Network Working Group                                        R. Aggarwal
Internet Draft                                          Juniper Networks
Intended Status: Standards Track
Updates: 1122                                                K. Kompella
Expiration Date: December 17, 2008                      Juniper Networks

                                                               T. Nadeau
                                                                      BT

                                                              G. Swallow
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.

                                                           June 20, 2008


                           BFD For MPLS LSPs


                       draft-ietf-bfd-mpls-07.txt

Status of this Memo

   By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
   applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
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Abstract

   One desirable application of Bi-directional Forwarding Detection
   (BFD) is to detect a Multi Protocol Label Switched (MPLS) Label
   Switched Path (LSP) data plane failure. LSP-Ping is an existing
   mechanism for detecting MPLS data plane failures and for verifying
   the MPLS LSP data plane against the control plane. BFD can be used
   for the former, but not for the latter. However the control plane
   processing required for BFD control packets is relatively smaller
   than the processing required for LSP-Ping messages. A combination of
   LSP-Ping and BFD can be used to provide faster data plane failure
   detection and/or make it possible to provide such detection on a
   greater number of LSPs. This document describes the applicability of
   BFD in relation to LSP-Ping for this application. It also describes
   procedures for using BFD in this environment.



Table of Contents

 1          Specification of requirements  .........................   3
 2          Introduction  ..........................................   3
 3          Applicability  .........................................   3
 3.1        BFD for MPLS LSPs: Motivation  .........................   3
 3.2        Using BFD in Conjunction with LSP-Ping  ................   5
 4          Theory of Operation  ...................................   6
 5          Initialization and Demultiplexing  .....................   7
 6          Session Establishment  .................................   7
 6.1        BFD Discriminator TLV in LSP-Ping  .....................   8
 7          Encapsulation  .........................................   8
 8          Security Considerations  ...............................   9
 9          IANA Considerations  ...................................  10
10          Acknowledgments  .......................................  10
11          References  ............................................  10
11.1        Normative References  ..................................  10
11.2        Informative References  ................................  10
12          Author's Address  ......................................  11
13          Intellectual Property Statement  .......................  12
14          Full Copyright Statement  ..............................  12








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1. Specification of requirements

   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].


2. Introduction

   One desirable application of Bi-directional Forwarding Detection
   (BFD) is to track the liveliness of a Multi Protocol Label Switched
   (MPLS) Label Switched Path (LSP). In particular BFD can be used to
   detect a data plane failure in the forwarding path of a MPLS LSP.
   LSP-Ping [RFC4379] is an existing mechanism for detecting MPLS LSP
   data plane failures and for verifying the MPLS LSP data plane against
   the control plane. This document describes the applicability of BFD
   in relation to LSP-Ping for detecting MPLS LSP data plane failures.
   It also describes procedures for using BFD for detecting MPLS LSP
   data plane failures.


3. Applicability

   In the event of a MPLS LSP failing to deliver data traffic, it may
   not always be possible to detect the failure using the MPLS control
   plane. For instance the control plane of the MPLS LSP may be
   functional while the data plane may be mis-forwarding or dropping
   data. Hence there is a need for a mechanism to detect a data plane
   failure in the MPLS LSP path [RFC4377].


3.1. BFD for MPLS LSPs: Motivation

   LSP-Ping described in [RFC4379] is an existing mechanism for
   detecting a MPLS LSP data plane failure. In addition LSP-Ping also
   provides a mechanism for verifying the MPLS control plane against the
   data plane. This is done by ensuring that the LSP is mapped to the
   same Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC), at the egress, as the
   ingress.

