[ntpwg] KISS codes

[Danny Mayer]

David L. Mills wrote:
> Guys,
> 
> For record, the ntp-dev stops sending packets under conditions where
> resending is guaranteed to be unsuccessful; in particular with kisscode
> DENY. A client kissed with that code should go on-hook immediately.

That means that at least the server is sending them. The client side of
the reference implementation does not do anything with the codes as yet
as far as I recall. It's well worth implementing.

> 
> It doesn't make a lot of sense for the program to do anything for RATE,
> as the program cannot send at rates likely to set off such a code. It
> does back off eventually to 1024 s.

The reference implementation does, but this is meant to address other
implementations. This reminds me that I should go back and take a look
at what the draft says about the frequency of sending NTP request
(client) packets and make sure that's a strong statement.

> But, the real monster can be a
> misguided implementation in 750,000 routers. See:
> http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/database/brief/ptti/ptti04.pdf.
> 

And that's what these recommendations are designed to start addressing.
It will never fix the problem and the only thing we can do about it is
yell "non-RFC compliant" as the network compliance police is always on
coffee break. What it DOES do is to give any victim ammunition to sue
the pants off the errant manufacturer and that is a much more viable goal.

> I will guarantee this situation will occur soon in a router designed and
> built in China by a Mandarin speaker that has read neither RFC 4330 nor
> the forthcoming NTPv4 specification. RFC 4330 had a lot of stuff
> intended as best practices for a NTP client. I fear much of this will be
> lost should that document be deprecated by the spec.
> 

In that case we should not deprecate RFC 4330. or incorporate parts of
it in this draft or provide a BCP document to replace it.

Danny