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Framework for DC Network Virtualization
draft-ietf-nvo3-framework-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7365.
Authors Marc Lasserre , Florin Balus , Thomas Morin , Dr. Nabil N. Bitar , Yakov Rekhter
Last updated 2012-10-19
Replaces draft-lasserre-nvo3-framework
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draft-ietf-nvo3-framework-01
Internet Engineering Task Force                          Marc Lasserre  
    Internet Draft                                            Florin Balus 
    Intended status: Informational                          Alcatel-Lucent 
    Expires: March 2013                                                   
                                                              Thomas Morin 
                                                     France Telecom Orange 
     
                                                               Nabil Bitar 
                                                                   Verizon 
                                                                           
                                                             Yakov Rekhter  
                                                                   Juniper 
     
                                                          October 19, 2012 
                                          
                                          

                      Framework for DC Network Virtualization 
                         draft-ietf-nvo3-framework-01.txt 

                                          

    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 April 19, 2013. 

    Copyright Notice 

       Copyright (c) 2012 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 

     
     
     
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       (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. 

        

        

    Abstract 

       Several IETF drafts relate to the use of overlay networks to support 
       large scale virtual data centers. This draft provides a framework 
       for Network Virtualization over L3 (NVO3) and is intended to help 
       plan a set of work items in order to provide a complete solution 
       set. It defines a logical view of the main components with the 
       intention of streamlining the terminology and focusing the solution 
       set. 

        

    Table of Contents 

       1. Introduction................................................3 
          1.1. Conventions used in this document.......................4 
          1.2. General terminology.....................................4 
          1.3. DC network architecture.................................6 
          1.4. Tenant networking view..................................7 
       2. Reference Models............................................8 
          2.1. Generic Reference Model.................................8 
          2.2. NVE Reference Model....................................10 
          2.3. NVE Service Types......................................12 
             2.3.1. L2 NVE providing Ethernet LAN-like service.........12 
             2.3.2. L3 NVE providing IP/VRF-like service..............12 
       3. Functional components.......................................12 
          3.1. Generic service virtualization components..............12 
             3.1.1. Virtual Access Points (VAPs)......................13 
             3.1.2. Virtual Network Instance (VNI)....................13 
             3.1.3. Overlay Modules and VN Context....................13 
             3.1.4. Tunnel Overlays and Encapsulation options..........14 
             3.1.5. Control Plane Components..........................14 
             3.1.5.1. Distributed vs Centralized Control Plane.........15 
             3.1.5.2. Auto-provisioning/Service discovery.............15 

     
     
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             3.1.5.3. Address advertisement and tunnel mapping.........16 
             3.1.5.4. Tunnel management...............................17 
          3.2. Multi-homing..........................................17 
          3.3. Service Overlay Topologies.............................18 
       4. Key aspects of overlay networks.............................18 
          4.1. Pros & Cons...........................................18 
          4.2. Overlay issues to consider.............................19 
             4.2.1. Data plane vs Control plane driven................19 
             4.2.2. Coordination between data plane and control plane..20 
             4.2.3. Handling Broadcast, Unknown Unicast and Multicast (BUM) 
             traffic.................................................20 
             4.2.4. Path MTU.........................................21 
             4.2.5. NVE location trade-offs...........................21 
             4.2.6. Interaction between network overlays and underlays.22 
       5. Security Considerations.....................................23 
       6. IANA Considerations........................................23 
       7. References.................................................23 
          7.1. Normative References...................................23 
          7.2. Informative References.................................23 
       8. Acknowledgments............................................24 
                                            
    1. Introduction 

       This document provides a framework for Data Center Network 
       Virtualization over L3 tunnels. This framework is intended to aid in 
       standardizing protocols and mechanisms to support large scale 
       network virtualization for data centers.  

       Several IETF drafts relate to the use of overlay networks for data 
       centers.  

       [NVOPS] defines the rationale for using overlay networks in order to 
       build large data center networks. The use of virtualization leads to 
       a very large number of communication domains and end systems to cope 
       with.  

       [OVCPREQ] describes the requirements for a control plane protocol 
       required by overlay border nodes to exchange overlay mappings. 

       This document provides reference models and functional components of 
       data center overlay networks as well as a discussion of technical 
       issues that have to be addressed in the design of standards and 
       mechanisms for large scale data centers. 

     
     
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    1.1. Conventions used in this document  

       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].  

       In this document, these words will appear with that interpretation   
       only when in ALL CAPS. Lower case uses of these words are not to be    
       interpreted as carrying RFC-2119 significance. 

    1.2. General terminology  

       This document uses the following terminology: 

       NVE: Network Virtualization Edge. It is a network entity that sits 
       on the edge of the NVO3 network. It implements network 
       virtualization functions that allow for L2 and/or L3 tenant 
       separation and for hiding tenant addressing information (MAC and IP 
       addresses). An NVE could be implemented as part of a virtual switch 
       within a hypervisor, a physical switch or router, a Network Service 
       Appliance. 

