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Remote LFA FRR
draft-ietf-rtgwg-remote-lfa-03

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7490.
Authors Stewart Bryant , Clarence Filsfils , Stefano Previdi , Mike Shand , Ning So
Last updated 2013-11-04
Replaces draft-shand-remote-lfa
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draft-ietf-rtgwg-remote-lfa-03
Network Working Group                                          S. Bryant
Internet-Draft                                               C. Filsfils
Intended status: Standards Track                              S. Previdi
Expires: May 08, 2014                                      Cisco Systems
                                                                M. Shand
                                                 Independent Contributor
                                                                   N. So
                                                     Tata Communications
                                                       November 04, 2013

                             Remote LFA FRR
                     draft-ietf-rtgwg-remote-lfa-03

Abstract

   This draft describes an extension to the basic IP fast re-route
   mechanism described in RFC5286 that provides additional backup
   connectivity for link failures when none can be provided by the basic
   mechanisms.

Requirements Language

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

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 May 08, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 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
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Repair Paths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Tunnels as Repair Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Tunnel Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Construction of Repair Paths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.1.  Identifying Required Tunneled Repair Paths  . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  Determining Tunnel End Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       4.2.1.  Computing Repair Paths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.2.2.  Extended P-space  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.2.3.  Selecting Repair Paths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.3.  A Cost Based RLFA Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  Example Application of Remote LFAs  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.  Node Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.  Operation in an LDP environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   8.  Analysis of Real World Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     8.1.  Topology Details  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     8.2.  LFA only  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     8.3.  RLFA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     8.4.  Comparison of LFA an RLFA results . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   9.  Management Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   10. Historical Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   13. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   14. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23

1.  Terminology

   This draft uses the terms defined in [RFC5714].  This section defines
   additional terms used in this draft.

   Extended P-space

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                  The union of the P-space of the neighbours of a
                  specific router with respect to the protected link
                  (see Section 4.2.2).

   P-space        P-space is the set of routers reachable from a
                  specific router without any path (including equal cost
                  path splits) transiting the protected link.

                  For example, the P-space of S, is the set of routers
                  that S can reach without using the protected link S-E.

   PQ node        A node which is a member of both the (extended)
                  P-space and the Q-space.  In remote LFA this is used
                  as the repair tunnel endpoint.

   Q-space        Q-space is the set of routers from which a specific
                  router can be reached without any path (including
                  equal cost path splits) transiting the protected link.

   Repair tunnel  A tunnel established for the purpose of providing a
                  virtual neighbor which is a Loop Free Alternate.

   Remote LFA     The use of a PQ node rather than a neighbour of the
                  repairing node as the next hop in an LFA repair.

   In this document we use the notation X-Y to mean the path from X to Y
   over the link directly connecting X and Y, whilst the notation X->Y
   refers to the shortest path from X to Y via some set of unspecified
   nodes including the null set (i.e. including over a link directly
   connecting X and Y).

2.  Introduction

   RFC 5714 [RFC5714] describes a framework for IP Fast Re-route and
   provides a summary of various proposed IPFRR solutions.  A basic
   mechanism using loop-free alternates (LFAs) is described in [RFC5286]
   that provides good repair coverage in many topologies[RFC6571],
   especially those that are highly meshed.  However, some topologies,
   notably ring based topologies are not well protected by LFAs alone.
   This is illustrated in Figure 1 below.

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             S---E
            /     \
           A       D
            \     /
             B---C

                     Figure 1: A simple ring topology

   If all link costs are equal, the link S-E cannot be fully protected
   by LFAs.  The destination C is an ECMP from S, and so can be
   protected when S-E fails, but D and E are not protectable using LFAs

   This draft describes extensions to the basic repair mechanism in
   which tunnels are used to provide additional logical links which can
   then be used as loop free alternates where none exist in the original
   topology.  For example if a tunnel is provided between S and C as
   shown in Figure 2 then C, now being a direct neighbor of S would
   become an LFA for D and E. The non-failure traffic distribution is
   not disrupted by the provision of such a tunnel since it is only used
   for repair traffic and MUST NOT be used for normal traffic.

          S---E
         / \   \
        A   \   D
         \   \ /
          B---C

                    Figure 2: The addition of a tunnel

   The use of this technique is not restricted to ring based topologies,
   but is a general mechanism which can be used to enhance the
   protection provided by LFAs.  A study of the protection achieved
   using remote LFA in typical service provider core networks is
   provided in Section 8, and a side by side comparison between LFA and
   remote LFA is provided in Section 8.4.

   Remote LFA is suitable for incremental deployment within a network,
   including a network that is already deploying LFA.  Computation of
   the repair path is relatively simple, and takes place exclusively on
   the repairing node.  In MPLS networks the targeted LDP protocol
   needed to learn the label binding at the repair tunnel endpoint is a
   well understood and widely deployed technology.

   This technique describes in this document is directed at providing
   repairs in the case of link failures.  Considerations regarding node
   failures are discussed in Section 6.

