MPLS Flow Identification Considerations
RFC 8372
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Bryant
Request for Comments: 8372 Huawei
Category: Informational C. Pignataro
ISSN: 2070-1721 Cisco
M. Chen
Z. Li
Huawei
G. Mirsky
ZTE Corp.
May 2018
MPLS Flow Identification Considerations
Abstract
This document discusses aspects to consider when developing a
solution for MPLS flow identification. The key application that
needs this solution is in-band performance monitoring of MPLS flows
when MPLS is used to encapsulate user data packets.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
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). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are candidates for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8372.
Bryant, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 8372 MPLS Flow Identification May 2018
Copyright Notice
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document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Loss Measurement Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Delay Measurement Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Units of Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Types of LSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Network Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7. Backwards Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8. Data Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9. Control Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
10. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
12. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
13. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. Introduction
This document discusses the aspects that need to be considered when
developing a solution for MPLS flow identification. The key
application that needs this is in-band performance monitoring of MPLS
flows when MPLS is used to encapsulate user data packets.
There is a need to identify flows in MPLS networks for various
applications such as determining packet loss and packet delay
measurement. A method of loss and delay measurement in MPLS networks
was defined in [RFC6374]. When used to measure packet loss,
[RFC6374] depends on the use of injected Operations, Administration,
and Maintenance (OAM) packets to designate the beginning and the end
of the packet group over which packet loss is being measured. If the
misordering of packets from one group relative to the following group
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or the misordering of any of the packets being counted relative to
the Loss Measurement packet [RFC6374] occurs, then an error will
occur in the packet loss measurement.
In addition, [RFC6374] did not support different granularities of
flow or address a number of multipoint cases in which two or more
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