Network Working Group J. Davin
Request for Comments: 1028 Proteon, Inc.
J. Case
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
M. Fedor
Cornell University
M. Schoffstall
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
November 1987
A Simple Gateway Monitoring Protocol
This document is being distributed to members of the Internet
community in order to solicit their reactions to the proposals
contained in it. While the issues discussed may not be directly
relevant to the research problems of the Internet, they may be
interesting to a number of researchers and implementors.
This memo defines a simple application-layer protocol by which
management information for a gateway may be inspected or altered by
logically remote users.
This proposal is intended only as an interim response to immediate
gateway monitoring needs while work on more elaborate and robust
designs proceeds with the care and deliberation appropriate to that
task. Accordingly, long term use of the mechanisms described here
should be seriously questioned as more comprehensive proposals emerge
in the future. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
The proposed protocol is shaped in large part by the desire to
minimize the number and complexity of management functions realized
by the gateway itself. This goal is attractive in at least four
respects:
(1) The development cost for gateway software necessary to
support the protocol is accordingly reduced.
(2) The degree of management function that is remotely
supported is accordingly increased, thereby admitting
fullest use of internet resources in the management task.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 1]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
(3) The degree of management function that is remotely
supported is accordingly increased, thereby imposing the
fewest possible restrictions on the form and sophistication
of management tools.
(4) A simplified set of management functions is easily
understood and used by developers of gateway management
tools.
A second design goal is that the functional paradigm for monitoring
and control be sufficiently extensible to accommodate additional,
possibly unanticipated aspects of gateway operation.
A third goal is that the design be, as much as possible, independent
of the architecture and mechanisms of particular hosts or particular
gateways.
Consistent with the foregoing design goals are a number of decisions
regarding the overall form of the protocol design.
One such decision is to model all gateway management functions as
alterations or inspections of various parameter values. By this
model, a protocol entity on a logically remote host (possibly the
gateway itself) interacts with a protocol entity resident on the
gateway in order to alter or retrieve named portions (variables) of
the gateway state. This design decision has at least two positive
consequences:
(1) It has the effect of limiting the number of essential
management functions realized by the gateway to two: one
operation to assign a value to a specified configuration
parameter and another to retrieve such a value.
(2) A second effect of this decision is to avoid introducing
into the protocol definition support for imperative
management commands: the number of such commands is in
practice ever-increasing, and the semantics of such
commands are in general arbitrarily complex.
The exclusion of imperative commands from the set of explicitly
supported management functions is unlikely to preclude any desirable
gateway management operation. Currently, most gateway commands are
requests either to set the value of some gateway parameter or to
retrieve such a value, and the function of the few imperative
commands currently supported is easily accommodated in an
asynchronous mode by this management model. In this scheme, an
imperative command might be realized as the setting of a parameter
value that subsequently triggers the desired action.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 2]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A second design decision is to realize any needed authentication
functionality in a distinct protocol layer that provides services to
the monitoring protocol itself. The most important benefit of this
decision is a reduction in the complexity of the individual protocol
layers - thereby easing the task of implementation.
Consistent with this layered design strategy is a third design
decision that the identity of an application protocol entity is known
to its peers only by the services of the underlying authentication
protocol. Implicit in this decision is a model of access control by
which access to variables of a gateway configuration is managed in
terms of the association between application entities and sessions of
the authentication protocol. Thus, multi-level access to gateway
variables is supported by multiple instances of the application
protocol entity, each of which is characterized by:
(1) the set of gateway variables known to said entity,
(2) the mode of access (READ-ONLY or READ-WRITE) afforded to
said set of variables, and
(3) the authentication protocol session to which belong the
messages sent and received by said entity.
A fourth design decision is to adopt the conventions of the CCITT
X.409 recommendation [1] for representing the information exchanged
between protocol entities. One cost of this decision is a modest
increase in the complexity of the protocol implementation. One
benefit of this decision is that protocol data are represented on the
network in a machine-independent, widely understood, and widely
accepted form. A second benefit of this decision is that the form of
the protocol messages may be concisely and understandably described
in the X.409 language defined for such purposes.
A fifth design decision, consistent with the goal of minimizing
gateway complexity, is that the variables manipulated by the protocol
assume only integer or octet string type values.
