Currently Used Terminology in Global Routing Operations
draft-fiebig-grow-routing-ops-terms-00

Global Routing Operations                                      T. Fiebig
Internet-Draft                                                   MPI-INF
Intended status: Informational                               3 July 2024
Expires: 4 January 2025

        Currently Used Terminology in Global Routing Operations
                 draft-fiebig-grow-routing-ops-terms-00

Abstract

   Operating the global routing ecosystem entails a divers set of
   interacting components, while operational practice evolved over time.
   In that time, terms emerged, disappeared, and sometimes changed their
   meaning.

   To aid operators and implementers in reading contemporary drafts,
   this document provides an overview of terms and abbreviations used in
   the global routing operations community.  The document explicitly
   does not serve as an authoritative source of correct terminology, but
   instead strives to provide an overview of practice.

Status of This Memo

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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 4 January 2025.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Scope of the Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Definitions and Acronyms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   The practical operation of the global routing ecosystem entails a
   divers set of interacting components, while operational practice
   evolved over time.  In that time, terms emerged, disappeared, and
   sometimes changed their meaning.

   To aid operators and implementers in reading contemporary drafts,
   this document provides an overview of terms and abbreviations used in
   the global routing operations community.

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.  Scope of the Document

   This document is explicitly descriptive, i.e., provides a collection
   of terms that are currently being used along with the context and
   definitions with which their use was observed.  It is not an
   authoritative source of terminology, and only provides a snapshot of
   how certain terms have been used at the time of publication.  As
   such, any terms and summaries in this document are subject to change.

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3.  Definitions and Acronyms

   The following terms are used in this document:

   ACL:
      Access Control List

   ASN:
      Autonomous System Number

   DFZ:
      Default Free Zone

   GRT:
      Global Routing Table

   IRR:
      Internet Routing Registry

   IXP:
      Internet Exchange Point

   LIR:
      Local Internet Registry

   NLRI:
      Network Layer Reachability Information

   OTC:
      Only To Customer BGP Attribute

   PMTUD:
      Path MTU Discovery

   uRPF:
      Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding

   In addition to the list above, the following terms are used with a
   specific meaning.

   BGP Speaker:
      A device exchanging routes with other BGP speakers using the BGP
      protocol

   BGP Neighbor:
      Also just 'Neighbor'.  Two BGP speakers that communicate using the
      BGP protocols are neighbors.

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   Cone:
      The set of ASes who are either direct downstreams of an AS, or in
      the cone of any of those ASes; Depending on the context this also
      includes the joint set of prefixes that may be originated by ASes
      in a cone.

   Downstream:
      In a direct relationship between two ASes the one receiving
      upstream from the other.  (See: [RFC9234], also known as the
      customer in a customer-provider relationship.)

   Exporting a Prefix:
      Advertising a prefix to a neighbor.

   Full Table:
      A routing table containing a route to all prefixes in the GRT but
      not the default route.

   Importing a Prefix:
      Accepting a prefix advertised by a neighbor and considering it for
      route selection and import into the local AS' routing table.

   Network edge:
      Last routers under the control of an operator.

   Mutual Transit:
      When two directly connected ASes both advertise a BGP fulltable to
      each other.  (See: [I-D.ietf-sidrops-aspa-verification])

   Upstream:
      In a direct relationship between two ASes the one providing
      upstream to the other.  (See: [RFC9234], also known as the
      provider in a customer-provider relationship.)

   Operator:
      Individual, group of people, or organizational unit responsible
      for operating BGP speakers, i.e., making administrative changes,
      as well as defining and setting policies for all BGP speakers
      within an organization.

   Originating a Prefix:
      Advertising a prefix with an empty AS-Path.

   Peer:
      Two directly connected ASes who only advertise routes they
      originate or learned from their downstreams to each other.  (See:
      [RFC9234])

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   Providing Transit:
      Forwarding packets destined for addresses in an advertised prefix,
      while advertising a full BGP table or default route to the
      neighbor.

   Providing Upstream:
      See: Providing Transit

   Router:
      In this document, router always refers to a BGP speaker.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not require any IANA actions.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document describes currently used terminology and does not make
   recommendations.  As such, it does not have security considerations.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [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>.

   [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>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [RFC7454]  Durand, J., Pepelnjak, I., and G. Doering, "BGP Operations
              and Security", BCP 194, RFC 7454, DOI 10.17487/RFC7454,
              February 2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7454>.

   [RFC9234]  Azimov, A., Bogomazov, E., Bush, R., Patel, K., and K.
              Sriram, "Route Leak Prevention and Detection Using Roles
              in UPDATE and OPEN Messages", RFC 9234,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9234, May 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9234>.

   [I-D.ietf-sidrops-aspa-verification]
              Azimov, A., Bogomazov, E., Bush, R., Patel, K., Snijders,
              J., and K. Sriram, "BGP AS_PATH Verification Based on

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              Autonomous System Provider Authorization (ASPA) Objects",
              Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-sidrops-aspa-
              verification-17, 29 August 2023,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-sidrops-
              aspa-verification-17>.

Acknowledgements

   This document is based on [RFC7454] and we thank the original authors
   for their work.

   We thank the following people for reviewing this draft and suggesting
   changes:

   *  Gert Doerring

   *  Jeff Haas

   *  Nick Hilliard

   *  Geng Nan

   *  Martin Pels

   *  Job Snijders

   *  Berislav Todorovic

Author's Address

   Tobias Fiebig
   Max-Planck-Institut fuer Informatik
   Campus E14
   66123 Saarbruecken
   Germany
   Phone: +49 681 9325 3527
   Email: tfiebig@mpi-inf.mpg.de

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