Skip to main content

Wide BGP Communities Attribute
draft-ietf-idr-wide-bgp-communities-02

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Robert Raszuk , Jeffrey Haas , Andrew Lange, Shane Amante , Bruno Decraene , Paul Jakma , Richard Steenbergen
Last updated 2016-05-31
Replaces draft-raszuk-wide-bgp-communities
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Formats
Reviews
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state WG Document
Document shepherd (None)
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-ietf-idr-wide-bgp-communities-02
IDR Working Group                                         R. Raszuk, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                              Bloomberg LP
Intended status: Standards Track                            J. Haas, Ed.
Expires: December 2, 2016                               Juniper Networks
                                                           A. Lange, Ed.
                                                          Alcatel-Lucent
                                                               S. Amante
                                                             Apple, Inc.
                                                             B. Decraene
                                                                  Orange
                                                                P. Jakma
                                                         Uni. of Glasgow
                                                          R. Steenbergen
                                             nLayer Communications, Inc.
                                                            May 31, 2016

                     Wide BGP Communities Attribute
                 draft-ietf-idr-wide-bgp-communities-02

Abstract

   Route tagging plays an important role in external BGP [RFC4271]
   relations, in communicating various routing policies between peers.
   It is also a very common best practice among operators to propagate
   various additional information about routes intra-domain.  The most
   common tool used today to attach various information about routes is
   through the use of BGP communities [RFC1997].

   Such information is important to allow BGP speakers to perform some
   mutually agreed actions without the need to maintain a separate
   offline database for each tuple of prefix and associated set of
   action entries.

   This document defines a new encoding which will enhance and simplify
   what can be accomplished today with the use of BGP communities.  The
   most important addition this specification makes over currently
   defined BGP communities is the ability to specify, carry as well as
   use for execution an operator's defined set of parameters.  It also
   provides an extensible platform for any new community encoding needs
   in the future.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

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 December 2, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Protocol Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  Wide Community Atoms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.1.  The Autonomous System number list atom  . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.2.  The IPv4 and IPv6 prefix list atoms . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.3.  The Integer list atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.4.  The IEEE Floating Point Number list atom  . . . . . . . .   7
     2.5.  The Neighbor Class list atom  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     2.6.  The User-defined Class list atom  . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     2.7.  The UTF-8 String atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   3.  Wide BGP Community Attribute  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.1.  Wide BGP Community Attribute Container Header . . . . . .   8
   4.  Container Type 1: Wide Community  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.1.  Community Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

     4.2.  Source AS Number  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.3.  Context AS Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.4.  Wide Community Target(s) TLV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.5.  Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV  . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.6.  Wide Community Parameter(s) TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.7.  Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  The AS-4 List Generic Wide BGP Community  . . . . . . . . . .  13
     5.1.  Definition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.  Well Known Standard BGP Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   7.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   8.  Error Handling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   9.  Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     9.1.  Example Wide Community Definition . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     9.2.  Example Wide Community Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   10. Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   12. Change History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   13. Outstanding Issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   14. Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   15. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   16. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     16.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     16.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22

1.  Introduction

   RFC 1997 [RFC1997] defines the BGP Community Attribute.  This
   attribute is used as a tool to carry additional information in BGP
   routes which may help to automate peering administration.  The BGP
   Communities Attribute consists of one or more sets of four octet
   values, where each specifies a different community.  Except for two
   reserved ranges, the encoding of community values mandates that the
   first two octets are to contain the Autonomous System number, with
   the next two octets containing some locally defined value.

   With the introduction of 4-octet Autonomous System numbers by RFC
   4893 [RFC4893] it became obvious that BGP Communities as specified in
   RFC 1997 will not be able to accommodate new AS encoding.  In fact
   RFC 4893 explicitly recommends use of four octets AS specific
   [RFC5668] extended communities [RFC4360] as a way to encode new 4
   octet AS numbers.

