One document matched: draft-geib-tsvwg-diffserv-intercon-07.xml


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<rfc category='info' docName='draft-geib-tsvwg-diffserv-intercon-07' ipr='trust200902'>
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  <!-- ***** FRONT MATTER ***** -->

  <front>
    <!-- The abbreviated title is used in the page header - it is only necessary if the 
         full title is longer than 39 characters -->

    <title abbrev="Abbreviated Title">DiffServ interconnection classes and practice</title>

    <!-- add 'role="editor"' below for the editors if appropriate -->

    <!-- Another author who claims to be an editor -->

    <author fullname="Ruediger Geib" initials="R." role="editor"
            surname="Geib">
      <organization>Deutsche Telekom</organization>

       <address>
        <postal>
          <street>Heinrich Hertz Str. 3-7</street>

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          <code>64295</code>
          
          <city>Darmstadt</city>

          <region></region>

          <country>Germany</country>
        </postal>

        <phone>+49 6151 5812747</phone>

        <email>Ruediger.Geib@telekom.de</email>
        <!-- uri and facsimile elements may also be added -->
      </address>
    </author>
	
	   <author fullname="David L. Black" initials="D.L." 
            surname="Black">
      <organization>EMC Corporation</organization>

        <address>
        <postal>
          <street>176 South Street</street>

          <!-- Reorder these if your country does things differently -->

          <code></code>
          
          <city>Hopkinton</city>

          <region>MA</region>

          <country>USA</country>
        </postal>

        <phone>+1 (508) 293-7953</phone>

        <email>david.black@emc.com</email>

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      </address>
    </author>

    <date month="October" year="2014" />

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    <!-- Meta-data Declarations -->

    <area>Transport</area>

    <workgroup>TSVWG</workgroup>

    <!-- WG name at the upperleft corner of the doc -->

    <keyword>DiffServ, Interconnection, QoS, QoS class</keyword>

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    <abstract>
      <t>This document proposes a limited and well defined set of DiffServ PHBs
   and codepoints to be applied at (inter)connections of two separately
   administered and operated networks.  Many network providers operate
   MPLS using Treatment Aggregates for traffic marked with different
   DiffServ PHBs, and use MPLS for interconnection with other networks.
   This document offers a simple interconnection approach that may simplify
   operation of DiffServ for network interconnection among providers.</t>
    </abstract>
  </front>

  <middle>

    <section title="Introduction">

      <t> DiffServ has been deployed in many networks. As described by section 2.3.4.2
       of RFC 2475, remarking of packets at domain boundaries is a DiffServ <xref
       target="RFC2475">feature</xref>. This draft proposes a set of standard QoS
       classes and code points at interconnection points to which and from which
       locally used classes and code points should be mapped. </t>
	   
	  <t> RFC2474 specifies the <xref target="RFC2474">DiffServ Codepoint Field</xref>.
   Differentiated treatment is based on the specific DSCP.  Once set, it
   may change. If traffic marked with unknown or unexpected DSCPs is
   received, RFC2474 recommends forwarding that traffic with default
   (best effort) treatment without changing the DSCP markings.  Many
   networks do not follow this recommendation, and instead remark unknown
   or unexpected DSCPs to the zero DSCP for consistency with default
   (best effort) forwarding.</t>

      <t>Many providers operate MPLS-based backbones that employ backbone
   traffic engineering to ensure that if a major link, switch, or router
   fails, the result will be a routed network that continues to meet
   its Service Level Agreements (SLAs).  Based on that foundation,
<xref target="RFC5127">foundation, </xref> introduces the concept of DiffServ Treatment Aggregates,
   which enable traffic marked with multiple DSCPs to be forwarded in
   a single MPLS Traffic Class (TC). Like RFC 5127, this document
   assumes robust provider backbone traffic engineering.</t>
   
        <t>RFC5127 recommends transmission of DSCPs as they are received.
   This is not possible, if the receiving and the transmitting domains
   at a network interconnection use different DSCPs for the PHBs
   involved.</t>
   
