Internet DRAFT - draft-clad-spring-segment-routing-service-chaining
draft-clad-spring-segment-routing-service-chaining
SPRING F. Clad, Ed.
Internet-Draft C. Filsfils
Intended status: Standards Track P. Camarillo
Expires: April 9, 2018 Cisco Systems, Inc.
D. Bernier
Bell Canada
B. Decraene
Orange
B. Peirens
Proximus
C. Yadlapalli
AT&T
X. Xu
Huawei
S. Salsano
Universita di Roma "Tor Vergata"
A. AbdelSalam
Gran Sasso Science Institute
G. Dawra
Cisco Systems, Inc.
October 6, 2017
Segment Routing for Service Chaining
draft-clad-spring-segment-routing-service-chaining-00
Abstract
This document defines data plane functionality required to implement
service segments and achieve service chaining with MPLS and IPv6, as
described in the Segment Routing architecture.
Status of This Memo
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provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on April 9, 2018.
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Copyright Notice
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Classification and steering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. SR-aware services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. SR-unaware services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. SR proxy behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5.1. Static SR proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.1.1. SR-MPLS pseudocode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.1.2. SRv6 pseudocode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.2. Dynamic SR proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2.1. SR-MPLS pseudocode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.2. SRv6 pseudocode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.3. Shared memory SR proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4. Masquerading SR proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4.1. SRv6 masquerading proxy pseudocode - End.AM . . . . . 17
5.4.2. Variant 1: NAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.4.3. Variant 2: Caching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6. Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7. Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.1. MPLS data plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2. IPv6 - SRH TLV objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.3. IPv6 - SRH tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8. Implementation status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9. Relationship with RFC 7665 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
13. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1. Introduction
Segment Routing (SR) is an architecture based on the source routing
paradigm that seeks the right balance between distributed
intelligence and centralized programmability. SR can be used with an
MPLS or an IPv6 data plane to steer packets through an ordered list
of instructions, called segments. These segments may encode simple
routing instructions for forwarding packets along a specific network
path, or rich behaviors to support use-cases such as service
chaining.
In the context of service chaining, each service, running either on a
physical appliance or in a virtual environment, is associated with a
segment, which can then be used in a segment list to steer packets
through the service. Such service segments may be combined together
in a segment list to achieve service chaining, but also with other
types of segments as defined in [I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing].
SR thus provides a fully integrated solution for service chaining,
overlay and underlay optimization. Furthermore, the IPv6 dataplane
natively supports metadata transportation as part of the SR
information attached to the packets.
This document describes how SR enables service chaining in a simple
and scalable manner, from the segment association to the service up
to the traffic classification and steering into the service chain.
Several SR proxy behaviors are also defined to support SR service
chaining through legacy, SR-unaware, services in various
circumstances.
The definition of control plane components, such as segment discovery
and SR policy configuration, is outside the scope of this data plane
document. These aspects will be defined in a dedicated document.
Familiarity with the following IETF documents is assumed:
o Segment Routing Architecture [I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing]
o Segment Routing with MPLS data plane
[I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing-mpls]
o Segment Routing Header [I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header]
o SRv6 Network Programming
[I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming]
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2. Terminology
SR-aware service: Service fully capable of processing SR traffic
SR-unaware service: Service unable to process SR traffic or behaving
incorrectly for such traffic
SR proxy: Proxy handling the SR processing on behalf of an SR-unaware
service
Service Segment: Segment associated with a service, either directly
or via an SR proxy
SR SC policy: SR policy, as defined in
[I-D.filsfils-spring-segment-routing-policy], that includes at least
one Service Segment. An SR SC policy may also contain other types of
segments, such as VPN or TE segments.
SR policy head-end: SR node that classifies and steers traffic into
an SR policy.
3. Classification and steering
Classification and steering mechanisms are defined in section 12 of
[I-D.filsfils-spring-segment-routing-policy] and are independent from
the purpose of the SR policy. From a headend perspective, there is
no difference whether a policy contains IGP, BGP, peering, VPN and
service segments, or any combination of these.
As documented in the above reference, traffic is classified when
entering an SR domain. The SR policy head-end may, depending on its
capabilities, classify the packets on a per-destination basis, via
simple FIB entries, or apply more complex policy routing rules
requiring to look deeper into the packet. These rules are expected
to support basic policy routing such as 5-tuple matching. In
addition, the IPv6 SRH tag field defined in
[I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header] can be used to identify and
classify packets sharing the same set of properties. Classified
traffic is then steered into the appropriate SR policy, which is
associated with a weighted set of segment lists.
