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QoS-level aware Transmission Protocol (QTP) for virtual networks
draft-lan-nvo3-qtp-20

Document Type Active Internet-Draft (individual)
Authors Julong Lan , Dongnian Cheng, Yuxiang Hu, Guozhen Cheng , Tong Duan
Last updated 2024-10-05
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draft-lan-nvo3-qtp-20
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                  J. Lan
Intended Status: Proposed Standard                              D. Cheng
Expires: April 6, 2025                                        Y. Hu
                                                                G. Cheng
                                                                T. Duan
         National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological
                                              Research Center, P.R.China
                                                      October 6, 2024

    QoS-level aware Transmission Protocol (QTP) for virtual networks
                         draft-lan-nvo3-qtp-20

Abstract

   This document provides a QoS-level aware Transmission Protocol (QTP)
   for virtual networks.

Status of this Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   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
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   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html

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   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html

Copyright and License 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  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1  Motivation and background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.2  QTP-path  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.3  QTP Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.4  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.5  Acronyms and Abbreviations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2  QTP Data Encapsulation Specification  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.1  QTP Header Specification  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.2  QTP Data Encapsulation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3  QTP Message Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.1 Destination Prefix and Node Identifiers  . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.1.1 Destination Prefix (DestPrefix)  . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.1.2 Node Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.2  QTP PDU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.3 TLV Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.3.1 DestPrefix TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.3.2 PID TLV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.3.3 ToP TLV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.3.4 Status TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     3.4 QTP messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.4.1 Notification Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
         3.4.1.1 Notification Message Procedures  . . . . . . . . . . 17
         3.4.1.2 Events Signaled by Notification Messages . . . . . . 17
       3.4.2 KeepAlive Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
         3.4.2.1 KeepAlive Message Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       3.4.3 PID Request Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
         3.4.3.1 PID Request Message Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       3.4.4 PID Response Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
         3.4.4.1 PID Response Message Procedures  . . . . . . . . . . 22
       3.4.5 PID Release Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
         3.4.5.1 PID Release Message Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     3.5 Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       3.5.1  Message Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       3.5.2  TLV Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
 

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       3.5.3  Status Code Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   4  QTP Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     4.1 Establishment of QTP-Path  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
       4.1.1 The trigger condition of QTP-Path establishing . . . . . 25
       4.1.2 Path establishment process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     4.2. Removal of the QTP-Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
       4.2.1 The trigger condition of removal process . . . . . . . . 27
       4.2.2 QTP-Path removal process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     4.3. QTP-Path adjustment process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
       4.3.1 The trigger condition of QTP-Path adjustment . . . . . . 27
       4.3.2 QTP-Path Adjustment Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   5  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   6  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   7  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     7.1  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     7.2  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

 

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1  Introduction

1.1  Motivation and background

   Virtual network has been designed to implement all types of network,
   to achieve scalability in today's Internet, for example, multi-
   tenants sharing network in data center network. This document
   provides a QoS-level aware Transmission Protocol (QTP) for virtual
   networks. Since virtual network transmits data in the form of "best
   effort" under today's connectionless network, its performance cannot
   be guaranteed. In addition, due to the elasticity of network traffic,
   virtual networks sharing the same physical network cannot achieve
   minimum resource guarantee and fairness under network congestion. QTP
   constructs various data transmission tunnels, namely, QTP-path, for
   different virtual networks that have special requests. We embed a
   field named QTP-path identifier (PID) in QTP header, and explicitly
   contains QoS level to indicate the resource level sharing when data
   transmission.

1.2  QTP-path

   The applications on the virtual network always originate requirements
   that have identical path and performance. Therefore, QTP aggregates
   these requirements, and constructs one data transmission tunnel to
   maximize network throughput. The tunnel, we say, QTP-path is labeled
   by a QoS level according with the requests in the protocol header.

1.3  QTP Overview

   We assume that all the network nodes can handle global knowledge
   about network loads and application requests. If there are several
   pairs in network originate requests for identical QoS level and have
   common in path, then the management plane decides to establish a QTP-
   path in the common part of the path. Firstly, the starting node
   assign a PID to the path, and send QTP-path establish request. Then
   the relative nodes on the path update their path information base
   (PIB) which storage the PIDs of QTP-paths across it. Finally, when
   the QTP-path has been established, the data transmitted over it can
   be transfer based on PIB matching PID in PDUs, and realize QoS level
   guarantee.

1.4  Terminology

   QTP-path             the tunnel established for the same requests by
   QTP can be used to transmission data.
   QTP-path identifier  represented as a 32-bit number in a 4 octet field
   Node Identifier      a four octet quantity used to identify an        
                   QTP Node.
 

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1.5  Acronyms and Abbreviations
      PDU       protocol data unit
      TTL       Time to live
      ToP       Type of QTP-path
      PID       QTP-path Identifier
      TTL       Time to live
      TLV       Type-Length-Value
      PIB       QTP-path information base

2  QTP Data Encapsulation Specification

2.1  QTP Header Specification

   Each packet over QTP-path MUST have a QTP header. The QTP header is
   represented by 4 octets. This is shown in Figure 1.

