Internet Engineering Task Force                          Marc Lasserre
    Internet Draft                                            Florin Balus
    Intended status: Informational                          Alcatel-Lucent
    Expires: January 2014
                                                              Thomas Morin
                                                     France Telecom Orange
    
                                                               Nabil Bitar
                                                                   Verizon
    
                                                             Yakov Rekhter
                                                                   Juniper
    
                                                              July 4, 2013
    
    
    
    
                      Framework for DC Network Virtualization
                         draft-ietf-nvo3-framework-03.txt
    
    
    
    
    
    Status of this Memo
    
       This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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       This Internet-Draft will expire on January 4, 2014.
    
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       Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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       (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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    Abstract
    
       Several IETF drafts relate to the use of overlay networks to support
       large scale virtual data centers. This draft provides a framework
       for Network Virtualization over L3 (NVO3) and is intended to help
       plan a set of work items in order to provide a complete solution
       set. It defines a logical view of the main components with the
       intention of streamlining the terminology and focusing the solution
       set.
    
    
    
    Table of Contents
    
       1. Introduction.................................................3
          1.1. Conventions used in this document.......................3
          1.2. General terminology.....................................4
          1.3. DC network architecture.................................6
       2. Reference Models.............................................8
          2.1. Generic Reference Model.................................8
          2.2. NVE Reference Model....................................11
          2.3. NVE Service Types......................................12
             2.3.1. L2 NVE providing Ethernet LAN-like service........12
             2.3.2. L3 NVE providing IP/VRF-like service..............12
       3. Functional components.......................................12
          3.1. Service Virtualization Components......................12
             3.1.1. Virtual Access Points (VAPs)......................12
             3.1.2. Virtual Network Instance (VNI)....................13
             3.1.3. Overlay Modules and VN Context....................13
             3.1.4. Tunnel Overlays and Encapsulation options.........14
             3.1.5. Control Plane Components..........................14
             3.1.5.1. Distributed vs Centralized Control Plane........14
             3.1.5.2. Auto-provisioning/Service discovery.............15
             3.1.5.3. Address advertisement and tunnel mapping........15
    
    
    
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             3.1.5.4. Overlay Tunneling...............................16
          3.2. Multi-homing...........................................16
          3.3. VM Mobility............................................17
       4. Key aspects of overlay networks.............................18
          4.1. Pros & Cons............................................18
          4.2. Overlay issues to consider.............................19
             4.2.1. Data plane vs Control plane driven................19
             4.2.2. Coordination between data plane and control plane.20
             4.2.3. Handling Broadcast, Unknown Unicast and Multicast (BUM)
             traffic..................................................20
             4.2.4. Path MTU..........................................21
             4.2.5. NVE location trade-offs...........................22
             4.2.6. Interaction between network overlays and underlays.22
       5. Security Considerations.....................................23
       6. IANA Considerations.........................................23
       7. References..................................................23
          7.1. Normative References...................................23
          7.2. Informative References.................................24
       8. Acknowledgments.............................................24
    
    1. Introduction
    
       This document provides a framework for Data Center Network
       Virtualization over Layer3 (L3) tunnels. This framework is intended
       to aid in standardizing protocols and mechanisms to support large-
       scale network virtualization for data centers.
    
       [NVOPS] defines the rationale for using overlay networks in order to
       build large multi-tenant data center networks. Compute, storage and
       network virtualization are often used in these large data centers to
       support a large number of communication domains and end systems.
    
       This document provides reference models and functional components of
       data center overlay networks as well as a discussion of technical
       issues that have to be addressed.
    
    1.1. Conventions used in this document
    
       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].
    
       In this document, these words will appear with that interpretation
       only when in ALL CAPS. Lower case uses of these words are not to be
       interpreted as carrying RFC-2119 significance.
    
    
    
    
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    1.2. General terminology
    
       This document uses the following terminology:
    
       NVO3 Network: An overlay network that provides an Layer2 (L2) or
       Layer3 (L3) service to Tenant Systems over an L3 underlay network,
       using the architecture and protocols as defined by the NVO3 Working
       Group.
    
       Network Virtualization Edge (NVE). An NVE is the network entity that
       sits at the edge of an underlay network and implements L2 and/or L3
       network virtualization functions. The network-facing side of the NVE
       uses the underlying L3 network to tunnel frames to and from other
       NVEs. The tenant-facing side of the NVE sends and receives Ethernet
       frames to and from individual Tenant Systems.  An NVE could be
       implemented as part of a virtual switch within a hypervisor, a
       physical switch or router, a Network Service Appliance, or be split
       across multiple devices.
    
       Virtual Network (VN): A VN is a logical abstraction of a physical
       network that provides L2 or L3 network services to a set of Tenant
       Systems. A VN is also known as a Closed User Group (CUG).
    
       Virtual Network Instance (VNI): A specific instance of a VN.
    
       Virtual Network Context (VN Context) Identifier: Field in overlay
       encapsulation header that identifies the specific VN the packet
       belongs to. The egress NVE uses the VN Context identifier to deliver
       the packet to the correct Tenant System. The VN Context identifier
       can be a locally significant identifier or a globally unique
       identifier.
    