          <t>This document is motivated by requirements for IP network
   interconnection with DiffServ support among providers that operate
   MPLS in their backbones, but is applicable to other technologies.  The
   operational simplifications and methods in this document help align IP
   DiffServ functionality with MPLS limitations, particularly when
   MPLS penultimate hop popping is used.  That is an important reason why
   this document specifies 4 interconnection Treatment Aggregates.
   Limiting DiffServ to a small number Treatment Aggregates can help
   ensure that network traffic leaves a network with the same DSCPs that it was received with. The
   approach proposed here may be extended by operators or future
   specifications.</t>
   
   <t>In isolation, use of standard interconnection PHBs and DSCPs may
   appear to be additional effort for a network operator.  The primary
   offsetting benefit is that the mapping from or
   to the interconnection PHBs and DSCPs is specified once for all of
   the interconnections to other networks that can use this approach.
   Otherwise, the PHBs and DSCPs have to be negotiated and configured
   independently for each network interconnection, which has poor
   scaling properties.  Further, end-to-end QoS treatment is more
   likely to result when an interconnection code point scheme is used
   because traffic is remarked to the same PHBs at all network
   interconnections.  This document supports one-to-one DSCP remarking
   at network interconnections (not n DSCP to one DSCP remarking).</t>
 
       <t>The example given in RFC 5127 on aggregation of DiffServ service
   classes uses 4 Treatment Aggregates, and this document does likewise
   because: </t>

       <t> <list style="symbols">

         <t>The available coding space for carrying QoS information (e.g.,
      DiffServ PHB) in MPLS and Ethernet is only 3 bits in size, and is
      intended for more than just QoS purposes (<xref target="RFC5129">see e.g.</xref>).</t>

         <t>There should be unused codes for interconnection purposes.
      This leaves space for future standards, for private bilateral
      agreements and for local use PHBs and DSCPs.</t>

         <t>Migrations from one code point scheme to another may require spare
           QoS code points.</t>

           </list> </t>      

      <t>   RFC5127 provides recommendations on aggregation of DSCP-marked traffic
   into MPLS Treatment Aggregates and offers a <xref target="RFC5127">deployment example</xref>
   that does not work for the MPLS Short Pipe model when that
   model is used for ordinary network traffic.  This document supports
   the MPLS Short Pipe model for ordinary network traffic and hence
   differs from the RFC5127 approach as follows:</t>

      <t> <list style="symbols">

        <t>remarking of received DSCPs to domain internal DSCPs is to be 
      expected for ordinary IP traffic at provider edges (and for 
      outer headers of tunneled IP traffic).</t>

        <t>document follows RFC4594 in the proposed marking of provider
      Network Control traffic and expands RFC4594 on treatment of CS6
      marked traffic at interconnection points (see section 3.2).</t>

      </list> </t>

      <t>This document is organized as follows: section 2 reviews the MPLS
   Short Pipe tunnel model for DiffServ Tunnels [RFC3270]; effective
   support for that model is a crucial goal of this document.  
   Section 3 introduces DiffServ 
   interconnection Treatment Aggregates, plus the PHBs and DSCPs that are 
   mapped to these Treatment Aggregates. Further, section 3 discusses
   treatment of non-tunneled and tunneled IP traffic and MPLS VPN QoS 
   aspects. Finally Network Management PHB treatment is described.
   Annex A discusses how domain internal 
   IP layer QoS schemes impact interconnection. Annex B describes the 
   impact of the MPLS Short Pipe model (pen ultimate hop popping) on 
   QoS related IP interconnections. 
</t>

      <section title="Related work">

       <t>In addition to the activities that triggered this work, there are
   additional RFCs and Internet-drafts that may benefit from
   an interconnection PHB and DSCP scheme. RFC 5160 suggests Meta-QoS-
        Classes to enable deployment of standardized end to end QoS 
        <xref target="RFC5160">classes</xref>. In private discussion, the authors of that RFC agree that the proposed
        interconnection class- and codepoint scheme and its enablement of  
   standardised end to end classes would complement their own work.</t>
    
	<t>Work on
        signaling Class of Service at interconnection interfaces by 
        <xref target="I-D.knoll-idr-cos-interconnect">BGP</xref>, 
        <xref target="ID.idr-sla"> </xref> is beyond the scope of this draft. 
        When the basic DiffServ elements for network
   interconnection are used as described in this document, signaled
   access to QoS classes may be of interest.  These two BGP documents
   focus on exchanging SLA and traffic conditioning parameters and
   assume that common PHBs  identified by the signaled DSCPs have
   been established prior to BGP signaling of QoS.</t>

