Network Working Group                                          D. Walton
Internet-Draft                                          Cumulus Networks
Intended status: Standards Track                               A. Retana
Expires: July 10, 2015                                           E. Chen
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                              J. Scudder
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                         January 6, 2015


               BGP Persistent Route Oscillation Solutions
                draft-idr-bgp-route-oscillation-stop-00

Abstract

   In this document we present two sets of paths for an address prefix
   that can be advertised by a BGP route reflector or confederation ASBR
   to eliminate the MED-induced route oscillations in a network.  The
   first set involves all the available paths, and would achieve the
   same routing consistency as the full IBGP mesh.  The second set,
   which is a subset of the first one, involves the neighbor-AS based
   Group Best Paths, and would be sufficient to eliminate the MED-
   induced route oscillations (subject to certain commonly adopted
   topological constrains).

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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on July 10, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Advertise the Available Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Advertise the Group Best Paths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Route Reflection and Confederation  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.1.  Route Reflection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.2.  Confederation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Deployment Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Appendix A.  Why the Group Best Paths Are Adequate? . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   As documented in [RFC3345], the routing information reduction by BGP
   Route Reflection [RFC4456] or BGP Confederation [RFC5065] can result
   in persistent IBGP route oscillations with certain routing setup and
   network topologies.  Except for a couple artificially engineered
   network topologies, the MED attribute [RFC4271] has played a pivotal
   role in virtually all of the known persistent IBGP route
   oscillations.  For the sake of brevity, we use the term "MED-induced
   route oscillation" hereafter to refer to a persistent IBGP route
   oscillation in which the MED plays a role.

   In order to eliminate the MED-induced route oscillations and to
   achieve consistent routing in a network, clearly a route reflector or
   a confederation ASBR needs to advertise more than just the best path
   for an address prefix.  Our goal is to identify the "right" set of
   paths for an address prefix that needs to be advertised by a route
   reflector or a confederation ASBR.




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   In this document we present two sets of paths for an address prefix
   that can be advertised by a BGP route reflector or confederation ASBR
   to eliminate the MED-induced route oscillations in a network.  The
   first set involves all the available paths, and would achieve the
   same routing consistency as the full IBGP mesh.  The second set,
   which is a subset of the first one, involves the neighbor-AS based
   Group Best Paths, and would be sufficient to eliminate the MED-
   induced route oscillations (subject to certain commonly adopted
   topological constrains).

   These paths can be advertised using the mechanism described in ADD-
   PATH [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths] for advertising multiple paths.

2.  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].

3.  Advertise the Available Paths

   Observe that in a network that maintains a full IBGP mesh all the BGP
   speakers have consistent and equivalent routing information.  Such a
   network is thus free of the MED-induced route oscillations and other
   routing inconsistencies such as forwarding loops.

   Therefore one approach is to allow a route reflector or a
   confederation ASBR to advertise all the available paths for an
   address prefix.  Clearly this approach would yield the same amount of
   routing information and achieve the same routing consistency as the
   full IBGP mesh in a network.

   This approach can be implemented using the mechanism described in
   ADD-PATH [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths] for advertising multiple paths for
   certain prefixes.

   For the sake of scalability the advertisement of multiple paths
   should be limited to those prefixes which are affected by MED-induced
   route oscillation in a network carrying a large number of alternate
   paths.

4.  Advertise the Group Best Paths

   The term neighbor-AS for a route refers to the neighboring AS from
   which the route was received.  The calculation of the neighbor-AS is
   specified in Sect. 9.1.2.2 of [RFC4271], and Section 7.2 of
   [RFC5065].  By definition the MED is comparable only among routes
   with the same neighbor-AS.  Thus the route selection procedures



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   specified in [RFC4271] would conceptually involve two steps: first
   organize the paths for an address prefix into groups according to
   their respective neighbor-AS's, and calculate the most preferred one
   (termed "Group Best Path") for each of the groups; Then calculate the
   overall best path among all the Group Best Paths.

   As a generally recommended ([RFC4456], [RFC5065]) and widely adopted
   practice, a route reflection cluster or a confederation sub-AS should
   be designed such that the IGP metrics for links within a cluster (or
   confederation sub-AS) are much smaller than the IGP metrics for the
   links between the clusters (or confederation sub-AS).  This practice
   helps achieve consistent routing within a route reflection cluster or
   a confederation sub-AS.

