One document matched: draft-lee-pce-ted-alternatives-00.txt


PCE                                                              Y. Lee  
Internet Draft                                                   Huawei  
                                                           G. Bernstein 
                                                      Grotto Networking 
                                                                  D. Li 
                                                                 Huawei 
Intended status: Informational                       September 26, 2008 
Expires: March 2009 
                                    
 
                                      
    Alternative Approaches to Traffic Engineering Database Creation and 
                 Maintenance for Path Computation Elements 


                                      
                   draft-lee-pce-ted-alternatives-00.txt 


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Copyright Notice 

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008). 
 
 
 
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Abstract 

   Path Computation Elements (PCEs) require an accurate and timely 
   Traffic Engineering Database (TED). Traditionally this TED has been 
   obtained from a link state routing protocol supporting traffic 
   engineering extensions. This document discusses possible alternatives 
   and enhancements to such an approach and their potential impacts on 
   network nodes, routing protocols, and PCEs. 

Table of Contents 

    
   1. Introduction...................................................2 
      1.1. TED Creation and Maintenance via IGPs.....................3 
   2. Alternative TED Creation & Maintenance for a PCE...............5 
      2.1. Architecture Options......................................6 
         2.1.1. Nodes Send TE Info to all PCEs......................10 
         2.1.2. Nodes Send TE Info via an Intermediate System.......10 
         2.1.3. Nodes Send TE Info to Only One PCE..................10 
      2.2. Nodes Finding PCEs.......................................11 
      2.3. Node TE Information Update Procedures....................11 
      2.4. PCE TED Maintenance Procedures...........................12 
   3. Standardization and Protocol Considerations...................12 
      3.1. Architecture Specific Standardization Aspects............13 
      3.2. Protocols and Data Formats...............................14 
         3.2.1. Data Formats........................................14 
         3.2.2. Communication Protocols.............................14 
   4. Security Considerations.......................................15 
   5. IANA Considerations...........................................15 
   6. Conclusions...................................................16 
   7. Acknowledgments...............................................16 
   APPENDIX A: LDAP and Directory Services..........................16 
   8. References....................................................18 
      8.1. Normative References.....................................18 
      8.2. Informative References...................................18 
   Author's Addresses...............................................19 
   Intellectual Property Statement..................................20 
   Disclaimer of Validity...........................................20 
    
1. Introduction 

   In Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Generalized MPLS (GMPLS), 
   a traffic engineering database (TED) is used in computing paths for 
   connection oriented packet services and for circuits. The TED 
   contains all relevant information that a Path Computation Element 
   (PCE) needs to perform its computations. It is important that the TED 
   be complete and accurate at the time of the computation.  
 
 
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   In MPLS and GMPLS, interior gateway routing protocols (IGPs) have 
   been used to create and maintain a copy of the TED at each node 
   running the IGP. One of the benefits of the PCE architecture 
   [RFC4655] is the advantages of computationally more sophisticated 
   path computation algorithms and the realization that these may need 
   enhanced processing power not necessarily available at each node 
   participating in an IGP. 

   Section 4.3 [RFC4655] describes the potential load of the TED on a 
   network node and proposes an architecture where the TED is maintained 
   by the PCE rather than the network nodes. What isn't discussed is how 
   a PCE would obtain the information needed to populate its TED. In 
   this document we propose approaches for creating and maintaining the 
   TED on a PCE and look at the impacts from the PCE, IGP, and node 
   perspective.  

   New application areas for GMPLS and PCE include wavelength switched 
   optical networking (WSON). WSON scenarios can be divided into routing 
   wavelength assignment (RWA) problems where no consideration is made 
   of optical impairments, and optical impairment-aware deployments. 
   Even in the non-impairment case WSON requires detailed information 
   about switching node asymmetries and wavelength constraints as well 
   as detailed up to date information on wavelength usage per link 
   [WSON-Frame]. This is significantly more information to be held in 
   the TED than is required for other traffic engineering networks. 

