[rfc-dist] RFC 4963 on IPv4 Reassembly Errors at High Data Rates

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        RFC 4963

        Title:      IPv4 Reassembly Errors at High 
                    Data Rates 
        Author:     J. Heffner, M. Mathis,
                    B. Chandler
        Status:     Informational
        Date:       July 2007
        Mailbox:    jheffner at psc.edu, 
                    mathis at psc.edu, 
                    bchandle at gmail.com
        Pages:      10
        Characters: 22399
        Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso:   None

        I-D Tag:    draft-heffner-frag-harmful-05.txt

        URL:        http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4963.txt

IPv4 fragmentation is not sufficiently robust for use under some
conditions in today's Internet.  At high data rates, the 16-bit IP
identification field is not large enough to prevent frequent
incorrectly assembled IP fragments, and the TCP and UDP checksums are
insufficient to prevent the resulting corrupted datagrams from being
delivered to higher protocol layers.  This note describes some easily
reproduced experiments demonstrating the problem, and discusses some
of the operational implications of these observations.  This memo provides information for the Internet community.


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