A sixth design decision, also consistent with the goal of minimizing
gateway complexity, is that the exchange of protocol messages
requires only an unreliable datagram transport, and, furthermore,
that every protocol message is entirely and independently
representable by a single transport datagram. While this document
specifies the exchange of protocol messages via the UDP protocol [2],
the design proposed here is in general suitable for use with a wide
variety of transport mechanisms.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 3]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A seventh design decision, consistent with the goals of simplicity
and extensibility, is that the variables manipulated by the protocol
are named by octet string values. While this decision departs from
the architectural traditions of the Internet whereby objects are
identified by assigned integer values, the naming of variables by
octet strings affords at least two valuable benefits. Because the
set of octet string values constitutes a variable name space that, as
convenient, manifests either flat or hierarchical structure,
(1) a single, simple mechanism can provide both random access
to individual variables and sequential access to
semantically related groups of variables, and
(2) the variable name space may be extended to accommodate
unforeseen needs without compromising either the
relationships among existing variables or the potential
for further extensions to the space.
An eighth design decision is to minimize the number of unsolicited
messages required by the protocol definition. This decision is
consistent with the goal of simplicity and motivated by the desire to
retain maximal control over the amount of traffic generated by the
network management function - even at the expense of additional
protocol overhead. The strategy implicit in this decision is that
the monitoring of network state at any significant level of detail is
accomplished primarily by polling for appropriate information on the
part of the monitoring center. In this context, the definition of
unsolicited messages in the protocol is confined to those strictly
necessary to properly guide a monitoring center regarding the timing
and focus of its polling.
The gateway monitoring protocol is an application protocol by which
the variables of a gateway's configuration may be inspected or
altered.
Communication among application protocol entities is by the exchange
of protocol messages using the services of the authentication
protocol described elsewhere in this document. Each such message is
entirely and independently represented by a single message of the
underlying authentication protocol. An implementation of this
protocol need not accept protocol messages whose length exceeds 484
octets.
The form and function of the four message types recognized by a
protocol entity is described below. The type of a given protocol
message is indicated by the value of the implicit type tag for the
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 4]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
data structure that is represented by said message according to the
conventions of the CCITT X.409 recommendation.
The form of a message of Get Request type is described below in the
language defined in the CCITT X.409 recommendation:
var_value_type ::= CHOICE {
INTEGER,
OCTET STRING
}
var_name_type := OCTET STRING
var_op_type ::= SEQUENCE {
var_name var_name_type,
var_value var_value_type
}
var_op_list_type ::= SEQUENCE OF var_op_type
error_status_type ::= INTEGER {
gmp_err_noerror (0),
gmp_err_too_big (1),
gmp_err_nix_name (2),
gmp_err_bad_value (3)
}
error_index_type ::= INTEGER
request_id_type ::= INTEGER
get_req_message_type ::= [ APPLICATION 1 ] IMPLICIT
SEQUENCE {
request_id request_id_type,
error_status error_status_type,
error_index error_index_type,
var_op_list var_op_list_type
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 5]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
}
Upon receipt of a message of this type, the receiving entity responds
according to any applicable rule in the list below:
(1) If, for some var_op_type component of the received message, the
value of the var_name field does not lexicographically precede
the name of some variable known to the receiving entity, then
the receiving entity sends to the originator of the received
message a message of identical form except that the indicated
message type is Get Response, the value of the error_status
field is gmp_err_nix_name, and the value of the error_index
field is the unit-based index of said var_op_type component in
the received message.
(2) If the size of the Get Response type message generated as
described below would exceed the size of the largest message
for which the protocol definition requires acceptance, then the
receiving entity sends to the originator of the received message
a message of identical form except that the indicated message
type is Get Response, the value of the error_status field is
gmp_err_too_big, and the value of the error_index field is zero.
If none of the foregoing rules apply, then the receiving entity sends
to the originator of the received message a Get Response type message
such that, for each var_op_type component of the received message, a
corresponding component of the generated message represents the name
and value of that variable whose name is, in the lexicographical
ordering of the names of all variables known to the receiving entity
together with the value of the var_name field of the given component,
the immediate successor to that value. The value of the error_status
field of the generated message is gmp_err_noerror and the value of
the error_index field is zero. The value of the request_id field of
the generated message is that for the received message.
Messages of the Get Request type are generated by a protocol entity
only at the request of the application user.
The form of messages of this type is identical to that of Get Request
type messages except for the indication of message type. In the CCITT
X.409 language,
get_rsp_message_type ::= [ APPLICATION 2 ] IMPLICIT
SEQUENCE {
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 6]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
request_id request_id_type,
error_status error_status_type,
error_index error_index_type,
var_op_list var_op_list_type
}
The response of a protocol entity to a message of this type is to
present its contents to the application user.
Messages of the Get Response type are generated by a protocol entity
only upon receipt of Set Request or Get Request type messages as
described elsewhere in this document.
