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Gap Analysis for Operating IPv6-only MPLS Networks
draft-george-mpls-ipv6-only-gap-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Wesley George , Carlos Pignataro , Rajiv Asati , Syed Kamran Raza , Ron Bonica , Rajiv Papneja , Dhruv Dhody , Vishwas Manral
Last updated 2013-07-01
Replaces draft-mpls-ipv6-only-gap
Replaced by draft-ietf-mpls-ipv6-only-gap, RFC 7439
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draft-george-mpls-ipv6-only-gap-00
Internet Engineering Task Force                           W. George, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                         Time Warner Cable
Intended status: Informational                              C. Pignataro
Expires: January 2, 2014                                        R. Asati
                                                                 K. Raza
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                               R. Bonica
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                              R. Papneja
                                                                D. Dhody
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                               V. Manral
                                                   Hewlett-Packard, Inc.
                                                            July 1, 2013

           Gap Analysis for Operating IPv6-only MPLS Networks
                   draft-george-mpls-ipv6-only-gap-00

Abstract

   This document reviews the MPLS protocol suite in the context of IPv6
   and identifies gaps that must be addressed in order to allow MPLS-
   related protocols and applications to be used with IPv6-only
   networks.  This document is not intended to highlight a particular
   vendor's implementation (or lack thereof) in the context of IPv6-only
   MPLS functionality, but rather to focus on gaps in the standards
   defining the MPLS suite.

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
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://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 January 2, 2014.

Copyright Notice

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   Copyright (c) 2013 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
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Use Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Gap Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1.  MPLS Control Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       3.1.1.  LDP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       3.1.2.  Multicast LDP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.1.3.  RSVP- TE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
         3.1.3.1.  IGP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
         3.1.3.2.  RSVP-TE-P2MP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
         3.1.3.3.  RSVP-TE Fast Reroute (FRR) . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.1.4.  Controller, PCE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.1.5.  BGP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.1.6.  GMPLS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.2.  MPLS Applications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.2.1.  L2VPN  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
         3.2.1.1.  EVPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.2.2.  L3VPN  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
         3.2.2.1.  6PE/4PE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         3.2.2.2.  6VPE/4VPE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         3.2.2.3.  NG-MVPN  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       3.2.3.  MPLS-TP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.3.  MPLS OAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       3.3.1.  Extended ICMP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.3.2.  LSP Ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.3.3.  BFD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.3.4.  Pseudowires  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.3.5.  MPLS-TP OAM  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.4.  MIBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   4.  Gap Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   6.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   8.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   Appendix A.  Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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1.  Introduction

   IPv6 is an integral part of modern network deployments.  At the time
   when this document was written, the majority of these IPv6
   deployments were using dual-stack implementations, where IPv4 and
   IPv6 are supported equally on many or all of the network nodes, and
   single-stack primarily refers to IPv4-only devices.  Dual-stack
   deployments provide a useful margin for protocols and features that
   are not currently capable of operating solely over IPv6, because they
   can continue using IPv4 as necessary.  However, as IPv6 deployment
   and usage becomes more pervasive, and IPv4 exhaustion begins driving
   changes in address consumption behaviors, there is an increasing
   likelihood that many networks will need to start operating some or
   all of their network nodes either as primarily IPv6 (most functions
   use IPv6, a few legacy features use IPv4), or as IPv6-only (no IPv4
   provisioned on the device).  This transition toward IPv6-only
   operation exposes any gaps where features, protocols, or
   implementations are still reliant on IPv4 for proper function.  To
   that end, and in the spirit of RFC 6540's [RFC6540] recommendation
   that implementations need to stop requiring IPv4 for proper and
   complete function, this document reviews the MPLS protocol suite in
   the context of IPv6 and identifies gaps that must be addressed in
   order to allow MPLS-related protocols and applications to be used
   with IPv6-only networks.  This document is not intended to highlight
   a particular vendor's implementation (or lack thereof) in the context
   of IPv6-only MPLS functionality, but rather to focus on gaps in the
   standards defining the MPLS suite.

2.  Use Case

   From a purely theoretical perspective, ensuring that MPLS is fully IP
   version-agnostic is the right thing to do.  However, it is sometimes
   helpful to understand the underlying drivers that make this work
   necessary to undertake, especially at a time when IPv6-only
   networking is still fairly uncommon.  This section will discuss some
   drivers.  It is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of all
   potential use cases, but rather a discussion of at least one use case
   so that this is not seen as solving a purely theoretical problem.

