



Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        J. Scudder
Request for Comments: 9736                              Juniper Networks
Updates: 7854, 8671, 9069                                     P. Lucente
Category: Standards Track                                            NTT
ISSN: 2070-1721                                               March 2025


      The BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) Peer Up Message Namespace

Abstract

   RFC 7854, the BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP), uses different message
   types for different purposes.  Most of these are structured as Type,
   Length, Value (TLV).  One message type, the Peer Up message, lacks a
   set of TLVs defined for its use, instead sharing a namespace with the
   Initiation message.  Experience has shown that this namespace sharing
   was a mistake, as it hampers the extension of the protocol.

   This document updates RFC 7854 by creating an independent namespace
   for the Peer Up message.  It also updates RFCs 8671 and 9069 by
   moving defined codepoints into the newly introduced registry.
   Compliant implementations of RFCs 7854, 8671, and 9069 also comply
   with this specification.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9736.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
   in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
     1.1.  Requirements Language
   2.  String Definition
   3.  Changes to Existing RFCs
     3.1.  Revision to the Information TLV
     3.2.  Revision to the Peer Up Notification
     3.3.  Definition of Peer Up Information TLV
   4.  IANA Considerations
   5.  Security Considerations
   6.  Normative References
   Acknowledgements
   Authors' Addresses

1.  Introduction

   [RFC7854] defines a number of different BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP)
   message types.  With the exception of the Route Monitoring message
   type, these messages are TLV-structured.  Most message types have
   distinct namespaces and IANA registries.  However, the namespace of
   the Peer Up message overlaps that of the Initiation message.  As BMP
   has been extended, this overlap has become problematic.  In this
   document, we create distinct namespaces for the Peer Up and
   Initiation messages to eliminate the overlap.

   Compliant implementations of [RFC7854], [RFC8671], and [RFC9069] also
   comply with this specification.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  String Definition

   A string TLV is a free-form sequence of UTF-8 characters whose length
   in bytes is given by the TLV's Length field.  There is no requirement
   to terminate the string with a null (or any other particular)
   character -- the Length field gives its termination.

3.  Changes to Existing RFCs

   [RFC7854] is updated as detailed in the following subsections.

3.1.  Revision to the Information TLV

   The Information TLV defined in Section 4.4 of [RFC7854] is renamed
   "Initiation Information TLV".  It is used only by the Initiation
   message, not by the Peer Up message.

   The definition of Type = 0 is revised as shown below.  Type = 1 and
   Type = 2 are unchanged; they are provided for completeness.

   *  Type = 0: String.  The Information field contains a string
      (Section 2).  The value is administratively assigned.  If multiple
      string TLVs are included, their ordering MUST be preserved when
      they are reported.

   *  Type = 1: sysDescr.  The Information field contains an ASCII
      string whose value MUST be set to be equal to the value of the
      sysDescr MIB-II [RFC1213] object.

   *  Type = 2: sysName.  The Information field contains an ASCII string
      whose value MUST be set to be equal to the value of the sysName
      MIB-II [RFC1213] object.

3.2.  Revision to the Peer Up Notification

   The final paragraph of Section 4.10 of [RFC7854] references the
   Information TLV (which is revised above (Section 3.1)).  That
   paragraph is replaced by the following:

   *  Information: Information about the peer, using the Peer Up
      Information TLV format defined in Section 3.3 of RFC 9736.  The
      String type may be repeated.  Inclusion of the Information field
      is OPTIONAL.  Its presence or absence can be inferred by
      inspection of the Message Length in the common header.

3.3.  Definition of Peer Up Information TLV

   The Peer Up Information TLV is used by the Peer Up message.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |          Information Type     |       Information Length      |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                 Information (variable)                        |
     ~                                                               ~
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   *  Information Type (2 bytes): types are as defined in the "BMP Peer
      Up Message TLVs" registry:

      -  Type = 0: String.  The Information field contains a string
         (Section 2).  The value is administratively assigned.  If
         multiple strings are included, their ordering MUST be preserved
         when they are reported.

