Subject: [Ietf-behave] New draft: Topology Complications

From: Bryan Ford <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 08:47:36 -0800 (PST)

Finally, the following slightly revised and expanded version of the earlier 
"Topology complications" document I announced on the list, is now in the 
official Internet-Drafts repository.

"Topology complications from Network Address Translator deployments"
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ford-behave-top-00.txt

    This document identifies and provides recommendations for dealing with 
issues that have arisen recently from the ubiquitous deployment of network 
address translators (NAT), and the unconventional network topologies that are 
often constructed with them. First, the simplicity of administering networks 
through the combination of NAT and DHCP is increasingly leading to the 
deployment of multi-level hierarchies of inter-connected private networks 
involving overlapping private IP address spaces. The creation of these 
multi-level hierarchies is often unintentional, since each level of NAT is 
typically deployed by a separate administrative entity such as an ISP, a 
corporation, or a home user. Second, the popularity of corporate virtual 
private networks (VPN) in conjunction with NAT leads to problems in which the 
private IP address space of the network through which a remote client is 
attached may unintentionally conflict with the private IP address space of 
the corporate network into which the remote client is tunneled. This document 
specifies best current practice recommendations for addressing the issues 
identified.

  Since I've already received a number of positive comments on the original 
draft privately by E-mail, I'd like to hear public reactions to the idea of 
adopting this draft as a WG document, to be published sometime down the road 
relatively independently of the other documents.  The main complication is 
that there is currently no corresponding WG milestone or work item for this 
document, so one would have to be added.

Thanks!
Bryan