Re: CARD: Address length in L2-ID parameter

Hi Marco,

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003, Marco Liebsch wrote:

> "...L2 id suboption should have address length field which MUST be
> used at least with with L2 type = 0x00."
>
> Maybe I misunderstood the issue, but the actual address length can
> be calculated from the L2-ID sub-option's Length indicator, which
> is always present, isn't it?

Yes, but the sub-option is padded to be a multiple of 32 bits long, based
on the way I understood 5.1.3. For example a 48-bit MAC address (and the
L2 id subotion) would not end on a 32-bit boundary without 8 bits of
padding.  And if you don't know the length of the address, you can't
determine where the padding starts.

To correct this there are IMO three alternatives: 1. the boundary
restriction needs to be relaxed or 2. the length of the address needs to
be specified in the packet format or 3. L2 type specification should be a
MUST and type 0x00 should be removed.

Henrik