Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Cotton

Request for Comments: 6335 ICANN

BCP: 165 L. Eggert

Updates: 2780, 2782, 3828, 4340, 4960, 5595 Nokia

Category: Best Current Practice J. Touch

ISSN: 2070-1721 USC/ISI

                                                       M. Westerlund

                                                            Ericsson

                                                         S. Cheshire

                                                               Apple

                                                         August 2011

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Procedures for the Management

of the Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry

Abstract

This document defines the procedures that the Internet Assigned

Numbers Authority (IANA) uses when handling assignment and other

requests related to the Service Name and Transport Protocol Port

Number registry. It also discusses the rationale and principles

behind these procedures and how they facilitate the long-term

sustainability of the registry.

This document updates IANA's procedures by obsoleting the previous

UDP and TCP port assignment procedures defined in Sections 8 and 9.1

of the IANA Allocation Guidelines, and it updates the IANA service

name and port assignment procedures for UDP-Lite, the Datagram

Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP), and the Stream Control

Transmission Protocol (SCTP). It also updates the DNS SRV

specification to clarify what a service name is and how it is

registered.

Status of This Memo

This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has

received public review and has been approved for publication by the

Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on

BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata,

and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at

http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6335.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the

document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal

Provisions Relating to IETF Documents

(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

publication of this document. Please review these documents

carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect

to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must

include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of

the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as

described in the Simplified BSD License.

This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF

Contributions published or made publicly available before November

10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this

material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow

modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.

Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling

the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified

outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may

not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format

it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other

than English.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 2]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

  1. Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

  1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

  1. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

  1. Service Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

 5.1.  Service Name Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9

 5.2.  Service Name Usage in DNS SRV Records  . . . . . . . . . . 10

  1. Port Number Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

 6.1.  Service Names and Port Numbers for Experimentation . . . . 12

  1. Principles for Service Name and Transport Protocol Port

   Number Registry Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

 7.1.  Past Principles  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

 7.2.  Updated Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

  1. IANA Procedures for Managing the Service Name and

   Transport Protocol Port Number Registry  . . . . . . . . . . . 16

 8.1.  Service Name and Port Number Assignment  . . . . . . . . . 16

 8.2.  Service Name and Port Number De-Assignment . . . . . . . . 21

 8.3.  Service Name and Port Number Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

 8.4.  Service Name and Port Number Revocation  . . . . . . . . . 22

 8.5.  Service Name and Port Number Transfers . . . . . . . . . . 22

 8.6.  Maintenance Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

 8.7.  Disagreements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

  1. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

  1. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

 10.1. Service Name Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

 10.2. Port Numbers for SCTP and DCCP Experimentation . . . . . . 26

 10.3. Updates to DCCP Registries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

  1. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

  1. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

  1. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

 13.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

 13.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 3]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  1. Introduction

For many years, the assignment of new service names and port number

values for use with the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) [RFC0793]

and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) [RFC0768] has had less than

clear guidelines. New transport protocols have been added -- the

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) [RFC4960] and the

Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) [RFC4342] -- and new

mechanisms like DNS SRV records [RFC2782] have been developed, each

with separate registries and separate guidelines. The community also

recognized the need for additional procedures beyond just assignment;

notably modification, revocation, and release.

A key element of the procedural streamlining specified in this

document is to establish identical assignment procedures for all IETF

transport protocols. This document brings the IANA procedures for

TCP and UDP in line with those for SCTP and DCCP, resulting in a

single process that requesters and IANA follow for all requests for

all transport protocols, including future protocols not yet defined.

In addition to detailing the IANA procedures for the initial

assignment of service names and port numbers, this document also

specifies post-assignment procedures that until now have been handled

in an ad hoc manner. These include procedures to de-assign a port

number that is no longer in use, to take a port number assigned for

one service that is no longer in use and reuse it for another

service, and the procedure by which IANA can unilaterally revoke a

prior port number assignment. Section 8 discusses the specifics of

these procedures and processes that requesters and IANA follow for

all requests for all current and future transport protocols.

IANA is the authority for assigning service names and port numbers.

The registries that are created to store these assignments are

maintained by IANA. For protocols developed by IETF working groups,

IANA now also offers a method for the "early assignment" [RFC4020] of

service names and port numbers, as described in Section 8.1.

This document updates IANA's procedures for UDP and TCP port numbers

by obsoleting Sections 8 and 9.1 of the IANA Allocation Guidelines

[RFC2780]. (Note that other sections of the IANA Allocation

Guidelines, relating to the protocol field values in IPv4 headers,

were also updated in February 2008 [RFC5237].) This document also

updates the IANA assignment procedures for DCCP [RFC4340] [RFC5595]

and SCTP [RFC4960].

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 4]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

The Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite) shares the port

space with UDP. The UDP-Lite specification [RFC3828] says: "UDP-Lite

uses the same set of port number values assigned by the IANA for use

by UDP". An update of the UDP procedures therefore also results in a

corresponding update of the UDP-Lite procedures.

This document also clarifies what a service name is and how it is

assigned. This will impact the DNS SRV specification [RFC2782],

because that specification merely makes a brief mention that the

symbolic names of services are defined in "Assigned Numbers"

[RFC1700], without stating to which section it refers within that

230-page document. The DNS SRV specification may have been referring

to the list of Port Assignments (known as /etc/services on Unix), or

to the "Protocol And Service Names" section, or to both, or to some

other section. Furthermore, "Assigned Numbers" [RFC1700] has been

obsoleted [RFC3232] and has been replaced by on-line registries

[PORTREG] [PROTSERVREG].

The development of new transport protocols is a major effort that the

IETF does not undertake very often. If a new transport protocol is

standardized in the future, it is expected to follow these guidelines

and practices around using service names and port numbers as much as

possible, for consistency.

At the time of writing of this document, the internal procedures of

"Expert Review" teams, including that of IANA's port review team, are

not documented in any RFC and this document doesn't change that.

  1. Motivation

Information about the assignment procedures for the port registry has

existed in three locations: the forms for requesting port number

assignments on the IANA web site [SYSFORM] [USRFORM], an introductory

text section in the file listing the port number assignments

themselves (known as the port numbers registry) [PORTREG], and two

brief sections of the IANA Allocation Guidelines [RFC2780].

Similarly, the procedures surrounding service names have been

historically unclear. Service names were originally created as

mnemonic identifiers for port numbers without a well-defined syntax,

apart from the 14-character limit mentioned on the IANA website

[SYSFORM] [USRFORM]. Even that length limit has not been

consistently applied, and some assigned service names are 15

characters long. When service identification via DNS SRV Resource

Records (RRs) was introduced [RFC2782], it became useful to start

assigning service names alone, and because IANA had no procedure for

assigning a service name without an associated port number, this led

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 5]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

to the creation of an informal temporary service name registry

outside of the control of IANA, which now contains roughly 500

service names [SRVREG].

