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Encapsulation for BIER in Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks
draft-xie-bier-6man-encapsulation-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Jingrong Xie , Gang Yan , Mike McBride , Yang Xia
Last updated 2018-04-28
Replaced by draft-xie-bier-ipv6-encapsulation
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draft-xie-bier-6man-encapsulation-00
Network Working Group                                             J. Xie
Internet-Draft                                                    G. Yan
Intended status: Standards Track                              M. McBride
Expires: October 30, 2018                                         Y. Xia
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                          April 28, 2018

            Encapsulation for BIER in Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks
                  draft-xie-bier-6man-encapsulation-00

Abstract

   Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) introduces a new multicast-
   specific BIER Header.  Currently BIER has two types of encapsulation
   formats: one is MPLS encapsulation, the other is Ethernet
   encapsulation.  This document proposes a BIER IPv6 encapsulation for
   Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks using an IPv6 Destination Option extension
   header.

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].

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 October 30, 2018.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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 and restrictions with respect
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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.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Problem Statement and Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.2.  Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  IPv6 BIER Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  IPv6 BIER Destination Option  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.3.  The whole IPv6 header for BIER packets  . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  BIER Forwarding in Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) [RFC8279] is an architecture
   that provides optimal multicast forwarding without requiring
   intermediate routers to maintain any per-flow state by using a
   multicast-specific BIER header.  [RFC8296] defines two types of BIER
   encapsulation formats: one is MPLS encapsulation, the other is non-
   MPLS encapsulation.  The Non-MPLS encapsulation defined in [RFC8296]
   is in fact an Ethernet encapsulation with an ethertype 0xAB37, and an
   'Ethernet encapsulation' will be used to refer to such an
   encapsulation in the following text.  This document proposes a BIER
   IPv6 encapsulation for Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks using an IPv6
   Destination Option extension header.

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2.  Terminology

   Readers of this document are assumed to be familiar with the
   terminology and concepts of the documents listed as Normative
   References.

3.  Problem Statement and Requirements

3.1.  Problem Statement

   MPLS is a very popular and successful encapsulation.  One of the
   benefits of MPLS is its ability to easily stack a label onto another,
   thus forming a label stack.  This same label stacking benefit is also
   available for BIER by using an MPLS encapsulation.  For example, an
   MPLS-encapsulated BIER packet can easily run over an MPLS tunnel,
   either a legacy RSVP-TE/LDP LSP, or an MPLS Segment Routing tunnel.
   Such a mechanism is the key to obtain the capability of "fast
   reroute" or "bypass a Non-capable router".  To quote [RFC8279]:

   o  In the event that unicast traffic to the BFR-NBR is being sent via
      a "bypass tunnel" of some sort, the BIER-encapsulated multicast
      traffic sent to the BFR-NBR SHOULD also be sent via that tunnel.
      This allows any existing "fast reroute" schemes to be applied to
      multicast traffic as well as to unicast traffic.

   o  Unicast tunnels are used to bypass non-BFRs.

   Some other scenarios also need BIER to run on a tunnel, such as
   transferring a BIER packet through a whole Non-BIER network or
   domain.

   The capability to run BIER on a tunnel, especially the widely
   deployed mpls tunnel, can be obtained by using a BIER MPLS
   encapsulation, but cannot be obtained by using a BIER Ethernet
   encapsulation.  It is not possible either, to run BIER on other links
   such as POS, by using BIER Ethernet encapsulation.

   The capability of running BIER on various kinds of links and tunnels,
   by using an MPLS encapsulation, is beneficial to BIER deployments.
   In an IPv6 network, however, there are considerations of using a non-
   MPLS encapsulation for unicast as the data-plane, such as SRH defined
   in [I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header], where the function of a
   bypass tunnel uses an SRH header, with one or many Segments (or
   SIDs), instead of MPLS Labels.

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3.2.  Requirements

   This chapter lists the BIER IPv6 encapsulation requirements needed to
   make the deployment of BIER on IPv6 network with SRH data-plane the
   same as on IPv4/IPv6 network with MPLS data-plane.  These BIER IPv6
   encapsulation requirements should provide similar benefits to MPLS
   encapsulation such as "fast reroute" or "run on any link or
   interface".

   1.  The listed requirements MUST be supported with any L1/L2 over
       which BIER layer can be realized.

   2.  It SHOULD support a hop-by-hop replication to multiple
       destinations in a BIER Domain.

   3.  It SHOULD support BIER on an "SRH tunnel".

   4.  It SHOULD align with the recommendations of the 6MAN working
       group.

4.  IPv6 BIER Encapsulation

4.1.  Considerations

   BIER is generally a hop-by-hop and one-to-many architecture, while
   Segment Routing is a source-routing and one-to-one architecture.  One
   of the challenges of an BIER IPv6 Encapsulation is how to allow BIER
   to run over a Segment Routing tunnel.  A suitable method for such a
   combination is to use a Multicast Address as the Last Segment (or
   SID).  After all the source-routing hops have been processed, the
   remaining Multicast Address becomes the IPv6 Destination Address.  A
   hop-by-hop replicating diagram begins by using the Destination
   Multicast Address.