   While the encoding of 4 octet AS numbers is being addressed by
   [I-D.ietf-idr-as4octet-extcomm-generic-subtype], neither the base BGP
   communities (standard or extended) nor as4octet-extcomm-generic
   document define a sufficient level of encoding freedom which could be
   of practical use.  The authors believe that defining a new BGP Path

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   Attribute, with the ability to contain locally defined parameters
   will enhance the current level of network policies, as well as
   simplify BGP policy management.  The proposed simple encoding will
   also facilitate the delivery of new network services without a need
   to define a new BGP extension each time.

   When defining any new type of tool there is always a unique
   opportunity to specify a subset of well recognized behaviors.  Lists
   of the current most commonly used BGP communities, as well as
   provision for a new registry for future definitions will be contained
   in a separate document.

1.1.  Protocol Summary

   Each Wide BGP Community consists of three main parts:

   1.  A Container Header.  This header is defined in Section 4.
       The Container Header encodes:

       *  Container Type.  One Type is defined in this document.
       *  Flags to control behavior.
       *  Hop Count to control the degree of Community propagation
       *  Length

   2.  The Community itself, defined as a type of Container.  The Type 1
       Wide Community is defined in Section 4.
       The Type 1 Wide Community contains:

       *  Community Value: This section defines the action that an
          operator wishes a router to take.
       *  Source AS: This is the AS originating the community.
       *  Context AS: This its the AS context from which community
          should be interpreted.
       *  Target(s): This is an optional list that encodes where the
          community's action should be taken.
       *  Exclude Target(s): This is an optional list that encodes where
          the community's actions should not be taken.
       *  Parameters: This is an optional list that encodes additional
          information that the community's action needs to execute
          properly.

   3.  Community Atoms.  These are values and lists of values that are
       common across community actions.  They are defined in Section 2.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

2.  Wide Community Atoms

   Wide BGP communities will act on and hence need to encode some
   distinct atoms of data.  These are encoded as TLVs, where each TLV
   has the following format:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |     Type      |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |            Length             |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                         Value (variable)                      |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The Type field contains a value of 1-254.  The values 0 and 255 are
   reserved for future use.  The TLV types are to be assigned and
   maintained by IANA registry.

   The Length represents the total length of a given TLV's value field
   in octets.

   The Value field contains the TLV value.

   Supported format of the TLVs can be:

     Type  1: Autonomous System number list
     Type  2: IPv4 prefix (1 octet prefix length + prefix) list
     Type  3: IPv6 prefix (1 octet prefix length + prefix) list
     Type  4: Integer list
     Type  5: IEEE Floating Point Number list
     Type  6: Neighbor Class list
     Type  7: User-defined Class list
     Type  8: UTF-8 String

   The semantics of a given atom will depend upon the context in which
   it is used, as defined by the containing wide community.

   In the following sections defining the different atoms, validation
   rules for the Length of the atom will be presented.  If the Length of
   the atom does not match the rules for that atom, it SHALL be
   considered malformed.  (See Section 8.)

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 5]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

2.1.  The Autonomous System number list atom

   This atom represents a list of Autonomous System numbers, each 4
   octets in size.  The minimum Length of this atom is 4 octets.  The
   Length MUST be a multiple of 4.

   For consistent treatment, all AS numbers MUST be encoded as 4 octet
   values.  When encoding two octet ASes, the first two octets of this
   four octet value MUST be filled with zeros.

   Two special values are reserved for the Autonomous System atoms:

     0x00000000 - to indicate "No Autonomous Systems".
     0xFFFFFFFF - to indicate "All Autonomous Systems".

2.2.  The IPv4 and IPv6 prefix list atoms

   This atom represents a list of IPv4 or IPv6 prefix.  IPv4 and IPv6
   prefix atom values are encoded in the same format used by BGP NLRI in
   Section 4.3 of [RFC4271].

   +---------------------------+
   |  Prefix Length (1 octet)  |
   +---------------------------+
   |  Prefix (variable)        |
   +---------------------------+

   The Prefix Length for IPv4 prefixes must be in the range of 0..32.

