Network Working Group K. Kompella (Juniper Networks)
Internet Draft Y. Rekhter (Juniper Networks)
Expiration Date: August 2001 A. Banerjee (Calient Networks)
J. Drake (Calient Networks)
G. Bernstein (Ciena)
D. Fedyk (Nortel Networks)
E. Mannie (GTS Network)
D. Saha (Tellium)
V. Sharma (Tellabs)
IS-IS Extensions in Support of Generalized MPLS
draft-ietf-isis-gmpls-extensions-02.txt
1. Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
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The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
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2. Abstract
This document specifies extensions to the IS-IS routing protocol in
support of Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (previously
known as Multi-Protocol Lambda Switching).
3. Introduction
This document specifies extensions to the IS-IS routing protocol in
support of carrying link state information for Generalized Multi-
Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS, previously known as Multi-Protocol
Lambda Switching, MPL(ambda)S). For motivations and overall
architecture of MPL(ambda)S see [1]. The set of required
enhancements to IS-IS are outlined in [2]. This document enhances
the routing extensions [3] required to support MPLS Traffic
Engineering. Some of these enhancements also need to be carried in
the signaling protocols [6].
The organization of the remainder of the document is as follows. In
Section 4, we describe the types of links that may be advertised in
IS-IS TE LSAs (we call Link State PDUs LSAs to avoid confusion with
Label Switched Paths). In Section 5, we define a new set of
Type/Length/Value (TLV) triplets, as well as extend a proposed TLV,
and describe their formats.
4. GMPLS TE Links
Traditionally, a TE link is advertised as an adjunct to a "regular"
IS-IS link, i.e., an IS-IS adjacency is brought up on the link, and
when the link is up, both the regular SPF properties of the link
(basically, the SPF metric) and the TE properties of the link are
then advertised.
However, GMPLS challenges this notion in three ways. First, links
that are not capable of sending and receiving on a packet-by-packet
basis may yet have TE properties; however, an IS-IS adjacency cannot
be brought up on such links. Second, a Label Switched Path can be
advertised as a point-to-point TE link (see [LSP-HIER]); thus, an
advertised TE link need no longer be between two IS-IS neighbors.
Finally, a number of links may be advertised as a single TE link
(perhaps for improved scalability), so again, there is no longer a
one-to-one association of a regular adjacency and a TE link.
Thus we have a more general notion of a TE link. A TE link is a
"logical" link that has TE properties, some of which may be
configured on the advertising Label Switching Router (LSR), others
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which may be obtained from other LSRs by means of some protocol, and
yet others which may be deduced from the component(s) of the TE link.
A TE link between a pair of LSRs doesn't imply the existence of an
IS-IS adjacency between these LSRs. A TE link must also have some
means by which the advertising LSR can know of its liveness (this
means may be IS-IS hellos, but is not limited to IS-IS hellos). When
an LSR knows that a TE link is up, and can determine the TE link's TE
properties, the LSR may then advertise that link to its (regular) IS-
IS neighbors using the TE TLVs. In this document, we call the
interfaces over which regular IS-IS adjacencies are established
"control channels".
[3] defines the canonical TE properties, and says how to associate TE
properties to regular (packet-switched) links. This document extends
the set of TE properties, and also says how to associate TE
properties with non-packet-switched links such as links between
Optical Cross-Connects (OXCs). [5] says how to associate TE
properties with Label Switched Paths; [4] says how to associate TE
properties with a "bundle" of links.
4.1. Excluding data traffic from control channels
The control channels between nodes in a GMPLS network, such as OXCs
(see [1], [2]), SONET cross-connects and/or routers, are generally
meant for control and administrative traffic. These control channels
are advertised into IS-IS as normal IS links as mentioned in the
previous section; this allows the routing of (for example) RSVP
messages and telnet sessions. However, if routers on the edge of the
optical domain attempt to forward data traffic over these channels,
the channel capacity will quickly be exhausted.
If one assumes that data traffic is sent to BGP destinations, and
control traffic to IGP destinations, then one can exclude data
traffic from the control plane by restricting BGP nexthop resolution.
