One document matched: draft-polk-ieprep-flow-model-considerations-00.txt


Internet Engineering Task Force                             James M. Polk
Internet Draft                                              Cisco Systems
Expiration: July 16th, 2003
File: draft-polk-ieprep-flow-model-considerations-00.txt








                      Considerations for IEPREP Related 
                         Protocol Packet Flow Models

                             January 16th, 2003 





Status of this Document 

This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all 
provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. 

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Abstract 

This document diagrams the packet flows - both signaling and data - of 
Internet Emergency Preparedness (IEPREP) related protocols. This document 
serves as a point of reference for the WG when discussing if (and 
which) QoS mechanisms should be employed for each individual (application) 
protocol packet flow to function properly during congestion events from IP 
source to IP destination. 





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Internet Draft                                              Jan 16th, 2003




Table of Contents
     
Abstract  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
1.0  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
 1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
 1.2 Terms and Definitions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
2.0  Why Do Packet Paths Matter?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
3.0  Control and Data Plane Diagrams  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
 3.1 In-Band Point-to-Point Communications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
 3.2 In-Band Signaling Via a Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
 3.3 Out-of-Band Signaling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
4.0  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
5.0  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
6.0  Acknowledgements   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
7.0  References   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
8.0  Authors Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8




1.0	Introduction

This document diagrams the packet flows - both signaling and data - of 
Internet Emergency Preparedness (IEPREP) related protocols. This document 
should be seen as a point of reference for the WG when discussing if (and 
which) QoS mechanisms should be employed for each individual (application) 
protocol packet flow to function properly during congestion events from IP 
source to IP destination. 

The models shown within the document will focus (and list) those protocols 
of interest to the Internet Emergency Preparedness (IEPREP) Working Group. 
Of particular interest here is the classification of protocols that have 
their signaling packets travel along the same path as the data packets, 
and which protocols do not share the data path with their signaling 
packets. 

This document will focus on the concept that in most IETF protocols there 
are one or two control planes and one data plane. 


1.1 Motivation

This document clarifies paths taken by signaling and data packets for 
typical IETF protocols.  These concepts will help facilitate IEPREP 
discussions on ensuring applications perform adequately during congestive 
events. 



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1.2 Terms and Definitions

The following are pointed out for clarity:

      Control Plane - See "In-Band Signaling" and "Out-of-Band Signaling" 

      Data Plane - the data packet (media, text, MIME body) path between 
             an IP source and one or more endpoints 

      Intermediary Server - Any server that is the destination of control 
            information from the IP source. These packets can either be 
            for the server itself, or for further forwarding toward the 
            intended destination possibly manipulating the packet(s) in 
            transit

      In-Band Signaling - the control plane packets traversing the same 
            path as the data plane between endpoints (same source IP 
            address and port number, as well as the same destination IP 
            address and port number)

      Out-of-Band Signaling - the control plane taking a different path 
            than the data path or the In-Band control plane (either the 
            source and destination IP addresses are different between the 
            control packets and data packets, or the port numbers used 
            between the same source and destination IP addresses is 
            different)


2.0 Why Do Packet Paths Matter?

Most IETF communications use the following simple model:                 
                                                                         
                                                                         
          Sender ========> Router(s) ========> Receiver                  
                                                                         
         Figure 1. Direct IP Communications                              
                                                                         
                                                                         
But many IP communications use this model (or a variant of it):          
                                                                         
                                                                         
                      Intermediate Server                                
                   /                       \                             
      Out-of-Band /                         \ Out-of-Band                
 Control plane A /                           \  Control plane B          
                /          Data plane         \                          
                 ============================>                           
          Sender                               Receiver                  
                 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>                           
                      In-Band Control plane                              
                                                                         
         Figure 2. IP Communications using Intermediate Server           

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The data plane can be within the signaling protocol (in the case of 
Instant Messaging), or it can be a completely different protocol (i.e. RTP 
for Voice or Video [1] or SMTP [2]). In some cases, there is no In-Band 
control plane. In other cases, there is no out-of-band control plane. Some 
protocols use both Out-of-Band control planes (A & B) in Figure 2 
separately (such as with MEGACO/H.248[3] or H.323[4]).

An additional aspect of this model in Figure 2 above is that there will 
likely be more than one intermediate server involved in most protocols 
that communicate through any intermediate server. Most likely there is one 
in the source IP device's domain, and there is also one in the destination 
IP device's domain. There may or may not be any intermediate servers in 
the ISP(s) between these two domains; sometimes there might be several 
servers between the source and destination domains.

Because there can be up to 3 separate communications planes, with up to 2 
different packet paths for a communications transfer, it is important to 
understand which protocols transmit their packets on which path. The rest 
of this document will provide these various packet path models for IEPREP 
related protocols.

Keep in mind that the "Receiver" in many of these diagrams is either (or 
both) a server and/or a user device.

Also note that this document doesn't cover an exhaustive IETF protocols 
list, each categorized, but attempts to include those that are of interest 
to the IEPREP effort.



3.0 Control and Data Plane Diagrams 

Figure 1 (above) showed the simplest of IP communication between source 
and destination, but this model requires the source to know the IP address 
of the destination, for that source to use a protocol that requires no 
intermediate servers, and that protocol to have all necessary signaling 
and data traverse point to point.


