Network Working Group                                         N. Bhaskar
Request for Comments: 5059                                       Arastra
Obsoletes: 2362                                                  A. Gall
Updates: 4601                                                     SWITCH
Category: Standards Track                                     J. Lingard
                                                                Arastra
                                                              S. Venaas
                                                                UNINETT
                                                           January 2008


                  Bootstrap Router (BSR) Mechanism
               for Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM)

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.

Abstract

  This document specifies the Bootstrap Router (BSR) mechanism for the
  class of multicast routing protocols in the PIM (Protocol Independent
  Multicast) family that use the concept of a Rendezvous Point as a
  means for receivers to discover the sources that send to a particular
  multicast group.  BSR is one way that a multicast router can learn
  the set of group-to-RP mappings required in order to function.  The
  mechanism is dynamic, largely self-configuring, and robust to router
  failure.



















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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction ....................................................3
     1.1. Background .................................................3
     1.2. Protocol Overview ..........................................5
     1.3. Administrative Scoping and BSR .............................6
  2. BSR State and Timers ............................................8
  3. Bootstrap Router Election and RP-Set Distribution ...............9
     3.1. Bootstrap Router Election ..................................9
          3.1.1. Per-Scope-Zone Candidate-BSR State Machine .........10
          3.1.2. Per-Scope-Zone State Machine for
                 Non-Candidate-BSR Routers ..........................11
          3.1.3. Bootstrap Message Processing Checks ................13
          3.1.4. State Machine Transition Events ....................14
          3.1.5. State Machine Actions ..............................15
     3.2. Sending Candidate-RP-Advertisement Messages ...............17
     3.3. Creating the RP-Set at the BSR ............................18
     3.4. Forwarding Bootstrap Messages .............................21
     3.5. Bootstrap Messages to New and Rebooting Routers ...........22
          3.5.1. No-Forward Bootstrap Messages ......................23
          3.5.2. Unicasting Bootstrap Messages ......................23
     3.6. Receiving and Using the RP-Set ............................23
  4. Message Formats ................................................24
     4.1. Bootstrap Message Format ..................................26
          4.1.1. Semantic Fragmentation of BSMs .....................30
     4.2. Candidate-RP-Advertisement Message Format .................31
  5. Timers and Timer Values ........................................33
  6. Security Considerations ........................................36
     6.1. Possible Threats ..........................................36
     6.2. Limiting Third-Party DoS Attacks ..........................36
     6.3. Bootstrap Message Security ................................37
          6.3.1. Unicast Bootstrap Messages .........................37
          6.3.2. Multi-Access Subnets ...............................38
     6.4. Candidate-RP-Advertisement Message Security ...............38
          6.4.1. Non-Cryptographic Security of C-RP-Adv Messages ....38
          6.4.2. Cryptographic Security of C-RP-Adv Messages ........39
     6.5. Denial of Service using IPsec .............................39
  7. Contributors ...................................................40
  8. Acknowledgments ................................................40
  9. Normative References ...........................................40
  10. Informative References ........................................41










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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


1.  Introduction

  This document assumes some familiarity with the concepts of Protocol
  Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) [1] and Bidirectional
  Protocol Independent Multicast (BIDIR-PIM) [2], as well as with
  Administratively Scoped IP Multicast [3] and the IPv6 Scoped Address
  Architecture [4].

  For correct operation, every multicast router within a PIM domain
  must be able to map a particular multicast group address to the same
  Rendezvous Point (RP).  The PIM specifications do not mandate the use
  of a single mechanism to provide routers with the information to
  perform this group-to-RP mapping.

  This document describes the PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR) mechanism.
  BSR is one way that a multicast router can learn the information
  required to perform the group-to-RP mapping.  The mechanism is
  dynamic, largely self-configuring, and robust to router failure.

  BSR was first defined in RFC 2362 [7] as part of the original PIM-SM
  specification, which has been obsoleted by RFC 4601 [1].  This
  document provides an updated specification of the BSR mechanism from
  RFC 2362, and also extends it to cope with administratively scoped
  region boundaries and different flavors of routing protocols.

  Throughout the document, any reference to the PIM protocol family is
  restricted to the subset of RP-based protocols, namely PIM-SM and
  BIDIR-PIM, unless stated otherwise.

  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 RFC 2119 [6].

1.1.  Background

  A PIM domain is a contiguous set of routers that all implement PIM
  and are configured to operate within a common boundary defined by PIM
  Multicast Border Routers (PMBRs).  PMBRs connect each PIM domain to
  the rest of the Internet.

  Every PIM multicast group needs to be associated with the IP address
  of a Rendezvous Point (RP).  This address is used as the root of a
  group-specific distribution tree whose branches extend to all nodes
  in the domain that want to receive traffic sent to the group.
  Senders inject packets into the tree in such a manner that they reach
  all connected receivers.  How this is done and how the packets are
  forwarded along the distribution tree depends on the particular
  routing protocol.



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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  For all senders to reach all receivers, it is crucial that all
  routers in the domain use the same mappings of group addresses to RP
  addresses.

  An exception to the above is where a PIM domain has been broken up
  into multiple administrative scope regions.  These are regions where
  a border has been configured so that a set of multicast groups will
  not be forwarded across that border.  In this case, all PIM routers
  within the same scope region must map a particular scoped group to
  the same RP within that region.

  In order to determine the RP for a multicast group, a PIM router
  maintains a collection of group-to-RP mappings, called the RP-Set.  A
  group-to-RP mapping contains the following elements.

     o  Multicast group range, expressed as an address and prefix
        length

     o  RP priority

     o  RP address

     o  Hash mask length

     o  SM / BIDIR flag

  In general, the group ranges of these group-to-RP mappings may
  overlap in arbitrary ways; hence, a particular multicast group may be
  covered by multiple group-to-RP mappings.  When this is the case, the
  router chooses only one of the RPs by applying a deterministic
  algorithm so that all routers in the domain make the same choice.  It
  is important to note that this algorithm is part of the specification
  of the individual routing protocols (and may differ among them), not
  of the BSR specification.  For example, PIM-SM [1] defines one such
  algorithm.  It makes use of a hash function for the case where a
  group range has multiple RPs with the same priority.  The hash mask
  length is used by this function.

  There are a number of ways in which such group-to-RP mappings can be
  established.  The simplest solution is for all the routers in the
  domain to be statically configured with the same information.
  However, static configuration generally doesn't scale well, and,
  except when used in conjunction with Anycast-RP (see [8] and [9]),
  does not dynamically adapt to route around router or link failures.

  The BSR mechanism provides a way in which viable group-to-RP mappings
  can be created and rapidly distributed to all the PIM routers in a
  domain.  It is adaptive, in that if an RP becomes unreachable, this



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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  will be detected and the RP-Sets will be modified so that the
  unreachable RP is no longer used.

1.2.  Protocol Overview

  In this section we give an informal and non-definitive overview of
  the BSR mechanism.  The definitive specification begins in section 2.

  The general idea behind the BSR mechanism is that some of the PIM
  routers within a PIM domain are configured to be potential RPs for
  the domain.  These are known as Candidate-RPs (C-RPs).  A subset of
  the C-RPs will eventually be used as the actual RPs for the domain.
  In addition, some of the PIM routers in the domain are configured to
  be candidate bootstrap routers, or Candidate-BSRs (C-BSRs).  One of
  these C-BSRs will be elected to be the bootstrap router (BSR) for the
  domain, and all the PIM routers in the domain will learn the result
  of this election through Bootstrap messages.  The C-RPs will then
  report their candidacy to the elected BSR, which chooses a subset of
  these C-RPs and distributes corresponding group-to-RP mappings to all
  the routers in the domain through Bootstrap messages.

  In more detail, the BSR mechanism works as follows.  There are four
  basic phases (although in practice, all phases may be occurring
  simultaneously):

  1.  BSR Election.  Each Candidate-BSR originates Bootstrap messages
      (BSMs).  Every BSM contains a BSR Priority field.  Routers within
      the domain flood the BSMs throughout the domain.  A C-BSR that
      hears about a higher-priority C-BSR than itself suppresses its
      sending of further BSMs for some period of time.  The single
      remaining C-BSR becomes the elected BSR, and its BSMs inform all
      the other routers in the domain that it is the elected BSR.

  2.  C-RP Advertisement.  Each Candidate-RP within a domain sends
      periodic Candidate-RP-Advertisement (C-RP-Adv) messages to the
      elected BSR.  A C-RP-Adv message includes the priority of the
      advertising C-RP, as well as a list of group ranges for which the
      candidacy is advertised.  In this way, the BSR learns about
      possible RPs that are currently up and reachable.

  3.  RP-Set Formation.  The BSR selects a subset of the C-RPs that it
      has received C-RP-Adv messages from to form the RP-Set.  In
      general, it should do this in such a way that the RP-Set is
      neither so large that all the routers in the domain cannot be
      informed about it, nor so small that the load is overly
      concentrated on some RPs.  It should also attempt to produce an
      RP-Set that does not change frequently.




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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  4.  RP-Set Flooding.  In future Bootstrap messages, the BSR includes
      the RP-Set information.  Bootstrap messages are flooded through
      the domain, which ensures that the RP-Set rapidly reaches all the
      routers in the domain.  BSMs are originated periodically to
      ensure consistency after failure restoration.

