Network Working Group                                   N. Sprecher, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                    Nokia Siemens Networks
Intended status: Informational                            T. Nadeau, Ed.
Expires: October 25, 2009                                             BT
                                                    H. van Helvoort, Ed.
                                                                  Huawei
                                                           Y. Weingarten
                                                  Nokia Siemens Networks
                                                          April 23, 2009


                          MPLS-TP OAM Analysis
               draft-sprecher-mpls-tp-oam-analysis-03.txt

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Abstract

   The intention of this document is to analyze the set of requirements
   for Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) for the
   Transport Profile of MPLS(MPLS-TP) as defined in [MPLS-TP OAM
   Requirements], to evaluate whether existing MPLS OAM tools can be
   applied to these requirements.  Eventually, the purpose of the
   document is to recommend which of the existing tools should be
   extended and what new tools should be defined to support the set of
   OAM requirements for MPLS-TP.









































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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  LSP Ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.2.  MPLS BFD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.3.  PW VCCV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     1.4.  Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     1.5.  Organization of the document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   2.  Architectural requirements and general principles of
       operation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     2.1.  Architectural and Principles of Operation -
           Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   3.  MPLS-TP OAM Functions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.1.  Continuity and Connectivity Verification . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.1.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.1.2.  Gap analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.1.3.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.2.  Alarm Suppression  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.2.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.2.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.3.  Packet Loss Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.3.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.3.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     3.4.  Diagnostic Test  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.4.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.4.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     3.5.  Route Determination  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.5.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.5.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     3.6.  Delay Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.6.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.6.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     3.7.  Remote Defect Indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.7.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.7.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     3.8.  Client Fail Indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.8.1.  Existing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.8.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   4.  Recommendations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   5.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   7.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   8.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18







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1.  Introduction

   OAM (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance) plays a significant
   and fundamental role in carrier networks, providing methods for fault
   management and performance monitoring in both the transport and the
   service layers in order to improve their ability to support services
   with guaranteed and strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) while
   reducing their operational costs.

   [MPLS-TP Requirements] in general, and [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] in
   particular define a set of requirements for OAM functionality in
   MPLS-Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) for MPLS-TP Label Switched Paths
   (LSPs) (network infrastructure) and Pseudowires (PWs) (services).

   The purpose of this document is to analyze the OAM requirements and
   evaluate whether existing OAM tools defined for MPLS can be used to
   meet the requirements, identify which tools need to be extended to
   comply with the requirements, and which new tools need to be defined.
   The existing tools that are evaluated include LSP Ping (defined in
   [LSP Ping]), MPLS Bi-directional Forwarding Detection (BFD) (defined
   in [MPLS BFD]) and Virtual Circuit Connectivity Verification (VCCV)
   (defined in [PW VCCV] and [VCCV BFD]).

1.1.  LSP Ping

   LSP Ping is a variation of ICMP Ping and traceroute [ICMP] adapted to
   the different needs of MPLS LSP.  Forwarding, of the LSP Ping
   packets, is based upon the LSP Label and label stack, in order to
   guarantee that the echo messages are switched in-band (i.e. over the
   same data route) of the LSP.  However, it should be noted that the
   messages are transmitted using IP/UDP encapsulation and IP addresses
   in the 127/8 (loopback) range.  The use of the loopback range
   guarantees that the LSP Ping messages will be terminated, by a loss
   of connectivity or inability to continue on the path, without being
   transmitted beyond the LSP.

   LSP Ping extends the basic ICMP Ping operation (of data-plane
   connectivity and continuity check) with functionality to verify data-
   plane vs. control-plane consistency for a Forwarding Equivalence
   Class (FEC) and also Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) problems.  The
   traceroute functionality may be used to isolate and localize the MPLS
   faults, using the Time-to-live (TTL) indicator to incrementally
   identify the sub-path of the LSP that is succesfully traversed before
   the faulty link or node.  LSP Ping is not dependent on the MPLS
   control-plane for its operation, i.e. even though the propagation of
   the LSP label may be performed over the control-plane via the Label
   Distribution Protocol (LDP).