       0                   1                   2                   3   
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |    ToP    |                 PID               |      TTL      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                         ToP: Type of QTP-path, 6 bits
                         PID: QTP-path Identifier, 18 bits
                         TTL: Time to live, 8 bits

                                Figure 1

   The QTP header appears AFTER the data link layer header, but BEFORE
   any network layer header. Each QTP header is broken down into the
   following fields:

      o Type of QTP-path (ToP)

        This six-bit field is used to identify the type of QTP-path.
        Each type of QTP-path SHALL carry only one class of traffic. RFC
        4594 has defined twelve different classes of traffic, namely,
        network control, telephony, signaling, multimedia conferencing,
        real-time interactive, multimedia streaming, broadcast video,
        low-latency data, OAM, high-throughput data, standard, and low-
        priority data. End-to-end quantitative performance requirements
        may be obtained from ITU-T Recommendations Y.1541 and Y.1540. It
        is RECOMMENDED that the value of ToP be the same with DSCP
        value.

      o QTP-path Identifier (PID)

        This 18-bit field carries the actual value of the QTP-Path
 

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        identifier. When a QTP-path packet is received, the PID value is
        looked up to obtain the next hop to which the packet is to be
        forwarded. Before forwarding, the PID may be replaced with
        another, or be popped off with the whole QTP-path header. 

      o Time to live (TTL)

        This eight-bit field is used to encode a time-to-live value. The
        processing of this field is the same with that of MPLS TTL field
        in RFC 3032.

   Different types of QTP-paths MUST have different behaviors on QoS
   guarantee and resource allocation to achieve their required traffic
   characteristics.

2.2  QTP Data Encapsulation

   The packet format for QTP-path is shown in Figure 2. 

   QTP header encapsulation is used to realize a QTP-path, and the
   header by definition in section 2.1 contains a ToP, a PID, and a TTL.

   NVGRE encapsulation is used to realize an overlay virtual network.
   The virtual network identifier is carried as the 24-bit VSID in the
   NVGRE header.

       0                   1                   2                   3   
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
       Outer Ethernet Header:                                          
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |             Outer Destination MAC Address                     |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       | Outer Destination MAC Address | Outer Source MAC Address      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                Outer Source MAC Address                       |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       | Ethertype = 0x01FF            |                               
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               
       Outer QTP Header:                                               
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |    ToP    |                 PID               |      TTL      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       Outer IPv4 Header:                                              
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |Version|  IHL  |Type of Service|          Total Length         |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |         Identification        |Flags|      Fragment Offset    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 

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       |  Time to Live | Protocol=0x2F |        Header Checksum        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                       Outer Source IPv4 Address               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                   Outer Destination IPv4 Address              |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       NVGRE Encapsulation:                                            
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       |                     NVGRE Encapsulation                       |
       |     (include NVGRE Header, Original Inner Ethernet Frame)     |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       Frame Check Sequence:                                            
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |   New FCS (Frame Check Sequence) for Outer Ethernet Frame     |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                Figure 2

   The QTP data encapsulation includes the outer Ethernet header, the
   QTP-path header, the outer IPv4 header, and the NVGRE encapsulation:

      o Outer Ethernet header: The source MAC address in the outer frame
      is set to the MAC address associated with the NVGRE endpoint. The
      destination MAC address is set to the MAC address of the nexthop
      IP address for the destination NVE. The EtherType field is set to
      0x01FF which is reserved for experimental use.

      o QTP header: The ToP is used to identify the type of QTP-path,
      the PID is used to identify the QTP-path, and the TTL is used to
      record the time to live for the QTP-path.

      o Outer IPv4 header: IPv4 is used as the delivery protocol for
      NVGRE. The protocol field in the IPv4 header is set to 0x2F. The
      IP address in the outer frame is referred to as the Provider
      Address (PA).

      o NVGRE encapsulation: It includes NVGRE header, and original
      inner Ethernet frame. The VSID in NVGRE header can be used to
      identify the different virtual networks. The original inner
      Ethernet frame comprises of an inner Ethernet header followed by
      the inner IP header, followed by the IP payload.

3  QTP Message Specification

   QTP message exchanges are accomplished by sending QTP protocol data
   units (PDUs) over TCP connections. Each QTP PDU can carry one or more
 

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   QTP messages. Note that the messages in a QTP PDU need not be related
   to one another. For example, a single PDU could carry a PID Request
   message, another message for PID Responding message, and a third
   Notification message that signals some event.

3.1 Destination Prefix and Node Identifiers

3.1.1 Destination Prefix (DestPrefix)

   A DestPrefix specification for each QTP-Path is provided to precisely
   specify which packets may be mapped to each QTP-Path. The DestPrefix
   identifies the set of IP packets that may be mapped to that QTP-Path.