      When a PIM router receives a Bootstrap message, it adds the
      group-to-RP mappings contained therein to its pool of mappings
      obtained from other sources (e.g., static configuration).  It
      calculates the final mappings of group addresses to RP addresses
      from this pool according to rules specific to the particular
      routing protocol and uses that information to construct multicast
      distribution trees.

  If a PIM domain becomes partitioned, each area separated from the old
  BSR will elect its own BSR, which will distribute an RP-Set
  containing RPs that are reachable within that partition.  When the
  partition heals, another election will occur automatically and only
  one of the BSRs will continue to send out Bootstrap messages.  As is
  expected at the time of a partition or healing, some disruption in
  packet delivery may occur.  The duration of the disruption period
  will be on the order of the region's round-trip time and the
  BS_Timeout value.

1.3.  Administrative Scoping and BSR

  The mechanism described in the previous section does not work when
  the PIM domain is divided into administratively scoped regions.  To
  handle this situation, we use the protocol modifications described in
  this section.

  In the remainder of this document, we will use the term scope zone,
  or simply zone, when we are talking about a connected region of
  topology of a given scope.  For a more precise definition of scope
  zones, see [4], which emphasizes that the scope zones are
  administratively configured.

  Administrative scoping permits a PIM domain to be divided into
  multiple admin-scope zones.  Each admin-scope zone is a convex
  connected set of PIM routers and is associated with a set of group
  addresses.  The boundary of the admin-scope zone is formed by Zone
  Border Routers (ZBRs).  ZBRs are configured not to forward traffic
  for any of the scoped group addresses into or out of the scoped zone.
  It is important to note that a given scope boundary always creates at
  least two scoped zones: one on either side of the boundary.






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  In IPv4, administratively scoped zones are associated with a set of
  addresses given by an address and a prefix length.  In IPv6,
  administratively scoped zones are associated with a set of addresses
  given by a single scope ID value.  The set of addresses corresponding
  to a given scope ID value is defined in [5].  For example, a scope ID
  of 5 maps to the 16 IPv6 address ranges ff[0-f]5::/16.

  There are certain topological restrictions on admin-scope zones.  The
  scope zone border must be complete and convex.  By this we mean that
  there must be no path from the inside to the outside of the scoped
  zone that does not pass through a configured scope border router, and
  that the multicast capable path between any arbitrary pair of
  multicast routers in the scope zone must remain in the zone.

  Administrative scoping complicates BSR because we do not want a PIM
  router within the scoped zone to use an RP outside the scoped zone.
  Thus we need to modify the basic mechanism to ensure that this
  doesn't happen.

  This is done by running a separate copy of the basic BSR mechanism,
  as described in the previous section, within each admin-scope zone of
  a PIM domain.  Thus a separate BSR election takes place for each
  admin-scope zone, a C-RP typically registers to the BSR of every
  admin-scope zone it is in, and every PIM router receives Bootstrap
  messages for every scope zone it is in.  The Bootstrap messages sent
  by the BSR for a particular scope zone contain information about the
  RPs that should be used for the set of addresses associated with that
  scope zone.

  Bootstrap messages are marked to indicate which scope zone they
  belong to.  Such admin-scoped Bootstrap messages are flooded in the
  normal way, but will not be forwarded by a ZBR across the boundary
  for that scope zone.

  For the BSR mechanism to function correctly with admin scoping, there
  must be at least one C-BSR within each admin-scope zone, and there
  must be at least one C-RP that is configured to be a C-RP for the set
  of group addresses associated with the scoped zone.

  Even when administrative scoping is used, a copy of the BSR mechanism
  is still used across the entire PIM domain in order to distribute RP
  information for groups that are not administratively scoped.  We call
  this copy of the mechanism non-scoped BSR.  The copies of the
  mechanism run for each admin-scope zone are called scoped BSR.

  Only the C-BSRs and the ZBRs need to be configured to know about the
  existence of the scope zones.  Other routers, including the C-RPs,
  learn of their existence from Bootstrap messages.



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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  All PIM routers within a PIM bootstrap domain where admin-scope
  ranges are in use must be capable of receiving Bootstrap messages and
  storing the winning BSR and RP-Set for all admin-scope zones that
  apply.  Thus, PIM routers that only implement RFC 2362 or non-scoped
  BSR (which only allows one BSR per domain) cannot be used within the
  admin-scope zones of a PIM domain.

2.  BSR State and Timers

  A PIM router implementing BSR holds the following state.

    RP-Set

    Per Configured or Learned Scope Zone (Z):

         At all routers:

              Current Bootstrap Router's IP Address

              Current Bootstrap Router's BSR Priority

              Last BSM received from current BSR

              Bootstrap Timer (BST(Z))

              Per group-to-RP mapping (M):

                   Group-to-RP mapping Expiry Timer (GET(M,Z))

         At a Candidate-BSR for Z:

              My state: One of "Candidate-BSR", "Pending-BSR",
                   "Elected-BSR"

         At a router that is not a Candidate-BSR for Z:

              My state: One of "Accept Any", "Accept Preferred"

              Scope-Zone Expiry Timer (SZT(Z))

         At the current Bootstrap Router for Z only:

              Per group-to-C-RP mapping (M):

                   Group-to-C-RP mapping Expiry Timer (CGET(M,Z))






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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


    At a C-RP only:

         C-RP Advertisement Timer (CRPT)

3.  Bootstrap Router Election and RP-Set Distribution

3.1.  Bootstrap Router Election

  For simplicity, Bootstrap messages are used in both the BSR election
  and the RP-Set distribution mechanisms.

  Each Bootstrap message indicates the scope to which it belongs.  If
  the Admin Scope Zone bit is set in the first group range in the
  Bootstrap message, the message is called a scoped BSM.  If the Admin
  Scope Zone bit is not set in the first group range in the Bootstrap
  message, the message is called a non-scoped BSM.

  In a scoped IPv4 BSM, the scope of the message is given by the first
  group range in the message, which can be any sub-range of 224/4.  In
  a scoped IPv6 BSM, the scope of the message is given by the scope ID
  of the first group range in the message, which must have a mask
  length of at least 16.  For example, a group range of ff05::/16 with
  the Admin Scope Zone bit set indicates that the Bootstrap message is
  for the scope with scope ID 5.  If the mask length of the first group
  range in a scoped IPv6 BSM is less than 16, the message MUST be
  dropped and a warning SHOULD be logged.

  The state machine for Bootstrap messages depends on whether or not a
  router has been configured to be a Candidate-BSR for a particular
  scope zone.  The per-scope-zone state machine for a C-BSR is given
  below, followed by the state machine for a router that is not
  configured to be a C-BSR.

  A key part of the election mechanism is that we associate a weight
  with each BSR.  The weight of a BSR is defined to be the
  concatenation in fixed-precision unsigned arithmetic of the BSR
  Priority field from the Bootstrap message and the IP address of the
  BSR from the Bootstrap message (with the BSR Priority taking the
  most-significant bits and the IP address taking the least-significant
  bits).











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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


3.1.1.  Per-Scope-Zone Candidate-BSR State Machine

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                      When in C-BSR state                          |
  +----------+-----------------+-------------------+------------------+
  | Event    |  Receive        |  Bootstrap        | Receive Non-     |
  |          |  Preferred BSM  |  Timer Expires    | preferred BSM    |
  |          |                 |                   | from Elected     |
  |          |                 |                   | BSR              |
  +----------+-----------------+-------------------+------------------+
  |          |  -> C-BSR state |  -> P-BSR state   | -> P-BSR state   |
  |          |  Forward BSM;   |  Set Bootstrap    | Forward BSM;     |
  | Action   |  Store RP-Set;  |  Timer to         | Set Bootstrap    |
  |          |  Set Bootstrap  |  BS_Rand_Override | Timer to         |
  |          |  Timer to       |                   | BS_Rand_Override |
  |          |  BS_Timeout     |                   |                  |
  +----------+-----------------+-------------------+------------------+

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                        When in P-BSR state                        |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+
  | Event     |  Receive         |  Bootstrap       |  Receive Non-   |
  |           |  Preferred BSM   |  Timer Expires   |  preferred BSM  |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+
  |           |  -> C-BSR state  |  -> E-BSR state  |  -> P-BSR state |
  |           |  Forward BSM;    |  Originate BSM;  |  Forward BSM    |
  | Action    |  Store RP-Set;   |  Set Bootstrap   |                 |
  |           |  Set Bootstrap   |  Timer to        |                 |
  |           |  Timer to        |  BS_Period       |                 |
  |           |  BS_Timeout      |                  |                 |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                        When in E-BSR state                        |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+
  | Event     |  Receive         |  Bootstrap       |  Receive Non-   |
  |           |  Preferred BSM   |  Timer Expires   |  preferred BSM  |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+
  |           |  -> C-BSR state  |  -> E-BSR state  |  -> E-BSR state |
  |           |  Forward BSM;    |  Originate BSM;  |  Originate BSM; |
  | Action    |  Store RP-Set;   |  Set Bootstrap   |  Set Bootstrap  |
  |           |  Set Bootstrap   |  Timer to        |  Timer to       |
  |           |  Timer to        |  BS_Period       |  BS_Period      |
  |           |  BS_Timeout      |                  |                 |
  +-----------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+






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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  A Candidate-BSR may be in one of three states for a particular scope
  zone:

  Candidate-BSR (C-BSR)
       The router is a candidate to be the BSR for the scope zone, but
       currently another router is the preferred BSR.

