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Proactive fault detection in E-VPN
draft-vgovindan-l2vpn-evpn-bfd-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Vengada Prasad Govindan , Samer Salam , Ali Sajassi
Last updated 2013-10-19
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draft-vgovindan-l2vpn-evpn-bfd-00
INTERNET-DRAFT                                   Vengada Prasad Govindan
Intended Status: Standards Track                             Samer Salam
Expires: April 22, 2014                                      Ali Sajassi
                                                                   Cisco
                                                        October 19, 2013

                   Proactive fault detection in E-VPN
                   draft-vgovindan-l2vpn-evpn-bfd-00

Abstract

   This document proposes a proactive, in-band network OAM mechanism to
   detect connectivity faults that affect unicast and multi-destination
   paths in an E-VPN network. The multi-destination paths are used by
   Broadcast, unknown Unicast and Multicast (BUM) traffic. The
   mechanisms proposed in the draft use the principles of the widely
   adopted Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) protocol.

Status of this Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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Copyright and License Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 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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   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://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
     1.1  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Scope of fault detection mechanisms proposed in this
       document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     2.1 Fault Detection of BUM traffic using ingress replication
         (MP2P) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       2.1.1 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the head of the MP2P
             tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       2.1.2 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the tail nodes of the 
             MP2P tunnel  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2 Fault Detection of BUM traffic using P2MP tunnels (LSM)  . .  4
       2.2.1 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the root of the P2MP
             tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       2.2.2 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the tail nodes of the 
             P2MP tunnel  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.3 Fault Detection of unicast traffic (P2P) . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3 BFD packet encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1 Encapsulation using IP headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       3.1.1 Ingress replication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       3.1.2 LSM  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       3.1.3 Unicast  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2 Using GAL/G-Ach encapsulation without IP headers . . . . . .  6
       3.2.1 Ingress replication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.2.2 LSM  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.2.3 Unicast  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4. Scalability Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   5.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   6  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   7. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   8  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     8.1  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     8.2  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8

1  Introduction
 

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   [EVPNOAM] outlines the OAM requirements of Ethernet VPN networks
   [EVPN]. This document proposes mechanisms for proactive fault
   detection at the network OAM layer of E-VPN. These mechanisms could
   either be deployed for periodic and proactive monitoring, or be
   triggered by specific events to aid troubleshooting. E-VPN fault
   detection mechanisms need to consider unicast and BUM traffic
   separately since they map to different FECs in E-VPN. Since BUM
   traffic can be transported using MP2P or P2MP tunnels, this document
   proposes slightly different fault detection mechanisms to suit each
   type using the principles of Point-to-multipoint BFD[P2MPBFD]. Please
   note that this document uses the term E-VPN loosely to include [E-
   VPN], [PBB-EVPN] as well as [TRILL-EVPN]. 

1.1  Terminology

   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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

2.  Scope of fault detection mechanisms proposed in this document

   This section proposes proactive fault detection using BFD mechanisms
   for:

     a. BUM traffic using MP2P tunnels (ingress replication).
     b. BUM traffic using P2MP tunnels (LSM).
     c. Unicast traffic

     The approach takes advantage of the inclusive multicast route used
     in E-VPN to advertise the multi-destination FEC for bootstrapping
     the BFD sessions. Earlier approaches for P2MP BFD [MPLSCVBFD] have
     used periodic MPLS ping requests to bootstrap P2MP BFD sessions
     over MPLS. 

2.1 Fault Detection of BUM traffic using ingress replication (MP2P)

     Ingress replication uses separate MP2P tunnels for transporting BUM
     traffic from the ingress PE (head) to a set of one or more egress
     PEs (tails). The fault detection mechanism proposed by this
     document takes advantage of the fact that a unique copy is  made by
     the head for each tail. Another key aspect to be considered in E-
     VPN is the advertisement of the inclusive multicast route. The BUM
     traffic flows from a head node to a particular tail only after the
     head receives the inclusive multicast route containing the BUM EVPN
     label (downstream allocated) corresponding to the MP2P tunnel. 