      </section>
    
    </section>
     
    <section title="MPLS and the Short Pipe tunnel model">
	
		<t>  The Pipe and Uniform models for Differentiated Services and Tunnels
   are <xref target="RFC2983">defined in</xref>. RFC3270 adds the MPLS Short Pipe model
   in order to support penultimate hop popping (PHP)
   of MPLS Labels, primarily for IP tunnels and VPNs. The Short Pipe
   model and PHP have become popular with many network providers that
   operate MPLS networks and are now widely used for ordinary network
   traffic, not just traffic encapsulated in IP tunnels and VPNs.  This
   has important implications for DiffServ functionality in MPLS
   networks.</t>
   
   		<t>RFC 2474's recommendation to forward traffic with unrecognized DSCPs
   with Default (best effort) service without rewriting the DSCP has
   proven to be a poor operational practice.  Network operation and
   management are simplified when there is a 1-1 match between the DSCP
   marked on the packet and the forwarding treatment (PHB) applied by
   network nodes.  When this is done, CS0 (the all-zero DSCP) is the
   only DSCP used for Default forwarding of best effort traffic, so
   a common practice is to use CS0 to remark traffic received with
   unrecognized or unsupported DSCPs at network edges.</t>
   
   <t>MPLS networks are more subtle in this regard, as it is possible to
   encode the provider's DSCP in the MPLS TC field and allow that to
   differ from the PHB indicated by the DSCP in the MPLS-encapsulated
   IP packet.  That would allow an unrecognized DSCP to be carried
   edge-to-edge over an MPLS network, because the effective DSCP used
   by the MPLS network would be encoded in the MPLS label TC field
   (and also carried edge-to-edge); this approach assumes that a provider
   MPLS label with the provider's TC field being present at all hops
   within the provider's network.</t>
   
     <t>The Short Pipe tunnel model and PHP violate that assumption because
   PHP pops and discards the MPLS provider label carrying the provider's
   TC field.  That discard occurs one hop upstream of the MPLS tunnel
   endpoint, resulting in no provider TC info being available at tunnel
   egress.  Therefore the DSCP field in the MPLS-encapsulated IP header
   has to contain a DSCP that is valid for the provider's network;
   propagating another DSCP edge-to-edge requires an IP tunnel of
   some form.  In the absence of IP tunneling (a common case
   for MPLS networks), it is not possible to pass all 64 possible DSCP
   values edge-to-edge across an MPLS network.  See Annex B for a 
   more detailed discussion.</t>
   
        <t>If transport of a large number (much greater than 4) DSCPs is required
		across a network that supports this DiffServ interconnection scheme, a 
tunnel or VPN can be provisioned for this purpose, so that the inner 
IP header carries the DSCP that is to be preserved not to be changed. 
From a network operations perspective, the customer equipment (CE) is 
the preferred location for tunnel termination, although a receiving 
domains Provider Edge router is another viable option.</t>
	
	</section>
	
     <section title="An Interconnection class and codepoint scheme"> 
      <t>At an interconnection, the networks involved need to agree on the PHBs
   used for interconnection and the specific DSCP for each PHB.  This may
   involve remarking for the interconnection; such remarking is part of
   the <xref target="RFC2475">DiffServ Architecture</xref>, at least for the network edge
   nodes involved in interconnection.  See Annex A for a more
   detailed discussion. This draft proposes a standard interconnection 
   set of 4 Treatment Aggregates with well-defined DSCPs to be aggregated 
   by them. A sending party remarks DSCPs from internal schemes to the 
   interconnection code points. The receiving party remarks DSCPs to her 
   internal scheme. The set of DSCPs and PHBs supported across the two interconnected domains
   and the treatment of PHBs and DSCPs not recognized by the receiving
   domain should be part of the interconnect SLA.</t>

   <t>RFC 5127's four treatment aggregates include a Network Control aggregate for routing 
   protocols and OAM traffic that is essential for network operation administration, 
   control and management.  Using this aggregate as one of the four in RFC 5127 
   implicitly assumes that network control traffic is forwarded in potential 
   competition with all other network traffic, and hence DiffServ must favor 
   such traffic (e.g., via use of the CS6 codepoint) for network stability.  
   That is a reasonable assumption for IP-based networks where routing and 
   OAM protocols are mixed with all other types of network traffic; 
   corporate networks are an example.</t>
    