SR traffic can be re-classified by an SR endpoint along the original
SR policy (e.g., DPI service) or a transit node intercepting the
traffic. This node is the head-end of a new SR policy that is
imposed onto the packet, either as a stack of MPLS labels or as an
IPv6 and SRH encapsulation.
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4. Services
A service may be a physical appliance running on dedicated hardware,
a virtualized service inside an isolated environment such as a VM,
container or namespace, or any process running on a compute element.
Unless otherwise stated, this document does not make any assumption
on the type or execution environment of a service.
SR enables service chaining by assigning a segment identifier, or
SID, to each service and sequencing these service SIDs in a segment
list. A service SID may be of local significance or directly
reachable from anywhere in the routing domain. The latter is
realized with SR-MPLS by assigning a SID from the global label block
([I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing-mpls]), or with SRv6 by advertising
the SID locator in the routing protocol
([I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming]).
This document categorizes services in two types, depending on whether
they are able to behave properly in the presence of SR information or
not. These are respectively named SR-aware and SR-unaware services.
An SR-aware service can process the SR information in the packets it
receives. This means being able to identify the active segment as a
local instruction and move forward in the segment list, but also that
the service own behavior is not hindered due to the presence of SR
information. For example, an SR-aware firewall filtering SRv6
traffic based on its final destination must retrieve that information
from the last entry in the SRH rather than the Destination Address
field of the IPv6 header. Any service that does not meet these
criteria is considered as SR-unaware.
4.1. SR-aware services
An SR-aware service is associated with a locally instantiated service
segment, which is used to steer traffic through it.
If the service is configured to intercept all the packets passing
through the appliance, the underlying routing system only has to
implement a default SR endpoint behavior (SR-MPLS node segment or
SRv6 End function), and the corresponding SID will be used to steer
traffic through the service.
If the service requires the packets to be directed to a specific
virtual interface, networking queue or process, a dedicated SR
behavior may be required to steer the packets to the appropriate
location. The definition of such service-specific functions is out
of the scope of this document.
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An SRv6-aware service may also retrieve, store or modify information
in the SRH TLVs.
4.2. SR-unaware services
An SR-unaware service is not able to process the SR information in
the traffic that it receives. It may either drop the traffic or take
erroneous decisions due to the unrecognized routing information. In
order to include such services in an SR SC policy, it is thus
required to remove the SR information before the service receives the
packet, or to alter it in such a way that the service can correctly
process the packet.
In this document, we define the concept of an SR proxy as an entity,
separate from the service, that performs these modifications and
handle the SR processing on behalf of a service. The SR proxy can
run as a separate process on the service appliance, on a virtual
switch or router on the compute node or on a remote host. In this
document, we only assume that the proxy is connected to the service
via a layer-2 link.
An SR-unaware service is associated with a service segment
instantiated on the SR proxy, which is used to steer traffic through
the service. Section 5 describes several SR proxy behaviors to
handle the SR information under various circumstances.
5. SR proxy behaviors
This section describes several SR proxy behaviors designed to enable
SR service chaining through SR-unaware services. A system
implementing one of these functions may handle the SR processing on
behalf of an SR-unaware service and allows the service to properly
process the traffic that is steered through it.
A service may be located at any hop in an SR policy, including the
last segment. However, the SR proxy behaviors defined in this
section are dedicated to supporting SR-unaware services at
intermediate hops in the segment list. In case an SR-unaware service
is at the last segment, it is sufficient to ensure that the SR
information is ignored (IPv6 routing extension header with Segments
Left equal to 0) or removed before the packet reaches the service
(MPLS PHP, SRv6 End.D or PSP).
As illustrated on Figure 1, the generic behavior of an SR proxy has
two parts. The first part is in charge of passing traffic from the
network to the service. It intercepts the SR traffic destined for
the service via a locally instantiated service segment, modifies it
in such a way that it appears as non-SR traffic to the service, then
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sends it out on a given interface, IFACE-OUT, connected to the
service. The second part receives the traffic coming back from the
service on IFACE-IN, restores the SR information and forwards it
according to the next segment in the list. Unless otherwise stated
IFACE-OUT and IFACE-IN can represent the same interface.
+----------------------------+
| |
| Service |
| |
+----------------------------+
^ Non SR |
| traffic |
| v
+-----------+----------+
+--| IFACE OUT : IFACE IN |--+
SR traffic | +-----------+----------+ | SR traffic
---------->| SR proxy |---------->
| |
+----------------------------+
Figure 1: Generic SR proxy
In the next subsections, the following SR proxy mechanisms are
defined:
o Static proxy
o Dynamic proxy
o Shared-memory proxy
o Masquerading proxy
Each mechanism has its own characteristics and constraints, which are
summarized in the below table. It is up to the operator to select
the best one based on the proxy node capabilities, the service
behavior and the traffic type. It is also possible to use different
proxy mechanisms within the same service chain.
