Service Function Chaining: Subscriber and Policy Identification Variable-Length Network Service Header (NSH) Context Headers
draft-sfc-serviceid-header-02

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SFC                                                         M. Boucadair
Internet-Draft                                                    Orange
Intended status: Standards Track                             D. von Hugo
Expires: May 18, 2019                                   Deutsche Telekom
                                                             B. Sarikaya
                                                     Denpel Informatique
                                                       November 14, 2018

    Service Function Chaining: Subscriber and Policy Identification
      Variable-Length Network Service Header (NSH) Context Headers
                     draft-sfc-serviceid-header-02

Abstract

   This document discusses how to inform Service Functions about
   subscriber- and service-related information for the sake of policy
   enforcement and appropriate service function chaining operations.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 18, 2019.

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   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Boucadair, et al.         Expires May 18, 2019                  [Page 1]
Internet-Draft    Service, Subscriber and Hostid in SFC    November 2018

   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Subscriber Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Header    4
   4.  Policy Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Headers . .   5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   This document discusses how to inform Service Functions (SFs) about
   subscriber- and service-related information when required for the
   sake of policy enforcement within a single administrative domain.
   Particularly, subscriber-related information may be required to
   enforce subscriber-specific SFC-based traffic policies.
   Nevertheless, the information carried in packets may not be
   sufficient to unambiguously identify a subscriber.  This document
   fills this void by specifying a new Network Service Header (NSH)
   [RFC8300] context header to convey and disseminate such information.

   Also, the enforcement of SFC-based differentiated traffic policies
   may be inferred by QoS considerations.  Typically, QoS information
   may serve as an input to classification of the Service Function Path
   (SFP) for path computation, establishment, and selection.
   Furthermore, the dynamic structuring of service function chains and
   their subsequent enforcement may be conditioned by QoS requirements
   that will affect SF instance identification, location, and
   sequencing.  Hence, the need to supply a policy identifier to
   upstream SFs to appropriately meet the service requirements.

   SFs and SF Forwarders (SFFs) involved in a service chain have to
   contribute to the respective service policy (QoS, for example)
   requirements characterized by low transmission delay between each
   other, by exposing a high availability of resources to process
   function tasks, or by redundancy provided by stand-by machines for
   seamless execution continuation in case of failures.  These
   requirements may be satisfied by means of control protocols, but in