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Alternative Handling of Dynamic Chaining and Service Indirection
draft-purkayastha-sfc-service-indirection-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Debashish Purkayastha , Akbar Rahman , Dirk Trossen , Zoran Despotovic , Ramin Khalili
Last updated 2017-10-27
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draft-purkayastha-sfc-service-indirection-01
Network Working Group                                     D. Purkayastha
Internet-Draft                                                 A. Rahman
Intended status: Informational                                D. Trossen
Expires: April 30, 2018                 InterDigital Communications, LLC
                                                           Z. Despotovic
                                                              R. Khalili
                                                                  Huawei
                                                        October 27, 2017

    Alternative Handling of Dynamic Chaining and Service Indirection
              draft-purkayastha-sfc-service-indirection-01

Abstract

   Many stringent requirements are imposed on today's network, such as
   low latency, high availability and reliability in order to support
   several use cases such as IoT, Gaming, Content distribution, Robotics
   etc.  Networks need to be flexible and dynamic in terms of allocation
   of services and resources.  Network Operators should be able to
   reconfigure the composition of a service and steer users towards new
   service end points as users move or resource availability changes.
   SFC allows network operators to easily create and reconfigure service
   function chains dynamically in response to changing network
   requirements.  We discuss a use case where Service Function Chain can
   adapt or self-organize as demanded by the network condition without
   requiring SPI re-classification.  This can be achieved, for example,
   by decoupling the service consumer and service endpoint by a new
   service function proposed in this draft.  We describe few
   requirements for this service function to enable dynamic switching
   between consumer and end point.

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 April 30, 2018.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 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
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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   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.  Use Case Description  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  ETSI MEC USE CASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.3.  3GPP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.4.  Use Case Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  NSH and Re-classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Dynamic service chain creation using NSH  . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Challenges with dynamic indirection . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  Desired Features  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   6.  Service Request Routing (SRR) Service Function  . . . . . . .  10
     6.1.  Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.2.  Notion of HTTP-Based Transport  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     6.3.  Details of SRR Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   7.  Protocol Consideration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   10. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19

1.  Introduction

   The requirements on today's networks are very diverse, enabling
   multiple use cases such as IoT, Content Distribution, Gaming, Network
   functions such as Cloud RAN.  Every use case imposes certain
   requirements on the network.  These requirements vary from one
   extreme to other and often they are in a divergent direction.
   Network operator and service providers are pushing many functions
   towards the edge of the network in order to be closer to the users.
   This reduces latency and backhaul traffic, as user request can be
   processed locally.

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   It becomes more challenging for the network when user mobility as
   well as non-deterministic availability of compute and storage
   resources are considered.  The impact is felt most in the edge of the
   network because as the users move, their point of attachment changes
   frequently, which results in (at least partially) relocating the
   service as well as the service endpoint.  Furthermore, network
   functions are pushed more and more towards the edge, where compute
   and storage resources are constrained and availability is non-
   deterministic.  Also, storage resources may need to be moved where
   the user concentration is more in case of content delivery
   applications.

   We describe a few use cases in the next section and derive the
   requirements for composing new services and service path in a dynamic
   edge network.  We address this dynamicity by introducing a special
   Service Function, called SRR (service request routing).  We describe
   the problems associated with today's network and Layer 3 based
   approach to handle dynamicity in the network.  We then discuss how
   such new Service Function with certain capabilities can handle the
   dynamicity better than these conventional methods.  Note : State
   migration is not in the scope of our solution since this problem is a
   general one pertaining to re-chaining stateful SFs.

2.  Use Case Description

2.1.  Data Center

   The data center use case draft [I-D.ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases] describes
   an East West traffic use case.  This is the predominant traffic in
   data centers today.  Server virtualization has led to the new
   paradigm where virtual machines can migrate from one server to
   another across the data center.  This explosion in east-west traffic
   is leading to newer data center network fabric architectures that
   provide consistent latencies from one point in the fabric to another.

   SFCs applied in an enterprise or service provider data center can be
   broadly categorized into two types:

   o  Access SFCs

   o  Application SFCs

   Access SFCs are focused on servicing traffic entering and leaving the
   data center while Application SFCs are focused on servicing traffic
   destined to applications.  Service providers deploy a single "Access
   SFC" and multiple "Application SFCs" for each tenant.  Enterprise
   data center operators on the other hand may not have a need for
   Access SFCs depending on the size and requirements of the enterprise.