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   LSP Ping can be activated both in on-demand and pro-active
   (asynchronous) modes, as defined in [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements].

   [P2MP LSP Ping] clarifies the applicability of LSP Ping to MPLS P2MP
   LSPs, and extends the techniques and mechanisms of LSP Ping to the
   MPLS P2MP environment.

   [LSP Ping over MPLS Tunnels] extends LSP Ping to operate over MPLS
   tunnels or for a stitched LSP.

   As pointed out above, TTL exhaust is the method used to terminate
   flows at intermediate LSRs, usually to locate a problem that was
   discovered previously.

   Some of the drawbacks identified with LSP Ping include - LSP Ping is
   considered to be computational intensive as pointed out in [MPLS
   BFD].  When LSP bundling is employed in the network, there is no
   guarantee that the LSP Ping packets will follow the same physical
   path used by the data traffic.

1.2.  MPLS BFD

   BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) is a mechanism that is
   defined for fast fault detection for point-to-point connections.  BFD
   defines a simple packet that may be transmitted over any protocol,
   dependent on the application that is employing the mechanism.  BFD is
   dependent upon creation of a session that is agreed upon by both ends
   of the link (which may be a single link, LSP, etc.) that is being
   checked.  In addition to the control packets that BFD defines, BFD
   supports an echo function to check the continuity, and verify the
   reachability of the desired destination.  BFD does not support
   neither a discovery mechanism nor a traceroute capability for fault
   localization, these must be provided by use of other mechanisms.  The
   BFD packets support authentication between the routers being checked.

   BFD can be used in pro-active (asynchronous) and on-demand modes, as
   defined in [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements], of operation.

   [MPLS BFD] defines the use of BFD for P2P LSP end-points and is used
   to verify data-plane continuity.  It uses a simple hello protocol
   which can be easily implemented in hardware.  The end-points of the
   LSP exchange hello packets at negotiated regular intervals and an
   end-point is declared down when expected hello packets do not show
   up.  Failures in each direction can be monitored independently using
   the same BFD session.  The use of the BFD echo function and on-demand
   activation are outside the scope of the MPLS BFD specification.

   The BFD session mechanism requires an additional (external) mechanism



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   to bootstrap and bind the session to a particular LSP or FEC.  LSP
   Ping is designated by [MPLS BFD] as the bootstrap mechanism for the
   BFD session in an MPLS environment.  The implication is that the
   session establishment BFD messages for MPLS are transmitted using a
   IP/UDP encapsulation.

   In order to be able to identify certain extreme cases of mis-
   connectivity, it is necessary that each managed connection have its
   own unique identifiers.  BFD uses Discriminator values to identify
   the connection being verified, at both ends of the path.  These
   discriminator values are set by each end-node to be unique only in
   the context of that node.  This limited scope of uniqueness would not
   identify a misconnection of crossing paths that use the same
   discriminators at their end-points.

1.3.  PW VCCV

   PW VCCV provides end-to-end fault detection and diagnostics for PWs
   (regardless of the underlying tunneling technology).  The VCCV
   switching function provides a control channel associated with each PW
   (based on the PW Associated Channel Header (ACH) which is defined in
   [PW-ACH]), and allows sending OAM packets in-band with PW data (using
   CC Type 1: In-band VCCV)

   VCCV supports the following OAM mechanisms: ICMP Ping, LSP Ping and
   BFD.  ICMP and LSP Ping are IP encapsulated before being sent over
   the PW ACH.  BFD for VCCV supports two modes of encapsulation -
   either IP/UDP encapsulated (with IP/UDP header) or PW-ACH
   encapsulated (with no IP/UDP header) and provides support to signal
   the AC status.  The use of the VCCV control channel provides the
   context, based on the MPLS-PW label, required to bind and bootstrap
   the BFD session to a particular pseudo wire (FEC), eliminating the
   need to exchange Discriminator values.

