such
 protocols that use FEC codes are FEC encoding symbols for an object
 that is included in packets that flow from a sender to receivers.
 This document for example does not describe how receivers may request
 transmission of particular encoding symbols for an object.  This is
 because although there are protocols where requests for transmission
 are of use, there are also protocols that do not require such
 requests.
 The companion document [4] should be consulted for a full explanation
 of the benefits of using FEC codes for reliable content delivery
 using IP multicast.  FEC codes are also useful in the context of
 unicast, and thus the scope and applicability of this document is not
 limited to IP multicast.

3. Functionality

 This section describes FEC information that is either to be sent
 out-of-band or in packets.  The FEC information is associated with
 transmission of data about a particular object.  There are three
 classes of packets that may contain FEC information: data packets,
 session-control packets and feedback packets.  They generally contain
 different kinds of FEC information.  Note that some protocols may not
 use session-control or feedback packets.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 3] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 Data packets may sometimes serve as session-control packets as well;
 both data and session-control packets generally travel downstream
 from the sender towards receivers and are sent to a multicast channel
 or to a specific receiver using unicast.
 As a general rule, feedback packets travel upstream from receivers to
 the sender.  Sometimes, however, they might be sent to a multicast
 channel or to another receiver or to some intermediate node or
 neighboring router that provides recovery services.
 This document specifies the FEC information that must be carried in
 data packets and the other FEC information that must be communicated
 either out-of-band or in data packets.  This document does not
 specify out-of-band methods nor does it specify the way out-of-band
 FEC information is associated with FEC information carried in data
 packets.  These methods must be specified in a complete protocol
 instantiation that uses the FEC building block.  FEC information is
 classified as follows:
 1) FEC Encoding ID
    Identifies the FEC encoder being used and allows receivers to
    select the appropriate FEC decoder.  The value of the FEC Encoding
    ID MUST be the same for all transmission of data related to a
    particular object, but MAY vary across different transmissions of
    data about different objects, even if transmitted to the same set
    of multicast channels and/or using a single upper-layer session.
    The FEC Encoding ID is subject to IANA registration.
 2) FEC Instance ID
    Provides a more specific identification of the FEC encoder being
    used for an Under-Specified FEC scheme.  This value is not used
    for Fully-Specified FEC schemes.  (See Section 3.1 for the
    definition of Under-Specified and Fully-Specified FEC schemes.)
    The FEC Instance ID is scoped by the FEC Encoding ID, and is
    subject to IANA registration.
 3) FEC Payload ID
    Identifies the encoding symbol(s) in the payload of the packet.
    The types and lengths of the fields in the FEC Payload ID, i.e.,
    the format of the FEC Payload ID, are determined by the FEC
    Encoding ID.  The full specification of each field MUST be
    uniquely determined by the FEC Encoding ID for Fully-Specified FEC
    schemes, and MUST be uniquely determined by the combination of the
    FEC Encoding ID and the FEC Instance ID for Under-Specified FEC
    schemes.  As an example, for the Under-Specified FEC scheme with

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 4] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

    FEC Encoding ID 129 defined in Section 5.1, the fields in the FEC
    Payload ID are a 32-bit Source Block Number followed by a 32-bit
    Encoding Symbol ID, where the full specification of both of these
    fields depends on the FEC Instance ID.
 4) FEC Object Transmission Information
    This is information regarding the encoding of a specific object
    needed by the FEC decoder.  As an example, for the Under-Specified
    FEC scheme with FEC Encoding ID 129 defined in Section 5.1, this
    information might include the lengths of the different source
    blocks that make up the object and the overall object length.
    This might also include specific parameters of the FEC encoder.
 The FEC Encoding ID, FEC Instance ID (for Under-Specified FEC
 schemes) and the FEC Object Transmission Information can be sent to a
 receiver within the data packet headers, within session control
 packets, or by some other means.  In any case, the means for
 communicating this to a receiver is outside the scope of this
 document.  The FEC Payload ID MUST be included in the data packet
 header fields, as it provides a description of the encoding symbols
 contained in the packet.

