TCP/IP Illustrated Episode 26

Pad1 and PadN

IPv6 options are aligned to 8-byte offsets, so options that are naturally smaller are padded with 0 bytes to round out their lengths to the nearest 8 bytes. Two padding options are available to support this, called Pad1 and PadN. The Pad1 option (type 0) is the only option that lacks Length and Value fields. It is simply 1 byte long and contains the value 0. The PadN option (type 1) inserts 2 or more bytes of padding into the options area of the header using the format of Figure 5-7. For n bytes of padding, the Opt Data Len field contains the value (n - 2).

IPv6 Jumbo Payload

In some TCP/IP networks, such as those used to interconnect supercomputers, the normal 64KB limit on the IP datagram size can lead to unwanted overhead when moving large amounts of data. The IPv6 Jumbo Payload option specifies an IPv6 datagram with payload size larger than 65,535 bytes, called a jumbogram. This option need not be implemented by nodes attached to links with MTU sizes below 64KB. The Jumbo Payload option provides a 32-bit field for holding the payload size for datagrams with payloads of sizes between 65,535 and 4,294,967,295 bytes.

Tunnel Encapsulation Limit

Tunneling refers to the encapsulation of one protocol in another that does not conform to traditional layering (see Chapters 1 and 3). For example, IP datagrams may be encapsulated inside the payload portion of another IP datagram. Tunneling can be used to form virtual overlay networks, in which one network (e.g., the Internet) acts as a well-connected link layer for another layer of IP [TWEF03]. Tunnels can be nested in the sense that datagrams that are in a tunnel may themselves be placed in a tunnel, in a recursive fashion.

Router Alert

The Router Alert option indicates that the datagram contains information that needs to be processed by a router. It is used for the same purpose as the IPv4 Router Alert option. [RTAOPTS] gives the current set of values for the option.

Quick-Start

The Quick-Start (QS) option is used in conjunction with the experimental Quick-Start procedure for TCP/IP specified in [RFC4782]. It is applicable to both IPv4 and IPv6 but at present is suggested only for private networks and not the global Internet. The option includes a value encoding the sender’s desired transmission rate in bits per second, a QS TTL value, and some additional information. Routers along the path may agree that supporting the desired rate is acceptable, in which case they decrement the QS TTL and leave the rate request unchanged when forwarding the containing datagram. When they disagree (i.e., wish to support a lower rate), they can reduce the number to an acceptable rate. Routers that do not recognize the QS option do not decrement the QS TTL. A receiver provides feedback to the sender, including the difference between the received datagram’s IPv4 TTL or IPv6 Hop Limit field and its QS TTL, along with the resulting rate that may have been adjusted by the routers along the forward path. This information is used by the sender to determine its sending rate (which, for example, may exceed the rate TCP it would otherwise use). Comparison of the TTL values is used to ensure that every router along the path participates in the QS negotiation; if any routers are found to be decrementing the IPv4 TTL (or IPv6 Hop Limit) field and not modifying the QS TTL value, QS is not enabled.

CALIPSO

This option is used for supporting the Common Architecture Label IPv6 Security Option (CALIPSO) [RFC5570] in certain private networks. It provides a method to label datagrams with a security-level indicator, along with some additional information. In particular, it is intended for use in multilevel secure networking environments (e.g., government, military, and banking) where the security level of all data must be indicated by some form of label.

Home Address

This option holds the “home” address of the IPv6 node sending the datagram when IPv6 mobility options are in use. Mobile IP (see Section 5.5) specifies a set of procedures for handling IP nodes that may change their point of network attachment without losing their higher-layer network connections. It has a concept of a node’s “home,” which is derived from the address prefix of its typical location. When roaming away from home, the node is generally assigned a different IP address. This option allows the node to provide its normal home address in addition to its (presumably temporarily assigned) new address while traveling. The home address can be used by other IPv6 nodes when communicating with the mobile node. If the Home Address option is present, the Destination Options header containing it must appear after a Routing header and before the Fragment, Authentication, and ESP headers (see Chapter 18), if any of them is also present We discuss this option in more detail in the context of Mobile IP.

Routing Header

The IPv6 Routing header provides a mechanism for the sender of an IPv6 datagram to control, at least in part, the path the datagram takes through the network. At present, two different versions of the routing extension header have been specified, called type 0 (RH0) and type 2 (RH2), respectively. RH0 has been deprecated because of security concerns [RFC5095], and RH2 is defined in conjunction with Mobile IP. To best understand the Routing header, we begin by discussing RH0 and then investigate why it has been deprecated and how it differs from RH2. RH0 specifies one or more IPv6 nodes to be “visited” as the datagram is forwarded. The header is shown in Figure 5-8.