   VCCV consists of two components: (1) signaled component to
   communicate VCCV capabilities as part of VC label, and (2) switching
   component to cause the PW payload to be treated as a control packet.

   VCCV is not directly dependent upon the presence of a control plane.
   The VCCV capability negotiation may be performed as part of the PW
   signaling when LDP is used.  In case of manual configuration of the
   PW, it is the responsibility of the operator to set consistent
   options at both ends.








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1.4.  Acronyms

                  This draft uses the following acronyms:

         +---------+---------------------------------------------+
         | AC      | Attachment Circuit                          |
         | ACH     | Associated Channel Header                   |
         | BFD     | Bidirectional Forwarding Detection          |
         | FEC     | Forwarding Equivalence Class                |
         | LDP     | Label Distribution Protocol                 |
         | LSP     | Label Switched Path                         |
         | ME      | Maintenance Entitity                        |
         | MEP     | Maintenance End Point                       |
         | MIP     | Maintenance Intermediate Point              |
         | MPLS-TP | Transport Profile for MPLS                  |
         | OAM     | Operations, Administration, and Maintenance |
         | PW      | Pseudowire                                  |
         | RDI     | Remote Defect Indication                    |
         | SLA     | Service Level Agreement                     |
         | TC      | Tandem Connection                           |
         | TCME    | Tandem Connection Maintenance Entity        |
         | TTL     | Time-to-live                                |
         | VCCV    | Virtual Circuit Connectivity Verification   |
         | VPCV    | Virtual Path Connectivity Verification      |
         +---------+---------------------------------------------+

1.5.  Organization of the document

   Section 2 of the document analyzes the requirements that are
   documented in [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] and provides basic
   principles of operation for the OAM functionality that is required.

   Section 3 evaluates which existing tools can provide coverage for the
   different OAM functions that are required to support MPLS-TP.

   Section 4 provides recommendations on what functionality could be
   covered by the existing toolset and what extensions or new tools
   would be needed in order to provide full coverage of the OAM
   functionality for MPLS-TP.


2.  Architectural requirements and general principles of operation

   [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] defines a set of requirements on OAM
   architecture and general principles of operations which are evaluated
   below:





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   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires that OAM mechanisms in MPLS-TP
      are independent of the transmission media and of the client
      service being emulated by the PW.  The existing tools comply with
      this requirement.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires that MPLS-TP OAM MUST be able
      to operate without IP functionality and without relying on control
      and/or management planes.  It is required that OAM functionality
      MUST NOT be dependent on IP routing and forwarding capabilities.
      The existing tools do not rely on control and/or management plane,
      however the following should be observed regarding the reliance on
      IP functionality:

      *  LSP Ping, VCCV Ping, and MPLS BFD makes use of IP header
         (UDP/IP) and do not comply with the requirement.  In the on-
         demand mode, LSP Ping also uses IP forwarding to reply back to
         the source router.  This dependence on IP, has further
         implications concerning the use of LSP Ping as the bootstrap
         mechanism for BFD for MPLS.

      *  VCCV BFD supports the use of PW-ACH encapsulated BFD sessions
         for PWs and can comply with the requirement.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires that OAM tools for fault
      management do not rely on user traffic, and the existing MPLS OAM
      tools already comply with this requirement.

   o  It is also required that OAM packets and the user traffic are
      congruent (i.e.  OAM packets are transmitted in-band) and there is
      a need to differentiate OAM packets from user-plane ones.

      *  For PWs, VCCV provides a control channel that can be associated
         with each PW which allows sending OAM packets in band of PWs
         and allow the receiving end-point to intercept, interpret, and
         process them locally as OAM messages.  VCCV defines different
         VCCV Connectivity Verification Types for MPLS (like ICMP Ping,
         LSP Ping and IP/UDP encapsulated BFD and PW-ACH encapsulated
         BFD).

