BIER WG                                                         Z. Zhang
Internet-Draft                                                 G. Mirsky
Intended status: Informational                                  Q. Xiong
Expires: August 11, 2021                                 ZTE Corporation
                                                                  Y. Liu
                                                            China Mobile
                                                        February 7, 2021


BIER (Bit Index Explicit Replication) Redundant Ingress Router Failover
                 draft-zhang-bier-source-protection-02

Abstract

   This document describes a failover in the Bit Index Explicit
   Replication domain with a redundant ingress router.

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 August 11, 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.



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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Keywords  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  The Redundant BFIR Failover Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Node Failure Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  Monitoring of the Working Path for a Failure  . . . . . .   5
   4.  BFD and Ping  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  BIER Ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  BIER BFD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) [RFC8279] is an architecture
   that provides multicast forwarding through a BIER domain without
   requiring intermediate routers to maintain any multicast related per-
   flow state.  BIER also does not require any explicit tree-building
   protocol for its operation.  A multicast data packet enters a BIER
   domain at a Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR) and leaves the BIER
   domain at one or more Bit-Forwarding Egress Routers (BFERs).

   Redundant Ingress Router Failover is not specific to the BIER
   environment.  Redundant Ingress Router Failover means that to avoid
   single node failure, two or more ingress routers, BFIRs in a BIER
   environment, can be connected to the same multicast flow's source
   node.  One of BFIRs is selected to forward the flow from a multicast
   source node to egress routers, i.e., BFER in a BIER environment.  The
   BFERs may choose the primary BFIR for the given multicast flow based
   on local policies.  BFERs in the same multicast group may select the
   same or different BFIR.  The BFIR and the path in use are referred to
   as working, while all alternative available BFIRs and paths that can
   be used to receive the same multicast flow are referred to as
   protection.

   When either the working BFIR or the working path fails, a BFER can
   select one of the protecting BFIRs to recover the multicast flow.
   The shorter the detection time, the faster the flow recovers.

   This document discusses the functions that can be used to detect the
   failure to trigger redundant ingress router failover in the BIER
   environment.




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2.  Keywords

   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.

3.  The Redundant BFIR Failover Analysis

   According to the BIER architecture [RFC8279], BIER overlay protocols,
   which among others include MVPN [RFC8556], MLD [I-D.ietf-bier-mld],
   PIM [I-D.ietf-bier-pim-signaling], are used to exchange the multicast
   flow information.  Based on that, a BFER selects the UMH (Upstream
   Multicast Hop) BFIR as the ingress router.  The BFIR selected as the
   UMH through a BIER overlay protocol learns of BFERs which have chosen
   it to receive the particular multicast flow.  BIER transport is used
   to deliver the multicast packet to the destination BFERs.  The
   detection of a defect in the BIER transport layer ensures that the
   source flow protection is uninterrupted.  The switchover is performed
   at the BIER overlay layer.  Upon detecting the failure, an update in
   the BIER overlay can trigger BFIR re-selection by BFERs.

   As described in [I-D.szcl-mboned-redundant-ingress-failover], the
   root standby modes, i.e., Cold Standby, Warm Standby, and Hot
   Standby, can be used in the BIER environment.  In Warm and Hot
   Standby modes, the protection BFIR needs to learn through BIER
   overlay protocols the identities of BFERs in the particular multicast
   group.  In the Hot Standby mode, BFER receives duplicate flows from
   the selected active BFIR and protection BFIR, BFER accepts the flow
   packet from the selected active BFIR, identified, for example, by
   BFIR-id in the BIER header, discards the multicast packet from the
   protection BFIR.

   The most important elements in the redundant BFIR failover mechanism
   are failure detection and switchover.  Note that the scope of the
   failure detection includes node and working path.  Similarly, BFIR
   switching and BFER switching are considered in the switchover
   scenario.

   The selected BFIR is referred to as Selected BFIR (S-BFIR), and the
   backup BFIR is referred to as Backup BFIR (B-BFIR).  For simplicity,
   only one B-BFIR is considered in the following use case.








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                            +--------+S1+-------+
                            |                   |
                         +--v----+          +---v---+
                  +------+ BFIR1 |..........| BFIR2 +-------+
                  .      +-------+          +-------+       .
                  .                                         .
                  .                 ......                  .
                  .                                         .
                  . +-------+      +-------+      +-------+ .
                  +--|BFER1|-......-|BFER2|-......-|BFER3|--+
                    +--+----+      +---+---+      +--+----+
                       |               |             |
                       v               v             v
                       R1              R2            R3

            Figure 1: An Example of the Redundant BFIR Failover

   In Figure 1, a multicast source S1 is connected to BFIR1 and BFIR2.
   In some deployments, only BFIR1 advertises S1 flow information to
   BFERs using a BIER overlay protocol, such as, among others,
   BGP(MVPN), MLD, or PIM.  For this example, all BFERs that are
   directed to receive the S1 flow will select BFIR1 as the S-BFIR, and
   BFIR2 is considered as the B-BFIR.  In some other deployments, BFIR1
   and BFIR2 both advertise S1 flows to BFERs using a BIER overlay
   protocol.  As a result, some BFERs may select BFIR1 as their S-BFIR,
   other BFERs may select BFIR2 as S-BFIR, BFIR1 and BFIR2 are
   responsible for different sub-groups of BFERs, and they,
   respectively, are the B-BFIR for the second sub-set of BFERs.  We do
   not distinguish these two cases strictly.

