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RIFT Applicability
draft-ietf-rift-applicability-05

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Authors Yuehua Wei , Zheng Zhang , Dmitry Afanasiev , Pascal Thubert , Tom Verhaeg , Jaroslaw Kowalczyk
Last updated 2021-04-26 (Latest revision 2021-01-21)
Replaces draft-wei-rift-applicability
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draft-ietf-rift-applicability-05
RIFT WG                                                 Yuehua. Wei, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                              Zheng. Zhang
Intended status: Informational                           ZTE Corporation
Expires: 28 October 2021                               Dmitry. Afanasiev
                                                                  Yandex
                                                              P. Thubert
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                            Tom. Verhaeg
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                     Jaroslaw. Kowalczyk
                                                           Orange Polska
                                                           26 April 2021

                           RIFT Applicability
                    draft-ietf-rift-applicability-05

Abstract

   This document discusses the properties, applicability and operational
   considerations of RIFT in different network scenarios.  It intends to
   provide a rough guide how RIFT can be deployed to simplify routing
   operations in Clos topologies and their variations.

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
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   Drafts is at https://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 28 October 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   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 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
   2.  Problem Statement of Routing in Modern IP Fabric Fat Tree
           Networks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Applicability of RIFT to Clos IP Fabrics  . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Overview of RIFT  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  Applicable Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.2.1.  Horizontal Links  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.2.2.  Vertical Shortcuts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.2.3.  Generalizing to any Directed Acyclic Graph  . . . . .   7
     3.3.  Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       3.3.1.  Data Center Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       3.3.2.  Metro Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.3.3.  Building Cabling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.3.4.  Internal Router Switching Fabrics . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.3.5.  CloudCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   4.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.1.  South Reflection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.2.  Suboptimal Routing on Link Failures . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.3.  Black-Holing on Link Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     4.4.  Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     4.5.  Mis-cabling Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     4.6.  Positive vs. Negative Disaggregation  . . . . . . . . . .  18
     4.7.  Mobile Edge and Anycast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     4.8.  IPv4 over IPv6  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
     4.9.  In-Band Reachability of Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
     4.10. Dual Homing Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     4.11. Fabric With A Controller  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       4.11.1.  Controller Attached to ToFs  . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       4.11.2.  Controller Attached to Leaf  . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     4.12. Internet Connectivity With Underlay . . . . . . . . . . .  26
       4.12.1.  Internet Default on the Leaf . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
       4.12.2.  Internet Default on the ToFs . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     4.13. Subnet Mismatch and Address Families  . . . . . . . . . .  26
     4.14. Anycast Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     4.15. IoT Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   6.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29

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   7.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
   8.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31

1.  Introduction

   This document discusses the properties and applicability of "Routing
   in Fat Trees" [RIFT] (RIFT) in different deployment scenarios and
   highlights the operational simplicity of the technology compared to
   traditional routing solutions.  It also documents special
   considerations when RIFT is used with or without overlays and/or
   controllers, and how RIFT corrects topology mis-cablings and/or node
   and link failures.

2.  Problem Statement of Routing in Modern IP Fabric Fat Tree Networks

   Clos [CLOS] and fat tree [FATTREE] topologies have gained prominence
   in today's networking, primarily as a result of the paradigm shift
   towards a centralized data-center based architecture that deliver a
   majority of computation and storage services.

   Today's current routing protocols were geared towards a network with
   an irregular topology with isotropic properties, and low degree of
   connectivity.  When applied to Fat Tree topologies:

   *  They tend to need extensive configuration or provisioning during
      bring up and re-dimensioning.

   *  All nodes including spine and leaf nodes learn the entire network
      topology and routing information, which is in fact, not needed on
      the leaf nodes during normal operation.

   *  Significant link-state PDUs (LSPs) flooding duplication between
      spine nodes and leaf nodes occurs during network bring up and
      topology updates.

   *  This consumes both CPU and link bandwidth resources which prevents
      the use of cheaper hardware at the lower levels (leaf and spine)
      and reduces the scalability and reactivity.of the network.

3.  Applicability of RIFT to Clos IP Fabrics

   Further content of this document assumes that the reader is familiar
   with the terms and concepts used in OSPF [RFC2328] and IS-IS
   [ISO10589-Second-Edition] link-state protocols.  The sections of RIFT
   [RIFT] outline the requirements of routing in IP fabrics and RIFT
   protocol concepts.

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3.1.  Overview of RIFT

   RIFT is a dynamic routing protocol that is specifically tailored for
   use in Clos and Fat Tree network topologies.  A core property of RIFT
   is that its operation is sensitive to the structure of the fabric -
   it is anisotropic.  RIFT acts as a link-state protocol when "pointing
   north" - advertising southwards routes to northwards peer routers
   (parents) through flooding and database synchronization- but operates
   hop-by-hop like a distance-vector protocol when "pointing south" -
   typically advertising a fabric default route directed towards the Top
   of Fabric (ToF, aka superspine) to southwards peer routers (children)
   -.

   RIFT floods flat link-state information northbound only so that each
   level obtains the full topology of levels south of it.  That
   information is never flooded east-west or back south again.  So a top
   tier node has full set of prefixes from the Shortest Path First (SPF)
   calculation.

   In the southbound direction, the protocol operates like a "fully
   summarizing, unidirectional" path-vector protocol or rather a
   distance-vector with implicit split horizon.  Routing information,
   normally just the default route, propagates one hop south and is 're-
   advertised' by nodes at next lower level.

                +-----------+          +-----------+
                |    ToF    |          |    ToF    |         LEVEL 2
      +         +-----+--+--+          +-+--+------+
      |         |     |  |  |          | |  |      |      ^
      +         |     |  |  +-------------------------+   |
      Distance  |  +-------------------+ |  |      |  |   |
      Vector    |  |  |  |               |  |      |  |   +
      South     |  |  |  |      +--------+  |      |  |   Link-State
      +         |  |  |  |      |           |      |  |   Flooding
      |         |  |  +-------------+       |      |  |   North
      v         |  |     |      |   |       |      |  |   +
              +-+--+-+   +------+   +-------+   +--+--+-+ |
              |SPINE |   |SPINE |   | SPINE |   | SPINE | |  LEVEL 1
      +       ++----++   ++---+-+   +--+--+-+   ++----+-+ |
      +        |    |     |   |        |  |      |    |   |     ^ N
      Distance |    +-------+ |        |  +--------+  |   |     |   E
      Vector   |          | | |        |         | |  |   |  +------>
      South    |  +-------+ | |        | +-------+ |  |   |     |
      +        |  |         | |        | |         |  |   |     +
      v       ++--++      +-+-++      ++-+-+     +-+--++  +
              |LEAF|      |LEAF|      |LEAF|     |LEAF |     LEVEL 0
              +----+      +----+      +----+     +-----+

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                          Figure 1: Rift overview

   A spine node has only information necessary for its level, which is
   all destinations south of the node based on SPF calculation, default
   route, and potential disaggregated routes.

   RIFT combines the advantage of both link-state and distance-vector:

   *  Fastest possible convergence

   *  Automatic detection of topology

   *  Minimal routes/info on Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches, aka leaf nodes

   *  High degree of ECMP

   *  Fast de-commissioning of nodes

   *  Maximum propagation speed with flexible prefixes in an update

   So there are two types of link-state database which are "north
   representation" North Topology Information Elements (N-TIEs) and
   "south representation" South Topology Information Elements (S-TIEs).
   The N-TIEs contain a link-state topology description of lower levels
   and S-TIEs carry simply default routes for the lower levels.

