MPLS Flow Identification Considerations
RFC 8372

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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.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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
   (https://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.

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