MPLS Working Group M. Bocci
Internet-Draft Nokia
Intended status: Informational S. Bryant
Expires: December 16, 2022 University of Surrey 5GIC
J. Drake
Juniper Networks
June 14, 2022
Requirements for MPLS Network Action Indicators and MPLS Ancillary Data
draft-ietf-mpls-mna-requirements-00
Abstract
This document specifies requirements for MPLS network actions which
affect the forwarding or other processing of MPLS packets. These
requirements are derived from a number of proposals for additions to
the MPLS label stack to allow forwarding or other processing
decisions to be made, either by a transit or terminating LSR (i.e.
the LER).
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on December 16, 2022.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. MPLS Network Action Indicator Requirements . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. General Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Requirements on Network Action Indicators . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. Requirements on Ancillary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Appendix A. Working Group Adoption Comments . . . . . . . . . . 10
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1. Introduction
There is significant interest in developing the MPLS data plane to
address the requirements of new use cases
[I-D.saad-mpls-miad-usecases], which require a general mechanism,
termed MPLS network actions, for enhanced forwarding or other
processing of MPLS packets. It is intended that this mechanism will
be conformant to the greatest extent possible with the existing MPLS
architecture as specified by, among other documents, [RFC3031],
[RFC3032], and [RFC6790].
This document specifies the requirements for MPLS network actions, as
well as the encoding and use of the ancillary data.
1.1. Terminology
o Network Action: An operation to be performed on a packet. A
network action may affect router state, packet forwarding, or it
may affect the packet in some other way.
o Network Action Indication (NAI): An indication in the packet that
a certain network action is to be performed.
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o Ancillary Data (AD): Data in an MPLS packet associated with a
given Network Action that may be used as input to the processing
of the Network Action or results from the processing of the
Network Action.
o In-Stack Data: Ancillary data carried within the MPLS label stack.
o Post-Stack Data: Ancillary data carried in a packet between the
bottom of the MPLS label stack and the first octet of the user
payload. This document does not prescribe whether post-stack data
precedes or follows any other protocol structure such as a control
word or associated channel header (ACH).
o Scope: The set of nodes that should perform a given Network
Action.
1.2. Background
The MPLS architecture is specified in [RFC3031] and provides a
mechanism for forwarding packets through a network without requiring
any analysis of the packet payload's network layer header by
intermediate nodes (Label Switching Routers - LSRs). Formally,
inspection may only occur at network ingress (the Label edge router -
LER) where the packet is assigned to a forwarding equivalence class
(FEC).
MPLS uses switching based on a label pushed on the packet to achieve
efficient forwarding and traffic engineering of flows associated with
the FEC. While originally used for IP traffic, MPLS has been
extended to support point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and
multipoint-to-multipoint layer 2 and layer 3 services. An overview
of the development of MPLS is provided in
[I-D.bryant-mpls-dev-primer].
A number of applications have emerged which require LSRs to make
forwarding or other processing decisions based on inspection of the
network layer header, or some other ancillary information in the
protocol stack encapsulated deeper in the packet. An early example
of this was generation of a hash of the payload header to be used for
load balancing over Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) or Link Aggregation
Group (LAG) next hops. This is based on an assumption that the
network layer protocol is IP. MPLS was extended to avoid the need
for LSRs to perform this operation if load balancing was needed based
on the payload and instead use only the MPLS label stack, using the
Entropy Label / Entropy Label Indicator [RFC6790] which are inserted
at the LER. Other applications where the intermediate LSRs may need
to inspect and process a packet on an LSP include OAM, which can make
use of mechanisms such the Router Alert Label [RFC3032] or the
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Generic Associated Channel Label (GAL) [RFC5586] to indicate that an
intercepted packet should be processed locally. See
[I-D.bryant-mpls-dev-primer] for detailed list of such applications.
There have been a number of new proposals for how ancillary data is
carried in MPLS and how its presence is indicated to the LSR or
egress LER, for example In-situ OAM and Service Function Chaining
(SFC). A summary of these proposals is contained in
[I-D.bryant-mpls-dev-primer], an overview of use cases is provided in
[I-D.saad-mpls-miad-usecases]. [I-D.song-mpls-extension-header]
summarises some of the issues with existing solutions to address
these new applications (note that this document draws on the
requirements and issues without endorsing a specific solution from
[I-D.song-mpls-extension-header]):
These solutions rely on either the built-in next-protocol
indicator in the header or the knowledge of the format and size of
the header to access the following packet data. The node is
required to be able to parse the new header, which is unrealistic
in an incremental deployment environment.
