OPSAWG                                                      H. Song, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                 Futurewei
Intended status: Informational                                    F. Qin
Expires: June 6, 2020                                       China Mobile
                                                                 H. Chen
                                                           China Telecom
                                                                  J. Jin
                                                                   LG U+
                                                                 J. Shin
                                                              SK Telecom
                                                        December 4, 2019


                   In-situ Flow Information Telemetry
                  draft-song-opsawg-ifit-framework-09

Abstract

   Efficient network operation increasingly relies on data-plane
   telemetry.  As networks increase in scale and network operations
   become more sophisticated, traditional Operation, Administration and
   Maintenance (OAM) methods, which include proactive and reactive
   techniques, running in active and passive modes, become more
   susceptible to measurement accuracy and misconfiguration errors.

   With the advent of programmable data-plane, emerging on-path
   telemetry techniques provide unprecedented flow insight and realtime
   notification of network issues (e.g., jitter, increased latency,
   packet loss, significant bit error variations, and unequal load-
   balancing).

   This document enumerates several key deployment challenges and
   requirements for on-path telemetry techniques, especially in carrier
   operator networks.  To address these issues, this document outlines a
   high-level framework, In-situ Flow Information Telemetry (iFIT). iFIT
   provides several essential components that can be assembled to
   achieve a complete and efficient solution for on-path telemetry.

   As a reference and open framework, iFIT only describes the basic
   functions of each identified component and suggests possible
   applications.  It does not specify the implementation of the
   components and the interfaces between the components.  The compliance
   of iFIT framework is not mandated either.  This informational
   document aims to clarify the problem domain, and summarize the best
   practices and sensible system design considerations.  The iFIT
   framework helps to guide the analysis on the current standard status
   and gaps, and motivate new works to complete the ecosystem.  It also




Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 1]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   helps to inspire innovative network telemetry applications supporting
   advanced network operations.

Requirements Language

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

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
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on June 6, 2020.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.









Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 2]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


Table of Contents

   1.  Requirements and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Glossary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.  iFIT Framework Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.1.  Passport vs. Postcard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.2.  Relationship with Network Telemetry Framework (NTF) . . .   9
   4.  Key Components of iFIT  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.1.  Smart Flow and Data Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.1.1.  Example: Sketch-guided Elephant Flow Selection  . . .  10
       4.1.2.  Example: Adaptive Packet Sampling . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.2.  Smart Data Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.2.1.  Example: Event-based Anomaly Monitor  . . . . . . . .  11
     4.3.  Dynamic Network Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       4.3.1.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.4.  Encapsulation and Tunneling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.5.  On-demand Technique Selection and Integration . . . . . .  13
   5.  iFIT for Reflective Telemetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     5.1.  Example: Intelligent Multipoint Performance Monitoring  .  14
     5.2.  Example: Intent-based Network Monitoring  . . . . . . . .  15
   6.  Standard Status and Gap Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   10. Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   11. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   12. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     12.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     12.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     12.3.  URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

1.  Requirements and Challenges

   Efficient network operation increasingly relies on data-plane
   telemetry.  Traditional Operation, Administration and Maintenance
   (OAM) methods, which include proactive and reactive techniques,
   running in active and passive modes, become more susceptible to
   measurement accuracy and misconfiguration errors, as networks
   increase in scale and network operations become more sophisticated.

   The sheer complexity of today's networks requires radical rethinking
   of existing methods used for network monitoring and troubleshooting.
   Current dynamic networks require new traffic monitoring and
   measurement solutions for a wide range of use cases requiring better
   traffic visibility.  Furthermore, the ability to expedite failure
   detection, fault localization, and recovery mechanisms, particularly




Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 3]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   in the case of soft failures or path degradation are expected,
   without causing service disruption.

   Future networks must also support application-aware networking.
   Application-aware networking is an emerging industry term and
   typically used to describe the capacity of an intelligent network to
   maintain current information about user and application connections
   that use network resources and, as a result, the operator can
   optimize the network resource usage and monitoring to ensure
   application and traffic optimality.