       VN: Virtual Network. This is a virtual L2 or L3 domain that belongs 
       to a tenant. 

       VNI: Virtual Network Instance. This is one instance of a virtual 
       overlay network. Two Virtual Networks are isolated from one another 
       and may use overlapping addresses. 

       Virtual Network Context or VN Context: Field that is part of the 
       overlay encapsulation header which allows the encapsulated frame to 
       be delivered to the appropriate virtual network endpoint by the 
       egress NVE. The egress NVE uses this field to determine the 
       appropriate virtual network context in which to process the packet. 
       This field MAY be an explicit, unique (to the administrative domain) 
       virtual network identifier (VNID) or MAY express the necessary 
       context information in other ways (e.g. a locally significant 
       identifier). 

       VNID:  Virtual Network Identifier. In the case where the VN context 
       has global significance, this is the ID value that is carried in 
       each data packet in the overlay encapsulation that identifies the 
       Virtual Network the packet belongs to. 

       Underlay or Underlying Network: This is the network that provides 
       the connectivity between NVEs. The Underlying Network can be 

     
     
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       completely unaware of the overlay packets. Addresses within the 
       Underlying Network are also referred to as "outer addresses" because 
       they exist in the outer encapsulation. The Underlying Network can 
       use a completely different protocol (and address family) from that 
       of the overlay. 

       Data Center (DC): A physical complex housing physical servers, 
       network switches and routers, Network Service Appliances and 
       networked storage. The purpose of a Data Center is to provide 
       application and/or compute and/or storage services. One such service 
       is virtualized data center services, also known as Infrastructure as 
       a Service. 

       Virtual Data Center or Virtual DC: A container for virtualized 
       compute, storage and network services. Managed by a single tenant, a 
       Virtual DC can contain multiple VNs and multiple Tenant Systems that 
       are connected to one or more of these VNs. 

       VM: Virtual Machine. Several Virtual Machines can share the 
       resources of a single physical computer server using the services of 
       a Hypervisor (see below definition). 

       Hypervisor: Server virtualization software running on a physical 
       compute server that hosts Virtual Machines. The hypervisor provides 
       shared compute/memory/storage and network connectivity to the VMs 
       that it hosts. Hypervisors often embed a Virtual Switch (see below). 

       Virtual Switch: A function within a Hypervisor (typically 
       implemented in software) that provides similar services to a 
       physical Ethernet switch.  It switches Ethernet frames between VMs' 
       virtual NICs within the same physical server, or between a VM and a 
       physical NIC card connecting the server to a physical Ethernet 
       switch. It also enforces network isolation between VMs that should 
       not communicate with each other. 

       Tenant: In a DC, a tenant refers to a customer that could an 
       organization within an enterprise, or an enterprise with a set of DC 
       compute, storage and network resources associated with it. 

       Tenant System: A physical or virtual system that can play the role 
       of a host, or a forwarding element such as a router, switch, 
       firewall, etc. It belongs to a single tenant and connects to one or 
       more VNs of that tenant.  

       End device: A physical system to which networking service is 
       provided. Examples include hosts (e.g. server or server blade), 

     
     
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       storage systems (e.g. file servers, iSCSI storage systems) and 
       network devices (e.g. firewall, load-balancer, IPSec gateway). An 
       end device may include internal networking functionality that 
       interconnects the device's components (e.g. virtual switches that 
       interconnects VMs running on the same server). NVE functionality may 
       be implemented as part of that internal networking. 

       ELAN: MEF ELAN, multipoint to multipoint Ethernet service  

       EVPN: Ethernet VPN as defined in [EVPN] 

    1.3. DC network architecture 

       A generic architecture for Data Centers is depicted in Figure 1:  

                                    ,---------. 
                                  ,'           `. 
                                 (  IP/MPLS WAN ) 
                                  `.           ,' 
                                    `-+------+' 
                                 +--+--+   +-+---+ 
                                 |DC GW|+-+|DC GW| 
                                 +-+---+   +-----+ 
                                    |       / 
                                    .--. .--. 
                                  (    '    '.--. 
                                .-.' Intra-DC     ' 
                               (     network      ) 
                                (             .'-' 
                                 '--'._.'.    )\ \ 
                                 / /     '--'  \ \ 
                                / /      | |    \ \ 
                          +---+--+   +-`.+--+  +--+----+ 
                          | ToR  |   | ToR  |  |  ToR  | 
                          +-+--`.+   +-+-`.-+  +-+--+--+ 
                           /     \    /    \   /       \  
                        __/_      \  /      \ /_       _\__ 
                 '--------'   '--------'   '--------'   '--------' 
                 :  End   :   :  End   :   :  End   :   :  End   : 
                 : Device :   : Device :   : Device :   : Device : 
                 '--------'   '--------'   '--------'   '--------' 
                                          
                 Figure 1 : A Generic Architecture for Data Centers 

       An example of multi-tier DC network architecture is presented in 
       this figure. It provides a view of physical components inside a DC.  