   RIFT also eliminates major disadvantages of link-state and distance-
   vector with:

   *  Reduced and balanced flooding

   *  Automatic neighbor detection

   To achieve this, RIFT builds on the art of IGPs, not only OSPF and
   IS-IS but also MANET and IoT, to provide unique features:

   *  Automatic (positive or negative) route disaggregation of
      northwards routes upon fallen leaves

   *  Recursive operation in the case of negative route disaggregation

   *  Anisotropic routing that extends a principle seen in RPL [RFC6550]
      to wide superspines

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   *  Optimal Flooding Reduction that derives from the concept of a
      "multipoint relay" (MPR) found in OLSR [RFC3626] and balances the
      flooding load over northbound links and nodes.

   Additional advantages that are unique to RIFT are listed below, the
   details of which can be found in RIFT [RIFT].

   *  True ZTP

   *  Minimal blast radius on failures

   *  Can utilize all Paths through fabric without looping

   *  Simple leaf implementation that can scale down to servers

   *  Key-Value store

   *  Horizontal links used for protection only

   *  Supports non-equal cost multipath (NECMP) and can replace multi-
      chassis link aggregation group (MLAG or MC-LAG)

3.2.  Applicable Topologies

   Albeit RIFT is specified primarily for "proper" Clos or Fat Tree
   topologies, the protocol natively supports Points of Delivery (PoD)
   concepts, which, strictly speaking, are not found in the original
   Clos concept.

   Further, the specification explains and supports operations of multi-
   plane Clos variants where the protocol recommends the use of inter-
   plane rings at the Top-of-Fabric level to allow the reconciliation of
   topology view of different planes to make the negative disaggregation
   viable in case of failures within a plane.  These observations hold
   not only in case of RIFT but also in the generic case of dynamic
   routing on Clos variants with multiple planes and failures in bi-
   sectional bandwidth, especially on the leafs.

3.2.1.  Horizontal Links

   RIFT is not limited to pure Clos divided into PoD and multi-planes
   but supports horizontal (East-West) links below the top of fabric
   level.  Those links are used only for last resort northbound routes
   when a spine loses all its northbound links or cannot compute a
   default route through them.

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   A possible configuration is a "ring" of horizontal links at a level.
   In presence of such a "ring" in any level (except Top of Fabric (ToF)
   level) neither North SPF (N-SPF) nor South SPF (S-SPF) will provide a
   "ring-based protection" scheme since such a computation would have to
   deal necessarily with breaking of "loops" in Dijkstra sense; an
   application for which RIFT is not intended.

   A full-mesh connectivity between nodes on the same level can be
   employed and that allows N-SPF to provide for any node loosing all
   its northbound adjacencies (as long as any of the other nodes in the
   level are northbound connected) to still participate in northbound
   forwarding.

3.2.2.  Vertical Shortcuts

   Through relaxations of the specified adjacency forming rules, RIFT
   implementations can be extended to support vertical "shortcuts" as
   proposed by e.g.  [I-D.white-distoptflood].  The RIFT specification
   itself does not provide the exact details since the resulting
   solution suffers from either much larger blast radius with increased
   flooding volumes or in case of maximum aggregation routing, bow-tie
   problems.

3.2.3.  Generalizing to any Directed Acyclic Graph

   RIFT is an anisotropic routing protocol, meaning that it has a sense
   of direction (northbound, southbound, east-west) and that it operates
   differently depending on the direction.

   *  Northbound, RIFT operates as a link-state protocol, whereby the
      control packets are reflooded first all the way north and only
      interpreted later.  All the individual fine grained routes are
      advertised.

   *  Southbound, RIFT operates as a distance-vector protocol, whereby
      the control packets are flooded only one-hop, interpreted, and the
      consequence of that computation is what gets flooded one more hop
      south.  In the most common use-cases, a ToF node can reach most of
      the prefixes in the fabric.  If that is the case, the ToF node
      advertises the fabric default and disaggregates the prefixes that
      it cannot reach.  On the other hand, a ToF node that can reach
      only a small subset of the prefixes in the fabric will preferably
      advertise those prefixes and refrain from aggregating.

      In the general case, what gets advertised south is in more
      details:

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      1.  A fabric default that aggregates all the prefixes that are
          reachable within the fabric, and that could be a default route
          or a prefix that is dedicated to this particular fabric.

      2.  The loopback addresses of the northbound nodes, e.g., for
          inband management.

      3.  The disaggregated prefixes for the dynamic exceptions to the
          fabric default, advertised to route around the black hole that
          may form.

   *  East-West routing can optionally be used, with specific
      restrictions.  It is used when a sibling has access to the fabric
      default but this node does not.

   A Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) provides a sense of north (the
   direction of the DAG) and of south (the reverse), which can be used
   to apply RIFT.  For the purpose of RIFT, an edge in the DAG that has
   only incoming vertices is a ToF node.

   There are a number of caveats though:

   *  The DAG structure must exist before RIFT starts, so there is a
      need for a companion protocol to establish the logical DAG
      structure.

   *  A generic DAG does not have a sense of east and west.  The
      operation specified for east-west links and the southbound
      reflection between nodes are not applicable.

   *  In order to aggregate and disaggregate routes, RIFT requires that
      all the ToF nodes share the full knowledge of the prefixes in the
      fabric.  This can be achieved with a ring as suggested by the RIFT
      main specification, by some preconfiguration, or using a
      synchronization with a common repository where all the active
      prefixes are registered.

3.3.  Use Cases

3.3.1.  Data Center Fabrics

   RIFT is suited for applying in the data center (DC) IP fabrics
   underlay routing, vast majority of which seem to be currently (and
   for the foreseeable future) Clos architectures.  It significantly
   simplifies operation and deployment of such fabrics as described in
   Section 4 for environments compared to extensive proprietary
   provisioning and operational solutions.

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3.3.2.  Metro Fabrics

   The demand for bandwidth is increasing steadily, driven primarily by
   environments close to content producers (server farms connection via
   DC fabrics) but in proximity to content consumers as well.  Consumers
   are often clustered in metro areas with their own network
   architectures that can benefit from simplified, regular Clos
   structures and hence from RIFT.

3.3.3.  Building Cabling

   Commercial edifices are often cabled in topologies that are either
   Clos or its isomorphic equivalents.  The Clos can grow rather high
   with many floors.  That presents a challenge for traditional routing
   protocols (except BGP and by now largely phased-out PNNI) which do
   not support an arbitrary number of levels which RIFT does naturally.
   Moreover, due to the limited sizes of forwarding tables in network
   elements of building cabling, the minimum FIB size RIFT maintains
   under normal conditions is cost-effective in terms of hardware and
   operational costs.

3.3.4.  Internal Router Switching Fabrics

   It is common in high-speed communications switching and routing
   devices to use fabrics when a crossbar is not feasible due to cost,
   head-of-line blocking or size trade-offs.  Normally such fabrics are
   not self-healing or rely on 1:/+1 protection schemes but it is
   conceivable to use RIFT to operate Clos fabrics that can deal
   effectively with interconnections or subsystem failures in such
   module.  RIFT is neither IP specific and hence any link addressing
   connecting internal device subnets is conceivable.

