IANAifType-MIB

Defines the IANAifType textual convention, an IANA-maintained enumeration of network interface types used in the IF-MIB ifType object.

IANAifType-MIB is a vendor-neutral IETF/IANA-maintained MIB module that defines a single textual convention, IANAifType, enumerating the standardized set of network interface type codes (ethernet-csmacd, ppp, ds1, atm, tunnel, etc.) used by the ifType object in the ubiquitous IF-MIB's ifTable. It contains no scalars, tables, or notifications of its own; it is purely a data-type/enumeration definition module, centrally maintained by IANA and updated as new interface technologies are standardized. It has no direct monitoring role for hardware or software status by itself, but it is essential supporting infrastructure for interface-status monitoring everywhere, since every polled ifType value on every SNMP-managed device is drawn from this enumeration. It is a required dependency of IF-MIB (RFC 2863) and, transitively, of virtually any MIB that models network interfaces, which is why administrators and MIB compilers alike look up the IANAifType-MIB module whenever they need to decode an unfamiliar ifType numeric value. It's deployed universally, wherever SNMP-managed devices with network interfaces (routers, switches, servers, etc.) are polled.

This module defines only the IANAifType textual convention (an enumerated type) with no runtime tables or scalars of its own, so there is no monitoring scenario to describe directly; it is exercised indirectly whenever a management station reads IF-MIB's ifType and needs to interpret the returned enumeration value, e.g. distinguishing ethernetCsmacd from ds1 or tunnel interfaces.

IANA-maintained MIB defining the IANAifType textual convention for interface type enumeration values (RFC 2863).