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+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | | | M |
| | | S | a |
| | | h | s |
| | | a | q |
| | | r | u |
| | D | e | e |
| S | y | d | r |
| t | n | | a |
| a | a | m | d |
| t | m | e | i |
| i | i | m | n |
| c | c | . | g |
+---------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | SR-MPLS | Y | Y | Y | - |
| | | | | | |
| SR flavors | SRv6 insertion | P | P | P | Y |
| | | | | | |
| | SRv6 encapsulation | Y | Y | Y | - |
+----------------+----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | Ethernet | Y | Y | Y | - |
| | | | | | |
| Inner header | IPv4 | Y | Y | Y | - |
| | | | | | |
| | IPv6 | Y | Y | Y | - |
+----------------+----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Chain agnostic configuration | N | N | Y | Y |
+---------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Transparent to chain changes | N | Y | Y | Y |
+----------------+----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | DA modification | Y | Y | Y | NAT |
| | | | | | |
| | Payload modification | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| | | | | | |
|Service support | Packet generation | Y | Y |cache|cache|
| | | | | | |
| | Packet deletion | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| | | | | | |
| | Transport endpoint | Y | Y |cache|cache|
+----------------+----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Figure 2: SR proxy summary
Note: The use of a shared memory proxy requires both the service and
the proxy to be running on the same node.
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5.1. Static SR proxy
The static proxy is an SR endpoint behavior for processing SR-MPLS or
SRv6 encapsulated traffic on behalf of an SR-unaware service. This
proxy thus receives SR traffic that is formed of an MPLS label stack
or an IPv6 header on top of an inner packet, which can be Ethernet,
IPv4 or IPv6.
A static SR proxy segment is associated with the following mandatory
parameters:
o INNER-TYPE: Inner packet type
o S-ADDR: Ethernet or IP address of the service (only for inner type
IPv4 and IPv6)
o IFACE-OUT: Local interface for sending traffic towards the service
o IFACE-IN: Local interface receiving the traffic coming back from
the service
o CACHE: SR information to be attached on the traffic coming back
from the service
A static SR proxy segment is thus defined for a specific service,
inner packet type and cached SR information. It is also bound to a
pair of directed interfaces on the proxy. These may be both
directions of a single interface, or opposite directions of two
different interfaces. The latter is recommended in case the service
is to be used as part of a bi-directional SR SC policy. If the proxy
and the service both support 802.1Q, IFACE-OUT and IFACE-IN can also
represent sub-interfaces.
The first part of this behavior is triggered when the proxy node
receives a packet whose active segment matches a segment associated
with the static proxy behavior. It removes the SR information from
the packet then sends it on a specific interface towards the
associated service. This SR information corresponds to the full
label stack for SR-MPLS or to the encapsulation IPv6 header with any
attached extension header in the case of SRv6.
The second part is an inbound policy attached to the proxy interface
receiving the traffic returning from the service, IFACE-IN. This
policy attaches to the incoming traffic the cached SR information
associated with the SR proxy segment. If the proxy segment uses the
SR-MPLS data plane, CACHE contains a stack of labels to be pushed on
top the packets. With the SRv6 data plane, CACHE is defined as a
source address, an active segment and an optional SRH (tag, segments
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left, segment list and metadata). The proxy encapsulates the packets
with an IPv6 header that has the source address, the active segment
as destination address and the SRH as a routing extension header.
After the SR information has been attached, the packets are forwarded
according to the active segment, which is represented by the top MPLS
label or the IPv6 Destination Address.
In this scenario, there are no restrictions on the operations that
can be performed by the service on the stream of packets. It may
operate at all protocol layers, terminate transport layer
connections, generate new packets and initiate transport layer
connections. This behavior may also be used to integrate an
IPv4-only service into an SRv6 policy. However, a static SR proxy
segment can be used in only one service chain at a time. As opposed
to most other segment types, a static SR proxy segment is bound to a
unique list of segments, which represents a directed SR SC policy.
This is due to the cached SR information being defined in the segment
configuration. This limitation only prevents multiple segment lists
from using the same static SR proxy segment at the same time, but a
single segment list can be shared by any number of traffic flows.
Besides, since the returning traffic from the service is re-
classified based on the incoming interface, an interface can be used
as receiving interface (IFACE-IN) only for a single SR proxy segment
at a time. In the case of a bi-directional SR SC policy, a different
SR proxy segment and receiving interface are required for the return
direction.