   The Prefix Length for IPv6 prefixes must be in the range of 0..128.

   The Length field must be able to accommodate the list of prefixes
   according to the encoding rules.  If the Length cannot fully
   accommodate the required number of octets to encode the Prefix Length
   and the Prefix, the atom is considered malformed.

2.3.  The Integer list atom

   This atom represents a list of Integers.  Integers are a fixed Length
   of 4 octets and are stored in network byte order.

   The minimum Length of the Integer list atom is 4 octets.  The Length
   MUST be a multiple of 4.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 6]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

2.4.  The IEEE Floating Point Number list atom

   This atom represents a list of floating point numbers.  Floating
   point numbers are a fixed Length of 4 octets and are stored in
   [IEEE.754.1985] format.

   This atom represents a list of floating point numbers.

   The minimum Length of the Floating Point Number list atom is 4
   octets.  The Length MUST be a multiple of 4.

2.5.  The Neighbor Class list atom

   The Neighbor Class list atom represents a classification of a BGP
   peering session, each 4 octets in size.  This class currently can
   contain three values:

     1 - Peer:     This class is typically applied to sessions where a
                   transit-free relationship exists between two
                   providers.
     2 - Customer: This class is typically applied to sessions where
                   the remote end of the session is operated by a
                   customer.
     3 - Upstream: This class is typically applied to sessions where the
                   remote end of the session is operated by a network
                   from which you receive transit routes.

   The Neighbor Class list atom represents a classification of a BGP
   peering session.

   The minimum Length of the Neighbor Class list atom is 4 octets.  The
   Length MUST be a multiple of 4.

2.6.  The User-defined Class list atom

   Similar to the Neighbor Class atom, the User-defined Class list atom
   represents a classification of a network property.  The exact
   property definition is up to the semantics of the defining Autonomous
   System.  The semantics governing a given User-defined Class list are
   defined by the Context AS Number.

   Examples of User-defined Class properties include geography (East,
   West), continent (North America, Asia, Europe), etc.  Similar to the
   [RFC1997] BGP Communities, it is necessary that the Context AS
   provide a registry of the value and the semantics of a given
   community.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 7]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   The minimum Length of the User-defined Class list atom is 4 octets.
   The Length of this atom MUST be a multiple of 4.

2.7.  The UTF-8 String atom

   The UTF-8 String atom represents an arbitrary Unicode string in UTF-8
   [RFC3629] format.  The Length is required to be of sufficient size to
   carry the UTF-8 string in the Value field.

   Implementations MUST be prepared for truncated/improperly formed
   UTF-8 strings.  When detecting such a string, the implementation
   should remove trailing octets of a multi-octet sequence in order to
   have a well-formed string.

   Implementations MUST be prepared to receive empty (zero-Length) UTF-8
   String atoms as they may be used as Parameters.

3.  Wide BGP Community Attribute

   This document defines a new BGP Path Attribute, the Wide BGP
   Community.  The attribute type code is (TBA by IANA).

   The Wide BGP Community Attribute is an optional, transitive BGP
   attribute, and may be present only once in the BGP UPDATE message.

   The attribute contains a number of typed containers.  Any given
   container type may appear multiple times, unless that container
   type's definition specifies otherwise.

3.1.  Wide BGP Community Attribute Container Header

   Containers always start with the following header:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |             Type              |     Flags     |   Hop Count   |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |            Length             |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   This document defines one Type code - Type 1.  See the Section 11 for
   information on additional type registration policies.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 8]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   +------+-------+----------------------------------------------------+
   | Bit  | Value | Meaning                                            |
   +------+-------+----------------------------------------------------+
   |  0   |   0   | Local community value.                             |
   |      |   1   | Registered community value.                        |
   |  1   |   0   | Do not decrement Hop Count field across            |
   |      |       | confederation boundaries.                          |
   |      |   1   | Decrement Hop Count field across confederation     |
   |      |       | boundaries.                                        |
   | 2..7 |   -   | MUST be zero when sent and ignored upon receipt.   |
   +------+-------+----------------------------------------------------+

   Flags are defined globally, to apply to all wide community container
                                  types.

