Network Working Group S. Venaas
Internet-Draft UNINETT
Intended status: Informational H. Santos
Expires: May 22, 2008 NEC Europe Ltd.
November 19, 2007
ssmping Protocol
draft-ietf-mboned-ssmping-02
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).
Abstract
The ssmping protocol specified in this document allows for checking
whether one can receive multicast, both Source-Specific Multicast
(SSM) and Any-Source Multicast (ASM), as well as to obtain additional
multicast related information. This protocol is based on an
implementation of tools called ssmping and asmping.
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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 RFC 2119 [1].
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Protocol specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Option format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Defined Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Packet Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Message types and options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. Client Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. Server Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 15
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1. Introduction
The ssmping protocol specified in this document allows for checking
multicast connectivity. Not only reception of multicast (SSM or
ASM), but can also provide other information like multicast tree
setup time, the number of hops the packets have traveled, as well as
the packet delay and loss. This functionality resembles, in part,
the ICMP Echo Request/Reply infrastructure, but uses UDP and requires
both a client and a server implementing this protocol.
The protocol here specified is based on the actual implementation of
the ssmping and asmping tools [3] which are widely used by the
Internet community to conduct multicast connectivity tests.
2. Architecture
Before describing the protocol in detail, we provide a brief overview
of how the protocol may be used and what information it may provide.
The typical usage of an ssmping/asmping session is as follows. A
server runs continuously to serve requests from clients. When a user
decides to verify the multicast reception from a specific server
(knowing one of the server's unicast addresses is required), the
client will send a unicast message to the server asking for a group
to use. Optionally the user may have requested a specific group or
scope, in which case the client will ask for a group matching the
user's request. The server will respond with a group to use, or an
error if no group is available. Next, the client joins an SSM
channel (S,G) where S is a unicast address of the target server, or
an ASM group G, where G is the group specified by the server.
After joining the channel, the client unicasts ssmping requests to
the server. The requests are sent using UDP with destination port
set to the standardised ssmping port [TBD]. The requests are sent
periodically, e.g., once per second, to the server. The requests
contain a sequence number, and typically a timestamp. The requests
are echoed back by the server, except the server may add a few
options. To each request, the server sends two replies. One as
unicast back to the port and address the request was sent from, and
also one as multicast back to the port from which the request
originated with the requested group G as destination address. The
server should specify the TTL used for both the unicast and multicast
messages (we recommend at least 64) and includes a TTL option for the
client to compute the number of hops. The client should leave the
channel/group when it has finished its measurements.
By use of this protocol, a client can obtain information about
several multicast delivery characteristics. First, by receiving
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unicast replies, it can verify that the server is receiving the
unicast requests, is operational and responding. Hence, provided
that the client receives unicast replies, a failure to receive
multicast indicates either a multicast problem or a multicast
administrative restriction. If it does receive multicast, it knows
not only that it can receive; it may also estimate the amount of time
it took to establish the multicast tree (at least if it is in the
range of seconds), whether there are packet drops, and the length and
variation of Round Trip Times (RTT). For unicast, the RTT is the
time from when the unicast request is sent to when the reply is
received. The measured multicast RTT also references the client's
unicast request. By use of the TTL option specifying the TTL of the
replies when they are originated, the client can also determine the
number of router hops it is from the source. Since similar
information is obtained in the unicast replies, the host may compare
its multicast and unicast results and is able to check for
differences in the number of hops, RTT, etc. Provided that the
server sends the unicast and multicast replies nearly simultaneously,
it may also be able to measure the difference in one way delay for
unicast and multicast on the path from server to client, and also
differences in delay. Servers may optionally specify a timestamp.
This may be useful since the unicast and multicast replies can not be
sent simultaneously (the delay depending on the host's operating
system and load), or whether the client and server have synchronised
clocks.
3. Protocol specification
There are four different ssmping message types. There are Echo
Request and Echo Reply messages used for the actual measurements;
there is an Init message that SHOULD be used to initialise a ping
session and negotiate which group to use; and finally a Server
Response message that is mainly used in response to the Init message.
