RFC 3373 (rfc3373) - Page 1 of 9
Three-Way Handshake for Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) Point-to-Point Adjacencies
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group D. Katz
Request for Comments: 3373 Juniper Networks, Inc.
Category: Informational R. Saluja
Tenet Technologies
September 2002
Three-Way Handshake for
Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)
Point-to-Point Adjacencies
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The IS-IS routing protocol (ISO 10589) requires reliable protocols at
the link layer for point-to-point links. As a result, it does not
use a three-way handshake when establishing adjacencies on point-to-
point media. This paper defines a backward-compatible extension to
the protocol that provides for a three-way handshake. It is fully
interoperable with systems that do not support the extension.
Additionally, the extension allows the robust operation of more than
256 point-to-point links on a single router.
This extension has been implemented by multiple router vendors; this
paper is provided as information to the Internet community in order
to allow interoperable implementations to be built by other vendors.
1. Terms
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119.
2. Introduction
The IS-IS protocol [1] assumes certain requirements stated in ISO
10589 (section 6.7.2) for the operation of IS-IS over point-to-point
links and hence provides only a two-way handshake when establishing
Katz & Saluja Informational