                              Table 1: Flags

   Bit 0 (aka R bit) set (value 1) indicates that the given container
   carries a Wide BGP Community which is registered with IANA.  When not
   set (value 0) it indicates that community value which follows is
   locally assigned with a local meaning.

   Bit 1 (aka C bit) is used to manage the propagation scope of a given
   Wide BGP Community across confederation boundaries.  When not set
   (value of 0), the Hop Count field is not considered at the sub-AS
   boundaries.  When set (value of 1), sub-AS border router follows the
   same procedure regarding the handling of the Hop Count field as
   applicable to ASBR at the domain boundary.

   The Hop Count field represents the forwarding radius, in units of AS
   hops, for the given Wide BGP Community.  A Hop Count value of zero
   indicates that this wide community must not cross any further AS
   boundaries.  At each AS boundary, when propagating a given wide
   community over an EBGP session, the Hop Count field MUST be
   decremented by the sending EBGP speaker.

   The exact same decrement procedures described above apply also to
   sub-confederation boundaries when the bit 1's flag is set to 1.

   The special value of 0xFF indicates that the enclosed community may
   always be propagated over an EBGP boundary.  A Hop Count value of
   0xFF MUST NOT be decremented during propagation.

   The Length field represents the total length of a given container in
   octets.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016                [Page 9]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

4.  Container Type 1: Wide Community

   The Wide BGP Community Type 1 container is of variable size (but
   minimum length 12) and is encoded as follows:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |               Registered/Local Community Value                |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                        Source AS Number                       |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                       Context AS Number                       |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |            Wide Community Target(s) TLV (optional)            |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |        Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV (optional)        |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |          Wide Community Parameter(s) TLV (optional)           |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                    Figure 4: Wide BGP Community Type 1

4.1.  Community Value

   Community Value: 4 octets

      The Wide BGP Community value indicates what set of actions a
      router is requested to take upon reception of a route containing
      this community.  The semantics of this value depend on whether
      this is a private/local community or registered.

4.2.  Source AS Number

   Source Autonomous System Number: 4 octets

      The Autonomous System number which indicates the originator of
      this Wide BGP Community.

      When the Autonomous System is a two octet number the first two
      octets of this 4 octet value MUST be filled with zeros.

4.3.  Context AS Number

   Context Autonomous System Number: 4 octets

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 10]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   The Autonomous System number that indicates the context of the
   Registered/Local Value.  For Wide Community Containers that are
   Locally defined, the Context Autonomous System number provides the
   context for the Community Value and thus the meaning of the community
   as well as any User-defined Classes for that Context AS.

   For Registered Community Containers, the Context Autonomous System
   number MAY be utilized to provide specific meaning for that
   Registered community.  When no such context is implied, this field
   MUST be 0.

   When the wide community is locally registered, the Context Autonomous
   System Number indicates the AS that defines the format of this wide
   community for the given Local Value.  (In other words, value 1 will
   likely refer to different formats for AS 1 vs. AS 2.)

4.4.  Wide Community Target(s) TLV

   The Wide Community Target(s) TLV (Type 1) contains a list of a Wide
   Community atoms.

   Wide Community Targets define the matching criteria for the
   community.  A given wide community may have a number of targets that
   it applies to.  The semantics of these targets will vary on a per
   community basis.  Depending on the definition of the community,
   targets may be optional.

   The value field of the Wide Community Target(s) TLV is a series of
   Wide Community Atom TLVs.  The semantics of any given atom TLV MUST
   be part of the definition of a given Wide Community.

   Typically, Wide Community Targets consist of a series of atoms that
   have "match any" semantics.  Thus, if any given target matches per
   the semantics of that atom for the community, the community is
   considered to match and the action defined by the community should be
   executed.

   When no Target(s) TLV is specified, it is considered "match all".

   If the semantics of a given atom is undefined for the community in
   question, it MUST be ignored.

