One document matched: draft-baker-rsvp-aggregation-00.txt





	  Draft		   RSVP	Reservation Aggregation	   February 1999


		 Aggregation of	RSVP for IP4 and IP6 Reservations
		       draft-baker-rsvp-aggregation-00.txt






	  This document	is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance	with all
	  provisions of	Section	10 of RFC 2026.	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 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 a "work in progress".
	  Comments should be made to the authors and the rsvp@isi.edu
	  list.

	  Abstract

	  A key	problem	in the design of RSVP version 1	is, as noted in
	  its applicability statement, that it lacks facilities	for
	  aggregation of individual reserved sessions into a common
	  class. The use of such aggregation is	recommended in the paper
	  by Clark, Shenker, and Zhang in SIGCOMM '92, and required for
	  scalability.

	  This document	describes the use of a single RSVP reservation
	  to aggregate other RSVP reservations across a	transit	routing
	  region, in a manner conceptually similar to the use of Virtual
	  Paths	in an ATM network. It proposes a way to	dynamically
	  create the aggregate reservation, classify the traffic for
	  which	the aggregate reservation applies, determine how much
	  bandwidth is needed to achieve the requirement, and recover
	  the bandwidth	when the sub-reservations are no longer
	  required. It also contains recommendations concerning
	  algorithms and policies for predictive reservations.











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	  1.  Introduction

	  A key	problem	in the design of RSVP version 1	is, as noted in
	  its applicability statement, that it lacks facilities	for
	  aggregation of individual reserved sessions into a common
	  class. The use of such aggregation is	recommended in [CSZ],
	  and required for scalability.

	  The problem of aggregation may be addressed in a variety of
	  ways.	For example, it	may sometimes be sufficient simply to
	  mark reserved	traffic	with a suitable	DSCP (e.g. EF).	It may
	  be desirable to install one or more aggregate	reservations
	  from ingress to egress of an "aggregation region" (defined
	  below) where each aggregate reservation carries similarly
	  marked packets from a	large number of	flows. This is to
	  provide high levels of assurance that	the end-to-end
	  requirements of reserved flows will be met.

	  Throughout, we will talk about "Aggregator" and
	  "Deaggregator", referring to the routers at the ingress and
	  egress edges of an aggregation region.


	  1.1.	Problem	Statement: Aggregation Of Small	Reservations

	  The problem of many small reservations has been extensively
	  discussed, and may be	summarized in the observation that each
	  reservation requires a non-trivial amount of message exchange,
	  computation, and memory resources in each router along the
	  way. It would	be nice	to reduce this to a more manageable
	  level	where the load is heaviest and aggregation is possible.

	  Aggregation, however,	brings its own challenges. In
	  particular, it reduces the level of isolation	between
	  individual flows, implying that one flow may suffer delay from
	  the bursts of	another. Synchronization of bursts from
	  different flows may occur. However, there is evidence	[CSZ] to
	  suggest that aggregation of flows has	no negative effect on
	  the mean delay of the	flows, and actually leads to a reduction
	  of delay in the "tail" of the	delay distribution (e.g. 99%
	  percentile delay) for	the flows. These benefits of aggregation
	  to some extent offset	the loss of strict isolation.










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	  1.2.	Proposed Solution

	  The solution we propose involves the aggregation of several
	  individual reservations that cross an	"aggregation region" and
	  share	common ingress and egress routers into one larger
	  reservation from ingress to egress. We define	an "aggregation
	  region" as a contiguous set of systems capable of performing
	  RSVP aggregation (as defined following) along	any possible
	  route	through	this contiguous	set.

	  Communication	interfaces fall	into two categories with respect
	  to an	aggregation region; they are "exterior"	to an
	  aggregation region, or they are "interior" to	it. Routers that
	  have at least	one interface in the region fall into three
	  categories with respect to a given RSVP session; they
	  aggregate, they deaggregate, or they are between an aggregator
	  and a	deaggregator.