   BFD cannot be used for verifying the MPLS control plane against the
   data plane.  However BFD can be used to detect a data plane failure
   in the forwarding path of a MPLS LSP. The LSP may be associated with
   any of the following FECs:
     a) Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) LSP_Tunnel IPv4/IPv6
   Session [RFC3209]
     b) Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) IPv4/IPv6 prefix [RFC5036]
     c) Virtual Private Network (VPN) IPv4/IPv6 prefix [RFC4364]



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     d) Layer 2 VPN [L2-VPN]
     e) Pseudowires based on PWid FEC and Generalized PWid FEC [RFC4447]
     f) Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) labeled prefixes [RFC3107]

   LSP-Ping includes extensive control plane verification. BFD on the
   other hand was designed as a light-weight means of testing only the
   data plane. As a result, LSP-Ping is computationally more expensive
   than BFD for detecting MPLS LSP data plane faults. BFD is also more
   suitable for being implemented in hardware or firmware due to its
   fixed packet format. Thus the use of BFD for detecting MPLS LSP data
   plane faults has the following advantages:

     a) Support for fault detection for greater number of LSPs.

     b) Fast detection. Detection with sub-second granularity is
   considered as fast detection. LSP-Ping is intended to be used in an
   environment where fault detection messages are exchanged, either for
   diagnostic purposes or for infrequent periodic fault detection, in
   the order of tens of seconds or minutes. Hence its not appropriate
   for fast detection. BFD on the other hand is designed for sub-second
   fault detection intervals. Following are some potential cases when
   fast detection may be desirable for MPLS LSPs:

      1. In the case of a bypass LSP used for facility based link or
   node protection [RFC4090]. In this case the bypass LSP is essentially
   being used as an alternate link to protect one or more LSPs. It
   represents an aggregate and is used to carry data traffic belonging
   to one or more LSPs, when the link or the node being protected fails.
   Hence fast failure detection of the bypass LSP may be desirable
   particularly in the event of link or node failure when the data
   traffic is moved to the bypass LSP.

      2. MPLS Pseudo Wires (PW). Fast detection may be desired for MPLS
   PWs depending on i) the model used to layer the MPLS network with the
   layer 2 network. and ii) the service that the PW is emulating. For a
   non-overlay model between the layer 2 network and the MPLS network
   the provider may rely on PW fault detection to provide service status
   to the end-systems. Also in that case interworking scenarios such as
   ATM/Frame Relay interworking may force periodic PW fault detection
   messages. Depending on the requirements of the service that the MPLS
   PW is emulating, fast failure detection may be desirable.

   There may be other potential cases where fast failure detection is
   desired for MPLS LSPs.







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3.2. Using BFD in Conjunction with LSP-Ping

   BFD can be used for MPLS LSP data plane fault detection. However it
   does not have all the funcitonality of LSP-Ping. In paticular it
   cannot be used for verifying the control plane against the data
   plane. LSP Ping performs the following functions that are outside the
   scope of BFD:

     a) Association of a LSP-Ping echo request message with a FEC. In
   the case of Penultimate Hop Popping (PHP) or when the egress LSR
   distributes an explicit null label to the penultimate hop router, for
   a single label stack LSP, the only way to associate a fault detection
   message with a FEC is by carrying the FEC in the message. LSP-Ping
   provides this functionality.  Next-hop label allocation also makes it
   necessary to carry the FEC in the fault detection message as the
   label alone is not sufficient to identify the LSP being verified. In
   addition to this presence of the FEC in the echo request message
   makes it possible to verify the control plane against the data plane
   at the egress LSR.

     b) Equal cost multi-path (ECMP) considerations. LSP-Ping traceroute
   makes it possible to probe multiple alternate paths for LDP IP FECs.

     c) Traceroute. LSP-Ping supports traceroute for a FEC and it can be
   used for fault isolation.

   Hence BFD is used in conjunction with LSP-Ping for MPLS LSP fault
   detection:

   i) LSP-Ping is used for boot-strapping the BFD session as described
   later in this document.

   ii) BFD is used to exchange fault detection (i.e. BFD session)
   packets at the required detection interval.

   iii) LSP-Ping is used to periodically verify the control plane
   against the data plane by ensuring that the LSP is mapped to the same
   FEC, at the egress, as the ingress.













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4. Theory of Operation

   To use BFD for fault detection on a MPLS LSP a BFD session MUST be
   established for that particular MPLS LSP. BFD control packets MUST be
   sent along the same data path as the LSP being verified and are
   processed by the BFD processing module of the egress LSR. If the LSP
   is associated with multiple FECs, a BFD session SHOULD established
   for each FEC. For instance this may happen in the case of next-hop
   label allocation. Hence the operation is conceptually similar to the
   data plane fault detection procedures of LSP-Ping.

