Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol Extensions
RFC 7391

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                     J. Hadi Salim
Request for Comments: 7391                             Mojatatu Networks
Updates: 5810, 7121                                         October 2014
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721

 Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol Extensions

Abstract

   Experience in implementing and deploying the Forwarding and Control
   Element Separation (ForCES) architecture has demonstrated the need
   for a few small extensions both to ease programmability and to
   improve wire efficiency of some transactions.  The ForCES protocol is
   extended with a table range operation and a new extension for error
   handling.  This document updates the semantics in RFCs 5810 and 7121
   to achieve that end goal.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7391.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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
   (http://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.

Hadi Salim                   Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7391               ForCES Protocol Extensions           October 2014

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Terminology and Conventions ................................3
           1.1.1. Requirements Language ...............................3
           1.1.2. Terminology .........................................3
   2. Problem Overview ................................................4
      2.1. Table Ranges ...............................................4
      2.2. Error Codes ................................................4
   3. Protocol Update .................................................5
      3.1. Table Ranges ...............................................5
      3.2. Error Codes ................................................6
           3.2.1. New Codes ...........................................7
           3.2.2. Private Vendor Codes ................................8
           3.2.3. Extended Result TLV .................................8
                  3.2.3.1. Extended Result Backward Compatibility .....9
      3.3. Large Table Dumping ........................................9
   4. IANA Considerations ............................................11
   5. Security Considerations ........................................12
   6. References .....................................................12
      6.1. Normative References ......................................12
      6.2. Informative References ....................................12
   Appendix A. New FEPO Version ......................................13
   Acknowledgments ...................................................23
   Author's Address ..................................................23

1.  Introduction

   Experience in implementing and deploying the ForCES architecture has
   demonstrated the need for a few small extensions both to ease
   programmability and to improve wire efficiency of some transactions.
   This document describes a few extensions to the semantics in the
   ForCES protocol specification [RFC5810] to achieve that end goal.

   This document describes and justifies the need for two small
   extensions that are backward compatible.  This document also
   clarifies details of how dumping of a large table residing on an FE
   (Forwarding Element) is achieved.  To summarize:

   1.  A table range operation to allow a controller or control
       application to request an arbitrary range of table rows is
       introduced.

   2.  Additional error codes returned to the controller (or control
       application) by an FE are introduced.  Additionally, a new
       extension to carry details on error codes is introduced.  As a
       result, this document updates the definition of the FE Protocol
       Object (FEPO) Logical Functional Block (LFB) in [RFC7121].