	  In this case,	the IP Protocol	Number in the individual
	  reservation's	PATH and PATH-TEAR messages is changed from RSVP
	  to AGGREGATED-RSVP within the	aggregation region, and	restored
	  to RSVP at the deaggregator point. These messages are	ignored
	  (no state is stored and the message is forwarded as a	normal
	  IP datagram) by each router within the aggregation region
	  whenever a reservation follows an interior interface.	Since
	  the deaggregating router perceives the previous hop on such
	  messages to be in aggregating	router,	other RESV and other
	  messages do not require this modification; they are unicast
	  from system to system	anyway.

	  The token buckets (SENDER_TSPECs and FLOWSPECS) of these
	  reservations are, however, summed into the corresponding
	  information elements in aggregate PATH and RESV messages.
	  These	PATH messages are sent from the	aggregator to the
	  deaggregator(s) using	RSVP's normal IP Protocol Number. The
	  RESV messages	are sent back from the deaggregator to the
	  aggregator, thus establishing	an aggregate reservation on
	  behalf of the	set of individual flows	that use this aggregator
	  and deaggregator. There may be several such reservations
	  between the same two routers,	representing different classes
	  of traffic; the reservation is therefore for the traffic
	  marked with a	particular DSCP	Group.










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	  1.3.	Definitions

	  We define an "aggregation region" as a set of	RSVP-capable
	  routers for which normal RSVP	messages arriving on an	outside
	  interface of one router would	in the set would traverse one or
	  more inside interfaces (of this and/or other routers in the
	  set) before finally traversing an outside interface.

	  Such an RSVP message is said to have crossed the aggreagation
	  region.

	  We define the	"ingress" router for this flow as the first
	  router (the one which	forwards the message from an ouside
	  interface to an inside interface).  The ingress router
	  performs aggregation for this	flow.

	  We define the	"egress" router	for this flow as the last router
	  (the one which forwards the message from an inside interface
	  to an	outside	interface).  The egress	router performs
	  deaggregation	for this flow.

	  We define an "interior" router for this flow as any router in
	  the aggregation region which receives	this message on	an
	  inside interface and forwards	it to another inside interface.
	  Interior routers neither perform aggregation nor deaggregation
	  for this flow.


	  1.4.	Detailed Aspects of Proposed Solution

	  A number of issues jump to mind in considering this model.


	  1.4.1.  Traffic Classification Within	The Aggregation	region

	  One of the reasons that RSVP Version 1 did not identify a way
	  to aggregate sessions	was that there was not a clear way to
	  classify the aggregate. With the development of the
	  Differentiated Services architecture,	this is	at least
	  partially resolved; traffic of a particular class can	be
	  marked with a	given DSCP and so classified. We presume this
	  model.

	  We presume that on each link en route, a queue, WDM color, or
	  similar management component is set aside for	all aggregated
	  traffic of the same class, and that sufficient bandwidth is
	  made available to carry the traffic that has been assigned to





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	  it. This bandwidth may be adjusted based on the total	amount
	  of aggregated	reservation traffic assigned to	the same class.
	  Since	the total offered load of reserved traffic is known
	  based	on the Tspecs and Rspecs of the	aggregated reservations,
	  it is	reasonable to use the Expedited	Forwarding PHB [EF] for
	  the aggregate	reservations, or two similar local PHBs	with
	  differing code points, prioritizing CBR voice	over VBR video.
	  However, it may also be desirable to use one or more of the AF
	  classes for aggregated reservations. This allows non-
	  conformant traffic to	be nevertheless	forwarded as part of the
	  aggregate reservation, but with lower	drop precedence.

	  Independent of which PHB is used, care needs to be take in an
	  environment where provisioned	Diff-Serv and aggregated RSVP
	  are used in the same network,	to ensure that the total offered
	  load for a single PHB	is not excessive relative to the link
	  capacity allocated to	that PHB. One solution to this is to
	  reserve one of the four AF classes strictly for the aggregated
	  reservation traffic while using other	AF classes for
	  provisioned Diff-Serv.

	  Therefore, while a RSVP state	per aggregate reservation is
	  maintained inside the	aggregation region, a single
	  classification and scheduling	state (e.g., a DSCP used for
	  classifying traffic) is maintained per aggregation reservation
	  class	(rather	than per aggregate reservation)	inside the
	  aggregation region. For example, if "cbr-voice" service is
	  represented by the EF	DSCP throughout	the aggregation	region,
	  there	may be a reservation for each aggregator/deaggregator
	  pair in each router, but only	the EF DSCP need be inspected at
	  each interior	interface.


