One document matched: draft-ietf-pwe3-fc-encap-14.txt

Differences from draft-ietf-pwe3-fc-encap-13.txt


INTERNET-DRAFT                                     David L. Black (ed.)
PWE3 WG                                                 EMC Corporation
Intended Status: Standard Track                       Linda Dunbar(ed.)
Expires: July 2011                                  Huawei Technologies
                                                       January 11, 2011

                  Encapsulation Methods for Transport of
                 Fibre Channel Traffic over MPLS Networks

                      draft-ietf-pwe3-fc-encap-14.txt


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   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Abstract

   A Fibre Channel pseudowire (PW) is used to carry Fibre Channel
   traffic over an MPLS network. This enables service providers to take
   advantage of the reliable transport of MPLS-TE/MPLS-TP to offer
   "emulated" Fibre Channel services. This document specifies the
   encapsulation of Fibre Channel traffic within a pseudowire. It also
   specifies the common procedures for using a PW to provide a Fibre
   Channel service. The mechanisms controlling the reliable transport of
   Fibre Channel PW over MPLS networks can be provided by MPLS-TP.

Conventions used in this document

   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].

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................3
      1.1. Transparency..............................................3
      1.2. Bandwidth Efficiency......................................4
      1.3. Reliability...............................................4
   2. Reference Model................................................5
   3. Encapsulation..................................................7
      3.1. The Control Word..........................................8
      3.2. MTU Requirements..........................................9
      3.3. Mapping of FC traffic to PW packets.......................9
      3.4. PW failure mapping.......................................12
   4. Signaling of FC Pseudowires...................................12
   5. Timing Considerations.........................................13
   6. Security Considerations.......................................14
   7. Applicability Statement.......................................15
   8. IANA Considerations...........................................16
   9. Acknowledgments...............................................17


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   10. Normative References.........................................17
   11. Informative references.......................................18
   Authors' Addresses...............................................18
   Contributors' Addresses..........................................18

1. Introduction

   Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed communications technology, used
   primarily for Storage Area Networks (SANs). Within a single site
   (e.g., data center), an FC-based SAN connects servers to storage
   systems, and FC can be extended across sites. When FC is extended
   across multiple sites, the most common usage is storage replication
   in support of recovery from disasters (e.g., flood or fire that takes
   a site out of operation). This is particularly the case over longer
   distances where network latency results in unacceptable performance
   for a server whose storage is not at the same site. Fibre Channel is
   standardized by INCITS Technical Committee T11 [T11] and multiple
   methods for encapsulating and transporting FC traffic over other
   networks have been developed [FC-BB-6].

   FC/IP, as described in [RFC3821] and [FC-BB-6], interconnects
   otherwise isolated FC SANs over IP Networks. FC/IP uses FC Frame
   Encapsulation, [RFC3643] to encapsulate FC frames and addresses
   concerns specific to tunneling FC over an IP-based network. Since
   such networks may not reliably deliver packets, FC/IP relies on the
   TCP protocol to retransmit dropped frames. Due to possible delay
   variation and TCP timeouts, special timing mechanisms are required to
   ensure correct Fibre Channel operation over FC/IP [FC-BB-6].

   MPLS-TP and MPLS-TE provide mechanisms for reliable transport over
   MPLS networks, making it possible for Fibre Channel ports to be
   interconnected directly over MPLS networks. A Fibre Channel
   pseudowire (FC PW) is a method to transparently transport FC traffic
   over an MPLS network resulting in behavior similar to a pair of FC
   ports that are directly connected by a physical FC link. The result
   is simpler control processing by comparison to FC/IP.

   This document specifies the encapsulation of FC traffic into an MPLS
   pseudowire and related PW procedures to transport FC traffic over
   MPLS PWs in conjunction with the specification of the FC portion of
   the FC PW in [FC-BB-6]. The following subsections describe some of
   the requirements for transporting FC traffic over an MPLS network.