  Pending-BSR (P-BSR)
       The router is a candidate to be the BSR for the scope zone.
       Currently, no other router is the preferred BSR, but this router
       is not yet the elected BSR.  This is a temporary state that
       prevents rapid thrashing of the choice of BSR during BSR
       election.

  Elected-BSR (E-BSR)
       The router is the elected BSR for the scope zone and it must
       perform all the BSR functions.

  In addition to the three states, there is one timer:

  o  The Bootstrap Timer (BST) - used to time out old bootstrap router
     information, and used in the election process to terminate P-BSR
     state.

  The initial state for this configured scope zone is "Pending-BSR";
  the Bootstrap Timer is initialized to BS_Rand_Override.  This is the
  case both if the router is a Candidate-BSR at startup, and if it is
  reconfigured to become one later.

3.1.2.  Per-Scope-Zone State Machine for Non-Candidate-BSR Routers

  The following state machine is used for scope zones that are
  discovered by the router from bootstrap messages.  A simplified state
  machine is used for scope zones that are explicitly configured on the
  router and for the global zone.  The differences are listed at the
  end of this section.

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                     When in NoInfo state                          |
  +--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
  |   Event      |         Receive BSM                                |
  +--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
  |              |         -> AP state                                |
  |   Action     |         Forward BSM; Store RP-Set;                 |
  |              |         Set Bootstrap Timer to BS_Timeout          |
  +--------------+----------------------------------------------------+





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  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                      When in Accept Any state                     |
  +-------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+
  |   Event     |    Receive BSM            |     Scope-Zone Expiry   |
  |             |                           |     Timer Expires       |
  +-------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+
  |             |    -> AP state            |     -> NoInfo state     |
  |             |    Forward BSM; Store     |     Remove scope zone   |
  |   Action    |    RP-Set; Set            |     state               |
  |             |    Bootstrap Timer to     |                         |
  |             |    BS_Timeout             |                         |
  +-------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                   When in Accept Preferred state                  |
  +---------+---------------------+------------------+----------------+
  | Event   | Receive Preferred   |  Bootstrap       |  Receive Non-  |
  |         | BSM                 |  Timer Expires   |  preferred BSM |
  +---------+---------------------+------------------+----------------+
  |         | -> AP state         |  -> AA state     |  -> AP state   |
  |         | Forward BSM; Store  |  Refresh RP-     |                |
  | Action  | RP-Set; Set         |  Set; Remove     |                |
  |         | Bootstrap Timer to  |  BSR state; Set  |                |
  |         | BS_Timeout          |  SZT to          |                |
  |         |                     |  SZ_Timeout      |                |
  +---------+---------------------+------------------+----------------+

  A router that is not a Candidate-BSR may be in one of three states:

  NoInfo
       The router has no information about this scope zone.  When in
       this state, no state information is held and no timers (that
       refer to this scope zone) run.  Conceptually, the state machine
       is only instantiated when the router receives a scoped BSM for a
       scope about which it has no prior knowledge.  However, because
       the router immediately transitions to the AA state
       unconditionally, the NoInfo state can be considered to be
       virtual in a certain sense.  For this reason, it is omitted from
       the description in section 2.

  Accept Any (AA)
       The router does not know of an active BSR, and will accept the
       first Bootstrap message it sees as giving the new BSR's identity
       and the RP-Set.







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  Accept Preferred (AP)
       The router knows the identity of the current BSR, and is using
       the RP-Set provided by that BSR.  Only Bootstrap messages from
       that BSR or from a C-BSR with higher weight than the current BSR
       will be accepted.

  In addition to the three states, there are two timers:

  o  The Bootstrap Timer (BST) - used to time out old bootstrap router
     information.

  o  The Scope-Zone Expiry Timer (SZT) - used to time out the scope
     zone itself if Bootstrap messages specifying this scope zone stop
     arriving.

  The initial state for scope zones about which the router has no
  knowledge is "NoInfo".

  The state machine used for scopes that have been configured
  explicitly on the router and for the global scope (which always
  exists) differs from the state machine above as follows.

  o  The "NoInfo" state doesn't exist.

  o  No SZT is maintained.  Hence, the event "Scope-Zone Expiry Timer
     Expires" does not exist and no actions with regard to this timer
     are executed.

  The initial state for this state machine is "Accept Any".

3.1.3.  Bootstrap Message Processing Checks

  When a Bootstrap message is received, the following initial checks
  must be performed:

  if ((DirectlyConnected(BSM.src_ip_address) == FALSE) OR
       (we have no Hello state for BSM.src_ip_address)) {
    drop the Bootstrap message silently
  }

  if (BSM.dst_ip_address == ALL-PIM-ROUTERS) {
    if (BSM.no_forward_bit == 0) {
      if (BSM.src_ip_address != RPF_neighbor(BSM.BSR_ip_address)) {
        drop the Bootstrap message silently
      }
    } else if ((any previous BSM for this scope has been accepted) OR
               (more than BS_Period has elapsed since startup)) {




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      #only accept no-forward BSM if quick refresh on startup
      drop the Bootstrap message silently
    }
  } else if ((Unicast BSM support enabled) AND
             (BSM.dst_ip_address is one of my addresses)) {
    if ((any previous BSM for this scope has been accepted) OR
        (more than BS_Period has elapsed since startup)) {
      #the packet was unicast, but this wasn't
      #a quick refresh on startup
      drop the Bootstrap message silently
    }
  } else {
    drop the Bootstrap message silently
  }

  if (the interface the message arrived on is an admin scope
      border for the BSM.first_group_address) {
    drop the Bootstrap message silently
  }

  Basically, the packet must have come from a directly connected
  neighbor for which we have active Hello state.  It must have been
  sent to the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS group, and unless it is a No-Forward BSM,
  it must have been sent by the correct upstream router towards the BSR
  that originated the Bootstrap message; or, if it is a No-Forward BSM,
  we must have recently restarted and have no BSR state for that admin
  scope.  Also, if unicast BSM support is enabled, a unicast BSM is
  accepted if it is addressed to us, we have recently restarted, and we
  have no BSR state for that admin scope.  In addition, it must not
  have arrived on an interface that is a configured admin-scope border
  for the first group address contained in the Bootstrap message.

3.1.4.  State Machine Transition Events

  If the Bootstrap message passes the initial checks above without
  being discarded, then it may cause a state transition event in one of
  the above state machines.  For both candidate and non-candidate BSRs,
  the following transition events are defined:

    Receive Preferred BSM
         A Bootstrap message is received from a BSR that has weight
         higher than or equal to that of the current BSR.  If a router
         is in P-BSR state, then it uses its own weight as that of the
         current BSR.

         A Bootstrap message is also preferred if it is from the
         current BSR with a lower weight than the previous BSM it sent,
         provided that if the router is a Candidate-BSR the current BSR



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         still has a weight higher than or equal to that of the router
         itself.  In this case, the "Current Bootstrap Router's BSR
         Priority" state must be updated.  (For lower weight, see Non-
         preferred BSM from Elected BSR case.)

    Receive Non-preferred BSM
         A Bootstrap message is received from a BSR other than the
         current BSR that has lower weight than that of the current
         BSR.  If a router is in P-BSR state, then it uses its own
         weight as that of the current BSR.

    Receive Non-preferred BSM from Elected BSR
         A Bootstrap message is received from the elected BSR, but the
         BSR Priority field in the received message has changed, so
         that now the currently elected BSR has lower weight than that
         of the router itself.

    Receive BSM
         A Bootstrap message is received, regardless of BSR weight.

  In addition to state machine transitions caused by the receipt of
  Bootstrap messages, a state machine transition takes place each time
  the Bootstrap Timer or Scope-Zone Expiry Timer expires.

3.1.5.  State Machine Actions

  The state machines specify actions that include setting the Bootstrap
  Timer and the Scope-Zone Expiry Timer to various values.  These
  values are defined in section 5.

  In addition to setting and cancelling the timers, the following
  actions may be triggered by state changes in the state machines:

    Forward BSM
         A multicast Bootstrap message with No-Forward bit cleared that
         passes the Bootstrap Message Processing Checks is forwarded
         out of all interfaces with PIM neighbors (including the
         interface it is received on), except where this would cause
         the BSM to cross an admin-scope boundary for the scope zone
         indicated in the message.  For details, see section 3.4.

    Originate BSM
         A new Bootstrap message is constructed by the BSR, giving the
         BSR's address and BSR priority, and containing the BSR's
         chosen RP-Set.  The message is forwarded out of all interfaces
         on which PIM neighbors exist, except where this would cause
         the BSM to cross an admin-scope boundary for the scope zone
         indicated in the message.



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    Store RP-Set
         The router uses the group-to-RP mappings contained in a BSM to
         update its local RP-Set.

         This action is skipped for an empty BSM.  A BSM is empty if it
         contains no group ranges, or if it only contains a single
         group range where that group range has the Admin Scope Zone
         bit set (a scoped BSM) and an RP count of zero.