	  1.4.2.  Deaggregator Determination

	  The first question is	"How do	we know	which aggregate
	  reservation a	particular flow	should aggregate into?"	To know
	  that,	we must	know three items of information: its aggregating
	  router, its deaggregating router, and	(assuming DSCPs	are used
	  to differentiate among various reservations between the same
	  two routers),	the relevant DSCP.

	  The aggregator is trivial: we	know that a flow reservation has
	  arrived at an	aggregator when	its PATH message arrives at a
	  so-configured	system from another region. The	DSCP is	equally
	  easy,	or at least it is in concept. Whatever policy would set
	  the DSCP in so doing selects the DSCP	for the	aggregate





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	  reservation.

	  The deaggregator is more involved. If	an SPF routing protocol,
	  such as OSPF or IS-IS, is in use, and	if it has been extended
	  to advertise information on Deaggregation roles, it can tell
	  us what selection of routers the deaggregator	will be	chosen
	  from among. However, if that set contains more than one
	  router, it would not tell us which. Also, even if the	Link
	  State	protocol was extended as mentioned above, multi-area
	  operation is likely to prevent proper	advertisement of the
	  Deaggregation	attributes and thus deaggregator selection.

	  One method for Deaggregator determination is manual
	  configuration. With this method the network operator would
	  configure the	Aggregator and the Deaggregator	the necessary
	  information.

	  Another method allows	automatic Deaggregator determination and
	  corresponding	Aggregator notification. When the RSVP PATH
	  message transits from	either an aggregator or	an interior
	  interface to a deaggregator interface, the deaggregating
	  router must advise the aggregating router of the correlation
	  between itself and the flow. This has	the nice attribute of
	  not being specific to	the routing protocol. It also has the
	  property of automatically adjusting to route change. For
	  instance, if because of a topology change, another
	  Deaggregator is now on the shortest path, this method	will
	  automatically	identify the new Deaggregator and swap to it.


	  1.4.3.  Size of Aggregate Reservations

	  A range of options exist for determining the size of the
	  aggregate reservation, presenting a tradeoff between
	  simplicity and scalability. Simplistically, the size of the
	  aggregate reservation	needs to be greater than or equal to the
	  sum of the bandwidth of the connections it aggregates, and its
	  burst	capacity must be greater than or equal to the sum of
	  their	burst capacities. However, if followed religiously, this
	  leads	us to change the bandwidth of the aggregate reservation
	  each time an underlying reservation changes, which loses one
	  of the key benefits of aggregation, the reduction of message
	  processing cost in the aggregation region.

	  We assume, therefore,	that there is some policy, not defined
	  in this specification	(although sample policies are suggested
	  which	have the necessary characteristics). This policy





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	  maintains the	amount of bandwidth on a given aggregate
	  reservation at an amount greater than	or equal to the	sum of
	  the bandwidths of its	underlying reservations, while changing
	  it but infrequently. This may	require	some level of trend
	  analysis if there is a significant probability that in the
	  next interval	of time	the current aggregate reservation will
	  be exhausted,	the router must	predict	the necessary bandwidth
	  and request it. If the router	has a significant amount of
	  bandwidth reserved but has very little probability of	using
	  it, the policy may be	to predict the amount of bandwidth
	  required and release the excess.

	  This policy is likely	to benefit from	introduction of	some
	  hysteresis (i.e. ensure that the trigger condition for
	  reservation size increase is sufficiently different from the
	  trigger condition for	reservation size decrease) to avoid
	  oscillation in stable	conditions.

	  Clearly, the definition and operation	of such	policies are as
	  much business	issues as they are technical, and are out of the
	  scope	of this	document.


	  1.4.4.  Intra-domain Routes

	  RSVP directly	handles	route changes, in that reservations
	  follow the routes that their data follow. This follows from
	  the property that PATH messages contain the same IP source and
	  destination address as the data flow for which a reservation
	  is to	be established.	However, since we are now making
	  aggregate reservations by sending a PATH message from	an
	  ingress to an	egress router, the reserved data packets no
	  longer carry the same	IP addresses as	the relevant PATH
	  message. The issue becomes one of making sure	that data
	  packets for reserved flows follow the	same path as the PATH
	  message that established Path	state for the aggregate
	  reservation. Several approaches are viable.