   This specification defines DestPrefix as an address prefix of any
   length from 0 to a full address, inclusive. We give the rules used
   for mapping packets to QTP-Path that have been set up using a
   DestPrefix in the remainder of this section.

   We say that a particular address matches a particular address prefix
   if and only if that address begins with that prefix. We also say that
   a particular packet matches a particular QTP-Path if and only if the
   packet's destination address matches the DestPrefix of that QTP-Path.

   The following rules describe the procedure for mapping a particular
   packet to a particular QTP-Path.

      -  If a packet matches exactly one QTP-Path, the packet is mapped
         to that QTP-Path.

      -  If a packet matches multiple QTP-Paths, it is mapped to the
         QTP-Path whose matching DestPrefix is the longest.

      -  If it is known that a packet must traverse a particular egress
         router, and there is a QTP-Path with a DestPrefix that is a /32
         address of that router, then the packet is mapped to that QTP-
         Path.

3.1.2 Node Identifiers

   A Node Identifier is a four octet quantity used to identify a QTP
   Node. The Node Identifier must be a globally unique value, such as a
   32-bit router Id assigned to the QTP Node.

3.2  QTP PDU

   Each QTP PDU consists of a QTP header and one or more QTP messages.
   The QTP header is:
 

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   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |               Version                 |         PDU Length    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                         Node Identifier                       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Version
      Two octet unsigned integer containing the version number of the
      protocol.  This version of the specification specifies QTP
      protocol version 1.

   PDU Length
      Two octet integer specifying the total length of this PDU in
      octets, excluding the Version and PDU Length fields.

   Node Identifier
      Four octet field that uniquely identifies the node and MUST be a
      globally unique value. It SHOULD be a 32-bit router Id assigned to
      the Node .

3.3 TLV Encoding

   QTP uses a Type-Length-Value (TLV) encoding scheme to encode the
   information carried in QTP messages.

   A QTP TLV is encoded as a 2 octet field that uses 15 bits to specify
   a Type and 1 bits to specify behavior when a Node doesn't recognize
   the Type, followed by a 2 octet Length field, followed by a variable
   length Value field.

 

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   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |U|          Type               |            Length             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                                                               |
   |                             Value                             |
   ~                                                               ~
   |                                                               |
   |                               +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   U-bit
      Unknown TLV bit. When an unknown TLV is recieved, if U is
      clear(=0), a notification MUST be returned to the message
      originator and the entire message MUST be ignored; if U is set
      (=1), the unknown TLV MUST be silently ignored and the rest of the
      message processed as if the unknown TLV did not exist.

   Type
      Encodes how the Value field is to be interpreted.

   Length
      Specifies the length of the Value field in octets.

   Value
      Octet string of Length octets that encodes information to be
      interpreted as specified by the Type field.

   Note that there is no alignment requirement for the first octet of a
   TLV. TLVs may be nested, that is the Value field itself may contain
   TLV encodings.

   The TLV encoding scheme is very general.  In principle, everything in
   a QTP PDU could be encoded as a TLV.  Note that the TLV scheme is not
   used to its full generality in this specification.

   The specification assigns type values for related TLVs, such as the
   PID TLVs, from a contiguous block in the 16-bit TLV type number
   space. Section "TLV Summary" lists the TLVs defined in this version
   of the protocol.

   In this section, the TLV encodings for some commonly used parameters
   are specified.

 

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3.3.1 DestPrefix TLV

   PIDs are bound to DestPrefixes. A DestPrefix TLV encodes a list of
   one or more DestPrefix Items. 

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|  DestPrefix (0x0100)              |      Length             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                        DestPrefix Item 1                      |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                                                               |
   ~                                                               ~
   |                                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                        DestPrefix Item n                      |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   DestPrefix Item 1 to DestPrefix Item n
      The DestPrefix Item encoding depends on the type of DestPrefix.

      A DestPrefix value is encoded as a 1 octet field that specifies
      the element type, and a variable length field that is the type-
      dependent DestPrefix value.

      The DestPrefix value encoding is:

      DestPrefix      Type      Value type name

      Wildcard        0x01      No value; i.e., 0 value octets;
                                See below.

      Prefix          0x02      See below.

      Wildcard DestPrefix
         To be used only in the PID Release messages indicating that the
         release is to be applied to all DestPrefixes associated with
         the PID within the following PID TLV. Must be the only
         DestPrefix Item in the DestPrefix TLV.

      DestPrefix value encoding:

 

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      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |  Prefix (2)   |     Address Family            |     PreLen    |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                     Prefix                                    |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      Address Family
         Two octet quantity containing a value from ADDRESS FAMILY
         NUMBERS in [ASSIGNED_AF] that encodes the address family for
         the address prefix in the Prefix field.