1.1. Transparency

   Transparent extension of an FC link is a key requirement for
   transporting FC traffic over a PW. This requires the FC PW to emulate


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   an FC Link between two FC ports, similar to the approach defined for
   FC over GFPT in [FC-BB-6]. This results in transparent forwarding of
   FC traffic over the MPLS network from both the FC Fabric and the
   network operator points of view.

   Transparency distinguishes the FC PW approach from FC/IP. An FC PW
   logically connects the FC port on the FC link attached to one end of
   the PW directly with the FC port on far end of the FC link attached
   to the other end of the PW, whereas FC/IP introduces FC B_Ports at
   both ends of the extended FC link; each FC B_Port is connected to an
   FC E_Port in an FC switch on the same side of the link extension.

1.2. Bandwidth Efficiency

   The bandwidth allocated to a PW may be less than the rate of the
   attached FC port. When there is no data exchange on a native FC link,
   Idle Primitive Signals are continuously exchanged between the two FC
   ports. In order to improve the bandwidth efficiency across the MPLS
   network, it is necessary for the FC PW PE to suppress (or drop) the
   Idle Primitive signals generated by its adjacent FC ports. The far
   end FC PW PE regenerates Idle Primitive signals to send to its
   adjacent FC port as required, see [FC-BB-6].

   FC link control protocols require an FC port to continuously send the
   same FC Primitive Sequence [FC-FS-2] until a reply is received or
   some other event occurs. To improve bandwidth efficiency, the FC PW
   PE encapsulates a subset of repeated FC Primitive Sequences to send
   across the WAN [FC-BB-6]. For example, in a sequence of identical
   received primitives, only every fourth primitive may be sent across
   the MPLS network. The far end FC PW PE regenerates the FC link
   behavior by continuously sending the Primitive Sequence most recently
   received from the WAN until a new primitive signal, primitive
   sequence or data frame is received from the WAN.

   These two bandwidth efficiency techniques may cause changes in the FC
   traffic that traverses an FC PW (e.g., number of IDLE signals or
   number of identical Primitive Sequences), but the far end FC PW PE's
   regeneration of FC link behavior on the attached FC port is
   transparent to the FC ports connected to each PW PE.

1.3. Reliability

   Fibre Channel does not have a native retransmission protocol, and
   requires reliable delivery of frames in the absence of errors. If an
   FC frame cannot be delivered (e.g., is dropped or discarded as the
   result of an error) the typical result is an I/O operation failure.
   Recovery from that failure involves an I/O operation retry after what


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   may be a significant delay (30 seconds and 60 seconds are typical
   timeout values).  In addition, such retries are likely to be logged
   as errors indicating possible problems with FC equipment or cables.
   Hence, drops, errors and discards of FC frames must be very rare.

   In contrast to the TTL field in an IP packet, FC uses a constant
   delivery timeout value (R_A_TOV) for which 10 seconds is the default.
   Each FC frame must be delivered or discarded within that timeout
   period after it is sent, see Section 5.

  2. Reference Model

   An FC PW extends a native FC link over an MPLS network. This document
   specifies the PW encapsulation for FC. Figure 1 describes the
   reference models (derived from [RFC3985]) that support the FC PW. FC
   traffic is received by PE1's FC attachment channel, encapsulated at
   PE1, transported across MPLS network, decapsulated at PE2, and
   transmitted onward via the PE2's FC attachment channel. This document
   assumes that a pseudowire can be provisioned statically or via a
   signaling protocol as defined in [RFC4447].



         |<-------------- Emulated Service ----------------->|
         |                                                   |
         |          |<------- Pseudowire -------->|          |
         |          |                             |          |
         |          |    |<-- MPLS Tunnel -->|    |          |
         |          V    V                   V    V          |
         V   AC     +----+                   +----+    AC    V
   +-----+    |     | PE1|===================| PE2|     |    +-----+
   |     |----------|............PW1..............|----------|     |
   | CE1 |    |     |    |                   |    |     |    | CE2 |
   |     |----------|............PW2..............|----------|     |
   +-----+  ^ |     |    |===================|    |     | ^  +-----+
         ^  |       +----+                   +----+     | |  ^
         |  |   Provider Edge 1          Provider Edge 2  |  |
         |  |                                             |  |
   Customer |                                             | Customer
   Edge 1   |                                             | Edge 2
            |                                             |
            |                                             |
     Native FC service                             Native FC service