   IP convergence is continuing to drive new classes of devices to begin
   communicating via IP.  Examples of such devices could include set top
   boxes for IP Video distribution, cell tower electronics (macro or
   micro cells), infrastructure Wi-Fi Access Points, and devices for
   machine to machine (M2M) or Internet of Things applications.  In some
   cases, these classes of devices represent a very large deployment
   base, on the order of thousands or even millions of devices network-
   wide.  The scale of these networks, coupled with the increasingly

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   overlapping use of RFC 1918 [RFC1918] address space within the
   average network, and the lack of globally-routable IPv4 space
   available for long-term growth begins to drive the need for many of
   the endpoints in this network to be managed solely via IPv6.  Even if
   these devices are carrying some IPv4 user data, it is often
   encapsulated in another protocol such that the communication between
   the endpoint and its upstream devices can be IPv6-only without
   impacting support for IPv4 on user data.  Depending on the MPLS
   features required, it is plausible to assume that the (existing) MPLS
   network may need to be extended to these devices.

   Additionally, as the impact of IPv4 exhaustion becomes more acute,
   more and more aggressive IPv4 address reclamation measures will be
   justified.  Measures that were previously seen as too complex or as
   netting too few addresses for the work required may become more
   realistic as the cost for obtaining new IPv4 addresses increases.
   More and more networks are likely to adopt the general stance that
   IPv4 addresses need to be preserved for revenue-generating customers
   so that legacy support for IPv4 can be maintained as long as
   possible.  As a result, it may be appropriate for some or all of the
   network infrastructure, including MPLS LSRs and LERs, to have its
   IPv4 addresses reclaimed and transition toward IPv6-only operation.

3.  Gap Analysis

   This gap analysis aims to answer the question, "what breaks when one
   attempts to use MPLS features on a network of IPv6-only devices?"
   The assumption is that some endpoints as well as PE routers, P
   routers ***(or LSR and LER)??*** only have IPv6 transport available,
   and need to support the full suite of MPLS features defined as of the
   time of this document's writing at parity with the support on an IPv4
   network.  This is necessary whether they are enabled via LDP RFC 5036
   [RFC5036], RSVP-TE RFC 5420 [RFC5420], GRE RFC 4023 [RFC4023], or
   L2TPv3 RFC 4817 [RFC4817].  It is important when evaluating these
   gaps to distinguish between user data and control plane data, because
   while this document is focused on IPv6-only operation, it is quite
   likely that some amount of the user payload data being carried in the
   IPv6-only MPLS network will still be IPv4.

3.1.  MPLS Control Plane

3.1.1.  LDP

   Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) RFC 5036 [RFC5036] defines a set of
   procedures for distribution of labels between label switch routers
   that can use the labels for forwarding traffic.  While LDP was
   designed to use an IPv4 or dual-stack IP network, it has a number of

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   deficiencies that prohibit it from working in an IPv6-only network.
   LDP-IPv6 [I-D.ietf-mpls-ldp-ipv6] highlights some of the deficiencies
   when LDP is enabled in IPv6 only or dual-stack networks, and
   specifies appropriate protocol changes.  These deficiencies are
   related to LSP mapping, LDP identifiers, LDP discovery, LDP session
   establishment, next hop address and LDP TTL security RFC 5082
   [RFC5082].

3.1.2.  Multicast LDP

   Multipoint LDP (mLDP) is a set of extensions to LDP for setting up
   Point to Multipoint (P2MP) and Multipoint to Multipoint (MP2MP) LSPs.
   These extensions are specified in RFC 6388 [RFC6388].  In terms of
   IPv6-only gap analysis, mLDP has two identified areas of interest:

   1.  LDP Control plane: Since mLDP uses the LDP control plane to
       discover and establish sessions with the peer, it shares the same
       gaps as LDP with regards to control plane (discovery, transport,
       and session establishment) in an IPv6-only network.

   2.  Multipoint (MP) FEC Root address: mLDP defines its own MP FECs
       and rules, different from LDP, to map MP LSPs. mLDP MP FEC
       contains a Root Address field which is an IP address in IP
       networks.  The current specification allows specifying Root
       address according to AFI and hence covers both IPv4 or IPv6 root
       addresses, requiring no extension to support IPv6-only MP LSPs.
       The root address is used by each LSR participating in an MP LSP
       setup such that root address reachability is resolved by doing a
       table lookup against root address to find corresponding upstream
       neighbor(s).  This will pose a problem when an MP LSP traverses
       islands of IPv4 and IPv4 clouds on the way to the root node.

   For example, consider following setup, where R1/R6 are IPv4-only,
   R3/R4 are IPv6-only, and R2/R5 are dual-stack LSRs:

   ( IPv4-only )  (  IPv6-only   )  ( IPv4-only )
          R1 -- R2 -- R3 -- R4 -- R5 -- R6
          Leaf                          Root
   Assume R1 to be a leaf node for an P2MP LSP rooted at R6 (root node).
   R1 uses R6's IPv4 address as the Root address in MP FEC.  As the MP
   LSP signaling proceeds from R1 to R6, the MP LSP setup will fail on
   the first IPv6-only transit/branch LSRs (R3) when trying to find IPv4
   root address reachability.  RFC 6512 [RFC6512] defines a recursive-
   FEC solution and procedures for mLDP when the backbone (transit/
   branch) LSRs have no route to the root.  The proposed solution is
   defined for a BGP-free core in an VPN environment, but the similar
   concept can be used/extended to solve the above issue of IPv6-only
   backbone receiving an MP FEC element with an IPv4 address.  The

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   solution will require a border LSR (the one which is sitting on
   border of an IPv4/IPv6 island(s) (R2 and R5) to translate an IPv4
   root address to equivalent IPv6 address (and vice vera) through the
   procedures similar to RFC6512.  The translation of root address on
   borders of IPv4 or IPv6 islands will also be needed for recursive
   FECs and procedures defined in RFC6512.

