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Tech Info - IP Message Formats

We got fed up one day looking for the definition of this stuff in a single place and that we could find in 1 minute - so we created our own. Not exhaustive - check the RFCs for the 'skinny'. You can get RFCs from the IETF.

If you have a high threshold of pain you may want to read about IP addressing, CIDR, subnets and netmask. Or if you are real smart get wireshark and let it do the interpretation for you. We have added a description of the IPv6 version.

Note: All of the field values defined within each protocol are not maintained within the protocol RFC itself but by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Association).

Contents

  1. IP header Defined by the venerable RFC 791.
  2. TCP header Defined by RFC 793
  3. UDP header Defined by RFC 768
  4. ICMP header Defined by RFC 950

IP Header

Octet Bits Len Name Notes
0 0-3 - Version 4 bits. IP version number. Current version is 4.
0 4-7 - Hdr length 4 bits. Length of IP header in 32 bit words (4 octets). Minimum valid is 5 (20 octets).
1 - 1 ToS 1 octet. Type of Service. Rarely used, often misused or abused.
bit 0-2: Precedence
bit 3: Delay 0 = normal 1 = low
bit 4: Throughtput 0 = normal 1 = high
bit 5: Reliability 0 = normal 1 = high
bit 6-7: Reserved
Precedence
111 Network Control
110 Internetwork Control
101 CRITIC/ECP
100 Flash override
011 Flash
010 Immediate
001 Priority
000 Routine
When used with Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) (RFC 3168) may take values defined here and here.
2-3 - 2 Total Length 2 Octets. Total length in octets of this packet starting from octet 0 of this header.
4-5 - 2 Identification 2 Octets. Sequence number used when fragmenting IP packets for a given media type.
6 0-3 - Flags 3 bits. Usage
bit 0 - not used = 0
bit 1 (DF) = 1 do not fragment
bit 2 (MF) = 1 more fragments to come
6-7 4-15 - Version 13 bits. Fragment start offset measured in 8 octet (64 bit) units. First fragment is zero.
8 - 1 TTL 1 octet. Time to Live. See notes.
9 - 1 Protocol 1 octet. Protocol. Some common values:
0 (0x00) IPv6 Hop-by-Hop Option
1 (0x01) ICMP protocol
2 (0x02) IGMP protocol
4 (0x04) IP over IP
6 (0x06) TCP protocol
17 (0x11) UDP protocol
41 (0x29) IPv6 protocol
Definitive list is here
10-11 - 1 Checksum 2 octets. See RFCs 1141 & 1624. Covers IP header ONLY.
12-15 - 4 Source 4 octets. Source IP address.
16-19 - 4 Destination 4 octets. Destination IP address.
20+ - ? IP Options Optional. If present must be padded to 32 bit multiples. Definitive list of options is here.
Notes:
  1. Time to Live originally involved a sense of time. It is now used as a simple, but very effective, count to prevent routing errors and loops. Every router that handles the packet decrements the TTL value and if it reaches zero the packet is returned with a ICMP Time Exceeded message. A trace route comand (tracert) is usually a series of ping commands with increasing values of the TTL parameter such that the packet will be returned from each successive router. Called a hop limit in IPv6 to clarify its use.

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ICMP Header

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is used to perform many network 'housekeeping' tasks. Each ICMP message has a slightly different format but the first 4 bytes are ALWAYS the same.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type ICMP Message Type
0 = echo reply(ping)
3 = destination unreachable
4 = source quench
5 = redirect (route change)
8 = echo request(ping)
11 = time exceeded
12 = Parameter problem
13 = timestamp request
14 = timestamp reply
17 = address mask request
18 = address mask reply
1 1 Code Code values are message specific.
2-3 2 Checksum -

Notes:

  1. Checksum is IP one's complement standard (RFCs 1141 and 1624).

ICMP Echo Request/Response (Ping)

In a ping operation the entire packet is echo'd (or pinged as in ping-pong) back to the sender. A trace route comand (tracert) is usually a series of ping commands with increasing values of the TTL parameter (in IP header) such that it will be returned from each successive router.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type Message Type
8 = Echo request
0 = echo reply
1 1 Code Code = 0
2-3 2 Checksum -
4-5 2 Identifier Used by sender to identify operation.
6-7 2 Sequence Used by sender to identify operation.
8+ ? Data Optional Data field.

ICMP Unreachable

The code field specifies the type of error.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type Message Type
1 = Host unreachable
1 1 Code 0 = Network unreachable
1 = Host unreachable
2 = Protocol unreachable
3 = Port unreachable
4 = Frag needed but DF set
5 = Source route failed
6 = Destination network unknown
7 = Destination host unknown
8 = Source host isolated
9 = Network access prohibited
10 = Host access prohibited
11 = Network unreachable for ToS
12 = Host unreachable for ToS
2-3 2 Checksum -
4-5 2 Not used Must be zero
6-7 2 Not used Must be zero
8+ ? User Packet IP header plus first 64 bits (8 octets) of failing datagram.