       Underlay or Underlying Network: The network that provides the
       connectivity among NVEs and over which NVO3 packets are tunneled,
       where an NVO3 packet carries an NVO3 overlay header followed by a
       tenant packet. The Underlay Network does not need to be aware that
       it is carrying NVO3 packets. Addresses on the Underlay Network
       appear as "outer addresses" in encapsulated NVO3 packets. In
       general, the Underlay Network can use a completely different
       protocol (and address family) from that of the overlay. In the case
       of NVO3, the underlay network is typically IP.
    
    
       Data Center (DC): A physical complex housing physical servers,
       network switches and routers, network service appliances and
       networked storage. The purpose of a Data Center is to provide
    
    
    
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       application, compute and/or storage services. One such service is
       virtualized infrastructure data center services, also known as
       Infrastructure as a Service.
    
       Virtual Data Center (Virtual DC): A container for virtualized
       compute, storage and network services. A Virtual DC is associated
       with a single tenant, and can contain multiple VNs and Tenant
       Systems connected to one or more of these VNs.
    
       Virtual machine (VM): A software implementation of a physical
       machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical,
       non-virtualized machine.  Applications (generally) do not know they
       are running on a VM as opposed to running on a "bare metal" host or
       server, though some systems provide a para-virtualization
       environment that allows an operating system or application to be
       aware of the presences of virtualization for optimization purposes.
    
       Hypervisor: Software running on a server that allows multiple VMs to
       run on the same physical server. The hypervisor manages and provides
       shared compute/memory/storage and network connectivity to the VMs
       that it hosts. Hypervisors often embed a Virtual Switch (see below).
    
       Server: A physical end host machine that runs user applications. A
       standalone (or "bare metal") server runs a conventional operating
       system hosting a single-tenant application. A virtualized server
       runs a hypervisor supporting one or more VMs.
    
       Virtual Switch (vSwitch): A function within a Hypervisor (typically
       implemented in software) that provides similar forwarding services
       to a physical Ethernet switch. A vSwitch forwards Ethernet frames
       between VMs running on the same server, or between a VM and a
       physical NIC card connecting the server to a physical Ethernet
       switch or router. A vSwitch also enforces network isolation between
       VMs that by policy are not permitted to communicate with each other
       (e.g., by honoring VLANs). A vSwitch may be bypassed when an NVE is
       enabled on the host server.
    
       Tenant: The customer using a virtual network and any associated
       resources (e.g., compute, storage and network).  A tenant could be
       an enterprise, or a department/organization within an enterprise.
    
       Tenant System: A physical or virtual system that can play the role
       of a host, or a forwarding element such as a router, switch,
       firewall, etc. It belongs to a single tenant and connects to one or
       more VNs of that tenant.
    
    
    
    
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       Tenant Separation: Tenant Separation refers to isolating traffic of
       different tenants such that traffic from one tenant is not visible
       to or delivered to another tenant, except when allowed by policy.
       Tenant Separation also refers to address space separation, whereby
       different tenants can use the same address space without conflict.
    
       Virtual Access Points (VAPs): Tenant Systems are connected to VNIs
       through VAPs. VAPs can be physical ports or virtual ports identified
       through logical interface identifiers (e.g., VLAN ID, internal
       vSwitch Interface ID connected to a VM).
    
       End Device: A physical device that connects directly to the DC
       Underlay Network. This is in contrast to a tenant system, which
       connects to a corresponding tenant VN. An End Device is administered
       by the DC operator rather than a tenant, and is part of the DC
       infrastructure. An End Device may implement NVO3 technology in
       support of NVO3 functions. Examples of an End Device include hosts
       (e.g., server or server blade), storage systems (e.g., file servers,
       iSCSI storage systems), and network devices (e.g., firewall, load-
       balancer, IPSec gateway).
    
       Network Virtualization Authority (NVA): Entity that provides
       reachability and forwarding information to NVEs. An NVA is also
       known as a controller.
    
    1.3. DC network architecture
    
       A generic architecture for Data Centers is depicted in Figure 1:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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                                    ,---------.
                                  ,'           `.
                                 (  IP/MPLS WAN )
                                  `.           ,'
                                    `-+------+'
                                     \      /
                              +--------+   +--------+
                              |   DC   |+-+|   DC   |
                              |gateway |+-+|gateway |
                              +--------+   +--------+
                                    |       /
                                    .--. .--.
                                  (    '    '.--.
                                .-.' Intra-DC     '
                               (     network      )
                                (             .'-'
                                 '--'._.'.    )\ \
                                 / /     '--'  \ \
                                / /      | |    \ \
                       +--------+   +--------+   +--------+
                       | access |   | access |   | access |
                       | switch |   | switch |   | switch |
                       +--------+   +--------+   +--------+
                          /     \    /    \     /      \
                       __/_      \  /      \   /_      _\__
                 '--------'   '--------'   '--------'   '--------'
                 :  End   :   :  End   :   :  End   :   :  End   :
                 : Device :   : Device :   : Device :   : Device :
                 '--------'   '--------'   '--------'   '--------'
    
                 Figure 1 : A Generic Architecture for Data Centers
    
       An example of multi-tier DC network architecture is presented in
       Figure 1. It provides a view of physical components inside a DC.
    