3.1.3.  RSVP- TE

   Resource Reservation Protocol Extensions for MPLS Traffic Engineering
   (RSVP-TE) RFC 3209 [RFC3209] defines a set of procedures &
   enhancements to establish label-switched tunnels that can be
   automatically routed away from network failures, congestion, and
   bottlenecks.  RSVP-TE allows establishing an LSP for an IPv4 or IPv6
   prefix, thanks to its LSP_TUNNEL_IPv6 object and subobjects.

3.1.3.1.  IGP

   RFC3630 [RFC3630] specifies a method of adding traffic engineering
   capabilities to OSPF Version 2.  New TLVs and sub-TLVs were added in
   RFC5329 [RFC5329] to extend TE capabilities to IPv6 networks in OSPF
   Version 3.

   RFC5305 [RFC5305] specifies a method of adding traffic engineering
   capabilities to IS-IS.  New TLVs and sub-TLVs were added in RFC6119
   [RFC6119] to extend TE capabilities to IPv6 networks.

3.1.3.2.  RSVP-TE-P2MP

   RFC4875 [RFC4875] describes extensions to RSVP-TE for the setup of
   point-to-multipoint (P2MP) LSPs in MPLS and GMPLS with support for
   both IPv4 and IPv6.

3.1.3.3.  RSVP-TE Fast Reroute (FRR)

   RFC4090 [RFC4090] specifies FRR mechanisms to establish backup LSP
   tunnels for local repair supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 networks.
   Further RFC5286 [RFC5286] describes the use of loop-free alternates
   to provide local protection for unicast traffic in pure IP and MPLS
   networks in the event of a single failure, whether link, node, or
   shared risk link group (SRLG) for both IPv4 and IPv6.

3.1.4.  Controller, PCE

   The Path Computation Element (PCE) defined in RFC4655 [RFC4655] is an
   entity that is capable of computing a network path or route based on
   a network graph, and applying computational constraints.  A Path
   Computation Client (PCC) may make requests to a PCE for paths to be

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   computed.  The PCE communication protocol (PCEP) is designed as a
   communication protocol between PCCs and PCEs for path computations
   and is defined in RFC5440 [RFC5440].

   The PCEP specification RFC5440 [RFC5440] is defined for both IPv4 and
   IPv6 with support for PCE discovery via an IGP (OSPF RFC5088
   [RFC5088], or ISIS RFC5089 [RFC5089]) using both IPv4 and IPv6
   addresses.  Note that PCEP uses identical encoding of subobjects as
   in the Resource Reservation Protocol Traffic Engineering Extensions
   (RSVP-TE) defined in RFC3209 [RFC3209] which supports both IPv4 and
   IPv6.

   The extensions of PCEP to support confidentiality RFC5520 [RFC5520],
   Route Exclusion RFC5521, [RFC5521] Monitoring RFC5886 [RFC5886], and
   P2MP RFC6006 [RFC6006] have support for both IPv4 and IPv6.

3.1.5.  BGP

   RFC3107 [RFC3107] specifies a set of BGP protocol procedures for
   distributing the labels (for prefixes corresponding to any address-
   family) between label switch routers so that they can use the labels
   for forwarding the traffic.  RFC3107 allows BGP to distribute the
   label for IPv4 or IPv6 prefix in an IPv6 only network.

3.1.6.  GMPLS

   RFC4558 [RFC4558] specifies Node-ID Based RSVP Hello Messages with
   capability for both IPv4 and IPv6.  RFC4990 [RFC4990] clarifies the
   use of IPv6 addresses in GMPLS networks including handling in the MIB
   modules.

3.2.  MPLS Applications

3.2.1.  L2VPN

   L2VPN RFC 4664 [RFC4664] specifies two fundamentally different kinds
   of Layer 2 VPN services that a service provider could offer to a
   customer: Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) and Virtual Private LAN
   Service (VPLS).  RFC 4447 [RFC4447] and RFC 4762 [RFC4762] specify
   the LDP protocol changes to instantiate VPWS and VPLS services
   respectively in an MPLS network using LDP as the signaling protocol.
   This is complemented by RFC 6074 [RFC6074], which specifies a set of
   procedures for instantiating L2VPNs (e.g.  VPWS, VPLS) using BGP as
   discovery protocol and LDP (as well as L2TPv3) as signaling protocol.
   RFC 4761 [RFC4761] and RFC 6624 [RFC6624] specify BGP protocol
   changes to instantiate VPLS and VPWS services in an MPLS network,
   using BGP for both discovery and signaling.

