One document matched: draft-weingarten-mpls-tp-linear-protection-01.txt

Differences from draft-weingarten-mpls-tp-linear-protection-00.txt


MPLS Working Group                                          S. Bryant 
Internet Draft                                                  Cisco 
Intended status: Standards                               Y. Weingarten 
                                                          N. Sprecher 
                                                Nokia Siemens Networks 
                                                      H. van Helvoort 
                                                               Huawei 
                                                         A. Fulignoli 
                                                             Ericsson 
 
Expires: September 2009                                 March 9, 2009 
                                   
 
                                      
                         MPLS-TP Linear Protection 
             draft-weingarten-mpls-tp-linear-protection-01.txt 


Status of this Memo 

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the 
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 9, 2009. 

Copyright Notice 

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

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 
 
 
 
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   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 
   publication of this document. Please review these documents 
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 
   to this document. 

    

Abstract 

   This document describes mechanisms for linear protection of Multi-
   Protocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) Label Switched 
   Paths (LSP) and Pseudowires (PW) on multiple layers.  Linear 
   protection provides a fast and simple protection switching mechanism, 
   that is especially optimized for a mesh topology.  It provides a 
   clear indication of the protection status.  The mechanisms are 
   described both at the architectural level as well as providing a 
   protocol that is used to control and coordinate the protection 
   switching. 

    

Table of Contents 

    
   1. Introduction...............................................3 
      1.1. Contributing Authors .................................4 
   2. Conventions used in this document..........................4 
      2.1. Abbreviations.........................................4 
      2.2. Definitions and terminology...........................5 
   3. Network objectives.........................................5 
   4. Protection architectures...................................6 
      4.1. 1+1 Protection architecture...........................6 
      4.2. 1:1 Protection architecture...........................7 
      4.3. Protection of P2MP networks...........................8 
      4.4. Extension to 1:n protection...........................8 
      4.5. Revertive and Non-revertive switching.................9 
   5. Protection switching trigger mechanisms....................9 
      5.1. Hold-off timer...................................... 10 
      5.2. Protection switching control logical architecture... 10 
   6. Protection switching coordination (PSC) protocol......... 12 
      6.1. Protocol format .................................... 12 
         6.1.1. PSC Requests................................... 14 
            6.1.1.1. Interaction between requests ............. 15 
         6.1.2. Path fault identifier.......................... 15 
         6.1.3. Active path indicator.......................... 15 
         6.1.4. Current protection type........................ 16 
      6.2. Addressing of PSC requests.......................... 16 
 
 
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      6.3. Principles of operation............................. 16 
         6.3.1. Normal state................................... 17 
         6.3.2. Failure or Degraded condition.................. 17 
         6.3.3. Lockout of protection.......................... 18 
         6.3.4. Operator controlled switching.................. 18 
         6.3.5. Recovery from switching........................ 19 
            6.3.5.1. Wait-to-restore timer..................... 20 
   7. Security Considerations.................................. 20 
   8. IANA Considerations...................................... 20 
   9. Acknowledgments.......................................... 20 
   10. References ............................................. 21 
      10.1. Normative References............................... 21 
      10.2. Informative References............................. 21 
    
1. Introduction 

   As noted in the architecture for MPLS-TP [7], the overall 
   architecture framework for MPLS-TP is based on a profile of the MPLS 
   and PW procedures as specified for the MPLS and (MS-)PW architectures 
   defined in RFC 3031 [3], RFC 3985 [5] and [6]. One of the basic 
   survivability functions, pointed out by the Survivability Framework 
   document [11], is that of simple and rapid protection switching 
   mechanisms for Label Switched Paths (LSP) and Pseudo-wires (PW). 

   Protection switching is a fully allocated survivability mechanism. It 
   is fully allocated in the sense that the route and bandwidth of the 
   recovery path is reserved for a selected working path.  It provides a 
   fast and simple survivability mechanism that allows the network 
   operator to easily grasp the active state of the network compared to 
   other survivability mechanisms. 

   This draft proposes an architecture and protocol to provide 
   protection for the different types of point-to-point (p2p) paths 
   supported by MPLS-TP.  These include LSP, PW, Path Segment Tunnels 
   (PST), and Tandem Connections (TC).  For unidirectional protection 
   switching a 1+1 architecture is described.  For bidirectional 
   switching both a 1+1 and a 1:1 architecture are described. 

