Preferred Path Loop-Free Alternate (pLFA)
draft-bryant-rtgwg-plfa-03
Routing Area Working Group S. Bryant
Internet-Draft University of Surrey
Intended status: Informational U. Chunduri
Expires: June 27, 2022 Intel
T. Eckert
Futurewei Technologies Inc
December 24, 2021
Preferred Path Loop-Free Alternate (pLFA)
draft-bryant-rtgwg-plfa-03
Abstract
Fast re-route (FRR) is a technique that allows productive forwarding
to continue in a network after a failure has occurred, but before the
network has has time to re-converge. This is achieved by forwarding
a packet on an alternate path that will not result in the packet
looping. Preferred Path Routing (PPR) provides a method of injecting
explicit paths into the routing protocol. The use of PPR to support
FRR has a number of advantages. This document describes the
advantages of using PPR to provide a loop-free alternate FRR path,
and provides a framework for its use in this application.
Status of This Memo
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. A Note on the term IPFRR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. PPR Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Preferred Path LFA (pLFA) Deployment Advantages . . . . . . . 4
4. Simple Repair Using pLFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Link Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2. Node Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3. Shared Risk Link Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.4. Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.5. Multiple Independent Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.6. Multi-homed Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.7. ECMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. Repair To A Traffic Engineered Alternate Path . . . . . . . . 10
6. Use of a Repair Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1. Single Repair Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.2. Multiple Disjoint Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7. Centralized and Decentralized Approaches . . . . . . . . . . 13
8. Independence of operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9. Data-plane Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9.1. Traditional IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
9.2. Segment Routing over an IPv6 Data Plane (SRv6) . . . . . 15
9.3. MPLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10. Loop Free Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
11. OAM Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
12. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
13. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
14. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
15.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
15.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Introduction
Preferred Path Routing (PPR)
[I-D.chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing] is a method of
introducing explicit paths to a network. Such a path may be any
loop-free path between two points in the network that satisfies the
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need for which the path was created. The PPR path is not constrained
to be the shortest path between any points in the network, although
the use of shortest path segments is provided for in order to
compress the size of the path description flooded by the routing
protocol. The advantages of PPR over alternate methods of creating
such paths is described in
[I-D.chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing].
A packet is carried over the network in an appropriate form using the
Preferred Path Routing Identifier (PPR-ID) as the data plane
identifier to map the packet to the PPR path, and hence the resources
and next-hop (NH). One way of adding a PPR-ID to a packet would be
to encapsulate it, but PPR does not restrict the user to the use of
encapsulation. How the PPR-ID is carried in the general case is
outside the scope of this document. Various methods of adding the
PPR-ID to a packet for the purposes of Fast-Reroute (FRR) are
described in Section 9.
IP Fast Re-route (IPFRR) Section 1.1 and the methods known at the
time of its writing is described in [RFC5714]. A number of later
methods are described in [RFC6981], [RFC7490], [RFC7812] and
[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa].
This document is a framework describing various methods whereby PPR
can be used to provide IP Fast Reroute (IPFRR) paths. PPR can
provide IPFRR in a number of ways.
o Signaling pre-computed preferred alternatives for the primary path
o Signaling individual segments on the repair path. o Selective
overriding of locally computed Loop Free Alternates (LFA) for the NH
failure. o Local repair to a Traffic Engineered paths avoiding the
need for multi-hop Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
[RFC5880]. o Micro-loop elimination [RFC5715].
These are described in more detail within this memo.
1.1. A Note on the term IPFRR
The term IP fast re-route (IPFRR) was adopted by the IETF as the
general name for best-effort Fast Re-route (FRR) in best effort IP
and MPLS networks. This was to distinguish this new work from the
then established FRR as described in [RFC4090] which uses RSVP
Traffic Engineered (RSVP-TE) MPLS paths [RFC3936].
Within this document the terms IPFRR and FRR are used
interchangeably.