       A DC network is usually composed of intra-DC networks and network
       services, and inter-DC network and network connectivity services.
       Depending upon the scale, DC distribution, operations model, Capital
       expenditure (Capex) and Operational expenditure (Opex) aspects, DC
       networking elements can act as strict L2 switches and/or provide IP
       routing capabilities, including network service virtualization.
    
       In some DC architectures, some tier layers could provide L2 and/or
       L3 services. In addition, some tier layers may be collapsed, and
       Internet connectivity, inter-DC connectivity and VPN support may be
       handled by a smaller number of nodes. Nevertheless, one can assume
    
    
    
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       that the network functional blocks in a DC fit in the architecture
       depicted in Figure 1.
    
       The following components can be present in a DC:
    
          o Access switch: Hardware-based Ethernet switch aggregating all
            Ethernet links from the End Devices in a rack representing the
            entry point in the physical DC network for the hosts. It may
            also provide routing functionality, virtual IP network
            connectivity, or Layer2 tunneling over IP for instance. Access
            swicthes are usually multi-homed to aggregation switches in the
            Intra-DC network. A typical example of an access switch is a
            Top of Rack (ToR) switch. Other deployment scenarios may use an
            intermediate Blade Switch before the ToR, or an EoR (End of
            Row) switch, to provide similar function as a ToR.
    
          o Intra-DC Network: Network composed of high capacity core nodes
            (Ethernet switches/routers). Core nodes may provide virtual
            Ethernet bridging and/or IP routing services.
    
          o DC Gateway (DC GW): Gateway to the outside world providing DC
            Interconnect and connectivity to Internet and VPN customers. In
            the current DC network model, this may be simply a router
            connected to the Internet and/or an IP Virtual Private Network
            (VPN)/L2VPN PE. Some network implementations may dedicate DC
            GWs for different connectivity types (e.g., a DC GW for
            Internet, and another for VPN).
    
       Note that End Devices may be single or multi-homed to access
       switches.
    
    2. Reference Models
    
    2.1. Generic Reference Model
    
       Figure 2 depicts a DC reference model for network virtualization
       using L3 (IP/MPLS) overlays where NVEs provide a logical
       interconnect between Tenant Systems that belong to a specific VN.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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             +--------+                                    +--------+
             | Tenant +--+                            +----| Tenant |
             | System |  |                           (')   | System |
             +--------+  |    .................     (   )  +--------+
                         |  +---+           +---+    (_)
                         +--|NVE|---+   +---|NVE|-----+
                            +---+   |   |   +---+
                            / .    +-----+      .
                           /  . +--| NVA |      .
                          /   . |  +-----+      .
                         |    . |               .
                         |    . |  L3 Overlay +--+--++--------+
             +--------+  |    . |   Network   | NVE || Tenant |
             | Tenant +--+    . |             |     || System |
             | System |       .  \ +---+      +--+--++--------+
             +--------+       .....|NVE|.........
                                   +---+
                                     |
                                     |
                           =====================
                             |               |
                         +--------+      +--------+
                         | Tenant |      | Tenant |
                         | System |      | System |
                         +--------+      +--------+
    
          Figure 2 : Generic reference model for DC network virtualization
                         over a Layer3 (IP) infrastructure
    
    
    
       In order to get reachability information, NVEs may exchange
       information directly between themselves via a protocol. In this
       case, a control plane module resides in every NVE. This is how
       routing control plane modules are implemented in routers for
       instance.
    
    
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       It is also possible for NVEs to communicate with an external Network
       Virtualization Authority (NVA) to obtain reachability and forwarding
       information. In this case, a protocol is used between NVEs and
       NVA(s) to exchange information. OpenFlow [OF] is one example of such
       a protocol.
    
       It should be noted that NVAs may be organized in clusters for
       redundancy and scalability and can appear as one logically
       centralized controller. In this case, inter-NVA communication is
       necessary to synchronize state among nodes within a cluster or share
       information across clusters. The information exchanged between NVAs
       of the same cluster could be different from the information
       exchanged across clusters.
    
       A Tenant System can be attached to an NVE in several ways:
    
         - locally, by being co-located in the same End Device
    
         - remotely, via a point-to-point connection or a switched network
    
       When an NVE is co-located with a Tenant System, the state of the
       Tenant System can be provided without protocol assistance. For
       instance, the operational status of a VM can be communicated via a
       local API. When an NVE is remotely connected to a tenant system, the
       state of the Tenant System or NVE needs to be exchanged directly or
       via a management entity, using a control plane protocol or API, or
       directly via a dataplane protocol.
    
       The functional components in Figure 2 do not necessarily map
       directly to the physical components described in Figure 1. For
       example, an End Device can be a server blade with VMs and a virtual
       switch. A VM can be a Tenant System and the NVE functions may be
       performed by the host server. In this case, the Tenant System and
       NVE function are co-located.
    
       Another example is the case where the End Device is the tenant
       System, and the NVE function can be implemented by the connected
       ToR.
    
       The NVE implements network virtualization functions that allow for
       L2 and/or L3 tenant separation.
    