3.1 In-Band Point-to-Point Communications

This model is true only if the communication is as in the previous 
paragraph: one protocol (with one port number) and one path though a 
network. Figure 3 below shows this in diagram form:








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Internet Draft                                              Jan 16th, 2003

                                                                         
          -------->         -------->         -------->                  
   Sender           Router1           Router2           Receiver         
          ========>         ========>         ========>                  
                                                                         
                                                                         
    Legend:  ---->  In-Band Control plane (signaling)                    
             ====>  Data plane (media/text/file)                         
                                                                         
         Figure 3. In-Band Signaling example                             
                                                                         
Protocols that use this model for IP communications are:                 
                                                                         
      - H.323 (without a Gatekeeper only)[4]                             
      - Telnet [5]                                                       
      - SIP (when the UAC knows the IP address of the UAS)[6]            
      - HTTP [7]                                                         
      - POP3 [8]                                                         
      - IMAP [9]                                                         

The data plane in these protocols is set-up by the signaling (control) 
plane between endpoints.


3.2 In-Band Signaling Via a Server

A variation on the In-Band Model shown in Figure 3 (above) is the one in 
Figure 4 in which all communications traverse an Intermediate Server(s). 
Here the signaling and data are contained with the same protocol that hops 
through a server(s) on its path towards the destination IP device. 

In Figure 4 below, the placement of one or more routers doesn't directly 
affect the path of the packets between the Sender to the Server and on to 
the Receiver, therefore none are shown here to make the diagram cleaner.
                                                                         
                                                                         
          -------------->                 ------------->                 
   Sender               Intermediary Server             Receiver         
          ==============>                 =============>                 
                                                                         
                                                                         
    Legend:  ---->  In-Band Control plane (signaling)                    
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane                         
                                                                         
         Figure 4. In-Band Signaling example                             
                                                                         
Signaling protocol that uses this model for IP communications is:        
                                                                         
      - SIP (when used for instant messaging[10])                        




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The data plane generally occurs within the signaling packets as MIME 
bodies or text.


3.3 Out-of-Band Signaling

Out-of-Band control is the case where a signaling protocol (likely) 
establishes the data plane via some intermediate server or servers (see 
Figure 5). In this example, the data packets are not transmitted to or 
through the server (towards the ultimate receiver). The signaling path 
from the sender to the server is not the same path as the data plane from 
the sender to the receiver (which is direct in this example). Here each 
path could be considered for different treatment and handling.

                                                                         
                      Intermediary Server                                
                      ^                 .                                
                      .                 .                                
          .............                 .............>                   
   Sender           Router1           Router2           Receiver         
          ========>         ========>        ========>                   
                                                                         
                                                                         
    Legend:  ....>  Out-of-Band Control plane (signaling)                
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane                         
                                                                         
         Figure 5. Out-of-Band Signaling example                         
                                                                         
Protocols that use this model for IP communications are:                 
                                                                         
      - SIP (for Voice and Video when the UAC does not know the IP       
             address of the UAS, thus requiring a Proxy Server [6])      
      - FTP [11]                                                         
                                                                         
H.323 [4] and MEGACO/H.248 [3] are not categorized here because these 
protocols use two independent control planes between the Gatekeeper or 
Media Gateway Controller and each endpoint or termination (see Figure 2 - 
control planes A & B).

As an example of the data plane in Figure 5 above with SIP signaling, the 
data protocol is RTP (either Voice or Video [1]).


4.0 Security Considerations

This document merely discusses the modeling differences of various IETF 
protocols which control the communications signal between a source and 
(one or more) destination(s), therefore there are no special security 
considerations.




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5.0 IANA Considerations

There are no IANA considerations within this document


6.0 Acknowledgements  

To Scott Bradner, Kimberly King, and Henning Schulzrinne for their 
comments and suggestions


7.0 References

 [1]  H. Schulzrinne, S. Casner, R. Frederick, V. Jacobson, ôRTP: A 
      Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applicationsö, RFC 1889, January 
      1996

 [2]  J. Klensin, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, RFC 2821, April 2001

 [3]  F. Cuervo, N. Greene, A. Rayhan, C. Huitema, B. Rosen, J. 
      Segers, ôMegaco Protocol Version 1.0ö, RFC 3015, November 2000.

 [4]  ITU-T H.323v2 Recommendation, "Packet-Based Multimedia 
      Communications System", 1996

 [5]  J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "Telnet Protocol Specification", RFC 854,
      May 1983

 [6]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
      Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M. and E. Schooler, "SIP:
      Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, May 2002.

 [7]  R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J., Mogul, H. Frystyk, L., Masinter, P. 
      Leach, T. Berners-Lee, " Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.1", 
      RFC 2616, June 1999

 [8]  J. Myers, M. Rose, "Post Office Protocol - version 3", RFC 1939,
      May 1996 

 [9]  M. Crispin, "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4 rev1", 
      RFC 2060, Dec 1996 

 [10] B. Campbell, Ed., J. Rosenberg, H. Schulzrinne, C. Huitema, D. 
      Gurle, " Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension for Instant 
      Messaging", RFC 3428, December 2002

 [11] J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol", RFC 959, Oct 
      1985





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8.0 Authors Information  

James M. Polk
Cisco Systems
2200 East President George Bush Turnpike
Richardson, Texas 75082 USA
jmpolk@cisco.com


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The Expiration date for this Internet Draft is:

July 16th, 2003













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PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-22 13:31:43