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2. PPR Overview
PPR works by injecting into the network a path or a graph and a
corresponding forwarding identifier (PPR-ID). A node examines each
PPR path description and if it is on the path it inserts into the
Forwarding Information Database (FIB) an entry for the PPR-ID with
the next hop as either the next entry along the PPR path, or if a
loose path is specified, the next hop on the shortest path to the
next hop along the PPR path. This is described in
[I-D.chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing].
PPR also has the ability to inject into a network a tree rooted at a
node identified a PPR-ID. This is described in
[I-D.ce-lsr-ppr-graph]. This graph mechanism provides a compact
representation of a set of paths to a given PPR-ID. This works in a
similar manner to the linear path case, in which a node on the graph
inserts a FIB entry for the PPR-ID with the next hop as either the
next node in the graph, or the next hop on the shortest path to the
next node in the graph. Clearly the graph needs to be a spanning
tree and must not contain a cycle.
In the description of the FRR methods provided in the text, the term
encapsulation (and decapsulation) is frequently used in connection
with the addition (and removal) of a PPR-ID to be used by the
forwarding later to identify to the forwarders the PPR path that the
packet needs to traverse to be follow the repair path. Encapsulation
is only one of a number of methods that can be used and is used in
this memo as a convenience without loss of generality. For more
information see Section 9.
3. Preferred Path LFA (pLFA) Deployment Advantages
PPR allows the construction of arbitrary engineered backup paths. In
this respect it is like similar to RSVP-TE and Topology Independent
Loop-Free Alternates (TI-LFA)
[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa]. However, unlike those
approaches PPR is applicable to any forwarding plane. For example,
it is possible to support MPLS, both IPv4 and IPv6 and Ethernet.
Like Segment Routing (SR) [RFC8402], PPR uses extensions to the
existing IGP, however, unlike SR, PPR requires no extension to the
data plane. Again, unlike SR, which requires a Segment Identifier
(SID) in the network layer header for every non-shortest path
forwarding instruction, an arbitrary path does not require expansion
of the user data packet beyond that needed for the initial insertion
of the PPR-ID. This mitigates the MTU stress that SR introduces to
the network.
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PPR based IPFRR supports 100% failure coverage similar to RSVP-TE
[RFC4090], TI-LFA, Maximally Redundant Trees (MRT) [RFC7812] and Not-
Via [RFC6981]. It does not have the coverage restrictions that apply
to Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) [RFC5286] and Remote LFA (RLFA)
[RFC7490].
Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLGs) make it more difficult find repairs
in LFA and RLFA reducing repair coverage. TI-LFA can address this,
but only at a cost of expanding the number of SIDs and hence the
packet size.
Supporting multiple concurrent failures is difficult in all of the
IPRFF approaches except MRT, which can repair two concurrent
failures. However unlike MRT, which is constrained by its network
wide algorithm, PPR allows individual, arbitrary repair paths to
instantiated, for any failure.
In the current TI-LFA design, priority is given to repairing
connectivity rather than conforming to the operator traffic policy.
A PPR based FFR approach can apply policy to the repaired traffic,
including, if required multiple policies to an individual failure.
One of the main advantages of TI-LFA compared to other IPFRR
approaches is that it creates repair paths that are congruent with
the post convergence path from the Point of Local Repair (PLR)
[RFC4090] to the destination. These paths, which may be longer than
strictly necessary to reach Q-space [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels], stop
micro-loops from forming along the repair path during re-convergence.
PPR can also create these congruent paths without the need to
introduce SR into the network.
One of the limitations in TI-LFA, RLFA and LFA is that they do not
have a method of selectively creating alternative next-hops or indeed
full repair paths based on policy, or traffic engineering information
known to the operator. PPR provides a simple way to inject arbitrary
paths. It may therefore be used to enhance an existing LFA/RLFA/TI-
LFA IPFRR enabled network by selectively injecting paths to provide a
repair for business critical links with a policy in the PLR that
where provided a PPR path should be preferred over a local calculated
LFA based paths.
PPR is applicable to both centralized and PLR computed repair paths
each of which has advantages in different circumstances. A centrally
computed repair path only requires interaction with one network node
which then floods the instruction. This differs from the normal SDN
approach which requires interaction with all of the nodes along the
path and RSVP-TE which requires interaction with at least one end-
point of every repair.