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   In carrier networks, operators may deploy multiple data centers
   dispersed geographically.  Each data center may host different types
   of service functions.  For example, latency sensitive or high usage
   service functions are deployed in regional data centers while other
   latency tolerant, low usage service functions are deployed in global
   or central data centers.  In such deployments, SFCs may span multiple
   data centers and enable operators to deploy services in a flexible
   and inexpensive way.

   It is clear that within the data center as well as in inter data
   center scenarios, users are serviced by multiple SFs distributed
   inside as well as outside a location.  In this scenario, it is clear
   that Service function chains should be able to reselect, redirect
   traffic very fast.  The draft identifies that Static service chains
   do not allow for modifying the SFCs as they require the ability to
   add SNs or remove SNs to scale up and down the service capacity.
   Likewise the ability to dynamically pick one among the many SN
   instance is not available.

2.2.  ETSI MEC USE CASE

   Take the following video orchestration service example from ETSI MEC
   Requirements document [ETSI_MEC].  The proposed use case of edge
   video orchestration suggests a scenario where visual content can be
   produced and consumed at the same location close to consumers in a
   densely populated and clearly limited area.  Such a case could be a
   sports event or concert where a remarkable number of consumers are
   using their handheld devices to access user select tailored content.
   The overall video experience is combined from multiple sources, such
   as local recording devices, which may be fixed as well as mobile, and
   master video from central production server.  The user is given an
   opportunity to select tailored views from a set of local video
   sources.

2.3.  3GPP

   3GPP Rel. 15 introduces the notion of the service-based interface
   (SBI) as an alternative to the traditional call pattern invocation of
   network functions.  This introduction targets the support for
   replication, e.g., driven by virtualized functions, as well as
   supporting alternative interactions, e.g., for different vertical
   market specific control planes, by making the discovery as well as
   composition of new interactions more flexible.

   We believe that SFC is a suitable framework for the interconnection
   of such network functions through the new SBI.  One of the
   aforementioned driving forces, namely the replication of functions
   aligns with our thinking in this draft in that indirections to new

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   vertical instances need to be dynamic in reacting to the appearance
   of new virtual instances or to changes in policies for the selection
   of specific instances by specific calling entities.

2.4.  Use Case Analysis

   In such a dynamic network environment, the capability to dynamically
   compose new services from available services as well as move a
   service instance in response to user mobility or resource
   availability is desirable.  SFC allows network operators as well as
   service providers to compose new services by chaining individual
   service functions towards the composed new service.  In a dynamic
   network environment where service functions move frequently because
   of user movement, load balancing or resource modification, service
   function chains and the service end points need to be created and
   recreated frequently.  SFC, as defined in IETF, is capable of
   modifying the service chain dynamically in response to network
   conditions.

   In order to route the service requests to service end points in a
   dynamic manner, we identify the following desirable features in a
   service function chain:

   o  Fast switching from one service instance to another by not relying
      on the DNS for service location resolution.  Instead of DNS, the
      function should be able to identify the path, which will allow to
      reach the service end point.

   o  Direct path mobility, where the path between the requester and the
      responding service can be determined as being optimal (e.g.,
      shortest path or direct path to a selected instance), is needed to
      avoid the use of anchor points and further reduce service-level
      latency

   o  Indirect service requests at the network level, transparent to the
      requesting client and without the involvement of the DNS.  End
      user is not aware of the decision made by the SF.

   o  New methods for forwarding, such as path-based forwarding, direct
      path routing in mobility cases, path pinning for traffic steering
      and simplified service-specific peering towards the Internet.

3.  NSH and Re-classification

   [RFC7498] captures the problems associated with existing service
   deployments that are problematic.  The problems are described below
   at a high level:

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   o  Network topology: Network service deployment is tightly coupled
      with network topology thus reducing the flexibility in service
      delivery.  It adds complexity in deploying network service when
      certain traffic types may need some service and other traffic
      types do not need the same service.

   o  Configuration complexity is the direct result of dependency on
      network topology.

   o  Limited availability of services

   o  Altering the order of a deployed chain is complex and cumbersome

   o  Coupling of service functions to topology may require service
      functions to support many transport encapsulations or for a
      transport gateway function to be present.

   o  In a dynamic environment like the Edge of a network service
      delivery, routing changes fast.  It may be difficult to deliver
      service dynamically due to the risk and complexity of VLANs and/or
      routing modifications.

