Network Working Group H. Kennedy
Request for Comments: 3252 Mimezine
Category: Informational 1 April 2002
Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport
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 (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines a reformulation of IP and two transport layer
protocols (TCP and UDP) as XML applications.
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview
This document describes the Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport
(BLOAT): a reformulation of a widely-deployed network-layer protocol
(IP [RFC791]), and two associated transport layer protocols (TCP
[RFC793] and UDP [RFC768]) as XML [XML] applications. It also
describes methods for transporting BLOAT over Ethernet and IEEE 802
networks as well as encapsulating BLOAT in IP for gatewaying BLOAT
across the public Internet.
1.2. Motivation
The wild popularity of XML as a basis for application-level protocols
such as the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol [RFC3080], the Simple
Object Access Protocol [SOAP], and Jabber [JABBER] prompted
investigation into the possibility of extending the use of XML in the
protocol stack. Using XML at both the transport and network layer in
addition to the application layer would provide for an amazing amount
of power and flexibility while removing dependencies on proprietary
and hard-to-understand binary protocols. This protocol unification
would also allow applications to use a single XML parser for all
aspects of their operation, eliminating developer time spent figuring
out the intricacies of each new protocol, and moving the hard work of
Kennedy Informational [Page 1]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 parsing to the XML toolset. The use of XML also mitigates concerns over "network vs. host" byte ordering which is at the root of many network application bugs. 1.3. Relation to Existing Protocols The reformulations specified in this RFC follow as closely as possible the spirit of the RFCs on which they are based, and so MAY contain elements or attributes that would not be needed in a pure reworking (e.g. length attributes, which are implicit in XML.) The layering of network and transport protocols are maintained in this RFC despite the optimizations that could be made if the line were somewhat blurred (i.e. merging TCP and IP into a single, larger element in the DTD) in order to foster future use of this protocol as a basis for reformulating other protocols (such as ICMP.) Other than the encoding, the behavioral aspects of each of the existing protocols remain unchanged. Routing, address spaces, TCP congestion control, etc. behave as specified in the extant standards. Adapting to new standards and experimental algorithm heuristics for improving performance will become much easier once the move to BLOAT has been completed. 1.4. Requirement Levels The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 2. IPoXML This protocol MUST be implemented to be compliant with this RFC. IPoXML is the root protocol REQUIRED for effective use of TCPoXML (section 3.) and higher-level application protocols. The DTD for this document type can be found in section 7.1. The routing of IPoXML can be easily implemented on hosts with an XML parser, as the regular structure lends itself handily to parsing and validation of the document/datagram and then processing the destination address, TTL, and checksum before sending it on to its next-hop. The reformulation of IPv4 was chosen over IPv6 [RFC2460] due to the wider deployment of IPv4 and the fact that implementing IPv6 as XML would have exceeded the 1500 byte Ethernet MTU. Kennedy Informational [Page 2]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 All BLOAT implementations MUST use - and specify - the UTF-8 encoding of RFC 2279 [RFC2279]. All BLOAT document/datagrams MUST be well- formed and include the XMLDecl. 2.1. IP Description A number of items have changed (for the better) from the original IP specification. Bit-masks, where present have been converted into human-readable values. IP addresses are listed in their dotted- decimal notation [RFC1123]. Length and checksum values are present as decimal integers. To calculate the length and checksum fields of the IP element, a canonicalized form of the element MUST be used. The canonical form SHALL have no whitespace (including newline characters) between elements and only one space character between attributes. There SHALL NOT be a space following the last attribute in an element. An iterative method SHOULD be used to calculate checksums, as the length field will vary based on the size of the checksum. The payload element bears special attention. Due to the character set restrictions of XML, the payload of IP datagrams (which MAY contain arbitrary data) MUST be encoded for transport. This RFC REQUIRES the contents of the payload to be encoded in the base-64 encoding of RFC 2045 [RFC2045], but removes the requirement that the encoded output MUST be wrapped on 76-character lines. Kennedy Informational [Page 3]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 2.2. Example Datagram The following is an example IPoXML datagram with an empty payload: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE ip PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 IP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> <ip> <header length="474"> <version value="4"/> <tos precedence="Routine" delay="Normal" throughput="Normal" relibility="Normal" reserved="0"/> <total.length value="461"/> <id value="1"/> <flags reserved="0" df="dont" mf="last"/> <offset value="0"/> <ttl value="255"/> <protocol value="6"/> <checksum value="8707"/> <source address="10.0.0.22"/> <destination address="10.0.0.1"/> <options> <end copied="0" class="0" number="0"/> </options> <padding pad="0"/> </header> <payload> </payload> </ip> 3. TCPoXML This protocol MUST be implemented to be compliant with this RFC. The DTD for this document type can be found in section 7.2. 