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Like TI-LFA, pLFA is based on a small extension to the IGP. It uses
the IGP flooding mechanism and in-built state maintenance and
consistency checks. This contrasts with RSVP-TE which needs its own
separate Signaling and soft-state maintenance method.
The requirement that the pLFA solution addresses is thus the ability
to construct repair paths that conform to operator policy without
data-plane changes or significant MTU increase, and without
introducing any control plane changes other than a small addition to
the existing IGP.
A more detailed technical comparison between pLFA and the existing
solutions is provided in the technical description of pLFA that
follows.
4. Simple Repair Using pLFA
4.1. Link Repair
In this, the most basic, scenario Figure 1 we assume that we have a
path A-B-C-D that the packet must traverse. This may be a normal
best effort path or a traffic engineered path.
c'
A---B--//--C---D
| |
E---F--G
f'
Figure 1: Simple IPFRR Using pLFA
PPR is used to inject the repair path B->E->F->G->C into the network
with a PPR-ID of c'. B is monitoring the health of link B->C, for
example looking for loss-of-light, or using Bidirectional Forwarding
Detection (BFD) [RFC5880]. When B detects a failure it encapsulates
the packet to C by adding to the packet the PPR-ID for c' and sending
it to E. At C the packet is decapsulated and sent to D. The path
C->E->F->G->C may be a traffic engineered path or it may be a best
effort path. B may have at its disposal multiple paths to C with
different properties for different traffic classes. In this case
each path to be used would require its own PPR-ID (c', c'' etc).
In some circumstances, the repair path may be terminated at another
point in Q-space or at a node between C and D. For example, in
Figure 1 if all costs are 1, F is in Q-space with respect to a B->C
failure (F->G->C cost = 2, whilst F->E->B->C cost = 3) and thus the
packet can safely be encapsulated and send to F with a PPR-ID of f'.
Releasing the packet early in Q-space has two advantages, firstly the
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packet can take a shorter path to its destination if one is available
rather than traveling to the far side of the failure and then back
tracking.
Releasing a packet in Q-space also reduces the size of the PPR path
that needs to be advertised, and potentially allows a repair path to
be shared among a number of failures. For example in Figure 2 G with
PPR-ID g' via B->E->F->G can be used to provide an IPFRR path for the
failure of both B->C and B->H.
c'
A---B--//--C---D
|\ |
| H--+ |
| \|
E---F--G
g'
Figure 2: Simple IPFRR Using pLFA With Shared Repair
Shared paths are useful in reducing the number of PPR paths that need
to be flooded to support FRR.
Note that where the packet takes the shortest path to the point in
Q-space that is closest to the destination, it will be taking a path
that is congruent with the post convergence path from the PLR to the
destination. This is the path that TI-LFA chooses to avoid its loop-
free convergence. However this is not the only loop-free strategy
available to a pLFA based solution.
4.2. Node Repair
Consider the network fragment shown in Figure 3 taken from
[I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels], and consider that node A needs to deal
with the possible failure of node E.
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Repair S-E
+----------------+
| |
| Repair S-S s1'|
|+---------->[S1]|
|| | /
|| | /
|| |/e' s2'
----->[S]----//-----[E]---------[S2]
|| | ^
|| | |
||Repair S-S3 | |
|+---------->[S3] |
| s3' |
+-------------------------+
Repair S-S2
Figure 3: Simple IPFRR - Node Failure
Node S needs the use of four repair paths to address the failure of
node E, one repair to each of E's neighbours for which E is on the
path to that neighbour. In Figure 3 there are three of these next-
next-hop repairs, noted as Repair S-Sx in the figure. In addition a
repair to E (Repair S->E) using a path other than along the path S-E>
should be installed for traffic to E on the basis that the problem
may be a failure of link S->E rather than a failure of the node.
The three repair paths to the next-next-hops of E can be installed as
PPR path S-Sx with a PPR-ID of sx'. The link repair for E a PPR path
to E which avoids link S-E with a PPR-ID of e'.
