Toshiba's Flow Attribute Notification Protocol (FANP) Specification

This memo discusses Flow Attribute Notification Protocol (FANP), which is a protocol between neighbor nodes for the management of cut-through packet forwarding functionalities. In cut-through packet forwarding, a router doesn’t have to perform conventional IP packet processing for received packets. FANP indicates mapping information between a datalink connection and a packet flow to the neighbor node and helps a pair of nodes manage the mapping information. By using FANP, routers (e.g., CSR; Cell Switch Router) can forward incoming packets based on their datalink-level connection identifiers, bypassing usual IP packet processing. The design policy of the FANP is;