   There is a concern that such additional information could "bog down" 
   the IGP on the nodes from a data processing, a storage, or 
   communications perspective. In a network where PCEs are external to 
   the nodes running the IGP, and where the information in the TED is 
   not used by the switching nodes it makes sense to investigate 
   alternative methods to create and maintain the TED at its place of 
   use, the PCE.  

    

1.1. TED Creation and Maintenance via IGPs 

   Routing protocols, in particular, IGPs such as OSPF and IS-IS, take 
   on a number of roles with respect to the control and data planes for 
   IP, MPLS, and GMPLS.  In all three technology families the underlying 
   control plane communications technology is IP and hence all utilize 
   the IGPs ability to control and run the IP data plane.  

   For the IP layer, the IGP directly establishes data plane 
   connectivity. In the MPLS and GMPLS cases separate signaling 
   protocols are used to directly control the data plane connectivity 
 
 
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   and in these cases the prime purpose of the routing protocol is to 
   furnish network topology and resource status information used by path 
   computation algorithms on the nodes or PCEs. Hence in the IP case the 
   IGP is directly service impacting, while in the MPLS/GMPLS case it is 
   only indirectly service impacting. 

   The IP layer information and the MPLS/GMPLS data plane layer 
   information may be kept by the IGPs in two different information 
   stores. These are referred to as databases but are not necessarily 
   relational databases.  In OSPF the information directly related to IP 
   connectivity (and hence the control communications plane for all 
   three technologies) is kept in the link state database (LSDB), while 
   additional information related to traffic engineering used by MPLS 
   and GMPLS is kept in a (conceptually) separate traffic engineering 
   database (TED) and distributed in a different data structure (Opaque 
   LSA [RFC5250]). When we talk about adding additional technology-
   specific GMPLS information used for path computation we are only 
   talking about adding to the TED and not the IP LSDB. 

   There are three main functions performed by an IGP: (a) hello 
   protocol, (b) database synchronization (with neighbors), (c) database 
   updates.  

   Data Plane        |  Hello Protocol             |  Database Sync 
   Technologies      |                             |  & Updates 
   -------------------------------------------------------------- 
   IP                | Establish Control & Data    | LSDB 
                     | Plane Adjacencies           | 
   -------------------------------------------------------------- 
   MPLS              | Establish Control & Data    | LSDB & TED 
                     | Plane Adjacencies           | 
   -------------------------------------------------------------- 
   GMPLS             | Establish Control Plane     | LSDB & TED 
                     | Adjacencies (only)          | 
   -------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
       Table 1 Main Functions of an IGP for various technologies 

   The procedures for maintaining LSDBs and TEDs in IGPs have been very 
   successful and well proven over time.  These consist of: 

     1. Ageing the individual pieces of information in the TED 
        (including discarding them when the information gets too old) to 
        remove stale information from the TED. 

     2. Originator of the information being required to periodically 
        resend TED information to prevent it from being discarded. 
 
 
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     3. Originator of the information sending updates of information as 
        needed, but subject to limits on how many/often these can be 
        sent to keep the TED up-to-date, but to avoid swamping the 
        network. 

     4. Reliable method for getting this information to other peers 
        (flooding) to ensure that the information is delivered to all 
        participants. 

     5. An efficient database synchronization mechanism for sharing info 
        with a newly established peer. 

2. Alternative TED Creation & Maintenance for a PCE  

   Given that nodes, by their position and role in the network, have 
   accurate traffic engineering information concerning their local link 
   ends and switching properties, it seems natural that, if other nodes 
   in the network cannot make use of this information or do not want it, 
   the information only be conveyed to interested PCEs. In addition, one 
   could potentially choose to have some traffic engineering information 
   distributed via an IGP while other more specialized traffic 
   information is only conveyed to the PCEs. 

   The benefits of such an approach include: 

   o  Node: reduced storage demands (doesn't keep the entire TED) 

   o  Node: reduced processing demands for TED updates and 
      synchronization 

   o  Control Plane: reduced overall communication demands since the TED 
      is not being updated and maintained on all nodes in the network. 

   o  PCE: More timely TED updates are possible. 

