One document matched: draft-ietf-mboned-maccnt-req-07.txt

Differences from draft-ietf-mboned-maccnt-req-06.txt


   
                                                 Tsunemasa Hayashi, NTT 
     Internet Draft                                 Haixiang He, Nortel 
     Document:draft-ietf-mboned-maccnt-req-07.txt    Hiroaki Satou, NTT 
     Intended Status: Informational                   Hiroshi Ohta, NTT 
     Expires: July 16, 2009              Susheela Vaidya, Cisco Systems 
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                       January 12, 2009 
      
      
         Requirements for Multicast AAA coordinated between Content 
       Provider(s) and Network Service Provider(s) <draft-ietf-mboned-
                             maccnt-req-07.txt> 
      
      
  Status of this Memo 
     This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with 
     the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

     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 
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     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. 
 
     This Internet-Draft will expire on July 16, 2009.

  Copyright Notice

     Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
     document authors.  All rights reserved.





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     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.
     
      
  Abstract 
      
     This memo presents requirements in the area of accounting and 
     access control for IP multicasting.  The scope of the 
     requirements is limited to cases that Authentication,
     Accounting and Authorization (AAA) functions are coordinated
     between Content Provider(s) and Network Service Provider(s).
     General requirements for accounting and admission control
     capabilities including quality-of-service (QoS) related issues
     are listed.  This memo assumes that these capabilities can be
     realized by functions implemented at edges of a network based 
     on IGMP or MLD.  Finally, cases for Content Delivery Services
     (CDS) are described as application examples which could benefit
     from multicasting accounting and access control capabilities as
     described in this memo. 
      
     This memo defines requirements related to AAA issues for multi-
     entity provider models in which the network service provider and 
     content provider cooperate to provide CDS and various related AAA 
     functions for purposes such as protecting and accounting for the 
     access to content and network resources.  The requirements are 
     generally not relevant to cases in which there is not a reason to 
     share AAA functions between separate entities. 
   
   
   
   
   
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                              Table of Contents 
   
      
     1. Introduction..................................................3 
     2. Definitions and Abbreviations.................................5 
     2.1 Definitions..................................................5 
     2.2 Abbreviations................................................6 
     3. Problem Statement.............................................6 
     3.1  Accounting Issues...........................................6 
     3.2  Relationship with Secure Multicasting (MSEC)................8 
     3.3  Regarding Access Media and User Separation..................8 
     4. General AAA-related Functional Requirements for IP Multicasting
     .................................................................9 
     5. Application Example and its Specific Requirements............14 
     5.1 IP Multicast-based Content Delivery Service (CDS): CP and NSP 
     are different entities (companies)..............................14 
     5.1.1 Network Model for Multicast Content Delivery Service......15 
     5.1.2 Content Delivery Service Requirements.....................17 
     5.1.2.1 Accounting Requirements.................................17 
     5.1.2.2 Authorization Requirements..............................18 
     5.1.2.3 Authentication Requirements.............................19 
     5.2 IP Multicast-based Content Delivery Service (CDS): CP and NSP 
     are the same entities (companies)...............................19 
     6. Acknowledgments..............................................21 
     7. IANA Considerations..........................................21 
     8. Security Considerations......................................21 
     9. Privacy considerations.......................................21 
     10. Conclusion..................................................21 
     Normative References............................................22 
     Authors' Addresses..............................................23 
      
      
      
      
   
   
  1. Introduction 
      
     This memo presents general functional requirements related to 
     accounting, access control and admission control issues in IP 
     multicasting networks. A multicast network which fulfills all of 
     these requirements is called a "fully AAA and QoS enabled" IP 
     multicasting network here. Fulfillment of all or some of the 
   
   
   
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     requirements will make possible more robust management of IP 
     multicasting networks. 
      
     IP multicasting is becoming widely used as a method to save 
     network resources such as bandwidth or CPU processing power of the 
     sender's server for cases where a large volume of information 
     needs to be distributed to a very large number of receivers at a 
     given data speed.  This trend can be observed both in enterprise 
     use and in broadband services provided by network operator/service 
     providers. 
      
