Internet DRAFT - draft-ietf-ccamp-network-assigned-upstream-label

draft-ietf-ccamp-network-assigned-upstream-label







 CCAMP Working Group                            Vishnu Pavan Beeram (Ed) 
 Internet Draft                                         Juniper Networks 
 Intended status: Standards Track                      Igor Bryskin (Ed) 
                                                 ADVA Optical Networking 
      
 Expires: April 23, 2015                                October 23, 2014 
                                         
      
                                           
                       Network Assigned Upstream-Label 
             draft-ietf-ccamp-network-assigned-upstream-label-00 


 Status of this Memo 

    This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 
    provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 
         
    Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
    Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that 
    other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
    Drafts. 
         
    Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 
    months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents 
    at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as 
    reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 
         
    The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
    http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 
         
    The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
    http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html 
         
    This Internet-Draft will expire on April 23, 2015. 
         
 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 

      
      
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 1] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

    Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without 
    warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. 
         
 Abstract 

    This document discusses a GMPLS RSVP-TE protocol mechanism that 
    enables the network to assign an upstream-label for a given LSP. 
    This is useful in scenarios where a given node does not have 
    sufficient information to assign the correct upstream-label on its 
    own and needs to rely on the network to pick an appropriate label.  

 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]. 
         

 Table of Contents 

    1. Introduction...................................................2 
    2. Use-Case: Alien Wavelength Setup...............................3 
    3. The "crank-back" approach......................................3 
    4. Symmetric Labels...............................................5 
    5. Unassigned Upstream Label......................................5 
       5.1. Processing Rules..........................................5 
       5.2. Backwards Compatibility...................................6 
    6. Applicability..................................................6 
       6.1. Initial Setup.............................................7 
       6.2. Wavelength Change.........................................8 
    7. Security Considerations........................................8 
    8. IANA Considerations............................................8 
    9. Normative References...........................................8 
    10. Acknowledgments...............................................8 
        
 1. Introduction 

    The GMPLS RSVP-TE extensions for setting up a Bidirectional LSP are 
    discussed in [RFC3473]. The Bidirectional LSP setup is indicated by 
    the presence of an UPSTREAM_LABEL Object in the PATH message. As per 
    the existing setup procedure outlined for a Bidirectional LSP, each 
    upstream-node must allocate a valid upstream-label on the outgoing 
    interface before sending the initial PATH message downstream. 
    However, there are certain scenarios where it is not desirable or 
    possible for a given node to pick the upstream-label on its own. 
    This document defines the protocol mechanism to be used in such 
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 2] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

    scenarios. This mechanism enables a given node to offload the task 
    of assigning the upstream-label for a given LSP onto the network.  

 2. Use-Case: Alien Wavelength Setup 

    Consider the network topology depicted in Figure 1. Nodes A and B 
    are client IP routers that are connected to an optical WDM transport 
    network. F, H and I represent WDM nodes. The transponder sits on the 
    router and is directly connected to the add-drop port on a WDM node. 
      
    The optical signal originating on "Router A" is tuned to a 
    particular wavelength. On "WDM-Node F", it gets multiplexed with 
    optical signals at other wavelengths. Depending on the 
    implementation of this multiplexing function, it may not be 
    acceptable to have the router send signal into the optical network 
    unless it is at the appropriate wavelength. In other words, having 
    the router send signal with a wrong wavelength may adversely impact 
    existing optical trails. If the clients do not have full visibility 
    into the optical network, they are not in a position to pick the 
    correct wavelength up-front.  
      
                               | 
                               | +---+            /-\ 
                               | |   | Router    (   ) WDM  
                               | +---+ Node       \-/  node 
                               |________________________________ 
                                      
      +---+          /-\           /-\           /-\          +---+ 
      | A |---------( F )---------( H )---------( I )---------| B | 
      +---+          \-/           \-/           \-/          +---+ 

                     Figure 1: Sample topology  

 3. The "crank-back" approach 

    There are currently no GMPLS RSVP-TE protocol mechanisms that an 
    upstream-node can use for indicating that it does not know what 
    upstream-label to use and that it needs the downstream-node to pick 
    the label on its behalf.  

