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Contact Plan for Time-Variant Routing
draft-blanchet-tvr-contactplan-00

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Author Marc Blanchet
Last updated 2023-03-08
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draft-blanchet-tvr-contactplan-00
Internet Engineering Task Force                              M. Blanchet
Internet-Draft                                                  Viagenie
Intended status: Standards Track                            8 March 2023
Expires: 9 September 2023

                 Contact Plan for Time-Variant Routing
                   draft-blanchet-tvr-contactplan-00

Abstract

   Some networks, such as in space, have links that are up and down
   based on a known schedule.  The links characteristics, such as
   latency and bandwidth, are often also known in advance.  This
   document describes a data model, also known as contact plan or graph,
   and file format to be used as input to forwarding and routing
   engines.  This specification applies for both IP and Bundle Protocol.

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 9 September 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 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 to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Data Model and File Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  TODO or Comments (section to be deleted when ready for
           publication)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   Some networks, such as in space, have links that are up and down
   based on a known schedule.  The links characteristics, such as
   latency and bandwidth, are also known in advance.  This document
   describes a data model and file format to be used as input to
   forwarding and routing engines.

   For delay-tolerant networks using the Bundle Protocol(BP) [RFC9171],
   implementations have defined different formats ([iondtncp],
   [ionipncp], [ud3tncgf], [hdtncp]) for such data.  This specification
   aims to specify a common interoperable format.

   Since networks may have some combination of IP and BP, it is useful
   to have in a single file the contact plan for all types of networks
   and address space, hence this combined format.

   While this work is related to space communications, it could be
   applied to any use case that is using a contact plan. s

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Data Model and File Format

   The file is coded in JSON[RFC8259].

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   The file has the following first level properties:

   *  type: mandatory. always set to "tvrContactPlan".  This enables
      identification of that file outside of the expected context.

   *  version: mandatory. this document set to 1.  New specifications
      may define new versions.

   *  lastUpdated: mandatory. the last time this file was updated in
      [RFC3339] format

   *  contacts: mandatory. a non-empty array of contact objects/records
      as defined below.

   A contact record has an "address" family.  This document defines 4
   families: "ip4", "ip6", "ipn", "dtn".  Others may be added to the
   IANA registry (see Section 5).  Each address family has a different
   syntax as shown below.

   *  "ip4": addresses are expressed in CIDR format[RFC4632].  The
      /length suffix may be removed for a single /32 IPv4 address.

   *  "ip6": addresses are expressed in [RFC4291] format.  The /length
      suffix may be removed for a single /128 IPv6 address.

   *  "dtn" and "ipn": endpoint id are expressed using the URI syntax as
      described in [RFC9171].

   The "source", "next-hop" and "destination" are using this syntax.

   A contact record contains the following properties:

   *  id: mandatory. a unique identifier for this contact record
      expressed as a UUID [RFC4122]

   *  source: optional. single ip/bp node id. if unknown, do not
      specify.

   *  next-hop: optional. single ip/bp node id. if unknown, do not
      specify.

   *  destinations: mandatory. a non-empty list of ip/bp network
      prefixes

   *  start time: mandatory.  [RFC3339] format

   *  stop time: mandatory.  [RFC3339] format

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   *  bandwidth: optional. in bits/sec.

   *  latency: optional. in ms

   The following shows an example of a contact plan.

