TRILL Working Group                                              H. Zhai
Internet-Draft                                                       ZTE
Intended status: Standards Track                         T. Senevirathne
Expires: June 13, 2013                                     Cisco Systems
                                                              R. Perlman
                                                              Intel Labs
                                                         D. Eastlake 3rd
                                                                M. Zhang
                                                                  Huawei
                                                                   F. Hu
                                                                     ZTE
                                                       December 10, 2012


                        RBridge: Pseudo-Nickname
                 draft-hu-trill-pseudonode-nickname-04

Abstract

   RBridges provide frame forwarding service to layer2 switches or end
   stations at the edge of TRILL campus.  As defined in [RFC6325], when
   there are multiple RBridges attached to the same LAN segment, only
   one edge RBridge is allowed to be the frame forwarder of a specific
   VLAN in order to avoid potential frame duplication and loops in the
   TRILL campus.  However, in some application scenarios, for example an
   end station is multi-homed to multiple RBridges needs to improve the
   resiliency and increase the available network bandwidth of the
   connection.  This means all those RBriges attached to the end station
   can act as the frame forwarders of a specific VLAN.  This kind of
   active-active connection violates the definition above.  Frame
   duplication and forwarding loops may happen and it may cause the
   flip-flopping of the egress RBridge nickname associated to the MAC
   address of such an end station in remote RBridges' forwarding tables.
   The Reverse Path Forwarding Check does not work as well, which has
   been addressed in [CMT].  This document proposes the concept of
   Virtual RBridge, along with the pseudo-nickname configuration for
   this Virtual RBridge, to address the above problems in accompany with
   [CMT].

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 http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.



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   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 June 13, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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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.






























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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Terminology and Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.2.  Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2.  Problem Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.1.  Appointed Forwarders on Shared Links . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     2.2.  Multi-homing and Link Aggregation to TRILL Network . . . .  6
   3.  Concept of Virtual RBridge and Pseudo-nickname . . . . . . . .  7
     3.1.  VLAN-x Appointed Forwarder for member interfaces in RBv  .  7
     3.2.  Announcing Pseudo-Nickname of RBv  . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   4.  Distribution Trees for Member RBridges in RBv  . . . . . . . .  8
     4.1.  Trees for Native Frames Ingressing . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     4.2.  Designated Forwarder for traffic received on
           Distribution trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   5.  Frame Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     5.1.  Native Frames Ingressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     5.2.  TRILL Data Frames Egressing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       5.2.1.  Unicast TRILL Data Frames  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       5.2.2.  Multi-Destination TRILL Data Frames  . . . . . . . . . 13
   6.  Member Link Failure in RBv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     6.1.  Link Protection for Unicast Frame Egressing  . . . . . . . 14
     6.2.  Link Protection for Multi-destination Frame Egressing  . . 15
   7.  Extensions to ESADI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   8.  OAM Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   9.  Configuration Consistency  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   10. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   11. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   13. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   Appendix A.  Rationale for MAC Sharing among Member RBridges . . . 18
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20



















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1.  Introduction

   The IETF TRILL protocol [RFC6325] provides optimal pair-wise data
   frame forwarding without configuration, safe forwarding even during
   periods of temporary loops, and support for multi-pathing of both
   unicast and multicast traffic.  TRILL accomplishes this by using
   [IS-IS] [RFC1195] link state routing and encapsulating traffic using
   a header that includes a hop count.  The design supports VLANs and
   optimization of the distribution of multi-destination frames based on
   VLANs and IP derived multicast groups.  Devices that implement TRILL
   are called RBridges.

   In TRILL protocol, RBridges are identified by nicknames (16-bits).
   At the edge of TRILL network, some RBridges connect to legacy
   networks on one side and connect to the TRILL network on the other
   side.  These RBridges are called edge RBridges.  For the connectivity
   between the two types of network, edge RBridges provide frame
   forwarding service to end stations located in legacy networks.  When
   receiving a native frame from such a local end station S, the service
   edge RBridge RB1 encapsulates the frame in a TRILL header, addressing
   the packet to RBridge RBx to which the destination end station D is
   attached.  The TRILL header contains an "ingress RBridge nickname"
   field (filled with RB1's nickname), an "egress RBridge nickname"
   field (filled with RBx's nickname), and a hop count.  On receiving
   such a frame, RBx removes the TRILL header and forwards it in native
   form to D. Meanwhile, based on the de-capsulation of that frame, RBx
   learns the { ingress RBridge nickname, source MAC address, VLAN ID }
   triplet.  Edge RBridges maintain such triplets in their forwarding
   tables for the future forwarding of native frames.

