In computer networking, the Tunnel Setup Protocol (TSP) is an experimental networking control protocol used to negotiate IP tunnel setup parameters between a tunnel client host and a tunnel broker server, the tunnel end-points.^[1] A major use of TSP is in IPv6 transition mechanisms.

Parameter negotiation

The TSP protocol performs negotiation of the following parameters:

• User authentication using the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) protocol^[2]
• Tunnel encapsulation for a variety of tunneling scenarios:
  • IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels^[3]
  • IPv4 over IPv6 tunnels^[4]
  • IPv6 over UDP/IPv4 tunnels for built-in traversal of network address translators (NAT)
• IP address assignment for both tunnel endpoints
• Domain Name System (DNS) registration of end point addresses and reverse DNS
• Tunnel keep-alive mechanism as needed
• IPv6 address prefix assignment for routers
• Routing protocols

TSP Session

A TSP session is initiated by the TSP client in the goal of establishing an end-to-end tunnel with the TSP server (tunnel broker). The session consists of a basic exchange of XML-encoded data using TCP or UDP. After the negotiation of tunnel setup parameters, the session is terminated and the client undertakes the task of configuring its local tunnel endpoint.