   When no targets are required by the definition of a given Wide
   Community, the Wide Community Target(s) TLV SHOULD NOT be encoded in
   the community.  Implementations MUST be prepared to accept a Wide
   Community Target(s) TLV with an empty value field.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 11]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

4.5.  Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV

   The Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV (Type 2) contains a list of
   a Wide Community atoms.

   Wide Community Exclude Targets define criteria by which the community
   is considered to NOT match.  Depending on the semantics of the Wide
   Community, Exclude Target(s) may be optional.

   The semantic of the Wide Community Exclude Target(s) is to match all
   specified Target(s) with the exception of those listed in this TLV.

   The value field of the Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV is a
   series of Wide Community Atom TLVs.  The semantics of any given atom
   TLV MUST be part of the definition of a given Wide Community.

   If the semantics of a given atom is undefined for the community in
   question, it MUST be ignored.

   If the Wide Community Target(s) TLV and the Wide Community Exclude
   Target(s) TLV have conflicting semantics, priority MUST be given to
   the Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV.

   When no exclude targets are required by the definition of a given
   Wide Community, the Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV SHOULD NOT
   be encoded in the community.  Implementations MUST be prepared to
   accept a Wide Community Exclude Target(s) TLV with an empty value
   field.

4.6.  Wide Community Parameter(s) TLV

   The Wide Community Parameter(s) TLV (Type 3) contains a list of a
   Wide Community atoms.

   A given wide community may have parameters which are used as inputs
   for executing actions defined for that community.  These parameters,
   and any constraints implied by the parameters, MUST be defined by the
   wide community definition.  Parameters consist of an ordered set of
   atom sub-TLVs.  The semantics of any specific positional instance of
   an atom MUST be defined by the wide community.

   If it is the case that a parameter for a given community is of an
   unexpected type or length, the community MUST be ignored.

   If it is the case that there are too many or two few parameters for a
   given community, the community MUST be ignored.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 12]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   When no parameters are required by the definition of a given Wide
   Community, the Wide Community Paramters TLV SHOULD NOT be encoded in
   the community.  Implementations MUST be prepared to accept a Wide
   Community Parameter TLV with an empty value field.

4.7.  Usage

   The detailed interpretation of the targets or parameters SHALL be
   provided when describing given community type in a separate document
   or when locally defined by an operator.

5.  The AS-4 List Generic Wide BGP Community

   In standard [RFC1997] BGP Communities, a commonly deployed format is
   AS:0x0000-0xFFFF.  The left-hand-side AS is the context AS while the
   right-hand-side represents an action intended to be taken upon that
   AS.  While the [I-D.ietf-idr-as4octet-extcomm-generic-subtype]
   Extended Community format is intended to address the use cases where
   the right-hand-side represents a semi-opaque integer value, operators
   that desire to utilize the right-hand-side as an Autonomous System
   Number have been unable to do so.

   In the AS:0x0000-0xFFFF format, there are no explicit semantics on
   the action for a given right-hand-side.  The semantics are implicit
   to the Autonomous System number itself.  While such a format doesn't
   take advantage of the more flexible semantics of Wide BGP
   Communities, the format is capable of addressing this operational
   need.

   This document defines a Registered Wide BGP Community to address that
   need.

5.1.  Definition

     Community Value: 1 - AS-4 List Generic Wide BGP Community
     Source AS Number: <Your AS number>
     Context AS Number: <Targeted AS number>
     Wide Community Target(s): <MUST BE ABSENT>
     Wide Community Exclude Target(s): <MUST BE ABSENT>
     Wide Community Parameter(s): <Wide Community Atom Type 4>

6.  Well Known Standard BGP Communities

   According to RFC 1997, as well as IANA's Well-Known BGP Communities
   registry, the following BGP communities are defined to have global
   significance:

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 13]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

        0xFFFF0000   planned-shut         [draft-francois-bgp-gshut]
        0xFFFFFF01   NO_EXPORT            [RFC1997]
        0xFFFFFF02   NO_ADVERTISE         [RFC1997]
        0xFFFFFF03   NO_EXPORT_SUBCONFED  [RFC1997]
        0xFFFFFF04   NOPEER               [RFC3765]

   This document recommends for simplicity as well as for avoidance of
   backward compatibility issues the continued use of BGP Standard
   Community Attribute type 8 as defined in RFC 1997 to distribute non
   Autonomous System specific Well-Known BGP Communities.

