One document matched: draft-stiemerling-nsis-natfw-mrm-00.txt



NSIS Working Group                                        M. Stiemerling
Internet-Draft                                                       NEC
Expires: April 18, 2005                                 October 18, 2004


            Loose End Message Routing Method for NATFW NSLP
                  draft-stiemerling-nsis-natfw-mrm-00

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
   of section 3 of RFC 3667.  By submitting this Internet-Draft, each
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   which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with
   RFC 3668.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 18, 2005.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).

Abstract

   This memo describes the use cases and solution for a new NTLP message
   routing method (MRM) that is used by the NATFW NSLP protocol to
   located Network Address Translators on the upstream data path.  This
   message routing method is used by NSIS nodes behind a NAT to allocate
   a public reachable IP address and/or port number.  The current way to
   do so has been name as "signaling the wrong way" and should be
   replaced by the proposed message routing method.  The scope of this
   memo is currently limited to Network Address Translator usage only.



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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3

   2.  Signaling the Wrong Way  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4

   3.  Loose End Message Routing Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6

   4.  Conclusions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7

   5.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8

   6.  Open Issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9

   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   7.1   Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   7.2   Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

       Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

   A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

       Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 12




























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1.  Introduction

   The NATFW NSIS Signaling Layer Protocol (NATFW NSLP) [4] describes a
   path-coupled protocol to configure Network Address Translators (NATs)
   and Firewalls to let subsequent data traffic traverse these devices.
   The NSIS Transport Layer Protocol (NTLP) [3] is used to route those
   NATFW NSLP signaling messages on the data path.  Typically, the NATFW
   NSLP signaling messages are initially sent downstream, meaning from
   data sender to data receiver, and responses are sent upstream, from
   receiver to sender.  In this case, the data sender, and the NATFW
   NSLP, know the final receiver of the data flow.  Commonly, this
   scenario is referred to sender behind NAT (see Section 2.3 of [4]).

   Another scenario, described in Section 2.4 of [4], describes a data
   receiver behind a NAT.  Data receivers located in a network that is
   separated by a NAT from the public network are not directly
   addressable by means of IP addresses.  These data receivers are using
   private IP addresses, only meaningful in their private network.  To
   receive data from outside this private network, data receivers must
   first obtain a globally routable IP address (public IP address).
   This public IP address is located at the NAT of the network and is
   usually used in application level signaling exchanges to inform to
   the data sender where to send its data.  Note that there may be
   several NATs connecting this private network to the public network.

   When a data receiver knows the data sender's IP address (at least),
   it will send its NSIS NATFW NSLP signaling message upstream towards
   this address.  The NTLP must forward this signaling message upstream
   and the NATFW NSLP will stop the forwarding process a the outermost
   NAT, the so-called edge-NAT.  The NATFW NSLP message type to be used
   for this upstream signaling is RESERVE-EXTERNAL-ADDRESS (REA).

   The above described assumes that the data receiver knows the IP
   address of the data sender in advance.  However, in many applications
   the IP address of the data sender is not known in advance, such as
   SIP.  In this case the NATFW NSLP signaling message for REA cannot be
   sent upstream towards an IP address.  Nevertheless, to get a public
   reachable IP address the data receiver must somehow find the external
   NAT and allocated an IP address or port number, depending on the NAT
   type.

   The remaining document describes the current proposed way of finding
   the external NAT as described in [4] in Section 2 and the new
   proposed way of locating the NAT in Section 3.

   The terminology used throughout this memo is aligned to the NSIS
   terminology.




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2.  Signaling the Wrong Way

   In [4] Section 5.4.2 the wrong way signaling approach is mentioned.
   This way of signaling fakes a data sender's address and uses the
   standard downstream message routing method (MRM) defined in [3].



