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Distributed SFC control operation
draft-bernardos-sfc-distributed-control-operation-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Carlos J. Bernardos , Alain Mourad
Last updated 2020-03-09
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draft-bernardos-sfc-distributed-control-operation-00
SFC WG                                                     CJ. Bernardos
Internet-Draft                                                      UC3M
Intended status: Experimental                                  A. Mourad
Expires: September 9, 2020                                  InterDigital
                                                           March 8, 2020

                   Distributed SFC control operation
          draft-bernardos-sfc-distributed-control-operation-00

Abstract

   Service function chaining (SFC) allows the instantiation of an
   ordered set of service functions and subsequent "steering" of traffic
   through them.  In order to set up and maintain SFC instances, a
   control plane is required, which typically is centralized.  In
   certain environments, such as fog computing ones, such centralized
   control might not be feasible, calling for distributed SFC control
   solutions.  This document describes a general framework for
   distributed SFC operation.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 9, 2020.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect

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   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Distributed SFC control operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.1.1.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a local monitoring
               event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.1.2.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a C-CTRL failure . .  10
       4.1.3.  C-CTRL gaining back control . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.2.  Inter P-CTRL seamless handover  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15

1.  Introduction

   Virtualization of functions provides operators with tools to deploy
   new services much faster, as compared to the traditional use of
   monolithic and tightly integrated dedicated machinery.  As a natural
   next step, mobile network operators need to re-think how to evolve
   their existing network infrastructures and how to deploy new ones to
   address the challenges posed by the increasing customers' demands, as
   well as by the huge competition among operators.  All these changes
   are triggering the need for a modification in the way operators and
   infrastructure providers operate their networks, as they need to
   significantly reduce the costs incurred in deploying a new service
   and operating it.  Some of the mechanisms that are being considered
   and already adopted by operators include: sharing of network
   infrastructure to reduce costs, virtualization of core servers
   running in data centers as a way of supporting their load-aware
   elastic dimensioning, and dynamic energy policies to reduce the
   monthly electricity bill.  However, this has proved to be tough to
   put in practice, and not enough.  Indeed, it is not easy to deploy
   new mechanisms in a running operational network due to the high
   dependency on proprietary (and sometime obscure) protocols and
   interfaces, which are complex to manage and often require configuring
   multiple devices in a decentralized way.

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   Service Functions are widely deployed and essential in many networks.
   These Service Functions provide a range of features such as security,
   WAN acceleration, and server load balancing.  Service Functions may
   be instantiated at different points in the network infrastructure
   such as data center, the WAN, the RAN, and even on mobile nodes.

   Service functions (SFs), also referred to as VNFs, or just functions,
   are hosted on compute, storage and networking resources.  The hosting
   environment of a function is called Service Function Provider or
   NFVI-PoP (using ETSI NFV terminology).

   Services are typically formed as a composition of SFs (VNFs), with
   each SF providing a specific function of the whole service.  Services
   also referred to as Network Services (NS), according to ETSI
   terminology.

   With the arrival of virtualization, the deployment model for service
   function is evolving to one where the traffic is steered through the
   functions wherever they are deployed (functions do not need to be
   deployed in the traffic path anymore).  For a given service, the
   abstracted view of the required service functions and the order in
   which they are to be applied is called a Service Function Chain
   (SFC).  An SFC is instantiated through selection of specific service
   function instances on specific network nodes to form a service graph:
   this is called a Service Function Path (SFP).  The service functions
   may be applied at any layer within the network protocol stack
   (network layer, transport layer, application layer, etc.).

   The concept of fog computing has emerged driven by the Internet of
   Things (IoT) due to the need of handling the data generated from the
   end-user devices.  The term fog is referred to any networked
   computational resource in the continuum between things and cloud.  A
   fog node may therefore be an infrastructure network node such as an
   eNodeB or gNodeB, an edge server, a customer premises equipment
   (CPE), or even a user equipment (UE) terminal node such as a laptop,
   a smartphone, or a computing unit on-board a vehicle, robot or drone.

   In fog computing, the functions composing an SFC are hosted on
   resources that are inherently heterogeneous, volatile and mobile
   [I-D.bernardos-sfc-fog-ran].  This means that resources might appear
   and disappear, and the connectivity characteristics between these
   resources may also change dynamically.  These scenarios call for
   distributed SFC control solutions, where there are SFC pseudo
   controllers, enabling autonomous SFC self-orchestration capabilities.
   The concept of SFC pseudo controller (P-CTRL) is described in
   [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control], as well different procedures
   for their discovery and initialization.

