RMT Working Group     Generic Router Assist (GRA)              Brad Cain
INTERNET-DRAFT     for Multicast Transport Protocols              Nortel
                                                           Tony Speakman
Expires September 2000                                             cisco
                                                             Don Towsley
                                                                   UMASS

                                                              March 2000


               Generic Router Assist (GRA) Building Block
                      Motivation and Architecture
                    <draft-ietf-rmt-gra-arch-01.txt>


   Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

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   Abstract

   Generic Router Assist (GRA) is a network-based service that enables
   end-to-end multicast transport protocols to take advantage of infor-
   mation distributed across the network elements in a given multicast
   distribution tree.  The service consists of a canonical set of simple
   functions which network elements may apply to selected packets in the
   transport session as they traverse the distribution tree.  The choice
   of function and the packet parameters to which it is applied can be
   defined and customized for a given transport session in a highly con-
   trolled fashion that still permits enough flexibility for GRA to be
   used to address a wide range of multicast transport problems not



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   amenable to end-to-end solution.  This document provides the motiva-
   tion and an architecture for GRA.

















































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                             Table of Contents


   1.  Introduction ...............................................    4
   2.  Scope of Generic Router Assist .............................    6
   3.  Canonical Services and Functional Models/Examples ..........   11
   4.  Implementation Considerations ..............................   17
   Abbreviations ..................................................   19
   References .....................................................   20
   Revision History ...............................................   21
   Authors' Addresses .............................................   21








































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   1.  Introduction

   The development of scalable end-to-end multicast protocols poses a
   tremendous challenge to network protocol designers. For example the
   development of reliable multicast protocols has received considerable
   attention in recent years. Most protocols are based on an end-to-end
   solution [SRM, RMTP, TKP] and have found the problem of scaling to
   1000s or even 100s of receivers daunting. The primary obstacles to
   the development of scalable protocols have been "feedback implosion"
   and "transmission isolation". The first of these concerns the diffi-
   culty of a large multicast application to limit feedback from
   receivers to a data source or to each other. The second concerns the
   difficulty of limiting the transmission of data to the subset of a
   multicast group that requires it.

   Several proposals have been made to add functionality to routers for
   the purpose of improving the performance of multicast applications,
   particularly reliable multicast. Papadopoulos and Parulkar [LSM]
   introduced additional forwarding functionality to a router which
   would allow each router to identify a ``special outgoing interface''
   over which to transmit a particular class of packets. They showed how
   this ``turning point functionality'' could be used to improve the
   performance of reliable multicast protocols. Levine and Garcia-Luna-
   Aceves [LABEL] proposed the addition of ``routing labels'' to routing
   tables which could be used to direct packets over specific inter-
   faces. One of these, called a distance label, was shown to be quite
   useful in reliable multicast for directing requests for repairs to
   nearby repair servers. The third and, perhaps most relevant proposal
   is the PGM protocol [PGM]. Briefly, PGM is a reliable multicast pro-
   tocol which uses negative acknowledgements (NAKs). The PGM protocol
   is an end-to-end transport protocol that contains a router component
   which performs NAK suppression and retransmission subcasting func-
   tionality. This proposal, like others [GMTS, BFS], is primarily
   motivated by PGM and the recognition of the benefits of exporting a
   set of flexible, simple router-based functionality for the purpose of
   multicast protocol design. Such functionality can significantly sim-
   plify the design of a large class of scalable multicast transport
   protocols.

   In this draft, we present Generic Router Assist (GRA) functionality
   intended to help protocol designers deal with the two problems of
   feedback implosion and transmission isolation. This functionality is
   designed to assist in the scaling of receiver feedback information
   and in providing subcasting for large multicast groups. It consists
   of simple filtering and aggregation functions that reside within
   routers.

   Signaling protocols are used by hosts to set up and invoke this



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   functionality. Briefly, a data source first initializes one or more
   desired services on its multicast tree using GRA setup messages.  The
   GRA-capable routers on the tree then aggregate feedback from
   receivers and/or isolate transmissions through the use of filters set
   by either the sender or the receivers. For robustness, periodic
   transmissions of setup messages on the multicast tree are used to
   refresh GRA state in the face of routing changes and other possible
   errors. It should be stressed that GRA services are only invoked for
   certain packets; data packets are usually not treated any differently
   and will not cause any additional processing in routers.

