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IETF RFC 9171
Last modified on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Burleigh
Request for Comments: 9171 IPNGROUP
Category: Standards Track K. Fall
ISSN: 2070-1721 Roland Computing Services
E. Birrane, III
APL, Johns Hopkins University
January 2022
Bundle Protocol Version 7
 Abstract
This document presents a specification for the Bundle Protocol,
adapted from the experimental Bundle Protocol specification developed
by the Delay-Tolerant Networking Research Group of the Internet
Research Task Force and documented in RFC 5050.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 9171.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the
Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Conventions Used in This Document
3. Service Description
3.1. Definitions
3.2. Discussion of BP Concepts
3.3. Services Offered by Bundle Protocol Agents
4. Bundle Format
4.1. Bundle Structure
4.2. BP Fundamental Data Structures
4.2.1. CRC Type
4.2.2. CRC
4.2.3. Bundle Processing Control Flags
4.2.4. Block Processing Control Flags
4.2.5. Identifiers
4.2.5.1. Endpoint ID
4.2.5.1.1. The dtn URI Scheme
4.2.5.1.2. The ipn URI Scheme
4.2.5.2. Node ID
4.2.6. DTN Time
4.2.7. Creation Timestamp
4.2.8. Block-Type-Specific Data
4.3. Block Structures
4.3.1. Primary Bundle Block
4.3.2. Canonical Bundle Block Format
4.4. Extension Blocks
4.4.1. Previous Node
4.4.2. Bundle Age
4.4.3. Hop Count
5. Bundle Processing
5.1. Generation of Administrative Records
5.2. Bundle Transmission
5.3. Bundle Dispatching
5.4. Bundle Forwarding
5.4.1. Forwarding Contraindicated
5.4.2. Forwarding Failed
5.5. Bundle Expiration
5.6. Bundle Reception
5.7. Local Bundle Delivery
5.8. Bundle Fragmentation
5.9. Application Data Unit Reassembly
5.10. Bundle Deletion
5.11. Discarding a Bundle
5.12. Canceling a Transmission
6. Administrative Record Processing
6.1. Administrative Records
6.1.1. Bundle Status Reports
6.2. Generation of Administrative Records
7. Services Required of the Convergence Layer
7.1. The Convergence Layer
7.2. Summary of Convergence-Layer Services
8. Security Considerations
9. IANA Considerations
9.1. Bundle Block Types
9.2. Primary Bundle Protocol Version
9.3. Bundle Processing Control Flags
9.4. Block Processing Control Flags
9.5. Bundle Status Report Reason Codes
9.6. Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types
9.7. dtn URI Scheme
9.8. ipn URI Scheme
10. References
10.1. Normative References
10.2. Informative References
Appendix A. Significant Changes from RFC 5050
Appendix B. CDDL Expression
Acknowledgments
Authors' Addresses
1. Introduction
Since the publication of the Bundle Protocol specification
(Experimental RFC 5050 [RFC 5050]) in 2007, the Delay-Tolerant
Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP) has been implemented in
multiple programming languages and deployed to a wide variety of
computing platforms. This implementation and deployment experience
has identified opportunities for making the protocol simpler, more
capable, and easier to use. The present document, standardizing the
Bundle Protocol, is adapted from RFC 5050 in that context, reflecting
lessons learned. Significant changes from the Bundle Protocol
specification defined in RFC 5050 are listed in Appendix A.
This document describes BP version 7 (BPv7).
Delay-Tolerant Networking is a network architecture providing
communications in and/or through highly stressed environments.
Stressed networking environments include those with intermittent
connectivity, large and/or variable delays, and high bit error rates.
To provide its services, BP may be viewed as sitting at the
application layer of some number of constituent networks, forming a
store-carry-forward overlay network. Key capabilities of BP include:
* Ability to use physical motility for the movement of data.
* Ability to move the responsibility for error control from one node
to another.
* Ability to cope with intermittent connectivity, including cases
where the sender and receiver are not concurrently present in the
network.
* Ability to take advantage of scheduled, predicted, and
opportunistic connectivity, whether bidirectional or
unidirectional, in addition to continuous connectivity.
* Late binding of overlay-network endpoint identifiers to underlying
constituent network addresses.
For descriptions of these capabilities and the rationale for the DTN
architecture, see [ARCH] and [SIGC].
BP's location within the standard protocol stack is as shown in
Figure 1. BP uses underlying "integrated" transport and/or network
protocols for communications within a given constituent network. The
layer at which those underlying protocols are located is here termed
the "convergence layer", and the interface between the Bundle
Protocol and a specific underlying protocol is termed a "convergence-
layer adapter".
Figure 1 shows three distinct transport and network protocols
(denoted T1/N1, T2/N2, and T3/N3).
+-----------+ +-----------+
| BP app | | BP app |
+---------v-| +->>>>>>>>>>v-+ +->>>>>>>>>>v-+ +-^---------+
| BP v | | ^ BP v | | ^ BP v | | ^ BP |
+---------v-+ +-^---------v-+ +-^---------v-+ +-^---------+
| T1 v | + ^ T1/T2 v | + ^ T2/T3 v | | ^ T3 |
+---------v-+ +-^---------v-+ +-^---------v + +-^---------+
| N1 v | | ^ N1/N2 v | | ^ N2/N3 v | | ^ N3 |
+---------v-+ +-^---------v + +-^---------v-+ +-^---------+
| >>>>>>>>^ >>>>>>>>>>^ >>>>>>>>^ |
+-----------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ +-----------+
| | | |
|<---- A network ---->| |<---- A network ---->|
| | | |
Figure 1: The Bundle Protocol in the Protocol Stack Model
This document describes the format of the protocol data units (PDUs)
(called "bundles") passed between entities participating in BP
communications.
The entities are referred to as "bundle nodes". This document does
not address:
* Operations in the convergence-layer adapters that bundle nodes use
to transport data through specific types of internets. (However,
the document does discuss the services that must be provided by
each adapter at the convergence layer.)
* The bundle route computation algorithm.
* Mechanisms for populating the routing or forwarding information
bases of bundle nodes.
* The mechanisms for securing bundles en route.
* The mechanisms for managing bundle nodes.
Note that implementations of the specification presented in this
document will not be interoperable with implementations of RFC 5050.
2. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
BCP 14 [RFC 2119] [RFC 8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
3. Service Description
3.1. Definitions
Bundle: A bundle is a PDU of BP, so named because negotiation of the
parameters of a data exchange may be impractical in a delay-
tolerant network: it is often better practice to "bundle" with a
unit of application data all metadata that might be needed in
order to make the data immediately usable when delivered to the
application. Each bundle comprises a sequence of two or more
"blocks" of protocol data, which serve various purposes.
Block: A Bundle Protocol block is one of the protocol data
structures that together constitute a well-formed bundle.
Application Data Unit: An application data unit (ADU) is the unit of
data whose conveyance to the bundle's destination is the purpose
for the transmission of some bundle that is not a fragment (as
defined below).
Bundle payload: A bundle payload (or simply "payload") is the
content of the bundle's payload block. The terms "bundle
content", "bundle payload", and "payload" are used interchangeably
in this document. For a bundle that is not a fragment (as defined
below), the payload is an ADU.
Partial payload: A partial payload is a payload that comprises
either the first N bytes or the last N bytes of some other payload
of length M, such that 0 < N < M. Note that every partial payload
is a payload and therefore can be further subdivided into partial
payloads.
Fragment: A fragment, a.k.a. "fragmentary bundle", is a bundle whose
payload block contains a partial payload.
Bundle node: A bundle node (or, in the context of this document,
simply a "node") is any entity that can send and/or receive
bundles. Each bundle node has three conceptual components,
defined below, as shown in Figure 2: a "Bundle Protocol Agent", a
set of zero or more "convergence-layer adapters", and an
"application agent". ("CL1 PDUs" are the PDUs of the convergence-
layer protocol used in network 1.)
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|Node |
| |
| +-------------------------------------------------------+ |
| |Application Agent | |
| | | |
| | +--------------------------+ +----------------------+ | |
| | |Administrative element | |Application-specific | | |
| | | | |element | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | +--------------------------+ +----------------------+ | |
| | ^ ^ | |
| | Admin|records Application|data | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------v--------------------------v-----------+ |
| ^ |
| | ADUs |
| | |
| +-----------------------------v-------------------------+ |
| |Bundle Protocol Agent | |
| | | |
| | | |
| +-------------------------------------------------------+ |
| ^ ^ ^ |
| | Bundles | Bundles Bundles | |
| | | | |
| +------v-----+ +-----v------+ +-----v-----+ |
| |CLA 1 | |CLA 2 | |CLA n | |
| | | | | . . . | | |
| | | | | | | |
+-+------------+-----+------------+-----------+-----------+-+
^ ^ ^
CL1|PDUs CL2|PDUs CLn|PDUs
| | |
+------v-----+ +-----v------+ +-----v-----+
Network 1 Network 2 Network n
Figure 2: Components of a Bundle Node
Bundle Protocol Agent: The Bundle Protocol Agent (BPA) of a node is
the node component that offers the BP services and executes the
procedures of the Bundle Protocol.
Convergence-layer adapter: A convergence-layer adapter (CLA) is a
node component that sends and receives bundles on behalf of the
BPA, utilizing the services of some "integrated" protocol stack
that is supported in one of the networks within which the node is
functionally located.
Application agent: The application agent (AA) of a node is the node
component that utilizes the BP services to effect communication
for some user purpose. The application agent in turn has two
elements: an administrative element and an application-specific
element.
Application-specific element: The application-specific element of an
AA is the node component that constructs, requests transmission
of, accepts delivery of, and processes units of user application
data.
Administrative element: The administrative element of an AA is the
node component that constructs and requests transmission of
administrative records (defined below), including status reports,
and accepts delivery of and processes any administrative records
that the node receives.
Administrative record: A BP administrative record is an ADU that is
exchanged between the administrative elements of nodes'
application agents for some BP administrative purpose. The only
administrative record defined in this specification is the status
report, discussed later.
Bundle endpoint: A bundle endpoint (or simply "endpoint") is a set
of zero or more bundle nodes that all identify themselves for BP
purposes by some common identifier, called a "bundle endpoint ID"
(or, in this document, simply "endpoint ID"); endpoint IDs are
described in detail in Section 4.2.5.1.
Singleton endpoint: A singleton endpoint is an endpoint that always
contains exactly one member.
Registration: A registration is the state machine characterizing a
given node's membership in a given endpoint. Any single
registration has an associated delivery failure action as defined
below and must at any time be in one of two states: Active or
Passive. Registrations are local; information about a node's
registrations is not expected to be available at other nodes, and
the Bundle Protocol does not include a mechanism for distributing
information about registrations.
Delivery: A bundle is considered to have been delivered at a node
subject to a registration as soon as the ADU that is the payload
of the bundle, together with any relevant metadata (an
implementation matter), has been presented to the node's
application agent in a manner consistent with the state of that
registration.
Deliverability: A bundle is considered "deliverable" subject to a
registration if and only if (a) the bundle's destination endpoint
is the endpoint with which the registration is associated, (b) the
bundle has not yet been delivered subject to this registration,
and (c) the bundle has not yet been "abandoned" (as defined below)
subject to this registration.
Abandonment: To abandon a bundle subject to some registration is to
assert that the bundle is not deliverable subject to that
registration.
Delivery failure action: The delivery failure action of a
registration is the action that is to be taken when a bundle that
is "deliverable" subject to that registration is received at a
time when the registration is in the Passive state.
Destination: The destination of a bundle is the endpoint comprising
the node(s) at which the bundle is to be delivered (as defined
above).
Transmission: A transmission is an attempt by a node's BPA to cause
copies of a bundle to be delivered to one or more of the nodes
that are members of some endpoint (the bundle's destination) in
response to a transmission request issued by the node's
application agent.
