[ntp:questions] RFC section 7.4 b. wording seems off for the desired action.

jnixon at brocade.com jnixon at brocade.com
Tue Oct 4 21:18:17 UTC 2011


On Sep 29, 8:24 pm, Danny Mayer <ma... at ntp.org> wrote:
> On 9/29/2011 5:32 PM, jni... at brocade.com wrote:
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> >>From the RFC 5905 (Jun 2010)
> > 7.4. The Kiss-o’-Death Packet
> > If the Stratum field is 0, which implies unspecified or invalid, the
> > Reference Identifier field can be used to convey messages useful for
> > status reporting and access control. These are called Kiss-o’-Death
> > (KoD) packets and the ASCII messages they convey are called kiss
> > codes. The KoD packets got their name because an early use was to
> > tell clients to stop sending packets that violate server access
> > controls. The kiss codes can provide useful information for an
> > intelligent client, either NTPv4 or SNTPv4. Kiss codes are encoded
> > in four-character ASCII strings that are left justified and zero
> > filled. The strings are designed for character displays and log
> > files. A list of the currently defined kiss codes is given in
> > Figure 13. Recipients of kiss codes MUST inspect them and, in the
> > following cases, take these actions:
> > a. For kiss codes DENY and RSTR, the client MUST demobilize any
> > associations to that server and stop sending packets to that
> > server;
> > b. For kiss code RATE, the client MUST immediately reduce its
> > polling interval to that server and continue to reduce it each
> > time it receives a RATE kiss code.
> > c. Kiss codes beginning with the ASCII character "X" are for
> > unregistered experimentation and development and MUST be ignored
> > if not recognized.
> > d. Other than the above conditions, KoD packets have no protocol
> > significance and are discarded after inspection.
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> > For list item  b.  (RATE code) action the way I understand it, if the
> > client is at a poll of 2^6 (64 seconds ) upon receiving a RATE code
> > from the server and reduce it to polling interval of the server
> > (something less or equal to then 2^5 or 40 seconds), and continue
> > reducing it for each subsequent RATE message till the minimum poll
> > interval of 2^4 (16 seconds) is reached. This would result in the
> > client polling the server more often, and continuing to exceed the
> > rate would it not?
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> > Should list item b. instead read "For the kiss code RATE, the client
> > MUST immediately increase its polling interval to that of the server,
> > and continue to increase it each time it  receives a RATE kiss code."?
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> You are correct. That's an error. it should be increase rather than
> reduce, or put it another way reduce the frequency. Thanks for spotting
> that.
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> I'm copying the Working Group on this. We'll need to get an errata
> issued on RFC 5905.
>
> Danny

Danny,
I am always glad to report possible issues when I see them in
documentation, and it's always a learning experience if I goofed, and
need re educated on a topic.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling.
Jason



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