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Segment Routing for End-to-End IETF Network Slicing
draft-li-spring-sr-e2e-ietf-network-slicing-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Zhenbin Li , Jie Dong , Ran Pang , Yongqing Zhu
Last updated 2021-10-25
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draft-li-spring-sr-e2e-ietf-network-slicing-01
Network Working Group                                              Z. Li
Internet-Draft                                                   J. Dong
Intended status: Standards Track                     Huawei Technologies
Expires: 28 April 2022                                           R. Pang
                                                            China Unicom
                                                                  Y. Zhu
                                                           China Telecom
                                                         25 October 2021

          Segment Routing for End-to-End IETF Network Slicing
             draft-li-spring-sr-e2e-ietf-network-slicing-01

Abstract

   Network slicing can be used to meet the connectivity and performance
   requirement of different services or customers in a shared network.
   An IETF network slice can be realized as enhanced VPNs (VPN+), which
   is delivered by integrating the overlay VPN service with a Virtual
   Transport Network (VTN) as the underlay.  An end-to-end IETF network
   slice may span multiple network domains.  Within each domain, traffic
   of the end-to-end network slice service is mapped to a local VTN.

   When segment routing (SR) is used to build a multi-domain IETF
   network slice, information of the local network slices in each domain
   can be specified using special SR binding segments called VTN binding
   segments (VTN BSID).  The multi-domain IETF network slice can be
   specified using a list of VTN BSIDs in the packet, each of which can
   be used by the corresponding domain edge nodes to steer the traffic
   of end-to-end IETF network slice into the specific VTN in the local
   domain.

   This document describes the functionality of VTN binding segment and
   its instantiation in SR-MPLS and SRv6.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

Status of This Memo

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

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 28 April 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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
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   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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   provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Segment Routing for IETF E2E Network Slicing  . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  SRv6 VTN Binding Functions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  End.VTN.Encaps  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  End.BVTN.Encaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.3.  End.B6VTN.Encaps  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   4.  SR-MPLS VTN BSIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices] introduces the concept and the
   characteristics of IETF network slice, and describes a general
   framework for IETF network slice management and operation.

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   [I-D.ietf-teas-enhanced-vpn] describes the framework and the
   candidate component technologies for providing enhanced VPN (VPN+)
   services based on existing VPN and Traffic Engineering (TE)
   technologies with enhanced characteristics that specific services
   require above traditional VPNs.  It also introduces the concept of
   Virtual Transport Network (VTN).  A Virtual Transport Network (VTN)
   is a virtual underlay network which consists of a set of dedicated or
   shared network resources allocated from the physical underlay
   network, and is associated with a customized logical network
   topology.  VPN+ services can be delivered by mapping one or a group
   of overlay VPNs to the appropriate VTNs as the underlay, so as to
   provide the network characteristics required by the customers.
   Enhanced VPN (VPN+) and VTN can be used for the realization of IETF
   network slices.

   [I-D.dong-teas-enhanced-vpn-vtn-scalability] describes the
   scalability considerations in the control plane and data plane to
   enable VPN+ services, and provide the suggestions to improve the
   scalability of VTN.  In the control plane, It proposes the approach
   of decoupling the topology and resource attributes of VTN, so that
   multiple VTNs may share the same topology and the result of topology
   based path computation.  In the data plane, it proposes to carry a
   VTN-ID of a network domain in the data packet to determine the set of
   resources reserved for the corresponding VTN.

   An IETF network slice may span multiple network domains.  Within each
   domain, traffic of the end-to-end network slice is mapped to a local
   network slice.  The VTN-ID which identifies the virtual underlay
   network in the local domain for the end-to-end network slice needs to
   be determined on the domain edge node.

   When segment routing (SR) is used to build a multi-domain IETF
   network slice, information of the local network slices in each domain
   can be specified using special SR binding segments called VTN binding
   segments (VTN BSID).  The multi-domain IETF network slice can be
   specified using a list of VTN BSIDs in the packet, each of which can
   be used by the corresponding domain edge nodes to steer the traffic
   of end-to-end IETF network slice using the specific resource-aware
   segments or VTN-ID of the local domain.

   This document describes the functionality of the network slice
   binding segment and its instantiation in SR-MPLS and SRv6.

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2.  Segment Routing for IETF E2E Network Slicing

   [I-D.dong-teas-enhanced-vpn-vtn-scalability] describes the
   scalability considerations in the control plane and data plane to
   enable VPN+ services.  In data plane, it proposes to carry a
   dedicated VTN-ID in data packet to determine the set of resources
   reserved for the corresponding VTN in a network domain.