5.1.1. SR-MPLS pseudocode
5.1.1.1. Static proxy for inner type Ethernet - MPLS L2 static proxy
segment
Upon receiving an MPLS packet with top label L, where L is an MPLS L2
static proxy segment, a node N does:
1. IF payload type is Ethernet THEN
2. Pop all labels
3. Forward the exposed frame on IFACE-OUT
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Upon receiving on IFACE-IN an Ethernet frame with a destination
address different than the interface address, a node N does:
1. Push labels in CACHE on top of the frame Ethernet header
2. Lookup the top label and proceed accordingly
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The receiving interface must be configured in promiscuous mode in
order to accept those Ethernet frames.
5.1.1.2. Static proxy for inner type IPv4 - MPLS IPv4 static proxy
segment
Upon receiving an MPLS packet with top label L, where L is an MPLS
IPv4 static proxy segment, a node N does:
1. IF payload type is IPv4 THEN
2. Pop all labels
3. Forward the exposed packet on IFACE-OUT towards S-ADDR
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Upon receiving a non link-local IPv4 packet on IFACE-IN, a node N
does:
1. Push labels in CACHE on top of the packet IPv4 header
2. Decrement inner TTL and update checksum
3. Lookup the top label and proceed accordingly
5.1.1.3. Static proxy for inner type IPv6 - MPLS IPv6 static proxy
segment
Upon receiving an MPLS packet with top label L, where L is an MPLS
IPv6 static proxy segment, a node N does:
1. IF payload type is IPv6 THEN
2. Pop all labels
3. Forward the exposed packet on IFACE-OUT towards S-ADDR
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Upon receiving a non link-local IPv6 packet on IFACE-IN, a node N
does:
1. Push labels in CACHE on top of the packet IPv6 header
2. Decrement inner Hop Limit
3. Lookup the top label and proceed accordingly
5.1.2. SRv6 pseudocode
5.1.2.1. Static proxy for inner type Ethernet - End.AS2
Upon receiving an IPv6 packet destined for S, where S is an End.AS2
SID, a node N does:
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1. IF ENH == 59 THEN ;; Ref1
2. Remove the (outer) IPv6 header and its extension headers
3. Forward the exposed frame on IFACE-OUT
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Ref1: 59 refers to "no next header" as defined by IANA allocation for
Internet Protocol Numbers.
Upon receiving on IFACE-IN an Ethernet frame with a destination
address different than the interface address, a node N does:
1. IF CACHE.SRH THEN ;; Ref2
2. Push CACHE.SRH on top of the existing Ethernet header
3. Set NH value of the pushed SRH to 59
4. Push outer IPv6 header with SA, DA and traffic class from CACHE
5. Set outer payload length and flow label
6. Set NH value to 43 if an SRH was added, or 59 otherwise
7. Lookup outer DA in appropriate table and proceed accordingly
Ref2: CACHE.SRH represents the SRH defined in CACHE, if any, for the
static SR proxy segment associated with IFACE-IN.
The receiving interface must be configured in promiscuous mode in
order to accept those Ethernet frames.
5.1.2.2. Static proxy for inner type IPv4 - End.AS4
Upon receiving an IPv6 packet destined for S, where S is an End.AS4
SID, a node N does:
1. IF ENH == 4 THEN ;; Ref1
2. Remove the (outer) IPv6 header and its extension headers
3. Forward the exposed packet on IFACE-OUT towards S-ADDR
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Ref1: 4 refers to IPv4 encapsulation as defined by IANA allocation
for Internet Protocol Numbers.
Upon receiving a non link-local IPv4 packet on IFACE-IN, a node N
does:
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1. IF CACHE.SRH THEN ;; Ref2
2. Push CACHE.SRH on top of the existing IPv4 header
3. Set NH value of the pushed SRH to 4
4. Push outer IPv6 header with SA, DA and traffic class from CACHE
5. Set outer payload length and flow label
6. Set NH value to 43 if an SRH was added, or 4 otherwise
7. Decrement inner TTL and update checksum
8. Lookup outer DA in appropriate table and proceed accordingly
Ref2: CACHE.SRH represents the SRH defined in CACHE, if any, for the
static SR proxy segment associated with IFACE-IN.
5.1.2.3. Static proxy for inner type IPv6 - End.AS6
Upon receiving an IPv6 packet destined for S, where S is an End.AS6
SID, a node N does:
1. IF ENH == 41 THEN ;; Ref1
2. Remove the (outer) IPv6 header and its extension headers
3. Forward the exposed packet on IFACE-OUT towards S-ADDR
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
Ref1: 41 refers to IPv6 encapsulation as defined by IANA allocation
for Internet Protocol Numbers.