            Figure 1: PWE3 FC Interface Reference Configuration




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   The following reference model describes the termination point of each
   end of the PW within the PE:

              +-----------------------------------+
              |                PE                 |
      +---+   +-+  +-----+  +------+  +------+  +-+
      |   |   |P|  |     |  |PW ter|  | MPLS |  |P|
      |   |<==|h|<=| NSP |<=|minati|<=|Tunnel|<=|h|<== From network
      |   |   |y|  |     |  |on    |  |      |  |y|
      | C |   +-+  +-----+  +------+  +------+  +-+
      | E |   |                                   |
      |   |   +-+  +-----+  +------+  +------+  +-+
      |   |   |P|  |     |  |PW ter|  | MPLS |  |P|
      |   |==>|h|=>| NSP |=>|minati|=>|Tunnel|=>|h|==> To network
      |   |   |y|  |     |  |on    |  |      |  |y|
      +---+   +-+  +-----+  +------+  +------+  +-+
              |                                   |
              +-----------------------------------+
                 Figure 2: PW reference diagram

   The Native Service Processing (NSP) function includes

   o  suppressing any FC Idle signals received from the PE's attached FC
      port,

   o  re-generating FC Idle signals to send on the attached FC port when
      there is no other FC traffic to send,

   o  selecting a subset of repetitive FC Primitive Sequences received
      from the attached FC port and passing them to the PW Termination
      Entity for encapsulation and forwarding to the PW tunnel (e.g.,
      sending only every fourth, eighth or some other number of repeated
      identical FC Primitive Sequences),

   o  re-sending the last received FC Primitive Sequence on the attached
      FC port continuously until a new packet is received from the PW
      WAN side, and

   o  using the Alternate Simple Flow Control (ASFC) protocol for buffer
      management in concert with the peer PW PE's NSP function so that
      FC traffic is not dropped. ASFC is a simple pause/resume protocol
      that allows repetition of pause and resume operations; the
      receiver responds to the first operation in an identical sequence
      of operations, and ignores the rest of the sequence.

   The NSP function is specified in detail by [FC-BB-6].



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  3. Encapsulation

   This specification provides port to port transport of FC encapsulated
   traffic. There are several port types defined by Fibre Channel,
   including:

   o  An N_port is a port on the node (e.g. host or storage device) used
      with both FC-P2P or FC-SW topologies. Also known as a Node port.

   o  An NL_port is a port on the node used with an FC-AL topology. Also
      known as a Node Loop port.

   o  An F_port is a port on the switch that connects to a node point-
      to-point (i.e. connects to an N_port). Also known as a Fabric
      port. An F_port is not loop capable.

   o  An FL_port is a port on the switch that connects to a FC-AL loop
      (i.e. to NL_ports). Also known as Fabric Loop port.

   o  An E_port is a port used to connect two Fibre Channel switches.
      Also known as an Expansion port. When E_ports between two switches
      are connected to form a link, that link is referred to as an
      inter-switch link (ISL).

   Among the port types listed above, only the following FC connections
   (as specified in [FC-BB-6]) are supported by an FC PW over MPLS:

          - N_Port to N_Port, established by an FC PLOGI operation

          - N_Port to F_Port, established by an FC FLOGI operation

          - E_Port to E_Port, established by an FC ELP operation

   FC traffic flowing over an FC PW is subdivided into four payload
   types (PT) that are encoded in the PW Control Word (see Section 3.1):

   1. FC login traffic (PT = 1): FC login operations and responses that
      establish connections between FC ports.  The three FC login
      operations are PLOGI (Port Login), FLOGI (Fabric Login), and ELP
      (Exchange Link Parameters). These operations and their responses
      may require the NSP to allocate buffer resources, see the
      specification of Login Exchange Monitors in [FC-BB-6].

