Subject: [Uta] Minimal API for the basic (D)TLS operation? (concerns draft-ietf-taps-transports-usage)

From: Naeem Khademi <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 15:51:01 +0200

Hi

I am writing this as one of the authors of the
draft-ietf-taps-transports-usage and as a result of our WG discussions
during the TAPS meeting in Buenos Aires. This draft tries to derive a list
of transport service features and primitives (function-calls) provided by
the transport protocols to the application. This is an initial milestone
for building a TAPS system. It proposes a 3-pass process as a systematic
way to derive the primitives and transport service features based on the
IETF-based (abstract) APIs of transport protocols that are currently
covered by the draft.

   - The draft can be found here (currently covering TCP and SCTP only):
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-taps-transports-usage-00
   - A companion draft covering UDP/UDP-Lite (to be merged with above draft
   eventually):
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-fairhurst-taps-transports-usage-udp-01

The WG’s plan is to have (D)TLS included, initially as an independent draft
which applies the same exact process (Appendix B of
draft-ietf-taps-transports-usage-00) and eventually merging into our draft
as it matures. However we have some questions with regards to this:

*A) Is there a definition of minimal API available that covers the basic
operation? B) If not, is there enough energy in the WG(s) (UTA, TLS) to
define such an API? *

To clarify: we would like to make our lives easier by being able to just
say that (D)TLS can run OVER our TAPS system - but then it may make sense
to layer (D)TLS under a transport that we would base the TAPS system on, so
this is why things get a bit more complicated here.

Cheers,
Naeem