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   This document introduces a framework for local distributed SFC
   operation, by allowing P-CTRLs to temporarily substitute the central
   controller (C-CTRL) in its task to carry out the global lifecycle
   management of the given SFC.

2.  Terminology

   The following terms used in this document are defined by the IETF in
   [RFC7665]:

      Service Function (SF): a function that is responsible for specific
      treatment of received packets (e.g., firewall, load balancer).

      Service Function Chain (SFC): for a given service, the abstracted
      view of the required service functions and the order in which they
      are to be applied.  This is somehow equivalent to the Network
      Function Forwarding Graph (NF-FG) at ETSI.

      Service Function Forwarder (SFF): A service function forwarder is
      responsible for forwarding traffic to one or more connected
      service functions according to information carried in the SFC
      encapsulation, as well as handling traffic coming back from the
      SF.

      SFI: SF instance.

      Service Function Path (SFP): the selection of specific service
      function instances on specific network nodes to form a service
      graph through which an SFC is instantiated.

   The following terms are defined and used in this document:

      SFC Pseudo Controller (P-CTRL): logical entity
      [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control], complementing the SFC
      controller/orchestrator found in current architectures and
      deployments.  It is service specific, meaning that it is defined
      and meaningful in the context of a given network service.
      Compared to existing SFC controllers/orchestrators, which manage
      multiple SFCs instantiated over a common infrastructure, pseudo
      controllers are constrained to service specific lifecycle
      management.

      SFC Central Controller (C-CTRL): central control plane logical
      entity in charge of configuring and managing the SFC components
      [RFC7665].

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3.  Problem statement

   Mobile network architectures are evolving to support network
   virtualization and service function orchestration.  Current Service
   Function Chain (SFC) architectures [RFC7665] rely on a centralized
   controller/orchestrator (C-CTRL) which shall be connected to all the
   hosts participating in a given SFC.  This poses issues and
   inefficiencies in fog computing environments especially because of
   the mobility and volatility of some hosts, as well as the associated
   signaling overhead.

   These problems can be alleviated by enabling autonomous SFC self-
   orchestration (SOC), based on the concept of SFC pseudo controller
   (P-CTRL) introduced in [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control].  A
   pseudo controller is capable of substituting (at least temporarily
   and partially) the centralized SFC controller in situations where the
   centralized controller may not be able to perform its functions
   (e.g., when the connectivity with some hosts is broken).

   [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control] introduces the role of the
   SFC pseudo controller and describes mechanisms to select and
   initialize a service-specific SFC pseudo controller among host nodes
   which are participating in the SFC.  This document specifies
   mechanisms to enable an SFC pseudo controller trigger and control NS
   lifecycle management operations, such as migration of NS functions,
   chains or parts of a chain.

   Figure 1 shows an exemplary scenario where a host UE makes use of an
   NS composed of the chain of SFs F1-F2-F3.  These functions may be
   application functions -- using 3GPP jargon -- network functions or
   over-the-top functions.  Non-limiting examples of these functions
   are: load balancers, traffic steering, performance enhancement
   proxies (PEPs), video transcoders, firewalls, etc.  In this example,
   F1 instance runs on a first UE (node A), F2 instance runs on a second
   UE (node B), and F3 instance runs on a gNB (node D).  SFC pseudo
   controller instances are assumed running on UE node A and D (which is
   a gNB).  Node A and B are connected via D2D communications.  If all
   the UEs move out of the coverage of the gNB node D, the service chain
   will then need to be reconfigured to maintain service continuity as
   gNB node D is hosting one function (F3) of the chain and would become
   disconnected.  Since gNB node D is also providing the UEs with
   connectivity to the network infrastructure where the SFC central
   controller is hosted, this type of event cannot be resolved by the
   SFC controller, as the nodes hosting the functions would be
   disconnected from the central controller.  Similar problems arise in
   highly mobile/volatile and/or latency-demanding scenarios, where
   centralized lifecycle management becomes unsuitable.