4.3. Shared Risk Link Groups
A shared risk link group (SRLG) is a set of links that are believed
to have some systematic connection such that when one fails there is
a high probability of all of them failing. This occurs, for example,
where all of the members of the group run in a common cable duct.
Where this relationship is known, and the simultaneous failure does
not partition the network,PPR can install paths such that all members
of the SRLG are avoided. pLFA has fewer constraints than other
methods in constructing arbitrary repair paths in the network.
[RFC6981] Section 6.1 describes the SRLG problem as it applies to
IPFRR. pLFA can address all of the cases described in [RFC6981].
SRLG avoiding IPFRR paths can be complex. Since a packet can be
attracted towards the failure whenever it is released from a strict
path, the repair path may need a number of segments to steer it
safely into Q-space. If this is done in the data-plane this can
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stress the MTU. pLFA creates the path in the control plane and its
encapsulation is invariant with respect to the complexity of the
path. Furthermore, if the need to reduce the data-plane
encapsulation side means that the repair path needs to use a sequence
of loose hops it is necessary to determine the behaviour of each
router on the chosen path. This contrasts with pLFA which can
determine the path using whatever metrics and policy is appropriate,
and then simply impose it without any data-plane overhead beyond that
needed for a simple repair.
4.4. Local Area Networks
LANs are a special type of SRLG and are solved using the SRLG
mechanisms outlined above. With all SRLGs, there is a trade-off
between the sophistication of the fault detection and the size of the
SRLG. [RFC6981] Section 6.2 describes the LAN problem as it applies
to IPFRR. pLFA can address all of the cases described in [RFC6981].
4.5. Multiple Independent Failures
The Multiple Independent Failure cases described in [RFC6981]
Section 6.3 will be analyzed in a future version of this document.
4.6. Multi-homed Prefixes
The Multi-Homed Prefix (MHP) problem is described in [RFC5286]
Section 6.1, [RFC6981] Section 5.3 and [RFC8518]. MHP will be
addressed in a future version of this document.
4.7. ECMP
Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) is a consideration in any IPFRR method
that does not use strict paths, and can be both an opportunity and
threat. It is an opportunity in that it allows for the repair
traffic to be distributed over a number of alternative paths to
minimize congestion. If a loose pLFA path is injected into the
network, then any available ECMP paths that fulfill the PPR path
constraints can be installed following the same procedure used in
normal IGP path computation.
However, care must be taken that a packet is not in a position where
it is released from a repair at an ECMP point such that one of the
ECMP paths is back via the failure. This can never happen if the
correct definition of Q-space [RFC7490] is used in calculating the
repair path.
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5. Repair To A Traffic Engineered Alternate Path
In this approach there are two traffic engineered paths from A to D
(Figure 4.
d'
A-??-B--??--C--??-D
| | | |
E----F------G-----+
Figure 4: Traffic Engineered IPFRR Using pLFA
The primary path A->B->C->D is protected by a traffic engineered path
A->F->G->D (PPR-ID d') with traffic engineered connectors from B
(B->F) and C (C->G). The path A->F->G->D and its connectors can be
created and injected by any node with access to the IGP, but it is
more likely to be created by a traffic engineering controller.
If link B->C fails, B re-routes packets destined for D to the traffic
engineered path A->F->G->D via connector B->F. It does this by
encapsulating the packet with a PPR-ID of d'.
Clearly there is nothing special needed to get the packet from B to F
as they are adjacent but if there is a node say X on the path from B
to F an explicit path needs to be created from B to F via X.
Normally the repair would be created as a single PPR path (i.e.
B->F->G->D) with a PPR-ID of d'. In this approach the repair from A
would be A->F->G->D with a PPR-ID of d' also. Similarly C-G-D would
again share the PPR-ID d'.
If preferred the repair path could also be constructed using double
encapsulation or using an SR approach in which the first segment was
B-F with a PPR-ID/SID f' and the second segment was F-D with PPR-ID
of d'.