   <t>In contrast, mixing of all traffic is not a reasonable assumption for 
   MPLS-based provider or carrier networks, where customer traffic is usually 
   segregated from network control (routing and OAM) traffic via other means, 
   e.g., network control traffic use of separate LSPs that can be prioritized 
   over customer LSPs (e.g., for VPN service) via other means.  This sort of 
 of network control traffic from customer traffic is also used for MPLS-based 
 network interconnections.  In addition, many customers of a network provider 
 do not exchange Network Control traffic (e.g., routing) with the network 
 provider.  For these reasons, a separate Network Control traffic aggregate 
 is not important for MPLS-based carrier or provider networks; when such traffic 
 is not segregated from other traffic, it may reasonably share the Assured 
 Elastic treatment aggregate (as RFC 5127 suggests for a situation in which 
 only three treatment aggregates are supported).</t>	
	   
	   
	   <t>In contrast, VoIP is emerging as a valuable and important class of 
	   network traffic for which network-provided QoS is crucial, as even minor
	   glitches are immediately apparent to the humans involved in the conversation.</t>
	   
	   <t>For these reasons, the Diffserv Interconnect scheme in this document departs 
	   from the approach in RFC 5127 by not providing a Network Control traffic aggregate,
	   and instead dedicating the fourth traffic aggregate for VoIP traffic.  
	   Network Control traffic may still be exchanged across network interconnections, 
	   see Section 3.2 for further discussion.</t>
	   
	   <t>Similar approaches to use of a small number of traffic aggregates (including 
	   recognition of the importance of VoIP traffic) have been taken in related standards 
	   and recommendations from outside the IETF, e.g., <xref target="Y.1566">Y.1566 </xref>, 
	   <xref target="IR.34">GSMA IR.34 </xref> and<xref target="MEF23.1"> MEF23.1 </xref>.</t>
	   
	   <t>The list of the four DiffServ Interconnect traffic aggregates follows, highlighting 
	   differences from RFC 5127 and the specific traffic classes from RFC 4594 that 
	   each class aggregates.</t>

     <t><list hangIndent="8" style="hanging">

          <t hangText=" Telephony Service Treatment Aggregate:">PHB EF, DSCP 101 110 and   
           VOICE-ADMIT, DSCP 101100, <xref target="RFC3246">see</xref> <xref target="RFC4594">, </xref><xref target="RFC5865"> </xref>. 
          This Treatment Aggregate
           corresponds to RFC 5127s real time Treatment Aggregate
           definition regarding the queuing, but it is restricted to
           transport Telephony Service Class traffic in the sense of
           RFC 4594.</t>

          <t hangText="Bulk Real-Time Treatment Aggregate:">This Treatment Aggregate 
           is designed to transport PHB AF41, DSCP 100 010 (the 
           other AF4 PHB group PHBs and DSCPs may be used for future
           extension of the set of DSCPs carried by this Treatment     
           Aggregate). This Treatment Aggregate is designed to transport
           the portions of RFC 5127's Real Time Treatment Aggregate,
           which consume large amounts of bandwidth, namely Broadcast 
           Video, Real-Time Interactive and Multimedia Conferencing. The
           treatment aggregate should be configured with a rate queue
           (which is in line with RFC 4594 for the mentioned traffic
            classes). As compared to RFC 5127, the number of DSCPs 
            has been reduced to one (initially) and the proposed 
            queuing mechanism. The latter is however in line with
            RFC4594.</t>

          <t hangText="Assured Elastic Treatment Aggregate">This Treatment Aggregate consists of the entire AF3 PHB
           group AF3, i.e., DSCPs 011 010, 011 100 and 011 110. As
           compared to RFC5127, just the number of DSCPs, which has 
           been reduced. This document suggests to transport signaling 
           marked by AF31. RFC5127 suggests to map Network Management 
           traffic into this Treatment Aggregate, if no separate Network 
           Control Treatment Aggregate is supported (for a more detailed 
           discussion of Network Control PHB treatment see section 3.2). 
		   GSMA IR.34 proposes to transport signaling traffic by AF31
           too. </t>

