What’s In A Name?

Name Space Research Group

Internet

In The Beginning

10.1.0.36

128.6.4.1

“SRI-NIC”

etc…

“Red”

ver 4 IHL TOS 0 len

id flags offset

128.6.4.1

10.1.0.36

no options padding

ttl=32 TCP checksum

sport=1938 dport=23

seq=363275463

ack=2742094

cksum=2471 urgent

offset res. flags win

Internet

Complications: NAT, Firewalls & Web Caches

192.22.111.1

192.168.1.2

“SRI-NIC”

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.1

128.6.4.1

Internet

People “borrow” addresses with PPP

192.22.111.1

192.168.1.2

“SRI-NIC”

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.1

128.6.4.1

PPP

Internet

… and with Wireless and DHCP

192.22.111.1

192.168.1.2

“SRI-NIC”

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.1

128.6.4.1

PPP

Internet

Sites are distributing load

192.22.111.1

192.168.1.2

“www.cnn.com”

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.1

128.6.4.1

PPP

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.5

Internet

…Geographically

192.22.111.1

“www.cnn.com”

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

128.6.4.1

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.5

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

129.2.105.125

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.5

201.67.23.5

And Still We Have IP, But…

Internet

192.22.111.1

“www.cnn.com”

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

128.6.4.1

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.5

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.3

129.2.105.125

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.5

201.67.23.5etc…

“Red”

ver 4 IHL TOS 0 lenid flags offset

129.2.105.125201.67.23.5

no options padding

ttl=32 TCP checksum

sport=1938 dport=80seq=363275463ack=2742094

cksum=2471 urgentoffset res. flags win

What’s Changed?

• IP addresses have become ephemeral.

• In many cases we don’t care what host we connect to, so long as it has the service we want.

There is no standard way to uniquely identifyan end point over any period of time.

There is no standard way to uniquely identifyan end point over any period of time.

Enter: Your friendly neighborhood IAB

• Held a workshop to discuss the problem.• Formed a research group full of lots of luminaries.

– Steve Crocker, Steve Bellovin, Steve Deering, JI, Noel Chiappa, Bob Moskowitz, Scott Bradner, Brian Carpenter, Gabriel Montengro, Rob Austein, Lixia Xiang, John Day, Thomas Narten, Matt Holdrege, Randy Stewart, Karen Sollins, Leslie Daigle, John Wroclawski, Henning Schulzrinne, Ran Atkinson, Mike O’Dell, Randy Bush

Coping Mechanisms

• RSIP & MIDCOM– Get through NATs into a single name space– but only for a time– RSIP has stack complications

• Ssh keys– identifies users and hosts to each other– trust model is limited– Solves problem only for SSH

More Coping

• Cookies– Provide a unique way to identify an end point.– Currently only implemented in one direction.

• SCTP adding of transport names– Allows transport names to change midflight.– Specific to SCTP.– Doesn’t provide unique names.

• Purpose built keys (PBKs)– Ad hoc keys: the other end will be the same end at the

end of a communication.

So Who Does The Communicating?

etc…

“Red”

ver 4 IHL TOS 0 lenid flags offset

128.6.4.110.1.0.36

no options padding

ttl=32 TCP checksum

sport=1938 dport=23seq=363275463ack=2742094

cksum=2471 urgentoffset res. flags win

Stack

That State That Represents Some Sort of Entity

Stack

Media

Internet

Transport

Application

A stack name uniquely identifies a stack.A stack name uniquely identifies a stack.

What Do Stack Names Look Like?

• Human readable or binary?

• Administratively or statistically unique?

• Fixed or variable length?

• Is there any structure at all?

(How) do we administer stack names?(How) do we administer stack names?

Where Should Stacks Be Identified?

Application

Transport

Internet

Link

Every Connection

Every Frame

Every Packet

???

At Which Layer?

IPv4 IPv6

TCP UDP SCTP RDP

IRC Oracle NNTP Amanda H.323

HTTP SMTP POP IMAP IMPP FTP

SIP DOOM GNUTELLA IMXP WHOIS BEEP RTSP

IP Version 6

• Large enough address space to eliminate need for NATs

• Low order half may be unique IEEE address (but TCP pseudo header still computes against the whole thing)– And then there (was) “8+8”

• It’s just about here, and it’s just about mobile.

IP Mobility – IPv6Mobile Host 2001:0240:1e1f:0040:…

Server

3ffe:1a33:0:2caa::2

3ffe:1a9a:0:1::1CorrespondentNode

The Internet

Care-of 3ffe:1a33:0:2caa::1

Home Net2001:0240:1e1f:0040::/64

Ok, but…

• Addresses are still tied to interfaces

• No major change to how we do interdomain routing– Address is still aggregated and tied to topology

• MIPv6 home addresses still tied to topology (this is not entirely a bad thing)

Mobility means changing your address, not your name.Mobility means changing your address, not your name.

Binding Between Transport and Internet

Media

Internet

Transport

Application

src addressdst address

zero PTCL TCP Length

Adding A New Layer

Media

Internet

Transport

Application

Identity src namedst name

src namedst name

zero PTCL TCP Length

Or Perhaps Here… (Looks Familiar)

Media

Internet

Transport

Application

Sessionsrc namedst name

The Questions• Is a stable unique name necessary?• Can an additional layer reduce complexity?

– Is MIPv6 good enough?

• What does stack name look like?• What is its lifetime?• What resolution mechanisms are needed?• How is it unique?• And where does it live in the stack?• Security and Privacy considerations-

– PKI Required?

• Can it help with dynamic binding?

Lots of Related Work

• SCTP -- draft-ietf-tsvwg-addip-sctp-05.txt

• PBK -- draft-bradner-pbk-frame-00.txt

• HIP -- draft-moskowitz-hip-arch-02.txt

• MIPv6 -- draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-18.txt

• MIDCOM / RSIP / TIST / …

• GSE -- draft-ietf-ipngwg-gseaddr-00.txt

• Anycast…

NSRG Work

• There’s a draft– draft-irtf-nsrg-report-05.txt

• Ideas mentioned therein take in a lot of opinions– Even so, there are a lot more opinions.

• More help needed.• Mailing list: name-space@external.cisco.com• Subscribe: mailer@cisco.com

– “subscribe name-space yourname@youraddress

Thanks!