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SRv6 for Inter-Layer Network Programming
draft-dong-spring-srv6-inter-layer-programming-04

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Authors Jie Dong , Liuyan Han , Zongpeng Du , Minxue Wang
Last updated 2022-10-23
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draft-dong-spring-srv6-inter-layer-programming-04
SPRING Working Group                                             J. Dong
Internet-Draft                                       Huawei Technologies
Intended status: Standards Track                                  L. Han
Expires: 27 April 2023                                             Z. Du
                                                                 M. Wang
                                                            China Mobile
                                                         24 October 2022

                SRv6 for Inter-Layer Network Programming
           draft-dong-spring-srv6-inter-layer-programming-04

Abstract

   This document defines a new SRv6 function which can be used for SRv6
   based inter-layer network programming.  It is a variant of the SRv6
   End.X behavior which is called "End.XU".  Instead of pointing to an
   interface with layer-3 adjacency, the End.XU behavior points to an
   underlay interface which connects to a remote layer-3 node via
   underlying links or connections that may be invisible in the L3
   topology.

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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 27 April 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 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

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   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Use Cases of SRv6 Inter-Layer Programming . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  IP and Optical Inter-layer Programming  . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  IP and MTN Inter-layer Programming  . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.3.  Steering Traffic to L2 bundle Member Link . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  SRv6 END.XU behavior  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Application of SRv6 End.XU  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  IP and Optical Integration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  MTN Networks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   In many network scenarios, operator owns a multi-layered network.  In
   layer-3, the technology has converged to IP, while there can be
   different technologies in the layer-2 and layer-1.  In such networks,
   the cross-layer planning and optimization is considered more
   efficient than independent planning and operation of the layer-3 and
   the underlying networks in terms of resource utilization and SLA
   assurance, but are also considered more complicated.  Thus a
   mechanism for flexible inter-layer network integration is desired.

   Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) [RFC8986] enables a network operator
   or an application to specify a packet processing program by encoding
   a sequence of instructions in the IPv6 packet header.  Currently SRv6
   does not consider about the network layers under the IP layer.
   However, with the capability of SRv6 network programming, it is
   possible to achieve seamless integration between IP (layer-3) and the
   underlying (layer-2 and layer-1) networks.

   Following the SRv6 network programming concept, a new SRv6 function
   is defined for sending packet through an underlay interface, which
   connects to underlay links or connections between two layer-3 nodes.
   The underlay link or connection may be realized using either a

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   ethernet link, a Metro Transport Network (MTN) path[ITU-T_G.8310], an
   ODUk or a DWDM connection.  Such a SRv6 behavior can be considered as
   a variant of the SRv6 END.X behavior as defined in [RFC8986].
   Instead of pointing to an interface with layer-3 adjacency, this new
   End.XU behavior points to an underlay interface which connects to a
   remote layer-3 node via an underlying link or connection that may be
   invisible in the L3 topology.  The SRv6 End.XU SIDs can be used
   together with other types of SRv6 SIDs to build SRv6 SID lists for
   inter-layer network programming.

   This document first describes the typical use cases of SRv6 inter-
   layer network programming, then new SRv6 End.XU behavior for inter-
   layer network programming is defined.  The application of SRv6 End.XU
   in typical scenarios is also illustrated with examples.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Use Cases of SRv6 Inter-Layer Programming

2.1.  IP and Optical Inter-layer Programming

   In many network scenarios, the underlay of the IP network is an
   optical network.  The IP network and optical network are usually
   managed separately, the optical network works as an underlay which is
   invisible to the IP network.  In some cases, the optical path
   resource and the IP path resource may not be one-to-one mapping, the
   redundant optical paths may not be fully used by the IP layer.  In
   some other cases, there may be optical paths between non-adjacent IP
   nodes thus they are not visible in the L3 IP topology, and thus they
   can not be used to carry IP traffic.

