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In-Place Bandwidth Update for MPLS RSVP-TE LSPs
draft-ietf-teas-rsvp-inplace-lsp-bw-update-01

Document Type Active Internet-Draft (teas WG)
Authors Zafar Ali , Vishnu Pavan Beeram , Peter Schoenmaker
Last updated 2026-07-05
Replaces draft-alibee-teas-rsvp-inplace-lsp-bw-update
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draft-ietf-teas-rsvp-inplace-lsp-bw-update-01
TEAS                                                              Z. Ali
Internet-Draft                                        Cisco Systems, Inc
Intended status: Standards Track                            V. P. Beeram
Expires: 6 January 2027                       Hewlett Packard Enterprise
                                                          P. Schoenmaker
                                                                    Meta
                                                             5 July 2026

            In-Place Bandwidth Update for MPLS RSVP-TE LSPs
             draft-ietf-teas-rsvp-inplace-lsp-bw-update-01

Abstract

   This document describes the procedure for updating the bandwidth of
   an MPLS RSVP-TE Label Switched Path (LSP) tunnel in-place without
   employing make-before-break (MBB).

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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 6 January 2027.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
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   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Signaling In-Place LSP Bandwidth Update . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Procedure at the Ingress LER  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.2.  Procedure at the Transit LSR / Egress LER . . . . . . . .   6
     2.3.  Backward Compatibility  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   Sections 2.5 and 4.6.4 of [RFC3209] describe the RSVP signaling
   procedure for increasing the bandwidth of an MPLS TE tunnel using a
   make-before-break (MBB) operation.  A bandwidth-update-triggered MBB
   operation for an MPLS RSVP-TE tunnel involves establishing a new LSP
   with a new LSP_ID and transferring traffic from the old LSP onto it
   before tearing down the old LSP.  Establishing the new LSP involves
   programming the forwarding plane with new tunnel labels along its
   path, even in scenarios where both the old and new LSPs traverse the
   same path.  Such MBB events can occur frequently in networks that
   deploy the 'auto-bandwidth' feature on RSVP-TE tunnels to monitor
   bandwidth utilization and periodically adjust tunnel bandwidth,
   causing a considerable amount of signaling and label programming
   churn in the network.

   [RFC3209] does not explicitly discuss the procedure for handling a
   decrease in the bandwidth of an MPLS RSVP-TE tunnel, allowing an
   ingress LER implementation to have the option to update the LSP
   bandwidth "in-place" without employing MBB.  The in-place LSP
   bandwidth update mechanism reduces signaling churn.  It eliminates
   the need to reprogram labels at each transit Label Switch Router
   (LSR) along the path of the LSP and shift traffic at the ingress
   Label Edge Router (LER) from one LSP to another.  However, the
   signaling procedure for handling any failures that the RSVP transit
   node may encounter while processing an in-place LSP bandwidth update
   request is unspecified.  This document clarifies this procedure.  It
   describes how an implementation can leverage the in-place LSP
   bandwidth update mechanism in both scenarios where the bandwidth of
   the TE tunnel needs to be decreased or increased.

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   This document does not cover the application of the in-place LSP
   bandwidth update procedure to anything other than point-to-point MPLS
   RSVP-TE tunnels.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Signaling In-Place LSP Bandwidth Update

   Figure 1 illustrates an example RSVP signaling sequence for a
   scenario where the bandwidth of an LSP is successfully updated in-
   place.  In the signaling sequence used for initial setup, the LSP is
   signaled with a bandwidth of 60 Mbps.  This bandwidth value is
   encoded in the SENDER_TSPEC object of the Path message sent hop-by-
   hop from the ingress LER to the egress LER.  Upon successful
   admission control at each hop, the bandwidth value is encoded in the
   FLOWSPEC object of the Resv message sent in the reverse direction.
   In the in-place update signaling sequence, the same LSP instance,
   with no change to the LSP_ID in the SENDER_TEMPLATE object, is
   signaled with a bandwidth of 40 Mbps.  When the ingress LER receives
   a Resv message with 40 Mbps encoded in the FLOWSPEC object, the in-
   place LSP bandwidth update signaling sequence is deemed successful.