A piecemeal solution often assumes the new header is the only
extra header and its location in the packet is fixed by default.
It is impossible or difficult to support multiple new headers in
one packet due to the conflicted assumption. An example of this
is that the GAL/G-ACH mechanism assumes that if the GAL is
present, only a single G-ACH header follows.
New applications therefore require the definition of extensions to
the MPLS architecture and label stack operations that can be used
across these applications in order to minimise implementation
complexity and promote interoperability and extensibility.
2. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
3. MPLS Network Action Indicator Requirements
This document specifies requirements of MPLS Network Action
Indicators, and the associated Ancillary Data. The requirements are
for the behavior of the protocol mechanisms and procedures that
constitute building blocks out of which indicators for network
actions and associated ancillary data are constructed.
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It does not specify the detailed actions and processing that may be
required by an application for any ancillary data by an LSR or LER.
The requirements in this document do not describe what functions an
implementation must support. The purpose of this document is to
identify the toolkit and any new protocol work that is required.
This new protocol work MUST be based on the existing MPLS
architecture.
3.1. General Requirements
1. MPLS combines extensibility, flexibility and efficiency by using
control plane context combined with a simple data plane mechanism
to allow the network to make forwarding decisions about a packet.
Any solution MUST maintain these properties of MPLS.
2. Any solutions to these requirements MUST NOT restrict the
generality of MPLS architecture [RFC3031], [RFC3032].
3. If extensions to the MPLS data plane are required, they MUST NOT
be inconsistent with the MPLS architecture [RFC3031], [RFC3032].
4. Solutions meeting the requirements set out in this document MUST
be able to coexist with and MUST NOT obsolete existing MPLS
mechanisms.
5. The design of any mechanism SHOULD be such that an LSR is able to
efficiently parse the label stack.
6. Mechanisms MUST NOT increase the size of the MPLS label stack
more than is necessary.
7. The design of solutions MUST NOT expose confidential information
[RFC6973] [RFC3552] to the LSRs.
8. Solution specifications MUST document any changes to the existing
MPLS data plane security model that they introduce.
3.2. Requirements on Network Action Indicators
1. When an MPLS Network Action is required, an indicator is
REQUIRED in the label stack.
2. The document defining an MPLS network action MUST specify
whether ancillary data is required and whether it is in-stack
and/or post-stack.
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3. Any solution MUST respect the principle that Special Purpose
Labels are the mechanism of last resort and therefore must
minimise the number of new SPLs that are allocated.
4. Insertion, parsing, processing and disposition of Network Action
Indicators SHOULD make use of existing MPLS data plane
operations.
5. An NAI MUST NOT be delivered to a node that is not capable of
processing the indicated network action in a way that is
acceptable to the imposing LER.
6. NAI MUST NOT become top of stack at a node that does not
understand how to perform a disposition operation on it.
Disposition includes both processing and ignoring.
7. The NAI design MUST support scoping of network actions.
8. A given NAI specification MUST specify if the scope is end-to-
end, hop-by-hop, or directed at one or more selected nodes.
9. If a design allows more than one scope, a mechanism MUST be
provided to specify the precedence of the scopes.
10. A mechanism is REQUIRED to enable an LER inserting NAIs to
determine if the far-end LER can accept and process a packet
containing a given NAI.
11. NAIs SHOULD be supported for both P2P and P2MP paths, but any
specific NAI may only be supported for one or the other.
12. Data plane mechanisms for NAIs MUST be consistent across
different control plane protocol types.
13. A mechanism MUST be defined for control / management planes in
use to determine the ability of downstream LSRs/LERs to accept/
process a given NAI.
14. A mechanism is REQUIRED to enable an LSR to determine if an NAI
is present in a packet.
15. NAIs can only be inserted at LERs, but MAY be processed at LSRs
and LERs. If it is required to insert an NAI at a transit LSR
on an LSP, then the new network action indicator and any
required ancillary data MUST be pushed onto the MPLS label
stack.
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16. It SHOULD be possible to include indicators for multiple network
actions in the same packet.
17. The solution MUST allow NAI-carrying and non-NAI-carrying
packets to coexist on the same LSP.