   To quantify the previous advantages requires a bit more detail on how 
   such an approach could actually be accomplished. The key pieces 
   needed to implement such an approach include:  

   o  Multiple PCEs must be supported for robustness and load sharing. 

   o  Nodes must be able to find a PCE to which to send their traffic 
      engineering information.  




 
 
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   o  Nodes must have procedures and a mechanism (protocols) with which 
      to communicate their TE information to a PCE. PCEs must have 
      procedures and a mechanism (protocols) with which to receive this 
      TE information from nodes. 

   o  Efficient mechanisms must exist in the multi-PCE case to ensure 
      all PCEs have the same TED. 

2.1. Architecture Options 

   There are three general architectural alternatives based on how nodes 
   get their local TED information to the PCEs: (1) Nodes send local 
   information to all PCEs; (2) Nodes send local information to an 
   intermediate server that will send to all PCEs; (3) Nodes send local 
   information to only one PCE and have the PCEs share this information 
   with each other. An important functionality that needs to be 
   addressed in each of these approaches is how a new PCE gets 
   initialized in a reasonably timely fashion.  

   Figures 1-3 show examples of three options for nodes to share local 
   TED information with multiple PCEs. As in the IGP case we assume that 
   switching nodes know their local properties and state including the 
   state of all their local links. In these figures the data plane links 
   are shown with the character "o"; TE information flow from nodes to 
   PCE by the characters "|", "-", "/", or "\"; and PCE to PCE TE 
   information, if any, by the character "i". 

    



















 
 
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                ----                        ---- 
              //    \\                    //    \\ 
             /        \                  /        \ 
            |   PCE    \                |   PCE    | 
            |          |\               /          | 
             |        X  \             / \        / 
             |\\    // \  \           /  /|\    /X 
             |  --+-\  \   \          /// | -+--  \ 
             |    |  \\ \   \\       //   |  |    \ 
             |    |    \\     \     //   |   |     \ 
            |     |      \\    \   /     |   |     \ 
            |     |      \ \\   \//      |   |      \ 
            |     |       \  \\ /\/      |   |      \ 
            |     |       \   /X\/\     |    |       \ 
            |     |        \ /  /\ \    |   |         \ 
            |     |        X/  /  \\\   |   |         \ 
            |     |       / \ /     \\  |   |          \ 
            |     |     //  \ /       \\|   |          \ 
            |     |    /     X         \\\  |           \ 
            |     |  //     /\         |\\\\|           \ 
           | +----+-/-+    /  \        |+-\-|----+       \ 
           | |        |   /   \        ||        |        \ 
           | |   N1   ooooooooooooooooooo  N2    oo       \ 
           | |        ooooooooooooooooooo        ooo       \ 
           | |        | /       \     | |        |ooo      \ 
           | +---oo---+/         \    | +------\-+  ooo     \ 
           |    ooo   /          \   |          \    ooo    \ 
           |   ooo    /           \  |           \    ooo    \ 
           |   oo    /     *      \  |            \    ooo    \ 
           |   oo   /              \ |             \    ooo   \ 
          |   ooo  /               \ |              \\    ooo  \ 
          |   oo  /               * \                 \    ooo \ 
          |  ooo  /                 \                  \    ooo \ 
          |  oo  /                  |\                  \    ooo\ 
         ++--oo-/-+                 |\    *              \+---oo-\-+ 
         |        |                |  \                   \        | 
         |        oooo             |  \                oooo   Nn   | 
         |  N3    ooooooooo      +-+---\--+       ooooooooo        | 
         |        |   ooooooooo  |        |  oooooooooo   |        | 
         +--------+       oooooooo  N4    oooooooo        +--------+ 
                              oooo        oooo 
                                 |        | 
                                 +--------+ 
      Figure 1 . Nodes send local TE information directly to all PCEs 

 
 
