RFC 2411 (rfc2411) - Page 2 of 11
IP Security Document Roadmap
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2411 IP Security Document Roadmap November 1998
1. Introduction
This document is intended to provide guidelines for the development
of collateral specifications describing the use of new encryption and
authentication algorithms with the ESP protocol, described in [ESP]
and new authentication algorithms used with the AH protocol,
described in [AH]. ESP and AH are part of the IP Security
architecture described in [Arch]. There is a requirement for a
well-known procedure that can be used to add new encryption
algorithms or authentication algorithms to ESP and AH, not only while
the initial document set is undergoing development but after the base
documents have achieved RFC status. Following the guidelines
discussed below simplifies adding new algorithms and reduces that
amount of redundant documentation.
The goal in writing a new Encryption Algorithm or Authentication
Algorithm document is to concentrate on the application of the
specific algorithm within ESP and AH. General ESP and AH concepts,
definitions, and issues are covered in the ESP and AH documents. The
algorithms themselves are not described in these documents. This
gives us the capability to add new algorithms and also specify how
any given algorithm might interact with other algorithms. The intent
is to achieve the goal of avoiding duplication of information and
excessive numbers of documents, the so-called "draft explosion"
effect.
2. Interrelationship of IPsec Documents
The documents describing the set of IPsec protocols are divided into
seven groups. This is illustrated in Figure 1. There is a main
Architecture document which broadly covers the general concepts,
security requirements, definitions, and mechanisms defining IPsec
technology.
There is an ESP Protocol document and an AH Protocol document which
covers the packet format and general issues regarding the respective
protocols. These protocol documents also contain default values if
appropriate, such as the default padding contents, and mandatory to
implement algorithms. These documents dictate some of the values in
the Domain Of Interpretation document [DOI]. Note the DOI document
is itself part of the IANA Assigned Numbers mechanism and so the
values described in the DOI are well-known. See [DOI] for more
information on the mechanism.
The "Encryption Algorithm" document set, shown on the left, is the
set of documents describing how various encryption algorithms are
used for ESP. These documents are intended to fit in this roadmap,
and should avoid overlap with the ESP protocol document and with the
Thayer, et. al. Informational