   In 1+1 unidirectional architecture, a recovery transport path is 
   dedicated to each working transport path.  Normal traffic is bridged 
   and fed to both the working and the recovery transport entities by a 
   permanent bridge at the source of the protection domain.  The sink of 
   the protection domain selects which of the working or recovery 
   entities to receive the traffic from, based on a predetermined 
   criteria, e.g. server defect indication.  When used for bidirectional 
   switching the 1+1 protection architecture must also support a 
   Protection Switching Coordination (PSC) protocol.  This protocol is 
 
 
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   used to help synchronize the decisions of both ends of the protection 
   domain in selecting the proper traffic flow. 

   In the 1:1 architecture, a recovery transport path is dedicated to 
   the working transport path.  However, the normal traffic is 
   transmitted only once, on either the working or the recovery path, by 
   using a selector bridge at the source of the protection domain.  A 
   selector at the sink of the protection domain then selects the path 
   that carries the normal traffic.  Since the source and sink need to 
   be coordinated to ensure that the selector bridge at both ends select 
   the same path, this architecture must support the PSC protocol. 

1.1. Contributing Authors 

   John Drake, Hao Long 

2. Conventions used in this document 

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119 [1]. 

2.1. Abbreviations 

   DNR  Do Not Revert 

   FS   Forced Switch 

   LSR  Label Switching Relay 

   MS   Manual Switch 

   P2P  Point to point 

   P2MP Point to multipoint 

   PSC  Protection Switching Coordination Protocol 

   PST  Path Segment Tunnel 

   SD   Signal Degrade 

   SF   Signal Fail 

   SLA  Service Level Agreement 

   WTR  Wait-to-Restore 
 
 
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2.2. Definitions and terminology 

   Protection domain: Transport path (e.g. LSP, PW, PST, TC) that 
   provides protection for its normal traffic.  The protection domain 
   consists of the following elements - Two end points (East and West) 
   that in each direction one acts as the source and the other as the 
   sink, a working path, and a recovery path. 

   Recovery path: A transport path that is dedicated to transport normal 
   user traffic in case of a failure of the Working path. 

   Working path: A transport path that is used for transport of normal 
   user traffic, under normal conditions. 

   The terminology used in this document is based on the terminology 
   defined in [10].  In addition, we use the term LSR to refer to a 
   MPLS-TP Network Element, whether it is a LSR, LER, T-PE, or S-PE. 

3. Network objectives 

   Linear protection for MPLS-TP should comply with the following 
   network objectives: 

      . Switch time: protection switching should operate as fast as 
        possible.  A switching time of less than 50ms has been proposed 
        as a target for certain use cases.  The switching time does not 
        include the detection time and the hold-off time 

      . Hold-off times: to allow protection by the layer that is closest 
        to the detected defect and retain the stability of the network, 
        a hold-off timer should be employed when a defect is detected.  
        At the expiration of the hold-off period, the defect should be 
        rechecked and if still existing the protection mechanism shall 
        be invoked. 

      . Extent of protection: the protection mechanism should restore 
        interrupted traffic due to a facility (link or node) failure, 
        within a protection domain.  Traffic terminating at a failed 
        node may be disrupted, however, traffic passing through to other 
        nodes should be protected. 

      . Operation modes: the protection mechanism should provide 
        protection for both unidirectional and bidirectional transport 
        entities.  The protection mechanism should support both 
        revertive and non-revertive modes of operation. 


 
 
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      . Manual control: administrative commands may be provided for 
        manual control of the protection switching operations.  The 
        following are examples of possible manual commands: Clear, 
        Forced Switch, Manual Switch (see definitions in [10]). 

4. Protection architectures 

   The protection mechanism defined here supports transport paths (as 
   defined in [2]) within a mesh-based network.  This includes support 
   for unidirectional, both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint, and 
   bidirectional point-to-point paths.  This protection may be supported 
   by different protection architectures as described in the following 
   subsections. 

4.1. 1+1 Protection architecture 

   The 1+1 protection architecture provides for a fully dedicated 
   recovery path in addition to the configured working path.  Both the 
   recovery and working path must support the full SLA requirements for 
   the traffic between the two end points of the protection domain. 

   In this architecture (see figure 1), all traffic from LSR A to LSR Z 
   is bridged, using the permanent bridge at LSR A, to both transport 
   entities, and LSR Z employs a selector bridge to receive the data 
   from the working path, discarding the packets from the recovery path.   

   In case of a condition, e.g. a failure condition or an operator 
   command, where protection switching is indicated, LSR Z SHOULD select 
   the data packets from the recovery path and discard any data packets 
   from the working path. 