      PreLen
         One octet unsigned integer containing the length in bits of the
         address prefix that follows. A length of zero indicates a
         prefix that matches all addresses (the default destination), in
         this case, the Prefix itself is zero octets.

      Prefix
         An address prefix encoded according to the Address Family
         field, whose length was specified in bits in the PreLen field,
         padded to a byte boundary.

   When decoding a DestPrefix TLV, if a Node encounters a DestPrefix
   with an Address Family it does not support, it SHOULD stop decoding
   the DestPrefix TLV, abort processing the message containing the TLV,
   and send an "Unsupported Address Family" Notification message to its
   QTP peer. If a Node encounters a DestPrefix type it cannot decode, it
   SHOULD stop decoding the DestPrefix TLV, abort processing the message
   containing the TLV, and send an "Unknown DestPrefix " Notification
   message to its QTP peer.

3.3.2 PID TLV

   A PID TLV are used to encode a PID. The encoding for PID TLV is:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|       PID (0x0200)          |            Length             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     PID                                                       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   PID
      This is a 18-bit PID value represented as a 18-bit number in a 4
      octet field as follows:
 

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      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |            PID                    |                           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

3.3.3 ToP TLV

   When establishing a QTP-Path, a ToP TLV is used to specify type of
   QTP-Path and the QoS guarantee feature of the QTP.

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|    ToP (0x0300)             |       Length                  |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |        ToP                                                    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   ToP
      This is a 6-bit ToP value represented as a 6-bit number in a 4
      octet field as follows:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     ToP   |                                                   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   A ToP TLV with Length 0 is a WildCard ToP.

3.3.4 Status TLV

   Status TLVs are carried in Notification messages to specify events
   being signaled. The encoding for the Status TLV is:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |U| Status (0x0400)             |      Length                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Status Code                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |      Message Type             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

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   U-bit
      SHOULD be 0 when the Status TLV is sent in a Notification message.
      SHOULD be 1 when the Status TLV is sent in some other message.

   Status Code
      32-bit unsigned integer encoding the event being signaled. The
      structure of a Status Code is:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |E|F|                 Status Data                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      E-bit
         Error bit. If set (=1), this is a fatal Error Notification. If
         clear (=0), this is an Advisory Notification.

      F-bit
         Forward bit. If set (=1), the notification SHOULD be forwarded
         to the Node for the next-hop or previous-hop of the QTP-Path.
         If clear (=0), the notification SHOULD NOT be forwarded.

   Status Data
      30-bit unsigned integer that specifies the status information.

      Status Codes are 32-bit unsigned integers with the above encoding.
      The Status Codes are defined in this specification.

      A Status Code of 0 signals success.

   Message ID
      If non-zero, 32-bit value that identifies the peer message to
      which the Status TLV refers. If zero, no specific peer message is
      being identified.

   Message Type
      If non-zero, the type of the peer message to which the Status TLV
      refers. If zero, the Status TLV does not refer to any specific
      message type.

3.4 QTP messages

   The messages for the QTP procedures are described in following
   sections.

   The QTP procedures are complex and are difficult to describe fully,
   coherently, and unambiguously as a collection of separate message and
 

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   TLV specifications. Section "QTP Procedures" describes the QTP
   procedures in terms of QTP-Path events that may occur at a Node and
   how the Node must respond. 

   All QTP messages have the following format:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |U|   Message Type              |      Message Length           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                                                               |
   +                                                               +
   |                     Parameters                                |
   +                                                               +
   |                                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   U-bit
      Unknown message bit. When an unknown message is received, if U is
      clear (=0), a notification is returned to the message originator;
      if U is set (=1), the unknown message is silently ignored. The
      sections following that define messages specify a value for the U-
      bit.

   Message Type
      Identifies the type of message.

   Message Length
      Specifies the cumulative length in octets of the Message ID and
      Parameters.

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message. Used by the sending
      Node to facilitate identifying Notification messages that may
      apply to this message. A Node sending a Notification message in
      response to this message SHOULD include this Message ID in the
      Status TLV carried by the Notification message; see Section
      "Notification Message".

   Parameters
      Variable length set of required message parameters. Some messages
      have no required parameters.

      For messages that have required parameters, the required
      parameters MUST appear in the order specified by the individual
 

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      message specifications in the sections that follow. Note that
      there is no alignment requirement for the first octet of a QTP
      message and that there is no padding at the end of a message; that
      is, parameters can end at odd-byte boundaries.

   The following message types are defined in this specification:

          Message Name            Section Title

          Notification            "Notification Message"
          KeepAlive               "KeepAlive Message"
          PID Request             "PID Request Message"
          PID Response            "PID Response Message"
          PID Release             "PID Release Message"

   The sections that follow specify the encodings and procedures for
   these messages.

3.4.1 Notification Message

   A Node sends a Notification message to inform its QTP peer of a
   significant event. A Notification message signals a fatal error or
   provides advisory information such as the outcome of processing a QTP
   message.