   There are two types of failure monitoring:

   o  Node failure monitoring: It is used for BFIR failure detection.
      The BFER failure detection is out of the scope of this document.

   o  Working path failure monitoring: It is used for BIER transport
      path failure detection.  It is used for the monitoring among BIER
      domain edge routers, which include BFIR and BFER, through BIER
      forwarding.

3.1.  Node Failure Monitoring

   For example, consider when S1 is connected to BFIR1 and BFIR2 on a
   shared media segment.  BFIR1 is acting as S-BFIR for the multicast
   flow transmitted by S1.  BFIR2 can monitor BFIR1 node failure using a
   BFD session [RFC5880] built over the shared media segment.  Also, can
   use ping methods, including, for example, IPv4 ping [RFC0792], IPv6




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   ping [RFC4443], and LSP-Ping [RFC8029] in a network with either IPv4,
   IPv6, or MPLS data plane, respectively.

   In case there is no shared media segment interconnecting S1, BFIR1,
   and BFIR2, BFIR2 may monitor the state of BFIR1 using a BIER BFD
   session [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd] or a ping protocol across the BIER
   domain.  A ping protocol listed above or BIER ping
   [I-D.ietf-bier-ping] can be used.  In case there is no direct
   connection between BFIR1 and BFIR2, multiple hops will be traversed.
   Similarly, any of the listed above path continuity checking methods
   can be used by a BFER to monitor the path to and state of S-BFIR.
   The case when the S-BFIR monitors the working path to a BFER is
   considered further in the document in more details.

   The monitoring case between S-BFIR and B-BFIR, referred to as the
   Warm Standby mode, is described in section 4.2
   [I-D.szcl-mboned-redundant-ingress-failover].  For code and Hot
   Standby modes described in Sections 4.1 and 4.3
   [I-D.szcl-mboned-redundant-ingress-failover], the monitoring between
   S-BFIR and B-BFIR may not be necessary.

   For the monitoring between BFIR and BFERs, the BFIR node failure
   detection is also be combined with working path failure detection.

3.2.  Monitoring of the Working Path for a Failure


























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                          +--------+S1+-------+
                          |                   |
                       +--v----+          +---v---+
                +------+ BFIR1 |..........| BFIR2 +-------+
                |      +-----+-+ <------> +-------+       |
                |            |     bfd                    |
                |         +--v---+        +------+        |
                |         | BFR1 |        | BFR2 |        |
                |       +-+---+--+-       +------+        |
                |       |     |   ......                  |
                |       |     +-----+                     |
                |       |           |                     |
                |    +--v---+     +-v----+   +------+     |
                |    | BFRx |     | BFRy |   | BFRz |     |
                |    ++-----+     ++--+--+   +------+     |
                |     |            |  |                   |
                |     |            |  +------------+      |
                |     |            |               |      |
                | +---v---+      +-v-----+      +--v----+ |
                +--|BFER1||......||BFER2||......||BFER3|--+
                  +--+----+      +---+---+      +--+----+
                     |               |             |
                     v               v             v
                     R1              R2            R3

        Figure 2: An Example of the Monitoring of the Working Path

   In the case of a node failure detection, the path between B-BFIR and
   S-BFIR may not be the same as the path traversed by the data flow.
   For example, in Figure 2, the path from BFIR1 (S-BFIR) to all the
   BFERs is different from the path between BFIR1 and BFIR2 (B-BFIR).
   In Warm Standby mode, if the path between BFIR2 and BFIR1 is broken,
   BFIR2 will detect the failure and interpret that as if BFIR1 is down.
   As a result, BFIR2 will take on the role of S-BFIR.  But the path
   from BFIR1 to all or some of the BFERs may be working well and is not
   affected by the defect between BFIR1 and BFIR2.  In this situation,
   the B-BFIR switches to S-BFIR unnecessarily, and that causes packet
   duplication in the network and at BFERs.

   For the failure detection between BIER edge routers, which include
   BFIR and BFER, the path of a test packet is steered from BFIR to BFER
   is the same as the path traversed by the monitored flow.  In this
   way, the BFER simultaneously monitors S-BFIR for node and working
   path failure.