 

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2.1.1 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the head of the MP2P tunnel

     There could exist multiple BFD sessions between a head of the
     multi-destination tunnel and an individual tail due to the usage of
     entropy labels [MPLSEL] for an inclusive multicast FEC. A P2MP BFD
     session could be identified at the tail node using the source IP
     (if present in the BFD packet) and the attributes of the inclusive
     multicast FEC (the BUM label, label stack and optionally the
     entropy label). To simplify such a lookup, we take advantage of the
     fact that the head replicates a BUM packet for each tail by
     inserting unique discriminators in each copy of the (replicated)
     BFD packet. These discriminators are exchanged out-of-band using
     MPLS ping [BFD-MPLS] before the start of the BFD session. The head
     PE performing ingress replication MUST initiate the LSP ping using
     the inclusive multicast FEC [EVPNPING] upon receiving an inclusive
     multicast route from a tail. The receiving tail MUST generate a
     unique discriminator to identify the tuple of inclusive multicast
     FEC and the source IP address. This discriminator MUST be
     communicated back to the head using the response to the MPLS ping.
     The head MUST insert the corresponding discriminator generated by
     the tail for each copy of the BFD packet in the yourDisc field of
     the BFD header. It is obvious that the MPLS ping to perform
     discriminator exchange is required only once to bootstrap the
     session.

2.1.2 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the tail nodes of the MP2P tunnel

     The tail nodes MUST bootstrap a BFD session based on the incoming
     MPLS ping initiated by the head [P2MPBFD].

2.2 Fault Detection of BUM traffic using P2MP tunnels (LSM)

     The case of using P2MP tunnels for distributing BUM traffic
     presents a different challenge for using BFD. Clearly, the yourDisc
     of the BFD packet MUST be zero [P2MPBFD] as the packet is multicast
     from the root unlike ingress replication where individual copies
     are made from the head. However the MPLS label that identifies the
     P-Tunnel used for forwarding the multi-destination traffic provides
     a convenient method of identifying the source and the FEC (multi-
     destination tree) being tracked by the BFD session. The tails of
     the multi-destination tree MUST use the MPLS label identifying the
     P-tunnel to de-multiplex the BFD packet. In the case of Aggregate
     Inclusive trees, where the root of the multi-destination tree
     reuses the same LSP label for traffic of various EVIs, the tail
     node MUST use the MPLS labels of the P-Tunnel and the upstream
     assigned label which the PE has bound uniquely to the EVI. The
     myDisc of the BFD packet is filled with an unique value allocated
     by the root to identify the multipath session. 
 

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2.2.1 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the root of the P2MP tunnel

     The P2MP BFD sessions MUST be bootstrapped at the head [P2MPBFD] as
     soon as there is one receiver for the MDT traffic.

2.2.2 Bootstrapping BFD sessions at the tail nodes of the P2MP tunnel

     The PMP BFD sessions MUST be bootstrapped at the tail upon
     reception of the P2MP BFD packets from the head. The tail MUST use
     the P2MP MDT label to de-multiplex the incoming BFD packet.

2.3 Fault Detection of unicast traffic (P2P)

     The mechanisms specified in BFD for MPLS LSPs [BFD-MPLS] can be
     applied to bootstrap and maintain BFD sessions for unicast EVPN
     traffic. The discriminators required for de-multiplexing the BFD
     sessions can be exchanged using MPLS ping before starting the BFD
     session. This is needed since the MPLS label stack does not contain
     enough information to disambiguate the sender of the packet. The
     usage of MPLS entropy labels take care of addressing the
     requirement of monitoring faults of the various paths of the multi-
     path server layer network [MPLSEL].

3 BFD packet encapsulation

     Two BFD encapsulations are possible [VCCV-BFD].

3.1 Encapsulation using IP headers

3.1.1 Ingress replication

     The packet contains the following labels: LSP label (transport)
     when not using PHP, BUM label, SH label (where applicable) and the
     optional entropy label. The source IP of the packet is set to that
     of the originating PE. The destination IP MUST be 127/8 for IPv4 or
     0:0:0:0:0:FFFF: to 127.0.0.0/104 for IPv6. The UDP port indicates
     the type of the payload as BFD control packet. The discriminator
     values of BFD are obtained through negotiation through the out-of-
     band MPLS ping.

3.1.2 LSM

     The packet contains the following labels: P-Tunnel label, upstream
     allocated label which the PE has bound uniquely to the EVI
     (aggregate inclusive tress only). The source IP of the packet is
     set to that of the originating PE. The destination IP MUST be 127/8
     for IPv4 or 0:0:0:0:0:FFFF: to 127.0.0.0/104 for IPv6. The UDP port
 

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     indicates the type of the payload as BFD control packet. The
     yourDisc value is set to 0 and the myDisc value is uniquely
     generated by the root.