   We then need to decide where to place the BIER header.  According to
   [RFC8200], [RFC6564], and [RFC7045], a suitable place for a well-
   known BIER header is an IPv6 Destination Option extension header.
   Such a Destination Option carrying BIER header is only used for a
   hop-by-hop Multicast Address destination, but not for the transit
   router along the source-routing path.

4.2.  IPv6 BIER Destination Option

   The IPv6 BIER Destination Option is carried by the IPv6 Destination
   Option Header (indicated by a Next Header value 60).  It is used in a
   packet sent by an IPv6 BFIR router to inform the routers in an IPv6
   BIER domain to replicate to destination BFER routers.

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   The IPv6 BIER Destination Option is encoded in type-length-value
   (TLV) format as follows:

        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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |  Next Header  |  Hdr Ext Len  |  Option Type  | Option Length |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       ~          Non-MPLS BIER Header (defined in RFC8296)            ~
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                  Figure 1: IPv6 BIER Destination Option

   Next Header  8-bit selector.  Identifies the type of header
      immediately following the Destination Options header.

   Hdr Ext Len  8-bit unsigned integer.  Length of the Destination
      Options header in 8-octet units, not including the first 8 octets.

   Option Type  TBD.  Need to be allocated by IANA.

   Option Length  8-bit unsigned integer.  Length of the option, in
      octets, excluding the Option Type and Option Length fields.

   Non-MPLS BIER Header  The Non-MPLS BIER Header defined in RFC8296,
      including the BIFT-id.

4.3.  The whole IPv6 header for BIER packets

   [RFC8200] specifies that the Destination Option Header can be located
   either before the Routing Header or after the Routing Header.
   However, this document requires that the Destination Option Header
   with a BIER Destination Option TLV is always located after the
   Routing Header if the Routing Header is present.

   This is because the BIER header is always handled after the tunnels
   (or bypass tunnels) have been handled.  BIER MPLS encapsulation has
   the same behavior.  To quote [RFC8296]:

   o  It is crucial to understand that in an MPLS network the first four
      octets of the BIER encapsulation header are also the last four
      octets of the MPLS header.  Therefore, any prior MPLS label stack
      entries MUST have the S bit (see [RFC3032]) clear (i.e., the S bit
      must be 0).

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   Other IPv6 extension headers are not commonly used in the current
   Internet.  For Example, [RFC6744] says that "IPv6 Destination Options
   headers, and the options carried by such headers, are extremely
   uncommon in the deployed Internet".  [RFC6564] says that "Extension
   headers, with the exception of the Hop-by-Hop Options header, are not
   usually processed on intermediate nodes", and that "Reports from the
   field indicate that some IP routers deployed within the global
   Internet are configured either to ignore the presence of headers with
   hop-by-hop behavior or to drop packets containing headers with hop-
   by-hop behavior."

   Such IPv6 extension headers will even be more uncommon when a BIER
   encapsulation is used in data-plane forwarding.  The entire IPv6
   header, with BIER encapsulation and Routing Header, is expected to
   look like this:

      IPv6 header

      Hop-by-Hop Options header [Not Used]

      Destination Options header [Not Used]

      Routing header [SRH Header with Multicast Address as last SID]

      Fragment header [Not Used]

      Authentication header [Not Used]

      Encapsulating Security Payload header [Not Used]

      Destination Options header [BIER header in BIER Option TLV]

      Upper-layer header [Data-plane Data]

   Once a packet is encapsulated with a BIER Destination Option, it is
   basically assumed to be a data-plane multicast packet, so the 'OAM'
   or similar functions in the SRH Header Optional TLV Objects field
   should not exist.

   The last Segment (SID) in the SRH header, or Segment List[0], should
   be a Multicast Address to indicate a hop-by-hop behavior.  Such a
   Multicast Address can be reserved or unreserved as the Destination
   Option Header can inform the routers to do the address check.  A
   reserved multicast address should be indicating a 'BIER specific'
   address.

   BIER header has a 'proto' field to identify the type of BIER packet
   payload, and the IANA has created a registry called "BIER Next

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   Protocol Identifiers" to assign the value.  That means the 'Upper-
   layer header' of a BIER packet have already been identified by the
   'proto' field of the BIER header in the Destination Option Header.
   Thus the 'Next Header' in the Destination Option Header is not need
   to identify the 'Upper-layer header' any more, and is recommended to
   be set to 'No Next Header (value 59)'.

5.  BIER Forwarding in Non-MPLS IPv6 Networks

   In a Non-MPLS IPv6 Network, BIER may be deployed in a hop-by-hop
   manner, or possibly be deployed through an SRH tunnel either for
   "bypassing Non-capable BIER routers" or "fast rerouting".  Here is an
   example where a packet is first forwarded through an SRH tunnel and
   then through a hop-by-hop manner.