3.3.5.  CloudCO

   The Cloud Central Office (CloudCO) is a new stage of telecom Central
   Office.  It takes the advantage of Software Defined Networking (SDN)
   and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in conjunction with general
   purpose hardware to optimize current networks.  The following figure
   illustrates this architecture at a high level.  It describes a single
   instance or macro-node of cloud CO that provides a number of Value
   Added Services (VAS), a Broadband Access Abstraction (BAA), and
   virtualized nerwork services.  An Access I/O module faces a Cloud CO
   access node, and the Customer Premises Equipments (CPEs) behind it.
   A Network I/O module is facing the core network.  The two I/O modules
   are interconnected by a leaf and spine fabric [TR-384].

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        +---------------------+           +----------------------+
        |         Spine       |           |     Spine            |
        |         Switch      |           |     Switch           |
        +------+---+------+-+-+           +--+-+-+-+-----+-------+
        |      |   |      | | |              | | | |     |       |
        |      |   |      | | +-------------------------------+  |
        |      |   |      | |                | | | |     |    |  |
        |      |   |      | +-------------------------+  |    |  |
        |      |   |      |                  | | | |  |  |    |  |
        |      |   +----------------------+  | | | |  |  |    |  |
        |      |          |               |  | | | |  |  |    |  |
        |  +---------------------------------+ | | |  |  |    |  |
        |  |   |          |               |    | | |  |  |    |  |
        |  |   |   +-----------------------------+ |  |  |    |  |
        |  |   |   |      |               |    |   |  |  |    |  |
        |  |   |   |      |   +--------------------+  |  |    |  |
        |  |   |   |      |   |           |    |      |  |    |  |
        +--+ +-+---+--+ +-+---+--+     +--+----+--+ +-+--+--+ +--+
        |L | | Leaf   | | Leaf   |     |  Leaf    | | Leaf  | |L |
        |S | | Switch | | Switch |     |  Switch  | | Switch| |S |
        ++-+ +-+-+-+--+ +-+-+-+--+     +--+-+--+--+ ++-+--+-+ +-++
         |     | | |      | | |           | |  |     | |  |     |
         |   +-+-+-+--+ +-+-+-+--+     +--+-+--+--+ ++-+--+-+   |
         |   |Compute | |Compute |     | Compute  | |Compute|   |
         |   |Node    | |Node    |     | Node     | |Node   |   |
         |   +--------+ +--------+     +----------+ +-------+   |
         |   || VAS5 || || vDHCP||     || vRouter|| ||VAS1 ||   |
         |   |--------| |--------|     |----------| |-------|   |
         |   |--------| |--------|     |----------| |-------|   |
         |   || VAS6 || || VAS3 ||     || v802.1x|| ||VAS2 ||   |
         |   |--------| |--------|     |----------| |-------|   |
         |   |--------| |--------|     |----------| |-------|   |
         |   || VAS7 || || VAS4 ||     ||  vIGMP || ||BAA  ||   |
         |   |--------| |--------|     |----------| |-------|   |
         |   +--------+ +--------+     +----------+ +-------+   |
         |                                                      |
        ++-----------+                                +---------++
        |Network I/O |                                |Access I/O|
        +------------+                                +----------+

                Figure 2: An example of CloudCO architecture

   The Spine-Leaf architecture deployed inside CloudCO meets the network
   requirements of adaptable, agile, scalable and dynamic.

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4.  Operational Considerations

   RIFT presents the opportunity for organizations building and
   operating IP fabrics to simplify their operation and deployments
   while achieving many desirable properties of a dynamic routing on
   such a substrate:

   *  RIFT only floods routing information to the devices that
      absolutely need it.  RIFT design follows minimum blast radius and
      minimum necessary epistemological scope philosophy which leads to
      good scaling properties while delivering maximum reactiveness.

   *  RIFT allows for extensive Zero Touch Provisioning within the
      protocol.  In its most extreme version RIFT does not rely on any
      specific addressing and for IP fabric can operate using IPv6 ND
      [RFC4861] only.

   *  RIFT has provisions to detect common IP fabric mis-cabling
      scenarios.

   *  RIFT negotiates automatically BFD per link allowing this way for
      IP and micro-BFD [RFC7130] to replace Link Aggregation Groups
      (LAGs) which do hide bandwidth imbalances in case of constituent
      failures.  Further automatic link validation techniques similar to
      [RFC5357] could be supported as well.

   *  RIFT inherently solves many difficult problems associated with the
      use of traditional routing topologies with dense meshes and high
      degrees of ECMP by including automatic bandwidth balancing, flood
      reduction and automatic disaggregation on failures while providing
      maximum aggregation of prefixes in default scenarios.

   *  RIFT reduces FIB size towards the bottom of the IP fabric where
      most nodes reside and allows with that for cheaper hardware on the
      edges and introduction of modern IP fabric architectures that
      encompass e.g. server multi-homing.

   *  RIFT provides valley-free routing and with that is loop free.
      This allows the use of any such valley-free path in bi-sectional
      fabric bandwidth between two destination irrespective of their
      metrics which can be used to balance load on the fabric in
      different ways.

   *  RIFT includes a key-value distribution mechanism which allows for
      many future applications such as automatic provisioning of basic
      overlay services or automatic key roll-overs over whole fabrics.

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   *  RIFT is designed for minimum delay in case of prefix mobility on
      the fabric.  In conjunction with [RFC8505], RIFT can differentiate
      anycast advertisements from mobility events and retain only the
      most recent advertisement in the latter case.

   *  Many further operational and design points collected over many
      years of routing protocol deployments have been incorporated in
      RIFT such as fast flooding rates, protection of information
      lifetimes and operationally easily recognizable remote ends of
      links and node names.

4.1.  South Reflection

   South reflection is a mechanism that South Node TIEs are "reflected"
   back up north to allow nodes in same level without East-west links to
   "see" each other.

   For example, Spine111\Spine112\Spine121\Spine122 reflects Node S-TIEs
   from ToF21 to ToF22 separately.  Respectively,
   Spine111\Spine112\Spine121\Spine122 reflects Node S-TIEs from ToF22
   to ToF21 separately.  So ToF22 and ToF21 see each other's node
   information as level 2 nodes.

   In an equivalent fashion, as the result of the south reflection
   between Spine121-Leaf121-Spine122 and Spine121-Leaf122-Spine122,
   Spine121 and Spine 122 knows each other at level 1.

