Application-aware Networking (APN) Implementation and Deployment Status
draft-lxm-rtgwg-apn-deployment-status-01
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Liu Ying , Qingbang Xu , Jianwei Mao | ||
| Last updated | 2024-03-20 | ||
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draft-lxm-rtgwg-apn-deployment-status-01
Network Working Group Y. Liu
Internet-Draft China Unicom
Intended status: Informational Q. Xu
Expires: 20 September 2024 Agricultural Bank of China
J. Mao
Huawei Technologies
19 March 2024
Application-aware Networking (APN) Implementation and Deployment Status
draft-lxm-rtgwg-apn-deployment-status-01
Abstract
This draft provides an overview of Application-aware Networking (APN)
deployment status. It lists various APN features that have been
deployed in the production networks. It also provides an overview of
APN implementation status.
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 20 September 2024.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2024 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
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Deployment Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2. Government Services and Data Management Bureau of Shenzhen
Municipality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. China Unicom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Implementation Status of APN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1. Open-source platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2. Additional Routing platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. Interoperability Status of APN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6. Significant industry collaboration for APN standardization . 10
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1. Introduction
This draft provides an overview of Application-aware Networking (APN)
deployment status. It lists various APN features that have been
deployed in the production networks. It also provides an overview of
APN implementation status.
2. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
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3. Deployment Status
3.1. Agricultural Bank of China (ABC)
Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has deployed APN at the load
balancers of the product data center in Beijing, and has enabled APN
at the PE nodes of the IP Backbone network.
It decouples the IP address and the application on the network, that
enables rapid network service provisioning for massive software
upgrade and delivery services, and makes network rules stable to
adapt to the changes in the IP addresses of thousands of
applications.
The APN option is carried by IPv6 packets of applications and
traverses the network from the load balancer to the user terminals,
e.g., PC and laptop.
The APN ID in the APN option is first planned in the APN domain, and
then configured to the network controller and the management plane of
the applications. The network controller delivers the configurations
of the APN ID to the network devices.
To use the APN ID on the data plane, the management plane forms and
maintains an APN ID policy after an APN ID is allocated to a specific
application. The policy specifies the mapping from the current 5
tuples of the application to the APN ID, and is similar to the APN-
marking policy [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework].
The APN-capable load balancer obtains APN ID policies and get updates
from the management plane. After that, the load balancers initiate
packets with APN option towards application clients in the user
terminals. The packets enter the IP Backbone network from its PE
nodes.
The SRv6 TE tunnels have been deployed in the IP Backbone network,
which provide different SLA levels and forwarding paths. The APN-
capable PE nodes steer traffic in application granularity among the
tunnels according to the APN ID carried in the APN option of IPv6
extension header. Then the packets enter the Access network.
The Access network has not enabled APN yet. According to the highest
two bits of the option type field of APN option, the APN option is
skipped over when the packets are processed. The packets are
forwarded to the user terminals normally, and the APN option is
transparently transmitted.
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By offloading APN from the application to the load balancer,
thousands of applications can benefit from APN while they are not
required to be upgraded, i.e., they can keep APN-uncapable or APN-
unaware.
The deployment case is shown in Figure 1.
+-------------------------------+ +------------------+
| Network | | Application |
| Controller | | Management Plane |
+-------------------------------+ +------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | +-------------|--------------+
v v | Data Center | +-------+ |
| | | App | |
+-------+ +----+ | | |Server1| |
| App | /---|B-P1|---\ | | /+-------+ |
|Client1| /------------\ / +----+ \ | v / |
+-------+\ / \ / \ | +-------------+ +-------+ |
PC \+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ IP +-----+ | | APN-capable | | App | |
|A-PE1| Access |A-PE2|--|B-PE1| |B-PE2|----|Load Balancer|--|Server2| |
/+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ Backbone +-----+ | +-------------+ +-------+ |
+-------+/ \ / \ / | \ |
| App | \------------/ \ +----+ / | \+-------+ |
|Client2| \---|B-P2|---/ | | App | |
+-------+ +----+ | |Server3| |
Laptop | +-------+ |
+----------------------------+
Skip over Steer by APN ID
<-- APN6 option --> <-- to SRv6 TE tunnel ->
(transparency)
<------ Packets with APN6 option, for the end-to-end connection ------>
Figure 1: Agricultural Bank of China deployment case
The following APN features have been deployed:
* An APN Header based data plane [I-D.li-apn-header]
[I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap].