In the example shown in Figure 4 the proposed B-//->C protection path
was B->F->G->D. This is node protecting on C since the repair path
avoids C. Although link failures tend to be more common than node
failures some critical applications would prefer node protection
where possible. Node avoidance may not be possible within the
network, and may come at a cost of increased path repair path length.
However, whether to include node protection and as what cost to
accept its inclusion is a matter of network operator policy.
The repair constructed in this section required the inclusion of a
set of PPR defined links to construct the repair. PPR has the
ability to construct graphs [I-D.ce-lsr-ppr-graph] which can simplify
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the specification of the required repair topology. This is discussed
in Section 6.
6. Use of a Repair Graph
PPR has the ability to inject graphs into a network as well as linear
paths [I-D.ce-lsr-ppr-graph]. PPR graphs specify the paths from a
set of nodes to a single node, and are a compact method of
representing a set of paths to that destination with shared
properties.
6.1. Single Repair Graph
In [I-D.ce-lsr-ppr-graph] the S bit in the PPR Path Description
Element (PDE) specifies that a a network node is a Source and a D bit
specifies that it is a destination. A graph with all S bits set on
the leaves and a D bit on the root is a unidirectional tree.
d'
S S S D
A-??-B--??--C--??-D
| | | |
E----F------G-----+
Figure 5: pLFA using PPR Graphs
Consider the network fragment shown in Figure 5. A graph with a PPR-
ID d' is constructed attaching each of the nodes A, B, and C to D.
Should any of the nodes A, B or C fail the packet can be forwarded on
the PPR graph to D with the PPR-ID of d'. In the unidirectional
repair graph A, B, and C are all sources (signaled with the S bit
set), and D is the only destination (signaled with the D bit set.
6.2. Multiple Disjoint Graphs
Consider Figure 1 from [RFC7812] which illustrates the problem of
IPFRR in a network that is 2-connected.
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[E]---[D]---| [E]<--[D]<--| [E]-->[D]---|
| | | | ^ | | |
| | | V | | V V
[R] [F] [C] r'[R] [F] [C] r''[R] [F] [C]
| | | ^ ^ ^ | |
| | | | | | V |
[A]---[B]---| [A]-->[B]---| [A]<--[B]<--|
(a) (b) (c)
a 2-connected graph Blue Tree towards R Red Tree towards R
Figure 6: A 2-Connected Network
Figure 6(a) is the full network, and Figure 6(b) and (b) are two
corresponding redundant trees from [RFC7812]. Using the Red and Blue
trees towards R every node has at least two paths to R. We give R a
PPR-ID of r' in the Blue tree and a PPR-ID of r'' in the Red tree. R
is the only destination in the PPR graph (D bit set), but all other
nodes are sources (S bit set). For clarity this bit setting is not
shown in Figure 6.
It is worth noting what happens at nodes B and D in Figure 6(b). B
is an ECMP to D via F and C. What happens at node B is a matter of
implementation and operator preference. Either B can choose one of
the next-hops, or it use them as an ECMP pair. It can also use the
availability of the pair to protect against B->F or B->C being an
unexpected SRLG with respect to link A->R. D is a merge point for
traffic destined for r' arriving from F and from C. It simply
forwards the traffic to r' as normal. Similarly in Figure 6(c) D can
sent traffic to r'' via F or C.
Whilst in this example the Red and Blue trees use exactly the same
links and nodes used by the main topology, a repair graph could use
available nodes and links outside this network fragment.
Now consider Figure 2 from [RFC7812] which illustrates the problem of
IPFRR in a network that is not 2-connected.
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[E]---[D]---| |---[J]
| | | | |
| | | | |
[R] [F] [C]---[G] |
| | | | |
| | | | |
[A]---[B]---| |---[H]
(a) a graph that is not 2-connected
[E]<--[D]<--| [J] [E]-->[D]---| |---[J]
| ^ | | | | | ^
V | | | r'' V V V |
[R] [F] [C]<--[G] | [R] [F] [C]<--[G] |
r' ^ ^ ^ | ^ | | |
| | | V | V | |
[A]-->[B]---| |---[H] [A]<--[B]<--| [H]
(b) Blue Tree towards R (c) Red Tree towards R
Figure 7: A Network That Is Not 2-Connected
Again there are two paths (with PPR-IDs r' and r'') to R from all
nodes except that G, J and H all depend on link G->C and node C which
is a single point of failure in the network.