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3.  Repair Paths

   As with LFA FRR, when a router detects an adjacent link failure, it
   uses one or more repair paths in place of the failed link.  Repair
   paths are pre-computed in anticipation of later failures so they can
   be promptly activated when a failure is detected.

   A tunneled repair path tunnels traffic to some staging point in the
   network from which it is assumed that, in the absence of multiple
   failures, it will travel to its destination using normal forwarding
   without looping back.  This is equivalent to providing a virtual
   loop-free alternate to supplement the physical loop-free alternates.
   Hence the name "Remote LFA FRR".  In its simplest form, when a link
   cannot be entirely protected with local LFA neighbors, the protecting
   router seeks the help of a remote LFA staging point.  Network
   manageability considerations may lead to a repair strategy that uses
   a remote LFA more frequently [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-lfa-manageability].

3.1.  Tunnels as Repair Paths

   Consider an arbitrary protected link S-E. In LFA FRR, if a path to
   the destination from a neighbor N of S does not cause a packet to
   loop back over the link S-E (i.e. N is a loop-free alternate), then S
   can send the packet to N and the packet will be delivered to the
   destination using the pre-failure forwarding information.  If there
   is no such LFA neighbor, then S may be able to create a virtual LFA
   by using a tunnel to carry the packet to a point in the network which
   is not a direct neighbor of S from which the packet will be delivered
   to the destination without looping back to S. In this document such a
   tunnel is termed a repair tunnel.  The tail-end of this tunnel (the
   repair tunnel endpoint) is a "PQ node" and the repair mechanism is a
   "remote LFA".

   Note that the repair tunnel terminates at some intermediate router
   between S and E, and not E itself.  This is clearly the case, since
   if it were possible to construct a tunnel from S to E then a
   conventional LFA would have been sufficient to effect the repair.

3.2.  Tunnel Requirements

   There are a number of IP in IP tunnel mechanisms that may be used to
   fulfil the requirements of this design, such as IP-in-IP [RFC1853]
   and GRE[RFC1701] .

   In an MPLS enabled network using LDP[RFC5036], a simple label
   stack[RFC3032] may be used to provide the required repair tunnel.  In
   this case the outer label is S's neighbor's label for the repair
   tunnel end point, and the inner label is the repair tunnel end

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   point's label for the packet destination.  In order for S to obtain
   the correct inner label it is necessary to establish a directed LDP
   session[RFC5036] to the tunnel end point.

   The selection of the specific tunnelling mechanism (and any necessary
   enhancements) used to provide a repair path is outside the scope of
   this document.  The deployment in an MPLS/LDP environment is
   relatively simple in the dataplane as an LDP LSP from S to the repair
   tunnel endpoint (the selected PQ node) is readily available, and
   hence does not require any new protocol extension or design change.
   This LSP is automatically established as a basic property of LDP
   behavior.  The performance of the encapsulation and decapsulation is
   efficient as encapsulation is just a push of one label (like
   conventional MPLS TE FRR) and the decapsulation occurs naturally at
   the penultimate hop before the repair tunnel endpoint.  In the
   control plane, a targeted LDP (TLDP) session is needed between the
   repairing node and the repair tunnel endpoint, which will need to be
   established and the labels processed before the tunnel can be used.
   The time to establish the TLDP session and acquire labels will limit
   the speed at which a new tunnel can be put into service, but this
   will not be a problem in normal operation.

   When a failure is detected, it is necessary to immediately redirect
   traffic to the repair path.  Consequently, the repair tunnel used
   must be provisioned beforehand in anticipation of the failure.  Since
   the location of the repair tunnels is dynamically determined it is
   necessary to automatically establish the repair tunnels.  Multiple
   repairs may share a tunnel end point

4.  Construction of Repair Paths

4.1.  Identifying Required Tunneled Repair Paths

   Not all links will require protection using a tunneled repair path.
   Referring to Figure 1, if E can already be protected via an LFA, S-E
   does not need to be protected using a repair tunnel, since all
   destinations normally reachable through E must therefore also be
   protectable by an LFA.  Such an LFA is frequently termed a "link
   LFA".  Tunneled repair paths are only required for links which do not
   have a link LFA.

   It should be noted that using the Q-space of E as a proxy for the
   Q-space of each destination can result in failing to identify valid
   remote LFAs.  The extent to which this reduces the effective
   protection coverage is topology dependent.

4.2.  Determining Tunnel End Points

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   The repair tunnel endpoint needs to be a node in the network
   reachable from S without traversing S-E. In addition, the repair
   tunnel end point needs to be a node from which packets will normally
   flow towards their destination without being attracted back to the
   failed link S-E.

   Note that once released from the tunnel, the packet will be
   forwarded, as normal, on the shortest path from the release point to
   its destination.  This may result in the packet traversing the router
   E at the far end of the protected link S-E., but this is obviously
   not required.