          <t hangText="Default / Elastic Treatment Aggregate: ">transports the default PHB, 
           CS0 with DSCP 000 000. RFC 5127 example refers to this
           Treatment Aggregate as Aggregate Elastic. An important
           difference as compared to RFC5127 is that any traffic 
           with unrecognized or unsupported DSCPs may be remarked to 
           this DSCP.</t>

      </list> </t>

	  <t>RFC 4594's Multimedia Streaming class has not been mapped to the above 
	  scheme. By the time of writing, the most popular streaming applications 
	  use TCP transport and adapt picture quality in the case of congestion. 
	  These applications are proprietary and still change behaviour frequently. At 
	  this state, the Bulk Real-Time Treatment Aggregate or the Bulk Real-Time 
	  Treatment Aggregate may be a reasonable match.</t>
	  
	  
        <t> The overall approach to DSCP marking at network interconnections
   is illustrated by the following example. Provider O and provider W
   are peered with provider T. They have agreed upon a QoS interconnection SLA.</t>

   <t> Traffic of provider O terminates within provider Ts network, while
   provider W's traffic transits through the network of provider T to
   provider F. Assume all providers to run their own internal codepoint
   schemes for a PHB groupwith properties of the DiffServ Intercon
   Assured Treatment Aggregate.</t>
   
<figure anchor="Intercon-example">
           <preamble></preamble>
           <artwork>


        Provider-O             Provider-W
        RFC5127                GSMA 34.1
            |                      |
       +----------+           +----------+
       |AF21, AF22|           | CS3, CS2 |
       +----------+           +----------+
            |                      |
            V                      V
        +++++++++              +++++++++
        |Rtr PrO|              |Rtr PrW|  Rtr Pr:
        +++++++++              +++++++++  Router Peering
            |        DiffServ      |
       +----------+           +----------+
       |AF31, AF32|           |AF31, AF32|
       +----------+           +----------+ 
            |        Intercon      |
            V                      V 
        +++++++++                  |              
        |RtrPrTI|------------------+              
        +++++++++
            |     Provider-T domain
       +-----------+
       | MPLS TC 2 |
       | DSCP rew. |
       | AF21, AF22|
       +-----------+ 
          |      |  Local DSCPs Provider-T
          |      |  +----------+   +++++++++
          V      +->|AF21, AF22|->-|RtrDstH|
          |         +----------+   +++++++++ 
      +----------+                 RtrDst:
      |AF21, AF22|                 Router Destination
      +----------+           
          |
       +++++++++
       |RtrPrTE|
       +++++++++
          |        DiffServ
      +----------+
      |AF31, AF32|
      +----------+
          |        Intercon
       +++++++++
       |RtrPrF|
       +++++++++
          |
      +----------+
      | CS4, CS3 |
      +----------+
          |
      Provider-F
      GSM IR.34               
    

</artwork>
           <postamble>DiffServ Intercon example</postamble>
       </figure> 

        <t>It is easily visible that all providers only need to deploy internal DSCP to 
           DiffServ Intercon DSCP mappings to exchange traffic in the desired classes. 
		   Provider W has decided that the properties of his internal classes CS3 and 
		   CS2 are best met by the Diffserv Intercon Assured Elastic Treatment Aggregate, 
		   PHBs AF31 and AF32 respectively. At the outgoing peering interface connecting
		   provider W with provider T remarks CS3 traffic to AF31 and CS 2 traffic to CS32.
		   The domain internal PHBs of provider T meeting the Diffserv Intercon Assured 
		   Elastic Treatment Aggregate requirements is AF2. Hence AF31 traffic received 
		   at the interconnection with provider T is remarked to AF21 by the peering 
		   router of domain T. As domain T deploys MPLS, further the MPLS TC ist set 
		   to 2. Traffic received with AF32 is remarked to AF22. The MPLS TC of the 
		   Treatment Aggregate is the same, TC 2. At the pen-ultimate MPLS node, 
		   the top MPLS label is removed. The packet should be forwarded as determined 
		   by the incoming MPLS TC. The peering router connecting domain T with domain F 
		   classifies the packet by it's domain T internal DSCP AF21 for the 
		   Diffserv Intercon Assured Elastic Treatment Aggregate. As it leaves 
		   domain T on the interface to domain F, it is remarked to AF31. The peering 
		   router of domain F classifies the packet for domain F internal PHB CS4, as 
		   this is the PHB with properties matching DiffServ Intercon's Assured 
		   Elastic Treatment Aggregate. Likewise, AF21 traffic is remarked to AF32 
		   by the peering router od domain T when leaving it and from AF32 to CS3 
		   by domain F's peering router when receiving it.
        </t>
        
