MPLS Network Actions for Network Resource Partition Selector
draft-ietf-mpls-mna-nrp-selector-03
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 "Active".
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Tony Li , Vishnu Pavan Beeram , John Drake , Tarek Saad , Israel Meilik | ||
| Last updated | 2026-04-06 (Latest revision 2025-12-23) | ||
| Replaces | draft-li-mpls-mna-nrp-selector | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Formats | |||
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| Additional resources | Mailing list discussion | ||
| Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication | |
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| Document shepherd | Adrian Farrel | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show Last changed 2025-12-28 | ||
| IESG | IESG state | Waiting for AD Go-Ahead | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
| Responsible AD | Jim Guichard | ||
| Send notices to | adrian@olddog.co.uk | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | IANA OK - Actions Needed |
draft-ietf-mpls-mna-nrp-selector-03
MPLS Working Group T. Li
Internet-Draft V. P. Beeram
Intended status: Standards Track HPE
Expires: 26 June 2026 J. Drake
T. Saad
Cisco Systems
I. Meilik
Broadcom
23 December 2025
MPLS Network Actions for Network Resource Partition Selector
draft-ietf-mpls-mna-nrp-selector-03
Abstract
An IETF Network Slice service provides connectivity coupled with a
set of network resource commitments and is expressed in terms of one
or more connectivity constructs. A Network Resource Partition (NRP)
is a collection of resources identified in the underlay network to
support IETF Network Slice services. A Slice-Flow Aggregate refers
to the set of traffic streams from one or more connectivity
constructs belonging to one or more IETF Network Slices that are
mapped to a specific NRP and provide the same forwarding treatment.
The packets associated with a Slice-Flow Aggregate may carry a
marking in the packet's network layer header to identify this
association and this marking is referred to as NRP Selector. The NRP
Selector is used to map the packet to the associated NRP and provide
the corresponding forwarding treatment to the packet.
MPLS Network Actions (MNA) technologies are used to indicate actions
for Label Switched Paths (LSPs) and/or MPLS packets and to transfer
data needed for these actions. This document discusses options for
using MPLS Network Actions (MNAs) to carry the NRP Selector in MPLS
packets.
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 https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
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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 26 June 2026.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2025 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 (https://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 Revised BSD License text as
described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. MPLS Network Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. 13-bit NRP Selector (NRPS13) Action . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. 20-bit NRP Selector (NRPS20) Action . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3. 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector (ENRPS20) Action . . . . 5
2.4. Top-most NRPS Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5. Unknown NRPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Deployment Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. 13-bit NRP Selector Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2. 20-bit NRP Selector Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3. 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector Action . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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1. Introduction
An IETF Network Slice [RFC9543] service provides connectivity coupled
with a set of specific commitments of network resources between a
number of endpoints over a shared underlay network. The IETF Network
Slice service is expressed in terms of one or more connectivity
constructs. A Network Resource Partition (NRP) [RFC9543] is a
collection of resources identified in the underlay network to support
IETF Network Slice services (or any other services that need logical
network structures with required characteristics to be created). An
NRP Policy is a policy construct that enables instantiation of
mechanisms in support of service specific control and data plane
behaviors on select topological elements associated with the NRP.
This is also discussed in [I-D.ietf-teas-ns-ip-mpls].
A Slice-Flow Aggregate refers to the set of traffic streams from one
or more connectivity constructs belonging to one or more IETF Network
Slices that are mapped to a specific NRP and are provided the same
forwarding treatment. The NRP policy dictates the identification of
the flow aggregate that the packet belongs to and the corresponding
forwarding treatment that needs to be applied to the packet. The
packets associated with a Slice-Flow Aggregate may carry a marking in
the packet's network layer header to identify this association and
this marking is referred to as NRP Selector (NRPS).
[I-D.ietf-teas-ns-ip-mpls] discusses a few options for carrying the
NRP Selector in MPLS packets, including overloading the semantics of
forwarding/service labels and using a dedicated identifier field.
