Segment Routing based Network Resource Partition (NRP) for Enhanced VPN
draft-ietf-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn-07
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (spring WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Jie Dong , Takuya Miyasaka , Yongqing Zhu , Fengwei Qin , Zhenqiang Li | ||
| Last updated | 2024-03-03 | ||
| Replaces | draft-dong-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
| Formats | |||
| Additional resources | Mailing list discussion | ||
| Stream | WG state | WG Document | |
| Document shepherd | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | I-D Exists | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | (None) |
draft-ietf-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn-07
SPRING Working Group J. Dong
Internet-Draft Huawei Technologies
Intended status: Informational T. Miyasaka
Expires: 5 September 2024 KDDI Corporation
Y. Zhu
China Telecom
F. Qin
Z. Li
China Mobile
4 March 2024
Segment Routing based Network Resource Partition (NRP) for Enhanced VPN
draft-ietf-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn-07
Abstract
Enhanced VPNs aim to deliver VPN services with enhanced
characteristics, such as guaranteed resources, latency, jitter, etc.,
so as to support customers requirements on connectivity services with
these enhanced characteristics. Enhanced VPN requires integration
between the overlay VPN connectivity and the characteristics provided
by the underlay network. A Network Resource Partition (NRP) is a
subset of the network resources and associated policies on each of a
connected set of links in the underlay network. An NRP could be used
as the underlay to support one or a group of enhanced VPN services.
Segment Routing (SR) leverages the source routing paradigm. A node
steers a packet through an ordered list of instructions, called
"segments". A segment can represent topological or service based
instructions. A segment can further be associated with a set of
network resources used for executing the instruction. Such a segment
is called resource-aware segment.
Resource-aware Segment Identifiers (SIDs) may be used to build SR
paths with a set of reserved network resources. In addition, a group
of resource-aware SIDs may be used to build SR based NRPs, which
provide customized network topology and resource attributes required
by one or a group of enhanced VPN services.
This document describes an approach to build SR based NRPs using
resource-aware SIDs. The SR based NRP can be used to deliver
enhanced VPN services in SR networks.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on 5 September 2024.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Resource-Aware SIDs for NRPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. SR-MPLS based NRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. SRv6 based NRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. NRP Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4. Scalability Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. NRP Topology and Resource Planning . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. NRP Network Resource and SID Allocation . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3. Construction of SR based NRPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4. Mapping Services to SR based NRP . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.5. NRP Visibility to Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Characteristics of SR based NRPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Service Assurance of NRPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
8. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1. Introduction
Enhanced VPNs aim to deliver VPN services with enhanced
characteristics, such as guaranteed resources, latency, jitter, etc.,
so as to support customers requirements on connectivity services with
these enhanced characteristics. Enhanced VPN requires integration
between the overlay VPN connectivity and the characteristics provided
by the underlay network. [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices]
discusses the general framework, the components, and interfaces for
requesting and operating network slices using IETF technologies.
Network slice is considered as one target use case of enhanced VPNs.
[I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices] also introduces the concept of
the Network Resource Partition (NRP), which is a subset of the
buffer/queuing/scheduling resources and associated policies on each
of a connected set of links in the underlay network. An NRP can be
associated with a logical network topology to select or specify the
set of links and nodes involved. [I-D.ietf-teas-enhanced-vpn]
specifies the framework of NRP-based enhanced VPN, and describes the
candidate component technologies in different network planes and
network layers. An NRP could be used as the underlay to meet the
requirement of one or a group of enhanced VPN services. In an
underlay network, a number of NRPs can be created, each with a subset
of network resources allocated on network nodes and links in a
customized logical topology.
Segment Routing (SR) [RFC8402] specifies a mechanism to steer packets
through an ordered list of segments. A segment is referred to by its
Segment Identifier (SID). With SR, explicit source routing can be
achieved without introducing per-path state into the network.
[I-D.ietf-spring-resource-aware-segments] extends SR by associating
SIDs with network resource attributes (e.g., bandwidth, processing or
storage resources). These resource-aware SIDs retain their original
functionality, with the additional semantics of identifying the set
of network resources available for the packet processing action.
Multiple resource-aware SIDs may be allocated on a network segment,
each of which is associated with a set of network resources assigned
to meet the requirements of one or a group of customers and/or
services. A group of resource-aware SIDs may be used to build SR
based NRPs, which provide customized network topology and resource
attributes required by one or a group enhanced VPN services.