   For the same reason, this document does not intended to obsolete the
   currently defined and deployed BGP Extended Communities.

7.  Operational Considerations

   Having two different ways to propagate locally assigned BGP
   communities, one via the use of Standard BGP Communities and the
   other one via the use of Wide BGP Communities, may seem to
   potentially cause problems when considering propagation of
   conflicting actions.  However, even at present, an operator may
   append Standard BGP Communities with conflicting information.  It is
   therefore recommended that any implementation, in supporting both
   standard and Wide BGP communities, allow for their easy inbound and
   outbound processing.  The actual execution of all communities should
   be treated as a union and, if supported by an implementation, their
   execution permissions are to be a local configuration matter.

8.  Error Handling

   If any atom in a Wide Community container's Exclude Targets TLV is
   unrecognized, no actions should be taken for that Wide Community.
   While the Targets TLV is meant to be inclusive, the Exclude Targets
   TLV is meant to be proscriptive of applying the action.

   If any Wide Community container or atoms contained therein are
   determined to be malformed, the Wide Community Path attribute must be
   considered malformed.  BGP implementations should use "treat-as-
   withdraw" semantics as defined in [I-D.ietf-idr-error-handling].

9.  Example

9.1.  Example Wide Community Definition

   An operator of an AS 64496, wishes to locally define a Wide Community
   with the semantics of permitting AS_PATH prepending with targets that
   include AS numbers of peer ASes and peers who have been marked with a
   set of enumerated city locations.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 14]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   AS 64496 has established a registered set of values to use for its
   User-defined Class:

      100 - Amsterdam
      101 - New York
      102 - San Francisco
      103 - Tokyo
      104 - Moscow

   Target semantics:

      The Autonomous System Number list atom refers to the target peer
      AS Numbers.

      The User-defined Class for AS 64496 has been defined elsewhere and
      the values 100..104 may be used for this locally defined Wide
      Community.

      The Targets TLV MUST contain at least one entry.

      The Exclude Targets TLV MAY contain entries of the above supported
      atoms.

      The semantics of all other atoms are undefined for this community.

   Parameter semantics:

      The parameter TLV shall consist of exactly one Integer atom value
      that is constrained to have a value of 2..8.

9.2.  Example Wide Community Encoding

     AS_PATH prepend 4 TIMES TO AS 2424, AS 8888, to peers marked as
     Amsterdam (100) or to peers marked Moscow (104), but not to peers
     in New York (101).

     Use Hop Count 0 to request the receiving router to not propagate
     this wide community.

     Locally community value (flag bit 0 = 0).
     Do not decrement Hop Count field across confederation boundaries
     (0)

     Local community 1 for sample AS 64496.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 15]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |     Container Type 1 (1)      |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0|
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Hop Count: 0  |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Length:                    57 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Community: LOCAL PREPEND ACTION CATEGORY                    1 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Own ASN                                                 64496 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Context ASN#                                            64496 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Target TLV (1)|   Length:                  22 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | ASN List (2)  |   Length:                   8 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Target ASN#                                              2424 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Target ASN#                                              8888 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |  User List(7) |   Length:                   8 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Amsterdam                                                 100 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Moscow                                                    104 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |ExcTargetTLV(2)|   Length:                   7 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |  User List(7) |   Length:                   4 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | New York                                                  101 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Param TLV (3) |   Length:                   7 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |  Integer  (4) |   Length:                   4 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Prepend #                                                   4 |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 16]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

10.  Security considerations

   All the security considerations for BGP Communities as well as for
   BGP RFCs apply here.