[I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-fwk] specifies an architectural framework for the
MPLS Network Actions (MNA) technologies. MNA technologies are used
to indicate actions for Label Switched Paths (LSPs) and/or MPLS
packets and to transfer data needed for these actions. The MNA
architecture can facilitate carrying the dedicated identifier based
NRP Selector in the MPLS label stack. This document discusses a few
options for using MPLS network actions to carry the NRP Selector.
The proposed encodings are compliant with the MNA header encoding
formats defined in [I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-hdr].
The reader is expected to be familiar with terminology specified in
[I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-fwk] and MNA header encoding formats defined in
[I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-hdr].
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1.1. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here. These words may also appear in this
document in lower case as plain English words, absent their normative
meanings.
2. MPLS Network Actions
2.1. 13-bit NRP Selector (NRPS13) Action
The format of the 13-bit NRP Selector (NRPS13) Action (when encoded
in the second label stack entry in the Network Action Sub-Stack) is:
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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Opcode=TBA1 | NRPS |R|IHS|S| NASL |U| NAL |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
* Name: 13-bit NRP Selector (NRPS13) Action
* Network Action Indication: The NRPS13 Action indication is opcode
TBA1.
* Scope: The NRPS13 Action is valid in all scopes.
* In-Stack Data: The NRPS13 Action carries 13 bits of ancillary
data. The NRPS is encoded in the 13 bits. The packet carrying
the NRPS13 action should be given the forwarding treatment
specified by the associated NRP policy.
* LSE Format: B. The Network Action Length (NAL) field MUST be
transmitted as zero.
* Post-Stack Data: None.
2.2. 20-bit NRP Selector (NRPS20) Action
The format of the 20-bit NRP Selector (NRPS20) Action is:
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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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Opcode=TBA2 | NRPS |S| NRPS |U| NAL |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
* Name: 20-bit NRP Selector (NRPS20) Action
* Network Action Indication: The NRPS20 Action indication is opcode
TBA2.
* Scope: The NRPS20 Action is valid in all scopes.
* In-Stack Data: The NRPS20 Action carries 20 bits of ancillary
data. The NRPS is encoded in the 20 bits. The packet carrying
the NRPS20 action should be given the forwarding treatment
specified by the associated NRP policy.
* LSE Format: C. The Network Action Length (NAL) field MUST be
transmitted as zero.
* Post-Stack Data: None.
2.3. 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector (ENRPS20) Action
The format of the 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector (ENRPS20) Action
is:
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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Opcode=TBA3 | Entropy | NRPS |S| NRPS |U| NAL |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
* Name: 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector (ENRPS20) Action
* Network Action Indication: The ENRPS20 Action indication is opcode
TBA3.
* Scope: The ENRPS20 Action is valid in all scopes.
* In-Stack Data: The ENRPS20 Action carries 20 bits of ancillary
data. The most significant 12 bits of ancillary data is the
Entropy Value. The least significant 8 bits of ancillary data is
the NRPS. The Entropy Value has semantics consistent with the
Entropy Label [RFC6790]. While the RFC 6790 Entropy Label has
some restrictions to avoid collisions with the reserved label
space (0-15) [RFC3032], those restrictions are not necessary for
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the Entropy Value and do not apply. The packet carrying the
ENRPS20 action should be given the forwarding treatment specified
by the associated NRP policy.
* LSE Format: C. The Network Action Length (NAL) field MUST be
transmitted as zero.
* Post-Stack Data: None.
2.4. Top-most NRPS Action
Multiple NRPS Actions may be encoded in a single packet. An
implementation MUST use only the top-most NRPS Action to determine
the packet's forwarding treatment. An implementation that finds a
subsequent opcode of any of the three NRPS Actions in the label stack
MUST ignore it. The specific scenarios where multiple NRPS Actions
are present in the label stack are outside the scope of this
document.
2.5. Unknown NRPS
An NRP-capable node MUST drop a packet by default if the encoded NRPS
cannot be mapped to a known NRP. This requirement MAY be overridden
by an operator-specified policy, the specification of which is
outside the scope of this document.
3. Deployment Considerations
The choice of the number of bits to encode an NRP Selector is a
network-wide deployment decision. This decision may be constrained
by implementations.
