RFC 3378 (rfc3378) - Page 2 of 9
EtherIP: Tunneling Ethernet Frames in IP Datagrams
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3378 EtherIP September 2002
EtherIP may be used to enable communications between stations that
implement Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 with a layer three protocol other
than IP. For example, two stations connected to different Ethernet
LANs using the Xerox Network Systems Internetwork Datagram Protocol
(IDP) [XNS] could employ EtherIP to enable communications across the
Internet.
EtherIP may be used to enable communications between stations that
encrypt the Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 payload. Regardless of the layer
three protocol used, encryption obscures the layer three protocol
control information, making routing impossible. For example, two
stations connected to different Ethernet LANs using IEEE 802.10b
[SDE] could employ EtherIP to enable encrypted communications across
the Internet.
EtherIP may be implemented in a single station to provide tunneling
of Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 frames for either of the reasons stated
above. Such implementations require processing rules to determine
which MAC frames to tunnel and which MAC frames to ignore. Most
often, these processing rules are based on the destination address or
the EtherType.
EtherIP may be implemented in a bridge-like station to provide
tunneling services for all stations connected to a particular LAN
segment. Such implementations promiscuously listen to all of the
traffic on the LAN segment, then apply processing rules to determine
which MAC frames to tunnel and which MAC frames to ignore. MAC
frames that require tunneling are encapsulated with EtherIP and IP,
then transmitted to the local IP router for delivery to the bridge-
like station serving the remote LAN. Most often, these processing
rules are based on the source address, the destination address, or
the EtherType. Care in establishing these rules must be exercised to
ensure that the same MAC frame does not get transmitted endlessly
between several bridge-like stations, especially when broadcast or
multicast destination MAC addresses are used as selection criteria.
Infinite loops can result if the topology is not restricted to a
tree, but the construction of the tree is left to the human that is
configuring the bridge-like stations.
1.1. Conventions Used In This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
Housley & Hollenbeck Informational