(It is assumed that OXCs are not BGP speakers.) Suppose that a
router R is attempting to install a route to a BGP destination D. R
looks up the BGP nexthop for D in its IGP's routing table. Say R
finds that the path to the nexthop is over interface I. R then
checks if it has an entry in its Link State database associated with
the interface I. If it does, and the link is not packet-switch
capable (see [5]), R installs a discard route for destination D.
Otherwise, R installs (as usual) a route for destination D with
nexthop I. Note that R need only do this check if it has packet-
switch incapable links; if all of its links are packet-switch
capable, then clearly this check is redundant.
Other techniques for excluding data traffic from control channels may
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also be needed.
5. IS-IS Routing Enhancements
In this section we define the enhancements to the TE properties of
GMPLS TE links that can be announced in IS-IS TE LSAs. In this
document, we enhance the sub-TLVs for the extended IS reachability
TLV (see [3]) in support of GMPLS. Specifically, we add sub-TLVs
for: Outgoing/Incoming Interface Identifier, Maximum LSP Bandwidth
and Link Protection Type. This brings the list of sub-TLVs of the
extended IS reachability TLV to:
Sub-TLV Type Length Name
3 4 Administrative group (color)
4 4 Outgoing Interface Identifier
5 4 Incoming Interface Identifier
6 4 IPv4 interface address
8 4 IPv4 neighbor address
9 4 Maximum link bandwidth
10 4 Reservable link bandwidth
11 32 Unreserved bandwidth
12 32 Maximum LSP Bandwidth
18 3 TE Default metric
19 1 Link Mux Capability
20 2 Link Protection Type
250-254 - Reserved for cisco specific extensions
255 - Reserved for future expansion
We further add two new TLVs.
TLV Type Length Name
136 (TBD) variable Link Descriptor
138 (TBD) variable Shared Risk Link Group
5.1. Outgoing Interface Identifier
A link from LSR A to LSR B may be assigned an "outgoing interface
identifier". This identifier is a non-zero 32-but number that is
assigned by LSR A. This identifier must be unique within the scope
of A. If such an identifier has been assigned, A can advertise it as
a sub-TLV of the extended IS reachability TLV with type 4, length 4
and value equal to the assigned identifier.
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5.2. Incoming Interface Identifier
Suppose there is a link L from A to B. Suppose further that the link
L' from B to A that corresponds to the same interface as L has been
assigned an outgoing interface identifier by B. The "incoming
interface identifier" for L (from A's point of view) is defined as
the outgoing interface identifier for L' (from B's point of view).
If A knows this value (by means beyond the scope of this document), A
can advertise it as a sub-TLV of the extended IS reachability TLV
with type 5, length 4 and value equal to L's incoming interface
identifier.
5.3. Maximum LSP Bandwidth sub-TLV
The Maximum LSP Bandwidth takes the place of the Maximum Link
Bandwidth. However, while Maximum Link Bandwidth is a single fixed
value (usually simply the link capacity), Maximum LSP Bandwidth is
carried per priority, and may vary as LSPs are set up and torn down.
The Maximum LSP Bandwidth of a bundled link at priority p is defined
to be the maximum of the Maximum LSP Bandwidth at priority p of each
component link.
If a component link is a simple (unbundled) link, define its Maximum
LSP Bandwidth at priority p to be the smaller of its unreserved
bandwidth at priority p and its maximum link bandwidth.
The Maximum LSP Bandwidth TLV has type 12 and length 32 octets. The
value is a list of eight 4 octet fields in IEEE floating point format
of the Maximum LSP Bandwidth of the link, with priority 0 first and
priority 7 last.
Although Maximum Link Bandwidth is to be deprecated, for backward
compatibility, one MAY set the Maximum Link Bandwidth to the Maximum
LSP Bandwidth at priority 7 of the link.