   2. FC data traffic (PT = 0): All FC frames other than those involved
      in an FC login operation.




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   3. FC Primitive Sequences and Signals (PT = 2): Native FC link
      control operations - 4-character primitive sequences and signals
      that are not encapsulated in FC frames. See [FC-BB-6] and
      [FC-FS-2].

   4. FC PW Control (PT = 6): FC PW control operations exchanged only
      between the endpoints of the PW. FC PW control operations are used
      for ASFC flow control, ping (e.g., for round trip latency
      measurement) and reporting native FC link errors, see [FC-BB-6].

   This FC PW specification is limited to use with FC service classes 2,
   3 and F (see [FC-FS-2]).  Other FC service classes (e.g., 1, 4 and 6)
   MUST NOT be used with an FC PW.

   This FC PW specification is limited to native FC attachment links
   that employ an 8b/10b transmission code (see [FC-FS-2]).  The
   protocol specified in this document converts a received 10b code to
   its 8b counterpart for PW encapsulation, and hence does not support
   attached FC links that use a 64b/66b transmission code (e.g., 10GFC,
   16GFC); such links MUST NOT be attached to an FC PW PE. If an invalid
   10b code that cannot be converted to an 8b code is received from an
   FC link, the PE sends an FC PW control frame to report the error, see
   [FC-BB-6].

3.1. The Control Word

   The Generic PW Control Word, as defined in "PWE3 Control Word"
   [RFC4385] MUST be used for FC PW to facilitate the transport of short
   packets (by setting the Length field as detailed below), and convey
   the flag bits defined below. The structure of the Control Word is as
   follows:

                           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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |0 0 0 0| PT  |X|0 0|  Length   |     Sequence Number           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                     Figure 3 - Control Word Structure

   The first four bits of the PW Control Word MUST be set to 0 by the
   ingress PE to indicate PW data.

   The Flags bits are in use to convey the PT - Payload Type indication.
   This field identifies the payload type carried by a PW packet. The
   following types are defined:


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           PT = 0: FC data frame.

           PT = 1: FC login frame.

           PT = 2: FC Primitive Sequence(s) and/or Primitive Signal(s).

           PT = 6: FC PW Control Frame (refer to [FC-BB-6] for usage).

   X - This bit is not used by this version of the protocol. It SHOULD
   be set to zero by the sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   The fragmentation bits (bits 8-9) are not used by the FC PW protocol.
   These bits may be used in the future for FC specific indications as
   defined in [RFC4385].

   The length field MUST be used for packets shorter than 64 bytes, and
   MUST be processed according to the rules specified in [RFC4385].

   The sequence number is not used for FC PW and MUST be set to 0 by the
   ingress PE, and MUST be ignored by the egress PE.

3.2. MTU Requirements

   The MPLS network MUST be able to transport the largest Fibre Channel
   frame after encapsulation, including the overhead associated with the
   encapsulation. The maximum FC frame size without PW and MPLS labels
   (refer to Figure 4) is 2164 bytes. The MPLS network SHOULD
   accommodate frames of up to 2500 bytes in order to support possible
   future increases in the maximum FC frame size.

   Fragmentation, described in [RFC4623], SHALL NOT be used for an FC
   PW, therefore the network MUST be configured with a minimum MTU that
   is sufficient to transport the largest encapsulated FC frame.

3.3. Mapping of FC traffic to PW packets

   FC frames, Primitive Sequences, and Primitive Signals are transported
   over the PW. All packet types are carried over a single PW. In
   addition to the PW Control Word, an FC Encapsulation Header is
   included in the PW packet. This FC Encapsulation Header is not used
   in this version of the protocol; it SHOULD be set to zero by the
   sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.







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   Each FC frame is mapped to a PW packet, including the Start Of Frame
   (SOF) delimiter, frame header, CRC field and the End Of Frame (EOF)
   delimiter, as shown in figure 4. The SOF and EOF frame delimiters are
   each encoded into a single byte as specified in [RFC3643], except
   that the codes for delimiters that apply only to FC service class 4
   (SOFi4, SOFc4, SOFn4, EOFdt, EOFdti, EOFrt, EOFrti) MUST NOT be used.
   The CRC in the frame is obtained directly from the FC attachment
   channel, so that the PW PE is not required to re-calculate the CRC or
   to check the CRC in the received frame. The CRC will be checked by
   the FC port that receives the frame, ensuring that coverage is
   provided for data errors that occur between the PW endpoints.

