RFC 1347 (rfc1347) - Page 1 of 9

TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses (TUBA), A Simple Proposal for Internet Addressing and Routing

Network Working Group                                  Ross Callon
        Request for Comments: 1347                                     DEC
                                                                 June 1992



                    TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses (TUBA),
              A Simple Proposal for Internet Addressing and Routing



        Status of the Memo

        This memo provides information for the Internet community. It
        does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this
        memo is unlimited.


        1 Summary

        The Internet is approaching a situation in which the current IP
        address space is no longer adequate for global addressing
        and routing. This is causing problems including: (i) Internet
        backbones and regionals are suffering from the need to maintain
        large amounts of routing information which is growing rapidly in
        size (approximately doubling each year); (ii) The Internet is
        running out of IP network numbers to assign. There is an urgent
        need to develop and deploy an approach to addressing and routing
        which solves these problems and allows scaling to several orders
        of magnitude larger than the existing Internet. However, it is
        necessary for any change to be deployed in an incremental manner,
        allowing graceful transition from the current Internet without
        disruption of service. [1]

        This paper describes a simple proposal which provides a long-term
        solution to Internet addressing, routing, and scaling. This
        involves a gradual migration from the current Internet Suite
        (which is based on Internet applications, running over TCP or
        UDP, running over IP) to an updated suite (based on the same
        Internet applications, running over TCP or UDP, running over CLNP
        [2]). This approach is known as "TUBA" (TCP & UDP with Bigger
        Addresses).

        This paper describes a proposal for how transition may be
        accomplished. Description of the manner in which use of CLNP,
        NSAP addresses, and related network/Internet layer protocols
        (ES-IS, IS-IS, and IDRP) allow scaling to a very large ubiquitous
        worldwide Internet is outside of the scope of this paper.

        Originally, it was thought that any practical proposal needed to
        address the immediate short-term problem of routing information
        explosion (in addition to the long-term problem of scaling to a
        worldwide Internet). Given the current problems caused by
        excessive routing information in IP backbones, this could require
        older IP-based systems to talk to other older IP-based systems
        over intervening Internet backbones which did not support IP.
        This in turn would require either translation of IP packets into


        Callon