   The encoding for the Notification message is:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|   Notification (0x0001)     |      Message Length           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Status (TLV)                              |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     ToP (TLV)                                 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message.

   Status TLV
      Indicates the event being signaled. The encoding for the Status
      TLV is specified in Section "Status TLV".

   ToP TLV
      Indicates the ToP associate with the event being signaled. The
 

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      encoding for the ToP TLV is specified in Section "ToP TLV".

3.4.1.1 Notification Message Procedures

   If a Node encounters a condition requiring it to notify its peer with
   advisory or error information, it sends the peer a Notification
   message containing a Status TLV that encodes the information about
   the condition and a ToP TLV indicating the ToP associate the
   condition.

   If a fatal error occurs, the Status Code carried in the Notification
   will indicate that. In this case, after sending the Notification
   message the Node SHOULD discard all PID-DestPrefix bindings learned
   from the peer.

3.4.1.2 Events Signaled by Notification Messages

   For descriptive purpose, it is useful to classify events signaled by
   Notification messages into the following categories. Note that the
   ToP field is fill with a WildCard ToP TLV if not mentioned in the
   following circumstances.

3.4.1.2.1 Malformed PDU or Message

   A QTP PDU received on a TCP connection is malformed if:

      -  The Node Identifier in the PDU header is unknown to the
         receiver, or it is known but is not the QTP Identifier
         associated by the receiver with the QTP peer. This is a fatal
         error signaled by the Bad QTP Identifier Status Code.

      -  The QTP protocol version is not supported by the receiver. This
         is a fatal error signaled by the Bad Protocol Version Status
         Code.

      -  The PDU Length field is too small (< 12) or too large (>maximum
         PDU length). This is a fatal error signaled by the Bad PDU
         Length Status Code.

   A QTP message is malformed if:

      -  The Message Type is unknown.

         If the Message Type is < 0x8000 (high order bit = 0), it is an
         error signaled by the Unknown Message Type Status Code.

         If the Message Type is >= 0x8000 (high order bit = 1), it is
         silently discarded.
 

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      -  The Message Length is too large indicating that the message
         extends beyond the end of the containing QTP PDU. This is a
         fatal error signaled by the Bad Message Length Status Code.

      -  The Message Length is too small, that is, smaller than the
         smallest possible value component. This is a fatal error
         signaled by the Bad Message Length Status Code.

3.4.1.2.2 Unknown or Malformed TLV

   A TLV contained in a QTP message received on a TCP connection is
   malformed if:

      -  The TLV Length is too large indicating that the TLV extends
         beyond the end of the containing message. This is a fatal error
         signaled by the Bad TLV Length Status Code.

      -  The TLV type is unknown.

         If the TLV type is < 0x8000 (high order bit = 0), it is an
         error signaled by the Unknown TLV Status Code.

         If the TLV type is >= 0x8000 (high order bit = 1), the TLV is
         silently dropped.

      -  The TLV Value is malformed. This occurs when the receiver
         handles the TLV but cannot decode the TLV Value.  It is a fatal
         error signaled by the Malformed TLV Value Status Code.

3.4.1.2.3 Session KeepAlive Timer Expiration

   This is a fatal error signaled by the KeepAlive Timer Expired Status
   Code.

3.4.1.2.4 Unilateral Connection Shutdown

   This is a fatal event signaled by the Shutdown Status Code.

3.4.1.2.5 Events Resulting from Other Messages

   Messages may result in events that must be signaled to QTP peers via
   Notification messages. These events and the Status Codes used in the
   Notification messages to signal them are described in the sections
   that describe these messages.

3.4.1.2.6 Internal Errors

   A QTP implementation may detect problem conditions specific to its
 

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   implementation. When such a condition prevents an implementation from
   interacting correctly with a peer, the implementation should, when
   capable of doing so, use the Internal Error Status Code to signal the
   peer. This is a fatal error.

3.4.1.2.7 Miscellaneous Events

   These are events that fall into none of the categories above. There
   are no miscellaneous events defined in this version of the protocol.

3.4.2 KeepAlive Message

   A Node sends KeepAlive messages as part of a mechanism that monitors
   the integrity of the TCP connection with another peer.

   The encoding for the KeepAlive message is:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|   KeepAlive (0x0101)        |      Message Length           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message.

3.4.2.1 KeepAlive Message Procedures

   The KeepAlive Timer resets a KeepAlive Timer every time a QTP PDU is
   received. The KeepAlive message is provided to allow reset of the
   KeepAlive Timer in circumstances where a Node has no other
   information to communicate to a peer.

   A Node MUST arrange that its peer receive a QTP message of any type
   from it at least every KeepAlive Time period. But a KeepAlive message
   MUST be sent in circumstances where no other QTP protocol messages
   have been sent within the period.