3.1. TCP Description A number of items have changed from the original TCP specification. Bit-masks, where present have been converted into human-readable values. Length and checksum and port values are present as decimal integers. To calculate the length and checksum fields of the TCP element, a canonicalized form of the element MUST be used as in section 2.1. An iterative method SHOULD be used to calculate checksums as in section 2.1. The payload element MUST be encoded as in section 2.1. Kennedy Informational [Page 4]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 The TCP offset element was expanded to a maximum of 255 from 16 to allow for the increased size of the header in XML. TCPoXML datagrams encapsulated by IPoXML MAY omit the <?xml?> header as well as the <!DOCTYPE> declaration. 3.2. Example Datagram The following is an example TCPoXML datagram with an empty payload: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE tcp PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 TCP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> <tcp> <tcp.header> <src port="31415"/> <dest port="42424"/> <sequence number="322622954"/> <acknowledgement number="689715995"/> <offset number=""/> <reserved value="0"/> <control syn="1" ack="1"/> <window size="1"/> <urgent pointer="0"/> <checksum value="2988"/> <tcp.options> <tcp.end kind="0"/> </tcp.options> <padding pad="0"/> </tcp.header> <payload> </payload> </tcp> 4. UDPoXML This protocol MUST be implemented to be compliant with this RFC. The DTD for this document type can be found in section 7.3. 4.1. UDP Description A number of items have changed from the original UDP specification. Bit-masks, where present have been converted into human-readable values. Length and checksum and port values are present as decimal integers. Kennedy Informational [Page 5]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 To calculate the length and checksum fields of the UDP element, a canonicalized form of the element MUST be used as in section 2.1. An iterative method SHOULD be used to calculate checksums as in section 2.1. The payload element MUST be encoded as in section 2.1. UDPoXML datagrams encapsulated by IPoXML MAY omit the <?xml?> header as well as the <!DOCTYPE> declaration. 4.2. Example Datagram The following is an example UDPoXML datagram with an empty payload: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE udp PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 UDP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> <udp> <udp.header> <src port="31415"/> <dest port="42424"/> <udp.length value="143"/> <checksum value="2988"/> </udp.header> <payload> </payload> </udp> 5. Network Transport This document provides for the transmission of BLOAT datagrams over two common families of physical layer transport. Future RFCs will address additional transports as routing vendors catch up to the specification, and we begin to see BLOAT routed across the Internet backbone. 5.1. Ethernet BLOAT is encapsulated in Ethernet datagrams as in [RFC894] with the exception that the type field of the Ethernet frame MUST contain the value 0xBEEF. The first 5 octets of the Ethernet frame payload will be 0x3c 3f 78 6d 6c ("<?xml".) 5.2. IEEE 802 BLOAT is encapsulated in IEEE 802 Networks as in [RFC1042] except that the protocol type code for IPoXML is 0xBEEF. Kennedy Informational [Page 6]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 6. Gatewaying over IP In order to facilitate the gradual introduction of BLOAT into the public Internet, BLOAT MAY be encapsulated in IP as in [RFC2003] to gateway between networks that run BLOAT natively on their LANs. 7. DTDs The Transport DTDs (7.2. and 7.3.) build on the definitions in the Network DTD (7.1.) The DTDs are referenced by their PubidLiteral and SystemLiteral (from [XML]) although it is understood that most IPoXML implementations will not need to pull down the DTD, as it will normally be embedded in the implementation, and presents something of a catch-22 if you need to load part of your network protocol over the network. 7.1. IPoXML DTD <!-- DTD for IP over XML. Refer to this DTD as: <!DOCTYPE ip PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 IP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> --> <!-- DTD data types: Digits [0..9]+ Precedence "NetworkControl | InternetworkControl | CRITIC | FlashOverride | Flash | Immediate | Priority | Routine" IP4Addr "dotted-decimal" notation of [RFC1123] Class [0..3] Sec "Unclassified | Confidential | EFTO | MMMM | PROG | Restricted | Secret | Top Secret | Reserved" Compartments [0..65535] Handling [0..65535] TCC [0..16777216] --> Kennedy Informational [Page 7]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 <!ENTITY % Digits "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % Precedence "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % IP4Addr "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % Class "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % Sec "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % Compartments "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % Handling "CDATA"> <!ENTITY % TCC "CDATA"> <!ELEMENT ip (header, payload)> <!ELEMENT header (version, tos, total.length, id, flags, offset, ttl, protocol, checksum, source, destination, options, padding)> <!