5.4. Link Protection Type sub-TLV
The Link Protection Type sub-TLV represents the protection capability
that exists on a link. It is desirable to carry this information so
that it may be used by the path computation algorithm to set up LSPs
with appropriate protection characteristics. This is a sub-TLV (of
type 20) of the extended IS reachability TLV, with length two octets,
the first of which is a bit vector describing the protection
capabilities of the link. They are:
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0x01 Extra Traffic
If the link is Extra Traffic, it indicates that these links are
protecting other (primary) links. The LSPs on a link of this
type will be lost if the primary links being protected fail.
0x02 Unprotected
If the link is Unprotected, it means that there is no backup link
for traffic being carried on the link.
0x04 Shared
If the link has Shared protection, it means that for the N > 1
primary data-bearing channels, there are M disjoint backup data-
bearing channels reserved to carry the traffic. Additionally, the
protection data-bearing channel MAY carry low-priority preemptable
traffic. The bandwidth of backup data-bearing channels will be
announced in the unreserved bandwidth sub-TLV at the appropriate
priority.
0x08 Dedicated 1:1
If the link has Dedicated 1:1 protection, it means that for each
primary data-bearing channel, there is one disjoint backup data-
bearing channel reserved to carry the traffic. Additionally, the
protection data-bearing channel MAY carry low-priority preemptable
traffic. The bandwidth of backup data-bearing channels will be
announced in the unreserved bandwidth sub-TLV at the appropriate
priority.
0x10 Dedicated 1+1
If the link has Dedicated 1+1 protection, it means that a disjoint
backup data-bearing channel is reserved and dedicated for
protecting the primary data-bearing channel. This backup data-
bearing channel is not shared by any other connection, and traffic
is duplicated and carried simultaneously over both channels.
0x20 Enhanced
If the link has Enhanced protection, it indicates that a protection
scheme that is more reliable than Dedicated 1+1 is being used,
e.g., 4 fiber BLSR/MS-SPRING to protect this link.
0x40 Reserved
0x80 Reserved
The second octet gives a priority value such that a new connection
with a higher priority (i.e., numerically lower than this value) is
guaranteed to be setup on a primary (or working) channel, and not on
a secondary (or protect) channel.
The Link Protection Type sub-TLV is optional and if an LSA does not
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carry the TLV, then the Link Protection Type is unknown. The
protection capability of a link is typically pre-configured and does
not change dynamically over time. The working priority value is pre-
configured and does not depend on the traffic characteristics on the
primary data-bearing channel.
5.5. Link Descriptor TLV
The Link Descriptor TLV represents the characteristics of the link,
in particular the link type and the bit transmission rate. These
characteristics represent one of the constraints on the type of LSPs
that could be carried over a link.
These characteristics should not be confused with the physical link
encoding or multiplex structure (if any). For example there are
systems where four OC-48s are switched and transported over a single
fiber via wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. There
are systems where four OC-48s are transported in a transparent OC-192
time division multiplex (TDM) structure, i.e., all the overheads of
the OC-48's are persevered. In both these cases the essential
information from a routing perspective is that both of the links can
transport media of type OC-48.
The proposed Link Descriptor TLV (of type 136 TBD) contains a new
data structure consisting of:
7 octets of System ID and Pseudonode Number
4 octets of IPv4 interface address
4 octets of IPv4 neighbor address
and a list of Link Descriptors, where each element in the list has 10
octets. The length of the TLV is thus 15+10*n octets, where n is the
number of elements in the list.
Each Link descriptor element consists of the following fields: the
first field is a one-octet value which defines the link encoding
type, the second field is a one-octet value which defines the lowest
priority at which that link encoding type is available, the third
field is four-octets and specifies the minimum reservable bandwidth
(in IEEE floating point format, the units being bytes per second) for
this link encoding type, and the last field is four-octets and
specifies the maximum reservable bandwidth (in IEEE floating point
format, the units being bytes per second) for this link encoding
type. Link encoding type values are taken from the following list:
Value Link Encoding Type
1 Standard SONET
2 Arbitrary SONET
3 Standard SDH
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4 Arbitrary SDH
5 Clear
6 GigE
7 10GigE
A link having Standard SONET (or Standard SDH) link encoding type can
switch data at a minimum rate, which is given by the Minimum
Reservable Bandwidth on that link, and the maximum rate is given by
the Maximum Reservable Bandwidth on that link. Typical values of
these are enumerated in the GMPLS signaling draft [6]. In other
words, the Minimum and Maximum Reservable Bandwidth represents the
leaf and the root of one branch within the structure of the SONET (or
SDH) hierarchy. An LSP on that link may reserve any bit transmission
rate that is allowed by the SONET (or SDH) hierarchy between the
minimum and maximum reservable values (the spectrum is discrete).