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   In an IPv6-only MPLS network, use of L2VPN represents connection of
   Layer 2 islands over an IPv6 MPLS core, and very few changes are
   necessary to support operation over an IPv6-only network.  The L2VPN
   signaling protocol is either BGP or LDP in an MPLS network, and both
   can run directly over IPv6 core infrastructure, as well as IPv6 edge
   devices.  RFC 6074 [RFC6074] is the only RFC that appears to have a
   gap wrt IPv6.  In its discovery procedures (section 3.2.2 and section
   6), it suggests encoding PE IP address in the VSI-ID, which is
   encoded in NLRI, which should not exceed 12 bytes (to differentiate
   its AFI/SAFI encoding from RFC4761).  This means that PE IP address
   can NOT be an IPv6 address.  Also, in its signaling procedures
   (section 3.2.3), it suggests encoding PE_addr in SAII and TAII, which
   are limited to 32-bit (AII Type=1) at the moment.

3.2.1.1.  EVPN

   EVPN [I-D.ietf-l2vpn-evpn] is still a work in progress.  As such, it
   is out of scope for this gap analysis.  Instead, the authors of that
   draft need to ensure that it supports IPv6-only operation, or if it
   cannot, identify dependencies on underlying gaps in MPLS protocol(s)
   that must be resolved before it can support IPv6-only operation.

3.2.2.  L3VPN

   RFC 4364 [RFC4364] defines a method by which a Service Provider may
   use an IP backbone to provide IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) for
   its customers.  The following use cases arise in the context of this
   gap analysis:

   1.  Connecting IPv6 islands over IPv6-only MPLS network

   2.  Connecting IPv4 islands over IPv6-only MPLS network

   Both use cases 1 and 2 require mapping an IP packet to an IPv6-
   signaled LSP to the remote PE, which is not explicitly defined in any
   RFC.  RFC4364 has two MAJOR gaps.  First, it is not possible to use
   an IPv6-only MPLS network, since RFC4364 explicitly assumes IPv4-only
   MPLS network i.e.  BGP Next Hop is assumed to have /32 (for example,
   see section 5 of RFC4364].  Second, it is limited to VPN-IPv4
   address-family i.e. connecting IPv4 islands over IPv4-only MPLS
   networks.  This second gap has been fixed by 6VPE RFC 4659 [RFC4659],
   which defines connecting IPv6 VPN sites over an IPv4-only MPLS
   networks, but more work is needed to address the first gap.

   The authors do not believe that there are any additional issues
   encountered when using L2TPv3, RSVP, or GRE (instead of LDP) as
   transport on an IPv6-only network.

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3.2.2.1.  6PE/4PE

   RFC 4798 [RFC4798] defines 6PE, which defines how to interconnect
   IPv6 islands over a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-enabled IPv4
   cloud.  However, use case 2 is doing the opposite, and thus could
   also be referred to as 4PE.  The method to support this use case is
   not defined explicitly.  To support it, IPv4 edge devices need to be
   able to map IPv4 traffic to MPLS IPv6 core LSP's.  Also, the core
   switches may not understand IPv4 at all, but in some cases they may
   need to be able to exchange Labeled IPv4 routes from one AS to a
   neighboring AS.

3.2.2.2.  6VPE/4VPE

   RFC 4659 [RFC4659] defines 6VPE, a method by which a Service Provider
   may use its packet-switched backbone to provide Virtual Private
   Network (VPN) services for its IPv6 customers.  It allows the core
   network to be MPLS IPv4 or MPLS IPv6, thus addressing use case 1
   above.  RFC4364 should work as defined for use case 2 above, which
   could also be referred to as 4VPE, but the RFC does not explicitly
   discuss this use.

3.2.2.3.  NG-MVPN

   ***TBD RFC 6513 both IPv4 and IPv6 multicast payload traffic***

   No IP version considerations?

3.2.3.  MPLS-TP

   ***TBD RFC 6371 *** MPLS-TP does not require IP ("and network
   operation in the absence of a dynamic > control plane or IP
   forwarding support."  RFC 5921) and thus should not be affected by
   operation on an IPv6-only network.

3.3.  MPLS OAM

   For MPLS LSPs, there are primarily three OAM mechanisms: Extended
   ICMP RFC 4884 [RFC4884] RFC 4950 [RFC4950], LSP Ping RFC 4379
   [RFC4379], and BFD for MPLS LSPs RFC 5884 [RFC5884].  For MPLS
   Pseudowires, there is also Virtual Circuit Connectivity Verification
   (VCCV) RFC 5085 [RFC5085] RFC 5885 [RFC5885].  All of these
   mechanisms work in pure IPv6 environments.  The next subsections
   cover these in detail.

