Malloc Working Group                                      Roger Kermode
Internet Engineering Task Force                           Motorola
INTERNET-DRAFT 29 April 1999
Expires 29 October 1999

              MADCAP Multicast Scope Nesting State Option
               <draft-ietf-malloc-madcap-nest-opt-01.txt>

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
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Abstract

   This document defines a new option to the Multicast Address Dynamic
   Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) to support nested scoping. The
   new option's purpose is to allow clients to learn which scopes nest
   inside each other, and hence may be used for expanding scope searches
   or hierarchical multicast transport.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.













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Contents
   Abstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1

   1.  Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    3
      1.1 Time-To-Live (TTL) Scoping Split Horizon Effect. .    3
      1.2 Eliminating the Split Horizion Effect with
            Administrative Scoping . . . . . . . . . . . . .    4
      1.3 Terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5

   2.  Nested Scope Discovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5
      2.1 MADCAP processing of MZAP messages . . . . . . . .    6
          2.1.1 Zone Nesting State . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
          2.1.2 Updating Scope Nesting State via the
                observation of NIMs. . . . . . . . . . . . .    7
          2.1.3 Updating Scope Nesting State due to
                Timer Expiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    7
      2.2 Multicast Scope List Option. . . . . . . . . . . .    8
      2.3 Multicast Scope Nesting State Option . . . . . . .    8
          2.3.1 Representing the Multicast
                Scope Nesting State. . . . . . . . . . . . .    8
          2.3.2 Multicast Scope Nesting State Option Usage .   10

   3.  Multicast Scope Nesting State Option Format . . . . .   10

   4.  Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11

   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11

   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11

   7.  Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11

   8.  References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   12

   9.  Author's Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   12

   10. Full Copyright Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   12














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1. Introduction

   The Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP)
   [MADCAP] affords client applications the ability to request multicast
   address allocation services from multicast address allocation
   servers.  As part of the Multicast Address Allocation Architecture
   [MAAA], MADCAP gives clients the ability to reserve, request, and
   extend leases on multicast addresses.

   A new MADCAP option, the "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option is
   proposed to allow clients to learn not only which scopes exist via
   the existing "Multicast Scope List" option, but how these scopes nest
   inside each other. This new option will also afford clients the
   ability to make better scope selections for a given session and also
   to construct hierarchies of administratively scoped zones. These
   hierarchies may then be used to perform expanding scope searches
   instead of the expanding ring or increasing-TTL searches. Expanding
   scope searches do not suffer from the Split-Horizon Effect present in
   expanding ring searches, and therefore both simplify protocol design
   and provide better localization.

1.1 Time-To-Live (TTL) Scoping Split Horizon Effect

   Multicast searching and localized recovery transport techniques that
   rely on TTL scoping are known to suffer when deployed in a wide scale
   manner. The failing lies in the split horizon effect shown below in
   Figure 1. Here a requestor and responder must each use a TTL that is
   sufficiently large that they will reach the other. When they are
   separated by many hops the TTL becomes large and the number of
   receivers within the multicast tree that only receive either the
   request or the response can become very large.


                     .......   *******
                  ...       ***       ***        A Only hears S
                ..        **   ..        **      B hears S and R
               .         *       .         *     C Only hears R
              .         *         .         *
              .         S<------->R         *    . TTL Boundary for S
              .         *         .         *    * TTL Boundary for R
               .    A    *   B   .   C     *
                ..        **   ..        **
                  ...       ***       ***
                     .......   *******

           Figure 1 : Split Horizon Problem from TLL scoping





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1.2 Eliminating the Split Horizon Effect with Administrative Scoping

   Ideally, a mechanism that either eliminates or minimizes the size of
   the A and C regions in Figure 1. as shown in Figure 2. is needed to
   solve this problem. One mechanism that affords this ability is
   administrative scoping [RFC2365], in which routers prevent the
   passing of packets within a certain range of multicast addresses.
   Routers that have this feature can be configured to provide a
   perimeter around a region of the network. This perimeter is said to
   encompass an administratively scoped zone inside of which traffic
   sent to that particular range of multicast addresses can neither
   leave nor enter. Routers can construct and manage administratively
   scoped zones using the MZAP [MZAP] protocol.

                    ........................
                  .                          .
                 .        many hops           .
                 .S<------------------------>R.
                 .                            .
                  .                          .
                    ........................

          Figure 2 : Eliminating the Split Horizon Effect

   MZAP also includes the ability to determine whether or not
   administratively scoped regions nest inside one another. This allows
   hierarchies such as that shown in Figure 1. to be constructed.

        . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . .
       .            scope a                 .      Scope Boundaries
      .                                      .      . = scope  a
     .  _______________      ________________ .     - = scopes b,c
     . /    scope b    \    /  scope c       \ .    # = scopes d,e,f, & g
     .|                 |  |                  |.
     .|  #####    ##### |  |  #####    #####  |.
     .| #scope#  #scope#|  | #scope#  #scope# |.
      .\ # d  #  # e   #|  | # f   #  #  g # /.
       .\ ####    #####/    \ #####    #### /.
        .\____________/      \_____________/.
         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

          Figure 3 : Admin Scope Zone Nesting Hierarchy example

   A generic expanding scope search algorithm [KERM] that exploits the
   existence of a hierarchy of administratively scoped zones is:






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   1) Starting with the smallest known scope for the session, a
      requestor in that session issues a request and waits for a reply.

   2) If a node within that scope hears a request at a certain scope
      that it can satisfy it sends a response at that same scope,
      possibly after some random delay to reduce duplicate responses.

   3) Nodes that receive a response to a particular request while
      waiting to send a response to that request, suppress their own
      response.

   4) If a requestor issues a request to a scope, and does not hear a
      response after specified amount of time, it retransmits its
      request at the same scope a small number of additional times.
      Should these retries fail to elicit a response, the requestor
      increases the scope to the next largest scope and tries
      again.

   5) Requestors increase the scope of the request according to
      step 4 until either a response is received, or the largest
      legal scope for the session is reached. Should attempts to
      elicit a response at the largest possible scope for the
      session fail to yield a response, the requestor may conclude
      that the request cannot be met.


1.3. Terminology

   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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

   Throughout the rest of this document, the words "server" or "MADCAP
   server" refer to a host providing multicast address allocation
   services via MADCAP. The words "client" or "MADCAP client" refer to a
   host requesting multicast address allocation services via MADCAP.

2. Nested Scope Discovery

   The "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option is proposed to augment the
   "Multicast Scope List" option within the MADCAP protocol by providing
   additional information to applications about how scopes nest. MADCAP
   servers shall learn this additional information for their clients by
   noting the contents of Zone Not Inside Messages (ZNIM) that are
   periodically transmitted by the Zone Border Routers that enforce the
   boundaries of administratively scoped zones.





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2.1 MADCAP Server processing of MZAP messages

   MADCAP servers listen to MZAP traffic originated by ZBRs to learn
   which scopes exist (via Zone Announcement Messages, ZAMs) and which
   of these scopes do not nest (via Not Inside Messages, NIMs). This
   state must be cached within the MADCAP server.

2.1.1 Scope Nesting State

   Two scopes, X and Y, can be related in one of four possible ways.
    1) X nests inside Y,
    2) Y nests inside X,
    3) X and Y do not nest (the overlap case), and
    4) X and Y nest inside each other.

   The fourth case SHOULD be interpreted as meaning that X and Y have
   exactly the same border. This does not mean that X and Y are the same
   scope since X and Y may correspond to different ranges of the
   multicast address space.

   This state MUST be stored in the MADCAP servers which MUST allow the
   state to be updated as network conditions change. Each MADCAP server
   SHOULD therefore define two pieces of state that describe whether
   "scope X nests in scope Y" or vice versa. For the remainder of this
   document the nesting relationship shall be denoted as the "/" where
   X/Y defines the relation "X nests inside Y". This relation shall be
   understood to take one of the values "true", or "false." Nesting
   relationship state that is indeterminate is considered to be "false."

   Since the decision as to whether one scope nests inside another must
   be made in a collective fashion by all the routers for a scope,
   MADCAP servers MUST include mechanisms to allow for:

    a) whether the nesting decision is still under consideration or
       can be considered definitive, and therefore be announced to
       MADCAP clients.

    b) whether one or both scopes for a particular nesting state entry
       have been destroyed, and hence whether the nesting state should
       therefore be discarded.

    c) whether the scope boundaries have changed so that whereas scope
       X did or did not nest inside scope Y, the opposite is now true.








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   To realize a) and b) MADCAP servers MUST implement the following two
   timers; NEST_NO_NIM_TIMER, SCOPES_EXIST_TIMER.

   The first timer, NEST_NO_NIM_TIMER, is used to mark time between a
   MADCAP server's first hearing of a scope and making a decision about
   its relationship to other zones. Up until the time this timer expires
   MADCAP servers MUST NOT conclude that the scope nests within another.

   The NEST_NO_NIM_TIMER timer will also be used to timeout X/Y =
   "false" state to allow X/Y to be reset to true in the event that the
   boundaries for zone X and zone Y change so that zone X now nests
   inside zone Y.

   The second timer SCOPES_EXIST_TIMER will be used to timeout the
   internal state between two scopes in the event that one or both
   scopes are destroyed.