18. The solution MUST support the processing of a subset of the NAIs
on a packet.
19. Any specification of a solution MUST discuss the possible ECMP
consequences of the design.
20. Network action specifications MUST specify if in-stack or post-
stack ancillary data can be rewritten by an LSR
3.3. Requirements on Ancillary Data
1. Solutions for in-stack ancillary data MUST be able to coexist
with and MUST NOT obsolete existing MPLS mechanisms. Such
solutions MUST be described in a standards track RFC.
2. A common preamble for ancillary data MUST be defined so that a
node receiving the ancillary data can determine whether to
process, ignore, skip over or discard it according to network or
local policies.
3. A standardised container MUST be defined for in-stack ancillary
data based on the MPLS LSE.
4. Any specification of a mechanism MUST describe whether it can
coexist with existing post-stack data mechanisms e.g. control
words and G-ACH, and if so how this coexistence operates.
5. A mechanism MUST be defined for an LER inserting ancillary data
to determine that each node that needs to process the ancillary
data can read the required distance into the packet at that
node, for example [RFC9088].
6. Ancillary data MAY be associated with control or maintenance
information for traffic carried by an LSP, and/or it MAY be
associated with the user traffic itself.
7. For scoped ancillary data, a mechanism is REQUIRED to enable an
LER inserting NAIs whose network actions make use of that
ancillary data, to determine if the NAI and ancillary data will
be processed by LSRs within the scope along the path. Such a
mechanism MAY need to determine if LSRs along the path can
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process a specific type of AD implied by the NAI at the depth in
the stack that it will be presented to the LSR.
8. Network action specifications MUST specify if the ancillary data
needs to be processed as a part of the immediate forwarding
operation and whether packet mis-ordering is allowed to occur as
a result of the time taken to process the ancillary data.
9. In order to prevent unnecessary scanning of the packet, care
needs to be taken in the location of post stack ancillary data,
for example it SHOULD be located as close to the bottom of the
label stack as possible.
10. A solution MUST be provided to verify the authenticity of
ancillary data processed to LSRs [RFC3552].
11. The design of the ancillary data MUST NOT expose confidential
information [RFC6973] [RFC3552] to the LSRs.
4. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
Note to RFC Editor: this section may be removed on publication as an
RFC.
5. Security Considerations
The mechanisms required by this document introduce new security
considerations to MPLS. Individual solution specifications meeting
these requirements MUST address any security considerations.
6. Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions from Greg
Mirsky, Yingzhen Qu, Haoyu Song, Tarek Saad, Loa Andersson, Tony Li,
Adrian Farrel, Jie Dong and Bruno Decraene, and participants in the
MPLS working group who have provided comments.
The authors also gratefully acknowledge the input of the members of
the MPLS Open Design Team.
7. References
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7.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
7.2. Informative References
[I-D.bryant-mpls-dev-primer]
Bryant, S., "A Primer on the Development of MPLS", draft-
bryant-mpls-dev-primer-02 (work in progress), May 2022.
[I-D.saad-mpls-miad-usecases]
Saad, T., Makhijani, K., Song, H., and G. Mirsky, "Use
Cases for MPLS Network Action Indicators and MPLS
Ancillary Data", draft-saad-mpls-miad-usecases-02 (work in
progress), April 2022.
[]
Song, H., Li, Z., Zhou, T., Andersson, L., and Z. Zhang,
"MPLS Extension Header", draft-song-mpls-extension-
header-06 (work in progress), January 2022.
[RFC3031] Rosen, E., Viswanathan, A., and R. Callon, "Multiprotocol
Label Switching Architecture", RFC 3031,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3031, January 2001,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3031>.
[RFC3032] Rosen, E., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G., Rekhter, Y.,
Farinacci, D., Li, T., and A. Conta, "MPLS Label Stack
Encoding", RFC 3032, DOI 10.17487/RFC3032, January 2001,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3032>.
[RFC3552] Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3552>.
[RFC4221] Nadeau, T., Srinivasan, C., and A. Farrel, "Multiprotocol
Label Switching (MPLS) Management Overview", RFC 4221,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4221, November 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4221>.
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[RFC5586] Bocci, M., Ed., Vigoureux, M., Ed., and S. Bryant, Ed.,
"MPLS Generic Associated Channel", RFC 5586,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5586, June 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5586>.