4.2.  Suboptimal Routing on Link Failures

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                  +--------+          +--------+
                  | ToF21  |          |  ToF22 |                LEVEL 2
                  ++--+-+-++          ++-+--+-++
                   |  | | |            | |  | +
                   |  | | |            | |  | linkTS8
     +-------------+  | +-+linkTS3+-+  | |  | +-------------+
     |                |   |         |  | |  +               |
     |    +----------------------------+ |  linkTS7         |
     |    |           |   |         +    +  +               |
     |    |           |   +-------+linkTS4+------------+    |
     |    |           |             +    +  |          |    |
     |    |           |     +------------+--+          |    |
     |    |           |     |       |  linkTS6         |    |
   +-+----+-+         +-----+--+   ++--------+       +-+----+-+
   |Spine111|         |Spine112|   |Spine121 |       |Spine122| LEVEL 1
   +-+---+--+         +----+---+   +-+---+---+       +-+---+--+
     |   |            |    |         |   |             |   |
     |   +--------------+  |         +   ++XX+linkSL6+---+ +
     |                | |  |      linkSL5              | | linkSL8
     |   +------------+ |  |         +   +---+linkSL7+-+ | +
     |   |              |  |         |   |               | |
   +-+---+-+         +--+--+-+     +-+---+-+          +--+-+--+
   |Leaf111|         |Leaf112|     |Leaf121|          |Leaf122| LEVEL 0
   +-+-----+         ++------+     +-----+-+          +-+-----+
     +                +                  +              +
   Prefix111         Prefix112     Prefix121          Prefix122

          Figure 3: Suboptimal routing upon link failure use case

   As shown in Figure 3, as the result of the south reflection between
   Spine121-Leaf121-Spine122 and Spine121-Leaf122-Spine122, Spine121 and
   Spine 122 knows each other at level 1.

   Without disaggregation mechanism, when linkSL6 fails, the packet from
   leaf121 to prefix122 will probably go up through linkSL5 to linkTS3
   then go down through linkTS4 to linkSL8 to Leaf122 or go up through
   linkSL5 to linkTS6 then go down through linkTS4 and linkSL8 to
   Leaf122 based on pure default route.  It's the case of suboptimal
   routing or bow-tieing.

   With disaggregation mechanism, when linkSL6 fails, Spine122 will
   detect the failure according to the reflected node S-TIE from
   Spine121.  Based on the disaggregation algorithm provided by RIFT,
   Spine122 will explicitly advertise prefix122 in Disaggregated Prefix
   S-TIE PrefixesElement(prefix122, cost 1).  The packet from leaf121 to
   prefix122 will only be sent to linkSL7 following a longest-prefix
   match to prefix 122 directly then go down through linkSL8 to Leaf122
   .

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4.3.  Black-Holing on Link Failures

                   +--------+          +--------+
                   | ToF 21 |          | ToF 22 |                LEVEL 2
                   ++-+--+-++          ++-+--+-++
                    | |  | |            | |  | +
                    | |  | |            | |  | linkTS8
     +--------------+ |  +-+linkTS3+X+  | |  | +--------------+
     linkTS1          |    |         |  | |  +                |
     +    +-----------------------------+ |  linkTS7          |
     |    |           +    |         +    +  +                |
     |    |      linkTS2   +-------+linkTS4+X+----------+     |
     |    +           +              +    +  |          |     |
     |   linkTS5      +-+    +------------+--+          |     |
     |    +             |    |       |  linkTS6         |     |
   +-+----+-+         +-+----+-+    ++-------+        +-+-----++
   |Spine111|         |Spine112|    |Spine121|        |Spine122| LEVEL 1
   +-+---+--+         ++----+--+    +-+---+--+        +-+---+--+
     |   |             |    |         |   |             |   |
     +   +---------------+  |         +   +---+linkSL6+---+ +
     linkSL1           | |  |      linkSL5              | | linkSL8
     +   +--+linkSL3+--+ |  |         +   +---+linkSL7+-+ | +
     |   |               |  |         |   |               | |
   +-+---+-+          +--+--+-+     +-+---+-+          +--+-+--+
   |Leaf111|          |Leaf112|     |Leaf121|          |Leaf122| LEVEL 0
   +-+-----+          ++------+     +-----+-+          +-+-----+
     +                 +                  +              +
   Prefix111          Prefix112     Prefix121          Prefix122

             Figure 4: Black-holing upon link failure use case

   This scenario illustrates a case when double link failure occurs and
   with that black-holing can happen.

   Without disaggregation mechanism, when linkTS3 and linkTS4 both fail,
   the packet from leaf111 to prefix122 would suffer 50% black-holing
   based on pure default route.  The packet supposed to go up through
   linkSL1 to linkTS1 then go down through linkTS3 or linkTS4 will be
   dropped.  The packet supposed to go up through linkSL3 to linkTS2
   then go down through linkTS3 or linkTS4 will be dropped as well.
   It's the case of black-holing.

   With disaggregation mechanism, when linkTS3 and linkTS4 both fail,
   ToF22 will detect the failure according to the reflected node S-TIE
   of ToF21 from Spine111\Spine112.  Based on the disaggregation
   algorithm provided by RITF, ToF22 will explicitly originate an S-TIE
   with prefix 121 and prefix 122, that is flooded to spines 111, 112,
   121 and 122.

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   The packet from leaf111 to prefix122 will not be routed to linkTS1 or
   linkTS2.  The packet from leaf111 to prefix122 will only be routed to
   linkTS5 or linkTS7 following a longest-prefix match to prefix122.

4.4.  Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)

   RIFT is designed to require a very minimal configuration to simplify
   its operation and avoid human errors; based on that minimal
   information, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) autoconfigures the key
   operational parameters of all the RIFT nodes, that is, on the one
   hand, the SystemID of the node that must be unique in the RIFT
   network, and on the other hand the level of the node in the Fat Tree,
   which determines which peers are northwards "parents" and which are
   southwards "children".

   ZTP is always on, but its decisions can be overridden when a network
   administrator prefers to impose its own configuration.  In that case,
   it is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure that the
   configured parameters are correct, in other words that the SystemID
   of each node is unique, and that the administratively set levels
   truly reflect the relative position of the nodes in the fabric.  It
   is recommended to let ZTP configure the network, and when not, it is
   recommended to configure the level of all the nodes but those that
   are forced as leaves to avoid an undesirable interaction between ZTP
   and the manual configuration.

   ZTP requires that the administrator points out the Top-of-Fabric
   (ToF) nodes to set the baseline from which the fabric topology is
   derived.  The Top-of-Fabric nodes are configured with TOP_OF_FABRIC
   flag which are initial 'seeds' needed for other ZTP nodes to derive
   their level in the topology.  The derivation of the level of each
   node happens then based on Link Information Elements (LIEs) received
   from its neighbors whereas each node (with possibly exceptions of
   configured leaves) tries to attach at the highest possible point in
   the fabric.  This guarantees that even if the diffusion front reaches
   a node from "below" faster than from "above", it will greedily
   abandon already negotiated level derived from nodes topologically
   below it and properly peer with nodes above.

   A RIFT node may also be configured to confine it to the leaf role
   with the LEAF_ONLY flag.  A leaf node can also be configured to
   support leaf-2-leaf procedures with the LEAF_2_LEAF flag.  In either
   case the node cannot be TOP_OF_FABRIC and its level cannot be
   configured.  RIFT will fully configure the node's level after it is
   attached to the topology and ensure that the node is at the "bottom
   of the hierarchy" (southernmost).