         If a mapping does not yet exist, it is created and the
         associated Group-to-RP mapping Expiry Timer (GET) is
         initialized with the holdtime from the BSM.

         If a mapping already exists, its GET is set to the holdtime
         from the BSM.  If the holdtime is zero, the mapping is removed
         immediately.  Note that for an existing mapping, the RP
         priority must be updated if changed.

         Mappings for a group range are also to be immediately removed
         if they are not present in the received group range.  This
         means that if there are any existing group-to-RP mappings for
         a range where the respective RPs are not in the received
         range, then those mappings must be removed.

         All RP mappings associated with the scope zone of the BSM are
         updated with the new hash mask length from the received BSM.
         This includes RP mappings for all group ranges learned for
         this zone, not just the ranges in this particular BSM.

         In addition, the entire BSM is stored for use in the action
         Refresh RP-Set and to prime a new PIM neighbor as described
         below.

    Refresh RP-Set
         When the Bootstrap Timer expires, the router uses the copy of
         the last BSM that it has received to refresh its RP-Set
         according to the action Store RP-Set as if it had just
         received it.  This will increase the chance that the group-to-
         RP mappings will not expire during the election of the new
         BSR.

    Remove BSR state
         When the Bootstrap Timer expires, all state associated with
         the current BSR is removed (address, priority, BST, and saved
         last BSM; see section 2).  Note that this does not include any
         group-to-RP mappings.





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    Remove scope zone state
         When the Scope-Zone Expiry Timer expires, all state associated
         with the scope zone is removed (see section 2).

3.2.  Sending Candidate-RP-Advertisement Messages

  Every C-RP periodically unicasts a C-RP-Adv message to the BSR for
  each scope zone for which it has state, to inform the BSR of the
  C-RP's willingness to function as an RP.  These messages are sent
  with an interval of C_RP_Adv_Period, except when a new BSR is
  elected; see below.

  When a new BSR is elected, the C-RP MUST send one to three C-RP-Adv
  messages and wait a small randomized period C_RP_Adv_Backoff before
  sending each message.  We recommend sending three messages because it
  is important that the BSR quickly learns which RPs are active, and
  some packet loss may occur when a new BSR is elected due to changes
  in the network.  One way of implementing this is to set the CRPT to
  C_RP_Adv_Backoff when the new BSR is elected, as well as setting a
  counter to 2.  Whenever the CRPT expires, we first send a C-RP-Adv
  message as usual.  Next, if the counter is non-zero, it is
  decremented and the CRPT is again set to C_RP_Adv_Backoff instead of
  C_RP_Adv_Period.

  The Priority field in these messages is used by the BSR to select
  which C-RPs to include in the RP-Set.  Note that lower values of this
  field indicate higher priorities, so that a value of zero is the
  highest possible priority.  C-RPs should, by default, send C-RP-Adv
  messages with the Priority field set to 192.

  When a C-RP is being shut down, it SHOULD immediately send a C-RP-Adv
  message to the BSR for each scope zone for which it is currently
  serving as an RP; the Holdtime in this C-RP-Adv message should be
  zero.  The BSR will then immediately time out the C-RP and generate a
  new Bootstrap message with the shut down RP holdtime set to 0.

  A C-RP-Adv message carries a list of group address and group mask
  field pairs.  This enables the C-RP to specify the group ranges for
  which it is willing to be the RP.  If the C-RP becomes an RP, it may
  enforce this scope acceptance when receiving Register or Join/Prune
  messages.

  A C-RP is configured with a list of group ranges for which it should
  advertise itself as the C-RP.  A C-RP uses the following algorithm to
  determine which ranges to send to a given BSR.






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  For each group range R in the list, the C-RP advertises that range to
  the scoped BSR for the smallest scope that "contains" R.  For IPv6,
  the containing scope is determined by matching the scope identifier
  of the group range with the scope of the BSR.  For IPv4, it is the
  longest-prefix match for R, amongst the known admin-scope ranges.  If
  no scope is found to contain the group range, the C-RP includes it in
  the C-RP-Adv sent to the non-scoped BSR.  If a non-scoped BSR is not
  known, the range is not included in any C-RP-Adv.

  In addition, for each IPv4 group range R in the list, for each scoped
  BSR whose scope range is strictly contained within R, the C-RP SHOULD
  by default advertise that BSR's scope range to that BSR.  And for
  each IPv6 group range R in the list with prefix length < 16, the C-RP
  SHOULD by default advertise each sub-range of prefix length 16 to the
  scoped BSR with the corresponding scope ID.  An implementation MAY
  supply a configuration option to prevent the behavior described in
  this paragraph, but such an option SHOULD be disabled by default.

  For IPv6, the mask length of all group ranges included in the
  C-RP-Adv message sent to a scoped BSR MUST be >= 16.

  If the above algorithm determines that there are no group ranges to
  advertise to the BSR for a particular scope zone, a C-RP-Adv message
  MUST NOT be sent to that BSR.  A C-RP MUST NOT send a C-RP-Adv
  message with no group ranges in it.

  If the same router is the BSR for more than one scope zone, the
  C-RP-Adv messages for these scope zones MAY be combined into a single
  message.

  If the C-RP is a ZBR for an admin-scope zone, then the Admin Scope
  Zone bit MUST be set in the C-RP-Adv messages it sends for that scope
  zone; otherwise this bit MUST NOT be set.  This information is
  currently only used for logging purposes by the BSR, but might allow
  for future extensions of the protocol.

3.3.  Creating the RP-Set at the BSR

  Upon receiving a C-RP-Adv message, the router needs to decide whether
  or not to accept each of the group ranges included in the message.
  For each group range in the message, the router checks to see if it
  is the elected BSR for any scope zone that contains the group range,
  or if it is elected as the non-scoped BSR.  If so, the group range is
  accepted; if not, the group range is ignored.







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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  For security reasons, we recommend that implementations have a way of
  restricting which IP addresses the BSR accepts C-RP-Adv messages
  from, e.g., access lists.  For use of scoped BSR, it may also be
  useful to specify which group ranges should be accepted.

  If the group range is accepted, a group-to-C-RP mapping is created
  for this group range and the RP Address from the C-RP-Adv message.

  If the mapping is not already part of the C-RP-Set, it is added to
  the C-RP-Set and the associated Group-to-C-RP mapping Expiry Timer
  (CGET) is initialized to the holdtime from the C-RP-Adv message.  Its
  priority is set to the Priority from the C-RP-Adv message.

  If the mapping is already part of the C-RP-Set, it is updated with
  the Priority from the C-RP-Adv message, and its associated CGET is
  reset to the holdtime from the C-RP-Adv message.  If the holdtime is
  zero, the mapping is immediately removed from the C-RP-Set.

  The hash mask length is a global property of the BSR and is therefore
  the same for all mappings managed by the BSR.

  For compatibility with the previous version of the BSR specification,
  a C-RP-Adv message with no group ranges SHOULD be treated as though
  it contained the single group range ff00::/8 or 224/4.  Therefore,
  according to the rule above, this group range will be accepted if and
  only if the router is elected as the non-scoped BSR.

  When a CGET expires, the corresponding group-to-C-RP mapping is
  removed from the C-RP-Set.

  The BSR constructs the RP-Set from the C-RP-Set.  It may apply a
  local policy to limit the number of Candidate-RPs included in the
  RP-Set.  The BSR may override the range indicated in a C-RP-Adv
  message unless the 'Priority' field from the C-RP-Adv message is less
  than 128.

  If the BSR learns of both BIDIR and PIM-SM Candidate-RPs for the same
  group range, the BSR MUST only include RPs for one of the protocols
  in the BSMs.  The default behavior SHOULD be to prefer BIDIR.

  For inclusion in a BSM, the RP-Set is subdivided into sets of {group-
  range, RP-Count, RP-addresses}.  For each RP-address, the
  "RP-Holdtime" field is set to the Holdtime from the C-RP-Set, subject
  to the constraint that it MUST be larger than BS_Period and SHOULD be
  larger than 2.5 times BS_Period to allow for some Bootstrap messages
  getting lost.  If some holdtimes from the C-RP-Sets do not satisfy





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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  this constraint, the BSR MUST replace those holdtimes with a value
  satisfying the constraint.  An exception to this is the holdtime of
  zero, which is used to immediately withdraw mappings.

  The format of the Bootstrap message allows 'semantic fragmentation',
  if the length of the original Bootstrap message exceeds the packet
  maximum boundaries.  However, to reduce the semantic fragmentation
  required, we recommend against configuring a large number of routers
  as C-RPs.

  In general, BSMs are originated at regular intervals according to the
  BS_Period timer.  We do recommend that a BSM is also originated
  whenever the RP-set to be announced in the BSMs changes.  This will
  usually happen when receiving C-RP advertisements from a new C-RP, or
  when a C-RP is shut down (C-RP advertisement with a holdtime of
  zero).  There MUST however be a minimum of BS_Min_Interval between
  each time a BSM is sent.  In particular, when a new BSR is elected,
  it will first send one BSM (which is likely to be empty since it has
  not yet received any C-RP advertisements), and then wait at least
  BS_Min_Interval before sending a new one.  During that time, it is
  likely to have received C-RP advertisements from all usable C-RPs
  (since we say that a C-RP should send one or more advertisements with
  small random delays of C_RP_Adv_Backoff when a new BSR is elected).
  For this case in particular, where routers may not have a usable RP-
  set, we recommend originating a BSM as soon as BS_Min_Interval has
  passed.  We suggest though that a BSR can do this in general.  One
  way of implementing this, is to decrease the Bootstrap Timer to
  BS_Min_Interval whenever the RP-set changes, while not changing the
  timer if it is less than or equal to BS_Min_Interval.