[RFC6790] Kompella, K., Drake, J., Amante, S., Henderickx, W., and
L. Yong, "The Use of Entropy Labels in MPLS Forwarding",
RFC 6790, DOI 10.17487/RFC6790, November 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6790>.
[RFC6973] Cooper, A., Tschofenig, H., Aboba, B., Peterson, J.,
Morris, J., Hansen, M., and R. Smith, "Privacy
Considerations for Internet Protocols", RFC 6973,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6973, July 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6973>.
[RFC9088] Xu, X., Kini, S., Psenak, P., Filsfils, C., Litkowski, S.,
and M. Bocci, "Signaling Entropy Label Capability and
Entropy Readable Label Depth Using IS-IS", RFC 9088,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9088, August 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9088>.
Appendix A. Working Group Adoption Comments
1. Normative Language
Use of the normative language, Terminology section in
particular. For example, in "There may be associated ancillary
data in the packet."
Ed.> We will check all of the normative language, but in this
instance it is not needed.
2. The NAS abbreviation
Network Action Sub-Stack is abbreviated as NAS. I think that
abbreviating as NASS or presenting the extended term as Network
Action Sub-stack improves correlation between the full form and
acronym.
Ed.> Agreed. Will change to NASS throughout.
3. non-use of NAS abbreviation
Also, I've noticed that NAS is not used throughout the document.
It might not be useful after all.
Ed.> Will check throughout and remove if not used.
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4. Section 3.2 typo
Perhaps a typo in the first requirement Section 3.2 s/and/an/ It
is not clear what "NAI is delivered to a node" might mean in the
requirement 5 of Section 3.2. Perhaps the next requirement is
sufficient and #5 can be removed from the document.
Ed.> OK. Will check
5. Extra words
Also, #5 seems like it has some extra wording. Perhaps s/in the
way in a way/in a way/?
Ed.> OK will check
6. Merging of drafts?
One thing I'm debating is whether draft-bryant-mpls-dev-
primer-01 - A Primer on the Development of MPLS (ietf.org)
should be merged with this draft?
Ed.> Disagree. The primer draft is a useful background source,
but it is not a set of requirements.
7. ADI -> NAI
In this version the term "Ancillary Data Indicator" is changed
to "Network Action Indicator". While there is some difference
between the definition of the two terms: Ancillary Data
Indicator (ADI): A indicator in the MPLS label stack that
ancillary data exists in this packet. It MAY also indicate the
specific type of the ancillary data. Network Action Indication
(NAI): An indication in the packet that a certain network action
is to be performed. There may be associated ancillary data in
the packet. The above definition shows that ADI firstly is the
indicator of the existence of the ancillary data, and optionally
can be the indicator of specific type of ancillary data. While
NAI is only the indicator of a certain type of network action.
Thus NAI cannot replace ADI directly in this document. I'd
suggest to add the ADI back to the terminology section, and
change all the NAI in section 3.2 back to ADI. If needed, the
requirements on NAI can be added as separate items.
Ed.> Resolved
8. Addition to section 3.1
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For backward compatibility and consistency, It is suggested to
add the below items to section 3.1 as general requirements: a)
Solutions meeting the requirements set out in this document MUST
be compatible with existing MPLS mechanisms. b) Solutions
meeting the requirements set out in this document MUST reuse
existing MPLS mechanisms when possible. c) For network actions
which are developed or under development in IETF, the encoding
and processing of the network action data MUST be reused.
Ed.> Requirements 1-4 already cover points a and b. C is
outside the scope of this document but we are not intending to
limit or prescribe anything about existing standards.
9. Action Indicators without AD
Do not use the ADI for Network Actions that does not have
ancillary data, use NADI (non-ADI).
Ed.> Discuss with John
10. AD definition
I was under the impression reading Jie's note that actions
_itself_ are the Ancillary Data. Your definition of "Ancillary
Data" seems to be limited to action parameters or metadata which
is likely why you draw such conclusions.
Ed.> Agree to clarify AD is associated with an NA (see John's
text)
11. Optional AD?
AD definition treats anything new to the current label stack as
an optional add-on == ancillary while NAI treats only optional
parameters or metadata associated with newly defined actions as
ancillary.
Ed.> See proposed text.
12. ADI and NAI are different
It is also my understanding that the definition of ADI and NAI
are different. ADI is used to indicate that there is
information in addition to the legacy label stack in the packet,
while NAI is used to indicate a certain type of network action.