   On-path telemetry refers to the data-plane telemetry techniques that
   directly tap and measure network traffic by embedding instructions or
   metadata into user packets.  These techniques are especially suitable
   for network operations that need user SLA compliance, service path
   enforcement, fault diagnosis, and network resource optimization.  A
   family of on-path telemetry techniques, including In-situ OAM (IOAM)
   [I-D.brockners-inband-oam-data], Postcard Based Telemetry (PBT)
   [I-D.song-ippm-postcard-based-telemetry], In-band Flow Analyzer (IFA)
   [I-D.kumar-ippm-ifa], Enhanced Alternate Marking (EAM)
   [I-D.zhou-ippm-enhanced-alternate-marking], and Hybrid Two Steps
   (HTS) [I-D.mirsky-ippm-hybrid-two-step], have been proposed, which
   can provide flow information on the entire forwarding path on a per-
   packet basis in real time.  These on-path telemetry techniques are
   very different from the previous active and passive OAM schemes in
   that they directly modify the user packets and can guarantee 100%
   accuracy.  These on-path telemetry techniques can be classified as
   the hybrid OAM type III, supplementing the classification defined in
   [RFC7799].

   On-path telemetry is invaluable for application-aware networking
   operations not only in data center and enterprise networks but also
   in carrier networks which may cross multiple domains.  Carrier
   network operators have shown strong interest in utilizing such
   techniques for various purposes.  For example, it is vital for the
   operators who offer bandwidth intensive, latency and loss sensitive
   services such as video streaming and online gaming to closely monitor
   the relevant flows in real time as the indispensable first step for
   any further measure.

   However, successfully applying such techniques in carrier networks
   needs to consider performance, deployability, and flexibility.
   Specifically, several practical challenges need to be addressed:

   o  C1: On-path telemetry incurs extra packet processing which may
      strain the network data plane.  The potential impact on the
      forwarding performance creates an unfavorable "observer effect"




Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 4]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


      which not only damages the fidelity of the measurement but also
      defies the purpose of the measurement.

   o  C2: On-path telemetry can generate a huge amount of OAM data which
      may claim too much transport bandwidth and inundate the servers
      for data collection, storage, and analysis.  Increasing the data
      handling capacity is technically viable but expensive.  For
      example, assume IOAM is applied to all the traffic.  One node will
      collect a few tens of bytes as telemetry data for each packet.
      The whole forwarding path might accumulate a data trace with a
      size similar to or even exceeding that of the original packet.
      Transporting the telemetry data alone will consume almost half of
      the network bandwidth.

   o  C3: The collectible data defined currently are essential but
      limited.  As the network operation evolves to be declarative
      (intent-based) and automated, and the trends of network
      virtualization, network convergence, and packet-optical
      integration continue, more data will be needed in an on-demand and
      interactive fashion.  Flexibility and extensibility on data
      defining, aggregation, acquisition, and filtering, must be
      considered.

   o  C4: If we were to apply some on-path telemetry technique in
      today's carrier networks, we must provide solutions to tailor the
      provider's network deployment base and support an incremental
      deployment strategy.  That is, we need to support established
      encapsulation schemes for various predominant protocols such as
      Ethernet, IPv4, and MPLS with backward compatibility and properly
      handle various transport tunnels.

   o  C5: Applying only a single underlying on-path telemetry technique
      may lead to defective result.  For example, packet drop can cause
      the loss of the flow telemetry data and the packet drop location
      and reason remains unknown if only In-situ OAM trace option is
      used.  A comprehensive solution needs the flexibility to switch
      between different underlying techniques and adjust the
      configurations and parameters at runtime.

   o  C6: Development of simplified on-path telemetry primitives and
      models, including: telemetry data (e.g., nodes, links, ports,
      paths, flows, timestamps) query primitives.  These may be used by
      an API-based telemetry service for external applications, for
      monitoring end-to-end latency measurement of network paths and
      application latency calculation.






Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 5]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


2.  Glossary

   This section defines and explains some acronyms and terms used in
   this document.

   On-path Telemetry:  Remotely acquiring OAM data about a packet on its
      forwarding path.  The term refers to a class of data plane
      telemetry techniques which collect data about user flows and
      packets along their forwarding paths.  IOAM, PBT, IFA, EAM, and
      HTS are all on-path telemetry techniques.  Such techniques may
      need to mark user packets, or insert instruction or metadata to
      the headers of user packets.

   iFIT:  In-situ Flow Information Telemetry, pronounced as "I-FIT".

   iFIT Framework:  A high-level reference framework that supports
      network data-plane OAM applications to apply on-path telemetry
      techniques.

   iFIT Application:  A network OAM application that fits in the iFIT
      framework.

   iFIT Domain:  The network domain that participates in an iFIT
      application.

   iFIT Node:  A network node that is in an iFIT domain and is capable
      of iFIT-specific functions.

   iFIT Head Node:  A special iFIT node.  It is the entry node to an
      iFIT domain.  Usually the instruction header encapsulation, if
      needed, happens here.

   iFIT End Node:  A special iFIT node.  It is the exit node of an iFIT
      domain.  Usually the instruction header decapsulation, if needed,
      happens here.

