ICMP provides error reporting and feedback messages for IP. It uses IP datagrams to transport control messages between hosts and routers. ICMP messages include echo requests/replies used by ping, time exceeded and destination unreachable errors, redirects, and path MTU discovery fragments needed messages. ARP resolves IP addresses to hardware addresses locally through broadcast requests and unicast replies to populate caches. Proxy ARP allows routers to answer for hosts on remote networks to allow communication before subnet migration.

1. Address Resolution
Protocol - ARP
IP over Ethernet
1

2. Address Resolution
Finding hardware address for protocol
address is called Address Resolution
Data link layer resolves protocol address to
hardware address
Resolution is local to a network
Network component only resolves address
for other components on same network
2

3. Address Resolution
(continued)
A resolves protocol address for B for protocol messages from an
application on A sent to an application on B
A does not resolve a protocol address for F
Through the internet layer, A delivers to F by routing through R1 and
R2
A resolves R1 hardware address
Network layer on A passes packet containing destination protocol
address F for delivery to R1
Host A Host C Host E
Network 1 Router 1 Network 2 Router 2 Network 3
Host B Host D Host F
3

4. Address Resolution
Techniques
Association between a protocol address and a
hardware address is called a binding. Three
techniques:
Table lookup - Bindings stored in memory with
protocol address as key - data link layer looks up
protocol address to find hardware address
Closed-form computation - Protocol address
based on hardware address - Data link layer
derives hardware address from protocol address
Dynamic - Network messages used for "just-in-
time" resolution - Data link layer sends message
requesting hardware address; destination responds
4

5. Address Resolution Protocol -
ARP
IP uses dynamic distributed resolution
technique
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) - part
of TCP/IP protocol suite
RFC 826 - Address Resolution Protocol
Two-part protocol:
Request from source asking for hardware
address
Reply from destination carrying hardware
address 5

6. ARP Message Exchange
ARP request message dropped into a
hardware frame and broadcast
Sender inserts IP address into message
and broadcast
Every other computer examines request
6

7. ARP Message Exchange
(cont’d)
Computer whose IP address is in the
request responds
Puts its own hardware address in the
response
Unicasts the response to the sender
Original requester can then extract
hardware address and send IP packet to
destination using recently acquired
hardware address
7

8. ARP Message Format
8

9. ARP Message Contents
HARDWARE ADDRESS TYPE = 1 for
Ethernet
PROTOCOL ADDRESS TYPE = 0x0800 for
IP
OPERATION = 1 for request, 2 for response
Contains both target and sender mappings
from protocol address to hardware address
Request sets hardware address of target to 0
Target can extract hardware address of
9

10. Processing the ARP
Messages
Receiver extracts sender's hardware address and updates
local ARP table
Receiver checks operation - request or response
Response: Adds sender's address to local cache
Sends pending IP packet(s)
Request: If receiver is target, forms response
Unicasts to sender
Adds sender's address to local cache
Note:
Target likely to respond "soon"
Computers have finite storage for ARP cache
Only target adds sender to cache; others only update if target already
in cache
10

11. 11

12. ARP, Bridging and Routing
ARP is transparent to bridging, since bridging will
propagate ARP broadcasts like any other Ethernet
broadcast, and will transparently bridge the replies.
A router does not propagate Ethernet broadcasts,
because the router is a Network Level device, and
Ethernet is a Data Link Level protocol. Therefore, an
Internet host must use its routing protocols to select an
appropriate router, that can be reached via Ethernet
ARPs.
After ARPing for the IP address of the router, the
packet (targeted at some other Destination Address) is
transmitted to the Ethernet address of the12router.