3.1. FEC Encoding ID and FEC Instance ID

 The FEC Encoding ID is a numeric index that identifies a specific FEC
 scheme OR a class of encoding schemes that share the same FEC Payload
 ID format.
 An FEC scheme is a Fully-Specified FEC scheme if the encoding scheme
 is formally and fully specified, in a way that independent
 implementors can implement both encoder and decoder from a
 specification that is an IETF RFC.  The FEC Encoding ID uniquely
 identifies a Fully-Specified FEC scheme.  Companion documents of this
 specification may specify Fully-Specified FEC schemes and associate
 them with FEC Encoding ID values.
 These documents MUST also specify a format for the FEC Payload ID and
 specify the information in the FEC Object Transmission Information.
 It is possible that a FEC scheme may not be a Fully-Specified FEC
 scheme, because either a specification is simply not available or a
 party exists that owns the encoding scheme and is not willing to
 disclose the algorithm or specification.  We refer to such an FEC
 encoding schemes as an Under-Specified FEC scheme.  The following
 holds for an Under-Specified FEC scheme:

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 5] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 o The fields and their formats of the FEC Payload ID and the specific
   information in the FEC Object Transmission Information MUST be
   defined for the Under-Specified FEC scheme.
 o A value for the FEC Encoding ID MUST be reserved and associated
   with the fields and their formats of the FEC Payload ID and the
   specific information in the FEC Object Transmission Information.
   An already reserved FEC Encoding ID value MUST be reused if the
   associated FEC Payload ID has the same fields and formats and the
   FEC Object Transmission Information has same information as the
   ones needed for the new Under-Specified FEC scheme.
 o A value for the FEC Instance ID MUST be reserved.
 An Under-Specified FEC scheme is fully identified by the tuple (FEC
 Encoding ID, FEC Instance ID).  The tuple MUST identify a single
 scheme that has at least one implementation.  The party that owns
 this tuple MUST be able to provide information on how to obtain the
 Under-Specified FEC scheme identified by the tuple, e.g., a pointer
 to a publicly available reference-implementation or the name and
 contacts of a company that sells it, either separately or embedded in
 another product.
 Different Under-Specified FEC schemes that share the same FEC
 Encoding ID -- but have different FEC Instance IDs -- also share the
 same fields and corresponding formats of the FEC Payload ID and
 specify the same information in the FEC Object Transmission
 Information.
 This specification reserves the range 0-127 for the values of FEC
 Encoding IDs for Fully-Specified FEC schemes and the range 128-255
 for the values of Under-Specified FEC schemes.

3.2. FEC Payload ID and FEC Object Transmission Information

 A document that specifies an FEC scheme and reserves a value of FEC
 Encoding ID MUST define the fields and their packet formats for the
 FEC Payload ID and specify the information in the FEC Object
 Transmission Information according to the needs of the encoding
 scheme.  This applies to documents that reserve values of FEC
 Encoding IDs for both Fully-Specified and Under-Specified FEC
 schemes.
 The specification of the fields and their packet formats for the FEC
 Payload ID MUST specify the meaning of the fields and their format
 down to the level of specific bits.  The total length of all the

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 6] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 fields in the FEC Payload ID MUST have a length that is a multiple of
 a 4-byte word.  This requirement facilitates the alignment of packet
 fields in protocol instantiations.