                           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
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                    FC PW Control Word                         |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                  FC Encapsulation Header                      |
      +---------------+-----------------------------------------------+
      |     SOF Code  |             Reserved                          |
      +---------------+-----------------------------------------------+
      |                                                               |
      +-----                        FC Frame                      ----+
      |                                                               |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                              CRC                              |
      +---------------+-----------------------------------------------+
      |     EOF Code  |                Reserved                       |
      +---------------+-----------------------------------------------+

      Figure 4 - FC frame (SOF/Data/CRC/EOF) encapsulation in PW packet

   FC Primitive Sequences and Primitive Signals are FC ordered sets. On
   an 8b/10b-coded FC link, an ordered set consists of four 10b
   characters, starting with the K28.5 character, followed by three
   Dxx.y data characters. All FC ordered sets start with a K28.5 control
   character, but the three following Dxx.y data characters differ
   depending on the ordered set. A Kxx.y control character has a
   different 10b code from the corresponding Dxx.y data character, but
   uses the same 8b code (e.g., K28.5 and D28.5 both use the 8b code
   0xBC). Here are two examples of ordered sets:

   o  Idle(IDLE) is K28.5 - D21.4 - D21.5 - D21.5. This FC primitive
      signal is sent when the FC link is idle; it is suppressed by the
      FC PW NSP and not sent over the WAN.



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   o  Link Reset Response(LRR) is K28.5 - D21.1 - D31.5 - D9.2 (this FC
      primitive sequence is used as part of FC link initialization and
      recovery).

   Each ordered set is encapsulated in a PW packet containing the
   encoded K28.5 control character [FC-BB-6], followed by three encoded
   data characters, as shown in Figure 5.

                           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
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                    FC PW Control Word                         |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                  FC Encapsulation Header                      |
      +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
      |     K28.5     |     Dxx.y     |     Dxx.y     |     Dxx.y     |
      +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
      |                                                               |
      +----                                                       ----+
      |                                                               |
      +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
      |     K28.5     |     Dxx.y     |     Dxx.y     |     Dxx.y     |
      +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

             Figure 5 - FC Ordered Sets encapsulation in PW packet

   The K28.5 10b control character received from the PE's attached FC
   link is encoded for the FC PW as its 8b counterpart (0xBC).  Because
   the same 8b value is used to encode a D28.5 data word, the receiving
   FC PW PE:

   o  MUST check for presence of an 8b K28.5 value (0xBC) at the start
      of each ordered set (see Figure 5), and MUST send that value as a
      10b K28.5 character on the attached FC link.

   o  MUST send the following three Dxx.y 8b values as Dxx.y 10b
      characters on the attached FC link and MUST NOT send any of these
      Dxx.y 8b values as 10b Kxx.y characters on the attached FC link.

   A PW packet may contain one or more encoded FC Ordered sets [FC-BB-
   6]. The length field in the FC PW Control Word is used to indicate
   the packet length when the PW packet contains multiple Ordered Sets.

   Idle Primitive Signals could be carried over the PW in the same
   manner as Primitive Sequences. However, [FC-BB-6] requires that Idle
   Primitive Signals be dropped by the Ingress PE and re-generated by



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   the egress PE to save bandwidth consumed by FC (refer to [FC-BB-6]
   for further details).

   The egress PE extracts the Primitive Sequence or Primitive Signal
   from the received PW packet. For a Primitive Sequence, the PE
   continues transmitting the same FC Ordered Set to its attached FC
   port until an FC frame or another ordered set is received over the
   PW.  A Primitive Signal is sent once, except that Idle Primitive
   Signals are sent continuously when there is nothing else to send.