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                                o
                         node B |
                       +--------|-+    F1+-.-.-+F2+-.-.-+F3 SFC
                       | ........ |
                <====  | |P-CTRL| |
                       | ........ |
                     +-.-.-+F2    |
            o       /  +---+------+                 ________
            |      .       .                      _(        )_
   +--------|-+   /       /                     _( +--------+ )_
   |          |  .       .                     (_  | C-CTRL |  _)
   |          | /       /                        (_+--------+_)
   |          |.       |                           (________)
   |     +-.-./        .
   |    F1    |        |         ( (oo) )
   +----------+        .  o         /\  ........
      node A           |  |        /\/\ |P-CTRL|
                 +-----.--|-+     /\/\/\........
                 |     |    |    /\/  \/\ (F3)
                 |     .    |      node D
          <====  |     |    |
                 |     +    |
                 |    F3    |
                 +----------+
                    node C

         Figure 1: Example scenario: disrupted SFC due to mobility

   In these scenarios, an SFC pseudo controller can substitute (at least
   temporarily and partially) the centralized SFC controller when the
   latter is not available or able to perform a given task.  This
   document proposes solutions addressing the following problem: How to
   enable SFC pseudo controllers to perform NS lifecycle management
   operations, such as migration of functions, service chains or parts
   of a chain?  This requires solving the sub-problems listed below.

   o  When a SFC centralized controller (C-CTRL) is in charge, what
      mechanisms and exchanges are needed between the C-CTRL and a SFC
      pseudo-controller (P-CTRL), and the nodes, so as to facilitate a
      seamless transition from C-CTRL to P-CTRL (due to an event, e.g.
      failure, of the C-CTRL)?

   o  When P-CTRL takes over from the C-CTRL, what actions shall it take
      towards other P-CTRLs, so as to sustain seamless transition if a
      first P-CTRL fails (e.g., moving from P-CTRL A to P-CTRL B)?

   o  When C-CTRL is back into the picture, how shall the control
      transfer seamlessly back from P-CTRL to C-CTRL?

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4.  Distributed SFC control operation

   A key concept is to allow a P-CTRL to take over temporarily and
   partially from the C-CTRL to perform NS lifecycle management
   decisions.  The definition, selection and initialization of a P-CTRL
   is covered in [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control].

   Using Figure 1, we can think of an example where a function (F3) is
   migrated from node D to node C, triggered by the move of nodes A and
   B hosting F1 and F2 away from the coverage of node D hosting F3
   (nodes A nd B are UEs within coverage of node D which is a gNB).  The
   P-CTRL in node B performs OAM operations locally and monitors the NS-
   specific SLAs.  Upon detecting or predicting that the NS-specific
   SLAs may not be met in the near future, P-CTRL A takes actions to
   temporary and partially substitute C-CTRL, and starts performing
   local NS lifecycle management operations (e.g., instantiating F3 on
   node C, since current hosting node -- node D --is predicted to become
   unreachable soon).

   Note that, in the previous example, the prediction and local NS
   lifecycle management operations could have been performed by P-CTRL
   running at node D as well.  We have assumed that the active
   (designated) P-CTRL is running at node B, but could have been at node
   D as well, which would imply the need to also migrate the active
   P-CTRL role to node B.

   Thanks to enabling P-CTRL B to perform local NS lifecycle management
   decisions, service continuity will be guaranteed when C-CTRL fails or
   is out of reach.

   The "activation" of P-CTRL operation only occurs when C-CTRL cannot
   properly operate (e.g., it is disconnected from the SFC or it is not
   reacting fast enough to the local changing conditions).  For example,
   P-CTRL can send a scaling command to a given node, in order to adapt
   the resources to the current NS demands.  P-CTRL would also notify
   this to C-CTRL, as soon as the connection to C-CTRL is recovered so
   that both are synchronized.

   In order to support the operation of P-CTRLs complementing or
   replacing the operation of the C-CTRL, the following operations are
   needed:

   o  When an NS is onboarded, the C-CTRL receives an NS descriptor
      (NSD), together with the VNF descriptors (VNFDs) of the functions
      composing the service, and the Operations, Administration and
      Maintenance Descriptor (OAMD), which includes the information of
      what needs to be monitored to ensure a given SLA.

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   o  When the NS is instantiated, in addition to the regular
      orchestration decisions (e.g., placement of functions on available
      resources, etc.), the C-CTRL, based on its knowledge of existing
      P-CTRLs, decides how monitoring is going to be performed.  This
      includes: (i) What is monitored by each P-CTRL node (e.g., vCPU
      load, bandwidth of a certain link, etc.) and how (e.g., active,
      passive or hybrid monitoring); (ii) Which orchestrators are in
      charge of collecting and processing the measurements.

