One document matched: draft-boucadair-pcp-sfc-classifier-control-00.txt





PCP Working Group                                           M. Boucadair
Internet-Draft                                            France Telecom
Intended status: Standards Track                          April 15, 2014
Expires: October 17, 2014


              PCP as a Traffic Classifier Control Protocol
             draft-boucadair-pcp-sfc-classifier-control-00

Abstract

   This document specifies how PCP (Port Control Protocol) can be used
   as a classifier control protocol.

Requirements Language

   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].

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).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on October 17, 2014.

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



Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 1]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


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

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Scope of this Document  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Objectives for Controlling Classifiers  . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Candidate Extensions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Detailed Specification  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   PCP (Port Control Protocol, [RFC6887]) is a protocol that has been
   specified to control an upstream function such NATs or firewalls.
   PCP can be used to interact with statefull and stateless functions.

   PCP can be abstracted as a means to notify an upstream network with
   the flow characteristics that would trigger decisions on the
   appropriate policies to be applied on these flows at the network
   side.  This document focuses on a typical function that is present in
   operational networks: Traffic Classifier Function.

   A traffic classifier (or classifier for short) is a function that is
   responsible for classifying flows based on (pre-defined) rules.  Once
   the traffic is classified, it can be marked to bear its class of
   service (DSCP re-marking [RFC2474]), dropped, shaped, or any other
   action instructed by the matching rule.  This document focuses on
   classification rules that manipulate L3/L4 fields of IP packets.

   A typical example of packet classifier is DiffServ Classifier
   [RFC2475] that responsible to select packets in a traffic stream
   based on the content of some portion of the packet header: this can
   be solely on the DSCP field or based on a combination of one or more
   header fields, such as source address, destination address, DSCP
   field, protocol ID, source port and destination port numbers, and
   other information such as incoming interface.  These classifiers must
   be configured by some means as documented in [RFC2475]:





Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 2]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


      "Classifiers are used to "steer" packets matching some specified
      rule to an element of a traffic conditioner for further
      processing.  Classifiers must be configured by some management
      procedure in accordance with the appropriate TCA (Traffic
      Conditioning Agreemet)."

   Another classifier is SFC Classifier (e.g.,
   [I-D.ietf-sfc-problem-statement][I-D.boucadair-sfc-framework]).  This
   classifier is responsible for classifying flows to determine which
   Service Function Chain they belong to.  Similar to Diffserv, an SFC
   Classifier can rely on a variety of classifying rules.

   A Classifier can be seen as a statefull service function that applies
   a set of policies for packets and/or flows matching a set of
   criteria.  This document specifies how PCP can be used as a
   classifier control protocol.

   Note a classifier can be co-located with a CGN (Carrier Grade NAT,
   [RFC6888]), or a firewall.  PCP can be used to install policies in
   all these functions.

   The reference architecture adopted in this document assumes that both
   the PCP client and server are managed by the same administrative
   entity (e.g., an operator).

   Classification rules are not exposed outside an administrative
   domain.  In particular, subscribers are not aware of these policies.
   PCP requests received in the subscriber-faced interfaces are not
   allowed to manage policies enforced in the classifiers.

2.  Scope of this Document

   Early versions of the document explains the motivations, basic
   assumptions, and identify some missing features.  Detailed
   specification of required extensions will be elaborated in future
   versions of the document.

   This document focuses on the control of L2/L3/L4 Classifiers.
   Sophisticated classifiers based on heuristics (e.g., those involving
   DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) modules) are out of scope of this
   document.

3.  Objectives for Controlling Classifiers

   Below are listed some objectives for a classifier control means:

   o  Rationalize the management of classification rules.




Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 3]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


   o  Help assessing the impact of removing or modifying a
      classification rule.

   o  Check the coherency of instantiated classification rules.

   o  Help aggregating rules: this allows to optimize the classification
      rule table and therefor accelerate packet/flow processing (mainly
      reduce lookup delays).

   o  Adjust classification rules when rules are based on volatile
      identifiers (e.g., IP address).

   o  Maintain an global overview of instantiated rules in involved
      Network Elements.

   o  Rapidly restore state during failure events.

   o  Network Elements can retrieve their table after failure events
      whiteout requiring permanent storage capacity.

   PCP allows the following:

   o  Directionality

   o  Classification involving port sets

   o  Classification rules involving IPv4 addresses

   o  Classification rules involving IPv4 prefixes

   o  Classification rules involving IPv6 addresses

   o  Classification rules involving IPv6 prefixes

   o  Classification rules with or without NAT

   o  Feedback loop to assess whether a classification rule has been
      successfully enforced: PREFERE_FAILURE

   o  Associate a description with classification rules

   o  Classification rules are associated with lifetimes

   o  PCP client can re-install states if a loss is detected

   o  PCP server does not need to store the entries in a permanent
      storage; state can be installed by the PCP client.




Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 4]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


   o  PCP client detects rapidly any state loss, including reboot of the
      PCP server

   o  Multiple PCP clients can control the same PCP server

   o  2-way exchange is needed to install new state;

   o  No need to lock the server waiting when concurrent clients are in
      contact with the server.

4.  Candidate Extensions

   Some candidate extensions are listed below:

   o  Extended THIRD_PARTY option to include a L2 identifier (e.g., MAC
      address), an opaque subscriber-identifier, an IMSI, etc.

   o  Extended FILTER to include a remote range of ports.  This
      extension might be useful for the firewall case.

   o  DSCP-based filtering.  This extension might be useful for the
      firewall case.

   o  DSCP re-marking: this is to be enforced at the boundaries of a
      domain.  The marking at the access segment may not the same as the
      core network.  Marking must be enforced by a trusted device.

   o  Explicit actions: re-mark, drop, shape (can be used with
      FLOWDATA).

   o  A means to indicate the SFC binding.

5.  Detailed Specification

   This section will be completed if the working group agrees with the
   problem to be solved.

6.  IANA Considerations

   To be completed.

7.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations discussed in [RFC6887] MUST be taken into
   account.






Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 5]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


8.  Acknowledgements

   TBC.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC6887]  Wing, D., Cheshire, S., Boucadair, M., Penno, R., and P.
              Selkirk, "Port Control Protocol (PCP)", RFC 6887, April
              2013.

9.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.boucadair-sfc-framework]
              Boucadair, M., Jacquenet, C., Parker, R., Lopez, D.,
              Guichard, J., and C. Pignataro, "Service Function
              Chaining: Framework & Architecture", draft-boucadair-sfc-
              framework-02 (work in progress), February 2014.

   [I-D.ietf-sfc-problem-statement]
              Quinn, P. and T. Nadeau, "Service Function Chaining
              Problem Statement", draft-ietf-sfc-problem-statement-03
              (work in progress), April 2014.

   [RFC2474]  Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F., and D. Black,
              "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
              Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474, December
              1998.

   [RFC2475]  Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E., Wang, Z.,
              and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated
              Services", RFC 2475, December 1998.

   [RFC6888]  Perreault, S., Yamagata, I., Miyakawa, S., Nakagawa, A.,
              and H. Ashida, "Common Requirements for Carrier-Grade NATs
              (CGNs)", BCP 127, RFC 6888, April 2013.

Author's Address









Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 6]

Internet-Draft        PCP & Traffic Classification            April 2014


   Mohamed Boucadair
   France Telecom
   Rennes  35000
   France

   Email: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com













































Boucadair               Expires October 17, 2014                [Page 7]

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-24 01:15:37