PCN                                                              T. Tsou
Internet-Draft                                                 T. Taylor
Expires: August 18, 2008                                          Huawei
                                                       February 15, 2008


Applicability Statement for the Use of Pre-Congestion Notification in a
                      Resource-Controlled Network
                   draft-tsou-pcn-racf-applic-00.txt

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   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).













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Abstract

   This document is written to help coordinate work on pre-congestion
   notification (PCN) between the IETF PCN Working Group and the ITU-T.
   It maps the use of PCN into the ITU-T transport control architecture.
   It examines three scenarios, showing in each, where new requirements
   are placed on the ITU-T architecture.  In each case, the ITU-T
   functional entity known as the Transport Resource Control Functional
   Entity (TRC-FE) is seen as the logical destination for PCN congestion
   reports and PCN flow termination reports, which it uses to keep track
   of network status.  As logical entities, instances of the TRC-FE can
   be present in the ingress nodes, in one or more centralized devices,
   or in both.  These alternatives define the scenarios examined.


Table of Contents

   1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.1.  Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN)  . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2.  Resource Admission and Control Systems . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.3.  Combining the PCN and ITU-T RACF Architectures . . . . . .  6
   3.  Scenario 1: Proxy and Ingress TRC-FE Instances . . . . . . . .  8
   4.  Scenario 2: TRC-FE Present In Ingress Nodes Only . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Scenario 3: Centralized TRC-FE Only  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   7.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   9.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 18




















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1.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.














































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2.  Introduction

2.1.  Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN)

   The PCN Working Group is working on a new approach for maintenance of
   quality of service (QoS) within Diffserv-controlled domains.  This
   approach is called "pre-congestion notification" (PCN).  The
   principles and associated architecture are documented in
   [I-D.PCNarch].

   PCN distinguishes and assigns roles to ingress nodes, interior nodes,
   and egress nodes relative to a given PCN domain.  Ingress nodes mark
   admitted packets to indicate that they should be PCN-metered.
   Interior nodes check the next-hop interface traffic status for each
   PCN-marked packet before routing it.  If the traffic status exceeds a
   lower "pre-congestion" threshold (but not the upper threshold
   described next), the packet is marked to indicate that it has
   encountered pre-congestion.  If the traffic status exceeds an upper
   "termination" threshold, the packet is marked to indicate that it has
   encountered a flow termination condition.  The egress nodes relate
   the packets they receive to the aggregate flows they receive from
   individual ingress nodes.  Statistics on packet marking are reported
   to a decision point (possibly within the egress node itself), which
   makes two decisions:

   o  whether one or more flows should be terminated immediately to
      preserve QoS for the remainder;

   o  whether new flows can be admitted without degrading the QoS for
      existing flows to an unacceptable level.

   The architecture on which the IETF work has focussed assumes that
   egress nodes communicate directly to ingress nodes to effect the
   termination and admission decisions.

2.2.  Resource Admission and Control Systems

   A number of standards bodies (such as the ITU-T, ETSI TISPAN, and
   3GPP) have defined a multi-layered transport control architecture to
   allow per-flow imposition of policy based on subscriptions across a
   variety of transport technologies.  This architecture is a
   generalization of the architecture originally developed by 3GPP for
   cellular radio networks connected to an IP core.  The architecture
   typically features a top-level control function which transmits
   requests (push mode) or provides policy responses (pull mode) to edge
   nodes where enforcement takes place.  This top-level control function
   provides an abstract view of network infrastructure to the session
   control layer (SIP servers and the like).  A second-level control



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   function is aware of the specific transport technology in use in the
   network, tracks network topology and resource availability, and
   indicates to the top-level function whether resources are available
   to serve a specific flow request.

   In the ITU-T architecture in particular [Y.2111], the top-level
   function is called the Policy Decision Functional Entity (PD-FE-FE),
   and the second-level function is called the Transport Resource
   Control Functional Entity (TRC-FE).  The complete transport control
   subsystem is called the Resource and Admission Control Function
   (RACF).  The function within the edge node at which decisions are
   enforced is called the Policy Enforcement Functional Entity (PE-FE).
   Interested parties will find a complete description of the first
   release of this architecture in [ITU-T Y.2111] , but a partial
   diagram labelling the reference points of interest in this document
   is shown in Figure 1.


