Network Working Group                                 W. Simpson, Editor
Request for Comments: 1661                                    Daydreamer
STD: 51                                                        July 1994
Obsoletes: 1548
Category: Standards Track


                   The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)



Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.


Abstract

   The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard method for
   transporting multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point links.  PPP
   is comprised of three main components:

      1. A method for encapsulating multi-protocol datagrams.

      2. A Link Control Protocol (LCP) for establishing, configuring,
         and testing the data-link connection.

      3. A family of Network Control Protocols (NCPs) for establishing
         and configuring different network-layer protocols.

   This document defines the PPP organization and methodology, and the
   PPP encapsulation, together with an extensible option negotiation
   mechanism which is able to negotiate a rich assortment of
   configuration parameters and provides additional management
   functions.  The PPP Link Control Protocol (LCP) is described in terms
   of this mechanism.


Table of Contents


     1.     Introduction ..........................................    1
        1.1       Specification of Requirements ...................    2
        1.2       Terminology .....................................    3

     2.     PPP Encapsulation .....................................    4


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     3.     PPP Link Operation ....................................    6
        3.1       Overview ........................................    6
        3.2       Phase Diagram ...................................    6
        3.3       Link Dead (physical-layer not ready) ............    7
        3.4       Link Establishment Phase ........................    7
        3.5       Authentication Phase ............................    8
        3.6       Network-Layer Protocol Phase ....................    8
        3.7       Link Termination Phase ..........................    9

     4.     The Option Negotiation Automaton ......................   11
        4.1       State Transition Table ..........................   12
        4.2       States ..........................................   14
        4.3       Events ..........................................   16
        4.4       Actions .........................................   21
        4.5       Loop Avoidance ..................................   23
        4.6       Counters and Timers .............................   24

     5.     LCP Packet Formats ....................................   26
        5.1       Configure-Request ...............................   28
        5.2       Configure-Ack ...................................   29
        5.3       Configure-Nak ...................................   30
        5.4       Configure-Reject ................................   31
        5.5       Terminate-Request and Terminate-Ack .............   33
        5.6       Code-Reject .....................................   34
        5.7       Protocol-Reject .................................   35
        5.8       Echo-Request and Echo-Reply .....................   36
        5.9       Discard-Request .................................   37

     6.     LCP Configuration Options .............................   39
        6.1       Maximum-Receive-Unit (MRU) ......................   41
        6.2       Authentication-Protocol .........................   42
        6.3       Quality-Protocol ................................   43
        6.4       Magic-Number ....................................   45
        6.5       Protocol-Field-Compression (PFC) ................   48
        6.6       Address-and-Control-Field-Compression (ACFC)

     SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS ......................................   51
     REFERENCES ...................................................   51
     ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................   51
     CHAIR'S ADDRESS ..............................................   52
     EDITOR'S ADDRESS .............................................   52










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1.  Introduction

   The Point-to-Point Protocol is designed for simple links which
   transport packets between two peers.  These links provide full-duplex
   simultaneous bi-directional operation, and are assumed to deliver
   packets in order.  It is intended that PPP provide a common solution
   for easy connection of a wide variety of hosts, bridges and routers
   [1].

   Encapsulation

      The PPP encapsulation provides for multiplexing of different
      network-layer protocols simultaneously over the same link.  The
      PPP encapsulation has been carefully designed to retain
      compatibility with most commonly used supporting hardware.

      Only 8 additional octets are necessary to form the encapsulation
      when used within the default HDLC-like framing.  In environments
      where bandwidth is at a premium, the encapsulation and framing may
      be shortened to 2 or 4 octets.

      To support high speed implementations, the default encapsulation
      uses only simple fields, only one of which needs to be examined
      for demultiplexing.  The default header and information fields
      fall on 32-bit boundaries, and the trailer may be padded to an
      arbitrary boundary.

   Link Control Protocol

      In order to be sufficiently versatile to be portable to a wide
      variety of environments, PPP provides a Link Control Protocol
      (LCP).  The LCP is used to automatically agree upon the
      encapsulation format options, handle varying limits on sizes of
      packets, detect a looped-back link and other common
      misconfiguration errors, and terminate the link.  Other optional
      facilities provided are authentication of the identity of its peer
      on the link, and determination when a link is functioning properly
      and when it is failing.