3.1.3 Unicast

     The packet contains the following labels: LSP label (transport)
     when not using PHP, E-VPN Unicast label and the optional entropy
     label. The source IP of the packet is set to that of the
     originating PE. The destination IP MUST be 127/8 for IPv4 or
     0:0:0:0:0:FFFF: to 127.0.0.0/104 for IPv6. The UDP port indicates
     the type of the payload as BFD control packet.The discriminator
     values of BFD are obtained through negotiation through the out-of-
     band MPLS ping.

3.2 Using GAL/G-Ach encapsulation without IP headers

3.2.1 Ingress replication

     The packet contains the following labels: LSP label (transport)
     when not using PHP, BUM label and the SH label (where applicable).
     The G-Ach type is set to 0x0007  [VCCV-BFD]. The discriminator
     values of BFD are obtained through negotiation through the out-of-
     band MPLS ping.

3.2.2 LSM

     The packet contains the following labels: label identifying the P-
     Tunnel, upstream label which the PE has bound uniquely to the EVI 
     (for aggregate inclusive trees only). The G-Ach type is set to
     0x0007  [VCCV-BFD]. The yourDisc value is set to 0 and the myDisc
     value is uniquely generated by the root.

3.2.3 Unicast

     The packet contains the following labels: LSP label (transport)
     when not using PHP, E-VPN Unicast label and the optional entropy
     label. The G-Ach type is set to 0x0007  [VCCV-BFD]. The
     discriminator values of BFD are obtained through negotiation
     through the out-of-band MPLS ping.

4. Scalability Considerations

     The mechanisms proposed in this draft could either be run
     periodically to monitor the network proactively or in response to
     specific network events to aid troubleshooting in a demand-driven
 

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     manner. Since the mechanisms proposed could affect the load of the
     network elements as networks scale to support a large number of
     EVIs, caution needs to be exercised in choosing the parameters and
     the interfaces on which these mechanisms are enabled.

5.  Security Considerations

     This document does not introduce any new security issues, the
     security considerations defined in [BFD] and [P2MPBFD] apply in
     this document.

6  IANA Considerations

     No new requests are made to IANA by this document.

7. Acknowledgments

     We thank Tina Lam, Jose Liste and Mudigonda Mallik for their
     valuable input, discussions and comments.

8  References

8.1  Normative References

   [KEYWORDS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [BFD]      Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
              (BFD)", RFC 5880, June 2010.

   [BFD-MPLS] Aggarwal, R., Kompella, K., Nadeau, T., and G. Swallow,
              "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for MPLS Label
              Switched Paths (LSPs)", RFC 5884, June 2010.

   [VCCV-BFD] Nadeau, T., Ed., and C. Pignataro, Ed., "Bidirectional
              Forwarding Detection (BFD) for the Pseudowire Virtual
              Circuit Connectivity Verification (VCCV)", RFC 5885, June
              2010.

   [P2MPBFD]  Katz, D. and D. Ward, "BFD for multipoint networks",
              draft-ietf-multipoint-01.txt, work in progress,
              June 2013.

   [EVPNOAM]  Salam et al, "E-VPN OAM Requirements and Framework",
              draft-salam-l2vpn-evpn-oam-req-frmwrk-00.txt, 
              work in progress, October 2012.

 

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   [EVPNPING] Jain et al, "LSP-Ping Mechanisms for E-VPN and PBB-EVPN" ,
              draft-jain-l2vpn-evpn-lsp-ping-01, 
              work in progress, February 2013.

   [MPLSCVBFD] Swallow et al, "Connectivity Verification for Multicast
               Label Switched Paths",
               draft-ietf-mpls-mcast-cv-00
               work in progress, April 2007.

8.2  Informative References

   [EVPN]    Aggarwal et al., "BGP MPLS Based Ethernet VPN",
              draft-ietf-l2vpn-evpn-02.txt, work in progress,
              October 2012. 

   [PBB-EVPN] Sajassi et al, "PBB-EVPN", draft-ietf-l2vpn-pbb-evpn-05,
              July 2013.

   [TRILL-EVPN]
               Sajassi et al., "TRILL-EVPN", 
               draft-ietf-l2vpn-trill-evpn-00.txt,
               work in progress, June 2012. 

   [MPLSEL]   Kompella et al,
              "The Use of Entropy Labels in MPLS Forwarding",
              RFC 6790, November 2012.

Authors' Addresses

   Vengada Prasad Govindan
   EMail: venggovi@cisco.com

   Samer Salam
   EMail: ssalam@cisco.com

   Ali Sajassi
   EMail:sajassi@cisco.com

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