     
     
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       A cloud network is composed of intra-Data Center (DC) networks and 
       network services, and, inter-DC network and network connectivity 
       services. Depending upon the scale, DC distribution, operations 
       model, Capex and Opex aspects, DC networking elements can act as 
       strict L2 switches and/or provide IP routing capabilities, including 
       also service virtualization.  

       In some DC architectures, it is possible that some tier layers 
       provide L2 and/or L3 services, are collapsed, and that Internet 
       connectivity, inter-DC connectivity and VPN support are handled by a 
       smaller number of nodes. Nevertheless, one can assume that the 
       functional blocks fit with the architecture above.  

       The following components can be present in a DC: 

          o Top of Rack (ToR): Hardware-based Ethernet switch aggregating 
            all Ethernet links from the End Devices in a rack representing 
            the entry point in the physical DC network for the hosts. ToRs 
            may also provide routing functionality, virtual IP network 
            connectivity, or Layer2 tunneling over IP for instance. ToRs 
            are usually multi-homed to switches in the Intra-DC network. 
            Other deployment scenarios may use an intermediate Blade Switch 
            before the ToR or an EoR (End of Row) switch to provide similar 
            function as a ToR.  

          o Intra-DC Network: High capacity network composed of core 
            switches aggregating multiple ToRs. Core switches are usually 
            Ethernet switches but can also support routing capabilities. 

          o DC GW: Gateway to the outside world providing DC Interconnect 
            and connectivity to Internet and VPN customers. In the current 
            DC network model, this may be simply a Router connected to the 
            Internet and/or an IPVPN/L2VPN PE. Some network implementations 
            may dedicate DC GWs for different connectivity types (e.g., a 
            DC GW for Internet, and another for VPN). 

       Note that End Devices may be single or multi-homed to ToRs.  

    1.4. Tenant networking view 

       The DC network architecture is used to provide L2 and/or L3 service 
       connectivity to each tenant. An example is depicted in Figure 2: 

        

        

     
     
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                         +----- L3 Infrastructure ----+           
                         |                            |           
                      ,--+--.                      ,--+--. 
                .....( Rtr1  )......              ( Rtr2  ) 
                |     `-----'      |               `-----' 
                |     Tenant1      |LAN12      Tenant1| 
                |LAN11         ....|........          |LAN13 
          ..............        |        |     .............. 
             |        |         |        |       |        | 
            ,-.      ,-.       ,-.      ,-.     ,-.      ,-. 
           (VM )....(VM )     (VM )... (VM )   (VM )....(VM ) 
            `-'      `-'       `-'      `-'     `-'      `-' 
                                          
            Figure 2 : Logical Service connectivity for a single tenant 

       In this example one or more L3 contexts and one or more LANs (e.g., 
       one per application type) running on DC switches are assigned for DC 
       tenant 1.  

       For a multi-tenant DC, a virtualized version of this type of service 
       connectivity needs to be provided for each tenant by the Network 
       Virtualization solution.  

    2. Reference Models 

    2.1. Generic Reference Model 

       The following diagram shows a DC reference model for network 
       virtualization using Layer3 overlays where NVEs provide a logical 
       interconnect between Tenant Systems that belong to specific tenant 
       network. 

        

        

        

        

        

        

     
     
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             +--------+                                    +--------+ 
             | Tenant +--+                            +----| Tenant | 
             | System |  |                           (')   | System | 
             +--------+  |    ...................   (   )  +--------+ 
                         |  +-+--+           +--+-+  (_)     
                         |  | NV |           | NV |   | 
                         +--|Edge|           |Edge|---+ 
                            +-+--+           +--+-+ 
                            / .                 .  
                           /  .   L3 Overlay +--+-++--------+ 
             +--------+   /   .    Network   | NV || Tenant | 
             | Tenant +--+    .              |Edge|| System | 
             | System |       .    +----+    +--+-++--------+ 
             +--------+       .....| NV |........    
                                   |Edge| 
                                   +----+ 
                                     |       
                                     | 
                           ===================== 
                             |               | 
                         +--------+      +--------+ 
                         | Tenant |      | Tenant | 
                         | System |      | System | 
                         +--------+      +--------+ 
     
          Figure 3 : Generic reference model for DC network virtualization 
                           over a Layer3 infrastructure 

       A Tenant System can be attached to a Network Virtualization Edge 
       (NVE) node in several ways: 

         - locally, by being co-located i.e. resident in the same device 

         - remotely, via a point-to-point connection or a switched network 
         (e.g. Ethernet) 

       When an NVE is local, the state of Tenant Systems can be provided 
       without protocol assistance. For instance, the operational status of 
       a VM can be communicated via a local API. When an NVE is remote, the 

     
     
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       state of Tenant Systems needs to be exchanged via a data or control 
       plane protocol, or via a management entity. 

       The functional components in this picture do not necessarily map 
       directly with the physical components described in Figure 1. 

