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Dynamic-Anycast Architecture
draft-li-dyncast-architecture-03

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Yizhou Li , Luigi Iannone , Dirk Trossen , Peng Liu , Cheng Li
Last updated 2022-03-07 (Latest revision 2022-03-04)
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draft-li-dyncast-architecture-03
rtgwg                                                              Y. Li
Internet-Draft                                                L. Iannone
Intended status: Informational                                D. Trossen
Expires: 8 September 2022                            Huawei Technologies
                                                                  P. Liu
                                                            China Mobile
                                                                   C. Li
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                            7 March 2022

                      Dynamic-Anycast Architecture
                    draft-li-dyncast-architecture-03

Abstract

   This document describes a proposal for an architecture for the
   Dynamic-Anycast (Dyncast).  It includes an architecture overview,
   main components that shall exist, and the workflow.  An example of
   workflow is provided, focusing on the load-balance multi-edge based
   service use-case, where load is distributed in terms of both
   computing and networking resources through the dynamic anycast
   architecture.

Status of This Memo

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

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

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 8 September 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Architecture Main Concepts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Dyncast Architecture Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.1.  Service Notification/Metrics Update . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.2.  Service Demand Dispatch and Instance Affinity . . . . . .  10
   5.  Dyncast Control-plane vs Data-plane operations  . . . . . . .  11
   6.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   9.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   10. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13

1.  Introduction

   Edge computing is expanding from a single edge nodes to multiple
   networked collaborating edge nodes to solve the issues like response
   time, resource optimization, and network efficiency.

   The current network architecture in edge computing provides
   relatively static service dispatching, for example, to the closest
   edge from an IGP perspective, or to the server with the most
   computing resources without considering the network status, and even
   sometimes just based on static configuration.

   Networking taking into account computing resource metrics seems to be
   an interesting paradigm that fits numbers of use-cases that would
   benefit from such capability [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases].  Yet,
   more investigation is still needed in key areas for this paradigm
   and, to this end, this document aims at providing an architectural
   framework, which will enable service notification, status update, and
   service dispatch in edge computing..

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   The Dyncast architecture presents an anycast based service and access
   model addressing the problematic aspects of existing network layer
   edge computing service deployment, including the unawareness of
   computing resource information of service, static edge selection,
   isolated network and computing metrics and/or slow refresh of status.

   Dyncast assumes that there are multiple equivalent service instances
   running on different edge nodes, globally providing (from a logical
   point of view) one single service.  A single edge may have limited
   computing resources available, and different edges likely have
   different resources available, such as CPU or GPU.  The main
   principle of Dyncast is that multiple edge nodes are interconnected
   and collaborate with each other to achieve a holistic objective,
   namely to dispatch service demands taking into account both service
   instances status as well as network state (e.g., paths length and
   their congestion).  For this, computing resources available to serve
   a request is one of the top metrics to be considered.  At the same
   time, the quality of the network path to an edge node may vary over
   time and may hence be another key attribute to be considered for said
   dispatching of service demands.

2.  Definition of Terms

   Dyncast:  As defined in [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases], Dynamic
     Anycast, taking the dynamic nature of computing resource metrics
     into account to steer an anycast routing decision.

   Service:  As defined in [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases], a monolithic
     functionality that is provided by an endpoint according to the
     specification for said service.  A composite service can be built
     by orchestrating monolithic services.

   Service instance:  As defined in [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases],
     running environment (e.g., a node) that makes the functionality of
     a service available.  One service can have several instances
     running at different network locations.

   D-Router:  A node supporting Dyncast functionalities as described in
     this document.  Namely it is able to understand both network-
     related and service-instances-related metrics, take forwarding
     decision based upon and manitain instance affinity, i.e., forwards
     packets belonging to the same service demand to the same instance.

   D-MA:  Dyncast Metric Agent (D-MA): A dyncast specific agent able to
     gather and send metric updates (from both network and instance
     prespective) but not performing forwarding decisions.  May run on a
     D-Router, but it can be also implementated as a separate module
     (e.g., a software library) collocated with a service instance.