4. Applicability Statement

 The FEC building block applies to creating and sending encoding
 symbols for objects that are to be reliably transported using IP
 multicast or unicast.  The FEC building block does not provide higher
 level session support.  Thus, for example, many objects may be
 transmitted within the same session, in which case a higher level
 building block may carry a unique Transport Object ID (TOI) for each
 object in the session to allow the receiver to demultiplex packets
 within the session based on the TOI within each packet.  As another
 example, a receiver may subscribe to more than one session at a time.
 In this case a higher level building block may carry a unique
 Transport Session ID (TSI) for each session to allow the receiver to
 demultiplex packets based on the TSI within each packet.
 Other building blocks may supply direct support for carrying out-of-
 band information directly relevant to the FEC building block to
 receivers.  For example, the length of the object is part of the FEC
 Object Transmission Information that may in some cases be
 communicated out-of-band to receivers, and one mechanism for
 providing this to receivers is within the context of another building
 block that provides this information.
 Some protocols may use FEC codes as a mechanism for repairing the
 loss of packets.  Within the context of FEC repair schemes, feedback
 packets are (optionally) used to request FEC retransmission.  The
 FEC-related information present in feedback packets usually contains
 an FEC Block ID that defines the block that is being repaired, and
 the number of Repair Symbols requested.  Although this is the most
 common case, variants are possible in which the receivers provide
 more specific information about the Repair Symbols requested (e.g.,
 an index range or a list of symbols accepted).  It is also possible
 to include multiple requests in a single feedback packet.  This
 document does not provide any detail about feedback schemes used in
 combination with FEC nor the format of FEC information in feedback
 packets.  If feedback packets are used in a complete protocol
 instantiation, these details must be provided in the protocol
 instantiation specification.
 The FEC building block does not provide any support for congestion
 control.  Any complete protocol MUST provide congestion control that
 conforms to RFC 2357 [5], and thus this MUST be provided by another
 building block when the FEC building block is used in a protocol.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 7] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 A more complete description of the applicability of FEC codes can be
 found in the companion document [4].

5. Packet Header Fields

 This section specifies the FEC Encoding ID, the associated FEC
 Payload ID format, and the specific information in the FEC Object
 Transmission Information for a number of known Under-Specified FEC
 schemes.  Under-Specified FEC schemes that use the same FEC Payload
 ID fields, formats, and specific information in the FEC Object
 Transmission Information (as for one of the FEC Encoding IDs
 specified in this section) MUST use the corresponding FEC Encoding
 ID.  Other FEC Encoding IDs may be specified for other Under-
 Specified FEC schemes in companion documents.

5.1. Small Block, Large Block and Expandable FEC Codes

 This subsection reserves the FEC Encoding ID value 128 for the
 Under-Specified FEC schemes described in [4] that are called Small
 Block FEC codes, Large Block FEC codes and Expandable FEC codes.
 The FEC Payload ID is composed of a Source Block Number and an
 Encoding Symbol ID structured as follows:
   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                     Source Block Number                       |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                      Encoding Symbol ID                       |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 The Source Block Number identifies from which source block of the
 object the encoding symbol(s) in the payload are generated.  These
 blocks are numbered consecutively from 0 to N-1, where N is the
 number of source blocks in the object.
 The Encoding Symbol ID identifies which specific encoding symbol(s)
 generated from the source block are carried in the packet payload.
 The exact details of the correspondence between Encoding Symbol IDs
 and the encoding symbol(s) in the packet payload are dependent on the
 particular encoding algorithm used as identified by the FEC Encoding
 ID and by the FEC Instance ID, and these details may be proprietary.
 The FEC Object Transmission Information has the following specific
 information:
 o The FEC Encoding ID 128.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 8] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 o The FEC Instance ID associated with the FEC Encoding ID 128 to be
   used.
 o The total length of the object in bytes.
 o The number of source blocks that the object is partitioned into,
   and the length of each source block in bytes.
 To understand how this out-of-band information is communicated, one
 must look outside the scope of this document.  One example may be
 that the source block lengths may be derived by a fixed algorithm
 from the object length.  Another example may be that all source
 blocks are the same length and this is what is passed out-of-band to
 the receiver.  A third example could be that the full sized source
 block length is provided and this is the length used for all but the
 last source block, which is calculated based on the full source block
 length and the object length.