   If MPLS fast-reroute is being used for the MPLS LSP the use of BFD
   for fault detection can result in false fault detections if the BFD
   fault detection interval is less than the MPLS fast-reroute
   switchover time. When MPLS fast-reroute is triggered because of a
   link or node failure BFD control packets will be dropped until
   traffic is switched on to the backup LSP. If the time taken to
   perform the switchover exceeds the BFD fault detection interval a
   fault will be declared even though the MPLS LSP is being locally
   repaired. To avoid this the BFD fault detection interval should be
   greater than the fast-reroute switchover time. An implementation
   SHOULD provide configuration options to control the BFD fault
   detection interval.

   If there are multiple alternate paths from an ingress LSR to an
   egress LSR for a LDP IP FEC, LSP-Ping traceroute MAY be used to
   determine each of these alternate paths. A BFD session SHOULD be
   established for each alternate path that is discovered.

   Periodic LSP-Ping echo request messages SHOULD be sent by the ingress
   LSR to the egress LSR along the same data path as the LSP. This is to
   periodically verify the control plane against the data plane by
   ensuring that the LSP is mapped to the same FEC, at the egress, as
   the ingress. The rate of generation of these LSP-Ping echo request
   messages SHOULD be significantly less than the rate of generation of
   the BFD control packets.  An implemetation MAY provide configuration
   options to control the rate of generation of the periodic LSP-Ping
   echo request messages.

   To enable fault detection procedures specified in this document, for
   a particular MPLS LSP, this document requires the ingress and egress
   LSRs to be configured. This includes configuration for supporting BFD
   and LSP-Ping as specified in this document. It also includes
   configuration that enables to the ingress LSR to determine the method
   used by the egress LSR to identify OAM packets e.g. whether the TTL
   of the innermost MPLS label needs to be set to 1 to enable the egress
   LSR to identify the OAM packet. For fault detection for MPLS PWs,
   this document assumes that the PW control channel type [RFC5085], is



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   configured and the support of LSP-Ping is also configured.


5. Initialization and Demultiplexing

   A BFD session may be established for a FEC associated with a MPLS
   LSP. As desribed above in the case of PHP or when the egress LSR
   distributes an explicit null label to the penultimate hop router, or
   next-hop label allocation the BFD control packet received by the
   egress LSR does not contain sufficient information to associate it
   with a BFD session. Hence the demultiplexing MUST be done using the
   remote discriminator field in the received BFD control packet. The
   exchange of BFD discriminators for this purpose is described in the
   next section.


6. Session Establishment

   A BFD session is boot-strapped using LSP-Ping. This specification
   describes procedures only for BFD asynchronous mode. BFD demand mode
   is outside the scope of this specification. Further the use of the
   echo function is outside the scope of this specification. The
   initiation of fault detection for a particular <MPLS LSP, FEC>
   combination results in the exchange of LSP-Ping echo request and echo
   reply packets, in the ping mode, between the ingress and egress LSRs
   for that <MPLS LSP, FEC>. To establish a BFD session a LSP-Ping echo
   request message MUST carry the local discriminator assigned by the
   ingress LSR for the BFD session. This MUST subsequently be used as
   the My Discriminator field in the BFD session packets sent by the
   ingress LSR.

   On receipt of the LSP-Ping echo request message, the egress LSR MUST
   send a BFD control packet to the ingress LSR, if the validation of
   the FEC in the LSP-Ping echo request message succeeds. This BFD
   control packet MUST set the Your Discriminator field to the
   discriminator received from the ingress LSR in the LSP-Ping echo
   request message. The egress LSR MAY respond with a LSP-Ping echo
   reply message that carries the local discriminator assigned by it for
   the BFD session. The local discriminator assigned by the egress LSR
   MUST be used as the My Discriminator field in the BFD session packets
   sent by the egress LSR.

