RFC 9184 PROPOSED STANDARD BGP · ROUTING · STANDARDS TRACK
BGP Extended Community Registries Update
Corrects IANA registry labels for BGP Extended Communities that are in real use
RFC EDITOR
Loibl, C., "BGP Extended Community Registries Update", RFC 9184, DOI 10.17487/RFC9184, January 2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9184>.
BIBTEX
@misc{rfc9184,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 9184,
howpublished = {RFC 9184},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC9184},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9184},
author = {C. Loibl},
title = {{BGP Extended Community Registries Update}},
pagetotal = 5,
year = 2022,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) C. Loibl
Request for Comments: 9184 next layer Telekom GmbH
Updates: 7153, 8955 January 2022
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
BGP Extended Community Registries Update
Abstract
This document updates several BGP Extended Community registries in
order to replace the "Experimental Use" registration procedure in
some entries, since their use is clearly not experimental and is thus
misleading.
This document updates RFCs 7153 and 8955.
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 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9184.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2022 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
(https://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 Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the
Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. IANA Considerations
2.1. Registry: BGP Transitive Extended Community Types
2.2. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended
Community Sub-Types
2.3. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended
Community Part 2 Sub-Types
2.4. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended
Community Part 3 Sub-Types
3. Security Considerations
4. References
4.1. Normative References
4.2. Informative References
Acknowledgements
Author's Address
1. Introduction
The IANA registries for the type values and sub-type values of the
BGP Extended Communities attribute were reorganized by [RFC7153]. As
a result, IANA maintains a registry entitled "BGP Transitive Extended
Community Types", which includes a range of type values (0x80-0x8F)
reserved for Experimental Use [RFC8126]. Out of this experimental
range, types 0x80, 0x81, and 0x82 have been used in [RFC5575] and
[RFC7674] (both documents were rendered obsolete by [RFC8955]). The
primary use for those types and the sub-type registries is non-
experimental.
Section 2 describes updates to the registry to reflect the actual use
of those code points by changing the registration procedure from
"Experimental Use" to "First Come First Served" [RFC8126] for the
types 0x80-0x82 (and removing "Experimental Use" from the sub-type
registry names), thereby updating [RFC7153] and [RFC8955].
2. IANA Considerations
2.1. Registry: BGP Transitive Extended Community Types
IANA maintains a registry entitled "BGP Transitive Extended Community
Types". IANA has added RFC 9184 to the reference of this registry.
They have also updated the name of the type values according to
Table 1 and added RFC 9184 as a reference for the existing entries.
+=======+==============================================+===========+
| Type | Name | Reference |
| Value | | |
+=======+==============================================+===========+
| 0x80 | Generic Transitive Extended Community (Sub- | RFC 9184 |
| | Types are defined in the "Generic Transitive | |
| | Extended Community Sub-Types" registry) | |
+-------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+
| 0x81 | Generic Transitive Extended Community Part 2 | RFC 9184 |
| | (Sub-Types are defined in the "Generic | |
| | Transitive Extended Community Part 2 Sub- | |
| | Types" registry) | |
+-------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+
| 0x82 | Generic Transitive Extended Community Part 3 | RFC 9184 |
| | (Sub-Types are defined in the "Generic | |
| | Transitive Extended Community Part 3 Sub- | |
| | Types" registry) | |
+-------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+
Table 1: Registry: BGP Transitive Extended Community Types
Furthermore, IANA has changed the registration procedures of this
registry for type values 0x80 through 0x82 to First Come First Served
[RFC8126]. The resulting registration procedures should read as in
Table 2.
+===========+===============================================+
| Range | Registration Procedures |
+===========+===============================================+
| 0x00-0x3f | First Come First Served |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------+
| 0x80-0x82 | First Come First Served (see RFC 9184) |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------+
| 0x83-0x8f | Reserved for Experimental Use (see [RFC3692]) |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------+
| 0x90-0xbf | Standards Action |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------+
Table 2: Registration Procedures: BGP Transitive Extended
Community Types
2.2. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended Community
Sub-Types
IANA maintains a registry entitled "Generic Transitive Experimental
Use Extended Community Sub-Types". IANA has added RFC 9184 to the
reference of this registry and updated the registry title to:
"Generic Transitive Extended Community Sub-Types"
2.3. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended Community
Part 2 Sub-Types
IANA maintains a registry entitled "Generic Transitive Experimental
Use Extended Community Part 2 Sub-Types". IANA has added RFC 9184 to
the reference of this registry and updated the registry title to:
"Generic Transitive Extended Community Part 2 Sub-Types"
2.4. Registry: Generic Transitive Experimental Use Extended Community
Part 3 Sub-Types
IANA maintains a registry entitled "Generic Transitive Experimental
Use Extended Community Part 3 Sub-Types". IANA has added RFC 9184 to
the reference of this registry and updated the registry title to:
"Generic Transitive Extended Community Part 3 Sub-Types"
3. Security Considerations
There are no direct security considerations arising from this
document.