   Currently defined mechanisms assume a semi-static environment and the
   standardized message flows do not support dynamic migration of the
   SFC controller role to other entities.  Therefore, new signaling
   flows need to be defined between C-CTRL and P-CTRLs and in-between
   P-CTRLs: (i) allowing prediction of events via local monitoring and
   faster reaction, (ii) enabling orchestration when C-CTRL is
   temporarily unreachable, and (iii) supporting migrating CTRL role to
   P-CTRLs.

4.1.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL

   There are two main triggers for a P-CTRL to take over from the
   C-CTRL: a local monitoring event or a C-CTRL failure.  We specify
   next the procedures for each of these two triggers.

4.1.1.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a local monitoring event

   In this case, the C-CTRL has delegated some monitoring actions to the
   P-CTRL, as indicated in the OAMD sent by the C-CTRL to the P-CTRL.

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   +---------+  +----+  +---------+ +---------+ +----------+   +------+
   | node A  |  | C  |  | node B  | | node D  | |   3GPP   |   | SFC  |
   |P-CTRL F1|  | F3 |  |P-CTRL F2| |P-CTRL F3| |ctrl plane|   |C-CTRL|
   +--+----+-+  +----+  +--+----+-+ +--+----+-+ +----------+   +------+
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |  F1@A<->F2@B<->F3@D SFC network service       |            |
      |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|<-.-.-.-.->|         |A.Serv. OAM |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |<-.-.-.-.-.>|
      |    |       |       |    |B.Serv. OAM monitor. |            |
      |    |       |       |    |-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|            |
      |    |       |       |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.|            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |C.Serv. OAM monitor. |            |
      |    |       |       |    |<-.-.-|    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|            |
      |    |       |       |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.|            |
      |    |       |       |    |-.-.->|    |         |            |
      |    | D.Serv. OAM monitor.      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |<-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |<-.-.-.-.->|    |         |            |
      |<-.>|<-.-.-.-.-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |    P-CTRL@B detects that it's  |         |            |
      |    |   loosing connectivity with D  |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    | Orch. signal. |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |<-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |  Sync. with C-CTRL  |            |
      |    |       |       |    |<.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |

    Figure 2: P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a local monitoring event

   A detailed message sequence chart is shown in Figure 2.  The
   different steps are described next:

   o  (We assume that the network service has been instantiated and
      there is traffic: F1@A--F2@B--F3@D).

   o  C-CTRL runs overall OAM monitoring of the network services.  This
      can be done for example by contacting the 3GPP network to obtain
      different network analytics via NEF.  This is shown in the figure
      as A.

   o  P-CTRLs are running service specific OAM monitoring actions, as
      indicated in the OAMD sent by the C-CTRL in the network service

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      instantiation procedure.  This requires signaling procedures.
      Various non-limiting example options are possible:

      *  The P-CTRL may directly obtain information metrics from
         different network functions through the network exposure
         function (NEF).  This is shown in the figure as B.

      *  The P-CTRL may indirectly obtain the information metrics
         through the local AF or NF hosted on the UE, which interacts
         with any other entity inside or outside 3GPP (e.g., AF to AF,
         NF to AF, or NF to NF) and then parse these on the interface to
         the P-CTRL.  If the function hosted on the UE is an NF, and the
         info is about 3GPP network data analytics, then the NF will go
         get some data from NWDAF and locally at the UE, expose these to
         the P-CTRL.  This is shown in the figure as C.

      *  In addition to the former (mutually exclusive approaches), it
         is also possible to perform local OAM monitoring via standalone
         procedures, such as local OAM monitoring and the use of SFC
         OAM.  This is shown in the figure as D.