   These factors provide motivation for a simplified and flexible
   service insertion model that addresses many of the current
   shortcomings and provides new, much needed functionality to enable
   service deployments in modern network environments.  Service chaining
   accomplishes this by considering service functions as resources, with
   associated attributes, available for scheduled consumption.
   Selective traffic, subject to policy, may then be "steered" to the
   requisite service resources, along with any "extra" information
   referred to as metadata.  This metadata is used for policy
   enforcement.

   A basic form of service chaining may be realized using existing
   transport encapsulations.  This method of chaining relies upon the
   tunneling of selected data between service functions.  Although this
   form of service chaining achieves some level of abstraction from the
   underlying topology, it does not truly create a service plane.  NSH
   [I-D.ietf-sfc-nsh] is a distinct identifiable plane that can be used
   across all transports to create a service chain and exchange metadata
   along the chain.

   Fundamentally, however, the notion of "services" in SFC is tied into
   specific service function endpoints, which lie along a well-defined
   service function path (SFP) where the path is defined through lower
   layer transport encapsulations.  If any such service function
   endpoint changes, the service chain needs to be adjusted; a procedure
   we outline in the following sub-section.

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3.1.  Dynamic service chain creation using NSH

   We revisit the dynamic service chain creation capability of NSH.  NSH
   defines a new service plane protocol [I-D.ietf-sfc-nsh].  A Network
   Service Header (NSH) contains service path information and optionally
   metadata that are added to a packet or frame and used to create a
   service plane.  A control plane is required in order to exchange NSH
   values with participating nodes, and to provision the same nodes with
   requisite information such as service path ID to overlay mapping.

   The Network Service Header has three parts, Base header, Service Path
   Header and Context Header.  NSH Service Path Header is a 4-byte
   service path header follows the base header and defines two fields
   used to construct a service path:

   o  Service path identifier (SPI)

   o  Service index (SI)

   The following figure depicts the service path header.

     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 2
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     | Service Path ID                               | Service Index |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                         Figure 1: NSH Path Header

   The service path identifier (SPI) is used to identify the service
   path that interconnects the needed service functions.  It allows
   nodes to utilize the identifier to select the appropriate network
   transport protocol and forwarding techniques.  The service index (SI)
   identifies the location of a packet within a service path.  As
   packets traverse a service path, the SI is decremented post-service.

   SPI represents the service path and altering the path identifier
   results in a change of a service path.  A change in SPI value is a
   result of re-classification.  It means a node in the service path
   determined, based on policy, that the initial classification was
   incorrect or incomplete.  If the updated classification results in
   the necessity of a new service path, the node updates the SPI and SI
   fields accordingly.  The new identifier is then used to select the
   appropriate overlay topology.  This allows service functions to alter
   the path of a packet without having to participate in the network
   topology and its associated control plane(s).  The method to
   determine that an existing classification is incorrect and how to
   determine the new classification is not defined.

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4.  Challenges with dynamic indirection

   The emerging trend in today's network is to deploy network functions,
   services and applications at the edge of the network to support
   latency requirements, computational offload, traffic optimization
   etc.  As users are moving, application or services being used by
   users, may need to be moved closer to the user's new location.  This
   implies another instance of the service function may need to be
   instantiated close to the user's new location.  It may result in re-
   establishing service path from the newly instantiated service
   function to other service instances.  It is also possible that the
   newly instantiated service function may be redirected to a new
   service end point (e.g.  Application Server) for various reasons,
   such as incomplete content, proximity to data store, load balancing
   etc.  In another scenario, a single instance of the service function
   may not handle all users.  A single service function may be
   instantiated more than once to balance user load.  As the number of
   instances increase and along with mobility, the complexity of service
   routing increases.  It is anticipated that there may be a constant
   action of function chaining, re-chaining occurring in the network.

   The challenge of dynamic indirection may be better described by
   analyzing the working of CDNs, which dynamically (re-)direct user-
   initiated requests towards the most appropriate content instance.
   This task becomes more difficult if granularity of the instance
   placement increases.  For instance, in case of a CDN being realized
   close to end users, specifically in edge of the network, the specific
   content instance might need to be selected dynamically.  After
   initial selection, the instance may change during service execution.