Forwarding: To forward a bundle to a node is to invoke the services
of one or more CLAs in a sustained effort to cause a copy of the
bundle to be received by that node.
Discarding: To discard a bundle is to cease all operations on the
bundle and functionally erase all references to it. The specific
procedures by which this is accomplished are an implementation
matter.
Retention constraint: A retention constraint is an element of the
state of a bundle that prevents the bundle from being discarded.
That is, a bundle cannot be discarded while it has any retention
constraints.
Deletion: To delete a bundle is to remove unconditionally all of the
bundle's retention constraints, enabling the bundle to be
discarded.
3.2. Discussion of BP Concepts
Multiple instances of the same bundle (the same unit of DTN protocol
data) might exist concurrently in different parts of a network --
possibly differing in some blocks -- in the memory local to one or
more bundle nodes and/or in transit between nodes. In the context of
the operation of a bundle node, a bundle is an instance (copy), in
that node's local memory, of some bundle that is in the network.
The payload for a bundle forwarded in response to a bundle
transmission request is the ADU whose location is provided as a
parameter to that request. The payload for a bundle forwarded in
response to reception of a bundle is the payload of the received
bundle.
In the most familiar case, a bundle node is instantiated as a single
process running on a general-purpose computer, but in general the
definition is meant to be broader: a bundle node might alternatively
be a thread, an object in an object-oriented operating system, a
special-purpose hardware device, etc.
The manner in which the functions of the BPA are performed is wholly
an implementation matter. For example, BPA functionality might be
coded into each node individually; it might be implemented as a
shared library that is used in common by any number of bundle nodes
on a single computer; it might be implemented as a daemon whose
services are invoked via inter-process or network communication by
any number of bundle nodes on one or more computers; it might be
implemented in hardware.
Every CLA implements its own thin layer of protocol, interposed
between BP and the (usually "top") protocol(s) of the underlying
integrated protocol stack; this "CL protocol" may only serve to
multiplex and demultiplex bundles to and from the underlying
integrated protocol, or it may offer additional CL-specific
functionality. The manner in which a CLA sends and receives bundles,
as well as the definitions of CLAs and CL protocols, are beyond the
scope of this specification.
Note that the administrative element of a node's application agent
may itself, in some cases, function as a CLA. That is, outgoing
bundles may be "tunneled" through encapsulating bundles:
* An outgoing bundle constitutes a byte array. This byte array may,
like any other, be presented to the BPA as an ADU that is to be
transmitted to some endpoint.
* The original bundle thus forms the payload of an encapsulating
bundle that is forwarded using some other convergence-layer
protocol(s).
* When the encapsulating bundle is received, its payload is
delivered to the peer application agent administrative element,
which then instructs the BPA to dispatch that original bundle in
the usual way.
The purposes for which this technique may be useful (such as cross-
domain security) are beyond the scope of this specification.
The only interface between the BPA and the application-specific
element of the AA is the BP service interface. But between the BPA
and the administrative element of the AA there is a (conceptual)
private control interface in addition to the BP service interface.
This private control interface enables the BPA and the administrative
element of the AA to direct each other to take action under specific
circumstances.
In the case of a node that serves simply as a BP "router", the AA may
have no application-specific element at all. The application-
specific elements of other nodes' AAs may perform arbitrarily complex
application functions, perhaps even offering multiplexed DTN
communication services to a number of other applications. As with
the BPA, the manner in which the AA performs its functions is wholly
an implementation matter.
Singletons are the most familiar sort of endpoint, but in general the
endpoint notion is meant to be broader. For example, the nodes in a
sensor network might constitute a set of bundle nodes that are all
registered in a single common endpoint and will all receive any data
delivered at that endpoint. *Note* too that any given bundle node
might be registered in multiple bundle endpoints and receive all data
delivered at each of those endpoints.
Recall that every node, by definition, includes an application agent,
which in turn includes an administrative element, which exchanges
administrative records with the administrative elements of other
nodes. As such, every node is permanently, structurally registered
in the singleton endpoint at which administrative records received
from other nodes are delivered. Registration in no other endpoint
can ever be assumed to be permanent. This endpoint, termed the
node's "administrative endpoint", is therefore uniquely and
permanently associated with the node, and for this reason the ID of a
node's administrative endpoint may always serve as the "node ID" (see
Section 4.2.5.2) of the node.
The destination of every bundle is an endpoint, which may or may not
be singleton. The source of every bundle is a node, identified by
node ID. Note, though, that the source node ID asserted in a given
bundle may be the null endpoint ID (as described later) rather than
the ID of the source node; bundles for which the asserted source node
ID is the null endpoint ID are termed "anonymous" bundles.
Any number of transmissions may be concurrently undertaken by the BPA
of a given node.
When the BPA of a node determines that it must forward a bundle
either to a node that is a member of the bundle's destination
endpoint or to some intermediate forwarding node, the BPA invokes the
services of one or more CLAs in a sustained effort to cause a copy of
the bundle to be received by that node.
Upon reception, the processing of a bundle depends on whether or not
the receiving node is registered in the bundle's destination
endpoint. If it is, and if the payload of the bundle is non-
fragmentary (possibly as a result of successful payload reassembly
from fragmentary payloads, including the original payload of the
newly received bundle), then the bundle is normally delivered to the
node's application agent subject to the registration characterizing
the node's membership in the destination endpoint.
The Bundle Protocol itself does not ensure delivery of a bundle to
its destination. Data loss along the path to the destination node
can be minimized by utilizing reliable convergence-layer protocols
between neighbors on all segments of the end-to-end path; however,
for end-to-end bundle delivery assurance it will be necessary to
develop extensions to the Bundle Protocol and/or application-layer
mechanisms.
The Bundle Protocol is designed for extensibility. Bundle Protocol
extensions, documented elsewhere, may extend this specification by
defining additional:
* blocks
* administrative records
* bundle processing control flags
* block processing control flags
* types of bundle status reports
* bundle status report reason codes
* mandates and constraints on processing that conformant BPAs must
perform at specified points in the inbound and outbound bundle
processing cycles
3.3. Services Offered by Bundle Protocol Agents
The BPA of each node is expected to provide the following services to
the node's application agent:
* commencing a registration (registering the node in an endpoint).
* terminating a registration.
* switching a registration between Active and Passive states.
* transmitting a bundle to an identified bundle endpoint.
* canceling a transmission.
* polling a registration that is in the Passive state.
* delivering a received bundle.
Note that the details of registration functionality are an
implementation matter and are beyond the scope of this specification.
4. Bundle Format
4.1. Bundle Structure
The format of bundles SHALL conform to the Concise Binary Object
Representation (CBOR) [RFC 8949].
Cryptographic verification of a block is possible only if the
sequence of octets on which the verifying node computes its hash --
the canonicalized representation of the block -- is identical to the
sequence of octets on which the hash declared for that block was
computed. To ensure that blocks are always in canonical
representation when they are transmitted and received, the CBOR
encodings of the values of all fields in all blocks MUST conform to
the core deterministic encoding requirements as specified in
[RFC 8949], except that indefinite-length items are not prohibited.
Each bundle SHALL be a concatenated sequence of at least two blocks,
represented as a CBOR indefinite-length array. The first block in
the sequence (the first item of the array) MUST be a primary bundle
block in CBOR encoding as described below; the bundle MUST have
exactly one primary bundle block. The primary block MUST be followed
by one or more canonical bundle blocks (additional array items) in
CBOR encoding as described in Section 4.3.2. Every block following
the primary block SHALL be the CBOR encoding of a canonical block.
The last such block MUST be a payload block; the bundle MUST have
exactly one payload block. The payload block SHALL be followed by a
CBOR "break" stop code, terminating the array.
| (Note that, while CBOR permits considerable flexibility in the
| encoding of bundles, this flexibility must not be interpreted
| as inviting increased complexity in PDU structure.)
Associated with each block of a bundle is a block number. The block
number uniquely identifies the block within the bundle, enabling
blocks (notably Bundle Protocol Security blocks) to reference other
blocks in the same bundle without ambiguity. The block number of the
primary block is implicitly zero; the block numbers of all other
blocks are explicitly stated in block headers as noted below. Block
numbering is unrelated to the order in which blocks are sequenced in
the bundle. The block number of the payload block is always 1.
An implementation of the Bundle Protocol MAY discard any sequence of
bytes that does not conform to the Bundle Protocol specification.
An implementation of the Bundle Protocol MAY accept a sequence of
bytes that does not conform to the Bundle Protocol specification
(e.g., one that represents data elements in fixed-length arrays
rather than indefinite-length arrays) and transform it into
conformant BP structure before processing it. Procedures for
accomplishing such a transformation are beyond the scope of this
specification.
4.2. BP Fundamental Data Structures
4.2.1. CRC Type
CRC type is an unsigned integer type code for which the following
values (and no others) are valid:
* 0 indicates "no Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) is present."
* 1 indicates "a standard X-25 CRC-16 is present." [CRC16]
* 2 indicates "a standard CRC32C (Castagnoli) CRC-32 is present."
[RFC 4960]
CRC type SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer.
For examples of CRC32C CRCs, see Appendix A.4 of [RFC 7143].
Note that more robust protection of BP data integrity, as needed, may
be provided by means of Block Integrity Blocks (BIBs) as defined in
the Bundle Protocol Security specification [BPSEC].
4.2.2. CRC
The CRC SHALL be omitted from a block if and only if the block's CRC
type code is zero.
When not omitted, the CRC SHALL be represented as a CBOR byte string
of two bytes (that is, CBOR additional information 2, if CRC type is
1) or of four bytes (that is, CBOR additional information 4, if CRC
type is 2); in each case, the sequence of bytes SHALL constitute an
unsigned integer value (of 16 or 32 bits, respectively) in network
byte order.
4.2.3. Bundle Processing Control Flags
Bundle processing control flags assert properties of the bundle as a
whole rather than of any particular block of the bundle. They are
conveyed in the primary block of the bundle.
The following properties are asserted by the bundle processing
control flags:
* The bundle is a fragment. (Boolean)
* The bundle's payload is an administrative record. (Boolean)
* The bundle must not be fragmented. (Boolean)
* Acknowledgment by the user application is requested. (Boolean)
* Status time is requested in all status reports. (Boolean)
* Flags requesting types of status reports (all Boolean):
- Request reporting of bundle reception.
- Request reporting of bundle forwarding.
- Request reporting of bundle delivery.
- Request reporting of bundle deletion.
If the bundle processing control flags indicate that the bundle's ADU
is an administrative record, then all status report request flag
values MUST be zero.
If the bundle's source node is omitted (i.e., the source node ID is
the ID of the null endpoint, which has no members as discussed below;
this option enables anonymous bundle transmission), then the bundle
is not uniquely identifiable and all Bundle Protocol features that
rely on bundle identity must therefore be disabled: the "Bundle must
not be fragmented" flag value MUST be 1, and all status report
request flag values MUST be zero.
Bundle processing control flags that are unrecognized MUST be
ignored, as future definitions of additional flags might not be
integrated simultaneously into the Bundle Protocol implementations
operating at all nodes.
The bundle processing control flags SHALL be represented as a CBOR
unsigned integer item, the value of which SHALL be processed as a bit
field indicating the control flag values as follows (note that bit
numbering in this instance is reversed from the usual practice,
beginning with the low-order bit instead of the high-order bit, in
recognition of the potential definition of additional control flag
values in the future):
Bit 0 (the low-order bit, 0x000001): Bundle is a fragment.
Bit 1 (0x000002): ADU is an administrative record.
Bit 2 (0x000004): Bundle must not be fragmented.
Bit 3 (0x000008): Reserved.
Bit 4 (0x000010): Reserved.
Bit 5 (0x000020): Acknowledgement by application is requested.
Bit 6 (0x000040): Status time requested in reports.
Bit 7 (0x000080): Reserved.
Bit 8 (0x000100): Reserved.
Bit 9 (0x000200): Reserved.
Bit 10 (0x000400): Reserved.