The existence of NAI and the optional data associated with the
action need an indicator, which is the ADI.
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Ed.> See proposed text.
13. Retire ADI
There is no need for an ancillary data indicator and we should
probably retire the term.
Ed.> Agree ADI will be removed.
14. AD generic?
As Robert and I mentioned, the term ancillary data is generic
and refers to all types network actions information, including
those with and without additional action data.
Thus NAI can be considered as one type of ancillary data.
Ed.> Ancillary data may be explicit in the packet or inferred
from context. See the new definition in the terminology
section.
15. What ADI indicates
An ADI is the indicator of the presence of ANY non-label
information in the MPLS packet. Following it there may be
indicators of each specific network action. And my
understanding is the requirements in section 3.2 was mainly on
the ADI.
Ed.> ADI will be removed
16. Common requirement to carry AD
According to the use cases collected, their common requirement
is to carry ancillary data in the data packet to affect the
packet forwarding or processing behavior, or the network states.
There is no specific requirement on where the ancillary data
should be put in the packet. Thus in the requirement document
it would be clear enough to just mention ancillary data and its
indicator (ADI).
Ed.> Addressed with a requirement that a standardised container
for in-stack data is required.
17. Not discussed
We have not discussed changing ADI to NAI.
18. Discussed when draft presented in the Open DT
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The change of ADI to NAI was presented when the new version of
the Framework were discussed in the Open DT.
19. Comment from Loa
I think both comment 17 and 18, could be misunderstod, yes the
NAI was introduced (for good reason) in new Framework, however
it does not in itself exclude have an ADI in a packet, only that
is not the all-emcompassing term that it was earlier.
Ed.> Needs new text that explains that NAI implies that there
may be ancillary data to process.
20. Keep using ADI
My suggestions would be to keep using ADI for the generic
indicator, and could use NAI for the indicator of specific
action. I don'think we need to mention NAS here, which is
specific to ISD based solution.
Ed.> Ancillary data should only be included if there is some
action associated with it. Presence of AD is implicit in the
NAI definition. A standardised container for AD could allow
empty data.
21. Use of NSI
I propose Network Action Sub-stack Indcator (NSI) for this
purpose.
Proposed definition: An LSE used to indicate the presence of a
Network Action Sub-stack.
Ed.> NAS and NASI removed
22. Revise definition of NAS
We should also revise the definition of NAS to use this (21).
Ed.> See framework
23. Popping NAS
When you pop a stack in programming, the concept that MPLS
borrowed, you pop the procedure indicator and the procedure
parameters. This is consistent with popping an NAS
Ed.> No action
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24. More than a name change
No it is more than just a name change. There is a concept
change and we re-wrote a bunch of text to align with the NAI
approach. For example an NAI may not have AD to indicate.
Ed.> Yes
25. Writeable NAS
I have some further questions. NAS is something within the
label stack but writable by intermediate nodes. Is this the
stack operation? Besides, if NAS emerges at ToS, you said it'll
be popped and discarded. What if the NAS also needs to be
applied to the labels below it? Whatever measures you will take
here, are those the stack operations?
Ed.> NAS has been removed.
26. The NFRR use case
I have several questions about the NFRR use case. As I
understand it, a point of local repair (PLR) imposes NAS with
the NFRR indicator so that it becomes ToS at the merge node
(MN). If that is correct, then the MN will remove the NAS with
the NFRR indicator as the packet is returned on the "normal"
path. Hence, I don't see why an intermediate node would need to
write into an existing in the label stack NAS in support of
NFRR.
Ed.> NFRR is not discussed in this draft.
27. Intermediate node re-writing
I may not see a case for an intermediate node re-writing the
existing NAI. I think that the node should impose a new NAS. I
see the case for an intermediate node writing into PSD (e.g.,
HbH IOAM though I think that is too expensive and the IOAM
Direct Export or Hybrid Two-Step are a better choice). To
summarize, I don't see the need for an intermediate node to
write into ISD and am open to discussing the node writing into
PSD.
Ed.> Added a requirement that network action specifications must
describe whether ISD can be rewritten by an intermediate node.