Upon receiving a non-link-local IPv6 packet on IFACE-IN, a node N
does:
1. IF CACHE.SRH THEN ;; Ref2
2. Push CACHE.SRH on top of the existing IPv6 header
3. Set NH value of the pushed SRH to 41
4. Push outer IPv6 header with SA, DA and traffic class from CACHE
5. Set outer payload length and flow label
6. Set NH value to 43 if an SRH was added, or 41 otherwise
7. Decrement inner Hop Limit
8. Lookup outer DA in appropriate table and proceed accordingly
Ref2: CACHE.SRH represents the SRH defined in CACHE, if any, for the
static SR proxy segment associated with IFACE-IN.
5.2. Dynamic SR proxy
The dynamic proxy is an improvement over the static proxy that
dynamically learns the SR information before removing it from the
incoming traffic. The same information can then be re-attached to
the traffic returning from the service. As opposed to the static SR
proxy, no CACHE information needs to be configured. Instead, the
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dynamic SR proxy relies on a local caching mechanism on the node
instantiating this segment. Therefore, a dynamic proxy segment
cannot be the last segment in an SR SC policy. As mentioned at the
beginning of Section 5, a different SR behavior should be used if the
service is meant to be the final destination of an SR SC policy.
Upon receiving a packet whose active segment matches a dynamic SR
proxy function, the proxy node pops the top MPLS label or applies the
SRv6 End behavior, then compares the updated SR information with the
cache entry for the current segment. If the cache is empty or
different, it is updated with the new SR information. The SR
information is then removed and the inner packet is sent towards the
service.
The cache entry is not mapped to any particular packet, but instead
to an SR SC policy identified by the receiving interface (IFACE-IN).
Any non-link-local IP packet or non-local Ethernet frame received on
that interface will be re-encapsulated with the cached headers as
described in Section 5.1. The service may thus drop, modify or
generate new packets without affecting the proxy.
5.2.1. SR-MPLS pseudocode
The static proxy SR-MPLS pseudocode is augmented by inserting the
following instructions between lines 1 and 2.
1. IF top label S bit is 0 THEN
2. Pop top label
3. IF C(IFACE-IN) different from remaining labels THEN ;; Ref1
4. Copy all remaining labels into C(IFACE-IN) ;; Ref2
5. ELSE
6. Drop the packet
Ref1: A TTL margin can be configured for the top label stack entry to
prevent constant cache updates when multiple equal-cost paths with
different hop counts are used towards the SR proxy node. In that
case, a TTL difference smaller than the configured margin should not
trigger a cache update (provided that the labels are the same).
Ref2: C(IFACE-IN) represents the cache entry associated to the
dynamic SR proxy segment. It is identified with IFACE-IN in order to
efficiently retrieve the right SR information when a packet arrives
on this interface.
In addition, the inbound policy should check that C(IFACE-IN) has
been defined before attempting to restore the MPLS label stack, and
drop the packet otherwise.
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5.2.2. SRv6 pseudocode
The static proxy SRv6 pseudocode is augmented by inserting the
following instructions between lines 1 and 2.
1. IF NH=SRH & SL > 0 THEN
2. Decrement SL and update the IPv6 DA with SRH[SL]
3. IF C(IFACE-IN) different from IPv6 encaps THEN ;; Ref1
4. Copy the IPv6 encaps into C(IFACE-IN) ;; Ref2
5. ELSE
6. Drop the packet
Ref1: "IPv6 encaps" represents the IPv6 header and any attached
extension header.
Ref2: C(IFACE-IN) represents the cache entry associated to the
dynamic SR proxy segment. It is identified with IFACE-IN in order to
efficiently retrieve the right SR information when a packet arrives
on this interface.
In addition, the inbound policy should check that C(IFACE-IN) has
been defined before attempting to restore the IPv6 encapsulation, and
drop the packet otherwise.
5.3. Shared memory SR proxy
The shared memory proxy is an SR endpoint behavior for processing SR-
MPLS or SRv6 encapsulated traffic on behalf of an SR-unaware service.
This proxy behavior leverages a shared-memory interface with the
service in order to hide the SR information from an SR-unaware
service while keeping it attached to the packet. We assume in this
case that the proxy and the service are running on the same compute
node. A typical scenario is an SR-capable vrouter running on a
container host and forwarding traffic to virtual services isolated
within their respective container.
More details will be added in a future revision of this document.
5.4. Masquerading SR proxy
The masquerading proxy is an SR endpoint behavior for processing SRv6
traffic on behalf of an SR-unaware service. This proxy thus receives
SR traffic that is formed of an IPv6 header and an SRH on top of an
inner payload. The masquerading behavior is independent from the
inner payload type. Hence, the inner payload can be of any type but
it is usually expected to be a transport layer packet, such as TCP or
UDP.