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This document describes an approach to build SR based NRPs using
resource-aware SIDs. Although the procedure is illustrated using SR-
MPLS, this mechanism is applicable to both SR over MPLS data plane
(SR-MPLS) [RFC8660] and SR over IPv6 data plane (SRv6)[RFC8754]
[RFC8986].
2. Resource-Aware SIDs for NRPs
When SR is used as the data plane of NRPs in the network, it is
necessary to compute and instantiate the SR paths with the topology
and/or algorithm constraints of the NRP, and steer the traffic to
only use the set of network resources allocated to the NRP.
Based on the resource-aware segments defined in
[I-D.ietf-spring-resource-aware-segments], a group of resource-aware
SIDs can be allocated to represent the set of network segments of an
NRP. These resource-aware SIDs are associated with the group of
network resources allocated to the NRP on network nodes and links
which participate in the NRP. These resource-aware SIDs can also
identify the network topological or functional instructions
associated with the NRP.
The resource-aware SIDs may be allocated either by a centralized
network controller or by the network nodes. The control plane
mechanisms for advertising the resource-aware SIDs associated with
NRPs can be based on [RFC4915], [RFC5120] and [RFC9350] with
necessary extensions. This is further described in section 3.3.
2.1. SR-MPLS based NRP
This section describes a mechanism of allocating resource-aware SIDs
to SR-MPLS based NRPs.
For an IGP link, multiple resource-aware adj-SIDs are allocated, each
of which is associated with an NRP that the link participates in, and
represents those link resources that are allocated to the NRP. For
an IGP node, multiple resource-aware prefix-SIDs are allocated, each
of which is associated with an NRP which the node participates in,
and identifies the set of network resources allocated to the NRP on
network nodes which participate in the NRP. These set of resources
will be used by the network nodes to process packets which have the
resource-aware SIDs as the active segment.
In the case of multi-domain NRPs, on an inter-domain link, multiple
resource-aware BGP peering SIDs [RFC9086] are allocated, each of
which is associated with an NRP which spans multiple domains, and
represents a subset of resources allocated on the inter-domain link.
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2.2. SRv6 based NRP
This section describes a mechanism of allocating resource-aware SRv6
Locators and resource-aware SRv6 SIDs to SRv6 based NRPs.
An resource-aware SRv6 Locator is allocated on each network node for
each NRP in which the node participates. This Locator (the NRP-
specific Locator) identifies the set of network resources allocated
to the NRP on the network nodes which participate in the NRP. The
resource-aware SRv6 SIDs associated with an NRP are allocated from
the SID space using the NRP-specific resource-aware Locator as the
covering prefix. These SRv6 SIDs can be used to indicate SRv6
functions in an NRP, and can identify the set of resources used by
network nodes for executing the function.
2.3. NRP Identification
In a simple case, each NRP can be mapped to a unique topology or
algorithm. Then the NRPs can be distinguished by the topology ID or
algorithm ID in the control plane, and the resource-aware SIDs
associated with an NRP can be identified using the <topology,
algorithm> tuple as described in [RFC8402]. In this case, the number
of NRPs supported in a network relies on the number of topologies or
algorithms supported in the network.
In a more complicated case, multiple NRPs may be associated with the
same <topology, algorithm> tuple, while each is allocated a separate
set of network resources. Then a new NRP identifier (NRP ID) in the
control plane is needed. The resource-aware SIDs of different NRPs
are associated with different NRP IDs in the control plane.
In both cases, in the data plane, the resource-aware SIDs are used to
distinguish packets of different NRPs, and are also used to determine
the forwarding instructions and the set of network resources used for
the packet processing action.
2.4. Scalability Considerations
Since multiple NRPs can be created in a network, and each NRP is
allocated with a group of resource-aware SIDs, the mechanism of SR
based NRPs increases the number of SIDs and SRv6 Locators needed in a
network. There may be some concerns, especially about the SR-MPLS
prefix-SIDs, which are allocated from the Segment Routing Global
Block (SRGB), that the SRGB will be used up. The amount of network
state will also increase accordingly. However, based on the SR
paradigm, resource-aware SIDs and the associated network state are
allocated and maintained per NRP, thus per-path network state is
avoided in the SR network. In the control plane, the amount of
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information to be distributed in the distributed protocols (e.g.,
IGP) for different NRPs may become a concern. The scalability of
resource-aware SID based NRPs are further analysed in
[I-D.ietf-teas-nrp-scalability].