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3.3.1.  Extended ICMP

   Extended ICMP to support Multi-part messages is defined in RFC 4884
   [RFC4884].  This extensibility is defined generally for both ICMPv4
   and ICMPv6.  The specific ICMP extensions for MPLS are defined in RFC
   4950 [RFC4950].  ICMP Multi-part with MPLS extensions works for IPv4
   and IPv6.  However, the mechanisms described in RFC 4884 and 4950 may
   fail when tunneling IPv4 traffic over an LSP that is supported by
   IPv6-only infrastructure.

   Assume the following:

   o  the path between two IPv4 only hosts contains an MPLS LSP

   o  the two routers that terminate the LSP run dual stack

   o  the LSP interior routers run IPv6 only

   o  the LSP is signaled over IPv6

   Now assume that one of the hosts sends an IPv6 packet to the other.
   However, the packet's TTL expires on an LSP interior router.
   According to RFC 3032 [RFC3032], the interior router should examine
   the IPv6 payload, format an ICMPv6 message, and send it (over the
   tunnel upon which the original packet arrived) to the egress LSP.  In
   this case, however, the LSP interior router is not IPv6-aware.  It
   cannot parse the original IPv6 datagram, nor can it send an IPv6
   message.  So, no ICMP message is delivered to the source.  Some
   specific ICMP extensions, in particular ICMP Extensions for Interface
   and Next-Hop Identification RFC 5837 [RFC5837] restrict the address
   family of address information included in an Interface Information
   Object to the same one as the ICMP (see Section 4.5 of RFC 5837).
   While these extensions are not MPLS specific, they can be used with
   MPLS packets carrying IP datagrams.  This has no implications for
   IPv6-only environments.

3.3.2.  LSP Ping

   The LSP Ping mechanism defined in RFC 4379 [RFC4379] is specified to
   work with IPv6.  Specifically, the Target FEC Stacks include both
   IPv4 and IPv6 versions of all FECs (see Section 3.2 of RFC 4379).
   The only exceptions are the Pseudowire FECs later specified for IPv6
   in RFC 6829 [RFC6829].  Additionally, LSP Ping packets are UDP
   packets over both IPv4 and IPv6 (see Section 4.3 of RFC 4379).  The
   multipath information includes also IPv6 encodings (see Section 3.3.1
   of RFC 4379).  However, the mechanisms described in RFC 4379 may fail
   when tunneling IPv4 traffic over an LSP that is supported by IPv6-
   only infrastructure.

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   Assume the following:

   o  LSP Ping is operating in traceroute mode over an MPLS LSP

   o  the two routers that terminate the LSP run dual stack

   o  the LSP interior routers run IPv6 only

   o  the LSP is signaled over IPv6

   Packets will expire at LSP interior routers.  According to RFC 4379,
   the interior router must parse the IPv4 Echo Request, and then, send
   an IPv4 Echo Reply.  However, the LSP interior router is not IPv4-
   aware.  It cannot parse the IPv4 Echo Request, nor can it send an
   IPv4 Echo Reply.  So, no reply is sent.

3.3.3.  BFD

   The BFD specification for MPLS LSPs RFC 5884 [RFC5884] is defined for
   IPv4 as well as IPv6 versions of MPLS FECs (see Section 3.1 of RFC
   5884).  Additionally the BFD packet is encapsulated over UDP and
   specified to run over both IPv4 and IPv6 (see Section 7 of RFC 5884).

3.3.4.  Pseudowires

   The OAM specifications for MPLS Pseudowires define usage for both
   IPv4 and IPv6.  Specifically, VCCV RFC 5085 [RFC5085] can carry IPv4
   or IPv6 OAM packets (see Section 5.1.1 and 5.2.1 of RFC 5085), and
   VCCV for BFD RFC 5885 [RFC5885] also defines an IPv6 encapsulation
   (see Section 3.2 of RFC 5885).

3.3.5.  MPLS-TP OAM

   *** TBD***

3.4.  MIBs

   RFC3811 [RFC3811] defines the textual conventions for MPLS.  These
   lack support for IPv6 in defining MplsExtendedTunnelId and
   MplsLsrIdentifier.  These textual conventions are used in the MPLS TE
   MIB specification RFC3812 [RFC3812], GMPLS TE MIB specification
   RFC4802 [RFC4802] and Fast ReRoute (FRR) extension RFC6445 [RFC6445].
   3811bis [I-D.manral-mpls-rfc3811bis] tries to resolve this gap by
   marking this textual convention as obsolete.

   The other MIB specifications for LSR RFC3813 [RFC3813], LDP RFC3815
   [RFC3815] and TE RFC4220 [RFC4220] have support for both IPv4 and
   IPv6.

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4.  Gap Summary

   This draft has reviewed a wide variety of MPLS features and protocols
   to determine their suitability for use on IPv6-only networks.  While
   some parts of the MPLS suite will function properly without
   additional changes, gaps have been identified in others, which will
   need to be addressed with follow-on work.  This section will
   summarize those gaps, along with pointers to any work-in-progress to
   address them.

