[PATCH v2 7/7] Documentation: networking: add seg6_mobile guide

Yuya Kusakabe
2026-05-04T16:30:37Z

Document the six RFC 9433 Mobile User Plane behaviors implemented
by seg6_local, the SID layout used by the GTP behaviors, security
considerations (HMAC, SR-domain perimeter filtering), netfilter
integration with nf_hooks_lwtunnel, and the location of the
selftests.

Link: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9433
Signed-off-by: Yuya Kusakabe <yuya.kusakabe@gmail.com>
---
Documentation/networking/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/networking/seg6_mobile.rst | 236 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 237 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/index.rst b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
index 44a422ad3b05..90fa0ad223da 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ Contents:
sctp
secid
seg6-sysctl
+ seg6_mobile
skbuff
smc-sysctl
sriov
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/seg6_mobile.rst b/Documentation/networking/seg6_mobile.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6a268bedf3be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/networking/seg6_mobile.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=================================
+SRv6 Mobile User Plane (RFC 9433)
+=================================
+
+This document describes the SRv6 Mobile User Plane (MUP) behaviors
+implemented by the ``seg6_local`` lightweight tunnel. Six of the
+seven behaviors defined in `RFC 9433`_ are supported and configurable
+through ``ip route ... encap seg6local action ...``: End.MAP,
+End.M.GTP6.D, End.M.GTP6.D.Di, End.M.GTP6.E, End.M.GTP4.E, and
+H.M.GTP4.D.
+
+End.Limit (RFC 9433 Section 6.8) is unimplemented.
+
+.. _`RFC 9433`: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9433
+
+Behaviors
+=========
+
+End.MAP (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.2)
+---------------------------------
+
+Endpoint with SID mapping. Replaces the IPv6 destination address with
+the next SID; the SRH is left untouched. Standard SRv6 endpoint hop
+limit handling applies (an ICMP Time Exceeded is emitted when the IPv6
+Hop Limit would reach zero per RFC 9433 Section 6.2 S01-S03; the Hop
+Limit is decremented per S04 before forwarding). ``nh6`` selects the
+replacement SID::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8:f::/64 \
+ encap seg6local action End.MAP nh6 2001:db8:2::e \
+ dev <dev>
+
+End.M.GTP6.D (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.3)
+--------------------------------------
+
+Encapsulation endpoint that consumes IPv6/UDP/GTP-U and emits SRv6.
+The new SRH is built from the configured segment list, with the
+original outer IPv6 destination ``D`` of the inbound GTP-U packet
+stamped at SRH ``segments[0]`` (the ultimate destination of the SR
+Policy). The configured ``srh segs`` last entry is the remote
+End.M.GTP6.E SID and lands at SRH ``segments[1]``, the penultimate
+position required by RFC 9433 Section 6.5 Note; the kernel encodes
+``Args.Mob.Session`` into the locator-relative slice of that SID so
+that the egress End.M.GTP6.E peer can recover ``D`` (and hence the
+original gNB-side GTP-U destination) from ``segments[0]`` after its
+SRv6 strip::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8:f::/64 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP6.D \
+ srh segs 2001:db8:2::e \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 \
+ sr_prefix_len 64 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+``sr_prefix_len`` declares the locator length used by the remote
+End.M.GTP6.E SID and must match the prefix length configured on that
+remote endpoint; the SR Gateway has no way to discover the remote
+SID's locator length on its own.
+
+The wire SRH for the example above is
+``[D, 2001:db8:2::e | Args.Mob.Session]``: ``segments[0]`` is the
+saved original outer IPv6 DA of the GTP-U packet, and
+``segments[1]`` is the End.M.GTP6.E SID at the egress UPF in the
+penultimate position required by RFC 9433 Section 6.5.
+
+End.M.GTP6.D.Di (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.4)
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Drop-in variant of End.M.GTP6.D that preserves the original IPv6
+destination address as ``segments[0]`` (the last in-transit SID in the
+new SRH) and discards TEID/QFI rather than folding them into
+Args.Mob.Session. Useful when the upstream service expects the
+original destination to survive untouched::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8:f::/64 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP6.D.Di \
+ srh segs 2001:db8:2::e,2001:db8:3::e \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+End.M.GTP6.E (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.5)
+--------------------------------------
+
+Egress endpoint that decapsulates SRv6 and emits IPv6/UDP/GTP-U. The
+active SID carries the 40-bit ``Args.Mob.Session`` field defined in
+RFC 9433 Section 6.1 immediately after the locator; TEID and QFI are
+extracted from it. The route prefix length implicitly declares the
+locator length on this end of the tunnel; no explicit
+``sr_prefix_len`` is required because the SID is locally instantiated
+by this route::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8:e::/64 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP6.E src 2001:db8:2::1 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+The route prefix length must leave room for the 40-bit
+``Args.Mob.Session`` that immediately follows the locator, so the
+constraint ``prefix_len + 40 <= 128`` (i.e. ``prefix_len <= 88``)
+is enforced at install time.
+
+The optional ``pdu_type {dl|ul|<num>}`` attribute supplies the PDU