   Reflective Telemetry:  The telemetry functions in a dynamic and
      interactive fashion.  New telemetry action is provisioned as a
      result of self-knowledge acquired through prior telemetry actions.

3.  iFIT Framework Overview

   To address the aforementioned challenges, we present a high-level
   framework based on multiple network operators' requirements and
   common industry practice, which can help to build a workable and
   efficient on-path telemetry solution.  We name the framework "In-situ
   Flow Information Telemetry" (iFIT) to reflect the fact that this
   framework is dedicated to on-path telemetry data about user/



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 6]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   application traffic.  As a reference framework for building a
   complete solution, iFIT covers a class of on-path telemetry
   techniques and works a level higher than any specific technique.  The
   framework is built up on a few functional components (Section 4).  By
   assembling these components, iFIT supports reflective telemetry that
   enables autonomous network operations (Section 5).

   iFIT is an open and loose framework.  It does not enforce any
   specific implementation on each component, neither does it define
   interfaces (e.g., API, protocol) between components.  The choice of
   underlying on-path telemetry techniques and other implementation
   details is determined by application implementer.

   The network architecture that applies iFIT is shown in Figure 1.  The
   iFIT domain is confined between the iFIT head nodes and the iFIT end
   nodes.  An iFIT domain may cross multiple network domains.  An iFIT
   application uses a controller to configure the iFIT nodes.  The
   configuration determines which underlying technique is used, what
   telemetry data are interested, which flows and packets are concerned,
   how the telemetry data are collected, etc.  After the telemetry data
   processing and analyzing, the iFIT application may instruct the
   controller to modify the iFIT node configuration and affect the
   future telemetry data collection.  How applications communicate with
   the controller is out of scope for this document

   iFIT supports two basic on-path telemetry modes: passport mode (e.g.,
   IOAM trace option and IFA), in which telemetry data are carried in
   user packets and only exported at the iFIT end nodes, and postcard
   mode (e.g., PBT), in which each node in the iFIT domain may export
   telemetry data through independent OAM packets.  An on-path telemetry
   application may need to mix or switch between the two modes.




















Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 7]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


                      +-------------------------------------+
                      |        iFIT Application             |
                      | +------------+        +-----------+ |
                      | |            |        |           | |
                      | | Controller |<-------| Collector | |
                      | |            |        |           | |
                      | +-----:------+        +-----------+ |
                      |       :                     ^       |
                      +-------:---------------------|-------+
                              :configuration        |telemetry data
                              :                     |
               ...............:.....................|..........
               :             :                 :    |         :
               :   +---------:---+-------------:---++---------:---+
               :   |         :   |             :   |          :   |
               V   |         V   |             V   |          V   |
            +------+-+     +-----+--+       +------+-+     +------+-+
     packets| iFIT   |     | Path   |       | Path   |     | iFIT   |
         ==>| Head   |====>| Node   |==//==>| Node   |====>| End    |==>
            | Node   |     | A      |       | B      |     | Node   |
            +--------+     +--------+       +--------+     +--------+

            |<---                  iFIT Domain                  --->|


                    Figure 1: iFIT Network Architecture

3.1.  Passport vs. Postcard

   [passport-postcard] first uses the analogy of passport and postcard
   to describe how the packet trace data can be collected and exported.
   In the passport mode, each node on the path adds the telemetry data
   to the user packets.  The accumulated data trace is exported at a
   configured end node.  In the postcard mode, each node directly
   exports the telemetry data using an independent packet while the user
   packets are intact.

   A prominent advantage of the passport mode is that it naturally
   retains the telemetry data correlation along the entire path.  The
   passport mode also reduces the number of data export packets.  These
   help to simplify the data collector and analyzer's work.  On the
   other hand, the passport mode requires more processing on the user
   packets and increases the size of user packets, which can cause
   various problems.  Some other issues are documented in
   [I-D.song-ippm-postcard-based-telemetry].






Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 8]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   The postcard mode provides a perfect complement to the passport mode.
   It addresses most of the issues faced by the passport mode, at a cost
   of needing extra effort to correlate the postcard packets.

3.2.  Relationship with Network Telemetry Framework (NTF)

   [I-D.ietf-opsawg-ntf] describes a Network Telemetry Framework (NTF).
   One dimension used by NTF to partition network telemetry techniques
   and systems is based on the three planes in networks plus external
   data sources. iFIT framework fits in the data-plane telemetry
   category and deals with the specific on-path technical branch of the
   data-plane telemetry.