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4.5.  Mis-cabling Examples

        +----------------+              +-----------------+
        |     ToF21      |       +------+      ToF22      |   LEVEL 2
        +-------+----+---+       |      +----+---+--------+
        |       |    |   |       |      |    |   |        |
        |       |    |   +----------------------------+   |
        |   +---------------------------+    |   |    |   |
        |   |   |    |           |           |   |    |   |
        |   |   |    |   +-----------------------+    |   |
        |   |   +------------------------+   |        |   |
        |   |        |   |       |       |   |        |   |
      +-+---+--+   +-+---+--+    |    +--+---+-+  +--+---+-+
      |Spine111|   |Spine112|    |    |Spine121|  |Spine122| LEVEL 1
      +-+---+--+   ++----+--+    |    +--+---+-+  +-+----+-+
        |   |       |    |       |       |   |       |    |
        |   +---------+  |     link-M    |   +---------+  |
        |           | |  |       |       |           | |  |
        |   +-------+ |  |       |       |   +-------+ |  |
        |   |         |  |       |       |   |         |  |
      +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+     |     +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+
      |Leaf111|    |Leaf112+-----+     |Leaf121|    |Leaf122| LEVEL 0
      +-------+    +-------+           +-------+    +-------+

                Figure 5: A single plane mis-cabling example

   Figure 5 shows a single plane mis-cabling example.  It's a perfect
   Fat Tree fabric except link-M connecting Leaf112 to ToF22.

   The RIFT control protocol can discover the physical links
   automatically and be able to detect cabling that violates Fat Tree
   topology constraints.  It reacts accordingly to such mis-cabling
   attempts, at a minimum preventing adjacencies between nodes from
   being formed and traffic from being forwarded on those mis-cabled
   links.  Leaf112 will in such scenario use link-M to derive its level
   (unless it is leaf) and can report links to Spine111 and Spine112 as
   mis-cabled unless the implementations allows horizontal links.

   Figure 6 shows a multiple plane mis-cabling example.  Since Leaf112
   and Spine121 belong to two different PoDs, the adjacency between
   Leaf112 and Spine121 can not be formed. link-W would be detected and
   prevented.

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      +-------+    +-------+           +-------+    +-------+
      |ToF  A1|    |ToF  A2|           |ToF  B1|    |ToF  B2| LEVEL 2
      +-------+    +-------+           +-------+    +-------+
      |       |    |       |           |       |    |       |
      |       |    |       +-----------------+ |    |       |
      |       +--------------------------+   | |    |       |
      |            |                   | |   | |    |       |
      |     +------+                   | |   | +------+     |
      |     |        +-----------------+ |   |      | |     |
      |     |        |   +--------------------------+ |     |
      |  A  |        | B |               | A |        |  B  |
      +-----+--+   +-+---+--+         +--+---+-+   +--+-----+
      |Spine111|   |Spine112|     +---+Spine121|   |Spine122| LEVEL 1
      +-+---+--+   ++----+--+     |   +--+---+-+   +-+----+-+
        |   |       |    |        |      |   |       |    |
        |   +---------+  |        |      |   +---------+  |
        |           | |  |      link-W   |           | |  |
        |   +-------+ |  |        |      |   +-------+ |  |
        |   |         |  |        |      |   |         |  |
      +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+      |    +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+
      |Leaf111|    |Leaf112+------+    |Leaf121|    |Leaf122| LEVEL 0
      +-------+    +-------+           +-------+    +-------+
     +--------PoD#1----------+       +---------PoD#2---------+

               Figure 6: A multiple plane mis-cabling example

   RIFT provides an optional level determination procedure in its Zero
   Touch Provisioning mode.  Nodes in the fabric without their level
   configured determine it automatically.  This can have possibly
   counter-intuitive consequences however.  One extreme failure scenario
   is depicted in Figure 7 and it shows that if all northbound links of
   spine11 fail at the same time, spine11 negotiates a lower level than
   Leaf11 and Leaf12.

   To prevent such scenario where leafs are expected to act as switches,
   LEAF_ONLY flag can be set for Leaf111 and Leaf112.  Since level -1 is
   invalid, Spine11 would not derive a valid level from the topology in
   Figure 7.  It will be isolated from the whole fabric and it would be
   up to the leafs to declare the links towards such spine as mis-
   cabled.

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           +-------+    +-------+        +-------+    +-------+
           |ToF  A1|    |ToF  A2|        |ToF  A1|    |ToF  A2|
           +-------+    +-------+        +-------+    +-------+
           |       |    |       |                |            |
           |    +-------+       |                |            |
           +    +  |            |  ====>         |            |
           X    X  +------+     |                +------+     |
           +    +         |     |                       |     |
           +----+--+    +-+-----+                     +-+-----+
           |Spine11|    |Spine12|                     |Spine12|
           +-+---+-+    ++----+-+                     ++----+-+
             |   |       |    |                        |    |
             |   +---------+  |                        |    |
             |           | |  |                        |    |
             |   +-------+ |  |                +-------+    |
             |   |         |  |                |            |
           +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+        +-----+-+    +-----+-+
           |Leaf111|    |Leaf112|        |Leaf111|    |Leaf112|
           +-------+    +-------+        +-+-----+    +-+-----+
                                           |            |
                                           |   +--------+
                                           |   |
                                         +-+---+-+
                                         |Spine11|
                                         +-------+

                           Figure 7: Fallen spine

4.6.  Positive vs. Negative Disaggregation

   Disaggregation is the procedure whereby [RIFT] advertises a more
   specific route southwards as an exception to the aggregated fabric-
   default north.  Disaggregation is useful when a prefix within the
   aggregation is reachable via some of the parents but not the others
   at the same level of the fabric.  It is mandatory when the level is
   the ToF since a ToF node that cannot reach a prefix becomes a black
   hole for that prefix.  The hard problem is to know which prefixes are
   reachable by whom.

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   In the general case, [RIFT] solves that problem by interconnecting
   the ToF nodes.  So the ToF nodes can exchange the full list of
   prefixes that exist in the fabric and figure when a ToF node lacks
   reachability and to existing prefix.  This requires additional ports
   at the ToF, typically 2 ports per ToF node to form a ToF-spanning
   ring.  [RIFT] also defines the southbound reflection procedure that
   enables a parent to explore the direct connectivity of its peers,
   meaning their own parents and children; based on the advertisements
   received from the shared parents and children, it may enable the
   parent to infer the prefixes its peers can reach.

   When a parent lacks reachability to a prefix, it may disaggregate the
   prefix negatively, i.e., advertise that this parent can be used to
   reach any prefix in the aggregation except that one.  The Negative
   Disaggregation signaling is simple and functions transitively from
   ToF to top-of-pod (ToP) and then from ToP to Leaf.  But it is hard
   for a parent to figure which prefix it needs to disaggregate, because
   it does not know what it does not know; it results that the use of a
   spanning ring at the ToF is required to operate the Negative
   Disaggregation.  Also, though it is only an implementation problem,
   the programmation of the FIB is complex compared to normal routes,
   and may incur recursions.

   The more classical alternative is, for the parents that can reach a
   prefix that peers at the same level cannot, to advertise a more
   specific route to that prefix.  This leverages the normal longest
   prefix match in the FIB, and does not require a special
   implementation.  But as opposed to the Negative Disaggregation, the
   Positive Disaggregation is difficult and inefficient to operate
   transitively.

   Transitivity is not needed to a grandchild if all its parents
   received the Positive Disaggregation, meaning that they shall all
   avoid the black hole; when that is the case, they collectively build
   a ceiling that protects the grandchild.  But until then, a parent
   that received a Positive Disaggregation may believe that some peers
   are lacking the reachability and readvertise too early, or defer and
   maintain a black hole situation longer than necessary.

