This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
AbstractThis memo discusses Flow Attribute Notification Protocol (FANP), which is a protocol between neighbor nodes for the management of cut-through packet forwarding functionalities. In cut-through packet forwarding, a router doesn't have to perform conventional IP packet processing for received packets. FANP indicates mapping information between a datalink connection and a packet flow to the neighbor node and helps a pair of nodes manage the mapping information. By using FANP, routers (e.g., CSR; Cell Switch Router) can forward incoming packets based on their datalink-level connection identifiers, bypassing usual IP packet processing. The design policy of the FANP is;(1) soft-state cut-through path (Dedicated-VC) management (2) protocol between neighbor nodes instead of end-to-end (3) applicable to any connection oriented datalink platform
BackgroundDue to the scalability requirement, connection oriented (CO) datalink platforms, e.g., ATM and Frame Relay, are going to be used as well as connection less (CL) datalink platforms, e.g., Ethernet and FDDI. One of the important features of the CO datalink is the presence of a datalink-level connection identifier. In the CO datalink, we can establish multiple virtual connections (VCs) with their VC identifiers among the nodes. When we aggregate packets that have the same direction (e.g., having the same destination IP address) into a single VC, we can forward the packets in the VC without IP Nagami, et. al. Informational [Page 1]