   There are two options to monitor the working multicast distribution
   tree in BIER:




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   o  S-BFIR monitors all the BFERs;

   o  BFER monitors the S-BFIR.

   In the BIER transport environment, the defect detection is based on a
   BIER-specific mechanism, e.g., BIER Ping [I-D.ietf-bier-ping], BIER
   BFD [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd].  BIER BFD [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd] reduces the
   number of BFD sessions between S-BFIR and each of BFERs.  Only one
   multipoint BFD session will be built among S-BFIR and all the BFERs
   and B-BFIR.  When MVPN is used as the BIER overlay protocol, BFD
   Discriminator attribute, defined in Section 3.1.6 in
   [I-D.ietf-bess-mvpn-fast-failover], can be used to bootstrap the
   multipoint BFD session between a BFIR and BFERs.  In this situation,
   only S-BFIR sends the BFD Discriminator attribute and transmits
   periodic BFD Control messages, BFER and B-BFIR can monitor S-BFIR,
   S-BFIR doesn't monitor BFER and B-BFIR.

   Consider when S-BFIR monitors paths to and state of all BFERs in the
   particular multicast group.  Once S-BFIR detects that a BFER is
   unreachable, S-BFIR notifies B-BFIR and the latter may start
   frowarding that multicast packets to that BFER.  The monitoring can
   be achieved by a P2P BFD session between S-BFIR and each of BFERs.
   Alternatively, a P2MP BFD session with active tails between S-BFIR
   and BFERs can be used.  This behavior can be used for the Warm
   Standby mode.

   When BFER monitors S-BFIR, a B-BFIR can also monitor S-BFIR.
   Consider that a BFER or B-BFIR detects the failure of the S-BFIR.  In
   the Cold Standby mode, the BFER MUST select B-BFIR as the new S-BFIR
   and signal to B-BFIR using a BIER overlay protocol as soon as
   possible.  In the Hot Standby mode, the BFER MUST switch to accept
   and forward the multicast flow received from B-BFIR.  In the Warm
   Standby mode, B-BFIR becomes the S-BFIR and begins to forward the
   flow to BFERs.

4.  BFD and Ping

   BFD and Ping can be used in failure detection, but there are
   differences between them.  A network administrator can select the
   appropriate mechanism according to the actual network.

4.1.  BIER Ping

   [I-D.ietf-bier-ping] describes the mechanism and basic BIER
   Operation, Administration, and Maintenance packet format that can be
   used to perform failure detection and isolation on the BIER data
   plane without any dependency on other layers like the IP layer.




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   In the example of Figure 1, BFER can monitor the status of BFIR and
   the path status between BFER and BFIR.  BFER1 sends the BIER Ping
   packet to BFIR1.  Suppose BFER1 does not receive several consecutive
   responses from BFIR1 in an expected period (may be multiple of the
   average round-trip time).  In that case, the BFER1 concludes the
   BFIR1 as a failed UMH, and BFER1 selects BFIR2 as the UMH.  In the
   Cold Standby mode, BFER1 signals to BFIR2 to start receiving the
   multicast flow.  In the Hot Standby mode, BFER begins to accept the
   flow from BFIR2.  If B-BFIR monitors S-BFIR in the Warm Standby mode
   and detects the failure, B-BFIR takes the role of S-BFIR and begins
   to forward the flow.

   In this example, BFER1, BFER2, BFER3, and B-BFIR send the BIER ping
   packets to BFIR1 separately.  The timeout period MAY be set to
   different values depending on the local performance requirement on
   each BFER.  In the Warm Standby mode, if the timeout period is
   different on BFER and B-BFIR, and the period on B-BFIR is longer than
   BFER, and multicast packets could be lost.

   In the general case of a more complex BIER topology, it cannot be
   guaranteed that the path used from BFIR1 to BFER1 is the same as in
   the reverse direction, i.e., from BFER1 to BFIR1.  If that is not
   guaranteed and the paths are not co-routed, then this method may
   produce false results, both false negative and false positive.  The
   former is when ping fails while the multicast path and flow are OK.
   The latter is when the multicast path has a defect, but ping works.
   Thus, to improve the consistency of this method of detecting a
   failure in multicast flow transport, the path that the echo request
   from BFER1 traverses to BFIR1 must be co-routed with the path that
   the monitored multicast flow traverses through the BIER domain from
   BFIR1 to BFER1.

4.2.  BIER BFD

   [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd] describes the application of P2MP BFD in a BIER
   network.  And it describes the procedures for using such a mode of
   BFD protocol to verify multipoint or multicast connectivity between a
   sender (BFIR) and one or more receivers (BFER and a redundant BFIR).

