v: 3
cat: std stream: IETF updates: 6690, 7252, 7641, 7959, 8132, 8323 title: > Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP): Corrections and Clarifications abbrev: Corrections and Clarifications to CoAP docname: draft-bormann-core-corr-clar-latest
venue: mail: core@ietf.org github: core-wg/corrclar
name: Carsten Bormann
org: Universität Bremen TZI
street: Postfach 330440
city: Bremen
code: D-28359
country: Germany
phone: +49-421-218-63921
email: cabo@tzi.org
normative: RFC6690: link-format RFC7252: coap RFC7641: observe RFC7959: block RFC8132: etch RFC8323: coap-tcp informative: RFC8516: RC429 Err5078: target: "https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5078" title: Errata Report 5078 seriesinfo: RFC: 7252 date: false
--- abstract
RFC 7252 defines the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), along with a number of additional specifications, including RFC 7641, RFC 7959, RFC 8132, and RFC 8323. RFC 6690 defines the link format that is used in CoAP self-description documents.
Some parts of the specification may be unclear or even contain errors that may lead to misinterpretations that may impair interoperability between different implementations. The present document provides corrections, additions, and clarifications to the RFCs cited; this document thus updates these RFCs. In addition, other clarifications related to the use of CoAP in other specifications, including RFC 7390 and RFC 8075, are also provided.
--- middle
{{-coap}} defines the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), along with a number of additional specifications, including {{-observe}}, {{-block}}, {{-etch}}, and {{-coap-tcp}}. {{-link-format}} defines the link format that is used in CoAP self-description documents.
During implementation and interoperability testing of these RFCs, and in their practical use, some ambiguities and common misinterpretations have been identified, as well as a few errors.
The present document summarizes identified issues and provides corrections needed for implementations of CoAP to interoperate, i.e., it constitutes an update to the RFCs referenced. This document also provides other clarifications related to common misinterpretations of the specification. References to CoAP should, therefore, also include this document.
In addition, some clarifications and corrections are also provided for documents that are related to CoAP, including RFC 7390 and RFC 8075.
The present document is an Internet-Draft, which is not intended to be published as an RFC quickly. Instead, it will be maintained as a running document of the CoRE WG, probably for a number of years, until the need for new entries tails off and the document can finally be published as an RFC. (This paragraph to be rephrased when that happens.)
The status of this document as a running document of the WG implies a consensus process that is applied in making updates to it. The rest of this subsection provides more details about this consensus process. (This is the intended status; currently, the document is an individual submission only.)
(Consensus process TBD, but it will likely be based on an editor's version in a publicly accessible git repository, as well as periodic calls for consensus that lead to a new published Internet-Draft.)
This section describes the process that will be used for developing the present document (called "-corr-clar" colloquially).
This process might be revised as its execution progresses.
{: start="0"} 0. (Done as of this a draft): include the present process proposal.\ The document can then already be considered for WG adoption.
-
Go through the following available material and revise/create Github issues at ISSUES as needed:
- Existing issues at ISSUES
- More to be opened by Jon Shallow regarding Block-wise, see JON-ISSUES
- CoAP FAQ at the CoRE WIKI WIKI-FAQ
- Each point likely to become a new, short issue
- Existing issues at ISSUES
-
Categorize the Github issues at ISSUES as to the topics they relate to, by tagging them.\ Completing a first round of this will be a task for a dedicated team.
-
For each issue or set of issues at ISSUES, confirm with the CoRE WG and gather feedback from affected protocol designers/implementors if the issue is best to be:
- Included and covered in -corr-clar, as is or revised
- Simply omitted in -corr-clar
- Omitted in -corr-clar and left for a possible -bis document.\ (For example, this might be the case for some specific points related to RFC 7959.)
-
Reshape the -corr-clar document in order to reflect a sequence of pairs (Diagnosis, Therapy), where:
- Diagnosis is the gist of a set of Github issues to cover, and
- Therapy is the correction or clarification to address those.
Even though at a high-level, the scope should be already clear by looking at the table of contents. That is, at this stage, there is no need to necessarily elaborate the Therapy in detail, but it is necessary to make a reader understand "what we are dealing with and taking which direction".
-
WG document work can then focus on improving the therapy parts, until all points are satisfactorily addressed and documented.
{::boilerplate bcp14-tagged}
When a section of this document makes formal corrections, additions or invalidations to text in a referenced RFC, this is clearly summarized. The text from the RFC that is being addressed is given and labeled "INCOMPLETE", "INCORRECT", or "INCORRECT AND INVALIDATED", followed by the correct text labeled "CORRECTED", where applicable. When text is added that does not simply correct text in previous specifications, it is given with the label "FORMAL ADDITION".
Where a resolution has not yet been agreed, the resolution is marked PENDING.
In this document, a reference to a section in RFC nnnn is written as RFC nnnn-<number>, where <number> is the section number.
In the discussion of {{-RC429}}, a comment was made that it would be needed to define the point in time relative to which Max-Age is defined. A sender might reference it to the time it actually sends the message containing the option (and paragraph 3 of RFC7252-5.10.5 indeed requests that Max-Age be updated each time a message is retransmitted). The receiver of the message does not have reliable information about the time of sending, though. It may instead reference the Max-Age to the time of reception. This in effect extends the time of Max-Age by the latency of the packet. This extension was deemed acceptable for the purposes of {{-RC429}}, but may be suboptimal when Max-Age is about the lifetime of a response object.
{: vspace='0'} INCOMPLETE: : The value is intended to be current at the time of transmission.
PENDING.
As has been noted in {{Err5078}}, there is no information in {{RFC7252}} about whether the "ct" target attribute can be present multiply or not.
The text does indicate that the value of the attribute MAY be "a space-separated sequence of Content-Format codes, indicating that multiple content-formats are available", but it does not repeat the prohibition of multiple instances that the analogously structured "rt" and "if" attributes in {{Sections 3.1 and 3.2 of RFC6690}} have.
This appears to be an oversight. Published examples in {{Section 4.1 of ?RFC9148}} and {{Section 4.3 of ?RFC9176}} further illustrate that the space-separated approach is generally accepted to be the one to be used. There is no gain to be had from allowing both variants, and it would be likely to cause interoperability problems.
At the 2022-11-23 CoRE WG interim meeting, there was agreement that {{Err5078}} should be marked "VERIFIED", which will be reflected here once implemented.
{: vspace='0'} INCOMPLETE: : The Content-Format code attribute MUST NOT appear more than once in a link.
PENDING (to be VERIFIED).
None yet.
(Individual clarifications may contain IANA considerations; these will then be referenced here.)
This document provides a number of corrections and clarifications to existing RFCs, but it does not make any changes with regard to the security aspects of the protocol. As a consequence, the security considerations of the referenced RFCs apply without additions.
(To be changed when that is no longer true; probably the security considerations will then be on the individual clarifications.)
--- back
{: numbered='no'}
The present document is modeled after RFC 4815 and the Internet-Drafts of the ROHC WG that led to it. Many thanks to the co-chairs of the ROHC WG and WG members that made this a worthwhile and successful experiment at the time.