28. Two types of indicators
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One of my concern is that there are two types of indicators, and
they cannot be represented using the same term. - The first one
(call it indicator-1) is used to indicate the presence of any
non-forwarding-label information in the packet. As discussed it
may be realized as a bSPL. It does not indicate the type of
actions to be performed. - The second type of indicator (call
it indicator-2) is used to indicate the presence of a specific
type of action. Such action may or may not have associated data
with it. This may be realized as a Flag or an action type in
the packet.
Ed> Not sure this is correct. The bSPL indicates the presence
of NAIs. The NAI specifies the network action and whether
ancillary data is present, and where it is present. This should
be clarified in the framework.
29. Second term needed
do not understand why we need another term. We have not had a
situation where we wanted to refer to "NAS + PSD" and lacked a
term for it.
Ed.> Agreed
30. Propose text
That said, please feel free to propose a term and a definition.
I do not understand why we need another term. We have not had a
situation where we wanted to refer to "NAS + PSD" and lacked a
term for it.
That said, please feel free to propose a term and a definition.
Ed.> Agreed
31. NAS not general enough
Thus NAS is not general enough to cover the PSD. What we need
is a generic term to cover all the possible cases of ancillary
data. Furthermore, the indicator and the ancillary data would
need separate terms anyway and does not need to be coupled under
one term.
Ed.> NAS has been removed. The defintion of Network Action
should cover this.
32. Use of ancillary data
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* We are already using ancillary data for this purpose
* Exactly, and that' why we don't need to mention NAS in the
requirement document.
Ed> NAS has been removed.
33. What the NAS contain
* Let me put it this way: By definition, NAS contains: ADI,
Optional NAI and Optional ISD. While what we want to refer
to with the term is: Optional NAI Optional ISD and Optional
PSD. Note it does not include the ADI.
* This is incorrect. It contains a network action sub-stack
indicator, network action indicators, and any in-stack
ancillary data (as defined by the specified network actions)
Ed.> NAS has been removed.
34. User-defined actions
user-defined network actions? Should we mentione in the
requirements doc?
Ed.> The allocation policy should be specified in the draft that
defines the IANA registry for the NAIs.
35. draft-ietf-mpls-mna-requirements
I hope, if adopted, the filename can be adjusted to use MRN not
MIAD-ADI.
Comment from Loa: I think the filename we are considering is:
draft-ietf-mpls-mna-requirements
Ed.> Done.
36. In the Abstract (1)
This work is the product of the IETF MPLS Open Design Team.
Before posting as a Working Group draft, this sentence needs to
be removed. It's OK to say something in the Acknowledgements.
Loa: Depending on what is meant by "before", I have a comment on
this, just because info is at the wrong place it should not be
considered "blocking" and could be update at any time.
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Personally I think working group draft version -01 would be a
good place to do this update.
Ed> OK agreed.
37. In the Abstract (2)
The term "application data" may be (is) confusing. While you
probably mean it to imply an application of MPLS, it may be
confused with the type of application that runs end-to-end
(i.e., on a host). Although, reading some of the text, it does
feel like some of the time you _are_ intending to imply that the
application software may somehow be able to provide the
ancillary data that is ultimately carried by MPLS.
I think, in the Abstract, you could say...
based on ancillary data that may be carried in or below the
bottom of the label stack.
...but you should probably look through the rest of the text and
consider the use of the word "application." Maybe one approach
would be to specifically call out the term near the top of the
document in order to correctly set the context.
Ed> OK agreed.
38. In section 1 (1).
is then processed using mechanisms implemented by intermediate
and/or egress LSRs that comply with the MPLS base architecture
and potentially its extensions, including (but not limited to)
[RFC3031], [RFC3032],[RFC6790].
This sounds like the mechanisms to process the ancillary data
are already specified in those RFCs, but (of course) that's not
the case.
You are probably making a point about the nodes being "MPLS" and
also saying something about backward compatibility of the
mechanism. But it should be clear that only nodes that contain
new functionality will be able to recognise and process
ancillary data.
Ed.> OK will fix
39. In section 1 (2).
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This draft specifies
Say 'document' so that you are future-proofed for publication as
an RFC.
Ed.> OK will fix.
40. In section 1.1 (1)
s/an Label/a Label/ s/perfomed/performed/
Ed.> OK will fix
41. In section 1.1 (2).
* Network Action: An operation to be performed on a packet. A
network action may affect router state, packet forwarding, or
it may affect the packet in some other way.
If the operation affects router state, is it really performed on
the packet?
Ed.> Yes.