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   D-SID:  Dyncast Service ID, an identifier representing a service,
     which the clients use to access said service.  Such identifier
     identifies all of the instances of the same service, no matter on
     where they are actually running.  D-SID is independent of which
     service instance serves the service demand.  Usually multiple
     instances provide a (logically) single service, and service demands
     are dispatched to the different instance through an anycast model,
     i.e., choosing one instance among all available instances.

   D-BID:  Dyncast Binding ID, an address to reach a service instance
     for a given D-SID.  It is usually a unicast IP where service
     instances are attached.  Different service instances provide the
     same service identified through D-SID but with different Dyncast
     Binding IDs.

   Service demand:  The demand for a specific service and addressed to a
     specific D-SID.

   Service request:  The request for a specific service and addressed to
     a specific service instance identified with D-BID.

3.  Architecture Main Concepts

   Dyncast assumes that there are multiple equivalent service instances
   running on different edge sites, globally providing one single
   service which is represented by D-SID.  The network will take
   forwarding decision for the service demand from the client according
   to both service instances status as well as network state.

   The architecture of Dyncast has two typical modes, distributed or
   centralized.

   *  Distributed mode: The resources and status of the different
      service instances are propagated from the D-Routers connecting the
      edge sites where the service is deployed to the D-Routers with
      clients.  In addition D-Routers have the network topology and
      status.  The ingress D-Router which receives the service demand
      from the client decides independently which service instance to
      access according to the service instances status and network state
      and maintains instance affinity.

   *  Centralized mode: The resources and status of the different
      service instances are reported to the network controller from the
      D-Routers connecting the edge sites where the service is deployed.
      At the same time the controller collects the network topology and
      status.  The controller makes routing decisions for each ingress
      D-Router according to the service instances status and network
      state and downloads the decisions to all the ingress D-Routers.

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      When the ingress D-Router receives the service demand from the
      client, it selects which service instance to access according to
      the decision made by the controller, and maintains the instance
      affinity subsequently.

   This document mainly introduces the detailed process of the
   distributed mode, and the centralized mode will be introduced in
   detail in the future.

   Edge sites (edges for short) are normally the sites where edge
   computing is performed.  Service instances are initiated at different
   edge sites.  Thus, a single service can actually have a significant
   number of instances running on different edges.  A Dyncast Service ID
   (D-SID) is used to uniquely identify a service (e.g., a matrix
   computation for face recognition, or a game server).  Service
   instances can be hosted on servers, virtual machines, access routers
   or gateway in edge data center.

   Close to (one or more) Service instances is the Dyncast Metric Agent
   (D-MA).  This element has the task to gather information about
   resources and status of the different instances as well as network-
   related information.  Such element may also run in a dyncast-enable
   router (named D-Router), while other deployment scenarios may lead to
   this element running separately on edge nodes.

   A D-Router is actually the main element in a Dyncast network,
   providing the capability to exchange the information about the
   computing resources information of service instances which have been
   gathered through D-MAs.  A D-Router can also be a service access
   point for clients.  When a service demand arrives, it will be
   delivered to the most appropriate service instance.  A service demand
   may be the first packet of a data flow rather than an explicit out of
   band service request.  This architectural document does not make any
   specific assumption on this matter.  This documents only assumes
   that:

   *  D-Routers are able to identify new service demands.  The Dyncast
      architecture presented in this document allows then to deliver
      such a packet to the most appropriate service instance according
      to information received from D-MAs and other D-Routers.

   *  D-Router are able to identify packets belonging to an existing
      service demand.  The Dyncast architecture presented in this
      document allows to deliver these packets always to the same
      service instance selected at the initial service demand.  We term
      this capability as 'instance affinity'.

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   Note: As described above, D-Router can make routing decision based on
   per-service-instance computing-aware information.  Actually, the
   D-Router can make the decison based on per-site computing-aware
   information.  In this case, the egress D-Router can send the packet
   to the specific instance based on local policy, Load balancing, etc.
   This will be described in the future.