  A BSR originates separate scoped BSMs for each scope zone for which
  it is the elected BSR, as well as originating non-scoped BSMs if it
  is the elected non-scoped BSR.

  Each group-to-C-RP mapping is included in precisely one of these BSMs
  -- namely, the scoped BSM for the narrowest scope containing the
  group range of the mapping, if any, or the non-scoped BSM otherwise.

  A scoped BSM MUST have at least one group range, and the first group
  range in a scoped BSM MUST have the Admin Scope Zone bit set.  This
  group range identifies the scope of the BSM.  In a scoped IPv4 BSM,
  the first group range is the range corresponding to the scope of the
  BSM.  In a scoped IPv6 BSM, the first group range may be any group
  range subject to the general condition that all the group ranges in
  such a BSM MUST have a mask length of at least 16 and MUST have the
  same scope ID as the scope of the BSM.





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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  Apart from identifying the scope, the first group range in a scoped
  BSM is treated like any other range with respect to RP mappings.
  That is, all mappings in the RP-set for this group range, if any,
  must be included in this first group range in the BSM.  After this
  group range, other group ranges in this scope (for which there are RP
  mappings) appear in any order.

  The Admin Scope Zone bit of all group ranges other than the first
  SHOULD be set to 0 on origination, and MUST be ignored on receipt.

  When an elected BSR is being shut down, it should immediately
  originate a Bootstrap message listing its current RP-Set, but with
  the BSR Priority field set to the lowest priority value possible.
  This will cause the election of a new BSR to happen more quickly.

3.4.  Forwarding Bootstrap Messages

  Generally, bootstrap messages originate at the BSR, and are hop-by-
  hop forwarded by intermediate routers if they pass the Bootstrap
  Message Processing Checks.  There are two exceptions to this.  One is
  that a bootstrap message is not forwarded if its No-Forward bit is
  set; see section 3.5.1.  The other is that unicast BSMs (see section
  3.5.2) are usually not forwarded.  Implementers MAY, however, at
  their own discretion choose to re-send a No-Forward or unicast BSM in
  a multicast BSM, which MUST have the No-Forward bit cleared.  It is
  essential that the No-Forward bit is cleared, since no Reverse Path
  Forwarding (RPF) check is performed by the receiver when it is set.

  By hop-by-hop forwarding, we mean that the Bootstrap message itself
  is forwarded, not the entire IP packet.  Each hop constructs an IP
  packet for each of the interfaces the BSM is to be forwarded out of;
  each packet contains the entire BSM that was received.

  When a Bootstrap message is forwarded, it is forwarded out of every
  multicast-capable interface that has PIM neighbors (including the one
  over which the message was received).  The exception to this is if
  the interface is an admin-scope boundary for the admin-scope zone
  indicated in the first group range in the Bootstrap message packet.

  As an optimization, a router MAY choose not to forward a BSM out of
  the interface the message was received on if that interface is a
  point-to-point interface.  On interfaces with multiple PIM neighbors,
  a router SHOULD forward an accepted BSM out of the interface that BSM
  was received on, but if the number of PIM neighbors on that interface
  is large, it MAY delay forwarding a BSM out of that interface by a
  small randomized interval to prevent message implosion.  A





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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  configuration option MAY be provided to disable forwarding out of the
  interface a message was received on, but we recommend that the
  default behavior is to forward out of that interface.

  Rationale: A BSM needs to be forwarded out of the interface the
  message was received on (in addition to the other interfaces) because
  the routers on a LAN may not have consistent routing information.  If
  three routers on a LAN are A, B, and C, and at router B RPF(BSR)==A
  and at router C RPF(BSR)==B, then router A originally forwards the
  BSM onto the LAN, but router C will only accept it when router B re-
  forwards the message onto the LAN.  If the underlying routing
  protocol configuration guarantees that the routers have consistent
  routing information, then forwarding out of the incoming interface
  may safely be disabled.

  A ZBR constrains all BSMs that are of equal or smaller scope than the
  configured boundary.  That is, the BSMs are not accepted from,
  originated, or forwarded on the interfaces on which the boundary is
  configured.  For IPv6, the check is a comparison between the scope of
  the first range in the scoped BSM and the scope of the configured
  boundary.  For IPv4, the first range in the scoped BSM is checked to
  see if it is contained in or is the same as the range of the
  configured boundary.

3.5.  Bootstrap Messages to New and Rebooting Routers

  When a Hello message is received from a new neighbor, or a Hello
  message with a new GenID is received from an existing neighbor, one
  router on the LAN sends a stored copy of the Bootstrap message for
  each admin-scope zone to the new or rebooting router.  This allows
  new or rebooting routers to learn the RP-Set quickly.

  This message SHOULD be sent as a No-Forward Bootstrap message; see
  section 3.5.1.  For backwards compatibility, this message MAY instead
  or in addition be sent as a unicast Bootstrap message; see section
  3.5.2.  These messages MUST only be accepted at startup; see section
  3.1.3.

  The router that does this is the Designated Router (DR) on the LAN,
  or, if the new or rebooting router is the DR, the router that would
  be the DR if the new or rebooting router were excluded from the DR
  election process.

  Before sending a Bootstrap message in this manner, the router must
  wait until it has sent a triggered Hello message on this interface;
  otherwise, the new neighbor will discard the Bootstrap message.





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3.5.1.  No-Forward Bootstrap Messages

  A No-Forward Bootstrap message, is a bootstrap message that has the
  No-Forward bit set.  All implementations SHOULD support sending of
  No-Forward Bootstrap messages, and SHOULD also accept them.  The RPF
  check MUST NOT be performed in the BSM processing check for a No-
  Forward BSM; see section 3.1.3.  The messages have the same source
  and destination addresses as the usual multicast Bootstrap messages.

3.5.2.  Unicasting Bootstrap Messages

  For backwards compatibility, implementations MAY support unicast
  Bootstrap messages.  Whether to send unicast Bootstrap messages
  instead of or in addition to No-Forward Bootstrap messages, and also
  whether to accept such messages, SHOULD be configurable.  This
  message is unicast to the neighbor.

3.6.  Receiving and Using the RP-Set

  The RP-Set maintained by BSR is used by RP-based multicast routing
  protocols like PIM-SM and BIDIR-PIM.  These protocols may obtain RP-
  Sets from other sources as well.  How the final group-to-RP mappings
  are obtained from these RP-Sets is not part of the BSR specification.
  In general, the routing protocols need to re-calculate the mappings
  when any of their RP-Sets change.  How such a change is signalled to
  the routing protocol is also not part of the present specification.

  Some group-to-RP mappings in the RP-Set indicate group ranges for
  which PIM-SM should be used; others indicate group ranges for use
  with BIDIR-PIM.  Routers that support only one of these protocols
  MUST NOT ignore ranges indicated as being for the other protocol.
  They MUST NOT treat them as being for the protocol they support.

  If a mapping is not already part of the RP-Set, it is added to the
  RP-Set and the associated Group-to-RP mapping Expiry Timer (GET) is
  initialized to the holdtime from the Bootstrap message.  Its priority
  is set to the Priority from the Bootstrap message.

  If a mapping is already part of the RP-Set, it is updated with the
  Priority from the Bootstrap message and its associated GET is reset
  to the holdtime from the Bootstrap message.  If the holdtime is zero,
  the mapping is removed from the RP-Set immediately.









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4.  Message Formats

  BSR messages are PIM messages, as defined in [1].  The values of the
  PIM Message Type field for BSR messages are:

     4  Bootstrap

     8  Candidate-RP-Advertisement

  As with all other PIM control messages, BSR messages have IP protocol
  number 103.

  Candidate-RP-Advertisement messages are unicast to a BSR.  Usually,
  Bootstrap messages are multicast with TTL 1 to the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS
  group, but in some circumstances (described in section 3.5.2)
  Bootstrap messages may be unicast to a specific PIM neighbor.

  The IP source address used for Candidate-RP-Advertisement messages is
  a domain-wide reachable address.  The IP source address used for
  Bootstrap messages (regardless of whether they are being originated
  or forwarded) is the link-local address of the interface on which the
  message is being sent (i.e., the same source address that the router
  uses for the Hello messages that it sends out that interface).

  The IPv4 ALL-PIM-ROUTERS group is 224.0.0.13.  The IPv6 ALL-PIM-
  ROUTERS group is ff02::d.

  In this section, we use the following terms defined in the PIM-SM
  specification [1]:

     o  Encoded-Unicast format

     o  Encoded-Group format

  We repeat these here to aid readability.

  Encoded-Unicast address

  An Encoded-Unicast address takes the following format:

   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
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |  Addr Family  | Encoding Type |     Unicast Address
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+...






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  Addr Family
       The PIM address family of the 'Unicast Address' field of this
       address.

