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Interface to the Routing System Problem Statement
draft-ietf-i2rs-problem-statement-05

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7920.
Authors Alia Atlas , Thomas Nadeau , David Ward
Last updated 2015-01-06
Replaces draft-atlas-i2rs-problem-statement
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Document shepherd Qin Wu
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Send notices to "Qin Wu" <bill.wu@huawei.com>
draft-ietf-i2rs-problem-statement-05
Network Working Group                                      A. Atlas, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                          Juniper Networks
Intended status: Informational                            T. Nadeau, Ed.
Expires: July 10, 2015                                           Brocade
                                                                 D. Ward
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                         January 6, 2015

           Interface to the Routing System Problem Statement
                  draft-ietf-i2rs-problem-statement-05

Abstract

   As modern networks grow in scale and complexity, the need for rapid
   and dynamic control increases.  With scale, the need to automate even
   the simplest operations is important, but even more critical is the
   ability to quickly interact with more complex operations such as
   policy-based controls.

   In order to enable network applications to have access to and control
   over information in the Internet's routing system, we need a publicly
   documented interface specification.  The interface needs to support
   real-time, asynchronous interactions using data models and encodings
   that are efficient and potentially different from those available
   today.  Furthermore, the interface must be tailored to support a
   variety of use cases.

   This document expands upon these statements of requirements to
   provide a detailed problem statement for an Interface to the Routing
   System (I2RS).

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 July 10, 2015.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  I2RS Model and Problem Area for The IETF  . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Standard Data-Models of Routing State for Installation  . . .   5
   4.  Learning Router Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Aspects to be Considered for an I2RS Protocol . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Appendix A.  Existing Management Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   As modern networks grow in scale and complexity, the need for rapid,
   flexible and dynamic control increases.  With scale, the need to
   automate even the simplest operation is important, but even more
   critical is the ability for network operators to quickly interact
   with these operations using mechanisms such as policy-based controls.

   With complexity comes the need for more sophisticated automated
   network applications and orchestration software that can process
   large quantities of data, run complex algorithms, and adjust the
   routing state as required in order to support the network
   applications, their computations and their policies.  Changes made to
   the routing state of a network by external applications must be
   verifiable by those applications to ensure that the correct state has
   been installed in the correct places.

   In the past, mechanisms to support the requirements outlined above
   have been developed piecemeal as proprietary solutions to specific

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   situations and needs.  Many routing elements have an external
   interface to interact with routing - but since these vary between
   vendors, it is difficult to integrate use of those interfaces into a
   network.  The existence of such proprietary interfaces demonstrates
   both that the need for such an interface is understood and that
   technology solutions are understood.  What is needed are
   technological solutions with clearly defined operations that an
   application can initiate, and data-models to support such actions.
   These would facilitate wide-scale deployment of interoperable
   applications and routing systems.  These solutions must be designed
   to facilitate rapid, isolated, secure, and dynamic changes to a
   device's routing system.  In order to address these needs, the
   creation of an Interface to the Routing System (I2RS) is needed.

   It should be noted that during the course of this document, the term
   "applications" is used.  This is meant to refer to an executable
   program of some sort that has access to a network, such as an IP or
   MPLS network.

2.  I2RS Model and Problem Area for The IETF

   Managing a network of production devices running a variety of routing
   protocols involves interactions between multiple components within a
   device.  Some of these components are virtual while some are
   physical; it may be desirable for many, or even all of these
   components to be made available to be managed and manipulated by
   applications, given that appropriate access, authentication, and
   policy hurdles have been crossed.  The management of only some of
   these components require standardization, as others have already been
   standardized.  The I2RS model is intended to incorporate existing
   mechanisms where appropriate, and to build extensions and new
   protocols where needed.  The I2RS model and problem area for IETF
   work is illustrated in Figure 1.  The I2RS Agent is associated with a
   routing element, which may or may not be co-located with a data-
   plane.  The I2RS Client is used and controlled by one or more network
   applications; they may be co-located or the I2RS Client might be part
   of a separate application, such as an orchestrator or controller.
   The scope of the data-models used by I2RS extends across the entire
   routing system and I2RS protocol.