3. Procedures
This section describes possible procedures for creating SR based NRPs
and the corresponding forwarding tables and entries. The approaches
described in this section are not normative, but illustrate how the
NRP-specific Locator and NRP ID could be used to build and operate
NRPs in SR networks. Although it is illustrated using SR-MPLS, this
mechanism is applicable to both SR-MPLS and SRv6.
Suppose a virtual underlay network is requested by some customer or
service. One of the basic requirements is that the customer or
service is allocated with a set of dedicated network resource, so
that it does not experience unexpected interference from other
services in the same network. Other possible requirements specified
by the customer may include the required topology, bandwidth,
latency, reliability, etc.
According to the customer's requirements, a centralized network
controller calculates a subset of the underlay network topology to
support the service. With this topology, the set of network
resources required on each network element is also determined. The
subset of network topology and network resources are the two major
characteristics of an NRP. Depending on the service requirements,
the network topology and network resource of this NRP can be
dedicated for an individual customer or service, or can be shared by
a group of customers and/or services.
Based on the mechanisms described in section 2, a group of resource-
aware SIDs can be allocated for the NRP. With SR-MPLS, it is a group
of prefix-SIDs and adj-SIDs which are allocated to identify the
network nodes and links in the NRP, and also to identify the set of
network resources allocated on these network nodes and links for the
NRP. As the resource-aware SIDs can be allocated either by a
centralized network controller or by the network nodes, control plane
protocols such as IGP (e.g., IS-IS or OSPF) and BGP-LS can be used to
distribute the SIDs and the associated resource and topology
information of an NRP to other nodes in the same NRP and also to the
controller, so that both the network nodes and the controller can
generate the NRP-specific forwarding table or forwarding entries
based on the resource-aware SIDs of the NRP. The detailed control
plane mechanisms and possible extensions are described in the
accompanying documents [I-D.ietf-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-mt]
[I-D.ietf-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-mt] [I-D.zhu-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-flexalgo]
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[I-D.zhu-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-flexalgo] [I-D.dong-lsr-sr-enhanced-vpn]
[I-D.dong-idr-bgpls-sr-enhanced-vpn] and are out of the scope of this
document.
3.1. NRP Topology and Resource Planning
A centralized network controller can be responsible for the planning
of an NRP to meet the received service request. The controller needs
to collect the information on network connectivity, network
resources, network performance and any other relevant network states
from the underlay network. This can be done using either IGP TE
extensions such as [RFC5305] [RFC3630] [RFC7471] [RFC8570], and/or
BGP-LS [RFC7752] [RFC8571], or any other form of control plane
signaling.
Based on the information collected from the underlay network, the
controller obtains the underlay network topology and the information
about the allocated and available network resources. When a service
request is received, the controller determines the subset of the
network topology, and the subset of resources needed on each network
segment (e.g., links and nodes) in the sub-topology to meet the
service requirements, whilst maintaining the needs of the existing
services that are using the same network. The subset of the network
topology and network resources will be used to constitute an NRP,
which will be used as the virtual underlay network of the requested
service.
3.2. NRP Network Resource and SID Allocation
According to the result of NRP planning, the network controller
instructs the set of network nodes involved to join a specific NRP
and allocate the required set of network resources for the NRP. This
may be done with Netconf/YANG [RFC6241] [RFC7950] or with any other
control or management plane mechanism with necessary extensions.
Thus, the controller not only allocates the resources to the newly
computed NRP, but also keeps track of the remaining available
resources in order to cope with subsequent NRP requests.
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On each network node involved in the NRP, a set of network resources
(e.g., link bandwidth) is allocated to the NRP. Such set of network
resources can be dedicated for the processing of traffic in that NRP,
and may not be used for traffic in other NRPs. Note it is also
possible that a group of NRPs may share a set of network resources on
some network segments. A group of resource-aware SIDs, such as
prefix-SIDs and adj-SIDs are allocated to identify both the network
segments and the set of resources allocated on the network segments
for the NRP. Such group of resource-aware SIDs, e.g., prefix-SIDs
and adj-SIDs are used as the data plane identifiers of the nodes and
links in the NRP.
In the underlying forwarding plane, there can be multiple ways of
allocating a subset of network resources to an NRP. The candidate
data plane technologies to support resource partitioning or
reservation can be found in [I-D.ietf-teas-enhanced-vpn]. The
resource-aware SIDs are considered as abstract data plane identifiers
in the network layer, which can be used with various network resource
partitioning or reservation mechanisms in the underlying forwarding
plane.