   GRA is not intended to provide sophisticated services which are dif-
   ficult or impossible to implement in routers.  GRA functionality is
   implemented at the IP layer and provides unreliable ``best-effort''
   services.  Transport protocols which make use of GRA must be robust
   in the face of failures and the absence of GRA-capable routers in the
   network.

   Before describing the details of GRA, we present a simple example in
   the context of a PGM-like reliable multicast protocol.

   Consider a NAK-based reliable multicast protocol which places the
   responsibility of packet loss detection on each receiver.  Each time
   that a receiver detects a loss (based on a gap in the sequence
   numbers of the packets that it receives), it unicasts a request for a
   repair (NAK) to the sender. Upon receipt of a NAK for a specific
   packet, the sender retransmits the packet to all receivers.

   This protocol faces considerable challenges in dealing with multiple
   NAKs for the same packet. First, there is the problem of the sender
   having to process many NAKs. Second, there is the problem of limiting
   the number of retransmissions to the same packet. GRA can be used to
   (partially) solve these two problems. Prior to the transfer of any
   data, the application sets up a NAK aggregation filter at each GRA-
   capable router using a setup message. This filter  is set up to
   suppress NAKs generated for the same packet. In addition, the router
   maintains information regarding the interfaces over which it has
   received NAKs so that it can subcast the retransmission on the por-
   tion of the multicast tree that contains receivers requiring a
   retransmission of the packet.

   In Figure 1, we show how GRA can be used to aggregate feedback infor-
   mation in a reliable multicast transport protocol. In this figure, a
   multicast source (Src 1) transmits to two receivers (Rec 1 and Rec
   2). The data packets from Src 1 are treated as regular multicast
   packets and forwarded accordingly. On the link between router R1 and
   router R2, a data packet is lost. Assuming a NAK based reliable mul-
   ticast protocol, this loss causes the receivers to each send a NAK to



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   the source for the packet that was lost. In the example, receivers
   invoke GRA to send the NAKs to the source.  Router R2 treats these
   NAKs in a special manner, removing the redundant NAKs to the source.
   Therefore, only one NAK arrives at the source. We see from this exam-
   ple that only certain types of packets require additional processing
   at GRA routers and that the majority of end-to-end packets are for-
   warded according to normal multicast forwarding rules (i.e. without
   additional router processing).



                                          Src 1
                                          ^ | |
                                          | | | data packet
                                          | | |
                                           R1 |
                                          ^ | |
                                          | | V
                          R2 suppresses   | | X data packet dropped
                          duplicate  +--->R2 <---+
                          NAK        |  ---  ---  |
                                     | |        | |
                                     | |        | |
                                     | |        | |
                                      R3        R4
                                GRA  ^ |        | ^  GRA
                                NAK  | |        | |  NAK
                                     | |        | |
                                    Rec 1     Rec 2

       Figure 1. Example of network support for transport protocols.

   We conclude the introduction by commenting on the relationship of GRA
   to the multicast routing algorithm. GRA works on all types of multi-
   cast forwarding trees.  However, GRA state is per session state and
   requires per session state in routers. If a source-based tree routing
   protocol is used to forward multicast packets, then this per session
   state will already exist in routers in the form of multicast forward-
   ing entries. If a shared tree type multicast routing protocol is
   being used, then GRA per session state must be maintained on the
   shared tree. This is simply because GRA provides per session func-
   tionality.

   2.  Scope of Generic Router Assist

   The types of services implemented with GRA are bounded by constraints
   and limitations of routing devices.  In this section we explicitly
   describe the limitations and constraints of routing devices and



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   explain what we believe to be reasonable services to implement in
   routers.

   We specifically describe router limitations in order to limit the
   scope of GRA.  We believe that a small set of GRA services in routers
   can assist in scaling many of the problems in end-to-end multicast.
   Previous proposals[ACTIVE] have proposed complex elements that reside
   in routers to provide sophisticated capabilities.  We feel that these
   are unreasonable for current generation routers.  The approach of GRA
   is to provide a simple fixed set of services which give the maximum
   benefit with the least cost.

   2.1.  Service Properties

   GRA services are performed on subset of packets sent between end-to-
   end transport protocols on the multicast distribution tree between a
   GRA Source and the set of GRA receivers.  Only routers on the distri-
   bution tree for a particular GRA source act upon GRA packets.  The
   advantages of GRA type services can only be realized when the actions
   are performed on packets that are directly on the forwarding tree of
   a multicast group.