2.2.  IP and MTN Inter-layer Programming

   The architecture of Metro Transport Network (MTN) is defined in
   [ITU-T_G.8310].  In an MTN based network, network nodes can support
   two forwarding modes: per-hop IP packet forwarding and the MTN Path
   (MTNP) layer cross-connect.  An MTN path is a multi-hop transport
   path which may be established between any two nodes in the MTN
   network, and the intermediate nodes of the MTN path will forward the
   traffic solely based on the pre-established MTN cross-connect without
   IP layer lookup.  Thus an MTN path is an underlay connection between
   two remote MTN nodes.  Although in some cases it is possible to set

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   up a layer-3 adjacency between the two endpoints of the MTN path, it
   will make the provisioning of MTN path complicated.  Moreover, in
   some cases the two endpoints may reside in different IGP areas or
   ASes, which makes a layer-3 adjacency between them more challenging.
   Since the MTN paths are not visible to the IP layer topology, it is
   difficult to compute and establish a inter-layer path which consists
   of the layer-3 network segments with the MTN paths.

2.3.  Steering Traffic to L2 bundle Member Link

   In some network scenarios, L2 bundles which consists of a group of L2
   member links are created to reduce the operational overhead of
   maintaining multiple parallel L3 links.  On the L2 bundle, traffic
   are usually load balanced among all the member links.  While for the
   purpose of traffic engineering, one specific L2 member link may be
   selected for specific service traffic.

   In section 4.2 of [RFC8986], it is described that for an outgoing
   bundle interface, End.X SIDs might be allocated for both the bundle
   itself and for each of its member link.  However, there is difference
   between the bundle interface and its layer-2 member links, as they
   are at different network layers, and there is no L3 adjacency on the
   layer-2 member link.

3.  SRv6 END.XU behavior

   This section defines a new SRv6 behavior for the underlay cross-
   connect.

   The "Endpoint with Underlay cross-connect" behavior ("End.XU" for
   short) is a variant of the End.X behavior defined in [RFC8986].  Its
   main use is for inter-layer network programming and traffic
   engineering.

   Any SID instance of this behavior is associated with an underlay
   interface, which connects to one or more underlay links or
   connections.

   When N receives a packet destined to S and S is a local End.XU SID, N
   does the following:

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   S01. When an SRH is processed {
   S02.   If (Segments Left == 0) {
   S03.      Stop processing the SRH, and proceed to process the next
                header in the packet, whose type is identified by
                the Next Header field in the routing header.
   S04.   }
   S05.   If (IPv6 Hop Limit <= 1) {
   S06.      Send an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Hop limit exceeded in transit),
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.
   S07.   }
   S08.   max_LE = (Hdr Ext Len / 2) - 1
   S09.   If ((Last Entry > max_LE) or (Segments Left > Last Entry+1)) {
   S10.      Send an ICMP Parameter Problem to the Source Address
                with Code 0 (Erroneous header field encountered)
                and Pointer set to the Segments Left field,
                interrupt packet processing, and discard the packet.

   S11.   }
   S12.   Decrement IPv6 Hop Limit by 1
   S13.   Decrement Segments Left by 1
   S14.   Update IPv6 DA with Segment List[Segments Left]
   S15.   Forward the packet through the underlay interface associated
             with SID S
   S16. }

   Note that the underlay interface and the associated connection in
   step 15 SHOULD be established before the associated End.XU SID is
   announced into the network.

   End.XU SIDs MAY be announced using IGP or BGP-LS in a similar way to
   the announcement of End.X SIDs, while they need to be distinguished
   from the End.X SID by both the network nodes and the network
   controller.  The detailed protocol extension will be described in a
   separate document.  Then the network controller or a headend node
   could use the End.XU SIDs together with other types of SRv6 SIDs to
   build SID lists for inter-layer network paths.

4.  Application of SRv6 End.XU

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4.1.  IP and Optical Integration

   Assuming that an operator owns both the IP and optical network, and
   the operator needs to deploy E2E service across IP and optical
   network, with traditional approaches the planning and service
   provisioning would be complex and time consuming due of the manual
   synergy needed between the operator's IP team and optical team.  With
   the introduction of SRv6 and the End.XU behavior, one simplified
   approach for IP and optical integration is to build a SID list that
   integrates the path in both the IP layer and the optical layer.

   As the optical layer is not packet based, source routing mechanism
   can not be directly used in the optical network.  However, the
   abstracted optical paths (e.g., with ODUk or DWDM) could be exposed
   to the control system of the IP network using the SRv6 End.XU SIDs,
   and some of the attributes of the optical paths may also be provided.
   Based on this information, IP-optical inter-layer paths can be
   programmed to meet some specific service requirements, such as low
   latency.