                           Session Control
                           _______________
                                  |
                                  + Rs
                             -----+-----
                             |  PD-FE  |------
                             -----+-----     |
                                  |          |
                                  + Rt       |
          -----------   Rp   -----+-----     + Rw
          |  TRC-FE |---+----|  TRC-FE |     |
          -----+-----        -----+-----     |
               + Rc               + Rc       |
         ------+------------------+----------|-------
         |                              -----+----- |
         |         . . . .              |  PE-FE  | |
         |     Transport Processing     ----------- |
         --------------------------------------------


        Figure 1: A Portion of the ITU-T-Defined Transport Control
                               Architecture

   The typical message flow associated with a flow admission request in
   the ITU-T architecture is as follows:

   1.  In the general case, the TRC-FE gathers topology and status
       information from the transport processing layer across the Rc
       reference point.  The use of PCN offers the possibility that the
       TRC-FE no longer has to deal with detailed topology.



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   2.  The PD-FE receives a request to admit a flow.  In push mode this
       comes from a P-CSCF, for example, across the Rs reference point;
       in pull mode it comes from the PE-FE across the Rw reference
       point.

   3.  The PD-FE checks subscription data (provided by another
       subsystem) to see if the subscriber is permitted to add the
       requested flow.  If not, it rejects the request immediately.

   4.  The PD-FE contacts an instance of the TRC-FE by way of the Rt
       reference point to determine if the network resources are
       available to allocate to the requested flow.  The selected
       instance may locate other TRC-FE instances along the flow path
       via the Rp reference point to make this determination.

   5.  If the response from the TRC-FE is negative, the PD-FE rejects
       the request.  Otherwise it downloads the required policy to the
       PE-FE across the Rw reference point.  In push mode it also
       responds positively to the original request across the Rs
       reference point.

   The PD-FE and TRC-FE actually track sessions, which typically consist
   of multiple flows in both directions.  The TRC-FE can tell the PD-FE
   to terminate a flow or to abort a complete session due to, for
   instance, loss of the supporting resources.  The PD-FE from its side
   can add or terminate individual flows or terminate a complete session
   as required by the user.

2.3.  Combining the PCN and ITU-T RACF Architectures

   This document considers how PCN would interact with the RACF
   architecture just described.  Since that architecture is functional,
   various implementations are possible, depending on what elements are
   combined in the same physical entities.  This document looks at three
   possible deployment scenarios.  In all three cases, the PD-FE is
   implemented in a centralized device and the PE-FE is a functional
   component of the ingress nodes.  The scenarios vary in where the
   TRC-FE is implemented.

   1.  The TRC-FE is implemented both in one or more centralized devices
       (possibly combined with the PD-FE) and as a logical component of
       the ingress nodes.  Congestion level and flow termination reports
       from the egress nodes pass directly to the ingress nodes.  The
       TRC-FE in the centralized device is just a proxy that forwards
       requests and responses between the PD-FE and the ingress nodes.
       The TRC-FE instances in the ingress nodes respond to flow
       admission requests from the PD-FE with indications of resource
       status derived from the PCN reports.  They process flow



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       termination reports based on the priority parameters for existing
       flows that were supplied by the PD-FE during resource
       reservation, and send reports to the PD-FE indicating which flows
       or sessions must be terminated to protect the QoS of the
       remaining flows

   2.  The TRC-FE is absorbed into the ingress nodes and no centralized
       instance exists.  Congestion level and flow termination reports
       from the egress nodes pass directly to the ingress nodes.  The
       TRC-FE instances in the ingress nodes respond to flow admission
       requests and process flow termination reports in the same way as
       in Scenario 1.