	  First, the data may be tunneled from aggregator to
	  deaggregator,	using technologies such	as IP-in-IP tunnels, GRE
	  tunnels, MPLS	labeled	tunnels, and so	on. These each have
	  particular advantages, especially MPLS, which	admits traffic
	  engineering. They each also have some	cost in	link overhead
	  and configuration complexity.

	  If data is not tunneled, then	we are depending a
	  characteristic of IP best metric routing , which is that if





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	  the route from A to Z	includes the path from H to L, and the
	  best metric route was	chosen all along the way, then the best
	  metric route was chosen from H to L. Therefore, a path which
	  crosses a given aggregator and deaggregator will of necessity
	  use the best path between them.

	  If this is a single path, the	problem	is solved. If it is a
	  multi-path route, then we are	forced to determine, perhaps by
	  measurement, what proportion of the traffic for a given
	  reservation is passing along each of the paths, and assure
	  ourselves of sufficient bandwidth for	the present use. A
	  simple, though inelegant, way	of doing this is to reserve the
	  total	capacity of the	aggregate route	down each path.

	  For this reason, we believe it is advantageous to use	one of
	  the above-mentioned tunneling	mechanisms in cases where
	  multi-path routes may	exist.


	  1.4.5.  Inter-domain Routes

	  Again, RSVP responds directly	to route changes, in that
	  reservations follow the routes that their data follow.
	  However, in this case, the best-path considerations do not
	  apply, as routing is by a combination	of routing policy and
	  shortest AS path rather than simple best metric.

	  In this case,	we must	presume	that a data flow might come in
	  on different aggregator interfaces and leave on different
	  deaggregator interfaces. It is possible that we could	identify
	  this occurrence in some central system which sees the
	  reservation information for both of the apparent sessions, but
	  it is	not clear that we could	determine a priori how much
	  traffic went one way or the other apart from measurement.

	  As a result, we simply note that the problem can occur and
	  needs	to be allowed for in the implementation. We recommend
	  that each such flow reservation be summed into each
	  appropriate aggregate	reservation, even though this involves
	  over-reservation.


	  1.4.6.  Reservations for Intra-domain	Multicast Routing

	  Multicast routing, in	this framework,	acts much like a
	  superset of multipath	unicast	routing. It differs in that the
	  information from a given aggregator may divide at some





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	  interior router and proceed to more than one deaggregator. For
	  this reason, we recommend that multicast routes use a	distinct
	  set of DSCPs,	and that a form	of shared explicit reservation
	  be used. Since such reservations must	be from	one source
	  (aggregator) to multiple destinations	(deaggregator),	and
	  Shared Explicit (SE) reservations traverse one session and
	  many filter specifications, we therefore choose to identify
	  the aggregator in the	session	object and the deaggregator in
	  the filter object.


	  1.4.7.  Reservations for Inter-domain	Multicast Routing

	  to be	filled in:






































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	  2.  Elements of Procedure

	  To implement this, we	define a number	of elements of
	  procedure.


	  2.1.	Receipt	of Flow	Reservation Path Message By aggregating
	  router

	  The very first event is the arrival of the PATH message for a
	  microflow at an exterior interface of	an aggregator. RSVP
	  version 1's standard procedures are followed for this,
	  including consideration of what set of interfaces it needs to
	  be forwarded onto. These interfaces comprise zero or more
	  deaggregator interfaces and zero or more interior interfaces.

	  Service on deaggregator interfaces is	handled	as defined in
	  RSVP Version 1.

	  Service on interior interfaces is complicated	by the fact that
	  the message needs to be included in some number of aggregate
	  reservations,	but at this point it is	not known which	one,
	  because the deaggregator is not known. Therefore, the	PATH
	  message is forwarded on the interface	using the IP Protocol
	  number RSVP-AGGREGATE, but in	every other respect identically
	  to the way it	would be sent by RSVP Version 1.