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Prefix-SIDs: Prefix-SIDs:
r:101 r:102
g:201 g:202
b:301 r:1001:1G r:1001:1G b:302
+-----+ g:2001:2G g:2001:2G +-----+
| A | b:3001:1G b:3001:1G | B |
| +------------------------+ + r:1003:1G
+--+--+ +--+--+\g:2003:2G
r:1002:1G| r:1002:1G| \
g:2002:2G| g:2002:2G| \ r:1001:1G
b:3002:3G| b:3002:2G| \g:2001:2G
| | \ +-----+Prefix-SIDs:
| | \+ E | r:105
| | /+ | g:205
r:1001:1G| r:1002:1G| / +-----+
g:2001:2G| g:2002:2G| /r:1002:1G
b:3001:3G| b:3002:2G| / g:2002:2G
+--+--+ +--+--+ /
| | | |/r:1003:1G
| C +------------------------+ D + g:2003:2G
+-----+ r:1002:1G r:1001:1G +-----+
Prefix-SIDs: g:2002:1G g:2001:1G Prefix-SIDs:
r:103 b:3002:2G b:3001:2G r:104
g:203 g:204
b:303 b:304
Figure 1. SID and resource allocation for multiple NRPs
Figure 1 shows an example of providing multiple NRPs in an SR based
network. The prefix-SIDs are labeled as such in the figure. All
other SIDs in the figure are adj-SIDs. Note that the format of the
SIDs in this figure is for illustration, both SR-MPLS and SRv6 can be
used as the data plane. In this example, three NRPs: red (r) , green
(g) and blue (b) are created to carry traffic of different customers
or services. Both the red and green NRPs consist of nodes A, B, C,
D, and E with all their interconnecting links, whilst the blue NRP
only consists of nodes A, B, C and D with all their interconnecting
links. Note that different NRPs may have a set of shared nodes and
links, but with different set of resources. On each node, a
resource-aware prefix-SID is allocated for each NRP it participates
in. And on each link, a resource-aware adj-SID is allocated for each
NRP it participates in.
In Figure 1, the notation x:nnnn:y means that in NRP x, the adj-SID
nnnn will steer the packet over a link which has bandwidth y reserved
for that NRP. For example, r:1002:1G in link C->D says that the NRP
red has a reserved bandwidth of 1Gb/s on link C->D, and will be used
by packets arriving at node C with an adj-SID 1002 at the top of the
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label stack. Similarly, on each node, a resource-aware prefix-SID is
allocated for each NRP it participates in. Each resource-aware adj-
SID can be associated with a set of link resources (e.g., bandwidth)
allocated to a specific NRP, so that different adj-SIDs can be used
to steer traffic into different set of link resources for packet
forwarding. A resource-aware prefix-SID in an NRP can be associated
with the set of network resources allocated to this NRP on each
involved network node and link. Thus, the prefix-SIDs can be used to
build loose SR path within an NRP, and can be used by the transit
nodes to steer traffic into the set of local network resources
allocated to the NRP.
3.3. Construction of SR based NRPs
The network controller needs to obtain the information about all the
NRPs in the network it oversees, including the resource-aware SIDs
and the associated network resources and topology information. Based
on this information, the controller can have a global view of the NRP
topologies, network resources and the associated SIDs, so as to
perform NRP-specific explicit path computation, taking both the
topology and resource constraints of the NRPs into consideration, and
use the resource-aware SIDs to build the SID list for the explicit SR
path. The controller may also compute the shortest paths in the NRP
based on the resource-aware prefix-SIDs.
The network nodes also need to obtain the information about the NRPs
they participate in, including the resource-aware SIDs and the
associated network resources and topology information. Based on the
collected information, the network nodes which are the headend of a
path can perform NRP-specific path computation, and build the SID
list using the collected resource-aware adj-SIDs and prefix-SIDs.
The network nodes also need to generate the forwarding entries for
the resource-aware prefix-SIDs in each NRP they participates in, and
associate these forwarding entries with the set of local network
resources (e.g., bandwidth on the outgoing interface) allocated to
the corresponding NRP.
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Thus, after receiving the network controller's instruction about
network resource and SID allocation, each network node needs to
advertise the identifier of the NRPs it participates in, the group of
resource-aware SIDs allocated to each NRP, and the resource
attributes (e.g., bandwidth) associated with the resource-aware SIDs
in the network. Each resource-aware adj-SID is advertised with the
set of associated link resources, and each resource-aware prefix-SID
is advertised with the identifier of the associated NRP, as all the
prefix-SIDs in an NRP are associated with the same set of network
resources allocated to the NRP. Note that, as described in section
2.3, in the control plane, NRPs can be identified either using
existing identifiers, such as the MT-ID or Flex-Algo ID, or using a
newly defined NRP ID.