   It should be further noted that OAM packets for monitoring the 
   protection domain, or control plane packets, may be transmitted on 
   the "non-active" transport path.  These packets SHALL NOT be 
   discarded. 

       |-------------Protection Domain-----------------| 

                 ============================== 
              /**********Working path************\ 
    +--------+   ==============================   +--------+ 
    | LSR   /|                                    |\   LSR | 
    |  A {<  |                                    | >}  Z  | 
    |    PB \|                                    | SB     |   
    +--------+   ==============================   +--------+ 
              \***********Recovery path***********/ 
                 ============================== 
    
 
 
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         PB: Permanent Bridge           SB: Selector Bridge 

           Figure 1:  1+1 Unidirectional protection architecture 

   When using the 1+1 architecture for bidirectional switching, each of 
   the end-points would have both a permanent bridge and a selector 
   bridge one for each direction. 

4.2. 1:1 Protection architecture 

   Another option to protect either a unidirectional or bidirectional 
   connection is a 1:1 architecture.  This architecture provides for a 
   fully allocated recovery transport path in addition to the working 
   transport path used for normal user data.  In principle, this 
   recovery path MUST support the full capacity and bandwidth of the SLA 
   but may be degraded from the normal working path. 

       |-------------Protection Domain-----------------| 

                 ============================== 
               /**********Working path***********\ 
    +--------+   ==============================   +--------+ 
    | LSR   /|                                    |\   LSR | 
    |  A {<  |                                    | >}  Z  | 
    |    SB  |                                    | SB     |   
    +--------+   ==============================   +--------+ 
                         Recovery path    
                 ============================== 
    

         SB: Selector Bridge 

     Figure 2:  1:1 Bidirectional protection architecture using working 
                                   path 

   In this architecture both ends of the protection domain have a 
   Selector bridge (SB) that selects the transport path to transmit the 
   data packets over.  Under normal conditions the SB selects the 
   working path for transmission of the data packets.  When a condition 
   that triggers protection switching is active, the SB selects the 
   recovery path for data transmission. 

   In principle, the recovery path could be used for "extra traffic", 
   i.e. preemptible traffic.  However, if protection switching is in 
   force then this traffic SHALL be pre-empted by the protected data 
   that is being transmitted on this path.  In any case, the recovery 
   path MUST support OAM and protection coordination traffic (see 
   section 6). 
 
 
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   This architecture requires communication between the end-points of 
   the protection domain to coordinate the protection state.  In general 
   bidirectional protection switching requires coordination between the 
   end-points and verification that both transmission directions remain 
   on a corouted bidirectional path. 

4.3. Protection of P2MP networks 

   [2] specifies that all P2MP MPLS-TP connections are unidirectional by 
   nature.  It further requires that these connections should be 
   supported by both 1+1 and 1:1 protection architectures. 

   When protecting a P2MP network using a 1+1 protection architecture, 
   the basic protection mechanism is still relevant.  The root LSR will 
   bridge the user traffic (using a permanent bridge) to both the 
   working and recovery transport entities.  Each leaf LSR will select 
   the traffic from one transport path according to its own local 
   triggers.  This may lead to a situation where, due to a failure 
   condition on one branch of the network, that some leaf LSRs may 
   select the working transport path, while other leaf LSRs may select 
   traffic from the recovery transport path. 

   When protecting a P2MP network using 1:1 protection architecture, 
   there is a need for the root LSR to identify the existence of a 
   failure condition on any of the branches of the network.   

   Editor's note: This requires the use tools from the OAM toolset [9], 
   and also a return path that can pass the indication back to the root 
   LSR.  This protection architecture, in the P2MP case, also requires 
   that each leaf LSR selects the traffic from the incoming transport 
   entities based local logic.  When protection switching is triggered, 
   the root LSR selects the recovery transport path to transfer the 
   traffic and each leaf LSR continues to select the proper 
   transmission. Endof Editor's note!! 

4.4. Extension to 1:n protection 

   This is for further study 

   Editor's note: definition of 1:n protection should be that there is 
   one recovery path that is given a different label relative to each 
   working path that is being protected.  When any one of the working 
   paths indicates a failure, then the traffic is redirected to the 
   recovery path, using the dedicated recovery label.  When more than 
   one working path reports a failure, then the path with the highest 
   priority will have its traffic redirected to the recovery path and 
   traffic from other paths will not be protected.   It should be noted 
 
 
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   further that 1:n protection cannot be supported using a single phase 
   protocol, since the coordination of which is the highest priority 
   path and notification to other paths needs acknowledgement, i.e. at 
   least a second phase. 