       Underlay nodes utilize L3 technologies to interconnect NVE nodes.
       These nodes perform forwarding based on outer L3 header information,
       and generally do not maintain per tenant-service state albeit some
       applications (e.g., multicast) may require control plane or
    
    
    
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       forwarding plane information that pertain to a tenant, group of
       tenants, tenant service or a set of services that belong to one or
       more tenants. When such tenant or tenant-service related information
       is maintained in the underlay, mechanisms to control that
       information should be provided.
    
    2.2. NVE Reference Model
    
       Figure 3 depicts the NVE reference model. One or more VNIs can be
       instantiated on an NVE. A Tenant System interfaces with a
       corresponding VNI via a VAP. An overlay module provides tunneling
       overlay functions (e.g., encapsulation and decapsulation of tenant
       traffic, tenant identification and mapping, etc.).
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
                         +-------- L3 Network -------+
                         |                           |
                         |        Tunnel Overlay     |
             +------------+---------+       +---------+------------+
             | +----------+-------+ |       | +---------+--------+ |
             | |  Overlay Module  | |       | |  Overlay Module  | |
             | +---------+--------+ |       | +---------+--------+ |
             |           |VN context|       | VN context|          |
             |           |          |       |           |          |
             |  +--------+-------+  |       |  +--------+-------+  |
             |  | |VNI|   .  |VNI|  |       |  | |VNI|   .  |VNI|  |
        NVE1 |  +-+------------+-+  |       |  +-+-----------+--+  | NVE2
             |    |   VAPs     |    |       |    |    VAPs   |     |
             +----+------------+----+       +----+-----------+-----+
                  |            |                 |           |
                  |            |                 |           |
                 Tenant Systems                 Tenant Systems
    
                      Figure 3 : Generic NVE reference model
    
       Note that some NVE functions (e.g., data plane and control plane
       functions) may reside in one device or may be implemented separately
       in different devices. In addition, NVE functions can be implemented
    
    
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       in a hierarchical fashion. For instance, an End Device can act as an
       NVE Spoke, while an access switch can act as an NVE hub.
    
    2.3. NVE Service Types
    
       NVE components may be used to provide different types of virtualized
       network services. This section defines the service types and
       associated attributes. Note that an NVE may be capable of providing
       both L2 and L3 services.
    
    2.3.1. L2 NVE providing Ethernet LAN-like service
    
       L2 NVE implements Ethernet LAN emulation, an Ethernet based
       multipoint service similar to an IETF VPLS or EVPN service, where
       the Tenant Systems appear to be interconnected by a LAN environment
       over an L3 overlay. As such, an L2 NVE provides per-tenant virtual
       switching instance (L2 VNI), and L3 (IP/MPLS) tunneling
       encapsulation of tenant MAC frames across the underlay. Note that
       the control plane for an L2 NVE could be implemented locally on the
       NVE or in a separate control entity.
    
    2.3.2. L3 NVE providing IP/VRF-like service
    
       L3 NVE provides Virtualized IP forwarding service, similar from a
       service definition perspective to IETF IP VPN (e.g., BGP/MPLS IPVPN
       [RFC4364]). That is, an L3 NVE provides per-tenant forwarding and
       routing instance (L3 VNI), and L3 (IP/MPLS) tunneling encapsulation
       of tenant IP packets across the underlay. Note that routing could be
       performed locally on the NVE or in a separate control entity.
    
    3. Functional components
    
       This section decomposes the Network Virtualization architecture into
       functional components described in Figure 3 to make it easier to
       discuss solution options for these components.
    
    3.1. Service Virtualization Components
    
    3.1.1. Virtual Access Points (VAPs)
    
       Tenant Systems are connected to VNIs through Virtual Access Points
       (VAPs).
    
       VAPs can be physical ports or virtual ports identified through
       logical interface identifiers (e.g., VLAN ID, internal vSwitch
       Interface ID connected to a VM).
    
    
    
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    3.1.2. Virtual Network Instance (VNI)
    
       A VNI is a specific VN instance on a NVE. Each VNI defines a
       forwarding context that contains reachability information and
       policies.
    
    3.1.3. Overlay Modules and VN Context
    
       Mechanisms for identifying each tenant service are required to allow
       the simultaneous overlay of multiple tenant services over the same
       underlay L3 network topology. In the data plane, each NVE, upon
       sending a tenant packet, must be able to encode the VN Context for
       the destination NVE in addition to the L3 tunneling information
       (e.g., source IP address identifying the source NVE and the
       destination IP address identifying the destination NVE, or MPLS
       label). This allows the destination NVE to identify the tenant
       service instance and therefore appropriately process and forward the
       tenant packet.
    
       The Overlay module provides tunneling overlay functions: tunnel
       initiation/termination as in the case of stateful tunnels (see
       Section 3.1.4), and/or simply encapsulation/decapsulation of frames
       from VAPs/L3 underlay.
    
       In a multi-tenant context, tunneling aggregates frames from/to
       different VNIs. Tenant identification and traffic demultiplexing are
       based on the VN Context identifier.
    