The IGP mechanisms which reuse the existing IDs (such as Multi-
Topology [RFC5120] or Flex-Algo [RFC9350]) as the identifier of NRPs,
and distribute the resource-aware SIDs with the associated topology
and resource information may be based on the mechanisms described in
[I-D.ietf-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-mt] and [I-D.zhu-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-flexalgo]
respectively. The corresponding BGP-LS mechanisms which can be used
to distribute both the intra-domain NRP information and the inter-
domain NRP-specific link information to the controller may be based
on the mechanisms described in [I-D.ietf-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-mt] and
[I-D.zhu-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-flexalgo] respectively. Note that with
these mechanisms, the number of NRPs supported relies on the number
of topologies or algorithms supported.
The IGP mechanisms described in [I-D.dong-lsr-sr-enhanced-vpn]
introduce a new control plane identifier, so that multiple NRPs can
be mapped to the same <topology, algorithm> tuple, while each NRP can
have different resource attributes. This provides a mechanism which
allows flexible combination of network topology and network resources
attributes to build a large number of NRPs with a relatively small
number of topologies or algorithms. The corresponding BGP-LS
mechanisms which may be used to distribute the intra-domain NRP
information and the inter-domain NRP-specific link information to the
controller are described in [I-D.dong-idr-bgpls-sr-enhanced-vpn].
Figure 2 shows the three SR based NRPs created in the network in
Figure 1.
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1001 1001 2001 2001 3001 3001
101---------102 201---------202 301---------302
| | \1003 | | \2003 | |
1002| 1002| \ 1001 2002| 2002| \ 2001 3002| 3002|
| | 105 | | 205 | |
1001| 1002| / 1002 2001| 2002| / 2002 3001| 3002|
| | / 1003 | | / 2003 | |
103---------104 203---------204 303---------304
1002 1001 2002 2001 3002 3001
NRP Red NRP Green NRP Blue
Figure 2. SR based NRPs with different groups of SIDs
For each SR based NRP, SR paths are computed within the NRP, taking
the NRP topology and resources as constraints. The SR path can be an
explicit path instantiated using SR policy [RFC9256], in which the
SID-list is built only with the SIDs allocated to the NRP. The SR
path can also be an IGP computed path associated with a prefix-SID or
SRv6 End SID allocated by a node for the NRP, the IGP path
computation is also based on the topology and/or algorithm
constraints of the NRP. Different SR paths in the same NRP may use
shared network resources when they use the same resource-aware SIDs
allocated to the NRP, while SR paths in different NRPs use different
set of network resources even when they traverse the same network
links or nodes. These NRP-specific SR paths need to be installed in
the corresponding forwarding tables.
For example, to create an explicit path A-B-D-E in NRP red in
Figure 2, the SR SID-list encapsulated in the service packet would be
(1001, 1002, 1003). For the same explicit path A-B-D-E in NRP green,
the SR segment list would be (2001, 2002, 2003). In the case where
we wish to construct a loose path A-D-E in NRP green, the packet
should be encapsulated with the SR SID-list (201, 204, 205). At node
A, the packet can be sent towards D via either node B or C using the
network resources allocated by these nodes for NRP green. At node D,
the packet is forwarded to E using the link and node resource
allocated for NRP green. Similarly, a packet to be sent via loose
path A-D-E in NRP red would be encapsulated with segment list (101,
104, 105). In the case where an IGP computed path can meet the
service requirement, the packet can be simply encapsulated with the
prefix-SID of the egress node E in the corresponding NRP.
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3.4. Mapping Services to SR based NRP
Network services can be provisioned using SR based NRPs as the
virtual underlay networks. For example, different services may be
provisioned in different SR based NRPs, each of which would use the
network resources allocated to the NRP, so that their data traffic
will not interfere with each other. In another case, a group of
services which have similar characteristics and requirements may be
provisioned in the same NRP, in this case the network resources
allocated to the NRP are only shared among this group of services,
but will not be shared with other services in the network. The
steering of service traffic to SR based NRPs can be based on either
local policy or, for example, the mechanisms as defined in [RFC9256].