	  2.2.	Handling Of Flow Reservation Path Message By Interior
	  Routers

	  At this point, the message traverses zero or more interior
	  routers, which receive an RSVP-AGGREGATE message on an
	  interior interface and forward it to another interior
	  interface. The Router	Alert IP Option	alerts them to check
	  internally, but they find that the IP	Protocol is RSVP-
	  AGGREGATE and	the next hop interface is interior. As such,
	  they simply forward it as a normal IP	datagram.


	  2.3.	Receipt	of Flow	Reservation Path Message By
	  Deaggregating	router

	  The PATH message finally arrives at a	deaggegating router,
	  which	receives it from an interior interface and forwards it
	  to an	external interface. Again, the Router Alert IP Option
	  alerts it to intercept the message, but this time the	IP





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	  Protocol is RSVP-AGGREGATE and the next hop interface	is an
	  external interface.

	  At this point, the deaggregating router associates the flow
	  with an aggregate reservation. This selection	is done	on the
	  basis	of policy, and may take	into account not only the
	  aggregating router (whose IP Address may be found in the RSVP
	  Hop Object) but other	information about the flow. If no such
	  aggregate reservation	exists and the router is so configured,
	  it may generate a PATH ERROR with code NEW-AGGREGATE-NEEDED
	  back to the aggregating router. This should not result in any
	  reservation being taken down,	but may	result in the
	  aggregating router initiating	the necessary path message.

	  The message is also changed from IP Protocol RSVP-AGGREGATE
	  back to IP Protocol RSVP, the	ADSPEC information accumulated
	  by that aggregate reservation	added into this	ADSPEC,	and the
	  PATH message is forwarded towards its	intended destination.


	  2.4.	Initiation of New Aggregate Reservation	Path Message By
	  Aggregating router

	  The aggregating router is responsible	to include the
	  SENDER_TSPEC information from	individual flow	reservations in
	  the SENDER_TSPEC being announced to its deaggregating	router.
	  It may know that a reservation is associated with a given
	  deaggregator when one	of two events occurs: it receives a PATH
	  ERROR	message	with the error code NEW-AGGREGATE-NEEDED, or
	  when it receives an RESV message from	the deaggregator for the
	  flow.	The DCLASS object in the message indicates which DSCP
	  the deaggregator believes that the flow belongs in. The
	  identity of the deaggregator itself is to be found in	the
	  ERROR	SPECIFICATION or the RSVP HOP object.

	  On receipt of	either,	if no corresponding aggregate
	  reservation exists and the router is configured to do	so, it
	  should generate a PATH message for the aggregate reservation.
	  The destination address of the PATH message is the address of
	  the deaggregating router, and	the message is sent with IP
	  protocol number RSVP.

	  For multicast, the PATH message could	be sent	to an "All
	  Deaggregators" multicast address. Shared Explicit signaling
	  could	also be	used to	direct shared multicasts directly to
	  each of the indicated	egress points. This latter, while
	  requiring perhaps a few more messages, means that we need





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	  neither a set	of multicast addresses corresponding to	all
	  permutations of possible egress routers, nor a way to	handle
	  excess irrelevant messages.


	  2.5.	Handling of Flow Reservation RESV Message by
	  Deaggregating	Router

	  Having sent the flow PATH message on toward the destination,
	  the router must now expect to	receive	an RESV	for the	session.
	  On receipt, its responsibility is to assure itself that there
	  is sufficient	bandwidth reserved to accomplish the task, and
	  if there is, then to forward the RESV	to the aggregating
	  router.

	  Note that there is discussion	among the authors as to	whether
	  the aggregator or the	de-aggregator should assure that the
	  aggregate reservation	has enough bandwidth to	support	the
	  individual flow.

	  If there is insufficient bandwidth reserved, it should follow
	  the RSVP Version 1 procedures	for a reservation being	placed
	  with insufficient bandwidth to support the reservation. It may
	  also immediately attempt to increase the aggregate reservation
	  that is supplying bandwidth.

	  When sufficient bandwidth is available, it may now simply send
	  an RESV message with IP Protocol RSVP	to the aggregating
	  router. This message should, in addition to other data,
	  contain the DCLASS object to indicate	which DSCP the
	  deaggregating	router expects the aggregator to use. It will
	  also add the token bucket from the FLOWSPEC object into its
	  internal understanding of how	much of	that reservation is in
	  use.


