BGP node-ID EC extension
draft-qwz-idr-nodeid-ec-00
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| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Fengwei Qin , Ruixue Wang , Zheng Zhang , Dongyu Yuan | ||
| Last updated | 2026-10-12 | ||
| RFC stream | (None) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
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| Stream | Stream state | (No stream defined) | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
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draft-qwz-idr-nodeid-ec-00
IDR F. Qin
Internet-Draft R. Wang
Intended status: Standards Track China Mobile
Expires: 15 April 2027 Z. Zhang, Ed.
D. Yuan
ZTE Corporation
12 October 2026
BGP node-ID EC extension
draft-qwz-idr-nodeid-ec-00
Abstract
This document describes a new BGP extended community attribute for
advertising the node-ID.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on 15 April 2027.
Copyright Notice
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1. Introduction
Each node in a network can be represented by an IP address with
global reachability—an IPv4 address for IPv4 networks or an IPv6
address for IPv6 networks. However, in certain networks such as AI
Fabric, using IP addresses to identify nodes may not be the most
efficient approach; since the scale typically does not exceed 64k
nodes, a 2-byte node-ID serves as a more efficient form of
identification.
This means that within an network like AI Fabric, a unique node ID
can be assigned to identify each forwarding node—such as the Leaf or
Spine switches in a Clos or Fat-Tree topology. This identifier can
be associated with the actual IP address, allowing the node ID to be
used to represent the node during forwarding or fault response
processes.
This document defines a new extended community attribute to advertise
the node-ID.
1.1. 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 [RFC2119].
2. Format
A new Sub-Type for identifying the node-ID will be defined within the
Transitive Opaque Extended Community ([RFC4360] and
[I-D.ietf-idr-rfc4360-bis]), with the following format:
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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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 0x03 | Sub-Type | node-ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Reserved |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 1
* Sub-Type: TBD. This indicates that this is the node-ID extended
community;
* node-ID: 2 octets, the unique value used to identify a node.
* Reserved: 4 octets, MUST be set to 0, and this part MUST be
ignored upon receipt.
3. Specification
Nodes in the network can be assigned a unique node-ID—either through
manual configuration or via allocation from a controller.
When advertising the route for its loopback address, each node
includes the node-ID in the extended community attribute.
This value cannot be modified by any node other than the source node
that generated it.
Once all devices have advertised this information, every node becomes
aware of the mappings between nodes and their respective node-IDs
within the network.
Not every node in the network requires a node-ID; nodes that perform
only forwarding functions do not need one assigned.
If a node's node-ID changes, BGP messages must be updated to carry
the new ID; upon detecting the change based on the loopback address
route, receiving devices update their stored mappings between nodes
and node-IDs.
Based on the loopback address route and the node-ID, each forwarding
node can generate forwarding table entries keyed by the node-ID.
4. IANA Considerations
IANA is requested to allocate a new code points from the "Transitive
Opaque Extended Community Sub-Types" registry.
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+======+=============+===============+
| Type | Description | Reference |
+======+=============+===============+
| TBD | Node ID | This Document |
+------+-------------+---------------+
Table 1: TABLE_1
5. Security Considerations
This extension to BGP has similar security implications as BGP
Extended Communities Attribute [I-D.ietf-idr-rfc4360-bis].
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-idr-rfc4360-bis]
Sangli, S. R. and N. Kao, "BGP Extended Communities
Attribute", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
idr-rfc4360-bis-09, 13 July 2026,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-idr-
rfc4360-bis-09>.
[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>.
[RFC4360] Sangli, S., Tappan, D., and Y. Rekhter, "BGP Extended
Communities Attribute", RFC 4360, DOI 10.17487/RFC4360,
February 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4360>.
6.2. Informative References
Authors' Addresses
Fengwei Qin
China Mobile
China
Email: qinfengwei@chinamobile.com
Ruixue Wang
China Mobile
China
Email: wangruixue@chinamobile.com
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Zheng Zhang (editor)
ZTE Corporation
China
Email: zhang.zheng@zte.com.cn
Dongyu Yuan
ZTE Corporation
China
Email: yuan.dongyu@zte.com.cn
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