* APN-capable Application Server (AAS): initiation of the packet
with APN option [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
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* APN-Controller: planning and execution of how the APN attribute
are allocated and maintained [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework].
* APN-Controller: processing the request from the AAS and allocating
the APN resources of the controlled APN domain to the AAS
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-Head: APN ID based traffic steering for SRv6 TE
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-Endpoint: remove the outer tunnel header and keep the APN
attribute in packets [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework]
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* END (PSP), END.X (PSP), and END.DT6 functions as per [RFC8986].
* BGP EVPN SRv6 extensions [RFC9252].
* IS-IS SRv6 extensions [RFC9352].
3.2. Government Services and Data Management Bureau of Shenzhen
Municipality
Government Services and Data Management Bureau of Shenzhen
Municipality has deployed APN to enable quality assurance for video
conference service.
The Bureau has deployed APN-capable terminals and servers of a video
conference system in an office campus and a data center respectively,
and has enabled APN at the PE nodes of the e-Government extranet in
Shenzhen. The extranet is a wide area network, which is divided into
three levels of global, province and city. Each level consists of
two networks of access and backbone.
For the video conference scenario, the APN option is initiated by the
terminals and servers, and carried by IPv6 packets. It traverses the
network from the terminals to the servers, and vice versa.
The terminals and servers acquire the APN ID to be added from the
controller of the video conference application on demand. The
network controller delivers the configurations of the APN ID to the
network devices in advance and on demand.
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The SRv6 TE tunnels and the network slices have been deployed in the
e-Government extranet, which provide different forwarding paths, and
enable resource isolation. The APN-capable PE nodes distinguish the
traffic of common and important conferences according to the APN ID
carried in the APN option, then steer the traffic to different
tunnels and network slices. When the network quality is downgraded,
the quality of important conferences can be assured.
The deployment case is shown in Figure 2.
+----------------------+ +----------------+
| Network | |Video Conference|
| Controller | | Controller |
+----------------------+ +----------------+
| | |
| | |
v v |
|
+----------------+ /----------------------\ +-------------|--+
| Office Campus | / \ | Data Center | |
| | / \ | | |
| +------------+ | +---+ +--+ +--+ +---+ | | |
| | Conference |------|PE1|----|P1|----|P3|----|PE3| | | |
| | Terminal 1 | | +---+ +--+ +--+ +---+ | | |
| +------------+ | | \ / | | | |
| | | \/ | | | |
| | | /\ | | v |
| +------------+ | | / \ | | +------------+ |
| | Conference | | +---+ +--+ +--+ +---+ | | Conference | |
| | Terminal 2 |------|PE2|----|P2|----|P4|----|PE4|------| Server | |
| +------------+ | +---+ +--+ +--+ +---+ | +------------+ |
+----------------+ \ / +----------------+
\ e-Government extranet /
\----------------------/
Steer to SRv6 tunnel and
<-- network slice by APN ID ->
Packets with APN6 option,
<-- for surveillance scenario ->
<------ Packets with APN6 option, for conference scenario ----->
Figure 2: Government Services and Data Management Bureau of Shenzhen
Municipality deployment case
The following APN features have been deployed:
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* An APN Header based data plane [I-D.li-apn-header]
[I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap].
* APN-capable Application Server (AAS): initiation of the packet
with APN option [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-capable Application Client (AAC): initiation of the packet
with APN option, and acquire APN attribute from AAS
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-Controller: planning and execution of how the APN attribute
are allocated and maintained [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework].
* APN-Controller: processing the request from the AAS and allocating
the APN resources of the controlled APN domain to the AAS
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-Head: APN ID based traffic steering for SRv6 TE
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* APN-Endpoint: remove the outer tunnel header and keep the APN
attribute in packets [I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework]
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework].