       For example, an End Device can be a server blade with VMs and 
       virtual switch, i.e. the VM is the Tenant System and the NVE 
       functions may be performed by the virtual switch and/or the 
       hypervisor. In this case, the Tenant System and NVE function are co-
       located. 

       Another example is the case where an End Device can be a traditional 
       physical server (no VMs, no virtual switch), i.e. the server is the 
       Tenant System and the NVE function may be performed by the ToR. 
       Other End Devices in this category are Physical Network Appliances 
       or Storage Systems. 

       The NVE implements network virtualization functions that allow for 
       L2 and/or L3 tenant separation and for hiding tenant addressing 
       information (MAC and IP addresses), tenant-related control plane 
       activity and service contexts from the Routed Backbone nodes. 

       Core nodes utilize L3 techniques to interconnect NVE nodes in 
       support of the overlay network. These devices perform forwarding 
       based on outer L3 tunnel header, and generally do not maintain per 
       tenant-service state albeit some applications (e.g., multicast) may 
       require control plane or forwarding plane information that pertain 
       to a tenant, group of tenants, tenant service or a set of services 
       that belong to one or more tunnels. When such tenant or tenant-
       service related information is maintained in the core, overlay 
       virtualization provides knobs to control that information. 

    2.2. NVE Reference Model 

       The NVE is composed of a Virtual Network instance that Tenant 
       Systems interface with and an overlay module that provides tunneling 
       overlay functions (e.g. encapsulation/decapsulation of tenant 
       traffic from/to the tenant forwarding instance, tenant 
       identification and mapping, etc), as described in figure 4: 

        

        

        

     
     
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                          +------- L3 Network ------+ 
                          |                         | 
                          |       Tunnel Overlay    | 
             +------------+---------+       +---------+------------+ 
             | +----------+-------+ |       | +---------+--------+ | 
             | |  Overlay Module  | |       | |  Overlay Module  | | 
             | +---------+--------+ |       | +---------+--------+ | 
             |           |VN context|       | VN context|          | 
             |           |          |       |           |          | 
             |  +--------+-------+  |       |  +--------+-------+  | 
             |  | |VNI|   .  |VNI|  |       |  | |VNI|   .  |VNI|  | 
        NVE1 |  +-+------------+-+  |       |  +-+-----------+--+  | NVE2 
             |    |   VAPs     |    |       |    |    VAPs   |     | 
             +----+------------+----+       +----+-----------+-----+ 
                  |            |                 |           | 
           -------+------------+-----------------+-----------+------- 
                  |            |     Tenant      |           | 
                  |            |   Service IF    |           | 
                 Tenant Systems                 Tenant Systems 
     
                  Figure 4 : Generic reference model for NV Edge 

       Note that some NVE functions (e.g. data plane and control plane 
       functions) may reside in one device or may be implemented separately 
       in different devices. 

       For example, the NVE functionality could reside solely on the End 
       Devices, on the ToRs or on both the End Devices and the ToRs. In the 
       latter case we say that the End Device NVE component acts as the NVE 
       Spoke, and ToRs act as NVE hubs. Tenant Systems will interface with 
       VNIs maintained on the NVE spokes, and VNIs maintained on the NVE 
       spokes will interface with VNIs maintained on the NVE hubs. 

     
     
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    2.3. NVE Service Types 

       NVE components may be used to provide different types of virtualized 
       service connectivity. This section defines the service types and 
       associated attributes 

    2.3.1. L2 NVE providing Ethernet LAN-like service 

       L2 NVE implements Ethernet LAN emulation (ELAN), an Ethernet based 
       multipoint service where the Tenant Systems appear to be 
       interconnected by a LAN environment over a set of L3 tunnels. It 
       provides per tenant virtual switching instance with MAC addressing 
       isolation and L3 tunnel encapsulation across the core. 

    2.3.2. L3 NVE providing IP/VRF-like service 

       Virtualized IP routing and forwarding is similar from a service 
       definition perspective with IETF IP VPN (e.g., BGP/MPLS IPVPN and 
       IPsec VPNs). It provides per tenant routing instance with addressing 
       isolation and L3 tunnel encapsulation across the core. 

    3. Functional components 

       This section breaks down the Network Virtualization architecture 
       into functional components to make it easier to discuss solution 
       options for different modules. 

       This version of the document gives an overview of generic functional 
       components that are shared between L2 and L3 service types. Details 
       specific for each service type will be added in future revisions. 