13. Proxy ARP
Proxy ARP is a technique that is can be used by routers to
handle traffic between hosts that don't expect to use a
router as described above. Probably the most common
case of its use would be the gradual subnetting of a larger
network. Those hosts not yet converted to the new system
would expect to transmit directly to hosts now placed
behind a router.
A router using Proxy ARP recognizes ARP requests for
hosts on the "other side" of the router that can't reply for
themselves. The router answers for those addresses with
an ARP reply matching the remote IP address with the
router's Ethernet address (in essence, a lie).
13

14. Proxy ARP Use
Host A
Host B
"Old" IP Routing
Router
IP Subnet Routing
and Modified ARP
14

15. Proxy ARP - Problems
Proxy ARP is best thought of as a temporary
transition mechanism, and its use should not be
encouraged as part of a stable solution. There are
a number of potential problems with its use,
including the inability of hosts to fall back on
alternate routers if a network component fails, and
the possibility of race conditions and bizarre traffic
patterns if the bridged and routed network
segments are not clearly delineated.
15

16. Proxy ARP Use
When host A wants to send an IP datagram to host B, it first has to
determine the physical network address of host B through the use of
the ARP protocol.
As host A cannot differentiate between the physical networks, his IP
routing algorithm thinks that host B is on the local physical network
and sends out a broadcast ARP request. Host B doesn't receive this
broadcast, but router R does. Router R understands subnets, that is, it
runs the ``subnet'' version of the IP routing algorithm and it will be able
to see that the destination of the ARP request (from the target protocol
address field) is on another physical network. If router R's routing
tables specify that the next hop to that other network is through a
different physical device, it will reply to the ARP as if it were host B,
saying that the network address of host B is that of the router R itself.
16

17. Proxy ARP Use
Host A receives this ARP reply, puts it in his
cache and will send future IP packets for host
B to the router R. The router will forward such
packets to the correct subnet.
The result is transparent subnetting. Normal
hosts (such as A and B) don't know about
subnetting, so they use the “old” IP routing
algorithm.
The routers between subnets have to:
Use the “subnet” IP algorithm.
Use a modified ARP module, which can reply on
behalf of other hosts.
17

18. Reverse ARP - RARP
Sometimes, it is also necessary to find out the IP-address
associated with a given Ethernet address. This happens
when a diskless machine wants to boot from a server on
the network, which is quite a common situation on local
area networks.
A diskless client, however, has virtually no information
about itself-- except for its Ethernet address! So what it
basically does is broadcast a message containing a plea
for boot servers to tell it its IP-address.
There's another protocol for this, named Reverse Address
Resolution Protocol, or RARP. Along with the BOOTP
protocol, it serves to define a procedure for bootstrapping
diskless clients over the network.
18

19. Internet Control Message
Protocol ICMP
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a control
protocol that is considered to be an integral part of IP, although
it is architecturally layered upon IP - it uses IP to carry its data
end-to-end. ICMP provides error reporting, congestion
reporting, and first-hop router redirection.
19

20. IP and ICMP
20

21. ICMP Features
ICMP uses IP as if ICMP were a higher-
level protocol (that is, ICMP messages are
encapsulated in IP datagrams). However,
ICMP is an integral part of IP and must be
implemented by every IP module.
ICMP is used to report some errors, not to
make IP reliable. Datagrams may still be
undelivered without any report on their
loss. Reliability must be implemented by
the higher-level protocols that use IP.
21

22. ICMP Features
ICMP can report errors on any IP datagram
with the exception of ICMP messages, to
avoid infinite repetitions.
For fragmented IP datagrams, ICMP
messages are only sent about errors on
fragment zero. That is, ICMP messages
never refer to an IP datagram with a non-
zero fragment offset field.
22

23. ICMP Features
ICMP has rules regarding error message
generation to prevent broadcast storms
ICMP messages are never sent in response to
datagrams with a destination IP address that is a
broadcast or a multicast address.
ICMP messages are never sent in response to a
datagram which does not have a source IP
address which represents a unique host. That is,
the source address cannot be zero, a loopback
address, a broadcast address or a multicast
address.
23

24. Error Message Generation
Rules
ICMP errors messages are not generated
in response to
an ICMP error message
datagrams destined to an IP broadcast
address
datagrams sent as a link-layer broadcast
a fragment other than the first
a datagram whose source address does not
define a single host
24

25. ICMP Message Format
ICMP messages are described in RFC 792 and RFC 950,
belong to STD 5 and are mandatory.
ICMP messages are sent in IP datagrams. The IP header
will always have a Protocol number of 1, indicating ICMP
and a type of service of zero (routine). The IP data field will
contain the actual ICMP message in the format shown in
the figure below:
25