      The interface between the P-CTRL and the SFC functions running on
      the UE to obtain OAM metrics may be a local API, or standard
      interface like IETF SFC OAM, or like the interface between 3GPP
      NWDAF and an NWDAF service consumer.

   o  At a certain point in time, a local monitoring event, which cannot
      be detected by the C-CTRL, triggers the whole process.  In the
      example of the figure P-CTRL@node B detects that B is losing
      connectivity with node D.

   o  The P-CTRL takes an orchestration decision based on its local
      knowledge and signals it to the involved nodes.  The decision
      consists in migrating/moving F3 from node D to C.  New extensions
      to MIPv6 are used, as described in TBD.  Alternatively, extensions
      to IETF SFC NSH can also be used, as described in TBD.

   o  The P-CTRL also informs the C-CTRL to keep it synchronized.
      Similarly, the C-CTRL can then update other P-CTRLs if needed.
      New extensions to NSH are used (NS lifecycle management), as
      described in TBD.

4.1.2.  P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a C-CTRL failure

   In this case, the P-CTRL detects/predicts a C-CTRL failure (e.g., it
   becomes unreachable).

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   +---------+  +----+  +---------+ +---------+ +----------+   +------+
   | node A  |  | C  |  | node B  | | node D  | |   3GPP   |   | SFC  |
   |P-CTRL F1|  | F3 |  |P-CTRL F2| |P-CTRL F3| |ctrl plane|   |C-CTRL|
   +--+----+-+  +----+  +--+----+-+ +--+----+-+ +----------+   +------+
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |  F1@A<->F2@B<->F3@D SFC  network service      |            |
      |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|<-.-.-.-.->|         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |   C-CTRL connectivity failure    |
      |    |       |       |    |<.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.->|
      |     P-CTRL@B detects that connectivity        |            |
      |    with C-CTRL is lost (or about to be)       |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      Sync with C-CTRL (if        |
      |    |       |       |    |      failure is predicted)       |
      |    |       |       |    |<.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.->|
      |    |     P-CTRL@B becomes the  |    |         |            |
      |    |     CTRL for the service  |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      | P-CTRL activation  |    |      |    |         |            |
      |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    | Orch. signal. |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |<-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.->|    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |

        Figure 3: P-CTRL taking over C-CTRL due to a C-CTRL failure

   A detailed message sequence chart is shown in Figure 3.  The
   different steps are described next:

   o  (We assume that the network service has been instantiated and
      there is traffic: F1@A--F2@B--F3@D).

   o  A failure can be detected by a P-CTRL via multiple mechanisms,
      such as: (i) Sending periodic keep-alive messages to the C-CTRL;
      (ii) Transport-layer mechanisms that allow detecting connectivity
      failures; (iii) Observing a lack of action from the C-CTRL upon an
      event that requires an orchestration action.

   o  A failure can also be predicted by a P-CTRL, by using local
      monitoring information.

   o  When a C-CTRL failure is detected, the designated backup P-CTRL
      takes over the orchestration of the network service, by:

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      *  Notifying other P-CTRLs, as well as selecting a new designated
         backup P-CTRL.  This involves the synchronization of relevant
         information (orchestration DBs, descriptors, etc.) with C-CTRL
         (if the failure is predicted).  This is done through new IETF
         SFC NSH extensions (NS lifecycle management), as described in
         TBD.

      *  The P-CTRL becoming the SFC controller/orchestrator.  From this
         point of time on, the P-CTRL can send orchestration signaling.
         Extensions to IETF NSH or MIPv6 can be used, as described in
         TBD and TBD.

4.1.3.  C-CTRL gaining back control

   We describe next, using an example, how a C-CTRL may get back the
   orchestration control, temporarily delegated to a P-CTRL.

   +---------+  +----+  +---------+ +---------+ +----------+   +------+
   | node A  |  | C  |  | node B  | | node D  | |   3GPP   |   | SFC  |
   |P-CTRL F1|  | F3 |  |P-CTRL F2| |P-CTRL F3| |ctrl plane|   |C-CTRL|
   +--+----+-+  +----+  +--+----+-+ +--+----+-+ +----------+   +------+
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |  Connectivity OK notification    |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |-.-.-.-.-.->|
      |    |       |       |-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |   Request to take over SFC control    |
      |    |       |       |<.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-|
      |    |       |       |       Orchestration state sync.       |
      |    |       |       |-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |         C-CTRL
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |         regains
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |         control
      |    |       |       |  Notification C-CTRL back in control  |
      |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-|
      |    |       |       |    |      |    |         |            |

                   Figure 4: C-CTRL gaining back control

   A detailed message sequence chart is shown in Figure 4.  The
   different steps are described next:

   o  When a C-CTRL loses connectivity with the nodes involved in a
      service, it enters into recovery mode, waiting for the
      connectivity to be recovered.  C-CTRL can learn that connectivity
      has been regained using NSH OAM signaling or 3GPP signaling from
      the NEF or the P-CTRL itself.