3.5. NRP Visibility to Customers
NRPs can be used by network operators to organize and split their
network infrastructure into different virtual underlay networks for
different customers or services. Some customers may also request
different granularity of visibility into the NRP which is used to
deliver the service. Depending on the requirement and the network
operator's policy, NRPs may be exposed to the customer either as a
virtual network with both the edge nodes and the intermediate nodes,
as a set of paths with some of the transit nodes, or simply as a set
of virtual connections between the endpoints without any transit node
information. The visibility may be delivered through different
mechanisms, such as IGPs (e.g., IS-IS, OSPF), BGP-LS or Netconf/YANG.
On the other hand, a network operator may want to restrict the
visibility of the underlay network information it delivers to the
customer by either hiding the transit nodes between sites (and only
delivering information about the endpoint connectivity), or by hiding
some of the transit nodes (summarizing the path into fewer nodes).
The information about NRPs which are not used by the customer should
also be filtered. Mechanisms such as BGP-LS allow the flexibility of
the advertisement of aggregated virtual network information and
configurable filtering policies.
4. Characteristics of SR based NRPs
The mechanism described in this document provides several key
characteristics:
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* Customization: Different customized NRPs can be created in a
shared physical network to meet different customers' connectivity
and service requirement. The customers are only aware of the
topology and attributes of their own NRPs, and services are
provisioned only on the NRP instead of the physical network. This
provides a practical mechanism to support network slicing
[I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices].
* Resource isolation: The computation and instantiation of SR paths
in one NRP can be independent from other NRPs or other services in
the network. In addition, an NRP can be associated with a set of
dedicated network resources, which can avoid resource competition
and performance interference from services in other NRPs in the
network. This mechanism also allows resource sharing between
different service flows of the same customer, or between a group
of services which are provisioned in the same NRP. This gives the
operators and the customers the flexibility in network planning
and service provisioning. In a NRP, the performance of critical
services can be further ensured using other mechanisms, e.g.,
those as defined in [DetNet].
* Scalability: The introduction of resource aware SIDs for different
NRPs would increase the amount of SIDs and state in the network.
While the increased network state is considered an inevitable
price in meeting the requirements of some customers or services,
the SR based NRP mechanism seeks to achieve a balance between the
state limitations of traditional end-to-end TE mechanism and the
lack of resource awareness in classic segment routing. Following
the segment routing paradigm, network resources are allocated on
network segments in a per NRP manner and represented as SIDs, this
ensures that there is no per-path state introduced in the network.
In addition, operators can choose the granularity of resource
partition on different network segments. In network segments
where resource is scarce and service requirement may not always be
met, this approach can be used to allocate a set of resources to
specific NRPs to avoid possible resource competition. By
contrast, in other segment of the network where resource is
considered plentiful, the resource may be shared between a number
of NRPs. The decision to do this is in the hands of the operator.
5. Service Assurance of NRPs
In order to provide assurance for services provisioned in the SR
based NRPs, it is necessary to instrument the network at multiple
levels, e.g., in both the underlay network level and the NRP level.
The operator or the customer may also monitor and measure the
performance of the services carried by the NRPs. In principle these
can be achieved using existing or in development techniques in IETF,
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such as network telemetry [RFC9232]. The detailed mechanisms are out
of the scope of this document.
In case of failure or service performance degradation in an NRP, it
is necessary that some recovery mechanisms, e.g., local protection or
end-to-end protection mechanism is used to switch the traffic to
another path in the same NRP which could meet the service performance
requirement. Care must be taken that the service or path recovery
mechanism in one NRP does not impact other NRPs in the same physical
network.
6. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
Note to RFC Editor: this section may be removed on publication as an
RFC.
7. Security Considerations
The security considerations of segment routing [RFC8402] [RFC8754]
and resource-aware SIDs [I-D.ietf-spring-resource-aware-segments] are
applicable to this document.
The SR NRPs may be used carry services with specific SLA parameters.
An attack can be directly targeted at the customer application by
disrupting the SLA, and can be targeted at the network operator by
causing them to violate the SLA, triggering commercial consequences.
By rigorously policing the traffic at the ingress and carefully
provisioning the network resources provided to the NRP, this type of
attack can be prevented. However care needs to be taken when shared
resources are provided between NRPs at some point in the network, and
when the network needs to be reconfigured as part of ongoing
maintenance or in response to a failure.
Considering the scalability of the SR NRP mechanism, the system may
be destabilised by an attack or accident that causes a large number
of NRPs to be configured. This can be mitigated by placing
thresholds (for alarms or cut-off) in the configuration process.
Traffic within a network may be marked as belonging to a specific NRP
and this makes it possible to carry out targeted attacks on traffic
and to deduce customer-sensitive traffic patterns.