The ssmping messages share a common format: one octet specifying the
message type, followed by a number of options in TLV (Type, Length
and Value) format. This makes the protocol easily extendible. The
Init message generally contains some prefix options asking the server
for a group from one of the specified prefixes. The server responds
with a Server Response message that contains the group address to
use, or possibly prefix options describing what multicast groups the
server may be able to provide. For an Echo Request the client
generally includes a number of options, and a server may simply echo
the content back (only changing the message type), without inspecting
the options. However, the server SHOULD add a TTL option, and there
are some other options that a server implementation MAY support,
e.g., the client may ask for certain information or a specific
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behaviour from the server. The Echo Replies (one unicast and one
multicast) MUST first contain the exact options from the request (in
the same order), and then, immediately following, options appended by
the server.
This document defines a number of different options. Some options do
not require processing by servers and are simply returned unmodified
in the reply. There are, however, other client options that the
server may care about, and also server options that may be requested
by a client.
Unless otherwise specified, an option MUST NOT be used multiple times
in the same message.
3.1. Option format
All options are TLVs formatted as specified below.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Value |
| . |
| . |
| . |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Type (2 octets) specifies the option. The different options are
defined below.
Length (2 octets) specifies the length of the value field. Depending
on the option type, it can be from 0 to 65535.
Value. The value must always be of the specified length. See the
respective option definitions for possible values. If the length is
0, the value field is not included.
3.2. Defined Options
Version, type 0. Length MUST be 1. This option MUST always be
included in all messages, and the value MUST be set to 2 (in
decimal). Note that there are older implementations of ssmping that
only partly follow this specification. They can be regarded as
version 1 and do not use this option.
Client ID, type 1. Length MUST be non-zero. A client SHOULD always
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include this option in all messages (both Init and Request). The
client may use any value it likes to be able to detect whether a
reply is a reply to this Init/Request or not. A server should treat
this as opaque data, and simply leave it unchanged in the reply (both
Server Response and Reply). The value might be a process ID, perhaps
process ID combined with an IP address because it may receive
multicast responses to queries from other clients. It is left to the
client implementor how to make use of this option.
Sequence number, type 2. Length MUST be 4. A client MUST always
include this in Request messages and MUST NOT include it in Init
messages. A server replying to a Request message MUST copy it into
the Reply (or Server Response message on error). This contains a 32
bit sequence number. The values would typically start at 1 and
increase by one for each request in a sequence.
Timestamp, type 3. Length MUST be 8 bytes. A client SHOULD include
this in Request messages and MUST NOT include it in Init messages. A
server replying to a request MUST copy it into the Reply. In
addition, a server supporting this option, SHOULD include it in Reply
messages, if requested by the client. Note that this means that the
option may be present in the Reply message twice; both a client
timestamp as part of the echoed Request, and another timestamp added
by the server. The timestamp specifies the time when the message
(query or reply) is sent. The first 4 bytes specify the number of
seconds since the Epoch (beginning of the year 1970). The next 4
bytes specify the number of microseconds since the last second since
the Epoch.
Multicast group, type 4. Length MUST be greater than 1. It MAY be
used in Server Response messages to tell the client what group to use
in subsequent Request messages. It MUST be used in Request messages
to tell the server what group address to respond to (this group would
typically be previously obtained in a Server Response message). It
MUST be used in Reply messages (copied from the Request message). It
MUST NOT be used in Init messages. The format of the option value is
as below.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Address Family | Multicast group address... |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ .... |
The address family is a value 0-65535 as assigned by IANA for
Internet Address Families [2]. This is followed by the group
address. For IPv4 the option value length will be 6, for IPv6 18.