The form of a message of this type is described below in the language
defined in the CCITT X.409 recommendation:
val_list_type ::= SEQUENCE OF var_value_type
trap_type_type ::= INTEGER
trap_req_message_type ::= [ APPLICATION 3 ] IMPLICIT
SEQUENCE {
trap_type trap_type_type,
val_list val_list_type
}
The response of a protocol entity to a message of this type is to
present its contents to the application user.
Messages of the Trap Request type are generated by a protocol entity
only at the request of the application user.
The significance of the val_list component of a Trap Request type
message is implementation-specific.
Interpretations for negative values of the trap_type field are
implementation-specific. Interpretations for non-negative values of
the trap_type field are defined below.
A Trap Request type message for which the value of the trap_type
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 7]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
field is 0, signifies that the sending protocol entity is
reinitializing itself such that the gateway configuration or the
protocol entity implementation may be altered.
A Trap Request type message for which the value of the trap_type
field is 1, signifies that the sending protocol entity is
reinitializing itself such that neither the gateway configuration nor
the protocol entity implementation is altered.
A Trap Request type message for which the value of the trap_type
field is 2, signifies that the sending protocol entity recognizes a
failure in one of the communication links represented in the gateway
configuration.
A Trap Request type message for which the value of the trap_type
field is 3, signifies that the sending protocol entity is the
addressee of a protocol message that is not properly authenticated.
A Trap Request type message for which the value of the trap_type
field is 4, signifies that an EGP neighbor for whom the sending
protocol entity was an EGP peer has been marked down and the peer
relationship no longer obtains.
The form of messages of this type is identical to that of Get Request
type messages except for the indication of message type. In the
CCITT X.409 language:
set_req_message_type ::= [ APPLICATION 4 ] IMPLICIT
SEQUENCE {
request_id request_id_type,
error_status error_status_type,
error_index error_index_type,
var_op_list var_op_list_type
}
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 8]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
Upon receipt of a message of this type, the receiving entity responds
according to any applicable rule in the list below:
(1) If, for some var_op_type component of the received message, the
value of the var_name field names no variable known to the
receiving entity, then the receiving entity sends to the
originator of the received message a message of identical form
except that the indicated message type is Get Response, the
value of the error_status field is gmp_err_nix_name, and the
value of the error_index field is the unit-based index of said
var_op_type component in the received message.
(2) If, for some var_op_type component of the received message, the
contents of the var_value field does not, according to the CCITT
X.409 recommendation, manifest a type, length, and value that is
consistent with that required for the variable named by the
value of the var_name field, then the receiving entity sends to
the originator of the received message a message of identical
form except that the indicated message type is Get Response, the
value of the error_status field is gmp_err_bad_value, and the
value of the error_index field is the unit-based index of said
var_op_type component in the received message.
(3) If the size of the Get Response type message generated as
described below would exceed the size of the largest message for
which the protocol definition requires acceptance, then the
receiving entity sends to the originator of the received
message a message of identical form except that the indicated
message type is Get Response, the value of the error_status
field is gmp_err_too_big, and the value of the error_index field
is zero.
If none of the foregoing rules apply, then for each var_op_type
component of the received message, according to the sequence of such
components represented by said message, the value represented by the
var_value field of the given component is assigned to the variable
named by the value of the var_name field of that component. The
receiving entity sends to the originator of the received message a
message of identical form except that the indicated message type is
Get Response, the value of the error_status field is gmp_err_noerror,
and the value of the error_index field is zero.
Messages of the Set Request type are generated by a protocol entity
only at the request of the application user.
Recognition and processing of Set Request type frames is not required
by the protocol definition.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 9]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
The authentication protocol is a session-layer protocol by which
messages specified by a protocol user are selectively delivered to
other protocol users. The protocol definition precludes delivery to
a protocol user of any user message for which the protocol
representation lacks a specified "authentic" form.
Communication among authentication protocol entities is accomplished
by the exchange of protocol messages, each of which is entirely and
independently represented by a single UDP datagram. An
authentication protocol entity responds to protocol messages received
at UDP port 153 on the host with which it is associated.
A half-session of the authentication protocol is, for any ordered
pair of protocol users, the set of messages sent from the first user
of the pair to the second user of said pair. A session of the
authentication protocol is defined to be union of two complementary
half-sessions of the protocol - that is, the set of messages
exchanged between a given pair of protocol users. Associated with
each protocol half-session is a triplet of functions:
(1) The authentication function for a given half-session is a
boolean-valued function that characterizes the set of
authentication protocol messages that are of acceptable,
authentic form with respect to the set of all possible
authentication protocol messages.
(2) The message interpretation function for a given half-
session is a mapping from the set of authentication
protocol messages accepted by the authentication function
for said half-session to the set of all possible user
messages.
(3) The message representation function for a given half-
session is a mapping that is the inverse of the message
interpretation function for said half-session.