   In a conventional network, an instance of a service is found and
   selected using DNS.  The subsequent service request is then routed
   through the network between the client and the service.  If the user
   is doing a DNS lookup to access content served by a CDN then the DNS
   service will maintain a list of IP addresses that can be returned for
   a given domain name and will try to return an IP address of a node
   geographically close to the client.  Should the service provider want
   to replace an instance of their service with another one at a
   different IP address (and potentially a different physical location
   for various reasons such as load balancing, reliability etc.) then
   the DNS tables must be updated, i.e., the service needs to be
   (re-)registered quickly.  This is done by updating the local
   authoritative DNS server which then propagates the new mapping to DNS
   services across the world.  DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours
   so fast and dynamic switching from one service instance to another is
   not possible in conventional networks.  When relying on many
   surrogate service endpoints to exist in the edge network, there is a
   clear issue of certain resources not being available in one surrogate

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   instance while existing in another so that changes in redirection
   might be desirable, while also changes in local load drive the need
   for such change in redirection.

   The other issue in conventional network lies with mobility management
   procedure.  These procedures use an anchor point, which terminates a
   session at the network edge.  As user moves around, traffic is
   redirected from the anchor point to the new point of attachment.
   Relying on typical mobility management approaches found in IP
   networks, usually leads to inefficient 'triangular' routing of
   requests through this common 'anchor' point.  This triangular routing
   increases the latency in reaching the new service function or service
   end points as users move.

   Traffic steering is a common procedure in managed networks,
   particularly at the edge, due to desired subscriber-centric traffic
   policies (e.g., related to pricing structures), resource requirements
   (e.g., related to using particular paths in the network) or mobility
   (e.g., users moving in a cellular network).  Today's methods for
   traffic steering include anchor-based mobility management as well as
   traffic classification, for instance, in packet gateways of cellular
   systems (using, e.g., deep packet inspection as well as port and
   address classification).  While the former leads to inefficient
   'triangular' traffic forwarding, the latter often requires additional
   state in the forwarders to differentiate traffic from one user to
   another.

   The analysis of CDN network shows that dynamic indirection is a
   necessary requirement, which needs to be supported by the networks.
   The goal for this indirection is to provide user applications lowest
   possible latency.  But as discussed above, relying on today's
   technique does not help in guaranteeing same latency to user
   applications.  On the other hand, there is a high possibility that
   latency may increase if we rely on Layer 3 based service redirection
   techniques.

   SFC handles indirection through the use of SPI.  A packet needs to be
   reclassified and the intermediate node changes the SPI.  Following
   are the typical steps that happens in order to implement the
   indirection.

   o  A packet arrives at a particular node

   o  The node contacts the policy manager

   o  Identifies the current classification is incorrect

   o  Reclassifies the packet, i.e. change the SPI

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   o  Inserts the packet in the pipe, possibly towards the SFF

   The indirection mechanism in SFC involves certain steps to process
   policy information and change the SPI in the packet header, making it
   suitable to handle dynamic indirection requirements.  Our proposed SF
   in this document provides an additional method to handle dynamic
   indirection of service requests, not relying on the reclassification
   mechanism.  Combining these two techniques may provide flexibility
   and improvement over single method.

5.  Desired Features

   In order to route the service requests to service end points in a
   dynamic manner, we identify the following desirable features:

   o  Fast switching from one service instance to another by not relying
      on DNS for service location resolution.  Instead of DNS, the
      function should be able to identify the path, which will allow to
      reach the service end point.

   o  Direct path mobility, where the path between the requester and the
      responding service can be determined as being optimal (e.g.,
      shortest path or direct path to a selected instance), is needed to
      avoid the use of anchor points and reduce service-level latency

   o  Indirect service requests at the network level, transparent to the
      requesting client and without the involvement of the DNS.  End
      user is not aware of the decision made by the SF.

   o  New methods for forwarding, such as path-based forwarding, direct
      path routing in mobility cases, path pinning for traffic steering
      and simplified service-specific peering towards the Internet.

6.  Service Request Routing (SRR) Service Function

6.1.  Overview

   The following diagram shows the application of the new proposed SRR
   service function in an example of media clients connecting to media
   servers.  There may be more than one media functions to support CDN
   like architecture, Surrogate servers to handle mobility and load
   balancing.