* END.X (PSP), END.DT6 functions as per [RFC8986].
* BGP EVPN SRv6 extensions [RFC9252].
* BGP-LS SRv6 extensions [RFC9514].
* IS-IS SRv6 extensions [RFC9352].
* NRP extensions for network slice services
[I-D.ietf-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id].
3.3. China Unicom
China Unicom has tested APN to enable acceleration for online courses
services, which provides SLA assurance.
The APN-capable PE nodes are deployed in the metro network in
Beijing. The traffic from the customer terminals comes to the BRAS
devices first, and is steered to the APN-capable PE nodes.
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The PE nodes identify the packets of the online course services,
which are destined for the universities abroad, by some means (e.g.,
five tuples). The PE nodes add the specific APN ID in the packets,
and forward them back to the BRAS devices. The APN ID is carried by
APN option.
The BRAS devices steer the traffic to two different backbone networks
according to the APN ID in the packets. The Backbone-1 network is
for common use to access internet, while the Backbone-2 network is
treated as an acceleration path to access internet and networks
abroad.
The SRv6 TE tunnels is also deployed in the metro network. The BRAS
devices forward the traffic of the online course services to the
corresponding border nodes (CR nodes) of the Backbone-2 network in
the SRv6 TE tunnel, after removing the APN ID. The CR nodes remove
the SRv6 TE tunnel and forward the traffic ahead. Then the traffic
goes through the Backbone-2 network and reach the destination server,
that reduces the RTT latency and packet loss rate significantly.
The deployment case is shown in Figure 3.
+----+
| PE |
+----+
^ | /--------\
| | +---+ / \ +----+
| v /---|CR1|---| Backbone-1 |---|POP1|
+--------+ +----+ / +---+ \ / +----+\
|Customer| | |/ | \--------/ \+------+ +------+
| |---|BRAS| | |access|---|Server|
|Terminal| | |\ | /--------\ /+------+ +------+
+--------+ +----+ \ +---+ / \ +----+/
\---|CR2|---| Backbone-2 |---|POP2|
+---+ \ / +----+
\--------/
Figure 3: China Unicom deployment case
The following APN features have been deployed:
* An APN Header based data plane [I-D.li-apn-header]
[I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap].
* APN-Edge: add/remove the APN attributes to/from the packet
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework].
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* APN-Head: APN ID based traffic steering for SRv6 TE
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework].
* END (PSP), END.X (PSP), END.DT6 functions as per [RFC8986].
* BGP EVPN SRv6 extensions [RFC9252].
* IS-IS SRv6 extensions [RFC9352].
4. Implementation Status of APN
4.1. Open-source platforms
The following open source platforms supports APN6 including
[I-D.li-apn-header] and [I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap]:
* Wireshark (from 4.2.0 version): 32/64/128-bit APN ID, APN6 option
in the Hop-by-Hop Options Header (HBH) and Destination Options
Header (DOH).[wireshark-release-notes]
* Linux: enhanced sendmsg, sendto, and setsockopt API for APN option
support, custom kernel module for APN option support
[apn-srv6-demo].
* P4 hardware switch: encapsulation action for APN option and all
four kinds of APN parameters [apn-p4-demo-1] [apn-p4-demo-2],
steer traffic to SRv6 TE tunnel by APN option and APN parameters.
4.2. Additional Routing platforms
To date, 7 publicly known hardware platforms support APN.
Specifically, the following hardware platforms (in alphabetical
order) supports APN including [I-D.li-apn-header] and
[I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap] :
Huawei:
Huawei hardware platforms supports APN with current status as
follows:
* Huawei ATN with VRPV8 shipping code.
* Huawei CX600 with VRPV8 shipping code.
* Huawei NE40E with VRPV8 shipping code.
* Huawei ME60 with VRPV8 shipping code.
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* Huawei NE5000E with VRPV8 shipping code.
* Huawei NE9000 with VRPV8 shipping code.
