RFC 2333 (rfc2333) - Page 1 of 9


NHRP Protocol Applicability Statement



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                        D. Cansever
Request for Comments: 2333                        GTE Laboratories, Inc.
Category: Standards Track                                     April 1998


                 NHRP Protocol Applicability Statement

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   As required by the Routing Protocol Criteria [RFC 1264], this memo
   discusses the applicability of the Next Hop Resolution Protocol
   (NHRP) in routing of IP datagrams over Non-Broadcast Multiple Access
   (NBMA) networks, such as ATM, SMDS and X.25.

1. Protocol Documents

   The NHRP protocol description is defined in [1].  The NHRP MIB
   description is defined in [2].

2. Introduction

   This document summarizes the key features of NHRP and discusses the
   environments for which the protocol is well suited.  For the purposes
   of description, NHRP can be considered a generalization of Classical
   IP and ARP over ATM which is defined in [3] and of the Transmission
   of IP Datagrams over the SMDS Service, defined in [4].  This
   generalization occurs in 2 distinct directions.

   Firstly, NHRP avoids the need to go through extra hops of routers
   when the Source and Destination belong to different Logical Internet
   Subnets (LIS).  Of course, [3] and [4] specify that when the source
   and destination belong to different LISs, the source station must
   forward data packets to a router that is a member of multiple LISs,
   even though the source and destination stations may be on the same
   logical NBMA network.  If the source and destination stations belong
   to the same logical NBMA network, NHRP provides the source station



Cansever                    Standards Track