This document aggregates all this scattered information into a single

reference that aligns and clearly defines the management procedures

for both service names and port numbers. It gives more detailed

guidance to prospective requesters of service names and ports than

the existing documentation, and it streamlines the IANA procedures

for the management of the registry, so that requests can be completed

in a timely manner.

This document defines rules for assignment of service names without

associated port numbers, for such usages as DNS SRV records

[RFC2782], which was not possible under the previous IANA procedures.

The document also merges service name assignments from the non-IANA

ad hoc registry [SRVREG] and from the IANA Protocol and Service Names

registry [PROTSERVREG] into the IANA Service Name and Transport

Protocol Port Number registry [PORTREG], which from here on is the

single authoritative registry for service names and port numbers.

An additional purpose of this document is to describe the principles

that guide the IETF and IANA in their role as the long-term joint

stewards of the service name and port number registry. TCP and UDP

have had remarkable success over the last decades. Thousands of

applications and application-level protocols have service names and

port numbers assigned for their use, and there is every reason to

believe that this trend will continue into the future. It is hence

extremely important that management of the registry follow principles

that ensure its long-term usefulness as a shared resource. Section 7

discusses these principles in detail.

  1. Background

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) [RFC0793] and the User

Datagram Protocol (UDP) [RFC0768] have enjoyed a remarkable success

over the decades as the two most widely used transport protocols on

the Internet. They have relied on the concept of "ports" as logical

entities for Internet communication. Ports serve two purposes:

first, they provide a demultiplexing identifier to differentiate

transport sessions between the same pair of endpoints, and second,

they may also identify the application protocol and associated

service to which processes connect. Newer transport protocols, such

as the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) [RFC4960] and the

Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) [RFC4342], have also

adopted the concept of ports for their communication sessions and use

16-bit port numbers in the same way as TCP and UDP (and UDP-Lite

[RFC3828], a variant of UDP).

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 6]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Port numbers are the original and most widely used means for

application and service identification on the Internet. Ports are

16-bit numbers, and the combination of source and destination port

numbers together with the IP addresses of the communicating end

systems uniquely identifies a session of a given transport protocol.

Port numbers are also known by their associated service names such as

"telnet" for port number 23 and "http" (as well as "www" and

"www-http") for port number 80.

All involved parties -- hosts running services, hosts accessing

services on other hosts, and intermediate devices (such as firewalls

and NATs) that restrict services -- need to agree on which service

corresponds to a particular destination port. Although this is

ultimately a local decision with meaning only between the endpoints

of a connection, it is common for many services to have a default

port upon which those servers usually listen, when possible, and

these ports are recorded by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

(IANA) through the service name and port number registry [PORTREG].

Over time, the assumption that a particular port number necessarily

implies a particular service may become less true. For example,

multiple instances of the same service on the same host cannot

generally listen on the same port, and multiple hosts behind the same

NAT gateway cannot all have a mapping for the same port on the

external side of the NAT gateway, whether using static port mappings

configured by hand by the user, or dynamic port mappings configured

automatically using a port mapping protocol like the NAT Port Mapping

Protocol [NAT-PMP] or Internet Gateway Device [IGD].

Applications may use port numbers directly, look up port numbers

based on service names via system calls such as getservbyname() on

UNIX, look up port numbers by performing queries for DNS SRV records

[RFC2782] [DNS-SD], or determine port numbers in a variety of other

ways like the TCP Port Service Multiplexer (TCPMUX) [RFC1078].

Designers of applications and application-level protocols may apply

to IANA for an assigned service name and port number for a specific

application, and may -- after assignment -- assume that no other

application will use that service name or port number for its

communication sessions. Application designers also have the option

of requesting only an assigned service name without a corresponding

fixed port number if their application does not require one, such as

applications that use DNS SRV records to look up port numbers

dynamically at run-time. Because the port number space is finite

(and therefore conservation is an important goal), the alternative of

using service names instead of port numbers is RECOMMENDED whenever

possible.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 7]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  1. Conventions Used in This Document

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",

"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and

"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in

"Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" [RFC2119].

This document uses the term "assignment" to refer to the procedure by

which IANA provides service names and/or port numbers to requesting

parties; other RFCs refer to this as "allocation" or "registration".

This document assumes that all these terms have the same meaning, and

will use terms other than "assignment" only when quoting from or

referring to text in these other documents.

  1. Service Names

Service names are the unique key in the Service Name and Transport

Protocol Port Number registry. This unique symbolic name for a

service may also be used for other purposes, such as in DNS SRV

records [RFC2782]. Within the registry, this unique key ensures that

different services can be unambiguously distinguished, thus

preventing name collisions and avoiding confusion about who is the

Assignee for a particular entry.

There may be more than one service name associated with a particular

transport protocol and port. There are three ways that such port

number overloading can occur:

o Overloading occurs when one service is an extension of another

  service, and an in-band mechanism exists for determining if the

  extension is present or not.  One example is port 3478, which has

  the service name aliases "stun" and "turn".  Traversal Using

  Relays around NAT (TURN) [RFC5766] is an extension to the Session

  Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) [RFC5389] service.  TURN-

  enabled clients wishing to locate TURN servers could attempt to

  discover "stun" services and then check in-band if the server also

  supports TURN, but this would be inefficient.  Enabling them to

  directly query for "turn" servers by name is a better approach.

  (Note that TURN servers in this case should also be locatable via

  a "stun" discovery, because every TURN server is also a STUN

  server.)

o By historical accident, the service name "http" has two synonyms

  "www" and "www-http".  When used in SRV records [RFC2782] and

  similar service discovery mechanisms, only the service name "http"

  should be used, not these additional names.  If a server were to

  advertise "www", it would not be discovered by clients browsing

  for "http".  Advertising or browsing for the aliases as well as

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 8]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  the primary service name is inefficient, and achieves nothing that

  is not already achieved by using the service name "http"

  exclusively.

o As indicated in this document in Section 10.1, overloading has

  been used to create replacement names that are consistent with the

  syntax this document prescribes for legacy names that do not

  conform to this syntax already.  For such cases, only the new name

  should be used in SRV records, to avoid the same issues as with

  historical cases of multiple names, and also because the legacy

  names are incompatible with SRV record use.

Assignment requests for new names for existing registered services

will be rejected, as a result. Implementers are requested to inform

IANA if they discover other cases where a single service has multiple

names, so that one name may be recorded as the primary name for

service discovery purposes.

Service names are assigned on a "first come, first served" basis, as

described in Section 8.1. Names should be brief and informative,

avoiding words or abbreviations that are redundant in the context of

the registry (e.g., "port", "service", "protocol", etc.) Names

referring to discovery services, e.g., using multicast or broadcast

to identify endpoints capable of a given service, SHOULD use an

easily identifiable suffix (e.g., "-disc").