        +***************+   +***************+   +***************+
        *  Application  *   *  Application  *   *  Application  *
        +***************+   +***************+   +***************+
        |  I2RS Client  |           ^                  ^
        +---------------+           *                  *
                 ^                  *   ****************
                 |                  *   *

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                 |                  v   v
                 |           +---------------+         +-------------+
                 |           |  I2RS Client  |<------->| Other I2RS  |
                 |           +---------------+         | Agents      |
                 |                   ^                 +-------------+
                 |________________   |
                                  |  |  <== I2RS Protocol
                                  |  |
       ...........................|..|..................................
       .                          v  v                                 .
       . +*************+     +---------------+      +****************+ .
       . *  Policy     *     |               |      *   Routing  &   * .
       . * Database    *<***>|  I2RS Agent   |<****>*   Signaling    * .
       . +*************+     |               |      *   Protocols    * .
       .                     +---------------+      +****************+ .
       .                        ^   ^     ^                  ^         .
       . +*************+        *   *     *                  *         .
       . *  Topology   *        *   *     *                  *         .
       . *  Database   *<*******+   *     *                  v         .
       . +*************+            *     *         +****************+ .
       .                            *     +********>*  RIB Manager   * .
       .                            *               +****************+ .
       .                            *                        ^         .
       .                            v                        *         .
       .                 +*******************+               *         .
       .                 * Subscription &    *               *         .
       .                 * Configuration     *               v         .
       .                 * Templates for     *      +****************+ .
       .                 * Measurements,     *      *  FIB Manager   * .
       .                 * Events, QoS, etc. *      *  & Data Plane  * .
       .                 +*******************+      +****************+ .
       .................................................................

     <-->  interfaces inside the scope of I2RS Protocol
     +--+  objects inside the scope of I2RS-defined behavior

     <**>  interfaces NOT within the scope of I2RS Protocol
     +**+  objects NOT within the scope of I2RS-defined behavior

     ....  boundary of a router supporting I2RS

                   Figure 1: I2RS model and Problem Area

   A critical aspect of I2RS is defining a suitable protocol or
   protocols to carry messages between the I2RS Clients and the I2RS
   Agent, and defining the data-models for use with those I2RS

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   protocol(s).  The protocol should provide the key features specified
   in Section 5.  The data models should translate into a concise
   transfer syntax, sent via the I2RS protocol, that is straightforward
   for applications to use (e.g., a Web Services design paradigm).  The
   information transfer should use existing transport protocols to
   provide the reliability, security, and timeliness appropriate for the
   particular data.

   The second critical aspect of I2RS is a set of meaningful data-models
   for information in the routing system and in a topology database.
   The data-model should describe the meaning and relationships of the
   modeled items.  The data-models should be separable across different
   features of the managed components, versioned, and extendable.  As
   shown in Figure 1, I2RS needs to interact with several logical
   components of the routing element: policy database, topology
   database, subscription and configuration for dynamic measurements/
   events, routing signaling protocols, and its RIB manager.  This
   interaction is both for writing (e.g. to policy databases or RIB
   manager) as well as for reading (e.g. dynamic measurement or topology
   database).  An application should be able to combine data from
   individual routing elements to provide network-wide data-model(s).

3.  Standard Data-Models of Routing State for Installation

   There is a need to be able to precisely control routing and signaling
   state based upon policy or external measures.  This can range from
   simple static routes to policy-based routing to static multicast
   replication and routing state.  This means that, to usefully model
   next-hops, the data model employed needs to handle next-hop
   indirection and recursion (e.g. a prefix X is routed like prefix Y)
   as well as different types of tunneling and encapsulation.  The
   relevant MIB modules (for example [RFC4292]) lack the necessary
   generality and flexibility.  In addition, by having I2RS focus
   initially on interfaces to the RIB layer (e.g.  RIB, LIB, multicast
   RIB, policy-based routing), the ability to use routing indirection
   allows flexibility and functionality that can't be as easily obtained
   at the forwarding layer.

   Efforts to provide this level of control have focused on
   standardizing data models that describe the forwarding plane (e.g.
   ForCES [RFC3746]).  I2RS posits that the routing system and a
   router's OS provide useful mechanisms that applications could
   usefully harness to accomplish application-level goals.

   In addition to interfaces to the RIB layer, there is a need to
   configure the various routing and signaling protocols with differing
   dynamic state based upon application-level policy decisions.  The
   range desired is not available via MIB modules at the present time.

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   Additionally, on March 2, 2014, the IESG issued a statement about
   Writeable MIB Modules [IESG-Statement] which is expected to limit
   creation of future writeable MIB modules.