2.1.2 Updating Scope Nesting State via the observation of NIMs

   When a MADCAP server S receives a NIM from a ZBR containing
   information that scope X does not nest in scope Y, it MUST update its
   internal state in the following manner.

      1) S SHOULD update its internal X/Y state to "false".
      2) S SHOULD restart NEST_NO_NIM_TIMER for the newly updated
         X/Y state.

2.1.3 Updating Scope Nesting State due to timer expiration.

   MADCAP servers will also update X/Y nesting state upon the expiration
   of timers.

    o If the NEST_NO_NIM_TIMER expires for a state entry X/Y AND no
      NIMs have been received that indicate scope X does not nest
      inside scope Y, a MADCAP Server, S, MAY conclude that scope X
      nests inside scope Y. As a result S will change X/Y from "false"
      to "true".

      When a state change from "false" to "true" occurs for X/Y, S must
      also start the ZONES_EXIST_TIMER timer for X/Y. The
      ZONES_EXIST_TIMER should only reset when a ZAM has been received
      for both zone X and zone Y since the last time it was restarted.
      This ensures that both zone X and zone Y are known to still exist.

    o If the ZONES_EXIST_TIMER expires for a state entry X/Y, S
      SHOULD conclude that either zone Y or zone X no longer exists and
      hence that both X/Y and Y/X state should be destroyed.




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2.2 Multicast Scope List Option

   To understand the "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option one must
   first understand the the "Multicast Scope List" option.

   The Multicast Scope List option in MADCAP is used by MADCAP servers
   to inform MADCAP clients of which zones are visible. Visible scopes
   are enumerated inside the option as successive tuples, where each
   tuple consists of the following information:

      o Scope ID:
          The smallest address for the range of multicast addresses
          covered by this scop

      o Last Address:
          The largest address for the range of multicast addresses
          covered by this scope.

      o TTL:
          The TTL to be used when sending message to this scope.

      o Name(s):
          One or more languages specific name for the scope.

2.3 Multicast Scope Nesting State Option

   Given a Multicast Scope List containing descriptions for n scopes one
   can form n(n-1)/2 pairings. As was shown in section 2.1.1 each
   pairing can take on one of four possible states. Thus, for a list of
   n scopes there exists 2 pieces of information for each pairing for a
   total of n(n-1) pieces of information regarding which scopes do and
   do not nest inside each other. This information is most easily and
   efficiently conveyed in the a compressed bit matrix as shown in
   section 2.4.

2.3.1 Representing the Multicast Scope Nesting State

   As was stated in section 2.3, the Multicast Nesting State option must
   convey a total of n(n-1) pieces of state, where n is the number of
   scopes listed in the preceding Multicast Scope List Option.  This
   information will be sparse, since at most only a few scopes will
   nest.









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   There are several ways to represent this information using full
   matricies, sparse-matricies, and using lists of variable length
   lists. In the interests of maximal efficiency and flexibility, the
   Multicast Nesting State Option uses a bit-packed matrix approach.  In
   this approach a matrix constructed for each piece of X/Y state where
   X is the row and Y is the column. A "1" in the matrix means that the
   relationship "row nests inside column" is true, while a "0" means
   that this relationship is wither false or indeterminate.  The
   diagonal of the matrix is removed, since this is the case where X is
   the same as Y, and each row is then zero-padded to the next byte
   boundary to give the final representation.

   An example of how a matrix would be constructed for the following
   scope nestings  S1/S2, S2/S3, S2/S4, S3/S5, S4/S5, S5/S6, and S6/S7.
   Note that a number of additional nesting relationships are implied
   from this set.        ________________________________
                        /............          \    \    \
                       /.S3 _________._____     \    \    \
                      |.   /+--+    \ .    \    |    |    |
                      |.  | |S1| S2 | . S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 |
                      |.   \+--+    / .    |    |    |    |
                       \.   \______/ .     |    |    |    |
                        \....\.......      /    /    /    /
                         \    \___________/    /    /    /
                          \___________________/    /    /
       \ Y                 \______________________/    /
      X \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7     \_________________________/
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      1  |1 1 1 1 1 1 1|      *111111       1111 1100       0xfc
      2  |0 1 1 1 1 1 1|      0*11111       0111 1100       0x7c
      3  |0 0 1 0 1 1 1|      00*0111       0001 1100       0x1c
      4  |0 0 0 1 1 1 1|  =>  000*111   =>  0001 1100   =>  0x1c
      5  |0 0 0 0 1 1 1|      0000*11       0000 1100       0x0c
      6  |0 0 0 0 0 1 1|      00000*1       0000 0100       0x04
      7  |0 0 0 0 0 0 1|      000000*       0000 0000       0x00
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                           ^^
                          * = X/Y where   zero padding
                             X == Y
         Final Representation: 0xfc 0x7c 0x1c 0x1c 0x0c 0x04 0x00