   [I-D.li-teas-e2e-ietf-network-slicing] describes the framework of
   carrying network slice related identifiers in the data plane, each of
   the network slice IDs may have a different network scope.  It
   provides an approach of mapping the global VTN-ID to local VTN-IDs at
   the network domain edge nodes.

   With Segment Routing, there are several optional approaches to
   realize the mapping between the end-to-end network slice and the
   network slice constructs in the local domain.

   1.  The first approach is to use one type of VTN binding segment to
       specify the mapping of traffic to a list of resource-aware
       segments of a local VTN.

   2.  The second approach is to use one type of VTN binding segment to
       determine a local VTN-ID, and instruct the encapsulation of the
       local VTN-ID into the packet at the domain edge node.

   3.  The third approach is to use one type of VTN binding segment to
       specify the mapping of traffic to a local VTN, the local VTN-ID
       is specified in the associated fields by the ingress node, and is
       encapsulated into the packet at the domain edge node.

   4.  The fourth approach is to use one type of VTN binding segment to
       specify the mapping of traffic to a SR policy which is bound to a
       local VTN.

   The function of the first type of VTN binding segment is similar to
   the function of the existing binding segment, the difference is it is
   associated with a particular VTN.  The other types of the VTN binding
   segments are different from the existing binding segment, and their
   instantiation in SR-MPLS and SRv6 are described in the following
   sections.

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3.  SRv6 VTN Binding Functions

   [RFC8986] defines the SRv6 Network Programming concept and specifies
   the base set of SRv6 behaviors.  The SRv6 End.B6.Encaps function is
   defined to instantiate the Binding SID in SRv6, which can be used as
   the first type of VTN binding function to specify the mapping of
   traffic to a list of resource-aware SRv6 segments of a local VTN.

   [I-D.dong-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id] describes the mechanism of
   carrying the VTN-ID of a network domain in the IPv6 Hop-by-Hop (HBH)
   extension header.  For the type 2, 3, 4 of VTN binding segments
   described in section 2, three new SRv6 Binding functions are defined
   in the following sections.

3.1.  End.VTN.Encaps

   A new SRv6 function called End.VTN.Encaps is defined.  This is a
   variation of the End behavior.  It instructs the endpoint node to
   determine the corresponding VTN-ID of the local domain based on the
   mapping relationship between the End.VTN.Encaps SID and the VTNs
   maintained on the endpoint.  The VTN-ID is encapsulated in the VTN-ID
   option in the IPv6 HBH extension header.

   Any SID instance of this behavior is associated with one VTN-ID V and
   a source address A.

   When node N receives a packet whose IPv6 DA is S, and S is a local
   End.VTN.Encaps SID, N does the following:

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   S01. When an SRH is processed {
   S02.   If (Segments Left == 0) {
   S03.      Stop processing the SRH, and proceed to process the next
                header in the packet, whose type is identified by
                the Next Header field in the routing header.
   S04.   }
   S05.   If (IPv6 Hop Limit <= 1) {
   S06.      Send an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Hop limit exceeded in transit),
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S07.   }
   S08.   max_LE = (Hdr Ext Len / 2) - 1
   S09.   If ((Last Entry > max_LE) or (Segments Left > Last Entry+1)) {
   S10.      Send an ICMP Parameter Problem to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Erroneous header field encountered)
                and Pointer set to the Segments Left field,
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S11.   }
   S12.   Decrement IPv6 Hop Limit by 1
   S13.   Decrement Segments Left by 1
   S14.   Update IPv6 DA with Segment List [Segments Left]
   S15.   Set the VTN-ID option to V in the HBH Ext header
   S16.   Submit the packet to the egress IPv6 FIB lookup for
             transmission to the new destination
   S17. }

3.2.  End.BVTN.Encaps

   A new SRv6 function called End.BVTN.Encaps: Endpoint bound to a VTN
   with IPv6 encapsulation is defined.  This is a variation of the End
   behavior.  For the End.BVTN SID, its corresponding VTN-ID should be
   specified and encapsulated by the ingress node of SRv6 Path.  It
   instructs the endpoint node to obtain the corresponding VTN-ID from
   the SRH, and encapsulate it in the VTN-ID option in the IPv6 HBH
   extension header.  Through the End.BVTN.Encaps, the ingress node can
   flexibly specify the local VTN the packet traverses in the network.

   Any SID instance of this behavior is associated with one VTN-ID V and
   a source address A.

   There can be several options to carry the local VTN-ID corresponding
   to the End.BVTN.Encaps function:

   1.  The VTN-ID is carried in the argument field of the
       End.BVTN.Encaps SID.

   2.  The VTN-ID is carried in the SRH TLV field.

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   3.  The VTN-ID is carried in the next SID following the
       End.BVTN.Encaps SID in the SID list.