       The following approaches can be considered:
    
          o One VN Context identifier per Tenant: A globally unique (on a
            per-DC administrative domain) VN identifier is used to identify
            the corresponding VNI. Examples of such identifiers in existing
            technologies are IEEE VLAN IDs and ISID tags that identify
            virtual L2 domains when using IEEE 802.1aq and IEEE 802.1ah,
            respectively.
    
          o One VN Context identifier per VNI: A per-VNI local value is
            automatically generated by the egress NVE, or a control plane
            associated with that NVE, and usually distributed by a control
            plane protocol to all the related NVEs. An example of this
            approach is the use of per VRF MPLS labels in IP VPN [RFC4364].
    
          o One VN Context identifier per VAP: A per-VAP local value is
            assigned and usually distributed by a control plane protocol.
    
    
    
    
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            An example of this approach is the use of per CE-PE MPLS labels
            in IP VPN [RFC4364].
    
       Note that when using one VN Context per VNI or per VAP, an
       additional global identifier (e.g., a VN identifier or name) may be
       used by the control plane to identify the Tenant context.
    
    3.1.4. Tunnel Overlays and Encapsulation options
    
       Once the VN context identifier is added to the frame, a L3 Tunnel
       encapsulation is used to transport the frame to the destination NVE.
       The underlay devices do not usually keep any per service state,
       simply forwarding the frames based on the outer tunnel header.
    
       Different IP tunneling options (e.g., GRE, L2TP, IPSec) and MPLS
       tunneling can be used. Tunneling could be stateless or stateful.
       Stateless tunneling simply entails the encapsulation of a tenant
       packet with another header necessary for forwarding the packet
       across the underlay (e.g., IP tunneling over an IP underlay.
       Stateful tunneling on the other hand entails maintaining tunneling
       state at the tunnel endpoints (i.e., NVEs). Tenant packets on an
       ingress NVE can then be transmitted over such tunnels to a
       destination (egress) NVE by encapsulating the packets with a
       corresponding tunneling header. The tunneling state at the endpoints
       may be configured or dynamically established. Solutions SHOULD
       specify the tunneling technology used, whether it is stateful or
       stateless. In this document, however, tunneling and tunneling
       encapsulation are used interchangeably to simply mean the
       encapsulation of a tenant packet with a tunneling header necessary
       to deliver the packet between an ingress NVE and an egress NVE
       across the underlay. It should be noted that stateful tunneling,
       especially when configuration is involved, does impose management
       overhead and scale constraints. Thus, stateless tunneling is
       preferred when feasible.
    
    3.1.5. Control Plane Components
    
    3.1.5.1. Distributed vs Centralized Control Plane
    
       A control/management plane entity can be centralized or distributed.
       Both approaches have been used extensively in the past. The routing
       model of the Internet is a good example of a distributed approach.
       Transport networks have usually used a centralized approach to
       manage transport paths.
    
    
    
    
    
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       It is also possible to combine the two approaches, i.e., using a
       hybrid model. A global view of network state can have many benefits
       but it does not preclude the use of distributed protocols within the
       network. Centralized models provide a facility to maintain global
       state, and distribute that state to the network. When used in
       combination with distributed protocols, greater network
       efficiencies, improved reliability and robustness can be achieved.
       Domain and/or deployment specific constraints define the balance
       between centralized and distributed approaches.
    
    3.1.5.2. Auto-provisioning/Service discovery
    
       NVEs must be able to identify the appropriate VNI for each Tenant
       System. This is based on state information that is often provided by
       external entities. For example, in an environment where a VM is a
       Tenant System, this information is provided by VM orchestration
       systems, since these are the only entities that have visibility of
       which VM belongs to which tenant.
    
       A mechanism for communicating this information to the NVE is
       required. VAPs have to be created and mapped to the appropriate VNI.
       Depending upon the implementation, this control interface can be
       implemented using an auto-discovery protocol between Tenant Systems
       and their local NVE or through management entities. In either case,
       appropriate security and authentication mechanisms to verify that
       Tenant System information is not spoofed or altered are required.
       This is one critical aspect for providing integrity and tenant
       isolation in the system.
    
       NVEs may learn reachability information to VNIs on other NVEs via a
       control protocol exchanging such information among NVEs or via a
       management control entity.
    
    3.1.5.3. Address advertisement and tunnel mapping
    
       As traffic reaches an ingress NVE on a VAP, a lookup is performed to
       determine which NVE or local VAP the packet needs to be sent to. If
       the packet is to be sent to another NVE, the packet is encapsulated
       with a tunnel header containing the destination information
       (destination IP address or MPLS label) of the egress NVE.
       Intermediate nodes (between the ingress and egress NVEs) switch or
       route traffic based upon the tunnel destination information.
    
       A key step in the above process consists of identifying the
       destination NVE the packet is to be tunneled to. NVEs are
       responsible for maintaining a set of forwarding or mapping tables
    
    
    
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       that hold the bindings between destination VM and egress NVE
       addresses. Several ways of populating these tables are possible:
       control plane driven, management plane driven, or data plane driven.
    