   In TRILL protocol, RBridges are identified by nicknames (16-bits).
   At the edge of TRILL network, some RBridges connect to legacy
   networks on one side and connect to the TRILL network on the other
   side.  These RBridges are called edge RBridges.  For the connectivity
   between the two types of network, edge RBridges provide frame
   forwarding service to end stations located in legacy networks.  When
   receiving a native frame from such a local end station S, the service
   edge RBridge RB1 encapsulates the frame in a TRILL header, addressing
   the packet to RBridge RBx to which the destination end station D is
   attached.  The TRILL header contains an "ingress RBridge nickname"
   field (filled with RB1's nickname), an "egress RBridge nickname"
   field (filled with RBx's nickname), and a hop count.  On receiving
   such a frame, RBx removes the TRILL header and forwards it in native
   form to D. Meanwhile, based on the de-capsulation of that frame, RBx
   learns the { ingress RBridge nickname, source MAC address, VLAN ID }
   triplet.  Edge RBridges maintain such triplets in their forwarding
   tables for the future forwarding of native frames.




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   In this document, the concept of Virtual RBridge group, together with
   its Pseudo-nickname, is introduced to address the rest of above
   issues.  For a member RBridge of such a group, it uses the pseudo-
   nickname, instead of its own nickname, as the ingress RBridge
   nickname when ingressing frames into TRILL campus.  So, in such a
   RBridge Group, even if there are more than one RBridge providing
   frame forwarding service for an end station or the service RBridge
   changes over from one to another member RBridge in same group, the
   ingress RBridge nickname associated to this end station needs not be
   unchanged in remote RBridges' forwarding tables.

   This document is organized as follows: Section 2 describes why
   virtual RBridge along with its pseudo-nickname is needed.  Section 3
   gives the concept of virtual RBridge.  Section 4 describes
   distribution trees allocation across member RBridges in a RBv.
   Section 5 covers the processing of transit frames in consideration of
   the pseudo-nickname.

   Familiarity with [RFC6325] is assumed in this document.

1.1.  Terminology and Acronyms

   This document uses the acronyms defined in [RFC6325] and the
   following additional acronym:

   AF - Appointed Forwarder

   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].

   When used in lower case, these words convey their typical use in
   common language, and are not to be interpreted as described in
   [RFC2119].

1.2.  Contributors

   We would like to thank Mingjiang Chen for his contributions to this
   document.  Additionally, we would like to thank Erik Nordmark, Les
   Ginsberg, Ayan Banerjee, Dinesh Dutt, Anoop Ghanwani, Janardhanan
   Pathang, and Jon Hudson for their good questions and comments.


2.  Problem Statement







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2.1.  Appointed Forwarders on Shared Links

   Even there are multiple RBridges on a shared link, together with end
   stations, only one RBridge is allowed to provide frame forwarding
   services in VLAN-x to the end stations to avoid possible frame
   duplication or loops in TRILL campus.  The service RBridge is called
   VLAN-x Appointed Forwarder (AF).

   However, AF for any set of VLANs on a shared link may change over
   from one RBridge to another, due to network dynamics such as failures
   and configuration changes.  RBridges rely on LSPs to propagate these
   network dynamics.  However, the propagation is time consuming and the
   network may take a considerable long time to converge.  Before the
   network converges, remote RBridges may continue to forward traffic to
   the previous AF and the traffic is dropped at the previous egress
   RBridge, causing traffic disruption.

2.2.  Multi-homing and Link Aggregation to TRILL Network

   In order to improve the reliability of connection to TRILL network,
   multi-homing technique may be employed by a legacy device which can
   be a switch or end host.  Take Figure 1 as an example, switch SW1
   multi-homes to TRILL network by connecting to RB1 and RB2 with
   respective links.  Then the end station S1 can continue to get frame
   forwarding service from TRILL network even if one of its up-links
   (e.g., SW1-RB1) fails.


                     ..........................................
                    :                           TRILL Network  :
                    :+-----+      /\-/\-/\-/\-/\               :
               +-----| RB1 |-----/              \              :
               |    :+-----+    /                \             :
            +---+   : |        /      Transit     \    +-----+ :
      S1 o--|SW1| +---+       <      RBridges      >---| RBx |---o Sx
            +---+ | :          \      Campus      /    +-----+ :
               |  | :+-----+    \                /             :
               +-----| RB2 |-----\              /              :
                  | :+-----+      \/\-/\-/\-/\-/               :
                  | :  |                                       :
               S2 o----+                                       :
                     ..........................................