Again note that B in the Blue tree and D in the Red tree has two
paths to r' and r'' respectively that it may use according to
configuration or preference.
7. Centralized and Decentralized Approaches
pLFA paths can be established through both centralized and
decentralized approaches.
A centralized system has a more holistic view of the network and its
policies, its resource constraints and resource usage. A
decentralized system is inherently more resilient to failure and is a
good fit where the network is a simple best effort network as is
commonly deployed.
A centralized system gathers the network state, just as any SDN
system does, and computes the FRR paths needed. However, unlike
normal SDN operation where the controller needs to individually
instruct every entity on the path for every path, in a PPR network it
is only necessary to inject the PPR path at one point. In practice,
for reliability, it would inject the PPR paths in a small number of
places, and the naturally reliability of the IGP would ensure the
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complete distribution of the paths. Furthermore, the system
collecting the network state would naturally send the PPR LSPs back
to the SDN controller providing quality assurance that the FRR paths
had been distributed.
In a decentralized approach the pLFA path is computed within the
network, normally by the PLR. Further details of this approach will
be provided in a future version of this document.
8. Independence of operation
Each PPR path is independent of all other paths in the network. This
means that there is no constraint on how the path is calculated, and
a different algorithm can be used on every path. Some of the other
FRR approaches have this property, but not all. For example LFA is
constrained by the properties of the base IGP as to a large degree is
RLFA. PPR can incorporate best effort segments if required, but from
a data-plane perspective there is no advantage in doing so. In this
case there is a dependence on the path choice in the base routing
protocol.
MRT and Not-Via can use any algorithm to calculate the repair, but it
needs to be common across the network, although the expectation in
the case of Not-Via is that the algorithm would be a Dijkstra based
SPF calculation. In both these cases to change the algorithm would
require turning off FRR for the whole network, re-configuring and
then restarting FRR.
RSVP-TE based FRR can specify any path, but at the cost of
maintaining the soft-state.
A PLR in a TI-LFA or any SR based approach can also compute paths
independent of each other, but they tend to need to do this as a
concatenation of a series of shortest paths in order to reduce the
number of SIDs they need to form the path. TI-LFA is thus highly
dependent on the underlying best effort paths.
pLFA can be used as a method of converting classic LFA or RLFA to
full coverage by providing the paths that these methods are unable to
support, or to provide any the sub-paths needed to reduce the number
of TI-LFA SIDs.
9. Data-plane Considerations
This section is a survey of a number of data-planes in each case
considering how a PPR-ID could added to map the packet to required
FRR path.
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9.1. Traditional IP
Where the data-plane is "traditional" IP the user packet needs to be
encapsulated such that the outer IP address is the PPR-ID. Any
preferred encapsulation can be used such as: IP in IP, IP in GRE, or
IP in UDP.
The tunnel capabilities of a node can be advertised using the method
described in [I-D.xu-isis-encapsulation-cap] allowing different
tunnel types to be used for different PPR paths, depending on the
capability of the various nodes in the network.
A common operational issue with this type of encapsulation for IPFRR
has been the shortage of IP addresses. However this is not an issue
in an IPv6 network.
9.2. Segment Routing over an IPv6 Data Plane (SRv6)
Where the data-plane is SRv6 [RFC8754] pLFA would be used to steer a
packet towards the next segment end-point. Clearly an extra level of
IP encapsulation could be used Section 9.1, but that expands the
packet by adding at least 36 octets.