   Given the flexibility and power offered by Wide BGP communities, it
   is important to consider the additional possibilities allowed by
   their definition.  In particular, for locally defined Wide BGP
   Communities, it may be wise to restrict the range of parameters.  For
   registred Wide BGP Communities, the security considerations of the
   document defining them MUST address issues specific to those newly
   defined Wide Communities.

   Security considerations specific to Wide BGP Communities will be
   discussed in a later revision of this draft.

11.  IANA Considerations

   This document defines a new BGP Path Attribute called Wide BGP
   Community Attribute.  For this new type IANA is to allocate a new
   value in the corresponding registry:

   Registry Name: BGP Path Attributes

   This document makes the following assignments for the optional,
   transitive Wide BGP Communities Attribute:

     Name                                     Type Value
     ----                                     ----------
     Wide BGP Community Attribute                 TBA

   This document requests IANA to define and maintain a new registry
   named: "Wide BGP Communities Attribute Container Types".

   The pool of: 0x0000-0xFFFF has been defined for its allocations.  The
   allocation policy is on a first come, first served basis.

   This document makes the following assignments for the Wide BGP
   Communities Container Types values:

     Name                             Type Value
     ----                             ----------
     Reserved                           0x0000
     Type 1, Wide BGP Community         0x0001
     Types 2-1023 to be allocated using IETF Consensus
     Types 1024-64511 to be allocated first come, first served
     Types 64512-65534 are reserved for experimental use
     Reserved                           0xFFFF

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 17]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   This document requests IANA to define and maintain a new registry
   named: "Wide BGP Communities Atom Types".  The pool of 0x0000-0xFFFF
   has been defined for its allocations.

   This document makes the following assignments for the Wide BGP
   Communities Atom Type values:

     Name                             Type Value
     ----                             ----------
     Reserved                           0x00
     Autonomous System Number List      0x01
     IPv4 Prefix list                   0x02
     IPv6 Prefix list                   0x03
     Integer list                       0x04
     IEEE Floating Point Number list    0x05
     Neighbor Class list                0x06
     User-defined Class list            0x07
     UTF-8 string                       0x08
     Reserved                           0xFF

   This document requests IANA to define and maintain a new registry
   named: "Registered Wide BGP Communities".  The pool of
   0x00000000-0FFFFFFFF has ben defined for its allocation.

   This document makes the following assignments for the Registered Wide
   BGP Communities:

     Name                                  Type Value
     ----                                  ----------
     Reserved                               0x00
     AS-4 List Generic Wide BGP Community   0x01
     Reserved                               0xFFFFFFFF

   Values 2-1023 are to be allocated using IETF Consensus.  Values
   64512-65534 are reserved for experimental use.  All other values are
   available on a first-come, first served basis.

12.  Change History

   Changes from -03 via -04 to -05:

      Update the Introduction.

      Substantial re-work of atom types removing proposed Group
      container and moving atoms to be lists.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 18]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

      Added the Exclude Targets TLV to the Wide Community container.

      Added a section on error handling.

      Updated the example.

   Changes from -02 to -03:

      Removed C and R named bit fields originally from -00.

      Rename Target AS field to Context AS.

      Make Integer Atom a fixed 4 octets in length.

      Add Neighbor Class Atom

      Rename TTL to Hop Count

   Changes from -01 to -02:

      The Type field has been expanded to 2 octets.

      The Length field has been moved to the common header.

      Changed format to use TLVs.

      Added atom TLV to define well defined syntactic items.

      Added TLVs to distinguish targets from parameters.

      Various editorial changes to language.

13.  Outstanding Issues

   The following are known issues that have yet to be resolved in this
   draft:

   o  The interaction of the Container TTL field with VPN peers.

   o  The name Wide Communities is overloaded in this document.  The
      scope of this feature has evolved since the initial -00 of the
      draft.  The general feature of a containerized BGP Community
      extension and the Type 1 container, the Wide community, currently
      share names.  "There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
      cache invalidation and naming things."