	  2.6.	Initiation of New Aggregate Reservation	RESV Message By
	  Deaggregating	Router

	  If there is a	PATH message for the aggregate reservation but
	  no RESV message, at this point the deaggregating router should
	  create such an RESV and set its initial request to a value not
	  smaller than the requirement of the flow it is supporting.

	  If there is not a PATH message, a deadlock exists; the sender
	  has not created one, meaning that it may have	missed the PATH
	  ERROR	message	intended to trigger the	event, or it may have





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	  not been configured to create	the message. The deaggregator
	  should generate the necessary	state with which to respond to
	  such a PATH message, initiate	a PATH ERROR message as	a
	  retransmission, and quiesce.

	  Once it has the PATH message for the aggregate, the
	  deaggregator sends a normal RESV message toward the aggregator
	  (e.g., to the	previous hop), using the AGGREGATED-RSVP session
	  and filter specifications. Since the DSCP is in the SESSION
	  object, the DCLASS is	unnecessary. However, the CONFIRM object
	  should be used, to assure that the reservation does indeed
	  arrive and is	granted. The de-aggregator may presume any
	  confirmed bandwidth to be available to allocate to the flows
	  it supports.


	  2.7.	Handling of Flow Reservation RESV Message by Interior
	  Routers

	  The RESV is handled in the usual manner, with	respect	to
	  bandwidth allocation and other aspects. However, since the
	  flow of the reservation differs from that of other session
	  types, it bears explaining.

	  RSVP V1 sessions proceed from	a set of senders to a receiver
	  or class of receivers. For this reason, RSVP V1 uses the
	  receiver's address in	the SESSION object and places senders in
	  the FILTER SPECIFICATION. This is backwards of that -
	  aggregated RSVP sessions proceed from	a single aggregator
	  towards one or more deaggregators. Therefore,	the aggregator's
	  IP Address is	used in	the SESSION object, and	the filter-list
	  is essentially a list	of receivers.

	  The interior routers,	therefore, apply either	the FF or SE
	  flow merging rules as	appropriate, and in the	multicast case
	  forward toward the aggregator	the union of the sets of FILTER
	  specifications.


	  2.8.	Handling of Flow Reservation RESV Message by Aggregating
	  Router

	  The RESV message is the final	confirmation to	the aggregating
	  router that a	proportion of a	given aggregate's bandwidth has
	  been reserved. At this point,	it should assure itself	that the
	  flow reservation is associated with an appropriate aggregate,
	  that the aggregator and deaggregator expectations synchronize,





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	  and that all things are in place. It should also assure itself
	  that the SENDER_TSPEC	from the PATH message has been
	  accumulated into the aggregate PATH message. Under normal
	  circumstances, this is the only way it will be informed of
	  this association. It should now forward the flow's RESV to its
	  previous hop,	following RSVP Version 1 rules.


	  2.9.	Removal	of Flow	Reservation

	  Flow reservations are	removed	in the usual way via PATH TEAR,
	  RESV TEAR, timeout, or as the	result of an error condition.
	  When they are	removed, their FLOWSPEC	information must also be
	  removed from the allocated portion of	the aggregate
	  reservation. This same bandwidth may be re-used for other
	  traffic in the near future. When PATH	messages are removed,
	  their	SENDER_TSPEC information must also be removed from the
	  aggregate PATH.


	  2.10.	 Removal of Aggregate Reservation

	  Should an aggregate reservation go away (presumably due to a
	  configuration	change,	route change, or policy	event),	the
	  reservations it supports are no longer active. They must be
	  treated accordingly.


	  2.11.	 Handling of Data On Reserved Flow by Aggregating
	  Router

	  Prior	to establishment that a	given flow is part of a	given
	  aggregate, the flow's	data should be treated as general best
	  effort traffic by whatever policies prevail for such.
	  Generally, this will mean being given	the same throughput
	  behavior as non-essential traffic. However, upon establishing
	  that,	the aggregating	router is responsible to mark any
	  related traffic with the correct DSCP	and forward it in the
	  manner appropriate to	traffic	on that	reservation. This may
	  imply	forwarding it to a given IP next hop, or piping	it down
	  a given link layer circuit, tunnel, or MPLS label switched
	  path.