    3.1. Generic service virtualization components 

       A Network Virtualization solution is built around a number of 
       functional components as depicted in Figure 5:  

                         +------- L3 Network ------+ 
                         |                         | 
                         |       Tunnel Overlay    | 
            +------------+--------+       +--------+------------+ 
            | +----------+------+ |       | +------+----------+ | 
            | | Overlay Module  | |       | | Overlay Module  | | 
            | +--------+--------+ |       | +--------+--------+ | 
            |          |VN Context|       |          |VN Context| 
            |          |          |       |          |          | 
     
     
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            |  +-------+-------+  |       |  +-------+-------+  | 
            |  ||VNI| ... |VNI||  |       |  ||VNI| ... |VNI||  | 
       NVE1 |  +-+-----------+-+  |       |  +-+-----------+-+  | NVE2 
            |    |   VAPs    |    |       |    |   VAPs    |    | 
            +----+-----------+----+       +----+-----------+----+ 
                 |           |                 |           | 
            -----+-----------+-----------------+-----------+----- 
                 |           |     Tenant      |           | 
                 |           |   Service IF    |           | 
                Tenant Systems                Tenant Systems 
     
                  Figure 5 : Generic reference model for NV Edge 

    3.1.1. Virtual Access Points (VAPs) 

       Tenant Systems are connected to the VNI Instance through Virtual 
       Access Points (VAPs).  

       The VAPs can be physical ports or virtual ports identified through 
       logical interface identifiers (VLANs, internal VSwitch Interface ID 
       leading to a VM).  

    3.1.2. Virtual Network Instance (VNI) 

       The VNI represents a set of configuration attributes defining access 
       and tunnel policies and (L2 and/or L3) forwarding functions.  

       Per tenant FIB tables and control plane protocol instances are used 
       to maintain separate private contexts between tenants. Hence tenants 
       are free to use their own addressing schemes without concerns about 
       address overlapping with other tenants. 

    3.1.3. Overlay Modules and VN Context 

       Mechanisms for identifying each tenant service are required to allow 
       the simultaneous overlay of multiple tenant services over the same 
       underlay L3 network topology. In the data plane, each NVE, upon 
       sending a tenant packet, must be able to encode the VN Context for 
       the destination NVE in addition to the L3 tunnel source address 
       identifying the source NVE and the tunnel destination L3 address 
       identifying the destination NVE. This allows the destination NVE to 
       identify the tenant service instance and therefore appropriately 
       process and forward the tenant packet.  

     
     
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       The Overlay module provides tunneling overlay functions: tunnel 
       initiation/termination, encapsulation/decapsulation of frames from 
       VAPs/L3 Backbone and may provide for transit forwarding of IP 
       traffic (e.g., transparent tunnel forwarding).  

       In a multi-tenant context, the tunnel aggregates frames from/to 
       different VNIs. Tenant identification and traffic demultiplexing are 
       based on the VN Context (e.g. VNID).  

       The following approaches can been considered: 

          o One VN Context per Tenant: A globally unique (on a per-DC 
            administrative domain) VNID is used to identify the related 
            Tenant instances. An example of this approach is the use of 
            IEEE VLAN or ISID tags to provide virtual L2 domains. 

          o One VN Context per VNI: A per-tenant local value is 
            automatically generated by the egress NVE and usually 
            distributed by a control plane protocol to all the related 
            NVEs. An example of this approach is the use of per VRF MPLS 
            labels in IP VPN [RFC4364]. 

          o One VN Context per VAP: A per-VAP local value is assigned and 
            usually distributed by a control plane protocol. An example of 
            this approach is the use of per CE-PE MPLS labels in IP VPN 
            [RFC4364].  

       Note that when using one VN Context per VNI or per VAP, an 
       additional global identifier may be used by the control plane to 
       identify the Tenant context. 

    3.1.4. Tunnel Overlays and Encapsulation options 

       Once the VN context is added to the frame, a L3 Tunnel encapsulation 
       is used to transport the frame to the destination NVE. The backbone 
       devices do not usually keep any per service state, simply forwarding 
       the frames based on the outer tunnel header. 

       Different IP tunneling options (GRE/L2TP/IPSec) and tunneling 
       options (BGP VPN, PW, VPLS) are available for both Ethernet and IP 
       formats. 

    3.1.5. Control Plane Components 

       Control plane components may be used to provide the following 
       capabilities: 

     
     
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          . Auto-provisioning/Service discovery 

          . Address advertisement and tunnel mapping 

          . Tunnel management 

       A control plane component can be an on-net control protocol or a 
       management control entity. 

    3.1.5.1. Distributed vs Centralized Control Plane 

       A control/management plane entity can be centralized or distributed. 
       Both approaches have been used extensively in the past. The routing 
       model of the Internet is a good example of a distributed approach. 
       Transport networks have usually used a centralized approach to 
       manage transport paths. 

       It is also possible to combine the two approaches i.e. using a 
       hybrid model. A global view of network state can have many benefits 
       but it does not preclude the use of distributed protocols within the 
       network. Centralized controllers provide a facility to maintain 
       global and distribute that state to the network which in combination 
       with distributed protocols can aid in achieving greater network 
       efficiencies, improve reliability and robustness. Domain and/or 
       deployment specific constraints define the balance between 
       centralized and distributed approaches. 

       On one hand, a control plane module can reside in every NVE. This is 
       how routing control plane modules are implemented in routers. At the 
       same time, an external controller can manage a group of NVEs via an 
       agent sitting in each NVE. This is how an SDN controller could 
       communicate with the nodes it controls, via OpenFlow for instance.  