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        ----                        ----                      ---- 
      //    \\                    //    \\                  //    \\ 
     /        \                  /        \                /        \ 
    |   PCE    |                |   PCE    |              |   PCE   | 
    |          |                |          |              |         | 
     \        --                 \        /                \        / 
      \\    //  --                \\    //                --\\    // 
        ----      ---               /---              ----    ---- 
                     --            /              ---- 
                       ---        /            --- 
                          --   --/-        ---- 
                            --/    \\  ---- 
                            /        -- 
                           |   Pub/   | 
                          -+   Sub    | 
                       ---  X       --- 
                     --    / \\    //  ---- 
                 +---      /   -+--\       ----+ 
           +-----+--+     /     |   \       +--+-----+ 
           |        |    /      |    \\     |        | 
           |   N1   ooooooooooooooooooooooooo  N2    oooo 
           |        ooooooooooooooooooooooooo        oooo 
           |        |   /        |       \\ |        |  oo 
           +---oo---+  /         |         \+--------+   oo 
               oo     /           |         \            oo 
               oo     /           |          \           oo 
               oo    /            |           \\          oo 
               oo   /             |             \          oo 
              oo    /      *       |             \         oo 
             oo    /               |              \        oo 
             oo    /               |               \\      oo 
             oo   /               *|                 \      oo 
             oo  /                  |                 \     oo 
             oo  /                  |                  \\    oo 
         +---oo-/-+                 |     *              \+---oo---+ 
         |        |                 |                     \        | 
         |        oooo               |                 oooo   Nn   | 
         |  N3    oooooooo       +---+----+       ooooooooo        | 
         |        |    oooooo    |        |  ooooooooooo  |        | 
         +--------+       oooooooo  N4    ooooooooo       +--------+ 
                             ooooo        oooo 
                                 |        | 
                                 +--------+ 
    
         Figure 2 . Nodes send local TE information to PCEs via an 
                  intermediary (publish/subscribe)server 

 
 
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                         iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
        iiiiii   ----  iii                 iiiii        ---- 
       ii    ii//    \\i                       iiiiiiii/    \\ 
      ii      /        \                             /        \ 
      i      |   PCE1   |                           |   PCE2   | 
     i       |          |                           |          |ii 
     i        \        /                             X        /  ii 
    i          \\    //                            // \\    //    ii 
    i            -//-                             /     --+-       i 
    i           //                              //        |        i 
   i     +-----/--+                       +----/---+       |        i 
   i     |        |                       |        |       |        i 
   i     |   N1   ooooooooooooooooooooooooo  N2    oooo    |        i 
   i     |        ooooooooooooooooooooooooo        oooo    |        i 
   i     |        |                       |        |  oo    |       i 
   i     +---oo---+                       +--------+   oo   |        i 
   i         oo                                        oo   |        i 
   i         oo                                          oo  |        i 
   i        oo           *                               oo  |        i 
   i       oo                                            oo   |       i 
   i       oo                                            oo   |       i 
   i       oo                   *                         oo  |       i 
   i       oo                                              oo  |      i 
   i   +---oo---+                       *               +---oo-+-+    i 
   i   |        |                                       |        |    i 
   i   |        oooo                                 oooo   Nn   |    i 
   i   |  N3    oooooooo       +--------+       ooooooooo        |    i 
   ii  |        |    oooooo    |        |  ooooooooooo  |        |   ii 
    i  +---\----+       oooooooo  N4    ooooooooo       +--------+   i 
    i       \              ooooo        oooo                         i 
    ii       \                 |        |                            i 
     i        \\               +--------+                           ii 
     ii         \              ---                                  i 
      ii         \   ----   ---                                     i 
       ii         \//    \--                                       i 
        ii        /        \                                      ii 
          ii     |   PCE3   |                                  iiii 
            iiiii|          |                              iiiii 
                  \        /                             iii 
                   \\    // iiiiiiiii                 iii 
                     ----           iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
    
    Figure 3 . Nodes send local TE information to only one PCE and have 
                      the PCEs share TED information 

 
 
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2.1.1. Nodes Send TE Info to all PCEs 

   Architectural alternative 1 shown in Figure 1, illustrates nodes 
   sending their local TE information to all PCEs within there domain. 
   As the number of PCEs grow we have scaling concerns. In particular 
   each node needs to keep track of which PCE it has sent information to 
   and update that information periodically. 