   The properties that are required of repair tunnel end points are
   therefore:

   o  The repair tunneled point MUST be reachable from the tunnel source
      without traversing the failed link; and

   o  When released, tunneled packets MUST proceed towards their
      destination without being attracted back over the failed link.

   Provided both these requirements are met, packets forwarded over the
   repair tunnel will reach their destination and will not loop.

   In some topologies it will not be possible to find a repair tunnel
   endpoint that exhibits both the required properties.  For example if
   the ring topology illustrated in Figure 1 had a cost of 4 for the
   link B-C, while the remaining links were cost 1, then it would not be
   possible to establish a tunnel from S to C (without resorting to some
   form of source routing).

4.2.1.  Computing Repair Paths

   The set of routers which can be reached from S without traversing S-E
   is termed the P-space of S with respect to the link S-E. The P-space
   can be obtained by computing a shortest path tree (SPT) rooted at S
   and excising the sub-tree reached via the link S-E (including those
   which are members of an ECMP).  In the case of Figure 1 the P-space
   comprises nodes A and B only.  Expressed in cost terms the set of
   routers {P} are those for which the shortest path cost S->P is
   strictly less than the shortest path cost S->E->P.

   The set of routers from which the node E can be reached, by normal
   forwarding, without traversing the link S-E is termed the Q-space of
   E with respect to the link S-E. The Q-space can be obtained by
   computing a reverse shortest path tree (rSPT) rooted at E, with the
   sub-tree which traverses the failed link excised (including those
   which are members of an ECMP).  The rSPT uses the cost towards the

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   root rather than from it and yields the best paths towards the root
   from other nodes in the network.  In the case of Figure 1 the Q-space
   comprises nodes C and D only.  Expressed in cost terms the set of
   routers {Q} are those for which the shortest path cost Q->E is
   strictly less than the shortest path cost Q->S->E. In Figure 1 the
   intersection of the E's Q-space with S's P-space defines the set of
   viable repair tunnel end-points, known as "PQ nodes".  As can be
   seen, for the case of Figure 1 there is no common node and hence no
   viable repair tunnel end-point.

   Note that the Q-space calculation could be conducted for each
   individual destination and a per-destination repair tunnel end point
   determined.  However this would, in the worst case, require an SPF
   computation per destination which is not currently considered to be
   scalable.  We therefore use the Q-space of E as a proxy for the
   Q-space of each destination.  This approximation is obviously correct
   since the repair is only used for the set of destinations which were,
   prior to the failure, routed through node E. This is analogous to the
   use of link-LFAs rather than per-prefix LFAs.

4.2.2.  Extended P-space

   The description in Section 4.2.1 calculated router S's P-space rooted
   at S itself.  However, since router S will only use a repair path
   when it has detected the failure of the link S-E, the initial hop of
   the repair path need not be subject to S's normal forwarding decision
   process.  Thus we introduce the concept of extended P-space.  Router
   S's extended P-space is the union of the P-spaces of each of S's
   neighbours (N).  This may be calculated by computing an SPT at each
   of S's neighbors (excluding E) and excising the subtree reached via
   the path N->S->E. The use of extended P-space may allow router S to
   reach potential repair tunnel end points that were otherwise
   unreachable.  In cost terms a router (P) is in extended P-space if
   the shortest path cost N->P is strictly less than the shortest path
   cost N->S->E->P. In other words, once the packet it forced to N by S,
   it is lower cost for it to continue on to P by any path except one
   that takes it back to S and then across the S->E link.

   Another way to describe extended P-space is that it is the union of (
   un-extended ) P-space and the set of destinations for which S has a
   per-prefix LFA protecting the link S-E. i.e. the repair tunnel end
   point can be reached either directly or using a per-prefix LFA.

   Since in the case of Figure 1 node A is a per-prefix LFA for the
   destination node C, the set of extended P-space nodes comprises nodes
   A, B and C. Since node C is also in E's Q-space, there is now a node
   common to both extended P-space and Q-space which can be used as a
   repair tunnel end-point to protect the link S-E.

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4.2.3.  Selecting Repair Paths

   The mechanisms described above will identify all the possible repair
   tunnel end points that can be used to protect a particular link.  In
   a well-connected network there are likely to be multiple possible
   release points for each protected link.  All will deliver the packets
   correctly so, arguably, it does not matter which is chosen.  However,
   one repair tunnel end point may be preferred over the others on the
   basis of path cost or some other selection criteria.

   There is no technical requirement for the selection criteria to be
   consistent across all routers, but such consistency may be desirable
   from an operational point of view.  In general there are advantages
   in choosing the repair tunnel end point closest (shortest metric) to
   S. Choosing the closest maximises the opportunity for the traffic to
   be load balanced once it has been released from the tunnel.  For
   consistency in behavior, is RECOMMENDED that member of the set of
   routers {PQ} with the lowest cost S->P be the default choice for P.
   In the event of a tie the router with the lowest node identifier
   SHOULD be selected.

