RFC 1234 (rfc1234) - Page 1 of 6
Tunneling IPX traffic through IP networks
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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