       Values of 0-127 are as assigned by the IANA for Internet Address
       Families in [11].  Values 128-250 are reserved to be assigned by
       the IANA for PIM-specific Address Families.  Values 251 though
       255 are designated for private use.  As there is no assignment
       authority for this space, collisions should be expected.

  Encoding Type
       The type of encoding used within a specific Address Family.  The
       value '0' is reserved for this field, and represents the native
       encoding of the Address Family.

  Unicast Address
       The unicast address as represented by the given Address Family
       and Encoding Type.

  Encoded-Group address

  Encoded-Group addresses take the following format:

   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
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |  Addr Family  | Encoding Type |B| Reserved  |Z|  Mask Len     |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                Group multicast Address
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+...

  Addr Family
       Described above.

  Encoding Type
       Described above.

  [B]IDIR bit
       When set, all BIDIR-capable PIM routers will operate the
       protocol described in [2] for the specified group range.

  Reserved
       Transmitted as zero.  Ignored upon receipt.

  Admin Scope [Z]one
       When set, this bit indicates that this group range is an
       administratively scoped range.




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  Mask Len
       The Mask length field is 8 bits.  The value is the number of
       contiguous one bits that are left justified and used as a mask;
       when combined with the group address, it describes a range of
       groups.  It is less than or equal to the address length in bits
       for the given Address Family and Encoding Type.  If the message
       is sent for a single group, then the Mask length must equal the
       address length in bits for the given Address Family and Encoding
       Type (e.g., 32 for IPv4 native encoding and 128 for IPv6 native
       encoding).

  Group multicast Address
       Contains the group address.

4.1.  Bootstrap Message Format

  A Bootstrap message may be divided up into 'semantic fragments' if
  the resulting IP datagram would exceed the maximum packet size
  boundaries.  Basically, a single Bootstrap message can be sent as
  multiple semantic fragments (each in a separate IP datagram), so long
  as the fragment tags of all the semantic fragments comprising the
  message are the same.  The format of a single non-fragmented message
  is the same as the one used for semantic fragments.

  The format of a single 'fragment' is given below:


























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   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
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |PIM Ver| Type  |N|  Reserved   |           Checksum            |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |         Fragment Tag          | Hash Mask Len | BSR Priority  |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             BSR Address (Encoded-Unicast format)              |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |            Group Address 1 (Encoded-Group format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  | RP Count 1    | Frag RP Cnt 1 |         Reserved              |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address 1 (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RP1 Holdtime         | RP1 Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address 2 (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RP2 Holdtime         | RP2 Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                               .                               |
  |                               .                               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address m (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RPm Holdtime         | RPm Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |            Group Address 2 (Encoded-Group format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                               .                               |
  |                               .                               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |            Group Address n (Encoded-Group format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  | RP Count n    | Frag RP Cnt n |          Reserved             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address 1 (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RP1 Holdtime         | RP1 Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address 2 (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RP2 Holdtime         | RP2 Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                               .                               |
  |                               .                               |




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  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address m (Encoded-Unicast format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RPm Holdtime         | RPm Priority  |   Reserved    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

  PIM Version, Reserved, Checksum
       Described in [1].

  Type
       PIM Message Type.  Value is 4 for a Bootstrap message.

  [N]o-Forward bit
       When set, this bit means that the Bootstrap message fragment is
       not to be forwarded.

  Fragment Tag
       A randomly generated number, acts to distinguish the fragments
       belonging to different Bootstrap messages; fragments belonging
       to same Bootstrap message carry the same 'Fragment Tag'.

  Hash Mask Len
       The length (in bits) of the mask to use in the hash function.
       For IPv4, we recommend a value of 30.  For IPv6, we recommend a
       value of 126.

  BSR Priority
       Contains the BSR priority value of the included BSR.  This field
       is considered as a high-order byte when comparing BSR addresses.
       BSRs should by default set this field to 64.  Note that for
       historical reasons, the highest BSR priority is 255 (the higher
       the better), whereas the highest RP Priority (see below) is 0
       (the lower the better).

  BSR Address
       The address of the bootstrap router for the domain.  The format
       for this address is given in the Encoded-Unicast address in [1].














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  Group Address 1..n
       The group ranges (address and mask) with which the Candidate-RPs
       are associated.  Format described in [1].  In a fragment
       containing admin-scope ranges, the first group range in the
       fragment MUST satisfy the following conditions:

       o  it MUST have the Admin Scope Zone bit set;
       o  for IPv4, it MUST be the group range for the entire admin-
          scope range (this is required even if there are no RPs in the
          RP-Set for the entire admin-scope range -- in this case, the
          sub-ranges for the RP-Set are specified later in the fragment
          along with their RPs);
       o  for IPv6, the Mask Len MUST be at least 16 and have the scope
          ID of the admin-scope range.

  RP Count 1..n
       The number of Candidate-RP addresses included in the whole
       Bootstrap message for the corresponding group range.  A router
       does not replace its old RP-Set for a given group range
       until/unless it receives 'RP-Count' addresses for that range;
       the addresses could be carried over several fragments.  If only
       part of the RP-Set for a given group range was received, the
       router discards it without updating that specific group range's
       RP-Set.

  Frag RP Cnt 1..m
       The number of Candidate-RP addresses included in this fragment
       of the Bootstrap message, for the corresponding group range.
       The 'Frag RP Cnt' field facilitates parsing of the RP-Set for a
       given group range, when carried over more than one fragment.

  RP address 1..m
       The address of the Candidate-RPs, for the corresponding group
       range.  The format for these addresses is given in the Encoded-
       Unicast address in [1].

  RP1..m Holdtime
       The Holdtime (in seconds) for the corresponding RP.  This field
       is copied from the 'Holdtime' field of the associated RP stored
       at the BSR.

  RP1..m Priority
       The 'Priority' of the corresponding RP and Encoded-Group
       Address.  This field is copied from the 'Priority' field stored
       at the BSR when receiving a C-RP-Adv message.  The highest
       priority is '0' (i.e., unlike BSR priority, the lower the value
       of the 'Priority' field, the better).  Note that the priority is
       per RP and per Group Address.



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  Within a Bootstrap message, the BSR Address, all the Group Addresses,
  and all the RP Addresses MUST be of the same address family.  In
  addition, the address family of the fields in the message MUST be the
  same as the IP source and destination addresses of the packet.  This
  permits maximum implementation flexibility for dual-stack IPv4/IPv6
  routers.

4.1.1.  Semantic Fragmentation of BSMs

  Bootstrap messages may be split over several PIM Bootstrap Message
  Fragments (BSMFs); this is known as semantic fragmentation.  Each of
  these must follow the above format.  All fragments of a given
  Bootstrap message MUST have identical values for the Type, No-Forward
  bit, Fragment Tag, Hash Mask Len, BSR Priority, and BSR Address
  fields.  That is, only the group-to-RP mappings may differ between
  fragments.

  This is useful if the BSM would otherwise exceed the MTU of the link
  the message will be forwarded over.  If one relies purely on IP
  fragmentation, one would lose the entire message if a single fragment
  is lost.  By use of semantic fragmentation, a single lost IP fragment
  will only cause the loss of the semantic fragment that the IP
  fragment was part of.  As described below, a router only needs to
  receive all the RPs for a specific group range to update that range.
  This means that loss of a semantic fragment, due to an IP fragment
  getting lost, only affects the group ranges for which the lost
  semantic fragment contains information.

  If the BSR can split up the BSM so that each group range (and all of
  its RP information) can fit entirely inside one BSMF, then it should
  do so.  If a BSMF is lost, the state from the previous BSM for the
  group ranges from the missing BSMF will be retained.  Each fragment
  that does arrive will update the RP information for the group ranges
  contained in that fragment, and the new group-to-RP mappings for
  those can be used immediately.  The information from the missing
  fragment will be obtained when the next BSM is transmitted.

  If the list of RPs for a single group range is long, one may split
  the information across multiple BSMFs to avoid IP fragmentation.  In
  this case, all the BSMFs comprising the information for that group
  range must be received before the group-to-RP mapping in use can be
  modified.  This is the purpose of the RP Count field -- a router
  receiving BSMFs from the same BSM (i.e., that have the same fragment
  tag) must wait until BSMFs providing RP Count RPs for that group
  range have been received before the new group-to-RP mapping can be
  used for that group range.  If a single BSMF from such a large group





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  range is lost, then that entire group range will have to wait until
  the next BSM is originated.  Hence, in this case, the benefit of
  using semantic fragmentation is dubious.

  Next we need to consider how a BSR would remove group ranges.  A
  router receiving a set of BSMFs cannot tell if a group range is
  missing.  If it has seen a group range before, it must assume that
  that group range still exists, and that the BSMF describing that
  group range has been lost.  The router should retain this information
  for BS_Timeout.  Thus, for a BSR to remove a group range, it should
  include that group range, but with an RP Count of zero, and it should
  resend this information in each BSM for BS_Timeout.

4.2.  Candidate-RP-Advertisement Message Format

  Candidate-RP-Advertisement messages are periodically unicast from the
  C-RPs to the BSR.

   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
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |PIM Ver| Type  |   Reserved    |           Checksum            |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  | Prefix Count  |   Priority    |           Holdtime            |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |             RP Address (Encoded-Unicast format)               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |            Group Address 1 (Encoded-Group format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                               .                               |
  |                               .                               |
  |                               .                               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |            Group Address n (Encoded-Group format)             |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

  PIM Version, Reserved, Checksum
       Described in [1].