   There is a suggestion to have a separate draft for the extension to 
   1:n protection, that would include a definition to the two-phased 
   protocol.  This draft should only prepare the groundwork of the 
   protocol so as not to preclude the 1:n protection. 

   This is still under discussion  Endof Editor's note 

4.5. Revertive and Non-revertive switching 

   In revertive operation, the normal traffic signal is restored to the 
   working transport path after the condition that triggered the 
   switching has cleared.  When a manual operator command (e.g. Forced 
   Switch) has cleared, then the reversion happens immediately.  When a 
   failure or degradation of service has cleared, the reversion may be 
   delayed until the expiry of a Wait-to-restore timer, used to 
   neutralize the effect of intermittent defects. 

   In non-revertive mode of operation, the normal traffic continues to 
   use the recovery transport path, even after the condition that 
   triggered has cleared.  Eventually, the network may be reverted to 
   use the working transport path, by using an explicit operator command 
   (see section 6.3.5). 

   The 1+1 protection architecture is often provisioned to operate as 
   non-revertive, since the recovery transport path is fully dedicated 
   in any case and continuing to select it on the sink avoids a second 
   disturbance to the traffic.  There may, however, be certain operator 
   policies that dictate provisioning revertive operation for 1+1 
   protection. 

   The 1:1 protection architecture is often provisioned to operate in 
   revertive mode.  This takes advantage of the (typically) more 
   optimized working transport path, even at the cost of the additional 
   disturbance to traffic from the additional switch.  

   In principle, the configuration of revertive or non-revertive 
   operation should be the same at both ends of the protection domain. 

5. Protection switching trigger mechanisms 

   The protection switching should be initiated in reaction to any of 
   the following triggers: 
 
 
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      . Server layer indication - if any of the lower layers (e.g. the 
         physical layer) raises an interrupt indicating that a failure 
         has been detected.   

      . OAM signalling - if the OAM continuity and connectivity 
         verification tools detect that there is a loss of continuity or 
         mis-connectivity or the performance monitoring indicates a 
         degradation of the utility of the working path for the current 
         transport path.  In cases of signal degradation, switching to 
         the recovery path SHOULD only be activated if the recovery path 
         can guarantee better conditions than the degraded working path. 

      . Control plane - if there is a control plane active in the 
         network (either signalling or routing), it may send an 
         indication of problems on the working path.  Protection 
         switching should be initiated as a result, until the problems 
         are signalled to have cleared. 

      . Operator command - the network operator may issue commands that 
         trigger protection switching.  The commands that are supported 
         include - Forced Switch, Manual Switch, Clear, Lockout of 
         Protection, (see definitions in [10]). 

5.1. Hold-off timer 

   In order to coordinate timing of protection switches at multiple 
   layers, a hold-off timer may be required. Its purpose is to allow, 
   for example, a server layer protection switch to have a chance to fix 
   the problem before switching at a client layer. 

   Each protection group should have a provisionable holdoff timer. The 
   suggested range of the holdoff timer is 0 to 10 seconds in steps of 
   100 ms with an accuracy within 5 ms. The default duration for the 
   holdoff timer is 0 seconds. 

   When a failure condition is detected, this will not immediately 
   activate protection switching if the provisioned hold-off timer value 
   is non-zero. Rather, the hold-off timer will be started. When the 
   hold-off timer expires, we check if a failure condition is still 
   present. If there is still a failure condition, then the protection 
   switching is activated, regardless if it is the same failure 
   condition that caused the activation the hold-off timer. 

5.2. Protection switching control logical architecture 

   Protection switching processes the triggers described above together 
   with the inputs received from the far-end LSR.  These inputs cause 
 
 
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   the LSR to take certain actions, e.g. switching the Selector Bridge 
   to select the working or recovery path, and to transmit different 
   protocol messages. 

+-------------+ Operator Command       Local PSC      +-----------+ 
|  External   |-----------------+   +-----------------| PSC Status| 
|  Interface  |                 |   |   request   +---|   Module  | 
+-------------+                 |   |             |   +-----------+ 
                                V   V             V Prot. Stat. ^ 
+----------+ Local OAM  +---------------+Highest +------------+ | 
|   OAM    |----------->| Local Request |------->|  PSC Mess. | | 
|  Module  |  request   |    logic      |local R.| Generator  | | 
+----------+            +---------------+        +------------+ | 
                                     |                  |       | 
                Highest local request|                  |       | 
                                     V                  V       | 
+-------------+             +-----------------+    PSC Message  | 
| Remote Req. | Remote PSC  |  global Request |                 | 
|  Receiver   |------------>|      logic      |                 | 
+-------------+   Request   +-----------------+                 | 
       ^                             |                          | 
       |       Highest global request|                          | 
       |                             V                          | 
       |                    +-----------------+   PSC status    | 
Remote PSC message          |    PSC Process  |-----------------+ 
                            |       logic     |--------> Action 
                            |                 | 
                            +-----------------+ 
               Figure 3: Protection switching control logic 
                                      