5.1. Service Name Syntax

Valid service names are hereby normatively defined as follows:

o MUST be at least 1 character and no more than 15 characters long

o MUST contain only US-ASCII [ANSI.X3.4-1986] letters 'A' - 'Z' and

  'a' - 'z', digits '0' - '9', and hyphens ('-', ASCII 0x2D or

  decimal 45)

o MUST contain at least one letter ('A' - 'Z' or 'a' - 'z')

o MUST NOT begin or end with a hyphen

o hyphens MUST NOT be adjacent to other hyphens

The reason for requiring at least one letter is to avoid service

names like "23" (could be confused with a numeric port) or "6000-

6063" (could be confused with a numeric port range). Although

service names may contain both upper-case and lower-case letters,

case is ignored for comparison purposes, so both "http" and "HTTP"

denote the same service.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 9]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Service names are purely opaque identifiers, and no semantics are

implied by any superficial structure that a given service name may

appear to have. For example, a company called "Example" may choose

to register service names "Example-Foo" and "Example-Bar" for its

"Foo" and "Bar" products, but the "Example" company cannot claim to

"own" all service names beginning with "Example-"; they cannot

prevent someone else from registering "Example-Baz" for a different

service, and they cannot prevent other developers from using the

"Example-Foo" and "Example-Bar" service types in order to

interoperate with the "Foo" and "Bar" products. Technically

speaking, in service discovery protocols, service names are merely a

series of byte values on the wire; for the mnemonic convenience of

human developers, it can be convenient to interpret those byte values

as human-readable ASCII characters, but software should treat them as

purely opaque identifiers and not attempt to parse them for any

additional embedded meaning.

As of August 5, 2009, approximately 98% of the so-called "Short

Names" [SYSFORM] [USRFORM] for existing port number assignments

[PORTREG] already met the rules for legal service names stated in

Section 8.1, and hence for these services their service name is

exactly the same as their historical "Short Name". In approximately

2% of cases, the new "service name" is derived based on the old

"Short Name" as described below in Section 10.1.

The rules for valid service names, excepting the limit of 15

characters maximum, are also expressed below (as a non-normative

convenience) using ABNF [RFC5234].

  SRVNAME = *(1*DIGIT [HYPHEN]) ALPHA *([HYPHEN] ALNUM)

  ALNUM   = ALPHA / DIGIT     ; A-Z, a-z, 0-9

  HYPHEN  = %x2D              ; "-"

  ALPHA   = %x41-5A / %x61-7A ; A-Z / a-z [RFC5234]

  DIGIT   = %x30-39           ; 0-9       [RFC5234]

5.2. Service Name Usage in DNS SRV Records

The DNS SRV specification [RFC2782] states that the Service Label

part of the owner name of a DNS SRV record includes a "Service"

element, described as "the symbolic name of the desired service", but

as discussed above, it is not clear precisely what this means.

This document clarifies that the Service Label MUST be a service name

as defined herein with an underscore prepended. The service name

SHOULD be registered with IANA and recorded in the Service Name and

Transport Protocol Port Number registry [PORTREG].

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 10]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

The details of using Service Names in SRV Service Labels are

specified in the DNS SRV specification [RFC2782].

  1. Port Number Ranges

TCP, UDP, UDP-Lite, SCTP, and DCCP use 16-bit namespaces for their

port number registries. The port registries for all of these

transport protocols are subdivided into three ranges of numbers

[RFC1340], and Section 8.1.2 describes the IANA procedures for each

range in detail:

o the System Ports, also known as the Well Known Ports, from 0-1023

  (assigned by IANA)

o the User Ports, also known as the Registered Ports, from 1024-

  49151 (assigned by IANA)

o the Dynamic Ports, also known as the Private or Ephemeral Ports,

  from 49152-65535 (never assigned)

Of the assignable port ranges (System Ports and User Ports, i.e.,

port numbers 0-49151), individual port numbers are in one of three

states at any given time:

o Assigned: Assigned port numbers are currently assigned to the

  service indicated in the registry.

o Unassigned: Unassigned port numbers are currently available for

  assignment upon request, as per the procedures outlined in this

  document.

o Reserved: Reserved port numbers are not available for regular

  assignment; they are "assigned to IANA" for special purposes.

  Reserved port numbers include values at the edges of each range,

  e.g., 0, 1023, 1024, etc., which may be used to extend these

  ranges or the overall port number space in the future.

In order to keep the size of the registry manageable, IANA typically

only records the Assigned and Reserved service names and port numbers

in the registry. Unassigned values are typically not explicitly

listed. (There are very many Unassigned service names and

enumerating them all would not be practical.)

As a data point, when this document was written, approximately 76% of

the TCP and UDP System Ports were assigned, and approximately 9% of

the User Ports were assigned. (As noted, Dynamic Ports are never

assigned.)

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 11]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

6.1. Service Names and Port Numbers for Experimentation

Of the System Ports, two TCP and UDP port numbers (1021 and 1022),

together with their respective service names ("exp1" and "exp2"),

have been assigned for experimentation with new applications and

application-layer protocols that require a port number in the

assigned ports range [RFC4727].

Please refer to Sections 1 and 1.1 of "Assigning Experimental and

Testing Numbers Considered Useful" [RFC3692] for how these

experimental port numbers are to be used.

This document assigns the same two service names and port numbers for

experimentation with new application-layer protocols over SCTP and

DCCP in Section 10.2.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to limit access to these ports.

Users SHOULD take measures to ensure that experimental ports are

connecting to the intended process. For example, users of these

experimental ports might include a 64-bit nonce, once on each segment

of a message-oriented channel (e.g., UDP), or once at the beginning

of a byte-stream (e.g., TCP), which is used to confirm that the port

is being used as intended. Such confirmation of intended use is

especially important when these ports are associated with privileged

(e.g., system or administrator) processes.

  1. Principles for Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number

Registry Management

Management procedures for the Service Name and Transport Protocol

Port Number registry include assignment of service names and port

numbers upon request, as well as management of information about

existing assignments. The latter includes maintaining contact and

description information about assignments, revoking abandoned

assignments, and redefining assignments when needed. Of these

procedures, careful port number assignment is most critical, in order

to continue to conserve the remaining port numbers.

As noted earlier, only about 9% of the User Port space is currently

assigned. The current rate of assignment is approximately 400 ports

per year, and has remained steady for the past 8 years. At that

rate, if similar conservation continues, this resource will sustain

another 85 years of assignment - without the need to resort to

reassignment of released values or revocation. The namespace

available for service names is much larger, which allows for simpler

management procedures.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 12]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

7.1. Past Principles

The principles for service name and port number management are based

on the recommendations of the IANA "Expert Review" team. Until

recently, that team followed a set of informal guidelines developed

based on the review experience from previous assignment requests.