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                                                         +--------+
                                                         |        |
            |-------------------------|------------------+  SRR   +
            |                         |                  |        |
            |                         |                  +---/|\--+
            |                         |                       |
       +---\|/--+   +---------+   +--\|/--+   +------+   +----+---+
       |        |   |         |   |       |   |      |   |        |
       + Client +-->+  IP     +-->+ Media +-->+ SRR  +-->+ Media  +
       |        |   | Routing |   |  Fn1  |   |      |   |  Fn2   |
       +--------+   +---------+   +-------+   +------+   +--------+

    Figure 2: General SFC with SRR Flexible Chaining, Initiated via IP
                         Routed Client Connection

   The clients are connected to media functions through frontend routed
   network, e.g., relying on standard IP routing, while media functions
   are chained via the new proposed service request routing (SRR)
   function.  Alternatively, we also envision to utilize the SRR
   function directly between client SF and media function SF, as
   outlined in the figure below

                                                         +--------+
                                                         |        |
            |-------------------------|------------------+  SRR   +
            |                         |                  |        |
            |                         |                  +---/|\--+
            |                         |                       |
       +---\|/--+   +---------+   +--\|/--+   +------+   +----+---+
       |        |   |         |   |       |   |      |   |        |
       + Client +-->+  SRR    +-->+ Media +-->+ SRR  +-->+ Media  +
       |        |   |         |   |  Fn1  |   |      |   |  Fn2   |
       +--------+   +---------+   +-------+   +------+   +--------+

    Figure 3: General SFC with SRR Flexible Chaining, Initiated between
                          via SRR Chained Client

   For our considerations, we assume that each SF is realized by at
   least one or more service function endpoints (SFEs).  Hence, instead
   of looking at "chaining" as a concept that connects specific SFEs
   along a well-defined SFP, we propose to look at "chaining" at the
   level of "named" service functions rather than their specific
   endpoints.  With this in mind, the SRR service function lifts the
   relationship between the connecting SFs to the level of "logical"
   service functions rather than their specific realizing endpoints.

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   Instead of relying on dynamic re-chaining in case of any dynamically
   changing relationship between specific SFEs, the SRR provides the
   selection of suitable SFEs while maintaining the logical relationship
   between the SFs.  In Section 6.3, we will present the necessary
   extensions to the SFP concept to support this higher abstraction of
   "chaining" via "named" logical SFs.  The SRR introduces the
   flexibility in routing service requests from client to specific SFEs.
   In the edge network, where users are moving and service end points
   may also change, having flexibility to decide and steer service
   requests directly helps in guaranteeing the same latency to user
   applications.  Clearly, that is achieved by reducing the switching
   time from SF to another.  As service end point changes, the routing
   functions makes instantaneous decision to route the request to the
   appropriate media server.

   The possible improvements of using SRR within an SFC framework are
   listed below:

   o  Fast (between 10 and 20ms) switching times from one service
      instance to another by not relying on the DNS for service
      discovery and directly routing service requests at the level of
      the transport network.

   o  The capability to indirect service requests at the network level
      will help in reducing latency, when service end points change.
      E.g. when a service request is being sent to one surrogate
      instance but results in a HTTP 404 or 5xx error response, the
      original request is redirected to another alternative surrogate
      with minimal latency, i.e., right at the destination of said
      failed service request.  Nesting these operations effectively
      leads to a net-level 'search' among all available surrogate
      instances until the search is exhausted (with a negative result)
      or the resource is found.

   o  New methods for forwarding, such as path-based forwarding, will
      enable direct path routing in mobility cases, path pinning for
      traffic steering and simplified service-specific peering towards
      the Internet.  Such capability would allow for localizing traffic,
      reduce latency and costs.

6.2.  Notion of HTTP-Based Transport

   As a first proposed extension to the SFC framework, we introduce the
   notion of a "HTTP-based transport" utilizing URLs as addressing
   scheme.  With that, we can create SFPs as shown in Fig 4, "i.e.,
   192.168.x.x -> www.foo.com -> 192.168.x.x -> www.foo2.com ->
   192.168.x.x -> ... -> www.fooN.com."  It is this "name-based"
   relationship that we see possibly realized through specific

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   replicated instances, where in turn the routing towards those
   specific instances is realized by the SRR.