   <CODE BEGINS>
   {
       "type": "tvrContactPlan",
       "version": 1,
       "lastUpdated": "2025-01-17T23:20:50Z",
       "contacts": [
         {
           "id": "f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6",
           "family": "ip4",
           "source": "192.0.2.0",
           "destinations": ["198.51.100.0/24", "203.0.114.0/28", "192.0.3.1"],
           "nextHop": "203.0.113.1",
           "startTime": "1985-04-12T23:20:50Z",
           "stopTime": "1985-04-13T14:12:48Z",
           "bandwidth": 1000000,
           "latency": 30000
         },
         {
           "id": "f81d4fae-abcd-efgh-a765-00a0c91e6b88",
           "family": "ip6",
           "source": "2001:db8::1",
           "destinations": ["2001:db8:abcd::/48"],
           "nextHop": "2001:db8:3::1",
           "startTime": "2030-04-12T23:20:50Z",
           "stopTime": "2031-04-13T14:12:48Z",
           "bandwidth": 10000000,
           "latency": 300000
         },
         {
           "id": "659e4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6b04",
           "family": "dtn",
           "source": "dtn://ud3tn2.dtn/",
           "destinations": ["dtn://18471/","dtn://81491/"],
           "nextHop": "203.0.113.1",
           "startTime": "1985-04-12T23:20:50Z",
           "stopTime": "1985-04-13T14:12:48Z",
           "bandwidth": 1000000,
           "latency": 30000
         },
         {
           "id": "f81dab43-7dec-e8a2-a765-00a0c91e6bf6",
           "family": "ipn",

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           "destinations": "ipn:5.34",
           "nextHop": "ipn:7.43",
           "startTime": "1985-04-12T23:20:50Z",
           "stopTime": "1985-04-13T14:12:48Z",
           "bandwidth": 1000000,
           "latency": 30000
         }
       ]
   }
   <CODE ENDS>

3.  Considerations

   Some Bundle Protocol implementations have defined an interface where
   the add, change, delete actions are performed on contact info to
   update the underlying contact plan.  We believe this can be better
   accomplished at the API level, instead of within the file format.
   For example, if a REST API is used, the HTTP methods can be used for
   that purpose.

4.  TODO or Comments (section to be deleted when ready for publication)

   *  bp convergence layer syntax (FW: needed)

   *  wildcard for dtn as in ION

   *  notion of timezone: (FW: do not agree to have it)

   *  JSON schema

   *  Media-Type: application/json or specific one

   *  FW: extension mechanism for additional parameters: probability of
      contact.  (MB: IANA registry)

5.  IANA Considerations

   TBD: registry of "address family"

6.  Security Considerations

   TBD

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

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   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3339]  Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
              Timestamps", RFC 3339, DOI 10.17487/RFC3339, July 2002,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3339>.

   [RFC4122]  Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally
              Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4122, July 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4122>.

   [RFC4291]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
              Architecture", RFC 4291, DOI 10.17487/RFC4291, February
              2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4291>.

   [RFC4632]  Fuller, V. and T. Li, "Classless Inter-domain Routing
              (CIDR): The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation
              Plan", BCP 122, RFC 4632, DOI 10.17487/RFC4632, August
              2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4632>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8259]  Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", STD 90, RFC 8259,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8259, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8259>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC9171]  Burleigh, S., Fall, K., and E. Birrane, III, "Bundle
              Protocol Version 7", RFC 9171, DOI 10.17487/RFC9171,
              January 2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9171>.

   [ud3tncgf] "µD3TN Contacts Data Format", <https://gitlab.com/d3tn/
              ud3tn/-/blob/master/doc/contacts_data_format.md>.

   [hdtncp]   "High-rate Delay Tolerant Network Contact Plan Example",
              <https://github.com/nasa/HDTN/blob/master/module/
              scheduler/src/contactPlan.json>.

   [iondtncp] "ION "dtn" scheme configuration commands file",
              <https://sourceforge.net/p/ion-
              dtn/code/ci/current/tree/bpv7/doc/pod5/dtn2rc.pod>.

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   [ionipncp] "ION "ipn" scheme configuration commands file",
              <https://sourceforge.net/p/ion-
              dtn/code/ci/current/tree/bpv7/doc/pod5/ipnrc.pod>.

Acknowledgements

   This work is vastly inspired by Scott Burleigh's' Contact Graph
   Routing for DTN as implemented in ION as well as the contact plan of
   HDTN and uD3TN implementations.

   The following people have provided comments to improve this document:
   Felix Walter

Author's Address

   Marc Blanchet
   Viagenie
   Email: marc.blanchet@viagenie.ca

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