For example, consider a branch of SONET multiplexing tree : VT-1.5,
STS-1, STS-3c, STS-12c, STS-48c, STS-192c. If it is possible to
establish all these connections on a OC-192 link, it can be
advertised as follows: Minimum Reservable Bandwidth VT-1.5 and
Maximum Reservable Bandwidth STS-192.
A link having Arbitrary SONET (or Arbitrary SDH) link encoding type
can switch data at a minimum rate, which is given by the Minimum
Reservable Bandwidth on that link, and the maximum rate is given by
the Maximum Reservable Bandwidth on that link. Typical values of
these are enumerated in the GMPLS signaling draft [6]. An LSP on
that link may reserve any bit transmission rate that is a multiple of
the Minimum Reservable Bandwidth between the minimum and maximum
reservable values (the spectrum is discrete).
To handle the case where a link could support multiple branches of
the SONET (or SDH) multiplexing hierarchy, one could use multiple LSP
descriptors. For example, if a link supports VT-1.5 and VT-2 (which
are not part of same branch of SONET multiplexing tree), then it
could advertise two LSP descriptors, one for each one.
For a link with Clear encoding, the minimum and maximum reservable
bandwidth will imply that the optical path is tuned to carry traffic
within those range of values. (Note that it should be possible to
carry OC-x as well as GigE or any other encoding format, as long as
the bit transmission rate of the data to be carried is within this
range.)
For other encoding types, the minimum and maximum reservable
bandwidth should be set to have the same values.
Link Descriptors present a new constraint for LSP path computation.
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On a bundled link we assume that either the whole link is configured
with the Link Descriptor Types, or each of its component links are
configured with the Link Descriptor Types. In the latter case, the
Link Descriptor Type of the bundled link is set to the set union of
the Link Descriptor Types for all the component links.
It is possible that Link Descriptor TLV will change over time,
reflecting the allocation/deallocation of component links. In
general, creation/deletion of an LSP on a link doesn't necessarily
result in changing the Link Descriptor of that link. For example,
assume that STS-1, STS-3c, STS-12c, STS-48c and STS-192c LSPs can be
established on a OC-192 link whose Link Type is SONET. Thus,
initially in the Link Descriptor the minimum reservable bandwidth is
set to STS-1, and the maximum reservable bandwidth is set of STS-192.
As soon as an LSP of STS-1 size is established on the link, it is no
longer capable of STS-192c. Therefore, the node advertises a
modified Link Descriptor indicating that the maximum reservable
bandwidth is no longer STS-192, but STS-48. If subsequently there is
another STS-1 LSP, there is no change in the Link Descriptor. The
Link Descriptor remains the same until the node can no longer
establish a STS-48c LSP over the link (which means that at this point
more than 144 time slots are taken by LSPs on the link). Once this
happened, the Link Descriptor is modified again, and the modified
Link Descriptor is advertised to other nodes.
Note that changes to the Link Descriptor TLV will also affect the
Unreserved Bandwidth sub-TLV with respect to bandwidth available on
the link.
5.6. Shared Risk Link Group TLV
A set of links may constitute a 'shared risk link group' (SRLG) if
they share a resource whose failure may affect all links in the set.
For example, two fibers in the same conduit would be in the same
SRLG. A link may belong to multiple SRLGs. Thus the SRLG TLV
describes a list of SRLGs that the link belongs to. An SRLG is
identified by a 32 bit number that is unique within an IGP domain.
The SRLG of a LSP is the union of the SRLGs of the links in the LSP.