                                                  +--------+
                                                  |        |
     |-------------------------|------------------+  SRR   +
     |                         |                  |        |
     |                         |                  +---/|\--+
     |                         |                       |
+---\|/--+   +---------+   +--\|/--+   +------+   +----+---+
|        |   |         |   |       |   |      |   |        |
+ Client +-->+  SRR    +-->+ Media +-->+ SRR  +-->+ Media  +
|        |   |         |   |  Fn1  |   |      |   |  Fn2   |
+--------+   +---------+   +-------+   +------+   +--------+

SFP:192.168.x.x-->www.foo.com-->192.168.x.x-->www.foo2.com-->192.168.x.x-->www.fooN.com

            Figure 4: SFP with new HTTP-based Transport option

   In a pure SFC architectural framework, Classifier function can may
   interact with SRR to obtain an SE (Service Encapsulation).  E.g. the
   Classifier function may look into the network locator map in Fig 4
   and determine the next SF is www.foo.com.  It provides this
   information to SRR to obtain the next hop information.  SRR returns
   the SE for next hop, which can be a "bitfield" information that is
   being used in the overlay routing for this part of the SFP.  The
   Classifier function uses this SE to route the incoming packet
   directly at the transport network level.

6.3.  Details of SRR Function

   Assuming such introduction of an HTTP-level transport notion, the SRR
   function can be decomposed further as shown in Fig 5.

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                                                         +--------+
                                                         |        |
            |-------------------------|------------------+  SRR   +
            |                         |                  |        |
            |                         |                  +---/|\--+
            |                         |                       |
       +---\|/--+   +---------+   +--\|/--+   +------+   +----+----+
       |        |   |         |   |       |   |      |   |         |
       + Client +-->+  SRR    +-->+Service+-->+ SRR  +-->+ Service +
       |        |   |         |   |  Fn1  |   |      |   |  Fn2    |
       +--------+   +---------+   +-------+   +------+   +---------+
                  /             \
                /                 \
              /                     \
        +--------------------------------------+
        |   +------------------+               |
        |   |  +-----+  +----+ |     +-----+   |
        |--->  | SFC |  |NAP | |     |NAP  |----->
        |   |  |Proxy|  |    | |     |     |   |
        |   |  +-----+  +----+ |     +-/|\-+   |
        |   |  Use Proxy if NAP|        |      |
        |   |  is not SFC      |        |      |
        |   |  enabled         |        |      |
        |   +-------/|\--------+        |      |
        |            |                  |      |
        |            |                  |      |
        |            |  +----------+    |      |
        |            |->| tSFF1    |-----      |
        |               +---/|\----+           |
        |                    |                 |
        |                    |                 |
        |     +----------+   |                 |
        |     |          |   |                 |
        |     +   PCE    +----                 |
        |     |          |                     |
        |     +----------+                     |
        |                                      |
        +--------------------------------------+

                        Figure 5: SRR decomposition

   Another option for the two functions routing via the SRR could be
   entirely link-local, i.e., there's another simple tSFF2 between
   client and SRR as well as SF1 and SRR that is simply a link-local
   transport.  The following figure describes this alternate option.

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                                                         +--------+
                                                         |        |
            |-------------------------|------------------+  SRR   +
            |                         |                  |        |
            |                         |                  +---/|\--+
            |                         |                       |
       +---\|/--+   +---------+   +--\|/--+   +------+   +----+---+
       |        |   |         |   |       |   |      |   |        |
       + Client +-->+  SRR    +-->+Service+-->+ SRR  +-->+Service +
       |        |   |         |   |  Fn1  |   |      |   |  Fn2   |
       +--------+   +---------+   +-------+   +------+   +--------+
                   /              \
                  /                  \
                 /                      \
       +-----+    +---------------------------------+
       |tSFF2|--------->+----+           +-----+    | +--------+
       +-----+    |     |NAP |           |NAP  |----->| tSFF2  |-->
                  |     |    |           |     |    | +--------+
                  |     +----+           +-/|\-+    |
                  |       |                 |       |
                  |       |                 |       |
                  |       |                 |       |
                  |       |                 |       |
                  |       |     +-------+   |       |
                  |       |---->| tSFF1 |---        |
                  |             +--/|\--+           |
                  |                 |               |
                  |                 |               |
                  |      +-------+  |               |
                  |      |       |  |               |
                  |      + PCE   +---               |
                  |      |       |                  |
                  |      +-------+                  |
                  |                                 |
                  +---------------------------------+