-- length of header in 32-bit words --> <!ATTLIST header length %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT version EMPTY> <!-- ip version. SHOULD be "4" --> <!ATTLIST version value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT tos EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tos precedence %Precedence; #REQUIRED delay (normal | low) #REQUIRED throughput (normal | high) #REQUIRED relibility (normal | high) #REQUIRED reserved CDATA #FIXED "0"> <!ELEMENT total.length EMPTY> <!-- total length of datagram (header and payload) in octets, MUST be less than 65,535 (and SHOULD be less than 1024 for IPoXML on local ethernets). --> <!ATTLIST total.length value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT id EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= id <= 65,535 --> <!ATTLIST id value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT flags EMPTY> <!-- df = don't fragment, mf = more fragments --> <!ATTLIST flags Kennedy Informational [Page 8]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 reserved CDATA #FIXED "0" df (may|dont) #REQUIRED mf (last|more) #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT offset EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= offset <= 8192 measured in 8 octet (64-bit) chunks --> <!ATTLIST offset value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT ttl EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= ttl <= 255 --> <!ATTLIST ttl value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT protocol EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= protocol <= 255 (per IANA) --> <!ATTLIST protocol value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT checksum EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= checksum <= 65535 (over header only) --> <!ATTLIST checksum value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT source EMPTY> <!ATTLIST source address %IP4Addr; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT destination EMPTY> <!ATTLIST destination address %IP4Addr; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT options ( end | noop | security | loose | strict | record | stream | timestamp )*> <!ELEMENT end EMPTY> <!ATTLIST end copied (0|1) #REQUIRED class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "0"> <!ELEMENT noop EMPTY> <!ATTLIST noop copied (0|1) #REQUIRED class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "1"> <!ELEMENT security EMPTY> Kennedy Informational [Page 9]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 <!ATTLIST security copied CDATA #FIXED "1" class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "2" length CDATA #FIXED "11" security %Sec; #REQUIRED compartments %Compartments; #REQUIRED handling %Handling; #REQUIRED tcc %TCC; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT loose (hop)+> <!ATTLIST loose copied CDATA #FIXED "1" class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "3" length %Digits; #REQUIRED pointer %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT hop EMPTY> <!ATTLIST hop address %IP4Addr; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT strict (hop)+> <!ATTLIST strict copied CDATA #FIXED "1" class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "9" length %Digits; #REQUIRED pointer %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT record (hop)+> <!ATTLIST record copied CDATA #FIXED "0" class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "7" length %Digits; #REQUIRED pointer %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT stream EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= id <= 65,535 --> <!ATTLIST stream copied CDATA #FIXED "1" class CDATA #FIXED "0" number CDATA #FIXED "8" length CDATA #FIXED "4" id %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT timestamp (tstamp)+> <!-- 0 <= oflw <=15 --> Kennedy Informational [Page 10]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 <!ATTLIST timestamp copied CDATA #FIXED "0" class CDATA #FIXED "2" number CDATA #FIXED "4" length %Digits; #REQUIRED pointer %Digits; #REQUIRED oflw %Digits; #REQUIRED flag (0 | 1 | 3) #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT tstamp EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tstamp time %Digits; #REQUIRED address %IP4Addr; #IMPLIED> <!-- padding to bring header to 32-bit boundary. pad MUST be "0"* --> <!ELEMENT padding EMPTY> <!ATTLIST padding pad CDATA #REQUIRED> <!-- payload MUST be encoded as base-64 [RFC2045], as modified by section 2.1 of this RFC --> <!ELEMENT payload (CDATA)> 7.2. TCPoXML DTD <!-- DTD for TCP over XML. Refer to this DTD as: <!DOCTYPE tcp PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 TCP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> --> <!