SFC                                                         M. Boucadair
Internet-Draft                                                    Orange
Intended status: Standards Track                             D. von Hugo
Expires: May 18, 2019                                   Deutsche Telekom
                                                             B. Sarikaya
                                                     Denpel Informatique
                                                       November 14, 2018


    Service Function Chaining: Subscriber and Policy Identification
      Variable-Length Network Service Header (NSH) Context Headers
                     draft-sfc-serviceid-header-02

Abstract

   This document discusses how to inform Service Functions about
   subscriber- and service-related information for the sake of policy
   enforcement and appropriate service function chaining operations.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 18, 2019.

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   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Subscriber Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Header    4
   4.  Policy Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Headers . .   5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   This document discusses how to inform Service Functions (SFs) about
   subscriber- and service-related information when required for the
   sake of policy enforcement within a single administrative domain.
   Particularly, subscriber-related information may be required to
   enforce subscriber-specific SFC-based traffic policies.
   Nevertheless, the information carried in packets may not be
   sufficient to unambiguously identify a subscriber.  This document
   fills this void by specifying a new Network Service Header (NSH)
   [RFC8300] context header to convey and disseminate such information.

   Also, the enforcement of SFC-based differentiated traffic policies
   may be inferred by QoS considerations.  Typically, QoS information
   may serve as an input to classification of the Service Function Path
   (SFP) for path computation, establishment, and selection.
   Furthermore, the dynamic structuring of service function chains and
   their subsequent enforcement may be conditioned by QoS requirements
   that will affect SF instance identification, location, and
   sequencing.  Hence, the need to supply a policy identifier to
   upstream SFs to appropriately meet the service requirements.

   SFs and SF Forwarders (SFFs) involved in a service chain have to
   contribute to the respective service policy (QoS, for example)
   requirements characterized by low transmission delay between each
   other, by exposing a high availability of resources to process
   function tasks, or by redundancy provided by stand-by machines for
   seamless execution continuation in case of failures.  These
   requirements may be satisfied by means of control protocols, but in
   some contexts, (e.g., in networks where resources are very much
   constrained), carrying QoS-related information directly in packets



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   may improve the overall SFC operation instead of relying upon the
   potential complexity or adding overhead introduced by some SFC
   control plane features.  This information is typically included as
   metadata in the NSH as the SFC encapsulation to provide the SFP
   identification.

   The context information defined in this document can be applicable in
   the context of mobile networks (typically, in the 3GPP defined (S)Gi
   Interface) [I-D.ietf-sfc-use-case-mobility].  Because of the
   widespread use of private addressing in those networks, if SFs to be
   invoked are located after a NAT function (that can reside in the
   Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (PGW) or in a distinct node), the
   identification based on the internal IP address is not anymore
   possible once the NAT has been crossed.  As such, means to allow
   passing the internal information may optimise packet traversal within
   an SFC-enabled mobile network domain.  Furthermore, some SFs that are
   not enabled on the PGW may require a subscriber identifier to
   properly operate.

   This document does not make any assumption about the structure of
   subscriber or policy identifiers; each such identifier is treated as
   an opaque value by the SFC operations and protocols.  The semantics
   and validation of these identifiers are up to the control plane used
   for SFC.  Expectations to SFC control plane protocols are laid down,
   e.g., in [RFC8459], but specifications of SFC control plane
   functionalities are also discussed in, for example,
   [I-D.ietf-bess-nsh-bgp-control-plane],
   [I-D.wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc], or [I-D.maglione-sfc-nsh-radius].

   The use cases considered in this document assume the NSH is used
   exclusively within a single administrative domain.

   This document adheres to the architecture defined in [RFC7665].  This
   document assumes the reader is familiar with [RFC8300].

2.  Conventions and Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   The reader should be familiar with the terms defined in [RFC7665].







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3.  Subscriber Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Header

   Subscriber Identifier is defined as an optional variable-length NSH
   context header.  Its structure is shown in Figure 1.

   The subscriber identifier is used to convey an identifier already
   assigned by the service provider to uniquely identify a subscriber.
   This header conveys an opaque subscriber Identifier that can be used
   by the service functions to enforce per-subscriber policies.