       When a control plane protocol is used to distribute address
       reachability and tunneling information, the auto-
       provisioning/Service discovery could be accomplished by the same
       protocol. In this scenario, the auto-provisioning/Service discovery
       could be combined with (be inferred from) the address advertisement
       and associated tunnel mapping. Furthermore, a control plane protocol
       that carries both MAC and IP addresses eliminates the need for ARP,
       and hence addresses one of the issues with explosive ARP handling.
    
    3.1.5.4. Overlay Tunneling
    
       For overlay tunneling, and dependent upon the tunneling technology
       used for encapsulating the tenant system packets, it may be
       sufficient to have one or more local NVE addresses assigned and used
       in the source and destination fields of a tunneling encapsulating
       header. Other information that is part of the
       tunneling encapsulation header may also need to be configured. In
       certain cases, local NVE configuration may be sufficient while in
       other cases, some tunneling related information may need to
       be shared among NVEs. The information that needs to be shared will
       be technology dependent. This includes the discovery and
       announcement of the tunneling technology used. In certain cases,
       such as when using IP multicast in the underlay, tunnels may need to
       be established, interconnecting NVEs. When tunneling information
       needs to be exchanged or shared among NVEs, a control plane protocol
       may be required. For instance, it may be necessary to provide
       active/standby status information between NVEs, up/down status
       information, pruning/grafting information for multicast tunnels,
       etc.
    
       In addition, a control plane may be required to setup the tunnel
       path for some tunneling technologies. This applies to both unicast
       and multicast tunneling.
    
    3.2. Multi-homing
    
       Multi-homing techniques can be used to increase the reliability of
       an nvo3 network. It is also important to ensure that physical
       diversity in an nvo3 network is taken into account to avoid single
       points of failure.
    
    
    
    
    
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       Multi-homing can be enabled in various nodes, from tenant systems
       into TORs, TORs into core switches/routers, and core nodes into DC
       GWs.
    
       The nvo3 underlay nodes (i.e. from NVEs to DC GWs) rely on IP
       routing as the means to re-route traffic upon failures techniques or
       on MPLS re-rerouting capabilities.
    
       When a tenant system is co-located with the NVE, the Tenant System
       is single homed to the NVE via a virtual port. When the Tenant
       System and the NVE are separated, the Tenant System is connected to
       the NVE via a logical Layer2 (L2) construct such as a VLAN and it
       can be multi-homed to various NVEs. An NVE may provide an L2 service
       to the end system or an l3 service. An NVE may be multi-homed to a
       next layer in the DC at Layer2 (L2) or Layer3 (L3). When an NVE
       provides an L2 service and is not co-located with the end
       system, techniques such as Ethernet Link Aggregation Group (LAG) or
       Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) can be used to switch traffic
       between an end system and connected NVEs without creating
       loops. Similarly, when the NVE provides L3 service, similar dual-
       homing techniques can be used. When the NVE provides a L3 service to
       the end system, it is possible that no dynamic routing protocol is
       enabled between the end system and the NVE. The end system can be
       multi-homed to multiple physically-separated L3 NVEs over multiple
       interfaces. When one of the links connected to an NVE fails, the
       other interfaces can be used to reach the end system.
    
       External connectivity out of a DC can be handled by two or more DC
       gateways. Each gateway provides access to external networks such as
       VPNs or the Internet. A gateway may be connected to two or more edge
       nodes in the external network for redundancy. When a connection to
       an upstream node is lost, the alternative connection is used and the
       failed route withdrawn.
    
    3.3. VM Mobility
    
       In DC environments utilizing VM technologies, an important feature
       is that VMs can move from one server to another server in the same
       or different L2 physical domains (within or across DCs) in a
       seamless manner.
    
       A VM can be moved from one server to another in stopped or suspended
       state ("cold" VM mobility) or in running/active state ("hot" VM
       mobility). With "hot" mobility, VM L2 and L3 addresses need to be
       preserved. With "cold" mobility, it may be desired to preserve at
       least VM L3 addresses.
    
    
    
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       Solutions to maintain connectivity while a VM is moved are necessary
       in the case of "hot" mobility. This implies that transport
       connections among VMs are preserved. For instance, for L2 VNs, ARP
       caches are updated accordingly.
    
       Upon VM mobility, NVE policies that define connectivity among VMs
       must be maintained.
    
       Optimal routing during VM mobility is also an important aspect to
       address. It is expected that the VM's default gateway be as close as
       possible to the server hosting the VM.
    
    4. Key aspects of overlay networks
    
       The intent of this section is to highlight specific issues that
       proposed overlay solutions need to address.
    
    4.1. Pros & Cons
    
       An overlay network is a layer of virtual network topology on top of
       the physical network.
    