         Figure 4. Scope Nesting Example










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2.3.2 Multicast Scope Nesting State Option Usage

   The "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option is dependent upon the
   "Multicast Scope List" option. This decision was made according to
   the following reasoning. The Multicast Nest State Option requires
   that the scopes be identified along with their nesting properties.
   Since the information needed to describe a scope is contained in the
   Multicast Scope List option and this information can change, the
   MADCAP messages that contain the Multicast Scope Nesting State option
   must be atomic and therefore must include the "Multicast Scope List
   Option."

   Thus, the "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option MAY only be used in
   messages that carry the "Multicast Scope List" option, specifically:

           DISCOVER, OFFER, ACK (in response to RENEW)

   The "Multicast Scope Nesting State" option MUST NOT be used in
   messages that do not carry the "Multicast Scope List" option,
   specifically:

         INFORM, ACK (in response to INFORM), RENEW, RELEASE,
         ACK (in response to RELEASE), NAK,
         any DISCOVER/OFFER/ACK (in response to RENEW) that
         does not carry the "Multicast Scope List"

   Since the Multicast Nest State option is dependent upon the Multicast
   Scope List option, it MUST follow, and NEVER precede, the Multicast
   Scope List option.

3. Multicast Scope Nesting State Option Format

           Code        Len     Count  Nest State Matrix
      +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-...-+-----+
      | OPTID     |     p     | m   | N1  |     | Nm  |
      +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-...-+-----+

   Code: 16 bits
        Option identifier (OPTID), to be assigned by IANA.

   Len: 16 bits
        The length of the option in bytes.

   Count: 8 bits
        The number of zones present in the Nest State Matrix. This value
        MUST be identical to the Count field in the preceding Multicast
        State List option.




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   Nest State Matrix:
        The compressed bit-packed representation of the matrix, derived
        in the same manner as shown in Figure 4. Note for N scopes
        the compressed matrix will be Nxceil((N-1)/8) bytes long. The
        scopes corresponding to the rows and columns of this matrix
        list in the same order as they appear in the Multicast Scope
        List Option.


4. Constants

   [OPTID] The option identifier for the Mutlicast Scope Nesting State
           option, to be assigned by IANA.

5. Security Considerations

   Since this draft proposes an extension to the MADCAP protocol via the
   addition of a new option, the same set of security concerns apply.

   In addition to these concerns are those that would arise were the
   information in the Multicast Scope Nesting State option to be
   falsified. In this case the clients would be misinformed as to which
   scopes nest inside one another. In this event, the client would then
   make incorrect decisions regarding the order in which to use the
   scopes. The effect of this would be to use larger scopes than
   necessary, which would effectively flatten any scope hierarchy
   present and  nullify the advantage afforded by the hierarchy's
   presence.

   Thus a malformed or tampered Multicast Scope Nesting option may cause
   protocols that rely upon the existence of a scoping hierarchy to
   scale less well, but it would not prevent them from working.

6. IANA Considerations

   The Multicast Nesting State Option will require the assignment of an
   additional option code to the MADCAP [MADCAP] protocol.

7. Acknowledgments

   The Author would like to acknowledge Mark Handley and Dave Thaler for
   the helpful discussions and feedback which helped shape and refine
   this document.








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8. References

   [KERM]     Kermode, R., "Smart Network Caches: Localized Content
              and Application Negotiated Recovery Mechanisms for
              Multicast Media Distribution", Ph.D. Thesis, MIT
              Media Laboratory, June 1998.

   [MAAA]     Handley, M., Thaler, D., and D. Estrin, "The Internet
              Multicast Address Allocation Architecture", Internet
              Draft, December 1997.

   [MADCAP]   Patel. B.V., Shah, M., Hanna, S.R., "Multicast Address
              Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP)", Internet
              Draft, draft-ietf-malloc-madcap-03.txt

   [MZAP]     Handley, M., Thaler, D., Kermode, R., "Multicast-Scope
              Zone Announcement Protocol (MZAP)",
              draft-ietf-mboned-mzap-03.txt, Internet-Draft, February,
              1999.

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

   [RFC2365]  Meyer, D., "Administratively Scoped IP Multicast", BCP,
              RFC 2365, July 1998.

9. Author's Address

   Roger Kermode
   Motorola Australian Research Centre
   12 Lord St,
   Botany, NSW 2091
   Australia
   Email: Roger_Kermode@email.mot.com

10. Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of



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   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet languages other than English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS 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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