      *  Currently there is no distinct OAM payload identifier in MPLS
         shim.  BFD and LSP Ping packets for LSPs are carried over
         UDP/IP and are addressed to the loopback address range.  The
         router at the end-point intercepts, interprets, and processes
         the packets.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires that the MPLS-TP OAM mechanism
      allows the propagation of AC (Attachment Circuit) failures and
      their clearance across a MPLS-TP domain



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      *  BFD for VCCV supports a mechanism for "Fault detection and
         AC/PW Fault status signaling."  This can be used for both IP/
         UDP encapsulated or PW-ACH encapsulated BFD sessions, i.e. by
         setting the appropriate VCCV Connectivity Verification
         Type.This mechanism could support this requirement.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] defines Maintenance Domain, Maintenance
      End Points (MEPs) and Maintenance Intermediate Points (MIPs).
      Means should be defined to provision these entities, both by
      static configuration (as it is required to operate OAM in the
      absence of any control plane or dynamic protocols) and by a
      control plane.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires a single OAM technology and
      consistent OAM capabilities for LSPs, PWs, MPLS-TP Links, and
      Tandem Connections.  There is currently no mechanism in the IETF
      to support OAM for Tandem Connections.  Also, the existing set of
      tools defines a different way of operating the OAM functions (e.g.
      LSP Ping to bootstrap MPLS BFD vs. VCCV).

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] requires allowing OAM packets to be
      directed to an intermediate node (MIP) of a LSP/PW.  Technically,
      this could be supported by the proper setting of the TTL value.
      However, the applicability of such a solution needs to be examined
      per OAM function.  For details, see below.

   o  [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements] suggests that OAM messages MAY be
      authenticated.  BFD has a support for authentication.  Other tools
      should support this capability as well.

2.1.  Architectural and Principles of Operation - Recommendations and
      Guidelines

   Based on the requirements analysis above, the following guidelines
   should be followed to create an OAM environment that could more fully
   support the requirements cited:

   o  Extend the PW Associate Channel Header (ACH) to provide a control
      channel at the path and section levels.  This could then be
      associated with a MPLS-TP Link, LSP, or a Tandem Connection (TC).
      The ACH should then become a common mechanism for PW, LSP, MPLS-TP
      Link, and Tandem Connection.

   o  Create a VPCV (Virtual Path Connectivity Verification) definition
      that would apply the definitions and functionality of VCCV to the
      MPLS-TP environment for LSP or Tandem Connection.  Need a
      generalized addressing scheme that can also support unique
      identification of the monitored paths (or connections).



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   o  Create or extend the VCCV definition to define a mechanism that
      would apply the definitions and functionality of VCCV to PW Tandem
      Connections

   o  Apply BFD to these new mechanisms using the control channel
      encapsulation, as defined above - allowing use of BFD for MPLS-TP
      independent of IP functionality.

   o  Define a mechanism to create TCME and allow transmission of the
      traffic via the Tandem Connection using label stacking.

   o  Define a mechanism that could be used to address a MIP of a path
      in a unique way, to support the maintenance functions.  This
      addressing should be flexible to allow support for different
      addressing schemes, and would supplement the TTL addressing of
      intermediate points.

   Creating these extensions/mechanisms would fulfill the following
   architectural requirements, mentioned above:

   o  Independence of IP forwarding and routing.

   o  OAM packets should be transmitted in-band.

   o  Support a single OAM technology for LSP, PW, MPLS-TP Link, and TC.

   In addition, the following additional requirements can be satisfied:

   o  Provide the ability to carry other types of communications (e.g.,
      APS, Management Control Channel (MCC), Signalling Control Channel
      (SCC)), by defining new types of communication channels for PWs,
      MPLS-TP Links, and LSPs.

   o  The design of the OAM mechanisms for MPLS-TP MUST allow the
      ability to support vendor specific and experimental OAM functions.


3.  MPLS-TP OAM Functions

   The following sections discuss the required OAM functions that were
   identified in [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements].