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Option Request Option, type 5. Length MUST be greater than 1. This
option MAY be used in Init and Request messages. It MUST NOT be used
in any other messages, except that a server will, in a Reply, echo
back this option if present in the Request. This option contains a
list of option types for options that the client is requesting from
the server. Support for this option is optional for both clients and
servers. The length of this option will be a non-zero even number,
since it contains one or more option types that are two octets each.
The format of the option value is as below.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Option Type | Option Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| ..... |
This option might be used by the client to ask the server to include
options like Timestamp or Server Information. A client MAY request
Server Information in Init messages; it MUST NOT request it in other
messages. A client MAY request a Timestamp in Request messages; it
MUST NOT request it in other messages.
Server Information, type 6. Length MUST be non-zero. It MAY be used
in Server Response messages and MUST NOT be used in other messages.
Support for this option is optional. A server supporting this option
SHOULD add it in Server Response messages if and only if requested by
the client. The value is a UTF-8 string that might contain vendor
and version information for the server implementation. It may also
contain information on which options the server supports. An
interactive client MAY support this option, and SHOULD then allow a
user to request this string and display it.
Type 7, Reserved. This option code value was used by early
implementations for an option that is now deprecated. This option
should no longer be used. Clients MUST not use this option, and
Servers MUST ignore it.
Pad, type 8. Length can be anything, including 0. This option is
used by clients to increase the request size in order to have the
server deliver responses of a particular size. If the server adds
any options when responding, it should, if possible make the response
the same size as the request by shrinking the pad option (i.e., not
simply including it, as is, like all other client options). If the
options added by the server consume as much space as the pad option
does, or more, the server should remove the entire pad option.
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TTL, type 9. Length MUST be 1. This option contains a single octet
specifying the TTL of a Reply message. Every time a server sends a
unicast or multicast Reply message, it SHOULD include this option
specifying the TTL. This is used by clients to determine the number
of hops the messages have traversed. It MUST NOT be used in other
messages. Although this option is not absolutely required, the
server is expected to use it if it knows what the TTL of the Reply
will be. In general the server can specify a specific TTL to the
host stack.
Multicast prefix, type 10. Length MUST be greater than 2. It MAY be
used in Init messages to request a group within the prefix(es), it
MAY be used in Server Response messages to tell the client what
prefix(es) it may try to obtain a group from. It MUST NOT be used in
Request/Reply messages.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Address Family | Prefix Length |Partial address|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ .... |
The address family is a value 0-65535 as assigned by IANA for
Internet Address Families [2]. This is followed by a prefix length
(0-32 for IPv4, 0-128 for IPv6), and finally a group address. The
group address need only contain enough octets to cover the prefix
length bits (e.g., there need be no group address if the prefix
length is 0, the group address would have to be 3 octets long if the
prefix length is 17-24). Any bits past the prefix length MUST be
ignored. For IPv4 the option value length will be 3-7, while for
IPv6 3-19.
Session ID, type 11. Length MUST be non-zero. A server MAY include
this in Server Response and Reply messages. If a client receives
this option in a message, the client MUST echo the Session ID option
in Reply messages, with the exact same value, until the next message
is received from the server. If the next message from the server has
no Session ID or a new Session ID value, the client should do the
same, either not use the Session ID, or use the new value.
4. Packet Format
The format of all messages is a one octet message type, directly
followed by a variable number of options.
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0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Option |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ . |
| . |
| . |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Option |
| . |
| . |
| . |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
.
.
.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Option |
| . |
| . |
| . |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
There are four message types defined. Type 81 (the character Q in
ASCII) specifies an Echo Request (Query). Type 65 (the character A
in ASCII) specifies an Echo Response (Answer). Type 73 (the
character I in ASCII) is an Init message, and type 83 (the character
S in ACII) is a Server Response message.
The options directly follow the type octet and are not aligned in any
way (no spacing or padding), i.e., options might start at any octet
boundary. The option format is specified above.
5. Message types and options
For the readers convenience we provide the matrix below, showing what
options can go in what messages.
