Minimal Internet Key Exchange Version 2 Initiator Implementation

Abstract

This document describes a minimal initiator version of the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) protocol for constrained nodes. IKEv2 is a component of IPsec used for performing mutual authentication and establishing and maintaining Security Associations (SAs). IKEv2 includes several optional features, which are not needed in minimal implementations. This document describes what is required from the minimal implementation and also describes various optimizations that can be done. The protocol described here is interoperable with a full IKEv2 implementation using shared secret authentication (IKEv2 does not require the use of certificate authentication). This minimal initiator implementation can only talk to a full IKEv2 implementation acting as the responder; thus, two minimal initiator implementations cannot talk to each other.

This document does not update or modify RFC 7296 but provides a more compact description of the minimal version of the protocol. If this document and RFC 7296 conflict, then RFC 7296 is the authoritative description.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Informational” means

Published for the general information of the community. It does not define an IETF standard and carries no standards-track status.