   In order to describe the requirements of GRA, we first describe the
   properties of what we feel are appropriate services.

      Fixed: by fixed services we mean those of which are statically
      part of router software or hardware.  We DO NOT mean dynamically
      loadable modules.  We feel that a fixed set of simple services
      will suffice for most of the scaling issues in transport proto-
      cols.

      Simple: We wish only to include those services that we feel are
      reasonable to be implemented in routers.  These are services which
      can be performed with minimum CPU and memory overhead.

      Short Term: We wish to provide services for which state and pro-
      cessing overhead is short lived.  GRA makes use of soft-state
      design principles.

   2.2.  GRA Requirements

   When considering the service and architecture of GRA, we adhere to
   the following principles:

      1. GRA services should be simple and fixed.  They should not
      require excessive processing in routing devices nor should they
      buffer messages.




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      2. GRA services are not substitutes for well-engineered end-to-end
      protocol designs.  We support the end-to-end design principles of
      transport protocols.  GRA is an "assist" service which is designed
      to assist protocols in scaling aspects.

      3. GRA services will not take on active networking attributes such
      as dynamically uploadable modules or programming language propo-
      sals.

      4. GRA services should not directly participate in transport pro-
      tocols.  GRA should not be required for any transport protocols
      nor should any GRA services directly support a particular proto-
      col.

      5. GRA services should be those which may assist all or a reason-
      able subset of transport protocols.

      6. GRA services should be used for assisting in *control* packet
      operations.  GRA services should not be for the majority of pack-
      ets in a multicast group.

   2.3.  Constraints of networking devices

   Current generation routers perform processing of packets and execute
   routing and signaling protocols.  Routers perform fast packet for-
   warding on the "forwarding path".  This is usually performed by
   hardware and software specifically designed for the forwarding of
   packets (and may include other functions such as policing, shaping,
   etc).  This is in contrast to the "control plane" of a router where
   control protocols are run under an operating system.  Examples of
   these types of protocols are routing, management and signaling proto-
   cols.

   We now describe the role and impact of GRA services on these two
   "planes" of a router.

      Forwarding path: A router forwarding path usually consists of spe-
      cialized hardware and software which is designed specifically for
      the purpose of forwarding packets.  Newer routers also have abili-
      ties to perform other actions such as marking or policing for ser-
      vices such as QoS.  In general, the forwarding path of routers is
      very limited in the amount of state and complexity of processing
      that can be performed.  Although we do not rule out GRA services
      being implemented in the forwarding path of routers, we do not see
      this as feasible at this point in time.  This is because of the
      more complicated processing rules for GRA packets (in comparison
      with basic forwarding operations) and the amount of state that is
      sometimes involved in performing GRA operations.



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      Control plane: Router control planes run embedded or general
      operating systems.  On top of these operating systems are imple-
      mentations of IP control protocols such as routing, signaling, and
      network management.  The processing power and memory of a control
      plane depends highly on the hardware design of the router.  Most
      routers use general purpose CISC or RISC processors for running
      the control plane operating system and protocols.  The control
      plane is limited in processing by its hardware and the load gen-
      erated from the other processes or tasks running.  We expect that
      most GRA operations will be performed in the control plane where
      state and processing power are more readily available.  However,
      we do stress that routers generally have fairly slow control plane
      hardware.  This is to keep the cost low and because the processing
      required for control plane protocols is usually low.

   2.4.  State Constraints

   As we evaluate particular services which are candidates for inclusion
   in GRA, constraints in router state are an important consideration.
   We wish to select services which will not create substantial or
   long-lived state.

   2.4.1.  Session State

   Routers which perform multicast forwarding contain per tree forward-
   ing state.  For trees rooted at multicast sources, this amounts to
   per source per group forwarding entries.  This state must be kept in
   both the forwarding as well as the control plane.  GRA services are
   per session, or per source.  This is simply because GRA services are
   per transport session.

   The session state of GRA does not impose much additional state to
   routers.  Each session requires a state block describing the desired
   services.  Other types of state may also be created during the course
   of a GRA session.  The GRA session state is the only state required
   for the length of a session; other state is set up and torn down in
   smaller intervals.

   2.4.2.  Packet State

   The implementation of particular services may require per packet
   state in GRA routers.  Services which require per packet state should
   use short-lived timers to tear down this state so as to avoid an
   explosion in the amount of state at routers.  An example of a service
   which causes per packet state is NAK elimination.  We feel the use of
   small timers will minimize problems in state growth.