These original guidelines, although informal, had never been publicly

documented. They are recorded here for historical purposes only; the

current guidelines are described in Section 7.2. These guidelines

previously were:

o TCP and UDP ports were simultaneously assigned when either was

  requested

o Port numbers were the primary assignment; service names were

  informative only, and did not have a well-defined syntax

o Port numbers were conserved informally, and sometimes

  inconsistently (e.g., some services were assigned ranges of many

  port numbers even where not strictly necessary)

o SCTP and DCCP service name and port number registries were managed

  separately from the TCP/UDP registries

o Service names could not be assigned in the old ports registry

  without assigning an associated port number at the same time

7.2. Updated Principles

This section summarizes the current principles by which IANA both

handles the Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number registry

and attempts to conserve the port number space. This description is

intended to inform applicants requesting service names and port

numbers. IANA has flexibility beyond these principles when handling

assignment requests; other factors may come into play, and exceptions

may be made to best serve the needs of the Internet. Applicants

should be aware that IANA decisions are not required to be bound to

these principles. These principles and general advice to users on

port use are expected to change over time.

IANA strives to assign service names that do not request an

associated port number assignment under a simple "First Come First

Served" policy [RFC5226]. IANA MAY, at its discretion, refer service

name requests to "Expert Review" in cases of mass assignment requests

or other situations where IANA believes "Expert Review" is advisable

[RFC5226]; use of the "Expert Review" helps advise IANA informally in

cases where "IETF Review" or "IESG Approval" is used, as with most

IETF protocols.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 13]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

The basic principle of service name and port number registry

management is to conserve use of the port space where possible.

Extensions to support larger port number spaces would require

changing many core protocols of the current Internet in a way that

would not be backward compatible and interfere with both current and

legacy applications.

Conservation of the port number space is required because this space

is a limited resource, so applications are expected to participate in

the traffic demultiplexing process where feasible. The port numbers

are expected to encode as little information as possible that will

still enable an application to perform further demultiplexing by

itself. In particular, the principles form a goal that IANA strives

to achieve for new applications (with exceptions as deemed

appropriate, especially as for extensions to legacy services) as

follows:

o IANA strives to assign only one assigned port number per service

  or application.

  Note: At the time of writing of this document, there is no IETF

  consensus on when it is appropriate to use a second port for an

  insecure version of a protocol.

o IANA strives to assign only one assigned port number for all

  variants of a service (e.g., for updated versions of a service).

o IANA strives to encourage the deployment of secure protocols.

o IANA strives to assign only one assigned port number for all

  different types of devices using or participating in the same

  service.

o IANA strives to assign port numbers only for the transport

  protocol(s) explicitly named in an assignment request.

o IANA may recover unused port numbers, via the new procedures of

  de-assignment, revocation, and transfer.

Where possible, a given service is expected to demultiplex messages

if necessary. For example, applications and protocols are expected

to include in-band version information, so that future versions of

the application or protocol can share the same assigned port.

Applications and protocols are also expected to be able to

efficiently use a single assigned port for multiple sessions, either

by demultiplexing multiple streams within one port or by using the

assigned port to coordinate using dynamic ports for subsequent

exchanges (e.g., in the spirit of FTP [RFC0959]).

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 14]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Ports are used in various ways, notably:

o as endpoint process identifiers

o as application protocol identifiers

o for firewall-filtering purposes

Both the process-identifier and the protocol-identifier uses suggest

that anything a single process can demultiplex, or that can be

encoded into a single protocol, should be. The firewall-filtering

use suggests that some uses that could be multiplexed or encoded

could instead be separated to allow for easier firewall management.

Note that this latter use is much less sound, because port numbers

have meaning only for the two endpoints involved in a connection, and

drawing conclusions about the service that generated a given flow

based on observed port numbers is not always reliable.

Effective with the publication of this document, IANA will begin

assigning port numbers for only those transport protocols explicitly

included in an assignment request. This ends the long-standing

practice of automatically assigning a port number to an application

for both TCP and UDP, even if the request is for only one of these

transport protocols. The new assignment procedure conserves

resources by assigning a port number to an application for only those

transport protocols (TCP, UDP, SCTP, and/or DCCP) it actually uses.

The port number will be marked as Reserved -- instead of Assigned --

in the port number registries of the other transport protocols. When

applications start supporting the use of some of those additional

transport protocols, the Assignee for the assignment MUST request

that IANA convert these reserved ports into assignments. An

application MUST NOT assume that it can use a port number assigned to

it for use with one transport protocol with another transport

protocol without IANA converting the reservation into an assignment.

When the available pool of unassigned numbers has run out in a port

range, it will be necessary for IANA to consider the Reserved ports

for assignment. This is part of the motivation for not automatically

assigning ports for transport protocols other than the requested

one(s). This will allow more ports to be available for assignment at

that point. To help conserve ports, application developers SHOULD

request assignment of only those transport protocols that their

application currently uses.

Conservation of port numbers is improved by procedures that allow

previously assigned port numbers to become Unassigned, either through

de-assignment or through revocation, and by a procedure that lets

application designers transfer an assigned but unused port number to

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 15]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

a new application. Section 8 describes these procedures, which until

now were undocumented. Port number conservation is also improved by

recommending that applications that do not require an assigned port

should register only a service name without an associated port

number.

  1. IANA Procedures for Managing the Service Name and Transport Protocol

Port Number Registry

This section describes the process for handling requests associated

with IANA's management of the Service Name and Transport Protocol

Port Number registry. Such requests include initial assignment, de-

assignment, reuse, and updates to the contact information or

description associated with an assignment. Revocation is an

additional process, initiated by IANA.

8.1. Service Name and Port Number Assignment

Assignment refers to the process of providing service names or port

numbers to applicants. All such assignments are made from service

names or port numbers that are Unassigned or Reserved at the time of

the assignment.

o Unassigned names and numbers are assigned according to the rules

  described in Section 8.1.2 below.

o Reserved numbers and names are generally only assigned by a

  "Standards Action" or "IESG Approval", and MUST be accompanied by

  a statement explaining the reason a Reserved number or name is

  appropriate for this action.  The only exception to this rule is

  that the current Assignee of a port number MAY request the

  assignment of the corresponding Reserved port number for other

  transport protocols when needed.  IANA will initiate an "Expert

  Review" [RFC5226] for such requests.

When an assignment for one or more transport protocols is approved,

the port number for any non-requested transport protocol(s) will be

marked as Reserved. IANA SHOULD NOT assign that port number to any

other application or service until no other port numbers remain

Unassigned in the requested range. It is anticipated that at such

time a new document will be published specifying IANA procedures for

assignment of such ports.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 16]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

8.1.1. General Assignment Procedure

A service name or port number assignment request contains the

following information. The service name is the unique identifier of

a given service:

  Service Name (REQUIRED)

  Transport Protocol(s) (REQUIRED)

  Assignee (REQUIRED)

  Contact (REQUIRED)

  Description (REQUIRED)

  Reference (REQUIRED)

  Port Number (OPTIONAL)

  Service Code (REQUIRED for DCCP only)

  Known Unauthorized Uses (OPTIONAL)

