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Gen-ART Telechat Review of draft-ietf-dime-ikev2-psk-diameter-08

2011-06-20 09:39:19
I am the assigned Gen-ART reviewer for this draft. For background on
Gen-ART, please see the FAQ at
< http://wiki.tools.ietf.org/area/gen/trac/wiki/GenArtfaq>.

Please wait for direction from your document shepherd
or AD before posting a new version of the draft.

Document: draft-ietf-dime-ikev2-psk-diameter-08
Reviewer: Ben Campbell
Review Date: 2011-06-17
IESG Telechat date: 2011-06-23

Summary: This draft is almost ready for publication as a proposed standard. I 
still have a concern about the generation of the PSK.

Major issues:

In my initial Gen-ART review, I made the following comment: The draft says that 
the procedure that the HAAA follows to generate the PSK is out of scope. But 
doesn't the IKE2 initiator need to understand the procedure? If the procedure 
is not defined somewhere, how you achieve any degree of interoperability?

The author responded that the PSK generation was in fact important for 
interoperability, but that the specific procedures have been intentionally left 
to other specifications. It is up to specifications that use this Diameter 
application to define the PSK generation mechanism. Further, the author 
indicated 2 3GPP2 specs that have done this.

I am still concerned that this means that this specification cannot be 
implemented in an interoperable way without effectively profiling it. There is 
no apparent coordination on how such profiling may be done, and by whom. I 
think this is likely to result in implementation islands that can't talk to 
each other. I recognize that there is precedent for doing this, but I think it 
is something that should not be done without careful consideration, 
particularly in a standards track RFC. I leave it to the IESG to confirm 
whether it is appropriate in this circumstance.

I further note that there is  no apparent way to negotiate or declare what PSK 
generation mechanism might be used, if an implementation supports more than one.

Minor Issues: None
Editorial Comments: None


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