   Editor's note: In the current version of this document, option 1 is
   preferred, in which the local VTN-ID is carried in the argument field
   of the SRv6 SID.

   When an ingress node of an SR path encapsulates the End.BVTN.Encaps
   SID into the packet, it SHOULD put the VTN-ID which the packet is
   expected to be mapped to into the argument part of the SID.

   When node N receives a packet whose IPv6 DA is S, and S is a local
   End.BVTN.Encaps SID, N does the following:

   S01. When an SRH is processed {
   S02.   If (Segments Left == 0) {
   S03.      Stop processing the SRH, and proceed to process the next
                header in the packet, whose type is identified by
                the Next Header field in the routing header.
   S04.   }
   S05.   If (IPv6 Hop Limit <= 1) {
   S06.      Send an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Hop limit exceeded in transit),
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S07.   }
   S08.   max_LE = (Hdr Ext Len / 2) - 1
   S09.   If ((Last Entry > max_LE) or (Segments Left > Last Entry+1)) {
   S10.      Send an ICMP Parameter Problem to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Erroneous header field encountered)
                and Pointer set to the Segments Left field,
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S11.   }
   S12.   Obtain the VTN-ID V from the argument part of the IPv6 DA
   S13.   Decrement IPv6 Hop Limit by 1
   S14.   Decrement Segments Left by 1
   S15.   Update IPv6 DA with Segment List [Segments Left]
   S16.   Set the VTN-ID option to V in the HBH Ext header
   S17.   Submit the packet to the egress IPv6 FIB lookup for
             transmission to the new destination
   S18. }

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3.3.  End.B6VTN.Encaps

   A new SRv6 function called End.B6VTN.Encaps: Endpoint bound to a SRv6
   Policy in a VTN with IPv6 encapsulation is defined in this section.
   This is a variation of the End behavior.  It instructs the endpoint
   node to determine an SRv6 Policy in a specific VTN of the local
   domain, and encapsulate the SID list of the SR Policy and the VTN-ID
   in a new IPv6 header.

   Any SID instance of this behavior is associated with an SR Policy B,
   a VTN-ID V and a source address A.

   When node N receives a packet whose IPv6 DA is S, and S is a local
   End.B6VTN.Encaps SID, N does the following:

   S01. When an SRH is processed {
   S02.   If (Segments Left == 0) {
   S03.      Stop processing the SRH, and proceed to process the next
                header in the packet, whose type is identified by
                the Next Header field in the routing header.
   S04.   }
   S05.   If (IPv6 Hop Limit <= 1) {
   S06.      Send an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Hop limit exceeded in transit),
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S07.   }
   S08.   max_LE = (Hdr Ext Len / 2) - 1
   S09.   If ((Last Entry > max_LE) or (Segments Left > Last Entry+1)) {
   S10.      Send an ICMP Parameter Problem to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Erroneous header field encountered)
                and Pointer set to the Segments Left field,
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S11.   }
   S12.   Decrement IPv6 Hop Limit by 1
   S13.   Decrement Segments Left by 1
   S14.   Update IPv6 DA with Segment List [Segments Left]
   S15.   Push a new IPv6 header with its own SRH containing B, and
           the VTN-ID option set to V in the HBH Ext header
   S16.   Set the outer IPv6 SA to A
   S17.   Set the outer IPv6 DA to the first SID of B
   S18.   Set the outer Payload Length, Traffic Class, Flow Label,
             Hop Limit, and Next Header fields
   S19.   Submit the packet to the egress IPv6 FIB lookup for
             transmission to the new destination
   S20. }

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4.  SR-MPLS VTN BSIDs

   [I-D.li-mpls-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id] describes the mechanism of carrying
   the VTN-ID of a network domain in the MPLS extension header.

   With SR-MPLS data plane, VTN binding SIDs can be allocated by a
   domain edge node for the three types of VTN binding behaviors
   described in section 2.

   For the first type of VTN binding segment, a BSID is bound to a list
   of resource-aware segments of a local VTN.  When a node receives a
   packet with a locally assigned VTN BSID, it determines the
   corresponding SID list which consists of the resource-aware segments
   of a local VTN, and encapsulates the SID list to the MPLS label
   stack.

   For the second type of VTN binding segment, a VTN BSID is bound to a
   VTN of the local network domain.  When a node receives a packet with
   a locally assigned VTN BSID, it determines the corresponding local
   VTN-ID based on the mapping relationship between the VTN BSID and the
   VTN-ID, and encapsulates the packet with an MPLS VTN extension header
   which carries the local VTN-ID option.  Note this requires to assign
   a VTN BSID for each VTN.