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	  3.  Protocol Elements

	  3.1.	IP Protocol RSVP-AGGREGATE

	  This specification presumes the assignment of	a protocol type
	  RSVP-AGGREGATE, whose	number is at this point	TBD. This is
	  used only on messages	which require a	router alert (PATH, PATH
	  ERROR, and RESV CONFIRM), and	signifies that the message must
	  be treated one way when copied to an interior	interface, and
	  another way when copied to en	exterior interface.


	  3.2.	Path Error Code

	  A PATH ERROR code NEW-AGGREGATE-NEEDED is presumed. This value
	  does not signify that	a terminal error has occurred, but that
	  an action is required	of the aggregating router to avoid an
	  error	condition in the near future.


	  3.3.	SESSION	Object

	  The SESSION object contains two values: the IP Address of the
	  aggregating router, and the DSCP that	it will	use on the data
	  the reservation contains. This is exactly backwards of RSVP
	  Version 1, and is intended to	support	shared explicit
	  multicast reservations along a network route branching away
	  from the aggregator. Two types must be designed: one
	  specifying the aggregator by its IP4 Address,	and one
	  specifying the aggregator by its IP6 address.
		o    IP4 SESSION object: Class = SESSION, C-Type = RSVP-AGGREGATE-IP4

		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     |		   IPv4	Aggregator Address (4 bytes)	     |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     | /////////// |	Flags	 |  /////////  |     DSCP    |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+


		o    IP6 SESSION object: Class = SESSION, C-Type = RSVP-AGGREGATE-IP6

		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     |							     |
		     +							     +
		     |							     |
		     +		     IPv6 Aggregator Address (16 bytes)	     +
		     |							     |





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		     +							     +
		     |							     |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     | /////////// |	Flags	 |  /////////  |     DSCP    |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+

	  3.4.	SENDER_TEMPLATE	Object

	  The SENDER_TEMPLATE is omitted from PATH messages for
	  aggregate reservations.


	  3.5.	FILTER Object

	  The FILTER object identifies the deaggregating router, or set
	  of deaggregating routers in the event	that there are several.
		o    IP4 SESSION object: Class = FILTER, C-Type	= RSVP-AGGREGATE-IP4

		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     |		   IPv4	De-aggregator Address (4 bytes)	     |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+



		o    IP6 SESSION object: Class = FILTER, C-Type	= RSVP-AGGREGATE-IP6

		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     |							     |
		     +							     +
		     |							     |
		     +	      IPv6 De-aggregator Address (16 bytes)	     |
		     |							     |
		     +							     +
		     |							     |
		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+


	  3.6.	DCLASS Object

	  The DCLASS object indicates the DSCP that the	deaggregator
	  expects the aggregator to use	in marking the data. This may be
	  used for coherence checks.

		     o DCLASS object: Class = DCLASS, C-Type = Diff-serv

		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
		     |	//////////////////////////////////////	  |    DSCP  |





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	  Draft		   RSVP	Reservation Aggregation	   February 1999


		     +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+



















































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	  4.  Policies and Algorithms For Predictive Management	Of
	  Blocks Of Bandwidth

	  The exact policies used in determining how much bandwidth
	  should be allocated to an aggregate reservation at any given
	  time are beyond the scope of this document, and may be
	  proprietary to the service provider in question. However, here
	  we explore some of the issues	and suggest approaches.

	  In short, the	ideal condition	is that	the aggregate
	  reservation always has enough	to allocate to any flow
	  reservation that requires its	support, and never takes too
	  much.	Simply stated, but more	difficult to achieve. Factors
	  that come into account include significant times in the
	  diurnal cycle: one may find that a large number of people
	  start	placing	calls at 8:00 AM, even though the hour from 7:00
	  to 8:00 is dead calm.	They also include recent history: if
	  more people have been	placing	calls recently than have been
	  finishing them, a prediction of the necessary	bandwidth a few
	  moments hence	may call for more bandwidth than is currently
	  allocated. Likewise, at the end of a busy period, we may find
	  that the trend calls for declining reservation amounts.