4.  Learning Router Information

   A router has information that applications may require so that they
   can understand the network, verify that programmed state is installed
   in the forwarding plane, measure the behavior of various flows, and
   understand the existing configuration and state of the router.  I2RS
   provides a framework so that applications can register for
   asynchronous notifications and can make specific requests for
   information.

   Although there are efforts to extend the topological information
   available, even the best of these (e.g., BGP-LS
   [I-D.ietf-idr-ls-distribution]) still provide only the current active
   state as seen at the IGP layer and above.  Detailed topological state
   that provides more information than the current functional status
   (e.g. active paths and links) is needed by applications.  Examples of
   missing information include paths or link that are potentially
   available (e.g.  administratively down) or unknown (e.g. to peers or
   customers) to the routing topology.

   For applications to have a feedback loop that includes awareness of
   the relevant traffic, an application must be able to request the
   measurement and timely, scalable reporting of data.  While a
   mechanism such as IPFIX [RFC5470] may be the facilitator for
   delivering the data, the need for an application to be able to
   dynamically request that measurements be taken and data delivered is
   critical.

   There are a wide range of events that applications could use for
   either verification of router state before other network state is
   changed (e.g. that a route has been installed), to act upon changes
   to relevant routes by others, or upon router events (e.g. link up/
   down).  While a few of these (e.g. link up/down) may be available via
   MIB notifications today, the full range is not - nor has there been
   successfully deployed the standardized ability to set up the router
   to trigger different actions upon an event's occurrence so that a
   rapid reaction can be accomplished.

5.  Aspects to be Considered for an I2RS Protocol

   This section describes required aspects of a protocol that could
   support I2RS.  Whether such a protocol is built upon extending
   existing mechanisms or requires a new mechanism requires further
   investigation.

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   The key aspects needed in an interface to the routing system are:

   Multiple Simultaneous Asynchronous Operations:   A single application
      should be able to send multiple independent atomic operations via
      I2RS without being required to wait for each to complete before
      sending the next.

   Very Fine Granularity of Data Locking for Writing:   When an I2RS
      operation is processed, it is required that the data locked for
      writing is very granular (e.g. a particular prefix and route)
      rather than extremely coarse, as is done for writing
      configuration.  This should improve the number of concurrent I2RS
      operations that are feasible and reduce blocking delays.

   Multi-Headed Control:   Multiple applications may communicate to the
      same I2RS agent in a minimally coordinated fashion.  It is
      necessary that the I2RS agent can handle multiple requests in a
      well-known policy-based fashion.  Data written can be owned by
      different I2RS clients at different times; data may even be
      overwritten by a different I2RS client.  The details of how this
      should be handled are described in [I-D.ietf-i2rs-architecture].

   Duplex:   Communications can be established by either the I2RS client
      (i.e.: that resides within the application or is used by it to
      communicate with the I2RS agent), or the I2RS agent.  Similarly,
      events, acknowledgements, failures, operations, etc. can be sent
      at any time by both the router and the application.  The I2RS is
      not a pure pull-model where only the application queries to pull
      responses.

   High-Throughput:   At a minimum, the I2RS Agent and associated router
      should be able to handle a considerable number of operations per
      second (for example 10,000 per second to handle many individual
      subscriber routes changing simultaneously).

   Low-Latency:   Within a sub-second time-scale, it should be possible
      to complete simple operations (e.g. reading or writing a single
      prefix route).

   Multi-Channel:   It should be possible for information to be
      communicated via the interface from different components in the
      router without requiring going through a single channel.  For
      example, for scaling, some exported data or events may be better
      sent directly from the forwarding plane, while other interactions
      may come from the control-plane.  Thus a single TCP session would
      not be a good match.

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   Scalable, Filterable Information Access:  To extract information in a
      scalable fashion that is more easily used by applications, the
      ability to specify filtering constructs in an operation requesting
      data or requesting an asynchronous notification is very valuable.

   Secure Control and Access:   Any ability to manipulate routing state
      must be subject to authentication and authorization.  Sensitive
      routing information may also need to be provided via secure access
      back to the I2RS client.  Such communications must be integrity
      protected.  Some communications will also require confidentiality.

   Extensible and Interoperability:   Both the I2RS protocol and models
      must be extensible and interoperate between different versions of
      protocols and models.

6.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Ken Gray, Ed Crabbe, Nic Leymann,
   Carlos Pignataro, Kwang-koog Lee, Linda Dunbar, Sue Hares, Russ
   Housley, Eric Grey, Qin Wu, and Stephen Kent for their suggestions
   and review.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document includes no request to IANA.

