rfc-9454

Update to OSPF Terminology

M. Fox, A. Lindem, A. Retana

date2023-08 streamIETF areartg wglsr statusPROPOSED STANDARD pages6 canonicalhttps://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9454 doi10.17487/RFC9454

This document updates some OSPF terminology to be in line with inclusive language used in the industry. The IETF has designated "Guidance for NIST Staff on Using Inclusive Language in Documentary Standards" by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its inclusive language guidelines. It is intended that all future OSPF documents use this revised terminology even when they reference the RFCs updated by this document. This document updates RFCs 2328, 4222, 4811, 5243, 5340, 5614, and 5838.

updates

rfc-2328 — OSPF Version 2
rfc-4222 — Prioritized Treatment of Specific OSPF Version 2 Packets and Congestion Avoidance
rfc-4811 — OSPF Out-of-Band Link State Database (LSDB) Resynchronization
rfc-5243 — OSPF Database Exchange Summary List Optimization
rfc-5340 — OSPF for IPv6
rfc-5614 — Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) Extension of OSPF Using Connected Dominating Set (CDS) Flooding
rfc-5838 — Support of Address Families in OSPFv3

Extracted elements (11)

design-rationale §1

OSPF terminology is updated to replace 'master/slave' with 'Leader/Follower' to align with inclusive language guidelines designated by the IETF, specifically the NIST guidance (NISTIR 8366). The protocol operation is not modified by these terminology changes.

routing, process, bcp

interoperability-note §3

In RFC 4222 (BCP), a reference to 'slave' in an example OSPFv2 packet sequence in Appendix C is renamed to 'Follower'. This is a terminology-only change and does not affect packet processing behavior.

routing, bcp

interoperability-note §5

In RFC 5243, the Introduction's reference to 'Master or Slave' is replaced by 'Leader or Follower', and all occurrences in the database exchange example in Section 3 are similarly updated. No functional change is made.

routing

normative-requirement §1 MUST

All future OSPF documents MUST use the revised Leader/Follower terminology even when referencing the RFCs updated by this document.

routing, process

protocol-element §2

In RFC 2328 (OSPFv2), the 'master/slave' relationship used during database synchronization is renamed to 'Leader/Follower'. The 'master (MS) bit' in the Database Description packet is renamed the 'Leader (L) bit'. Protocol operation is unchanged.

routing

protocol-element §4

In RFC 4811, all instances of 'MS' referring to the Database Description packet bit are renamed to 'L', and references to 'Master' are renamed to 'Leader' in the Out-of-Band Resynchronization section.

routing

protocol-element §6

In RFC 5340 (OSPFv3), the 'master/slave' terminology used in the Database Description process is replaced by 'Leader/Follower'. The 'Master/Slave (MS) bit' in the Database Description packet is renamed the 'Leader (L) bit'. Protocol operation is unchanged.

routing

protocol-element §7

In RFC 5614 (MANET Extension of OSPF), all instances of 'Master' and 'Slave' in the neighbor state machine modifications are renamed to 'Leader' and 'Follower', and 'MS' bit references are renamed to 'L'.

routing

protocol-element §8

In RFC 5838, the 'MS' field in the Database Description packet figure in Section 2.7 is renamed the 'L' field. Text in Section 2.4 is also updated to remove non-inclusive terms pertaining to unreachability handling.

routing

registry §9

IANA updated the 'Database Description (DD) Packet Flags' registry: value 0x01 description changed from the prior 'MS' terminology to 'Leader (L-bit)', with RFC 9454 added as a co-reference alongside RFC 2328.

routing, registry

security-consideration §10

This document updates only the terminology used in OSPF RFCs without modifying protocol specifications. As such, the security characteristics of OSPF are unchanged.

routing, security