                  Figure 1 Multi-homing to TRILL Network

   SW1 may treat the two links as a LAG (Link Aggregation Group) bundle,
   so that the two links form active-active load sharing model instead
   of previous active-standby model.  That is to say, in Figure 1, two



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   RBridges (i.e., RB1 and RB2) provides frame forwarding service to S1
   simultaneously in a VLAN.  As stated previously, that simultaneous
   frame forwarding may result in frame duplication, loops and the flip-
   flopping of the ingress RBridge associated to the MAC of S1 in remote
   RBridges' (e.g., RBx) forwarding tables.  The flip-flopping in turn
   causes packet disorder in reverse traffic and worsens the traffic
   disruption.  Therefore, the concept of Virtual RBridge, together with
   its nickname, is introduced in the following section to fix these
   issues.


3.  Concept of Virtual RBridge and Pseudo-nickname

   A Virtual RBridge (RBv) represents a group of different end station
   service ports on different edge RBridges.  After joining RBv, such an
   RBridge port is called a member port of RBv, and such an RBridge
   becomes a member RBridge of RBv.  An RBv is identified by its virtual
   nickname in TRILL campus, and this nickname is also referred to as
   pseudo-nickname in this document.

   After joining an RBv, a member RBridge will announce its connection
   to RBv by including the information of that RBv, e.g., the pseudo-
   nickname of RBv, in its self-originated LSP.  From such LSPs, other
   RBridges that are not members of the RBv believe those member
   RBridges are connected to RBv.

   When a native frame from an end station S1 is received from such a
   port, the member RBridge encapsulates the frame with the RBv's
   nickname, instead of its own nickname, as the ingress nickname.  When
   the destination RBridges receive and de-capsulate this frame, they
   will learn that S1 is reachable through RBv.

   NOTE: An RBridge port can join at most one RBv at any time, but
   different ports on the same RBridge can join the same RBv or
   different RBvs.  Furthermore, for a member RBridge, it MUST move out
   of an RBv and clear the RBv's information from its self-originated
   LSPs when it loses all of its member ports of the RBv, due to port
   failure, configuration, etc.

3.1.  VLAN-x Appointed Forwarder for member interfaces in RBv

   If member RBridges in RBv cannot see each others' Hellos on their
   member ports (e.g., in the LAG scenario), then each RBridge becomes
   Designated RBridge (DRB) for that port and appoints itself as AF for
   all VLANs.

   On the other hand, if they can see each others' Hellos on the member
   ports in RBv (e.g., in the shared link scenario), the TRILL Hello



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   protocol in [RFC6325] is used for DRB election and for VLAN-x AFs
   appointment on those ports.  Then the DRB appoints different member
   ports as AFs for different sets of VLANs.

   By using the AF framework specified in [RFC6325], a unified framework
   of RBv for both LAG and shared LAN edge connectivity is provided in
   this document.  It also allows

   o  Detection and protection against mis-configuration at the edge,
      e.g., on the device SW1 the two interfaces are not configured as
      LAG then RB1 and RB2 work in an unexpected active-standby mode
      rather than expected active-active mode for S1 or

   o  Avoidance of loops in the event that S1 and S2 were connected by a
      native Ethernet Link.  In this event, RB1's Hellos originated on
      link RB1-SW1 will be forwarded by S1 through the Ethernet Link to
      S2 then received by RB2, and vice versa.  Therefore, RB1 and RB2
      work in an active-standby mode for S1 (or S2) in a VLAN to avoid
      potential forwarding loops.

3.2.  Announcing Pseudo-Nickname of RBv

   Each member RBridge advertises the RBv's pseudo-nickname using the
   nickname sub-TLV [rfc6326bis], along with its regular nickname(s), in
   its LSPs.  For a member RBridge, when its last member port is
   disconnected to RBv, it MUST leave from RBv and clear RBv's pseudo-
   nickname from its update LSPs.

   RBv's pseudo-nickname is ignored when determining the distribution
   tree root for the campus.  The tree root priority of RBv's nickname
   SHOULD be set to 0, and this nickname SHOULD NOT be listed in the s
   nicknames by the RBridge holding the highest priority tree root
   nickname.