The association between half-sessions of the authentication protocol
and triplets of functions is not defined in this document.
The form and function of the single message type recognized by a
protocol entity is described below. The type of a given protocol
message is indicated by the value of the implicit type tag for the
data structure that is represented by said message according to the
conventions of the CCITT X.409 recommendation.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 10]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
The Message Length field of a given Data Request message represents
the length of said message as an unsigned, 16-bit, binary integer.
This value is encoded such that more significant bits precede less
significant bits in the order of transmission and includes the length
of the Message Length field itself.
The Session ID Length field of a given Data Request message
represents the length, in octets, of the Session ID field of said
message. This value is encoded as an unsigned, 8-bit, binary
integer.
The Session ID field of a given Data Request message represents the
name of the protocol session to which said message belongs. The
value of this field is encoded as asequence of octets whose length is
the value of the Session ID Length field for said message.
The User Data field of a given Data Request message represents a
message being passed from one protocol user to another. The value of
this field is encoded according to conventions implicit in the
message representation function for the appropriate half of the
protocol session named by the value of the Session ID field for said
message.
Upon receipt of a Data Request type message, the receiving
authentication protocol entity verifies the form of said message by
application of the authentication function associated with its half
of the session named by the value of the Session ID field in the
received message. If the form of the received message is accepted as
"authentic" by said function, then the user message computed by the
application of the message interpretation function for said half-
session to the value of the User Data field of the received message
is presented to the protocol user together with an indication of the
protocol session to which the received message belongs.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 11]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
Otherwise, the message is discarded and an indication of the receipt
of an unauthenticated message is presented to the protocol user.
A message of this type is generated only at the request of the
protocol user to communicate a message to another user of the
protocol. Such a request specifies the user message to be sent as
well as the session of the authentication protocol to which said user
message belongs. The value of the Session ID field of the generated
message is the name of the session specified in the user request.
The value of the User Data field of the generated message is computed
by applying the message representation function for the appropriate
half of the specified session to the specified user message.
The variables retrieved or manipulated by the application protocol
are named by octet string values. Such values are represented in
this document in two ways:
(1) A variable name octet string may be represented
numerically by a sequence of hexadecimal numbers, each of
which denotes the value of the corresponding octet in
said string.
(2) A variable name octet string may be represented
symbolically by a character string whose form reflects
the sequence of octets in said name while at the same
time suggesting to a human reader the semantics of the
named variable.
Variable name octet strings are represented symbolically according to
the following two rules:
(1) The symbolic character string representation of the
variable name of zero length is the character string of
zero length.
(2) The symbolic character string representation of a
variable name of non-zero length n is the concatenation
of the symbolic character string representation of the
variable name formed by the first (n - 1) octets of the
given name together with the underscore character ("_")
and a character string that does not include the
underscore character, such that the resulting character
string is unique among the symbolic character string
representations for all variable names of length n.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 12]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
Thus, for example, the variable names represented numerically as:
01 01 01,
01 01 02,
01 02 01,
01 03 01 03 01,
01 03 01 03 02,
01 03 01 04 01, and
01 03 01 04 02
might be represented symbolically by the character strings:
_GW_version_id,
_GW_version_rev,
_GW_cfg_nnets,
_GW_net_if_type_net1,
_GW_net_if_type_net2,
_GW_net_if_speed_net1, and
_GW_net_if_speed_net2.
All variable names are terminated by an implementation specific octet
string of non-zero length. Thus, a complete variable name is not
specified for any of the variables defined in this document. Rather,
for each defined variable, some prefix portion of its name is
specified, with the understanding that the rightmost portion of its
name is specific to the protocol implementation.
Fullest exploitation of the semantics of the Get Request type message
requires that names for related variables be chosen so as to be
contiguous in the lexicographic ordering of all variable names
recognized by an application protocol entity. This principle is
observed in the naming of variables currently defined by this
document, and it should be observed as well for variables defined by
subsequent revisions of this document and for variables introduced by
particular implementations of the protocol.
A particular implementation of a protocol entity may present
variables in addition to those defined by this document, provided
that in no case will an implementation-specific variable be presented
as having a name identical to that for one of the variables defined
here. By convention, the names of variables specific to a particular
implementation share a common prefix that distinguishes said
variables from those defined in this document and from those that may
be presented by other implementations of an application protocol
entity. For example, variables specific to an implementation of this
protocol in version 1.3 of the Squeaky gateway product of the
Swinging Gateway company might have the names represented by:
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 13]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
01 FF 01 01 13 01,
01 FF 01 01 13 02, and
01 FF 01 01 13 03,
for which the corresponding symbolic representations might be:
_GW_impl_Swinging_Squeaky_v1.3_variableA,
_GW_impl_Swinging_Squeaky_v1.3_variableB, and
_GW_impl_Swinging_Squeaky_v1.3_variableC.