4.3.  A Cost Based RLFA Algorithm

   The preceding text has mostly described the computation of the remote
   LFA repair target (PQ) in terms of the intersection of two
   reachability graphs computed using SPFs.  This section describes a
   method of computing the remote LFA repair target using a cost based
   algorithm.  The pseudo-code provides in this section avoids
   unnecessary SPF computations, but for the sake of readability, it
   does not otherwise try to optimize the code.  Unconventionally, but
   for clarity, we provide the main algorithm followed its procedures.
   In this description D_opt(a,b) is the shortest distance from node a
   to node b as computed by the SPF.

      //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      //   Main Function

      //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // We have already computed the forward SPF from self to all nodes
      // y in network and thus we know D_opt (self, y). This is needed
      // for normal forwarding.
      // However for completeness.

      Compute_and_Store_Forward_SPF(self)

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      // To extend P-space we compute the SPF at each neighbour except
      // the neighbour that is reached via the link being protected.
      // We will also need D_opt(fail_intf.remote_node,y) so compute
      // that at the same time.

      Compute_Neighbor_SPFs()

      // Compute the set of nodes {P} reachable other than via the
      // failed link

      Compute_Extended_P_Space(fail_intf)

      // Compute the set of nodes that can reach the node on the far
      // side of the failed link without traversing the failed link.

      Compute_Q_Space(fail_intf)

      // Compute the set of candidate RLFA tunnel endpoints

      Intersect_Extended_P_and_Q_Space()

      // Make sure that we cannot get looping repairs when the
      // failure is worse than expected.

      if (guarantee_no_looping_on_worse_than_protected_failure)
          Apply_Downstream_Constraint()

      //
      //  End of Main Function
      //
      //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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      //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      //  Proceedures
      //

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // This computes the SPF from root, and stores the optimum
      // distance from root to each node y

      Compute_and_Store_Forward_SPF(root)
          Compute_Forward_SPF(root)
          foreach node y in network
              store D_opt(root,y)

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // This computes the optimum distance from each neighbour (other
      // than the neighbour reachable through the failed link) and
      // every other node in the network

      Compute_Neighbor_SPFs()
          foreach interface intf in self
              Compute_and_Store_Forward_SPF(intf.remote_node)

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // The reverse SPF computes the cost from each remote node to
      // root. This is achieved by running the normal SPF algorithm,
      // but using the link cost in the direction from the next hop
      // back towards root in place of the link cost in the direction
      // away from root towards the next hop.

      Compute_and_Store_Reverse_SPF(root)
          Compute_Reverse_SPF(root)
          foreach node y in network
              store D_opt(y,root)

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // Calculate P space and then extend it by the P-spaces of each

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      // neighbour other than the one reachable via the link being
      // protected. Note the strictly less than operator is needed to
      // avoid ECMP issues.

      Compute_Extended_P_Space(fail_intf)
          foreach node y in network
              y.in_extended_P_space = false
              // Extend P-space to the P-spaces of all reachable
              // neighbours
              foreach interface intf in self
                  if (intf.remote_node != fail_intf.remote_node)
                      if ( D_opt(intf.remote_node, y) <
                           D_opt(intf.remote_node, self) +
                           D_opt(self,fail_intf.remote_node) +
                           D_opt(fail_intf.remote_node,y) )
                       y.in_extended_P_space = true

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //

      Compute_Q_Space(fail_intf)
          // Compute the cost from every node the network to the
          // node normally reachable across the failed link
          Compute_and_Store_Reverse_SPF(fail_intf.remote_node)

          // Compute the cost from every node the network to self
          Compute_and_Store_Reverse_SPF(self)

          foreach node y in network
              if ( D_opt(y,fail_intf.remote_node) < D_opt(y,self) +
                      D_opt(self,fail_intf.remote_node) )
                  y.in_Q_space = true
              else
                  y.in_Q_space = false

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // Compute set of nodes in both extended P-space and in Q-space

      Intersect_Extended_P_and_Q_Space()
          foreach node y in network
              if ( y.in_extended_P_space && y.in_Q_space )
                  y.valid_tunnel_endpoint = true
              else

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                  y.valid_tunnel_endpoint = false

      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      //
      // A downstream route is one where the next hop is strictly
      // closer to the destination. By sending the packet to a
      // PQ node that is downstream, we know that if the PQ node
      // detects a failure, it will not loop the packet back to self.
      // This is useful when there are two failures, or a node has
      // failed rather than a link.

      Apply_Downstream_Constraint()
          foreach node y in network
              if (y.valid_tunnel_endpoint)
                  Compute_and_Store_Forward_SPF(y)
                  if ((D_opt(y,dest) < D_opt(self,dest))
                      y.valid_tunnel_endpoint = true
                  else
                      y.valid_tunnel_endpoint = false

   //
   /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

5.  Example Application of Remote LFAs

   An example of a commonly deployed topology which is not fully
   protected by LFAs alone is shown in Figure 3.  PE1 and PE2 are
   connected in the same site.  P1 and P2 may be geographically
   separated (inter-site).  In order to guarantee the lowest latency
   path from/to all other remote PEs, normally the shortest path follows
   the geographical distance of the site locations.  Therefore, to
   ensure this, a lower IGP metric (5) is assigned between PE1 and PE2.
   A high metric (1000) is set on the P-PE links to prevent the PEs
   being used for transit traffic.  The PEs are not individually dual-
   homed in order to reduce costs.