5.2. Small Block Systematic FEC Codes

 This subsection reserves the FEC Encoding ID value 129 for the
 Under-Specified FEC schemes described in [4] that are called Small
 Block Systematic FEC codes.  For Small Block Systematic FEC codes,
 each source block is of length at most 65536 source symbols.
 Although these codes can generally be accommodated by the FEC
 Encoding ID described in Section 5.1, a specific FEC Encoding ID is
 defined for Small Block Systematic FEC codes to allow more
 flexibility and to retain header compactness.  The small source block
 length and small expansion factor that often characterize systematic
 codes may require the data source to frequently change the source
 block length.  To allow the dynamic variation of the source block
 length and to communicate it to the receivers with low overhead, the
 block length is included in the FEC Payload ID.
 The FEC Payload ID is composed of the Source Block Number, Source
 Block Length and the Encoding Symbol ID:
   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                     Source Block Number                       |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |      Source Block Length      |       Encoding Symbol ID      |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 9] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 The Source Block Number identifies from which source block of the
 object the encoding symbol(s) in the payload are generated.  These
 blocks are numbered consecutively from 0 to N-1, where N is the
 number of source blocks in the object.
 The Source Block Length is the length in units of source symbols of
 the source block identified by the Source Block Number.
 The Encoding Symbol ID identifies which specific encoding symbol(s)
 generated from the source block are carried in the packet payload.
 Each encoding symbol is either an original source symbol or a
 redundant symbol generated by the encoder.  The exact details of the
 correspondence between Encoding Symbol IDs and the encoding symbol(s)
 in the packet payload are dependent on the particular encoding
 algorithm used as identified by the FEC Encoding ID and by the FEC
 Instance ID, and these details may be proprietary.
 The FEC Object Transmission Information has the following specific
 information:
 o The FEC Encoding ID 129.
 o The FEC Instance ID associated with the FEC Encoding ID 129 to be
   used.
 o The total length of the object in bytes.
 o The maximum number of encoding symbols that can be generated for
   any source block.  This field is provided for example to allow
   receivers to preallocate buffer space that is suitable for decoding
   to recover any source block.
 o For each source block, the length in bytes of encoding symbols for
   the source block.
 How this out-of-band information is communicated is outside the scope
 of this document.  As an example the length in bytes of encoding
 symbols for each source block may be the same for all source blocks.
 As another example, the encoding symbol length may be the same for
 all source blocks of a given object and this length is communicated
 for each object.  As a third example, it may be that there is a
 threshold value I, and for all source blocks consisting of less than
 I source symbols, the encoding symbol length is one fixed number of
 bytes, but for all source blocks consisting of I or more source
 symbols, the encoding symbol length is a different fixed number of
 bytes.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 10] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 Note that each encoding symbol, i.e., each source symbol and
 redundant symbol, must be the same length for a given source block,
 and this implies that each source block length is a multiple of its
 encoding symbol length.  If the original source block length is not a
 multiple of the encoding symbol length, it is up to the sending
 application to appropriately pad the original source block to form
 the source block to be encoded, and to communicate this padding to
 the receiving application.  The form of this padding, if used, and
 how it is communicated to the receiving application, is outside the
 scope of this document, and must be handled at the application level.

6. Requirements from other building blocks

 The FEC building block does not provide any support for congestion
 control.  Any complete protocol MUST provide congestion control that
 conforms to RFC 2357 [5], and thus this MUST be provided by another
 building block when the FEC building block is used in a protocol.
 There are no other specific requirements from other building blocks
 for the use of this FEC building block.  However, any protocol that
 uses the FEC building block will inevitably use other building blocks
 for example to provide support for sending higher level session
 information within data packets containing FEC encoding symbols.