The details of the underlying network should not be exposed to third
parties, some abstraction would be needed, this is also to prevent
attacks aimed at exploiting a shared resource between NRPs.
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8. Contributors
Stwart Bryant
Email: stewart.bryant@gmail.com
Francois Clad
Email: fclad@cisco.com
Zhenbin Li
Email: lizhenbin@huawei.com
Zhibo Hu
Email: huzhibo@huawei.com
9. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mach Chen, Stefano Previdi, Charlie
Perkins, Bruno Decraene, Loa Andersson, Alexander Vainshtein, Joel
Halpern, James Guichard, Adrian Farrel and Shunsuke Homma for the
valuable discussion and suggestions to this document.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-spring-resource-aware-segments]
Dong, J., Miyasaka, T., Zhu, Y., Qin, F., and Z. Li,
"Introducing Resource Awareness to SR Segments", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-spring-resource-
aware-segments-08, 23 October 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-spring-
resource-aware-segments-08>.
[I-D.ietf-teas-enhanced-vpn]
Dong, J., Bryant, S., Li, Z., Miyasaka, T., and Y. Lee, "A
Framework for NRP-based Enhanced Virtual Private Network",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-
enhanced-vpn-17, 25 December 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-teas-
enhanced-vpn-17>.
[RFC8402] Filsfils, C., Ed., Previdi, S., Ed., Ginsberg, L.,
Decraene, B., Litkowski, S., and R. Shakir, "Segment
Routing Architecture", RFC 8402, DOI 10.17487/RFC8402,
July 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8402>.
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[RFC8660] Bashandy, A., Ed., Filsfils, C., Ed., Previdi, S.,
Decraene, B., Litkowski, S., and R. Shakir, "Segment
Routing with the MPLS Data Plane", RFC 8660,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8660, December 2019,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8660>.
[RFC8754] Filsfils, C., Ed., Dukes, D., Ed., Previdi, S., Leddy, J.,
Matsushima, S., and D. Voyer, "IPv6 Segment Routing Header
(SRH)", RFC 8754, DOI 10.17487/RFC8754, March 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8754>.
[RFC8986] Filsfils, C., Ed., Camarillo, P., Ed., Leddy, J., Voyer,
D., Matsushima, S., and Z. Li, "Segment Routing over IPv6
(SRv6) Network Programming", RFC 8986,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8986, February 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8986>.
10.2. Informative References
[DetNet] "DetNet WG", 2016,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/detnet>.
[I-D.dong-idr-bgpls-sr-enhanced-vpn]
Dong, J., Hu, Z., Li, Z., Tang, X., and R. Pang, "BGP-LS
Extensions for Scalable Segment Routing based Enhanced
VPN", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-dong-idr-
bgpls-sr-enhanced-vpn-05, 23 October 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-dong-idr-
bgpls-sr-enhanced-vpn-05>.
[I-D.dong-lsr-sr-enhanced-vpn]
Dong, J., Hu, Z., Li, Z., Tang, X., Pang, R., and S.
Bryant, "IGP Extensions for Scalable Segment Routing based
Virtual Transport Network (VTN)", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-dong-lsr-sr-enhanced-vpn-10, 23
October 2023, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-dong-lsr-sr-enhanced-vpn-10>.
[I-D.ietf-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-mt]
Xie, C., Li, C., Dong, J., and Z. Li, "BGP-LS with Multi-
topology for Segment Routing based Virtual Transport
Networks", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-mt-03, 10 September 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-idr-
bgpls-sr-vtn-mt-03>.
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[I-D.ietf-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-mt]
Xie, C., Ma, C., Dong, J., and Z. Li, "Applicability of
IS-IS Multi-Topology (MT) for Segment Routing based
Network Resource Partition (NRP)", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-mt-07, 23
January 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-ietf-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-mt-07>.
[I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices]
Farrel, A., Drake, J., Rokui, R., Homma, S., Makhijani,
K., Contreras, L. M., and J. Tantsura, "A Framework for
Network Slices in Networks Built from IETF Technologies",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-ietf-
network-slices-25, 14 September 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-teas-
ietf-network-slices-25>.
[I-D.ietf-teas-nrp-scalability]
Dong, J., Li, Z., Gong, L., Yang, G., Mishra, G. S., and
F. Qin, "Scalability Considerations for Network Resource
Partition", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
teas-nrp-scalability-03, 21 October 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-teas-
nrp-scalability-03>.
