RFCsWeLove is a meetup organized by the India Internet Engineering Society (IIESoc). The RFCsWeLove meetup was on the 1st Oct 2021 (Friday) with a focus on IPv6 Performance and Diagnostic Metrics (PDM) Version 2.
The current IPv6 PDM (RFC8250) is an IPv6 Destination Options header that provides information based on the metrics like Round-trip delay and Server delay. This information helps to measure the Quality of Service (QoS) and to assist in diagnostics mainly for large end-user enterprises (private, managed networks). However, there are potential risks involved in transmitting PDM data during a diagnostics session.
PDM metrics can help an attacker understand the type of machine and its processing capabilities. Inferring from the PDM data, the attacker can launch a timing attack. For example, if a cryptographic protocol is used, a timing attack may be launched against the keying material to obtain the secret.
The encrypted PDMv2 draft describes a lightweight mechanism to encrypt the PDM header. It is possible that this method may be suitable for other IPv6 extension headers as well.
The agenda for the session is -
Introduction: Nalini Elkins
PDMv2 Overview: Ameya Deshpande
Enterprise Topology and Requirements: Mike Ackermann
Cryptographic Considerations: Tommaso Pecorella and Adnan Rashid
PDMv2 Implementation Status: Abhishek Kumar
[Slides]
Nalini Elkins is the President of the Industry Network Technology Council. She is also the CEO and Founder of Inside Products, Inc. Nalini is a recognized leader in the field of computer performance measurement and analysis. She has been the founder or co-founder of three start-ups in the high-tech arena.
Nalini started her career doing network design and monitoring for the Chevron network. She specializes in network performance analysis, measurement, monitoring, tuning, and troubleshooting of large enterprise networks. One of her specialties is training and network design for IPv6 migration for large enterprises. Many of the Fortune 1000 level companies as well as the large US government organizations have taken her classes on various networking topics.
She has developed network monitoring and diagnostic products which were later marketed by IBM and other software companies. She received the A.A. Michelson Award from the Computer Measurement Group for her contributions to the field. Nalini is on the Advisory Board of the India Internet Engineering Society (IIESoc).
Ameya Deshpande is currently an undergraduate CSE student at the NITK Surathkal. He has been involved with PDMv2 from its very inception. He is a former project intern at Oracle and a past student developer at Google summer of code 2021.
Michael Ackermann is the Lead Network Engineer of the System Management and Monitoring Team, at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
He is responsible for all aspects of planning, engineering, deployment, and administration for all enterprise-wide Management, Monitoring, and Diagnostic activities.
Mike also serves as a chief architect for all Plan related IT issues. He has been a member of the BluesNet and Network Advisory Group committees since their inception and has served as committee and subcommittee chair on numerous occasions. Mike has also been a member of several advisory boards and is currently active in the IETF.
Tommaso Pecorella (Senior Member, IEEE) received Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in Electronic Engineering (Telecommunications track) from the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Florence (Italy) in 2000 and 1996 respectively. From 2001 to 2007 he was a researcher at Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT). Since November 2007 he is a tenure‐track Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Florence (Italy). In 2018 and 2019 he was also visiting professor at the University of Saint Louis, Missouri (USA). He received the Best paper award at the IEEE GLOBECOM 2016, and in 2021 got the Italian Habilitation (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) for Associate Professorship in Telecommunication Engineering. He is the author of more than 90 publications between conference papers and journals. His research interests focus on IoT communication systems, network security, and the application of machine learning to networking systems.
Adnan Rashid (member of IEEE and Internet Society) currently working as a Ph.D. Research Scholar in the Department of Information Engineering (DINFO), University of Florence, Italy, since November 2018.
His research activity focused on the security and resilience of IoT systems, Software Defined Networking (SDN), and Fog Networks.
He is involved in multiple IETF working groups and doing research to standardize the IPv6 and 6LoWPAN-ND features. He is collaborating with the open-source ns3 simulator maintainers for the development 6LoWPAN-ND protocol.
Abhishek Kumar is currently a final-year undergraduate student at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal. He was a Google Summer of Code student in 2021, working with Git on Generation Number v2. His interests include competitive programming, open-source and software design best practices.
Find details about the previous meetup here.
Stay Safe Folks!