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A masquerading SR proxy segment is associated with the following
mandatory parameters:
o S-ADDR: Ethernet or IPv6 address of the service
o IFACE-OUT: Local interface for sending traffic towards the service
o IFACE-IN: Local interface receiving the traffic coming back from
the service
A masquerading SR proxy segment is thus defined for a specific
service and bound to a pair of directed interfaces or sub-interfaces
on the proxy. As opposed to the static and dynamic SR proxies, a
masquerading segment can be present at the same time in any number of
SR SC policies and the same interfaces can be bound to multiple
masquerading proxy segments. The only restriction is that a
masquerading proxy segment cannot be the last segment in an SR SC
policy.
The first part of the masquerading behavior is triggered when the
proxy node receives an IPv6 packet whose Destination Address matches
a masquerading proxy segment. The proxy inspects the IPv6 extension
headers and substitutes the Destination Address with the last segment
in the SRH attached to the IPv6 header, which represents the final
destination of the IPv6 packet. The packet is then sent out towards
the service.
The service receives an IPv6 packet whose source and destination
addresses are respectively the original source and final destination.
It does not attempt to inspect the SRH, as RFC2460 specifies that
routing extension headers are not examined or processed by transit
nodes. Instead, the service simply forwards the packet based on its
current Destination Address. In this scenario, we assume that the
service can only inspect, drop or perform limited changes to the
packets. For example, Intrusion Detection Systems, Deep Packet
Inspectors and non-NAT Firewalls are among the services that can be
supported by a masquerading SR proxy. Variants of the masquerading
behavior are defined in Section 5.4.2 and Section 5.4.3 to support a
wider range of services.
The second part of the masquerading behavior, also called de-
masquerading, is an inbound policy attached to the proxy interface
receiving the traffic returning from the service, IFACE-IN. This
policy inspects the incoming traffic and triggers a regular SRv6
endpoint processing (End) on any IPv6 packet that contains an SRH.
This processing occurs before any lookup on the packet Destination
Address is performed and it is sufficient to restore the right active
segment as the Destination Address of the IPv6 packet.
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5.4.1. SRv6 masquerading proxy pseudocode - End.AM
Masquerading: Upon receiving a packet destined for S, where S is an
End.AM SID, a node N processes it as follows.
1. IF NH=SRH & SL > 0 THEN
2. Update the IPv6 DA with SRH[0]
3. Forward the packet on IFACE-OUT
4. ELSE
5. Drop the packet
De-masquerading: Upon receiving a non-link-local IPv6 packet on
IFACE-IN, a node N processes it as follows.
1. IF NH=SRH & SL > 0 THEN
2. Decrement SL
3. Update the IPv6 DA with SRH[SL] ;; Ref1
4. Lookup DA in appropriate table and proceed accordingly
Ref2: This pseudocode can be augmented to support the Penultimate
Segment Popping (PSP) endpoint flavor. The exact pseudocode
modification are provided in
[I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming].
5.4.2. Variant 1: NAT
Services modifying the destination address in the packets they
process, such as NATs, can be supported by a masquerading proxy with
the following modification to the de-masquerading pseudocode.
De-masquerading - NAT: Upon receiving a non-link-local IPv6 packet on
IFACE-IN, a node N processes it as follows.
1. IF NH=SRH & SL > 0 THEN
2. Update SRH[0] with the IPv6 DA
3. Decrement SL
4. Update the IPv6 DA with SRH[SL]
5. Lookup DA in appropriate table and proceed accordingly
5.4.3. Variant 2: Caching
Services generating packets or acting as endpoints for transport
connections can be supported by adding a dynamic caching mechanism
similar to the one described in Section 5.2.
More details will be added in a future revision of this document.
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6. Illustrations
We consider the network represented in Figure 3 where:
o A and B are two end hosts using IPv4
o B advertises the prefix 20.0.0.0/8
o 1 to 6 are physical or virtual routers supporting IPv6 and segment
routing
o S1 is an SR-aware firewall service
o S2 is an SR-unaware IPS service
--3--
/ \
/ \
A----1----2----4----5----6----B
| |
| |
S1 S2
Figure 3: Network with services
All links are configured with an IGP weight of 10 except link 2-3
that is set to 20.
We assume that the path 2-3-5 has a lower latency than 2-4-5.
Nodes 1 to 6 each advertise in the IGP an IPv6 prefix Ck::/64, where
k represents the node identifier.
Nodes 1 to 6 are each configured with an SRv6 End segment Ck::/128,
where k represents the node identifier.
Node S1 is configured with an SRv6 SID CF1::/128 such that packets
arriving at S1 with the Destination Address CF1:: are processed by
the service. This SID is either advertised by S1, if it participates
in the IGP, or by node 2 on behalf of S1.
Node 5 is also configured with an SRv6 dynamic proxy segments
(End.AD) C5::AD:F2 for S2.