       In the case where a centralized control plane is preferred, the 
       controller will need to be distributed to more than one node for 
       redundancy. Depending upon the size of the DC domain, hence the 
       number of NVEs to manage, it should be possible to use several 
       external controllers. Inter-controller communication will thus be 
       necessary for scalability and redundancy. 

        

    3.1.5.2. Auto-provisioning/Service discovery 

       NVEs must be able to select the appropriate VNI for each Tenant 
       System. This is based on state information that is often provided by 

     
     
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       external entities. For example, in a VM environment, this 
       information is provided by compute management systems, since these 
       are the only entities that have visibility on which VM belongs to 
       which tenant.  

       A mechanism for communicating this information between Tenant 
       Systems and the local NVE is required. As a result the VAPs are 
       created and mapped to the appropriate VNI.  

       Depending upon the implementation, this control interface can be 
       implemented using an auto-discovery protocol between Tenant Systems 
       and their local NVE or through management entities.  

       When a protocol is used, appropriate security and authentication 
       mechanisms to verify that Tenant System information is not spoofed 
       or altered are required. This is one critical aspect for providing 
       integrity and tenant isolation in the system. 

       Another control plane protocol can also be used to advertize 
       supported VNs to other NVEs. Alternatively, management control 
       entities can also be used to perform these functions. 

    3.1.5.3. Address advertisement and tunnel mapping 

       As traffic reaches an ingress NVE, a lookup is performed to 
       determine which tunnel the packet needs to be sent to. It is then 
       encapsulated with a tunnel header containing the destination address 
       of the egress overlay node. Intermediate nodes (between the ingress 
       and egress NVEs) switch or route traffic based upon the outer 
       destination address. 

       One key step in this process consists of mapping a final destination 
       address to the proper tunnel. NVEs are responsible for maintaining 
       such mappings in their lookup tables. Several ways of populating 
       these lookup tables are possible: control plane driven, management 
       plane driven, or data plane driven.  

       When a control plane protocol is used to distribute address 
       advertisement and tunneling information, the auto-
       provisioning/Service discovery could be accomplished by the same 
       protocol. In this scenario, the auto-provisioning/Service discovery 
       could be combined with (be inferred from) the address advertisement 
       and tunnel mapping. Furthermore, a control plane protocol that 
       carries both MAC and IP addresses eliminates the need for ARP, and 
       hence addresses one of the issues with explosive ARP handling. 

     
     
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    3.1.5.4. Tunnel management 

       A control plane protocol may be required to exchange tunnel state 
       information. This may include setting up tunnels and/or providing 
       tunnel state information. 

       This applies to both unicast and multicast tunnels. 

       For instance, it may be necessary to provide active/standby status 
       information between NVEs, up/down status information, 
       pruning/grafting information for multicast tunnels, etc. 

    3.2. Multi-homing 

       Multi-homing techniques can be used to increase the reliability of 
       an nvo3 network. It is also important to ensure that physical 
       diversity in an nvo3 network is taken into account to avoid single 
       points of failure. 

       Multi-homing can be enabled in various nodes, from tenant systems 
       into TORs, TORs into core switches/routers, and core nodes into DC 
       GWs. 

       The nvo3 underlay nodes (i.e. from NVEs to DC GWs) rely on IP 
       routing as the means to re-route traffic upon failures and/or ECMP 
       techniques. 

       Tenant systems can either be L2 or L3 nodes. In the former case 
       (L2), techniques such as LAG or STP for instance can be used. In the 
       latter case (L3), it is possible that no dynamic routing protocol is 
       enabled. Tenant systems can be multi-homed into remote NVE using 
       several interfaces (physical NICS or vNICS) with an IP address per 
       interface either to the same nvo3 network or into different nvo3 
       networks. When one of the links fails, the corresponding IP is not 
       reachable but the other interfaces can still be used. When a tenant 
       system is co-located with an NVE, IP routing can be relied upon to 
       handle routing over diverse links to TORs. 

       External connectivity is handled by to or more nvo3 gateways. Each 
       gateway is connected to a different domain (e.g. ISP) and runs BGP 
       multi-homing. They serve as an access point to external networks 
       such as VPNs or the Internet. When a connection to an upstream 
       router is lost, the alternative connection is used and the failed 
       route withdrawn. 

     
     
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    3.3. Service Overlay Topologies 

       A number of service topologies may be used to optimize the service 
       connectivity and to address NVE performance limitations.  

       The topology described in Figure 3 suggests the use of a tunnel mesh 
       between the NVEs where each tenant instance is one hop away from a 
       service processing perspective. Partial mesh topologies and an NVE 
       hierarchy may be used where certain NVEs may act as service transit 
       points. 

    4. Key aspects of overlay networks 

       The intent of this section is to highlight specific issues that 
       proposed overlay solutions need to address. 

    4.1. Pros & Cons 

       An overlay network is a layer of virtual network topology on top of 
       the physical network.  