  Assignment Notes (OPTIONAL)

o Service Name: A desired unique service name for the service

  associated with the assignment request MUST be provided.  This

  name may be used with various service selection and discovery

  mechanisms (including, but not limited to, DNS SRV records

  [RFC2782]).  The name MUST be compliant with the syntax defined in

  Section 5.1.  In order to be unique, they MUST NOT be identical to

  any currently assigned service name in the IANA registry

  [PORTREG].  Service names are case-insensitive; they may be

  provided and entered into the registry with mixed case for

  clarity, but case is ignored otherwise.

o Transport Protocol(s): The transport protocol(s) for which an

  assignment is requested MUST be provided.  This field is currently

  limited to one or more of TCP, UDP, SCTP, and DCCP.  Requests

  without any port assignment and only a service name are still

  required to indicate which protocol the service uses.

o Assignee: Name and email address of the party to whom the

  assignment is made.  This is REQUIRED.  The Assignee is the

  organization, company or individual person responsible for the

  initial assignment.  For assignments done through RFCs published

  via the "IETF Document Stream" [RFC4844], the Assignee will be the

  IESG <iesg@ietf.org>.

o Contact: Name and email address of the Contact person for the

  assignment.  This is REQUIRED.  The Contact person is the

  responsible person for the Internet community to send questions

  to.  This person is also authorized to submit changes on behalf of

  the Assignee; in cases of conflict between the Assignee and the

  Contact, the Assignee decisions take precedence.  Additional

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 17]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  address information MAY be provided.  For assignments done through

  RFCs published via the "IETF Document Stream" [RFC4844], the

  Contact will be the IETF Chair <chair@ietf.org>.

o Description: A short description of the service associated with

  the assignment request is REQUIRED.  It should avoid all but the

  most well-known acronyms.

o Reference: A description of (or a reference to a document

  describing) the protocol or application using this port.  This is

  REQUIRED.  The description must state whether the protocol uses

  IP-layer broadcast, multicast, or anycast communication.

  For assignments requesting only a Service Name, or a Service Name

  and User Port, a statement that the protocol is proprietary and

  not publicly documented is also acceptable, provided that the

  required information regarding the use of IP broadcast, multicast,

  or anycast is given.

  For any assignment request that includes a User Port, the

  assignment request MUST explain why a port number in the Dynamic

  Ports range (discovered by clients dynamically at run-time) is

  unsuitable for the given application.

  For any assignment request that includes a System Port, the

  assignment request MUST explain why a port number in the User

  Ports or Dynamic Ports ranges is unsuitable, and a reference to a

  stable protocol specification document MUST be provided.

  IANA MAY accept early assignment [RFC4020] requests (known as

  "early allocation" therein) from IETF working groups that

  reference a sufficiently stable Internet-Draft instead of a

  published Standards-Track RFC.

o Port Number: If assignment of a port number is desired, either the

  port number the requester suggests for assignment or indication of

  port range (user or system) MUST be provided.  If only a service

  name is to be assigned, this field is left empty.  If a specific

  port number is requested, IANA is encouraged to assign the

  requested number.  If a range is specified, IANA will choose a

  suitable number from the User or System Ports ranges.  Note that

  the applicant MUST NOT use the requested port in implementations

  deployed for use on the public Internet prior to the completion of

  the assignment, because there is no guarantee that IANA will

  assign the requested port.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 18]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

o Service Code: If the assignment request includes DCCP as a

  transport protocol, then the request MUST include a desired unique

  DCCP service code [RFC5595], and MUST NOT include a requested DCCP

  service code otherwise.  Section 19.8 of the DCCP specification

  [RFC4340] defines requirements and rules for assignment, updated

  by this document.  Note that, as per the DCCP Service Codes

  document [RFC5595], some service codes are not assigned; zero

  (absence of a meaningful service code) and 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF;

  invalid service code) are permanently reserved, and the Private

  service codes 1056964608-1073741823 (0x3F000000-0x3FFFFFFF; i.e.,

  32-bit values with the high-order byte equal to a value of 63

  (0x3F), corresponding to the ASCII character '?') are not

  centrally assigned.

o Known Unauthorized Uses: A list of uses by applications or

  organizations who are not the Assignee.  This is OPTIONAL.  This

  list may be augmented by IANA after assignment when unauthorized

  uses are reported.

o Assignment Notes: Indications of owner/name change, or any other

  assignment process issue.  This is OPTIONAL.  This list may be

  updated by IANA after assignment to help track changes to an

  assignment, e.g., de-assignment, owner/name changes, etc.

If the assignment request is for the addition of a new transport

protocol to a previously assigned service name and the requester is

not the Assignee or Contact for the previously assigned service name,

IANA needs to confirm with the Assignee for the existing assignment

whether this addition is appropriate.

If the assignment request is for a new service name sharing the same

port as a previously assigned service name (see port number

overloading in Section 5), IANA needs to confirm with the Assignee

for the existing service name and other appropriate experts whether

the overloading is appropriate.

When IANA receives an assignment request -- containing the above

information -- that is requesting a port number, IANA SHALL initiate

an "Expert Review" [RFC5226] in order to determine whether an

assignment should be made. For requests that are not seeking a port

number, IANA SHOULD assign the service name under a simple "First

Come First Served" policy [RFC5226].

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 19]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

8.1.2. Variances for Specific Port Number Ranges

Section 6 describes the different port number ranges. It is

important to note that IANA applies slightly different procedures

when managing the different port ranges of the service name and port

number registry:

o Ports in the Dynamic Ports range (49152-65535) have been

  specifically set aside for local and dynamic use and cannot be

  assigned through IANA.  Application software may simply use any

  dynamic port that is available on the local host, without any sort

  of assignment.  On the other hand, application software MUST NOT

  assume that a specific port number in the Dynamic Ports range will

  always be available for communication at all times, and a port

  number in that range hence MUST NOT be used as a service

  identifier.

o Ports in the User Ports range (1024-49151) are available for

  assignment through IANA, and MAY be used as service identifiers

  upon successful assignment.  Because assigning a port number for a

  specific application consumes a fraction of the shared resource

  that is the port number registry, IANA will require the requester

  to document the intended use of the port number.  For most IETF

  protocols, ports in the User Ports range will be assigned under

  the "IETF Review" or "IESG Approval" procedures [RFC5226] and no

  further documentation is required.  Where these procedures do not

  apply, then the requester must input the documentation to the

  "Expert Review" procedure [RFC5226], by which IANA will have a

  technical expert review the request to determine whether to grant

  the assignment.  Regardless of the path ("IETF Review", "IESG

  Approval", or "Expert Review"), the submitted documentation is

  expected to be the same, as described in this section, and MUST

  explain why using a port number in the Dynamic Ports range is

  unsuitable for the given application.  Further, IANA MAY utilize

  the "Expert Review" process informally to inform their position in

  participating in "IETF Review" and "IESG Approval".

o Ports in the System Ports range (0-1023) are also available for

  assignment through IANA.  Because the System Ports range is both

  the smallest and the most densely assigned, the requirements for

  new assignments are more strict than those for the User Ports

  range, and will only be granted under the "IETF Review" or "IESG

  Approval" procedures [RFC5226].  A request for a System Port

  number MUST document *both* why using a port number from the

  Dynamic Ports range is unsuitable *and* why using a port number

  from the User Ports range is unsuitable for that application.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 20]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

8.2. Service Name and Port Number De-Assignment

The Assignee of a granted port number assignment can return the port

number to IANA at any time if they no longer have a need for it. The

port number will be de-assigned and will be marked as Reserved. IANA

should not reassign port numbers that have been de-assigned until all

unassigned port numbers in the specific range have been assigned.

