RFC6172: Deprecation of the Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) Address Translation Mode
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(FCIP)
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. Black
Request for Comments: 6172 EMC
Updates: 4172 D. Peterson
Category: Standards Track Brocade
ISSN: 2070-1721 March 2011
Deprecation of the Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP)
Address Translation Mode
Abstract
Changes to Fibre Channel have caused the specification of the
Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) address translation mode to
become incorrect. Due to the absence of usage of iFCP address
translation mode, it is deprecated by this document. iFCP address
transparent mode remains correctly specified.
iFCP address transparent mode has been implemented and is in current
use; therefore, it is not affected by this document.
This document also records the state of Protocol Number 133, which
was allocated for a pre-standard version of the Fibre Channel
Internet Protocol (FCIP).
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/rfc6172.
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RFC 6172 iFCP and Protocol 133 Updates March 2011
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
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction...................................................3
2. Conventions Used in This Document..............................3
3. iFCP Address Translation Mode..................................3
3.1. Problem Discussion........................................4
3.2. iFCP Address Translation Mode Deprecation.................4
4. FCIP and Protocol Number 133...................................5
5. Security Considerations........................................5
6. IANA Considerations............................................5
7. Conclusions....................................................5
8. References.....................................................5
8.1. Normative References......................................5
8.2. Informative References....................................6
9. Acknowledgments ...............................................6
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RFC 6172 iFCP and Protocol 133 Updates March 2011
1. Introduction
See Section 3 of [RFC4172] for introductory material on Fibre Channel
concepts.
The Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) [RFC4172] operates in two
modes with respect to Fibre Channel N_PORT fabric addresses (24-bit
N_PORT_IDs): address transparent mode and address translation mode
(both modes are specified in [RFC4172]):
o Address transparent mode is a pass-through mode that preserves
Fibre Channel N_PORT fabric addresses.
o Address translation mode is a Fibre Channel analog to Network
Address Translation (NAT) in which iFCP gateways change Fibre
Channel N_PORT fabric addresses at the boundary between Fibre
Channel and the Internet. Both the source (S_ID) and destination
(D_ID) N_PORT fabric addresses may be changed by the iFCP
gateways.
This document deprecates iFCP address translation mode because the
specification has not tracked changes in Fibre Channel and because
there are no known implementations.
Protocol Number 133 was allocated for a pre-standard version of the
Fibre Channel Internet Protocol (FCIP) that encapsulated FC frames
directly in IP packets. That protocol number is not used by the
standard FCIP protocol [RFC3821] [FC-BB-3], but implementations of
the pre-standard protocol were deployed. Therefore, this document
makes no change to the current allocation of Protocol Number 133.
2. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
3. iFCP Address Translation Mode
iFCP address translation mode has to translate addresses embedded in
transmitted data. This is analogous to NAT translation of IP
addresses embedded in IP packets. Fibre Channel restricts the
occurrence of embedded fabric addresses to control messages (frames);
N_PORTs send and receive two types of control frames that may contain
embedded fabric addresses:
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o Extended Link Services (ELSs); and
o FC-4 Link Services (FC-4 LSs) for the Small Computer System
Interface (SCSI) over Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP).
The embedded fabric address translations for N_PORT control frames
are specified in Section 7.3 of [RFC4172]. These translations were
correct as specified for Fibre Channel as of approximately 2003,
based on the [FC-FS] standard for ELSs and the [FCP] standard for FCP
FC-4 LSs.
3.1. Problem Discussion
Significant changes have been made to FC control frames since the
iFCP specification [RFC4172] was published; the currently applicable
FC standards are [FC-LS] and [FCP-3], and additional changes are
forthcoming in the [FC-LS-2] and [FCP-4] standards projects, which
are nearing completion. These changes have caused Section 7.3 of
[RFC4172] to become incorrect.