   When the aforementioned practice for devising a route reflection
   cluster or confederation sub-AS is followed in a network, we claim
   that the advertisement of all the Group Best Paths by a route
   reflector or a confederation ASBR is sufficient to eliminate the MED-
   induced route oscillations in the network.  This claim is validated
   in Appendix A.

   Note that a Group Best Path for an address prefix can be identified
   by the combination of the address prefix and the neighbor-AS.  Thus
   this approach can be implemented using the mechanism described in
   ADD-PATH [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths] for advertising multiple paths, and
   in this case the neighbor-AS of a path may be used as the path
   identifier of the path.

   It should be noted that the approach of advertising the Group Best
   Paths requires certain topological constrains to be satisfied in
   order to eliminate the MED-induced route oscillation.  In addition,
   the BGP speakers still depend on the route selection by the route
   reflector or the confederation ASBR.  As the route selection involves
   the comparison of the nexthop's IGP metrics which are specific to a
   particular BGP speaker, the routing information advertised by a route
   reflector or a confederation ASBR may still be inadequate to avoid
   other routing inconsistencies such as forwarding loops in certain
   networks.

5.  Route Reflection and Confederation

   To allow a route reflector or a confederation ASBR to advertise
   either the Available Paths or Group Best Paths using the mechanism
   described in ADD-PATH [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths], the following
   revisions are proposed for BGP route reflection and BGP
   Confederation.





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5.1.  Route Reflection

   Depending on the configuration, for a particular <AFI, SAFI> a route
   reflector SHOULD include the <AFI, SAFI> with the "Send/Receive"
   field set to 2 or 3 in the ADD-PATH Capability
   [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths] advertised to an IBGP peer.  When the ADD-
   PATH Capability is also received from the IBGP peer with the "Send/
   Receive" field set to 1 or 3 for the same <AFI, SAFI>, then the
   following procedures shall be followed:

   If the peer is a route reflection client, the route reflector SHOULD
   advertise to the peer the Group Best Paths (or the Available Paths)
   received from its non-client IBGP peers.  Depending on the
   configuration, the route reflector MAY also advertise to the peer the
   Group Best Paths (or the Available Paths) received from its clients.

   If the peer is a non-client, the route reflector SHOULD advertise to
   the peer the Group Best Paths (or the Available Paths) received from
   its clients.

5.2.  Confederation

   Depending on the configuration, for a particular <AFI, SAFI> a
   confederation ASBR SHOULD include the <AFI, SAFI> with the "Send/
   Receive" field set to 2 or 3 in the ADD-PATH Capability
   [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths] advertised to an IBGP peer, and to a
   confederation external peer.  When the ADD-PATH Capability is also
   received from the IBGP peer or the confederation external peer with
   the "Send/Receive" field set to 1 or 3 for the same <AFI, SAFI>, then
   the following procedures shall be followed:

   If the peer is internal, the confederation ASBR SHOULD advertise to
   the peer the Group Best Paths (or the Available Paths) received from
   its confederation external peers.

   If the peer is confederation external, the confederation ASBR SHOULD
   advertise to the peer the Group Best Paths (or the Available Paths)
   received from its IBGP peers.

6.  Deployment Considerations

   Some route oscillations, once detected, can be eliminated by simple
   configuration workarounds.  As carrying additional paths impacts the
   memory usage and routing convergence in a network, it is recommended
   that the impact be evaluated and the approach of using a
   configuration workaround be considered in deciding whether to deploy
   the proposed mechanism in a network.  In addition, the advertisement




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   of multiple paths should be limited to those prefixes which are
   affected by MED-induced route oscillation.

   While the route reflectors or confederation ASBRs in a network need
   to advertise the Group Best Paths or Available Paths, the vast
   majority of the BGP speakers in the network only need to receive the
   Group Best Paths or Available Paths, which would involve only minor
   software changes.

   It should be emphasized that in order to eliminate the MED-induced
   route oscillations in a network using the approach of advertising the
   Group Best Paths, the recommended practice for devising a route
   reflection cluster or confederation sub-AS with respect to the IGP
   metrics ([RFC4456], [RFC5065]) should be followed.

