Request to Move RFC 1403 to Historic Status
Retiring an unused BGP and OSPF interaction specification.
Meyer, D. and J. Scudder, "Request to Move RFC 1403 to Historic Status", RFC 3166, DOI 10.17487/RFC3166, August 2001, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3166>.
@misc{rfc3166,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 3166,
howpublished = {RFC 3166},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC3166},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3166},
author = {D. Meyer and J. Scudder},
title = {{Request to Move RFC 1403 to Historic Status}},
pagetotal = 3,
year = 2001,
month = aug,
} RFC text
Contents
Network Working Group D. Meyer
Request for Comments: 3166 Sprint
Category: Informational J. Scudder
Cisco Systems
August 2001
Request to Move RFC 1403 to Historic Status
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 (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
RFC 1403, "BGP OSPF Interaction", describes technology which is no
longer used. This document requests that RFC 1403 be moved to
Historic status.
1. Details
During a review of internet standards relating to BGP, it became
apparent that BGP OSPF interaction, as described in RFC 1403, is not
common usage (if at all), and requires significant implementation
complexity. Since this mechanism has not been in use in the public
internet for many years (if ever), it is proposed to reclassify it to
Historic.
2. Security Considerations
Moving RFC 1403 to Historic has no known effect on the security of
the internet.
3. References
[RFC1403] Varadhan, K., "BGP OSPF Interaction", RFC 1403,
January 1993.
4. Authors' Addresses
David Meyer
Sprint
12502 Sunrise Valley Dr
Reston VA, 20191
MS VARESA-0105
EMail: dmm@sprint.net
John Scudder
Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA, 95134
EMail: jgs@cisco.com
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AI ELI5
On this page
§1An Unused Routing Interaction
RFC 1403 specified a way for BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) routing protocols to interact with each other. However, during a standards review, it became clear that this interaction is not in common use and may never have been deployed in the public internet.
The mechanism requires significant implementation complexity in routers, making it impractical without clear operational demand. Since no evidence of deployment exists after many years, reclassifying it as Historic is the appropriate action.
Routers have two ways to share route information with each other. Someone designed a way for these two methods to work together, but nobody ever used it because it was too complicated.
§2Why RFC 1403 Is Not Used
The BGP OSPF interaction described in RFC 1403 is not common usage in practice. The mechanism has not been observed in the public internet for many years, if ever. The complexity involved in implementation does not justify the lack of demand.
This inaction is consistent with general standards practice: when a specification remains undeployed for an extended period and shows no signs of adoption despite opportunity, it is moved to Historic status rather than kept as an active standard.
No one wanted to implement this feature because it was hard and nobody needed it.
§3Impact
Moving RFC 1403 to Historic status has no known effect on the security of the internet. The mechanism was never widely deployed, so retiring it has no negative consequences for existing networks or implementations.
This change does not affect how the internet works today because nobody uses this mechanism anyway.