Before proceeding with a port number de-assignment, IANA needs to

reasonably establish that the value is actually no longer in use.

Because there is much less danger of exhausting the service name

space compared to the port number space, it is RECOMMENDED that a

given service name remain assigned even after all associated port

number assignments have become de-assigned. Under this policy, it

will appear in the registry as if it had been created through a

service name assignment request that did not include any port

numbers.

On rare occasions, it may still be useful to de-assign a service

name. In such cases, IANA will mark the service name as Reserved.

IANA will involve their IESG-appointed expert in such cases.

IANA will include a comment in the registry when de-assignment

happens to indicate its historic usage.

8.3. Service Name and Port Number Reuse

If the Assignee of a granted port number assignment no longer has a

need for the assigned number, but would like to reuse it for a

different application, they can submit a request to IANA to do so.

Logically, port number reuse is to be thought of as a de-assignment

(Section 8.2) followed by an immediate (re-)assignment (Section 8.1)

of the same port number for a new application. Consequently, the

information that needs to be provided about the proposed new use of

the port number is identical to what would need to be provided for a

new port number assignment for the specific ports range.

Because there is much less danger of exhausting the service name

space compared to the port number space, it is RECOMMENDED that the

original service name associated with the prior use of the port

number remains assigned, and a new service name be created and

associated with the port number. This is again consistent with

viewing a reuse request as a de-assignment followed by an immediate

(re-)assignment. Reusing an assigned service name for a different

application is NOT RECOMMENDED.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 21]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

IANA needs to carefully review such requests before approving them.

In some instances, the Expert Reviewer will determine that the

application the port number was assigned to has found usage beyond

the original Assignee, or that there is a concern that it may have

such users. This determination MUST be made quickly. A community

call concerning revocation of a port number (see below) MAY be

considered, if a broader use of the port number is suspected.

8.4. Service Name and Port Number Revocation

A port number revocation can be thought of as an IANA-initiated de-

assignment (Section 8.2), and has exactly the same effect on the

registry.

Sometimes, it will be clear that a specific port number is no longer

in use and that IANA can revoke it and mark it as Reserved. At other

times, it may be unclear whether a given assigned port number is

still in use somewhere in the Internet. In those cases, IANA must

carefully consider the consequences of revoking the port number, and

SHOULD only do so if there is an overwhelming need.

With the help of their IESG-appointed Expert Reviewer, IANA SHALL

formulate a request to the IESG to issue a four-week community call

concerning the pending port number revocation. The IESG and IANA,

with the Expert Reviewer's support, SHALL determine promptly after

the end of the community call whether revocation should proceed, and

then communicate their decision to the community. This procedure

typically involves similar steps to de-assignment except that it is

initiated by IANA.

Because there is much less danger of exhausting the service name

space compared to the port number space, revoking service names is

NOT RECOMMENDED.

8.5. Service Name and Port Number Transfers

The value of service names and port numbers is defined by their

careful management as a shared Internet resource, whereas enabling

transfer allows the potential for associated monetary exchanges. As

a result, the IETF does not permit service name or port number

assignments to be transferred between parties, even when they are

mutually consenting.

The appropriate alternate procedure is a coordinated de-assignment

and assignment: The new party requests the service name or port

number via an assignment and the previous party releases its

assignment via the de-assignment procedure outlined above.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 22]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

With the help of their IESG-appointed Expert Reviewer, IANA SHALL

carefully determine if there is a valid technical, operational, or

managerial reason to grant the requested new assignment.

8.6. Maintenance Issues

In addition to the formal procedures described above, updates to the

Description and Contact information are coordinated by IANA in an

informal manner, and may be initiated by either the Assignee or by

IANA, e.g., by the latter requesting an update to current Contact

information. (Note that the Assignee cannot be changed as a separate

procedure; see instead Section 8.5 above.)

8.7. Disagreements

In the case of disagreements around any request, there is the

possibility of appeal following the normal appeals process for IANA

assignments as defined by Section 7 of "Guidelines for Writing an

IANA Considerations Section in RFCs" [RFC5226].

  1. Security Considerations

The IANA guidelines described in this document do not change the

security properties of UDP, TCP, SCTP, or DCCP.

Assignment of a service name or port number does not in any way imply

an endorsement of an application or product, and the fact that

network traffic is flowing to or from an assigned port number does

not mean that it is "good" traffic, or even that it is used by the

assigned service. Firewall and system administrators should choose

how to configure their systems based on their knowledge of the

traffic in question, not based on whether or not there is an assigned

service name or port number.

Services are expected to include support for security, either as

default or dynamically negotiated in-band. The use of separate

service name or port number assignments for secure and insecure

variants of the same service is to be avoided in order to discourage

the deployment of insecure services.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 23]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  1. IANA Considerations

This document obsoletes Sections 8 and 9.1 of the March 2000 IANA

Allocation Guidelines [RFC2780].

Upon approval of this document for publication as an RFC, IANA worked

with Stuart Cheshire, maintainer of the independent service name

registry [SRVREG], to merge the contents of that private registry

into the official IANA registry. The independent registry web page

has been updated with pointers to the IANA registry and to this RFC.

IANA created a new service name entry in the service name and port

number registry [PORTREG] for all entries in the Protocol and Service

Names registry [PROTSERVREG] that did not already have one assigned.

IANA also indicates in the Assignment Notes for "www" and "www-http"

that they are duplicate terms that refer to the "http" service, and

should not be used for discovery purposes. For this conceptual

service (human-readable web pages served over HTTP), the correct

service name to use for service discovery purposes is "http" (see

Section 5).

10.1. Service Name Consistency

Section 8.1 defines which character strings are well-formed service

names, which until now had not been clearly defined. The definition

in Section 8.1 was chosen to allow maximum compatibility of service

names with current and future service discovery mechanisms.

As of August 5, 2009, approximately 98% of the so-called "Short

Names" from existing port number assignments [PORTREG] met the rules

for legal service names stated in Section 8.1, and hence for these

services their service name is exactly the same as their "Short

Name".

The remaining approximately 2% of the existing "Short Names" are not

suitable to be used directly as well-formed service names because

they contain illegal characters such as asterisks, dots, pluses,

slashes, or underscores. All existing "Short Names" conform to the

length requirement of 15 characters or fewer. For these 96

unsuitable "Short Names", listed in the table below, the service name

is the Short Name with any illegal characters replaced by hyphens.