42. In section 1.1 (3)
* Network Action Indication (NAI): An indication in the packet
that a certain network action is to be perfomed. There may
be associated ancillary data in the packet
* Network Action Sub-Stack (NAS): A set of related, contiguous
Label Stack Entries (LSEs). The first LSE contains the NAI.
The TC and TTL values in the sub-stack may be redefined.
The first bullet simply says that the NAI is "in the packet",
but the second bullet goes on to define where/how it is carried.
I would say that it is totally irrelevant to the _requirements_
how the NAI is encoded/carried (although there may be some
requirements that limit the options). But I note that there is
no further mention of the NAS or of a "sub-stack". I suggest
removing this second bullet.
Ed.> Agreed. Will fix.
43. In section 1.1 (4)
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* In-Stack Data: Any data within the MPLS label stack including
the outer LSE and the bottom of stack (the LSE with the S-bit
set).
* Post-Stack Data: Any data beyond the LSE with the S-Bit set,
but before the first octet of the user payload. This
document does not prescribe whether post-stack data precedes
or follows any other protocol structure such as a control
word or associated channel header (ACH).
Does "any data" mean "any ancillary data"?
Ed.> Agreed. Will fix.
44. In section 1.2 (1)
s/number of new proposals/number of proposals/
Ed.> Agreed
45. In Section 1.2 (2)
for example In-situ OAM and Service Function Chaining (SFC)
Might benefit from references for iOAM and SFC.
Ed.> Will add references
46. In section 1.2 (3)
[] summarises some of the issues
with existing solutions to address these new applications (note
that this document draws on the requirements and issues without
endorsing a specific solution from
[I-D.song-mpls-extension-header]):
This gives more emphasis to the referenced draft than I think
you intend. If you intend that people read that draft to see
the issues, it is a normative reference. But if you are just
mentioning it and have pulled the information into this
document, then you need to reduce the emphasis. How about...
[] sets out some of the issues in
how existing solutions address these new applications. This
document draws on the requirements and issues noted in that
document without endorsing any specific solution.
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Ed.> New text is virtually identical. The existing text is fine
and is not intended to be normative.
47. Section 2
While I understand the desire to express the requirements in
definitive language, BCP14 is not about requirements. Rather it
is intended to describe implementation behaviours.
A way around this that is often used is to include a subsequent
paragraph such as...
Although this document is not a protocol specification, this
convention is adopted for clarity of description of
requirements.
See, for example, RFC 4139, RFC 4687, or RFC 5862.
Ed> Despite what BCP14 says, there is a long standing convention
of using must and should in requirements documents because they
specify requirements on protocol design. Suggest no change to
the existing text.
48. In section 3.2 (1)
s/and indicator/an indicator/
Ed> OK
49. In section 3.2 (2)
(2). An MPLS Network Action MUST specify whether ancillary data
is required in the label stack and/or post-stack data.
Do you mean this, or do you mean that this must be specified in
the documentation of the NA?
Ed.> OK will fix
50. In section 3.2 (1)
(3). Any solution MUST respect the principle that Special
Purpose Labels are the mechanism of last resort and therefore
must minimise the number of new SPLs that are allocated.
Presumably a minimum here would be zero?
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Loa: No we have considere this and decided that there is room to
specify 1 bSPL for MNA.
Ed.> Existing text is fine.
Loa: I also think that we should s/Special Purpose Labels/Base
Special-Purpose Labels Note: for the Extended SPLs there sare no
such reestriction.
Ed.> Existing text is fine.
51. In section 3.2 bullet 5
s/in the way in a way/in a way/
Ed.> OK will fix
52. In section 3.2 (bullet, 5, 6 and 10)
Bullet 10 is a wholly contained subset of bullet 5. Actually,
bullet 10 is a wholly contained subset of bullet 6. Makes me
think that bullets 5 and 6 possibly say the same thing as each
other.
Ed.> Will move 10 up the list to be closer to 5 / 6. They are
not the same but are related.
53. In section 3.2 (2)
(11). NAIs SHOULD be supported for both P2P and P2MP paths, but
any specific NAI may only be supported for one or the other.
Really? You can't have an NAI that is equally applicable for
both P2P and P2MP? Seems an odd restriction to impose.
Ed.> The text is correct as written.