  Type
       PIM Message Type.  Value is 8 for a Candidate-RP-Advertisement
       message.

  Prefix Count
       The number of Encoded-Group Addresses included in the message;
       indicating the group range for which the C-RP is advertising.
       C-RPs MUST NOT send C-RP-Adv messages with a Prefix Count of
       '0'.



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  Priority
       The 'Priority' of the included RP, for the corresponding
       Encoded- Group Address (if any).  The highest priority is '0'
       (i.e., the lower the value of the 'Priority' field, the higher
       the priority).  This field is stored at the BSR upon receipt
       along with the RP address and corresponding Encoded-Group
       Address.

  Holdtime
       The amount of time (in seconds) the advertisement is valid.
       This field allows advertisements to be aged out.  This field
       should be set to 2.5 times C_RP_Adv_Period.

  RP Address
       The address of the interface to advertise as a Candidate-RP.
       The format for this address is given in the Encoded-Unicast
       address in [1].

  Group Address-1..n
       The group ranges for which the C-RP is advertising.  Format
       described in Encoded-Group-Address in [1].

  Within a Candidate-RP-Advertisement message, the RP Address and all
  the Group Addresses MUST be of the same address family.  In addition,
  the address family of the fields in the message MUST be the same as
  the IP source and destination addresses of the packet.  This permits
  maximum implementation flexibility for dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 routers.
























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5.  Timers and Timer Values

  Timer Name: Bootstrap Timer (BST(Z))

  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+
  | Value Name       |  Value                  |   Explanation        |
  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+
  | BS_Period        |  Default: 60 seconds    |   Periodic interval  |
  |                  |                         |   with which BSMs    |
  |                  |                         |   are normally       |
  |                  |                         |   originated         |
  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+
  | BS_Timeout       |  Default: 130 seconds   |   Interval after     |
  |                  |                         |   which a BSR is     |
  |                  |                         |   timed out if no    |
  |                  |                         |   BSM is received    |
  |                  |                         |   from that BSR      |
  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+
  | BS_Min_Interval  |  Default: 10 seconds    |   Minimum interval   |
  |                  |                         |   with which BSMs    |
  |                  |                         |   may be originated  |
  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+
  | BS_Rand_Override |  see below              |   Randomized         |
  |                  |                         |   interval used to   |
  |                  |                         |   reduce control     |
  |                  |                         |   message overhead   |
  |                  |                         |   during BSR         |
  |                  |                         |   election           |
  +------------------+-------------------------+----------------------+

  Note that BS_Timeout MUST be larger than BS_Period, even if their
  values are changed from the defaults.  We recommend that BS_Timeout
  is set to 2 times BS_Period plus 10 seconds.

  BS_Rand_Override is calculated using the following pseudocode, in
  which all values are in units of seconds.  The values of
  BS_Rand_Override generated by this pseudocode are between 5 and 23
  seconds, with smaller values generated if the C-BSR has a high
  bootstrap weight, and larger values generated if the C-BSR has a low
  bootstrap weight.

     BS_Rand_Override = 5 + priorityDelay + addrDelay

  where priorityDelay is given by:

     priorityDelay = 2 * log_2(1 + bestPriority - myPriority)

  and addrDelay is given by the following for IPv4:



Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 33]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


     if (bestPriority == myPriority) {
         addrDelay = log_2(1 + bestAddr - myAddr) / 16
     } else {
         addrDelay = 2 - (myAddr / 2^31)
     }

  and addrDelay is given by the following for IPv6:

     if (bestPriority == myPriority) {
         addrDelay = log_2(1 + bestAddr - myAddr) / 64
     } else {
         addrDelay = 2 - (myAddr / 2^127)
     }

  and bestPriority is given by:

     bestPriority = max(storedPriority, myPriority)

  and bestAddr is given by:

     bestAddr = max(storedAddr, myAddr)

  and where myAddr is the Candidate-BSR's address, storedAddr is the
  stored BSR's address, myPriority is the Candidate-BSR's configured
  priority, and storedPriority is the stored BSR's priority.

  Timer Name: Scope Zone Expiry Timer (SZT(Z))

  +---------------+---------------------------+-----------------------+
  |  Value Name   |   Value                   |   Explanation         |
  +---------------+---------------------------+-----------------------+
  |  SZ_Timeout   |   Default: 1300 seconds   |   Interval after      |
  |               |                           |   which a scope zone  |
  |               |                           |   is timed out if no  |
  |               |                           |   BSM is received     |
  |               |                           |   for that scope      |
  |               |                           |   zone                |
  +---------------+---------------------------+-----------------------+

  Note that SZ_Timeout MUST be larger than BS_Timeout, even if their
  values are changed from the defaults.  We recommend that SZ_Timeout
  is set to 10 times BS_Timeout.









Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 34]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  Timer Name: Group-to-C-RP mapping Expiry Timer (CGET(M,Z))

  +------------------------+-------------------+----------------------+
  |  Value Name            |    Value          |    Explanation       |
  +------------------------+-------------------+----------------------+
  |  C-RP Mapping Timeout  |    from message   |    Holdtime from C-  |
  |                        |                   |    RP-Adv message    |
  +------------------------+-------------------+----------------------+

  Timer Name: Group-to-RP mapping Expiry Timer (GET(M,Z))

  +-----------------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
  |  Value Name           |   Value           |    Explanation        |
  +-----------------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
  |  RP Mapping Timeout   |   from message    |    Holdtime from BSM  |
  +-----------------------+-------------------+-----------------------+

  Timer Name: C-RP Advertisement Timer (CRPT)

  +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
  | Value Name        |  Value                 |   Explanation        |
  +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
  | C_RP_Adv_Period   |  Default: 60 seconds   |   Periodic interval  |
  |                   |                        |   with which C-RP-   |
  |                   |                        |   Adv messages are   |
  |                   |                        |   sent to a BSR      |
  +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
  | C_RP_Adv_Backoff  |  Default: 0-3 seconds  |   Whenever a         |
  |                   |                        |   triggered C_RP_Adv |
  |                   |                        |   is sent, a new     |
  |                   |                        |   randomized value   |
  |                   |                        |   between 0 and 3    |
  |                   |                        |   is used            |
  +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

















Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 35]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


6.  Security Considerations

6.1.  Possible Threats

  Threats affecting the PIM BSR mechanism are primarily of two forms:
  denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and traffic-diversion attacks.  An
  attacker that subverts the BSR mechanism can prevent multicast
  traffic from reaching the intended recipients, can divert multicast
  traffic to a place where they can monitor it, and can potentially
  flood third parties with traffic.

  Traffic can be prevented from reaching the intended recipients by one
  of two mechanisms:

  o  Subverting a BSM, and specifying RPs that won't actually forward
     traffic.

  o  Registering with the BSR as a C-RP, and then not forwarding
     traffic.

  Traffic can be diverted to a place where it can be monitored by both
  of the above mechanisms; in this case, the RPs would forward the
  traffic, but are located so as to aid monitoring or man-in-the-middle
  attacks on the multicast traffic.

  A third party can be flooded by either of the above two mechanisms by
  specifying the third party as the RP, and register traffic will then
  be forwarded to the third party.

6.2.  Limiting Third-Party DoS Attacks

  The third-party DoS attack above can be greatly reduced if PIM
  routers acting as DR do not continue to forward Register traffic to
  the RP in the presence of ICMP Protocol Unreachable or ICMP Host
  Unreachable responses.  If a PIM router sending Register packets to
  an RP receives one of these responses to a data packet it has sent,
  it should rate- limit the transmission of future Register packets to
  that RP for a short period of time.

  As this does not affect interoperability, the precise details are
  left to the implementer to decide.  However, we note that a router
  implementing such rate limiting must only do so if the ICMP packet
  correctly echoes part of a Register packet that was sent to the RP.
  If this check were not made, then simply sending ICMP Unreachable
  packets to the DR with the source address of the RP spoofed would be
  sufficient to cause a denial-of-service attack on the multicast
  traffic originating from that DR.




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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


6.3.  Bootstrap Message Security

  If a legitimate PIM router in a domain is compromised, there is
  little any security mechanism can do to prevent that router from
  subverting PIM traffic in that domain.

  Implementations SHOULD provide a per-interface configuration option
  where one can specify that no Bootstrap messages are to be sent out
  of or accepted on the interface.  This should generally be configured
  on all PMBRs in order not to receive messages from neighboring
  domains.  This avoids receiving legitimate messages with conflicting
  BSR information from other domains, and also prevents BSR attacks
  from neighboring domains.  This option is also useful on leaf
  interfaces where there are only hosts present.  However, the Security
  Considerations section of [1] states that there should be a mechanism
  for not accepting PIM Hello messages on leaf interfaces and that
  messages should only be accepted from valid PIM neighbors.  There may
  however be additional issues with unicast Bootstrap messages; see
  below.  In addition to dropping all multicast Bootstrap messages on
  PMBRs, we also recommend configuring PMBRs (both towards other
  domains and on leaf interfaces) to drop all unicast PIM messages
  (Bootstrap message, Candidate-RP Advertisement, PIM register, and PIM
  register stop).