Node 6 is also configured with an SRv6 End.DX4 segment C6::D4:B
decapsulating the SRv6 and sending the inner IPv4 packets towards D.
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Via BGP signaling or an SDN controller, node 1 is programmed with a
route 20.0.0.0/8 via C6::D4:B and a color/community requiring low
latency and services S1 and S2.
Node 1 either locally computes the path to the egress node or
delegates the computation to a PCE. As a result, the SRv6
encapsulation policy < CF1::, C3::, C5::AD:F2, C6::D4:B > is
associated with the route 20.0.0.0/8 on node 1.
Upon receiving a packet P from node A and destined to 20.20.20.20,
node 1 finds the above table entry and pushes an outer IPv6 header
with (SA = C1::, DA = CF1::, NH = SRH) followed by an SRH (C6::D4:B,
C5::AD:F2, C3::, CF1::; SL = 3; NH = IPv4). Node 1 then forwards the
packet to the first destination address CF1::.
Node 2 forwards P along the shortest path to S1, based on the IPv6
destination address CF1::.
When S1 receives the packet, it identifies a locally instantiated SID
and applies the firewall filtering rules. If the packet is not
dropped, the SL value is decremented and the DA is updated to the
next segment C3::. S1 then sends back to node 2 the packet P with (SA
= C1::, DA = C3::, NH = SRH) (C6::D4:B, C5::AD:F2, C3::, CF1::; SL =
2; NH = IPv4).
Node 2 forwards P along the shortest path to node 3, based on the
IPv6 destination address C3::.
When 3 receives the packet, 3 matches the DA in its local SID table
and finds the bound End function. It thus decrements the SL value
and updates the DA to the next segment: C5::AD:F2. Node 3 then
forwards packet P with (SA = C1::, DA = C5::AD:F2, NH = SRH)
(C6::D4:B, C5::AD:F2, C3::, CF1::; SL = 1; NH = IPv4) towards node 5.
When 5 receives the packet, 5 matches the DA in its local SID table
and finds the bound function End.AD(S2). It thus performs the End
function (decrement SL and update DA), caches and removes the outer
IPv6 header and the SRH, then forwards the inner IPv4 packet towards
S2.
S2 receives a regular IPv4 packet headed to 20.20.20.20. It applies
the IPS rules and forwards the packet back to node 5.
When 5 receives the packet on the returning interface (IFACE-IN) for
S2, 5 retrieves the corresponding cache entry and pushes the updated
IPv6 header and SRH. It then forwards P with (SA = C1::, DA =
C6:D4:B, NH = SRH) (C6::D4:B, C5::AD:F2, C3::, CF1::; SL = 0; NH =
IPv4) to node 6.
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When 6 receives the packet, 6 matches the DA in its local SID table
and finds the bound function End.DX4. It thus removes the outer IPv6
header and forwards the inner IPv4 packet to node B.
7. Metadata
7.1. MPLS data plane
The MPLS data plane does not provide any native mechanism to attach
metadata to a packet.
Workarounds to carry metadata in an SR-MPLS context will be discussed
in a future version of this document.
7.2. IPv6 - SRH TLV objects
The IPv6 SRH TLV objects are designed to carry all sorts of metadata.
In particular, [I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header] defines the NSH
carrier TLV as a container for NSH metadata.
TLV objects can be imposed by the ingress edge router that steers the
traffic into the SR SC policy.
An SR-aware service may impose, modify or remove any TLV object
attached to the first SRH, either by directly modifying the packet
headers or via a control channel between the service and its
forwarding plane.
An SR-aware service that re-classifies the traffic and steers it into
a new SR SC policy (e.g. DPI) may attach any TLV object to the new
SRH.
Metadata imposition and handling will be further discussed in a
future version of this document.
7.3. IPv6 - SRH tag
The SRH tag identifies a packet as part of a group or class of
packets [I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header].
In a service chaining context, this field can be used as a simple
man's metadata to encode additional information in the SRH.
8. Implementation status
The static SR proxy is available for SR-MPLS and SRv6 on various
Cisco hardware and software platforms. Furthermore, the following
proxies are available on open-source software.
