A Vocabulary of Path Properties
draft-enghardt-panrg-path-properties-00

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PANRG                                                        T. Enghardt
Internet-Draft                                                 TU Berlin
Intended status: Informational                           C. Kraehenbuehl
Expires: April 21, 2019                                      ETH Zuerich
                                                        October 18, 2018

                    A Vocabulary of Path Properties
                draft-enghardt-panrg-path-properties-00

Abstract

   This document defines and categorizes information about Internet
   paths that an endpoint might have or want to have.  This information
   is expressed as properties of paths between two endpoints.

Status of This Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 21, 2019.

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   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Domain Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Backbone Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Dynamic Properties  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   Because the current Internet provides an IP-based best-effort bit
   pipe, endpoints have little information about paths to other
   endpoints.  A Path Aware Network exposes information about one or
   multiple paths through the network to endpoints, so that endpoints
   can use this information.

   Such path properties may be relatively dynamic, e.g. current Round
   Trip Time, close to the origin, e.g. nature of the access technology
   on the first hop, or far from the origin, e.g. list of ASes
   traversed.

   Usefulness over time is fundamentally different for dynamic and non-
   dynamic properties.  The merit of a momentary measurement of a
   dynamic path property diminishes greatly as time goes on, e.g. the
   merit of an RTT measurement from a few seconds ago is quite small,
   while a non-dynamic path property might stay relevant, e.g. a NAT can
   be assumed to stay on a path during the lifetime of a connection, as
   the removal of the NAT would break the connection.

   Non-dynamic properties are further separated into (local) domain
   properties related to the first few hops of the connection, and
   backbone properties related to the remaining hops.  Domain properties
   expose a high amount of information to endpoints and strongly
   influence the connection behavior while there is little influence and
   information about backbone properties.

   Dynamic properties are not separated into domain and backbone
   properties, since most of these properties are defined for a complete
   path and it is difficult and seldom useful to define them on part of
   the path.  There are exceptions such as dynamic wireless access
   properties, but these do not justify separation into different
   categories.

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   This document addresses the first of the questions in Path-Aware
   Networking [I-D.irtf-panrg-questions], which is a product of the
   PANRG in the IRTF.