   Network Control Protocols

      Point-to-Point links tend to exacerbate many problems with the
      current family of network protocols.  For instance, assignment and
      management of IP addresses, which is a problem even in LAN
      environments, is especially difficult over circuit-switched
      point-to-point links (such as dial-up modem servers).  These
      problems are handled by a family of Network Control Protocols
      (NCPs), which each manage the specific needs required by their



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      respective network-layer protocols.  These NCPs are defined in
      companion documents.

   Configuration

      It is intended that PPP links be easy to configure.  By design,
      the standard defaults handle all common configurations.  The
      implementor can specify improvements to the default configuration,
      which are automatically communicated to the peer without operator
      intervention.  Finally, the operator may explicitly configure
      options for the link which enable the link to operate in
      environments where it would otherwise be impossible.

      This self-configuration is implemented through an extensible
      option negotiation mechanism, wherein each end of the link
      describes to the other its capabilities and requirements.
      Although the option negotiation mechanism described in this
      document is specified in terms of the Link Control Protocol (LCP),
      the same facilities are designed to be used by other control
      protocols, especially the family of NCPs.



1.1.  Specification of Requirements

   In this document, several words are used to signify the requirements
   of the specification.  These words are often capitalized.

   MUST      This word, or the adjective "required", means that the
             definition is an absolute requirement of the specification.

   MUST NOT  This phrase means that the definition is an absolute
             prohibition of the specification.

   SHOULD    This word, or the adjective "recommended", means that there
             may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to
             ignore this item, but the full implications must be
             understood and carefully weighed before choosing a
             different course.

   MAY       This word, or the adjective "optional", means that this
             item is one of an allowed set of alternatives.  An
             implementation which does not include this option MUST be
             prepared to interoperate with another implementation which
             does include the option.






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1.2.  Terminology

   This document frequently uses the following terms:

   datagram  The unit of transmission in the network layer (such as IP).
             A datagram may be encapsulated in one or more packets
             passed to the data link layer.

   frame     The unit of transmission at the data link layer.  A frame
             may include a header and/or a trailer, along with some
             number of units of data.

   packet    The basic unit of encapsulation, which is passed across the
             interface between the network layer and the data link
             layer.  A packet is usually mapped to a frame; the
             exceptions are when data link layer fragmentation is being
             performed, or when multiple packets are incorporated into a
             single frame.

   peer      The other end of the point-to-point link.

   silently discard
             The implementation discards the packet without further
             processing.  The implementation SHOULD provide the
             capability of logging the error, including the contents of
             the silently discarded packet, and SHOULD record the event
             in a statistics counter.
























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2.  PPP Encapsulation

   The PPP encapsulation is used to disambiguate multiprotocol
   datagrams.  This encapsulation requires framing to indicate the
   beginning and end of the encapsulation.  Methods of providing framing
   are specified in companion documents.

   A summary of the PPP encapsulation is shown below.  The fields are
   transmitted from left to right.

           +----------+-------------+---------+
           | Protocol | Information | Padding |
           | 8/16 bits|      *      |    *    |
           +----------+-------------+---------+


   Protocol Field

      The Protocol field is one or two octets, and its value identifies
      the datagram encapsulated in the Information field of the packet.
      The field is transmitted and received most significant octet
      first.

      The structure of this field is consistent with the ISO 3309
      extension mechanism for address fields.  All Protocols MUST be
      odd; the least significant bit of the least significant octet MUST
      equal "1".  Also, all Protocols MUST be assigned such that the
      least significant bit of the most significant octet equals "0".
      Frames received which don't comply with these rules MUST be
      treated as having an unrecognized Protocol.

      Protocol field values in the "0***" to "3***" range identify the
      network-layer protocol of specific packets, and values in the
      "8***" to "b***" range identify packets belonging to the
      associated Network Control Protocols (NCPs), if any.

      Protocol field values in the "4***" to "7***" range are used for
      protocols with low volume traffic which have no associated NCP.
      Protocol field values in the "c***" to "f***" range identify
      packets as link-layer Control Protocols (such as LCP).











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      Up-to-date values of the Protocol field are specified in the most
      recent "Assigned Numbers" RFC [2].  This specification reserves
      the following values:

      Value (in hex)  Protocol Name

      0001            Padding Protocol
      0003 to 001f    reserved (transparency inefficient)
      007d            reserved (Control Escape)
      00cf            reserved (PPP NLPID)
      00ff            reserved (compression inefficient)

      8001 to 801f    unused
      807d            unused
      80cf            unused
      80ff            unused

      c021            Link Control Protocol
      c023            Password Authentication Protocol
      c025            Link Quality Report
      c223            Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

      Developers of new protocols MUST obtain a number from the Internet
      Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), at IANA@isi.edu.