NETLMM Working Group                                      V. Devarapalli
Internet-Draft                                                    H. Lim
Intended status: Standards Track                                 N. Kant
Expires: August 22, 2008                                 Azaire Networks
                                                             S. Krishnan
                                                                Ericsson
                                                       February 19, 2008


               Heartbeat Mechanism for Proxy Mobile IPv6
            draft-devarapalli-netlmm-pmipv6-heartbeat-01.txt

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).

Abstract

   Proxy Mobile IPv6 is a network-based mobility management protocol.
   The mobility entities involved in the Proxy Mobile IPv6 protocol, the
   Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) and the Local Mobility Anchor (LMA),
   setup tunnels dynamically to manage mobility for a mobile node within
   the Proxy Mobile IPv6 domain.  This document describes a heartbeat



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   mechanism between the MAG and the LMA to detect failures quickly and
   take appropriate action.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Heartbeat Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     3.1.  Failure Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.2.  Heartbeat Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   6.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements  . . . . . . . . . . 9
































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1.  Introduction

   Proxy Mobile IPv6 enables network-based mobility for IPv6 hosts that
   do not implement any mobility protocols.  The protocol is described
   in detail in [2].  The Local Mobility Anchor (LMA) acts the anchor
   for the mobile node sessions as long as the mobile node is attached
   to the Proxy Mobile IPv6 domain.  For the definition of Proxy Mobile
   IPv6 domain, see [2].  The mobile node is at any time attached to a
   Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) that manages mobility for the mobile
   node.  The MAG and the LMA set up IP-in-IP tunnels to tunnel all
   traffic that belongs to the mobile node.

   If the LMA crashes or if there is a communication problem on the path
   between the MAG and the LMA, the MAG discovers this only when it
   sends the next proxy Binding Update and gets no response from the
   LMA.  If a MAG becomes unreachable, the LMA can detect it only when
   it starts receiving ICMP unreachable messages from an intermediate
   router in response to data traffic the LMA tunnels to the MAG.  For
   some deployments of Proxy Mobile IPv6, it is desirable to detect the
   LMA or the MAG reachability failure very early, so that appropriate
   action could be taken.  The appropriate actions, for example,
   releasing resources, is out of scope for this document.

   This document proposes a heartbeat mechanism between the MAG and the
   LMA to detect the current status of reachability between them.  The
   heartbeat message is a mobility header message (protocol type 135).
   The MAG and the LMA exchange heartbeat messages every few seconds to
   detect if the other end is still reachable.  The interval between
   consecutive heartbeats is configurable.


2.  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 [1].


3.  Heartbeat Mechanism

   The MAG and the LMA exchange heartbeat messages every
   HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL seconds to detect the current status of
   reachability between them.  A MAG typically initiates the heartbeat
   exchange by sending a Heartbeat Request to the LMA.  Each Heartbeat
   Request contains a sequence number that is incremented sequentially.
   The sequence number on the last Heartbeat Request message is always
   recorded by the MAG.  The HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL is carried in the
   Heartbeat Request message.  The Heartbeat message is described in



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   more detail in Section 3.2.

   A heartbeat message can be sent only if the MAG has at least one
   proxy binding cache entry at the LMA for a mobile node attached to
   the MAG.  If there are no proxy binding cache entries at the LMA for
   any of the mobile nodes attached to the MAG, then the heartbeat
   messages MUST NOT be sent.

   When the LMA receives a Heartbeat Request message, it responds with a
   Heartbeat Response message.  The sequence number and the heartbeat
   interval in the Heartbeat Request message are recorded on the LMA.
   The LMA copies the sequence number from the Heartbeat Request message
   onto the Heartbeat Response message.  The Heartbeat Interval field is
   set to 0 in the Heartbeat Response message.

   The HEARTBEAT_INTERNAL SHOULD NOT be configured to a value less than
   30 seconds.  Sending heartbeat messages too often may become an
   overhead on the path between the MAG and the LMA.

   The LMA MAY also send a one-time Heartbeat Request message to the MAG
   to check a MAG's reachability status.  The Heartbeat Interval in the
   Heartbeat Request message is set to 0 to indicate that it is a one-
   time message and is not transmitted periodically.  If a MAG receives
   a Heartbeat Request message from the LMA, it MUST respond with a
   Heartbeat Response message.

   If the LMA or the MAG do not support the heartbeat messages, they
   should respond with an ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 0, message to the
   initiator.  The 'Pointer' field in the ICMP Parameter Problem message
   SHOULD point to the 'MH Type' field, indicating that the particular
   Mobility Header message is not supported.  When the ICMP Parameter
   Problem message is received in response to Heartbeat Request message,
   the initiating MAG or the LMA MUST NOT use heartbeat messages with
   the other end again.