4.  Key Components of iFIT

   The high-level components of iFIT are listed as follows:

   o  Smart flow and data selection policy, addressing the challenge C1
      described in Section 1.

   o  Smart data export, addressing the challenge C2.

   o  Dynamic network probe, addressing C3.

   o  Encapsulation and tunneling, addressing C4.

   o  On-demand technique selection and integration, addressing C5.

   Note that this document does not directly address the challenge C6
   which is open for future standard proposals and left as a concern of
   application implementers.

   Next we provide a detailed description of each component.

4.1.  Smart Flow and Data Selection

   In most cases, it is impractical to enable the data collection for
   all the flows and for all the packets in a flow due to the potential
   performance and bandwidth impact.  Therefore, a workable solution
   usually need to select only a subset of flows and flow packets to
   enable the data collection, even though this means the loss of some
   information and accuracy.

   In the data plane, the Access Control List (ACL) provides an ideal
   means to determine the subset of flow(s).
   [I-D.song-ippm-ioam-data-validation-option] describes how one can set
   a sample rate or probability to a flow to allow only a subset of flow
   packets to be monitored, how one can collect a different set of data



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                  [Page 9]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   for different packets, and how one can disable or enable data
   collection on any specific network node.  It further introduces an
   enhancement to IOAM to allow any node to accept or deny the data
   collection in full or partially.

   Based on these flexible mechanisms, iFIT allows applications to apply
   smart flow and data selection policies to suit the requirements.  The
   applications can dynamically change the policies at any time based on
   the network load, processing capability, focus of interest, and any
   other criteria.

4.1.1.  Example: Sketch-guided Elephant Flow Selection

   Network operators are usually more interested in elephant flows which
   consume more resource and are sensitive to changes in network
   conditions.  A CountMin Sketch [CMSketch] can be used on the data
   path of the head nodes, which identifies and reports the elephant
   flows periodically.  The controller maintains a current set of
   elephant flows and dynamically enables the on-path telemetry for only
   these flows.

4.1.2.  Example: Adaptive Packet Sampling

   Applying on-path telemetry on all packets of selected flows can still
   be out of reach.  A sample rate should be set for these flows and
   only enable telemetry on the sampled packets.  However, the head
   nodes have no clue on the proper sampling rate.  An overly high rate
   would exhaust the network resource and even cause packet drops; An
   overly low rate, on the contrary, would result in the loss of
   information and inaccuracy of measurements.

   An adaptive approach can be used based on the network conditions to
   dynamically adjust the sampling rate.  Every node gives user traffic
   forwarding higher priority than telemetry data export.  In case of
   network congestion, the telemetry can sense some signals from the
   data collected (e.g., deep buffer size, long delay, packet drop, and
   data loss).  The controller may use these signals to adjust the
   packet sampling rate.  In each adjustment period (i.e., RTT of the
   feedback loop), the sampling rate is either decreased or increased in
   response of the signals.  An AIMD policy similar to the TCP flow
   control mechanism for the rate adjustment can be used.

4.2.  Smart Data Export

   The flow telemetry data can catch the dynamics of the network and the
   interactions between user traffic and network.  Nevertheless, the
   data inevitably contain redundancy.  It is advisable to remove the




Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 10]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   redundancy from the data in order to reduce the data transport
   bandwidth and server processing load.

   In addition to efficient export data encoding (e.g., IPFIX [RFC7011]
   or protobuf [1]), iFIT nodes have several other ways to reduce the
   export data by taking advantage of network device's capability and
   programmability. iFIT nodes can cache the data and send the
   accumulated data in batch if the data is not time sensitive.  Various
   deduplication and compression techniques can be applied on the batch
   data.

   From the application perspective, an application may only be
   interested in some special events which can be derived from the
   telemetry data.  For example, in case that the forwarding delay of a
   packet exceeds a threshold, or a flow changes its forwarding path is
   of interest, it is unnecessary to send the original raw data to the
   data collecting and processing servers.  Rather, iFIT takes advantage
   of the in-network computing capability of network devices to process
   the raw data and only push the event notifications to the subscribing
   applications.

   Such events can be expressed as policies.  An policy can request data
   export only on change, on exception, on timeout, or on threshold.

