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PCE                                                        Y. Lee (Ed.)  
Internet Draft                                                   Huawei 
  
                                                     G. Bernstein (Ed.) 
                                                      Grotto Networking 
                                                                        
 
Intended status: Informational                              May 5, 2009 
Expires: November 2009 
                                    
 
                                      
    Alternative Approaches to Traffic Engineering Database Creation and 
                 Maintenance for Path Computation Elements 


                                      
                   draft-lee-pce-ted-alternatives-02.txt 


Status of this Memo 

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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 in effect on the date of 
   publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). 
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights 
   and restrictions with respect to this document. 

Abstract 

   In order to compute and provide optimal paths, 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 the 
   existing approach to TED creation. This document gives architectural 
   alternatives for these enhancements and their potential impacts on 
   network nodes, routing protocols, and PCEs. 

Table of Contents 

    
   1. Introduction...................................................2 
      1.1. TED Creation and Maintenance via IGP-TEs..................4 
   2. Alternative TED Creation & Maintenance for a PCE...............5 
      2.1. Architecture Options......................................7 
         2.1.1. Nodes Send TE Info to all PCEs......................11 
         2.1.2. Nodes Send TE Info via an Intermediate System.......11 
         2.1.3. Nodes Send TE Info to At Least One PCE..............11 
      2.2. Nodes Finding PCEs.......................................12 
      2.3. Node TE Information Update Procedures....................13 
      2.4. PCE TED Maintenance Procedures...........................13 
   3. Standardization and Protocol Considerations...................13 
      3.1. Architecture Specific Standardization Aspects............15 
   4. Security Considerations.......................................15 
   5. IANA Considerations...........................................15 
   6. Conclusions...................................................16 
   7. Acknowledgments...............................................16 
   8. References....................................................16 
      8.1. Normative References.....................................16 
      8.2. Informative References...................................17 
   Author's Addresses...............................................18 
   Intellectual Property Statement..................................19 
   Disclaimer of Validity...........................................19 
    
1. Introduction 

   In Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Generalized MPLS (GMPLS), 
   a Traffic Engineering Database (TED) is used in computing paths for 
 
 
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   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 each time the PCE performs a path 
   computation.  

   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 use 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]. When combined with optical impairment data [WSON-IMP-
   Info] even with the minimum set specified in [G.680], the total 
   amount of data to enable impairment aware RWA in WSON requires 
   significantly more information to be held in the TED than is required 
   for other traffic engineered networks. In addition, optical 
   impairment information may have sharing constraints [Imp-Frame] which 
   prevents some of this information from being distributed via an IGP-
   TE but is still needed for the TED. 

   In some circumstances such additional information could "bog down" 
   the IGP on the nodes from a data processing, a storage, or 
   communications perspective. In environments 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.  


 
 
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   This draft does not advocate that the alternative methods specified 
   in this draft should completely replace the IGP-TE as the method of 
   creating the TED. The split between the data to be distributed via an 
   IGP and the information conveyed via one of the alternatives in this 
   document depends on the nature of the network situation. 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 via an alternative discussed 
   here. In addition, the methods specified in this draft is only 
   relevant to a set of architecture options where routing decisions are 
   wholly or partially made in the PCE.  

1.1. TED Creation and Maintenance via IGP-TEs 

   Routing protocols, in particular, IGP-TEs such as Open Shortest Path 
   First (OSPF) and Intermediate system to intermediate system (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 
   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) and non-IP advertisements are kept in the link 
   state database (LSDB), while information related to traffic 
   engineering used by MPLS and GMPLS is kept in a (conceptually) 
   separate TED which can be considered a subset of the LSDB. This TED 
   information is 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 portion of the LSDB. 

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

     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 should only be conveyed to interested PCEs. In such 
   case the flooding of TE information to all nodes may not be very 
   efficient in terms of memory, CPU, bandwidth, etc.  

 
 
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   In addition, one could potentially choose to have some traffic 
   engineering information distributed via an IGP-TE while other more 
   specialized traffic information is only conveyed to the PCEs. For 
   example, it makes sense to distribute "static" (rarely modified) and 
   sizable data (e.g., NE switching asymmetry structure) via methods 
   other than IGP-TE while more frequently changed data via IGP-TE. This 
   could significantly decrease the IGP-TE information and its footprint 
   on all nodes.  

   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. 

   o  Information distribution constraints, such as seen in [Imp-Frame] 
      can be met. 

   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.  

   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. 

   The advantages of using an alternative to IGP-TE comes at the cost 
   of: 

   o  Additional protocols to be configured and secured. Recall that we 
      still must have an IP IGP for control plane communications. 

 
 
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   o  Any new protocols/implementations for alternative TED creation 
      still must support many IGP-TE like features such as removal of 
      stale information, reliable delivery of updates to all 
      participants, recovery after reboots/crashes/upgrades, etc.  

   o  Node mechanisms to discover PCEs that are capable and willing to 
      accept direct TED updates.  