   LSP Ping is not considered a candidate to fulfill the required
   functionality, due its failure to comply with the basic architectural
   requirement for independence from IP routing and forwarding, as
   documented in Section 2 of this document.  However, usage of LSP
   Ping, in addition to the MPLS-TP OAM tools, or in MPLS-TP deployments
   with IP functionality is not precluded.



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3.1.  Continuity and Connectivity Verification

   Continuity and Connectivity Verification (CC-V) are OAM operations
   generally used in tandem, and compliment each other.  Together they
   are used to detect loss of traffic continuity and misconnections
   between MEPs and are useful for applications like Fault Management,
   Performance Monitoring and Protection Switching, etc.  To guarantee
   that CC-V can identify misconnections from cross-connections it is
   necessary that the tool use network-wide unique identifiers for the
   path that is being checked in the session.

3.1.1.  Existing tools

   BFD defines functionality that can be used to support the pro-active
   OAM CC-V function when operated in the asynchronous mode.  However,
   the current definition of basic BFD is dependent on use of LSP Ping
   to bootstrap the BFD session.  Regarding the connectivity functional
   aspects, basic BFD has a limitation that it uses only locally unique
   session identifiers.

   VCCV can be used to carry BFD packets that are not IP/UDP
   encapsulated for CC-V on a PW and use the PW label to identify the
   path.

3.1.2.  Gap analysis

   There is currently no tool that gives coverage for both aspects of
   CC-V functionality.

   One possible option, is to extend BFD to fill the gaps indicated
   above.  The extension would include:

   o  A mechanism should be defined to carry BFD packets over LSP
      without reliance on IP functionality.

   o  A mechanism should be defined to bootstrap BFD sessions for MPLS
      that is not dependent on UDP.

   o  BFD needs to be used in conjunction with "globally" unique
      identifiers for the path or ME being checked to allow connectivity
      verfication support.  There are two possibilities, to allow BFD to
      support this new type of identifier -

      *  Change the semantics of the two Discriminator fields that exist
         in BFD and have each node select the ME unique identifier.
         This may have backward compatibility implications.





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      *  Create a new optional field in the packet carrying the BFD that
         would identify the path being checked, in addition to the
         existing session identifiers.

   o  Extensions to BFD would be needed to cover P2MP connections.

   An additional option would be to create a new tool that would give
   coverage for both aspects of CC-V according to the requirements and
   the principles of operation (see section 2.1).  This option is less
   preferable.

3.1.3.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Extend BFD to resolve the gaps, using a new optional field for the
   unique path identifier.

   Note that [MP BFD] defines a method for using BFD to provide
   verification of multipoint or multicast connectivity.

3.2.  Alarm Suppression

   Alarm Suppression is a function that is used by a server layer MEP to
   notify a failure condition to its client layer MEP(s) in order to
   suppress alarms that may be generated by maintenance domains of the
   client layer as a result of the failure condition in the server
   layer.  This function should also have the capability to
   differentiate an administrative lock from a failure condition at a
   different execution level.

3.2.1.  Existing tools

   There is no mechanism defined in the IETF to support this function.

3.2.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Define a tool to support Alarm Suppression.

3.3.  Packet Loss Measurement

   Packet Loss Measurement is a function that is used to verify the
   quality of the service.  This function indicates the ratio of packets
   that are not delivered out of all packets that are transmitted by the
   path source.

   There are two possible ways of determining this measurement -

   o  Using OAM packets, it is possible to compute the statistics based
      on a series of OAM packets.  This, however, has the disadvantage



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      of being artificial, and may not be representative since part of
      the packet loss may be dependent upon packet sizes.

   o  Sending delimiting messages for the start and end of a measurement
      period during which the source and sink of the path count the
      packets transmitted and received.  After the end delimiter, the
      ratio would be calculated by the path OAM entity.

3.3.1.  Existing tools

   There is no mechanism defined in the IETF to support this function.