[I-D.zhu-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-flexalgo]
Zhu, Y., Dong, J., and Z. Hu, "BGP-LS with Flex-Algo for
Segment Routing based Virtual Transport Networks", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-zhu-idr-bgpls-sr-vtn-
flexalgo-01, 22 February 2021,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-zhu-idr-
bgpls-sr-vtn-flexalgo-01>.
[I-D.zhu-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-flexalgo]
Zhu, Y., Dong, J., and Z. Hu, "Using Flex-Algo for Segment
Routing (SR) based Virtual Transport Network (VTN)", Work
in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-zhu-lsr-isis-sr-vtn-
flexalgo-06, 10 July 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-zhu-lsr-isis-
sr-vtn-flexalgo-06>.
[RFC3630] Katz, D., Kompella, K., and D. Yeung, "Traffic Engineering
(TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2", RFC 3630,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3630, September 2003,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3630>.
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[RFC4915] Psenak, P., Mirtorabi, S., Roy, A., Nguyen, L., and P.
Pillay-Esnault, "Multi-Topology (MT) Routing in OSPF",
RFC 4915, DOI 10.17487/RFC4915, June 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4915>.
[RFC5120] Przygienda, T., Shen, N., and N. Sheth, "M-ISIS: Multi
Topology (MT) Routing in Intermediate System to
Intermediate Systems (IS-ISs)", RFC 5120,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5120, February 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5120>.
[RFC5305] Li, T. and H. Smit, "IS-IS Extensions for Traffic
Engineering", RFC 5305, DOI 10.17487/RFC5305, October
2008, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5305>.
[RFC6241] Enns, R., Ed., Bjorklund, M., Ed., Schoenwaelder, J., Ed.,
and A. Bierman, Ed., "Network Configuration Protocol
(NETCONF)", RFC 6241, DOI 10.17487/RFC6241, June 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6241>.
[RFC7471] Giacalone, S., Ward, D., Drake, J., Atlas, A., and S.
Previdi, "OSPF Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric
Extensions", RFC 7471, DOI 10.17487/RFC7471, March 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7471>.
[RFC7752] Gredler, H., Ed., Medved, J., Previdi, S., Farrel, A., and
S. Ray, "North-Bound Distribution of Link-State and
Traffic Engineering (TE) Information Using BGP", RFC 7752,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7752, March 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7752>.
[RFC7950] Bjorklund, M., Ed., "The YANG 1.1 Data Modeling Language",
RFC 7950, DOI 10.17487/RFC7950, August 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7950>.
[RFC8570] Ginsberg, L., Ed., Previdi, S., Ed., Giacalone, S., Ward,
D., Drake, J., and Q. Wu, "IS-IS Traffic Engineering (TE)
Metric Extensions", RFC 8570, DOI 10.17487/RFC8570, March
2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8570>.
[RFC8571] Ginsberg, L., Ed., Previdi, S., Wu, Q., Tantsura, J., and
C. Filsfils, "BGP - Link State (BGP-LS) Advertisement of
IGP Traffic Engineering Performance Metric Extensions",
RFC 8571, DOI 10.17487/RFC8571, March 2019,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8571>.
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[RFC9086] Previdi, S., Talaulikar, K., Ed., Filsfils, C., Patel, K.,
Ray, S., and J. Dong, "Border Gateway Protocol - Link
State (BGP-LS) Extensions for Segment Routing BGP Egress
Peer Engineering", RFC 9086, DOI 10.17487/RFC9086, August
2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9086>.
[RFC9232] Song, H., Qin, F., Martinez-Julia, P., Ciavaglia, L., and
A. Wang, "Network Telemetry Framework", RFC 9232,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9232, May 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9232>.
[RFC9256] Filsfils, C., Talaulikar, K., Ed., Voyer, D., Bogdanov,
A., and P. Mattes, "Segment Routing Policy Architecture",
RFC 9256, DOI 10.17487/RFC9256, July 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9256>.
[RFC9350] Psenak, P., Ed., Hegde, S., Filsfils, C., Talaulikar, K.,
and A. Gulko, "IGP Flexible Algorithm", RFC 9350,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9350, February 2023,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9350>.
Authors' Addresses
Jie Dong
Huawei Technologies
Email: jie.dong@huawei.com
Takuya Miyasaka
KDDI Corporation
Email: ta-miyasaka@kddi.com
Yongqing Zhu
China Telecom
Email: zhuyq8@chinatelecom.cn
Fengwei Qin
China Mobile
Email: qinfengwei@chinamobile.com
Zhenqiang Li
China Mobile
Email: li_zhenqiang@hotmail.com
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