       Overlay networks offer the following key advantages:
    
          o Unicast tunneling state management and association of Tenant
            Systems reachability are handled at the edge of the network (at
            the NVE). Intermediate transport nodes are unaware of such
            state. Note that when multicast is enabled in the underlay
            network to build multicast trees for tenant VNs, there would be
            more state related to tenants in the underlay core network.
    
          o Tunneling is used to aggregate traffic and hide tenant
            addresses from the underlay network, and hence offer the
            advantage of minimizing the amount of forwarding state required
            within the underlay network
    
          o Decoupling of the overlay addresses (MAC and IP) used by VMs
            from the underlay network for tenant separation and separation
            of the tenant address spaces and the underlay address space.
    
          o Support of a large number of virtual network identifiers
    
       Overlay networks also create several challenges:
    
          o Overlay networks have no controls of underlay networks and lack
            critical underlay network information
    
    
    
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               o Overlay networks and/or their associated management
                 entities typically probe the network to measure link or
                 path properties, such as available bandwidth or packet
                 loss rate. It is difficult to accurately evaluate network
                 properties. It might be preferable for the underlay
                 network to expose usage and performance information.
    
          o Miscommunication or lack of coordination between overlay and
            underlay networks can lead to an inefficient usage of network
            resources.
    
          o When multiple overlays co-exist on top of a common underlay
            network, the lack of coordination between overlays can lead to
            performance issues and/or resource usage inefficiencies.
    
          o Traffic carried over an overlay may not traverse firewalls and
            NAT devices.
    
          o Multicast service scalability: Multicast support may be
            required in the underlay network to address tenant flood
            containment or efficient multicast handling. The underlay may
            also be required to maintain multicast state on a per-tenant
            basis, or even on a per-individual multicast flow of a given
            tenant. Ingress replication at the NVE eliminates that
            additional multicast state in the underlay core, but depending
            on the multicast traffic volume, it may cause inefficient use
            of bandwidth.
    
          o Hash-based load balancing may not be optimal as the hash
            algorithm may not work well due to the limited number of
            combinations of tunnel source and destination addresses. Other
            NVO3 mechanisms may use additional entropy information than
            source and destination addresses.
    
    4.2. Overlay issues to consider
    
    4.2.1. Data plane vs Control plane driven
    
       In the case of an L2 NVE, it is possible to dynamically learn MAC
       addresses against VAPs. It is also possible that such addresses be
       known and controlled via management or a control protocol for both
       L2 NVEs and L3 NVEs. Dynamic data plane learning implies that
       flooding of unknown destinations be supported and hence implies that
       broadcast and/or multicast be supported or that ingress replication
       be used as described in section 4.2.3. Multicasting in the underlay
       network for dynamic learning may lead to significant scalability
    
    
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       limitations. Specific forwarding rules must be enforced to prevent
       loops from happening. This can be achieved using a spanning tree, a
       shortest path tree, or a split-horizon mesh.
    
       It should be noted that the amount of state to be distributed is
       dependent upon network topology and the number of virtual machines.
       Different forms of caching can also be utilized to minimize state
       distribution between the various elements. The control plane should
       not require an NVE to maintain the locations of all the tenant
       systems whose VNs are not present on the NVE. The use of a control
       plane does not imply that the data plane on NVEs has to maintain all
       the forwarding state in the control plane.
    
    4.2.2. Coordination between data plane and control plane
    
       For an L2 NVE, the NVE needs to be able to determine MAC addresses
       of the Tenant Systems connected via a VAP. This can be achieved via
       dataplane learning or a control plane. For an L3 NVE, the NVE needs
       to be able to determine IP addresses of the Tenant Systems connected
       via a VAP.
    
       In both cases, coordination with the NVE control protocol is needed
       such that when the NVE determines that the set of addresses behind a
       VAP has changed, it triggers the NVE control plane to distribute
       this information to its peers.
    
    
    
    4.2.3. Handling Broadcast, Unknown Unicast and Multicast (BUM) traffic
    
       There are several options to support packet replication needed for
       broadcast, unknown unicast and multicast.  Typical methods include:
    
          o Ingress replication
    
          o Use of underlay multicast trees
    
       There is a bandwidth vs state trade-off between the two approaches.
       Depending upon the degree of replication required (i.e. the number
       of hosts per group) and the amount of multicast state to maintain,
       trading bandwidth for state should be considered.
    
       When the number of hosts per group is large, the use of underlay
       multicast trees may be more appropriate. When the number of hosts is
       small (e.g. 2-3) and/or the amount of multicast traffic is small,
       ingress replication may not be an issue.
    
    
    
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       Depending upon the size of the data center network and hence the
       number of (S,G) entries, but also the duration of multicast flows,
       the use of underlay multicast trees can be a challenge.
    
       When flows are well known, it is possible to pre-provision such
       multicast trees. However, it is often difficult to predict
       application flows ahead of time, and hence programming of (S,G)
       entries for short-lived flows could be impractical.
    
       A possible trade-off is to use in the underlay shared multicast
       trees as opposed to dedicated multicast trees.
    
    4.2.4. Path MTU
    
       When using overlay tunneling, an outer header is added to the
       original frame. This can cause the MTU of the path to the egress
       tunnel endpoint to be exceeded.
    
       In this section, we will only consider the case of an IP overlay.
    
       It is usually not desirable to rely on IP fragmentation for
       performance reasons. Ideally, the interface MTU as seen by a Tenant
       System is adjusted such that no fragmentation is needed. TCP will
       adjust its maximum segment size accordingly.
    