3.3.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Define a mechanism to support Packet Loss Measurement, based on the
   delimiting messages.  This would include a way for delimiting the
   periods for monitoring the packet transmissions to measure the loss
   ratios, and computation of the ratio between received and transmitted
   packets.

3.4.  Diagnostic Test

   A diagnostic test is a function that is used between MEPs to verify
   bandwidth throughput, packet loss, bit errors, etc.

3.4.1.  Existing tools

   There is no mechanism defined in the IETF to support this function.

3.4.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Define a tool to support Diagnostic Test.

3.5.  Route Determination

   Route Determination is used to determine the route of a connection
   across the MPLS transport network.

3.5.1.  Existing tools

   LSP Ping supports a trace route function that could be used but as it
   does not comply with the requirement for OAM functions to be
   independent of IP routing and forwarding capabilities.  Therefore, it
   can not be utilized for MPLS-TP







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3.5.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Define a new tool to support Route Determination.

3.6.  Delay Measurement

   Delay Measurement is a function that is used to measure one-way or
   two-way delay of a packet transmission between a pair of MEPs.
   Where:

   o  One-way packet delay is the time elapsed from the start of
      transmission of the first bit of the packet by a source node until
      the reception of the first bit of that packet by the destination
      node.

   o  Two-way packet delay is the time elapsed from the start of
      transmission of the first bit of the packet by a source node until
      the reception of the last bit of the loop-backed packet by the
      same source node, when the loopback is performed at the packet's
      destination node.

   Similarly to the packet loss measurement this could be performed in
   one of two ways -

   o  Using OAM packets - checking delay (either one-way or two-way) in
      transmission of OAM packets.  May not fully reflect delay of
      larger packets, however, gives feedback on general service level.

   o  Using delimited periods of transmission - may be too intrusive on
      the client traffic.

3.6.1.  Existing tools

   There is no mechanism defined in the IETF that fulfills all of the
   MPLS-TP OAM requirements.

3.6.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Define a mechanism that would allow to support Delay Measurement.
   The mechanism should be based on measurement of the delay in
   transmission and reception of OAM packets, transmitted in-band with
   normal traffic.

3.7.  Remote Defect Indication

   Remote Defect Indication (RDI) is used by a MEP to notify its peer
   MEP that a defect is detected on a bi-directional connection between
   them.



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   This function should be supported in pro-active mode.

3.7.1.  Existing tools

   There is no mechanism defined in the IETF to fully support this
   functionality, however BFD supports a mechanism of informing the far-
   end that the session has gone down, and the Diagnostic field
   indicates the reason.

3.7.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Either create a dedicated mechanism for this functionality or extend
   the BFD session functionality to support the functionality without
   disrupting the CC or CV functionality.

3.8.  Client Fail Indication

   Client Fail Indication (CFI) function is used to propagate an
   indication of a failure to the far-end sink when alarm suppression in
   the client layer is not supported.

3.8.1.  Existing tools

   There is a possibility of using the BFD over VCCV mechanism for
   "Fault detection and AC/PW Fault status signalling".  However, there
   is a need to differentiate between faults on the AC and the PW.

3.8.2.  Recommendations and Guidelines

   Either extend the BFD tool or define a tool to support Client Fail
   Indication propagation.


4.  Recommendations

   o  Define a maintenance entity that could be applied both to LSPs and
      PWs that would support management of a sub-path.  This entity
      should allow for transmission of traffic by means of label
      stacking and proper TTL setting.

   o  Extend the control and the management planes to support the
      configuration of the OAM maintenance entities and the set of
      functions to be supported by these entities.

   o  Extend the ACH to provide a control channel for MPLS-TP Links,
      LSPs, and Tandem Connections.