   In a non-partitioned fabric, all the ToF nodes see one another
   through the reflection and can figure if one is missing a child.  In
   that case it is possible to compute the prefixes that the peer cannot
   reach and disaggregate positively without a ToF-spanning ring.  The
   ToF nodes can also ascertain that the ToP nodes are connected each to
   at least a ToF node that can still reach the prefix, meaning that the
   transitive operation is not required.

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   The bottom line is that in a fabric that is partitioned (e.g., using
   multiple planes) and/or where the ToP nodes are not guaranteed to
   always form a ceiling for their children, it is mandatory to use the
   Negative Disaggregation.  On the other hand, in a highly symmetrical
   and fully connected fabric, (e.g., a canonical Clos Network), the
   Positive Disaggregation methods allows to save the complexity and
   cost associated to the ToF-spanning ring.

   Note that in the case of Positive Disaggregation, the first ToF
   node(s) that announces a more-specific route attracts all the traffic
   for that route and may suffer from a transient incast.  A ToP node
   that defers injecting the longer prefix in the FIB, in order to
   receive more advertisements and spread the packets better, also keeps
   on sending a portion of the traffic to the black hole in the
   meantime.  In the case of Negative Disaggregation, the last ToF
   node(s) that injects the route may also incur an incast issue; this
   problem would occur if a prefix that becomes totally unreachable is
   disaggregated, but doing so is mostly useless and is not recommended.

4.7.  Mobile Edge and Anycast

   When a physical or a virtual node changes its point of attachement in
   the fabric from a previous-leaf to a next-leaf, new routes must be
   installed that supersede the old ones.  Since the flooding flows
   northwards, the nodes (if any) between the previous-leaf and the
   common parent are not immediately aware that the path via previous-
   leaf is obsolete, and a stale route may exist for a while.  The
   common parent needs to select the freshest route advertisement in
   order to install the correct route via the next-leaf.  This requires
   that the fabric determines the sequence of the movements of the
   mobile node.

   On the one hand, a classical sequence counter provides a total order
   for a while but it will eventually wrap.  On the other hand, a
   timestamp provides a permanent order but it may miss a movement that
   happens too quickly vs.  the granularity of the timing information.
   It is not envisioned in the short term that the average fabric
   supports a Precision Time Protocol [IEEEstd1588], and the precision
   that may be available with the Network Time Protocol [RFC5905], in
   the order of 100 to 200ms, may not be necessarily enough to cover,
   e.g., the fast mobility of a Virtual Machine.

   Section 4.3.3.  "Mobility" of [RIFT] specifies an hybrid method that
   combines a sequence counter from the mobile node and a timestamp from
   the network taken at the leaf when the route is injected.  If the
   timestamps of the concurrent advertisements are comparable (i.e.,
   more distant than the precision of the timing protocol), then the
   timestamp alone is used to determine the relative freshness of the

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   routes.  Otherwise, the sequence counter from the mobile node, if
   available, is used.  One caveat is that the sequence counter must not
   wrap within the precision of the timing protocol.  Another is that
   the mobile node may not even provide a sequence counter, in which
   case the mobility itself must be slower than the precision of the
   timing.

   Mobility must not be confused with anycast.  In both cases, a same
   address is injected in RIFT at different leaves.  In the case of
   mobility, only the freshest route must be conserved, since mobile
   node changed its point of attachment for a leaf to the next.  In the
   case of anycast, the node may be either multihomed (attached to
   multiple leaves in parallel) or reachable beyond the fabric via
   multiple routes that are redistributed to different leaves; either
   way, in the case of anycast, the multiple routes are equally valid
   and should be conserved.  Without further information from the
   redistributed routing protocol, it is impossible to sort out a
   movement from a redistribution that happens asynchronously on
   different leaves.  [RIFT] expects that anycast addresses are
   advertised within the timing precision, which is typically the case
   with a low-precision timing and a multihomed node.  Beyond that time
   interval, RIFT interprets the lag as a mobility and only the freshest
   route is retained.

   When using IPv6 [RFC8200], RIFT suggests to leverage "Registration
   Extensions for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network
   (6LoWPAN) Neighbor Discovery (ND)" [RFC8505] as the IPv6 ND
   interaction between the mobile node and the leaf.  This provides not
   only a sequence counter but also a lifetime and a security token that
   may be used to protect the ownership of an address [RFC8928].  When
   using [RFC8505], the parallel registration of an anycast address to
   multiple leaves is done with the same sequence counter, whereas the
   sequence counter is incremented when the point of attachement
   changes.  This way, it is possible to differentiate a mobile node
   from a multihomed node, even when the mobility happens within the
   timing precision.  It is also possible for a mobile node to be
   multihomed as well, e.g., to change only one of its points of
   attachement.

4.8.  IPv4 over IPv6

   RIFT allows advertising IPv4 prefixes over IPv6 RIFT network.  IPv6
   Address Family (AF) configures via the usual Neighbor Discovery (ND)
   mechanisms and then V4 can use V6 nexthops analogous to [RFC5549].
   It is expected that the whole fabric supports the same type of
   forwarding of address families on all the links.  RIFT provides an
   indication whether a node is v4 forwarding capable and
   implementations are possible where different routing tables are

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   computed per address family as long as the computation remains loop-
   free.

                            +-----+        +-----+
                 +---+---+  | ToF |        | ToF |
                     ^      +--+--+        +-----+
                     |      |  |           |     |
                     |      |  +-------------+   |
                     |      |     +--------+ |   |
                     +      |     |          |   |
                    V6      +-----+        +-+---+
                 Forwarding |Spine|        |Spine|
                     +      +--+--+        +-----+
                     |      |  |           |     |
                     |      |  +-------------+   |
                     |      |     +--------+ |   |
                     |      |     |          |   |
                     v      +-----+        +-+---+
                 +---+---+  |Leaf |        | Leaf|
                            +--+--+        +--+--+
                               |              |
                  IPv4 prefixes|              |IPv4 prefixes
                               |              |
                           +---+----+     +---+----+
                           |   V4   |     |   V4   |
                           | subnet |     | subnet |
                           +--------+     +--------+

                          Figure 8: IPv4 over IPv6

4.9.  In-Band Reachability of Nodes

   RIFT doesn't precondition that nodes of the fabric have reachable
   addresses.  But the operational purposes to reach the internal nodes
   may exist.  Figure 9 shows an example that the network management
   station (NMS) attaches to leaf1.

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                         +-------+      +-------+
                         | ToF1  |      | ToF2  |
                         ++---- ++      ++-----++
                          |     |        |     |
                          |     +----------+   |
                          |     +--------+ |   |
                          |     |          |   |
                         ++-----++      +--+---++
                         |Spine1 |      |Spine2 |
                         ++-----++      ++-----++
                          |     |        |     |
                          |     +----------+   |
                          |     +--------+ |   |
                          |     |          |   |
                         ++-----++      +--+---++
                         | Leaf1 |      | Leaf2 |
                         +---+---+      +-------+
                             |
                             |NMS

                   Figure 9: In-Band reachability of node

   If NMS wants to access Leaf2, it simply works.  Because loopback
   address of Leaf2 is flooded in its Prefix North TIE.

   If NMS wants to access Spine2, it simply works too.  Because spine
   node always advertises its loopback address in the Prefix North TIE.
   NMS may reach Spine2 from Leaf1-Spine2 or Leaf1-Spine1-ToF1/
   ToF2-Spine2.

