Inter-Domain Routing A. Retana
Internet-Draft Cisco Systems, Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track R. White
Expires: May 20, 2013 Verisign
November 16, 2012
BGP Custom Decision Process
draft-ietf-idr-custom-decision-02
Abstract
The BGP specification defines a Decision Process for installation of
routes into the Loc-RIB. This process takes into account an
extensive series of path attributes, which can be manipulated to
indicate preference for specific paths. It is cumbersome (if at all
possible) for the end user to define policies that will select, after
partial comparison, a path based on subjective local (domain and/or
node) criteria.
This document defines a new Extended Community, called the Cost
Community, which may be used in tie breaking during the best path
selection process. The end result is a local custom decision
process.
Status of this Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 20, 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
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. The BGP Cost Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Deployment Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Appendix A. Cost Community Point of Insertion Registry . . . . . . 7
Appendix B. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
B.1. Changes between the -00 and -01 versions. . . . . . . . . . 8
B.2. Changes between the -01 and -02 versions. . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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1. Introduction
There are a number of metrics available within the BGP decision
process [RFC4271] which can be used to determine the exit point for
traffic, but there is no metric, or combination of metrics, which can
be used to break a tie among generally equal paths.
o LOCAL_PREF: The LOCAL_PREF is an absolute tie breaker near the
beginning of the decision process. There is no way to configure
the LOCAL_PREF such that the MED, IGP metric, and other metrics
are considered before breaking a tie.
o MED: The MULTI_EXIT_DISC is an indicator of which local entrance
point an AS would like a peering AS to use; MED isn't suitable to
break the tie between two equal cost paths learned from two peer
ASes. MED is also compared before the IGP metric; there is no way
to set the MED so a path with a higher IGP metric is preferred
over a path with a lower IGP metric.
o IGP Metric: It is possible, using the IGP metric, to influence
individual paths with otherwise equal cost metrics, but only by
changing the next hop towards each path, and configuring the IGP
costs of reaching each next hop. This method is cumbersome, and
prone to confusion and error.
The BGP specification defines a Decision Process for installation of
routes into the Loc-RIB. This process takes into account an
extensive series of path attributes, which can be manipulated to
indicate preference for specific paths. It is cumbersome (if at all
possible) for the end user to define policies that will select, after
partial comparison, a path based on subjective local (domain and/or
node) criteria.
This document defines a new Extended Community, called the Cost
Community, which may be used in tie breaking during the best path
selection process. The end result is a custom decision process.
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].
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3. The BGP Cost Community
The BGP Cost Community is an Opaque Extended Community [RFC4360]
defined as follows:
Type Field:
The value of the high-order octet of this Opaque Extended
Community is 0x03 or 0x43. The value of the low-order octet of
the extended type field for this community is 0x01.
Value Field:
The Value field contains three distinct sub-fields, described
below:
+------------------------------+
| Point of Insertion (1 octet) |
+------------------------------+
| Community-ID (1 octet) |
+------------------------------+
| Cost (4 octets) |
+------------------------------+
The Point of Insertion sub-field contains the value of the path
attribute *after* which this community MUST be considered during
the best path selection process.
The BGP decision process includes some steps that do not
correspond to any path attribute; the following values are
defined:
128 ABSOLUTE_VALUE - Indicates that the Cost Community MUST be
considered as the first step in determining the Degree of
Preference of a path.
129 IGP_COST - Indicates that the Cost Community MUST be
considered after the interior (IGP) distance to the next-hop
has been compared.
130 EXTERNAL_INTERNAL - Indicates that the Cost Community MUST
be considered after the paths advertised by BGP speakers in
a neighboring autonomous system (if any) have been selected.
131 BGP_ID - Indicates that the Cost Community MUST be
considered after the BGP Identifier (or ORIGINATOR_ID
[RFC4456]) has been compared.
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The Community-ID sub-field contains an identifier to distinguish
between multiple instances of the Cost Community. The high-order
bit is reserved to indicate that the Cost Community MUST replace
the path attribute specified by the Point of Insertion during the
best path selection process.
The Cost sub-field contains a value assigned by the network
administrator and that is significant to the local autonomous
system. The lower cost MUST be preferred. The default value is
0x7FFFFFFF (half the maximum value).
4. Operation
The network administrator may use the Cost Community to assign a
value to a path originated or learned from a peer in any part of the
local domain. The Point of Insertion MUST also be specified using
the values defined in Appendix A.
If a BGP speaker receives a path that contains the Cost Community, it
SHOULD consider its value at the Point of Insertion specified, when
calculating the best path [RFC4271].
If the Point of Insertion is not valid for the local best path
selection implementation, then the Cost Community SHOULD be silently
ignored. Paths that do not contain the Cost Community (for a valid,
particular Point of Insertion) MUST be considered to have the default
value.
Multiple Cost Communities may indicate the same Point of Insertion.
In this case, the Cost Community with the lowest Community-ID is
considered first. In other words, all the Cost Communities for a
specific Point of Insertion MUST be considered, starting with the one
with the lowest Community-ID.
