Internet Control Message
Protocol (ICMP)
IP provides unreliable and
connectionless delivery
No error reporting, or
correcting mechanism
No management of queries
Error reporting vs. Error Correction
ICMP can only report an error to the original source
Up to the source to deal with it.
ICMP cannot be used to inform intermediate routers.
Source has no responsibility of routers problems.
ICMP messages
Type Message Type Message
3 Destination Unreachable 8 or 0 Echo request or reply
4 Source Quench 13 or 14 Timestamp
11 Time Exceeded 17 or 18 Address Mask
12 Parameter problem 10 or 9 Router Sollicitation/Adv
5 Redirection
General format of ICMP messages
Data section in
Error Messages carries information to find the original packet that had
the error
Rest of Header unused (all 0s), except for Redirection message format
Query Messages carries extra information based on type of the query.
Rest of Header = Identifier (8 bits) + Sequence Number (8 bits)
Error-reporting messages
Destination-unreachable (Type 3)
0 Network is unreachable 8 source host isolated
1 Host is unreachable 9 dest Network administratively prohibited
2 Protocol is unreachable 10 dest Host admin prohibited
3 Port is unreachable 11 Network unreachable for TOS
4 Fragmentation required 12 Host unreachable for TOS
5 Source routing not feasible 13 Administrator put a filter on Host
6 Network unknown 14 requested precedence not permitted
7 Host is unknown 15 Precedence was cut-off
ICMP destination unreachable message for codes = 2 and 3 only created by a
host
All others are created by a routers
!!! Routers cannot detect all Problems that prevent
the delivery of a packet.
Source-quench (type =4, code =0)
IP do not provide a flow-control mechanism
Source never knows if routers of destination is congested
A source-quench message informs
(1) informs the source of dropped packet
(2) inform of congestion along the path
(3) Source must slow down (quench) the sending of datagrams until the
congestion is relieved.
Time-exceeded message (Type 11)
If router receives a datagram with TTL = 0
Discard the datagram
Inform the source using a Time-exceeded message (code = 0)
If a host does not receive all fragments of a datagram
during within a certain time of receiving the first fragment
Discard all fragments
Inform the source using a Time-exceeded message (code = 1)
Code 0: used only by routers
Code 1: used only by Hosts
Parameter-problem message
A parameter problem message is created by a router or destination host
If there is an error or ambiguity in the header field (code = 0), pointer
points to the byte with problem
An option is missing or incorrect (code = 1) pointer not used
Router discards the datagram and sends a Parameter-problem message
Redirection message format
Updates to routers routing tables are dynamic
Updates to hosts routing tables are static
Code 0: Network specific
Code 1: Host specific
Code 2: Network specific (specified service)
Code 3: Host specific (specified service)
Query messages
Diagnose some network problems.
Timestamp-request and
timestamp-reply message format
Can be used to determine RTT needed for an IP datagram to travel
between two machines.
Timestamp-request and
timestamp-reply message
Can be used to synchronize two
machines clocks.
Example:
Recv = 83573336, Sender =
83573330;
With RTT = 2 ms, |diff| = 6 ms;
Recv = 83573336, Sender =
83573000;
With RTT = 2 ms; |diff|=336 ms
Router solicitation message format
An important issue is how to accommodate routers in the same network:
Designers provide Router solicitation message to request immediate
advertisement.
Host multicasts/broadcasts a router solicitation message
Router Advertisement
Static routing works well for a network that has only one
router
For a network with many routers, and if a router crashes,
then host uses router advertisement message.
ICMP route discovery
Mask-request and mask-reply message format
In general to request a subnet mask from a router
A machine can use Mask-request to get its subnet mask.
Echo-request and echo-reply message format
Designed for diagnosis purposes
Host or router can send a echo-request
Receivers echoes back the message with an echo-reply
Echo-request/reply used by network admin to test the reachability of a specific
host