   In the same example, BFIR1 sends the BIER Echo request packet to
   BFERs to bootstrap a p2mp BFD session.  After BFER1, BFER2 and BFER3
   receive the Echo request packet with BFD Discriminator and the Target
   SI-Bitstring TLVs, BFERs creates the BFD session of type
   MultipointTail [RFC8562] to monitor the status of BFIR1 and the
   working path.  If BFERs have not received a BFD packet from BFER1 for
   the Detection Time [RFC8562], BFER1 will treat BFIR1 as a failed UMH.
   In the Cold Standby mode, BFER1 re-selects UMH and then signals to
   BFIR2.  As a result, BFIR2 begins to forward the multicast flow.  In



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   the Hot Standby mode, BFER1 switches to accept the flow from BFIR2.
   B-BFIR (BFIR2) monitors S-BFIR (BFIR1) in the Warm Standby mode,
   using the same p2mp BFD session.  After B-BFIR detects the failure,
   it takes on the role of S-BFIR and begins to forward the multicast
   flow to BFERs.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not have any requests for IANA allocation.  This
   section can be deleted before the publication of the draft.

6.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations discussed in [RFC8279], [RFC8562],
   [I-D.ietf-bier-ping], [I-D.ietf-bess-mvpn-fast-failover] and
   [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd] apply to this document.

7.  References

7.1.  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>.

   [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>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-bess-mvpn-fast-failover]
              Morin, T., Kebler, R., and G. Mirsky, "Multicast VPN Fast
              Upstream Failover", draft-ietf-bess-mvpn-fast-failover-15
              (work in progress), January 2021.

   [I-D.ietf-bier-bfd]
              Xiong, Q., Mirsky, G., hu, f., and C. Liu, "BIER BFD",
              draft-ietf-bier-bfd-00 (work in progress), November 2020.

   [I-D.ietf-bier-mld]
              Pfister, P., Wijnands, I., Venaas, S., Wang, C., Zhang,
              Z., and M. Stenberg, "BIER Ingress Multicast Flow Overlay
              using Multicast Listener Discovery Protocols", draft-ietf-
              bier-mld-04 (work in progress), March 2020.





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   [I-D.ietf-bier-pim-signaling]
              Bidgoli, H., Xu, F., Kotalwar, J., Wijnands, I., Mishra,
              M., and Z. Zhang, "PIM Signaling Through BIER Core",
              draft-ietf-bier-pim-signaling-11 (work in progress),
              November 2020.

   [I-D.ietf-bier-ping]
              Nainar, N., Pignataro, C., Akiya, N., Zheng, L., Chen, M.,
              and G. Mirsky, "BIER Ping and Trace", draft-ietf-bier-
              ping-07 (work in progress), May 2020.

   [I-D.szcl-mboned-redundant-ingress-failover]
              Shepherd, G., Zhang, Z., Liu, Y., and Y. Cheng, "Multicast
              Redundant Ingress Router Failover", draft-szcl-mboned-
              redundant-ingress-failover-00 (work in progress), October
              2020.

   [RFC0792]  Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
              RFC 792, DOI 10.17487/RFC0792, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc792>.

   [RFC4443]  Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, Ed., "Internet
              Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet
              Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", STD 89,
              RFC 4443, DOI 10.17487/RFC4443, March 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4443>.

   [RFC5880]  Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
              (BFD)", RFC 5880, DOI 10.17487/RFC5880, June 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5880>.

   [RFC8029]  Kompella, K., Swallow, G., Pignataro, C., Ed., Kumar, N.,
              Aldrin, S., and M. Chen, "Detecting Multiprotocol Label
              Switched (MPLS) Data-Plane Failures", RFC 8029,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8029, March 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8029>.

   [RFC8279]  Wijnands, IJ., Ed., Rosen, E., Ed., Dolganow, A.,
              Przygienda, T., and S. Aldrin, "Multicast Using Bit Index
              Explicit Replication (BIER)", RFC 8279,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8279, November 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8279>.

   [RFC8556]  Rosen, E., Ed., Sivakumar, M., Przygienda, T., Aldrin, S.,
              and A. Dolganow, "Multicast VPN Using Bit Index Explicit
              Replication (BIER)", RFC 8556, DOI 10.17487/RFC8556, April
              2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8556>.




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   [RFC8562]  Katz, D., Ward, D., Pallagatti, S., Ed., and G. Mirsky,
              Ed., "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for
              Multipoint Networks", RFC 8562, DOI 10.17487/RFC8562,
              April 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8562>.

Authors' Addresses

   Zheng Zhang
   ZTE Corporation

   Email: zhang.zheng@zte.com.cn


   Greg Mirsky
   ZTE Corporation

   Email: gregimirsky@gmail.com


   Quan Xiong
   ZTE Corporation

   Email: xiong.quan@zte.com.cn


   Yisong Liu
   China Mobile

   Email: liuyisong@chinamobile.com






















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