8.  Security Considerations

   Security is a key aspect of any protocol that allows state
   installation and extracting of detailed router state.  The need for
   secure control and access is mentioned in Section 5 More
   architectural security considerations are discussed in
   [I-D.ietf-i2rs-architecture].  Briefly, the I2RS Agent is assumed to
   have a separate authentication and authorization channel by which it
   can validate both the identity and the permissions associated with an
   I2RS Client.  Mutual authentication between the I2RS Agent and I2RS
   Client is required.  Different levels of integrity, confidentiality,
   and replay protection are relevant for different aspects of I2RS.

9.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-i2rs-architecture]
              Atlas, A., Halpern, J., Hares, S., Ward, D., and T.
              Nadeau, "An Architecture for the Interface to the Routing
              System", draft-ietf-i2rs-architecture-07 (work in
              progress), December 2014.

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   [I-D.ietf-idr-ls-distribution]
              Gredler, H., Medved, J., Previdi, S., Farrel, A., and S.
              Ray, "North-Bound Distribution of Link-State and TE
              Information using BGP", draft-ietf-idr-ls-distribution-07
              (work in progress), November 2014.

   [IESG-Statement]
              IESG, "Writable MIB Module IESG Statement", March 2014,
              <https://www.ietf.org/iesg/statement/writable-mib-
              module.html>.

   [RFC3746]  Yang, L., Dantu, R., Anderson, T., and R. Gopal,
              "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES)
              Framework", RFC 3746, April 2004.

   [RFC4292]  Haberman, B., "IP Forwarding Table MIB", RFC 4292, April
              2006.

   [RFC5470]  Sadasivan, G., Brownlee, N., Claise, B., and J. Quittek,
              "Architecture for IP Flow Information Export", RFC 5470,
              March 2009.

Appendix A.  Existing Management Interfaces

   This section discusses as a single entity the combination of the
   abstract data models, their representation in a data language, and
   the transfer protocol commonly used with them.  While other
   combinations of these existing standard technologies are possible,
   the ways described are those that have significant deployment.

   There are three basic ways that routers are managed.  The most
   popular is the command line interface (CLI), which allows both
   configuration and learning of device state.  This is a proprietary
   interface resembling a UNIX shell that allows for very customized
   control and observation of a device, and, specifically of interest in
   this case, its routing system.  Some form of this interface exists on
   almost every device (virtual or otherwise).  Processing of
   information returned to the CLI (called "screen scraping") is a
   burdensome activity because the data is normally formatted for use by
   a human operator, and because the layout of the data can vary from
   device to device, and between different software versions.  Despite
   its ubiquity, this interface has never been standardized and is
   unlikely to ever be standardized.  CLI standardization is not
   considered as a candidate solution for the problems motivating I2RS.

   The second most popular interface for interrogation of a device's
   state, statistics, and configuration is The Simple Network Management
   Protocol (SNMP) and a set of relevant standards-based and proprietary

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   Management Information Base (MIB) modules.  SNMP has a strong history
   of being used by network managers to gather statistical and state
   information about devices, including their routing systems.  However,
   SNMP is very rarely used to configure a device or any of its systems
   for reasons that vary depending upon the network operator.  Some
   example reasons include complexity, the lack of desired configuration
   semantics (e.g., configuration "roll-back", "sandboxing" or
   configuration versioning), and the difficulty of using the semantics
   (or lack thereof) as defined in the MIB modules to configure device
   features.  Therefore, SNMP is not considered as a candidate solution
   for the problems motivating I2RS.

   Finally, the IETF's Network Configuration (or NETCONF) protocol has
   made many strides at overcoming most of the limitations around
   configuration that were just described.  However, the initial lack of
   standard data models have hampered the adoption of NETCONF.
   Naturally, I2RS may help define needed information and data models.
   Additional extensions to handle multi-headed control may need to be
   added to NETCONF and/or appropriate data models.

Authors' Addresses

   Alia Atlas (editor)
   Juniper Networks
   10 Technology Park Drive
   Westford, MA  01886
   USA

   Email: akatlas@juniper.net

   Thomas D. Nadeau (editor)
   Brocade

   Email: tnadeau@lucidvision.com

   Dave Ward
   Cisco Systems
   Tasman Drive
   San Jose, CA  95134
   USA

   Email: wardd@cisco.com

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