[hpsdr] The UDP ports in the new Ethernet protocol violate the ethos of the Internet.

[Matthew J Wolf]

The UDP ports in the new Ethernet protocol violates the ethos of the 
Internet.

The UDP service ports I see in version 2.3 of Ethernet Protocol document 
are 1024 to 1114. These UDP ports are part of "Users Ports" port number 
range. The User Ports range of port are Registered (assigned)  Ports, 
sec 6 RFC 6335.

Most of the port numbers from 1024 to 1114 are all ready assigned to 
other protocols.

It is bad form to reuse all ready assigned ports with a different 
protocol.

There is range of ports that have been set aside for local and dynamic 
use. Local being network traffic that will not be sent over the 
Internet. The port range is the "Dynamic Ports", sec 6 RFC 6335.


First bullet point from section 8.1.2 of RFC 6335:

       "Ports in the Dynamic Ports range (49152-65535) have been
       specifically set aside for local and dynamic use and cannot be
       assigned through IANA.  Application software may simply use any
       dynamic port that is available on the local host, without any sort
       of assignment.  On the other hand, application software MUST NOT
       assume that a specific port number in the Dynamic Ports range will
       always be available for communication at all times, and a port
       number in that range hence MUST NOT be used as a service
       identifier."

I think the Ethernet protocol should use ports from the Dynamic Ports 
range. Why not start at port 55555.

Another possibility is that we get one assigned port. Use the assigned 
port for discovery and initial configuration. Then as part of the 
initial configuration switch to using ports from the Dynamic Ports range.

I think it would be difficult getting more than one port number 
assigned.  The assignment process is outlined in RFC 6335.


There is the issue that the port numbers in the Dynamic Ports range will 
use more bits in the datagrams.

The whole point of the Internet standards is to allow interoperability 
on the Internet. Will the contents of the Ethernet protocol every make 
it on to the Internet?


A link to a HTML version of RFC 6335,  http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6335

A link to HTML list of the assigned port numbers, 
https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml


-Matthew Wolf, N4MTT







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