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SRv6 SPAN
draft-li-spring-srv6-span-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Zhiqiang Li , Tao Sun , Wei Cheng , Junjie Wang
Last updated 2020-11-02
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draft-li-spring-srv6-span-00
Network Working Group                                              Z. Li
Internet-Draft                                                    T. Sun
Intended status: Informational                              China Mobile
Expires: May 6, 2021                                            W. Cheng
                                                                 J. Wang
                                                         Centec Networks
                                                        November 2, 2020

                               SRv6 SPAN
                      draft-li-spring-srv6-span-00

Abstract

   As an important means for operation and maintenance (O&M), mirroring
   is the most direct and comprehensive technology for capturing data
   streams and forwarding information.  Compared with other
   visualization technologies, it can not only obtain the content of an
   entire packet, but also add forwarding information of a network
   device to a mirror packet and send the packet to a remote analysis
   server.

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 .

Status of This Memo

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

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

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

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 6, 2021.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components 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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Purposes for Proposing the SRv6 SPAN Technology . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Design and Implementation of the SRv6 SPAN Technology . .   4
       2.1.1.  SRv6 SPAN Technology and Networking . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.1.2.  SRv6 SPAN Technology and Packet Formats . . . . . . .   5
     2.2.  Future Considerations and Enhancements of the SRv6 SPAN
           Technology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   3.  Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   The mirroring technology is also required in network O&M and fault
   locating.  Networking architectures and network scales vary with
   scenarios, and accordingly requirements for mirroring technologies
   are different.  For example, port mirroring can meet mirroring
   requirements for some small and medium-sized networks.  In terms of
   network architecture, on the physical link, a mirroring-enabled
   switch is directly connected to a server used to analyze mirror
   packets.  Although it is simple to use the mirroring technology in
   this case, the deployment of the mirror server is greatly limited.

   With the expansion of the network scale, especially in a super-large
   data center, the overlay tunneling technology is also used for
   deploying the mirror server, so as to remove the limitation that the
   mirror server needs to be directly connected on the physical link
   during networking.

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   The conventional mirroring technology is designed and implemented
   based on the IPv4 network, and data stream-based remote mirroring is
   developed based on local port mirroring.  Combined with the
   networking in the data center, overlay and underlay networks are
   connected using the GRE tunneling technology.  As such, the analysis
   server of mirror data packets can be flexibly deployed, and requires
   only route reachability instead of direct connection on the physical
   link.

   In an SRv6 network, to simplify the network architecture and ensure
   stable running, protocol types are reduced as much as possible.  If
   GRE is selected as the basic forwarding protocol of the mirroring
   technology, more restrictions will be imposed on the application
   scope of the mirroring technology.  In addition, SRv6 is capable of
   connecting overlay and underlay networks, and does not need any
   additional forwarding protocol.

   To better use the mirroring technology in the SRv6 network, a native
   mirroring function needs to be designed based on the features of the
   SRv6 network.  Moreover, the formats of the conventional mirror
   protocol packets and the existing device capabilities should be
   reused to the maximum extent, so that the software system of the
   existing mirror analysis server is compatible, thereby avoiding
   redeveloping the software of the mirror server due to the SRv6-based
   mirroring technology.  This helps reduce the difficulty in
   implementing the SRv6 network.

2.  Purposes for Proposing the SRv6 SPAN Technology

   Based on the IPv4 network technology, local port mirroring and data
   stream-based remote mirroring are developed.  In the networking of
   the data center, the analysis server for mirror data packets should
   have route reachability during deployment.  Therefore, the
   conventional far-end mirroring technology is based on GRE.  There are
   two reasons for using GRE: One is that packets encapsulated by GRE
   support route-based forwarding, and only route reachability is
   required for the deployment of the mirror analysis server in the data
   center.  Second, the large-scale construction of data centers
   coincided with the introduction of the GRE technical standards in
   2016 when Microsoft deployed GRE on a large scale in its data center.

   Currently, two changes have taken place in the forwarding protocol
   technology of the data center: One is that VXLAN, as an overlay
   technology, exceeds GRE and is deployed in more data centers; the
   other is that the IPv6 development has reached a critical moment, and
   the SRv6 source routing technology based on the IPv6 data plane is
   expected to be widely deployed in the future.  Therefore, the GRE-
   based mirroring technology deviates from the very-simple design

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   principle in a data center network architecture, and it is difficult
   to use the GRE-based mirroring technology in a data center where
   VXLAN has been deployed.  Otherwise, the data plane and the control
   plane will become more complex.  In view of the above, this document
   aims to design an SRv6 SPAN technology.  On the one hand, it is born
   to support the SRv6 network.  SRv6 is capable of connecting overlay
   and underlay networks and does not need IPv6 GRE, simplifying the
   network architecture and protocols.  On the other hand, the formats
   of the conventional mirror protocol packets are reused to the maximum
   extent, so that the software system of the existing mirror analysis
   server is compatible, thereby avoiding redeveloping the software of
   the mirror server due to the SRv6 SPAN technology.  This helps reduce
   the difficulty in implementing the SRv6 network.