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 19]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

14.  Contributors

   The following people contributed significantly to the content of the
   document:

   Shintaro Kojima
   OTEMACHI 1st. SQUARE EAST TOWER, 3F
   1-5-1, Otemachi,
   Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004
   Japan
   Email: koji@mfeed.ad.jp

   Juan Alcaide
   Cisco Systems
   Research Triangle Park, NC
   United States
   Email: jalcaide@cisco.com

   Burjiz Pithawala
   Cisco Systems
   170 West Tasman Dr
   San Jose, CA
   United States
   Email: bpithaw@cisco.com

   Saku Ytti
   TDC Oy
   Mechelininkatu 1a
   00094 TDC
   Finland
   Email: ytti@tdc.net

15.  Acknowledgments

   This document owes draft-lange-flexible-bgp-communities a debt for
   the inspiration of many features contained herein.

   The authors would like to thank Enke Chen, Pedro Marques and Alton Lo
   for their valuable input.

16.  References

16.1.  Normative References

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 20]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   [I-D.ietf-idr-error-handling]
              Scudder, J., Chen, E., Mohapatra, P., and K. Patel,
              "Revised Error Handling for BGP UPDATE Messages", draft-
              ietf-idr-error-handling-05 (work in progress), February
              2014.

   [IEEE.754.1985]
              Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
              "Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic",
              IEEE Standard 754, August 1985.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, DOI 10.17487/RFC3629, November
              2003, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3629>.

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed., "A
              Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.

16.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-idr-as4octet-extcomm-generic-subtype]
              Rao, D., Mohapatra, P., and J. Haas, "Generic Subtype for
              BGP Four-octet AS specific extended community", draft-
              ietf-idr-as4octet-extcomm-generic-subtype-06 (work in
              progress), October 2012.

   [RFC1997]  Chandra, R., Traina, P., and T. Li, "BGP Communities
              Attribute", RFC 1997, DOI 10.17487/RFC1997, August 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1997>.

   [RFC4360]  Sangli, S., Tappan, D., and Y. Rekhter, "BGP Extended
              Communities Attribute", RFC 4360, DOI 10.17487/RFC4360,
              February 2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4360>.

   [RFC4893]  Vohra, Q. and E. Chen, "BGP Support for Four-octet AS
              Number Space", RFC 4893, DOI 10.17487/RFC4893, May 2007,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4893>.

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 21]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   [RFC5668]  Rekhter, Y., Sangli, S., and D. Tappan, "4-Octet AS
              Specific BGP Extended Community", RFC 5668,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5668, October 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5668>.

Authors' Addresses

   Robert Raszuk (editor)
   Bloomberg LP
   731 Lexington Ave
   New York City, NY  10022
   USA

   Email: robert@raszuk.net

   Jeffrey Haas (editor)
   Juniper Networks
   1194 N.Mathilda Ave
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   US

   Email: jhaas@juniper.net

   Andrew Lange (editor)
   Alcatel-Lucent
   777 E. Middlefield Road
   Mountain View, CA  94043
   US

   Email: andrew.lange@alcatel-lucent.com

   Shane Amante
   Apple, Inc.
   1 Infinite Loop
   Cupertino, CA  95014
   US

   Email: amante@apple.com

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 22]
Internet-Draft            wide-bgp-communities                  May 2016

   Bruno Decraene
   Orange
   38-40 rue du General Leclerc
   Issy Moulineaux cedex 9  92794
   France

   Email: bruno.decraene@orange.com

   Paul Jakma
   University of Glasgow
   School of Computing Science
   Sir Alwyn Williams Building
   University of Glasgow
   Glasgow  G12 8QQ
   UK

   Email: paulj@dcs.gla.ac.uk

   Richard A Steenbergen
   nLayer Communications, Inc.
   209 W Jackson Blvd
   Chicago, IL  60606
   US

   Email: ras@nlayer.net

Raszuk, et al.          Expires December 2, 2016               [Page 23]