4.2.1.  Example: Event-based Anomaly Monitor

   Network operators are interested in the anomalies such as path
   change, network congestion, and packet drop.  Such anomalies are
   hidden in raw telemetry data (e.g., path trace, timestamp).  Such
   anomalies can be described as events and programmed into the device
   data plane.  Only the triggered events are exported.  For example, if
   a new flow appears at any node, a path change event is triggered; if
   the packet delay exceeds a predefined threshold in a node, the
   congestion event is triggered; if a packet is dropped due to buffer
   overflow, a packet drop event is triggered.

   The export data reduction due to such optimization is substantial.
   For example, given a single 5-hop 10Gbps path, assume a moderate
   number of 1 million packets per second are monitored, and the
   telemetry data plus the export packet overhead consume less than 30
   bytes per hop.  Without such optimization, the bandwidth consumed by
   the telemetry data can easily exceed 1Gbps (>10% of the path
   bandwidth), When the optimization is used, the bandwidth consumed by
   the telemetry data is negligible.  Moreover, the pre-processed
   telemetry data greatly simplify the work of data analyzers.






Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 11]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


4.3.  Dynamic Network Probe

   Due to limited data plane resource and network bandwidth, it is
   unlikely one can monitor all the data all the time.  On the other
   hand, the data needed by applications may be arbitrary but ephemeral.
   It is critical to meet the dynamic data requirements with limited
   resource.

   Fortunately, data plane programmability allows iFIT to dynamically
   load new data probes.  These on-demand probes are called Dynamic
   Network Probes (DNP) [I-D.song-opsawg-dnp4iq].  DNP is the technique
   to enable probes for customized data collection in different network
   planes.  When working with IOAM or PBT, DNP is loaded to the data
   plane through incremental programming or configuration.  The DNP can
   effectively conduct data generation, processing, and aggregation.

   DNP introduces enough flexibility and extensibility to iFIT.  It can
   implement the optimizations for export data reduction motioned in the
   previous section.  It can also generate custom data as required by
   today and tomorrow's applications.

4.3.1.  Examples

   Following are some possible DNPs that can be dynamically deployed to
   support iFIT applications.

   On-demand Flow Sketch:  A flow sketch is a compact online data
      structure for approximate flow statistics which can be used to
      facilitate flow selection.  The aforementioned CountMin Sketch is
      such an example.  Since a sketch consumes data plane resources, it
      should only be deployed when needed.

   Smart Flow Filter:  The policies that choose flows and packet
      sampling rate can change during the lifetime of an application.

   Smart Statistics:  An application may need to interactively count
      flows based on different flow granularity or maintain hit counters
      for selected flow table entries.

   Smart Data Reduction:  DNP can be used to program the events that
      conditionally trigger data export.

4.4.  Encapsulation and Tunneling

   Since the introduction of IOAM, the IOAM option header encapsulation
   schemes in various network protocols have been proposed with the
   omission of some protocols, such as MPLS and IPv4, which are still
   prevalent in carrier networks. iFIT provides solutions to apply the



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 12]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   on-path flow telemetry techniques in such networks.  PBT-M
   [I-D.song-ippm-postcard-based-telemetry] does not introduce new
   headers to the packets so the trouble of encapsulation for a new
   header is avoided.  In case a technique that requires a new header is
   preferred, [I-D.song-mpls-extension-header] provides a means to
   encapsulate the extra header using an MPLS extension header.  As for
   IPv4, it is possible to encapsulate the new header in an IP option.
   For example, RAO [RFC2113] can be used to indicate the presence of
   the new header.  A recent proposal [I-D.herbert-ipv4-eh] that
   introduces the IPv4 extension header may lead to a long term
   solution.

   In carrier networks, it is common for user traffic to traverse
   various tunnels for QoS, traffic engineering, or security. iFIT
   supports both the uniform mode and the pipe mode for tunnel support
   as described in [I-D.song-ippm-ioam-tunnel-mode].  With such
   flexibility, the operator can either gain a true end-to-end
   visibility or apply a hierarchical approach which isolates the
   monitoring domain between customer and provider.

4.5.  On-demand Technique Selection and Integration

   With multiple underlying data collection and export techniques at its
   disposal, iFIT can flexibly adapt to different network conditions and
   different application requirements.

   For example, depending on the types of data that are of interest,
   iFIT may choose either IOAM or PBT to collect the data; if an
   application needs to track down where the packets are lost, it may
   switch from IOAM to PBT.

   iFIT can further integrate multiple data plane monitoring and
   measurement techniques together and present a comprehensive data
   plane telemetry solution to network operating applications.

5.  iFIT for Reflective Telemetry

   The iFIT components can work together to support reflective
   telemetry, as shown in Figure 2.












Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 13]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


                           +---------------------+
                           |                     |
                    +------+  iFIT Applications  |<------+
                    |      |                     |       |
                    |      +---------------------+       |
                    |         Technique Selection        |
                    |         and Integration            |
                    |                                    |
                    |Smart Flow                    Smart |
                    |and Data   reflection-loop     Data |
                    |Selection                     Export|
                    |                                    |
                    |                               +----+----+
                    V                              +---------+|
              +----------+ Encapsulation          +---------+||
              |  iFIT    | and Tunneling          |  iFIT   |||
              |  Head    |----------------------->|         ||+
              |  Node    |                        |  Nodes  |+
              +----------+                        +---------+
                  DNP                                DNP


                 Figure 2: iFIT-based Reflective Telemetry

   An iFIT application may pick a suite of telemetry techniques based on
   its requirements and apply an initial technique to the data plane.
   It then configures the iFIT head nodes to decide the initial target
   flows/packets and telemetry data set, the encapsulation and tunneling
   scheme based on the underlying network architecture, and the iFIT-
   capable nodes to decide the initial telemetry data export policy.
   Based on the network condition and the analysis results of the
   telemetry data, the iFIT application can change the telemetry
   technique, the flow/data selection policy, and the data export
   approach in real time without breaking the normal network operation.
   Many of such dynamic changes can be done through loading and
   unloading DNPs.

   The reflective telemetry enabled by the iFIT framework allows
   numerous new applications suitable for future network operation
   architecture.

5.1.  Example: Intelligent Multipoint Performance Monitoring

   [I-D.ietf-ippm-multipoint-alt-mark] describes an intelligent
   performance management based on the network condition.  The idea is
   to split the monitoring network into clusters.  The cluster partition
   that can be applied to every type of network graph and the
   possibility to combine clusters at different levels enable the so-



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 14]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   called Network Zooming.  It allows a controller to calibrate the
   network telemetry, so that it can start without examining in depth
   and monitor the network as a whole.  In case of necessity (packet
   loss or too high delay), an immediate detailed analysis can be
   reconfigured.  In particular, the controller, that is aware of the
   network topology, can set up the most suited cluster partition by
   changing the traffic filter or activate new measurement points and
   the problem can be localized with a step-by-step process.

   An iFIT application on top of the controllers can manage such
   mechanism and iFIT's architecture allows its dynamic and reflective
   operation.

5.2.  Example: Intent-based Network Monitoring


                         User Intents
                               |
                               V          Per-packet
                         +------------+   Telemetry
                  ACL    |            |   Data
                +--------+ Controller |<--------+
                |        |            |         |
                |        +--+---------+         |
                |           |       ^           |
                |           |DNPs   |Network    |
                |           |       |Information|
                |           V       |           |
         +------+-------------------+-----------+---+
         |      |                                   |
         |      V                      +------+     |
         | +-------+                  +------+|     |
         | | iFIT  |    iFIT Domain  +------+||     |
         | | Head  |                 |iFIT  ||+     |
         | | Node  |                 |Nodes |+      |
         | +-------+                 +------+       |
         +------------------------------------------+

                     Figure 3: Intent-based Monitoring

   In this example, a user can express high level intents for network
   monitoring.  The controller translates an intent and configure the
   corresponding DNPs in iFIT nodes which collect necessary network
   information.  Based on the real-time information feedback, the
   controller runs a local algorithm to determine the suspicious flows.
   It then deploys ACLs to the iFIT head node to initiate the high
   precision per-packet on-path telemetry for these flows.




Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 15]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


6.  Standard Status and Gap Analysis

   A complete iFIT solution needs standard interfaces for configuration
   and data extraction, and standard encapsulation on various transport
   protocols.  It may also need standard API and primitives for
   application programming and deployment.  The draft
   [I-D.brockners-opsawg-ioam-deployment] summarizes some current
   proposals on encapsulation and data export for IOAM.  However, these
   works can be extended or modified to support other types of on-path
   telemetry techniques and other transport protocols.  The high level
   iFIT framework helps to develop coherent and universal standard
   encapsulation and data export approaches.

   In addition, standard approaches for function configuration,
   capability query and advertisement, either in a centralized fashion
   or a distributed fashion, are still immature.  The draft
   [I-D.zhou-ippm-ioam-yang] provides the YANG model for IOAM
   configuration.  Similar models needs to be defined for other
   techniques.  It is helpful to provide standard approaches for
   distributed configuration in various network environments.