   FC PW Control Frames are transported over the PW, by encapsulating
   each frame in a PW packet with PT=6 in the Control Word. FC PW
   Control Frame payloads are generated and terminated by the
   corresponding FC entity. FC PW Control frames are used for FC PW flow
   control (ASFC), ping and transmission of error indications. [FC-BB-6]
   specifies the generation and processing of FC PW Control Frames.

                           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
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                    FC PW Control Word                         |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                  FC Encapsulation Header                      |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                                                               |
      +-----              FC PW Control Frame                     ----+
      |                                                               |
      +---------------------------------------------------------------+

             Figure 6 - FC PW Control frame encapsulation in PW packet

3.4. PW failure mapping

   PW failure mapping, which are detected through PW signaling failure,
   PW status notifications as defined in [RFC4447], or through PW OAM
   mechanisms MUST be mapped to emulated signal failure indications.
   Sending the FC link failure indication to its attached FC link is
   performed by the NSP, as defined by [FC-BB-6].

4. Signaling of FC Pseudowires

   RFC4447 specifies the use of the MPLS Label Distribution Protocol,
   LDP, as a protocol for setting up and maintaining pseudowires. This
   section describes the use of specific fields and error codes used to
   control FC PW.




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   The PW Type field in the PWid FEC element and PW generalized ID FEC
   elements MUST be set to the "FC Port Mode" value in section 7 below.

   The Control Word is REQUIRED for FC pseudowires.  Therefore the C-Bit
   in the PWid FEC element and PW generalized ID FEC elements MUST be
   set. If the C-Bit is not set, the pseudowire MUST NOT be established
   and a Label Release MUST be sent with an "Illegal C-Bit" status code
   [RFC4447].

   The Fragmentation Indicator (Parameter ID = 0x09) is specified in
   [RFC4446] and its usage is defined in [RFC4623]. Since fragmentation
   is not used in FC PW, the fragmentation indicator parameter MUST be
   omitted from the Interface Parameter Sub-TLV.

5. Timing Considerations

   Correct Fibre Channel link operation requires that the FC link
   latency between CE1 and CE2 (refer to Figure 1) be:

   o  no more than one-half of the R_T_TOV (Receiver Transmitter Timeout
      Value, default value: 100 milliseconds) of the attached devices
      for Primitive Sequences;

   o  no more than one-half of the E_D_TOV (Error Detect Timeout Value,
      default value: 2 seconds) of the attached devices for frames; and

   o  within the R_A_TOV (Resource Allocation Timeout Value, default
      value: 10 seconds) of the attached fabric(s), if any. The FC
      standards require that the E_D_TOV value for each FC link be set
      so that the R_A_TOV value for the fabric is respected when the
      worst case latency occurs for each link, see [FC-FS-2].

   An FC PW MUST adhere to these three timing requirements and MUST NOT
   be used in environments where high or variable latency may cause
   these requirements to be violated.

   These three timeout values are ordered (R_T_TOV < E_D_TOV < R_A_TOV),
   so adherence to one-half of R_T_TOV for all FC PW traffic is
   sufficient. See [FC-FS-2] for definitions of the FC timeout values.

   The R_T_TOV is used by the FC link initialization protocol. If an FC
   PW's latency exceeds one-half R_T_TOV, initialization of the FC link
   that is encapsulated by the FC PW may fail, leaving that FC link in a
   non-operational state.

   The E_D_TOV is used to detect failures of operational FC links. If an
   FC PW's latency exceeds the one-half E_D_TOV requirement, the FC link


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   that is encapsulated by the FC PW may fail. The usual FC response to
   such a link failure is to attempt to recover the FC link by
   initializing it.  That initialization will also fail if the FC PW
   latency exceeds one-half R_T_TOV (a tighter requirement).

   The R_A_TOV is used to determine when FC communication resources
   (e.g., values that identify FC frames) may be reused. If an FC PW's
   violation of the one-half E_D_TOV requirement is sufficient to also
   cause the FC fabric to violate the R_A_TOV requirement, then FC reuse
   of frame identification values after an R_A_TOV timeout may result in
   multiple FC frames with the same identification values, causing
   incorrect Fibre Channel operation.   For example, if two such frames
   are swapped between I/O operations, the result may be corrupted data
   in the I/O operations.