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Option / Message Type | Init | Server Response | Request | Reply |
-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Version (0) | MUST | MUST | MUST | ECHO |
Client ID (1) |SHOULD| ECHO | SHOULD | ECHO |
Sequence number (2) | NOT | ECHO | MUST | ECHO |
Timestamp (3) | NOT | NOT | SHOULD |ECHO/RQ|
Multicast group (4) | NOT | MAY | MUST | ECHO |
Option Request (5) | MAY | NOT | MAY | ECHO |
Server Information (6)| NOT | RQ | NOT | NOT |
Reserved (7) | NOT | NOT | NOT | NOT |
Pad (8) | NOT | NOT | MAY | ECHO* |
TTL (9) | NOT | NOT | NOT |SHOULD |
Multicast prefix (10) | MAY | MAY | NOT | NOT |
Session ID (11) | NOT | MAY | ECHO | MAY |
NOT means that the option MUST NOT be included. ECHO for a server
means that if the option is specified by the client, then the server
MUST echo the option back in the response, with the exact same option
value. The exception is ECHO* where the option value may be
modified. ECHO for a client means that it MUST echo the option it
got in the last message from the server in the following messages it
sends. RQ means that the server SHOULD include the option in the
response, when requested by the client using the Option Request
option.
6. Client Behaviour
We will consider how a typical interactive client using the above
protocol would behave. A client need only require a user to specify
the unicast address of the server. It can then send an Init message
with a prefix option containing the desired address family and zero
prefix length. The server is then free to decide which group it
should return. A client may also allow a user to specify a group
address(es) or prefix(es) (for IPv6, the user may only be required to
specify a scope or an RP address, from which the client can construct
the desired prefix, possibly embedded-RP). From this the client can
specify one or more prefix options in an Init message to tell the
server which address it would prefer. If the user specifies a group
address, that can be encoded as a prefix of maximal length (e.g. 32
for IPv4). The prefix options are in prioritised order, i.e., the
client should put the most preferred prefix first.
If the client receives a Server Response message containing a group
address it can start sending Request messages, see the next
paragraph. If there is no group address option, it would typically
exit with an error message. The server may have included some prefix
options in the Server Response. The client may use this to provide
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the user some feedback on what prefixes or scopes are available.
Assuming the client got a group address in a Server Response it can
start pinging. Before it does that it should let the user know which
group is being used. When sending ping Requests the client must
always specifiy the group option. If the last message from the
server contained a Session ID, then it MUST also include that with
the same value. Typically it would receive a Session ID in a Server
Response together with the group address, and then the ID would stay
the same during the entire ping sequence. However, if for instance
the server process is restarted, it may still be possible to continue
pinging but the Session ID MAY be changed by the server. Hence a
client implementation MUST always use the last Session ID it
received, and not necessarily the one from the Server Response
message. If a client receives a Server Response message in response
to a Request message (that is, a Server Response message containing a
sequence number), this means there is an error and it should stop
sending Requests. This may for instance happen after server restart.
The client may have an option for the user to obtain server
information. If the user asks for server information, the client can
send an Init message with no prefix options, but with an Option
Request Option, requesting the server to return a Server Information
option. The server will return server information if supported, and
it may also return a list of prefixes it supports. It will however
not return a group address. The client may also try to obtain only a
list of prefixes by sending an Init message with no prefixes and not
requesting any specific options.
Note that a client may pick a multicast group and send Request
messages without first going through the Init - Server Response
negotiation. If this is supported by the server and the server is
okay with the group used, the server can then send Reply messages as
usual. If the server is not okay, it will send a Server Response
telling the client to stop and possibly pick a new group.
7. Server Behaviour
We will consider how a typical server using the above protocol would
behave. First we consider how to respond to Init messages. If the
Init message contains prefix options, the server should look at them
in order and see if it can assign a multicast address in the given
range. The server would be configured, possibly have a default,
specifying which groups it can offer. It may have a large pool just
picking a group at random, possibly choose a group based on hashing
of the clients IP address or identifier, or just use a fixed group.