* Huawei NE8000 with VRPV8 shipping code.
5. Interoperability Status of APN
.
6. Significant industry collaboration for APN standardization
.
7. IANA Considerations
.
8. Security Considerations
.
9. Acknowledgements
.
10. Contributors
.
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id]
Dong, J., Li, Z., Xie, C., Ma, C., and G. S. Mishra,
"Carrying Network Resource Partition (NRP) Information in
IPv6 Extension Header", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
draft-ietf-6man-enhanced-vpn-vtn-id-06, 20 February 2024,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-6man-
enhanced-vpn-vtn-id-06>.
[I-D.li-apn-header]
Li, Z., Peng, S., and S. Zhang, "Application-aware
Networking (APN) Header", Work in Progress, Internet-
Draft, draft-li-apn-header-04, 12 April 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-li-apn-
header-04>.
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[I-D.li-apn-ipv6-encap]
Li, Z., Peng, S., and C. Xie, "Application-aware IPv6
Networking (APN6) Encapsulation", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-li-apn-ipv6-encap-07, 10 July 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-li-apn-ipv6-
encap-07>.
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-framework]
Li, Z. and S. Peng, "Extension of Application-aware
Networking (APN) Framework for Application Side", Work in
Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-li-rtgwg-apn-app-side-
framework-00, 22 October 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-li-rtgwg-apn-
app-side-framework-00>.
[I-D.li-rtgwg-apn-framework]
Li, Z., Peng, S., Voyer, D., Li, C., Liu, P., Cao, C., and
G. S. Mishra, "Application-aware Networking (APN)
Framework", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-li-
rtgwg-apn-framework-00, 4 March 2024,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-li-rtgwg-apn-
framework-00>.
[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>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[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>.
[RFC9252] Dawra, G., Ed., Talaulikar, K., Ed., Raszuk, R., Decraene,
B., Zhuang, S., and J. Rabadan, "BGP Overlay Services
Based on Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6)", RFC 9252,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9252, July 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9252>.
[RFC9352] Psenak, P., Ed., Filsfils, C., Bashandy, A., Decraene, B.,
and Z. Hu, "IS-IS Extensions to Support Segment Routing
over the IPv6 Data Plane", RFC 9352, DOI 10.17487/RFC9352,
February 2023, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9352>.
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[RFC9514] Dawra, G., Filsfils, C., Talaulikar, K., Ed., Chen, M.,
Bernier, D., and B. Decraene, "Border Gateway Protocol -
Link State (BGP-LS) Extensions for Segment Routing over
IPv6 (SRv6)", RFC 9514, DOI 10.17487/RFC9514, December
2023, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9514>.
11.2. Informative References
[apn-p4-demo-1]
Wireshark, "Demo 2: APN implementation based on P4, on
IETF 108 Hackathon", 23 July 2020, <https://github.com/
IETF-Hackathon/ietf108-project-presentations/blob/master/
IFIT%20and%20APN6%20Hackathon.pdf>.
[apn-p4-demo-2]
Wireshark, "Demo 3: APN implementation based on P4, on
IETF 109 Hackathon", 12 November 2020,
<https://github.com/IETF-Hackathon/ietf109-project-
presentations/blob/master/
Performance%20Evaluation%20of%20APN6.pdf>.
[apn-srv6-demo]
Wireshark, "Demo 1: Application-aware G-SRv6 networking on
IETF 110 Hackathon", 6 March 2021, <https://github.com/
IETF-Hackathon/ietf110-project-presentations/blob/main/
Application-aware_G-SRv6_networking__Demo_and_Test.pdf>.
[wireshark-release-notes]
Wireshark, "Wireshark 4.2.0 Release Notes", 15 November
2023, <https://www.wireshark.org/docs/relnotes/wireshark-
4.2.0.html>.
Authors' Addresses
Ying Liu
China Unicom
Email: liuy619@chinaunicom.cn
Qingbang Xu
Agricultural Bank of China
Email: michbang@163.com
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Jianwei Mao
Huawei Technologies
Beijing
100095
China
Email: maojianwei@huawei.com
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