     Distance learning within a university and in-house (in-company) 
     sharing of multimedia information are examples of enterprise use.  
     In these examples, sources generate high-bit rate (e.g., 6Mbit/s) 
     streaming information.  When the number of receivers becomes large, 
     such systems do not scale well without multicasting. 
      
     On the other hand, a content delivery service (CDS) is an example 
     of a broadband service provided by network operators/service 
     providers.  Distribution of movies and other video programs to 
     each user is a typical service.  Each channel requires large 
     bandwidth (e.g., 6Mbit/s) and operator/service providers need to 
     provide many channels to make their service attractive.  In 
     addition, the number of receivers is large (e.g., more than a few 
     thousands).  A system to provide this service does not scale well 
     without multicasting. 
      
     As such, multicasting can be useful to make a network more 
     scalable when a large volume of information needs to be 
     distributed to a large number of receivers.  However, multicasting 
     according to current standards (e.g., IGMPv3[1] and MLDv2[2]) has 
     drawbacks compared to unicasting when one applies it to commercial 
     services.  Accounting of each user's actions is not possible with 
     multicasting as it is with unicasting.  Accounting consists of 
     grasping each user's behavior, when she/he starts/stops to receive 
     a channel, which channel she/he receives, etc. 
      
     There are limitations to the application of multicasting in usage 
     models where user-based accounting is necessary, such as is the 
     case with many commercial applications. These limitations have 
     prevented the widespread deployment of multicasting.  Development 
   
   
   
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     and use of proprietary solutions to address such issues is an 
     alternative to providing standardized solutions.  However, non-
     standard solutions have drawbacks in terms of interoperability or 
     cost of development and maintenance. 
      
     Without accounting capability in multicasting, information 
     providers desiring accounting capability are forced to use 
     unicasting even when multicasting would otherwise be desirable 
     from a bandwidth/server resource perspective.  If multicasting 
     could be used with user-based accounting capabilities, its 
     applicability would be greatly widened. 
      
     This memo first describes problems on accounting issues in 
     multicasting.  Then the general requirements for this capability 
     including QoS related issues are listed.  Finally, application 
     examples which could benefit from multicasting with accounting 
     capabilities are shown. 
      
  2. Definitions and Abbreviations 
   
  2.1 Definitions 
      
     Authentication: action for identifying a user as a genuine one. 
   
     Authorization: action for giving permission for a user to access 
     content or the network. 
      
     Eligible user: Users may be eligible (permitted) to access   
     resources because of the attributes they have (e.g., delivery may 
     require possession of the correct password or digital  
     certificate), their equipment has (e.g., content may only be 
     eligible to players that can decode H.264 or 3GPP streams), their 
     access network has (e.g., HDTV content may only be eligible to 
     users with 10 Mbps or faster access line), or because of where 
     they are in network topology (e.g., HDTV content may not be 
     eligible for users across congested links) or in actual geography 
     (e.g., content may only be licensed for distribution to certain 
     countries), and, of course, a mix of attributes may be required 
     for eligibility or ineligibility. 
      
   
   
   
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     User: In this document user refers to a requester and a recipient 
     of multicast data, termed a viewer in CDS. 
      
     User-based accounting: actions for grasping each user's behavior, 
     when she/he starts/stops to receive a channel, which channel 
     she/he receives, etc. 
      
      
  2.2 Abbreviations 
      
     AAA: Authentication, Accounting and Authorization 
   
     ASM: Any-Source Multicast  
      
     CDS: Content Delivery Service 
      
     CP: Content Provider 
      
     IGMP: Internet Group Management Protocol 
      
     MLD: Multicast Listener Discovery 
      
     NSP: Network Service Provider 
      
     SSM: Source Specific Multicast 
      
     QoS: Quality of Service 
      
      
      
  3. Problem Statement 
      
  3.1  Accounting Issues 
      
     In unicast communications, the server (information source) can 
     identify the client (information receiver) and only permits 
     connection by an eligible client when this type of access control 
     is necessary.  In addition, when necessary, the server can grasp 
     what the client is doing (e.g., connecting to the server, starting 
     reception, what information the client is receiving, terminating 
     reception, disconnecting from the server). 
   
   
   
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     On the other hand, in multicast communication with current 
     standards (e.g., IGMPv3[1] or MLDv2[2]) the server just feeds its 
     information to the multicast router [as in Fig.1].  Then, the 
     multicast router replicates the data to any link which has at 
     least one client requesting the information.    In this process, 
     no eligibility check is conducted.  Any client can receive 
     information just by requesting it.   
      
     It is envisioned that there are many large-scale content 
     distribution applications transferred over IP-based networks that 
     can leverage multicasting technologies to meet their scalability 
     requirements for clients and data volume, and that some of these 
     applications require user-based accounting capabilities similar to 
     available with unicast networks. For example, accounting is needed 
     if one wants to charge for distributed information on a non-flat-
     fee basis. The current standards do not provide multicasting with 
     authorization or access control capabilities sufficient to meet 
     the requirements of accounting. 
      
     |--- user ----|------------NSP------------------|-----CP---| 
      
       +--------+ 
       | user   |\ 
       +--------+ \ 
                   \+------+    +------+    +------+    +------+ 
       +--------+   |Multi-|    |Multi-|    |Multi-|    |      | 
       | user   |---|cast  |----|cast  |----|cast  |----|Server| 
       +--------+   |router|    |router|    |router|    |      | 
                   /+------+    +------+    +------+    +------+ 
       +--------+ / 
       | user   |/ 
       +--------+ 
      
              Fig.1 Example network for multicast communication 
      
      
     As such, the same level of user-based accounting capabilities as 
     provided in unicast networks should be provided in multicast 
     networks. 
      
   
   
   
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  3.2  Relationship with Secure Multicasting (MSEC) 
      
     In many cases, content encryption (e.g. MSEC) is an effective 
     method for preventing unauthorized access to original content (in 
     other words, the ability to decode data to return it to its 
     generally usable form.)  This memo presents requirements for 
     multicasting networks in the areas of 1) access control to prevent 
     unauthorized usage of network resources (link bandwidth, router's 
     processing power, etc.) , and 2) accounting to grasp user activity 
     in a NSP.  The functional requirements do not require content 
     encryption although it might solve some of the content related 
     problems.  At this point, it is not yet clear whether encryption 
     would be part of a solution and if so, what other components (if 
     any) would also be required. Multicast streams generally consume 
     large amounts of bandwidth for extended periods of time. 
     Additionally, some multicast streams may have high-priority 
     depending on a NSP's policy. NSP does not want to let ineligible 
     users waste large amounts of bandwidth:  for example encryption 
     protects against content viewing but NSP desires protection 
     against DoS attacks of ineligible users wasting network resources, 
     even if it is encrypted. Content encryption and multicast access 
     control should both be able to coexist for more robust security. 
      
  3.3  Regarding Access Media and User Separation 
   
     The requirements defined in this memo apply to solutions that  
     provide user separation either through physical separation  
     provided by dedicated access media between the user and multicast 
     router  (see  Fig.  1) or else through logical separation in cases 
     of shared physical access media (e.g. using VLAN). However, IP 
     multicast solutions with shared Layer 2 access media between the 
     user and multicast router and no logical user separation (e.g. 
     Ethernet with shared links and no VLAN) are out of scope of this 
     memo. Nevertheless, some of the requirements in this memo defined 
     for multicasting may also be relevant to multicasting over links 
     without either physical or logical user separation.  Therefore in 
     the interest of modularity and flexibility, solutions addressing 
     the requirements of this memo may also take into account 
     application to multicasting without such user separation. 
      
   
   
   
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  4. General AAA-related Functional Requirements for IP Multicasting 
      
     In consideration of the issues presented in section 3, the 
     following requirements have been derived: 
      
      
     (1) User identification 
      
     The network should be able to identify each user when they attempt 
     to access the service so that necessary access controlling actions 
     can be applied.  Also, it is necessary to identify the user's 
     receiver (e.g. IP address) of each request (e.g., join/leave) for 
     per host tracking purposes.  
      
     With current protocols (IGMP/MLD), the sender cannot distinguish 
     which receivers (end hosts) are actually receiving the information.  
     The sender must rely on the information from the multicasting 
     routers. This can be complicated if the sender and routers are 
     maintained by different entities. 
      
   
     (2) Issue of Network Resource Protection 
      
     In order to guarantee certain QoS it is important for network 
     providers to be able to protect their network resources from being 
     wasted, (either maliciously or accidentally). 
      
     For comparisons sake, for unicast this issue can be resolved e.g. 
     by using RSVP in some cases. 
      
      
     (2.1) Access control 
      
     The network should be able to apply necessary access controlling 
     actions when an eligible user requests an action (such as a join 
     or a leave.)  The network should be able to reject any action 
     requested from an ineligible user.  
      
   
     (2.2) Control mechanism to support bandwidth of multicast stream 
          from a physical port of edge router or switch 
   
   
   
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     The network may need to control the combined bandwidth for all 
     channels at the physical port of the edge router or switch so that 
     these given physical entities are not overflowed with traffic. 
      
      
     (2.3) Control mechanism of number of channels delivered from a 
          physical port of edge router and switch 
      
     If an NSP desires to guarantee a certain level of QoS to CP and 
     the receivers, it is necessary that the NSP be able to control the 
     number of channels delivered from a physical port of an edge 
     router and a switch in cases that there is a limit to the number 
     of packet copies and/or number of channels that can be handled by 
     multicast routers. 
      
     For comparisons sake, for unicast this issue can be resolved e.g. 
     by using RSVP in some cases. 
      
      
     (3) User Authentication 
      
     The network should be able to authenticate a user. 
      
      
     (4) User Authorization 
      
     The network, at its option, should be able to authorize a user's 
     access to content or a multicast group, so as to meet any demands 
     by a CP to prevent content access by ineligible users.  In the 
     case that the NSP may wish to provide a service based on 
     guaranteed delivery, the NSP would not want to waste its network 
     resources on ineligible users.   
      
      
     (5) Accounting and Billing 
      
     In many commercial multicast situations, NSPs would like to be 
     able to precisely grasp network resource consumption and CPs would 
     like to be able to precisely grasp the content consumption by 
     users.  Such information might be used for identifying highly 
   
   
   
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     viewed content for advertising revenue, ratings calculations, 
     programming decisions, etc., as well as billing and auditing 
     purposes. Also content and network providers may wish to provide 
     users with access to their usage history. 
      
     To assemble such an understanding of user behavior, it is 
     necessary to precisely log information such as who (host/user) is 
     accessing what content at what time (join action) until what time 
     (leave action).  The result of the access-control decision (e.g. 
     results of authorization) would also be valuable information.  The 
     desired degree of logging precisions would depend on the 
     application used. 
      
     (5.1) How to share user information 
      
     For commercial multicast applications it is important for NSP and 
     CP to be able to share information regarding user's behaviour (as 
     described in (5) in standardized ways.  
      
      
     (6) Notification to Users of the Result of the Join Request 
      
     It should be possible to provide information to the user about the 
     status of his/her join request(granted/denied/other). 
      
      
     (7) Service and Terminal Portability 
      
     Depending on the service, networks should allow for a user to 
     receive a service from different places and/or with a different 
     terminal device. 
      
      
     (8) Support of ASM and SSM 
      
     Both ASM (G), and SSM (S,G) should be supported as multicast 
     models. 
      
      
     (9) Admission Control for Join Action 
      
   
   
   
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     In order to maintain a predefined QoS level, depending on the 
     NSP's policy, a user edge should be able to control the number of 
     streams it serves to a user, and total bandwidth consumed to that 
     user. For example if the number of streams being served to a 
     certain user has reached the limit defined by the NSP's policy, 
     then the user edge should not accept a subsequent "join" until one 
     of the existing streams is terminated.  Similarly, if the NSP is 
     controlling by per-user bandwidth consumption, then a subsequent 
     "join" should not be accepted if delivery of the requested stream 
     would push the consumed bandwidth over the NSP policy-defined 
     limit. 
      
      
     (10)  Channel Join Latency and Leave Latency 
      
     Commercial implementations of IP multicasting are likely to have 
     strict requirements in terms of user experience.  Join latency is 
     the time between when a user sends a "join" request and when the 
     requested data streaming first reaches the user.  Leave latency is 
     the time between when a user sends a "leave" signal and when the 
     network stops streaming to the user. 
   
     Leave and Join latencies impact the acceptable user experience for 
     fast channel surfing. In an IP-TV application, users are not going 
     to be receptive to a slow response time when changing channels.  
     If there are policies for controlling the number of simultaneous 
     streams a user may access then channel surfing will be determined 
     by the join and leave latencies. 
      
     Furthermore, leave affects resource consumption:  with a low 
     "leave latency" network providers could minimize streaming content 
     when there are no audiences. 
   
     It is important that any overhead for authentication, 
     authorization, and access-control be minimized at the times of 
     joining and leaving multicast channels so as to achieve join and 
     leave latencies acceptable in terms of user experience. For 
     example this is important in an IP-TV application, because users 
     are not going to be receptive to a slow response time when 
     changing channels. 
      
   
   
   
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     (11)  Scalability 
      
     Solutions that are used for AAA and QoS enabled  IP multicasting 
     should scale enough to support the needs of content providers and 
     network operators. NSP's multicast access and QoS policies should 
     be manageable for large scale users. (e.g. millions of users, 
     thousands of edge-routers) 
      
      
     (12) Small Impact on the Existing Products 
      
     Impact on the existing products (e.g., protocols, software, etc.) 
     should be as minimal as possible. 
      
     Ideally the NSP should be able to use the same infrastructure 
     (such as access control) to support commercial multicast services 
     for the so called "triple play" services: voice (VoIP), video, and 
     broadband Internet access services. 
      
     When a CP requires the NSP to provide a level of QoS surpassing 
     "best effort" delivery or to provide special services (e.g., to  
     limited users with specific attributes), certain parameters of the 
     CDS may be defined by a contractual relation between the NSP and 
     the CP.  However, just as for best-effort unicast, multicast 
     allows for content sourced by CPs without a contractual relation 
     with the NSP.  Therefore, solutions addressing the requirements 
     defined in this memo should not make obsolete multicasting that 
     does not include AAA features. NSPs may offer tiered services, 
     with higher QOS, accounting, authentication, etc., depending on 
     contractual relation with the CPs. It is therefore important that 
     Multicast AAA and QoS functions be as modular and flexible as 
     possible. 
      
     (13) Deployable as Alternative to Unicast 
      
     IP Multicasting would ideally be available as an alternative to IP 
     unicasting when the "on-demand" nature of unicasting is not 
     required. Therefore interfaces to multicasting should allow for 
     easy integration into CDS systems that support unicasting.  
   
   
   
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     Especially equivalent interfaces for authorization, access control 
     and accounting capabilities should be provided. 
      
      
     (14) Multicast Replication 
      
     The above requirements should also apply if multicast replication 
     is being done on an access-node (e.g. DSLAMs or OLTs). 
      
      
     Specific functional requirements for each application can be 
     derived from the above general requirements.  An example is shown 
     in the section 5. 
      
      
  5. Application Example and its Specific Requirements 
      
     This section shows an application example which could benefit from 
     multicasting.  Then, specific functional requirements related to 
     user-based accounting capabilities are derived. 
      
      
  5.1 IP Multicast-based Content Delivery Service (CDS): CP and NSP are 
     different entities (companies) 
   
     Broadband access networks such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital 
     Subscriber Line) or FTTH (Fiber to the Home) have been deployed 
     widely in recent years. Content Delivery Service (CDS) is expected 
     to be a major application provided through broadband access 
     networks. Because many services such as television broadcasting 
     require huge bandwidth (e.g., 6Mbit/s) and processing power at 
     content server, IP multicast is used as an efficient delivery 
     mechanism for CDS.  
      
     One way to provide high quality CDS is to use closed networks 
     ("walled-garden" model). 
      
     This subsection shows an example where CP and NSP are different 
     entities (companies). 
      
   
   
   
   
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  5.1.1 Network Model for Multicast Content Delivery Service 
      
     As shown in Fig.2, networks for CDS contain three different types 
     of entities: Content Provider (CP), Network Service Provider (NSP), 
     and user clients. An NSP owns the network resources 
     (infrastructure). It accommodates content providers on one side 
     and accommodates user clients on the other side. NSP provides the 
     network for CDS to two other entities (i.e., CPs and user clients). 
     A CP provides content to each user through the network of NSPs. 
     NSPs are responsible for delivering the content to user clients, 
     and for controlling the network resources. 
      
      
   
   
   
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       +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
       | CP          |  | CP          |  | CP          | 
       |          #1 |  |          #2 |  |          #3 | 
       | +---------+ |  | +---------+ |  | +---------+ | 
       | | content | |  | | content | |  | | content | | 
       | | server  | |  | | server  | |  | | server  | | 
       | +-------+-+ |  | +----+----+ |  | +-+-------+ | 
       +----------\--+  +------|------+  +--/----------+ 
                   \           |           / 
                    \          |          / <- network/network 
                     \         |         /     interface 
       +------------- \ ------ | ------ / ----+ 
       |               \       |       /      | 
       |   NSP         +-+-----+-----+-+      | 
       |               | Provider Edge |      | 
       |               +-------+-------+      |   +-----------------+ 
       |                       |              |---| Information     | 
       |                       |              |   | server          | 
       |             +--+------+---+          |   +-----------------+ 
       |             | User Edge   |          | 
       |             +--+---+---+--+          | 
       |               /    |    \            | 
       +------------- / --- | --- \ ----------+ 
                     /      |      \ 
                    /       |       \ <- user/network interface 
                   /        |        \ 
        +---------++  +-----+----+   ++---------+ 
        |client #a |  |client #b |   |client #c | 
        +----------+  +----------+   +----------+ 
        User A        User B         User C 
       
                 Fig.2 Example of CDS network configuration 
                                                                          
       
     The NSP provides the information server for all multicast channels, 
     and a CP gives detailed channel information (e.g., Time table of 
     each channel) to the information server. An end-user client gets 
     the information from the information server. In this model, 
     multicasting is used in the NSP's CDS network, and there are two 
     different contracts. One is the contract between the NSP and the 
     user which permits the user to access the basic network resources 
   
   
   
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     of the NSP.  Another contract is between the CP and user to permit 
     the user to subscribe to multicast content. Because the CP and NSP 
     are different entities, and the NSP generally does not allow a CP 
     to control (operate) the network resources of the NSP, user 
     authorization needs to be done by the CP and NSP independently. 
     Since there is no direct connection to the user/network interface, 
     the CP cannot control the user/network interface. A user may want 
     to move to another place, or may want to change her/his device 
     (client) any time without interrupting her/his reception of 
     services.  As such, IP Multicast network should support 
     portability capabilities. 
      
      
  5.1.2 Content Delivery Service Requirements 
   
     Below are listed specific requirements to support common business 
     cases/ contractual arrangements for the IP Multicast-based Content 
     Delivery Service. 
   
   
  5.1.2.1 Accounting Requirements 
      
     An NSP may have different contractual agreements with various CPs 
     or various legal obligations in different locations.  One possible 
     business relationship between a CP and NSP is that of a revenue 
     sharing which could be on a per content/usage-base.  A solution 
     should support varied billing and charging methods to satisfy both 
     common legal and business/financial requirements to deploy 
     multicasting services:  this requires accurate and near real-time 
     accounting information about the user clients' activity accessing 
     the content services.  
     The user accessing particular content is represented by the user's 
     activities of joining or leaving the corresponding multicast 
     group/channel (<(*,g)> or (s,g)). In multicast networks, only NSPs 
     can collect joining or leaving activities in real-time through 
     their user edges. The NSPs can transfer the accounting information 
     to related CPs for them to generate user billing information. 
     Existing standard AAA technology may be used to transfer the 
     accounting information. 
      
   
   
   
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     To match the accounting information with a particular user, the 
     user has to be authenticated. Usually the account information of a 
     user for content access is maintained by the CP. A user may have 
     different user accounts for different CPs.(e.g. user_a@cp#1 and 
     user_b@cp#2) The account is usually in the format of (username, 
     password) so an user can access the content services from anywhere. 
     For example, an user can access the CP from different NSPs.(e.g. a 
     fixed line NSP and a mobile NSP). It should be noted that the user 
     account used for content access can be different from the one used 
     for network access maintained by NSPs. 
      
     The NSP-CP model represents a multi-domain AAA environment. There 
     are plural cases of the model depending on the trust relationship 
     between the NSP and CP, and additional service requirements such 
     as a certain QoS level guarantee or service/terminal portability. 
      
     A mechanism is necessary to allow a CP and NSP to grasp each 
     user's behavior independently. 
      
     Another requirement related to accounting is the ability to notify 
     a user when accounting really starts.  When a "free preview" 
     capability is supported, accounting may not start at the same time 
     as the user's joining of the stream. 
      
     Any solution addressing the requirements of this memo should 
     consider the Interdomain accounting issues presented in RFC-2975 
     [3].  It is especially important to consider that the CP and NSP 
     as separate administrative entities can not be assumed to trust 
     one another.  The solution should be robust enough to handle 
     packet loss between entity domains and assure for data integrity. 
     In addition any solution should take into consideration common 
     legal or financial requirements requiring confidential archiving 
     of usage data. 
      
  5.1.2.2 Authorization Requirements 
      
    The NSPs are responsible for delivering content and are generally 
    required to meet certain QoS levels or SLA (service level 
    agreements). For example, video quality is very sensitive to packet 
    loss. So if an NSP --due to limited network resources -- cannot 
    meet quality requirements if it accepts an additional user request, 
   
   
   
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    the NSP should reject that user's access request to avoid charging 
    the existing (i.e., already-joined) user for bad services.  For 
    example, if an access line is shared by several users, an 
    additional user's join may cause performance degradation for other 
    users.  If the incoming user is the first user on a user edge, this 
    will initiate the transmission of data between the provider edge 
    and the user edge and this extra network traffic may cause 
    performance degradation.  There may also be policies that do not 
    necessarily give highest priority to the "first-come" users, and 
    these should also be considered. 
     
    In order to protect network resources against misuse/malicious 
    access and maintain a QoS level, appropriate admission control 
    function for traffic policing purposes is necessary so that the NSP 
    can accept or reject the request without degrading the QoS beyond 
    the specified level. 
     
     
  5.1.2.3 Authentication Requirements 
      
     There are two different aims of authentication.  One is 
     authentication for network access, and another one is for content 
     access. For the first case of authentication, NSP has a AAA server, 
     and for the second case, each CP has a AAA server. In some cases, 
     CPs delegate (outsource) the operation of user authentication to 
     NSPs. 
      
     As such, in addition to network access, multicast access by a user 
     also needs to be authenticated.  Content authentication should 
     support the models where: 
          - authentication for multicast content is outsourced to the 
            NSP. 
          - authentication for multicast content access is operated by 
            the CP 
      
      
  5.2 IP Multicast-based Content Delivery Service (CDS): CP and NSP are 
     the same entities (companies) 
      
     Another application example is the case where the content provider 
     (CP) and network service provider (NSP) are the same entity 
   
   
   
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     (company) as shown in Fig. 3.  In the case that the CP and NSP are 
     the same entity, some of the requirements indicated in 4.1 are not 
     required. 
      
     This model does not require the following items: 
      
          - Communication method between sender (content server) and 
            user.  Since they belong to the same company, they can use 
            all the available information. 
           
          - Methods to share user-related information between NSPs and 
            CPs. 
       +-----------------------------------------------------+ 
       |              +---------+                            | 
       |              | content |                            | 
       |              | server  |                            | 
       |              +----+----+                            | 
       |                   |                                 | 
       | CP+NSP    +-------+-------+                         | 
       |           | Provider Edge |                         | 
       |           +-------+-------+  +--------------------+ | 
       |                   |          | Information server | | 
       |                   |          +--------------------+ | 
       |           +-------------+                           | 
       |           | User Edge   |                           | 
       |           +--+---+---+--+                           | 
       |             /    |    \                             | 
       +----------- / --- | --- \ ---------------------------+ 
                   /      |      \ 
                  /       |       \ <- user/network interface 
                 /        |        \ 
      +---------++  +-----+----+   ++---------+ 
      |Client #a |  |client #b |   |client #c | 
      +----------+  +----------+   +----------+ 
        User A    User B     User C 
       
                 Fig.3 Example of CDS network configuration 
      
      
      
   
   
   
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  6. Acknowledgments 
      
     The authors of this draft would like to express their appreciation 
     to Pekka Savola of Netcore Ltd., Daniel Alvarez, and Toerless 
     Eckert of Cisco Systems, Sam Sambasivan of AT&T, Sanjay Wadhwa of 
     Juniper, Tom Anschutz and Steven Wright of BellSouth, Nicolai 
     Leymann of T-Systems, Carlos Garcia Braschi of Telefonica Empresas, 
     Marshall Eubanks of Multicast Techno, Stephen Rife of NTT and 
     David Meyer in his role as mboned WG chair, as well as their 
     thanks to the participants of the MBONED WG in general. 
      
     Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the 
     Internet Society. 
   
   
  7. IANA Considerations 
      
     This memo does not raise any IANA consideration issues. 
      
      
  8. Security Considerations 
      
     Accounting capabilities can be used to enhance the security of 
     multicast networks by excluding ineligible clients from the 
     networks. 
      
     These requirements are not meant to address encryption issues.  
     Any solution meeting these requirements should allow for the 
     implementation of encryption such as MSEC on the multicast data. 
      
  9. Privacy considerations 
      
     Any solution which meets these requirements should weigh the 
     benefits of user-based accounting with the privacy considerations 
     of the user. For example solutions are encouraged when applicable 
     to consider encryption of the content data between the content 
     provider and the user in such a way that the Network Provider does 
     not know the contents of the channel. 
      
  10. Conclusion 
      
   
   
   
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     This memo describes general requirements for providing AAA and QoS 
     enabled IP multicasting services. It lists issues related to 
     accounting, authentication, authorization and admission control 
     for multicast content delivery.  Content Delivery Services with 
     different business models are cited as the type of application 
     which could benefit from the capabilities of AAA and QoS enabled 
     IP multicasting described in this document. 
      
      
  Normative References 
      
     [1] B. Cain, et. al., "Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 
         3", RFC3376, October 2002. 
      
     [2] R. Vida, et. al., "Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 
         (MLDv2) for IPv6", RFC3810, June 2004. 
      
     [3] Aboba B , et. al., "Introduction to Accounting Management", 
         RFC 2975, October 2000. 
      
   
   
   
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  Authors' Addresses 
      
             Tsunemasa Hayashi 
             NTT Network Innovation Laboratories 
             1-1 Hikarino'oka, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, 239-0847 Japan 
             Phone: +81 46 859 8790 
             Email: hayashi.tsunemasa@lab.ntt.co.jp 
      
             Haixiang He 
             Nortel 
             600 Technology Park Drive Billerica, MA 01801, USA 
             Phone: +1 978 288 7482 
             Email: haixiang@nortel.com 
      
             Hiroaki Satou 
             NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories 
             3-9-11 Midoricho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo, 180-8585 Japan 
             Phone: +81 422 59 4683 
             Email: satou.hiroaki@lab.ntt.co.jp 
      
             Hiroshi Ohta 
             NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories 
             3-9-11 Midoricho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo, 180-8585 Japan 
                     Phone: +81 422 59 3617 
             Email: ohta.hiroshi@lab.ntt.co.jp 
      
             Susheela Vaidya 
             Cisco Systems, Inc. 
             170 W. Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 
             Phone: +1 408 525 1952 
             Email: svaidya@cisco.com 
      
   
   
   
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