       Overlay networks offer the following key advantages: 

          o Unicast tunneling state management is handled at the edge of 
            the network. Intermediate transport nodes are unaware of such 
            state. Note that this is not the case when multicast is enabled 
            in the core network. 

          o Tunnels are used to aggregate traffic and hence offer the 
            advantage of minimizing the amount of forwarding state required 
            within the underlay network 

          o Decoupling of the overlay addresses (MAC and IP) used by VMs 
            from the underlay network. This offers a clear separation 
            between addresses used within the overlay and the underlay 
            networks and it enables the use of overlapping addresses spaces 
            by Tenant Systems 

          o Support of a large number of virtual network identifiers 

       Overlay networks also create several challenges: 

          o Overlay networks have no controls of underlay networks and lack 
            critical network information 

     
     
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               o Overlays typically probe the network to measure link 
                 properties, such as available bandwidth or packet loss 
                 rate. It is difficult to accurately evaluate network 
                 properties. It might be preferable for the underlay 
                 network to expose usage and performance information. 
     
          o Miscommunication between overlay and underlay networks can lead 
            to an inefficient usage of network resources.  

          o Fairness of resource sharing and collaboration among end-nodes 
            in overlay networks are two critical issues 

          o When multiple overlays co-exist on top of a common underlay 
            network, the lack of coordination between overlays can lead to 
            performance issues. 

          o Overlaid traffic may not traverse firewalls and NAT devices. 

          o Multicast service scalability. Multicast support may be 
            required in the overlay network to address for each tenant 
            flood containment or efficient multicast handling. 

          o Hash-based load balancing may not be optimal as the hash 
            algorithm may not work well due to the limited number of 
            combinations of tunnel source and destination addresses 

    4.2. Overlay issues to consider 

    4.2.1. Data plane vs Control plane driven 

       In the case of an L2NVE, it is possible to dynamically learn MAC 
       addresses against VAPs. It is also possible that such addresses be 
       known and controlled via management or a control protocol for both 
       L2NVEs and L3NVEs.  

       Dynamic data plane learning implies that flooding of unknown 
       destinations be supported and hence implies that broadcast and/or 
       multicast be supported. Multicasting in the core network for dynamic 
       learning may lead to significant scalability limitations. Specific 
       forwarding rules must be enforced to prevent loops from happening. 
       This can be achieved using a spanning tree, a shortest path tree, or 
       a split-horizon mesh. 

       It should be noted that the amount of state to be distributed is 
       dependent upon network topology and the number of virtual machines. 
       Different forms of caching can also be utilized to minimize state 
     
     
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       distribution between the various elements. The control plane should 
       not require an NVE to maintain the locations of all the tenant 
       systems whose VNs are not present on the NVE. 

    4.2.2. Coordination between data plane and control plane 

       For an L2 NVE, the NVE needs to be able to determine MAC addresses 
       of the end systems present on a VAP. This can be achieved via 
       dataplane learning or a control plane. For an L3 NVE, the NVE needs 
       to be able to determine IP addresses of the end systems present on a 
       VAP. 

       In both cases, coordination with the NVE control protocol is needed 
       such that when the NVE determines that the set of addresses behind a 
       VAP has changed, it triggers the local NVE control plane to 
       distribute this information to its peers. 

    4.2.3. Handling Broadcast, Unknown Unicast and Multicast (BUM) traffic 

       There are two techniques to support packet replication needed for 
       broadcast, unknown unicast and multicast: 

          o Ingress replication 

          o Use of core multicast trees 

       There is a bandwidth vs state trade-off between the two approaches. 
       Depending upon the degree of replication required (i.e. the number 
       of hosts per group) and the amount of multicast state to maintain, 
       trading bandwidth for state is of consideration. 

       When the number of hosts per group is large, the use of core 
       multicast trees may be more appropriate. When the number of hosts is 
       small (e.g. 2-3), ingress replication may not be an issue. 

       Depending upon the size of the data center network and hence the 
       number of (S,G) entries, but also the duration of multicast flows, 
       the use of core multicast trees can be a challenge. 

       When flows are well known, it is possible to pre-provision such 
       multicast trees. However, it is often difficult to predict 
       application flows ahead of time, and hence programming of (S,G) 
       entries for short-lived flows could be impractical. 

       A possible trade-off is to use in the core shared multicast trees as 
       opposed to dedicated multicast trees. 

     
     
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    4.2.4. Path MTU 

       When using overlay tunneling, an outer header is added to the 
       original frame. This can cause the MTU of the path to the egress 
       tunnel endpoint to be exceeded.  

       In this section, we will only consider the case of an IP overlay. 

       It is usually not desirable to rely on IP fragmentation for 
       performance reasons. Ideally, the interface MTU as seen by a Tenant 
       System is adjusted such that no fragmentation is needed. TCP will 
       adjust its maximum segment size accordingly. 