26. ICMP Message Transport
ICMP encapsulated in IP
But ... how can that work?
ICMP messages sent in response to incoming
datagrams with problems
ICMP message not sent for ICMP message
26

27. Error Detection
Internet layer can detect a variety of errors:
Checksum (header only!)
TTL expires
No route to destination network
Can't deliver to destination host (e.g., no ARP
reply)
Internet layer discards datagrams with problems
Some - e.g., checksum error - can't trigger error
messages
27

28. Types of Messages
ICMP defines two types of messages: error
and informational messages
Error messages:
Source quench
Time exceeded
Destination unreachable
Redirect
Fragmentation required
Informational messages:
Echo request/reply
Address mask request/reply
Router discovery 28

29. ICMP: Message Types
Type Message
0 Echo reply
3 Destination unreachable
4 Source quench
5 Redirect
8 Echo request
11 Time exceeded
12 Parameter unintelligible
13 Time-stamp request
14 Time-stamp reply
15 Information request
16 Information reply
17 Address mask request
18 Address mask reply 29

30. ICMP Message Types
Type Code Description Query Error Type Code Description Query Error
0 0 Echo reply • 5 Redirect
3 Destination unreachable: 0 Redirect for network •
0 Network unreachable • 1 Redirect for host •
1 Host unreachable • 2 Redirect for TOS and Net •
2 Protocol unreachable 3 Redirect for TOS and Host •
•
3 Port unreachable • 8 0 Echo request •
4 Fragmentation needed • 9 0 Router advertisement •
5 Source route failed • 10 0 Router solicitation •
6 Destination network unknown 11 Time exceeded
•
7 Destination host unknown 0 TTL equals 0 during transit •
•
8 Source host isolated 1 TTL equals 0 during reassembly •
9 Destination net prohibited •
12 Parameter problem
10 Destination host prohibited •
0 IP header bad •
11 Network unreachable for TOS • 1 Required option missing •
12 Host unreachable for TOS • 13 0 Timestamp request •
13 Communication prohibited • 14 0 Timestamp reply •
14 Host precedence violation • 15 0 Information request •
15 Precedence cutoff in effect • 16 0 Information reply •
4 0 Source quench • 17 0 Address mask request •
18 0 Address mask reply •
30

31. ICMP and Reachability
An internet host, A, is reachable from
another host, B, if datagrams can be
delivered from A to B
ping program tests reachability - sends
datagram from B to A that A echoes back
to B
Uses ICMP echo request and echo reply
messages
Internet layer includes code to reply to
incoming ICMP echo request messages
31

32. Destination Unreachable
Codes
Code Meaning
0 Network unreachable
1 Host unreachable
2 Protocol unreachable
3 Port unreachable
4 Fragmentation need and don’t fragment bit set
5 Source route failed
6 Destination network unknown
7 Destination host unknown
8 Source host isolated
9 Communication with dest net administratively prohibited
10 Communication with dest host administratively prohibited
11 Network unreachable for type of service
12 Host unreachable for type of service
32

33. ICMP and Path MTU
Discovery
Fragmentation should be avoided
How can source configure outgoing datagrams to
avoid fragmentation?
Source determines path MTU - smallest network
MTU on path from source to destination
Source probes path using IP datagrams with
don't fragment flag
Router responds with ICMP fragmentation
required message
Source sends smaller probes until destination
reached 33

34. Information Request/Reply:
This request is intended for a diskless system to
obtain its subnet mask
Set source and destination addresses to 0 in the
request and broadcast
Server replies back with your IP address
(Not used. Replaced by RARP and BOOTP)
Address Mask Request/Reply: What is the subnet
mask on this net? Replied by “Address mask
agent”
type (17 or 18) code (0) 16-bit checksum
identifier (can be set to anything) sequence (can be set to anything)
32-bit subnet mask 34

35. ICMP Summary
Internet layer provides best-effort delivery service
May choose to report errors for some problems
ICMP provides error message service
ICMP is the control sibling of IP
ICMP is used by IP and uses IP as network layer
protocol - Encapsulated in IP datagram - Not reliable
Feedback about problems
e.g. time to live expired
ICMP is used for ping, traceroute, and path MTU
discovery
Transfer of (control) messages from routers and
hosts to hosts
35