Evaluation of Existing Routing Protocols against Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON) Routing Requirements
RFC 4652

Network Working Group                              D. Papadimitriou, Ed.
Request for Comments: 4652                                       Alcatel
Category: Informational                                            L.Ong
                                                                   Ciena
                                                               J. Sadler
                                                                 Tellabs
                                                                 S. Shew
                                                                  Nortel
                                                                 D. Ward
                                                                   Cisco
                                                            October 2006

           Evaluation of Existing Routing Protocols against
    Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON) Routing Requirements

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   The Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) suite of protocols has been defined to
   control different switching technologies as well as different
   applications.  These include support for requesting TDM connections
   including Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
   (SONET/SDH) and Optical Transport Networks (OTNs).

   This document provides an evaluation of the IETF Routing Protocols
   against the routing requirements for an Automatically Switched
   Optical Network (ASON) as defined by ITU-T.

Papadimitriou, et al.        Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 4652      Evaluation of Routing Protocols against ASON  October 2006

1.  Introduction

   Certain capabilities are needed to support the ITU-T Automatically
   Switched Optical Network (ASON) control plane architecture as defined
   in [G.8080].

   [RFC4258] details the routing requirements for the GMPLS routing
   suite of protocols to support the capabilities and functionality of
   ASON control planes identified in [G.7715] and in [G.7715.1].  The
   ASON routing architecture provides for a conceptual reference
   architecture, with definition of functional components and common
   information elements to enable end-to-end routing in the case of
   protocol heterogeneity and to facilitate management of ASON networks.
   This description is only conceptual: no physical partitioning of
   these functions is implied.

   However, [RFC4258] does not address GMPLS routing protocol
   applicability or capabilities.  This document evaluates the IETF
   Routing Protocols against the requirements identified in [RFC4258].
   The result of this evaluation is detailed in Section 5.  Close
   examination of applicability scenarios and the result of the
   evaluation of these scenarios are provided in Section 6.

   ASON (Routing) terminology sections are provided in Appendices A and
   B.

2.  Conventions Used in This Document

   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 [RFC2119].

   The reader is expected to be familiar with the terminology introduced
   in [RFC4258].

3.  Contributors

   This document is the result of the CCAMP Working Group ASON Routing
   Solution design team's joint effort.

      Dimitri Papadimitriou (Alcatel, Team Leader and Editor)
         EMail: dimitri.papadimitriou@alcatel.be
      Chris Hopps (Cisco)
         EMail: chopps@rawdofmt.org
      Lyndon Ong (Ciena Corporation)
         EMail: lyong@ciena.com
      Jonathan Sadler (Tellabs)
         EMail: jonathan.sadler@tellabs.com

Papadimitriou, et al.        Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 4652      Evaluation of Routing Protocols against ASON  October 2006

      Stephen Shew (Nortel Networks)
         EMail: sdshew@nortel.com
      Dave Ward (Cisco)
         EMail: dward@cisco.com

4.  Requirements: Overview

   The following functionality is expected from GMPLS routing protocols
   to instantiate the ASON hierarchical routing architecture realization
   (see [G.7715] and [G.7715.1]):

   - Routing Areas (RAs) shall be uniquely identifiable within a
     carrier's network, each having a unique RA Identifier (RA ID)
     within the carrier's network.

   - Within a RA (one level), the routing protocol shall support
     dissemination of hierarchical routing information (including