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   2.4.3.  Buffering

   GRA services are not allowed to buffer packets.  GRA services may
   drop or modify packets in transit, but they will never buffer pack-
   ets.

   We feel that the buffering of packets in routing devices is unaccept-
   able due to the unpredictable behavior of such a service.  In addi-
   tion we feel that this is an unreasonable service for routers to sup-
   port without a significant payback in end-to-end scaling.

   2.5.  Processing Constraints

   GRA services may require differing amount of computation.  As a gen-
   eral rule, GRA services should require minimal computation and packet
   manipulation.

   2.5.1.  Computation

   We expect most GRA services to require minimal computation.  Services
   which require minimal computation are reasonable to implement in
   routing devices and minimize security risk.  Examples of operations
   which we feel are appropriate are:

      Comparison Operations: comparison operations may be performed on
      GRA packets against the GRA session state in the router in order
      to determine whether a service should be invoked.  Examples of
      comparison operations are: equal to, less than, greater than, etc.

      Update Operations: When receiving a GRA packet, a router may be
      required to update its GRA session state.  The operations required
      for updating the state should remain simple.  Example of simple
      operations are addition, subtraction, etc.

   In order to limit the computational complexity of GRA services, we
   recommend that GRA operations remain singular.  The combination of
   predicates and operations creates problems in both router processing
   and in GRA specifications themselves.  We wish to avoid problems
   regarding operator and action precedence.

   2.5.2.  Buffer Operations

   One can define services requiring extensive packet manipulation by
   GRA routers.  We believe this to be expensive and therefore unreason-
   able for routers.  GRA services should be invoked without extensive
   manipulation of packets.  Services which update or overwrite fields
   are acceptable. Services which require the formation of new packets
   or aggregate information into new packets are unacceptable.



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   2.6.  Examples of "Reasonable" Services

   In this section we briefly describe two GRA services which we feel
   are appropriate and why we feel they meet the above requirements.
   The two example services are those that provide general functions
   which do not incur large amounts of state or processing.

      Elimination: Elimination is the selected dropping of redundant
      signaling.  An example of elimination is NAK suppression in a
      reliable multicast protocol.  Elimination is a service which
      requires little computational overhead.  It does however, require
      per packet (or per sequence block) state.  This state can be con-
      trolled by the use of short soft state timers.

      Subcasting: Subcasting is the forwarding of a multicast packet to
      a subset of the multicast tree.  Subcasting is useful for a
      variety of multicast protocols.  Subcasting does not require a
      large amount of processing.  The state required is an identifier
      for the subtree and a list of outgoing interfaces.  This state is
      similar to multicast forwarding tree state.

   3.  Canonical Services and Functional Models/Examples

   While a variety of mechanisms must come together to enable a specific
   GRA service in a distribution tree (session path messages to estab-
   lish session parameters and neighbour information, a control protocol
   to define, enable, and disable specific filtering services, etc.),
   the basic mechanism of GRA consists of router based services that can
   be described in the language of filters, keys, and conditional func-
   tions (binary predicates and their outcomes).

   Using the example of reliable multicast presented earlier, this sec-
   tion expands the model and terminology of filters to describe the
   full flexibility of GRA.  The intent here is to generalize the
   mechanism fully enough to be able to accommodate currently unspeci-
   fied requirements for multicast transport services as they emerge.

   Revisiting the example of predicate elimination, note that the
   receipt of a loss report at a router implies several things.  The
   packet type implies that a type of filter should be established for
   the transport session, that the filter key is (a sequence number) of
   a particular length at a particular offset, that the loss report in
   hand should be forwarded, that the interface upon which the loss
   report was received should be recorded and associated with the key in
   the filter, and that subsequent matching loss reports on any inter-
   face should be eliminated.  The filter itself has other implied
   characteristics.  It eliminates only for a certain interval after
   forwarding any subsequent loss report, and it has an implied lifetime



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   after which it is locally expired by the router.

   Similarly in the example of sub-casting, the receipt of a retransmis-
   sion at a router implies several things.  The packet type implies
   that the packet should be matched against an existing filter type
   based on a key of a particular length and at a particular offset,
   that the packet itself should be forwarded on all interfaces for
   which a loss report was recorded associated with the key, and that
   the key's state should be discarded.  By implication, unmatched
   retransmissions should not be forwarded.