                              edge NAT
                              +------+
                              |NATFW |                  +----+
                            .'+NSLP  `.                 ' NS*+
                           /  |w/ NAT| \   ,-----.      +----+
               +------+  .'   +------+  `./       .
     +----+    |NATFW | /                /         \
     | NR |----+NSLP  |+                (  Internet )
     +----+    |w/ NAT| \                \         /
               +------+  `.   +------+   .'       `.
                           \  |NATFW | .'  `-----'  `.  +----+
                            `.+NSLP  .'               `.| NS +
                              |w/ NAT|                  +----+
                              +------+
                              edge NAT



                     Figure 1: NATFW NSLP elements

   The NTLP message routing information is set NSLP receiver (NR) to
   source-address, faked NSLP sender (NS*) to destination-address.
   Where, NR is the NSLP receiver for the later happening CREATE request
   message exchange and NS* is an arbitrary public IP address.  Further
   information like port numbers might be set, too.  The NSLP uses the
   RESERVE-EXTERNAL-ADDRESS (REA) request message.  The signaling
   message is sent downstream to NS*, intercepted and processed by NATFW
   NSLP nodes implementing Network Address Translation (NAT).  NATFW
   NSLP nodes implementing Firewall functionality only, just forward the
   message, unless they are edge Firewalls.  Edge Firewalls stop the
   message forwarding and do reply with an error response 'no NAT here'
   to indicate that there is no NAT on the path.  Each NAT on the path
   takes the message and processes it.  An IP address/port is reserved
   at the NAT, but not enabled, and the translation is prepared for
   future use.  Reserved and prepared refers to getting all necessary
   configurations done at the NAT to enable later translations
   immediately.  The message is forwarded until it reaches an edge NAT.
   The edge NAT stops the message forwarding and replies with a response
   message indicating the reserved external IP address/port number.
   This IP address and port number can now be used by the application at



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   the NR to indicate its reachable address.

   To make data transmission work, a real NSIS sender (NS) must now send
   a CREATE request message to the allocated IP address at the edge NAT.
   This CREATE request message enables the NATs and Firewalls to forward
   the data packets.  The defined rules for processing and forwarding
   CREATE apply, meaning that these messages are sent from NS to NR and
   installing NSIS state and Firewall/NAT rules in he NATFW NSLP nodes.
   Please note that the NSIS sender of this CREATE message is not
   necessary the same as used by the REA message noted as NS*.

   This method of finding a NAT on the data path installs several states
   on NTLP and NSLP level.  First of all, a state on the NTLP level is
   installed from NR until the edge-NAT with final destination of NS* at
   each NATFW NSLP node.  This state must be maintained with repeating
   REA messages, since it is subject to the regular timeout handling.
   Second, with the arrival of the CREATE message at NR, the state for
   REA must be removed since it is no longer used.  Instead of this, the
   state for CREATE must be maintained.  The state built during the REA
   phase is never used by any incoming CREATE request message and is to
   a certain degree misleading, since the later source NS* is not the
   real NSIS sender.

   The 'signaling the wrong way' approach seems to be more a work around
   solution instead of a proper one that is well understood.  Therefore,
   the next section proposes a new way of spotting the NAT and
   minimizing state and giving a clean way of finding NATs even without
   knowing the NSIS sender NS.























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3.  Loose End Message Routing Method

   This section proposes a new message routing method (MRM) to find NATs
   on the network side of data receivers.  As described earlier some
   applications require to get a public reachable IP address/port number
   without knowing where the data traffic is coming from, meaning that
   NSIS sender (NS) is unknown.  Therefore, signaling messages must be
   sent to a faked address NS*, resulting in a loose end with respect to
   the signaling since this not the actual fixed sender's address.  This
   faked address of the NSIS sender NS* is called signaling destination
   address (SDA).

   The loose end message routing method (LEMRM) requires that the NTLP
   is routing messages upstream from NR to NS* and requires that NATFW
   NSLP nodes implementing NAT are processing these messages only.  All
   other NTLP nodes just forward the message and NATFW NSLP nodes
   implementing Firewall functionality do not process this message at
   all.  The processing at NATs and edge NATs regarding NAT
   configuration is unchanged.  NTLP and NSLP state is only kept at the
   NATs that intercepted and processed the REA message.  All other
   messages, such as responses and repeated REAs for state refresh, are
   exchanged directly between NATFW NSLP nodes involved.  Through this
   state to be maintained is minimized and only the NR and NATFW NSLP
   nodes with NAT functionality are forced to keep this NTLP and NSLP
   state.

