[e2e] IP options over e2e path

[Michael Welzl]

Hi,

"No chance" is a bit too extreme. Measurements can be found
in "Measuring the Evolution of Transport Protocols in the
Internet", available from http://www.icir.org/tbit/

Cheers,
Michael



On Wed, 2006-03-29 at 16:05, Mikael.Latvala at nokia.com wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> The IP option provides a convinient way to add additional information to
> the IP header. But what is the fate of an IP packet, which carries a
> relatively new IP option inserted by a source host and which is not
> recognized by most of the routers and/or middleboxes that the packet
> traverses through?
> 
> RFC1812 says that "A router MUST ignore IP options which it does not
> recognize."
> 
> However, some people I have talked to claim that such packets with a
> relatively unknown IP option have no chance of reaching the final
> destiny.
> 
> Is this really the case? Do new/unrecognized IP options prevent an IP
> packet from reaching its final destination? Any research papers which
> would back up or contradict this claim? Or perhaps this is yet another
> undocumented NAT feature?
> 
> /Mikael
-- 
Michael Welzl <michael.welzl at uibk.ac.at>
University of Innsbruck