Subject: Re: NSSA NP option bit clarification

From: "Pat Murphy - (650)329-4044" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 14:40:04 -0700

I am inclined to agree with Acee, namely

>From a position of hindsight, there should be three separate options
>definitions: one for LSA options, one for hello options, and one for
>DD options. Or, better yet, the options should be stored in the neighbor
>structure during hello processing and not even included in the DD packet.

Early on I questioned this RFC 1587 text

      N-bit:  The N-bit describes the the router's NSSA
              capability.  The N-bit is used only in Hello
              packets and ensures that all members of an NSSA
              agree on that area's configuration.

Late in the game of getting RFC 3101 published it stopped being an issue
with me. I was not around when this text was written this way and can't
shed any light on the exact intentions of Rob and Vince. My guess is they
were simply trying to distinguish the use of this bit in the Hello Packet
versus its use in the Type-7 LSA option field, and that it had nothing at
all to do with how the bit was used in the DD packet.  I suppose its too
late now to make this text a little clearer. I do recommend that you don't
read too much into it.

Pat

---

From: Paul Jakma <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 01:24:18 +0100

> late now to make this text a little clearer. I do recommend that you don't

Yes, its rather unfortunate, as for most other bits you can treat DD
options field as the prime source for neighbour capabilities.
However, N bit leaves it unspecified for DD options it seems, would
have been nice if it had followed E-bit semantics.

> Pat

regards,
--
Paul Jakma      [email-masked]   [email-masked]  Key ID: 64A2FF6A
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