   The PING and PING_ACK FC PW control frames defined in Section 6.4.7
   of [FC-BB-6] SHOULD be used to measure the current FC pseudowire
   latency between the CE devices. If the measured latency violates any
   of the timing requirements, then the FC PW PE MUST generate a WAN
   Down event as specified in [FC-BB-6].

   The WAN Down event causes the PE to continuously send NOS (an FC
   primitive sequence) on the native FC link to the attached FC Port
   (typically an E_Port on a switch in this case).  This immediately
   causes the FC link that is carried by the PW to become non-
   operational, halting transmission of FC traffic.  However, it is not
   necessary to tear down the pseudowire itself in this situation (e.g.,
   destroy the MPLS path set up by LDP).

   The Transparent FC-BB initialization state machine in [FC-BB-6]
   specifies the protocol used to attempt to recover from a WAN Down
   event (i.e., bring the WAN back up).  If that protocol brings the WAN
   back up, FC traffic will resume and the standard FC link recovery
   protocol will bring the encapsulated FC link back up. If the previous
   pseudowire was destroyed, attempts will be made to re-establish the
   path via LDP as part of recovering from the WAN Down event. If the PW
   round-trip latency remains above 100ms, the initialization protocol
   for the FC PW will repeatedly time out in attempting to recover from
   the WAN Down event, preventing recovery of the FC link carried by the
   PW, see [FC-BB-6].

6. Security Considerations

   FC PW does not change the security properties of the underlying MPLS
   network, rather it relies upon the network's mechanisms for
   encryption, integrity, and authentication as required.



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   FC PW shares susceptibility to a number of pseudowire-layer attacks
   and implementations SHOULD use whatever mechanisms for
   confidentiality, integrity, and authentication are developed for PWs
   in general.  These methods are beyond the scope of this document.

   The protocols used to implement security in a Fibre Channel fabric
   are defined in [FC-SP]. These protocols operate at higher layers of
   the FC hierarchy and are transparent to the FC PW.

7. Applicability Statement

   FC PW allows the transparent transport of FC traffic between Fibre
   Channel ports while saving network bandwidth by removing FC Idle
   Signals and reducing the number of FC Primitive Sequences.

   o  The pair of CE devices operates as if they were directly connected
      by an FC link. In particular they react to Primitive Sequences on
      their local FC links as specified by the FC standards.

   o  The FC PW carries only FC data frames, FC Primitive Signals and a
      subset of the copies of an FC Primitive Sequence. Idle Primitive
      Signals are suppressed, and long streams of the same Primitive
      Sequence are reduced over the PW thus saving bandwidth.

   o  The PW PE MUST generate Idle Primitive Signals to the attached FC
      link when there is no other traffic to transmit on the attached FC
      link [FC-FS-2].

   o  The PW PE MUST send Primitive Sequences continuously to the
      attached FC port, as required by the FC standards [FC-FS-2].

   FC PW traffic should only traverse controlled MPLS or MPLS-TP
   networks. The network should enforce policing of incoming traffic and
   network resource/bandwidth allocation so that the FC PW delivery
   quality can be assured. To extend FC across an uncontrolled network,
   FC/IP SHOULD be used instead of an FC PW, see [RFC3821] and
   [FC-BB-6].

   This document does not provide any mechanisms for protecting an FC PW
   against network outages. As a consequence, resilience of the emulated
   FC service to such outages is dependent upon MPLS-TE/MPLS-TP network.
   The NSP SHOULD use a WAN Down event (as specified in [FC-BB-6]) to
   convey the PW status to the CE, to enable faster network outage
   handling.





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8. IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to assign a new MPLS Pseudowire (PW) type as
   follows:

      PW type      Description           Reference
      --------     --------------        ----------
      0x001F       FC Port Mode          RFC XXXX

   The above value is suggested as the next available value and has been
   reserved for this purpose by IANA.