       Figure 6: SRR decomposition using link-local client/function
                               communication

   The SRR function may be composed of the following functions:

   o  NAP at the ingress, terminates on the client side Layer 3 and
      above protocols, such as TCP

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   o  NAP at the egress, terminates any transport protocol on the
      network outgoing (server) side

   o  PCE, Path Computation Element Policy control and Enforcement
      function is responsible for selecting the correct next SF, also
      possibly realizing path policy enforcement.  The result of the
      selection is a path identifier which is delivered to the ingress
      NAP upon initial path computation request (i.e., when sending a
      request to a specific URL on the SFP for the first time).  The
      path identifier is utilized for any future request for a given
      URL-based SF.  In case of another SF instance becoming available,
      indicated to the PCE through a registration procedure, the PCE
      will instruct all ingress NAPs to invalidate path identifiers to
      the specific URL of the SF, resulting in an initial path
      computation request at the next SF request forwarding.  Through
      this, the newly registered SF instance might be utilized if the
      policy-governed path computation will select said SF instance.

   o  Transport-derived SFF (tSFF1): the communication between ingress/
      egress NAPs as well as NAPs to PCE is realized via a transport-
      derived SFF.  We outline here three possible tSFFs

   o  SDN-based: The Transport Derived SFFThis option (tSFF), utilizes
      path-based forwarding utilizing through SDN-based wildcard
      matching fields, supported according to with OF1.2+ [Reed2016].
      It can be embedded into slicing approach of underlying transport
      infrastructure by leaving typical slicing fields available (e.g.,
      VLAN tags).  The forwarding utilizes the Ethernet frame format at
      Layer 2, representing the topological links of a specific
      forwarding path in the transport network as unique bits in a fixed
      size bit array.  For the latter, the approach utilizes the IPv6
      source and destination fields for storing the bit array
      information (in a simple version for this forwarding, this limits
      the topology to 256 links but extensions schemes are possible,
      which are left out of this document at this stage).  AS mentioned,
      tThe SDN forwarding decision action is a simple wildcard matching,
      supported withby OF1.2+, with the wildcard representing the unique
      bit of a switch-specific output port.  With that, the switch needs
      to consider as many forwarding rules as switch local output ports
      - see [Reed2016] for more information.  Fig. xx illustrate this
      forwarding solution, including the ability to create ad-hoc
      multicast relations by simply ORing individual bitarrays
      representing unicast paths.

   o  Another approach is outlined in [I-D.ietf-bier-use-cases] where
      the SFF is suggested to be realized via a BIER overlay, in turn
      realized over a BIER-compliant underlay, such as MPLS.  BIER
      utilizes a similar bit array approach for representing a

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      forwarding path in the overlay network but unlike [Reed2016], the
      bit fields indicate the egress BIER-compliant router that the
      packet is supposed to reach.

   o  As yet another alternative, the tSFF may utilize a flow
      aggregation approach, outlined in [Khalili2016], called edge
      switch classification (ESC).  In this approach, a path from an
      ingress to egress NAP is described as a so-called edge
      classification vector (ECV), which combines information on the
      aggregated flow (following [Khalili2016]) and the switch-local
      endpoint.  The representation has similar bitarray characteristics
      as the previous two approaches

   o  NOTE: with the ingress and egress NAPs terminating SF Layer 3
      connections and the utilization of bitarray-based tSFFs, the
      transmission of packets can effectively take place as an ad-hoc
      Layer multicast while the SFC itself is denoted as an n-times
      unicast SFC.  As an example, consider the chaining of a set of n
      clients to a single video server.  Each sub-SFC from an individual
      client to the video server will semantically result in a unicast
      response from the server back to the client (e.g., carrying the
      video chunk for a MPEG DASH-based video stream).  When combining
      the sub-SFCs to the single SFC with n times unicast relations to
      the server, the SRR will deliver the responses from the server via
      one or more multicast responses to one or more clients.  The size
      of the individual multicast groups will depend on the
      synchronicity of the client requests (and therefore on the
      synchronicity of the server responses).  Note that the multicast
      relations here are ad-hoc created by ORing the bitarrays
      representing the specific clients to which the responses are meant
      to be sent.  This is illustrated in the figure below.  The HTTP
      multicast use case is being presented in the BIER use case draft
      [I-D.ietf-bier-use-cases]albeit without specific a SFC relation.