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   o  Define a mechanism that would allow the unique addressing of the
      elements that need to be monitored, e.g., the connections, MEPs,
      and MIPs of a path.  This mechanism needs to be flexible enough to
      support different addressing schemes, e.g.  IP addresses, NSAP,
      connection names.

   o  Define a VPCV mechanism for LSP and Tandem Connection.  This
      mechanism should reuse, as much as possible, the same principles
      of operation as VCCV.  The ACH should be extended to support CV
      types for each of the tools that are defined below, in a way that
      is consistent for PW, LSP and Tandem Connection.

   o  The appropriate assignment of network-wide unique identifiers
      needed to support connectivity verification should be considered.

   o  Tools should be defined to support the following functions:

      *  On-demand connectivity verification

      *  Alarm suppression

      *  Packet loss measurement

      *  Diagnostic test

      *  Route determination

      *  Delay measurement

      *  Remote defect indication

      *  Client fail indication

   o  The tools may have the capability to authenticate the messages.


5.  IANA Considerations

   This document makes no request of IANA.

   Note to RFC Editor: this section may be removed on publication as an
   RFC.


6.  Security Considerations

   This document does not by itself raise any particular security
   considerations.



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7.  Acknowledgements

   The authors wish to thank xxxxxxx for his review and proposed
   enhancements to the text.


8.  Informative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [LSP Ping]
              Kompella, K. and G. Swallow, "Detecting Multi-Protocol
              Label Switched (MPLS) Data Plane Failures", RFC 4379,
              February 2006.

   [PW ACH]   Bryant, S., Swallow, G., Martini, L., and D. McPherson,
              "Pseudowire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Control Word for
              Use over an MPLS PSN", RFC 4385, February 2006.

   [PW VCCV]  Nadeau, T. and C. Pignataro, "Pseudowire Virtual Circuit
              Connectivity Verification (VCCV): A Control Channel for
              Pseudowires", RFC 5085, December 2007.

   [MP BFD]   Katz, D. and D. Ward, "BFD for Multipoint Networks",
              ID draft-katz-ward-bfd-multipoint-01.txt, December 2007.

   [VCCV BFD]
              Nadeau, T. and C. Pignataro, "Bidirectional Forwarding
              Detection (BFD) for the Pseudowire Virtual Circuit
              Connectivity Verification (VCCV)",
              ID draft-ietf-pwe3-vccv-bfd-01.txt, February 2008.

   [P2MP LSP Ping]
              Nadeau, T. and A. Farrel, "Detecting Data Plane Failures
              in Point-to-Multipoint Multiprotocol Label Switching
              (MPLS) - Extensions to LSP Ping",
              ID draft-ietf-mpls-p2mp-lsp-ping-06.txt, June 2008.

   [MPLS LSP Ping]
              Bahadur, N. and K. Kompella, "Mechanism for performing
              LSP-Ping over MPLS tunnels",
              ID draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-ping-enhanced-dsmap-00, June 2008.

   [MPLS-TP OAM Requirements]
              Vigoureux, M., Betts, M., and D. Ward, "Requirements for
              OAM in MPLS Transport Networks",
              ID draft-vigoureux-mpls-tp-oam-requirements-00, July 2008.



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   [MPLS-TP Requirments]
              Nadeau, T. and C. Pignataro, "Requirements for the
              Trasport Profile of MPLS",
              ID draft-jenkins-mpls-mplstp-requirements-00, July 2008.


Authors' Addresses

   Nurit Sprecher (editor)
   Nokia Siemens Networks
   3 Hanagar St. Neve Ne'eman B
   Hod Hasharon,   45241
   Israel

   Email: nurit.sprecher@nsn.com


   Tom Nadeau (editor)
   BT
   United States

   Email: tom.nadeau@bt.com


   Huub van Helvoort (editor)
   Huawei
   Kolkgriend 38, 1356 BC Almere
   Netherlands

   Phone: +31 36 5316076
   Email: hhelvoort@huawei.com


   Yaacov Weingarten
   Nokia Siemens Networks
   3 Hanagar St. Neve Ne'eman B
   Hod Hasharon,   45241
   Israel

   Phone: +972-9-775 1827
   Email: yaacov.weingarten@nsn.com










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