   To realize the potential of iFIT, programming and deploying DNPs are
   important.  Currently some related works such as
   [I-D.wwx-netmod-event-yang] and [I-D.bwd-netmod-eca-framework] have
   proposed to use YANG model to define the smart policies which can be
   used to implement DNPs.  In the future, other approaches can be
   development to enhance the programmability and flexibility.

7.  Summary

   iFIT is a high level and open framework for applying on-path
   telemetry techniques.  Combining with algorithmic and architectural
   schemes that fit into the framework components, iFIT enables a
   practical telemetry solution based on two basic on-path traffic data
   collection modes: passport and postcard.

   The operation of iFIT differs from both active OAM and passive OAM as
   defined in [RFC7799].  It does not generate any active probe packets
   or passively observe unmodified user packets.  Instead, it modifies
   selected user packets to collect useful information about them.
   Therefore, the iFIT operation can be considered the hybrid OAM type
   III mode, which can provide more flexible and accurate network OAM.

   iFIT addresses the key challenges for operators to deploy a complete
   on-path telemetry solution.  However, as a reference and open
   framework, iFIT only describes the basic functions of each identified
   component and suggests possible applications.  It has no intention of
   specifying the implementation of the components and the interfaces



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 16]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   between the components.  The compliance of iFIT framework is by no
   means mandated either.  Instead, this informational document aims to
   clarify the problem domain, and summarize the best practices and
   sensible system design considerations.  The iFIT framework can guide
   the analysis of the current standard status and gaps, and motivate
   new works to complete the ecosystem.  It also helps to inspire
   innovative data-plane reflective telemetry applications supporting
   advanced network operations.

   Having a framework covering a class of related techniques also
   promotes a holistic approach for standard development and helps to
   avoid duplicated efforts and piecemeal solutions that only focus on a
   specific technique while omitting the compatibility and extensibility
   issues.  To foster a healthy ecosystem for network telemetry, we
   consider this essential.

8.  Security Considerations

   Specific security issues are discussed in each individual draft on
   on-path telemetry.

9.  IANA Considerations

   This document includes no request to IANA.

10.  Contributors

   Other major contributors of this document include Giuseppe Fioccola,
   Daniel King, Zhenqiang Li, Zhenbin Li, Tianran Zhou, and James
   Guichard.

11.  Acknowledgments

   We thank Diego Lopez, Shwetha Bhandari, Joe Clarke, Adrian Farrel,
   and Frank Brockners for their constructive suggestions for improving
   this document.

12.  References

12.1.  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>.






Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 17]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   [RFC7799]  Morton, A., "Active and Passive Metrics and Methods (with
              Hybrid Types In-Between)", RFC 7799, DOI 10.17487/RFC7799,
              May 2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7799>.

   [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>.

12.2.  Informative References

   [CMSketch]
              Cormode, G. and S. Muthukrishnan, "An improved data stream
              summary: the count-min sketch and its applications", 2005,
              <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jalgor.2003.12.001>.

   [I-D.brockners-inband-oam-data]
              Brockners, F., Bhandari, S., Pignataro, C., Gredler, H.,
              Leddy, J., Youell, S., Mizrahi, T., Mozes, D., Lapukhov,
              P., Chang, R., and d. daniel.bernier@bell.ca, "Data Fields
              for In-situ OAM", draft-brockners-inband-oam-data-07 (work
              in progress), July 2017.

   [I-D.brockners-opsawg-ioam-deployment]
              Brockners, F., Bhandari, S., and d.
              daniel.bernier@bell.ca, "In-situ OAM Deployment", draft-
              brockners-opsawg-ioam-deployment-00 (work in progress),
              October 2019.

   [I-D.bwd-netmod-eca-framework]
              Boucadair, M., WU, Q., Wang, Z., King, D., and C. Xie,
              "Framework for Use of ECA (Event Condition Action) in
              Network Self Management", draft-bwd-netmod-eca-
              framework-00 (work in progress), November 2019.

   [I-D.herbert-ipv4-eh]
              Herbert, T., "IPv4 Extension Headers and Flow Label",
              draft-herbert-ipv4-eh-01 (work in progress), May 2019.

   [I-D.ietf-ippm-multipoint-alt-mark]
              Fioccola, G., Cociglio, M., Sapio, A., and R. Sisto,
              "Multipoint Alternate Marking method for passive and
              hybrid performance monitoring", draft-ietf-ippm-
              multipoint-alt-mark-03 (work in progress), November 2019.

