IP in IP is an
IP tunneling protocol that encapsulates one
IP packet in another IP packet. To encapsulate an IP packet in another IP packet, an outer header is added with
Source IP
, the entry point of the tunnel, and
Destination IP
, the exit point of the tunnel. While doing this, the inner packet is unmodified (except the
TTL
field, which is decremented). The
Don't Fragment
and the
Type Of Service
fields should be copied to the outer packet. If the packet size, including the outer header, is greater than the
Path MTU
, the encapsulator fragments the packet. The decapsulator will reassemble the packet.
IP packet encapsulated in IP packet
Outer IP header has the following fields:
Version: 4 bits
This field is the Protocol version number. It is always 4 as IP in IP is supported for IPv4
Header Length: 4 bits
This field is the length of outer IP header
Type of Service (TOS): 8 bits
This field is copied from the inner IP header
Total Length: 16 bits
This field is the length of the encapsulated IP packet (including Outer IP Header, Inner IP Header, IP Payload)
Identification: 16 bits
This field is used to identify the fragments of a datagram which will be helpful while reassembling the datagram as the encapsulator might fragment the datagram. For the Outer IP Header, a new number is generated.
Flags: 3 bits
R: 1 bit
This bit is reserved and should be 0.
DF: 1 bit
This field specifies whether the datagram can be fragmented or not. If this bit is set to 1 in the inner header, then the outer header also have this bit set to 1 saying that this datagram cannot be fragmented. If this bit is set to 0 in the inner header, then the outer header may set to 0/1.
MF: 1 bit
This field is required when the datagram is fragmented saying whether the datagram contains some more fragments. This field is not copied from inner header.
Fragment Offset: 13 bits
This field is used while reassembling the fragments.
Time to live (TTL): 8 bits
This field is used to track the lifetime of the datagram. The inner header TTL is decremented before encapsulation and is not changed in decapsulator. The outer header TTL is set to value such that the datagram is delivered to tunnel end point.
Protocol: 8 bits
This field indicates the protocol of the datagram following this header. The value is set to 4 for IP in IP.
Header Checksum: 16 bits
This field is the IP checksum of outer header.
Source IP Address: 32 bits
This field is the IP address of the encapsulator
Destination IP Address: 32 bits
This field is the IP address of the decapsulator
Options: Variable length
This field in general is NOT copied from the inner IP header. New options can be added.
Padding. Variable length.
This field is used to fill the datagram so that IP Payload starts on a 32 bit boundary.
See also
*
Internet Control Message Protocol
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a supporting protocol in the Internet protocol suite. It is used by network devices, including routers, to send error messages and operational information indicating success or failure when communi ...
(ICMP)
*
Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
*
6in4
*
4in6
4in6 refers to tunneling of IPv4 in IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system fo ...
References
RFC 1853 - IP in IP TunnelingRFC 2003 - IP Encapsulation within IP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ip In Ip
Internet Protocol
Tunneling protocols