4.  Distribution Trees for Member RBridges in RBv

   In TRILL, RBridges use distribution trees to forward multi-
   destination frames.  To guarantee member RBridges of an RBv group to
   ingress (i.e., northbound forwarding) and egress (i.e., southbound
   forwarding) multi-destination frames properly, and to provide
   protection in case of member link failure as well, this document
   proposes to allocate the trees among member RBridges in northbound
   and southbound directions respectively.  Section 4.1 describes the
   allocation of trees for the ingressing of multi-destination frames,
   while Section 4.2 covers the allocation of trees for the egressing of
   multi-destination frames.  Then for each member RBridge, frames
   received from each direction can be forwarded based on the tree



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   allocation.

4.1.  Trees for Native Frames Ingressing

   In the TRILL header of the multi-destination frames, the ingress
   nickname identifies the ingress RBridge and the egress nickname
   specifies the root of the chosen distribution tree.  After receiving
   a multi-destination TRILL data frame, RBn performs Reverse Path
   Forwarding (RPF) check on the multi-destination frame to avoid
   temporary multicast loops during topology changes.

   RPF specifies that a multi-destination TRILL data frame ingressed by
   an RBridge and forwarded on a distribution tree can only be received
   by RBn on an expected port.  If the frame is received not from that
   port, it MUST be dropped.

   However, member RBridges use RBv's pseudo-nickname other than their
   own nicknames as the ingress nickname when they forward northbound
   frames regardless unicast or non-unicast frames.  Therefore, when
   these TRILL data frames arrive at RBn, they will be treated as frames
   ingressed by the same RBridge, i.e., RBv.  If they are multi-
   destination frames and the same distribution tree is chosen by
   different member RBridges to forward these frames, they may travel on
   the tree and arrive at RBn on different ports.  Then the RPF check is
   violated, and some of the frames reaching the RBridge on unexpected
   ports will be dropped by RBn.

   [CMT] proposes to assign different distribution trees for each member
   RBridge to fix the above RPF check issue, and makes use of the
   Affinity sub-TLV defined in [rfc6326bis] to achieve this kind of
   assignment.

   This document supposes the approach proposed in [CMT] is supported by
   member RBridges of RBv.

   When a member RBridge joins in or leaves from a virtual RBridge
   group, the assignment of distribution trees may change.  That change
   beyond the scope of this document.

4.2.  Designated Forwarder for traffic received on Distribution trees

   Methodology explained above addresses the association of distribution
   trees to RBx on behalf of RBv for native traffic received from the
   edge.  However, remote RBridge RBn who is unaware of the RBv
   association may choose to forward traffic along any of the available
   distribution trees.  Only one member RBridge RBx of the virtual
   RBridge is allowed to de-capsulate the TRILL frames and forwards them
   as native frames.  In this document, this member RBridge is called



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   the Designated Forwarder.

   It is important to note that RBv represents multiple, multi-homed
   devices connected to the same RBv.  Some of the devices may have
   operational links to all member RBridges of RBv and some may have
   operational links only to a subset of all member RBridges.  The
   objective of this proposal is to identify a member RBridge RBx per
   distribution tree and end-device (LAG), that will de-capsulate and
   forward traffic received from a specific distribution tree(s) to
   specific end-device that multi-homes to the RBv.

   We propose to represent each of the end devices *multi-homed* to RBv
   by a unique identifier (LAG-ID) within the RBv group.  Each of the
   RBx advertises { RBv, LAG-ID } using ESADI framework.  Please see
   Section 7 for ESADI-TLV.

   Each RBx, in turn, performs election of Designated Forwarder for each
   LAG-ID per distribution tree "t".


                          ------------------
                        /                    \
                       |                      |
                       |     TRILL Campus     |
                       |                      |
                        \                     /
                         ---------------------
                            |        |    |
                            |        |    +--------+
                            |        |             |
                        +------+  +------+      +------+
                        | RB1  |  | RB2  |      | RB3  |
                       o|oooooo|oo|oooooo|oooooo|oooooo|o
                      o +------+  +------+      +------+ o
                      o   |        |  |          |   |   o
                      o   |        |  +----+     |   |   o
                      o   | Virtual|RBridge|(RBv)|   |   o
                       ooo|oooooooo|ooooooo|ooooo|ooo|ooo
                          |        | +-----|-----+   |
                          +------+ | |     +-------+ |
                                (| | |)<--LAG1    (| |)<--LAG2
                               +-------+        +-------+
                               |  CE1  |        |  CE2  |
                               +-------+        +-------+

              Figure 2 RBv with Multiple Multi-homed Devices

   Assume RB(i) are the member RBridges of RBv that advertise



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   association of LAG-ID(j).