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 at least 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  \             / \        / 
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             |  --+-\  \   \          /// | -+--  \ 
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            |     |     //  \ /       \\|   |          \ 
            |     |    /     X         \\\  |           \ 
            |     |  //     /\         |\\\\|           \ 
           | +----+-/-+    /  \        |+-\-|----+       \ 
           | |        |   /   \        ||        |        \ 
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           | +---oo---+/         \    | +------\-+  ooo     \ 
           |    ooo   /          \   |          \    ooo    \ 
           |   ooo    /           \  |           \    ooo    \ 
           |   oo    /     *      \  |            \    ooo    \ 
           |   oo   /              \ |             \    ooo   \ 
          |   ooo  /               \ |              \\    ooo  \ 
          |   oo  /               * \                 \    ooo \ 
          |  ooo  /                 \                  \    ooo \ 
          |  oo  /                  |\                  \    ooo\ 
         ++--oo-/-+                 |\    *              \+---oo-\-+ 
         |        |                |  \                   \        | 
         |        oooo             |  \                oooo   Nn   | 
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         |        |   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   | 
    |          |                |          |              |         | 
     \        --                 \        /                \        / 
      \\    //  --                \\    //                --\\    // 
        ----      ---               /---              ----    ---- 
                     --            /              ---- 
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                          --   --/-        ---- 
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                       ---  X       --- 
                     --    / \\    //  ---- 
                 +---      /   -+--\       ----+ 
           +-----+--+     /     |   \       +--+-----+ 
           |        |    /      |    \\     |        | 
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           |        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 
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   i       oo                   *                         oo  |       i 
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   i   +---oo---+                       *               +---oo-+-+    i 
   i   |        |                                       |        |    i 
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   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 at least 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. However,if we 
   are only talking about 2-3 PCEs, then we do not have this scaling 
   concern. 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. The 
   publish/subscribe entity itself can be a PCE. 

   Architecture alternative 2 could be useful when there are a number of 
   PCEs in the network and as such there is the scaling issue with each 
   of the NEs talking to the PCEs. The advantage of this alternative 
   would diminish when we are dealing only with a few PCEs.  

2.1.3. Nodes Send TE Info to At Least One PCE 

   In this architectural alternative, shown in Figure 3, each node would 
   be associated with at least one PCE. This implies that each PCE will 
   only have partial TED information directly from the nodes.  It would 
 
 
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   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 
   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. 

   A number of approaches can be used to ensure control plane resilience 
   in this architecture. (1) Each node can be configured with a primary 
   and a secondary PCE to send its information to; In case of failure of 
   communications with the primary PCE the node would send its 
   information to a secondary PCE (warm standby). (2) Each node could be 
   configured to send its information to two different PCEs (hot 
   standby). 

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. 




 
 
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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. 
   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. Key functions include:  

     1. Establishing and authenticating communications between the PCE 
        and sources of TED information.  

     2. Timely updates of the TED with information received from nodes, 
        peers or other entities.  

     3. Verifying the validity of information in the TED,i.e., 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 

 
 
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   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 for non-impairment RWA [WSON-
   Info] and impairment aware RWA [WSON-IMP-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 
   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. 


 
 
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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  

     1. 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.  

4. 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 (modification) 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. 

5. IANA Considerations 

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

 
 
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6. 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.  

7. Acknowledgments 

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

8. References 

8.1. Normative References 

   [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. 



 
 
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8.2. Informative References 

   [JMS]    Java Message Service, Version 1.1, April 2002, Sun 
             Microsystems. 

   [PCE-WSON] Y. Lee, G. Bernstein, "PCEP Requirements for the support 
             of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks (WSON)", work in 
             progress, draft-lee-pce-wson-routing-wavelength-05.txt, 
             February 2009. 

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

   [Imp-Frame] G. Bernstein, Y. Lee, D. Li, A Framework for the Control 
             and Measurement of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks 
             (WSON) with Impairments, Work in Progress, October 2008. 

   [WSON-Frame] Y. Lee, G. Bernstein, W. Imajuku, "Framework for GMPLS 
             and PCE Control of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks", 
             work in progress: draft-ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-
             framework-01.txt, February 2009.  

   [WSON-IMP-Info] Y. Lee, G. Bernstein, "Information Model for Impaired 
             Optical Path Validation", work in progress: draft-
             bernstein-wson-impairment-info-02.txt, March 2009.  

 
 
    

    















 
 
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Author's Addresses 

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

   Igor Bryskin 
   ADVA Optical 
   ibryskin@advaoptical.com 
 
    
   Daniel King 
   Old Dog Consulting 
   United Kingdom 
   Email: daniel@olddog.co.uk 
    
   Fabien Verhaeghe 
   Marben Products 
   176 avenue Jean Jaures 
   92800 Puteaux, 
   France 
   Email: fabien.verhaeghe@marben-products.com 
    
    
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