               Identifed gaps in MPLS for IPv6-only networks

   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+
   |  Item |             Gap            |         Addressed in         |
   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+
   |  LDP  |      LSP mapping, LDP      |           LDP-IPv6           |
   |       |      identifiers, LDP      |   [I-D.ietf-mpls-ldp-ipv6]   |
   |       |   discovery, LDP session   |                              |
   |       |   establishment, next hop  |                              |
   |       |     address and LDP TTL    |                              |
   |       |          security          |                              |
   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+
   | L2VPN |     RFC 6074 [RFC6074]     |              TBD             |
   |       |    discovery, signaling    |                              |
   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+
   | L3VPN |   RFC 4364 [RFC4364] BGP   |              TBD             |
   |       |   next-hop, define method  |                              |
   |       |        for 4PE/4VPE        |                              |
   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+
   |  MIBs | RFC 3811 [RFC3811] no IPv6 |            3811bis           |
   |       |     textual convention     | [I-D.manral-mpls-rfc3811bis] |
   +-------+----------------------------+------------------------------+

                       Table 1: IPv6-only MPLS Gaps

5.  Acknowledgements

   This draft is brought to you by the letters I, P, V, and the number
   6.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

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7.  Security Considerations

   Changing the address family used for MPLS network operation does not
   fundamentally alter the security considerations currently extant in
   any of the specifics of the protocol or its features.  However, the
   change does expose the network and protocol to some of the IPv6-
   specific security considerations inherent to IPv6 itself as
   documented in [list of RFCs?]

8.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-l2vpn-evpn]
              Sajassi, A., Aggarwal, R., Henderickx, W., Balus, F.,
              Isaac, A., and J. Uttaro, "BGP MPLS Based Ethernet VPN",
              draft-ietf-l2vpn-evpn-03 (work in progress),
              February 2013.

   [I-D.ietf-mpls-ldp-ipv6]
              Asati, R., Manral, V., Papneja, R., and C. Pignataro,
              "Updates to LDP for IPv6", draft-ietf-mpls-ldp-ipv6-08
              (work in progress), February 2013.

   [I-D.manral-mpls-rfc3811bis]
              Manral, V., Tsou, T., Liu, W., and F. Fondelli,
              "Definitions of Textual Conventions (TCs) for
              Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Management",
              draft-manral-mpls-rfc3811bis-03 (work in progress),
              June 2013.

   [RFC1918]  Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, R., Karrenberg, D., Groot, G., and
              E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private Internets",
              BCP 5, RFC 1918, February 1996.

   [RFC3032]  Rosen, E., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G., Rekhter, Y.,
              Farinacci, D., Li, T., and A. Conta, "MPLS Label Stack
              Encoding", RFC 3032, January 2001.

   [RFC3107]  Rekhter, Y. and E. Rosen, "Carrying Label Information in
              BGP-4", RFC 3107, May 2001.

   [RFC3209]  Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T., Srinivasan, V.,
              and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP
              Tunnels", RFC 3209, December 2001.

   [RFC3630]  Katz, D., Kompella, K., and D. Yeung, "Traffic Engineering
              (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2", RFC 3630,
              September 2003.

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   [RFC3811]  Nadeau, T. and J. Cucchiara, "Definitions of Textual
              Conventions (TCs) for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
              Management", RFC 3811, June 2004.

   [RFC3812]  Srinivasan, C., Viswanathan, A., and T. Nadeau,
              "Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering
              (TE) Management Information Base (MIB)", RFC 3812,
              June 2004.

   [RFC3813]  Srinivasan, C., Viswanathan, A., and T. Nadeau,
              "Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switching
              Router (LSR) Management Information Base (MIB)", RFC 3813,
              June 2004.

   [RFC3815]  Cucchiara, J., Sjostrand, H., and J. Luciani, "Definitions
              of Managed Objects for the Multiprotocol Label Switching
              (MPLS), Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)", RFC 3815,
              June 2004.

   [RFC4023]  Worster, T., Rekhter, Y., and E. Rosen, "Encapsulating
              MPLS in IP or Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)",
              RFC 4023, March 2005.

   [RFC4090]  Pan, P., Swallow, G., and A. Atlas, "Fast Reroute
              Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels", RFC 4090,
              May 2005.

   [RFC4220]  Dubuc, M., Nadeau, T., and J. Lang, "Traffic Engineering
              Link Management Information Base", RFC 4220,
              November 2005.

   [RFC4364]  Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private
              Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, February 2006.

   [RFC4379]  Kompella, K. and G. Swallow, "Detecting Multi-Protocol
              Label Switched (MPLS) Data Plane Failures", RFC 4379,
              February 2006.

   [RFC4447]  Martini, L., Rosen, E., El-Aawar, N., Smith, T., and G.
              Heron, "Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance Using the Label
              Distribution Protocol (LDP)", RFC 4447, April 2006.

   [RFC4558]  Ali, Z., Rahman, R., Prairie, D., and D. Papadimitriou,
              "Node-ID Based Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Hello:
              A Clarification Statement", RFC 4558, June 2006.