The choice of which Action to use when the NRP Selector could fit in
multiple Actions, is open, but it is RECOMMENDED to use NRPS13 where
possible unless Entropy is also to be carried and it is possible to
use ENSRP20.
4. IANA Considerations
4.1. 13-bit NRP Selector Action
This document requests that IANA allocate a codepoint (TBA1) from the
"Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture (MPLS)"/"MPLS Network
Actions Parameters"/"Network Action Opcodes" registry for the 13-bit
NRP Selector Action. The allocation should reference this document.
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4.2. 20-bit NRP Selector Action
This document requests that IANA allocate a codepoint (TBA2) from the
"Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture (MPLS)"/"MPLS Network
Actions Parameters"/"Network Action Opcodes" registry for the 20-bit
NRP Selector Action. The allocation should reference this document.
4.3. 20-bit Entropy and NRP Selector Action
This document requests that IANA allocate a codepoint (TBA3) from the
"Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture (MPLS)"/"MPLS Network
Actions Parameters"/"Network Action Opcodes" registry for the 20-bit
Entropy and NRP Selector Action. The allocation should reference
this document.
5. Security Considerations
The forwarding plane is insecure. If an adversary can affect the
forwarding plane, then they can inject data, remove data, corrupt
data, or modify data. MNA additionally allows an adversary to make
packets perform arbitrary network actions.
Link-level security mechanisms can help mitigate some on-link
attacks, but does nothing to preclude hostile nodes.
6. Contributors
The following individuals contributed to this document:
Colby Barth
Juniper Networks
Email: cbarth@juniper.net
Srihari R. Sangli
Juniper Networks
Email: ssangli@juniper.net
Chandra Ramachandran
Juniper Networks
Email: csekar@juniper.net
Kireeti Kompella
Juniper Networks
Email: kireeti@juniper.net
7. References
7.1. Normative References
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[I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-hdr]
Rajamanickam, J., Gandhi, R., Zigler, R., Song, H., and K.
Kompella, "MPLS Network Action (MNA) Sub-Stack Solution",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-mpls-mna-hdr-
17, 1 December 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-mpls-
mna-hdr-17>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC3032] Rosen, E., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G., Rekhter, Y.,
Farinacci, D., Li, T., and A. Conta, "MPLS Label Stack
Encoding", RFC 3032, DOI 10.17487/RFC3032, January 2001,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3032>.
[RFC6790] Kompella, K., Drake, J., Amante, S., Henderickx, W., and
L. Yong, "The Use of Entropy Labels in MPLS Forwarding",
RFC 6790, DOI 10.17487/RFC6790, November 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6790>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
7.2. Informative References
[I-D.ietf-mpls-mna-fwk]
Andersson, L., Bryant, S., Bocci, M., and T. Li, "MPLS
Network Actions (MNA) Framework", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-mpls-mna-fwk-15, 27 December
2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-
mpls-mna-fwk-15>.
[RFC9543] Farrel, A., Ed., Drake, J., Ed., Rokui, R., Homma, S.,
Makhijani, K., Contreras, L., and J. Tantsura, "A
Framework for Network Slices in Networks Built from IETF
Technologies", RFC 9543, DOI 10.17487/RFC9543, March 2024,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9543>.
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[I-D.ietf-teas-ns-ip-mpls]
Saad, T., Beeram, V. P., Dong, J., Halpern, J. M., and S.
Peng, "Realizing Network Slices in IP/MPLS Networks", Work
in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-ns-ip-mpls-
06, 20 October 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-teas-ns-
ip-mpls-06>.
Authors' Addresses
Tony Li
HPE
1701 E Mossy Oaks Rd.
Spring, TX 77389
United States
Email: tony.li@tony.li
Vishnu Pavan Beeram
HPE
1701 E Mossy Oaks Rd.
Spring, TX 77389
United States
Email: vbeeram@juniper.net
John Drake
Email: je_drake@yahoo.com
Tarek Saad
Cisco Systems
Email: tsaad.net@gmail.com
Israel Meilik
Broadcom
Email: israel.meilik@broadcom.com
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