3.1.  Failure Detection

   If the MAG does not receive more than MISSING_HEARTBEATS_ALLOWED
   number of responses from the LMA, it concludes that the LMA is not
   reachable.  The MISSING_HEARTBEATS_ALLOWED value is configurable on
   the MAG.  The MAG may then take appropriate action (out of scope for
   this document).

   The LMA also has a MISSING_HEARTBEATS_ALLOWED counter configured per
   MAG.  The LMA knows how often to expect a heartbeat message from the
   MAG based on the Heartbeat Interval in the first Heartbeat Request
   message received from the MAG.  If the LMA does not receive more than
   MISSING_HEARTBEATS_ALLOWED Heartbeat Request messages from the MAG,



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   it concludes that the MAG is not reachable.

   The LMA may also optionally send a Heartbeat Request message to the
   MAG before concluding that the MAG is unreachable.  The Heartbeat
   Interval value is set to 0 to indicate that this is a one-time
   heartbeat message and is not sent periodically.  If the LMA does not
   get a response from the MAG, it re-transmits the Heartbeat Request
   message.  The number of times the Heartbeat Request is re-transmitted
   is configurable on the LMA.  If a response from the MAG is received,
   then the LMA concludes that the MAG is reachable and resets the
   MISSING_HEARTBEATS_ALLOWED counter for the particular MAG.

3.2.  Heartbeat Message

   The following illustrates the message format for the Heartbeat
   Mobility Header message.  The 'MH Type' field in the Mobility Header
   indicates that it is a Heartbeat message.


      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
                                     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                     |     Type      |   Reserved    |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                       Sequence Number                         |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                       Heartbeat  Interval                     |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Type

      A 8-bit field that indicates whether the message is a request or a
      response.  A value of '1' indicates that it is a request.  A value
      of '2' indicates that it is a response.

   Reserved

      A 8-bit field set to 0 and ignored by the receiver.

   Sequence Number

      A 32-bit sequence number used for matching the request to the
      reply.








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   Heartbeat Interval

      A 32-bit value indicating the interval in seconds between two
      consecutive heartbeat messages.  A value of 0 indicates that the
      Heartbeat message is just a one-time message and not sent
      periodically.


4.  Security Considerations

   The heartbeat messages are just used for checking reachability
   between the MAG and the LMA.  They do not carry information that is
   useful for eavesdroppers on the path.  Integrity protection using
   IPsec [3] for the heartbeat messages MUST be supported on the MAG and
   the LMA.  The use of IPsec protection is optional.  Confidentiality
   protection is not required.

   For dynamic key negotiation between the MAG and the LMA, IKEv2 [4]
   SHOULD be used.


5.  IANA Considerations

   The Heartbeat message defined in Section 3.2 must have the type value
   allocated from the same space as the 'MH Type' field in the Mobility
   Header defined in RFC 3775 [5].


6.  Acknowledgments

   A heartbeat mechanism for a network-based mobility management
   protocol was first described in [6].  The authors would like to thank
   the members of a NETLMM design team that produced that document.  The
   mechanism described in this document also derives from the path
   management mechanism described in [7].

   We would also like to thank Alessio Casati for first suggesting a
   fault handling mechanism for Proxy Mobile IPv6.


7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

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

   [2]  Gundavelli, S., Leung, K., Devarapalli, V., Chowdhury, K., and



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        B. Patil, "Proxy Mobile IPv6", draft-ietf-netlmm-proxymip6-10
        (work in progress), February 2008.

   [3]  Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the Internet
        Protocol", RFC 4301, December 2005.

   [4]  Kaufman, C., "Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol", RFC 4306,
        December 2005.

7.2.  Informative References

   [5]  Johnson, D., Perkins, C., and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support in
        IPv6", RFC 3775, June 2004.

   [6]  Giaretta, G., "The NetLMM Protocol",
        draft-giaretta-netlmm-dt-protocol-02 (work in progress),
        October 2006.

   [7]  3rd Generation Parternship Project, "3GPP Technical
        Specification 29.060 V7.6.0: "Technical Specification Group Core
        Network and Terminals; General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); GPRS
        Tunnelling Protocol (GTP) across the Gn and Gp interface
        (Release 7)"", July 2007.


Authors' Addresses

   Vijay Devarapalli
   Azaire Networks
   3121 Jay Street
   Santa Clara, CA  95054
   USA

   Email: vijay.devarapalli@azairenet.com


   Heeseon Lim
   Azaire Networks
   3121 Jay Street
   Santa Clara, CA  95054
   USA

   Email: heeseon.lim@azairenet.com








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   Nishi Kant
   Azaire Networks
   3121 Jay Street
   Santa Clara, CA  95054
   USA

   Email: nishi.kant@azairenet.com


   Suresh Krishnan
   Ericsson
   8400 Decarie Blvd.
   Town of Mount Royal, QC
   Canada

   Email: suresh.krishnan@ericsson.com



































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