   If a new PCE is added to the domain the node must send all its local 
   TED information to that PCE rather than just sending status updates.  

2.1.2. Nodes Send TE Info via an Intermediate System 

   Architecture alternative 2 is shown in Figure 2. This architecture 
   reduces the burden on switching nodes by having the nodes send TE 
   information to an intermediate system. This general approach is 
   typically described in the software literature as a publish/subscribe 
   paradigm. Here the nodes send their local TED information to an 
   intermediate entity whose job is to insure that all PCEs receive this 
   information. The nodes in this case being the publishers of the 
   information and the PCEs the subscribers of the information. 
   Publish/subscribe functionality can be found in general messaging 
   oriented middleware such as the Java Messaging Service [JMS] and many 
   others.  A routing specific example of this approach is seen in BGP 
   route reflectors [RFC4456].  

   Note that the publish/subscribe entity can be collocated with a PCE. 
   This would then looks like a master/slave type system architecture.  

   If a new PCE is added then the intermediate server will need to work 
   with this new PCE to initialize its TED. Hence the publish/subscribe 
   entity will need to also keep a copy of the entire TED and for 
   reliability purposes a redundant server would be required. 

2.1.3. Nodes Send TE Info to Only One PCE 

   In this architectural alternative, shown in Figure 3, each node would 
   be associated with only one PCE. This implies that each PCE will only 
   have partial TED information directly from the nodes.  It would be 
   the responsibility of a node to get its local TED information to its 
   associated PCE, then the PCEs within a domain would then need to 
   share the partial TED information they learned from their associated 
   nodes with each other so that they can create and maintain the 
   complete TED. As we have seen in section 1.1. this is very similar to 
   part of the functionality provided by a link state protocol, but in 
   this case the protocol would be used between PCEs so that they can 
 
 
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   share the information they have obtained from their associated 
   switching nodes (rather than from attached links as in a regular link 
   state protocol).  To allow for this sharing of information PCEs would 
   need to peer with each other. PCE discovery extensions [RFC4674] 
   could be used to allow PCEs to find other PCEs. If a new PCE is added 
   to the domain it would need to peer with at least one other PCE and 
   then link state protocol procedures for TED synchronization could 
   then be used to initialize the new PCEs TED. 

2.2. Nodes Finding PCEs 

   In cases 1 and 3 nodes need to send TE information directly to PCEs. 
   Path Computation Clients (PCCs) and network nodes participating in an 
   IGP (with or without TE extensions) have a mechanism to discover a 
   PCE and its capabilities.  [RFC4674] outlines the general 
   requirements for this mechanism and extensions have been defined to 
   provide information so that PCCs can obtain key details about 
   available PCEs in OSPF [RFC5088] and in IS-IS [RFC5089]. 

   After finding candidate PCEs, a node would need to see which if any 
   of the PCEs actually want to receive TE information directly from 
   this node.  

   In architectural alternative 2 (publish/subscribe) the location of 
   intermediate system would either need to be configured or PCE 
   discovery could be extended so that a when a node asks a PCE if it  
   wants to hear TE info the PCE points it to the intermediate 
   publish/subscribe system. 

2.3. Node TE Information Update Procedures 

   First a node must establish an association between itself and a PCE 
   or intermediate system that will be maintaining a TED. It is the 
   responsibility of the node to share PCE TE information concerning its 
   local environment, e.g., links and node properties. General and 
   technology specific information models would specify the content of 
   this information while the specific protocols would determine the 
   format. Note that a node would not be sending to the PCE information 
   it might be passed from neighbor nodes. Note that data plane neighbor 
   information would be passed to the PCE embedded in TE link 
   information. 

   There will be cases where the node would have to send the PCE only a 
   subset of TE link information depending on the path computation 
   option. For instance, if the node is responsible for routing while 
   the PCE is responsible for wavelength assignment for the route, the 
   node would only need to send the PCE the WSON link usage information. 
 
 
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   This path computation option is referred to as separate routing (R) 
   and wavelength assignment (WA) option in [PCE-WSON].  