   Figure 3 describes the logical architecture of the protection 
   switching control. The Local Request logic unit accepts the triggers 
   from the OAM, external operator commands, and from the local control 
   plane (when present) and determines the highest priority request.  
   This high-priority request is passed to both the PSC Message 
   generator, that will generate the appropriate protocol message to be 
   sent to the far-end LSR, and the Global Request logic, that will 
   cross-check this local request with the information received from the 
   far-LSR.  The Global Request logic then processes these two PSC 
   requests that determines the highest priority request that is passed 
   to the PSC Process logic.  The PSC Process logic uses this input to 
   determine what actions need to be taken, e.g. switching the Selector 
   Bridge, and the current status of the protection domain. 




 
 
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6. Protection switching coordination (PSC) protocol 

   Bidirectional protection switching requires coordination between the 
   two end-points in determining which of the two possible paths, the 
   working or recovery path, is operational in any given situation.  
   When protection switching is triggered as described in section 5, the 
   end-points must inform each other of the switch-over from one path to 
   the other in a coordinated fashion. 

   There are different possibilities for the type of coordinating 
   protocol. One possibility is a two-phased coordination in which the 
   MEP that is initiating the protection switching sends a protocol 
   message indicating the switch but the actual switch-over is performed 
   only after receiving an 'Ack' from the far-end MEP.  The other 
   possibility is a single-phased coordination in which the initiating 
   MEP switches over to the alternate path and informs the far-end of 
   the switch, and the far-end must complete the switch-over. 

   In the following sub-sections we describe the protocol messages that 
   should be used between the two end-points of the protection domain.  
   For the sake of simplicity of the protocol, this protocol is based on 
   the single-phase approach described above. 

   The protocol messages should be transmitted over the recovery path 
   only.  This allows the transmission of the messages without affecting 
   the normal traffic in the most prevalent case, i.e. the idle state.  
   In addition, limiting the transmission to a single path avoids 
   possible conflicts and race conditions that could develop if the PSC 
   messages were sent on both paths. 

6.1. Protocol format 

   The protocol messages SHALL be sent over the GACH as described in 
   [8].  There is a single channel type for the set of PSC messages, 
   each message will be identified by the first field of the ACH payload 
   as described below.  PSC messages SHOULD support addressing by use of 
   the method described in [ACH-TLV].  The following figure shows the 
   format for the full PSC message. 








 
 
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      0                   1                   2                   3  
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
      |0 0 0 1|0 0 0 0|0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0|   MPLS-TP PSC Channel Code    |  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
      |                    ACH TLV Header                             | 
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
      |                                                               | 
      +                    Addressing TLV                             + 
      :                              ...                              :  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
      |                                                               |         
      ~                    PSC Controlmessage                         ~         
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
             Figure 3.  Format of PSC packet with a GACH header 
    

   Where: 

   . MPLS-TP PSC Channel Code is the GACH channel number assigned to the 
     PSC = TBD 

   . The ACH TLV Header is described in [ACHTLV] 

   . The use of the Addressing TLV are described in section 6.2 

   . The following figure shows the format of the PSC Control message 
     that is the payload for the PSC packet. 

   Editor's note:  There is a suggestion that this format should be 
   aligned with the format used by G.8031/G.8131/Y.1731 in ITU.  The 
   argument being that this would make it easier to pass review from ITU 
   and allow easier transfer of technology.   

   The counter-argument is that the ITU format is based upon an attempt 
   to find a common format for different functionality and therefore 
   involves different fields that are not necessary for the protection 
   switching.  Defining a new dedicated format would make for a simpler 
   and more intuitive protocol. 

   This is still under discussion  Endof Editor's note. 





 
 
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     0                   1                   2                   3  
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
      |  Ver  |Request|F|Typ|   Path      |      Reserved             |  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
                Figure 4. Format of the PSC Control packet 

   Where: 

   . Ver: is the version of the protocol, for this version the value 
     SHOULD be 0. 