If a range of routes is to be aggregated and the resultant aggregate
path attributes do not carry the ATOMIC_AGGREGATE attribute, then the
resulting aggregate SHOULD have an Extended Communities path
attribute which contains the set union of all the Cost Communities
from all of the aggregated routes. If multiple Cost Communities for
the same Point of Insertion (and with the same Community-ID) exist,
then only the ones with the highest Cost SHOULD be included.
If the non-transitive version of a Cost Community is received across
an Autonomous System boundary, then the receiver MUST strip it off
the BGP update, and ignore it when running the selection process.
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5. Deployment Considerations
The mechanisms described in this document may be used to modify the
BGP path selection process arbitrarily. It is important that a
consistent path selection process be maintained across the local
Autonomous System to avoid potential routing loops. In other words,
if the Cost Community is used, all the nodes in the AS that may have
to consider this new community at any Point of Insertion SHOULD be
aware of the mechanisms described in this document.
6. Security Considerations
This document introduces no new security concerns to BGP or other
specifications referenced in this document.
7. IANA Considerations
IANA is asked to assign the type values indicated in Section 3 to the
Cost Community in the BGP Opaque Extended Community registry
[BGP_EXT].
Section 3 also defines a series of values to be used to indicate
steps in the best path selection process that do not map directly to
a path attribute. IANA is expected to maintain a registry for the
Cost Community Point of Insertion values. Values 1 through 127 are
to be assigned using the "Standards Action" policy or the Early
Allocation process [RFC4020]. Values 128 through 191 are to be
assigned using the "IETF Consensus" policy. Values 192 through 254
are to be assigned using the "First Come First Served" policy.
Values 0 and 255 are reserved for future use and SHOULD NOT be used.
All the policies mentioned are documented in [RFC5226].
Some of the values in this new registry match the values assigned in
the BGP Path Attributes registry [BGP_PAR]. It is RECOMMENDED that
an effort be made to assign the same values in both tables when
applicable. The table in Appendix A shows the initial allocations
for the new Cost Community Point of Insertion registry.
8. Acknowledgements
There have been many people who have shown their support and provided
valuable input, comments and implementations -- the authors would
like to thank all of them! We would like to also thank Dan Tappan
for the Opaque Extended Community type.
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9. References
9.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC4020] Kompella, K. and A. Zinin, "Early IANA Allocation of
Standards Track Code Points", BCP 100, RFC 4020,
February 2005.
[RFC4360] Sangli, S., Tappan, D., and Y. Rekhter, "BGP Extended
Communities Attribute", RFC 4360, February 2006.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
9.2. Informative References
[BGP_EXT] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, "BGP Extended
Communities", 2010,
<http://www.iana.org/assignments/
bgp-extended-communities>.
[BGP_PAR] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, "BGP Parameters",
2010, <http://www.iana.org/assignments/bgp-parameters/>.
[RFC4271] Rekhter, Y., Li, T., and S. Hares, "A Border Gateway
Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271, January 2006.
[RFC4456] Bates, T., Chen, E., and R. Chandra, "BGP Route
Reflection: An Alternative to Full Mesh Internal BGP
(IBGP)", RFC 4456, April 2006.
Appendix A. Cost Community Point of Insertion Registry
The tables below document the initial Cost Community Point of
Insertion Registry
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+---------+-------------------------+
| Range | Registration Procedure |
+---------+-------------------------+
| 0 | Reserved |
| 1-127 | Standards Action |
| 128-191 | IETF Consensus |
| 192-254 | First Come First Served |
| 255 | Reserved |
+---------+-------------------------+
Registration Procedure
+--------+-------------------+--------------------------------+
| Value | Code | Reference |
+--------+-------------------+--------------------------------+
| 1 | ORIGIN | RFC4271 |
| 2 | AS_PATH | RFC4271 |
| 3 | Unassigned | |
| 4 | MULTI_EXIT_DISC | RFC4271 |
| 5 | LOCAL_PREF | RFC4271 |
| 6-25 | Unassigned | |
| 26 | AIGP | draft-ietf-idr-aigp |
| 27-127 | Unassigned | |
| 128 | ABSOLUTE_VALUE | draft-ietf-idr-custom-decision |
| 129 | IGP_COST | draft-ietf-idr-custom-decision |
| 130 | EXTERNAL_INTERNAL | draft-ietf-idr-custom-decision |
| 131 | BGP_ID | draft-ietf-idr-custom-decision |
+--------+-------------------+--------------------------------+
Point of Insertion Codes
Appendix B. Change Log
B.1. Changes between the -00 and -01 versions.
o Updated authors' contact information.
o Editorial changes in the "Operations" and "Acknowledgement"
sections.
B.2. Changes between the -01 and -02 versions.
o Updated authors' contact information.
o Added text to replace a step in the selection process.
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o Minor edits.
Authors' Addresses
Alvaro Retana
Cisco Systems, Inc.
7025 Kit Creek Rd.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
USA
Email: aretana@cisco.com
Russ White
Verisign
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
USA
Email: riwhite@verisign.com
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