From: The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org>
To: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce@ietf.org>
Cc: forces WG <forces@ietf.org>
Subject: WG Review: Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces)
The Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces) working group in
the Routing Area of the IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not
made any determination yet. The following draft charter was submitted,
and is provided for informational purposes only. Please send your
comments to the IESG mailing list (iesg at ietf.org) by 2013-05-06.
Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces)
------------------------------------------------
Current Status: Active Working Group
Chairs:
Jamal Hadi Salim <hadi@mojatatu.com>
Assigned Area Director:
Adrian Farrel <adrian@olddog.co.uk>
Mailing list
Address: forces@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/forces
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/forces/
Charter of Working Group:
The ForCES working group has created a framework, requirements, a
solution protocol, a logical function block library, and other
associated documents in support of Forwarding and Control Element
Separation.
Drawing on the experience gained from developing the standards and from
many efforts using this architecture, the ForCES working group is now
working on a set of additions to the model, the protocol, and the
libraries.
The following 5 work items are the chartered tasks of this working group:
o Extensions to Model and Protocol
This work is to address a set of extensions to the base model and
protocol resulting in updates to RFCs 5810 and 5812. This effort will
produce 2 Standards Track documents (one for the model and another for
the protocol).
The model extensions will:
1. Allow complex metadata
2. Allow optional default values for datatypes
3. Allow optional access-type for datatypes inside complex components
4. Define new base type: Bitmap
5. Define new events to monitor states.
The protocol extensions will:
1. Support table range query
2. Support table append
3. Define additional return codes to reduce ambiguity
4. Define data packing rule for bitmap datatype.
o Inter-FE Connectivity
ForCES processing is often spread across multiple Forwarding Elements
(FEs). The original framework identified the interface between FEs as
the "Fi" reference point. Protocol and Logigal Function Block (LFB)
mechanisms to carry metadata across the Fi interface are needed. This
effort will produce a standards track doument defining the protocol on
the wire to address this need, and the LFBs used to represent the
Interfaces for sending and receiving such information. It is expected
that this work will draw heavily on existing
protocol and LFB definitions.
o Parallelization
An FE can implement an LFB chain with parallelization, but the
currently-defined mechanism has no means to represent when
synchronization is needed, or to allow the CE to specify where it
believes such parallelism is useful. This work item will produce a
single standards track document to improve the handling of this case.
o Subsidiary Management
Deployment experience has demonstrated the value of using ForCES to
control the Forwarding Element Manager (FEM) by creating an LFB to
represent its function using the same encoding rules as for any other
LFB. This allows it to be controlled by the same Control Element (CE).
This work item assumes the presence of an initially booted FE whose
configuration could then be updated at runtime via an FEM LFB for
runtime config purposes (e.g., by adding a new CE and its associated
IP address). This work item can also be useful in addressing control
of virtual FEs where individual FEM Managers can be addressed to
control the creation, configuration, and resource assignment of
such virtual FEs within a physical FE. This work would result in a
standards track LFB FEM library RFC.
In addition to the specific work items listed above, the working group
will allow discussions and review work of how to use ForCES to model
topics of interest to Network Function Virtualization, I2RS, or
OpenFlow. It is understood that the primary responsibility for such
documents lives with other working groups, individual contributions, or
other standards bodies.
== Goals and Milestones ==
September 2013 Request for Publication of Standards Track document
specifying model changes
September 2013 Request for Publication of Standards Track document
specifying protocol changes
February 2014 Request for publication of Subsidiary management LFB
March 2014 Request for publication of Inter-FE LFB
March 2014 Request for publication of parallelization LFBs
April 2014 Recharter or shutdown
WG action announcement
WG Action Announcement
From: The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org>
To: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce@ietf.org>
Cc: forces WG <forces@ietf.org>
Subject: WG Action: Rechartered Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces)
The Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces) working group in
the Routing Area of the IETF has been rechartered. For additional
information please contact the Area Directors or the WG Chairs.
Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces)
------------------------------------------------
Current Status: Active Working Group
Chairs:
Damascane Joachimpillai <damascene.joachimpillai@verizon.com>
Jamal Hadi Salim <hadi@mojatatu.com>
Technical advisors:
Joel Halpern <jmh@joelhalpern.com>
Assigned Area Director:
Adrian Farrel <adrian@olddog.co.uk>
Mailing list
Address: forces@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/forces
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/forces/
Charter of Working Group:
The ForCES working group has created a framework, requirements, a
solution protocol, a logical function block library, and other
associated documents in support of Forwarding and Control Element
Separation.
Drawing on the experience gained from developing the standards and from
many efforts using this architecture, the ForCES working group is now
working on a set of additions to the model, the protocol, and the
libraries.
The following 5 work items are the chartered tasks of this working group:
o Extensions to Model and Protocol
This work is to address a set of extensions to the base model and
protocol resulting in updates to RFCs 5810 and 5812. This effort will
produce 2 Standards Track documents (one for the model and another for
the protocol).
The model extensions will:
1. Allow compound metadata
2. Allow optional default values for datatypes
3. Allow optional access-type for datatypes inside complex components
4. Define new base type: Bitmap
5. Define new events to monitor states.
The protocol extensions will:
1. Support table range query
2. Support table append
3. Define additional return codes to reduce ambiguity
4. Define data packing rule for bitmap datatype.
o Inter-FE Connectivity
ForCES processing is often spread across multiple Forwarding Elements
(FEs). The original framework identified the interface between FEs as
the "Fi" reference point. Protocol and Logical Function Block (LFB)
mechanisms to carry metadata across the Fi interface are needed. This
effort will produce a standards track document defining the protocol
on the wire to address this need, and the LFBs used to represent the
Interfaces for sending and receiving such information. It is expected
that this work will draw heavily on existing protocol and LFB
definitions.
o Parallelization
An FE can implement an LFB chain with parallelization, but the
currently-defined mechanism has no means to represent when
synchronization is needed, or to allow the CE to specify where it
believes such parallelism is useful. This work item will produce a
single standards track document to improve the handling of this case.
o Subsidiary Management
Deployment experience has demonstrated the value of using ForCES to
control the Forwarding Element Manager (FEM) by creating an LFB to
represent its function using the same encoding rules as for any other
LFB. This allows it to be controlled by the same Control Element (CE).
This work item assumes the presence of an initially booted FE whose
configuration could then be updated at runtime via an FEM LFB for
runtime config purposes (e.g., by adding a new CE and its associated
IP address). This work item can also be useful in addressing control
of virtual FEs where individual FEM Managers can be addressed to
control the creation, configuration, and resource assignment of
such virtual FEs within a physical FE. This work would result in a
standards track LFB FEM library RFC.
In addition to the specific work items listed above, the working group
will allow discussions and review work of how to use ForCES to model
topics of interest to Network Function Virtualization, I2RS, or
OpenFlow. It is understood that the primary responsibility for such
documents lives with other working groups, individual contributions, or
other standards bodies.
Milestones:
Done - Submit requirements document to IESG
Done - Submit framework document to IESG
Done - Submit forwarding element functional model document to IESG
Done - Submit formal definition of controlled objects in
functional model
Done - Submit protocol selection/definition document to IESG
Sep 2013 - Request for Publication of Standards Track document
specifying model changes
Sep 2013 - Request for Publication of Standards Track document
specifying protocol changes
Feb 2014 - Request for publication of Subsidiary management LFB
Mar 2014 - Request for publication of Inter-FE LFB
Mar 2014 - Request for publication of parallelization LFBs
Apr 2014 - Recharter or shutdown