   This is a common topology in SP networks.

   When a failure occurs on the link between PE1 and P2, PE1 does not
   have an LFA for traffic reachable via P1.  Similarly, by symmetry, if
   the link between PE2 and P1 fails, PE2 does not have an LFA for
   traffic reachable via P2.

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   Increasing the metric between PE1 and PE2 to allow the LFA would
   impact the normal traffic performance by potentially increasing the
   latency.

          |    100    |
         -P2---------P1-
           \         /
       1000 \       / 1000
            PE1---PE2
                5

                       Figure 3: Example SP topology

   Clearly, full protection can be provided, using the techniques
   described in this draft, by PE1 choosing P1 as the remote LFA repair
   target node, and PE2 choosing P2 as the remote LFA repair target.

6.  Node Failures

   When the failure is a node failure rather than a link failure there
   is a danger that the RLFA repair will loop.  This is discussed in
   detail in [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels].  In summary problem is that two
   of more of E's neighbors each with E as the next hop to some
   destination D may attempt to repair a packet addressed to destination
   D via the other neighbor and then E, thus causing a loop to form.  As
   will be noted from [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels], this can rapidly
   become a complex problem to address.

   There are a number of ways to minimize the probability of a loop
   forming when a node failure occurs and there exists the possibility
   that two of E's neighbors may form a mutual repair.

   1.  Detect when a packet has arrived on some interface I that is also
       the interface used to reach the first hop on the RLFA path to the
       remote LFA repair target, and drop the packet.  This is useful in
       the case of a ring topology.

   2.  Require that the path from the remote LFA repair target to
       destination D never passes through E (including in the ECMP
       case), i.e. only use node protecting paths in which the cost from
       the remote LFA repair target to D is strictly less than the cost
       from the remote LFA repair target to E plus the cost E to D.

   3.  Require that where the packet may pass through another neighbor
       of E, that node is down stream (i.e. strictly closer to D than
       the repairing node).  This means that some neighbor of E (X) can
       repair via some other neighbor of E (Y), but Y cannot repair via
       X.

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   Case 1 accepts that loops may form and suppresses them by dropping
   packets.  Dropping packets may be considered less detrimental than
   looping packets.  This approach may also lead to dropping some
   legitimate packets.  Cases 2 and 3 above prevent the formation of a
   loop, but at the expense of a reduced repair coverage and at the cost
   of additional complexity in the algorithm to compute the repair path.

   The probability of a node failure and the consequences of node
   failure in any particular topology will depend on the node design,
   the particular topology in use, and node failure strategy (including
   the null strategy).  It is recommended that a network operator
   perform an analysis of the consequences and probability of node
   failure in their network, and determine whether the incidence and
   consequence of occurrence are acceptable.

   This topic is further discussed in
   [I-D.psarkar-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection].

7.  Operation in an LDP environment

   Where this technique is used in an MPLS network using LDP [RFC5036],
   and S is a transit node, S will need to swap the top label in the
   stack for rthe emote LFA repair target's (PQ's) label to the
   destination, and to then push its own label for the remote LFA repair
   target.

   In the example Section 2 S already has the first hop (A) label for
   the remote LFA repair target (C) as a result of the ordinary
   operation of LDP.  To get the remote LFA repair target's label (C's
   label) for the destination (D), S needs to establish a targeted LDP
   session with C. The label stack for normal operation and RLFA
   operation is shown below in Figure 4.

   +-----------------+     +-----------------+     +-----------------+
   |    datalink     |     |    datalink     |     |    datalink     |
   +-----------------+     +-----------------+     +-----------------+
   | S's label for D |     | E's label for D |     | A's label for C |
   +-----------------+     +-----------------+     +-----------------+
   |    Payload      |     |    Payload      |     | C's label for D |
   +-----------------+     +-----------------+     +-----------------+
           X                       Y               |    Payload      |
                                                   +-----------------+
                                                            Z

   X = Normal label stack packet arriving at S
   Y = Normal label stack packet leaving S
   Z = RLFA label stack to D via C as the remote LFA repair target.

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                                 Figure 4

   To establish an targeted LDP session with a candidate remote LFA
   repair target node the repairing node (S) needs to know what IP
   address that the remote LFA repair target is willing to use for
   targeted LDP sessions.  Ideally this is provided by the remote LFA
   repair target advertising this address in the IGP in use.  Which
   address is used, how this is advertised in the IGP, and whether this
   is a special IP address or an IP address also used for some other
   purpose is out of scope for this document and must be specified in an
   IGP specific RFC.