3.4.3 PID Request Message

   A Node sends the PID Request message to a peer to request a binding
   (mapping) for a DestPrefix. The encoding for the PID Request message
   is:

 

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   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|   PID Request (0x0201)    |      Message Length             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     DestPrefix TLV                            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     ToP TLV                                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message.

   DestPrefix TLV
      The DestPrefix for which a PID is being requested.  See Section
      "DestPrefix TLV" for encoding.

   ToP TLV
      The ToP of the QTP being established.  See Section "ToP TLV" for
      encoding.

3.4.3.1 PID Request Message Procedures

   The Request message is used by an upstream Node to request that the
   downstream Node assign and advertise a PID for a DestPrefix of a
   specific ToP.

   A Node may transmit a Request message under any of the following
   conditions:

      1. The Node is informed by the management modular (manually or
         automatically) to establish a QTP for the given DestPrefix and
         the given ToP while it has recognized the DestPrefix via the
         forwarding table with the next hop being a QTP peer and the
         Node not already having a mapping from the next hop for the
         given DestPrefix.

      2. The next hop to the DestPrefix changes, and the Node doesn't
         already have a mapping from that next hop for the given
         DestPrefix.

         Note that if the Node already has a pending PID Request message
         for the new next hop, it SHOULD NOT issue an additional PID
         Request in response to the next hop change.

      3. The Node receives a PID Request for a DestPrefix from an
 

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         upstream peer, the DestPrefix next hop is a QTP peer, and the
         Node doesn't already have a mapping from the next hop.

   The receiving Node SHOULD respond to a PID Request message with a PID
   Response message with a requested PID or with an error status
   indicating why it cannot satisfy the request.

   When the DestPrefix for which a PID is requested is a DestPrefix, the
   receiving Node uses its routing table to determine its response.
   Unless its routing table includes an entry that exactly matches the
   requested Prefix, the Node MUST respond with a No Route Notification
   message.

   This version of the protocol defines the following Status Codes for
   the Notification message that signals a request cannot be satisfied:

      No Route
         The DestPrefix for which a PID was requested includes a
         DestPrefix for which the Node does not have a route.

      No PID Resources
         The Node cannot provide a PID because of resource limitations.
         When resources become available, the Node MUST notify the
         requesting Node by sending a Notification message with the PID
         Resources Available Status Code.

   See Section "QTP Procedures" for more details.

3.4.4 PID Response Message

   A Node sends a PID Response message to a peer to advertise
   DestPrefix-PID bindings to the peer.

   The encoding for the PID Mapping message is:

 

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   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|   PID Mapping (0x0202)    |      Message Length             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     DestPrefix TLV                            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     ToP TLV                                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     PID TLV                                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message.

   DestPrefix TLV
      Specifies the DestPrefix of the DestPrefix-PID mapping being
      advertised. See Section " DestPrefix TLVs" for encoding.

   ToP TLV
      Specifies the ToP of the DestPrefix-PID mapping being advertised.
      See Section " ToP TLVs" for encoding.

   PID TLV
      Specifies the PID component of the DestPrefix-PID mapping. See
      Section "PID TLV" for encoding.

3.4.4.1 PID Response Message Procedures

   The PID Response message is used by a Node to distribute a PID for a
   DestPrefix to a QTP peer.

   A Node is responsible for the consistency of the PID mappings it has
   distributed and that its peers have these mappings.

   A Node receiving a PID Response message from a downstream Node for a
   DestPrefix SHOULD NOT use the PID for forwarding unless its routing
   table contains an entry that exactly matches the DestPrefix.

   See Section "QTP Procedures" for more details.

3.4.5 PID Release Message

   An Node sends a PID Release message to an LDP peer to signal the peer
   that the Node no longer needs specific DestPrefix-PID mappings
   previously requested of and/or advertised by the peer.
 

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   The encoding for the PID Release Message is:

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0|   PID Release (0x0203)      |      Message Length           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     Message ID                                |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     DestPrefix TLV                            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     ToP TLV                                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                     PID TLV                                   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID
      32-bit value used to identify this message.

   DestPrefix TLV
      Identifies the DestPrefix for which the DestPrefix-PID mapping is
      being released.

   ToP TLV
      Identifies the ToP for which the DestPrefix-PID mapping is being
      released.

   PID TLV
      The PID being released (see procedures below).

3.4.5.1 PID Release Message Procedures

   A Node transmits a PID Release message to a peer when it no longer
   needs a PID previously received from or requested of that peer.

   A Node MUST transmit a PID Release message under any of the following
   conditions:

      1. The Node that sent the PID Response message is no longer the
         next hop for the mapped DestPrefix.

      2. The Node receives a PID Response message from a Node that is
         not the next hop for the DestPrefix.

   The DestPrefix TLV specifies the DestPrefix for which PIDs are to be
   released. If a WildCard PID TLV is received, all PIDs associated with
   the DestPrefix and the ToP are to be released; otherwise, only the
 

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   PID specified in the PID TLV is to be released.