                -----          -----          -----
               |  P1 |--------|  P2 |--------|  P3 |
                -----          -----          -----
               /  |.             |.             |.  \
       -----  /   | .            | .            | .  \ -----
      |  P7 |     |  .           |  .           |  .  |  P8 |
       ----- \    |   .          |   .          |   ./ -----
              \   |    .         |    .         |  / .
                -----   .      -----   .      -----   .
               |  P4 |-------|  P5 |--------|  P6 |   .
                -----    .     -----     .    -----     .
                  .      .       .       .      .       .
                  .    =====      .     =====    .     =====
                   .  |  O1 |----------|  O2 |--------|  O3 |
                    .  =====        .   =====      .   =====
                     .    |          .    |         .    |
                      .   |           .   |          .   |
                       .  |            .  |           .  |
                        . |             . |            . |
                         .|              .|             .|
                       =====            =====          =====
                      |  O4 |----------|  O5 |--------|  O6 |
                       =====            =====          =====
             Figure 1. IP and Optical Layered Network Topology

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   In Figure 1, P1 to P8 are IP nodes, and O1 to O6 are optical nodes.
   Assume the operator needs to deploy a low latency path between P7 and
   P8.  With normal segment routing, an IP layer path with the segment
   list {P7, P1, P2, P3, P8} can be used.  But if an optical path from
   O1 to O3 exists, and the End.XU SID defined in this document is used
   to announce this optical path as an underlay connection with specific
   attributes into the IP network, the headend node or the controller in
   IP layer can program an inter-layer path along {P7, P1, End.XU (O1,
   O2, O3), P3, P8} which may provide lower latency.

   The optical path between O1 and O3 may be created in advance or as a
   result of the request from the IP layer.  The creation should be done
   by the optical network controller (not shown in the Figure).  The
   details of the process are out of scope of this document, and may
   refer to [I-D.ietf-teas-actn-poi-applicability].

   There is also another case of IP and Optical integration.  Assume
   there are two optical paths between P1 and P2.  One is {P1, O1, O2,
   P2} , and the other is {P1, O1, O4, O5, O2, P2}. Two separate End.XU
   SIDs are allocated for these two underlay connections separately.
   One is End.XU P1::C2 for the underlay path {P1, O1, O2, P2}, and the
   other is End.XU P1::C45 for the path {P1, O1, O4, O5, O2, P2}. The
   headend P7 or the IP network controller will be informed about these
   two SRv6 End.XU SIDs and the associated path attributes, so that the
   headend or the controller can program different end-to-end inter-
   layer paths using SID lists with different End.XU SIDs for services
   with different SLA requirements.

4.2.  MTN Networks

   Assuming that an operator owns both an MTN network domain and an IP
   network domain.  In the MTN network, each MTN node has both the
   layer-3 functionality and the MTN Path layer functionality.  In
   layer-3, all the MTN nodes are in a layer-3 network topology, which
   connects to the IP network domain.  In the MTN Path Layer, a set of
   MTN paths are provisioned between the selected pairs of MTN nodes.
   In the MTN network, different types of services may be carried using
   either a layer-3 path, or an MTN path, or an inter-layer path
   comprising of both the layer-3 links and the MTN path as different
   segments.  In addition, For some type of services, end-to-end paths
   across the IP domain and the MTN domain are needed, which is
   comprised of both the layer-3 paths and the MTN path as different
   segments.

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  .......................................... ...........................
  .                                        . .                         .
  .          +----+     +----+     +----+  . . +----+     +----+       .
  .          | M1 |-----| M2 |-----| M3 |------| P1 |-----| P2 |       .
  .          +----+     +----+     +----+  . . +----+     +----+       .
  .         /  |          |          |     . .   |          |  \       .
  . +----+ /   |          |          |     . .   |          |   \+----+.
  . | M7 |/    |          |          |     . .   |          |    | P5 |.
  . +----+\    |          |          |     . .   |          |   /+----+.
  .        \   |          |          |     . .   |          |  /       .
  .         \+----+     +----+     +----+  . . +----+     +----+       .
  .          | M4 |-----| M5 |-----| M6 |------| P3 |-----| P4 |       .
  .          +----+     +----+     +----+  . . +----+     +----+       .
  .                                        . .                         .
  . Layer-3 Topology    MTN Network        . .        IP Network       .
  .                                        . ...........................
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  . MTN Path Layer Topology                .
  .                                        .
  .          +----+     +----+     +----+  .
  .          | M1'|################| M3'|  .
  .          +----+ ##  +----+  ## +----+  .
  .                   ##      ##           .
  . +----+              ##  ##             .
  . | M7'|                ##               .
  . +----+              ##  ##             .
  .                   ##      ##           .
  .          +----+ ##  +----+  ## +----+  .
  .          | M4'|################| M6'|  .
  .          +----+     +----+     +----+  .
  .                                        .
  .                                        .
  ..........................................
          .
       Figure 2. A network with MTN Domain and IP Domain