Bit 11 (0x000800): Reserved.
Bit 12 (0x001000): Reserved.
Bit 13 (0x002000): Reserved.
Bit 14 (0x004000): Request reporting of bundle reception.
Bit 15 (0x008000): Reserved.
Bit 16 (0x010000): Request reporting of bundle forwarding.
Bit 17 (0x020000): Request reporting of bundle delivery.
Bit 18 (0x040000): Request reporting of bundle deletion.
Bits 19-20: Reserved.
Bits 21-63: Unassigned.
4.2.4. Block Processing Control Flags
The block processing control flags assert properties of canonical
bundle blocks. They are conveyed in the header of the block to which
they pertain.
Block processing control flags that are unrecognized MUST be ignored,
as future definitions of additional flags might not be integrated
simultaneously into the Bundle Protocol implementations operating at
all nodes.
The block processing control flags SHALL be represented as a CBOR
unsigned integer item, the value of which SHALL be processed as a bit
field indicating the control flag values as follows (note that bit
numbering in this instance is reversed from the usual practice,
beginning with the low-order bit instead of the high-order bit, for
agreement with the bit numbering of the bundle processing control
flags):
Bit 0 (the low-order bit, 0x01): Block must be replicated in every
fragment.
Bit 1 (0x02): Transmit status report if block can't be processed.
Bit 2 (0x04): Delete bundle if block can't be processed.
Bit 3 (0x08): Reserved.
Bit 4 (0x10): Discard block if it can't be processed.
Bit 5 (0x20): Reserved.
Bit 6 (0x40): Reserved.
Bits 7-63: Unassigned.
For each bundle whose bundle processing control flags indicate that
the bundle's ADU is an administrative record, or whose source node ID
is the null endpoint ID as defined below, the value of the "Transmit
status report if block can't be processed" flag in every canonical
block of the bundle MUST be zero.
4.2.5. Identifiers
4.2.5.1. Endpoint ID
The destinations of bundles are bundle endpoints, identified by text
strings termed "endpoint IDs" (see Section 3.1). Each endpoint ID
(EID) is a Uniform Resource Identifier [URI]. As such, each endpoint
ID can be characterized as having this general structure:
< scheme name > : < scheme-specific part, or "SSP" >
The scheme identified by the < scheme name > in an endpoint ID is a
set of syntactic and semantic rules that fully explain how to parse
and interpret the scheme-specific part (SSP). Each scheme that may
be used to form a BP endpoint ID must be added to the "Bundle
Protocol URI Scheme Types" registry, maintained by IANA as described
in Section 9.6; association of a unique URI scheme code number with
each scheme name in this registry helps to enable compact
representation of endpoint IDs in bundle blocks. Note that the set
of allowable schemes is effectively unlimited. Any scheme conforming
to [URIREG] may be added to the registry of URI scheme code numbers
and thereupon used in a Bundle Protocol endpoint ID.
Each entry in the registry of URI scheme code numbers MUST contain a
reference to a scheme code number definition document, which defines
the manner in which the scheme-specific part of any URI formed in
that scheme is parsed and interpreted and MUST be CBOR encoded for
transmission as a BP endpoint ID. The scheme code number definition
document may also contain information as to (a) which convergence-
layer protocol(s) may be used to forward a bundle to a BP destination
endpoint identified by such an ID and (b) how the ID of the
convergence-layer protocol endpoint to use for that purpose can be
inferred from that destination endpoint ID.
Note that, although endpoint IDs are URIs, implementations of the BP
service interface may support expression of endpoint IDs in some
internationalized manner (e.g., Internationalized Resource
Identifiers (IRIs); see [RFC 3987]).
Each BP endpoint ID (EID) SHALL be represented as a CBOR array
comprising two items.
The first item of the array SHALL be the code number identifying the
endpoint ID's URI scheme, as defined in the registry of URI scheme
code numbers for the Bundle Protocol. Each URI scheme code number
SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer.
The second item of the array SHALL be the applicable CBOR encoding of
the scheme-specific part of the EID, defined as noted in the
references(s) for the URI scheme code number registry entry for the
EID's URI scheme.
4.2.5.1.1. The dtn URI Scheme
The "dtn" scheme supports the identification of BP endpoints by
arbitrarily expressive character strings. It is specified as
follows:
Scheme syntax: This specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
Form (ABNF) notation of [RFC 5234].
dtn-uri = "dtn:" ("none" / dtn-hier-part)
dtn-hier-part = "//" node-name name-delim demux ; a path-rootless
node-name = reg-name
name-delim = "/"
demux = *VCHAR
Scheme semantics: URIs of the dtn scheme are used as endpoint
identifiers in the Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol
(BP) as described in the present document.
The endpoint ID "dtn:none" identifies the "null endpoint", the
endpoint that by definition never has any members.
All BP endpoints identified by all other dtn-scheme endpoint IDs for
which the first character of demux is a character other than '~'
(tilde) are singleton endpoints. All BP endpoints identified by dtn-
scheme endpoint IDs for which the first character *is* '~' (tilde)
are *not* singleton endpoints.
A dtn-scheme endpoint ID for which the demux is of length zero MAY
identify the administrative endpoint for the node identified by node-
name, and as such may serve as a node ID. No dtn-scheme endpoint ID
for which the demux is of non-zero length may do so.
Note that these syntactic rules impose constraints on dtn-scheme
endpoint IDs that were not imposed by the original specification of
the dtn scheme as provided in [RFC 5050]. It is believed that the
dtn-scheme endpoint IDs employed by BP applications conforming to
[RFC 5050] are in most cases unlikely to be in violation of these
rules, but the developers of such applications are advised of the
potential for compromised interoperation.
Encoding considerations: For transmission as a BP endpoint ID, the
scheme-specific part of a URI of the dtn scheme SHALL be
represented as a CBOR text string unless the EID's SSP is "none",
in which case the SSP SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned
integer with the value zero. For all other purposes, URIs of the
dtn scheme are encoded exclusively in US-ASCII characters.
Interoperability considerations: None.
Security considerations:
Reliability and consistency: None of the BP endpoints identified
by the URIs of the dtn scheme are guaranteed to be reachable at
any time, and the identity of the processing entities operating
on those endpoints is never guaranteed by the Bundle Protocol
itself. Verification of the signature provided by the Block
Integrity Block targeting the bundle's primary block, as
defined by Bundle Protocol Security [BPSEC], is required for
this purpose.
Malicious construction: Malicious construction of a conformant
dtn-scheme URI is limited to the malicious selection of node
names and the malicious selection of demux strings. That is, a
maliciously constructed dtn-scheme URI could be used to direct
a bundle to an endpoint that might be damaged by the arrival of
that bundle or, alternatively, to declare a false source for a
bundle and thereby cause incorrect processing at a node that
receives the bundle. In both cases (and indeed in all bundle
processing), the node that receives a bundle should verify its
authenticity and validity before operating on it in any way.
Back-end transcoding: The limited expressiveness of URIs of the
dtn scheme effectively eliminates the possibility of threat due
to errors in back-end transcoding.
Rare IP address formats: Not relevant, as IP addresses do not
appear anywhere in conformant dtn-scheme URIs.
Sensitive information: Because dtn-scheme URIs are used only to
represent the identities of Bundle Protocol endpoints, the risk
of disclosure of sensitive information due to interception of
these URIs is minimal. Examination of dtn-scheme URIs could be
used to support traffic analysis; where traffic analysis is a
plausible danger, bundles should be conveyed by secure
convergence-layer protocols that do not expose endpoint IDs.
Semantic attacks: The simplicity of dtn-scheme URI syntax
minimizes the possibility of misinterpretation of a URI by a
human user.
4.2.5.1.2. The ipn URI Scheme
The "ipn" scheme supports the identification of BP endpoints by pairs
of unsigned integers, for compact representation in bundle blocks.
It is specified as follows:
Scheme syntax: This specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
Form (ABNF) notation of [RFC 5234], including the core ABNF syntax
rule for DIGIT defined by that specification.
ipn-uri = "ipn:" ipn-hier-part
ipn-hier-part = node-nbr nbr-delim service-nbr ; a path-rootless
node-nbr = 1*DIGIT
nbr-delim = "."
service-nbr = 1*DIGIT
Scheme semantics: URIs of the ipn scheme are used as endpoint
identifiers in the Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol
(BP) as described in the present document.
All BP endpoints identified by ipn-scheme endpoint IDs are singleton
endpoints.
An ipn-scheme endpoint ID for which service-nbr is zero MAY identify
the administrative endpoint for the node identified by node-nbr, and
as such may serve as a node ID. No ipn-scheme endpoint ID for which
service-nbr is non-zero may do so.
Encoding considerations: For transmission as a BP endpoint ID, the
scheme-specific part of a URI of the ipn scheme SHALL be
represented as a CBOR array comprising two items. The first item
of this array SHALL be the EID's node number (a number that
identifies the node) represented as a CBOR unsigned integer. The
second item of this array SHALL be the EID's service number (a
number that identifies some application service) represented as a
CBOR unsigned integer. For all other purposes, URIs of the ipn
scheme are encoded exclusively in US-ASCII characters.
Interoperability considerations: None.
Security considerations:
Reliability and consistency: None of the BP endpoints identified
by the URIs of the ipn scheme are guaranteed to be reachable at
any time, and the identity of the processing entities operating
on those endpoints is never guaranteed by the Bundle Protocol
itself. Verification of the signature provided by the Block
Integrity Block targeting the bundle's primary block, as
defined by Bundle Protocol Security [BPSEC], is required for
this purpose.
Malicious construction: Malicious construction of a conformant
ipn-scheme URI is limited to the malicious selection of node
numbers and the malicious selection of service numbers. That
is, a maliciously constructed ipn-scheme URI could be used to
direct a bundle to an endpoint that might be damaged by the
arrival of that bundle or, alternatively, to declare a false
source for a bundle and thereby cause incorrect processing at a
node that receives the bundle. In both cases (and indeed in
all bundle processing), the node that receives a bundle should
verify its authenticity and validity before operating on it in
any way.
Back-end transcoding: The limited expressiveness of URIs of the
ipn scheme effectively eliminates the possibility of threat due
to errors in back-end transcoding.
Rare IP address formats: Not relevant, as IP addresses do not
appear anywhere in conformant ipn-scheme URIs.
Sensitive information: Because ipn-scheme URIs are used only to
represent the identities of Bundle Protocol endpoints, the risk
of disclosure of sensitive information due to interception of
these URIs is minimal. Examination of ipn-scheme URIs could be
used to support traffic analysis; where traffic analysis is a
plausible danger, bundles should be conveyed by secure
convergence-layer protocols that do not expose endpoint IDs.
Semantic attacks: The simplicity of ipn-scheme URI syntax
minimizes the possibility of misinterpretation of a URI by a
human user.
4.2.5.2. Node ID
For many purposes of the Bundle Protocol, it is important to identify
the node that is operative in some context.
As discussed in Section 3.1, nodes are distinct from endpoints;
specifically, an endpoint is a set of zero or more nodes. But rather
than define a separate namespace for node identifiers, we instead use
endpoint identifiers to identify nodes as discussed in Section 3.2.
Formally:
* Every node is, by definition, permanently registered in the
singleton endpoint at which administrative records are delivered
to its application agent's administrative element, termed the
node's "administrative endpoint".
* As such, the EID of a node's administrative endpoint SHALL
uniquely identify that node.
* The EID of any singleton endpoint is allowed to serve as a "node
ID" identifying the node that is the sole member of that endpoint.
4.2.6. DTN Time
A DTN time is an unsigned integer indicating the number of
milliseconds that have elapsed since the DTN Epoch, 2000-01-01
00:00:00 +0000 (UTC). DTN time is not affected by leap seconds.
Each DTN time SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer item.