   [RFC4655]  Farrel, A., Vasseur, J., and J. Ash, "A Path Computation
              Element (PCE)-Based Architecture", RFC 4655, August 2006.

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   [RFC4659]  De Clercq, J., Ooms, D., Carugi, M., and F. Le Faucheur,
              "BGP-MPLS IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) Extension for
              IPv6 VPN", RFC 4659, September 2006.

   [RFC4664]  Andersson, L. and E. Rosen, "Framework for Layer 2 Virtual
              Private Networks (L2VPNs)", RFC 4664, September 2006.

   [RFC4761]  Kompella, K. and Y. Rekhter, "Virtual Private LAN Service
              (VPLS) Using BGP for Auto-Discovery and Signaling",
              RFC 4761, January 2007.

   [RFC4762]  Lasserre, M. and V. Kompella, "Virtual Private LAN Service
              (VPLS) Using Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) Signaling",
              RFC 4762, January 2007.

   [RFC4798]  De Clercq, J., Ooms, D., Prevost, S., and F. Le Faucheur,
              "Connecting IPv6 Islands over IPv4 MPLS Using IPv6
              Provider Edge Routers (6PE)", RFC 4798, February 2007.

   [RFC4802]  Nadeau, T. and A. Farrel, "Generalized Multiprotocol Label
              Switching (GMPLS) Traffic Engineering Management
              Information Base", RFC 4802, February 2007.

   [RFC4817]  Townsley, M., Pignataro, C., Wainner, S., Seely, T., and
              J. Young, "Encapsulation of MPLS over Layer 2 Tunneling
              Protocol Version 3", RFC 4817, March 2007.

   [RFC4875]  Aggarwal, R., Papadimitriou, D., and S. Yasukawa,
              "Extensions to Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic
              Engineering (RSVP-TE) for Point-to-Multipoint TE Label
              Switched Paths (LSPs)", RFC 4875, May 2007.

   [RFC4884]  Bonica, R., Gan, D., Tappan, D., and C. Pignataro,
              "Extended ICMP to Support Multi-Part Messages", RFC 4884,
              April 2007.

   [RFC4950]  Bonica, R., Gan, D., Tappan, D., and C. Pignataro, "ICMP
              Extensions for Multiprotocol Label Switching", RFC 4950,
              August 2007.

   [RFC4990]  Shiomoto, K., Papneja, R., and R. Rabbat, "Use of
              Addresses in Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching
              (GMPLS) Networks", RFC 4990, September 2007.

   [RFC5036]  Andersson, L., Minei, I., and B. Thomas, "LDP
              Specification", RFC 5036, October 2007.

   [RFC5082]  Gill, V., Heasley, J., Meyer, D., Savola, P., and C.

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              Pignataro, "The Generalized TTL Security Mechanism
              (GTSM)", RFC 5082, October 2007.

   [RFC5085]  Nadeau, T. and C. Pignataro, "Pseudowire Virtual Circuit
              Connectivity Verification (VCCV): A Control Channel for
              Pseudowires", RFC 5085, December 2007.

   [RFC5088]  Le Roux, JL., Vasseur, JP., Ikejiri, Y., and R. Zhang,
              "OSPF Protocol Extensions for Path Computation Element
              (PCE) Discovery", RFC 5088, January 2008.

   [RFC5089]  Le Roux, JL., Vasseur, JP., Ikejiri, Y., and R. Zhang,
              "IS-IS Protocol Extensions for Path Computation Element
              (PCE) Discovery", RFC 5089, January 2008.

   [RFC5286]  Atlas, A. and A. Zinin, "Basic Specification for IP Fast
              Reroute: Loop-Free Alternates", RFC 5286, September 2008.

   [RFC5305]  Li, T. and H. Smit, "IS-IS Extensions for Traffic
              Engineering", RFC 5305, October 2008.

   [RFC5329]  Ishiguro, K., Manral, V., Davey, A., and A. Lindem,
              "Traffic Engineering Extensions to OSPF Version 3",
              RFC 5329, September 2008.

   [RFC5420]  Farrel, A., Papadimitriou, D., Vasseur, JP., and A.
              Ayyangarps, "Encoding of Attributes for MPLS LSP
              Establishment Using Resource Reservation Protocol Traffic
              Engineering (RSVP-TE)", RFC 5420, February 2009.

   [RFC5440]  Vasseur, JP. and JL. Le Roux, "Path Computation Element
              (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", RFC 5440,
              March 2009.

   [RFC5520]  Bradford, R., Vasseur, JP., and A. Farrel, "Preserving
              Topology Confidentiality in Inter-Domain Path Computation
              Using a Path-Key-Based Mechanism", RFC 5520, April 2009.

   [RFC5521]  Oki, E., Takeda, T., and A. Farrel, "Extensions to the
              Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) for
              Route Exclusions", RFC 5521, April 2009.