   The element introduced above are depicted in Figure 1, which shows
   the proposed Dyncast architecture.  In Figure 1, the "infrastructure"
   indicates the general IP infrastructure that does not necessarily
   need to support Dyncats, i.e., not all routers of the infrastructure
   need to be D-Routers.

       edge site 1          edge site 2            edge site 3

        +------------+                          +------------+
      +------------+ |                        +------------+ |
      |  service   | |                        |  service   | |
      |  instance  |-+                        |  instance  |-+
      +------------+                          +------------+
            |                                        |
       +----------+                                  |
       |   D-MA   |                                  |
       +----------+                             +----------+
            |           +-----------------+     |   D-MA   |
       +----------+     |                 |     +----------+
       |D-Router 1| ----|  Infrastructure |---- |D-Router 3|
       +----------+     |                 |     +----------+
            |           +-----------------+          |
            |                    |                   |
            |                    |                   |
            |               +----------+             |
            |               |D-Router 2|             |
            |               +----------+             |
            |                    |                   |
            |                    |                   |
         +-----+              +------+           +------+
       +------+|            +------+ |         +------+ |
       |client|+            |client|-+         |client|-+
       +------+             +------+           +------+

                      Figure 1: Dyncast Architecture.

   Figure 2 shows an example of Dyncast deployment, with 2 service
   instantiated twice (2 instances) on two different edges, namely edge
   site 2 and 3.  Those service instances utilize different D-BIDs to
   serve service demands.  D-Router 1 doesn't connect the edge site

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   directly and needn't collect the metric updates by D-MA.  But it has
   client to access and need to take forwarding decision for the client.
   D-Router 2 gets metric updates by D-MA which runs on it.  Edge site 2
   has client present, so D-Router 2 need to take forwarding decision.
   D-Router 3 gets metric updates from D-MA which is a separate software
   module on edge computing platform in edge site 3.  No client is
   present at edge site 3, so D-Router 3 doesn't need take forwarding
   decision.

    D-SID: Dyncast Service ID
    D-BID: Dyncast Binding ID

            Service/Metrics Information
            (D-SID 1, D-BID 21, <metrics>)
            (D-SID 2, D-BID 22, <metrics>)
           <----------------->

                                 +-------+
                               +-------+ |           D-SID 1
                               |Clients|-+         +--------+
                               +-------+        +--|D-BID 21| instance 1
                                   |            |  +--------+
                             +----------+----+  |              Edge 2
                             |D-Router 2|D-MA|--|    D-SID 2
                             +----------+----+  |  +--------+
                                   |            +--|D-BID 22| instance 2
                           +----------------+      +--------+
                           |                |
                           |                |
   +------+  +----------+  |                |
   |Client|--|D-Router 1|--| Infrastructure |
   +------+  +----------+  |                |
                           |                |       D-SID 2
                           |                |      +--------+
                           +----------------+  +---|D-BID 32| instance 3
                                   |           |   +--------+
                             +----------+  +------+            Edge 3
                             |D-Router 3| -| D-MA |
                             +----------+  +------+  D-SID 1
                                               |   +--------+
                                               +---|D-BID 31| instance 4
                                                   +--------+

           <---------------------------------->
              (D-SID 2, D-BID 32, <metrics>)
              (D-SID 1, D-BID 31, <metrics>)
               Service/Metrics Information

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                   Figure 2: Dyncast deployment example.

   In Figure 2, the Dyncast Service ID (D-SID) follows an anycast
   semantic, such as provided through an IP anycast address.  It is used
   to access a specific service no matter which service instance
   eventually handles the service demand of the client.  Clients or
   other entities which want to access a service need to know about its
   D-SID in advance.  It can be achieved in different ways, for example,
   using a special range of addresses associated to a certain service or
   coding of anycast IP address as D-SID, or using DNS.

   The Dyncast Binding ID (D-BID) is a unicast IP address.  It is
   usually the interface IP address through to reach a specific service
   instance.  Mapping and binding a D-SID to a D-BID is dynamic and
   depends on the computing and network status at the time the service
   demand first arrives (see Section 4.1 for the reporting of such
   status).  To ensure instance affinity, D-Routers are requested to
   remember the instance that has been selected (e.g., by storing the
   mapping) for delivering all packets to the same instance (see
   Section 4.2 for discussing this aspect).

4.  Dyncast Architecture Workflow

   The following subsections provide an overview of how the
   architectural elements introduced in the previous section do work
   together.