Implementers need to be aware that DTN time values conveyed in CBOR
encoding in bundles will nearly always exceed (2^32 - 1); the manner
in which a DTN time value is represented in memory is an
implementation matter. The DTN time value zero indicates that the
time is unknown.
4.2.7. Creation Timestamp
Each bundle's creation timestamp SHALL be represented as a CBOR array
comprising two items.
The first item of the array, termed "bundle creation time", SHALL be
the DTN time at which the transmission request was received that
resulted in the creation of the bundle, represented as a CBOR
unsigned integer.
The second item of the array, termed the creation timestamp's
"sequence number", SHALL be the latest value (as of the time at which
the transmission request was received) of a monotonically increasing
positive integer counter managed by the source node's BPA,
represented as a CBOR unsigned integer. The sequence counter MAY be
reset to zero whenever the current time advances by one millisecond.
For nodes that lack accurate clocks, it is recommended that bundle
creation time be set to zero and that the counter used as the source
of the bundle sequence count never be reset to zero.
Note that, in general, the creation of two distinct bundles with the
same source node ID and bundle creation timestamp may result in
unexpected network behavior and/or suboptimal performance. The
combination of source node ID and bundle creation timestamp serves to
identify a single transmission request, enabling it to be
acknowledged by the receiving application (provided the source node
ID is not the null endpoint ID).
4.2.8. Block-Type-Specific Data
Block-type-specific data in each block (other than the primary block)
SHALL be the applicable CBOR encoding of the content of the block.
Details of this representation are included in the specification
defining the block type.
4.3. Block Structures
This section describes the primary block in detail and non-primary
blocks in general. Rules for processing these blocks appear in
Section 5.
Note that supplementary DTN protocol specifications (including, but
not restricted to, Bundle Protocol Security [BPSEC]) may require that
BP implementations conforming to those protocols construct and
process additional blocks.
4.3.1. Primary Bundle Block
The primary bundle block contains the basic information needed to
forward bundles to their destinations.
Each primary block SHALL be represented as a CBOR array; the number
of elements in the array SHALL be 8 (if the bundle is not a fragment
and the block has no CRC), 9 (if the block has a CRC and the bundle
is not a fragment), 10 (if the bundle is a fragment and the block has
no CRC), or 11 (if the bundle is a fragment and the block has a CRC).
The primary block of each bundle SHALL be immutable. The CBOR-
encoded values of all fields in the primary block MUST remain
unchanged from the time the block is created to the time it is
delivered.
The fields of the primary bundle block SHALL be as follows, listed in
the order in which they MUST appear:
Version: An unsigned integer value indicating the version of the
Bundle Protocol that constructed this block. The present document
describes BPv7. This version number SHALL be represented as a
CBOR unsigned integer item.
Bundle Processing Control Flags: The bundle processing control flags
are discussed in Section 4.2.3.
CRC Type: CRC type codes are discussed in Section 4.2.1. The CRC
type code for the primary block MAY be zero if the bundle contains
a BPSec Block Integrity Block [BPSEC] whose target is the primary
block; otherwise, the CRC type code for the primary block MUST be
non-zero.
Destination EID: The Destination EID field identifies the bundle
endpoint that is the bundle's destination, i.e., the endpoint that
contains the node(s) at which the bundle is to be delivered.
Source node ID: The Source node ID field identifies the bundle node
at which the bundle was initially transmitted, except that source
node ID may be the null endpoint ID in the event that the bundle's
source chooses to remain anonymous.
Report-to EID: The Report-to EID field identifies the bundle
endpoint to which status reports pertaining to the forwarding and
delivery of this bundle are to be transmitted.
Creation Timestamp: The creation timestamp comprises two unsigned
integers that, together with the source node ID and (if the bundle
is a fragment) the fragment offset and payload length, serve to
identify the bundle. See Section 4.2.7 for the definition of this
field.
Lifetime: The Lifetime field is an unsigned integer that indicates
the time at which the bundle's payload will no longer be useful,
encoded as a number of milliseconds past the creation time. (For
high-rate deployments with very brief disruptions, fine-grained
expression of bundle lifetime may be useful.) When a bundle's age
exceeds its lifetime, bundle nodes need no longer retain or
forward the bundle; the bundle SHOULD be deleted from the network.
If the asserted lifetime for a received bundle is so lengthy that
retention of the bundle until its expiration time might degrade
operation of the node at which the bundle is received, or if the
BPA of that node determines that the bundle must be deleted in
order to prevent network performance degradation (e.g., the bundle
appears to be part of a denial-of-service attack), then that BPA
MAY impose a temporary overriding lifetime of shorter duration;
such an overriding lifetime SHALL NOT replace the lifetime
asserted in the bundle but SHALL serve as the bundle's effective
lifetime while the bundle resides at that node. Procedures for
imposing lifetime overrides are beyond the scope of this
specification.
For bundles originating at nodes that lack accurate clocks, it is
recommended that bundle age be obtained from the Bundle Age
extension block (see Section 4.4.2) rather than from the
difference between current time and bundle creation time. Bundle
lifetime SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer item.
Fragment offset: If and only if the bundle processing control flags
of this primary block indicate that the bundle is a fragment,
fragment offset SHALL be present in the primary block. Fragment
offset SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer indicating
the offset from the start of the original ADU at which the bytes
comprising the payload of this bundle were located.
Total Application Data Unit Length: If and only if the bundle
processing control flags of this primary block indicate that the
bundle is a fragment, total application data unit length SHALL be
present in the primary block. Total application data unit length
SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer indicating the
total length of the original ADU of which this bundle's payload is
a part.
CRC: A CRC SHALL be present in the primary block unless the bundle
includes a BPSec Block Integrity Block [BPSEC] whose target is the
primary block, in which case a CRC MAY be present in the primary
block. The length and nature of the CRC SHALL be as indicated by
the CRC type. The CRC SHALL be computed over the concatenation of
all bytes (including CBOR "break" characters) of the primary block
including the CRC field itself, which, for this purpose, SHALL be
temporarily populated with all bytes set to zero.
4.3.2. Canonical Bundle Block Format
Every block other than the primary block (all such blocks are termed
"canonical" blocks) SHALL be represented as a CBOR array; the number
of elements in the array SHALL be 5 (if CRC type is zero) or 6
(otherwise).
The fields of every canonical block SHALL be as follows, listed in
the order in which they MUST appear:
Block type code: An unsigned integer. Bundle block type code 1
indicates that the block is a Bundle Payload Block. Other block
type codes are described in Section 9.1. Block type codes 192
through 255 are not reserved and are available for private and/or
experimental use. All other block type code values are reserved
for future use.
Block number: An unsigned integer as discussed in Section 4.1. The
block number SHALL be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer.
Block processing control flags: As discussed in Section 4.2.4.
CRC type: As discussed in Section 4.2.1.
Block-type-specific data: Represented as a single definite-length
CBOR byte string, i.e., a CBOR byte string that is not of
indefinite length. For each type of block, the block-type-
specific data byte string is the serialization, in a block-type-
specific manner, of the data conveyed by that type of block;
definitions of blocks are required to define the manner in which
block-type-specific data are serialized within the block-type-
specific data field. For the Bundle Payload Block in particular
(block type 1), the block-type-specific data field, termed the
"payload", SHALL be an ADU, or some contiguous extent thereof,
represented as a definite-length CBOR byte string.
If and only if the value of the CRC type field of this block is
non-zero: A CRC. If present, the length and nature of the CRC SHALL
be as indicated by the CRC type and the CRC SHALL be computed over
the concatenation of all bytes of the block (including CBOR
"break" characters) including the CRC field itself, which, for
this purpose, SHALL be temporarily populated with all bytes set to
zero.
4.4. Extension Blocks
"Extension blocks" are all blocks other than the primary and payload
blocks. Three types of extension blocks are defined below. All
implementations of the Bundle Protocol specification (the present
document) MUST include procedures for recognizing, parsing, and
acting on, but not necessarily producing, these types of extension
blocks.
The specifications for additional types of extension blocks must
indicate whether or not BP implementations conforming to those
specifications must recognize, parse, act on, and/or produce blocks
of those types. As not all nodes will necessarily instantiate BP
implementations that conform to those additional specifications, it
is possible for a node to receive a bundle that includes extension
blocks that the node cannot process. The values of the block
processing control flags indicate the action to be taken by the BPA
when this is the case.
No mandated procedure in this specification is unconditionally
dependent on the absence or presence of any extension block.
Therefore, any BPA MAY insert or remove any extension block in any
bundle, subject to all mandates in the Bundle Protocol specification
and all extension block specifications to which the node's BP
implementation conforms. Note that removal of an extension block
will probably disable one or more elements of bundle processing that
were intended by the BPA that inserted that block. In particular,
note that removal of an extension block that is one of the targets of
a BPSec security block may render the bundle unverifiable.
The following extension blocks are defined in the current document.
4.4.1. Previous Node
The Previous Node Block, block type 6, identifies the node that
forwarded this bundle to the local node (i.e., to the node at which
the bundle currently resides); its block-type-specific data is the
node ID of that forwarder node. That node ID SHALL conform to
Section 4.2.5.2. If the local node is the source of the bundle, then
the bundle MUST NOT contain any Previous Node Block. Otherwise, the
bundle SHOULD contain one (1) occurrence of this type of block and
MUST NOT contain more than one.
4.4.2. Bundle Age
The Bundle Age Block, block type 7, contains the number of
milliseconds that have elapsed between the time the bundle was
created and the time at which it was most recently forwarded. It is
intended for use by nodes lacking access to an accurate clock, to aid
in determining the time at which a bundle's lifetime expires. The
block-type-specific data of this block is an unsigned integer
containing the age of the bundle in milliseconds, which SHALL be
represented as a CBOR unsigned integer item. (The age of the bundle
is the sum of all known intervals of the bundle's residence at
forwarding nodes, up to the time at which the bundle was most
recently forwarded, plus the summation of signal propagation time
over all episodes of transmission between forwarding nodes.
Determination of these values is an implementation matter.) If the
bundle's creation time is zero, then the bundle MUST contain exactly
one (1) occurrence of this type of block; otherwise, the bundle MAY
contain at most one (1) occurrence of this type of block. A bundle
MUST NOT contain multiple occurrences of the Bundle Age Block, as
this could result in processing anomalies.
4.4.3. Hop Count
The Hop Count Block, block type 10, contains two unsigned integers:
hop limit and hop count. A "hop" is here defined as an occasion on
which a bundle was forwarded from one node to another node. The hop
limit MUST be in the range 1 through 255. The hop limit value SHOULD
NOT be changed at any time after creation of the Hop Count Block; the
hop count value SHOULD initially be zero and SHOULD be increased by 1
on each hop.
The Hop Count Block is mainly intended as a safety mechanism, a means
of identifying bundles for removal from the network that can never be
delivered due to a persistent forwarding error. The hop count is
particularly valuable as a defense against routing anomalies that
might cause a bundle to be forwarded in a cyclical "ping-pong"
fashion between two nodes. When a bundle's hop count exceeds its hop
limit, the bundle SHOULD be deleted for the reason "Hop limit
exceeded", following the Bundle Deletion procedure defined in
Section 5.10.
Procedures for determining the appropriate hop limit for a bundle are
beyond the scope of this specification.
The block-type-specific data in a Hop Count Block SHALL be
represented as a CBOR array comprising two items. The first item of
this array SHALL be the bundle's hop limit, represented as a CBOR
unsigned integer. The second item of this array SHALL be the
bundle's hop count, represented as a CBOR unsigned integer. A bundle
MAY contain one occurrence of this type of block but MUST NOT contain
more than one.
5. Bundle Processing
The bundle-processing procedures mandated in this section and in
Section 6 govern the operation of the BPA and the application agent
administrative element of each bundle node. They are neither
exhaustive nor exclusive. Supplementary DTN protocol specifications
(including, but not restricted to, Bundle Protocol Security [BPSEC])
may augment, override, or supersede the mandates of this document.
