PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE)
This protocol, described in Informational RFC 2516, is not the result of any IETF work. Instead, it is a protocol designed within the ADSL Forum.
RFC 2516 is very simple. It begins with a four-way DHCP-like handshake where a PPP user finds other PPPoE systems on the local Ethernet by broadcasting a PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation (PADI) packet with Ethertype 8863. The systems that allow access reply with PPPoE Active Discovery Offer (PADO) messages. The user then picks one of the offers and replies to this server with a PPPoE Active Discovery Request (PADR) message. The selected server returns a PPPoE Active Discovery Session-confirmation (PADS) message that gives a unique session ID number for the new PPP user. PPP can then be tunneled using a distinguished Ethertype (8864) and the specified session ID.
In the usual ADSL configuration, the PPPoE server system is an access concentrator reachable through an ADSL modem that acts as an Ethernet bridge. The access concentrator, which may reside at the telephone company central office or at a remote location over ATM links, communicates with the user’s PPP system and establishes the PPPoE tunnel.
Unfortunately, since PPPoE runs directly over Ethernet with no fragmentation facilities and adds additional headers, RFC 2516 fixes the MRU to a maximum of 1492, in violation of RFC 1661. This problem can be corrected by use of MP within a single session, although no known implementation does this. The LCP MRU must be no greater than 1492, but the MRRU may be any convenient larger value.
Worse still, PPPoE essentially has no security at all. The PPPoE Active Discovery Terminate (PADT) message is unauthenticated. Any user on the local link can terminate or disrupt another user’s PPP session by sending forged PADT messages and by sending false PADO messages. Since, unlike L2TP, PPPoE cannot be run over a secure facility such as IPSec, users may also inject arbitrary packets into existing PPP sessions.
It would be hard to justify the use of this protocol. The ADSL devices that use this protocol could just as easily use a combination of L2TP and DHCP or implement PPP and traditional routing or bridging themselves. Several easily implemented combinations of existing standards would solve the same problems as PPPoE without requiring the invention of a new protocol.
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