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      +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+
      | R1 |---------| R2 |---------| R3 |---------| R4 |---------| R5 |
      +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+
      Initial Setup:
        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60
        ------------>   ------------>   ------------>   ------------>

        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60
        <------------   <------------   <------------   <------------

      In-Place LSP BW Update:
        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         TSpecRate:40    TSpecRate:40    TSpecRate:40    TSpecRate:40
        ------------>   ------------>   ------------>   ------------>

        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         FSpecRate:40    FSpecRate:40    FSpecRate:40    FSpecRate:40
        <------------   <------------   <------------   <------------

                 Figure 1: In-Place LSP BW Update - Success

   Figure 2 illustrates an example RSVP signaling sequence for a
   scenario where the bandwidth of an LSP is not successfully updated
   in-place.  In the initial setup signaling sequence, the LSP is
   signaled with a bandwidth of 60 Mbps.  In the in-place update
   signaling sequence, the same LSP instance, with no change to the
   LSP_ID in the SENDER_TEMPLATE object, is signaled with a bandwidth of
   80 Mbps.  However, node R3 fails admission control and sends a
   PathErr with an error code of 'Admission Control Failure (1)' and
   error value of 'Requested bandwidth unavailable (2)'.  When the
   ingress LER receives a PathErr message in response to an in-place LSP
   bandwidth update request, the in-place LSP bandwidth update signaling
   sequence is deemed a failure.  A consequence of this failed attempt
   is that the bandwidth reservation in the path segment of the LSP
   upstream of R3 is inconsistent with the path segment downstream of
   R3.  Another scenario in which the in-place LSP update signaling
   sequence is deemed a failure is when the ingress does not receive
   either a Resv message or a PathErr message within a reasonable
   interval (bandwidth update request timed out).  In such failed
   scenarios, the onus is on the ingress LER to reroute the path using
   MBB.

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      +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+
      | R1 |---------| R2 |---------| R3 |---------| R4 |---------| R5 |
      +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+         +----+
      Initial Setup:
        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg        PATH msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60    TSpecRate:60
        ------------>   ------------>   ------------>   ------------>

        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg        RESV msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60    FSpecRate:60
        <------------   <------------   <------------   <------------

      In-Place LSP BW Update:
        PATH msg        PATH msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         TSpecRate:80    TSpecRate:80
        ------------>   ------------>

        PATHErr msg     PATHErr msg
         LSP-ID:X        LSP-ID:X
         ErrSpec:1,2     ErrSpec:1,2
        <------------   <------------

                 Figure 2: In-Place LSP BW Update - Failure

2.1.  Procedure at the Ingress LER

   An ingress LER implementation that supports in-place LSP bandwidth
   update MAY use local policy to determine whether to trigger the "in-
   place LSP bandwidth update" functionality or the "MBB" procedure to
   update LSP bandwidth.  If the ingress LER is mandated by local policy
   to use in-place LSP bandwidth update, it SHOULD do the following when
   there is a need to update the bandwidth of the TE tunnel:

   *  Compute and check if the current signaled TE path can accommodate
      the new bandwidth:

      -  If it is determined that the current TE path cannot accommodate
         the new bandwidth, compute a TE path that accommodates the new
         bandwidth and initiate MBB signaling procedure.

      -  If it is determined that the current TE path can accommodate
         the new bandwidth, initiate in-place LSP bandwidth update
         signaling.

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         o  If in-place LSP bandwidth update signaling succeeds (a Resv
            message with updated FLOWSPEC is received), consider the
            bandwidth update procedure to be complete.

         o  If in-place LSP bandwidth update signaling fails (non-
            destructive PathErr message is received or bandwidth update
            request timed out), compute a TE path that accommodates the
            desired bandwidth and initiate MBB signaling procedure.

         o  If a destructive PathErr message (with Path_State_Removed
            flag set) or a ResvTear message is received, initiate break-
            before-make signaling procedure.