Actual iFCP deployment has diverged significantly from that
anticipated during the development of [RFC4172]. All deployments of
iFCP known to the authors of this document use iFCP address
transparent mode and are used only for FC inter-switch links. iFCP
address translation mode as specified in [RFC4172] cannot be used for
FC inter-switch links because the necessary embedded fabric address
translations for FC inter-switch control messages (Switch Fabric
Internal Link Services (ILSs)) have not been specified.
3.2. iFCP Address Translation Mode Deprecation
For the reasons described above, it is prudent to deprecate iFCP
address translation mode in preference to updating it to the current
state of Fibre Channel standards. Updating iFCP address translation
mode would create a continuing requirement to update an unused
protocol mode to match future changes to FC control frames.
Therefore, this document deprecates iFCP address translation mode:
o iFCP address translation mode [RFC4172] SHOULD NOT be implemented
and SHOULD NOT be used.
o The status of [RFC4172] remains Proposed Standard RFC in order to
retain the specification of iFCP address transparent mode.
o The [RFC4172] specification of iFCP address translation mode
should be treated as Historic [RFC2026].
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RFC 6172 iFCP and Protocol 133 Updates March 2011
4. FCIP and Protocol Number 133
Protocol Number 133 was allocated for Fibre Channel (FC) [IANA-IP]
and used by a pre-standard version of the FCIP protocol that
encapsulates FC frames directly in IP packets. The standard FCIP
protocol [RFC3821] [FC-BB-3] encapsulates FC frames in TCP and hence
does not use Protocol Number 133, but implementations of the pre-
standard version of the FCIP protocol were deployed [MR]. Based on
this deployment, the protocol number needs to remain allocated.
5. Security Considerations
The security considerations for iFCP continue to apply; see Section
10 of [RFC4172].
6. IANA Considerations
IANA has added this document as a supplemental reference for the
allocation of Protocol Number 133 but hasn't changed that allocation.
7. Conclusions
For the reasons described in this document, iFCP Address Translation
mode is deprecated, and the allocation of Protocol Number 133 remains
unchanged at this time.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[FC-FS] Fibre Channel Framing and Signaling Interface (FC-FS), ANSI
INCITS 373-2003, October 2003.
[FC-LS] Fibre Channel - Link Services (FC-LS), ANSI INCITS
433-2007, July 2007.
[FCP] Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), ANSI INCITS 269-1996, April
1996.
[FCP-3] Fibre Channel Protocol - 3 (FCP-3), ISO/IEC 14776-223:2008,
June 2008.
[IANA-IP] Assigned Internet Protocol Numbers, IANA Registry,
http://www.iana.org, visited October 2010.
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
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RFC 6172 iFCP and Protocol 133 Updates March 2011
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC4172] Monia, C., Mullendore, R., Travostino, F., Jeong, W., and
M. Edwards, "iFCP - A Protocol for Internet Fibre Channel
Storage Networking", RFC 4172, September 2005.
8.2. Informative References
[FC-BB-3] Fibre Channel Backbone - 3 (FC-BB-3), ANSI INCITS 414-2006,
July 2006.
[FC-LS-2] Fibre Channel - Link Services - 2 (FC-LS-2), INCITS Project
2103-D, Technical Committee T11 (www.t11.org).
[FCP-4] Fibre Channel Protocol - 4 (FCP-4), INCITS Project 1828-D,
Technical Committee T10 (www.t10.org).
[MR] Rajagopal, M., Private email communication, June 2009.
[RFC3821] Rajagopal, M., Rodriguez, E., and R. Weber, "Fibre Channel
Over TCP/IP (FCIP)", RFC 3821, July 2004.
9. Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Tom Talpey, David Harrington, Joe
Touch, Paul Hoffman, and Pekka Savola for helpful comments on this
document.
Authors' Addresses
David L. Black
EMC Corporation
176 South Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748
Phone: +1 (508) 293-7953
EMail: david.black@emc.com
David Peterson
Brocade Communications
6000 Nathan Lane North
Plymouth, MN 55442
Phone: +1 (612) 802-3299
EMail: david.peterson@brocade.com
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