2.4. PCE TED Maintenance Procedures 

   The PCE is responsible for creating and maintaining the TED that it 
   will use. One key function is to ensure that the network information 
   obtained from nodes or elsewhere is relatively timely, or not stale. 
   By analogy with similar functionality provided by IGPs this can be 
   done via a process where discrete "chunks" of TED information are 
   "aged" and discard when expired. This combined with nodes 
   periodically resending their local TE information leads to a timely 
   TED.  

3. Standardization and Protocol Considerations 

   In the previous section we examined a number of architectural 
   alternatives for TED creation and maintenance on a PCE. Here we 
   examine aspects of these alternatives that could be suitable for 
   standardization. First there are a number of items and functions that 
   can be independent of the particular architectural alternatives used, 
   these include: 

   o  An information model for the TED 

   o  Basic PCE TED creation and maintenance procedures 

   o  Information packaging for use in TED creation, maintenance and 
      exchange 

   o  NE to PCE (or Pub/Sub) communication of TED information --- 
      interface and protocol (e.g. PCEP) 

   o  NEs discovering PCE (or Pub/Sub) for TED creation and maintenance 
      purposes  

   By the "information model" for the TED we mean the raw information 
   that a path computation algorithm would work with somewhat 
   independent of how it might be packaged for TED maintenance and 
   creation. Initial efforts along these lines have started at CCAMP for 
   wavelength switched optical networks [WSON-Info]. 

   Given a TED information model if we can agree on basic PCE TED 
   creation and maintenance procedures we can then come up with a 
   standardized way to package the information for use in such 
   procedures. The analogy here is with an IGPs database maintenance 
   procedures such as aging and the packaging of link state information 
 
 
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   information into LSA (link state advertisements). LSAs form the basic 
   chunks of an IGP's database. OSPF LSAs include an age field to assist 
   in the ageing procedure and also has an advertising router field that 
   aids in redistribution decisions, i.e., flooding. However the 
   detailed TE information is encoded in LSAs via type length value 
   (TLV) structures and it is this information that is used in path 
   computation. 

   From there we could standardize the interface between a NE and a PCE 
   for communication of TE information. This interface includes NE and 
   PCE behaviors as well as a communications protocol. 

   Finally for the common behaviors we need a way for the NEs to find 
   the PCEs or an intermediate publish/subscribe system to which they 
   will send their TE information. As was previously pointed out this 
   could be based on small enhancements to existing PCE discovery 
   mechanisms. 

3.1. Architecture Specific Standardization Aspects 

   Case 1: NEs send to all PCEs 

   This case has commonalities with both cases 2 and 3 and does not 
   appear to have unique standardization aspects. As pointed out in 
   section 2.1. we do need to consider when a new PCE comes online. 

   Case 2: Publish/Subscribe Server 

      In this case we would need to additionally standardize  

     1. how a new PCE coming online synchronizes with the 
        publish/subscribe server  

     2. how PCEs and publish subscribe server communicate 

   Case 3: PCE to PCE sharing TE information learned from NEs 

   Here we would need the following additional mechanisms standardized: 

     1. The PCE to PCE interface and protocol  

     2. The method for PCEs to discover PCEs for the purpose of TE 
        information sharing 

     3. PCE to PCE association for information sharing, in particular 
        sharing update information.  

 
 
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3.2. Protocols and Data Formats 

   In selecting protocols and data formats to implement any of these 
   alternative architectures the main deciding factor will most likely 
   be architectural fit. However another deciding factor may be which 
   protocols and data formats a NE or PCE would tend to already 
   implement or understand in order to reduce implementation complexity.  

3.2.1. Data Formats 

   Since NEs use IGPs at a minimum to establish the control plane 
   communications, they must understand some type of link state 
   advertisement packaging of topology information (in IS-IS these are 
   called link state protocol data units). Similarly since most PCEs 
   currently get their TEDs via IGPs they too would understand LSA based 
   information packaging. 