It is left to the server to decide whether it should allow the same
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address to be used simultaneously by multiple clients. If the server
finds a suitable group address, it returns this in a group option in
a Server Response message. The server may additionally include a
Session ID. This may help the server if it is to keep some state,
for instance for making sure the client uses the group it got
assigned. A good Session ID would be a random byte string that is
hard to predict. If the server cannot find a suitable group address,
or if there were no prefixes in the Init message, it may send a
Server Response message containing prefix options listing what
prefixes may be available to the client. Finally, if the Init
message requests the Server Information option, it should include
that.
When the server receives a Request message, it may first check that
the group address and Session ID (if provided) are valid. If the
server is satisfied it will send a unicast Reply message back to the
client, and also a multicast Reply message to the group address. The
Reply messages contain the exact options and in the same order, as in
the Request (only exception is the pad option), and after that the
server adds a TTL option and additional options if needed. E.g., it
may add a timestamp if requested by the client. If the server is not
happy with the group address and Session ID, it may send a Server
Response message asking the client to stop. This Server Response
must echo the sequence number from the Request. This Server Response
may contain which prefixes the client can try to request addresses
from. The unicast and multicast Reply messages have identical UDP
payload apart from possibly TTL and timestamp option values.
Note that the server may receive Request messages with no prior Init
message. This may happen when the server restarts or if a client
sends a Request with no prior Init message. The server may go ahead
and respond if it is okay with the group used. In the responses it
may add a Session ID which will then be in later requests from the
client. If the group is not okay, the server sends back a Server
Response. The Response is just as if it got an Init message with no
prefixes. If the server adds or modifies the SessionID in replies,
it MUST use the exact same SessionID in the unicast and multicast
replies.
8. Acknowledgements
The ssmping concept was proposed by Pavan Namburi, Kamil Sarac and
Kevin C. Almeroth in the paper SSM-Ping: A Ping Utility for Source
Specific Multicast, and also the Internet Draft
draft-sarac-mping-00.txt. Mickael Hoerdt has contributed with
several ideas. Alexander Gall, Nicholas Humfrey, Nick Lamb and Dave
Thaler have contributed in different ways to the implementation of
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the ssmping tools at [3]. Many people in communities like TERENA,
Internet2 and the M6Bone have used early implementations of ssmping
and provided feedback that have influenced the current protocol.
Thanks to Kevin Almeroth, Toerless Eckert, Gorry Fairhurst, Liu Hui,
Bharat Joshi, Olav Kvittem, Kamil Sarac, Pekka Savola, Trond Skjesol
and Cao Wei for reviewing and providing feedback on this draft.
9. IANA Considerations
IANA is requested to provide a UDP port number for use by this
protocol, and also provide a registry for ssmping option types.
10. Security Considerations
There are some security issues to consider. One is that a host may
send a request with an IP source address of another host, and make an
arbitrary ssmping server on the Internet send packets to this other
host. This hehaviour is fairly harmless. The worst case is if the
host receiving the unicast replies also happen to be performing an
ssmping test towards that particular server. In this unlikely event,
there would be an amplification effect where the host receives twice
as many replies as there are requests sent. An ssmping server should
perform rate limiting, to guard against this function being used as a
DoS attack. A client should also use the client ID option to
distinguish replies to its own requests from replies that might be to
other requests.
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[1] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[2] "IANA, Address Family Numbers",
<http://www.iana.org/assignments/address-family-numbers>.
11.2. Informative References
[3] "ssmping implementation",
<http://www.venaas.no/multicast/ssmping/>.
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Authors' Addresses
Stig Venaas
UNINETT
Trondheim NO-7465
Norway
Email: venaas@uninett.no
Hugo Santos
NEC Europe Ltd.
Kurfuersten-Anlage 36
Heidelberg 69115
Germany
Email: hugo.santos@nw.neclab.eu
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contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
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Venaas & Santos Expires May 22, 2008 [Page 15]