        <t>This example can be extended. Suppose Provider-O also supports a PHB 
		marked by CS2 and this PHB is supposed to be transported by QoS within 
		Provider-T domain. Then Provider-O will remark it with a DSCP other than 
		AF31 DSCP in order to preserve the differentiation from CS2; AF11 is one 
		possibility that might be private to the interconnection between Provider-O 
		and Provider-T; there's no assumption that Provider-W can also use AF11, 
		as it may not be in the SLA with Provider-W.   
        </t>

       <t>Now suppose Provider-W supports CS2 for internal use only. Then no DiffServ 
	   intercon DSCP mapping may be configured at the peering router. Traffic, 
	   sent by Provider-W to Provider-T marked by CS2 due to a misconfiguration 
	   may be remarked to CS0 by Provider-T.</t>

	   <t>See section 3.1 for further discussion of this and DSCP transparency 
	   in general. </t>
	   
	   	   <t>RFC5127 specifies a separate Treatment Aggregate for network control 
		   traffic.  It may be present at interconnection interfaces too, but
   depending on the agreement between providers, Network Control traffic
   may also be classified into a different interconnection class.  See 
   section 3.2 for a detailed discussion on the treatment of Network 
   Control traffic.</t>
   
   	   	   <t>RFC2575 states that Ingress nodes must condition all other inbound 
		   traffic to ensure that the DS codepoints are acceptable; packets found 
		   to have unacceptable codepoints must either be discarded or must have 
		   their DS codepoints modified to acceptable values before being forwarded.  
		   For example, an ingress node receiving traffic from a domain with which no 
enhanced service agreement exists may reset the DS codepoint to the 
Default PHB codepoint.  As a consequence, an interconnect SLA needs to specify not 
only the treatment of traffic that arrives with a supported interconnect DSCP, but 
also the treatment of traffic that arrives with unsupported or unexpected DSCPs.</t>


   	   	   <t>The proposed interconnect class and code point scheme is designed for
   point to point IP layer interconnections among MPLS networks.  Other
   types of interconnections are out of scope of this document.  The
   basic class and code point scheme is applicable on Ethernet layer too, if a provider 
   e.g. supports Ethernet pririties like specified by IEEE 802.1p.</t>
	   
		<section title="End-to-end QoS: PHB and DS CodePoint Transparency">

      <t>This section describes how the use of a common PHB and DSCP scheme for interconnection 
	  can lead to end-to-end DiffServ-based QoS across networks that do not have common policies 
	  or practices for PHB and DSCP usage.  This will initially be possible for PHBs and DSCPs 
	  corresponding to at most 3 or 4 Treatment Aggregates due to the MPLS considerations 
	  discussed previously.</t>
	  
	  <t>Networks can be expected to differ in the number of PHBs available at interconnections 
	  (for terminating or transit service) and the DSCP values used within their domain.  At an 
	  interconnection, Treatment Aggregate and PHB properties are best described by SLAs and 
	  related explanatory material. See annex A for a more detailed discussion about why PHB 
	  and g DSCP usage is likely to differ among networks.  For the above reasons and the desire 
	  to support interconnection among networks with different DiffServ schemes, the DiffServ 
	  interconnection scheme supports a small number of PHBs and DSCPs; this scheme is expandable.</t>

	  <t>The basic idea is that traffic sent with a DiffServ interconnect PHB and DSCP is restored 
	  to that PHB and DSCP (or a PHB and DSCP within the AF3 PHB group for the Assured Treatment 
	  Aggregate) at each network interconnection, even though a different PHB and DSCP may be 
	  used by each network involved.  So, Bulk Inelastic traffic could be sent with AF41, remarked 
	  to CS3 by the first network and back to AF41 at the interconnection with the second network, 
	  which could mark it to CS5 and back to AF41 at the next interconnection, etc.  The result 
	  is end-to-end QoS treatment consistent with the Bulk Inelastic Traffic Aggregate, and that 
	  is signaled or requested by the AF41 DSCP at each network interconnection in a fashion that 
	  allows each network operator to use their own internal PHB and DSCP scheme.</t>
	  
