Subject: [midcom] DHCP option - trying again

From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 13:00:00 -0500

As I mentioned earlier this week, there's a new proposal to use DHCP to
configure middlebox addresses into endpoints.  Is this something the WG
should take on?

Melinda

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From: Martin Stiemerling <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 16:07:21 +0200

Hi,

I quickly read the documents and I see that they DHCP options might be 
useful. The limiting factor is the, by MIDCOM required, mutual 
authentication of agent and middlebox. That's not provided at all.

Anyway, learning your middlebox's address might is useful.

One remark: The text needs probably some shaping for better readability:
" Midcom middlebox DHCPv6 IPv6 address list option (as illustrated in
figure 2) specifies a list of Midcom middlebox IPv6 addresses that are
present in the network."

The "list of MIDCOM middlebox IPv6 addresses that are present in the 
network" is what:
- Available IPv6 addresses you probably get assigned by a NAT on its 
external interface
- or (more likely) the list of middleboxes that offer MIDCOM service at 
these IPv6 addresses?

Regards,

  Martin

--On Freitag, 2. April 2004 13:00 Uhr -0500 Melinda Shore 
<[email-masked]> wrote:

| As I mentioned earlier this week, there's a new proposal to use DHCP to
| configure middlebox addresses into endpoints.  Is this something the WG
| should take on?
|
| Melinda
|
|
| _______________________________________________
| midcom mailing list
| [email-masked]
| https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/midcom

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From: "Joel Tran" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 14:33:51 -0400

Hi Martin,

Comments inline,

> authentication of agent and middlebox. That's not provided at all.

This technique only provides a way to know the presence of Midcom middlebox
in a network. The scope of this document does not include authentication
which will be done with SNMPv3/Midcom.

> One remark: The text needs probably some shaping for better
> readability: " Midcom middlebox DHCPv6 IPv6 address list
> option (as illustrated in figure 2) specifies a list of
> Midcom middlebox IPv6 addresses that are present in the network."

Fixed this in the next version.

> - or (more likely) the list of middleboxes that offer MIDCOM

Fixed!

Thanks for you input!
...J

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From: Juergen Quittek <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 19:27:22 +0200

Melinda,

I think Joel made a very useful suggestion for solving (or reducing) the
middlebox topology problem that Cedric pointed out several times.

Joel's approach fits well into the existing IP infrastructure and should be
followed by the IETF.  My initial thought was that this work rather belongs
to the DHC WG (I have not seen an announcement there), but probably the
MIDCOM WG is a much better home for it.

Consequently, I support a MIDCOM work item on DHC options for distributing
middlebox topology information.

The two drafts are a very good starting point for such an activity although
I think that so far they solve only a part of the problem.  After a discussion
with my colleague Cristian who implemented SIMCO as well as the full DHCPv6
standard, he came up with a set of suggestions for improvement, which we can
discuss on this list if we accept this new work item.

Thanks,

    Juergen
-- 
Juergen Quittek        [email-masked]        Tel: +49 6221 90511-15
NEC Europe Ltd.,       Network Laboratories        Fax: +49 6221 90511-55
Kurfuersten-Anlage 36, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany   http://www.ccrle.nec.de

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From: Martin Stiemerling <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:45:38 +0200

Hi all,

--On Montag, 5. April 2004 19:27 Uhr +0200 Juergen Quittek 
<[email-masked]> wrote:

| Melinda,
|
| I think Joel made a very useful suggestion for solving (or reducing) the
| middlebox topology problem that Cedric pointed out several times.

Yes, this dhc options could be beneficial for solving the topology problem. 
There are some dhcp options defined (or under investigation, I'm not total 
sure) for transmitting routing information (destination prefix and 
corresponding next hop).

Joel's draft would have to be extended to cover this issue.

|
| Joel's approach fits well into the existing IP infrastructure and should
| be
| followed by the IETF.  My initial thought was that this work rather
| belongs
| to the DHC WG (I have not seen an announcement there), but probably the
| MIDCOM WG is a much better home for it.

I see that this fits better to the MIDCOM wg since not only pure dhc 
problems have to be solved, but more MIDCOM specific problems.

  Martin