Where the packet is a "traditional" IP packet, and the repair end-
point is SRv6 capable, an alternative to the methods described in
Section 9.1 is to insert an SRH into the IP packet setting the SID in
the SRH to the original packet DA and replacing the outer DA with the
PPR-ID. If this method is used the semantics of the PPR-ID must
include the reconstruction of the packet, by replacing the DA with
the original DA retrieved from the SRH and the removal of the SRH.
9.3. MPLS
Where the data-plane is MPLS any encapsulation needed is tiny (a
label push), but the exact action depends on the repair strategy, and
there is the usual FRR problem of the setting of the new value for
the top label prior to pushing the PPR-ID label.
Where the FRR path terminates at an MPLS node other than the network
egress provider edge (PE) in the type of pLFA repair described in
Section 4, the original top label needed to be set to the label the
node was expecting.
Consider the network fragment shown in Figure 1. This is straight
forward case because node B swaps the top label the label it would
have used without the failure and then pushes the label that
corresponds to c'. If the repair strategy had been to exit Q-space
at the earliest opportunity for example at F, then B would have
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needed to know what label F required to reach the destination. A
very similar problem occurs when a node repair is undertaken
Figure 3, where S needs to know the label that the next-next-hops
(S1, S2 and S3) need to reach the destination.
Where the traffic is being moved to a new path terminating at the
egress PE as shown in Figure 4, the problem much simpler and only
requires the swapping of the top label with the label that represents
d'.
10. Loop Free Convergence
Whilst IPFRR puts in place a temporary network repair, eventually the
network needs to re-converge around the surviving network components.
During this phase there is a danger that micro-loops will form and
disrupt the traffic flowing across the network. A similar problem
can occur when the failed component returns to service, or when a new
component is introduced into the network. [RFC5715] describes the
problem of loop-free convergence in detail and examines the methods
known at the time of its writing. Since that time [RFC8333] has
proposed a timer based loop mitigation (but not elimination) process,
and [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa] has proposed that by
making the IPFRR path congruent with the post convergence path loops
can be eliminated along the repair path. However whilst these
mitigation techniques address component failure, neither are targeted
at the repair/new component case.
These problems only effect best effort paths and path segments, fully
defined paths do not have this problem.
A network using pLFA is compatible with all of the know loop-free
convergence and loop mitigation approaches.
11. OAM Considerations
PPR may also be used in a way that provides an alternative to running
multi-hop BFD from ingress on a traffic engineered (TE) path with
reducing the complexities that arise from echo reply false alarms.
In this use case pLFA works by locally detecting the failure and
transferring the traffic to preferred TE backups which are in time
replaced by the newly computed TE paths to the same PPR-ID.
12. Privacy Considerations
As noted in Section 13 pLFA paths are constrained by the routing
domain and thus the traffic will be no more subject to observation
than it would in normal operation. Indeed PPR has the capability to
constrain the path of the traffic more tightly than other IPFRR
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approaches. pLFA therefore does not reduce the privacy of user
traffic on the network.
13. Security Considerations
The security considerations of PPR are discussed in
[I-D.chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing] which in turn refers
the reader to the security considerations of the underlying routing
protocol and the data-plane in use. The pLFA application of PPR to
IPFRR introduces no additional security regarding PPR itself.
General IPFRR security considerations are discussed in [RFC5714] and
these apply to this solution.
One further consideration, is the whether policy that applied to the
original path needs to be applied to the repair path. The decision
is operator and application specific, however pLFA is better than
some other IPFRR solution in that it is possible to precisely choose
the repair path.
IPFRR is deployed within the scope of the routing protocol that
underpins it which limits the security vulnerability. Furthermore it
is unlikely that IPFRR would be deployed outside a well managed
network. These restrictions in-turn significantly mitigate any
security threat.
14. IANA Considerations
This document makes no IANA requests.
15. References
15.1. Normative References
[I-D.ce-lsr-ppr-graph]
Chunduri, U. and T. Eckert, "Preferred Path Route Graph
Structure", draft-ce-lsr-ppr-graph-04 (work in progress),
September 2020.