The SRLG of a bundled link is the union of the SRLGs of all the
component links. The SRLG values are an unordered list of 4 octet
numbers that the link belongs to.
If an LSR is required to have multiple diversely routed LSPs to
another LSR, the path computation should attempt to route the paths
so that they do not have any links in common, and such that the path
SRLGs are disjoint.
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The proposed SRLG (of type 138 TBD) contains a new data structure
consisting of:
7 octets of System ID and Pseudonode Number
4 octets of IPv4 interface address
4 octets of IPv4 neighbor address
and a list of SRLG values, where each element in the list has 4
octets. The length of the TLV is thus 15+4*n octets, where n is the
number of elements in the list.
The SRLG TLV starts with a configured value and does not change over
time, unless manually reconfigured. The SRLG TLV is optional and if
an LSA doesn't carry the SRLG TLV, then it means that SRLG of that
link is unknown.
6. Security Considerations
The sub-TLVs proposed in this document does not raise any new
security concerns.
7. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Suresh Katukam, Jonathan Lang and
Quaizar Vohra for their comments on the draft.
8. References
[1] Awduche, D., Rekhter, Y., Drake, J., Coltun, R., "Multi-
Protocol Lambda Switching: Combining MPLS Traffic Engineering
Control With Optical Crossconnects",
draft-awduche-mpls-te-optical-02.txt (work in progress)
[2] Basak, D., Awduche, D., Drake, J., Rekhter, Y., "Multi-
protocol Lambda Switching: Issues in Combining MPLS Traffic
Engineering Control With Optical Crossconnects",
draft-basak-mpls-oxc-issues-01.txt (work in progress)
[3] Smit, H., Li, T., "IS-IS Extensions for Traffic Engineering",
draft-ietf-isis-traffic-02.txt (work in progress)
[4] Kompella, K., Rekhter, Y., Berger, L., "Link Bundling in MPLS
Traffic Engineering", draft-kompella-mpls-bundle-05.txt (work
in progress)
[5] Kompella, K., Rekhter, Y., "LSP Hierarchy with MPLS TE",
draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-hierarchy-01.txt (work in progress)
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[6] Generalized MPLS Group, "Generalized MPLS - Signaling Functional
Description", draft-ietf-mpls-generalized-signaling-02.txt (work
in progress)
[7] Lang J., Mitra K., Drake J., Kompella K., Rekhter Y., Berger L.,
Saha, D., Sandick, H., and Basak D., "Link Management Protocol",
draft-ietf-mpls-lmp-02.txt (work in progress)
9. Authors' Information
Kireeti Kompella
Juniper Networks, Inc.
1194 N. Mathilda Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Email: kireeti@juniper.net
Yakov Rekhter
Juniper Networks, Inc.
1194 N. Mathilda Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Email: yakov@juniper.net
Ayan Banerjee
Calient Networks
5853 Rue Ferrari
San Jose, CA 95138
Phone: +1.408.972.3645
Email: abanerjee@calient.net
John Drake
Calient Networks
5853 Rue Ferrari
San Jose, CA 95138
Phone: (408) 972-3720
Email: jdrake@calient.net
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Greg Bernstein
Ciena Corporation
10480 Ridgeview Court
Cupertino, CA 94014
Phone: (408) 366-4713
Email: greg@ciena.com
Don Fedyk
Nortel Networks Corp.
600 Technology Park Drive
Billerica, MA 01821
Phone: +1-978-288-4506
Email: dwfedyk@nortelnetworks.com
Eric Mannie
GTS Network Services
RDI Department, Core Network Technology Group
Terhulpsesteenweg, 6A
1560 Hoeilaart, Belgium
Phone: +32-2-658.56.52
E-mail: eric.mannie@gtsgroup.com
Debanjan Saha
Tellium Optical Systems
2 Crescent Place
P.O. Box 901
Ocean Port, NJ 07757
Phone: (732) 923-4264
Email: dsaha@tellium.com
Vishal Sharma
Jasmine Networks, Inc.
3061 Zanker Rd, Suite B
San Jose, CA 95134
Phone: (408) 895-5000
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