	  	  <t>The key requirement is that the network ingress interconnect DSCP be restored at network 
		  egress, and a key observation is that this is only feasible in general for a small number 
		  of DSCPs.</t>
	  
</section>

<section title="Treatment of Network Control traffic at carrier interconnection interfaces">

      <t>As specified by RFC4594, section 3.2, Network Control (NC) traffic
   marked by CS6 is to be expected at interconnection interfaces.  This
   document does not change NC specifications of RFC4594, but observes
   that network control traffic received at network ingress is generally
   different from network control traffic within a network that is the
   primary use of CS6 envisioned by RFC 4594.  A specific example is that
   some CS6 traffic exchanged across carrier interconnections is
   terminated at the network ingress node (e.g., if BGP is running
   between two routers on opposite ends of an interconnection link),
   which is consistent with RFC 4594's recommendation to not use CS6
   when forwarding CS6-marked traffic originating from user-controlled
   end points.</t>

      <t> The end-to-end QoS discussion in the previous section (3.1) is
   generally inapplicable to network control traffic - network control
   traffic is generally intended to control a network, not be transported
   across it.  One exception is that network control traffic makes sense
   for a purchased transit agreement, and preservation of CS6 for network
   control traffic that is transited is reasonable in some cases.  Use of
   an IP tunnel is suggested in order to reduce the risk of CS6 markings
   on transiting network control traffic being interpreted by the network
   providing the transit.</t> 

      <t>If the MPLS Short Pipe model is deployed for non tunneled IPv4
   traffic, an IP network provider should limit access to the CS6
   and CS7 DSCPs so that they are only used for network control
   traffic for the provider's own network.</t>

      <t>   Interconnecting carriers should specify treatment of CS6
   marked traffic received at a carrier interconnection which is to be
   forwarded beyond the ingress node.  An SLA covering the following
   cases is recommended when a provider wishes to send CS6 marked traffic
   across an interconnection link which isn't terminating at the
   interconnected ingress node:</t>
      
      <t><list style="symbols">
 
     <t>classification of traffic which is network control traffic for 
     both domains. This traffic should be classified and marked for the 
     NC PHB.</t>

     <t>classification of traffic which is network control traffic for the
      sending domain only. This traffic should be classified for a PHB
      offering similar properties as the NC class (e.g. AF31 as
      specified by this document). As an example GSMA IR.34 proposes an Interactive   
      class / AF31 to carry SIP and DIAMETER traffic. While this is service control  
      traffic of high importance to the interconnected Mobile Network Operators, it is 
      certainly no Network Control traffic for a fixed network providing transit. The 
      example may not be perfect. It was picked nevertheless because it refers to an 
      existing standard.</t>

     <t>any other CS6 marked traffic should be remarked or dropped.</t>
      
     </list></t>

</section>

    </section>
    
<section title="Acknowledgements">  
      <t> Al Morton and Sebastien Jobert provided feedback on many aspects during   
      private discussions. Mohamed Boucadair and Thomas Knoll helped 
      adding awareness of related work. Fred Baker and Brian Carpenter
	  provided intensive feedback and discussion.</t> 
    </section>

    <section anchor="IANA" title="IANA Considerations">
      <t>This memo includes no request to IANA.</t>
    </section>

    <section anchor="Security" title="Security Considerations">
      <t> This document does not introduce new features, it 
      describes how to use existing ones. The security section of
      <xref target="RFC2475">RFC 2475</xref> and 
      <xref target="RFC4594">RFC 4594</xref> apply. </t>
     </section>

  </middle>

  <!--  *****BACK MATTER ***** -->

  <back>
    <!-- References split into informative and normative -->

    <!-- There are 2 ways to insert reference entries from the citation libraries:
     1. define an ENTITY at the top, and use "ampersand character"RFC2629; here (as shown)
     2. simply use a PI "less than character"?rfc include="reference.RFC.2119.xml"?> here
        (for I-Ds: include="reference.I-D.narten-iana-considerations-rfc2434bis.xml")