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   o  When connectivity is gained back to a P-CTRL, the C-CTRL signals
      its availability so the P-CTRL can give back the control of the
      service.  To do so, IETF SFC NSH extensions (NS lifecycle
      management) can be used, as described in TBD.

   o  The C-CTRL becomes now the active SFC controller/orchestrator for
      the service.

   o  The C-CTRL notifies to other P-CTRLs that it is back in control of
      the service, using IETF SFC NSH extensions (NS lifecycle
      management), as described in TBD.

4.2.  Inter P-CTRL seamless handover

   In scenarios with no C-CTRL reachability, it might be needed to
   transition from one P-CTRL to another one (e.g., because of mobility
   of the nodes while the C-CTRL is not reachable).

   Reactive transition is supported as for the case of C-CTRL failure.
   Proactive/seamless transition is addressed as follows.

   +---------+  +----+  +----+ +---------+ +----------+   +------+
   | node A  |  | C  |  | B  | | node D  | |   3GPP   |   | SFC  |
   |P-CTRL F1|  | F3 |  | F2 | |P-CTRL F3| |ctrl plane|   |C-CTRL|
   +--+----+-+  +----+  +----+ +--+----+-+ +----------+   +------+
      |    |       |       |      |    |         |            |
      |  F1@A<->F2@B<->F3@D SFC  network service |            |
      |    |<-.-.-.-.-.-.->|<-.-.-.-.->|         |            |
      |    |       |       |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       | P-CTRL@D can no     |            |
      |    |       |       | longer act as CTRL  |            |
      |    |       |       |      |    |         |            |
     Notification to other P-CTRLs|    |         |            |
      |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.|    |         |            |
     Request to take over control |    |         |            |
      |-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.>|    |         |            |
     Orchestration state sync     |    |         |            |
      |<-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.|    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |      |    |         |            |
   P-CTRL@A becomes|       |      |    |         |            |
     the CTRL for  |       |      |    |         |            |
     the service   |       |      |    |         |            |
      |    |       |       |      |    |         |            |

                 Figure 5: Inter P-CTRL seamless handover

   A detailed message sequence chart is shown in Figure 5.  The
   different steps are described next:

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   o  (We assume that the network service has been instantiated and
      there is traffic: F1@A--F2@B--F3@D).

   o  When the active (designated) P-CTRL detects that it might not be
      able to operate in the near future (lack of resources, battery,
      moving away, etc.), a notification is sent to other P-CTRLs using
      new IETF SFC NSH extensions (NS lifecycle management), as
      described in TBD.

   o  Each P-CTRL receiving the notification message that is ready to
      take over the role of active P-CTRL sends a message to the current
      P-CTRL, which selects one.  New IETF SFC NSH extensions are used
      to convey this signaling.

   o  At this point, the new P-CTRL becomes the SFC controller/
      orchestrator of the service.

5.  IANA Considerations

   N/A.

6.  Security Considerations

   TBD.

7.  Acknowledgments

   The work in this draft has been partially supported by the H2020
   5Growth (Grant 856709) and 5G-DIVE projects (Grant 859881).

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.bernardos-sfc-distributed-control]
              Bernardos, C. and A. Mourad, "Distributed SFC control for
              fog environments", draft-bernardos-sfc-distributed-
              control-01 (work in progress), January 2020.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.bernardos-sfc-fog-ran]
              Bernardos, C., Rahman, A., and A. Mourad, "Service
              Function Chaining Use Cases in Fog RAN", draft-bernardos-
              sfc-fog-ran-06 (work in progress), September 2019.

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   [RFC7665]  Halpern, J., Ed. and C. Pignataro, Ed., "Service Function
              Chaining (SFC) Architecture", RFC 7665,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7665, October 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7665>.

Authors' Addresses

   Carlos J. Bernardos
   Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
   Av. Universidad, 30
   Leganes, Madrid  28911
   Spain

   Phone: +34 91624 6236
   Email: cjbc@it.uc3m.es
   URI:   http://www.it.uc3m.es/cjbc/

   Alain Mourad
   InterDigital Europe

   Email: Alain.Mourad@InterDigital.com
   URI:   http://www.InterDigital.com/

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