   The DestPrefix TLV may contain the Wildcard DestPrefix; In this case,
   if the PID Release message contains a none-WildCard PID TLV, then the
   PID is to be released for all DestPrefixes to which it is bound. If
   there is a WildCard PID TLV in the PID Release message, then the
   sending Node is releasing all PID mappings previously learned from
   the receiving peer of the ToP in the message.

   See Section "QTP Procedures" for more details.

3.5 Summary

3.5.1  Message Summary

   The following are the QTP messages defined in this version of the
   protocol.

      Message Name            Type     Section Title

      Notification            0x0001   "Notification Message"
      KeepAlive               0x0101   "KeepAlive Message"
      PID Request             0x0201   "PID Request Message"
      PID Response            0x0202   "PID Response Message"
      PID Release             0x0203   "PID Release Message"

3.5.2  TLV Summary

   The following are the TLVs defined in this version of the protocol.

      TLV                      Type      Section Title

      DestPrefix               0x0100    "DestPrefix TLV"
      PID                      0x0200    "PID TLV"
      ToP                      0x0300    "ToP TLV"
      Status                   0x0400    "Status TLV"

3.5.3  Status Code Summary

   The following are the Status Codes defined in this version of the
   protocol.

   The "E" column is the required setting of the Status Code E-bit; the
   "Status Data" column is the value of the 32-bit Status Data field in
   the Status Code TLV.

      Status Code           E   Status Data   Section Title

 

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      Success               0   0x00000000    "Status TLV"
      Bad LDP Identifier    1   0x00000001    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Bad Protocol Version  1   0x00000002    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Bad PDU Length        1   0x00000003    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Unknown Message Type  0   0x00000004    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Bad Message Length    1   0x00000005    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Unknown TLV           0   0x00000006    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Bad TLV Length        1   0x00000007    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Malformed TLV Value   1   0x00000008    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Shutdown              1   0x00000009    "Events Signaled by ..."
      Unknown DestPrefix    0   0x0000000A    "DestPrefix TLV"
      No Route              0   0x0000000B    "PID Request Message"
      No PID Resources      0   0x0000000C    "PID Request Message"
      PID Resources/        0   0x0000000D    "PID Request Message"
         Available
      KeepAlive Timer/      1   0x0000000E    "Events Signaled by ..."
         Expired
      Unsupported Address/  0   0x0000000F    "DestPrefix TLV"
         Family
      Internal Error        1   0x00000010    "Events Signaled by ..."

4  QTP Procedure

4.1 Establishment of QTP-Path

4.1.1 The trigger condition of QTP-Path establishing

   When the business is running in the virtual network, the data can be
   transmitted through QTP-Path. After the management plane determines
   establish QTP-Path between two nodes, it carries out the process of
   QTP-Path establishing through the control plane. The determination of
   QTP-Path establishing can be obtained through the management plane's
   gathering business requests and the perception of network status, or
   the network administrator manually configures. Once the establishment
   determination is made, the control plane needs the parameters of QTP-
   Path, i.e. source node, destination node, flow types and so on, after
   obtaining those parameters, the control plane will establish and
   maintain QTP-Path according to the protocol.

4.1.2 Path establishment process

   Path establishment start from the source node, and sends request
   message hop by hop. The node receives the message and judges if it
   meets the requests, if no, the node sends warning message reversely,
   else it continues to send request message to the next node until to
   the destination node. The destination node sends reply message
   reversely along the path to the source node, the establishment of
   QTP-Path is successful. This section describes the establishment
 

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   process in detail.

   A Node processes a received PID Request message as follows:

      1. The Node looks up in the local routing table for the next hop
         of DestPrefix. If the node can not find the next hop, it sends
         Notification message of "No Route", and the process goes to 8.

      2. Check whether the node has established TCP connection with the
         next hop, if not, this node initiates a request for
         establishing the TCP connection, and after the connection is
         done, start KeepAlive timer. If the connection can not be
         established, then the node sends Notification message of
         "ShutDown", and the process goes to 8.

      3. Check whether PIB consists tables of DestPrefix and ToP, and
         judges whether the next hop in PIB is the one in routing
         tables:

         a. If so, insert the PID value of the table to PID Response
            Message, and forward the message to the upstream node, then
            the process goes to 8.

         b. If not,insert the PID value of the table to PID Release,and
            forward the message to the next hop, then delete the table.

      4. Check whether this node supports ToP traffic forwarding, if
         not, forward Notification message of " Internal Error" to the
         upstream node, then the process goes to 8.

      5. Check whether this node has residual PIDs, if not, forward
         Notification message of " No PID Resources" to the upstream
         node, then the process goes to 8.