   An ingress LER implementation MUST NOT signal a new in-place LSP
   bandwidth update while a previous in-place LSP bandwidth update is in
   progress.  If there are multiple in-place LSP bandwidth updates in
   flight for the same LSP, there can be ambiguity as to whether a
   received Resv message corresponds to the latest attempted change or
   an earlier attempted change.

2.2.  Procedure at the Transit LSR / Egress LER

   A transit LSR / egress LER implementation that supports in-place LSP
   bandwidth update SHOULD perform an admission control procedure when
   it receives an in-place LSP bandwidth update request.  If the
   admission control succeeds, the transit LSR / egress LER SHOULD allow
   the in-place LSP bandwidth signaling sequence to complete.  If the
   admission control fails, the transit LSR / egress LER:

   *  SHOULD generate a non-destructive PathErr message (without
      Path_State_Removed flag set) and let the ingress LER take
      appropriate action.

   *  SHOULD NOT initiate the teardown of the LSP instance.

   A transit LSR / egress LER implementation that supports in-place LSP
   bandwidth update and the facility backup method for Fast Reroute
   [RFC4090] MUST NOT process bandwidth changes signaled through backup
   Path or Resv messages.  The latest bandwidth value signaled through a
   non-backup Path or Resv message MUST continue to be used.  This
   avoids a race where a stale backup message can incorrectly
   temporarily revert bandwidth values to a previous state during a
   local reversion procedure [RFC4090].

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2.3.  Backward Compatibility

   Since the procedure for handling an in-place LSP bandwidth update
   request at a transit/egress node is not specified in [RFC3209], a
   transit/egress implementation that does not support this
   functionality may exhibit one of the following behaviors:

   [A]  Teardown the signaling state associated with the LSP instance
      and generate appropriate destructive error and tear messages.

   [B]  Retain the signaling state associated with the LSP instance and
      send an appropriate PathErr to the ingress.

   [C]  Silently ignore the in-place LSP bandwidth update request, which
      will result in the bandwidth update request getting timed out at
      the ingress.

   The in-place LSP bandwidth update functionality SHOULD NOT be enabled
   at the ingress LERs in a network with non-compliant transit/egress
   nodes that exhibit behavior [A].  The functionality MAY be enabled at
   the ingress LERs in a network with non-compliant nodes that exhibit
   behavior [B] or [C].

3.  Security Considerations

   This document does not introduce new security issues.  The security
   considerations pertaining to the original RSVP protocol [RFC2205] and
   RSVP-TE [RFC3209], and those that are described in [RFC5920], remain
   relevant.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

5.  Acknowledgments

   The authors would like to thank Colby Barth, Stephane Litkowski,
   Robert Sawaya, Martin Stigge, Quintin Smith, Paul Miiller, and Sergey
   Kolobov for their review and suggestions.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

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   [RFC2205]  Braden, R., Ed., Zhang, L., Berson, S., Herzog, S., and S.
              Jamin, "Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) -- Version 1
              Functional Specification", RFC 2205, DOI 10.17487/RFC2205,
              September 1997, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2205>.

   [RFC3209]  Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T., Srinivasan, V.,
              and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP
              Tunnels", RFC 3209, DOI 10.17487/RFC3209, December 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3209>.

   [RFC4090]  Pan, P., Ed., Swallow, G., Ed., and A. Atlas, Ed., "Fast
              Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels", RFC 4090,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4090, May 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4090>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [RFC5920]  Fang, L., Ed., "Security Framework for MPLS and GMPLS
              Networks", RFC 5920, DOI 10.17487/RFC5920, July 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5920>.

Contributors

   Chandra Ramachandran
   Hewlett Packard Enterprise
   Email: chandrasekar.ramachandran@hpe.com

   Jon Parker
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   Email: jdparker@cisco.com

Authors' Addresses

   Zafar Ali
   Cisco Systems, Inc
   Email: zali@cisco.com

   Vishnu Pavan Beeram
   Hewlett Packard Enterprise
   Email: vishnupavan.ietf@gmail.com

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   Peter Schoenmaker
   Meta
   Email: psch@meta.com

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