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RFC 6598 / Provider shared addressing

Handle overlap without borrowing addresses

03

Provider address choices can collide with subscriber networks. Safe use depends on what the equipment can translate and what the provider actually knows.

RFC 6598 · § 3EXAMPLE
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Handle overlap without borrowing addressesSeparate proposal to use someone else’s public allocation stops before router configuration. The provider MUST NOT use squat space, even if it does not promise public advertisements.Know the overlap condition before numberingProposed link: someone else’s public allocationsquat-space planNo configuration proceedsService Providers MUST NOT use squat spaceSeparate decisions · not a NAT implementation recipe
04
Reject someone else’s allocation

Separate proposal: number the link from an allocation the provider is not entitled to use. Stop before configuration. The §3 MUST NOT applies even if the provider promises not to leak routes.

Source for this drawing: RFC 6598 · Read RFC section 3 ↗

Protocol participantThreat or exceptionProtocol controlSimplified drawings · precise section references
New to this? Start hereA quick picture + helpful background

A message needs an address.

Think of a packet as a small addressed envelope. Devices pass it onward; transport protocols decide what delivery promises an application gets.

Helpful first, if these ideas are unfamiliar

These pictures are analogies to help you learn. The linked RFC explains the actual rules.

Related RFCs and changes

“Updates” changes part of an earlier RFC. “Obsoletes” replaces it. This list shows selected related documents.

KEY POINT

An unknown overlap is not a safe RFC1918 plan; someone else’s public allocation is never a substitute.

  • §3 considers legitimately assigned global addresses, usurped global addresses, RFC1918 private addresses and Shared Address Space. Legitimately assigned global space poses the fewest numbering problems but is scarce. This is rationale, not permission to take an unassigned or someone else’s block.
  • Service Providers MUST NOT use usurped globally unique address space to number the interfaces in question (§3). Even without leaked routes, the provider and subscribers may lose connectivity to the legitimate address holder. This prohibition is not merely a recommendation.
  • A provider can use RFC1918 on the CGN-CPE link if it knows the CPE/NAT works with the same block on both sides, or knows the chosen provider block is not used on the subscriber side (§3). Either known condition is enough; lack of both is not a safe private-space plan.
  • In an unmanaged service, subscribers choose their own routers and internal prefixes. The provider may not know either condition. The RFC says it then cannot safely use RFC1918 and must resort to Shared Address Space. That lower-case wording is retained without inventing a new uppercase requirement.
  • For Shared Address Space, devices MUST be capable of translation when identical shared ranges appear on two different interfaces (§4). The permitted non-provider use is limited to suitable translating routing equipment; identical numeric addresses alone do not distinguish two interface contexts.
  • Using shared space for other purposes may create future problems connecting to CGN service when non-overlapping spaces are needed (§4). The allocation is not a general invitation to renumber every subscriber LAN into100.64/10.
DETAILS

Four separate decision examples, not one recommended renumbering sequence. Interface contexts are shown schematically; no NAT mapping algorithm or guarantee that arbitrary overlapping networks work is supplied.

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