IANA added an entry to the registry that uses the new well-formed

primary service name for the existing service and that otherwise

duplicates the original assignment information. In the description

field of this new entry giving the primary service name, IANA

recorded that it has assigned a well-formed service name for the

previous service and references the original assignment. In the

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 24]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Assignment Notes field of the original assignment, IANA added a note

that this entry is an alias to the new well-formed service name, and

that the old service name is historic, not usable for use with many

common service discovery mechanisms.

96 names containing illegal characters to be replaced by hyphens:

      +----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

      | 914c/g         | acmaint_dbd     | acmaint_transd  |

      | atex_elmd      | avanti_cdp      | badm_priv       |

      | badm_pub       | bdir_priv       | bdir_pub        |

      | bmc_ctd_ldap   | bmc_patroldb    | boks_clntd      |

      | boks_servc     | boks_servm      | broker_service  |

      | bues_service   | canit_store     | cedros_fds      |

      | cl/1           | contamac_icm    | corel_vncadmin  |

      | csc_proxy      | cvc_hostd       | dbcontrol_agent |

      | dec_dlm        | dl_agent        | documentum_s    |

      | dsmeter_iatc   | dsx_monitor     | elpro_tunnel    |

      | elvin_client   | elvin_server    | encrypted_admin |

      | erunbook_agent | erunbook_server | esri_sde        |

      | EtherNet/IP-1  | EtherNet/IP-2   | event_listener  |

      | flr_agent      | gds_db          | ibm_wrless_lan  |

      | iceedcp_rx     | iceedcp_tx      | iclcnet_svinfo  |

      | idig_mux       | ife_icorp       | instl_bootc     |

      | instl_boots    | intel_rci       | interhdl_elmd   |

      | lan900_remote  | LiebDevMgmt_A   | LiebDevMgmt_C   |

      | LiebDevMgmt_DM | mapper-ws_ethd  | matrix_vnet     |

      | mdbs_daemon    | menandmice_noh  | msl_lmd         |

      | nburn_id       | ncr_ccl         | nds_sso         |

      | netmap_lm      | nms_topo_serv   | notify_srvr     |

      | novell-lu6.2   | nuts_bootp      | nuts_dem        |

      | ocs_amu        | ocs_cmu         | pipe_server     |

      | pra_elmd       | printer_agent   | redstorm_diag   |

      | redstorm_find  | redstorm_info   | redstorm_join   |

      | resource_mgr   | rmonitor_secure | rsvp_tunnel     |

      | sai_sentlm     | sge_execd       | sge_qmaster     |

      | shiva_confsrvr | sql*net         | srvc_registry   |

      | stm_pproc      | subntbcst_tftp  | udt_os          |

      | universe_suite | veritas_pbx     | vision_elmd     |

      | vision_server  | wrs_registry    | z39.50          |

      +----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

In addition to the 96 names listed above, the service name for

"whois++" is "whoispp", following the example set by the

"application/whoispp-query" MIME Content-Type [RFC2957].

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 25]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

There were four names recorded in IANA's Port Number Registry

[PORTREG] that conflicted with names previously recorded in the ad

hoc SRV name registry [SRVREG]: esp, hydra, recipe, and xmp.

The name conflicts were resolved amicably:

The IANA Port Number Registry Short Name "esp" had been registered by

Andrew Chernow, and he informed the authors that the port was no

longer in use and the registration was no longer required. The SRV

registry entry for "esp" remains in effect.

The SRV name "hydra" for SubEthaEdit had already been retired in

favor of the new SRV name "see". The IANA Port Number Registry entry

for "hydra" remains in effect.

The SRV name "recipe" was in use in an open source project that had

not yet been packaged for distribution, and the registrant Daniel

Taylor was willing to change to a different service name. Thanks to

Daniel Taylor for accommodating this change. The IANA Port Number

Registry entry for "recipe" remains in effect.

The IANA Port Number Registry Short Name "xmp" had been registered by

Bobby Krupczak, but since his registration included an assigned port

number (which is still in use and remains unaffected by this change),

he was willing to switch to a different service name. Thanks to

Bobby Krupczak for accommodating this change. The SRV registry entry

for "xmp" remains in effect.

10.2. Port Numbers for SCTP and DCCP Experimentation

Two System UDP and TCP ports, 1021 and 1022, have been reserved for

experimental use [RFC4727]. This document assigns the same port

numbers for SCTP and DCCP, updates the TCP and UDP assignments, and

also instructs IANA to automatically assign these two port numbers

for any future transport protocol with a similar 16-bit port number

namespace.

Note that these port numbers are meant for temporary experimentation

and development in controlled environments. Before using these port

numbers, carefully consider the advice in Section 6.1 in this

document, as well as in Sections 1 and 1.1 of "Assigning Experimental

and Testing Numbers Considered Useful" [RFC3692]. Most importantly,

application developers must request a permanent port number

assignment from IANA as described in Section 8.1 before any kind of

non-experimental deployment.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 26]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

       +--------------------+-----------------------------+

       | Service Name       | exp1                        |

       | Transport Protocol | DCCP, SCTP, TCP, UDP        |

       | Assignee           | IESG <iesg@ietf.org>        |

       | Contact            | IETF Chair <chair@ietf.org> |

       | Description        | RFC3692-style Experiment 1  |

       | Reference          | [RFC4727] [RFC6335]         |

       | Port Number        | 1021                        |

       +--------------------+-----------------------------+

       +--------------------+-----------------------------+

       | Service Name       | exp2                        |

       | Transport Protocol | DCCP, SCTP, TCP, UDP        |

       | Assignee           | IESG <iesg@ietf.org>        |

       | Contact            | IETF Chair <chair@ietf.org> |

       | Description        | RFC3692-style Experiment 2  |

       | Reference          | [RFC4727] [RFC6335]         |

       | Port Number        | 1022                        |

       +--------------------+-----------------------------+

10.3. Updates to DCCP Registries

This document updates the IANA assignment procedures for the DCCP

Port Number and DCCP Service Codes Registries [RFC4340].

10.3.1. DCCP Service Code Registry

Service codes are assigned on a "first come, first served" basis

according to Section 19.8 of the DCCP specification [RFC4340]. This

document updates that section by extending the guidelines given there

in the following ways:

o IANA MAY assign new service codes without seeking "Expert Review"

  using their discretion, but SHOULD seek "Expert Review" if a

  request asks for more than five service codes.

o IANA should feel free to contact the DCCP Expert Reviewer with any

  questions related to requests for DCCP-related codepoints.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 27]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

10.3.2. DCCP Port Numbers Registry

The DCCP ports registry is defined by Section 19.9 of the DCCP

specification [RFC4340]. Assignments in this registry require prior

assignment of a service code. Not all service codes require IANA-

assigned ports. This document updates that section by extending the

guidelines given there in the following way:

o IANA should normally assign a value in the range 1024-49151 to a

  DCCP server port.  IANA requests to assign port numbers in the

  System Ports range (0 through 1023) require an "IETF Review"

  [RFC5226] prior to assignment by IANA [RFC4340].

o IANA MUST NOT assign more than one DCCP server port to a single

  service code value.

o The assignment of multiple service codes to the same DCCP port is

  allowed, but subject to "Expert Review".

o The set of service code values associated with a DCCP server port

  should be recorded in the service name and port number registry.

o A request for additional service codes to be associated with an

  already assigned port number requires "Expert Review".  These

  requests will normally be accepted when they originate from the

  contact associated with the port assignment.  In other cases,

  these applications will be expected to use an unassigned port,

  when this is available.