       It is possible for the MTU to be configured manually or to be 
       discovered dynamically. Various Path MTU discovery techniques exist 
       in order to determine the proper MTU size to use: 

          o Classical ICMP-based MTU Path Discovery [RFC1191] [RFC1981] 

               o 
                Tenant Systems rely on ICMP messages to discover the MTU of 
                 the end-to-end path to its destination. This method is not 
                 always possible, such as when traversing middle boxes 
                 (e.g. firewalls) which disable ICMP for security reasons 

          o Extended MTU Path Discovery techniques such as defined in 
            [RFC4821] 

       It is also possible to rely on the overlay layer to perform 
       segmentation and reassembly operations without relying on the Tenant 
       Systems to know about the end-to-end MTU. The assumption is that 
       some hardware assist is available on the NVE node to perform such 
       SAR operations. However, fragmentation by the overlay layer can lead 
       to performance and congestion issues due to TCP dynamics and might 
       require new congestion avoidance mechanisms from then underlay 
       network [FLOYD]. 

       Finally, the underlay network may be designed in such a way that the 
       MTU can accommodate the extra tunnel overhead. 

    4.2.5. NVE location trade-offs  

       In the case of DC traffic, traffic originated from a VM is native 
       Ethernet traffic. This traffic can be switched by a local VM switch 
       or ToR switch and then by a DC gateway. The NVE function can be 
       embedded within any of these elements. 

     
     
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       There are several criteria to consider when deciding where the NVE 
       processing boundary happens: 

          o Processing and memory requirements 

              o Datapath (e.g. lookups, filtering, 
                 encapsulation/decapsulation) 

              o Control plane processing (e.g. routing, signaling, OAM) 

          o FIB/RIB size 

          o Multicast support 

              o Routing protocols 

              o Packet replication capability 

          o Fragmentation support 

          o QoS transparency 

          o Resiliency 

    4.2.6. Interaction between network overlays and underlays 

       When multiple overlays co-exist on top of a common underlay network, 
       this can cause some performance issues. These overlays have 
       partially overlapping paths and nodes. 

       Each overlay is selfish by nature in that it sends traffic so as to 
       optimize its own performance without considering the impact on other 
       overlays, unless the underlay tunnels are traffic engineered on a 
       per overlay basis so as to avoid sharing underlay resources. 

       Better visibility between overlays and underlays can be achieved by 
       providing mechanisms to exchange information about: 

          o Performance metrics (throughput, delay, loss, jitter) 

          o Cost metrics 

        

     
     
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    5. Security Considerations 

       As a framework document, no protocols are being defined and hence no 
       specific security consideration are raised. 

       The following security aspects shall be discussed in respective 
       solutions documents: 

       Traffic isolation between NVO3 domains is guaranteed by the use of 
       per tenant FIB tables (VNIs). 

       The creation of overlay networks and the tenant to overlay mapping 
       function can introduce significant security risks. When dynamic 
       protocols are used, authentication should be supported. When a 
       centralized controller is used, access to that controller should be 
       restricted to authorized personnel. This can be achieved via login 
       authentication. 

        

    6. IANA Considerations 

       IANA does not need to take any action for this draft. 

    7. References 

    7.1. Normative References 

       [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 

    7.2. Informative References 

       [NVOPS] Narten, T. et al, "Problem Statement : Overlays for Network 
                 Virtualization", draft-narten-nvo3-overlay-problem-
                 statement (work in progress) 

       [OVCPREQ] Kreeger, L. et al, "Network Virtualization Overlay Control 
                 Protocol Requirements", draft-kreeger-nvo3-overlay-cp 
                 (work in progress) 

       [FLOYD] Sally Floyd, Allyn Romanow, "Dynamics of TCP Traffic over 
                 ATM Networks", IEEE JSAC, V. 13 N. 4, May 1995 

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

     
     
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       [RFC1191] Mogul, J. "Path MTU Discovery", RFC1191, November 1990 

       [RFC1981] McCann, J. et al, "Path MTU Discovery for IPv6", RFC1981, 
                 August 1996 

       [RFC4821] Mathis, M. et al, "Packetization Layer Path MTU 
                 Discovery", RFC4821, March 2007 

        

    8. Acknowledgments 

       In addition to the authors the following people have contributed to 
       this document: 

       Dimitrios Stiliadis, Rotem Salomonovitch, Alcatel-Lucent 

       Lucy Yong, Huawei 

       This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot. 

     
     
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    Authors' Addresses 

       Marc Lasserre 
       Alcatel-Lucent  
       Email: marc.lasserre@alcatel-lucent.com 
        
       Florin Balus 
       Alcatel-Lucent 
       777 E. Middlefield Road 
       Mountain View, CA, USA 94043  
       Email: florin.balus@alcatel-lucent.com 
        
       Thomas Morin 
       France Telecom Orange 
       Email: thomas.morin@orange.com 
        
       Nabil Bitar 
       Verizon 
       40 Sylvan Road 
       Waltham, MA 02145 
       Email: nabil.bitar@verizon.com 
        
       Yakov Rekhter  
       Juniper 
       Email: yakov@juniper.net 
        

     
     
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