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Support of the IEEE 1588 Timestamp Format in a Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)
draft-ietf-ippm-twamp-time-format-06

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8186.
Authors Greg Mirsky , Israel Meilik
Last updated 2017-06-08 (Latest revision 2017-04-12)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Proposed Standard
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Document shepherd Bill Cerveny
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Responsible AD Spencer Dawkins
Send notices to "Bill Cerveny" <ietf@wjcerveny.com>
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draft-ietf-ippm-twamp-time-format-06
Network Working Group                                          G. Mirsky
Internet-Draft                                                 ZTE Corp.
Intended status: Standards Track                               I. Meilik
Expires: October 14, 2017                                       Broadcom
                                                          April 12, 2017

  Support of IEEE-1588 time stamp format in Two-Way Active Measurement
                            Protocol (TWAMP)
                  draft-ietf-ippm-twamp-time-format-06

Abstract

   This document describes an OPTIONAL feature for active performance
   measurement protocols allowing use of the Precision Time Protocol
   time stamp format defined in IEEE-1588v2-2008, as an alternative to
   the Network Time Protocol that is currently used.

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 October 14, 2017.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 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
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
       1.1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
       1.1.2.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  OWAMP and TWAMP Extensions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Timestamp Format Negotiation in Setting Up Connection in
           OWAMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Timestamp Format Negotiation in Setting Up Connection in
           TWAMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.3.  OWAMP-Test and TWAMP-Test Update  . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       2.3.1.  Consideration for TWAMP Light mode  . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   One-Way Active Measurement Protocol (OWAMP) [RFC4656] defines that
   only the NTP [RFC5905] format of a time stamp can be used in OWAMP-
   Test protocol.  Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) [RFC5357]
   adopted the OWAMP-Test packet format and extended it by adding a
   format for a reflected test packet.  Both the sender's and
   reflector's packets time stamps are expected to follow the 64-bit
   long NTP format [RFC5905].  NTP, when used over Internet, typically
   achieves clock accuracy of about 5ms to 100ms.  Surveys conducted
   recently suggest that 90% devices achieve accuracy of better than 100
   ms and 99% - better than 1 sec.  It should be noted that NTP
   synchronizes clocks on the control plane, not on data plane.
   Distribution of clock within a node may be supported by independent
   NTP domain or via interprocess communication in multiprocessor
   distributed system.  Any of the mentioned solutions will be subject
   to additional queuing delays that negatively affect data plane clock
   accuracy.

   Precision Time Protocol (PTP) [IEEE.1588.2008] has gained wide
   support since the development of OWAMP and TWAMP.  PTP, using on-path
   support and other mechanisms, allows sub-microsecond clock accuracy.
   PTP is now supported in multiple implementations of fast forwarding
   engines and thus accuracy achieved by PTP is the accuracy of clock in
   data plane.  An option to use a more accurate clock as a source of
   time stamps for IP performance measurements is one of this

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   specification's advantages.  Another advantage is realized by
   simplification of hardware in data plane.  To support OWAMP or TWAMP
   test protocol time stamps must be converted from PTP to NTP.  That
   requires resources, use of micro-code or additional processing
   elements, that are always limited.  To address this, this document
   proposes optional extensions to Control and Test protocols to support
   use of IEEE-1588v2 time stamp format as optional alternative to the
   NTP time stamp format.

   One of the goals of this specification is not only to allow end-
   points of a test session to use timestamp format other than NTP but
   to support backwards compatibility with nodes that do not yet support
   this extension.

1.1.  Conventions used in this document

1.1.1.  Terminology

   IPPM: IP Performance Measurement

   NTP: Network Time Protocol

   PTP: Precision Time Protocol

   TWAMP: Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol

   OWAMP: One-Way Active Measurement Protocol

1.1.2.  Requirements Language

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

2.  OWAMP and TWAMP Extensions

   OWAMP connection establishment follows the procedure defined in
   Section 3.1 of [RFC4656] and additional steps in TWAMP described in
   Section 3.1 of [RFC5357].  In these procedures, the Modes field has
   been used to identify and select specific communication capabilities.
   At the same time the Modes field has been recognized and used as
   extension mechanism [RFC6038].  The new feature requires one bit
   position for Server and Control-Client to negotiate which timestamp
   format can be used in some or all test sessions invoked with this
   control connection.  The end-point of the test session, Session-
   Sender and Session-Receiver or Session-Reflector, that supports this
   extension MUST be capable to interpret NTP and PTPv2 timestamp