	  We would recommend a policy something	along this line. At any
	  given	time, one should expect	that the amount	of bandwidth
	  required for the aggregate reservation is the	larger of the
	  following:

	  (a)  a requirement known a priori, such as from history of the
	       diurnal cycle at	a particular week day and time of day,
	       and

	  (b)  the trend line over recent history, with	90 or 99%
	       statistical confidence.

	  We would further expect that changes to that aggregate
	  reservation would be made no more often than every few
	  minutes, and ideally perhaps on larger granularity such as
	  fifteen minute intervals or hourly. The finer	the granularity,
	  the greater the level	of signaling required, while the coarser
	  the granularity, the greater the chance for error, and the
	  need to recover from that error.

	  In general, we expect	that the aggregate reservation will not
	  ever add up to exactly the sum of the	reservations it
	  supports, but	rather will be an integer multiple of some block
	  reservation size, which exceeds that value.





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	  5.  Security Considerations

	  Numerous security issues pertain to this document; for
	  example, the loss of an aggregate reservation	to an aggressor
	  causes many calls to operate unreserved, and the reservation
	  of a great excess of bandwidth may result in a denial	of
	  service. However, these issues are not confined to this
	  extension: RSVP itself has them. We believe that the security
	  mechanisms in	RSVP address these issues as well.


	  6.  IANA Considerations

	  Beyond allocating an IP Protocol, a PATH ERROR code, and an
	  RSVP Addressing object "type", there are no IANA issues in
	  this document. We do not define an object that will itself
	  require assignment by	IANA.


	  7.  Acknowledgments

	  The authors freely acknowledge that published	documents and
	  discussion with several people materially contributed	to the
	  correct specification	of this	function. The design derives
	  directly from	an internet draft by Roch Guerin [Guerin] and
	  from Steve Berson's drafts on	the subject. It	is also
	  influenced by	the design in the diff-edge draft by Bernet et
	  al [Bernet].
























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	  Draft		   RSVP	Reservation Aggregation	   February 1999


	  8.  References

	  [IP] RFC 791,	"Internet Protocol". J.	Postel.	Sep-01-1981.

	  [HOSTREQ]
	       RFC 1122, "Requirements for Internet hosts -
	       communication layers".  R.T. Braden. Oct-01-1989.

	  [FRAMEWORK]
	       Nichols,	"Differentiated	Services Operational Model and
	       Definitions", 02/11/1998, draft-nichols-dsopdef-00.txt

	  [PRINCIPLES]
	       RFC 1958, "Architectural	Principles of the Internet". B.
	       Carpenter.  June	1996.

	  [ASSURED]
	       Clark and Wroclawski, "An Approach to Service Allocation
	       in the Internet", 08/04/1997, draft-clark-diff-svc-
	       alloc-00.txt

	  [BROKER]
	       Nichols and Zhang, "A Two-bit Differentiated Services
	       Architecture for	the Internet", 12/23/1997, draft-
	       nichols-diff-svc-arch-00.txt

	  {BERSON]
	       Berson and Vincent. Aggregation of Internet Integrated
	       Services	State. draft-berson-rsvp-aggregation-00.txt,
	       August 1998


	  9.  Author's Addresses

	       Fred Baker
	       Cisco Systems
	       519 Lado	Drive
	       Santa Barbara, California 93111
	       Phone: (408) 526-4257
	       Email: fred@cisco.com

	       Carol Iturralde
	       Cisco Systems
	       250 Apollo Drive
	       Chelmsford MA,01824 USA
	       Phone: 978-244-8532
	       Email: cei@cisco.com





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	  Draft		   RSVP	Reservation Aggregation	   February 1999


	       Francois	Le Faucheur
	       Cisco Systems
	       Office: 16 av du	Quebec,
	       Villebon-BP 706,	91961 Les Ulis -
	       France
	       Phone: +33.1.6918 6266
	       Email: flefauch@cisco.com

	       Bruce Davie
	       Cisco Systems
	       250 Apollo Drive
	       Chelmsford MA,01824 USA
	       Phone: 978-244-8921
	       Email: bdavie@cisco.com






































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