   A NR using the REA request message must set NTLP's MRI to signaling
   destination address (SDA) as destination-address and its own address
   NR as source-address.  A new field (yet to be defined) indicates to
   the NTLP that the destination-address is not the real NSIS sender's
   address, but the SDA and that LEMRM is to be used.  The NTLP routes
   the REA message upstream to towards the SDA via D-MODE.  NATFW NSLPs
   implementing NAT functionality intercept and process the REA message
   according [4].  Edge NATs stop the message forwarding.  The C-MODE
   connection are being established between NR and the NATFW NSLPs
   implementing NAT functionality only.

   A real NSIS sender (NS) can use the via REA allocated IP address/port
   number to send its CREATE request message to.  The CREATE message is
   processed as in [4] and requires a new path discovery from edge NAT
   towards NR.  This path discovery will located all NATFW NSLP nodes
   (Firewalls and NATs) along the data path and enable the data path
   from NS to NR.

   Section 8.9 of [3] describes how new MRMs must be defined.  The exact
   format, filtering/security, and NAT processing of MRI format are to
   be done in future versions of this document.




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4.  Conclusions

   This memo discusses a new message routing method for the NATFW NSLP.
   This new MRM is intended to replace the current proposed 'signaling
   the wrong way' approach.  The current text contained within this
   document is a first cut and needs further refinement.













































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5.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations are to be done.
















































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6.  Open Issues

   o  Asymmetric routing and why it is not a problem with NATs
   o  Spotting the NAT with SDA equal to real NS
   o  Using LEMRM for locating Firewalls














































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7.  References

7.1  Normative References

   [1]  Hancock et al, R., "Next Steps in Signaling: Framework", DRAFT
        draft-ietf-nsis-fw-05.txt, October 2003.

   [2]  Brunner et al., M., "Requirements for Signaling Protocols",
        DRAFT draft-ietf-nsis-req-09.txt, October 2003.

   [3]  Schulzrinne, H. and R. Hancock, "GIMPS: General Internet
        Messaging Protocol for Signaling", DRAFT
        draft-ietf-nsis-ntlp-02.txt, October 2003.

   [4]  Stiemerling, M., Tschofenig, H., Martin, M. and C. Aoun,
        "NAT/Firewall NSIS Signaling Layer Protocol (NSLP)", DRAFT
        draft-ietf-nsis-nslp-natfw-03.txt, July 2004.

7.2  Informative References

   [5]  Srisuresh, P. and M. Holdrege, "IP Network Address Translator
        (NAT) Terminology and Considerations, RFC 2663", August 1999.

   [6]  Srisuresh, P. and E. Egevang, "Traditional IP Network Address
        Translator (Traditional NAT), RFC 3022", January 2001.

   [7]  Tsirtsis, G. and P. Srisuresh, "Network Address Translation -
        Protocol Translation (NAT-PT), RFC 2766", February 2000.

   [8]  Carpenter, B. and S. Brim, "Middleboxes: Taxonomy and Issues",
        RFC 3234, February 2002.

   [9]  Rekhter et al, Y., "Address Allocation for Private Internets",
        RFC 1918, February 1996.


Author's Address

   Martin Stiemerling
   Network Laboratories, NEC Europe Ltd.
   Kurfuersten-Anlage 36
   Heidelberg  69115
   Germany

   Phone: +49 (0) 6221 905 11 13
   EMail: stiemerling@netlab.nec.de
   URI:   http://www.stiemerling.org




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Appendix A.  Acknowledgments

   The author would like to thank Robert Hancock, Hannes Tschofenig, and
   Cedric Aoun for the discussions.















































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