   Suppose there are T(m) distribution trees in the network.

   Step 1: Sort the RB(i) set in ascending order based on their
   system-id.

   Step 2: Sort distribution tree T(m) in ascending order based on their
   tree-number.

   Step 3: Allocate the sorted list in Step 2 in round-robin manner to
   the sorted RBridge list in step 1.

   Step 4: Repeat Step 1-3 for all of the LAG-ID associated with RBv.

   Through the above steps, within a specific LAG, each RBx is assigned
   with a set of distribution trees, and this RBx will become Designated
   Forwarder for these trees.  RBx MUST only forward traffic (received
   on these trees) to member links on which it is the Designated
   Forwarder.

   For example, in Figure 2, CE1 multi-homes to RB1, RB2 and RB3, and
   CE2 multi-homes to RB2 and RB3 in the same RBv; CE1 and CE2 are
   represented by LAG1 and LAG2 respectively.  Assume RB1 < RB2 < RB3
   based on their system id, and there are five trees available in TRILL
   campus, say T1 < T2 < T3 < T4 < T5 based on their tree-number.  After
   the election is performed in LAG1, T1 and T4 is allocated to RB1, T2
   and T5 are allocated to RB2, and T3 is assigned to RB3.  In other
   words, RB1 is the Designated Forwarder for LAG1 on T1 and T4, RB2 is
   the Designated Forwarder for LAG1 on T2 and T5 and RB3 is the
   Designated Forwarder for LAG1 on T3.  After the election is performed
   for LAG2, T1, T3 and T5 are allocated to RB2, T2 and T4 are allocated
   to RB3.

   However, since only one member RBridge of RBv is elected as AF for e
   set of VLANs on a shared link and responsible to egress multi-
   destination TRILL data frames to this link, each member RBridge MUST
   assign itself as the Designated Forwarder for all the distribution
   trees to guarantee multi-destination frames on any tree will be
   egressed onto this link by an member RBridge (please refer
   Section 5.2.2 for more details).


5.  Frame Processing







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5.1.  Native Frames Ingressing

   When RB1 receives a native frame on one of its member ports of RBv,
   it uses the pseudo-nickname of RBv, instead of its own nickname, as
   the ingress nickname, if it is the appointed forwarder for the VLAN
   of the frame on that port.  If the frame is not received on a member
   port, RB1 MUST NOT use RBv's pseudo-nickname as ingress nickname for
   TRILL-encapsulation.

   If the frame is ingressed as a multi-destination TRILL data frame,
   RB1 can only choose one of its assigned distribution trees to forward
   the TRILL-encapsulated frame [CMT].  Otherwise, the multi-destination
   TRILL data frame will fail the RPF check on remote RBridges and
   suffer unexpected packet loss.

   Source MAC address learning is performed during the frame de-
   capsulation as described in [RFC6325].  The learned MAC address
   SHOULD be shared with other member RBridges within the same RBv group
   (See Appendix A for more details for the information sharing).

5.2.  TRILL Data Frames Egressing

   This section describes egress processing of the received TRILL data
   frames on a member RBridge (say RBn) in the virtual RBridge group.
   Section 5.2.1 describes unicast TRILL data frames egress processing
   and Section 5.2.2 specifies the multi-destination TRILL data frames
   egressing.

5.2.1.  Unicast TRILL Data Frames

   When receiving a unicast TRILL data frame, RBn checks the egress
   nickname in the TRILL header of the frame.  If the egress nickname is
   one of RBn's own nicknames, the frame is processed as defined in in
   [RFC6325].

   If the egress nickname is RBv's pseudo-nickname and RBn is a member
   RBridge of RBv, RBn is responsible to learn the source MAC address.
   If the learned { Inner.MacSA, Inner.VLAN ID, ingress nickname }
   triplet is a new one or it updates a previously learned one, this
   triplet SHOULD be shared with other member RBridges within the RBv
   (See Appendix A for more details for the triplet sharing).

