RFC 7574, "Peer-to-Peer Streaming Peer Protocol (PPSPP)", July 2015

Errata ID: 4726
Status: Verified
Type: Technical
Publication Format(s) : TEXT
Reported By: Sung Hei Kim, Chang Kyu Lee
Date Reported: 2016-07-01
Verifier Name: Spencer Dawkins
Date Verified: 2017-08-21

Section 6.1 says:

In the "Unified Merkle Tree" method, PPSPP combines the Merkle Hash
Tree scheme for static content with signatures to unify the video-on-
demand and live streaming scenarios. The use of Merkle hash trees
reduces the number of signing and verification operations, hence
providing a similar signature amortization to the approach described
in [SIGMCAST]. If PPSPP operates over the Internet, the "Unified
Merkle Tree" method MUST be used. If the protocol operates in a
benign environment, the "Unified Merkle Tree" method MAY be used. So
this method is mandatory to implement.

It should say:

In the "Unified Merkle Tree" method, PPSPP combines the Merkle Hash
Tree scheme for static content with signatures to unify the video-on-
demand and live streaming scenarios. The use of Merkle hash trees
reduces the number of signing and verification operations, hence
providing a similar signature amortization to the approach described
in [SIGMCAST].

Notes:

RFC 7574 (PPSP-PP) defines how the peers exchange chunks regarding content integrity protection scheme. It describes the relationship of the DATA and INTEGRITY messages.
But, it does not describes how peers exchange chunks when the content integrity protection scheme is disabled.
Thus, to the readers, it seems that content integrity protection scheme is very important part of PPSP-PP and must be used in order to implement PPSP-PP.
I think the RFC 7574 (PPSP-PP) should be changed to clearly express that the content integrity protection scheme must be used in PPSP-PP.
The proposed changes is to remove options regarding the use of content integrity protection.

Spencer: confirmed in conversations with Victor Grishchenko <victor.grishchenko@gmail.com> on the PPSP mailing list.

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