   For the third type of VTN binding segment, a VTN BSID is bound to a
   VTN of the local network domain, the VTN-ID is specified and
   encapsulated by the ingress node in the MPLS VTN extension header.
   When a node receives a packet with a locally assigned VTN BSID, it
   obtains the corresponding local VTN-ID from the VTN-ID list in the
   VTN extension header, and update the local VTN-ID option in the VTN
   extension header with the obtained VTN-ID.

   For the fourth type of VTN binding behavior, a VTN BSID is bound to a
   SR Policy in a VTN of the local network domain.  When a node receives
   a packet with a locally assigned VTN BSID, it determines the
   corresponding SID list and the local VTN-ID, and encaps the packet
   with the SID list and an MPLS VTN extension header which carries the
   local VTN-ID option.  Note this requires to assign a VTN BSID for
   each SR policy in each VTN the node participates in.

5.  IANA Considerations

   TBD

6.  Security Considerations

   TBD

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7.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Zhibo Hu for his review and valuable
   comments.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-teas-enhanced-vpn]
              Dong, J., Bryant, S., Li, Z., Miyasaka, T., and Y. Lee, "A
              Framework for Enhanced Virtual Private Network (VPN+)
              Services", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              teas-enhanced-vpn-08, 12 July 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-teas-enhanced-
              vpn-08.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices]
              Farrel, A., Gray, E., Drake, J., Rokui, R., Homma, S.,
              Makhijani, K., Contreras, L. M., and J. Tantsura,
              "Framework for IETF Network Slices", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices-04, 23
              August 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-
              teas-ietf-network-slices-04.txt>.

   [I-D.li-teas-e2e-ietf-network-slicing]
              Li, Z., Dong, J., Pang, R., and Y. Zhu, "Framework for
              End-to-End IETF Network Slicing", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-li-teas-e2e-ietf-network-slicing-01,
              25 October 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-
              li-teas-e2e-ietf-network-slicing-01.txt>.

   [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/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8986]  Filsfils, C., Ed., Camarillo, P., Ed., Leddy, J., Voyer,
              D., Matsushima, S., and Z. Li, "Segment Routing over IPv6
              (SRv6) Network Programming", RFC 8986,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8986, February 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8986>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.dong-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id]
              Dong, J., Li, Z., Xie, C., Ma, C., and G. Mishra,
              "Carrying Virtual Transport Network Identifier in IPv6

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              Extension Header", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-dong-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id-05, 8 September 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-dong-6man-enhanced-
              vpn-vtn-id-05.txt>.

   [I-D.dong-teas-enhanced-vpn-vtn-scalability]
              Dong, J., Li, Z., Gong, L., Yang, G., Guichard, J. N.,
              Mishra, G., and F. Qin, "Scalability Considerations for
              Enhanced VPN (VPN+)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-dong-teas-enhanced-vpn-vtn-scalability-03, 11 July
              2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-dong-teas-
              enhanced-vpn-vtn-scalability-03.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-spring-resource-aware-segments]
              Dong, J., Bryant, S., Miyasaka, T., Zhu, Y., Qin, F., Li,
              Z., and F. Clad, "Introducing Resource Awareness to SR
              Segments", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              spring-resource-aware-segments-03, 12 July 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-spring-
              resource-aware-segments-03.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn]
              Dong, J., Bryant, S., Miyasaka, T., Zhu, Y., Qin, F., Li,
              Z., and F. Clad, "Segment Routing based Virtual Transport
              Network (VTN) for Enhanced VPN", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn-01,
              12 July 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-
              spring-sr-for-enhanced-vpn-01.txt>.

   [I-D.li-mpls-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id]
              Li, Z. and J. Dong, "Carrying Virtual Transport Network
              Identifier in MPLS Packet", Work in Progress, Internet-
              Draft, draft-li-mpls-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id-01, 14 April
              2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-li-mpls-
              enhanced-vpn-vtn-id-01.txt>.

Authors' Addresses

   Zhenbin Li
   Huawei Technologies
   Huawei Campus, No. 156 Beiqing Road
   Beijing
   100095
   China

   Email: lizhenbin@huawei.com

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   Jie Dong
   Huawei Technologies
   Huawei Campus, No. 156 Beiqing Road
   Beijing
   100095
   China

   Email: jie.dong@huawei.com

   Ran Pang
   China Unicom

   Email: pangran@chinaunicom.cn

   Yongqing Zhu
   China Telecom

   Email: zhuyq8@chinatelecom.cn

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