   . Request: this field indicates the specific PSC request that is 
     being transmitted, the details are described in section 6.1.1 

   . Path: used to indicate the currently active path, possible values 
     are described in section 6.1.3 

   . F: used to indicate the path that is reporting a failure condition, 
     the possible values are described in section 6.1.2 

   . Typ: indicates the type of protection scheme currently supported, 
     more details are given in section 6.1.4 

6.1.1. PSC Requests 

   The Protection Switching Coordination (PSC) protocol SHALL support 
   the following request types, in order of priority from highest to 
   lowest: 

      .  (1111) Clear 

      .  (1110) Lockout protection 

      .  (1101) Forced switch 

      .  (0110) Signal fault 

      .  (0101) Signal degrade 

      .  (0100) Manual switch 

      .  (0011) Wait to restore 

      .  (0010) Do not revert (DNR) 

      .  (0000) No request 
 
 
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   See section 6.3 for a description of the operation of the different 
   requests 

6.1.1.1. Interaction between requests 

   The following rules SHOULD be observed for interaction between 
   different requests: 

      . If the protection domain is currently in a protecting state, 
         i.e. normal traffic is being transmitted over the recovery path 
         as a result of a trigger, then the LSRs SHOULD NOT accept a 
         Manual Switch request. 

      . If the protection domain is currently in a protecting state, 
         i.e. normal traffic is being transmitted over the recovery path 
         as a result of a trigger, and a Forced Switch is requested then 
         the normal traffic SHALL continue to be transmitted on the 
         recovery path even if the original protection trigger is 
         cleared. 

      . If a Signal Degrade request is received, then protection 
         switching will be activated only if the recovery path can 
         guarantee a better signal than the working path.  Editor's 
         note: Do we need to define the method of comparison or is this 
         out of scope?  Endof Editor's note 

      . If the Clear request is issued in the absence of a Manual 
         Switch, Forced Switch, Freeze, or Lockout protection, then it 
         SHALL be ignored.  In the presence of any of these commands, 
         the Clear request SHALL clear the state affected by the 
         operator command. 

6.1.2. Path fault identifier 

   The F-bit of the PSC control SHALL be used only in a Signal fault 
   (0101) or Signal degrade (0100) control packet.  Its value indicates 
   on which path the signal anomaly was detected.  The following are the 
   possible values: 

   . 0: indicates the Recovery path 

   . 1: indicates the Working path 

6.1.3. Active path indicator 

   The Path field of the PSC control SHALL be used to indicate which 
   path the source MEP is currently using for data transmission.  The 
 
 
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   MEP should compare the value of this bit with the path that is 
   locally selected for data transmission to verify that there is no 
   inconsistency between the two end-points of the protected domain. If 
   an inconsistency is detected then an alarm should be raised. The 
   following are the possible values: 

   . 0: indicates the Recovery path 

   . 1: indicates the Working path 

   . 2-255: for future extensions 

   . Possibility of extension for 1:n protection would change the 
     interpretation of this field, where 0 indicates that all normal 
     traffic is being carried on the working paths, a value other than 0 
     indicates that the recovery path is being used to transmit normal 
     traffic for the path indicated, e.g. if we define this field to be 
     8 bits then a value of 102 would indicate that recovery path is 
     currently carrying traffic that was intended for the failed path 
     102. 

6.1.4. Current protection type 

   The Typ field indicates the currently configured protection 
   architecture type, this should be validated to be consistent for both 
   ends of the protected domain. If an inconsistency is detected then an 
   alarm should be raised. The following are the possible values: 

   . 11: 1+1 bidirectional switching 

   . 10: 1:1 bidirectional switching 

   . 01: 1+1 unidirectional switching 

   . 00: 1:1 unidirectional switching 

6.2. Addressing of PSC requests 

   To be incorporated in a future revision of this document 

6.3. Principles of operation 

   In all of the following sub-sections, assume a protected domain 
   between LSR-A and LSR-Z, using paths W (working) and R (recovery). 



 
 
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6.3.1. Normal state 

   When the protected domain has no special condition in effect, the 
   ingress LSR SHOULD forward the user data along the working path, and 
   in the case of 1+1 protection the Permanent Bridge will bridge the 
   data to the recovery path as well.  The receiving LSR SHOULD read the 
   data from the working path. 

   The ingress LSR MAY transmit a No Request PSC packet with the P-bit 
   set to 0 for the recovery path. 

6.3.2. Failure or Degraded condition 

   If one of the LSRs (for example, LSR-A) detects a failure condition 
   or a serious degradation condition on the working path that warrants 
   invoking protection switching, then it SHOULD take the following 
   actions: 

      . Switch all traffic for LSR-Z to the recovery path only. 