+Type field (3GPP TS 38.415 Section 5.5.2) of the GTP-U PDU Session
+Container. When set, every emitted packet carries the container with
+that PDU Type and the QFI from ``Args.Mob.Session``; when unset the
+kernel emits a short GTPv1-U header with no container, regardless of
+the QFI. ``pdu_type`` MUST be set on routes serving 5G N3 traffic;
+omitting it targets LTE-only / S1-U deployments. Numeric ``<num>``
+in 0..15 is also accepted (per TS 38.415 the field is 4 bits wide;
+2..15 are currently reserved).
+
+End.M.GTP4.E (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.6)
+--------------------------------------
+
+Egress endpoint that decapsulates SRv6 and emits IPv4/UDP/GTP-U.
+The SID encodes the IPv4 destination per RFC 9433 Section 6.6
+Figure 9. ``v4_mask_len`` declares the width of the IPv4 DA slice
+that immediately follows the locator (in 1..32, the constraint
+``locator + v4_mask_len + 40 <= 128`` is enforced at install time)::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8::/32 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP4.E \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 v4_mask_len 32 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+The IPv6 source address carries the IPv4 SA per RFC 9433 Section 6.6
+Figure 10. ``v6_src_prefix_len`` declares the Source UPF Prefix
+length P in bits (1..127, default 64); the IPv4 SA slice is then
+``v4_mask_len`` bits wide starting at bit offset P. The kernel
+always reads a 32-bit window from the configured ``src`` template at
+offset P (the upper ``v4_mask_len`` bits are overlaid with the
+recovered IPv4 SA), so the constraint ``v6_src_prefix_len <= 96``
+(equivalently ``v6_src_prefix_len + 32 <= 128``) is enforced at
+install time. Bits outside the IPv4 SA slice are taken verbatim
+from the configured ``src`` template::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8::/32 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP4.E \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 v4_mask_len 32 v6_src_prefix_len 64 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+``pdu_type`` takes the same values and has the same effect as on
+End.M.GTP6.E (see above).
+
+H.M.GTP4.D (`RFC 9433`_ Section 6.7)
+------------------------------------
+
+Headend behavior that consumes IPv4/UDP/GTP-U and emits IPv6 with
+the SID encoding the original IPv4 destination plus Args.Mob.Session
+per RFC 9433 Section 6.7 Figure 11::
+
+ ip -4 route add 10.99.0.0/24 \
+ encap seg6local action H.M.GTP4.D \
+ nh6 2001:db8:: \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 \
+ v4_mask_len 32 sr_prefix_len 32 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+The inbound IPv4 SA is encoded into the IPv6 SA using the same
+Figure 10 layout as End.M.GTP4.E (controlled by ``v6_src_prefix_len``,
+default 64).
+
+Per-route VRF / interface binding
+=================================
+
+The five GTP-related behaviors (End.M.GTP4.E, End.M.GTP6.E,
+End.M.GTP6.D, End.M.GTP6.D.Di and H.M.GTP4.D) accept the standard
+``oif`` ``seg6_local`` attribute to bind their egress lookup to a
+specific output interface or VRF device. This lets operators keep
+the SRv6 underlay, the N3 reference point (toward gNB) and the N6
+reference point (toward the data network) on separate routing tables
+or VLAN sub-interfaces, which matches typical multi-tenant
+deployments::
+
+ ip -6 route add 2001:db8:e::/64 \
+ encap seg6local action End.M.GTP6.E \
+ src 2001:db8:2::1 \
+ oif vrf-n3 \
+ dev <dev>
+
+Without ``oif`` the egress lookup uses the default routing table.
+
+Netfilter integration
+=====================
+
+The five GTP-related behaviors expose IPv4 / IPv6 inner T-PDUs to
+``NF_INET_PRE_ROUTING`` between the outer strip and the new outer
+push (mirroring ``End.DX4`` / ``End.DX6``), so iptables / nftables /
+conntrack can apply policy on the inner 5-tuple before
+re-encapsulation. Non-IP inner payloads bypass the hook and are
+re-encapsulated unchanged.
+
+Enable with::
+
+ sysctl -w net.netfilter.nf_hooks_lwtunnel=1
+
+This sysctl is one-way: it cannot be cleared without reloading the
+kernel (see :doc:`nf_conntrack-sysctl`).
+
+Example: drop traffic from a UE address on an ``End.M.GTP6.D`` SR
+Gateway::
+
+ nft add table ip filter
+ nft 'add chain ip filter prerouting \
+ { type filter hook prerouting priority 0; }'
+ nft add rule ip filter prerouting \
+ ip saddr 10.0.0.42 counter drop
+
+GTP-U non-T-PDU handling
+========================
+
+The three GTP-U decap behaviors (``End.M.GTP6.D``,
+``End.M.GTP6.D.Di`` and ``H.M.GTP4.D``) only encapsulate ``T-PDU``
+frames (3GPP TS 29.281 Section 5.1, message type 255) into SRv6.
+Any other GTP-U message (``Echo Request``/``Echo Response``,
+``Error Indication``, ``Supported Extension Headers Notification``,
+...) is forwarded unchanged toward its IPv4 / IPv6 destination as
+a regular packet, so a downstream UPF that owns the GTP-U control
+plane can process it.
+
+The downstream UPF must therefore live behind the SR Gateway, on
+the IPv4 / IPv6 network the GTP-U destination is reachable through.
+Assigning the UPF's address to a local interface on the SR Gateway
+is not a supported topology: the SR Gateway cannot at the same
+time intercept ``T-PDU`` for SRv6 encapsulation and deliver
+non-T-PDU GTP-U to a local userspace socket addressed to the same
+destination.
+
+Debugging
+=========
+
+The SRv6 Mobile data path drops malformed or out-of-policy packets via
+the standard skb drop-reason infrastructure (``SEG6_MOBILE_*`` in
+``include/net/dropreason-core.h``) rather than silent ``-EINVAL``, so
+the cause is observable via the ``skb:kfree_skb`` tracepoint.

--
2.50.1