   When a router along the Segment Routing path receives an IPv6 BIER
   packet with an SRH header, and if the IPv6 destination address is not
   one of the router's address, then the packet is forwarded by an IPv6
   FIB lookup of the destination address and none of the IPv6 extension
   headers will be checked.  If the IPv6 Destination Address is one of
   the router's address, and also one of the router's Segment (or SID)
   of some type, then the router will do a specific function indicated
   by the Segment, as defined in
   [I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming].  If the IPv6
   Destination Address is a specific type of Segment, called BIER
   Segment or BIER SID, then the according function is called Endpoint
   BIER function or 'End.BF' function for short.

   When router receives a packet destined to X and X is a local End.BF
   SID, the router does:

   1.    IF SL > 0
   2.      decrement SL
   3.      update IPv6 DA with SRH[SL]
   4.      IF SL = 0 & STATE(SRH[0]) = BIER
   5.        update IPv6 header NH with SRH NH
   6.        pop the SRH
   7.        forward the updated packet
   8.      ELSE
   9.        drop the packet
   10.   ELSE
   11.     drop the packet

                         Figure 2: End.BF Function

   The End.BF function is used for the SRH tunnel destination router to
   terminate the source-routing SRH forwarding while begining the hop-
   by-hop BIER IPv6 forwarding.  After the SRH header is popped, the

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   multicast address in the updated IPv6 Destination Address indicates
   the BIER information of this 'host', and the packet will be forwarded
   according to the BIER Header in the BIER Destination Option TLV in
   the IPv6 Destination Option extension header.

   In the following hop-by-hop forwarding procedure, the IPv6
   Destination Address in an incoming packet indicates the BIER
   information of this 'host', and the packet will be forwarded
   according to the BIER Header in the BIER Destination Option TLV in
   the IPv6 Destination Option extension header.  A router is required
   to ignore the IPv6 BIER Destination Option if the IPv6 Destination
   Address of a packet is not a multicast address, or is a multicast
   adddress without indicating the BIER information of this 'host'.

6.  Security Considerations

   An IPv6 BIER Destination Option with Multicast Address Destination
   would be used only when an IPv6 BIER state with the specific
   Multicast Address Destination has been built by the control-plane.
   Otherwise the packet with an IPv6 BIER Destination Option will be
   discarded.

7.  IANA Considerations

   Allocation is expected from IANA for a Destination Option Type
   codepoint from the "Destination Options and Hop-by-Hop Options" sub-
   registry of the "Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Parameters"
   registry [RFC2780] at <https://www.iana.org/assignments/
   ipv6-parameters/>.

8.  Acknowledgements

   TBD.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming]
              Filsfils, C., Li, Z., Leddy, J., daniel.voyer@bell.ca, d.,
              daniel.bernier@bell.ca, d., Steinberg, D., Raszuk, R.,
              Matsushima, S., Lebrun, D., Decraene, B., Peirens, B.,
              Salsano, S., Naik, G., Elmalky, H., Jonnalagadda, P., and
              M. Sharif, "SRv6 Network Programming", draft-filsfils-
              spring-srv6-network-programming-04 (work in progress),
              March 2018.

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   [I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header]
              Previdi, S., Filsfils, C., Leddy, J., Matsushima, S., and
              d. daniel.voyer@bell.ca, "IPv6 Segment Routing Header
              (SRH)", draft-ietf-6man-segment-routing-header-12 (work in
              progress), April 2018.

   [RFC6564]  Krishnan, S., Woodyatt, J., Kline, E., Hoagland, J., and
              M. Bhatia, "A Uniform Format for IPv6 Extension Headers",
              RFC 6564, DOI 10.17487/RFC6564, April 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6564>.

   [RFC7045]  Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Transmission and Processing
              of IPv6 Extension Headers", RFC 7045,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7045, December 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7045>.

   [RFC8200]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.

   [RFC8279]  Wijnands, IJ., Ed., Rosen, E., Ed., Dolganow, A.,
              Przygienda, T., and S. Aldrin, "Multicast Using Bit Index
              Explicit Replication (BIER)", RFC 8279,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8279, November 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8279>.

   [RFC8296]  Wijnands, IJ., Ed., Rosen, E., Ed., Dolganow, A.,
              Tantsura, J., Aldrin, S., and I. Meilik, "Encapsulation
              for Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) in MPLS and Non-
              MPLS Networks", RFC 8296, DOI 10.17487/RFC8296, January
              2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8296>.

9.2.  Informative References

   [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>.

Authors' Addresses

   Jingrong Xie
   Huawei Technologies

   Email: xiejingrong@huawei.com

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   Gang Yan
   Huawei Technologies

   Email: yangang@huawei.com

   Mike McBride
   Huawei Technologies

   Email: mmcbride7@gmail.com

   Yang Xia
   Huawei Technologies

   Email: yolanda.xia@huawei.com

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