      . Transmit a PCS control packet, using GACH, with the appropriate 
         Request code (either Signal fault or Signal degrade), the F-bit 
         set to 0, to indicate that the fault/degrade was detected on 
         the working path, and the P-bit set to 1, indicating that 
         traffic is now being forwarded on the recovery path.  This 
         transmission should be repeated every xx ms for the duration of 
         the failure/degrade condition. 

      . Verify that LSR-Z replies with a PCS control packet indicating 
         that it has switched to the recovery path.  If this is not 
         received after xxx then send an alarm to the management system. 

   When the far-end LSR (in this example LSR-Z) receives the PCS packet 
   informing it that other LSR (LSR-A) has switched, it SHOULD perform 
   the following actions: 

      . Check priority of the request 

      . Switch all traffic addressed to LSR-A to the recovery path 
         only. 

      . Begin transmission of a PCS control packet, using GACH, with 
         the appropriate Request code (either Signal fault or Signal 
         degrade), the F-bit set to 0, to indicate that the 
         fault/degrade was detected on the working path, and the P-bit 
         set to 1, indicating that traffic is now being forwarded on the 

 
 
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         recovery path.  This transmission should be repeated every xx 
         ms for the duration of the failure/degrade condition.  

6.3.3. Lockout of protection 

   If one of the LSRs (for example, LSR-A) receives a management command 
   indicating that the protection is disabled, then it SHOULD indicate 
   this to the far-end LSR (for example, LSR-Z) that it is not possible 
   to use the recovery path.  The following actions MUST be taken: 

      . Transmit a PCS control packet, using GACH, with the Request 
         code set to Lockout of protection (1010), the F-bit set to 1, 
         and the P-bit set to 0. 

      . All normal traffic packets should be transmitted on the working 
         path only. 

      . Verify that the far-end LSR (for example LSR-Z) is forwarding 
         the data packets on the working path. Raise alarm in case of 
         mismatch. 

   When the far-end LSR (in this example LSR-Z) receives the PCS packet 
   informing it that other LSR (LSR-A) has switched, it SHOULD perform 
   the following actions: 

      . Check priority of request 

      . Switch all normal traffic addressed to LSR-A to the working 
         path only. 

      . Begin transmission of a PCS control packet, using GACH, with 
         the appropriate Request code (Lockout of protection), the F-bit 
         set to 1, and the P-bit set to 0, indicating that traffic is 
         now being forwarded on the working path only.  This 
         transmission should be repeated every xx ms for the duration of 
         the lockout condition.  

6.3.4. Operator controlled switching 

   If the management system indicated to one of the LSRs (for example 
   LSR-A) that a switch is necessary, e.g. either a Forced Switch or a 
   Manual Switch, then the LSR SHOULD switch the traffic to the recovery 
   path and perform the following actions: 

      . Switch all data traffic to the recovery path only. 


 
 
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      . Transmit a PCS control packet, using GACH, with the appropriate 
         Request code (either Manual switch or Forced switch), the F-bit 
         set to 0, to indicate that the fault/degrade was detected on 
         the working path, and the P-bit set to 1, indicating that 
         traffic is now being forwarded on the recovery path.  This 
         transmission should be repeated every xx ms for the duration of 
         the switch condition. 

      . Verify that LSR-Z replies with a PCS control packet indicating 
         that it has switched to the recovery path.  If this is not 
         received after xxx then send an alarm to the management system. 

   When the far-end LSR (in this example LSR-Z) receives the PCS packet 
   informing it that other LSR (LSR-A) has switched, it SHOULD perform 
   the following actions: 

      . Check priority of the request 

      . Switch all normal traffic addressed to LSR-A to the recovery 
         path only. 

      . Begin transmission of a PCS control packet, using GACH, with 
         the appropriate Request code (either Manual switch of Forced 
         switch), the F-bit set to 0, to indicate that the fault/degrade 
         was detected on the working path, and the P-bit set to 1, 
         indicating that traffic is now being forwarded on the recovery 
         path.  This transmission should be repeated every xx ms for the 
         duration of the switch condition. 

6.3.5. Recovery from switching 

   When the condition that triggered the protection switching clears, 
   e.g. the cause of the failure condition has been corrected, the 
   operator clears a Manual Switch, then the protection domain SHOULD 
   follow the following procedures: 

      . If the network is configured for non-revertive behaviour, then 
         the two LSRs SHOULD transmit DNR (Request code 0010) messages. 
         When the operator clears the non-revertive condition, the two 
         LSRs SHOULD return to use of the working transport path and 
         transmit No request (Request code 0000) messages. 

