Subject: [IPFIX] enterprise ID 0

From: Paul Aitken <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:46:00 +0100

Since enterprise ID zero is reserved for IANA (per 
http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers),

and since the IPFIX config model defines "ieEnterpriseNumber" with zero 
== IANA :

    ieId, ieName, ieEnterpriseNumber:  The property to be matched is
       specified by either ieId or ieName, specifying the ID or name of
       the Information Element, respectively.  If ieEnterpriseNumber is
       zero (which is the default), this Information Element is
       registered in the IANA registry of IPFIX Information Elements
       [IANA-IPFIX].  A non-zero value of ieEnterpriseNumber specifies an
       enterprise-specific Information Element.

and since there are no exclusions against Enterprise Number == 0 in RFC 
5101 or 5101bis,

can we conclude that it's _not_ an error for an Exporting Process to 
send IANA-IEs with E == 1 and Enterprise Number == 0 ?

Thanks,
P.

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From: Brian Trammell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2012 14:29:00 +0200

Hi, Paul,

Yep.

I would say an EP SHOULD NOT export such a thing, but that a CP MUST accept it as an IANA IE.

Is this a note for 5101-bis?

Cheers,

Brian

On Sep 6, 2012, at 12:46 PM, Paul Aitken wrote:

> Since enterprise ID zero is reserved for IANA (per http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers),
> 
> and since the IPFIX config model defines "ieEnterpriseNumber" with zero == IANA :
> 
> and since there are no exclusions against Enterprise Number == 0 in RFC 5101 or 5101bis,
> 
> can we conclude that it's _not_ an error for an Exporting Process to send IANA-IEs with E == 1 and Enterprise Number == 0 ?
> 
> Thanks,
> P.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> IPFIX mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipfix

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From: Andrew Feren <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2012 09:37:53 -0400

As I understand the question we are only talking about the case where 
the datatype and semantics are identical for IANA-IE and (IANA-IE & 
0x8000) and not some weird second IE space.

I'm OK with Brian's suggestion of EP SHOULD NOT and CP MUST.  I also 
think it is worth stating explicitly.  I'm pretty sure my CP will not 
currently accept IEs sent this way, but that can be fixed easily enough.

-Andrew

---

From: Paul Aitken <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:45:58 +0100

Andrew,

> 0x8000) and not some weird second IE space.

That's a good point - there could be a second "parallel" IE space here. 
We could potentially use this in future if we ever get to 32k IANA elements.

> think it is worth stating explicitly.

So we define equivalence between the two?

>   I'm pretty sure my CP will not currently accept IEs sent this way, 
> but that can be fixed easily enough.

That's why I asked! :-)

Thanks,
P.

---

From: Gerhard Muenz <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:57:00 +0200

Hi,

An enterprise number parameter also appears in the IPFIX MIB (see 
ipfixTemplateDefinitionEnterpriseNumber):

        DESCRIPTION
            "IANA enterprise number of the authority defining the
            Information Element identifier in this Template Record.
            Enterprise numbers are assigned by IANA.  A current list of
            all assignments is available from
            <http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers/>.

            This object must be zero(0) for all standard Information
            Elements registered with IANA.  A current list of these
            elements is available from
            <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipfix/>."

A zero value for this MIB parameter or for the enterprise number 
parameters appearing in IPFIX CONFIG does not imply that a zero 
enterprise number value appears in any IPFIX message.

I think it is clear that enterprise-specific IEs must have a non-zero 
enterprise number, and therefore there should not be a problem if data 
models take the forbidden zero value as an indicator for IANA-IEs.

Thanks,
Gerhard