4.1.  Service Notification/Metrics Update

   When a service instance is instantiated/terminated the service
   information consisting in the mapping between the D-SID and the D-BID
   has to be updated/deleteted as well.  An update can also be triggered
   by a change in relevant metrics (e.g., an instance becomes
   overloaded).  Computing resource information of service instance is
   key information in Dyncast.  Some of them may be relatively static
   like CPU/GPU capacity, and some may be very dynamic, for example,
   CPU/GPU utilization, number of sessions associated, number of queuing
   requests.  Changes in service-related relevant information has to be
   collected by D-MA associated to each service instance.  Various ways
   can be used, for example, via routing protocols like EBGP or via an
   API of a management system.  Conceptually a D-Router collects
   information coming from D-MA and keeps track of the IDs and computing
   metrics of all service instances.

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   Figure 2 shows an example of information shared by the Dyncast
   elements.  The D-MA which is deployed with D-Router2 shares binding
   information concerning the two instances of the two services running
   on edge 2 (upper right hand side of the figure).  These information
   is:

   *  (D-SID 1, D-BID 21, metrics)

   *  (D-SID 2, D-BID 22, metrics)

   The D-MA which is deployed as a separate module on edge 3 (lower
   right hand side of the figure) shares binding information concerning
   the two instances of the two services running on edge 3.  These
   information is:

   *  (D-SID 1, D-BID 31, metrics)

   *  (D-SID 2, D-BID 32, metrics)

   Dyncast nodes share among themselves the service information
   including the associated computing metrics for the service instances
   attached to them.  As a network node, a D-Router can also monitor the
   network cost or metrics (e.g., congestion) to reach other D-Routers.
   This is the focus of Dyncast control plane.  Different mechanisms can
   be used to share such information, for instance BGP ([RFC4760]), an
   IGP, or a controller based mechanism.  The specific mechanism is
   beyond the scope of this document.  The architecture assumes that the
   Dyncast elements are able to share relevant information.

   If, for instance, the client on the left hand side of Figure 2 sends
   a service demand for D-SID1, D-Router1 has the knowledge of the
   status of the service instance on both edge 2 and edge 3 and can make
   a decision toward which D-BID to forward the demand.

   There are different ways to represent the computing metrics.  A
   single digitalized value calculated from weighted attributes like
   CPU/GPU consumption and/or number of sessions associated may be used
   for simplicity reasons.  However, it may not accurately reflect the
   computing resources of interest.  Multi-dimensional values give finer
   information.  This architectural document does not make any specific
   assumption about metrics and how to encode or even use them.  As
   stated in Section 3, the only assumption is that a D-Router is able
   to use such metrics so to take a decision when a service demand
   arrives in order to map the demand onto a suitable service request.

   As explained in the problem statement document
   [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases], computing metrics may change very
   frequently, when and how frequent such information should be

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   exchanged among Dyncats elements should be determined also in
   accordance with the distribution protocol used for such purpose.  A
   spectrum of approaches can be employed,such as interval based
   updates, threshold triggered updates, policy based updates, etc.

4.2.  Service Demand Dispatch and Instance Affinity

   This is the focus of the Dyncast data plane.  When a new flow
   (representing a service demand) arrives at a Dyncast ingress, such
   ingress node selects the most appropriate egress according to the
   network status and the computing resource of the attached service
   instances.

   Instance affinity is one of the key features that Dyncast should
   support.  It means that packets from the same 'flow' for a service
   should always be sent to the same egress to be processed by the same
   service instance.  The affinity is determined at the time of newly
   formulated service demand.

   It is worth noting that different services may have different notions
   of what constitutes a 'flow' and may thus identify a flow
   differently.  Typically a flow is identified by the 5-tuple value.
   However, for instance, an RTP video streaming may use different port
   numbers for video and audio, and it may be identified as two flows if
   5-tuple flow identifier is used.  However they certainly should be
   treated by the same service instance.  Therefore a 3-tuple based flow
   identifier is more suitable for this case.  Hence, it is desired to
   provide certain level of flexibility in identifying flows, or from a
   more general perspective, in identifying the set of packets for which
   to apply instance affinity.  More importantly, the means for
   identifying a flow for the purpose of ensuring instance affinity must
   be application-independent to avoid the need for service-specific
   instance affinity methods.