     Both are cited textually in the same manner: by using xref elements.
     If you use the PI option, xml2rfc will, by default, try to find included files in the same
     directory as the including file. You can also define the XML_LIBRARY environment variable
     with a value containing a set of directories to search.  These can be either in the local
     filing system or remote ones accessed by http (http://domain/dir/... ).-->

    <references title="Normative References">
      <!--?rfc include="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml"?-->
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.2474'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.2475'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.2597'?>
	  <?rfc include='reference.RFC.3246'?> 
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.3260'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.3270'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.2119'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.5129'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.5462'?>
	  <?rfc include='reference.RFC.5865'?>

      <reference anchor="min_ref">
        <!-- the following is the minimum to make xml2rfc happy -->

        <front>
          <title>Minimal Reference</title>

          <author initials="authInitials" surname="authSurName">
            <organization></organization>
          </author>

          <date year="2006" />
        </front>
      </reference>
    </references>

    <references title="Informative References">
      <!-- Here we use entities that we defined at the beginning. -->

      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.2983'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.5160'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.5127'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.RFC.4594'?>
      <?rfc include='reference.I-D.knoll-idr-cos-interconnect'?>


      <!-- A reference written by by an organization not a person. -->

      <reference anchor="ID.idr-sla">
        <front>
          <title>Inter-domain SLA Exchange
          </title>

          <author>
            <organization>IETF</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2013"/>
        </front>
      <seriesInfo name="IETF, "  value="http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-idr-sla-exchange/"/>
      </reference>             

     <reference anchor="IEEE802.1Q">
        <front>
          <title>IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks
          </title>

          <author>
            <organization>IEEE</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2005" />
        </front>
    </reference>

     <reference anchor="IR.34">
        <front>
          <title>IR.34 Inter-Service Provider IP Backbone Guidelines Version 7.0
          </title>

          <author>
            <organization>GSMA Association</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2012" />
        </front>
      <seriesInfo name="GSMA, "  value="GSMA IR.34 http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ir.34.pdf"/>
      </reference>



      <reference anchor="MEF23.1">
        <front>
          <title>Implementation Agreement MEF 23.1 Carrier Ethernet Class of Service Phase 2
          </title>

          <author>
            <organization>MEF</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2012"/>
        </front>
      <seriesInfo name="MEF, " value="MEF23.1 http://metroethernetforum.org/PDF_Documents/technical-specifications/MEF_23.1.pdf"/>
      </reference>

      <reference anchor="Y.1566">
        <front>
          <title>Quality of service mapping and interconnection between Ethernet, IP and multiprotocol label switching networks
          </title>

          <author>
            <organization>ITU-T</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2012"/>
        </front>
      <seriesInfo name="ITU, "  value="http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-Y.1566-201207-I/en"/>

      </reference>


    </references>

    <section anchor="app-additional" title="Change log">
    
    <t><list hangIndent="8" style="hanging">
    
      <t hangText="00 to 01">Added terminology and references. Added details and
      information to interconnection class and codepoint scheme. Editorial changes.</t>
      <t hangText="01 to 02">Added some references regarding related work. 
      Clarified class definitions. Further editorial improvements.</t>
      <t hangText="02 to 03">Consistent terminology. Discussion of Network Management 
      PHB at interconnection interfaces. Editorial review.</t>
      <t hangText="03 to 04">Again improved terminology. Better wording of Network    
         Control PHB at interconnection interfaces.</t>
      <t hangText="04 to 05">Large rewrite and re-ordering of contents.</t>
      <t hangText="05 to 06">Description of IP and MPLS related requirements and 
	     constraints on DSCP rewrites.</t>
	  <t hangText="06 to 07">Largely rewrite, improved match and comparison with 
	  RFCs 4594 and 5127.</t>
    </list></t>
    </section>

    <!-- Change Log

v00 2012-10-26  RG   Initial version

v01 2013-02-20  RG   Added material see change log and editorial changes

v02 2013-02-25  RG   Added some references promised for -01 but forgotten there

v03 2013-06-14  RG   Clarified Traffic Class definition and Network Management treatment and some other issues.

v04 2013-10-18  RG   Clarified DSCP Precedence Prefix specification and Network Control treatment.

v05 2014-07-03  RG   Description of IP and MPLS related requirements and constraints on DSCP rewrites.

v07 2014-10-26  RG   Major rewrite but no real new content.
  -->
  </back>
</rfc>

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-23 19:29:56