   3.  The TRC-FE is implemented in one or more centralized devices only
       (possibly combined with the PD-FE).  It receives and processes
       the congestion level and flow termination reports and responds to
       flow admission requests in the same way as the distributed TRC-FE
       instances in the previous two scenarios.

   The following sections examine each of these scenarios in turn.
   Amongst other things, they will consider whether the message flow
   described in the previous section is appropriate or whether it should
   be modified.




























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3.  Scenario 1: Proxy and Ingress TRC-FE Instances

   The functional layout for Scenario 1 is shown in Figure 2 below.  The
   PCN reports pass across the existing Rc reference point between the
   embedded TRC-FE and the transport processing layer.  If probes are
   used, they also cross the Rc reference point.  The figure assumes
   that the PD-FE uses the proxy TRC-FE to locate the ingress node for a
   given user flow, and places the Rt and Rp reference points
   accordingly.


                           Session Control
                           _______________
                                  |
                                  + Rs
                             -----+-----
                             |  PD-FE  |
                             -+---+-----
                             /    |
                            /     + Rt
                           /      |
                  Rp      /  -----+-----
              ----+----------+  TRC-FE |
             /          /    | (Proxy) |
            /          /     -----------
           /          x Rw
    ------/-------   /                           ----------
    | ---+------ |  /             Rc             | Egress |
    | | TRC-FE +------------------+--------------+  Nodes |
    | ---------- |/   PCN reports and probes     ----------
    | ---------- /         (if used)
    | |  PE-FE +/|
    | ---------- |
    --------------
        Ingress
         Nodes


             Figure 2: Functional Architecture For Scenario 1

   If we follow through the message flows specified in Section 2.2, we
   find that they now run as follows:

   1.  Network status, but not network topology, is now determined from
       the PCN report message flows across Rc, as already noted.

   2.  Step 2 is unchanged.




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   3.  Step 3 is unchanged.

   4.  Step 4 involves messaging through the Rt reference point to the
       proxy TRC-FE instance, and from there through the Rp reference
       point to the TRC-FE instance embedded in the desired ingress
       node.  If probing is used to determine congestion status, the
       probing messages are another increment to the messaging through
       the Rc reference point.  The responses to the probes pass back
       through Rc.

   5.  Step 5 is unchanged: a request from the PD-FE directly to the
       PE-FE instance in the ingress node, across Rw.

   Note that the messaging flow appears to be less than optimal, in that
   the PD-FE is really communicating twice with the ingress node - once
   to the embedded TRC-FE instance in step 4, then, based on a positive
   response, to the PE-FE instance in step 5.  Messaging could be
   reduced to one exchange if the PD-FE were aware in advance that it
   was communicating with a combined TRC-FE + PE-FE entity.  It is an
   open issue whether such a special-case modification of the general
   control architecture should be developed.






























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4.  Scenario 2: TRC-FE Present In Ingress Nodes Only

   The functional architecture corresponding to this scenario is shown
   in Figure 3.  The figure assumes that the PD-FE does not know which
   ingress node to contact until the TRC-FE instance it reached in the
   first place locates it.  It is plausible that the TRC-FE instance has
   the necessary knowledge simply because ingress nodes tend also to be
   egress nodes, and in this scenario the egress nodes have to know
   where to send their PCN reports.  As an alternative, the PD-FE could
   be required to have the necessary knowledge to locate the right
   ingress node directly.  However, this seems contrary to the spirit of
   the existing ITU-T architecture.


                           Session Control
                           _______________
                                  |
                                  + Rs
                             -----+-----
                             |  PD-FE  |
                             -+---+-----
                             /    |
                            /     |
                           /      |
                          x Rw    + Rt
                         /        |
                        /         |         Rc
            --------------------------------+-------
            |         /           |                |
    --------|-----   /       -----|--------     ---+------
    | ------+--- |  /   Rp   | ---+------ | Rc  | Egress |
    | | TRC-FE +--------+------+ TRC-FE +---+---+ Nodes  |
    | ---------- |/          | ---------- |     ----------
    | ---------- /           | ---------- |
    | |  PE-FE +/|           | |  PE-FE | |
    | ---------- |           | ---------- |
    --------------           --------------
        Ingress                   Ingress
          Node                      Node


             Figure 3: Functional Architecture For Scenario 2

   Aside from the routing of messages between the PD-FE and the TRC-FE,
   this scenario is the same as Scenario 1.