2.1.  Design and Implementation of the SRv6 SPAN Technology

   This document aims to design an SRv6 SPAN technology, so as to: 1.
   simplify the network architecture where the mirroring technology is
   used and deployed; 2. be compatible with the packet formats of
   conventional mirrors; 3. enhance the mirroring technology to meet new
   requirements.

2.1.1.  SRv6 SPAN Technology and Networking

   SRv6 is used to connect overlay and underlay networks of mirror data
   packets, without needing IPv6 GRE, thereby simplifying the network
   architecture and protocols.  However, the standard forwarding plane
   of SRv6 may also be divided into two types: a standard SRv6 packet
   carrying the SRH and a SRv6-BE packet carrying the SRH.

   The SRv6 SPAN technology is designed to support SRv6-BE.  This is
   because IPv6 networks have been upgraded on a large scale, but the
   SRv6 network is still under development.  Different from standard
   SRv6, SRv6-BE does not need to add the SRH but is directly borne on
   the IPv6 tunnel, so that the SRv6/IPv6 network can use the mirroring
   technology in this document to the maximum extent.  Therefore, the
   SRv6-BE mirroring technology only needs to support IPv6 forwarding,
   which allows remote deployment of analysis servers for mirror
   packets, while requires no SRv6 SRH processing capability.  This
   reduces the difficulty in deploying the SRv6 SPAN technology.

   In addition, the SRv6 SPAN technology in this document further
   supports the SRv6 network that carries the SRH.  A network device
   with SRv6 SRH processing capability can implement precise path
   control by using a mirror packet encapsulated based on SRv6 SRH, and
   can capture other forwarding information when the mirroring
   technology is used.

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   Therefore, the SRv6 SPAN technology is not only compatible with a
   device that supports only an IPv6 network, but also matches with a
   network device with SRv6 SRH processing capability.  It can remotely
   deploy an analysis server used for mirror packets, implement path
   control, and enable extensible forwarding information capturing.

2.1.2.  SRv6 SPAN Technology and Packet Formats

   The protocol packet formats of the SRv6 SPAN technology are
   compatible with the formats of the conventional ERSPAN protocol
   packet as far as possible.  The formats of the conventional mirror
   protocol packets are reused to the maximum extent, so that the
   software system of the existing mirror analysis server is compatible,
   thereby avoiding redeveloping the software of the mirror server.

        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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       | Next Hdr=144  |  Hdr Ext Len  | Routing Type  | Segments Left |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |  Last Entry   |     Flags     |              Tag              |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       |            Segment List[0] (128-bit IPv6 address)             |
       |                                                               |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       |                                                               |
                                     ...
       |                                                               |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       |            Segment List[n] (128-bit IPv6 address)             |
       |                                                               |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       |            SRv6 SPAN Header                                   |
       |                                                               |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |           Origin  Packet                                      |
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                          SRv6 SPAN Packet Format

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   Based on SRv6 packet formats, Next Header 144 is used to identify
   SRv6 SPAN.  In addition, the SRv6 SPAN Header format has been defined
   in the first version of this document, and includes a 4-octet
   sequence number and 12-octet portion forwarding information.

        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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |      Sequence Number (Increments per packet per session )    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |  Ver  |          VLAN         | COS |BSO|T|     Session ID    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                          Timestamp                            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |             SGT               |P|    FT   |   Hw ID   |D|Gra|O|
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                          SRv6 SPAN Header Format

   The various fields of the above SRv6 SPAN header are described in
   this table:

   Field     Length (bits)              Definition

   Sequence         32       For SRv6 SPAN packets sequence number,
   number                    increased per packet per session,
                             for detecting loss of mirror packet
                             by analysis server.

   Ver              4        SRv6 SPAN Encapsulation version.
                             For SRv6 SPAN packets it is set to 0x6.

   VLAN            12        VLAN of the frame monitored by an SRv6 SPAN
                             source session: for ingress monitor this
                             will be the original source VLAN whereas
                             for egress monitor this will be the
                             destination VLAN.

   COS              3        Class of Service of the monitored frame.
                             Ingress or egress CoS value is to be used
                             depending on the monitor type/direction.

   T                1        This bit indicates that the frame copy
                             encapsulated in the SRv6 SPAN packet has
                             been truncated. This occurs if the SRv6 SPAN
                             encapsulated frame exceeds the configured
                             MTU and hence has to be truncated.

