Recommendation to Use the Ethernet Control Word
RFC 8469, “Recommendation to Use the Ethernet Control Word”, is a Proposed Standard document published in November 2018 by S. Bryant, A. Malis, I. Bagdonas. It updates RFC 4448. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.
Abstract
The pseudowire (PW) encapsulation of Ethernet, as defined in RFC 4448, specifies that the use of the control word (CW) is optional. In the absence of the CW, an Ethernet PW packet can be misidentified as an IP packet by a label switching router (LSR). This may lead to the selection of the wrong equal-cost multipath (ECMP) path for the packet, leading in turn to the misordering of packets. This problem has become more serious due to the deployment of equipment with Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) addresses that start with 0x4 or 0x6. The use of the Ethernet PW CW addresses this problem. This document RECOMMENDS the use of the Ethernet PW CW in all but exceptional circumstances.
This document updates RFC 4448.
What “Proposed Standard” means
An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.
The canonical text of RFC 8469 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.
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