5.1. Generation of Administrative Records
All transmission of bundles is in response to bundle transmission
requests presented by nodes' application agents. When required to
"generate" an administrative record (such as a bundle status report),
the BPA itself is responsible for causing a new bundle to be
transmitted, conveying that record. In concept, the BPA discharges
this responsibility by directing the administrative element of the
node's application agent to construct the record and request its
transmission as detailed in Section 6. In practice, the manner in
which administrative record generation is accomplished is an
implementation matter, provided the constraints noted in Section 6
are observed.
Status reports are relatively small bundles. Moreover, even when the
generation of status reports is enabled, the decision on whether or
not to generate a requested status report is left to the discretion
of the BPA. Nonetheless, note that requesting status reports for any
single bundle might easily result in the generation of (1 + (2
*(N-1))) status report bundles, where N is the number of nodes on the
path from the bundle's source to its destination, inclusive. That
is, the requesting of status reports for large numbers of bundles
could result in an unacceptable increase in the bundle traffic in the
network. For this reason, the generation of status reports MUST be
disabled by default and enabled only when the risk of excessive
network traffic is deemed acceptable. Mechanisms that could assist
in assessing and mitigating this risk, such as pre-placed agreements
authorizing the generation of status reports under specified
circumstances, are beyond the scope of this specification.
Notes on administrative record terminology:
* A "bundle reception status report" is a bundle status report with
the "Reporting node received bundle" flag set to 1.
* A "bundle forwarding status report" is a bundle status report with
the "Reporting node forwarded the bundle" flag set to 1.
* A "bundle delivery status report" is a bundle status report with
the "Reporting node delivered the bundle" flag set to 1.
* A "bundle deletion status report" is a bundle status report with
the "Reporting node deleted the bundle" flag set to 1.
5.2. Bundle Transmission
The steps in processing a bundle transmission request are as follows:
Step 1: Transmission of the bundle is initiated. An outbound bundle
MUST be created per the parameters of the bundle
transmission request, with the retention constraint
"Dispatch pending". The source node ID of the bundle MUST
be either (a) the null endpoint ID, indicating that the
source of the bundle is anonymous or (b) the EID of a
singleton endpoint whose only member is the node of which
the BPA is a component.
Step 2: Processing proceeds from Step 1 of Section 5.4.
5.3. Bundle Dispatching
(Note that this procedure is initiated only following completion of
Step 4 of Section 5.6.)
The steps in dispatching a bundle are as follows:
Step 1: If the bundle's destination endpoint is an endpoint of which
the node is a member, the Bundle Delivery procedure defined
in Section 5.7 MUST be followed and, for the purposes of all
subsequent processing of this bundle at this node, the
node's membership in the bundle's destination endpoint SHALL
be disavowed; specifically, even though the node is a member
of the bundle's destination endpoint, the node SHALL NOT
undertake to forward the bundle to itself in the course of
performing the procedure described in Section 5.4.
Step 2: Processing proceeds from Step 1 of Section 5.4.
5.4. Bundle Forwarding
The steps in forwarding a bundle are as follows:
Step 1: The retention constraint "Forward pending" MUST be added to
the bundle, and the bundle's "Dispatch pending" retention
constraint MUST be removed.
Step 2: The BPA MUST determine whether or not forwarding is
contraindicated (that is, rendered inadvisable) for any of
the reasons listed in the IANA "Bundle Status Report Reason
Codes" registry (see Section 9.5), whose initial contents
are listed in Table 1. In particular:
* The BPA MAY choose to either forward the bundle directly
to its destination node(s) (if possible) or forward the
bundle to some other node(s) for further forwarding. The
manner in which this decision is made may depend on the
scheme name in the destination endpoint ID and/or on
other state but in any case is beyond the scope of this
document; one possible mechanism is described in [SABR].
If the BPA elects to forward the bundle to some other
node(s) for further forwarding but finds it impossible to
select any node(s) to forward the bundle to, then
forwarding is contraindicated.
* Provided the BPA succeeded in selecting the node or nodes
to forward the bundle to, the BPA MUST subsequently
select the CLA(s) whose services will enable the node to
send the bundle to those nodes. The manner in which
specific appropriate CLAs are selected is beyond the
scope of this document; the TCP CLA [TCPCL] MUST be
implemented when some or all of the bundles forwarded by
the BPA must be forwarded via the Internet but may not be
appropriate for the forwarding of any particular bundle.
If the agent finds it impossible to select any
appropriate CLA(s) to use in forwarding this bundle, then
forwarding is contraindicated.
Step 3: If forwarding of the bundle is determined to be
contraindicated for any of the reasons listed in the IANA
"Bundle Status Report Reason Codes" registry (see
Section 9.5), then the Forwarding Contraindicated procedure
defined in Section 5.4.1 MUST be followed; the remaining
steps of this Bundle Forwarding procedure are skipped at
this time.
Step 4: For each node selected for forwarding, the BPA MUST invoke
the services of the selected CLA(s) in order to effect the
sending of the bundle to that node. Determining the time at
which the BPA invokes CLA services is a BPA implementation
matter. Determining the time at which each CLA subsequently
responds to this service invocation by sending the bundle is
a CLA implementation matter. Note that:
* If the bundle has a Previous Node Block, as defined in
Section 4.4.1, then that block MUST be removed from the
bundle before the bundle is forwarded.
* If the BPA is configured to attach Previous Node Blocks
to forwarded bundles, then a Previous Node Block
containing the node ID of the forwarding node MUST be
inserted into the bundle before the bundle is forwarded.
* If the bundle has a Bundle Age Block, as defined in
Section 4.4.2, then at the last possible moment before
the CLA initiates conveyance of the bundle via the CL
protocol the bundle age value MUST be increased by the
difference between the current time and the time at which
the bundle was received (or, if the local node is the
source of the bundle, created).
Step 5: When all selected CLAs have informed the BPA that they have
concluded their data-sending procedures with regard to this
bundle, processing may depend on the results of those
procedures.
If completion of the data-sending procedures by all selected CLAs has
not resulted in successful forwarding of the bundle (an
implementation-specific determination that is beyond the scope of
this specification), then the BPA MAY choose (in an implementation-
specific manner, again beyond the scope of this specification) to
initiate another attempt to forward the bundle. In that event,
processing proceeds from Step 4. The minimum number of times a given
node will initiate another forwarding attempt for any single bundle
in this event (a number that may be zero) is a node configuration
parameter that must be exposed to other nodes in the network to the
extent that this is required by the operating environment.
If completion of the data-sending procedures by all selected CLAs
*HAS* resulted in successful forwarding of the bundle, or if it has
not but the BPA does not choose to initiate another attempt to
forward the bundle, then:
* If the "request reporting of bundle forwarding" flag in the
bundle's status report request field is set to 1 and status
reporting is enabled, then a bundle forwarding status report
SHOULD be generated, destined for the bundle's report-to endpoint
ID. The reason code on this bundle forwarding status report MUST
be "no additional information".
* If any applicable Bundle Protocol extensions mandate generation of
status reports upon conclusion of convergence-layer data-sending
procedures, all such status reports SHOULD be generated with
extension-mandated reason codes.
* The bundle's "Forward pending" retention constraint MUST be
removed.
5.4.1. Forwarding Contraindicated
The steps in responding to contraindication of forwarding are as
follows:
Step 1: The BPA MUST determine whether or not to declare failure in
forwarding the bundle. Note: This decision is likely to be
influenced by the reason for which forwarding is
contraindicated.
Step 2: If forwarding failure is declared, then the Forwarding
Failed procedure defined in Section 5.4.2 MUST be followed.
Otherwise, when -- at some future time -- the forwarding of this
bundle ceases to be contraindicated, processing proceeds from Step 4
of Section 5.4.
5.4.2. Forwarding Failed
The steps in responding to a declaration of forwarding failure are as
follows:
Step 1: The BPA MAY forward the bundle back to the node that sent
it, as identified by the Previous Node Block, if present.
This forwarding, if performed, SHALL be accomplished by
performing Step 4 and Step 5 of Section 5.4 where the sole
node selected for forwarding SHALL be the node that sent the
bundle.
Step 2: If the bundle's destination endpoint is an endpoint of which
the node is a member, then the bundle's "Forward pending"
retention constraint MUST be removed. Otherwise, the bundle
MUST be deleted: the Bundle Deletion procedure defined in
Section 5.10 MUST be followed, citing the reason for which
forwarding was determined to be contraindicated.
5.5. Bundle Expiration
A bundle expires when the bundle's age exceeds its lifetime as
specified in the primary bundle block or as overridden by the BPA.
Bundle age MAY be determined by subtracting the bundle's creation
timestamp time from the current time if (a) that timestamp time is
not zero and (b) the local node's clock is known to be accurate;
otherwise, bundle age MUST be obtained from the Bundle Age extension
block. Bundle expiration MAY occur at any point in the processing of
a bundle. When a bundle expires, the BPA MUST delete the bundle for
the reason "Lifetime expired" (when the expired lifetime is the
lifetime as specified in the primary block) or "Traffic pared" (when
the expired lifetime is a lifetime override as imposed by the BPA):
the Bundle Deletion procedure defined in Section 5.10 MUST be
followed.
5.6. Bundle Reception
The steps in processing a bundle that has been received from another
node are as follows:
Step 1: The retention constraint "Dispatch pending" MUST be added to
the bundle.
Step 2: If the "request reporting of bundle reception" flag in the
bundle's status report request field is set to 1 and status
reporting is enabled, then a bundle reception status report
with reason code "No additional information" SHOULD be
generated, destined for the bundle's report-to endpoint ID.
Step 3: CRCs SHOULD be computed for every block of the bundle that
has an attached CRC. If any block of the bundle is
malformed according to this specification (including
syntactically invalid CBOR), or if any block has an attached
CRC and the CRC computed for this block upon reception
differs from that attached CRC, then the BPA MUST delete the
bundle for the reason "Block unintelligible". The Bundle
Deletion procedure defined in Section 5.10 MUST be followed,
and all remaining steps of the Bundle Reception procedure
MUST be skipped.
Step 4: For each block in the bundle that is an extension block that
the BPA cannot process:
* If the block processing control flags in that block
indicate that a status report is requested in this event
and if status reporting is enabled, then a bundle
reception status report with reason code "Block
unsupported" SHOULD be generated, destined for the
bundle's report-to endpoint ID.
* If the block processing control flags in that block
indicate that the bundle must be deleted in this event,
then the BPA MUST delete the bundle for the reason "Block
unsupported"; the Bundle Deletion procedure defined in
Section 5.10 MUST be followed, and all remaining steps of
the Bundle Reception procedure MUST be skipped.
* If the block processing control flags in that block do
*NOT* indicate that the bundle must be deleted in this
event but do indicate that the block must be discarded,
then the BPA MUST remove this block from the bundle.
* If the block processing control flags in that block
neither indicate that the bundle must be deleted nor
indicate that the block must be discarded, then
processing continues with the next extension block that
the BPA cannot process, if any; otherwise, processing
proceeds from Step 5.
Step 5: Processing proceeds from Step 1 of Section 5.3.
5.7. Local Bundle Delivery
The steps in processing a bundle that is destined for an endpoint of
which this node is a member are as follows:
Step 1: If the received bundle is a fragment, the ADU Reassembly
procedure described in Section 5.9 MUST be followed. If
this procedure results in reassembly of the entire original
ADU, processing of the fragmentary bundle whose payload has
been replaced by the reassembled ADU (whether this bundle or
a previously received fragment) proceeds from Step 2;
otherwise, the retention constraint "Reassembly pending"
MUST be added to the bundle, and all remaining steps of this
procedure MUST be skipped.
Step 2: Delivery depends on the state of the registration whose
endpoint ID matches that of the destination of the bundle:
* An additional implementation-specific delivery deferral
procedure MAY optionally be associated with the
registration.