   If NMS wants to access ToF2, ToF2's loopback address needs to be
   injected into its Prefix South TIE.  This TIE must be seen by all
   nodes at the level below - the spine nodes in Figure 9 - that must
   form a ceiling for all the traffic coming from below (south).
   Otherwise, the traffic from NMS may follow the default route to the
   wrong ToF Node, e.g., ToF1.

   In a fully connected ToF, in case of failure between ToF2 and spine
   nodes, ToF2's loopback address must be disaggregated recursively all
   the way to the leaves.

   In a partitioned ToF, a TOF node is only reachable within its Plane,
   and the disaggregation to the leaves is also required.  A possible
   alternative is to use the ring that interconnects the ToF nodes to
   transmit packets between them for their loopback addresses only.  The
   idea is that this is mostly control traffic and should not alter the
   load balancing properties of the fabric.

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4.10.  Dual Homing Servers

   Each RIFT node may operate in Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) mode.  It
   has no configuration (unless it is a Top-of-Fabric at the top of the
   topology or the must operate in the topology as leaf and/or support
   leaf-2-leaf procedures) and it will fully configure itself after
   being attached to the topology.

                 +---+         +---+         +---+
                 |ToF|         |ToF|         |ToF|      ToF
                 +---+         +---+         +---+
                 |   |         |   |         |   |
                 |   +----------------+      |   |
                 |             |   |  |      |   |
                 |          +----------------+   |
                 |          |  |   |  |          |
                 +----------+--+   +--+----------+
                 |     ToR1    |   |     ToR2    |      Spine
                 +--+------+---+   +--+-------+--+
             +---+  |      |   |   |  |       |  +---+
             |      |      |   |   |  |       |      |
             |   +-----------------+  |       |      |
             |   |  |   +-------------+       |      |
             +   |  +   |  |   |-----------------+   |
             X   |  X   |  +--------x-----+   |  X   |
             +   |  +   |                 |   |  +   |
             +---+  +---+                 +---+  +---+
             |   |  |   |                 |   |  |   |
             +---+  +---+  ...............+---+  +---+
             SV(1) SV(2)                 SV(n+1) SV(n)  Leaf

                       Figure 10: Dual-homing servers

   In the single plane, the worst condition is disaggregation of every
   other servers at the same level.  Suppose the links from ToR1 (Top of
   Rack) to all the leaves become not available.  All the servers'
   routes are disaggregated and the FIB of the servers will be expanded
   with n-1 more specific routes.

   Sometimes, people may prefer to disaggregate from ToR to servers from
   start on, i.e. the servers have couple tens of routes in FIB from
   start on beside default routes to avoid breakages at rack level.
   Full disaggregation of the fabric could be achieved by configuration
   supported by RIFT.

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4.11.  Fabric With A Controller

   There are many different ways to deploy the controller.  One
   possibility is attaching a controller to the RIFT domain from ToF and
   another possibility is attaching a controller from the leaf.

                                     +------------+
                                     | Controller |
                                     ++----------++
                                      |          |
                                      |          |
                                 +----++        ++----+
                     -------     | ToF |        | ToF |
                        |        +--+--+        +-----+
                        |        |  |           |     |
                        |        |  +-------------+   |
                        |        |     +--------+ |   |
                        |        |     |          |   |
                                 +-----+        +-+---+
                    RIFT domain  |Spine|        |Spine|
                                 +--+--+        +-----+
                        |        |  |           |     |
                        |        |  +-------------+   |
                        |        |     +--------+ |   |
                        |        |     |          |   |
                        |        +-----+        +-+---+
                     -------     |Leaf |        | Leaf|
                                 +-----+        +-----+

                    Figure 11: Fabric with a controller

4.11.1.  Controller Attached to ToFs

   If a controller is attaching to the RIFT domain from ToF, it usually
   uses dual-homing connections.  The loopback prefix of the controller
   should be advertised down by the ToF and spine to leaves.  If the
   controller loses link to ToF, make sure the ToF withdraw the prefix
   of the controller(use different mechanisms).

4.11.2.  Controller Attached to Leaf

   If the controller is attaching from a leaf to the fabric, no special
   provisions are needed.

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4.12.  Internet Connectivity With Underlay

   If global addressing is running without overlay, an external default
   route needs to be advertised through rift fabric to achieve internet
   connectivity.  For the purpose of forwarding of the entire rift
   fabric, an internal fabric prefix needs to be advertised in the South
   Prefix TIE by ToF and spine nodes.

4.12.1.  Internet Default on the Leaf

   In case that an internet access request comes from a leaf and the
   internet gateway is another leaf, the leaf node as the internet
   gateway needs to advertise a default route in its Prefix North TIE.

4.12.2.  Internet Default on the ToFs

   In case that an internet access request comes from a leaf and the
   internet gateway is a ToF, the ToF and spine nodes need to advertise
   a default route in the Prefix South TIE.

4.13.  Subnet Mismatch and Address Families

                 +--------+                     +--------+
                 |        |  LIE          LIE   |        |
                 |   A    | +---->       <----+ |   B    |
                 |        +---------------------+        |
                 +--------+                     +--------+
                    X/24                           Y/24

                         Figure 12: subnet mismatch

   LIEs are exchanged over all links running RIFT to perform Link
   (Neighbor) Discovery.  A node MUST NOT originate LIEs on an address
   family if it does not process received LIEs on that family.  LIEs on
   same link are considered part of the same negotiation independent on
   the address family they arrive on.  An implementation MUST be ready
   to accept TIEs on all addresses it used as source of LIE frames.

   As shown in the above figure, without further checks adjacency of
   node A and B may form, but the forwarding between node A and node B
   may fail because subnet X mismatches with subnet Y.

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   To prevent this a RIFT implementation should check for subnet
   mismatch just like e.g.  ISIS does.  This can lead to scenarios where
   an adjacency, despite exchange of LIEs in both address families may
   end up having an adjacency in a single AF only.  This is a
   consideration especially in Section 4.8 scenarios.

4.14.  Anycast Considerations

                                 + traffic
                                 |
                                 v
                          +------+------+
                          |     ToF     |
                          +---+-----+---+
                          |   |     |   |
             +------------+   |     |   +------------+
             |                |     |                |
         +---+---+    +-------+     +-------+    +---+---+
         |       |    |       |     |       |    |       |
         |Spine11|    |Spine12|     |Spine21|    |Spine22| LEVEL 1
         +-+---+-+    ++----+-+     +-+---+-+    ++----+-+
           |   |       |    |         |   |       |    |
           |   +---------+  |         |   +---------+  |
           |           | |  |         |           | |  |
           |   +-------+ |  |         |   +-------+ |  |
           |   |         |  |         |   |         |  |
         +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+     +-+---+-+    +--+--+-+
         |       |    |       |     |       |    |       |
         |Leaf111|    |Leaf112|     |Leaf121|    |Leaf122| LEVEL 0
         +-+-----+    ++------+     +-----+-+    +-----+-+
           +           +                  +      ^     |
         PrefixA      PrefixB         PrefixA    | PrefixC
                                                 |
                                                 + traffic

                             Figure 13: Anycast

   If the traffic comes from ToF to Leaf111 or Leaf121 which has anycast
   prefix PrefixA.  RIFT can deal with this case well.  But if the
   traffic comes from Leaf122, it arrives Spine21 or Spine22 at level 1.
   But Spine21 or Spine22 doesn't know another PrefixA attaching
   Leaf111.  So it will always get to Leaf121 and never get to Leaf111.
   If the intension is that the traffic should been offloaded to
   Leaf111, then use policy guided prefixes defined in "Routing in Fat
   Trees" [RIFT].

