RFC 1234 (rfc1234) - Page 1 of 6

Tunneling IPX traffic through IP networks

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Network Working Group                                          D. Provan
Request for Comments: 1234                                  Novell, Inc.
                                                               June 1991


               Tunneling IPX Traffic through IP Networks

Status of this Memo

   This memo describes a method of encapsulating IPX datagrams within
   UDP packets so that IPX traffic can travel across an IP internet.
   This RFC specifies an IAB standards track protocol for the Internet
   community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.
   Please refer to the current edition of the "IAB Official Protocol
   Standards" for the standardization state and status of this protocol.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Introduction

   Internet Packet eXchange protocol (IPX) is the internetwork protocol
   used by Novell's NetWare protocol suite.  For the purposes of this
   paper, IPX is functionally equivalent to the Internet Datagram
   Protocol (IDP) from the Xerox Network Systems (XNS) protocol suite
   [1].  This memo describes a method of encapsulating IPX datagrams
   within UDP packets [2] so that IPX traffic can travel across an IP
   internet [3].

   This RFC allows an IPX implementation to view an IP internet as a
   single IPX network.  An implementation of this memo will encapsulate
   IPX datagrams in UDP packets in the same way any hardware
   implementation might encapsulate IPX datagrams in that hardware's
   frames.  IPX networks can be connected thusly across internets that
   carry only IP traffic.

Packet Format

   Each IPX datagram is carried in the data portion of a UDP packet.
   All IP and UDP fields are set normally.  Both the source and the
   destination ports in the UDP packet should be set to the UDP port
   value allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for the
   implementation of this encapsulation method.

   As with any UDP application, the transmitting party has the option of
   avoiding the overhead of the checksum by setting the UDP checksum to
   zero.  Since IPX implementations never use the IPX checksum to guard
   IPX packets from damage, UDP checksumming is highly recommended for
   IPX encapsulation.




Provan
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