7. Security Considerations

 Data delivery can be subject to denial-of-service attacks by
 attackers which send corrupted packets that are accepted as
 legitimate by receivers.  This is particularly a concern for
 multicast delivery because a corrupted packet may be injected into
 the session close to the root of the multicast tree, in which case
 the corrupted packet will arrive to many receivers.  This is
 particularly a concern for the FEC building block because the use of
 even one corrupted packet containing encoding data may result in the
 decoding of an object that is completely corrupted and unusable.  It
 is thus RECOMMENDED that the decoded objects be checked for integrity
 before delivering objects to an application.  For example, an MD5
 hash [8] of an object may be appended before transmission, and the
 MD5 hash is computed and checked after the object is decoded but
 before it is delivered to an application.  Moreover, in order to
 obtain strong cryptographic integrity protection a digital signature
 verifiable by the receiver SHOULD be computed on top of such a hash
 value.  It is also RECOMMENDED that a packet authentication protocol
 such as TESLA [7] be used to detect and discard corrupted packets
 upon arrival.  Furthermore, it is RECOMMENDED that Reverse Path
 Forwarding checks be enabled in all network routers and switches

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 11] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 along the path from the sender to receivers to limit the possibility
 of a bad agent successfully injecting a corrupted packet into the
 multicast tree data path.
 Another security concern is that some FEC information may be obtained
 by receivers out-of-band in a session description, and if the session
 description is forged or corrupted then the receivers will not use
 the correct protocol for decoding content from received packets.  To
 avoid these problems, it is RECOMMENDED that measures be taken to
 prevent receivers from accepting incorrect session descriptions,
 e.g., by using source authentication to ensure that receivers only
 accept legitimate session descriptions from authorized senders.

8. IANA Considerations

 Values of FEC Encoding IDs and FEC Instance IDs are subject to IANA
 registration.  FEC Encoding IDs and FEC Instance IDs are
 hierarchical:  FEC Encoding IDs scope ranges of FEC Instance IDs.
 Only FEC Encoding IDs that correspond to Under-Specified FEC schemes
 scope a corresponding set of FEC Instance IDs.
 The FEC Encoding ID is a numeric non-negative index.  In this
 document, the range of values for FEC Encoding IDs is 0 to 255.
 Values from 0 to 127 are reserved for Fully-Specified FEC schemes and
 Values from 128 to 255 are reserved for Under-Specified FEC schemes,
 as described in more detail in Section 3.1.  This specification
 already assigns the values 128 and 129, as described in Section 5.
 Each FEC Encoding ID assigned to an Under-Specified FEC scheme scopes
 an independent range of FEC Instance IDs (i.e., the same value of FEC
 Instance ID can be reused for different FEC Encoding IDs).  An FEC
 Instance ID is a numeric non-negative index.

8.1. Explicit IANA Assignment Guidelines

 This document defines a name-space for FEC Encoding IDs named:
                         ietf:rmt:fec:encoding
 IANA has established and manages the new registry for the
 "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" name-space.  The values that can be assigned
 within the "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" name-space are numeric indexes in
 the range [0, 255], boundaries included.  Assignment requests are
 granted on a "Specification Required" basis as defined in RFC 2434
 [6]: An IETF RFC MUST exist and specify the FEC Payload ID fields and
 formats as well as the FEC Object Transmission Information for the
 value of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" (FEC Encoding ID) being assigned by
 IANA (see Section 3.1 for more details).  Note that the values 128