* If the registration is in the Active state, then the
bundle MUST be delivered automatically as soon as it is
the next bundle that is due for delivery according to the
BPA's bundle delivery scheduling policy (an
implementation matter).
* If the registration is in the Passive state, or if
delivery of the bundle fails for some implementation-
specific reason, then the registration's delivery failure
action MUST be taken. The delivery failure action MUST
be one of the following:
- Defer delivery of the bundle subject to this
registration until (a) this bundle is the least
recently received of all bundles currently deliverable
subject to this registration and (b) either the
registration is polled or the registration is in the
Active state, and also perform any additional delivery
deferral procedure associated with the registration,
or
- Abandon delivery of the bundle subject to this
registration (as defined in Section 3.1).
Step 3: As soon as the bundle has been delivered, if the "request
reporting of bundle delivery" flag in the bundle's status
report request field is set to 1 and bundle status reporting
is enabled, then a bundle delivery status report SHOULD be
generated, destined for the bundle's report-to endpoint ID.
Note that this status report only states that the payload
has been delivered to the application agent, not that the
application agent has processed that payload.
5.8. Bundle Fragmentation
It may at times be advantageous for BPAs to reduce the sizes of
bundles in order to forward them. This might be the case, for
example, if a node to which a bundle is to be forwarded is accessible
only via intermittent contacts and no upcoming contact is long enough
to enable the forwarding of the entire bundle.
The size of a bundle can be reduced by "fragmenting" the bundle. To
fragment a bundle whose payload is of size M is to replace it with
two "fragments" -- new bundles with the same source node ID and
creation timestamp as the original bundle -- whose payloads MUST be
the first N and the last (M - N) bytes of the original bundle's
payload, where 0 < N < M.
Note that fragments are bundles and therefore may themselves be
fragmented, so multiple episodes of fragmentation may in effect
replace the original bundle with more than two fragments. (However,
there is only one "level" of fragmentation, as in IP fragmentation.)
Any bundle whose primary block's bundle processing control flags do
*NOT* indicate that it must not be fragmented MAY be fragmented at
any time, for any purpose, at the discretion of the BPA. *NOTE*,
however, that some combinations of bundle fragmentation, replication,
and routing might result in unexpected traffic patterns.
Fragmentation SHALL be constrained as follows:
* The concatenation of the payloads of all fragments produced by
fragmentation MUST always be identical to the payload of the
fragmented bundle (that is, the bundle that is being fragmented).
Note that the payloads of fragments resulting from different
fragmentation episodes, in different parts of the network, may be
overlapping subsets of the fragmented bundle's payload.
* The primary block of each fragment MUST differ from that of the
fragmented bundle, in that the bundle processing control flags of
the fragment MUST indicate that the bundle is a fragment and both
fragment offset and total application data unit length must be
provided. Additionally, the CRC of the primary block of the
fragmented bundle, if any, MUST be replaced in each fragment by a
new CRC computed for the primary block of that fragment.
* The payload blocks of fragments will differ from that of the
fragmented bundle as noted above.
* If the fragmented bundle is not a fragment or is the fragment with
offset zero, then all extension blocks of the fragmented bundle
MUST be replicated in the fragment whose offset is zero.
* Each of the fragmented bundle's extension blocks whose "Block must
be replicated in every fragment" flag is set to 1 MUST be
replicated in every fragment.
* Beyond these rules, rules for the replication of extension blocks
in the fragments must be defined in the specifications for those
extension block types.
5.9. Application Data Unit Reassembly
Note that the Bundle Fragmentation procedure described in Section 5.8
may result in the replacement of a single original bundle with an
arbitrarily large number of fragmentary bundles. In order to be
delivered at a destination node, the original bundle's payload must
be reassembled from the payloads of those fragments.
The "material extents" of a received fragment's payload are all
continuous sequences of bytes in that payload that do not overlap
with the material extents of the payloads of any previously received
fragments with the same source node ID and creation timestamp. If
the concatenation -- as informed by fragment offsets and payload
lengths -- of the material extents of the payloads of this fragment
and all previously received fragments with the same source node ID
and creation timestamp as this fragment forms a continuous byte array
whose length is equal to the total application data unit length noted
in the fragment's primary block, then:
* This byte array -- the reassembled ADU -- MUST replace the payload
of that fragment whose material extents include the extent at
offset zero. Note that this will enable delivery of the
reconstituted original bundle as described in Step 1 of
Section 5.7.
* The "Reassembly pending" retention constraint MUST be removed from
every other fragment with the same source node ID and creation
timestamp as this fragment.
Note: Reassembly of ADUs from fragments occurs at the nodes that are
members of destination endpoints as necessary; an ADU MAY also be
reassembled at some other node on the path to the destination.
5.10. Bundle Deletion
The steps in deleting a bundle are as follows:
Step 1: If the "request reporting of bundle deletion" flag in the
bundle's status report request field is set to 1 and if
status reporting is enabled, then a bundle deletion status
report citing the reason for deletion SHOULD be generated,
destined for the bundle's report-to endpoint ID.
Step 2: All of the bundle's retention constraints MUST be removed.
5.11. Discarding a Bundle
As soon as a bundle has no remaining retention constraints, it MAY be
discarded, thereby releasing any persistent storage that may have
been allocated to it.
5.12. Canceling a Transmission
When requested to cancel a specified transmission, where the bundle
created upon initiation of the indicated transmission has not yet
been discarded, the BPA MUST delete that bundle for the reason
"Transmission canceled". For this purpose, the procedure defined in
Section 5.10 MUST be followed.
6. Administrative Record Processing
6.1. Administrative Records
Administrative records are standard ADUs that are used in providing
some of the features of the Bundle Protocol. Bundle Protocol
administrative record types are registered in the IANA "Bundle
Administrative Record Types" registry [RFC 5050]; of these, only
administrative record type 1, "Bundle status report", is defined for
BPv7 at this time. Note that additional types of administrative
records may be defined by supplementary DTN protocol specification
documents.
Every administrative record consists of:
* A record type code (an unsigned integer for which valid values are
as defined below).
* Record content in type-specific format.
Each BP administrative record SHALL be represented as a CBOR array
comprising two items.
The first item of the array SHALL be a record type code, which SHALL
be represented as a CBOR unsigned integer.
The second element of this array SHALL be the applicable CBOR
encoding of the content of the record. Details of the CBOR encoding
of administrative record type 1 are provided below. Details of the
CBOR encoding of other types of administrative records are included
in the specifications defining those records.
6.1.1. Bundle Status Reports
The transmission of "bundle status reports" under specified
conditions is an option that can be invoked when transmission of a
bundle is requested. These reports are intended to provide
information about how bundles are progressing through the system,
including notices of receipt, forwarding, final delivery, and
deletion. They are transmitted to the report-to endpoints of
bundles.
Each bundle status report SHALL be represented as a CBOR array. The
number of elements in the array SHALL be either 6 (if the subject
bundle is a fragment) or 4 (otherwise).
The first element of the bundle status report SHALL be bundle status
information represented as a CBOR array of at least four elements.
The first four elements of the bundle status information shall
provide information on the following four status assertions, in this
order:
* Reporting node received bundle.
* Reporting node forwarded the bundle.
* Reporting node delivered the bundle.
* Reporting node deleted the bundle.
Each element of the bundle status information SHALL be a bundle
status item encoded as a CBOR array.
The number of elements in each bundle status item SHALL be either 2
(if the value of the first element of the bundle status item is 1 AND
the "Report status time" flag was set to 1 in the bundle processing
control flags of the bundle whose status is being reported) or 1
(otherwise).
The first element of each bundle status item SHALL be a status
indicator, a Boolean value indicating whether or not the
corresponding bundle status is asserted, encoded as a CBOR Boolean
value. If present, the second element of each bundle status item
SHALL indicate the time (as reported by the local system clock; this
is an implementation matter) at which the indicated status was
asserted for this bundle, represented as a DTN time as described in
Section 4.2.6.
The second element of the bundle status report SHALL be the bundle
status report reason code explaining the value of the status
indicator, represented as a CBOR unsigned integer. Valid status
report reason codes are registered in the IANA "Bundle Status Report
Reason Codes" subregistry in the "Bundle Protocol" registry (see
Section 9.5). The initial contents of that registry are listed in
Table 1, but the list of status report reason codes provided here is
neither exhaustive nor exclusive; supplementary DTN protocol
specifications (including, but not restricted to, Bundle Protocol
Security [BPSEC]) may define additional reason codes.
+========+============================================+
| Value | Meaning |
+========+============================================+
| 0 | No additional information. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 1 | Lifetime expired. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 2 | Forwarded over unidirectional link. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 3 | Transmission canceled. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 4 | Depleted storage. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 5 | Destination endpoint ID unavailable. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 6 | No known route to destination from here. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 7 | No timely contact with next node on route. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 8 | Block unintelligible. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 9 | Hop limit exceeded. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 10 | Traffic pared (e.g., status reports). |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 11 | Block unsupported. |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 17-254 | Unassigned |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
| 255 | Reserved |
+--------+--------------------------------------------+
Table 1: Status Report Reason Codes
The third element of the bundle status report SHALL be the source
node ID identifying the source of the bundle whose status is being
reported, represented as described in Section 4.2.5.1.1.
The fourth element of the bundle status report SHALL be the creation
timestamp of the bundle whose status is being reported, represented
as described in Section 4.2.7.
The fifth element of the bundle status report SHALL be present if and
only if the bundle whose status is being reported contained a
fragment offset. If present, it SHALL be the subject bundle's
fragment offset represented as a CBOR unsigned integer item.
The sixth element of the bundle status report SHALL be present if and
only if the bundle whose status is being reported contained a
fragment offset. If present, it SHALL be the length of the subject
bundle's payload represented as a CBOR unsigned integer item.
Note that the forwarding parameters (such as lifetime, applicable
security measures, etc.) of the bundle whose status is being reported
MAY be reflected in the parameters governing the forwarding of the
bundle that conveys a status report, but this is an implementation
matter. Bundle Protocol deployment experience to date has not been
sufficient to suggest any clear guidance on this topic.
6.2. Generation of Administrative Records
Whenever the application agent's administrative element is directed
by the BPA to generate an administrative record, the following
procedure must be followed:
Step 1: The administrative record must be constructed. If the
administrative record references a bundle and the referenced
bundle is a fragment, the administrative record MUST contain
the fragment offset and fragment length.
Step 2: A request for transmission of a bundle whose payload is this
administrative record MUST be presented to the BPA.
7. Services Required of the Convergence Layer
7.1. The Convergence Layer
The successful operation of the end-to-end Bundle Protocol depends on
the operation of underlying protocols at what is termed the
"convergence layer"; these protocols accomplish communication between
nodes. A wide variety of protocols may serve this purpose, so long
as each CLA provides a defined minimal set of services to the BPA.
This convergence-layer service specification enumerates those
services.
7.2. Summary of Convergence-Layer Services
Each CLA is expected to provide the following services to the BPA:
* sending a bundle to a bundle node that is reachable via the
convergence-layer protocol.
* notifying the BPA of the disposition of its data-sending
procedures with regard to a bundle, upon concluding those
procedures.
* delivering to the BPA a bundle that was sent by a bundle node via
the convergence-layer protocol.
The convergence-layer service interface specified here is neither
exhaustive nor exclusive. That is, supplementary DTN protocol
specifications (including, but not restricted to, Bundle Protocol
Security [BPSEC]) may expect CLAs that serve BP implementations
conforming to those protocols to provide additional services such as
reporting on the transmission and/or reception progress of individual
bundles (at completion and/or incrementally), retransmitting data
that were lost in transit, discarding bundle-conveying data units
that the convergence-layer protocol determines are corrupt or
inauthentic, or reporting on the integrity and/or authenticity of
delivered bundles.
In addition, the Bundle Protocol relies on the capabilities of
protocols at the convergence layer to minimize congestion in the
store-carry-forward overlay network. The potentially long round-trip
times characterizing delay-tolerant networks are incompatible with
end-to-end, reactive congestion-control mechanisms, so convergence-
layer protocols MUST provide rate limiting or congestion control.