   [I-D.ietf-opsawg-ntf]
              Song, H., Qin, F., Martinez-Julia, P., Ciavaglia, L., and
              A. Wang, "Network Telemetry Framework", draft-ietf-opsawg-
              ntf-02 (work in progress), October 2019.



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 18]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   [I-D.kumar-ippm-ifa]
              Kumar, J., Anubolu, S., Lemon, J., Manur, R., Holbrook,
              H., Ghanwani, A., Cai, D., Ou, H., and L. Yizhou, "Inband
              Flow Analyzer", draft-kumar-ippm-ifa-01 (work in
              progress), February 2019.

   [I-D.mirsky-ippm-hybrid-two-step]
              Mirsky, G., Lingqiang, W., and G. Zhui, "Hybrid Two-Step
              Performance Measurement Method", draft-mirsky-ippm-hybrid-
              two-step-04 (work in progress), October 2019.

   [I-D.song-ippm-ioam-data-validation-option]
              Song, H. and T. Zhou, "In-situ OAM Data Validation
              Option", draft-song-ippm-ioam-data-validation-option-02
              (work in progress), April 2018.

   [I-D.song-ippm-ioam-tunnel-mode]
              Song, H., Li, Z., Zhou, T., and Z. Wang, "In-situ OAM
              Processing in Tunnels", draft-song-ippm-ioam-tunnel-
              mode-00 (work in progress), June 2018.

   [I-D.song-ippm-postcard-based-telemetry]
              Song, H., Zhou, T., Li, Z., Shin, J., and K. Lee,
              "Postcard-based On-Path Flow Data Telemetry", draft-song-
              ippm-postcard-based-telemetry-06 (work in progress),
              October 2019.

   [I-D.song-mpls-extension-header]
              Song, H., Li, Z., Zhou, T., and L. Andersson, "MPLS
              Extension Header", draft-song-mpls-extension-header-02
              (work in progress), February 2019.

   [I-D.song-opsawg-dnp4iq]
              Song, H. and J. Gong, "Requirements for Interactive Query
              with Dynamic Network Probes", draft-song-opsawg-dnp4iq-01
              (work in progress), June 2017.

   [I-D.wwx-netmod-event-yang]
              Wang, Z., WU, Q., Xie, C., Bryskin, I., Liu, X., Clemm,
              A., Birkholz, H., and T. Zhou, "A YANG Data model for ECA
              Policy Management", draft-wwx-netmod-event-yang-05 (work
              in progress), November 2019.

   [I-D.zhou-ippm-enhanced-alternate-marking]
              Zhou, T., Fioccola, G., Li, Z., Lee, S., and M. Cociglio,
              "Enhanced Alternate Marking Method", draft-zhou-ippm-
              enhanced-alternate-marking-04 (work in progress), October
              2019.



Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 19]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   [I-D.zhou-ippm-ioam-yang]
              Zhou, T., Guichard, J., Brockners, F., and S. Raghavan, "A
              YANG Data Model for In-Situ OAM", draft-zhou-ippm-ioam-
              yang-04 (work in progress), June 2019.

   [passport-postcard]
              Handigol, N., Heller, B., Jeyakumar, V., Mazieres, D., and
              N. McKeown, "Where is the debugger for my software-defined
              network?", 2012,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/2342441.2342453>.

   [RFC2113]  Katz, D., "IP Router Alert Option", RFC 2113,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2113, February 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2113>.

   [RFC7011]  Claise, B., Ed., Trammell, B., Ed., and P. Aitken,
              "Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
              Protocol for the Exchange of Flow Information", STD 77,
              RFC 7011, DOI 10.17487/RFC7011, September 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7011>.

12.3.  URIs

   [1] https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/

Authors' Addresses

   Haoyu Song (editor)
   Futurewei
   2330 Central Expressway
   Santa Clara
   USA

   Email: haoyu.song@futurewei.com


   Fengwei Qin
   China Mobile
   No. 32 Xuanwumenxi Ave., Xicheng District
   Beijing, 100032
   P.R. China

   Email: qinfengwei@chinamobile.com








Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 20]


Internet-Draft               IFIT Framework                December 2019


   Huanan Chen
   China Telecom
   P. R. China

   Email: chenhuan6@chinatelecom.cn


   Jaehwan Jin
   LG U+
   South Korea

   Email: daenamu1@lguplus.co.kr


   Jongyoon Shin
   SK Telecom
   South Korea

   Email: jongyoon.shin@sk.com
































Song, et al.              Expires June 6, 2020                 [Page 21]