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 12] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

 and 129 of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" are already assigned by this
 document as described in Section 5.
 This document also defines a name-space for FEC Instance IDs named:
                    ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance
 The "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" name-space is a sub-name-space
 associated with the "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" name-space.  Each value
 of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" assigned in the range [128, 255] has a
 separate "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" sub-name-space that it
 scopes.  Values of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" in the range [0, 127] do
 not scope a "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" sub-name-space.
 The values that can be assigned within each
 "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" sub-name-space are non-negative
 numeric indices. Assignment requests are granted on a "First Come
 First Served" basis as defined in RFC 2434 [6].  The same value of
 "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" can be assigned within multiple
 distinct sub-name-spaces, i.e., the same value of
 "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" can be used for multiple values of
 "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding".
 Requestors of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" assignments MUST
 provide the following information:
 o The value of "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding" that scopes the
   "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" sub-name-space.  This must be in
   the range [128, 255].
 o Point of contact information
 o A pointer to publicly accessible documentation describing the
   Under-Specified FEC scheme, associated with the value of
   "ietf:rmt:fec:encoding:instance" assigned, and a way to obtain it
   (e.g., a pointer to a publicly available reference-implementation
   or the name and contacts of a company that sells it, either
   separately or embedded in a product).
 It is the responsibility of the requestor to keep all the above
 information up to date.

9. Intellectual Property Disclosure

 The IETF has been notified of intellectual property rights claimed in
 regard to some or all of the specification contained in this
 document.  For more information consult the online list of claimed
 rights.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 13] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

10. Acknowledgments

 Brian Adamson contributed to this document by shaping Section 5.2 and
 providing general feedback.  We also wish to thank Vincent Roca,
 Justin Chapweske and Roger Kermode for their extensive comments.

11. References

 [1] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP
     9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
 [2] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
     Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [3] Kermode, R. and L. Vicisano, "Author Guidelines for Reliable
     Multicast Transport (RMT) Building Blocks and Protocol
     Instantiation documents", RFC 3269, April 2002.
 [4] Luby, M., Vicisano, L., Gemmell, J., Rizzo, L., Handley, M. and
     J. Crowcroft, "The Use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) in
     Reliable Multicast", RFC 3453, December 2002.
 [5] Mankin, A., Romanow, A., Bradner, S. and V. Paxson, "IETF
     Criteria for Evaluating Reliable Multicast Transport and
     Application Protocols", RFC 2357, June 1998.
 [6] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
     Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434, October 1998.
 [7] Perrig, A., Canetti, R., Song, D. and J. Tygar, "Efficient and
     Secure Source Authentication for Multicast", Network and
     Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2001, pp. 35-46,
     February 2001.
 [8] Rivest, R., "The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm", RFC 1321, April
     1992.
 [9] Whetten, B., Vicisano, L., Kermode, R., Handley, M., Floyd, S.
     and M. Luby, "Reliable Multicast Transport Building Blocks for
     One-to-Many Bulk-Data Transfer", RFC 3048, January 2001.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 14] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

12. Authors' Addresses

 Michael Luby
 Digital Fountain, Inc.
 39141 Civic Center Drive
 Suite 300
 Fremont, CA  94538
 EMail: luby@digitalfountain.com
 Lorenzo Vicisano
 Cisco Systems, Inc.
 170 West Tasman Dr.,
 San Jose, CA, USA, 95134
 EMail: lorenzo@cisco.com
 Jim Gemmell
 Microsoft Research
 455 Market St. #1690
 San Francisco, CA, 94105
 EMail: jgemmell@microsoft.com
 Luigi Rizzo
 Dip. di Ing. dell'Informazione
 Universita` di Pisa
 via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy
 EMail: luigi@iet.unipi.it
 Mark Handley
 ICSI Center for Internet Research
 1947 Center St.
 Berkeley CA, USA, 94704
 EMail: mjh@icir.org
 Jon Crowcroft
 Marconi Professor of Communications Systems
 University of Cambridge
 Computer Laboratory
 William Gates Building
 J J Thomson Avenue
 Cambridge
 CB3 0FD
 EMail: Jon.Crowcroft@cl.cam.ac.uk

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 15] RFC 3452 FEC Building Block December 2002

13. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Luby, et. al. Experimental [Page 16]

/data/webs/external/dokuwiki/data/pages/rfc/rfc3452.txt · Last modified: 2002/12/21 00:24 by 127.0.0.1

Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki