One document matched: draft-ietf-l2vpn-ipls-00.txt




                                                          Himanshu Shah 
                                                         Ciena Networks 
                                                                        
                                                               K.Arvind 
                                                     Enterasys Networks 
   PPVPN Working Group                                                  
   Internet Draft 
   draft-ietf-l2vpn-ipls-00.txt                              Eric Rosen 
                                                   Francois Le Faucheur  
   November 2003                                          Cisco Systems 
   Expires: May 2004                                                    
                                                            Giles Heron 
                                                     PacketExchange,Ltd 
                                                                        
                                                         Vasile Radoaca 
                                                        Nortel Networks 
                                                                       


    


                        IP-Only LAN Service (IPLS) 
                                      


Status of this Memo 


   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with 
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. 
    
    
   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that      
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. 
    
   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents 
   at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as 
   reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 
    
   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
        http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 
   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
        http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 
    
Abstract 
    
   A Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) [VPLS] is used to interconnect 
   systems across a wide-area or metropolitan-area network, making it 
   appear to those systems as if they are interconnected on a private 
   LAN.  The systems which are interconnected in this way may 
   themselves be LAN switches.  If, however, the interconnected systems 
   are NOT LAN switches, but rather are IP hosts or IP routers, certain 
   simplifications are possible.  We call this simplified type of 
   virtual private LAN service an ?Ip-only LAN Service? (IPLS).  In 
     
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   IPLS, as in VPLS, LAN interfaces are run in promiscuous mode, and 
   frames are forwarded based on their MAC Destination Addresses.  
   However, the maintenance of the MAC forwarding tables is done via 
   signaling, rather than via the ?MAC Address Learning? procedures of 
   IEEE 802.1D.  Further, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages 
   are proxied, rather than being carried transparently. This draft 
   specifies the protocols and procedures for support of the IPLS 
   service. 
    
1.0  Conventions 
    
   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  
        


   RELATED DOCUMENTS 
   draft-ietf-ppvpn-l2-framework-03.txt 
   draft-ietf-ppvpn-vpls-ldp-01.txt 
   draft-ietf-pwe3-control-protocol-04.txt 
    
    
   WHERE DOES IT FIT IN THE PICTURE OF THE SUB-IP WORK 
    
   Belongs in PPVPN 
    
   WHY IS IT TARGETED AT THIS WG 
    
   This document describes a mechanism to assist in Provider-
   Provisioned Layer 2 VPNs. 
    
   JUSTIFICATION 
    
   This document provides a detailed description for IP-only LAN 
   Service (IPLS), which is discussed in the L2 PPVPN Framework [PPVPN-
   FWK]. The VPLS [VPLS] services of L2VPN require PE devices to 
   function as MAC learning bridges. IPLS is a solution for a specific 
   topology where MAC learning capabilities are not required for VPLS 
   services, because user data traffic is restricted to IP, and the CE 
   devices are not LAN switches. 
     
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   Table of Contents 
     
   Status of this Memo................................................1 
   Abstract...........................................................1 
   1.0  Conventions...................................................2 
   2.0 Overview.......................................................3 
   2.1 Terminology....................................................6 
   3.0 Topology.......................................................7 
   4.0 Configuration..................................................8 
   5.0 Discovery......................................................8 
   5.1 CE discovery...................................................8 
   6.0 Pseudowire Creation............................................9 
   6.1 Receive Unicast Multipoint-to-point Pseudowire.................9 
   6.3 Send Multicast Replication tree...............................10 
   7.0 Proxy ARP.....................................................10 
   8.0 Signaling.....................................................10 
   8.1 IPLS PW Signaling.............................................10 
   8.2 Signaling Advertisement Processing............................11 
   8.3 Requesting for IP to MAC binding..............................12 
   8.4 CE MAC Address................................................12 
   9 Forwarding......................................................13 
   9.1 Non-IP traffic................................................13 
   9.2 Unicast IP Traffic............................................13 
   9.3 Broadcasts and Multicast forwarding...........................14 
   9.4 Encapsulation.................................................14 
   10.0   Attaching to IPLS via ATM or FR............................15 
   11.0 VPLS vs IPLS.................................................15 
   12.0 IP Protocols.................................................16 
   13.0 Dual Homing with IPLS........................................16 
   14.0 Acknowledgements.............................................16 
   15.0 Security Considerations......................................16 
   16.0 References...................................................16 
   IPR Notice........................................................17 
   Author's Address..................................................17 
    
2.0 Overview 
    
   As emphasized in [VPLS], Ethernet has become popular as an access 
   technology in Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks. [VPLS] describes 
   how geographically dispersed customer LANs can be interconnected 
   over a service provider?s network using Layer 2 VPNs. The VPLS 
   service is provided by Provider Edge (PE) devices, and it is 
   provided to Customer Edge (CE) devices. The VPLS architecture 
   provides such services by incorporating bridging functions such as 
   MAC address learning in the PE devices.  
    
    
     
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   There are Provider Edge platforms, both existing and forthcoming, 
   which have been designed primarily to be IP routers, rather than to 
   be LAN switches. It can be fairly straightforward to add a MAC 
   address lookup capability to these platforms, and to run their LAN 
   interfaces in promiscuous mode, so that they can forward frames 
   based on the MAC Destination Address of the frame.  It is less 
   straightforward to add the IEEE 802.1D MAC Address learning 
   capability to these platforms.  However, as discussed in [L2VPN-
   FWK], in scenarios where the CE devices are NOT LAN switches, but 
   rather are IP hosts or IP routers, it is possible to provide the 
   virtual private LAN service without requiring IEEE 802.1D MAC 
   address learning/aging on the PE.  Due to these restrictions, such a 
   service is referred to as an "IP-Only LAN Service", or IPLS. 
   Requirements for such an IPLS service are presented in [L2VPN-
   REQTS]. The purpose of this draft is to specify a solution optimized 
   for this IPLS service. 
    
   Consequently, IPLS allows a service provider to provide a VPLS-like 
   service by using PE routers that are not designed to perform general 
   LAN bridging functions. However one must be willing to accept the 
   restriction that the Virtual LAN service be used for IP traffic 
   only, and not used to interconnect CE devices that are themselves 
   LAN switches. This seems like an acceptable restriction in many 
   environments, given that IP is the predominant type of traffic in 
   today's networks. 
    
   In IPLS, a PE device implements multi-point LAN connectivity for IP 
   traffic using the following key functions:  
    
     1. Discovery: Each Provider Edge (PE) device discovers IP/MAC 
        address associations for the locally attached Customer Edge 
        (CE) devices, for each IPLS instance configured on the PE 
        device. 
    
     2. Pseudowire (PW) for Unicast Traffic: For each locally attached 
        CE device in a given IPLS instance, a PE device sets up a 
        pseudo-wire (VC-LSP) to each of the other PEs that supports the 
        same IPLS instance.   


        For instance, if PEx and PEy both support IPLS I, and PEy is 
        locally attached to CEw and CEz, PEy will initiate the setup of 
        two Pseudowires between itself and PEx.  One of these will be 
        used to carry unicast traffic from any of PEx?s CE devices to 
        CEw.  The other will be used to carry unicast traffic from any 
        of PEx?s CE devices to CEz.   
         
        Note that these Pseudowires carry traffic only in one 
        direction.  Further, while the Pseudowire implicitly identifies 
        the destination CE of the traffic, it does not identify the 
        source CE; packets from many CEs may be freely intermixed on a 
        given Pseudowire. 
         
     
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     3. Pseudowires for Multicast Traffic:  In addition, every PE 
        supporting a given IPLS instance will set up a special 
        ?multicast Pseudowire? to every other PE in that IPLS instance.  
        If, in the above example, one of PEx?s CE devices sends a 
        multicast packet, PEx would forward the multicast packet to PEy 
        on the special multicast Pseudowire.  PEy would then send a 
        copy of that packet to CEw and a copy to CEz.  
    
        Thus when a PE sends a multicast packet across the network, it 
        sends one copy to each remote PE (supporting the given IPLS 
        instance).  If a particular remote PE has more than one CE 
        device in that IPLS instance, the remote PE must replicate the 
        packet and send one copy to each of its local CEs. 
         
        As with the Pseudowires that are used for unicast traffic, 
        packets travel in only one direction on these Pseudowires, and 
        packets from different sources may be freely intermixed. 


     4. Signaling:  The necessary Pseudowires can be set up and 
        maintained using the LDP-based signaling procedures described 
        in [PWE3-CONTROL] and/or [ROSEN-SIG].  Use of other signaling 
        procedures is for further study. 
    
        A PE may assign the same label to each of the unicast 
        Pseudowires that lead to a given CE device, in effect creating 
        a multipoint-to-point Pseudowire. 
         
        Similarly, a PE may assign the same label to each of the 
        multicast Pseudowires for a given IPLS instances, in effect 
        creating a multipoint-to-point Pseudowire. 
         
        When setting up a Pseudowire to be used for unicast traffic, 
        the PE must also signal the IP address and the MAC address of 
        the corresponding CE device. 
         
     5. Proxy ARP: Distribution of IP/MAC address associations to 
        remote PE devices via PW signaling enables each PE device to 
        function as a proxy ARP server for CE devices attached to other 
        PE devices. This makes it possible for any CE device to ARP for 
        the MAC addresses of remote CE devices. 
    
     6. Forwarding:  A PE device programs its Forwarding Information 
        Base using the CE MAC addresses and VC labels signaled through 
        the PW signaling. Unicast IP traffic from the local CEs is then 
        switched to the proper VC-LSP based on the destination MAC 
        address. Multicast IP traffic from the local CEs is replicated 
        by the local PE over all the Attachment Circuits (except the 
        one it came in) and all the multicast VC-LSPs for that IPLS 
        instance. Remote PEs that receive the multicast packets over 
        the multicast VC-LSPs then replicates onto all its Attachment 
        Circuits for that IPLS instance.  
      
    
     
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   Both VPLS [VPLS] and IPLS require the ingress PE to forward a frame 
   based on its destination MAC address. However, two key differences 
   between VPLS and IPLS can already be noted from the above 
   description: 
    
     . In VPLS, MAC entries are placed in the FIB of the ingress PE as 
        a result of IEEE 802.1D MAC address learning (which occurs in 
        the data plane) while in IPLS MAC entries are placed in the FIB 
        as a result of Pseudowire signaling operations (control plane). 
     . In VPLS, the egress PE looks up a frame?s MAC destination 
        address to determine the customer-facing interface out which 
        the frame must be sent; in IPLS, the choice of interface is 
        based entirely on the VC-label. 
    
   The following sections describe the details of the IPLS scheme. 
    
2.1 Terminology 
    
    
        IPLS            
                        Ip-only LAN service (a type of Virtual Private 
                       LAN Service that is restricted to IP traffic 
                       only).  
    
        IPLS Network   A collection of PE nodes supporting the IPLS 
                       service and the associated mechanisms described 
                       in this document, including the Extended LDP 
                       based PW signaling between them. 
         
        IPLS Service   A single service instance of IPLS emulating a 
                        LAN segment for IP data traffic. 
         
        MPt-Pt PW      Multipoint-to-Point Pseudowire. A Pseudowire 
                        that carries traffic from remote PE devices to 
                        a PE device that signals the Pseudowire. The 
                        signaling PE device advertises the same VC-
                        label to all remote PE devices that participate 
                        in the IPLS service instance. In IPLS, for a 
                        given IPLS instance, a MPt-Pt PW used for IP 
                        unicast traffic is established by a PE for each 
                        CE device locally attached to that PE. It is a 
                        unidirectional tree whose leaves consist of the 
                        remote PE peers (which connect at least one 
                        Attachment Circuit associated with the same 
                        IPLS instance) and whose root is the signaling 
                        PE. Traffic flows from the leaves towards the 
                        root.  
         
        Multicast PW   Multicast Pseudowire. A special kind of MPt-Pt 
                        PW that carries only IP multicast/broadcast 
                        traffic. In the IPLS architecture, for each 
                        IPLS instance supported by a PE, that PE device 
                        establishes exactly one Multicast PW. 
         
     
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        CE             Customer Edge device. In this document, a CE is 
                        any IP node (host or router) connected to the 
                        IPLS LAN service.  
         
        Replication Tree The collection of all Multicast Pseudowires 
                        and attachment circuits that are members of an 
                        IPLS service instance on a given PE. When the 
                        PE on an attachment circuit receives a 
                        multicast/broadcast packet, the PE device sends 
                        a copy of the packet to every Multicast 
                        Pseudowire and attachment circuit of the 
                        replication tree, excluding the attachment 
                        circuit on which the packet was received. 
    
3.0 Topology 
    
   The Customer Edge (CE) devices are IP nodes (hosts or routers) that 
   are connected to PE devices either directly, or via an Ethernet 
   network. We assume that the PE/CE connection may be regarded by the 
   PE as an ?interface? to which one or more CEs are attached.  This 
   interface may be the physical LAN interface or a VLAN.  The Provider 
   Edge (PE) routers are MPLS Label Edge Routers (LERs) that serve as 
   Pseudowire endpoints. 


      +----+                                              +----+  
      + S1 +---+      ...........................     +---| S2 |  
      +----+ | |      .                         .     |   +----+  
       IPa   | |   +----+                    +----+   |    IPe 
             + +---| PE1|---MPLS and/or IP---| PE2|---+  
            / \    +----+         |Network   +----+   | 
      +----+   +---+  .           |             .     |   +----+ 
      + S1 +   | S1|  .         +----+          .     +---| S2 | 
      +----+   +---+  ..........| PE3|...........         +----+ 
       IPb       IPc            +----+                     IPf 
                                  |                 
                                  |                               
                                +----+          
                                | S3 |           
                                +----+  
                                  IPd 
    
    
   In the above diagram, an IPLS instance is shown with three sites: 
   site S1, site S2 and site S3. In site S3, the CE device is directly 
   connected to its PE.  In the other two sites, there are multiple CEs 
   connected to a single PE. More precisely, the CEs at these sites are 
   on an Ethernet (switched at site 1 and shared at site 2) network (or 
   VLAN), and the PE is attached to that same Ethernet network or 
   VLAN).  We impose the following restriction:  if one or more CEs 
   attach to a PE by virtue of being on a common LAN or VLAN, there 
   MUST NOT be more than one PE on that LAN or VLAN.   
    
     
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   PE1, PE2 and PE3 are shown as connected via an MPLS network; 
   however, other tunneling technologies, such as GRE, L2TP, etc., 
   could also be used to carry the Pseudowires.  
    
   An IPLS instance is a single broadcast domain, such that each IP end 
   station (e.g., IPa) appears to be co-located with other IP end 
   stations (e.g., IPb though IPf) on the same subnet. The IPLS service 
   is transparent to the CE devices and requires no changes to them. 
    
4.0 Configuration 
    
   Each PE router is configured with one or more IPLS service 
   instances, and each IPLS service instance is associated with a 
   unique VPN-Id. For a given IPLS service instance, a set of 
   Attachment Circuits is identified. Each Attachment Circuit can be 
   associated with only one IPLS instance. An Attachment Circuit, in 
   this document, is either a customer-facing Ethernet port, or a 
   particular VLAN (identified by an IEEE 802.1Q VLAN ID) on a 
   customer-facing Ethernet port. 
    
   The PE router can optionally be configured with a local MAC address    
   to be used as source MAC address when packets are forwarded from a 
   Pseudowire to an Attachment Circuit. By default, a PE uses the MAC 
   address of the customer-facing Ethernet interface for this purpose.  
    
5.0 Discovery 


   The discovery process includes: 
     . Remote PE discovery 
     . VPN (i.e., IPLS) membership discovery 
     . IP CE end station discovery 
    
   This draft does not discuss the remote PE discovery or VPN 
   membership discovery. This information can either be user configured 
   or can be obtained using auto-discovery techniques described in 
   [BGP-Discovery] or other methods. However, the discovery of the CE 
   is an important operational step in the IPLS model and is described 
   below. 


5.1 CE discovery 
    
   Each PE actively detects the presence of local CEs by snooping IP 
   and ARP frames received over the Attachment Circuits. During the 
   discovery phase, the PE examines each broadcast/multicast Ethernet 
   frame. For IP frames (for example IGP discovery/multicast/broadcast 
   packets typically 224.x.x.x addresses), the CE?s (source) MAC 
   address is extracted from the Ethernet header and the (source) IP 
   address is obtained from the IP header. For ARP frames, the source 
   MAC and IP address are determined from the ARP PDU.  
    
   For each CE, the PE maintains a <Attachment Circuit identification 
   info, VPN-Id, IP address, MAC address> tuple.  
    
     
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   Once discovered, the presence/active-status of a CE is monitored 
   continuously by examining the received ARP frames and by 
   periodically generating ARP requests. The absence of an ARP response 
   from a CE after a configurable number of such ARP requests, is 
   interpreted as a loss of connectivity with the CE. 
    
6.0 Pseudowire Creation 


6.1 Receive Unicast Multipoint-to-point Pseudowire 
    
   As the PE discovers each locally attached CE, a unicast Multipoint-
   to-point Pseudowire (MPt-Pt PW) associated exclusively with that CE 
   is created by distributing the CE?s IP address and MAC address along 
   with a VC-Label to all the remote PE peers that participate in the 
   same IPLS instance. Note that the same value of a VC-label should be 
   distributed to all the remote PE peers for a given CE. The MP-Pt PW 
   thus created is used by remote PEs to send unicast IP traffic to a 
   specific CE.  
    
   (The same functionality can be provided by a set of point-to-point 
   PWs, so the PE is not required to send the same VC-label to all the 
   other PEs.  For convenience however, we will speak in the following 
   only of multipoint-to-point PWs, without pointing out each time that 
   a set of point-to-point PWs could be used instead.) 
    
   The PE forwards a frame received over this MPt-Pt PW to the 
   associated Attachment Circuit. 
    
6.2 Receive Replication Multipoint-to-point Pseudowire 
    
   When a PE is configured to participate in an IPLS instance, it 
   advertises a "multicast" VC-label to every other PE that is a member 
   of the same IPLS. The advertised VC-label value is the same for each 
   PE, which creates a multipoint-to-point Pseudowire for IP multicast 
   traffic. There is only one multicast MPt-Pt PW per PE for each IPLS 
   instance and this Pseudowire is used exclusively to carry 
   multicast/broadcast IP traffic from the remote PEs to this PE for 
   this IPLS instance. 
    
   Note that no special functionality is expected from this Pseudowire.  
   We sometimes call it a ?multicast Pseudowire? because we use it only 
   to carry multicast traffic.  The Pseudowire itself need not provide 
   any different service than any of the unicast Pseudowires. 
    
   In particular, the Receive multicast MPt-PT PW does not perform any 
   replication of frames itself. Rather, it is there to signify to the 
   PE that the PE needs to replicate a copy of a frame received over 
   this MPt-Pt PW onto all the attachment circuits that are associated 
   with the IPLS instance of the MPt-Pt PW. 
    
   The use of Pseudowires, which are specially optimized for multicast, 
   is for further study. 
    
     
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6.3 Send Multicast Replication tree 
    
   The PE creates a send replication tree for each IPLS instance, which 
   consists of the collection of all attachment circuits and all the 
   ?multicast? Pseudowires of this IPLS instance. 
    
   Any broadcast/multicast frame received over an attachment circuit is 
   replicated to all the other attachment circuits and all Pseudowires 
   of the send replication tree of the IPLS instance of the incoming 
   Attachment Circuit.  
    
7.0 Proxy ARP 
    
   As part of the signaling of the unicast multipoint-to-point pseudo-
   wire (See Section 8), each PE distributes to its remote PE peers the 
   CE IP address/MAC address associations that it has discovered. The 
   remote PE peers then build and maintain a database of these 
   associations.  
    
   When a PE receives an ARP request from a local CE for a remote CE, 
   it searches for the destination IP address in the database 
   associated with the CE?s IPLS instance. If a match is found, the PE 
   sends an ARP response with the MAC address of the remote CE. This 
   enables the local CE to send unicast IP frames addressed directly to 
   the MAC address of the remote CE.  
    
8.0 Signaling 
    
   The [PWE3-CONTROL] uses Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) transport 
   to exchange VC-FEC in the label mapping message in a downstream 
   unsolicited mode. The VC-FEC comes in two flavors; Pwid and 
   Generalized ID FEC elements. These FEC elements define some fields 
   that are common between them. The discussions below refer to these 
   common fields for IPLS related extensions.  
    
8.1 IPLS PW Signaling 
  
   The IPLS uses user IP data as payload over the Pseduowire. The use 
   of such encapsulation is identified by VC type field of the VC-FEC 
   as the value 0x000B [PWE3-IANA].  
        
   In addition, this document defines an IP MAC address TLV that must 
   be included in the optional TLV field of the label mapping message 
   when advertising VC-FEC for the IPLS. Such use of optional TLV in 
   the label mapping message to extend the attributes of the VC-FEC has 
   also been specified in the [PWE3-Control].  
    
   When processing a received VC-FEC, the PE matches the VC-Id and VC-
   type with the locally configured VC-id to determine if the VC-FEC is 
   of type IPLS. If matched, it further checks the presence of IP 
   address TLV. If an IP MAC address TLV is absent, a label release 
   message is issued to reject the PW establishment.  
    
     
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      0                   1                   2                   3  
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1  
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
     |1|0| IP MAC address TLV (TBD)  |           Length              | 
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
     |                         IP Address                            |  
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
     |                         MAC Address (0-3)                     |  
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+    
     |  MAC Address (4-5)            |          Multicast Flag       |  
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+     
        
   The Length field is defined as the sum of length of the IP address 
   (4) and length of MAC address (6) and multicast flag (2) and is set 
   to value 12. 
    
   The non-zero unicast value of the IP address field denotes IP 
   address of advertising PE?s attached CE device. 
    
   The non-zero unicast value of the MAC address field denotes MAC 
   address of the advertising PE?s attached CE device. 
    
   The Multicast Flag value of 1 indicates that the advertised VC-Label 
   represents a ?multicast? PW. The Multicast Flag value of 0 indicates 
   that advertised VC-label represents a ?unicast? PW. As explained 
   earlier, the term ?multicast PW? only means that the PW carries IP 
   broadcast/multicast traffic and does not refer to a multicast LSP in 
   the traditional sense.  
    
   The Multicast Flag must be zero, if present, when the IP and MAC 
   address parameters are present (and their value is non-zero). When 
   Multicast Flag is set to 1, the values in IP and MAC Address fields 
   are set to null and are ignored. 
    
8.2 Signaling Advertisement Processing 
    
   A PE should process a received [PWE3-CONTROL] advertisement with VC-
   type of IPLS as follows, 
        - Verify the IPLS VPN membership by matching the VPN-Id 
          signaled in the AGI field or the PW-ID field with all the 
          VPN-Ids configured on the PE. Discard and release the VC 
          label if VPN-Id is not found. 
        - Distribute the received IP address-to-MAC address binding by 
          sending a gratuitous ARP response on all the attachment 
          circuits associated with the VPN-Id. 
        - Program the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) such that when 
          a packet is received from an attachment circuit with its 
          destination MAC address matching the advertised MAC address, 
          the packet is forwarded out over the tunnel to the 
     
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          advertising PE with the advertised VC-label as the inner 
          label. 
        - When the advertised VC-label is ?multicast?, add the VC-label 
          to the send multicast replication tree for the VPN-Id. This 
          enables sending a copy of a multicast/broadcast IP frame from 
          the attachment circuit to this Pseudowire. 
    
8.3 Requesting for IP to MAC binding 
    
   It is possible that in some cases, some CEs may remain undetected in 
   the absence of any multicast/broadcast IP or ARP packet generation. 
   If a local CE needs to converse with a remote CE in this undetected 
   set, it will proceed to generate ARP requests. The Proxy ARP scheme 
   described so far will be unable to resolve the ARP request, since 
   the address to be resolved would not have been discovered (signaled) 
   yet. 
    
   In order to address such situations, an optional Address Resolution 
   Request TLV can be included in the LDP?s Notification Message. This 
   TLV contains an IP address parameter that represents the destination 
   IP address that needs to be resolved. The PE may use some 
   intelligent mechanisms (e.g., the number of ARP requests received 
   for unknown IP destination within a certain interval exceeds a 
   threshold) to detect the need for such advertisement. When the need 
   is detected, the PE generates Notification Messages to all remote 
   PEs in the IPLS, with the IP address parameter in the Address 
   Resolution Request TLV set to the destination IP address to be 
   resolved. 
    
   A PE that supports the Address Resolution Request TLV must, on 
   receiving a notification message with this TLV, generate an ARP 
   request message using the received IP address as the destination, 
   and some already known IP and MAC address as the source (in the ARP 
   PDU) on all Attachment Circuits associated with the IPLS instance. 
    
   In essence, this is a request to remote PEs to generate an ARP 
   request on their Attachment Circuits to locate a specific CE and 
   advertise a Label Mapping message back to the requesting PE. This 
   can be seen as reverting to the usual full broadcasting of ARP 
   messages throughout the Emulated LAN in rare cases when Proxy ARP 
   fails. 
    
   The definition of Address Resolution Request TLV for the 
   Notification message is the subject of future study. 
    
8.4 CE MAC Address 
    
   Throughout this document we have referenced remote CE?s MAC address 
   to be the 48-bit physical MAC address. The MAC address is learned 
   and signaled by the remote PE while local PE uses the signaled MAC 
   address to proxy ARP request for remote CE?s IP address, program the 
   address in the FIB and use it as a key to forward packet from the 
   Attachment Circuit to the Pseudowire. 
     
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   Alternatively, it is also desirable to allow local PE to generate a 
   unique 48-bit MAC address for the remote CE instead of using the 
   signaled MAC address by the remote PE. The local PE would then use 
   the generated MAC address for ARP proxy, programming the FIB and as 
   a key to forward packets from the Attachment Circuit to the 
   Pseudowire. By permitting address generation to represent each 
   remote CE, local PE can use a key lookup algorithm that is most 
   suitable for its architecture. For example, PE could use only 32-
   bits of the 48-bit MAC DA as the key for fast table lookup. 
    
   Which mechanism local PE uses to represent remote CE (i.e. using 
   signaled MAC address or locally generated MAC address), is of local 
   matter to the PE and has no bearing on the IPLS functionality. 
    
9.0 Forwarding  
    
9.1 Non-IP traffic 
    
   In an IPLS VPN, only IP traffic is forwarded by a PE. ARP frames are 
   directed to the control plane in the PE and the rest of the frames 
   are dropped silently.  If the CEs must pass non-IP traffic to each 
   other, they must do so through IP tunnels that terminate at the CEs 
   themselves.  
    
9.2 Unicast IP Traffic 
    
   In IPLS, IP traffic is forwarded from the Attachment Circuit to the 
   PW based on the destination MAC address of the layer 2 frame (and 
   not based on the IP Header). 
    
   To do so, the PE associates a Forwarding Information Base (FIB) with 
   each IPLS instance and programs the FIB in the following manner: 
    
        - The PE programs its FIB when a CE (and its MAC address) is 
          discovered on one of its Attachment Circuit such that a frame 
          received on any other Attachment Circuit with destination to 
          this CE, the frame is forwarded to the corresponding 
          Attachment Circuit. 
        - The PE programs its FIB with the PW label such that a frame 
          received over that unicast PW is forwarded to the 
          corresponding Attachment Circuit prepended with CE?s MAC 
          address as the destination. 
        - The PE programs its FIB when processing a received PW signal 
          such that a frame received from any of its Attachment 
          Circuits associated with the same IPLS instance, is forwarded 
          to the PW if the destination MAC address matches the one 
          advertised in the PW signal.  


   The PE identifies the FIB associated with an IPLS instance based on 
   the Attachment Circuit or the PW label. When a frame is received 
   from an Attachment Circuit, PE uses destination MAC address as the 
     
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   lookup key. When a frame is received from PW, PE uses VC-Label as 
   the lookup key. The frame is dropped if the lookup fails. 
    
9.3 Broadcasts and Multicast forwarding 
    
   When the destination MAC address is either a broadcast or multicast, 
   a copy of the frame is sent to the control plane for CE discovery 
   purposes (see section 5.1). 
    
   When a multicast/broadcast IP frame is received from an Attachment 
   Circuit, a PE replicates it onto the Send Multicast Replication Tree 
   (See section 6.3). When a multicast/broadcast IP frame is received 
   from a Pseudowire, the PE forwards a copy of the frame to all 
   attachment circuits associated with the IPLS VPN instance involved. 
    
   It is important to note that PEs participating in an IPLS VPN are 
   responsible for translating a multicast IP address to a multicast 
   Ethernet MAC address when forwarding frames from a ?multicast? 
   Pseudowire to the Attachment Circuits. (The translation consists of 
   recognizing the multicast IP address (224.x1.x2.x3) and appending 
   the least significant three bytes of the IP address to 0x01-00-05 to 
   construct the MAC address, e.g., 0x01-00-5E-x1-x2-x3 [RFC-1112]). 
    
   All other IP packets received over the ?multicast? MPt-Pt PW (such 
   as directed broadcasts, subnet broadcasts, etc) are forwarded over 
   Attachment Circuits using a broadcast MAC address. 
    
9.4 Encapsulation 
    
   The Ethernet MAC header of a frame received from an Attachment 
   Circuit is stripped before forwarding the frame to the appropriate 
   Pseudowire. However, the MAC header is retained when a unicast or 
   broadcast IP frame is directed to one or more Attachment Circuit(s).  
   An IP frame received over a Pseudowire is prepended with a MAC 
   header before transmitting it on the appropriate Attachment 
   Circuit(s). The fields in the MAC header are filled in as follows:  
        - The destination MAC address is the MAC address associated 
          with the VC label in the FIB when the Pseudowire is unicast 
        - The destination MAC address is a multicast MAC address 
          derived from the IP multicast address or the broadcast MAC 
          address when the VC label is ?multicast? 
        - The source MAC address is the PE?s own local MAC address or a 
          MAC address which has been specially configured on the PE for 
          this use. 
        - The Ethernet Type field is 0x0800 
        - The frame may get IEEE802.1Q tagged based on the VLAN 
          information associated with the Attachment Circuit. 
    
   An FCS field is appended to the frame. 
    
     
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10.0   Attaching to IPLS via ATM or FR 


   In addition to (i) an Ethernet port and a (ii) combination of 
   Ethernet port and a VLAN ID, an Attachment Circuit to IPLS may also 
   be (iii) an ATM or FR VC carrying encapsulated bridged Ethernet 
   frames or (iv) the combination of an ATM or FR VC and a VLAN ID. 
    
   The ATM/FR VC is just used as a way to transport Ethernet frames 
   between a customer site and the PE. The PE terminates the ATM/FR VC 
   and operates on the encapsulated Ethernet frames exactly as if those 
   were received on a local Ethernet interface. When a frame is 
   propagated from Pseudowire to a ATM or FR VC, PE prepends the 
   Ethernet frame with the appropriate bridged encapsulation header as 
   define in [RFC 1487] and [RFC 1490] respectively. Operation of an 
   IPLS over ATM/FR VC is exactly as described above, with the 
   exception that the attachment circuit is then identified via the ATM 
   VCI/VPI or Frame Relay DLCI (instead of via a local Ethernet port 
   ID), or a combination of those with a VLAN ID. 
    
11.0 VPLS vs IPLS 
    
   The VPLS approach proposed in [VPLS] provides VPN services for IP as 
   well as other protocols. The IPLS approach described in this draft 
   is similar to VPLS in many respects: 
        - It provides a Provider Provisioned Virtual LAN service with 
          multipoint capability where a CE connected via a single 
          attachment circuit can reach many remote CEs 
        - It appears as a broadcast domain and a single subnet 
        - forwarding is based on destination MAC addresses 
         
   However, unlike VPLS, IPLS is restricted to IP traffic only. By 
   restricting the scope of the service to the predominant type of 
   traffic in today's environment, IPLS eliminates the need for service 
   provider edge routers to implement some bridging functions such as 
   MAC address learning in the data path (by, instead, distributing MAC 
   information in the control plane). Thus this solution offers a 
   number of benefits: 
    
        - Facilitates Virtual LAN services in instances where PE 
          devices cannot or cannot efficiently (or are specifically 
          configured not to) perform MAC address learning.  
        - Does not require flooding of ARP frames normally. Also, 
          unknown Unicast frames are never flooded as would be the case 
          in VPLS. 
        - Encapsulation is more efficient (MAC header is stripped) 
          while traversing the backbone network. 
        - PE devices are not burdened with the processing overhead 
          associated with traditional bridging (e.g., STP processing, 
          etc.). Note however that some of these overheads (e.g., STP 
          processing) could optionally be turned-off with a VPLS 
          solution in the case where it is known that only IP devices 
          are interconnected. 
     
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        - Loops (perhaps through backdoor links) are minimized since a 
          PE could easily reject (via label release) a duplicate IP to 
          MAC address advertisement. 
    
12.0 IP Protocols 
    
   The solution described in this document offers IPLS service for IPv4 
   traffic only. For this reason, the MAC Header is not carried over 
   the Pseudowire. It is reconstructed by the PE when receiving a 
   packet from a Pseudowire and the Ethertype 0x0800 is used in the MAC 
   Header since IPv4 is assumed. 


   However, this solution may be extended to carry other types of 
   important traffic such as ISIS and IPv6 which are not encapsulated 
   in Etherent with the use of Ethertype 0x0800. In order to permit the 
   propagation of such packets correctly, one may create a separate set 
   of Pseudowires, or pass protocol information in the "control word" 
   of a "multiprotocol" Pseudowire, or encapsulate the Ethernet MAC 
   Header in the Pseudowire. The selection of appropriate 
   multiplexing/demultiplexing scheme is the subject of future study. 
   The current document focuses on IPLS service for IPv4 traffic. 
    
13.0 Dual Homing with IPLS 
    
   As stated in previous sections, IPLS prohibits connection of a 
   common LAN or VLAN to more than one PE. Alternatively, CE device by 
   itself can connect to more than one instance of IPLS through two 
   separate LAN or VLAN connections to separate PEs. To the CE IP 
   device, these separate connections appear as a connection to two IP 
   subnets. The failure of reachability through one subnet is then 
   resolved via other subnet by the IP protocols. 
    
    
14.0 Acknowledgements 
    
   Authors would like to thank Nigel Burmeister and others at Tenor 
   Networks for their valuable comments. 
    
    
15.0 Security Considerations 
    
   The security aspects of this solution will be discussed at a later 
   time. 
    
    
16.0 References 
    
   [L2VPN-REQ] Augustyn, W. et.al "Service Requirements for Layer 2 
   Provider Provisioned Virtual Private Networks", draft-ietf-l2vpn-        
   requirements-00.txt, Work in Progress, Internet Draft, May 2003. 
    
   [L2VPN-FMWK] Andersson, et.al, draft-ietf-l2vpn-l2-framework-03.txt, 
   L2VPN framework, October 2003, (work in progress). 
     
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   [PWE3-CONTROL] Martini et. Al., ?Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance 
   using LDP?, draft-ietf-pwe3-control-protocol-04.txt, October 2003 
   (work in progress) 
    
   [PWE3-IANA] Martini et. Al., ?IANA Allocations for pseudo Wire Edge 
   to Edge Emulation (PWE3)?, draft-ietf-pwe3-iana-allocation-02.txt, 
   October 2003 (work in progress) 
                                                                         
   [VPLS] Lasserre et al, ?Virtual Private LN Service over MPLS?, 
   draft-ietf-ppvpn-vpls-ldp-01.txt, November 2003 (work in progress). 
    
   [BGP-Discovery] ?Using BGP as an Auto-Discovery Mechanism for 
   Provider Provisioned VPNs?, Ould-Brahim et al., draft-ietf-ppvpn-
   bgpvpn-auto-04.txt, May 2003, (work in progress). 
    
   [ARP] Plummer, D., "An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol:  Or 
   Converting Network Protocol Addresses to 48.bit Ethernet        
   Addresses for Transmission on Ethernet Hardware", STD 37, RFC 826, 
   November 1982. 
    
   [PROXY-ARP] Postel, J., "Multi-LAN Address Resolution", RFC 925, 
   October 1984. 
    
   [RFC-1112] Deering, S., ?Host Extensions for IP Multicasting?, RFC 
   1112, August, 1989. 
    
    
IPR Notice 
    
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Author's Address 
    
   Himanshu Shah 
     
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   Ciena Networks 
   35 Nagog Park, 
   Acton, MA 01720 
   Email: hshah@ciena.com 
    
   K.Arvind 
   Enterasys Networks 
   50 Minuteman Rd, Suite 100 
   Andover, MA 01810 
   Email: karvind@enterasys.com 
    
    
   Eric Rosen 
   Cisco Systems 
   300 Apollo Drive, 
   Chelmsford, MA 01824 
   Email: erosen@cisco.com 
    
   Giles Heron 
   PacketExchange Ltd. 
   The Truman Brewery 
   91 Brick Lane 
   LONDON E1 6QL 
   United Kingdom 
   Email: giles@packetexchange.net 
    
   Francois Le Faucheur 
   Cisco Systems, Inc. 
   Village d'Entreprise Green Side - Batiment T3 
   400, Avenue de Roumanille 
   06410 Biot-Sophia Antipolis 
   France 
   Email: flefauch@cisco.com 
    
   Vasile Radoaca 
   Nortel Networks 
   Email: vasile@nortelnetworks.com 
    
     
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