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   formats.  If the end-point does not support this extension, then the
   value of PTPv2 Timestamp flag MUST be 0 because it is in Must Be Zero
   field.  If the value of PTPv2 Timestamp flags is 0, then the
   advertising node can use and interpret only NTP timestamp format.
   Implementations of OWAMP and/or TWAMP MAY provide a configuration
   knob to bypass the timestamp format negotiation process and to use
   the locally configured values instead.

   Use of PTPv2 Timestamp flags is discussed in the following sub-
   sections.  For details on the assigned values and bit positions see
   the Section 3.

2.1.  Timestamp Format Negotiation in Setting Up Connection in OWAMP

   In OWAMP-Test [RFC4656] the Session-Receiver and/or Fetch-Client
   interpret collected timestamps.  Thus, the Server uses the Modes
   field timestamp format to indicate which formats the Session-Receiver
   is capable to interpret.  The Control-Client inspects values set by
   the Server for timestamp formats and sets values in the Modes field
   of the Set-Up-Response message according to timestamp formats
   Session-Sender can use.  The rules of setting timestamp flags in
   Modes field in server greeting and Set-Up-Response messages and
   interpreting them are as follows:

   o  If the Session-Receiver supports this extension, then the Server
      that establishes test sessions on its behalf MUST set PTPv2
      Timestamp flag to 1 in the server greeting message per the
      requirement listed in Section 2.  Otherwise, the PTPv2 Timestamp
      flag will be set to 0 to indicate that the Session-Receiver
      interprets only NTP format.

   o  If the Control-Client receives greeting message with the PTPv2
      Timestamp flag set to 0, then the Session-Sender MUST use NTP
      format for timestamp in the test session and Control-Client SHOULD
      set PTPv2 Timestamp flag to 0 in accordance with [RFC4656].  If
      the Session-Sender cannot use NTP timestamps, then the Control-
      Client SHOULD close the TCP connection associated with the OWAMP-
      Control session.

   o  If the Control-Client receives greeting message with the PTPv2
      Timestamp flag set to 1 and the Session-Sender can set timestamp
      in PTPv2 format, then the Control-Client MUST set the PTPv2
      Timestamp flag to 1 in Modes field in the Set-Up-Response message
      and the Session-Sender MUST use PTPv2 timestamp format.

   o  If the Session-Sender doesn't support this extension and can set
      timestamp only in NTP format, then the PTPv2 Timestamp flag in

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      Modes field in the Set-Up-Response message will be set to 0 as
      part of Must Be Zero and the Session-Sender use NTP format.

   If OWAMP-Control uses Fetch-Session commands, then selection and use
   of one or another timestamp format is local decision for both
   Session-Sender and Session-Receiver.

2.2.  Timestamp Format Negotiation in Setting Up Connection in TWAMP

   In TWAMP-Test [RFC5357] the Session-Sender interprets collected
   timestamps.  Hence, in the Modes field a Server advertises timestamp
   formats that the Session-Reflector can use in TWAMP-Test message.
   The choice of the timestamp format to be used by the Session-Sender
   is a local decision.  The Control-Client inspects the Modes field and
   sets timestamp flags values to indicate which format will be used by
   the Session-Reflector.  The rules of setting and interpreting flag
   values are as follows:

   o  Server MUST set to 1 value of PTPv2 Timestamp flag in its greeting
      message if Session-Reflector can set timestamp in PTPv2 format.
      Otherwise the PTPv2 Timestamp flag MUST be set to 0.

   o  If value of the PTPv2 Timestamp flag in received server greeting
      message equals 0, then Session-Reflector does not support this
      extension and will use NTP timestamp format.  Control-Client
      SHOULD set PTPv2 Timestamp flag to 0 in Set-Up-Response message in
      accordance with [RFC5357].

   o  Control-Client MUST set PTPv2 Timestamp flag value to 1 in Modes
      field in the Set-Up-Response message if Server advertised ability
      of the Session-Reflector to use PTPv2 format for timestamps.
      Otherwise the flag MUST be set to 0.

   o  If the values of PTPv2 Timestamp flag in the Set-Up-Response
      message equals 0, then that means that Session-Sender can only
      interpret NTP timestamp format.  Then the Session-Reflector MUST
      use NTP timestamp format.  If the Session-Reflector does not
      support NTP format then Server and MUST close the TCP connection
      associated with the TWAMP-Control session.

2.3.  OWAMP-Test and TWAMP-Test Update

   Participants of a test session need to indicate which timestamp
   format being used.  The specification is to use Z field in Error
   Estimate defined in Section 4.1.2 of [RFC4656].  The new
   interpretation of the Error Estimate is in addition to it specifying
   error estimate and synchronization, Error Estimate indicates format
   of a collected timestamp.  And this specification changes the

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   semantics of the Z bit field, the one between S and Scale fields, to
   be referred as Timestamp format and value MUST be set per the
   following:

   o  0 - NTP 64 bit format of a timestamp;

   o  1 - PTPv2 truncated format of a timestamp.

   As result of this value of the Z field from Error Estimate, Sender
   Error Estimate or Send Error Estimate and Receive Error Estimate
   SHOULD NOT be ignored and MUST be used when calculating delay and
   delay variation metrics based on collected timestamps.

2.3.1.  Consideration for TWAMP Light mode

   This document does not specify how Session-Sender and Session-
   Reflector in TWAMP Light mode are informed of timestamp format to be
   used.  It is assumed that, for example, configuration could be used
   to direct Session-Sender and Session-Reflector respectively to use
   timestamp format per their capabilities and rules listed in
   Section 2.2.

3.  IANA Considerations

   The TWAMP-Modes registry defined in [RFC5618].

   IANA is requested to reserve a new PTPv2 Timestamp as follows:

   +--------------+------------------+---------------------+-----------+
   | Value        | Description      | Semantics           | Reference |
   +--------------+------------------+---------------------+-----------+
   | TBA1         | PTPv2 Timestamp  | bit position TBA2   | This      |
   | (proposed    | Capability       | (proposed 8)        | document  |
   | 256)         |                  |                     |           |
   +--------------+------------------+---------------------+-----------+

                     Table 1: New Timestamp Capability

4.  Security Considerations

   Use of particular format of a timestamp in test session does not
   appear to introduce any additional security threat to hosts that
   communicate with OWAMP and/or TWAMP as defined in [RFC4656],
   [RFC5357] respectively.  The security considerations that apply to
   any active measurement of live networks are relevant here as well.
   See the Security Considerations sections in [RFC4656] and [RFC5357].

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5.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Lakshmikanthan and Suchit Bansal for
   their insightful suggestions.  The authors would like to thank David
   Allan for his thorough review and thoughtful comments.

6.  Normative References

   [IEEE.1588.2008]
              "Standard for a Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol
              for Networked Measurement and Control Systems",
              IEEE Standard 1588, March 2008.

   [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>.

   [RFC4656]  Shalunov, S., Teitelbaum, B., Karp, A., Boote, J., and M.
              Zekauskas, "A One-way Active Measurement Protocol
              (OWAMP)", RFC 4656, DOI 10.17487/RFC4656, September 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4656>.

   [RFC5357]  Hedayat, K., Krzanowski, R., Morton, A., Yum, K., and J.
              Babiarz, "A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)",
              RFC 5357, DOI 10.17487/RFC5357, October 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5357>.

   [RFC5618]  Morton, A. and K. Hedayat, "Mixed Security Mode for the
              Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)", RFC 5618,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5618, August 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5618>.

   [RFC5905]  Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch,
              "Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
              Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5905>.

   [RFC6038]  Morton, A. and L. Ciavattone, "Two-Way Active Measurement
              Protocol (TWAMP) Reflect Octets and Symmetrical Size
              Features", RFC 6038, DOI 10.17487/RFC6038, October 2010,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6038>.

Authors' Addresses

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   Greg Mirsky
   ZTE Corp.

   Email: gregimirsky@gmail.com

   Israel Meilik
   Broadcom

   Email: israel@broadcom.com

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