The DCCP specification [RFC4340] notes that a short port name MUST be

associated with each DCCP server port that has been assigned. This

document clarifies that this short port name is the service name as

defined here, and this name MUST be unique.

  1. Contributors

Alfred Hoenes (ah@tr-sys.de) and Allison Mankin (mankin@psg.com) have

contributed text and ideas to this document.

  1. Acknowledgments

The text in Section 10.3 is based on a suggestion originally proposed

as a part of the DCCP Service Codes document [RFC5595] by Gorry

Fairhurst.

Lars Eggert is partly funded by the Trilogy Project [TRILOGY], a

research project supported by the European Commission under its

Seventh Framework Program.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 28]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

  1. References

13.1. Normative References

[ANSI.X3.4-1986] American National Standards Institute, "Coded

                 Character Set - 7-bit American Standard Code for

                 Information Interchange", ANSI X3.4, 1986.

[RFC0768] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6,

                 RFC 768, August 1980.

[RFC0793] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,

                 RFC 793, September 1981.

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate

                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

[RFC2780] Bradner, S. and V. Paxson, "IANA Allocation

                 Guidelines For Values In the Internet Protocol and

                 Related Headers", BCP 37, RFC 2780, March 2000.

[RFC2782] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS

                 RR for specifying the location of services (DNS

                 SRV)", RFC 2782, February 2000.

[RFC3828] Larzon, L-A., Degermark, M., Pink, S., Jonsson,

                 L-E., and G. Fairhurst, "The Lightweight User

                 Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite)", RFC 3828, July 2004.

[RFC4020] Kompella, K. and A. Zinin, "Early IANA Allocation

                 of Standards Track Code Points", BCP 100, RFC 4020,

                 February 2005.

[RFC4340] Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram

                 Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340,

                 March 2006.

[RFC4727] Fenner, B., "Experimental Values In IPv4, IPv6,

                 ICMPv4, ICMPv6, UDP, and TCP Headers", RFC 4727,

                 November 2006.

[RFC4960] Stewart, R., "Stream Control Transmission

                 Protocol", RFC 4960, September 2007.

[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for

                 Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs",

                 BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 29]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

[RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for

                 Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,

                 January 2008.

[RFC5595] Fairhurst, G., "The Datagram Congestion Control

                 Protocol (DCCP) Service Codes", RFC 5595,

                 September 2009.

13.2. Informative References

[DNS-SD] Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "DNS-Based Service

                 Discovery", Work in Progress, February 2011.

[IGD] UPnP Forum, "Internet Gateway Device (IGD) V 1.0",

                 November 2001.

[NAT-PMP] Cheshire, S., "NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-

                 PMP)", Work in Progress, April 2008.

[PORTREG] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),

                 "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number

                 Registry",

                 <http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers>.

[PROTSERVREG] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),

                 "Protocol and Service Names Registry",

                 <http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names>.

[RFC0959] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer

                 Protocol", STD 9, RFC 959, October 1985.

[RFC1078] Lottor, M., "TCP port service Multiplexer

                 (TCPMUX)", RFC 1078, November 1988.

[RFC1340] Reynolds, J. and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers",

                 RFC 1340, July 1992.

[RFC1700] Reynolds, J. and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers",

                 RFC 1700, October 1994.

[RFC2957] Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/

                 whoispp-query Content-Type", RFC 2957,

                 October 2000.

[RFC3232] Reynolds, J., "Assigned Numbers: RFC 1700 is

                 Replaced by an On-line Database", RFC 3232,

                 January 2002.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 30]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

[RFC3692] Narten, T., "Assigning Experimental and Testing

                 Numbers Considered Useful", BCP 82, RFC 3692,

                 January 2004.

[RFC4342] Floyd, S., Kohler, E., and J. Padhye, "Profile for

                 Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)

                 Congestion Control ID 3: TCP-Friendly Rate Control

                 (TFRC)", RFC 4342, March 2006.

[RFC4844] Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "The

                 RFC Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.

[RFC5237] Arkko, J. and S. Bradner, "IANA Allocation

                 Guidelines for the Protocol Field", BCP 37,

                 RFC 5237, February 2008.

[RFC5389] Rosenberg, J., Mahy, R., Matthews, P., and D. Wing,

                 "Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN)",

                 RFC 5389, October 2008.

[RFC5766] Mahy, R., Matthews, P., and J. Rosenberg,

                 "Traversal Using Relays around NAT (TURN): Relay

                 Extensions to Session Traversal Utilities for NAT

                 (STUN)", RFC 5766, April 2010.

[SRVREG] "DNS SRV Service Types Registry",

                 <http://www.dns-sd.org/ServiceTypes.html>.

[SYSFORM] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),

                 "Application for System (Well Known) Port Number",

                 <http://www.iana.org/>.

[TRILOGY] "Trilogy Project",

                 <http://www.trilogy-project.org/>.

[USRFORM] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),

                 "Application for User (Registered) Port Number",

                 <http://www.iana.org/>.

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 31]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Authors' Addresses

Michelle Cotton

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330

Marina del Rey, CA 90292

USA

Phone: +1 310 823 9358

EMail: michelle.cotton@icann.org

URI: http://www.iana.org/

Lars Eggert

Nokia Research Center

P.O. Box 407

Nokia Group 00045

Finland

Phone: +358 50 48 24461

EMail: lars.eggert@nokia.com

URI: http://research.nokia.com/people/lars_eggert/

Joe Touch

USC/ISI

4676 Admiralty Way

Marina del Rey, CA 90292

USA

Phone: +1 310 448 9151

EMail: touch@isi.edu

URI: http://www.isi.edu/touch

Magnus Westerlund

Ericsson

Farogatan 6

Stockholm 164 80

Sweden

Phone: +46 8 719 0000

EMail: magnus.westerlund@ericsson.com

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 32]

RFC 6335 Service Name and Port Number Procedures August 2011

Stuart Cheshire

Apple Inc.

1 Infinite Loop

Cupertino, CA 95014

USA

Phone: +1 408 974 3207

EMail: cheshire@apple.com

URI: http://stuartcheshire.org/

Cotton, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 33]

Proxy Information
Original URL
gemini://gemini.bortzmeyer.org/rfc-mirror/rfc6335.txt
Status Code
Success (20)
Meta
text/plain
Capsule Response Time
224.232342 milliseconds
Gemini-to-HTML Time
13.374555 milliseconds

This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).