   From this example some generalities emerge which, once they are
   extricated from their specific semantics, can be re-assembled in a
   variety of useful ways to provide router-based assistance for a
   broader class of transport services.

   3.1.  General Model

   The general model is one in which packets carry one of a tightly con-
   strained set of signals that alert the router to apply a pre-defined
   filtering service.

   The packet-borne signal conveys

      a filter type,
      an associated action,
      a key,
      and possible packet variables

   Canonical filtering services in routers can be defined by

      a filter type,
      associated supported actions,
      predicated on specific conditions,
      and three functions gated on that predicate whether TRUE or FALSE:

         f(p): how to dispose of the packet,
         f(s): how to transform the key's state, and
         f(v): how to transform the outgoing interface (OIF) list
               associated with the key.

   All of these as well as the offsets and lengths of the key and any
   packet variables for each supported action constitute the definition
   of the filtering service.

   3.2.  An Example Using the General Model

   Given this model, the handling of retransmissions in PGM can be



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   described as a predicate eliminating and subcasting filter.

   Let IIF be the interface on which a packet is received.  Let RETX
   denote whether a packet retransmission has been requested either in a
   loss report (RQST RETX), as interface state (OIF RETX), or as key
   state (KEY RETX).  Let ET be the elimination timer for a particular
   key's state, and LT be the life timer for a particular key's state.

   The filtering service in the router supports two actions, one inbound
   (RCVR_UPDATE) and one outbound (FORWARD).

   3.2.1.  RCVR_UPDATE

   For RCVR_UPDATE, in addition to a transport session identifier, the
   following are defined for the signal in the packet:

      ELIM_SUBCis the filter type
      RCVR_UPDATE is the action
      SQNis the key
      RETX  is a packet-borne variable (value of one in the PGM example)

   For RCVR_UPDATE, the following are defined for the filtering service
   in the router:

      In case the key fails to match existing key state:

         predicate: NOOP
         f(v):OIF RETX = 1 for IIF
         f(s):start ET, start LT, KEY RETX = RQST RETX
         f(p):reverse forward to upstream neighbour

      In case the key matches existing key state:

         f(v): OIF RETX = 1 for IIF
         f(s): restart LT
         f(p): discard

   FORWARD

   For FORWARD, in addition to a transport session identifier, the fol-
   lowing are defined for the signal in the packet:

      ELIM_SUBCis the filter type
      FORWARD  is the action
      SQNis the key

   For FORWARD, the following are defined for the filtering service in
   the router:



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      In case the key fails to match existing key state:

         predicate: NOOP
         f(v):NOOP
         f(s):NOOP
         f(p):discard

      In case the key matches existing key state:

         predicate: for all OIF RETXs, OIF RETX NE 0

         In case the predicate is TRUE:

            f(v): decrement OIF RETX
            f(s): NOOP
            f(p): forward on OIF

         In case the predicate is FALSE:

            f(v): NOOP
            f(s): NOOP
            f(p): discard

   Associated with the filtering service would be an additional house-
   keeping function which would discard a key's state if either LT
   expired or all the OIF COUNTs were zero.

   The point of this and subsequent examples is to demonstrate that this
   model for GRA can accommodate a highly functional set of router-based
   services which, given a transport-layer- independent implementation,
   could be provided by routers for general deployment by transport pro-
   tocols engineered to signal the routers in a generic way.  We now
   present a refinement of the PGM example adding forward error correc-
   tion.

   In this example, a packet variable is used to carry a count of parity
   packets requested with the additional implication that the interface
   upon which the loss report was received along with the count of par-
   ity packets requested should be recorded and associated with the key
   in the filter, and that subsequent matching loss reports on any
   interface should be eliminated unless they request a larger number of
   parity packets than has been requested on any interface.

   Similarly upon forwarding parity packets implies that the packet
   itself should be forwarded on all interfaces with non-zero counts
   recorded as state associated with the key, that the corresponding
   count should be decremented by 1 per interface until it reaches 0,
   and that the key's state should be discarded once all counts are



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   zero.

   3.3.  Another Example Using the General Model

   The handling of parity NAKs and parity retransmissions in PGM can be
   described as a predicate eliminating and subcasting filter this time
   augmented by a packet variable, the number of parity packets
   requested.

   Let IIF be the interface on which a packet is received.  Let COUNT be
   the number of parity packets requested and recorded either in the
   loss report (RQST COUNT), as interface state (OIF COUNT), or as key
   state (HIGH COUNT).  Let ET be the elimination timer for a particular
   key's state, and LT be the life timer for a particular key's state.