    The following setup sequence is an attempt to address the above use-
    case using existing protocol mechanisms: 


      
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 3] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

      +---+                 /-\             /-\                 +---+ 
      | A |----------------( F ) ~~~~~~~~~ ( I )----------------| B | 
      +---+                 \-/             \-/                 +---+ 
          
         PATH  
           Upstream Label (any available value) 
         ---------------------> 
         PATH-ERROR 
           Routing problem/Unacceptable Label Value  
           Acceptable Label Set (L1, L2 .. Ln) 
         <--------------------- 
         PATH  
           Upstream Label (L2) 
         ---------------------> 
                               -- ~~ -- ~~ --> 
                                               PATH   
                                               --------------------> 
                                               RESV 
                                               <-------------------- 
                               <-- ~~ -- ~~ -- 
         RESV  
           Label (Assigned) 
         <--------------------- 

              Figure 2: Setup Sequence - Crank-back Approach  

    The above approach does sort of work, but there are a few obvious 
    concerns: 

    - Since "Router-A" does not know which upstream-label to use, it 
      picks some random label and signals it without programming its 
      data-plane. As a result, the outgoing PATH message has no 
      indication of whether the upstream-label has been installed along 
      the data-path or not. 
    - If "Router-A" somehow correctly guesses (by sheer luck) an 
      acceptable upstream label upfront, the network may end up finding 
      a path which is suboptimal (there could be a different acceptable 
      upstream label which corresponds to a better path in the network) 
    - The "Path-Error with Acceptable Label Set" retry approach is 
      usually used for exception handling. The above solution uses it 
      for almost every single setup request (except in the rare scenario 
      where the appropriate upstream-label is guessed correctly). 
    - There is an awkward window between the time the network sends out 
      the Path-Error (with the ACCEPTABLE_LABEL_SET) and receives the 
      corresponding Path (with the selected UPSTREAM_LABEL); this window
 
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 4] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

      opens up the possibility of the selected UPSTREAM_LABEL to be 
      stale by the time the network receives the retry PATH. 
    - The above solution assumes the use of "symmetric labels" by 
      default.  

    The rest of the sections in this draft discuss a solution proposal 
    that is devoid of any of the above concerns. 

 4. Symmetric Labels 

    As per [RFC3471], the upstream-label and the downstream-label for an 
    LSP at a given hop need not be the same. The use-case discussed in 
    this document pertains to Lambda Switch Capable (LSC) LSPs and it is 
    an undocumented fact that in practice, LSC LSPs always have 
    symmetric labels at each hop along the path of the LSP.  

    The use of the protocol mechanism discussed in this document 
    mandates "Label Symmetry". This mechanism is meant to be used only 
    for Bidirectional LSPs that assign Symmetric Labels at each hop 
    along the path of the LSP.  

 5. Unassigned Upstream Label 

    This document proposes the use of a special label value - 
    "0xFFFFFFFF" - to indicate an Unassigned Label. The presence of this 
    value in the UPSTREAM_LABEL object of a PATH message indicates that 
    the upstream-node has not assigned an upstream label on its own and 
    has requested the downstream-node to provide a label that it can use 
    in both forward and reverse directions. The presence of this value 
    in the UPSTREAM LABEL object of a PATH message can also be 
    interpreted as a request to mandate "symmetric labels" for the LSP 
    at the given hop. 

 5.1. Processing Rules 

    The Unassigned Upstream Label is used by an upstream-node when it is 
    not in a position to pick the upstream label on its own. In such a 
    scenario, the upstream-node sends a PATH message downstream with an 
    Unassigned Upstream Label and requests the downstream-node to 
    provide a symmetric label. If the upstream-node desires to make the 
    downstream-node aware of its limitations with respect to label 
    selection, it has the option to specify a list of valid labels via 
    the LABEL_SET object. 

    In response, the downstream-node picks an appropriate symmetric 
    label and sends it via the LABEL object in the RESV message. The 
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 5] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

    upstream-node would then start using this symmetric label for both 
    directions of the LSP. If the downstream-node cannot pick the 
    symmetric label, it MUST issue a PATH-ERR message with a "Routing 
    Problem/Unacceptable Label Value" indication.  

    The upstream-node will continue to signal the Unassigned Upstream 
    Label in the PATH message even after it receives an appropriate 
    symmetric label in the RESV message. This is done to make sure that 
    the downstream-node would pick a symmetric label if and when it 
    needs to change the RESV label at a later point in time. 

               +----------+                    +------------+ 
            ---| Upstream |--------------------| Downstream |--- 
               +----------+                    +------------+ 
                                           
                           PATH 
                            Upstream Label (Unassigned) 
                            Label-Set (L1, L2 ... Ln)         
                            -------------------> 
                                       
                           RESV 
                            Label (Assigned - L2) 
                           <------------------- 
                                        
                       Figure 3: Unassigned UPSTREAM_LABEL 
         
 5.2. Backwards Compatibility 

    If the downstream-node is running an older implementation (which may 
    be using the "crank-back" approach discussed in Section 3) and 
    doesn't understand the semantics of an Unassigned UPSTREAM LABEL, it 
    will either (a) reject the special label value and generate an error 
    or (b) accept it and treat it as a valid label.  

