Network Working Group                                          M. Tuexen
Request for Comments: 4820            Muenster Univ. of Applied Sciences
Category: Standards Track                                     R. Stewart
                                                                 P. Lei
                                                    Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                             March 2007


                     Padding Chunk and Parameter
         for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)

Status of This Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

  This document defines a padding chunk and a padding parameter and
  describes the required receiver side procedures.  The padding chunk
  is used to pad a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) packet
  to an arbitrary size.  The padding parameter is used to pad an SCTP
  INIT chunk to an arbitrary size.

Table of Contents

  1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  2.  Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  3.  Padding Chunk (PAD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  4.  Padding Parameter (PAD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
    5.1.  A New Chunk Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
    5.2.  A New Parameter Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  7.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
    8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
    8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5






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RFC 4820          Padding Chunk and Parameter for SCTP        March 2007


1.  Introduction

  This document defines a padding chunk and a padding parameter and
  describes the required receiver side procedures.  The padding chunk
  is used to pad an SCTP packet to an arbitrary size.  The padding
  parameter is used to pad an SCTP INIT chunk to an arbitrary size.
  The usage of the PAD chunk for path MTU discovery is described in
  PMTU [4].  The inappropriate usage of the PAD parameter or PAD chunk
  can result in wasted bandwidth.

2.  Conventions

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
  "OPTIONAL", when they appear in this document, are to be interpreted
  as described in RFC 2119 [1].

3.  Padding Chunk (PAD)

  This chunk is used to pad an SCTP packet.  A PAD chunk can be used to
  enlarge the packet by 4 to 65536 bytes in steps of 4 bytes.  An SCTP
  packet MAY contain multiple PAD chunks.

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  | Type = 0x84   |   Flags=0     |             Length            |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                                                               |
  \                         Padding Data                          /
  /                                                               \
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                Figure 1

  Type: 1 byte (unsigned integer)
     This value MUST be set to 0x84 for all PAD chunks.

  Flags: 1 byte (unsigned integer)
     This value SHOULD be set to zero on transmit and MUST be ignored
     on receipt.

  Length: 2 bytes (unsigned integer)
     This value holds the length of the Padding Data plus 4.







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RFC 4820          Padding Chunk and Parameter for SCTP        March 2007


  Padding Data: n bytes (unsigned integer)
     This holds the Padding Data.  The Padding Data MUST be ignored by
     the receiver.

  The receiver of the PAD chunk MUST discard this chunk and continue
  processing the rest of the chunks in the packet.  Please note that
  this is also the required processing behavior for any unknown chunk
  having the same highest-order two bits of the type as the PAD chunk.

4.  Padding Parameter (PAD)

  This parameter is used to pad an INIT chunk.  A PAD parameter can be
  used to enlarge the INIT chunk by 4 bytes as the minimum to the
  maximum size of the INIT chunk in steps of 4 bytes.  An INIT chunk
  MAY contain multiple PAD parameters.

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |     Parameter Type = 0x8005   |       Parameter Length        |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  /                                                               /
  \                          Padding Data                         \
  /                                                               /
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                Figure 2

  Parameter Type: 2 bytes (unsigned integer)
     This value MUST be set to 0x8005.

  Parameter Length: 2 bytes (unsigned integer)
     This value holds the length of the Padding Data plus 4.

  The PAD parameter MAY be included only in the INIT chunk.  It MUST
  NOT be included in any other chunk.  The receiver of the PAD
  parameter MUST silently discard this parameter and continue
  processing the rest of the INIT chunk.  This means that the size of
  the generated COOKIE parameter in the INIT-ACK MUST NOT depend on the
  existence of the PAD parameter in the INIT chunk.  A receiver of a
  PAD parameter MUST NOT include the PAD parameter within any State
  Cookie parameter it generates.









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RFC 4820          Padding Chunk and Parameter for SCTP        March 2007


5.  IANA Considerations

  This document is the reference for all registrations described in
  this section.  All registrations have been listed in the document
  available at sctp-parameters [3].  The changes are described below.

5.1.  A New Chunk Type

  A chunk type for the PAD chunk has been assigned by IANA.  The value
  has been assigned as described in Figure 1.  The following has been
  added to the "CHUNK TYPES" table of sctp-parameters [3]:

  CHUNK TYPES

  ID Value    Chunk Type                                     Reference
  --------    ----------                                     ---------
  132(0x84)   Padding Chunk (PAD)                            [RFC4820]

5.2.  A New Parameter Type

  A parameter type has been assigned for the PAD parameter by IANA.
  The value has been assigned as described in Figure 2.  The following
  has been added to the "CHUNK PARAMETER TYPES" table in sctp-
  parameters [3]:

  INIT Chunk Parameter Types

  Chunk Parameter Type                       Value
  --------------------                       -----
  Padding                            32773(0x8005)

6.  Security Considerations

  This document does not add any additional security considerations to
  the ones given in RFC 2960 [2].

7.  Acknowledgments

  The authors wish to thank Matthew J. Zekauskas and Lars Eggert for
  their invaluable comments.











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RFC 4820          Padding Chunk and Parameter for SCTP        March 2007


8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [1]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
       Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [2]  Stewart, R., Xie, Q., Morneault, K., Sharp, C., Schwarzbauer,
       H., Taylor, T., Rytina, I., Kalla, M., Zhang, L., and V. Paxson,
       "Stream Control Transmission Protocol", RFC 2960, October 2000.

8.2.  Informative References

  [3]  "IANA registry",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/sctp-parameters>.

  [4]  Mathis, M. and J. Heffner, "Packetization Layer Path MTU
       Discovery", RFC 4821, March 2007.

Authors' Addresses

  Michael Tuexen
  Muenster Univ. of Applied Sciences
  Stegerwaldstr. 39
  48565 Steinfurt
  Germany

  EMail: [email protected]


  Randall R. Stewart
  Cisco Systems, Inc.
  4875 Forest Drive
  Suite 200
  Columbia, SC  29206
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]


  Peter Lei
  Cisco Systems, Inc.
  955 Happfield Dr.
  Arlington Heights, IL  60004
  US

  Phone: +1 773 695-8201
  EMail: [email protected]



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RFC 4820          Padding Chunk and Parameter for SCTP        March 2007


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Acknowledgement

  Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
  Internet Society.







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