   [RFC5837]  Atlas, A., Bonica, R., Pignataro, C., Shen, N., and JR.
              Rivers, "Extending ICMP for Interface and Next-Hop
              Identification", RFC 5837, April 2010.

   [RFC5884]  Aggarwal, R., Kompella, K., Nadeau, T., and G. Swallow,
              "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for MPLS Label

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              Switched Paths (LSPs)", RFC 5884, June 2010.

   [RFC5885]  Nadeau, T. and C. Pignataro, "Bidirectional Forwarding
              Detection (BFD) for the Pseudowire Virtual Circuit
              Connectivity Verification (VCCV)", RFC 5885, June 2010.

   [RFC5886]  Vasseur, JP., Le Roux, JL., and Y. Ikejiri, "A Set of
              Monitoring Tools for Path Computation Element (PCE)-Based
              Architecture", RFC 5886, June 2010.

   [RFC6006]  Zhao, Q., King, D., Verhaeghe, F., Takeda, T., Ali, Z.,
              and J. Meuric, "Extensions to the Path Computation Element
              Communication Protocol (PCEP) for Point-to-Multipoint
              Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths", RFC 6006,
              September 2010.

   [RFC6074]  Rosen, E., Davie, B., Radoaca, V., and W. Luo,
              "Provisioning, Auto-Discovery, and Signaling in Layer 2
              Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs)", RFC 6074,
              January 2011.

   [RFC6119]  Harrison, J., Berger, J., and M. Bartlett, "IPv6 Traffic
              Engineering in IS-IS", RFC 6119, February 2011.

   [RFC6388]  Wijnands, IJ., Minei, I., Kompella, K., and B. Thomas,
              "Label Distribution Protocol Extensions for Point-to-
              Multipoint and Multipoint-to-Multipoint Label Switched
              Paths", RFC 6388, November 2011.

   [RFC6445]  Nadeau, T., Koushik, A., and R. Cetin, "Multiprotocol
              Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering Management
              Information Base for Fast Reroute", RFC 6445,
              November 2011.

   [RFC6512]  Wijnands, IJ., Rosen, E., Napierala, M., and N. Leymann,
              "Using Multipoint LDP When the Backbone Has No Route to
              the Root", RFC 6512, February 2012.

   [RFC6540]  George, W., Donley, C., Liljenstolpe, C., and L. Howard,
              "IPv6 Support Required for All IP-Capable Nodes", BCP 177,
              RFC 6540, April 2012.

   [RFC6624]  Kompella, K., Kothari, B., and R. Cherukuri, "Layer 2
              Virtual Private Networks Using BGP for Auto-Discovery and
              Signaling", RFC 6624, May 2012.

   [RFC6829]  Chen, M., Pan, P., Pignataro, C., and R. Asati, "Label
              Switched Path (LSP) Ping for Pseudowire Forwarding

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              Equivalence Classes (FECs) Advertised over IPv6",
              RFC 6829, January 2013.

Appendix A.  Assignments

   *RFC EDITOR PLEASE REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING*

   This will track which author volunteered for which section(s):

   OAM - Ron Bonica, Carlos Pignataro

   LDP/mLDP (multicast) - Kamran Raza

   L2VPN - Rajiv Asati, Vishwas Manral, Rajiv Papneja

   L3VPN - Rajiv Asati, Vishwas Manral, Rajiv Papneja

   PCE - Dhruv Dhody, Rajiv Papneja

   Editors- Wes George(primary), Vishwas Manral, Rajiv Asati

Authors' Addresses

   Wesley George (editor)
   Time Warner Cable
   13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
   Herndon, VA  20111
   US

   Phone: +1-703-561-2540
   Email: wesley.george@twcable.com

   Carlos Pignataro
   Cisco Systems
   7200-12 Kit Creek Road
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709
   US

   Phone:
   Email: cpignata@cisco.com

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   Rajiv Asati
   Cisco Systems
   7025 Kit Creek Road
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709
   US

   Phone:
   Email: rajiva@cisco.com

   Kamran Raza
   Cisco Systems
   2000 Innovation Drive
   Ottawa, ON  K2K-3E8
   CA

   Phone:
   Email: skraza@cisco.com

   Ronald Bonica
   Juniper Networks
   2251 Corporate Park Drive
   Herndon, VA  20171
   US

   Phone:
   Email: rbonica@juniper.net

   Rajiv Papneja
   Huawei Technologies
   2330 Central Expressway
   Santa Clara, CA  95050
   US

   Phone:
   Email: rajiv.papneja@huawei.com

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   Dhruv Dhody
   Huawei Technologies
   2330 Central Expressway
   Santa Clara, CA  95050
   US

   Phone:
   Email: dhruv.dhody@huawei.com

   Vishwas Manral
   Hewlett-Packard, Inc.
   19111 Pruneridge Ave.
   Cupertino, CA  95014
   US

   Phone:
   Email: vishwas.manral@hp.com

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