       It is possible for the MTU to be configured manually or to be
       discovered dynamically. Various Path MTU discovery techniques exist
       in order to determine the proper MTU size to use:
    
          o Classical ICMP-based MTU Path Discovery [RFC1191] [RFC1981]
    
               o
                Tenant Systems rely on ICMP messages to discover the MTU of
                 the end-to-end path to its destination. This method is not
                 always possible, such as when traversing middle boxes
                 (e.g. firewalls) which disable ICMP for security reasons
    
          o Extended MTU Path Discovery techniques such as defined in
            [RFC4821]
    
       It is also possible to rely on the NVE to perform segmentation and
       reassembly operations without relying on the Tenant Systems to know
       about the end-to-end MTU. The assumption is that some hardware
       assist is available on the NVE node to perform such SAR operations.
       However, fragmentation by the NVE can lead to performance and
       congestion issues due to TCP dynamics and might require new
       congestion avoidance mechanisms from the underlay network [FLOYD].
    
    
    
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       Finally, the underlay network may be designed in such a way that the
       MTU can accommodate the extra tunneling and possibly additional nvo3
       header encapsulation overhead.
    
    4.2.5. NVE location trade-offs
    
       In the case of DC traffic, traffic originated from a VM is native
       Ethernet traffic. This traffic can be switched by a local virtual
       switch or ToR switch and then by a DC gateway. The NVE function can
       be embedded within any of these elements.
    
       There are several criteria to consider when deciding where the NVE
       function should happen:
    
          o Processing and memory requirements
    
              o Datapath (e.g. lookups, filtering,
                 encapsulation/decapsulation)
    
              o Control plane processing (e.g. routing, signaling, OAM) and
                 where specific control plane functions should be enabled
    
          o FIB/RIB size
    
          o Multicast support
    
              o Routing/signaling protocols
    
              o Packet replication capability
    
              o Multicast FIB
    
          o Fragmentation support
    
          o QoS support (e.g. marking, policing, queuing)
    
          o Resiliency
    
    4.2.6. Interaction between network overlays and underlays
    
       When multiple overlays co-exist on top of a common underlay network,
       resources (e.g., bandwidth) should be provisioned to ensure that
       traffic from overlays can be accommodated and QoS objectives can be
       met. Overlays can have partially overlapping paths (nodes and
       links).
    
    
    
    
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       Each overlay is selfish by nature. It sends traffic so as to
       optimize its own performance without considering the impact on other
       overlays, unless the underlay paths are traffic engineered on a per
       overlay basis to avoid congestion of underlay resources.
    
       Better visibility between overlays and underlays, or generally
       coordination in placing overlay demand on an underlay network, can
       be achieved by providing mechanisms to exchange performance and
       liveliness information between the underlay and overlay(s) or the
       use of such information by a coordination system. Such information
       may include:
    
          o Performance metrics (throughput, delay, loss, jitter)
    
          o Cost metrics
    
    5. Security Considerations
    
       Nvo3 solutions must at least consider and address the following:
    
          . Secure and authenticated communication between an NVE and an
            NVE management system and/or control system.
    
          . Isolation between tenant overlay networks. The use of per-
            tenant FIB tables (VNIs) on an NVE is essential.
    
          . Security of any protocol used to carry overlay network
            information.
    
          . Avoiding packets from reaching the wrong NVI, especially during
            VM moves.
    
    6. IANA Considerations
    
       IANA does not need to take any action for this draft.
    
    7. References
    
    7.1. Normative References
    
       [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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    7.2. Informative References
    
       [NVOPS] Narten, T. et al, "Problem Statement : Overlays for Network
                 Virtualization", draft-narten-nvo3-overlay-problem-
                 statement (work in progress)
    
       [OVCPREQ] Kreeger, L. et al, "Network Virtualization Overlay Control
                 Protocol Requirements", draft-kreeger-nvo3-overlay-cp
                 (work in progress)
    
       [FLOYD] Sally Floyd, Allyn Romanow, "Dynamics of TCP Traffic over
                 ATM Networks", IEEE JSAC, V. 13 N. 4, May 1995
    
       [RFC4364] Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private
                 Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, February 2006.
    
       [RFC1191] Mogul, J. "Path MTU Discovery", RFC1191, November 1990
    
       [RFC1981] McCann, J. et al, "Path MTU Discovery for IPv6", RFC1981,
                 August 1996
    
       [RFC4821] Mathis, M. et al, "Packetization Layer Path MTU
                 Discovery", RFC4821, March 2007
    
    
    
    8. Acknowledgments
    
       In addition to the authors the following people have contributed to
       this document:
    
       Dimitrios Stiliadis, Rotem Salomonovitch, Alcatel-Lucent
    
       Lucy Yong, Huawei
    
       This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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    Authors' Addresses
    
       Marc Lasserre
       Alcatel-Lucent
       Email: marc.lasserre@alcatel-lucent.com
    
       Florin Balus
       Alcatel-Lucent
       777 E. Middlefield Road
       Mountain View, CA, USA 94043
       Email: florin.balus@alcatel-lucent.com
    
       Thomas Morin
       France Telecom Orange
       Email: thomas.morin@orange.com
    
       Nabil Bitar
       Verizon
       40 Sylvan Road
       Waltham, MA 02145
       Email: nabil.bitar@verizon.com
    
       Yakov Rekhter
       Juniper
       Email: yakov@juniper.net
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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