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+---------+   +---------+
|         |   |         |   10010011               00000010 +--------+
+IP only  +---+ ICN     +--------|                          | ICN    |
|reciever |   | NAP1    |        |              |-----------| NAP3   |
|UE       |   +---------+        |              |           +---||---+
+---------+                      |              |               ||
                            +----------+   +----------+   |-----||-------|
                            |          |   |          |    |   Cloud    |
                            |SDN Switch|---|SDN Switch|     |          |
                            |          |   |          |      |---||---|
                            +----------+   +----------+          ||
                                  |                              ||
+---------+   +---------+         |                         +----||------+
|         |   |         |         |                         |            |
+IP only  +---+ ICN     +---------|                         + IP only    +
|sender UE|   | NAP2    |    10100011                       | Server     |
+---------+   +---------+                                   +------------+

       Figure 7: Illustration of Bitfield-based Forwarding using SDN

7.  Protocol Consideration

   For the operations outlined in the previous section, we foresee the
   following protocol changes are required:

   o  NAP-to-NAP protocol for HTTP: HTTP based message exchange between
      client and server NAPs

   o  NAP-PCE protocol: Used for path computation, obtaining routing
      information as well as provide path updates

   o  Overlay transport protocol: Used for transport-level exchange over
      any underlay network

   o  Registration protocol: Used to register FQDN service endpoints

   o  Content certificate distribution protocol: Used for HTTPS support

8.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests no IANA actions.

9.  Security Considerations

   TBD.

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10.  Informative References

   [ETSI_MEC]
              ETSI, "Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Technical
              Requirements", GS MEC 002 1.1.1, March 2016,
              <http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/
              MEC/001_099/002/01.01.01_60/gs_MEC002v010101p.pdf>.

   [I-D.ietf-bier-use-cases]
              Kumar, N., Asati, R., Chen, M., Xu, X., Dolganow, A.,
              Przygienda, T., arkadiy.gulko@thomsonreuters.com, a.,
              Robinson, D., Arya, V., and C. Bestler, "BIER Use Cases",
              draft-ietf-bier-use-cases-05 (work in progress), July
              2017.

   [I-D.ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases]
              Kumar, S., Tufail, M., Majee, S., Captari, C., and S.
              Homma, "Service Function Chaining Use Cases In Data
              Centers", draft-ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases-06 (work in
              progress), February 2017.

   [I-D.ietf-sfc-nsh]
              Quinn, P., Elzur, U., and C. Pignataro, "Network Service
              Header (NSH)", draft-ietf-sfc-nsh-27 (work in progress),
              October 2017.

   [Khalili2016]
              Khalili, R., Poe, W., Despotovic, Z., and A. Hecker,
              "Reducing State of SDN Switches in Mobile Core Networks by
              Flow Rule Aggregation", ICCCN, August, 2016.

   [Reed2016]
              Reed, M., Al-Naday, M., Thomas, N., Trossen, D., and S.
              Spirou, "Reducing State of SDN Switches in Mobile Core
              Networks by Flow Rule Aggregation", ICC 2016, 2016.

   [RFC7498]  Quinn, P., Ed. and T. Nadeau, Ed., "Problem Statement for
              Service Function Chaining", RFC 7498,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7498, April 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7498>.

Authors' Addresses

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   Debashish Purkayastha
   InterDigital Communications, LLC
   Conshohocken
   USA

   Email: Debashish.Purkayastha@InterDigital.com

   Akbar Rahman
   InterDigital Communications, LLC
   Montreal
   Canada

   Email: Akbar.Rahman@InterDigital.com

   Dirk Trossen
   InterDigital Communications, LLC
   64 Great Eastern Street, 1st Floor
   London  EC2A 3QR
   United Kingdom

   Email: Dirk.Trossen@InterDigital.com
   URI:   http://www.InterDigital.com/

   Zoran Despotovic
   Huawei

   Email: Zoran.Despotovic@huawei.com
   URI:   http://www.huawei.com/

   Ramin Khalili
   Huawei

   Email: Ramin.khalili@huawei.com
   URI:   http://www.huawei.com/

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