   Both IS-IS [RFC3784] and OSPF [RFC3630] utilize TLVs and sub-TLVs to 
   encode traffic engineering information. Hence there is strong 
   motivation to use a TLV format for encoding TE information and some 
   type of "LSA like" packaging of the TE information from the NEs. 

3.2.2. Communication Protocols 

   For the communication of TE information between NEs and PCEs either 
   datagram protocols such as UDP or DCCP [RFC4340] could be used as 
   well as stream protocols such as TCP. The advantages and 
   disadvantages of such approaches have been extensively discussed in 
   the literature. 

   Nodes, however, may already be acting as PCCs and hence may already 
   know how to speak PCEP [PCEP]. From a scaling point of view a TCP 
   based protocol such as PCEP could limit the number of nodes that 
   could communicate TE information to a PCE, however the number of 
   simultaneous TCP connections can be quite high and networks are 
   typically partitioned into smaller groupings before such limits are 
   reached. The multiple PCE options considered in Section 2 will help 
   PCEP to scale.  

   The PCE Architecture [RFC4655] allows the Notify Message to flow in 
   both directions and therefore it could be used for the PCC (node) to 
   send the TED information to the PCE. Since now multiple PCEs are 
   involved, the burden for one PCE to keep a session open with NEs is 
   lessened compared to single PCE solution. If the keeping TCP sessions 

 
 
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   still burden the NE and the PCE, a more sophisticated option could be 
   to allow "sessionless" PCEP Notify message sent over UDP or DCCP.  

   The most critical TED information the PCE should be updated with is 
   the information concerning changes in availability due to LSP 
   setup/teardown. It is possible for the head-end node (which is likely 
   a PCC) to provide the RRO in PCEP Notify Message to update the PCE 
   with the dynamic changes occurred in the network. Note that the RRO 
   can provide with all of the information about the network resources 
   used along the path of the LSP.  

   That would make the information flow as follows: 

    

           PCC                      PCE 
           ---                      --- 
    
           PC Request -------------. 
           (Please compute a path) 
    
           .---------------_  PC Reply 
           (Here is a path) 
    
           PC Notify --------------> 
           (This is the path I set up) 
4.  

    

5. Security Considerations 

   This draft discusses an alternative technique for PCEs to build and 
   maintain a traffic engineering database. In this approach network 
   nodes would directly send traffic engineering information to a PCE. 
   It may be desirable to protect such information from disclosure to 
   unauthorized parties in addition it may be desirable to protect such 
   communications from interference since they can be critical to the 
   operation of the network. In particular, this information is the same 
   or similar to that which would be disseminated via a link state 
   routing protocol with traffic engineering extensions. 

6. IANA Considerations 

   This version of this document does not introduce any items for IANA 
   to consider. 

 
 
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7. Conclusions 

   This document introduced several alternative architectures for PCEs 
   to create and maintain a traffic engineering database (TED) via 
   information directly or indirectly received from network elements and 
   identified common aspects of these approaches. The TED is a critical 
   piece of the overall PCE architecture since without it path 
   computations cannot proceed. Though not explicitly out of scope the 
   PCE working group does not have a work item or study item devoted to 
   TED creation and maintenance. Such a work item can lead to enhanced 
   interoperability and simplicity of PCE implementations. This document 
   identified several common areas within these alternatives that could 
   be standardized. In addition, the alternative approaches to TED 
   creation and maintenance discussed here offloads both the network 
   nodes and routing protocols from either some or all TED creation and 
   maintenance duties at the same time it does not add significant new 
   processing to a PCE that has already been participating in IGP based 
   TED creation and maintenance.  

8. Acknowledgments 

   We would like to thank Adrian Farrel for his useful comments and 
   suggestions. 
























 
 
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APPENDIX A: LDAP and Directory Services 

   Directory services and their accompanying protocols such as LDAP 
   [RFC4510] are fairly close to the architectural alternative of 
   section 2.1.2.  In this case both the NEs and the PCEs would be 
   clients of a separate directory services system. The NEs would use 
   the LDAP protocol [RFC4511] to publish current NE TE information to 
   the directory server, the PCEs would then query the directory server 
   for information about NEs and changes to a NE's TE information.  