8. Security Considerations
The Bundle Protocol security architecture and the available security
services are specified in an accompanying document, the Bundle
Protocol Security (BPSec) specification [BPSEC]. Whenever Bundle
Protocol security services (as opposed to the security services
provided by overlying application protocols or underlying
convergence-layer protocols) are required, those services SHALL be
provided by BPSec rather than by some other mechanism with the same
or similar scope.
A Bundle Protocol Agent (BPA) that sources, cryptographically
verifies, and/or accepts a bundle MUST implement support for BPSec.
Use of BPSec for any single bundle is optional.
The BPSec extensions to the Bundle Protocol enable each block of a
bundle (other than a BPSec extension block) to be individually
authenticated by a signature block (Block Integrity Block, or BIB)
and also enable each block of a bundle other than the primary block
(and the BPSec extension blocks themselves) to be individually
encrypted by a Block Confidentiality Block (BCB).
Because the security mechanisms are extension blocks that are
themselves inserted into the bundle, the protections they afford
apply while the bundle is at rest, awaiting transmission at the next
forwarding opportunity, as well as in transit.
Additionally, convergence-layer protocols that ensure authenticity of
communication between adjacent nodes in a BP network topology SHOULD
be used where available, to minimize the ability of unauthenticated
nodes to introduce inauthentic traffic into the network.
Convergence-layer protocols that ensure confidentiality of
communication between adjacent nodes in a BP network topology SHOULD
also be used where available, to minimize exposure of the bundle's
primary block and other cleartext blocks, thereby offering some
defense against traffic analysis.
In order to provide authenticity and/or confidentiality of
communication between BP nodes, the convergence-layer protocol
requires as input the name or names of the expected communication
peer(s). These must be supplied by the CLA. Details of the means by
which the CLA determines which CL endpoint name(s) must be provided
to the CL protocol are out of scope for this specification. Note,
though, that when the CL endpoint names are a function of BP endpoint
IDs, the correctness and authenticity of that mapping will be vital
to the overall security properties that the CL provides to the
system.
Note that, while the primary block must remain in the clear for
routing purposes, the Bundle Protocol could be protected against
traffic analysis to some extent by using bundle-in-bundle
encapsulation [BIBE] to tunnel bundles to a safe forward distribution
point: the encapsulated bundle could form the payload of an
encapsulating bundle, and that payload block could be encrypted by a
BCB.
Note that the generation of bundle status reports is disabled by
default because malicious initiation of bundle status reporting could
result in the transmission of extremely large numbers of bundles,
effecting a denial-of-service attack. Imposing bundle lifetime
overrides would constitute one defense against such an attack.
Note also that the reception of large numbers of fragmentary bundles
with very long lifetimes could constitute a denial-of-service attack,
occupying storage while pending reassembly that will never occur.
Imposing bundle lifetime overrides would, again, constitute one
defense against such an attack.
This protocol makes use of absolute timestamps for several purposes.
Provisions are included for nodes without accurate clocks to retain
most of the protocol functionality, but nodes that are unaware that
their clock is inaccurate may exhibit unexpected behavior.
9. IANA Considerations
The Bundle Protocol includes fields requiring registries managed by
IANA.
9.1. Bundle Block Types
The "Bundle Block Types" subregistry in the "Bundle Protocol"
registry has been augmented by adding a column identifying the
version of the Bundle Protocol (Bundle Protocol Version) that applies
to the values. IANA has added the following values, as described in
Section 4.3.1, to the "Bundle Block Types" registry with a value of
"7" for the Bundle Protocol Version. IANA has set the Bundle
Protocol Version to "6" or "6,7" for preexisting values in the
"Bundle Block Types" registry, as shown below.
+=================+=========+=========================+===========+
| Bundle Protocol | Value | Description | Reference |
| Version | | | |
+=================+=========+=========================+===========+
| none | 0 | Reserved | [RFC 6255] |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 1 | Bundle Payload Block | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 2 | Bundle Authentication | [RFC 6257] |
| | | Block | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 3 | Payload Integrity Block | [RFC 6257] |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 4 | Payload Confidentiality | [RFC 6257] |
| | | Block | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 5 | Previous-Hop Insertion | [RFC 6259] |
| | | Block | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 6 | Previous node | [RFC 9171] |
| | | (proximate sender) | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 7 | Bundle age (in | [RFC 9171] |
| | | milliseconds) | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 8 | Metadata Extension | [RFC 6258] |
| | | Block | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 9 | Extension Security | [RFC 6257] |
| | | Block | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 10 | Hop count (#prior xmit | [RFC 9171] |
| | | attempts) | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 11-191 | Unassigned | |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 192-255 | Reserved for Private | [RFC 5050] |
| | | and/or Experimental Use | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+---------+-------------------------+-----------+
Table 2: "Bundle Block Types" Registry
9.2. Primary Bundle Protocol Version
IANA has added the following value to the "Primary Bundle Protocol
Version" subregistry in the "Bundle Protocol" registry.
+=======+=============+===========+
| Value | Description | Reference |
+=======+=============+===========+
| 7 | Assigned | [RFC 9171] |
+-------+-------------+-----------+
Table 3: "Primary Bundle
Protocol Version" Registry
Values 8-255 (rather than 7-255) are now Unassigned.
9.3. Bundle Processing Control Flags
The "Bundle Processing Control Flags" subregistry in the "Bundle
Protocol" registry has been augmented by adding a column identifying
the version of the Bundle Protocol (Bundle Protocol Version) that
applies to the new values. IANA has added the following values, as
described in Section 4.2.3, to the "Bundle Processing Control Flags"
registry with a value of "7" for the Bundle Protocol Version. IANA
has set the Bundle Protocol Version to the value "6" or "6,7" for
preexisting values in the "Bundle Processing Control Flags" registry,
as shown below.
+=================+=================+===================+===========+
| Bundle Protocol | Bit Position | Description | Reference |
| Version | (right to | | |
| | left) | | |
+=================+=================+===================+===========+
| 6,7 | 0 | Bundle is a | [RFC 5050] |
| | | fragment | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 1 | ADU is an | [RFC 5050] |
| | | administrative | [RFC 9171] |
| | | record | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 2 | Bundle must not | [RFC 5050] |
| | | be fragmented | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 3 | Custody transfer | [RFC 5050] |
| | | is requested | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 4 | Destination | [RFC 5050] |
| | | endpoint is a | |
| | | singleton | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 5 | Acknowledgement | [RFC 5050] |
| | | by application is | [RFC 9171] |
| | | requested | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 6 | Status time | [RFC 9171] |
| | | requested in | |
| | | reports | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 7-8 | Class of service: | [RFC 5050] |
| | | priority | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 9-13 | Class of service: | [RFC 5050] |
| | | reserved | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 14 | Request reporting | [RFC 5050] |
| | | of bundle | [RFC 9171] |
| | | reception | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 15 | Request reporting | [RFC 5050] |
| | | of custody | |
| | | acceptance | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 16 | Request reporting | [RFC 5050] |
| | | of bundle | [RFC 9171] |
| | | forwarding | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 17 | Request reporting | [RFC 5050] |
| | | of bundle | [RFC 9171] |
| | | delivery | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 18 | Request reporting | [RFC 5050] |
| | | of bundle | [RFC 9171] |
| | | deletion | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 19 | Reserved | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 20 | Reserved | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
| | 21-63 | Unassigned | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+
Table 4: "Bundle Processing Control Flags" Registry
9.4. Block Processing Control Flags
The "Block Processing Control Flags" subregistry in the "Bundle
Protocol" registry has been augmented by adding a column identifying
the version of the Bundle Protocol (Bundle Protocol Version) that
applies to the related BP version. IANA has set the Bundle Protocol
Version to the value "6" or "6,7" for preexisting values in the
"Bundle Processing Control Flags" registry, as shown below.
+=================+==============+====================+===========+
| Bundle Protocol | Bit Position | Description | Reference |
| Version | (right to | | |
| | left) | | |
+=================+==============+====================+===========+
| 6,7 | 0 | Block must be | [RFC 5050] |
| | | replicated in | [RFC 9171] |
| | | every fragment | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 1 | Transmit status | [RFC 5050] |
| | | report if block | [RFC 9171] |
| | | can't be processed | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 2 | Delete bundle if | [RFC 5050] |
| | | block can't be | [RFC 9171] |
| | | processed | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 3 | Last block | [RFC 5050] |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 4 | Discard block if | [RFC 5050] |
| | | it can't be | [RFC 9171] |
| | | processed | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 5 | Block was | [RFC 5050] |
| | | forwarded without | |
| | | being processed | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| 6 | 6 | Block contains an | [RFC 5050] |
| | | EID-reference | |
| | | field | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
| | 7-63 | Unassigned | |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+
Table 5: "Block Processing Control Flags" Registry
9.5. Bundle Status Report Reason Codes
The "Bundle Status Report Reason Codes" subregistry in the "Bundle
Protocol" registry has been augmented by adding a column identifying
the version of the Bundle Protocol (Bundle Protocol Version) that
applies to the new values. IANA has added the following values, as
described in Section 6.1.1, to the "Bundle Status Report Reason
Codes" registry with a value of "7" for the Bundle Protocol Version.
IANA has set the Bundle Protocol Version to the value "6,7" for
preexisting values in the "Bundle Status Report Reason Codes"
registry, as shown below.
+=================+========+========================+===========+
| Bundle Protocol | Value | Description | Reference |
| Version | | | |
+=================+========+========================+===========+
| 6,7 | 0 | No additional | [RFC 5050] |
| | | information | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 1 | Lifetime expired | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 2 | Forwarded over | [RFC 5050] |
| | | unidirectional link | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 3 | Transmission canceled | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 4 | Depleted storage | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 5 | Destination endpoint | [RFC 5050] |
| | | ID unavailable | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 6 | No known route to | [RFC 5050] |
| | | destination from here | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 7 | No timely contact with | [RFC 5050] |
| | | next node on route | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 8 | Block unintelligible | [RFC 5050] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 9 | Hop limit exceeded | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 10 | Traffic pared | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 7 | 11 | Block unsupported | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| | 17-254 | Unassigned | |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
| 6,7 | 255 | Reserved | [RFC 6255] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------------+--------+------------------------+-----------+
Table 6: "Bundle Status Report Reason Codes" Registry
9.6. Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types
The Bundle Protocol has a URI scheme type field -- an unsigned
integer of indefinite length -- for which IANA has created, and will
maintain, a new "Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types" subregistry in the
"Bundle Protocol" registry. The "Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types"
registry governs a namespace of unsigned integers. Initial values
for the "Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types" registry are given below.
The registration policy for this registry is Standards Action
[RFC 8126]. The allocation should only be granted for a Standards
Track RFC approved by the IESG.
The range of values is provided as unsigned integers.
Each assignment consists of a URI scheme type name and its associated
description, a reference to the document that defines the URI scheme,
and a reference to the document that defines the use of this URI
scheme in BP endpoint IDs (including the CBOR encoding of those
endpoint IDs in transmitted bundles).
+===========+==============+================+================+
| Value | Description | BP Utilization | URI Definition |
| | | Reference | Reference |
+===========+==============+================+================+
| 0 | Reserved | n/a | |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
| 1 | dtn | [RFC 9171] | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
| 2 | ipn | [RFC 9171] | [RFC 6260] |
| | | | [RFC 9171] |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
| 3-254 | Unassigned | n/a | |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
| 255-65535 | Reserved | n/a | |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
| >65535 | Reserved for | n/a | |
| | Private Use | | |
+-----------+--------------+----------------+----------------+
Table 7: "Bundle Protocol URI Scheme Types" Registry
9.7. dtn URI Scheme
In the "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) Schemes" (uri-schemes)
registry, IANA has updated the registration of the URI scheme with
the string "dtn" as the scheme name, as follows:
URI scheme name: "dtn"
Status: Permanent
Applications and/or protocols that use this URI scheme name: The
Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP).