   The ingress LSR follows the procedures in [BFD] to send BFD control
   packets to the egress LSR in response to the BFD control packets
   received from the egress LSR. The BFD control packets from the
   ingress to the egress LSR MUST set use the local discriminator of the
   egress LSR, in the Your Discriminator field. The egress LSR
   demultiplexes the BFD session based on the received Your



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   Discriminator field. As mentioned above the egress LSR MUST send
   control packets to the ingress LSR with the Your Discriminator field
   set to the local discriminator of the ingress LSR. The ingress LSR
   uses this to demultiplex the BFD session.


6.1. BFD Discriminator TLV in LSP-Ping

   LSP-Ping echo request and echo reply messages carry a BFD
   discriminator TLV for the purpose of session establishment as
   described above. IANA is requested to assign a type value of 15 to
   this TLV. This TLV has a length of 4. The value contains the 4 byte
   local discriminator that the LSR, sending the LSP-Ping message,
   associates with the BFD session.

   If the BFD session is not in UP state, the periodic LSP-Ping echo
   request messages MUST include the BFD discriminator TLV.


7. Encapsulation

   BFD control packets sent by the ingress LSR MUST be encapsulated in
   the MPLS label stack that corresponds to the FEC for which fault
   detection is being performed. If the label stack has a depth greater
   than one, the TTL of the inner MPLS label MAY be set to 1. This may
   be necessary for certain FECs to enable the egress LSR's control
   plane to receive the packet [RFC4379]. For MPLS PWs, alternatively,
   the presence of a fault detection message may be indicated by setting
   a bit in the control word [RFC5085].

   The BFD control packet sent by the ingress LSR MUST be a UDP packet
   with a well known destination port 3784 [BFD-IP] and a source port
   assigned by the sender as per the procedures in [BFD-IP]. The source
   IP address is a routable address of the sender. The destination IP
   address MUST be randomly chosen from the 127/8 range for IPv4 and
   from the 0:0:0:0:0:FFFF:7F00/104 range for IPv6 with the following
   exception. If the FEC is a LDP IP FEC the ingress LSR may discover
   multiple alternate paths to the egress LSR for this FEC using LSP-
   ping traceroute. In this case the destination IP address, used in a
   BFD session established for one such alternate path, is the address
   in the 127/8 range for IPv4 or 0:0:0:0:0:FFFF:7F00/104 range for IPv6
   discovered by LSP-ping traceroute [RFC4379] to exercise that
   particular alternate path.

   The motivation for using the address range 127/8 is the same as
   specified in section 2.1 of [RFC4379]. This is an exception to the
   behavior defined in [RFC1122].




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   The IP TTL or hop limit MUST be set to 1 [RFC4379].

   BFD control packets sent by the egress LSR are UDP packets. The
   source IP address is a routable address of the replier.

   The BFD control packet sent by the egress LSR to the ingress LSR MAY
   be routed based on the destination IP address as per the procedures
   in [BFD-MHOP]. If this is the case the destination IP address MUST be
   set to the source IP address of the LSP-Ping echo request message,
   received by the egress LSR from the ingress LSR.

   Or the BFD control packet sent by the egress LSR to the ingress LSR
   MAY be encapsulated in a MPLS label stack. In this case the presence
   of the fault detection message is indicated as described above. This
   may be the case if the FEC for which the fault detection is being
   perfomed corresponds to a bi-directional LSP or a MPLS PW. This may
   also be the case when there is a return LSP from the egress LSR to
   the ingress LSR. In this case the destination IP address MUST be
   randomly chosen from the 127/8 range for IPv4 and from the
   0:0:0:0:0:FFFF:7F00/104 range for IPv6.

   The BFD control packet sent by the egress LSR MUST have a well known
   destination port 4784, if it is routed [BFD-MHOP], or it MUST have a
   well known destination port 3784 [BFD-IP] if it is encapsulated in a
   MPLS label stack. The source port MUST be assigned by the egress LSR
   as per the procedures in [BFD-IP].

