DHC                                                              B. Volz
Internet-Draft                                       Cisco Systems, Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track                          August 3, 2009
Expires: February 4, 2010


                     DHCPv6 Vendor-specific Message
             <draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-vendor-message-01.txt>

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 4, 2010.

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Abstract

   This document requests a vendor-specific DHCPv6 message assignment.
   This message can be used for vendor specific and experimental
   purposes.



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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Vendor-specific Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6








































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.  Introduction

   DHCPv6 [RFC3315] specifies a mechanism for the assignment of
   addresses and configuration information to nodes.  The protocol
   provides for 256 possible message codes, of which a small number are
   assigned ([DHCPv6Params]).  Each of the assigned message codes have
   specific purposes.  New message codes are assigned through Standards
   Action (see Section 24 of [RFC3315]).

   There may be a need for vendors of DHCPv6 clients, relay agents, or
   servers to experiment with new capabilities that require new messages
   to be exchanged between these elements.  Thus, this document defines
   the format for and requests that a new message code be reserved for
   vendor-specific and experimental purposes.


.  Terminology

   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].


.  Vendor-specific Message

   The vendor-specific message may be exchanged between clients, relay
   agents, and/or servers and allows multiple vendors to make use of the
   message for completely different and independent purposes.

   Clients and servers MAY chose to support this message; those that do
   not, MUST discard the message.  Relay agents SHOULD relay these
   messages as they would other DHCPv6 messages unless the relay agent
   understands the specific message and knows that the message was
   directed at it.

   Applications using these messages MUST NOT assume that all DHCPv6
   clients, relay agents, and servers support them and MUST use good
   networking practices when transmitting and retransmitting these
   messages (see Section 14 of [RFC3315] for recommendations).  For some
   applications, it may be appropriate to use a Vendor Class or Vendor-
   specific Information Option ([RFC3315]) in a standard DHCPv6 exchange
   to negotiate whether the end-points support the vendor-specific
   message.








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   The format of the DHCPv6 Vendor-specific Message is shown below:

       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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |    msg-type   |               enterprise-number               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |  enterprise-  |     vendor    |                               |
      | number (contd)|    msg-type   |                               .
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               .
      .                            options                            .
      .                       (variable length)                       .
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      msg-type             VENDOR-SPECIFIC (TBD)

      enterprise-number    The vendor's registered Enterprise Number as
                           registered with [EID].

      vendor-msg-type      The vendor's message-type. The values are
                           defined by the vendor identified in the
                           enterprise-number field and are not managed
                           by IANA.

      options              The vendor specific options carried in this
                           message.

   The options MUST be encoded as a sequence of code/length/value fields
   of identical format to the DHCPv6 options field.  The option codes
   are defined by the vendor identified in the enterprise-number field
   and are not managed by IANA.  Each of the options is formatted as
   follows:


















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       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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          opt-code             |             option-len        |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      .                                                               .
      .                          option-data                          .
      .                                                               .
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      opt-code             The code for the option.

      option-len           An unsigned integer giving the length of the
                           option-data field in this option in octets.

      option-data          The data area for the option.


.  Security Considerations

   The Security Considerations of [RFC3315] apply.

   This new message does potentially open up new avenues of attacking
   clients, relay agents, or servers.  The exact nature of these attacks
   will depend on what functions and capabilities the message exposes
   and are thus not possible to describe in this document.  Clients and
   servers that have no use for these messages SHOULD discard them and
   thus the threat is no different than before this message was
   assigned.

   Vendors using this new message should use the DHCPv6 security
   mechanisms (the Auth option or IPsec [RFC3315] as appropriate) and
   carefully consider the security implications of the functions and
   capabilities exposed.


.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to assign DHCPv6 Message type 254 to the Vendor-
   specific Message in the registry maintained in [DHCPv6Params]:

      254 VENDOR-SPECIFIC


.  References






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6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3315]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
              and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
              IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [EID]      IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers.
              http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers".

6.2.  Informative References

   [DHCPv6Params]
              IANA, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
              (DHCPv6).
              http://www.iana.org/assignments/dhcpv6-parameters".


Author's Address

   Bernard Volz
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   1414 Massachusetts Ave.
   Boxborough, MA  01719
   USA

   Phone: +1 978 936 0000
   Email: volz@cisco.com





















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