The names and semantics of implementation-specific variables are not
otherwise defined by this document, although implementors are
encouraged to publish such definitions either as appendices to this
document or by other appropriate means.
Variable names of which the initial portion is represented
numerically as 02 and symbolically as "_HOST" are reserved for future
use. Variable names of which the initial portion is represented
numerically as 03 and symbolically as "_TS" are similarly reserved.
To the extent that the information represented by a variable defined
in this section is also represented internally by a gateway for which
this protocol is realized, access to that variable must be afforded
by at least one application protocol entity associated with said
gateway.
The variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_version_id" and numerically as:
01 01 01
has an octet string value that identifies the protocol entity
implementation (e.g., "ACME Packet-Whiz Model II").
The variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_version_rev" and numerically as:
01 01 02
has an integer value that identifies the revision level of the entity
implementation. The encoding of the revision level as an integer
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 14]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
value is implementation-specific.
The variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_cfg_nnets" and numerically as:
01 02 01
has an integer value that represents the number of logical network
interfaces afforded by the configuration of the gateway.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of the logical network interfaces afforded by the gateway
configuration. Each such network interface is uniquely identified by
an octet string. The convention by which names are assigned to the
network interfaces of a gateway is implementation-specific.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_type" and numerically as:
01 03 01 03
has an integer value that represents the type of the network
interface identified by the remainder of the name for said variable.
The value of a variable of this class represents network type
according to the conventions described in Appendix 1.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_speed" and numerically as:
01 03 01 04
has an integer value that represents the estimated nominal bandwidth
in bits per second of the network interface identified by the
remainder of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_in_pkts" and numerically as:
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 15]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
01 03 01 01 01
has an integer value that represents the number of packets received
by the gateway over the network interface identified by the remainder
of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_out_pkts" and numerically as:
01 03 01 02 01
has an integer value that represents the number of packets
transmitted by the gateway over the network interface identified by
the remainder of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_in_bytes" and numerically as:
01 03 01 01 02
has an integer value that represents the number of octets received by
the gateway over the network interface identified by the remainder of
the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_out_bytes" and numerically as:
01 03 01 02 02
has an integer value that represents the number of octets transmitted
by the gateway over the network interface identified by the remainder
of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_in_errors" and numerically as:
01 03 01 01 03
has an integer value that represents the number of reception errors
encountered by the gateway on the network interface identified by the
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 16]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
remainder of the name for said variable. The definition of a
reception error is implementation-specific and may vary according to
network type.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_out_errors" and numerically as:
01 03 01 02 03
has an integer value that represents the number of transmission
errors encountered by the gateway on the network interface identified
by the remainder of the name for said variable. The definition of a
transmission error is implementation-specific and may vary according
to network type.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_net_if_status" and numerically as:
01 03 01 05
has an integer value that represents the current status of the
network interface identified by the remainder of the name for said
variable. Network status is represented according to the conventions
described in Appendix 2.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of the the IP interfaces presented by a gateway on the
various networks to which it is attached. Each such protocol
interface is uniquely identified by an octet string. The convention
by which names are assigned to the protocol interfaces for a gateway
is implementation-specific.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_addr_value" and numerically as:
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 17]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
01 04 01 01 01
has an octet string value that literally represents the 32-bit
Internet address for the IP interface identified by the remainder of
the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_addr_scope" and numerically as:
01 04 01 01 02
has an octet string value that names the network interface with which
the IP interface identified by the remainder of the name for said
variable is associated.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_egp_core" and numerically as:
01 04 01 03 01
has an integer value that characterizes the associated gateway with
respect to the set of INTERNET core gateways. A nonzero value
indicates that the associated gateway is part of the INTERNET core.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_egp_as" and numerically as:
01 04 01 03 02
has an integer value that literally identifies an Autonomous System
to which this gateway belongs.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of "neighbors" with which the gateway may be associated by
EGP. Each such EGP neighbor is uniquely identified by an octet
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 18]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
string. The convention by which names are assigned to EGP neighbors
of a gateway is implementation-specific.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_egp_neighbor_addr" and numerically as:
01 04 01 03 03 01
has an octet string value that literally represents the 32-bit
Internet address for the EGP neighbor identified by the remainder of
the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_egp_neighbor_state" and numerically as:
01 04 01 03 03 02
has an octet string value that represents the EGP protocol state of
the gateway with respect to the EGP neighbor identified by the
remainder of the name for said variable. The meaningful values for
such a variable are: "IDLE," "ACQUISITION," "DOWN," "UP," and
"CEASE."
The variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_egp_errors" and numerically as:
01 04 01 03 05
has an integer value that represents the number of EGP protocol
errors.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of the the IP routes by which a gateway directs packets to
various destinations on the Internet. Each such route is uniquely
identified by an octet string that is the concatenation of the
literal 32-bit value of the Internet address for the destination of
said route together with an implementation-specific octet string.
The convention by which names are assigned to the Internet routes for
a gateway is in all other respects implementation-specific.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 19]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rt_gateway" and numerically as:
01 04 01 02 01
has an octet string value that literally represents the 32-bit
Internet address of the next gateway to which traffic is directed by
the route identified by the remainder of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rt_type" and numerically as:
01 04 01 02 02
has an integer value that represents the type of the route identified
by the remainder of the name for said variable. Route types are
identified according to the conventions described in Appendix 3.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rt_how-learned" and numerically as:
01 04 01 02 03
has an octet string value that represents the source of the
information from which the route identified by the remainder of the
name for said variable is generated. The meaningful values of such a
variable are: "STATIC," "EGP," and "RIP."
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rt_metric0" and numerically as:
01 04 01 02 04
has an integer value that represents the quality (in terms of cost,
distance from the ultimate destination, or other metric) of the route
identified by the remainder of the name for said variable.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is represented
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 20]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rt_metric1" and numerically as:
01 04 01 02 05
has an integer value that represents the quality (in terms of cost,
distance from the ultimate destination, or other metric) of the route
identified by the remainder of the name for said variable.
This section describes variables that represent information related
to protocols and mechanisms of the DEC Digital Network Architecture.
DEC and DECnet are registered trademarks of Digital Equipment
Corporation.
This section describes variables that represent information related
to protocols and mechanisms of the Xerox Network System. Xerox
Network System and XNS are registered trademarks of the XEROX
Corporation.
Additional variables that may be presented for inspection or
manipulation by particular protocol entity implementations are
described in Appendices to this document.
Numeric representations for network status are presented below.
Value Network Status
======================
0 Interface Operating Normally
1 Interface Not Present
2 Interface Disabled
3 Interface Down
4 Interface Attempting Link
Numeric representations for route types are presented below.
Value Route Type
==================
0 Route to Nowhere -- ignored
1 Route to Directly Connected Network
2 Route to a Remote Host
3 Route to a Remote Network
4 Route to a Sub-Network
The initial objective of implementing the protocol specified in this
document is to provide a mechanism for monitoring Internet gateways.
While the protocol design makes some provision for gateway management
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 22]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
functions as well, this aspect of the design is not fully developed
and needs further refinement before a generally useful implementation
could be produced. Accordingly, initial implementations will not
generate or respond to the optional Set Request message type.
The protocol defined here may be subsequently refined based upon
experience with early implementations or upon further study of the
problem of gateway management. Moreover, it may be superceded by
other proposals in the area of gateway monitoring and control.
Implementations of the authentication protocol specified in this
document are likely to evolve in response to the particular security
and privacy needs of its users. While, in general, the association
between particular half-sessions of the authentication protocol and
the described triplets of functions is specific to an implementation
and beyond the scope of this document, the desire for immediate
interoperability among initial implementations of this protocol is
best served by the temporary adoption of a common authentication
scheme. Accordingly, initial implementations will associate with
every possible half-session a triplet of functions that realizes a
trivial authentication mechanism:
(1) The authentication function is defined to have the value
TRUE over the entire domain of authentication protocol
messages.
(2) The message interpretation function is defined to be the
identity function.
(3) The message representation function is defined to be the
identity function.
Because this initial posture with respect to authentication is not
likely to remain acceptable indefinitely, implementors are urged to
adopt designs that isolate authentication mechanism as much as
possible from other components of the implementation.
This section describes a set of related variables that characterize
the sources and destinations of routing information propagated by
various routing protocols. These variables have meaning only for
those routing protocol implementations that afford greater
flexibility in propagating routing information than is required by
the various routing protocol specifications.
Each IP interface afforded by the configuration of the gateway over
which routing information may propagate via a routing protocol
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 23]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
(target interface) is named by a string of four octets that literally
represents the IP address associated with said protocol interface.
Each IP protocol interface afforded by the configuration of the
gateway over which routing information may arrive via any routing
protocol (source interface) is named by a string of four octets that
literally represents the IP address associated with said protocol
interface.
Each routing protocol by which a gateway receives information that it
uses to route IP traffic (source routing protocol) is named by a
single-octet string according to the conventions set forth in
Appendix 6 of this document.