   In the absence of a protocol to learn the preferred IP address for
   targeted LDP, a tie-breaking mechanism is required.  Unless otherwise
   configured, an LSR should attempt a targeted LDP session with the
   local IP address with the lowest numerical value advertised by the
   target LSR.  To determine the lowest numerical value the address is
   taken in network byte order and cast to an integer of appropriate
   size.

   No protection is available until the TLDP session has been
   established and a label for the destination has been learned from the
   remote LFA repair target.  If for any reason the TLDP session cannot
   not be established, an implementation SHOULD advise the operator
   about the protection setup issue using any well known mechanism such
   as syslog or SNMP.

8.  Analysis of Real World Topologies

   This section gives the results of analysing a number of real world
   service provider topologies collected between October 2012 and the
   date of this draft.

8.1.  Topology Details

   The figure below characterises each topology (topo) studied in terms
   of :

   o  The number of nodes (# nodes) excluding pseudonodes.

   o  The number of bidirectional links ( # links) including parallel
      links and links to and from pseudonodes.

   o  The number of node pairs that are connected by one or more links
      (# pairs).

   o  The number of node pairs that are connected by more than one (i.e.
      parallel) link ( # para).

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   o  The number of links (excluding pseudonode links, which are by
      definition asymmetric) that have asymmetric metrics (#asym).

   +------+---------+---------+---------+--------+--------+
   | topo | # nodes | # links | # pairs | # para | # asym |
   +------+---------+---------+---------+--------+--------+
   |    1 |     315 |     570 |     560 |     10 |      3 |
   |    2 |     158 |     373 |     312 |     33 |      0 |
   |    3 |     655 |    1768 |    1314 |    275 |   1195 |
   |    4 |    1281 |    2326 |    2248 |     70 |     10 |
   |    5 |     364 |     811 |     659 |     80 |     86 |
   |    6 |     114 |     318 |     197 |    101 |      4 |
   |    7 |      55 |     237 |     159 |     67 |      2 |
   |    8 |     779 |    1848 |    1441 |    199 |    437 |
   |    9 |     263 |     482 |     413 |     41 |     12 |
   |   10 |      86 |     375 |     145 |     64 |     22 |
   |   11 |     162 |    1083 |     351 |    201 |     49 |
   |   12 |     380 |    1174 |     763 |    231 |      0 |
   |   13 |    1051 |    2087 |    2037 |     48 |     64 |
   |   14 |      92 |     291 |     204 |     64 |      2 |
   +------+---------+---------+---------+--------+--------+

8.2.  LFA only

   The figure below shows the percentage of protected destinations (%
   prot) and percentage of guaranteed node protected destinations ( %
   gtd N) for the set of topologies characterized in Section 8.1
   achieved using only LFA repairs.

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   +------+--------+---------+
   | topo | % prot | % gtd N |
   +------+--------+---------+
   |    1 | 78.5   | 36.9    |
   |    2 | 97.3   | 52.4    |
   |    3 | 99.3   | 58      |
   |    4 | 83.1   | 63.1    |
   |    5 | 99     | 59.1    |
   |    6 | 86.4   | 21.4    |
   |    7 | 93.9   | 35.4    |
   |    8 | 95.3   | 48.1    |
   |    9 | 82.2   | 49.5    |
   |   10 | 98.5   | 14.9    |
   |   11 | 99.6   | 24.8    |
   |   12 | 99.5   | 62.4    |
   |   13 | 92.4   | 51.6    |
   |   14 | 99.3   | 48.6    |
   +------+--------+---------+

8.3.  RLFA

   The figure below shows the percentage of protected destinations (%
   prot) and % guaranteed node protected destinations ( % gtd N) for
   RLFA protection in the topologies studies.  In addition, it show the
   percentage of destinations using an RLFA repair (% PQ) together with
   the total number of unidirectional RLFA targeted LDP session
   established (# PQ), the number of PQ sessions which would be required
   for complete protection, but which could not be established (no PQ).
   It also shows the 50 (p50), 90 (p90) and 100 (p100) percentiles for
   the number of individual LDP sessions terminating at an individual
   node (whether used for TX, RX or both).

   For example, if there were LDP sessions required A->B, A->C, C->A,
   C->D, these would be counted as 2, 1, 2, 1 at nodes A,B,C and D
   respectively because:-

      A has two sessions (to nodes B and C)

      B has one session (to node A)

      C has two sessions (to nodes A and D)

      D has one session (to node D)

   In this study, remote LFA is only used when necessary. i.e.  when
   there is at least one destination which is not reparable by a per
   destination LFA, and a single remote LFA tunnel is used (if

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   available) to repair traffic to all such destinations.  The remote
   LFA repair target points are computed using extended P space and
   choosing the PQ node which has the lowest metric cost from the
   repairing node.