   The filtering service in the router supports two actions, one inbound
   (RCVR_UPDATE) and one outbound (FORWARD).

   3.3.1.  RCVR_UPDATE

   For RCVR_UPDATE, in addition to a transport session identifier, the
   following are defined for the signal in the packet:

      ELIM_SUBC   is the filter type
      RCVR_UPDATE is the action
      SQN         is the key
      COUNT       is a packet-borne variable

   For RCVR_UPDATE, the following are defined for the filtering service
   in the router:

      In case the key fails to match existing key state:

         predicate: NOOP
         f(v):      OIF COUNT for IIF = MAX(RQST COUNT, 0)
         f(s):      start ET, start LT, HIGH COUNT = RQST COUNT
         f(p):      reverse forward to upstream neighbour

      In case the key matches existing key state:

         predicate: ET is running or RQST COUNT LEQ HIGH COUNT

         In case the predicate is TRUE:

            f(v): OIF COUNT for IIF = MAX(RQST COUNT, OIF COUNT for IIF)
            f(s): restart LT
            f(p): discard




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         In case the predicate is FALSE:

            f(v): OIF COUNT for IIF = MAX(RQST COUNT, OIF COUNT for IIF)
            f(s): restart ET, HIGH COUNT = RQST COUNT
            f(p): reverse forward to upstream neighbour

   3.3.2.  FORWARD

   For FORWARD, in addition to a transport session identifier, the fol-
   lowing are defined for the signal in the packet:

      ELIM_SUBC   is the filter type
      FORWARD     is the action
      SQN         is the key

   For FORWARD, the following are defined for the filtering service in
   the router:

      In case the key fails to match existing key state:

         predicate: NOOP
         f(v):      NOOP
         f(s):      NOOP
         f(p):      discard

      In case the key matches existing key state:

         predicate: for all OIF COUNTs, OIF COUNT NE 0

         In case the predicate is TRUE:

            f(v): decrement OIF COUNT
            f(s): NOOP
            f(p): forward on OIF

         In case the predicate is FALSE:

            f(v): NOOP
            f(s): NOOP
            f(p): discard

   Associated with the filtering service would be an additional house-
   keeping function which would discard a key's state if either LT
   expired or all the OIF COUNTs were zero.

   3.4.  Summary

   The point of this example (eventually, "these examples") is to



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   demonstrate that this model for GRA can accommodate a highly func-
   tional set of router-based services which, given a transport-layer-
   independent implementation, could be provided by routers for general
   deployment by transport protocols engineered to signal the routers in
   a generic way.  Now that we have established the context and a model
   for GRA, the next section discusses implementation considerations in
   the interest of making the mechanisms of GRA more concrete, and
   highlighting their practical and performance consequences to tradi-
   tional multicast forwarding.

   4.  Implementation Considerations

   4.1.  Signalling Protocol - GRA service indicators

   A consideration of the implementation issues attending GRA strongly
   determines the class of functions that may be realized with this
   mechanism.  These considerations relate to both security of the
   router and performance in the forwarding path.  The former will be
   dealt with in another section.  This section outlines the time and
   space scaling consequences of GRA to the forwarding path.

   To be a generic network layer service, it's clear that some minimal
   indicator is required in the network layer to signal the presence of
   GRA signal on a packet.  As has been previously noted, remember that
   the GRA indicator is typically NOT borne by basic data packets.
   These are switched without exception in the usual forwarding path.
   In this section, packets bearing a GRA indicator will be referred to
   as GRA packets.

   A network layer indicator frees forwarding engines from the burden of
   having to walk into and parse transport headers on every switched
   packet.  It's highly efficient to encode the GRA indicator on the
   network layer header since that header is typically already within
   the grasp of the forwarding engine.  In PGM, this indicator is imple-
   mented with an IP Router Alert option, but a single bit in the basic
   IP header would function just as well (even better, actually, for
   legacy routers).

   Once GRA packets can be detected in the forwarding path, the next
   step is to locate and parse the GRA parameters:  the filter type, the
   action, the key, and the variables from above.  These should be
   encoded as TLVs located somewhere between the end of the network
   layer header and the beginning of the transport layer payload or SDU.