   The classifier and SFC-aware SFs MAY be instructed via a control
   interface to inject or strip a subscriber identifier context header.
   Also, the data to be injected in such header SHOULD be configured to
   nodes authorized to inject such headers.  Typically, a node can be
   instructed to insert such data following a type/set scheme (e.g.,
   node X should inject subscriber ID type Y).  Other schemes may be
   envisaged.

   Failures to inject such headers SHOULD be logged locally while a
   notification alarm MAY be sent to a Control Element.  The details of
   sending notification alarms (i.e., the parameters affecting the
   transmission of the notification alarms depend on the information in
   the context header such as frequency, thresholds, and content in the
   alarm (full header, header ID, timestamp), etc.)  SHOULD be
   configurable by the control plane.

   This document adheres to the recommendations in [RFC8300] for
   handling the context headers at both ingress and egress SFC boundary
   nodes.  That is, to strip such context headers.  Revealing any
   personal and subscriber-related information to third parties is
   avoided by design to prevent privacy breaches in terms of user
   tracking.

   SFC-aware SFs and proxies MAY be instructed to strip a subscriber
   identifier context header from the packet or to pass the data to the
   next SF in the service chain after processing the content of the
   context headers.  If no instruction is provided, the default behavior
   is to maintain such context headers so that the information can be
   passed to next SFC-aware hops.

   SFC-aware SFs MAY be instructed via the control plane about the
   validation checks to run on the content of these context headers
   (e.g., accept only some lengths) and the behavior to adopt.  For
   example, SFC-aware SFs may be instructed to ignore the context
   header, to remove the context header from the packet, etc.
   Nevertheless, this specification does not require nor preclude such
   additional validation checks.  These validation checks are
   deployment-specific.  If validation checks fail on a subscriber



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   identifier context header, an SFC-aware SF MUST ignore that context
   header.  The event SHOULD be logged locally while a notification
   alarm MAY be sent to a Control Element if the SFC-aware SF is
   instructed to do so.

   Multiple subscriber Identifier context TLVs MAY be present in the NSH
   each carrying a distinct opaque value but all pointing to the same
   subscriber.  When multiple subscriber Identifier context TLVs are
   present and an SF is instructed to strip the subscriber Identifier
   context header, that SF has to remove all subscriber Identifier
   context TLVs.

       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Metadata Class       |      Type     |U|    Length   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      ~                      Subscriber Identifier                    ~
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      Figure 1: Subscriber Identifier Variable-Length Context Header

   The description of the fields is as follows:

   o  Metadata Class: MUST be set to 0x0 [RFC8300].

   o  Type: TBD1 (See Section 5)

   o  Subscriber Identifier: Carries an opaque subscriber identifier.

4.  Policy Identification NSH Variable-Length Context Headers

   Dedicated service-specific performance identifier is defined to
   differentiate between services requiring specific treatment to
   exhibit a performance characterized by, e.g., ultra-low latency (ULL)
   or ultra-high reliability (UHR).  Other policies can be considered
   when instantiating a service function chain within an SFC-enabled
   domain.  They are contained in the Policy Identifier context header.

   The policy identifier is inserted in an NSH packet so that upstream
   SFC-aware nodes can make use of the information for proper
   distributed SFC path selection, SF instance selection, or policy
   selection at SFs.

   Thus, the policy identifier allows for the distributed enforcement of
   a per-service policy such as a service function path to only include
   specific SFs instances.  Details of this process are implementation-



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   specific.  For illustration purposes, an SFF may retrieve the details
   of usable SFs based upon the corresponding policy identifier.
   Typical criteria for instantiating specific SFs include location,
   performance, or proximity considerations.  For the particular case of
   UHR services, the stand-by operation of back-up capacity or the
   deployment of multiple SF instances may be requested.

   Policy identifier is defined as optional variable length context
   header.  Its structure is shown in Figure 2.

   Similar control plane considerations as those discussed in Section 3
   are to be followed.

   Multiple policy identifier context headers MAY be present in the NSH;
   each carrying a distinct opaque value but all are pointing to
   policies that need to be enforced for a flow.  It is up to the
   control plane to ensure that these policies are not conflicting.
   When such conflict is detected by an SFC-aware node, the default
   behavior of the node is to discard the packet and send a notification
   alarm to a Control Element.

       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Metadata Class       |      Type     |U|    Length   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      ~                      Policy Identifier                        ~
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

        Figure 2: Policy Identifier Variable-Length Context Header

   The description of the fields is as follows:

   o  Metadata Class: MUST be set to 0x0 [RFC8300].

   o  Type: TBD2 (See Section 5)

   o  Policy Identifier: Represents an opaque value pointing to specific
      policy to be enforced.  The structure and semantic of this filed
      is deployment-specific.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests IANA to assign the following types from the
   "NSH IETF- Assigned Optional Variable-Length Metadata Types" (0x0000
   IETF Base NSH MD Class) registry available at:




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   https://www.iana.org/assignments/nsh/nsh.xhtml#optional-variable-
   length-metadata-types.

            +-------+-----------------------+----------------+
            | Value | Description           | Reference      |
            +-------+-----------------------+----------------+
            | TBD1  | Subscriber Identifier | [ThisDocument] |
            | TBD2  | Policy Identifier     | [ThisDocument] |
            +-------+-----------------------+----------------+

6.  Security Considerations

   Data plane SFC-related security considerations, including privacy,
   are discussed in [RFC7665] and [RFC8300].

   Nodes that are involved in an SFC-enabled domain are assumed to be
   trusted ([RFC8300]).  Means to check that only authorized nodes are
   solicited when a packet is crossing an SFC-enabled domain.

   An SF maintaining logs for operational reasons MUST NOT log the
   content of subscriber identifier context header received in NSH
   packets if the SF does not use the content of that header for its
   operation.

7.  Acknowledgements

   Comments from Joel Halpern on a previous version and by Carlos
   Bernardos are appreciated.  Contributions and review by Christian
   Jacquenet, Danny Lachos, Debashish Purkayastha, Christian Esteve
   Rothenberg, and Kyle Larose are thankfully acknowledged.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7665]  Halpern, J., Ed. and C. Pignataro, Ed., "Service Function
              Chaining (SFC) Architecture", RFC 7665,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7665, October 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7665>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.



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   [RFC8300]  Quinn, P., Ed., Elzur, U., Ed., and C. Pignataro, Ed.,
              "Network Service Header (NSH)", RFC 8300,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8300, January 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8300>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-bess-nsh-bgp-control-plane]
              Farrel, A., Drake, J., Rosen, E., Uttaro, J., and L.
              Jalil, "BGP Control Plane for NSH SFC", draft-ietf-bess-
              nsh-bgp-control-plane-04 (work in progress), July 2018.

   [I-D.ietf-sfc-use-case-mobility]
              Napper, J., Stiemerling, M., Lopez, D., and J. Uttaro,
              "Service Function Chaining Use Cases in Mobile Networks",
              draft-ietf-sfc-use-case-mobility-08 (work in progress),
              May 2018.

   [I-D.maglione-sfc-nsh-radius]
              Maglione, R., Trueba, G., and C. Pignataro, "RADIUS
              Attributes for NSH", draft-maglione-sfc-nsh-radius-01
              (work in progress), October 2016.

   [I-D.wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc]
              Wu, Q., Dhody, D., Boucadair, M., Jacquenet, C., and J.
              Tantsura, "PCEP Extensions for Service Function Chaining
              (SFC)", draft-wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc-12 (work in
              progress), June 2017.

   [RFC8459]  Dolson, D., Homma, S., Lopez, D., and M. Boucadair,
              "Hierarchical Service Function Chaining (hSFC)", RFC 8459,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8459, September 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8459>.

Authors' Addresses

   Mohamed Boucadair
   Orange
   Rennes 3500
   France

   Email: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com









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   Dirk von Hugo
   Deutsche Telekom
   Deutsche-Telekom-Allee 7
   D-64295 Darmstadt
   Germany

   Email: Dirk.von-Hugo@telekom.de


   Behcet Sarikaya
   Denpel Informatique

   Email: sarikaya@ieee.org






































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