Ouroboros Protocols

 This page is under construction  

The protocols in Ouroboros are designed with strong adherence to the principles of separation of concerns and separation of mechanism and policy in mind to prevent network ossification and protocol ossification from occuring.

There are 5 core protocols in Ouroboros.

Data Transfer Protocol

Main page: Ouroboros Data Transfer Protocol

The Data Transfer Protocol resides in the network forwarding layer.

  0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +                      Destination Address                      +
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Time-to-Live |      QoS      |      ECN      |    PADDING    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +                              EID                              +
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +                           N + 1 Data                          +
 .                                                               .
 .                                                               .

Flow and Retransmission Control Protocol

Main page: Flow and Retransmission Control Protocol

The Flow and Retransmission Control Protocol resides in the application end-to-end layer.

  0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |            Flags              |            Window             |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                        Sequence Number                        |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                    Acknowledgment Number                      |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Flow Allocation Protocol

Main page: Ouroboros Flow Allocation Protocol

Client (IRMd)                              Server (IRMd)
     |                                           |
     | 1. Load client cert/key                   |
     | 2. Generate ephemeral keypair             |
     | 3. Build OAP_HDR (id, ts, crt, eph)       |
     | 4. Sign header with client key            |
     |                                           |
     |-------- FLOW_REQ (OAP_HDR) -------------> |
     |                                           |
     |                                           | 5. Load server cert/key
     |                                           | 6. Verify client cert against CA
     |                                           | 7. Verify client signature
     |                                           | 8. Generate ephemeral keypair
     |                                           | 9. Derive symmetric key (ECDHE)
     |                                           | 10. Build response OAP_HDR
     |                                           | 11. Sign with server key
     |                                           |
     |<------- FLOW_REPLY (OAP_HDR) ------------ |
     |                                           |
     | 12. Verify server cert against CA         |
     | 13. Verify server signature               |
     | 14. Derive symmetric key (ECDHE)          |
     |                                           |
     |===========================================|
     |         Encrypted data channel            |
     |===========================================|

The Flow Allocation Protocol resides in the network end-to-end layer.

Connection Establishment Protocol

Main page: Ouroboros Connection Establishment Protocol

Enrollment Protocol

Main page: Ouroboros Enrolment Protocol

The Enrollment protocol is best seen as one of the application protocols for IPCPs.