   Note that once the BFD session for the MPLS LSP is UP, either end of
   the BFD session MUST NOT change the source IP address and the local
   discriminator values of the BFD control packets it generates, unless
   it first brings down the session. This implies that a LSR MUST ignore
   BFD packets for a given session, that is demultiplexed using the
   received Your Discriminator field, if the session is in UP state and
   if the My Discriminator or the Source IP address fields of the
   received packet do not match the values associated with the session.


8. Security Considerations

   Security considerations discussed in [BFD], [BFD-MHOP] and [RFC4379]
   apply to this document. For BFD control packets sent by the ingress
   LSR or when the BFD control packet sent by the egress LSR are
   encapsulated in a MPLS label stack, MPLS security considerations
   apply. These are discussed in [MPLS-SEC]. When BFD control packets
   sent by the egress LSR are routed the authentication considerations
   discussed in [BFD-MHOP] should be followed.





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9. IANA Considerations

   This document introduces a BFD discriminator TLV in LSP-Ping. This
   has to be assigned from the TLV type registry maintained by IANA.
   IANA is requested to assign a value of 15 to this TLV.


10. Acknowledgments

   We would like to thank Yakov Rekhter, Dave Katz and Ina Minei for
   contributing to the discussions that formed the basis of this
   document and for their comments. Thanks to Dimitri Papadimitriou for
   his comments and review. Thanks to Carlos Pignataro for his comments
   and review.


11. References

11.1. Normative References

   [BFD]      Katz, D., and Ward, D., "Bidirectional Forwarding
   Detection",
              draft-ietf-bfd-base-08.txt.

   [BFD-IP]   D. Katz, D. Ward, "BFD for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop)",
              draft-ietf-bfd-v4v6-1hop-08.txt

   [RFC4379]  K. Kompella et. al., "Detecting MPLS Data Plane Failures",
              RFC 4379, February 2006.

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

   [RFC1122]  Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
              Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122, October 1989.



11.2. Informative References

   [BFD-MHOP] D. katz, D. Ward, "BFD for Multihop Paths",
              draft-ietf-bfd-multihop-06.txt

   [RFC5085]  T. Nadeau, C. Pignataro, "Pseudo Wire (PW) Virtual Circuit
              Connectivity Verification ((VCCV): A Control Channel
              for Pseudowires", RFC 5085

   [RFC3209]  Awduche, D., et. al, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP



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              tunnels", RFC 3209, December 2001.

   [RFC4090]  P. Pan, et. al., "Fast Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for
              LSP Tunnels", May 2005.

   [RFC5036]  Andersson, L., et al, "LDP Specification", RFC 5036.

   [RFC4364]  E. Rosen, Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP VPNs", RFC 4364,
              February 2006.

   [L2-VPN]   K. Kompella, et. al., "Layer 2 VPNs Over Tunnels",
              draft-kompella-ppvpn-l2vpn-03.txt

   [RFC4447]  L. Martini et. al.,"Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance
              using LDP", RFC 4447, April 2006.

   [RFC3107] Y. Rekhter, E. Rosen, "Carrying Label Information in
   BGP-4",
             RFC 3107, May 2001

   [RFC4377]  Nadeau, T., et. al, "OAM Requirements for MPLS
              Networks", RFC 4377, February 2006.

   [MPLS-SEC] L. fang, ed, "Security Framework for MPLS and GMPLS
   Networks", draft-ietf-mpls-mpls-and-gmpls-security-framework-02.txt


12. Author's Address

   Rahul Aggarwal
   Juniper Networks
   1194 North Mathilda Ave.
   Sunnyvale, CA 94089
   Email: rahul@juniper.net

   Kireeti Kompella
   Juniper Networks
   1194 North Mathilda Ave.
   Sunnyvale, CA 94089
   Email: kireeti@juniper.net

   Thomas D. Nadeau
   BT
   BT Centre
   81 Newgate Street
   EC1A 7AJ
   London
   Email: tom.nadeau@bt.com



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   George Swallow
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   300 Beaver Brook Road
   Boxborough , MA - 01719
   USA
   Email: swallow@cisco.com



13. Intellectual Property Statement

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
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   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
   ipr@ietf.org.



14. Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).  This document is subject to the
   rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as
   set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND
   THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS
   OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
   THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,



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