Each routing protocol by which a gateway propagates routing
information used by other hosts or gateways to route IP traffic
(target routing protocol) is named by a single-octet string according
to the conventions set forth in Appendix 6 of this document.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of:
(1) the octet string represented symbolically as "_GW_pr_in_rif"
and numerically as 01 04 01 04 followed by:
(2) the name of a target routing protocol followed by
(3) the name of a target interface followed by
(4) the name of a source routing protocol followed by
(5) the name of a source interface
has an integer value that characterizes the propagation of routing
information between the sources and destinations of such information
that are identified by the initial portion of that variable's name. A
non-zero value for such a variable indicates that routing information
received via the source routing protocol named by the fourth
component of the variable name on the source interface named by its
fifth component is propagated via the target routing protocol named
by the second component of the variable name over the target
interface named by its third component. A zero value for such a
variable indicates that routing information received via the source
routing protocol on the source interface identified in the variable
name is NOT propagated via the target routing protocol over the
target interface identified in the variable name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 24]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
This section describes implementation-specific variables presented by
the implementation of this protocol in Software Release 7.4 for the
Proteon p4200 Internet Router. These variable definitions are
subject to change without notice.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of a network interface in the Proteon p4200 Internet
Router gateway. Each such network interface is uniquely named by an
implementation-specific octet string of length 1.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes common to all network interfaces in the Proteon p4200
Internet Router gateway. Each generic network interface of a p4200
configuration is uniquely named by the concatenation of the octet
string represented symbolically as "_GW_impl_Proteon_p4200-R7.4_net-
if" and numerically as:
01 FF 01 01 01
followed by the name of said network interface as described above.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_ovfl-in" and
numerically as 01, has an integer value that represents the number of
input packets dropped due to gateway congestion for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 25]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_ovfl-out" and
numerically as 02, has an integer value that represents the number of
output packets dropped due to gateway congestion for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
such that the initial portion of its name is the concatenation of the
name for a generic network interface followed by the octet string
represented symbolically as "_slftst-pass" and numerically as 03, has
an integer value that represents the number of times the interface
self-test procedure succeeded for the network interface identified by
the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_slftst-fail" and
numerically as 04, has an integer value that represents the number of
times the interface self-test procedure failed for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_maint-fail" and
numerically as 06, has an integer value that represents the number of
times the network maintenance procedure failed for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_csr" and numerically
as 07, has an integer value that represents the internal address of
the device CSR for the network interface identified by the initial
portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a generic network interface followed by
the octet string represented symbolically as "_vec" and numerically
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 26]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
as 08, has an integer value that identifies the device interrupt
vector used by the network interface identified by the initial
portion of its name.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of a ProNET type network interface in the Proteon p4200
Internet Router gateway. Each network interface of a p4200
configuration that supports ProNET media is uniquely named by the
concatenation of the octet string represented symbolically as
"_GW_impl_Proteon_p4200-R7.4_devpn" and numerically as:
01 FF 01 01 04
followed by the name of said network interface as described above.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_node-
number" and numerically as 01, has an integer value that represents
the ProNET node number associated with the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_in-data-
present" and numerically as 02, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that unread data was present in the input packet
buffer for the network interface dentified by the initial portion of
its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_in-
overrun" and numerically as 03, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that a packet copied from the ring exceeded the
size of the packet input buffer on the network interface identified
by the initial portion of its name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 27]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_in-odd-
byte-cnt" and numerically as 04, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that a packet was received with an odd number of
bytes on the network interface identified by the initial portion of
its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_in-
parity-error" and numerically as 05, has an integer value that
represents the number of times that a parity error was detected in a
packet copied from the ring on the network interface identified by
the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_in-bad-
format" and numerically as 06, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that a format error was detected in a packet
copied from the ring on the network interface identified by the
initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_not-in-
ring" and numerically as 07, has an integer value that represents the
number of times that the ProNET wire center relays were detected in
an unenergized state for the network interface identified by the
initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_out-ring-
inits" and numerically as 08, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that ring initialization has been attempted on
the network interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 28]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_out-bad-
format" and numerically as 09, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that an improperly formatted packet was detected
in the course of an output operation on the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a ProNET type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_out-
timeout" and numerically as 0A, has an integer value that represents
the number of times that an attempt to originate a message has been
delayed by more than 700 ms on the network interface identified by
the initial portion of its name.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of an Ethernet type network interface in the Proteon p4200
Internet Router gateway. Each network interface of a p4200
configuration that supports Ethernet media is uniquely named by the
concatenation of the octet string represented symbolically as
"_GW_impl_Proteon_p4200-R7.4_dev-ie" and numerically as:
01 FF 01 01 03
followed by the name of said network interface as described above.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_phys-addr"