   It is expected that the approach of advertising the Group Best Paths
   would be adequate to achieve consistent routing for the vast majority
   of the networks.  For a network that has large number of alternate
   paths, the approach should be a good choice as the number of paths
   advertised by a reflector or a confederation ASBR is bounded by the
   number of the neighbor-AS's for a particular address prefix.  The
   additional states for an address prefix would also be per neighbor-AS
   based rather than per path based.  The number of the neighbor-AS's
   for a particular address prefix is typically small because of the
   limited number of upstream providers for a customer and the nature of
   advertising only customer routes at the inter-exchange points.

   The approach of advertising the Group Best Paths, however, may still
   be inadequate for certain networks to avoid other routing
   inconsistencies such as forwarding loops.  The required topological
   constrains could also be operationally challenging.  In these cases
   the approach of advertising the Available Paths may be used, but
   should be limited to those prefixes which are affected by MED-induced
   route oscillation in a network carrying a large number of alternate
   paths.  Note that the number of paths that need to be maintained and
   advertised can be greatly reduced by accepting the IGP metric based
   MEDs from other peering networks.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

8.  Security Considerations

   This extension to BGP does not change the underlying security issues
   inherent in the existing BGP [RFC4271].





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9.  Acknowledgements

   We would like to thank David Cook and Naiming Shen for their
   contributions to the design and development of the solutions.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths]
              Walton, D., Retana, A., Chen, E., and J. Scudder,
              "Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP", draft-ietf-idr-
              add-paths-10 (work in progress), October 2014.

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

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Li, T., and S. Hares, "A Border Gateway
              Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271, January 2006.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC3345]  McPherson, D., Gill, V., Walton, D., and A. Retana,
              "Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Persistent Route
              Oscillation Condition", RFC 3345, August 2002.

   [RFC4456]  Bates, T., Chen, E., and R. Chandra, "BGP Route
              Reflection: An Alternative to Full Mesh Internal BGP
              (IBGP)", RFC 4456, April 2006.

   [RFC5065]  Traina, P., McPherson, D., and J. Scudder, "Autonomous
              System Confederations for BGP", RFC 5065, August 2007.

Appendix A.  Why the Group Best Paths Are Adequate?

   It is assumed that the following common practice is followed.  A
   route reflection cluster or a confederation sub-AS should be designed
   such that the IGP metrics for links within a cluster (or
   confederation sub-AS) are much smaller than the IGP metrics for the
   links between the clusters (or confederation sub-AS).  This practice
   helps achieve consistent routing within a route reflection cluster or
   a confederation sub-AS.

   Observe that in a network that maintains full IBGP mesh only the
   paths that survive the (Local_Pref, AS-PATH Length, Origin, MED)
   comparisons [RFC4271] would contribute to the route selection in the
   network.




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   Consider a route reflection cluster that sources one or more paths
   that would survive the (Local_Pref, AS-PATH Length, Origin, MED)
   comparisons among all the paths in the network.  One of these
   surviving paths would be selected as the Group Best Path by the route
   reflector in the cluster.  Due to the constrain on the IGP metrics as
   described previously, this path would remain as the Group Best Path
   and would be advertised to all other clusters even after a path is
   received from another cluster.

   On the other hand, when no path in a route reflection cluster would
   survive the (Local_Pref, AS-PATH Length, Origin, MED) comparisons
   among all the paths in the network, the Group Best Path (when exists)
   for a route reflector would be from another cluster.  Clearly the
   advertise of the Group Best Path by the route reflector to the
   clients only depends on the paths received from other clusters.

   Therefore there is no MED-induced route oscillation in the network as
   the advertisement of a Group Best Path to a peer does not depend on
   the paths received from that peer.

   The claim for the confederation can be validated similarly.

Authors' Addresses

   Daniel Walton
   Cumulus Networks
   140C S. Whisman Rd.
   Mountain View, CA  94041
   USA

   Email: dwalton@cumulusnetworks.com


   Alvaro Retana
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   7025 Kit Creek Rd.
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709
   USA

   Email: aretana@cisco.com











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   Enke Chen
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   170 W. Tasman Dr.
   San Jose, CA  95134
   USA

   Email: enkechen@cisco.com


   John Scudder
   Juniper Networks
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   USA

   Email: jgs@juniper.net



































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