PIM Message Registry: A Registry for PIM Message Types
A central registry for Protocol Independent Multicast message types.
Venaas, S., "A Registry for PIM Message Types", RFC 6166, DOI 10.17487/RFC6166, April 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6166>.
@misc{rfc6166,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 6166,
howpublished = {RFC 6166},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC6166},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6166},
author = {S. Venaas},
title = {{A Registry for PIM Message Types}},
pagetotal = 4,
year = 2011,
month = apr,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Venaas
Request for Comments: 6166 Cisco Systems
Category: Standards Track April 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
A Registry for PIM Message Types
Abstract
This document provides instructions to IANA for the creation of a
registry for PIM message types. It specifies the initial content of
the registry, based on existing RFCs specifying PIM message types.
It also specifies a procedure for registering new types.
In addition to this, one message type is reserved, and may be used
for a future extension of the message type space.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6166.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Security Considerations .........................................2
3. IANA Considerations .............................................2
3.1. Initial Registry ...........................................3
3.2. Assignment of New Message Types ............................3
4. Acknowledgements ................................................3
5. Informative References ..........................................3
1. Introduction
Apart from this document, there is no existing document specifying a
registry for PIM message types. PIM version 1 made use of IGMP
[RFC1112], and there is an IGMP registry [IGMPREG] listing the
message types used by PIM version 1. PIM version 2, however, is not
based on IGMP, and a separate PIM message type registry is needed.
There are currently several RFCs specifying new PIM version 2 message
types that should be in this new registry. They are the RFCs for PIM
Dense Mode [RFC3973], PIM Sparse Mode [RFC4601], and Bidirectional
PIM [RFC5015].
This document specifies the initial content of the new PIM message
type registry, based on those existing RFCs. This document also
specifies a procedure for registering new PIM message types.
In addition to this, this document reserves one message type. This
type may be used for a future extension of the message type space.
The current message type space is only 4 bits, so it is not unlikely
that this will be needed. How exactly the extension should be done
is left to a future document.
2. Security Considerations
This document only creates an IANA registry. There may be a security
benefit in a well-known place for finding information on which PIM
message types are valid and how they are used. Apart from that,
there are no security considerations.
3. IANA Considerations
IANA has created a PIM message type registry. It has been placed in
the "Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM)" branch of the tree. Each
entry in the registry consists of a message type, a message name, and
references to the documents defining the type. The message type is a
4-bit integer with possible values from 0 to 15.
3.1. Initial Registry
The initial content of the registry should be as follows.
Type Name Reference
------ ---------------------------------------- -------------------
0 Hello [RFC3973] [RFC4601]
1 Register [RFC4601]
2 Register Stop [RFC4601]
3 Join/Prune [RFC3973] [RFC4601]
4 Bootstrap [RFC4601]
5 Assert [RFC3973] [RFC4601]
6 Graft [RFC3973]
7 Graft-Ack [RFC3973]
8 Candidate RP Advertisement [RFC4601]
9 State Refresh [RFC3973]
10 DF Election [RFC5015]
11-14 Unassigned
15 Reserved (for extension of type space) this document
3.2. Assignment of New Message Types
Assignment of new message types is done according to the "IETF
Review" model; see [RFC5226].
4. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Toerless Eckert for his suggestion to reserve a type for
future extension of the message type space. Also thanks to Mykyta
Yevstifeyev for reviewing the document and proposing improvements to
the text.
5. Informative References
[IGMPREG] IANA, "Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Type
Numbers - per [RFC3228], [BCP57]", <http://www.iana.org/>.
[RFC1112] Deering, S., "Host extensions for IP multicasting", STD 5,
RFC 1112, August 1989.
[RFC3973] Adams, A., Nicholas, J., and W. Siadak, "Protocol
Independent Multicast - Dense Mode (PIM-DM): Protocol
Specification (Revised)", RFC 3973, January 2005.
[RFC4601] Fenner, B., Handley, M., Holbrook, H., and I. Kouvelas,
"Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM):
Protocol Specification (Revised)", RFC 4601, August 2006.
[RFC5015] Handley, M., Kouvelas, I., Speakman, T., and L. Vicisano,
"Bidirectional Protocol Independent Multicast (BIDIR-
PIM)", RFC 5015, October 2007.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
Author's Address
Stig Venaas
Cisco Systems
Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
EMail: stig@cisco.com
AI ELI5
On this page
§1Introduction
Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is used by routers to manage multicast groups. PIM version 1 used the IGMP protocol and had a registry for message types, but PIM version 2 is independent and needed its own registry. Multiple RFCs like RFC 3973 (PIM Dense Mode), RFC 4601 (PIM Sparse Mode), and RFC 5015 (Bidirectional PIM) defined new message types without a central place to list them all.
Multicast routers need to understand different kinds of messages. Different RFCs added new message types, so they needed a checklist.
§2The Registry
RFC 6166 creates a PIM message type registry in the Protocol Independent Multicast branch at IANA. The message type field is 4 bits, allowing values from 0 to 15. The initial registry includes 10 assigned types: Hello, Register, Register Stop, Join/Prune, Bootstrap, Assert, Graft, Graft-Ack, Candidate RP Advertisement, and State Refresh. Types 11-14 are unassigned, and type 15 is reserved for future extension of the message type space. New types are assigned through IETF Review, meaning they must be defined in a published RFC.
There are 16 numbered slots (0-15) for different message types. Ten are already taken, four are open, and one is saved for if they need to expand in the future.
§3Status
RFC 6166 is a Proposed Standard that was obsoleted by RFC 8736. The PIM message type registry it created is maintained by IANA.
This RFC set up the message type list. A newer RFC (8736) has since taken over the role.