and numerically as 01 has an octet string value that literally
represents the Ethernet station address associated with the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_input-
ovfl" and numerically as 02, has an integer value that represents the
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 29]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
number of times the size of a received frame exceeded the maximum
allowable for the network interface identified by the initial portion
of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented0 symbolically as "_input-
dropped" and numerically as 03, has an integer value that represents
the number of times the loss of one or more frames was detected on
the network interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_output-
retry" and numerically as 04, has an integer value that represents
the number of output operations retried as the result of a
transmission failure on the network interface identified by the
initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_output-
fail" and numerically as 05, has an integer value that represents the
number of failed output operations detected on the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_excess-
coll" and numerically as 06, has an integer value that represents the
number of times a transmit frame incurred 16 successive collisions
when attempting media access via the network interface identified by
the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_frag-rcvd"
and numerically as 07, has an integer value that represents the
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 30]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
number of collision fragments (i.e., "runt packets") that were
received and filtered by the controller for the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_frames-
lost" and numerically as 08, has an integer value that represents the
number of frames not accepted by the Receive FIFO due to insufficient
space for the network interface identified by the initial portion of
its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_multicst-
accept" and numerically as 09, has an integer value that represents
the number of frames received with a multicast-group destination
address that matches one of those assigned to the controller for the
network interface identified by the initial portion of said variable
name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_multicst-
reject" and numerically as 0A, has an integer value that represents
the number of frames detected as having a multicast-group destination
address that matches none of those assigned to the controller for the
network interface identified by the initial portion of said variable
name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_crc-error"
and numerically as 0B, has an integer value that represents the
number of frames received with a CRC error on the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 31]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_alignmnt-
error" and numerically as 0C, has an integer value that represents
the number of frames received with an alignment error on the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name. A received
frame is said to have an alignment error if its received length is
not an integral multiple of 8 bits.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as
"_collisions" and numerically as 0D, has an integer value that
represents the number of collisions incurred during transmissions on
the network interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for an Ethernet type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_out-of-
window-coll" and numerically as 0E, has an integer value that
represents the number of out-ofwindow collisions incurred during
transmissions on the network interface identified by the initial
portion of its name. Outof-window collisions are those occurring
after the first 51.2 microseconds of slot time.
This section describes a related set of variables that represent
attributes of an serial line type network interface in the Proteon
p4200 Internet Router gateway. Each network interface of a p4200
configuration that supports serial communications is uniquely named
by the concatenation of the octet string represented symbolically as
"_GW_impl_Proteon_p4200-R7.4_dev-sl" and numerically as:
01 FF 01 01 05
followed by the name of said network interface as described above.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-pkts"
and numerically as 01, has an integer value that represents the
number of packets transmitted on the network interface identified by
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 32]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-
framing-error" and numerically as 02, has an integer value that
represents the number of transmission framing errors for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-
underrns" and numerically as 03, has an integer value that represents
the number of transmission underrun errors for the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-no-dcd"
and numerically as 04, has an integer value that represents the
number of times transmission failed due to absence of the EIA Data
Carrier Detect signal on the network interface identified by the
initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-no-cts"
and numerically as 05, has an integer value that represents the
number of times transmission failed due to absence of the EIA Clear
To Send signal on the network interface identified by the initial
portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_tx-no-dsr"
and numerically as 06, has an integer value that represents the
number of times transmission failed due to absence of the EIA Data
Set Ready signal on the network interface identified by the initial
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 33]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-pkts"
and numerically as 07, has an integer value that represents the
number of packets received on the network interface identified by the
initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-
framing-err" and numerically as 08, has an integer value that
represents the number of receive framing errors on the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-
overrns" and numerically as 09, has an integer value that represents
the number of receive overrun errors on the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-aborts"
and numerically as 0A, has an integer value that represents the
number of aborted frames received on the network interface identified
by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-crc-
err" and numerically as 0B, has an integer value that represents the
number of frames received with CRC errors on the network interface
identified by the initial portion of its name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 34]
RFC 1028 Simple Gateway Monitoring November 1987
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-buf-
ovfl" and numerically as 0C, has an integer value that represents the
number of received frames whose size exceeded the maximum allowable
on the network interface identified by the initial portion of its
name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-buf-
locked" and numerically as 0D, has an integer value that represents
the number of received frames lost for lack of an available buffer on
the network interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
A variable such that the initial portion of its name is the
concatenation of the name for a serial line type network interface
followed by the octet string represented symbolically as "_rx-line-
speed" and numerically as 0E, has an integer value that represents an
estimate of serial line bandwidth in bits per second for the network
interface identified by the initial portion of its name.
Davin, Case, Fedor and Schoffstall [Page 35]