   Specifically, Instance affinity information should be configurable on
   a per-service basis.  For each service, the information can include
   the flow/packets identification type and means, affinity timeout
   value, and etc.  For instance, the affinity configuration can
   indicate what are the values, e.g., 5-tuple or 3-tuple, to be used as
   the flow identifier.

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   When the most appropriate egress and service instance is determined
   when a new flow for a service demand arrives, a binding table should
   save this association between new service demand and service instance
   selection.  The information in such binding table may include flow/
   packets identification, affinity timeout value, etc.  The subsequent
   packets matching the entry are forwarded based on the table.
   Figure 3 shows a possible example of flow binding table at the
   ingress D-Router.

   +-----------------------------------------+----------------+--------+
   |       Flow/Packets Identifier           |                |        |
   +------+--------+---------+--------+------+  D-BID egress  | timeout|
   |src_IP| dst_IP |src_port |dst_port|proto |                |        |
   +------+--------+---------+--------+------+----------------+--------+
   | X    | D-SID 2|   -     |  8888  | tcp  |    D-BID  32   |  xxx   |
   +------+--------+---------+--------+------+----------------+--------+
   | Y    | D-SID 2|   -     |  8888  | tcp  |    D-BID  12   |  xxx   |
   +------+--------+---------+--------+------+----------------+--------+

          Figure 3: Example of what a binding table can look like.

5.  Dyncast Control-plane vs Data-plane operations

   In summary, Dyncast consists of the following Control-plane and Data-
   plane operations:

   *  Dyncast Control Plane:

      -  Dyncast Service ID Notification: the D-SID, an anycast IP
         address, should be available and known.  This can be achieved
         in different ways.  For example, use a special range or coding
         of anycast IP address as service IDs or using the DNS.

      -  Dyncast Binding ID Notification: the mapping of (D-SID, D-BID),
         i.e., service ID and the binding address, should be notified to
         the D-Routers when the service instance starts (or stops).
         Various ways can be used, for example, EBGP or management
         system notification.

      -  Metrics Notification: D-MA have to be able to share the metrics
         for a service and its binding ID so that D-Routers can select
         the "best" instance for each new service demand.

   *  Dyncast Data Plane:

      -  New service demand: an ingress D-Router selects the most
         appropriate egress in terms of the network status and the
         computing resources of the instances of the requested service.

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      -  Instance Affinity: Make sure the subsequent packets of an
         existing service demand are always delivered to the same
         service instance so that they can be served by the same service
         instance.

6.  Summary

   This draft introduces a Dyncast architecture that enables the service
   demand to be sent to an optimal service instance.  It can dynamically
   adapt to the computing resources consumption and network status
   change.  Dyncast is a network based architecture that supports a
   large number of edges and is independent of the applications or
   services hosted on the edge.

   More discussion and input on control plane and data plane approach
   are welcome.

7.  Security Considerations

   The computing resource information changes over time very frequent
   with the creation and termination of service instance.  When such
   information is carried in routing protocol, too many updates can make
   the network fluctuate.  Control plane approach should take it into
   considerations.

   More thorough security analysis to be provided in future revisions.

8.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not make any request to IANA.

9.  Contributors

   Huijuan Yao

   yaohuijuan@chinamobile.com

   China Mobile

   Xia Chen

   jescia.chenxia@huawei.com

   Huawei

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10.  Informative References

   [RFC4760]  Bates, T., Chandra, R., Katz, D., and Y. Rekhter,
              "Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4", RFC 4760,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4760, January 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4760>.

   [I-D.liu-dyncast-ps-usecases]
              Liu, P., Willis, P., Trossen, D., and C. Li, "Dynamic-
              Anycast (Dyncast) Use Cases & Problem Statement", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-liu-dyncast-ps-usecases-
              02, 17 January 2022, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/
              draft-liu-dyncast-ps-usecases-02.txt>.

Acknowledgements

   TBD

Authors' Addresses

   Yizhou Li
   Huawei Technologies
   Email: liyizhou@huawei.com

   Luigi Iannone
   Huawei Technologies
   Email: Luigi.iannone@huawei.com

   Dirk Trossen
   Huawei Technologies
   Email: dirk.trossen@huawei.com

   Peng Liu
   China Mobile
   Email: liupengyjy@chinamobile.com

   Cheng Li
   Huawei Technologies
   Email: c.l@huawei.com

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