RFC 1551 (rfc1551) - Page 2 of 22

Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN)

RFC 1551                         IPXWAN                    December 1993


1. Introduction

   This document describes how Novell IPX operates over various WAN
   media. It is strongly motivated by a desire for IPX to treat ALL wide
   area links in the same manner. Sections 3 and 4 describe this common
   "IPX WAN" protocol.

   The IPX WAN protocol operation begins immediately after link
   establishment. While IPX is a connectionless datagram protocol, WANs
   are often connection-oriented.  Different WANs have different methods
   of link establishment. The subsections of section 1 of this document
   describe what link establishment means to IPX for different media.
   They also describe other WAN-media-dependent aspects of IPX
   operation, such as protocol identification, frame encapsulation, and
   link tear down.

1.1 Operation Over PPP

   IPX uses PPP [1] when operating over point-to-point synchronous and
   asynchronous networks.

   With PPP, link establishment means the IPX NCP [4] reaches the Open
   state. NetWare IPX will negotiate down to a null set of NCP options,
   and uses normal frame encapsulation as defined by PPP. The IPXWAN
   protocol MUST NOT occur until the IPX NCP reaches the Open state.
   Options negotiated by the IPXWAN protocol MUST supercede any options
   negotiated by the IPXCP.

   PPP allows either side of a connection to stop forwarding IPX if one
   end sends an IPXCP or an LCP Terminate-Request. When a router detects
   this, it will immediately reflect the lost connectivity in its
   routing information database instead of naturally aging it out.

1.2 Operation over X.25 Switched Virtual Circuits

   With X.25, link establishment means successfully opening an X.25
   virtual circuit.  As specified in RFC-1356, "Multiprotocol
   Interconnect on X.25 and ISDN in the Packet Mode" [2], the protocol
   identifier 0x800000008137 is used in the X.25 Call User Data field of
   the Call Request frame, and indicates that the virtual circuit will
   be devoted to IPX.

   Furthermore, each IPX packet is encapsulated directly in X.25 data
   frame sequences without additional framing.

   Either side of the virtual circuit may close it, thereby tearing down
   the IPX link. When a router detects this, it will immediately reflect
   the lost connectivity in its routing information database instead of



Allen