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4.15.  IoT Applicability

   The design of RIFT inherits from RPL [RFC6550] the anisotropic design
   of a default route upwards (northwards); it also inherits the
   capability to inject external host routes at the Leaf level using
   Wireless ND (WiND) [RFC8505][RFC8928] between a RIFT-agnostic host
   and a RIFT router.  Both the RPL and the RIFT protocols are meant for
   large scale, and WiND enables device mobility at the edge the same
   way in both cases.

   The main difference between RIFT and RPL is that with RPL, there's a
   single Root, whereas RIFT has many ToF nodes.  The adds huge
   capabilities for leaf-2-leaf ECMP paths, but additional complexity
   with the need to disaggregate.  Also RIFT uses Link State flooding
   northwards, and is not designed for low-power operation.

   Still nothing prevents that the IP devices connected at the Leaf are
   IoT (Internet of Things) devices, which typically expose their
   address using WiND - which is an upgrade from 6LoWPAN ND [RFC6775].

   A network that serves high speed/ high power IoT devices should
   typically provide deterministic capabilities for applications such as
   high speed control loops or movement detection.  The Fat Tree is
   highly reliable, and in normal condition provides an equilatent
   multipath operation; but the ECMP doesn't provide hard guarantees for
   either delivery or latency.  As long as the fabric is non-blocking
   the result is the same; but there can be load unbalances resulting in
   incast and possibly congestion loss that will prevent the delivery
   within bounded latency.

   This could be alleviated with Packet Replication, Elimination and
   Reordering (PREOF) [RFC8655] leaf-2-leaf but PREOF is hard to provide
   at the scale of all flows, and the replication may increase the
   probability of the overload that it attempts to solve.

   Note that the load balancing is not RIFT's problem, but it is key to
   serve IoT adequately.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document presents applicability of RIFT.  As such, it does not
   introduce any security considerations.  However, there are a number
   of security concerns at [RIFT].

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6.  Contributors

   The following people (listed in alphabetical order) contributed
   significantly to the content of this document and should be
   considered co-authors:

   Tony Przygienda

   Juniper Networks

   1194 N.  Mathilda Ave

   Sunnyvale, CA 94089

   US

   Email: prz@juniper.net

7.  Normative References

   [ISO10589-Second-Edition]
              International Organization for Standardization,
              "Intermediate system to Intermediate system intra-domain
              routeing information exchange protocol for use in
              conjunction with the protocol for providing the
              connectionless-mode Network Service (ISO 8473)", November
              2002.

   [TR-384]   Broadband Forum Technical Report, "TR-384 Cloud Central
              Office Reference Architectural Framework", January 2018.

   [RFC2328]  Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2328, April 1998,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2328>.

   [RFC4861]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
              "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4861, September 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861>.

   [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,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5357>.

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   [RFC7130]  Bhatia, M., Ed., Chen, M., Ed., Boutros, S., Ed.,
              Binderberger, M., Ed., and J. Haas, Ed., "Bidirectional
              Forwarding Detection (BFD) on Link Aggregation Group (LAG)
              Interfaces", RFC 7130, DOI 10.17487/RFC7130, February
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7130>.

   [RFC5549]  Le Faucheur, F. and E. Rosen, "Advertising IPv4 Network
              Layer Reachability Information with an IPv6 Next Hop",
              RFC 5549, DOI 10.17487/RFC5549, May 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5549>.

   [RFC6550]  Winter, T., Ed., Thubert, P., Ed., Brandt, A., Hui, J.,
              Kelsey, R., Levis, P., Pister, K., Struik, R., Vasseur,
              JP., and R. Alexander, "RPL: IPv6 Routing Protocol for
              Low-Power and Lossy Networks", RFC 6550,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6550, March 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6550>.

   [RFC6775]  Shelby, Z., Ed., Chakrabarti, S., Nordmark, E., and C.
              Bormann, "Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over
              Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)",
              RFC 6775, DOI 10.17487/RFC6775, November 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6775>.

   [RFC8655]  Finn, N., Thubert, P., Varga, B., and J. Farkas,
              "Deterministic Networking Architecture", RFC 8655,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8655, October 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8655>.

   [RIFT]     Przygienda, T., Sharma, A., Thubert, P., Rijsman, B., and
              D. Afanasiev, "RIFT: Routing in Fat Trees", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-rift-rift-12, 26 May
              2020,
              <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-rift-rift-12>.

   [I-D.white-distoptflood]
              White, R., Hegde, S., and S. Zandi, "IS-IS Optimal
              Distributed Flooding for Dense Topologies", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-white-distoptflood-04, 27
              July 2020,
              <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-white-distoptflood-04>.

8.  Informative References

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   [IEEEstd1588]
              IEEE standard for Information Technology, "IEEE Standard
              for a Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for
              Networked Measurement and Control Systems",
              <https://standards.ieee.org/standard/1588-2019.html>.

   [CLOS]     Yuan, X., "On Nonblocking Folded-Clos Networks in Computer
              Communication Environments", IEEE International Parallel &
              Distributed Processing Symposium, 2011.

   [FATTREE]  Leiserson, C. E., "Fat-Trees: Universal Networks for
              Hardware-Efficient Supercomputing", 1985.

   [RFC3626]  Clausen, T., Ed. and P. Jacquet, Ed., "Optimized Link
              State Routing Protocol (OLSR)", RFC 3626,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3626, October 2003,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3626>.

   [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,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5905>.

   [RFC8200]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.

   [RFC8505]  Thubert, P., Ed., Nordmark, E., Chakrabarti, S., and C.
              Perkins, "Registration Extensions for IPv6 over Low-Power
              Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) Neighbor
              Discovery", RFC 8505, DOI 10.17487/RFC8505, November 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8505>.

   [RFC8928]  Thubert, P., Ed., Sarikaya, B., Sethi, M., and R. Struik,
              "Address-Protected Neighbor Discovery for Low-Power and
              Lossy Networks", RFC 8928, DOI 10.17487/RFC8928, November
              2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8928>.

Authors' Addresses

   Yuehua Wei (editor)
   ZTE Corporation
   No.50, Software Avenue
   Nanjing
   210012
   China

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   Email: wei.yuehua@zte.com.cn

   Zheng Zhang
   ZTE Corporation
   No.50, Software Avenue
   Nanjing
   210012
   China

   Email: zhang.zheng@zte.com.cn

   Dmitry Afanasiev
   Yandex

   Email: fl0w@yandex-team.ru

   Pascal Thubert
   Cisco Systems, Inc
   Building D
   45 Allee des Ormes - BP1200
   06254 MOUGINS - Sophia Antipolis
   France

   Phone: +33 497 23 26 34
   Email: pthubert@cisco.com

   Tom Verhaeg
   Juniper Networks

   Email: tverhaeg@juniper.net

   Jaroslaw Kowalczyk
   Orange Polska

   Email: jaroslaw.kowalczyk2@orange.com

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