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5.  Scenario 3: Centralized TRC-FE Only

   In this scenario centralized TRC-FE instances collect PCN reports
   from egress nodes within their scope of responsibility.  As in the
   other scenarios, the TRC-FE instances track resource status, respond
   to inquiries from the PD-FE, and notify the PD-FE if flows have to be
   terminated.  However, since they are physically separate from the
   ingress nodes, there is no possibility of message optimization.  It
   is assumed in the figure that a given egress node sends all of its
   PCN reports to the same TRC-FE instance, which must then distribute
   them to the TRC-FE instances in charge of the various ingress nodes.
   Thus the PCN reports appear as incremental information flows Rc' and
   Rp' across the Rc and Rp reference points respectively.


                           Session Control
                           _______________
                                  |
                                  + Rs
                             -----+-----
                             |  PD-FE  |
                             -+---+-----
                             /    |
                            /     + Rt
                           /      |
    -----------   Rp      /  -----+----- PCN reports
    |  TRC-FE +---+----------|  TRC-FE +-----+-----
    -----------         /    -----------     Rc    \
         |             /                            \
         + Rc'        x Rw                           \
    -----|--------   /                                \
    | ---+------ |  /                            -----+----
    | |  PE-FE +---/                             | Egress |
    | |        +---------------------------------+  Nodes |
    | ---------- |          Probes (if used)     ----------
    --------------
        Ingress
         Nodes


             Figure 4: Functional Architecture For Scenario 3

   The first thing to note in Figure 4 is that the centralized TRC-FE
   reduces the scale of a problem already encountered in PCN operation:
   where to send the PCN reports?  In the straightforward case initially
   dealt with by the PCN Working Group, each egress node must know to
   which ingress node to send each of its flow reports.  Now the
   centralized TRC-FE has that problem, but the egress nodes only have



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   to discover or be configured with the address of a single collection
   point.

   The information exchanges needed to admit a flow are pretty well
   those described in Section 2.2.  This scenario has one interesting
   point not seen in the other scenarios.  If probes are used, they must
   be sent from the ingress nodes rather than the TRC-FE instances.
   This raises the question of how they are triggered.  It seems
   inappropriate to require the PD-FE to be aware of the use of PCN in
   the domain, since it is supposed to operate in technology-independent
   fashion.  It makes more sense for the TRC-FE to trigger a probe at
   the PE-FE in response to a query from the PD-FE.  In terms of the
   ITU-T architecture, the trigger and response from the PE-FE would
   pass via the Rc reference point, but this is shown as Rc' in the
   figure because it represents an incremental requirement.




































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6.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations for the different scenarios described in
   this document are not fundamentally different from those already
   applying for PCN and for the ITU-T architecture respectively.  A more
   detailed analysis of specific issues may be appropriate as this
   document is further developed.












































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7.  IANA Considerations

   This memo presents no IANA considerations.
















































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8.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Gabriele Corliano for ideas contributed in preliminary
   discussion.















































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9.  Normative References

   [I-D.PCNarch]
              Eardley, P., "Pre-Congestion Notification Architecture",
              February 2008.

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

   [Y.2111]   International Telecommunications Union, "Resource and
              admission control functions in Next Generation Networks",
              September 2006.







































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Authors' Addresses

   Tina Tsou
   Huawei Technologies
   F3-5-089S, R&D Center,
   Longgang District
   Shenzhen  518129
   China

   Email: tena@huawei.com


   Tom Taylor
   Huawei Technologies
   1852 Lorraine Ave
   Ottawa, Ontario  K1H 6Z8
   Canada

   Phone: +1 613 680 2675
   Email: tom.taylor@rogers.com































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