





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                          RFC 1888 Is Obsolete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



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   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.




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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






























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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
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Acknowledgement

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







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