     +------+--------+--------+------+------+-------+-----+-----+------+
     | topo | % prot |% gtd N | % PQ | # PQ | no PQ | p50 | p90 | p100 |
     +------+--------+--------+------+------+-------+-----+-----+------+
     |    1 | 99.7   | 53.3   | 21.2 |  295 |     3 |   1 |   5 |   14 |
     |    2 | 97.5   | 52.4   | 0.2  |    7 |    40 |   0 |   0 |    2 |
     |    3 | 99.999 | 58.4   | 0.7  |   63 |     5 |   0 |   1 |    5 |
     |    4 | 99     | 74.8   | 16   | 1424 |    54 |   1 |   3 |   23 |
     |    5 | 99.5   | 59.5   | 0.5  |  151 |     7 |   0 |   2 |    7 |
     |    6 | 100    | 34.9   | 13.6 |   63 |     0 |   1 |   2 |    6 |
     |    7 | 99.999 | 40.6   | 6.1  |   16 |     2 |   0 |   2 |    4 |
     |    8 | 99.5   | 50.2   | 4.3  |  350 |    39 |   0 |   2 |   15 |
     |    9 | 99.5   | 55     | 17.3 |  428 |     5 |   1 |   2 |   67 |
     |   10 | 99.6   | 14.1   | 1    |   49 |     7 |   1 |   2 |    5 |
     |   11 | 99.9   | 24.9   | 0.3  |   85 |     1 |   0 |   2 |    8 |
     |   12 | 99.999 | 62.8   | 0.5  |  512 |     4 |   0 |   0 |    3 |
     |   13 | 97.5   | 54.6   | 5.1  | 1188 |    95 |   0 |   2 |   27 |
     |   14 | 100    | 48.6   | 0.7  |   79 |     0 |   0 |   2 |    4 |
     +------+--------+--------+------+------+-------+-----+-----+------+

   Another study[ISOCORE2010] confirms the significant coverage increase
   provided by Remote LFAs.

8.4.  Comparison of LFA an RLFA results

   The table below provides a side by side comparison the LFA and the
   remote LFA results.  This shows a significant improvement in the
   percentage of protected destinations and normally a modest
   improvement in the percentage of guaranteed node protected
   destinations.

      +------+--------+--------+---------+---------+
      | topo |  LFA   | RLFA   |  LFA    |  RLFA   |
      |      | % prot | %prot  | % gtd N | % gtd N |
      +------+--------+--------+---------+---------+
      |    1 | 78.5   | 99.7   | 36.9    | 53.3    |
      |    2 | 97.3   | 97.5   | 52.4    | 52.4    |
      |    3 | 99.3   | 99.999 | 58      | 58.4    |
      |    4 | 83.1   | 99     | 63.1    | 74.8    |

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      |    5 | 99     | 99.5   | 59.1    | 59.5    |
      |    6 | 86.4   |100     | 21.4    | 34.9    |
      |    7 | 93.9   | 99.999 | 35.4    | 40.6    |
      |    8 | 95.3   | 99.5   | 48.1    | 50.2    |
      |    9 | 82.2   | 99.5   | 49.5    | 55      |
      |   10 | 98.5   | 99.6   | 14.9    | 14.1    |
      |   11 | 99.6   | 99.9   | 24.8    | 24.9    |
      |   12 | 99.5   | 99.999 | 62.4    | 62.8    |
      |   13 | 92.4   | 97.5   | 51.6    | 54.6    |
      |   14 | 99.3   |100     | 48.6    | 48.6    |
      +------+--------+--------+---------+---------+

   As shown in the table, remote LFA provides close to 100% prefix
   protection against link failure in 11 of the 14 topologies studied,
   and provides a significant improvement in two of the remaining three
   cases.  In an MPLS network, this is achieved without any saleability
   impact, as the tunnels to the PQ nodes are always present as a
   property of an LDP-based deployment.  In the very few cases where P
   and Q spaces have an empty intersection, one could select the closest
   node in the Q space and signal an explicitly-routed RSVP TE LSP to
   that Q node.  A directed LDP session is then established with the
   selected Q node and the rest of the solution is identical to that
   described elsewhere in this document.  Alternatively the segment
   routing technology being defined in the IETF may be used to carry the
   traffic between non-collocated P and Q nodes
   [I-D.filsfils-rtgwg-segment-routing-use-cases],
   [I-D.filsfils-rtgwg-segment-routing],
   [I-D.gredler-rtgwg-igp-label-advertisement].

9.  Management Considerations

   The management of LFA and remote LFA is the subject of ongoing work
   withing the IETF[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-lfa-manageability] to which the
   reader is referred.  Management considerations may lead to a
   preference for the use of a remote LFA over an avalaible LFA.  This
   preference is a matter for the network operator, and not a matter of
   protocol correctness.

10.  Historical Note

   The basic concepts behind Remote LFA were invented in 2002 and were
   later included in [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels], submitted in 2004.

   [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels], targeted a 100% protection coverage and
   hence included additional mechanisms on top of the Remote LFA
   concept.  The addition of these mechanisms made the proposal very

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   complex and computationally intensive and it was therefore not
   pursued as a working group item.

