IETF Mobile IP Working Group Charles E. Perkins INTERNET DRAFT Nokia Research Center 26 January 2004 Foreign Agent Error Extension for Mobile IPv4 draft-perkins-mip4-faerr-00.txt Status of This Memo This document is an individual submission to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Comments should be submitted to the mip4@ietf.org mailing list. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at: http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at: http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Abstract This document specifies a new extension for use by Foreign Agents operating Mobile IP for IPv4. The new extension option allows a foreign agent to supply an error code without disturbing the data supplied by the Home Agent within the Registration Reply message. In this way, the mobile node can verify that the Registration Reply message was generated by the Home Agent even in cases where the foreign agent is required by protocol to insert new status information into the Registration Reply message. Perkins Expires 26 July 2004 [Page i] Internet Draft FA Error Extension 26 January 2004 1. Introduction This document specifies a new non-skippable extension for use by Foreign Agents operating Mobile IP for IPv4 [2]. The new extension option allows a foreign agent to supply an error code without disturbing the data supplied by the Home Agent within the Registration Reply message. In this way, the mobile node can verify that the Registration Reply message was generated by the Home Agent even in cases where the foreign agent is required by protocol to insert new status information into the Registration Reply message. 2. Terminology The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [1]. Other terminology is used as already defined in [2]. 3. FA Error Extension Format The format of the FA Error Extension conforms to the Short Extension format specified for Mobile IPv4 [2]. The FA Error Extension is not skippable. 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 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Type | Length | Sub-Type | Status | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Type Length 4 Sub-Type 0 Status A status code used by the foreign agent to supply status information to the mobile node. Perkins Expires 26 July 2004 [Page 1] Internet Draft FA Error Extension 26 January 2004 4. Operation and Use of the FA Error Extension The FA Error extension is only valid for use within Mobile IPv4 Registration Reply messages. The FA Error Extension is not skippable. A mobile node that cannot correctly interpret the contents of the FA Error Extension MUST NOT use the care-of address provided in the Registration Reply message, until another Registration Request message has been sent and a successful Registration Reply message received. The status codes allowable for use within the FA Error Extension are as follows: 64 reason unspecified 65 administratively prohibited 66 insufficient resources 68 home agent failed authentication 71 poorly formed Reply 77 invalid care-of address 78 registration timeout as defined in RFC 3344 [2] for use by the Foreign Agent. Status codes for use with the FA Error extensions must not be differently defined for use in the Code field of Registration Reply messages. When a foreign agent appends a FA Error Extension to the Registration Reply as received from the Home Agent, it has to update the UDP Length field in the UDP header [3] to account for the extra 4 bytes of length. 5. IANA Considerations This specification reserves one number for the FA Error extension (see section 3) from the space of numbers for nonskippable mobility extensions (i.e., 0-127) defined in the specification for Mobile IPv4 [2]. This specification also creates a new number space of sub-types for the type number of this extension. Sub-type zero is to be allocated from this number space for the protocol extension specified in this document. Future allocations from this number space require IETF consensus. 6. Security Considerations The extension in this document improves the security features of Mobile IPv4 by allowing the mobile node to be assured of the Perkins Expires 26 July 2004 [Page 2] Internet Draft FA Error Extension 26 January 2004 authenticity of the information supplied within a Registration Request. Previously, whenever the foreign agent was required to provide status information to the mobile node, it could only do so by destroying the ability of the mobile device to authenticated the Mobile-Home Authentication Extension data. References [1] S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. Request for Comments (Best Current Practice) 2119, Internet Engineering Task Force, March 1997. [2] C. Perkins. IP Mobility Support. Request for Comments (Proposed Standard) 3344, Internet Engineering Task Force, August 2002. [3] J. Postel. User Datagram Protocol. Request for Comments (Standard) 768, Internet Engineering Task Force, August 1980. Author Address Questions about this memo can be directed to the author: Charles E. Perkins Communications Systems Lab Nokia Research Center 313 Fairchild Drive Mountain View, California 94043 USA Phone: +1-650 625-2986 Fax: +1 650 625-2502 EMail: charles.perkins@.nokia.com Perkins Expires 26 July 2004 [Page 3]