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   Figure 2 gives an example of a network with a MTN domain and an IP
   domain.  M1 to M7 are MTN nodes, and P1 to P4 are IP nodes.  The same
   set of MTN nodes builds two separate network layers.  The topology in
   the IP layer shows the layer-3 connectivity between the MTN nodes and
   the connectivity with the IP network domain, while the topology in
   the MTN Path layer shows the MTN paths between the selected pair of
   MTN nodes.  An end-to-end path from M7 to P5 can be established in
   layer-3 using a SID list representing the layer-3 path {M7, M1, M2,
   M3, P1, P2, P5}. While for services which require low latency, an
   end-to-end path consisting of both the layer-3 segments and MTN paths
   could be established using an SRv6 SID list representing the path
   {M7, M1::C3, P1, P2, P5}, where the End.XU SID M1::C3 represents the
   MTN path M1'-M3'.

   This shows that it is convenient to use an integrated SID list to
   program an inter-layer path both within the MTN domain, and across
   the IP and MTN domain using the combination of L3 SRv6 SIDs and the
   End.XU SIDs.

5.  Security Considerations

   TBD

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document defines a new SRv6 Endpoint behavior called END.XU.

   IANA has allocated the following code points for different flavors of
   End.XU from the "SRv6 Endpoint Behaviors" sub-registry in the
   "Segment-routing with IPv6 data plane (SRv6) Parameters" registry:

+------+--------+------------------------------------------+-----------+
| Value|  Hex   |             Endpoint Behavior            | Reference |
+------+--------+------------------------------------------+-----------+
|  150 | 0x0096 | End.XU                                   | [This ID] |
|  151 | 0x0097 | End.XU with PSP                          | [This ID] |
|  152 | 0x0098 | End.XU with USP                          | [This ID] |
|  153 | 0x0099 | End.XU with USD                          | [This ID] |
|  154 | 0x009A | End.XU with PSP, USP & USD               | [This ID] |
|  155 | 0x009B | End.XU with REPPLACE-CSID                | [This ID] |
|  156 | 0x009C | End.XU with REPPLACE-CSID & PSP          | [This ID] |
|  157 | 0x009D | End.XU with REPPLACE-CSID, PSP, USP & USD| [This ID] |
+------+--------+------------------------------------------+-----------+

7.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Xiaodong Chang and Yongjian Hu for
   their review and comments.

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8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8986]  Filsfils, C., Ed., Camarillo, P., Ed., Leddy, J., Voyer,
              D., Matsushima, S., and Z. Li, "Segment Routing over IPv6
              (SRv6) Network Programming", RFC 8986,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8986, February 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8986>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-teas-actn-poi-applicability]
              Peruzzini, F., Bouquier, J., Busi, I., King, D., and D.
              Ceccarelli, "Applicability of Abstraction and Control of
              Traffic Engineered Networks (ACTN) to Packet Optical
              Integration (POI)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-teas-actn-poi-applicability-07, 10 July 2022,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-teas-actn-poi-
              applicability-07.txt>.

   [ITU-T_G.8310]
              ITU-T, "ITU-T G.8310: Architecture of the metro transport
              network",  https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-
              G.8310-202012-I/en, December 2020.

Authors' Addresses

   Jie Dong
   Huawei Technologies
   Huawei Campus, No.156 Beiqing Road
   Beijing, 100095
   China
   Email: jie.dong@huawei.com

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   Liuyan Han
   China Mobile
   No.32 XuanWuMen West Street
   Beijing, 100053
   China
   Email: hanliuyan@chinamobile.com

   Zongpeng Du
   China Mobile
   No.32 XuanWuMen West Street
   Beijing, 100053
   China
   Email: duzongpeng@foxmail.com

   Minxue Wang
   China Mobile
   No.32 XuanWuMen West Street
   Beijing, 100053
   China
   Email: wangminxue@chinamobile.com

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