      . If the network is recovering from an operator switching command 
         (in revertive mode), then both LSRs SHOULD return to using the 
         working transport path and transmit No request (Request code 
         0000) messages. 

 
 
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      . If the network is recovering from a failure or degraded 
         condition (in revertive mode), then the LSR that detects this 
         recovery SHALL activate a local Wait-to-restore (WTR) timer 
         (see section 6.3.5.1) to verify that there is not an 
         intermittent failure.  After the WTR expires, the LSR SHOULD 
         return to using the working transport path and transmit No 
         request (Request code 0000) messages. 

6.3.5.1. Wait-to-restore timer 

   In revertive mode, in order to prevent frequent activation of 
   protection switching due to an intermittent defect, the working 
   transport path must become stable and fault-free before reverting to 
   the normal condition.  In order to verify that this is the case a 
   fixed period of time must elapse before the normal traffic uses the 
   working transport path.  This period, called the WTR period, should 
   be configurable by the operator in 1-minute intervals within the 
   range 1-12 minutes.  The default value is 5 minutes.   

   During this period, if a failure condition is detected on the working 
   transport path, then the WTR timer is stopped and the normal traffic 
   SHALL continue to be transported over the recovery transport path.  
   If the WTR timer expires without being pre-empted by a failure, then 
   the traffic SHOULD be returned to use the working transport path (as 
   above). 

7. Security Considerations 

   To be incorporated in a future revision of this document 

8. IANA Considerations 

   To be incorporated in a future revision of this document 

9. Acknowledgments 

   The authors would like to thank all members of the teams (the Joint 
   Working Team, the MPLS Interoperability Design Team in IETF and the 
   T-MPLS Ad Hoc Group in ITU-T) involved in the definition and 
   specification of MPLS Transport Profile. 

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





 
 
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10. References 

10.1. Normative References 

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

      [2]  Niven-Jenkins, B., Brungard, D., Betts, M., Sprecher, N., 
            Ueno, S., "MPLS TP Requirements", draft-jenkins-mpls-tp-
            requirements-04, Feb 2009 

10.2. Informative References 

      [3]  Rosen, E., Viswanathan, A., Callon, R., "Multiprotocol Label 
            Switching Architecture", RFC 3031, January 2001 

      [4]  Rosen, E., et al., "MPLS Label Stack Encoding", RFC 3032, 
            January 2001 

      [5]  Bryant, S., Pate, P., "Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge 
            (PWE3) Architecture", RFC 3985, March 2005 

      [6]  Nadeau, T., Pignataro, S., "Pseudowire Virtual Circuit 
            Connectivity Verification (VCCV): A Control Channel for 
            Pseudowires", RFC 5085, December 2007 

      [7]  Bocci, M., et al., " A Framework for MPLS in Transport 
            Networks", draft-blb-mpls-tp-framework-00 (work in 
            progress), July 2008 

      [8]  Vigoureux, M., Bocci, M., Swallow, G., Ward, D., Aggarwal, 
            R., " MPLS Generic Associated Channel ", draft-bocci-mpls-
            tp-gach-gal-00, October 2008 

      [9]  Vigoureux, M., Betts, M., Ward, D., "Requirements for OAM in 
            MPLS Transport Networks", draft-vigoureux-mpls-tp-oam-
            requirements-00, July 2008 

      [10] Mannie, E., Papadimitriou, D., "Recovery Terminology for 
            Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching", RFC 4427, 
            March 2006 

      [11] Sprecher, N., Farrel, A., Kompella, V., "Multi-protocol 
            Label Switching Transport Profile Survivability Framework", 
            draft-sprecher-mpls-tp-survive-fwk-01", Feb 2009 


 
 
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Authors' Addresses 

   Stewart Bryant 
   Cisco Systems 
    
   Email: stbryant@cisco.com 
    
   Nurit Sprecher 
   Nokia Siemens Networks 
      
   Email: nurit.sprecher@nsn.com 
    

   Yaacov Weingarten 
   Nokia Siemens Networks 
      
   Email: yaacov.weingarten@nsn.com 
    
   Annamaria Fulignoli 
   Ericsson 
    
   Email: annamaria.fulignoli@ericsson.com 
    
   Huub van Helvoort 
   Huawei 
    
   Email: hhelvoort@huawei.com 
    

Contributing Authors' Addresses 

   John E. Drake 
   Boeing Corporation 
    
   Email: John.E.Drake2@boeing.com 
    
   Hao Long 
   Huawei 
    
   Email: lonho@huawei.com 
    
 





 
 
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