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rfc:rfc4048

Network Working Group B. Carpenter Request for Comments: 4048 IBM Category: Informational April 2005

                        RFC 1888 Is Obsolete

Status of This Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

 This document recommends that RFC 1888, on Open Systems
 Interconnection (OSI) Network Service Access Points (NSAPs) and IPv6,
 be reclassified as Historic, as most of it has no further value,
 apart from one section, which is faulty.

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction .................................................. 1
 2.  Recommendation to Reclassify RFC 1888 ......................... 2
 3.  Security Considerations ....................................... 2
 4.  IANA Considerations ........................................... 2
 5.  Acknowledgements .............................................. 2
 6.  Normative References .......................................... 3
 Author's Address .................................................. 3
 Full Copyright Statement .......................................... 4

1. Introduction

 [RFC1888] was published as an Experimental RFC in 1996, at an early
 stage in the development of IPv6, when it appeared important to
 consider usage of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) addressing for
 IPv6.  In Sections 3 through 5, it defines mappings of certain OSI
 Network Service Access Point (NSAP) addresses inside IPv6 addresses,
 and how to carry arbitrary NSAP addresses as IPv6 destination
 options.  However, it also contains significant "health warnings"
 about the difficulty of routing packets in the global Internet using
 such addresses.  As far as is known to the IETF, these address
 mappings have never been seriously used and are not supported by IPv6
 implementations.  Furthermore, the deployment of OSI solutions is not

Carpenter Informational [Page 1] RFC 4048 RFC 1888 Is Obsolete April 2005

 sufficiently widespread that any change in this situation can be
 expected.
 Additionally, Section 6 of [RFC1888] specifies a mapping of IPv6
 addresses inside OSI NSAP addresses.  This mapping has recently
 aroused some interest: for example, to allow IP addresses to be
 expressed in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) context.
 Unfortunately, Section 6 of [RFC1888] contains two errors in its
 usage of OSI Initial Domain Part (IDP) format:
  • first, the text refers to the Internet Code Point (ICP) as a single

octet, whereas it is correctly a 16-bit field;

  • second, the text states that "[t]he first three octets are an IDP

in binary format", but [NSAP] states in section A.5.2.1 that "[t]he

   abstract syntax for the IDI is decimal digits" and specifies a
   preferred binary encoding in section A.5.3 "using a semi-octet to
   represent the value of each decimal digit ... , yielding a value in
   the range 0000-1001".

2. Recommendation to Reclassify RFC 1888

 Due to the lack of use of one of the mappings, and to the errors in
 the documentation of the other, this document recommends that the
 IESG reclassify [RFC1888] as Historic.
 It is assumed that parties who wish to use a mapping of IPv6
 addresses inside OSI NSAP addresses will correct, augment, and
 resubmit Section 6 of [RFC1888] as a separate document.

3. Security Considerations

 This recommendation has no known impact on the security of the
 Internet.

4. IANA Considerations

 IANA has marked the IPv6 address prefix 0000 001, reserved for NSAP
 Allocation in [RFC3513], simply as Reserved.
 IANA is holding the registry for "OSI NSAPA Internet Code Point"
 implied by Section 6 of [RFC1888] in abeyance until a replacement for
 that Section is approved for publication.

5. Acknowledgements

 Scott Brim and Arun Pandey made useful comments on this document.

Carpenter Informational [Page 2] RFC 4048 RFC 1888 Is Obsolete April 2005

6. Normative References

 [RFC1888] Bound, J., Carpenter, B., Harrington, D., Houldsworth, J.,
           and A. Lloyd, "OSI NSAPs and IPv6", RFC 1888, August 1996.
 [RFC3513] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "Internet Protocol Version 6
           (IPv6) Addressing Architecture", RFC 3513, April 2003.
 [NSAP]    International Organization for Standardization,
           "Information technology -- Open Systems Interconnection --
           Network service definition", ISO/IEC 8348:2002, 2002.

Author's Address

 Brian E. Carpenter
 IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
 Saeumerstrasse 4 / Postfach
 8803 Rueschlikon
 Switzerland
 EMail: brc@zurich.ibm.com

Carpenter Informational [Page 3] RFC 4048 RFC 1888 Is Obsolete April 2005

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
 retain all their rights.
 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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.

Intellectual Property

 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
 Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
 this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
 might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
 made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
 on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
 found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
 Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
 assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
 attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
 such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
 specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
 http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
 rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
 this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
 ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

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

Carpenter Informational [Page 4]

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