RFC 1370

RFC 1370 🎀 Applicability Statement for OSPF

Okay bestie, let's get the basics down first 🧚 This is RFC 1370, and it's called Applicability Statement for OSPF ✨

• Group: Network Working Group 💜
• Written by: the Internet Architecture Board, with Lyman Chapin as Chair 👑
• Author's address: A. Lyman Chapin at BBN Communications Corporation (full details at the very end 📮)
• Date: October 1992 🍓
• Category: IAB standards track Applicability Statement 🦋
• Obsoletes / Updates: this doc doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so nothing to see there 🙈

Status of This Memo 📝

This memo is an IAB standards track Applicability Statement for the Internet community, and it requests discussion and suggestions for improvements 🫶 For the standardization state and status of this spec, check the current edition of the "IAB Official Protocol Standards" 💅 And distribution of this memo is unlimited 🌈

1. INTRODUCTION ✨

Okay so users and vendors have been very clear that they need IP routers from different vendors to be able to interoperate using a common Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) 💖 There's an urgent need for a high-functionality, non-proprietary "open" IGP that every IP router vendor can ubiquitously offer. Main character energy for sure 👑

That's where the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol [1] comes in! The IETF developed it to fill exactly this gap 🔥 This Applicability Statement spells out the circumstances under which router vendors must implement OSPF. The full history and the reasoning behind all this is in [5] 📚

So this Applicability Statement puts a requirement on vendors who claim conformance to this standard 🎀 The whole point is making sure users can deploy OSPF whenever they need a multivendor, interoperable IGP in their environment 🧚 Users are of course free to use whatever routing protocol best meets their requirements. No pressure, no drama 🫶

2. APPLICABILITY OF OSPF 🦋

Here's the tea 🍵 An IP router that implements any routing protocol (other than static routes) is required to implement OSPF [1] and the OSPF MIB [2]. Within OSPF, implementing all features except TOS (Type-of-Service) routing is required, and implementing TOS routing is recommended 💅

A router is still allowed to implement other routing protocols alongside OSPF, so this doesn't block anything 🌸 The complete and definitive requirements for all aspects of an IP router will live in a forthcoming Applicability Statement called "Requirements for IP Routers" [4], which is currently in preparation in the IETF 👀 Once it becomes a Standard, it will take precedence over this RFC if its requirements for OSPF ever conflict with it. So that one's the boss 👑

Also, OSPF is meant for routers to exchange dynamic routing information, NOT for hosts 🙈 As discussed in Section 3.3.1.4 of STD-2, "Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Communication Layers" [3], 'wiretapping' of routing protocols by hosts is not recommended. That's a big ick 😭 Recommended mechanisms for a host to discover local routers and detect dead routers are in [3]. And the ICMP Router Discovery messages, which are under development, will give hosts a standard way to learn the addresses of local routers [6] 💜

3. REFERENCES 📚

• [1] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", RFC 1247, Proteon, Inc., July 1991.
• [2] Baker, F., and R. Coltun, "OSPF Version 2 Management Information Base", RFC 1253, ACC, Computer Science Center, August 1991.
• [3] Braden, R., Editor, "Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Communication Layers", IETF, STD 3, RFC 1122, October 1989.
• [4] Almquist, P., Editor, "Requirements for IP Routers", Work in Preparation, IETF.
• [5] Gross, P., Editor, "Choosing a "Common IGP" for the IP Internet (The IESG's Recommendation to the IAB)", RFC 1371, IESG, October 1992.
• [6] Deering, S., Editor, "ICMP Router Discovery Messages", RFC 1256, Xerox PARC, September 1991.

Security Considerations 🚨

Security issues are not discussed in this memo. 💀 Yikes, so this is a gap you'll want to keep in mind, bestie 😭

Author's Address 📮

A. Lyman Chapin
BBN Communications Corporation
150 Cambridge Park Drive
Cambridge, MA  02140

Phone: 617-873-3133
Fax:   617-873-4086
Email: Lyman@BBN.COM

That's a wrap, bestie 🧚💖 The OSPF story in one sentence: if you're a router, you gotta do OSPF, and if you're a host, hands off the routing protocols 🦋✨