-- the pseudoheader is only included for checksum calculations --> <!ELEMENT tcp (tcp.pseudoheader?, tcp.header, payload)> <!ELEMENT tcp.header (src, dest, sequence, acknowledgement, offset, reserved, control, window, checksum, urgent, tcp.options, padding)> <!ELEMENT src EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= port <= 65,535 --> <!ATTLIST src port %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT dest EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= port <= 65,535 --> Kennedy Informational [Page 11]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 <!ATTLIST dest port %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT sequence EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= number <= 4294967295 --> <!ATTLIST sequence number %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT acknowledgement EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= number <= 4294967295 --> <!ATTLIST acknowledgement number %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT offset EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= number <= 255 --> <!ATTLIST offset number %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT reserved EMPTY> <!ATTLIST reserved value CDATA #FIXED "0"> <!ELEMENT control EMPTY> <!ATTLIST control urg (0|1) #IMPLIED ack (0|1) #IMPLIED psh (0|1) #IMPLIED rst (0|1) #IMPLIED syn (0|1) #IMPLIED fin (0|1) #IMPLIED> <!ELEMENT window EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= size <= 65,535 --> <!ATTLIST window size %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!-- checksum as in ip, but with the following pseudo-header added into the tcp element: --> <!ELEMENT tcp.pseudoheader (source, destination, protocol, tcp.length)> <!-- tcp header + data length in octets. does not include the size of the pseudoheader. --> Kennedy Informational [Page 12]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 <!ELEMENT tcp.length EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tcp.length value %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT urgent EMPTY> <!-- 0 <= pointer <= 65,535 --> <!ATTLIST urgent pointer %Digits; #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT tcp.options (tcp.end | tcp.noop | tcp.mss)+> <!ELEMENT tcp.end EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tcp.end kind CDATA #FIXED "0"> <!ELEMENT tcp.noop EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tcp.noop kind CDATA #FIXED "1"> <!ELEMENT tcp.mss EMPTY> <!ATTLIST tcp.mss kind CDATA #FIXED "2" length CDATA #FIXED "4" size %Digits; #REQUIRED> 7.3. UDPoXML DTD <!-- DTD for UDP over XML. Refer to this DTD as: <!DOCTYPE udp PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD BLOAT 1.0 UDP//EN" "bloat.dtd"> --> <!ELEMENT udp (udp.pseudoheader?, udp.header, payload)> <!ELEMENT udp.header (src, dest, udp.length, checksum)> <!ELEMENT udp.pseudoheader (source, destination, protocol, udp.length)> <!-- udp header + data length in octets. does not include the size of the pseudoheader. --> <!ELEMENT udp.length EMPTY> <!ATTLIST udp.length value %Digits; #REQUIRED> Kennedy Informational [Page 13]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 8. Security Considerations XML, as a subset of SGML, has the same security considerations as specified in SGML Media Types [RFC1874]. Security considerations that apply to IP, TCP and UDP also likely apply to BLOAT as it does not attempt to correct for issues not related to message format. 9. References [JABBER] Miller, J., "Jabber", draft-miller-jabber-00.txt, February 2002. (Work in Progress) [RFC768] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768, August 1980. [RFC791] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791, September 1981. [RFC793] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7, RFC 793, September 1981. [RFC894] Hornig, C., "Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams over Ethernet Networks.", RFC 894, April 1984. [RFC1042] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams Over IEEE 802 Networks", STD 43, RFC 1042, February 1988. [RFC1123] Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support", RFC 1123, October 1989. [RFC1874] Levinson, E., "SGML Media Types", RFC 1874, December 1995. [RFC2003] Perkins, C., "IP Encapsulation within IP", RFC 2003, October 1996. [RFC2045] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2279] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646", RFC 2279, January 1998. Kennedy Informational [Page 14]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 [RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998. [RFC3080] Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC 3080, March 2001. [SOAP] Box, D., Ehnebuske, D., Kakivaya, G., Layman, A., Mendelsohn, N., Nielsen, H. F., Thatte, S. Winer, D., "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1" World Wide Web Consortium Note, May 2000 http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/ [XML] Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, C. M., "Extensible Markup Language (XML)" World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC- xml-19980210. http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210 10. Author's Address Hugh Kennedy Mimezine 1060 West Addison Chicago, IL 60613 USA EMail: kennedyh@engin.umich.edu Kennedy Informational [Page 15]
RFC 3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport 1 April 2002 11. Full Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Acknowledgement Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Kennedy Informational [Page 16]
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