    If the behavior that is exhibited is (a), then there are obviously 
    no backwards compatibility concerns. Ingress implementations may 
    even choose to adopt the "crank-back" approach in such cases. If 
    there is some existing implementation that exhibits the behavior in 
    (b), then there could be some potential issues. The use-case 
    discussed in this draft pertains to LSC LSPs and it is safe to 
    assume that the behavior in (b) will not be exhibited for such LSPs. 

 6. Applicability 

    Let us revisit the "alien wavelength" use-case discussed in Section 
    2 and examine how the mechanism proposed in this document allows the 
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 6] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

    optical network to select and communicate the correct wavelength to 
    its clients. 
         

 6.1. Initial Setup 

      +---+                 /-\             /-\                 +---+ 
      | A |----------------( F ) ~~~~~~~~~ ( I )----------------| B | 
      +---+                 \-/             \-/                 +---+ 
          
         PATH  
           Upstream Label (Unassigned) 
         ---------------------> 
                               -- ~~ -- ~~ --> 
                                               PATH   
                                               --------------------> 
                                               RESV 
                                               <-------------------- 
                               <-- ~~ -- ~~ -- 
         RESV  
           Label (Assigned) 
         <--------------------- 
            
                 Figure 4: Alien Wavelength - Initial Setup 

         
    Steps: 
      - "Router A" does not have enough information to pick an 
        appropriate client wavelength. It sends a PATH downstream 
        requesting the network to assign an appropriate symmetric label 
        for it to use. Since the client wavelength is unknown, the 
        laser is off at the ingress client. 
      - The network receives the PATH, chooses the appropriate 
        wavelength values and forwards them in appropriate label fields 
        to the egress client ("Router B") 
      - "Router B" receives the PATH, turns the laser ON and tunes it 
        to the appropriate wavelength (received in the 
        UPSTREAM_LABEL/LABEL_SET of the PATH) and sends out a RESV 
        upstream.  
      - The RESV received by the ingress client carries a valid 
        symmetric label in the LABEL object. "Router A" turns on the 
        laser and tunes it to the wavelength specified in the network 
        assigned symmetric LABEL.  
      
    For cases where the egress-node relies on RSVP signaling to 
    determine exactly when to start using the LSP, this draft recommends 
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 7] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

    integrating the above sequence with any of the existing graceful 
    setup procedures: 
      - "RESV-CONF" setup procedure (or) 
      - 2-step "ADMIN STATUS" based setup procedure ("A" bit set in the 
        first step; "A" bit cleared when the LSP is ready for use). 
       
 6.2. Wavelength Change 

    After the LSP is set up, the network MAY decide to change the 
    wavelength for the given LSP. This could be for a variety of reasons 
    - policy reasons, restoration within the core, preemption etc.  

    In such a scenario, if the ingress client receives a changed label 
    via the LABEL object in a RESV modify, it MUST retune the laser at 
    the ingress to the new wavelength. Similarly if the egress client 
    receives a changed label via UPSTREAM_LABEL/LABEL_SET in a PATH 
    modify, it MUST retune the laser at the egress to the new 
    wavelength.  

 7. Security Considerations 

    TBD 

 8. IANA Considerations 

    TBD 

 9. Normative References 

    [RFC2119]    Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 
       
    [RFC3471]    Berger, L., "Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching 
                 Signaling Functional Description", RFC 3471, January  
                 2003 
        
    [RFC3473]    Berger, L., "Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching  
                 Signaling Resource Reservation Protocol-Traffic  
                 Engineering Extensions", RFC 3473, January 2003. 
      
         

 10. Acknowledgments 
        
    TBD 
       
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 8] 
 






 Internet-Draft     Network Assigned Upstream Label         October 2014 
         

 Authors' Addresses 

    Vishnu Pavan Beeram 
    Juniper Networks 
    Email: vbeeram@juniper.net 
         
    John Drake 
    Juniper Networks 
    Email: jdrake@juniper.net 
         
    Gert Grammel 
    Juniper Networks 
    Email: ggrammel@juniper.net 
         
    Igor Bryskin 
    ADVA Optical Networking 
    Email: ibryskin@advaoptical.com 
         
    Pawel Brzozowski 
    ADVA Optical Networking 
    Email: pbrzozowski@advaoptical.com 
         
    Daniele Ceccarelli 
    Ericsson 
    Email: daniele.ceccarelli@ericsson.com 
         
    Oscar Gonzalez de Dios 
    Telefonica 
    Email: ogondio@tid.es 














  
      
 Beeram, et al           Expires April 23, 2015                 [Page 9]