54. In section 3.2 (3)
(15). NAIs can only be inserted at LERs, but MAY be processed
at LSRs and LERs. If it is required to insert an NAI at a
transit LSR on an LSP, then a new label stack MUST be pushed.
What does it mean to push a new label stack? If you mean that
we should support "MPLS in MPLS" encapsulation so that the
packet has two bottom of stack bits set, I should point out that
this was previously discussed and abandoned because the presence
of an LSE immediately after a set bottom of stack bit was
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considered unacceptable because of the assumptions made by
existing hardware about what follows the bottom of stack.
55. In section 3.2 (4)
(19). Any specification of a solution that inserts or modifies
the NAI MUST discuss the possible ECMP consequences.
This seems to at least partially contradict 3.2/15
It is also not clear what it means "to modify an indication in
the packet that a certain network action is to be performed". I
guess it means to remove the NAI?
Ed.> See updated text
56. In section 3.3 (1)
(3.3/1) is surely already covered by 3.3/4
Ed>These are correct but we have strengthened 3.3/1.
57. In section 3.3 (2)
(3.3/3) seems to be unnecessary given 3.3/1
Ed.> (1) is in-stack, (3) is post-stack, so they are correct as
written.
58. Semantic Routing
I think the proposal here falls in the scope of "Semantic
Routing". That is, adding information to packets so that the
forwarding decisions may be enhanced to act not just on the
destination address or next hop label, but also on the
additional information. The precise forwarding action may be
known by the forwarders by definition (such as a protocol
specification), installed by a routing engine according to a
routing algorithm acting on information exchanged by routing
protocols, or programmed into the forwarder from a management or
orchestration system.
We wrote an introduction to the idea of Semantic Routing draft-
farrel-irtf-introduction-to-semantic -routing which you can look
at if you want some context.
We also set out to examine the challenges and concerns
introduced by Semantic Routing in draft-king-irtf-challenges-in-
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routing and I think it would be good if this work was calibrated
against those challenges.
Loa: While semantic routing is intresting, and good be
"calibrated" against MNA as a whole (guiding documents and
solutions), I think it is out of scope for the requirement
document.
Ed.> Agree with Loa's response.
59. Understanding of Use Cases
I would think that a more detailed an understanding of the use
cases is needed before moving ahead with the requirements. I
wouldn't go as far as saying that the use cases need to be
referenced normatively, but I do think they need a little more
attention from the WG to motivate actually adopting this work.
That is, this document shows what we might need to do, but
without the use cases, we would be doing it "because we can" and
"because it might be useful one day." Those are not, I think
really good reasons to make fairly substantial changes to
deployed forwarding paradigms.
This is not to say that I dispute that there may be some
valuable use cases, but that the WG needs to agree which ones
are important in order to be sure that the requirements are on
target.
Ed.> The use cases identify what is currently being discussed
and are driving this activity. The requirements reflect the
current state of the use cases. The use cases are necessary but
not sufficient to fully derive the requirements.
60. Conflicting text in document
I'm puzzled that some of the text in this document appears to
limit itself to cases that require ancillary data, while other
parts also consider the requirements for network functions that
don't require ancillary data, but do still need to be encoded in
the label stack in some way. I suspect this is just editorial,
but while the document title is "Requirements for MPLS Network
Action Indicators and MPLS Ancillary Data" the Abstract says
"This draft specifies requirements for indicators in the MPLS
label stack to support ancillary data in the packet and high
level requirements on that ancillary data," and the Introduction
seems entirely focused on the ancillary data case.
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It would be good to be clear, at the point of adoption, which
way we are jumping on this question.
draft-andersson-mpls-mna-fwk
seems to be fully behind network actions some of which may also
require ancillary data.
Perhaps this document should reference that one for additional
information?
Ed> Updated abstract to focus on network actions. Will check
for inconsistencies in rest of document.
61. Loa: I have been thinking about a short text (1 or 2 paragraphs)
on how the guiding documents fit togehter that should appear,
e.g. in the introduction of all 3 documents. It could be added
later in the process, but should be there when the documents go
to wglc. Let me know if there are someone that will help work
on this,
Ed.> Agreed. Will add to todo list.
Authors' Addresses
Matthew Bocci
Nokia
Email: matthew.bocci@nokia.com
Stewart Bryant
University of Surrey 5GIC
Email: sb@stewartbryant.com
John Drake
Juniper Networks
Email: jdrake@juniper.com
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