   Then the frame is de-capsulated to its native form.  The Inner.MacDA
   and Inner.VLAN ID are looked up in RBn's local forwarding address
   cache, and one of the three following cases occurs:






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   o  If the destination end station identified by the Inner.MacDA and
      Inner.VLAN ID is on a local link to RBv, this frame is egressed
      onto that link *regardless of whether RBn is the Inner.VLAN AF on
      this link*.

   o  Else if RBn can reach the destination through another member
      RBridge RBk, it re-encapsulates the native frame into a unicast
      TRILL data frame and sends it to RBk.  RBn uses RBk's own
      nickname, instead of RBv's pseudo-nickname as the egress nickname
      for the re-encapsulation, and remains the ingress nickname
      unchanged.  If the hop count value of the frame is too small for
      the frame to reach RBk safely, RBn SHOULD increase that value
      properly in doing the re-encapsulation.  [NOTE: When receiving
      that re-encapsulated TRILL frame, as the egress nickname of the
      frame is RBk's own nickname rather than the RBv's pseudo-nickname,
      RBk will process it as Section 4.6.2.4 in [RFC6325]., and will not
      re-forward it to another RBridge.]

   o  Else, RBn does not know how to reach the destination; it sends the
      native frame out of all its member ports of RBv on which it is
      appointed forwarders for the Inner.VLAN.

5.2.2.  Multi-Destination TRILL Data Frames

   If RBn is the AF for the Inner.VLAN, the source MAC address is
   learned.  If the learned { Inner.MacSA, Inner.VLAN ID, ingress
   nickname } triplet is a new one or updates a previously learned one,
   this triplet SHOULD be shared among the members RBridges within the
   virtual RBridge group (See Appendix A for more details for the
   triplet sharing).

   Then a copy of the frame is de-capsulated into its native form.
   Before the native frame is sent out of the ports on which RBn is
   appointed forwarder for the Inner.VLAN, the following extra check is
   performed for each member port of RBv:

   o  Frames MUST only be forwarded out on member ports of RBv where RBn
      is the Designated Forwarder for the Tree Tn on which the frame was
      received.












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6.  Member Link Failure in RBv


                          ------------------
                        /                    \
                       |                      |
                       |     TRILL Campus     |
                       |                      |
                        \                     /
                         ---------------------
                            |        |    |
                            |        |    +--------+
                            |        |             |
                        +------+  +------+      +------+
                        | RB1  |  | RB2  |      | RB3  |
                       o|oooooo|oo|oooooo|oooooo|oooooo|o
                      o +------+  +------+      +------+ o
                      o   |        |  |          |   |   o
                      o   |        |  +----+     |   |   o
                      o   | Virtual|RBridge|(RBv)|   |   o
                       ooo|oooooooo|ooooooo|ooooo|ooo|ooo
                          | \|/    | +-----|-----+   |
                          +- B --+ | |     +-------+ |
                            /|\ (| | |)<--LAG1    (| |)<--LAG2
                               +-------+        +-------+
                               |  CE1  |        |  CE2  |
                               +-------+        +-------+

             B - Failed Link or Link bundle

                   Figure 3 Member Link Failure in LAG1

   As shown in Figure 3, suppose the link RB1-CE1 fails.  Both unicast
   frames and multi-destination frames cannot be sent from RB1 to CE1.
   Section 6.1 discusses the failure protection for unicast frames
   receiving, and Section 6.2 describes the failure protection for
   multi-destination frames.

6.1.  Link Protection for Unicast Frame Egressing

   When the link CE1-RB1 fails, RB1 loses the connection to the local
   link to CE1.  The MAC entry through the failed link to CE1 is removed
   from RB1's local forwarding table immediately.  Another MAC entry
   through another member RBridge (say RB2) that has local link to CE1
   is installed into RB1's forwarding table only if RB1 is still a
   member RBridge of RBv.  Then when TRILL data frames to CE1 is
   delivered to RB1, it can be re-encapsulated (ingress nickname remains
   unchanged and egress nickname is replaced by RB2's nickname) by RB1



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   and forwarded based on the above installed MAC entry.  The member
   RBridge who receives the redirected frames will egress them to CE1.

   When the failure recovers, RB1 will be aware that it can reach CE1 by
   observing CE1's native frames.  Then RB1 installs the MAC entry for
   link RB1-CE1, which restores the link CE1-RB1.

6.2.  Link Protection for Multi-destination Frame Egressing

   When RBx loses all of its links to a given edge device (represented
   by a unique LAG-ID), it MUST advertise membership withdrawal.  This
   in turn triggers other RBridges to re-calculate the Designated
   Forwarder allocation for the device.

   For example, in Figure 3, let's assume RB1 is the Designated
   Forwarder on T1 and T4 for CE1 (identified as LAG1), and is egressing
   multi-destination traffic from T1 to CE1 before the failure.  When
   that failure occurs, RB1 loses its only local link to CE1 and
   advertises to other RBridges its membership withdrawal for LAG1.
   This triggers RB2 and RB3 to re-calculate the Designated Forwarder
   allocation for LAG1.

