Introduction to PPP

Sharon Katz

History

Dial-up file transfer protocol

Early 80`s: PC users Dial-up networking begin to communicate In the unix transfer protocols: through fileworld TCP/IP vs. file transfer protocols
X-Modem Telecommunication technologies:

Asymetric protocols Y-Modem Local networks: 3MB and 10MB ethernets.

Z-Modemcommunication: Distance
Leased lines Primitive dial-up modems

History

Using dial-up modems for packet-orientednetworking (I.e connecting to the internet) requires a data-link layer protocol widely-spread protocols:

SLIP PPP

SLIP - Serial Line Internet Protocol

Defined in the early 80`s Purpose extending TCP/IP networking with dial-up serial connection Users unix users at the beginning and PC users later Advantages

Very simple protocol Easy implementation

SLIP - Serial Line Internet Protocol

Disadvantages

Does not support error detction and correction Supports only IP (and not IPX/SPX etc`) Requires advance knowledge of the peer`s IP address Is not approved internet standard Does not provide any form of authentication

PPP design principles

Support multiple network protocols Link configuration Error detection Establishing network addresses Authentication Extensibility

PPP a layered protocol

PPP relies on another DLP HDLC to perform some basic operations After the initial handshake, PPP executes its own handshake PPP itself consists of two protocols:

LCP Link Control Protocol NCP Network Control Protocol

HDLC

Definition

High-level Data Link Control, Bit-oriented link protocol published by ISO foundation for other protocols (examples )

Operations

1st stage frame formation

2nd stage medium-dependant frame transmission

HDLC frame format

HDLC frame

address control information

check

3 variable-length fields

Address intended for multidrop links Control specifies the type of message transmitted Information content transferred by the top level application Check

1 fixed-length field

PPP state machine

Establishing PPP communication requires transitioning a connection through several states Some of these operations are done by LCP and some by NCP

PPP state machine

fail Dead down terminate closing fail up Establish opened Authenticate Success / None Network

PPP frame format

flag addr control protocol
PPP frame

data

padding

check

Protocol

type of information in data/padding field (I.e: IP, IPCP, LCP, CHAP etc`)

Data/Padding

data for the upper layer protocols or PPP

LCP

Purposes

Link establishment Link maintenance Link termination Link quality determination Authentication

Optional operations

LCP - packets

There are 3 classes of LCP packets:

Link configuration

configure-request, configure-ack, configure-nak & configure-reject

Link termination

terminate-request & terminate-ack

Link monitoring

code-reject, protocol-reject, echorequest, echo-reply & discard-request

LCP packet format

PPP frame code

ID

length

Data

PPP frame

Code type of LCP packet (configure-ack etc`) ID request-response matching ID Length of the LCP packet Data the LCP packet

LCP Options

MRU determination Magic number selection Authentication Protocol Escaped characters map

NCP

Purpose Configuring the network layer protocol. There exists a separate NCP for each network layer protocol Negotiation process Same message formats, code numbers and state machines as LCP

IPCP IP Control Protocol

Purpose

TCP/IP matching NCP Establishes, configures and terminates the TCP/IP network layer protocol IP-Compression protocol I.e Van-Jacobson (VJ) compressed TCP/IP IP address allows dynamic IP configuration DNS & NBNS address

Options

IPCP packet format

PPP frame

0x7E 0xFF 0x03

0x8021
(protocol)

data

check

Code

ID

length

IPCP data

PPP unsupported options

Flow control Any PPP frame sent that overflows the receiver's buffer are lost Error correction PPP includes only Frame Check Sequence (CRC) Re-sequencing PPP assumes all frames, sent and received, retain their original intended order

Tunneling & PPP

Tunneling - definition
The process of running one network protocol on top of another. Common use: VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Tunneling method
Extending the link between the HDLC driver and the rest of PPP over a separate network

PPP tunneling protocols

L2TP, L2F, PPTP & ethernet (PPPoE)

Tunneling & PPP

THE MIDDLE
Next: PPP security

Internet layered architechture

Application Transport Network Data Link Physical
End-user application Port and traffic management Forwarding and route discovery Data link operations (???) Media, clocking and synchronization

Data link protocol

Defintion
manages node-to-node transfer of data between two directly connected machines.

Operations

Error detection and correction (depends on the protocol) Addressing (in LANs) Frame-level synchronization between sender and receiver Flow control Maintaining awareness of link conditions

HDLC`s family
HDLC
LAPM )v. 42( LAPB )x. 25( LAPD )ISDN( LLC )LANs( SDLC )SNA( LAPX )teletex(

ESF )T1(

MTP-2 )SS7(

LAPDm )GSM(

LAPF )frame-relay(

PPP )many(

PPP a layered protocol

Application Transport Network
NCP

Data Link

LCP HDLC

PPP

Physical

PPP design principles

Support multiple network protocols Not limited to the internet Link configuration and other TCP/IP networks, I.e: IPX/SPX and IPv6 Includes nagotiation Error detection mechanisms for establishing communication parameters betweens two PPP peers Detects datagrams corruption upon reception Establishing network addresses and discards such corrupted data Sets network addresses necessary for the datagrams Authentication routing Supports authentication between peers before useful Extansibility
communicationbackward compatibility Yet, maintains begins