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   Session ID      10        Identification associated with each SRv6 SPAN
   (ERSPAN ID)               session. Must be unique between the source
                             and the receiver(s).

   BSO (Bad/Short/   2       A 2-bit value indicating the integrity of
   Oversized)                the payload carried by SRv6 SPAN:
                             00 --> Good frame with no error, or
                                    unknown integrity
                             11 --> Payload is a Bad Frame with CRC or
                                    Alignment Error
                             01 --> Payload is a Short Frame
                             10 --> Payload is an Oversized Frame

   Timestamp        32       The timestamp value needs to be derived
                             from a hardware clock which is
                             synchronized to the system-clock. This 32-
                             bit field should support at least a
                             timestamp granularity of 100 microseconds
                             (see the Timestamp Granularity field).

   SGT              16       Security Group Tag of the monitored frame.

   P                 1       This bit indicates that the SRv6 SPAN payload
                             is an Ethernet protocol frame .

   FT (Frame Type)   5       This field can be used to reconstruct the
                             original frame's encapsulation if it is
                             supported by the receiver.
                             This field may also be used by SRv6 SPAN
                             engines to indicate that the mirrored
                             frame's L2 encapsulation header (or a
                             portion of it) was skipped and not
                             included in the SRv6 SPAN packet.
                             00000 --> Ethernet frame (802.3 frame)
                             00010 --> IP Packet
                             Other values --> Reserved for future use

   Hw (Hardware) ID  6       Unique identifier of an SRv6 SPAN engine
                             within a system.

   D (Direction)     1       Indicates whether the original frame was
                             SRv6 SPAN'ed in ingress or in egress.
                             Ingress (0) or Egress (1).

   Gra (Timestamp
   Granularity)      2       Time unit to be supported for time-
                             stamping:
                             00b --> granularity = 100 microseconds

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                             01b --> granularity = 100 nanoseconds
                             10b --> granularity = IEEE 1588
                             TimeRepresentation format (see definition
                             below; with nanoseconds portion stored in
                             the Timestamp field and seconds portion
                             stored in the SRv6 SPAN platform-dependent
                             sub-header)

                             struct TimeRepresentation
                             {
                                UInteger32 seconds;
                                UInteger32 nanoseconds;
                             };
                             11b --> user configurable time unit
                             (platform dependent, for example specific
                             to an isolated non-synchronized system
                             with very high local accuracy)

   O (Optional
   Sub-header)       1       The O flag indicates whether or not the
                             optional platform-specific sub-header is
                             present. If it's present, the next octet
                             indicates the platform specific format
                             used (Platf ID). The SRv6 SPAN payload
                             starts after the O flag when O == 0b
                             or after 8 octets when O == 1b.

                       SRv6 SPAN Header Description

                                   +---+

2.2.  Future Considerations and Enhancements of the SRv6 SPAN Technology

   In the first version of this document, the goal is to solve the
   problem that the conventional mirroring technology is not compatible
   with the existing SRv6 network.

   In a later version of this document, the SRv6 SPAN technology will be
   enhanced in three aspects:

   * First, different requirements for mirroring capabilities in
   multiple scenarios are met.

   * Second, the capability of controlling a forwarding path and service
   quality of a mirror data stream are enhanced;.

   * Third, the capability of capturing required information is
   enhanced.

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   SRv6 technology will be further developed, and enhancement points of
   the SRv6 SPAN technology will be detailed in subsequent documents.
   It is expected that the mirroring technology can be used as the
   essential means for SRv6 network O&M and fault locating, so as to
   facilitate the development of the SRv6 network.

3.  Conclusion

   The implementation of the SRv6 network mirroring function through
   SRv6 SPAN technology is not only conducive to unifying the forwarding
   data plane of the SRv6 network, avoiding the additional introduction
   of GRE and other tunneling protocols, but also fully considering the
   compatibility with the traditional mirroring message format in the
   definition of SRv6 SPAN Header, Reduce the repeated development of
   image analysis software to promote the development of SRv6 networks
   and the deployment of SRv6 SPAN.

4.  Security Considerations

   TBD.

5.  IANA Considerations

   TBD.

Authors' Addresses

   Zhiqiang Li
   China Mobile
   Beijing  100053
   China

   Email: lizhiqiangyjy@chinamobile.com

   Tao Sun
   China Mobile
   Beijing  100053
   China

   Email: suntao@chinamobile.com

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   Wei Cheng
   Centec Networks
   Suzhou  215000
   China

   Email: chengw@centecnetwors.com

   Junjie Wang
   Centec Networks
   Suzhou  21500
   China

   Email: wangjj@centecnetwors.com

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