      6. Forward the message of PID Request message to the next hop, and
         wait to receive the downstream message.

      7. The reply message received from the downstream nodes: 

         a. If the message is PID Response, insert new tables which
            consist of DestPrefix, ToP, PID, NextPID, Nexthop etc.to PIB
            according to the PID value in reply message. Insert the PID
            value locally generated to PID Response Message, and forward
            the message to upstream nodes.

         b. If the message is Notification, then forward the message to
            upstream nodes

 

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      8. Over

4.2. Removal of the QTP-Path

4.2.1 The trigger condition of removal process

   When the management plane determines to remove QTP-Path between two
   nodes, it carries out the removal process of QTP-Path through the
   control plane. The determination of QTP-Path removal can be obtained
   through the perception of network status and learning, or the network
   administrator manually configures. After the removal determination is
   made, the management plane gives the source node, destination node
   and business types, in this way, the control plane can carry out the
   removal process successfully.

4.2.2 QTP-Path removal process

   The removal of QTP-Path starts from the source node and sends removal
   message along the path.

   The procedure in which node processes PID Release message is as
   follows:

      1. If the message comes from upstream nodes, forward it to
         downstream nodes; if it comes from downstream nodes; forward it
         to upstream nodes.

      2. If the value of PID equals to the value of WildCard, delete the
         tables in PIB which meets DestPrefix and ToP, else delete the
         tables in PIB which meets DestPrefix, ToP and PID

4.3. QTP-Path adjustment process

4.3.1 The trigger condition of QTP-Path adjustment

   When the management plane determines to adjust QTP-Path between two
   nodes, it carries out the adjustment process of QTP-Path through the
   control plane. The determination of QTP-Path adjustment can be
   obtained through the management plane's gathering business requests
   and the perception of network status, or the network administrator
   manually configures. Under the two conditions below, the management
   plane will adjust QTP-Path:

      1. A link of QTP-Path fails.

      2. A link or a section of QTP-Path congests, resulting in that
         data transmission can not meet business needs. Once the
         adjustment determination is made, the control plane needs the
 

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         parameters of QTP-Path, e.g. source node, destination node,
         business types etc., after obtaining those parameters, the
         control plane will adjust QTP-Path according to the protocol.

4.3.2 QTP-Path Adjustment Process

   When the management plane determines to adjust QTP-Path between two
   nodes, it sends QTP-Path establishment message to source nodes, then
   the source node sends PID Request message to downstream nodes. The
   adjustment process is similar to the establishment process. Because
   the adjustment of QTP-Path is based on the link availability or QoS
   performance, the adjustment process depends on the routing protocol
   on the node.

5  Security Considerations

   TBA.

6  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

7  References

7.1  Normative References

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

   [RFC4594]  Babiarz, J., Chan, K., and F. Baker, "Configuration
              Guidelines for DiffServ Service Classes", RFC 4594, August
              2006.

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

   [I-D.sridharan-virtualization-nvgre] Sridharan, M., Greenberg, A.,
              Venkataramaiah, N., Wang, Y., Duda, K., Ganga, I., Lin,
              G., Pearson, M., Thaler, P., and C. Tumuluri, "NVGRE:
              Network Virtualization using Generic Routing
              Encapsulation", draft-sridharan-virtualization-nvgre-02
              (work in progress), February 2013.

7.2  Informative References

   [EVILBIT]  Bellovin, S., "The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header",
              RFC 3514, April 1 2003.
 

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   [RFC5513]  Farrel, A., "IANA Considerations for Three Letter
              Acronyms", RFC 5513, April 1 2009.

   [RFC5514]  Vyncke, E., "IPv6 over Social Networks", RFC 5514, April 1
              2009.

Authors' Addresses

   Julong Lan
   National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological
   Research Center
   NDSC, No.7 , Jianxue Street,Jinshui District
   Zhengzhou, 450002
   P.R.China

   Phone: +86-371-8163-2988
   Email: ndscljl@163.com
   URI: http://www.ndsc.com.cn/

   Dongnian Cheng
   National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological
   Research Center
   NDSC, No.7 , Jianxue Street,Jinshui District
   Zhengzhou, 450002
   P.R.China

   Phone: +86-371-8163-2743
   Email: cdn@mail.ndsc.com.cn
   URI: http://www.ndsc.com.cn/

   Yuxiang Hu
   National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological 
   Research Center
   NDSC, No.7 , Jianxue Street,Jinshui District
   Zhengzhou, 450002
   P.R.China

   Phone: +86-371-8163-2737
   Email: chxachxa@126.com

   Guozhen Cheng
   National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological 
 

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   Research Center
   NDSC, No.7 , Jianxue Street,Jinshui District
   Zhengzhou, 450002
   P.R.China

   Phone: +86-371-8163-2725
   Email: chengguozhen1986@163.com

   Tong Duan
   National Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological 
   Research Center
   NDSC, No.7 , Jianxue Street,Jinshui District
   Zhengzhou, 450002
   P.R.China

   Phone: +86-371-8163-2846
   Email: duantong21@126.com

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