   As explained in [RFC6571], the purpose of the LFA FRR technology is
   not to provide coverage at any cost.  A solution for this already
   exists with MPLS TE FRR.  MPLS TE FRR is a mature technology which is
   able to provide protection in any topology thanks to the explicit
   routing capability of MPLS TE.

   The purpose of LFA FRR technology is to provide for a simple FRR
   solution when such a solution is possible.  The first step along this
   simplicity approach was "local" LFA [RFC5286].  We propose "Remote
   LFA" as a natural second step.  The following section motivates its
   benefits in terms of simplicity, incremental deployment and
   significant coverage increase.

11.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA considerations that arise from this architectural
   description of IPFRR.  The RFC Editor may remove this section on
   publication.

12.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations of RFC 5286 also apply.

   To prevent their use as an attack vector the repair tunnel endpoints
   SHOULD be assigned from a set of addresses that are not reachable
   from outside the routing domain.

13.  Acknowledgments

   The authors wish to thank Levente Csikor and Chris Bowers for their
   contribution to the cost based algorithm text.  We thank Stephane
   Litkowski for his review of this work.

14.  Informative References

   [I-D.bryant-ipfrr-tunnels]
              Bryant, S., Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., and M. Shand, "IP
              Fast Reroute using tunnels", draft-bryant-ipfrr-tunnels-03
              (work in progress), November 2007.

   [I-D.filsfils-rtgwg-segment-routing-use-cases]
              Filsfils, C., Francois, P., Previdi, S., Decraene, B.,
              Litkowski, S., Horneffer, M., Milojevic, I., Shakir, R.,
              Ytti, S., Henderickx, W., Tantsura, J., Kini, S., and E.
              Crabbe, "Segment Routing Use Cases", draft-filsfils-rtgwg-

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              segment-routing-use-cases-02 (work in progress), October
              2013.

   [I-D.filsfils-rtgwg-segment-routing]
              Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Bashandy, A., Decraene, B.,
              Litkowski, S., Horneffer, M., Milojevic, I., Shakir, R.,
              Ytti, S., Henderickx, W., Tantsura, J., and E. Crabbe,
              "Segment Routing Architecture", draft-filsfils-rtgwg-
              segment-routing-01 (work in progress), October 2013.

   [I-D.gredler-rtgwg-igp-label-advertisement]
              Gredler, H., Amante, S., Scholl, T., and L. Jalil,
              "Advertising MPLS labels in IGPs", draft-gredler-rtgwg-
              igp-label-advertisement-05 (work in progress), May 2013.

   [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-lfa-manageability]
              Litkowski, S., Decraene, B., Filsfils, C., and K. Raza,
              "Operational management of Loop Free Alternates", draft-
              ietf-rtgwg-lfa-manageability-00 (work in progress), May
              2013.

   [I-D.psarkar-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection]
              psarkar@juniper.net, p., Gredler, H., Hegde, S., and H.
              Raghuveer, "Node Protecting R-LFA and Manageability",
              draft-psarkar-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection-01 (work in
              progress), July 2013.

   [ISOCORE2010]
              So, N., Lin, T., and C. Chen, "LFA (Loop Free Alternates)
              Case Studies in Verizon's LDP Network", 2010.

   [RFC1701]  Hanks, S., Li, T., Farinacci, D., and P. Traina, "Generic
              Routing Encapsulation (GRE)", RFC 1701, October 1994.

   [RFC1853]  Simpson, W., "IP in IP Tunneling", RFC 1853, October 1995.

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

   [RFC3032]  Rosen, E., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G., Rekhter, Y.,
              Farinacci, D., Li, T., and A. Conta, "MPLS Label Stack
              Encoding", RFC 3032, January 2001.

   [RFC5036]  Andersson, L., Minei, I., and B. Thomas, "LDP
              Specification", RFC 5036, October 2007.

   [RFC5286]  Atlas, A. and A. Zinin, "Basic Specification for IP Fast
              Reroute: Loop-Free Alternates", RFC 5286, September 2008.

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   [RFC5714]  Shand, M. and S. Bryant, "IP Fast Reroute Framework", RFC
              5714, January 2010.

   [RFC6571]  Filsfils, C., Francois, P., Shand, M., Decraene, B.,
              Uttaro, J., Leymann, N., and M. Horneffer, "Loop-Free
              Alternate (LFA) Applicability in Service Provider (SP)
              Networks", RFC 6571, June 2012.

Authors' Addresses

   Stewart Bryant
   Cisco Systems
   250, Longwater, Green Park,
   Reading  RG2 6GB, UK
   UK

   Email: stbryant@cisco.com

   Clarence Filsfils
   Cisco Systems
   De Kleetlaan 6a
   1831 Diegem
   Belgium

   Email: cfilsfil@cisco.com

   Stefano Previdi
   Cisco Systems

   Email: sprevidi@cisco.com

   Mike Shand
   Independent Contributor

   Email: imc.shand@gmail.com

   Ning So
   Tata Communications
   Mobile Broadband Services

   Email: Ning.So@tatacommunications.com

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