Subject: [Int-area] Re: I-D ACTION:draft-aboba-ip-config-00.txt

From: Pekka Savola <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:20:41 +0200 (EET)

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007, [email-masked] wrote:
> 	Title		: Principles of Internet Host Configuration
> 	Author(s)	: B. Aboba, D. Thaler
> 	Filename	: draft-aboba-ip-config-00.txt
> 	Pages		: 16
> 	Date		: 2007-2-26
>
>   This document describes basic principles of Internet host
>   configuration.  It covers issues relating to configuration of
>   parameters that affect the Internet layer, as well as parameters
>   affecting higher layer protocols.

A good draft which I agree with.

In general, some specific examples would help but as this is a 
'principles' document, maybe its role doesn't include including 
examples :-).

The draft states in section 4.1 that boot config in particular needs 
to be secured.  As stated in many places elsewhere in the draft, this 
is particularly difficult to achieve given that at that stage there is 
usually no support for much of anything relating to security.

As such the draft left me wondering a bit about this in more general 
(not just related to boot config but otherwise as well), "so.. are 
there any solutions or guidelines how to go about solving these 
difficult bootstrap problems?"

Similarly, the draft brings up service discovery protocols and their 
role, but it wasn't very obvious to me what the actual bottomline was. 
Maybe the text was written in this way because the service discovery 
protocols discussed there haven't been very widely used or implemented 
so in practice you probably couldn't have strong statements on this.

As editorial nits, in IP address terminology (section 1.1), instead 
of:

     As a result, the host
      can now receive unicast IP packets, rather requiring that IP
      packets be sent to the broadcast or multicast address.

you likely mean:

     As a result, the host
      can now receive unicast IP packets, rather than requiring that IP
      packets be sent to the broadcast or a multicast address.

(assuming 'the broadcast' means 255.255.255.255 and  'multicast' one 
or more IP-address independent group addresses.)

Also, in:

Subnet prefix(es)
      Once a subnet prefix is configured, hosts with an IP address can
      now send and receive unicast IP packets from on-link hosts.

Default gateway(s)
      Once a default gateway is configured, hosts with an IP address can
      now send and receive unicast IP packets from off-link hosts.

.. it's actually subtler than that (though it's not clear whether this 
has impact on this draft), as the host should be able to _receive_ 
unicast IP packets even when these would not be configured, shouldn't 
it?  (After all, ARP doesn't case about IP subnet masks..)

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings

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From: Jari Arkko <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:42:51 +0100

I have also read this draft, and agreed with its conclusions.
Thanks for writing this, Bernard and Dave!

Jari