   After the re-calculation, trees T1, T3 and T5 are allocated to RB2,
   and T2 and T4 to RB3.  That is to say, RB2 becomes the Designated
   Forwarder on the 3 trees and RB3 becomes the Designated Forwarder on
   the 2 trees for LAG1.  Then RB2 takes the place of RB1 to egress the
   traffic to CE1.

   Similarly, when the first attachment link between RBx and an edge
   device becomes operational, RBx joins in the virtual RBridge group
   and advertises membership adding.  This in turn triggers other
   RBridges as well as itself to re-calculate the Designated Forwarder
   allocation for the device.


7.  Extensions to ESADI

   We propose to use sub-TLV within ESADI [ESADI] to advertise following
   3 different scenarios.

   o  Membership Add

   o  Membership Withdrawal

   o  Membership Refresh






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                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 | Type= LM      |                  (1 byte)
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 |   Length      |                  (1 byte)
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 |   RBv Nickname                |  (2 bytes)
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 | RESV      |OC |                  (1 byte)
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 |                LAG-ID (1)     |  (2 bytes)
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 .                               .

                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                 |                LAG-ID (n)     |
                 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

              Figure 4 Edge Membership advertisement sub-TLV

   o  LM (1 byte): Defines the type of Edge Membership sub-TLV.

   o  Length (1 byte): Defines the length of this sub-TLV which should
      be greater than 3.

   o  RBv Nickname (2 bytes): 2 byte nickname of the RBv assigned to the
      edge group.

   o  RESV (6 bits): Transmitted as zero and ignored on receipt.

   o  OC (2 bits): Define the operation code.

      *  00: Add (LAG-IDs in this sub-TLV are new and need to be
         reconsidered for Designated Forwarder election).

      *  01: Withdrawal (LAG-IDs in this sub-TLV do not have an active
         links from the announcing RBridge for RBv and Designated
         Forwarder election MUST be recalculated).

      *  10: Refresh (LAG-IDs in this sub-TLV are being refreshed and no
         state change from the perspective of the announcing RBridge).

      *  11: Reserved and currently unused.

   o  LAG-ID (2 bytes): an unsigned positive integer that uniquely
      identifies an end device multi-homed to the RBv.

   When receiving such a sub-TLV, if the RBridge has no membership for
   the listed LAGs in the RBv, it ignores the sub-TLV.  If it has the



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   membership, receiving such a sub-TLV where the operation code is 00
   or 01 will triggers it to re-calculate the Designated Forwarder on
   each tree for the listed LAGs.


8.  OAM Frames

   Attention must be paid when generating the OAM frames.  When an OAM
   frame is generated with the ingress nickname of RBv, the originator
   RBridge's nickname MUST be included in the OAM message to ensure the
   response is returned to the originating member of the RBv group.


9.  Configuration Consistency

   It is important that VLAN membership of member ports of end switch
   SW1 is consistent across all of the member ports in the point-point
   scenario.  Any inconsistencies in VLAN membership may result in
   packet loss or non-shortest paths.

   Take Figure 1 for example, suppose RB1 configures VLAN1 and VLAN2 for
   the link SW1-RB1, while RB2 only configures VLAN1 for the SW1-RB2
   link.  Both RB1 and RB2 use the same ingress nickname RBv for all
   frames originating from S1.  Hence, a remote RBridge RBx will learn
   that MAC addresses from S1 on VLAN2 are originating from RBv.  As a
   result, on the returning path, RBx may deliver VLAN2 traffic to RB2.
   However, RB2 does not have VLAN2 configured on SW1-RB2 link and hence
   the frame may be dropped or has to be redirected to RB1 if RB2 knows
   RB1 can reach S1 in VLAN2.


10.  IANA Considerations

   TBD.


11.  Security Considerations

   TBD.


12.  Acknowledgements

   We would like to thank Mingjiang Chen for his contributions to this
   document.  Additionally, we would like to thank Erik Nordmark, Les
   Ginsberg, Ayan Banerjee, Dinesh Dutt, Anoop Ghanwani, Janardhanan
   Pathang, and Jon Hudson for their good questions and comments.




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13.  Normative References

   [CMT]      Senevirathne, T., Pathangi, J., and J. Hudson,
              "Coordinated Multicast Trees (CMT)for TRILL",
              draft-ietf-trill-cmt-01.txt Work in Progress,
              November 2012.

