OSI CLNS and LLC1 protocols on Network Systems HYPERchannel (RFC1223)

Network Working Group J. Halpern Request for Comments: 1223 NSC May 1991

OSI CLNS and LLC1 Protocols on Network Systems HYPERchannel

Status of this Memo

The intent of this document is to provide a complete discussion of the protocols and techniques used to transmit OSI CLNS and LLC1 datagrams (and any associated higher level protocols) on Network Systems Corporation’s HYPERchannel equipment. This document is intended for network planners and implementers who are already familiar with the OSI protocol suite and the techniques used to carry OSI traffic on standard networks such as 802.3.

This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Table of Contents

Goals of this Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 HYPERchannel Network Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Message Proper Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 TO Addresses and Open Driver Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Broadcasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ES-IS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 IS-IS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Author’s Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Goals of this Document

In this document, we have three major technical objectives:

1. To standardize the encapsulation of LLC1 packets over HYPERchannel. The format will be used for OSI CLNS and for any other protocols using LLC1 over HYPERchannel. (Note that if one desires to use the LLC1/SNAP combination for TCP/IP, this is the format to use. This represents an alternative to the native mode for TCP/IP over HYPERchannel, allowing for sharing the medium at the LLC1 layer.)

Halpern [Page 1]

RFC 1223 OSI and LLC1 on HYPERchannel May 1991

2. To describe how multicast protocols such as ES-IS and IS-IS shall operate over HYPERchannel. As a medium, HYPERchannel does not support either broadcast or multicast. Therefore, special techniques are needed to handle these protocols. Note that these techniques do not allow general multicast, although any specific problem may be solved by a generalization of these methods.

3. To make use of a standardized "message type" field in bytes 8 and 9 of the HYPERchannel network message. To permit better interoperability, NSC maintains a "network protocol registry" where any interested party may obtain a unique value in byte 8 (or bytes 8 and 9) for their own public, private, commercial or proprietary protocol. Lists of assigned protocol type numbers and their "owners" would be periodically published by NSC and are available to interested parties.

HYPERchannel Network Messages

Unlike most datagram delivery systems, the HYPERchannel network message consists of two parts:

Message Proper +--------------------+ | | | | | | | 16-6...