Receipt of a PathTear (path teardown) message deletes matching path state. Matching state must have match the SESSION, SENDER_TEMPLATE, and PHOP objects. In addition, a PathTear message for a multicast session can only match path state for the incoming interface on which the PathTear arrived. If there is no matching path state, a PathTear message should be discarded and not forwarded.
PathTear messages are initiated explicitly by senders or by path state timeout in any node, and they travel downstream towards all receivers. A unicast PathTear must not be forwarded if there is path state for the same (session, sender) pair but a different PHOP. Forwarding of multicast PathTear messages is governed by the rules of Section 3.9.
A PathTear message must be routed exactly like the corresponding Path message. Therefore, its IP destination address must be the session DestAddress, and its IP source address must be the sender address from the path state being torn down.
<PathTear Message> ::= <Common Header> [ <INTEGRITY> ]
<SESSION> <RSVP_HOP>
[ <sender descriptor> ]
<sender descriptor> ::= (see earlier definition)
A PathTear message may include a SENDER_TSPEC or ADSPEC object in its sender descriptor, but these must be ignored. The order requirements are as given earlier for a Path message, but the above order is recommended.
Deletion of path state as the result of a PathTear message or a timeout must also adjust related reservation state as required to maintain consistency in the local node. The adjustment depends upon the reservation style. For example, suppose a PathTear deletes the path state for a sender S. If the style specifies explicit sender selection (FF or SE), any reservation with a filter spec matching S should be deleted; if the style has wildcard sender selection (WF), the reservation should be deleted if S is the last sender to the session. These reservation changes should not trigger an immediate Resv refresh message, since the PathTear message has already made the required changes upstream. They should not trigger a ResvErr message, since the result could be to generate a shower of such messages.