   Note that a directory server is not a publish/subscribe system in 
   that it does not keep track of which subsystems want to be notified 
   of changes. Due to this the PCEs would need to poll the directory 
   server periodically with appropriate queries. 

    































 
 
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9. References 

9.1. Normative References 

   [RFC3630] Katz, D., Kompella, K., and D. Yeung, "Traffic Engineering 
             (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2", RFC 3630, September 
             2003. 

   [RFC3784] Smit, H. and T. Li, "Intermediate System to Intermediate 
             System (IS-IS) Extensions for Traffic Engineering (TE)", 
             RFC 3784, June 2004. 

   [RFC4340] Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram Congestion 
             Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340, March 2006. 

   [RFC4510] Zeilenga, K., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol 
             (LDAP): Technical Specification Road Map", RFC 4510, June 
             2006. 

   [RFC4511] Sermersheim, J., Ed., "Lightweight Directory Access 
             Protocol (LDAP): The Protocol", RFC 4511, June 2006. 

   [RFC4655] Farrel, A., Vasseur, J.-P., and J. Ash, "A Path Computation 
             Element (PCE)-Based Architecture", RFC 4655, August 2006. 

   [RFC4674] Le Roux, J., Ed., "Requirements for Path Computation 
             Element (PCE) Discovery", RFC 4674, October 2006. 

   [RFC5088] Le Roux, JL., Ed., Vasseur, JP., Ed., Ikejiri, Y., and R. 
             Zhang, "OSPF Protocol Extensions for Path Computation 
             Element (PCE) Discovery", RFC 5088, January 2008. 

   [RFC5089] Le Roux, JL., Ed., Vasseur, JP., Ed., Ikejiri, Y., and R. 
             Zhang, "IS-IS Protocol Extensions for Path Computation 
             Element (PCE) Discovery", RFC 5089, January 2008. 

   [RFC5250] Berger, L., Bryskin, I., Zinin, A., and R. Coltun, "The 
             OSPF Opaque LSA Option", RFC 5250, July 2008. 

   [PCEP]   JP. Vasseur, Ed., JL. Le Roux, Ed., "Path Computation 
             Element (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", draft-ietf-
             pce-pcep-15.txt, August 2008. 

9.2. Informative References 

   [JMS]    Java Message Service, Version 1.1, April 2002, Sun 
             Microsystems. 
 
 
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   [PCE-WSON] Y. Lee, G. Bernstein, "PCEP Requirements and Extensions  
             for the support of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks 
             (WSON)", work in progress, draft-lee-pce-wson-routing-
             wavelength-02.txt, July 2008.  

   [RFC4456] Bates, T., Chen, E., and R. Chandra, "BGP Route Reflection: 
             An Alternative to Full Mesh Internal BGP (IBGP)", RFC 4456, 
             April 2006. 

   [WSON-Frame] G. Bernstein, Y. Lee, W. Imajuku, "Framework for GMPLS 
             and PCE Control of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks", 
             work in progress: draft-ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-
             framework-00.txt, July 2008.  

   [WSON-Info] G. Bernstein, Y. Lee, D. Li, W. Imajuku, "Routing and 
             Wavelength Assignment Information Model for Wavelength 
             Switched Optical Networks", work in progress: draft-ietf-
             ccamp-rwa-info-00.txt, August 2008. 

    

    

Author's Addresses 

   Greg Bernstein 
   Grotto Networking  
   Fremont, CA, USA  
           
   Phone: (510) 573-2237  
   Email: gregb@grotto-networking.com  
    
   Young Lee  
   Huawei Technologies  
   1700 Alma Drive, Suite 100  
   Plano, TX 75075, USA  
        
   Phone: (972) 509-5599 (x2240)  
   Email: ylee@huawei.com  
     







 
 
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   Dan Li  
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.  
   F3-5-B R&D Center, Huawei Base,  
   Bantian, Longgang District  
   Shenzhen 518129 P.R.China  
    
   Phone: +86-755-28973237 
   Email: danli@huawei.com 
 

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   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions 
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