Contact: Scott Burleigh <sburleig.sb@gmail.com>
Change controller: IETF (iesg@ietf.org)
Reference: [RFC 9171]
9.8. ipn URI Scheme
In the "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) Schemes" (uri-schemes)
registry, IANA has updated the registration of the URI scheme with
the string "ipn" as the scheme name, originally documented in RFC
6260 [RFC 6260], as follows.
URI scheme name: "ipn"
Status: Permanent
Applications and/or protocols that use this URI scheme name: The
Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP).
Contact: Scott Burleigh <sburleig.sb@gmail.com>
Change controller: IETF (iesg@ietf.org)
Reference: [RFC 9171]
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[BPSEC] Birrane, III, E. and K. McKeever, "Bundle Protocol
Security (BPSec)", RFC 9172, DOI 10.17487/RFC 9172, January
2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 9172>.
[CRC16] ITU-T, "X.25: Interface between Data Terminal Equipment
(DTE) and Data Circuit-terminating Equipment (DCE) for
terminals operating in the packet mode and connected to
public data networks by dedicated circuit", p. 9,
Section 2.2.7.4, ITU-T Recommendation X.25, October 1996,
<https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.25-199610-I/>.
[RFC 2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 2119>.
[RFC 4960] Stewart, R., Ed., "Stream Control Transmission Protocol",
RFC 4960, DOI 10.17487/RFC 4960, September 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 4960>.
[RFC 5234] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 5234, January 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 5234>.
[RFC 8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC 8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 8174>.
[RFC 8949] Bormann, C. and P. Hoffman, "Concise Binary Object
Representation (CBOR)", STD 94, RFC 8949,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 8949, December 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 8949>.
[SABR] Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, "Schedule-
Aware Bundle Routing", CCSDS Recommended
Standard 734.3-B-1, July 2019,
<https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/734x3b1.pdf>.
[TCPCL] Sipos, B., Demmer, M., Ott, J., and S. Perreault, "Delay-
Tolerant Networking TCP Convergence-Layer Protocol Version
4", RFC 9174, DOI 10.17487/RFC 9174, January 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 9174>.
[URI] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC 3986, January 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 3986>.
[URIREG] Thaler, D., Ed., Hansen, T., and T. Hardie, "Guidelines
and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes", BCP 35,
RFC 7595, DOI 10.17487/RFC 7595, June 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 7595>.
10.2. Informative References
[ARCH] Cerf, V., Burleigh, S., Hooke, A., Torgerson, L., Durst,
R., Scott, K., Fall, K., and H. Weiss, "Delay-Tolerant
Networking Architecture", RFC 4838, DOI 10.17487/RFC 4838,
April 2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 4838>.
[BIBE] Burleigh, S., "Bundle-in-Bundle Encapsulation", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-dtn-bibect-03, 18
February 2020, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-ietf-dtn-bibect-03>.
[RFC 3987] Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized Resource
Identifiers (IRIs)", RFC 3987, DOI 10.17487/RFC 3987,
January 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 3987>.
[RFC 5050] Scott, K. and S. Burleigh, "Bundle Protocol
Specification", RFC 5050, DOI 10.17487/RFC 5050, November
2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 5050>.
[RFC 6255] Blanchet, M., "Delay-Tolerant Networking Bundle Protocol
IANA Registries", RFC 6255, DOI 10.17487/RFC 6255, May
2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6255>.
[RFC 6257] Symington, S., Farrell, S., Weiss, H., and P. Lovell,
"Bundle Security Protocol Specification", RFC 6257,
DOI 10.17487/RFC 6257, May 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6257>.
[RFC 6258] Symington, S., "Delay-Tolerant Networking Metadata
Extension Block", RFC 6258, DOI 10.17487/RFC 6258, May
2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6258>.
[RFC 6259] Symington, S., "Delay-Tolerant Networking Previous-Hop
Insertion Block", RFC 6259, DOI 10.17487/RFC 6259, May
2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6259>.
[RFC 6260] Burleigh, S., "Compressed Bundle Header Encoding (CBHE)",
RFC 6260, DOI 10.17487/RFC 6260, May 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 6260>.
[RFC 7143] Chadalapaka, M., Satran, J., Meth, K., and D. Black,
"Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) Protocol
(Consolidated)", RFC 7143, DOI 10.17487/RFC 7143, April
2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 7143>.
[RFC 8126] Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC 8126, June 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/RFC 8126>.
[SIGC] Fall, K., "A Delay-Tolerant Network Architecture for
Challenged Internets", SIGCOMM 2003,
DOI 10.1145/863955.863960, August 2003,
<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/863955.863960>.
Appendix A. Significant Changes from RFC 5050
This document makes the following significant changes from RFC 5050:
* Clarifies the difference between transmission and forwarding.
* Migrates custody transfer to the bundle-in-bundle encapsulation
specification [BIBE].
* Introduces the concept of "node ID" as functionally distinct from
endpoint ID, while having the same syntax.
* Restructures primary block, making it immutable. Adds optional
CRC.
* Adds optional CRCs to non-primary blocks.
* Adds block ID number to canonical block format (to support BPSec).
* Adds definition of Bundle Age extension block.
* Adds definition of Previous Node extension block.
* Adds definition of Hop Count extension block.
* Removes Quality of Service markings.
* Changes from Self-Delimiting Numeric Values (SDNVs) to CBOR
encoding.
* Adds lifetime overrides.
* Clarifies that time values are denominated in milliseconds, not
seconds.
Appendix B. CDDL Expression
For informational purposes, Carsten Bormann and Brian Sipos have
kindly provided an expression of the Bundle Protocol specification in
the Concise Data Definition Language (CDDL). That CDDL expression is
presented below. Note that wherever the CDDL expression is in
disagreement with the textual representation of the BP specification
presented in the earlier sections of this document, the textual
representation rules.
bpv7_start = bundle / #6.55799(bundle)
; Times before 2000 are invalid
dtn-time = uint
; CRC enumerated type
crc-type = &(
crc-none: 0,
crc-16bit: 1,
crc-32bit: 2
)
; Either 16-bit or 32-bit
crc-value = (bstr .size 2) / (bstr .size 4)
creation-timestamp = [
dtn-time, ; absolute time of creation
sequence: uint ; sequence within the time
]
eid = $eid .within eid-structure
eid-structure = [
uri-code: uint,
SSP: any
]
$eid /= [
uri-code: 1,
SSP: (tstr / 0)
]
$eid /= [
uri-code: 2,
SSP: [
nodenum: uint,
servicenum: uint
]
]
; The root bundle array
bundle = [primary-block, *extension-block, payload-block]
primary-block = [
version: 7,
bundle-control-flags,
crc-type,
destination: eid,
source-node: eid,
report-to: eid,
creation-timestamp,
lifetime: uint,
? (
fragment-offset: uint,
total-application-data-length: uint
),
? crc-value,
]
bundle-control-flags = uint .bits bundleflagbits
bundleflagbits = &(
reserved: 20,
reserved: 19,
bundle-deletion-status-reports-are-requested: 18,
bundle-delivery-status-reports-are-requested: 17,
bundle-forwarding-status-reports-are-requested: 16,
reserved: 15,
bundle-reception-status-reports-are-requested: 14,
reserved: 13,
reserved: 12,
reserved: 11,
reserved: 10,
reserved: 9,
reserved: 8,
reserved: 7,
status-time-is-requested-in-all-status-reports: 6,
user-application-acknowledgement-is-requested: 5,
reserved: 4,
reserved: 3,
bundle-must-not-be-fragmented: 2,
payload-is-an-administrative-record: 1,
bundle-is-a-fragment: 0
)
; Abstract shared structure of all non-primary blocks
canonical-block-structure = [
block-type-code: uint,
block-number: uint,
block-control-flags,
crc-type,
; Each block type defines the content within the byte string
block-type-specific-data,
? crc-value
]
block-control-flags = uint .bits blockflagbits
blockflagbits = &(
reserved: 7,
reserved: 6,
reserved: 5,
block-must-be-removed-from-bundle-if-it-cannot-be-processed: 4,
reserved: 3,
bundle-must-be-deleted-if-block-cannot-be-processed: 2,
status-report-must-be-transmitted-if-block-cannot-be-processed:
1,
block-must-be-replicated-in-every-fragment: 0
)
block-type-specific-data = bstr / #6.24(bstr)
; Actual CBOR data embedded in a byte string, with optional tag to
indicate so.
; Additional plain bstr allows ciphertext data.
embedded-cbor<Item> = (bstr .cbor Item) / #6.24(bstr .cbor Item) /
bstr
; Extension block type, which does not specialize other than the
code/number
extension-block =
$extension-block .within canonical-block-structure
; Generic shared structure of all non-primary blocks
extension-block-use<CodeValue, BlockData> = [
block-type-code: CodeValue,
block-number: (uint .gt 1),
block-control-flags,
crc-type,
BlockData,
? crc-value
]
; Payload block type
payload-block = payload-block-structure .within canonical-block-
structure
payload-block-structure = [
block-type-code: 1,
block-number: 1,
block-control-flags,
crc-type,
$payload-block-data,
? crc-value
]
; Arbitrary payload data, including non-CBOR byte string
$payload-block-data /= block-type-specific-data
; Administrative record as a payload data specialization
$payload-block-data /= embedded-cbor<admin-record>
admin-record = $admin-record .within admin-record-structure
admin-record-structure = [
record-type-code: uint,
record-content: any
]
; Only one defined record type
$admin-record /= [1, status-record-content]
status-record-content = [
bundle-status-information,
status-report-reason-code: uint,
source-node-eid: eid,
subject-creation-timestamp: creation-timestamp,
? (
subject-payload-offset: uint,
subject-payload-length: uint
)
]
bundle-status-information = [
reporting-node-received-bundle: status-info-content,
reporting-node-forwarded-bundle: status-info-content,
reporting-node-delivered-bundle: status-info-content,
reporting-node-deleted-bundle: status-info-content
]
status-info-content = [
status-indicator: bool,
? timestamp: dtn-time
]
; Previous Node extension block
$extension-block /=
extension-block-use<6, embedded-cbor<ext-data-previous-node>>
ext-data-previous-node = eid
; Bundle Age extension block
$extension-block /=
extension-block-use<7, embedded-cbor<ext-data-bundle-age>>
ext-data-bundle-age = uint
; Hop Count extension block
$extension-block /=
extension-block-use<10, embedded-cbor<ext-data-hop-count>>
ext-data-hop-count = [
hop-limit: uint,
hop-count: uint
]
Acknowledgments
This work is freely adapted from RFC 5050, which was an effort of the
Delay-Tolerant Networking Research Group. The following DTNRG
participants contributed significant technical material and/or inputs
to that document: Dr. Vinton Cerf of Google; Scott Burleigh, Adrian
Hooke, and Leigh Torgerson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Michael
Demmer of the University of California at Berkeley; Robert Durst,
Keith Scott, and Susan Symington of The MITRE Corporation; Kevin Fall
of Carnegie Mellon University; Stephen Farrell of Trinity College
Dublin; Howard Weiss and Peter Lovell of SPARTA, Inc.; and Manikantan
Ramadas of Ohio University.
Scott Burleigh would like to thank the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology, for its generous and sustained
support of this work.
Authors' Addresses
Scott Burleigh
IPNGROUP
1435 Woodhurst Blvd.
McLean, VA 22102
United States of America
Email: sburleig.sb@gmail.com
Kevin Fall
Roland Computing Services
3871 Piedmont Ave. Suite 8
Oakland, CA 94611
United States of America
Email: kfall+rcs@kfall.com
Edward J. Birrane, III
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Rd
Laurel, MD 20723
United States of America
Phone: +1 443 778 7423
Email: Edward.Birrane@jhuapl.edu
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 134360 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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