[I-D.chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing]
Chunduri, U., Li, R., White, R., Contreras, L. M.,
Tantsura, J., and Y. Qu, "Preferred Path Routing (PPR) in
IS-IS", draft-chunduri-lsr-isis-preferred-path-routing-07
(work in progress), November 2021.
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15.2. Informative References
[I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels]
Bryant, S., Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., and M. Shand, "IP
Fast Reroute using tunnels", draft-bryant-ipfrr-tunnels-03
(work in progress), November 2007.
[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa]
Litkowski, S., Bashandy, A., Filsfils, C., Francois, P.,
Decraene, B., and D. Voyer, "Topology Independent Fast
Reroute using Segment Routing", draft-ietf-rtgwg-segment-
routing-ti-lfa-07 (work in progress), June 2021.
[I-D.xu-isis-encapsulation-cap]
Xu, X., Decraene, B., Raszuk, R., Chunduri, U., Contreras,
L. M., and L. Jalil, "Advertising Tunnelling Capability in
IS-IS", draft-xu-isis-encapsulation-cap-07 (work in
progress), October 2016.
[RFC3936] Kompella, K. and J. Lang, "Procedures for Modifying the
Resource reSerVation Protocol (RSVP)", BCP 96, RFC 3936,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3936, October 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3936>.
[RFC4090] Pan, P., Ed., Swallow, G., Ed., and A. Atlas, Ed., "Fast
Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels", RFC 4090,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4090, May 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4090>.
[RFC5286] Atlas, A., Ed. and A. Zinin, Ed., "Basic Specification for
IP Fast Reroute: Loop-Free Alternates", RFC 5286,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5286, September 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5286>.
[RFC5714] Shand, M. and S. Bryant, "IP Fast Reroute Framework",
RFC 5714, DOI 10.17487/RFC5714, January 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5714>.
[RFC5715] Shand, M. and S. Bryant, "A Framework for Loop-Free
Convergence", RFC 5715, DOI 10.17487/RFC5715, January
2010, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5715>.
[RFC5880] Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
(BFD)", RFC 5880, DOI 10.17487/RFC5880, June 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5880>.
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[RFC6981] Bryant, S., Previdi, S., and M. Shand, "A Framework for IP
and MPLS Fast Reroute Using Not-Via Addresses", RFC 6981,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6981, August 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6981>.
[RFC7490] Bryant, S., Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Shand, M., and N.
So, "Remote Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) Fast Reroute (FRR)",
RFC 7490, DOI 10.17487/RFC7490, April 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7490>.
[RFC7812] Atlas, A., Bowers, C., and G. Enyedi, "An Architecture for
IP/LDP Fast Reroute Using Maximally Redundant Trees (MRT-
FRR)", RFC 7812, DOI 10.17487/RFC7812, June 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7812>.
[RFC8333] Litkowski, S., Decraene, B., Filsfils, C., and P.
Francois, "Micro-loop Prevention by Introducing a Local
Convergence Delay", RFC 8333, DOI 10.17487/RFC8333, March
2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8333>.
[RFC8402] Filsfils, C., Ed., Previdi, S., Ed., Ginsberg, L.,
Decraene, B., Litkowski, S., and R. Shakir, "Segment
Routing Architecture", RFC 8402, DOI 10.17487/RFC8402,
July 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8402>.
[RFC8518] Sarkar, P., Ed., Chunduri, U., Ed., Hegde, S., Tantsura,
J., and H. Gredler, "Selection of Loop-Free Alternates for
Multi-Homed Prefixes", RFC 8518, DOI 10.17487/RFC8518,
March 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8518>.
[RFC8754] Filsfils, C., Ed., Dukes, D., Ed., Previdi, S., Leddy, J.,
Matsushima, S., and D. Voyer, "IPv6 Segment Routing Header
(SRH)", RFC 8754, DOI 10.17487/RFC8754, March 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8754>.
Authors' Addresses
Stewart Bryant
University of Surrey
Email: sb@stewartbryant.com
Uma Chunduri
Intel
Email: umac.ietf@gmail.com
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Toerless Eckert
Futurewei Technologies Inc
Email: tte+ietf@cs.fau.de
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