      -  Type = 3: VRF/Table Name.  The Information field contains a
         UTF-8 string whose value MUST be equal to the value of the VRF
         or table name (e.g., RD instance name) being conveyed.  The
         string size MUST be within the range of 1 to 255 bytes.

      -  Type = 4: Admin Label.  The Information field contains a free-
         form UTF-8 string whose byte length is given by the Information
         Length field.  The value is administratively assigned.  There
         is no requirement to terminate the string a with null or any
         other character.

   *  Information Length (2 bytes): The length of the following
      Information field, in bytes.

   *  Information (variable): Information about the monitored router,
      according to the type.

4.  IANA Considerations

   IANA has created the "BMP Peer Up Message TLVs" within the "BGP
   Monitoring Protocol (BMP) Parameters" registry group and listed this
   document as the reference.

   Registration procedures for this registry are:

                 +=============+=========================+
                 | Range       | Registration Procedures |
                 +=============+=========================+
                 | 0, 3-32767  | Standards Action        |
                 +-------------+-------------------------+
                 | 32768-65530 | First Come First Served |
                 +-------------+-------------------------+
                 | 65531-65534 | Experimental            |
                 +-------------+-------------------------+
                 | 1-2, 65535  | Reserved                |
                 +-------------+-------------------------+

                                  Table 1

   The initial values for this registry are:

                  +=======+================+===========+
                  |  Type |  Description   | Reference |
                  +=======+================+===========+
                  |   0   |     String     |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+
                  |   1   |    Reserved    |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+
                  |   2   |    Reserved    |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+
                  |   3   | VRF/Table Name |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+
                  |   4   |  Admin Label   |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+
                  | 65535 |    Reserved    |  RFC 9736 |
                  +-------+----------------+-----------+

                                 Table 2

   IANA has also renamed the "BMP Initiation and Peer Up Information
   TLVs" registry to "BMP Initiation Information TLVs" and populated it
   with the following values:

                    +=======+=============+===========+
                    | Type  | Description | Reference |
                    +=======+=============+===========+
                    | 0     | String      | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+
                    | 1     | sysDescr    | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+
                    | 2     | sysName     | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+
                    | 3     | Reserved    | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+
                    | 4     | Reserved    | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+
                    | 65535 | Reserved    | RFC 9736  |
                    +-------+-------------+-----------+

                                  Table 3

5.  Security Considerations

   This document does not alter the security considerations of [RFC7854]
   that continue to apply.

6.  Normative References

   [RFC1213]  McCloghrie, K. and M. Rose, "Management Information Base
              for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II",
              STD 17, RFC 1213, DOI 10.17487/RFC1213, March 1991,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1213>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7854]  Scudder, J., Ed., Fernando, R., and S. Stuart, "BGP
              Monitoring Protocol (BMP)", RFC 7854,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7854, June 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7854>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8671]  Evens, T., Bayraktar, S., Lucente, P., Mi, P., and S.
              Zhuang, "Support for Adj-RIB-Out in the BGP Monitoring
              Protocol (BMP)", RFC 8671, DOI 10.17487/RFC8671, November
              2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8671>.

   [RFC9069]  Evens, T., Bayraktar, S., Bhardwaj, M., and P. Lucente,
              "Support for Local RIB in the BGP Monitoring Protocol
              (BMP)", RFC 9069, DOI 10.17487/RFC9069, February 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9069>.

Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Maxence Younsi for his review.

Authors' Addresses

   John Scudder
   Juniper Networks
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave
   Sunnyvale, CA 94089
   United States of America
   Email: jgs@juniper.net


   Paolo Lucente
   NTT
   Veemweg 23
   3771 MT Barneveld
   Netherlands
   Email: paolo@ntt.net