   [ESADI]    Zhai, H., Hu, F., Perlman, R., and D. Eastlake, "TRILL
              (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links): The ESADI
              (End Station Address Distribution Information) Protocol",
              draft-ietf-trill-esadi-01.txt Work in Progress,
              October 2012.

   [RFC1195]  Callon, R., "Use of OSI IS-IS for routing in TCP/IP and
              dual environments", RFC 1195, December 1990.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC6325]  Perlman, R., Eastlake, D., Dutt, D., Gai, S., and A.
              Ghanwani, "Routing Bridges (RBridges): Base Protocol
              Specification", RFC 6325, July 2011.

   [rfc6326bis]
              Eastlake 3rd, D., Banerjee, A., Ghanwani, A., and R.
              Perlman, "Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links
              (TRILL) Use of IS-IS",
              draft-ietf-isis-rfc6326bis-00.txt Work in Progress,
              October 2012.


Appendix A.  Rationale for MAC Sharing among Member RBridges

   With the introduction of virtual RBridge, MAC flip-flopping problem
   in LAN or LAG is resolved.  However, in order to forward traffic
   effectively, member RBridges should share some of their learned MAC
   addresses with each other.














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                     ...........................................
                   ooooo                         TRILL Network  :
                  o :  +-----+     /\-/\-/\-/\-/\               :
              +---o----| RB1 |----/              \              :
              |   o :  +-----+   /                \             :
           +-----+o :   o |     /      Transit     \    +-----+ :
     S1 o--| SW1 |o RBv o |    <      RBridges      >---| RBx |---o Sx
           +-----+o :   o |     \      Campus      /    +-----+ :
              |   o :  +-----+   \                /             :
              +---o----| RB2 |----\              /              :
                  o    +-----+     \/\-/\-/\-/\-/               :
                   ooooo                                        :
                     ...........................................

                       Figure 5 RBv in LAG scenario

   Take Figure 5 as an example, the VLAN-x native frames from S1 to Sx
   will enter TRILL campus via one member RBridge of the RBv (say RB1).
   RB1 learns the location of S1 in VLAN-x.  However, RBx may deliver
   the reverse traffic to RB2 if it thinks the shortest path to RBv is
   through RB2.  If RB2 has not learned the location of S1 in VLAN-x
   from the MAC sharing, RB2 has to transmit the reverse traffic to S1
   as unknown unicast.

   Thus, the learned MAC addresses of attached end stations on one
   member RBridge SHOULD be shared with the rest member RBridges in the
   same RBv.  With these information shared, when RB2 receives reverse
   frames, it can determine how to forward them to S1.  For example, it
   can redirect them to RB1 if link RB2-S1 fails.

   Since RBx always delivers the reverse traffic to RBv via RB2, RB2
   egresses the traffic and learns the location of Sx.  But RB1 will not
   know where Sx is, if RB2 does not share this information with RB1.
   As a result, RB1 has to treat the traffic from S1 to Sx as traffic
   with unknown destination and flood it in TRILL, which adds additional
   forwarding burden on TRILL network.

   Therefore, in addition to local attached end station MAC addresses,
   the learned remote MAC addresses should also be shared among all
   member RBridges of an RBv.  With such information shared, RB1 can
   treat the traffic to Sx as known destination traffic and unicast it
   to RBx.

   The design for above MAC sharing is currently beyond the scope of
   this document.






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Authors' Addresses

   Hongjun Zhai
   ZTE
   68 Zijinghua Road, Yuhuatai District
   Nanjing, Jiangsu  210012
   China

   Phone: +86 25 52877345
   Email: zhai.hongjun@zte.com.cn


   Tissa Senevirathne
   Cisco Systems
   375 East Tasman Drive
   San Jose, CA  95134
   USA

   Phone: +1-408-853-2291
   Email: tsenevir@cisco.com


   Radia Perlman
   Intel Labs
   2200 Mission College Blvd
   Santa Clara, CA  95054-1549
   USA

   Phone: +1-408-765-8080
   Email: Radia@alum.mit.edu


   Donald Eastlake 3rd
   Huawei
   155 Beaver Street
   Milford, MA  01757
   USA

   Phone: +1-508-333-2270
   Email: d3e3e3@gmail.com











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   Mingui Zhang
   Huawei
   Huawei Building, No.156 Beiqing Rd.
   Beijing, Beijing  100095
   China

   Email: zhangmingui@huawei.com


   Fangwei Hu
   ZTE
   889 Bibo Road, Pudong District
   Shanghai, Shanghai  201203
   China

   Phone: +86 21 68896273
   Email: hu.fangwei@zte.com.cn


































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