RFC 3438 (rfc3438) - Page 2 of 5


Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Considerations Update



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 3438                L2TP IANA Considerations           December 2002


1.1 Terminology

   The following terms are used here with the meanings defined in
   BCP 26:  "name space", "assigned value", "registration".

   The following policies are used here with the meanings defined in
   BCP 26: "Private Use", "First Come First Served", "Expert Review",
   "Specification Required", "IETF Consensus", "Standards Action".

2. IANA Considerations

   L2TP [RFC 2661] defines a number of "magic" numbers to be maintained
   by the IANA.  This section updates the criteria to be used by the
   IANA to assign additional numbers in each of these lists.

   Each of the values identified in this document that require a
   registration criteria update are currently maintained by IANA and
   have a range of values from 0 to 65 535, of which a very small number
   have been allocated (the maximum number allocated within any one
   range is 46) [L2TP-IANA].  Given the nature of these values, it is
   not expected that any will ever run into a resource allocation
   problem if registration allocation requirements are relaxed from
   their current state.

   The recommended criteria changes for IANA registration are listed in
   the following sections.  In one case, the registration criteria is
   currently defined as First Come First Served and should be made more
   strict, others are defined as IETF Consensus and need to be relaxed.
   The relaxation from IETF Consensus is motivated by specific cases in
   which values that were never intended to be vendor-specific have had
   to enter early field trials or be released in generally available
   products with vendor-specific values while awaiting documents to be
   formalized.  In most cases, this results in products that have to
   support both the vendor-specific value and IETF value indefinitely.

   For registration requests where a Designated Expert should be
   consulted, the responsible IESG Area Director should appoint the
   Designated Expert.

   For registration requests requiring Expert Review, the Designated
   Expert should consult relevant WGs as appropriate (e.g., the l2tpext
   WG at the time of this writing).

   The basic guideline for the Expert Review process will be to approve
   the assignment of a value only if there is a document being advanced
   that clearly defines the values to be assigned, and there is active





Townsley                 Best Current Practice