Documentation/networking/ila.rst

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Documentation/networking/ila.rst
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0

===================================
Identifier Locator Addressing (ILA)
===================================


Introduction
============

Identifier-locator addressing (ILA) is a technique used with IPv6 that
differentiates between location and identity of a network node. Part of an
address expresses the immutable identity of the node, and another part
indicates the location of the node which can be dynamic. Identifier-locator
addressing can be used to efficiently implement overlay networks for
network virtualization as well as solutions for use cases in mobility.

ILA can be thought of as means to implement an overlay network without
encapsulation. This is accomplished by performing network address
translation on destination addresses as a packet traverses a network. To
the network, an ILA translated packet appears to be no different than any
other IPv6 packet. For instance, if the transport protocol is TCP then an
ILA translated packet looks like just another TCP/IPv6 packet. The
advantage of this is that ILA is transparent to the network so that
optimizations in the network, such as ECMP, RSS, GRO, GSO, etc., just work.

The ILA protocol is described in Internet-Draft draft-herbert-intarea-ila.


ILA terminology
===============

  - Identifier
		A number that identifies an addressable node in the network
		independent of its location. ILA identifiers are sixty-four
		bit values.

  - Locator
		A network prefix that routes to a physical host. Locators
		provide the topological location of an addressed node. ILA
		locators are sixty-four bit prefixes.

  - ILA mapping
		A mapping of an ILA identifier to a locator (or to a
		locator and meta data). An ILA domain maintains a database
		that contains mappings for all destinations in the domain.

  - SIR address
		An IPv6 address composed of a SIR prefix (upper sixty-
		four bits) and an identifier (lower sixty-four bits).
		SIR addresses are visible to applications and provide a
		means for them to address nodes independent of their
		location.

  - ILA address
		An IPv6 address composed of a locator (upper sixty-four
		bits) and an identifier (low order sixty-four bits). ILA
		addresses are never visible to an application.

  - ILA host
		An end host that is capable of performing ILA translations
		on transmit or receive.

  - ILA router
		A network node that performs ILA translation and forwarding
		of translated packets.

  - ILA forwarding cache
		A type of ILA router that only maintains a working set
		cache of mappings.

Annotation

Implementation Notes