6.3.1.  Unicast Bootstrap Messages

  There are some possible security issues with unicast Bootstrap
  messages.  The Bootstrap Message Processing Checks prevent a router
  from accepting a Bootstrap message from outside of the PIM Domain, as
  the source address on Bootstrap messages must be an immediate PIM
  neighbor.  There is however a small window of time after a reboot
  where a PIM router will accept a bad Bootstrap message that is
  unicast from an immediate neighbor, and it might be possible to
  unicast a Bootstrap message to a router during this interval from
  outside the domain, using the spoofed source address of a neighbor.
  The best way to protect against this is to use the above-mentioned
  mechanism of configuring border and leaf interfaces to drop all
  bootstrap messages, including unicast messages.  This can also be
  prevented if PMBRs perform source-address filtering to prevent
  packets entering the PIM domain with IP source addresses that are
  infrastructure addresses in the PIM domain.

  The use of unicast Bootstrap messages is for backwards compatibility
  only.  Due to the possible security implications, implementations
  supporting unicast Bootstrap messages SHOULD provide a configuration
  option for whether they are to be used.





Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 37]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


6.3.2.  Multi-Access Subnets

  As mentioned above, implementations SHOULD provide a per-interface
  configuration option so that leaf interfaces and interfaces facing
  other domains can be configured to drop all Bootstrap messages.  In
  this section, we will consider multi-access subnets where there are
  both multiple PIM routers in a PIM domain and PIM routers outside the
  PIM domain or non-trusted hosts.  On such subnets, one should (if
  possible) configure the PMBRs to drop Bootstrap messages.  This is
  possible provided that the routers in the PIM domain receive
  Bootstrap messages on other internal subnets.  That is, for each of
  the routers on the multi-access subnet that are in our domain, the
  RPF interface for each of the Candidate-BSR addresses must be an
  internal interface (an interface not on a multi-access subnet).
  There are however network topologies where this is not possible.  For
  such topologies, we recommend that IPsec Authentication Header (AH)
  is used to protect communication between the PIM routers in the
  domain, and that such routers are configured to drop and log
  communication attempts from any nodes that do not pass the
  authentication check.  When all the PIM routers are under the same
  administrative control, this authentication may use a configured
  shared secret.  In order to prevent replay attacks, one will need to
  have one security association (SA) per sender and use the sender
  address for SA lookup.  The securing of interactions between PIM
  neighbors is discussed in more detail in the Security Considerations
  section of [1], and so we do not discuss the details further here.
  The same security mechanisms that can be used to secure PIM Join,
  Prune, and Assert messages should also be used to secure Bootstrap
  messages.  How exactly to secure PIM link-local messages is still
  being worked on by the PIM working group; see [10].

6.4.  Candidate-RP-Advertisement Message Security

  Even if it is not possible to subvert Bootstrap messages, an attacker
  might be able to perform most of the same attacks by simply sending
  C-RP-Adv messages to the BSR specifying the attacker's choice of RPs.
  Thus, it is necessary to control the sending of C-RP-Adv messages in
  essentially the same ways that we control Bootstrap messages.
  However, C-RP-Adv messages are unicast and normally travel multiple
  hops, so controlling them is more difficult.

6.4.1.  Non-Cryptographic Security of C-RP-Adv Messages

  We recommend that PMBRs are configured to drop C-RP-Adv messages.
  One might configure the PMBRs to drop all unicast PIM messages
  (Bootstrap message, Candidate-RP Advertisement, PIM register, and PIM
  register stop).  PMBRs may also perform source-address filtering to
  prevent packets entering the PIM domain with IP source addresses that



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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


  are infrastructure addresses in the PIM domain.  We also recommend
  that implementations have a way of restricting which IP addresses the
  BSR accepts C-RP-Adv messages from.  The BSR can then be configured
  to only accept C-RP-Adv messages from infrastructure addresses or the
  subset used for Candidate-RPs.

  If the unicast and multicast topologies are known to be congruent,
  the following checks should be made.  On interfaces that are
  configured to be leaf subnets, all C-RP-Adv messages should be
  dropped.  On multi- access subnets with multiple PIM routers and
  hosts that are not trusted, the router can at least check that the
  source Media Access Control (MAC) address is that of a valid PIM
  neighbor.

6.4.2.  Cryptographic Security of C-RP-Adv Messages

  For true security, we recommend that all C-RPs are configured to use
  IPsec authentication.  The authentication process for a C-RP-Adv
  message between a C-RP and the BSR is identical to the authentication
  process for PIM Register messages between a DR and the relevant RP,
  except that there will normally be fewer C-RPs in a domain than there
  are DRs, so key management is a little simpler.  We do not describe
  the details of this process further here, but refer to the Security
  Considerations section of [1].  Note that the use of cryptographic
  security for C-RP-Adv messages does not remove the need for the non-
  cryptographic mechanisms, as explained above.

6.5.  Denial of Service using IPsec

  An additional concern is that of denial-of-service attacks caused by
  sending high volumes of Bootstrap messages or C-RP-Adv messages with
  invalid IPsec authentication information.  It is possible that these
  messages could overwhelm the CPU resources of the recipient.

  The non-cryptographic security mechanisms above restrict from where
  unicast Bootstrap messages and C-RP-Adv messages are accepted.  In
  addition, we recommend that rate-limiting mechanisms can be
  configured, to be applied on receipt of unicast PIM packets.  The
  rate-limiter MUST independently rate-limit different types of PIM
  packets -- for example, a flood of C-RP-Adv messages MUST NOT cause a
  rate limiter to drop low- rate Bootstrap messages.  Such a rate-
  limiter might itself be used to cause a denial-of-service attack by
  causing valid packets to be dropped, but in practice this is more
  likely to constrain bad PIM messages.  The rate-limiter will prevent
  attacks on PIM from affecting other activity on the receiving router,
  such as unicast routing.





Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 39]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


7.  Contributors

  Bill Fenner, Mark Handley, Roger Kermode, and David Thaler have
  contributed greatly to this document.  They were authors of this
  document up to version 03, and much of the current text comes from
  version 03.

8.  Acknowledgments

  PIM-SM was designed over many years by a large group of people,
  including ideas from Deborah Estrin, Dino Farinacci, Ahmed Helmy,
  Steve Deering, Van Jacobson, C. Liu, Puneet Sharma, Liming Wei, Tom
  Pusateri, Tony Ballardie, Scott Brim, Jon Crowcroft, Paul Francis,
  Joel Halpern, Horst Hodel, Polly Huang, Stephen Ostrowski, Lixia
  Zhang, Girish Chandranmenon, Pavlin Radoslavov, John Zwiebel, Isidor
  Kouvelas, and Hugh Holbrook.  This BSR specification draws heavily on
  text from RFC 2362.

  Many members of the PIM Working Group have contributed comments and
  corrections for this document, including Christopher Thomas Brown,
  Ardas Cilingiroglu, Murthy Esakonu, Venugopal Hemige, Prashant
  Jhingran, Rishabh Parekh, and Katta Sambasivarao.

9.  Normative References

  [1]  Fenner, B., Handley, M., Holbrook, H., and I. Kouvelas,
       "Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol
       Specification (Revised)", RFC 4601, August 2006.

  [2]  Handley, M., Kouvelas, I., Speakman, T., and L. Vicisano,
       "Bidirectional Protocol Independent Multicast (BIDIR-PIM)", RFC
       5015, October 2007.

  [3]  Meyer, D., "Administratively Scoped IP Multicast", BCP 23, RFC
       2365, July 1998.

  [4]  Deering, S., Haberman, B., Jinmei, T., Nordmark, E., and B.
       Zill, "IPv6 Scoped Address Architecture", RFC 4007, March 2005.

  [5]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
       Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006.

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







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RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


10.  Informative References

  [7]  Estrin, D., et al., "Protocol Independent Multicast-Sparse Mode
       (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification", RFC 2362, June 1998.

  [8]  Kim, D., Meyer, D., Kilmer, H., and D. Farinacci, "Anycast
       Rendevous Point (RP) mechanism using Protocol Independent
       Multicast (PIM) and Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP)",
       RFC 3446, January 2003.

  [9]  Farinacci, D. and Y. Cai, "Anycast-RP Using Protocol Independent
       Multicast (PIM)", RFC 4610, August 2006.

  [10] Atwood, W. and S. Islam, "Security Issues in PIM-SM Link-local
       Messages", Work in Progress, July 2007.

  [11] IANA, "Address Family Numbers",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/address-family-numbers>.

Authors' Addresses

  Nidhi Bhaskar
  Arastra, Inc.
  P.O. Box 10905
  Palo Alto, CA 94303
  USA
  EMail: [email protected]

  Alexander Gall
  SWITCH
  P.O. Box
  CH-8021 Zurich
  Switzerland
  EMail: [email protected]

  James Lingard
  Arastra, Inc.
  P.O. Box 10905
  Palo Alto, CA 94303
  USA
  EMail: [email protected]

  Stig Venaas
  UNINETT
  NO-7465 Trondheim
  Norway
  EMail: [email protected]




Bhaskar, et al.             Standards Track                    [Page 41]

RFC 5059                 BSR Mechanism for PIM              January 2008


Full Copyright Statement

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