ICMP Source Quench

Great idea but most implementations seem to ignore this polite request to stop sending so much data.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type Message Type
4 = Source Quench
1 1 Code Always 0
2-3 2 Checksum -
4-5 2 Not used Must be zero
6-7 2 Not used Must be zero
8+ ? User Packet IP header plus first 64 bits (8 octets) of last datagram.

ICMP Redirect

Indicates the host should use the specified gateway to reach the IP address contained in the returned message.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type Message Type
5 = ICMP redirect
1 1 Code May take one of the following values 0 = redirect datagrams for net (obsolete)
1 = redirect datagrams for host
2 = redirect datagrams for ToS and net
3 = redirect datagrams for Tos and host
2-3 2 Checksum -
4-7 4 Gateway IP Specifies that, for the destination host in the returned datagram, this gateway should be used.
8+ ? User Packet IP header plus first 64 bits (8 octets) of failing datagram.

ICMP Time Exceeded

Message returned by the discovering router when the TTL count reaches 0 in the IP header or timeout problem with fragmentation.

Octet Len Name Notes
0 1 ICMP Type Message Type
11 = ICMP Time Exceeded
1 1 Code May take one of the following values 0 = Time to Live count = 0 (exceeded)
1 = fragment reassembly time exceeded
2-3 2 Checksum -
4-7 4 Unused must be zero.
8+ ? User Packet IP header plus first 64 bits (8 octets) of failing datagram.

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UDP Header

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a connectionless protocol and represents a lightweight method of sending and receiving data.

Octet Len Name Notes
0-1 2 Source port -
2-3 2 Destination Port Reserved (well-known) port numbers are here
4-5 2 UDP Length Length of UDP packet starting from Octet 0.
6-7 2 Checksum Optional. 0 = no checksum. The value 0xFFFFFFFF is a computed checksum of 0. See also UDP pseudo header
Notes
  1. UDP Checksum. If a UDP checksum is present (optional for IPv4, mandatory for IPv6) it is assumed to have a 'psuedo header' field of the following format prepended to the data:
    Octet Len Name Notes
    0-3 4 Source Source IP address
    4-7 4 Destination Destination IP address
    8 1 Zero Always zero
    9 1 Protocol Always 17 for UDP
    10-11 2 Length Length of UDP packet (excluding this psuedo header)

    The UDP checksum is computed by including the above 'pseudo header' plus the total UDP packet including the 'real' UDP header.

  2. Checksum is IP one's complement standard (RFCs 1141 and 1624).

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TCP Header

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a connection-oriented protocol (it has opens and closes and stuff) and provides secure data transfer (the protocol includes ACKs and stuff). You can get the same level of service using UDP but you have to 'hand-carve' the opening, closing and ACK processes. TCP is incredibly efficient and its windowing mechanism especially provides very fast network performance adaptive feedback. RFC 7414 provides a useful overview of all the relevant TCP parameters and options.

Octet Bits Len Name Notes
0-1 - 2 Source port -
2-3 - 2 Destination Port -
4-7 - 4 Sequence number position of last octet we sent.
8-11 - 4 Acknowledge Number Next octet number we expect from the peer.
12 0-3 - HLEN 4 bits. The number of 32 bit multiples (4 octets) in the TCP header including any 'options' fields.
12 4-7 - Reserved should be zero
13 - 1 Code bits 8 bits (6 used) valid if 1
bit 0 (URG) Urgent
bit 1 (ACK) Acknowledgement
bit 2 (PSH) Requests PUSH
bit 3 (RST) Reset connection
bit 4 (SYN) Sync sequence numbers
bit 5 (FIN) sender finished
14-15 - 2 Window Specifies the amount of data we can accept.
16-17 - 2 Checksum Standard IP checksum. Includes a TCP pseudo header.
18-19 - 2 Urgent pointer Points to end of urgent data.
TCP Options
TCP data
NOTES:
  1. The TCP checksum is assumed to have a 'psuedo header' field of the following format prepended to the data:
    Octet Len Name Notes
    0-3 4 Source Source IP address
    4-7 4 Destination Destination IP address
    8 1 Zero Always zero
    9 1 Protocol Always 6 for TCP
    10-11 2 Length Length of TCP packet (excluding this psuedo header)

    The TCP checksum is computed by including the above pseudo header plus the total TCP packet including the real TCP header.

  2. Checksum is IP one's complement standard (RFCs 1141 and 1624).

TCP Options

TCP allows a number of options sent with the SYN command. Option list MUST be padded with zeros (end of list option) to a multiple of 32 bits. Options may be one byte or multiple bytes (TLD - Type/Length/Data - format) in which case octet 2 is always the length value, octet 3+ contains data.

Big Deal: RFC 7323, the first TCP Option change for over 20 years, introduced new options to improve performance on high speed and high-delay networks.

Currently defined options are (exhaustive list is here):

Octet 0 Type Len Data Name
0 One byte 1 - End of option list
1 One byte 1 - Padding (MAY be used to align data)
2 TLD 4 max segment size Segment size option

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