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+-------------+-------------+
| VPP | Linux |
+---+-------------------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| M | Static proxy | Available | In progress |
| P | | | |
| L | Dynamic proxy | In progress | In progress |
| S | | | |
| | Shared memory proxy | In progress | In progress |
+---+-------------------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| | Static proxy | Available | In progress |
| | | | |
| | Dynamic proxy - Inner type Ethernet | In progress | In progress |
| | | | |
| | Dynamic proxy - Inner type IPv4 | Available | Available |
| S | | | |
| R | Dynamic proxy - Inner type IPv6 | Available | Available |
| v | | | |
| 6 | Shared memory proxy | In progress | In progress |
| | | | |
| | Masquerading proxy | Available | Available |
| | | | |
| | Masquerading proxy - NAT variant | In progress | In progress |
| | | | |
| | Masquerading proxy - Cache variant | In progress | In progress |
+---+-------------------------------------+-------------+-------------+
Open-source implementation status table
9. Relationship with RFC 7665
The Segment Routing solution addresses a wider problem that covers
both topological and service chaining policies. The topological and
service instructions can be either deployed in isolation or in
combination. SR has thus a wider applicability than the architecture
defined in [RFC7665]. Furthermore, the inherent property of SR is a
stateless network fabric. In SR, there is no state within the fabric
to recognize a flow and associate it with a policy. State is only
present at the ingress edge of the SR domain, where the policy is
encoded into the packets. This is completely different from NSH that
relies on state configured at every hop of the service chain.
Hence, there is no linkage between this document and [RFC7665].
10. IANA Considerations
This document has no actions for IANA.
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11. Security Considerations
The security requirements and mechanisms described in
[I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing] and
[I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header] also apply to this document.
Additional considerations will be discussed in future versions of the
document.
12. Acknowledgements
TBD.
13. Contributors
Jisu Bhattacharya substantially contributed to the content of this
document.
14. References
14.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing]
Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Decraene, B., Litkowski, S.,
and R. Shakir, "Segment Routing Architecture", draft-ietf-
spring-segment-routing-12 (work in progress), June 2017.
14.2. Informative References
[I-D.filsfils-spring-segment-routing-policy]
Filsfils, C., Sivabalan, S., Raza, K., Liste, J., Clad,
F., Lin, S., bogdanov@google.com, b., Horneffer, M.,
Steinberg, D., Decraene, B., and S. Litkowski, "Segment
Routing Policy for Traffic Engineering", draft-filsfils-
spring-segment-routing-policy-01 (work in progress), July
2017.
[I-D.filsfils-spring-srv6-network-programming]
Filsfils, C., Leddy, J., daniel.voyer@bell.ca, d.,
daniel.bernier@bell.ca, d., Steinberg, D., Raszuk, R.,
Matsushima, S., Lebrun, D., Decraene, B., Peirens, B.,
Salsano, S., Naik, G., Elmalky, H., Jonnalagadda, P.,
Sharif, M., Ayyangar, A., Mynam, S., Henderickx, W.,
Bashandy, A., Raza, K., Dukes, D., Clad, F., and P.
Camarillo, "SRv6 Network Programming", draft-filsfils-
spring-srv6-network-programming-01 (work in progress),
June 2017.
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[I-D.ietf-6man-segment-routing-header]
Previdi, S., Filsfils, C., Raza, K., Leddy, J., Field, B.,
daniel.voyer@bell.ca, d., daniel.bernier@bell.ca, d.,
Matsushima, S., Leung, I., Linkova, J., Aries, E., Kosugi,
T., Vyncke, E., Lebrun, D., Steinberg, D., and R. Raszuk,
"IPv6 Segment Routing Header (SRH)", draft-ietf-6man-
segment-routing-header-07 (work in progress), July 2017.
[I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing-mpls]
Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Bashandy, A., Decraene, B.,
Litkowski, S., and R. Shakir, "Segment Routing with MPLS
data plane", draft-ietf-spring-segment-routing-mpls-10
(work in progress), June 2017.
[RFC7665] Halpern, J., Ed. and C. Pignataro, Ed., "Service Function
Chaining (SFC) Architecture", RFC 7665,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7665, October 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7665>.
Authors' Addresses
Francois Clad (editor)
Cisco Systems, Inc.
France
Email: fclad@cisco.com
Clarence Filsfils
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Belgium
Email: cf@cisco.com
Pablo Camarillo Garvia
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Spain
Email: pcamaril@cisco.com
Daniel Bernier
Bell Canada
Canada
Email: daniel.bernier@bell.ca
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Bruno Decraene
Orange
France
Email: bruno.decraene@orange.com
Bart Peirens
Proximus
Belgium
Email: bart.peirens@proximus.com
Chaitanya Yadlapalli
AT&T
USA
Email: cy098d@att.com
Xiaohu Xu
Huawei
Email: xuxiaohu@huawei.com
Stefano Salsano
Universita di Roma "Tor Vergata"
Italy
Email: stefano.salsano@uniroma2.it
Ahmed AbdelSalam
Gran Sasso Science Institute
Italy
Email: ahmed.abdelsalam@gssi.it
Gaurav Dawra
Cisco Systems, Inc.
USA
Email: gdawra@cisco.com
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