4. References
4.1. Normative References
[RFC7153] Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "IANA Registries for BGP
Extended Communities", RFC 7153, DOI 10.17487/RFC7153,
March 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7153>.
[RFC8126] Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126>.
4.2. Informative References
[RFC3692] Narten, T., "Assigning Experimental and Testing Numbers
Considered Useful", BCP 82, RFC 3692,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3692, January 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3692>.
[RFC5575] Marques, P., Sheth, N., Raszuk, R., Greene, B., Mauch, J.,
and D. McPherson, "Dissemination of Flow Specification
Rules", RFC 5575, DOI 10.17487/RFC5575, August 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5575>.
[RFC7674] Haas, J., Ed., "Clarification of the Flowspec Redirect
Extended Community", RFC 7674, DOI 10.17487/RFC7674,
October 2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7674>.
[RFC8955] Loibl, C., Hares, S., Raszuk, R., McPherson, D., and M.
Bacher, "Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules",
RFC 8955, DOI 10.17487/RFC8955, December 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8955>.
Acknowledgements
The author wants to thank Alvaro Retana, who pointed out that the
IANA registry contains misleading entries in this context.
Author's Address
Christoph Loibl
next layer Telekom GmbH
Mariahilfer Guertel 37/7
1150 Vienna
Austria
Phone: +43 664 1176414
Email: cl@tix.at
AI ELI5
On this page
PROBLEMBGP Extended Community type values 0x80, 0x81, and 0x82 were labeled as reserved for Experimental Use in IANA registries, but in practice they have been used in production protocols for years.
MECHANISMThis RFC updates the IANA registries to relabel these type values with the correct registration procedure (First Come First Served) and removes the misleading 'Experimental Use' label from related sub-type registry names.
ACCURATE REGISTRY LABELSThe registries now accurately reflect how these code points are actually being used, reducing confusion for new implementers.
§1The Registry Problem
BGP Extended Communities are attributes used in Border Gateway Protocol routing. These attributes are identified by type and sub-type values that IANA maintains in public registries.
Type values 0x80, 0x81, and 0x82 were reserved for Experimental Use, but in practice these exact type values have been used in standardized RFCs (RFC 5575 and RFC 7674, later consolidated in RFC 8955) for real production routing features. The "Experimental Use" label was misleading.
Imagine a list of tools marked as experimental, but everyone uses them as standard tools. The label doesn't match reality.
§2Registry Changes
This RFC updates the registry entries to change the registration procedure from "Experimental Use" (reserved for testing) to "First Come First Served" (allowing actual use). This procedure makes it clear that these type values are available for organizations to use for their own extensions.
The RFC also updates the titles of the related sub-type registries, removing the "Experimental Use" label from their names while keeping the ability to register new sub-types under these main types.
Instead of saying these tools are for testing only, the registry now says people and organizations can use them for their own needs.
§3Impact on BGP Implementations
With this corrected registration procedure, implementers and operators now have clear guidance that type values 0x80, 0x81, and 0x82 are available for use in BGP routing. The types have been used in practical applications like Flowspec (RFC 8955) for controlling traffic engineering.
The accurate registry reduces confusion when organizations or vendors want to define their own extensions using these type values, ensuring they follow the correct registration path rather than assuming the experimental designation prevented deployment.
Now when network operators and software makers want to add new features to BGP routing, the registry clearly tells them these code numbers are theirs to use.
§4References
[RFC7153]RFC 7153Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "IANA Registries for BGP Extended Communities", RFC 7153, March 2014.March 2014[RFC8955]RFC 8955Loibl, C., Hares, S., Raszuk, R., McPherson, D., and M. Bacher, "Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules", RFC 8955, December 2020.December 2020[RFC5575]RFC 5575Marques, P., Sheth, N., Raszuk, R., Greene, B., Mauch, J., and D. McPherson, "Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules", RFC 5575, August 2009.August 2009[RFC8126]RFC 8126Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 8126, June 2017.June 2017