   It's tempting in the case of the key and the packet variables to con-
   sider encoding their offsets and lengths in a TLV that could be used
   to locate the actual values themselves in the transport header or,
   more wildly, in the SDU, but this would amount to providing a near



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   programmatic directive to the network element which is fraught with
   risk.  So note that, in the example of elimination above, the number
   of loss reports requested would, in this model, be encoded both in
   its natural place in the transport header, and also as a GRA-specific
   variable in a separate GRA TLV.

   An alternative is to establish the location and length of keys and
   packet variables as attributes of the filtering service defined in
   the network element itself so that the only vulnerability to the net-
   work elements would derive from abuse of the setup protocol in the
   control plane in place of vulnerability in the forwarding path or
   data plane.

   The location of GRA TLVs before, inside, or after the transport layer
   header is at the crux of whether GRA is regarded as integral to a
   specific layer or as a shim layer between layers.  The answer to the
   question determines not just where to locate the TLVs but also where
   to implement the service in host protocol stacks.

   As for forwarding-time implementation of GRA services, we take it as
   a requirement for this specification that some services must be
   light-weight enough to be candidates for optimized implementations in
   hardware or firmware, while others may be sufficiently complex to
   warrant software implementations.  Soft-state-based services that do
   not maintain per-packet state may be in the first class; services
   that maintain per-packet state and therefor require a
   sorted/searchable data structure may be in the second class.

   Beyond these very GRA-specific issues are the more general control
   protocol issues of how to interoperate network elements with
   disparate GRA capabilities, and all of the specifics of defining,
   enabling, and disabling filters themselves.  These issues are best
   treated once a solid model of the GRA mechanism itself is esta-
   blished.

   4.2.  Control Protocol - Filter definition, enabling, and disabling

   4.3.  Control Protocol - Session path messages and neighbour informa-
   tion












Cain/Speakman/Towsley                                          [Page 18]


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   Abbreviations

   IIF     Incoming Interface
   NAK     Negative Acknowledgement
   NOOP    No Operation
   OIF     Outgoing Interface
   SDU     Service Data Unit
   SQN     Sequence Number
   TLV     Type Length Value










































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   References

   [ACTIVE] L.H. Lehman, S.J. Garland, D. L. Tennenhouse. ``Active Reli-
   able Multicast'', Proc. INFOCOM'98, 1998.

   [BFS] Koichi Yano, Steven McCanne, "The Breadcrumb Forwarding Service
   and the Digital Fountain Rainbow: Toward a TCP-Friendly Reliable Mul-
   ticast", UCB/CSD Technical Report No. UCB//CSD-99-1068

   [GMTS] Brad Cain, Don Towsley, "Generic Multicast Transport Services
   (GMTS)", Nortel Networks Technical Report, December 1998.

   [KKT] S. Kasera, J. Kurose, D. Towsley. ``A Comparison of Server-
   Based and Receiver-Based Local Recovery Approaches for Scalable Reli-
   able Multicast'', Proc. INFOCOM'98, 1998.

   [LABEL] B.N. Levine, J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves. ``Improving Internet
   Multicast with Routing Labels'', Proc. ICNP-97, pp. 241-250, Oct.
   1997.

   [LSM] C. Papadopoulos, G. Parulkar. ``An Error Control Scheme for
   Large-Scale Multicast Applications'', Proc. INFOCOM'98.

   [PGM] T. Speakman, D. Farinacci, S. Lin, A. Tweedly. "PGM Reliable
   Transport Protocol", IETF draft-speakman-pgm-spec-03.txt, June, 1999.

   [RMTP] J. Lin, S. Paul. ``RMTP: A reliable multicast transport proto-
   col'', Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'95, 1995.

   [SRM] S. Floyd, V. Jacobson, S. McCanne, C. Lin, L. Zhang. ``A Reli-
   able Multicast Framework for Light-weight Sessions and Application
   Level Framing'', IEEE/ACM Trans on Networking, vol. 5, 784-803, Dec.
   1997.

   [TKP] D. Towsley, J. Kurose, S. Pingali. ``A comparison of sender-
   initiated and receiver-initiated reliable multicast protocols'' IEEE
   JSAC, April 1997.














Cain/Speakman/Towsley                                          [Page 20]


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   Revision History

      draft-ietf-rmt-gra-00.txt October 1999

         Original draft.

   Authors' Addresses

           Brad Cain
           bcain@nortelnetworks.com

           Tony Speakman
           speakman@cisco.com

           Don Towsley
           towsley@cs.umass.edu



































Cain/Speakman/Towsley                                          [Page 21]