   RFC Editor: Please replace RFC XXXX above with the RFC number of this
   document and remove this note.

   IANA should reserve the following Pseudowire Interface Parameters
   Sub-TLV Types that were tentatively allocated for FC PW and restrict
   them to prevent future allocation. These Sub-TLV types were used for
   the FC PW Selective Retransmission protocol, which the working group
   has decided to eliminate. This action prevents future use of these
   values for other purposes, just in case there are implementations of
   the Selective Retransmission protocol.

       Parameter  ID Length        Reference
      ---------  ---------         ----------
      0x12          4               RFC XXXX
      0x13          4               RFC XXXX
      0x14          4               RFC XXXX
      0x15          4               RFC XXXX

   RFC Editor: Please replace RFC XXXX above with the RFC number of this
   document and remove this note.

















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9. Acknowledgments

   Previous versions of this document were authored by Moran Roth, Ronen
   Solomon and Munefumi Tsurusawa (see Contributors' Addresses, below);
   their efforts and contributions are gratefully acknowledged. The
   authors would like to thank Stewart Bryant, Dave Peterson, Yaakov
   Stein and Alexander Vainshtein for helpful comments on this document.

   The protocol specified in this document is intended to be used in
   conjunction with the Fibre Channel pseudowire portion of the FC-BB-6
   specification developed by INCITS Technical Committee T11. The
   authors would like to thank the members of both IETF and T11
   organizations who have supported and contributed to this work.

   This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.

10. Normative References

      [RFC3643]  Weber, R., et al, "Fibre Channel (FC) Frame
                 Encapsulation", RFC 3643, December 2003.

      [RFC3985]  Bryant, S., et al, "Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge
                 (PWE3) Architecture", RFC 3985, March 2005.

      [RFC4446]  Martini, L., "IANA Allocations for Pseudowire Edge to
                 Edge Emulation (PWE3)", RFC 4446, April 2006.

      [RFC4447]  Martini, L., et al, "Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance
                 using the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)", RFC4447,
                 April 2006.

      [RFC4385]  Bryant, S., et al, "Pseudowire Emulation Edge-to-
                 Edge(PWE3) Control Word for use over an MPLS PSN",
                 RFC4385, February 2006.

      [RFC4623]  Malis, A., Townsley, M., "PWE3 Fragmentation and
                 Reassembly", RFC 4623, August 2006.

      [FC-BB-6]  "Fibre Channel Backbone-6" (FC-BB-6), T11 Project
                 2159-D, Rev 1.02, October 2010.

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

      [FC-FS-2]  "Fibre Channel - Framing and Signaling-2 (FC-FS-2)",
                 ANSI INCITS 424:2007, August 2007.



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      [FC-SP]    "Fibre Channel - Security Protocols" (FC-SP), ANSI
                 INCITS 426:2007, February 2007.


11. Informative references

      [RFC3821]  M. Rajogopal, E. Rodriguez, "Fibre Channel over TCP/IP
                 (FCIP)", RFC 3821, July 2004.

      [T11]      INCITS Technical Committee T11, http://www.t11.org,
                 visited January, 2011.

Authors' Addresses

      David L. Black (ed.)
      EMC Corporation
      176 South Street
      Hopkinton, MA 01748
      Phone: +1 (508) 293-7953
      Email: david.black@emc.com

      Linda Dunbar (ed.)
      Huawei Technologies
      1700 Alma Drive, Suite 500
      Plano, TX 75075, USA
      Phone: +1 (972) 543-5849
      Email: ldunbar@huawei.com



Contributors' Addresses

      Moran Roth
      Infinera Corporation
      169 Java Drive
      Sunnyvale, CA 94089
      Phone: (408) 572-5200
      Email: MRoth@infinera.com

      Ronen Solomon
      Orckit-Corrigent Systems
      126, Yigal Alon st.
      Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
      Phone: +972-3-6945316
      Email: ronens@corrigent.com




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      Munefumi Tsurusawa
      KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc.
      Ohara 2-1-15, Fujimino-shi,
      Saitama, Japan
      Phone: +81-49-278-7828

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