One document matched: draft-xu-mpls-payload-protocol-identifier-00.txt


Network working group                                             X. Xu 
Internet Draft                                                  M. Chen 
Category: Standard Track                                         Huawei 
                                                                               
Expires: March 2014                                  September 26, 2013 
                                                                                
                                      
                      MPLS Payload Protocol Identifier 
                                      
                draft-xu-mpls-payload-protocol-identifier-00 

Abstract 

   The MPLS label stack has no explicit protocol identifier field to 
   indicate the protocol type of the MPLS payload. This document 
   proposes a mechanism for containing a protocol identifier field 
   within the MPLS packet, which may be useful in some emerging use 
   cases (e.g., network service chain and MPLS payload inspection). 

Status of this Memo 

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the   
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.  

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering   
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute   
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 

   This Internet-Draft will expire on March 26, 2014. 

Copyright Notice 

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the   
   document authors.  All rights reserved.  

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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 
   described in the Simplified BSD License. 

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 [RFC2119]. 

Table of Contents 

    
   1. Introduction ................................................ 3 
   2. Terminology ................................................. 3 
   3. Protocol Type Field ......................................... 3 
   4. Data Plane Processing of PIL ................................ 4 
      4.1. Egress LSRs ............................................ 4 
      4.2. Ingress LSRs ........................................... 5 
      4.3. Transit LSRs ........................................... 5 
      4.4. Penultimate Hop LSR .................................... 5 
   5. Signaling for PIL Processing Capability ..................... 6 
      5.1. LDP .................................................... 6 
      5.2. RSVP-TE ................................................ 6 
      5.3. BGP .................................................... 6 
      5.4. OSPF ................................................... 6 
      5.5. ISIS ................................................... 6 
   6. IANA Considerations ......................................... 6 
   7. Acknowledgements ............................................ 6 
   8. References .................................................. 6 
      8.1. Normative References ................................... 6 
      8.2. Informative References ................................. 6 
   Authors' Addresses ............................................. 7 














 
 
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1. Introduction 

   The MPLS label stack has no explicit protocol identifier field to 
   indicate the protocol type of the MPLS payload. This document 
   proposes a mechanism for containing a protocol identifier field 
   within the MPLS packet, which may be useful in some emerging use 
   cases (e.g., network service chain and MPLS payload inspection).  

2. Terminology 

   This memo makes use of the terms defined in [RFC3032].  

3. Protocol Type Field 

   The encapsulation format for Protocol Type field is depicted as below: 

   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  
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
   |                 PIL                   | EXP |1|      TTL      | 
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
   |0 0 0 0|       Reserved          |        Protocol Type        | 
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
   |                              Payload                          | 
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    

            Protocol Identifier Label (PIL) 

                This field contains a special purpose label with value of 
                <TBD> or an extended special purpose label [SPL] with 
                value of <TBD> which indicates that a Protocol Type field 
                appears immediately after the bottom of the label stack.         

            EXP 

                The usage of this field is in accordance with the                
                current MPLS specification [RFC3032]. 

            S 

                The Bottom of Stack (BoS) field is set since the PIL MUST 
                always appear at the bottom of the label stack.  

            TTL 


 
 
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                The usage of this field is in accordance with the                
                current MPLS specification [RFC3032]. 

            Reserved 

                MUST be set to 0 and ignored on reception. 

            Protocol Type 

                This field indicates the protocol type of the MPLS 
                payload as per [ETYPES]. 

            Payload 

                This field contains the MPLS payload which can be an IP 
                packet, an Ethernet frame, or any other type of payload 
                (e.g., network service header). 

4. Data Plane Processing of PIL 

4.1. Egress LSRs 

   Suppose egress LSR Y is capable of processing the Protocol Type field 
   contained in MPLS packets. LSR Y indicates this to all ingress LSRs 
   via signaling (see Section 5). LSR Y MUST be prepared to deal with 
   both packets with an imposed Protocol Type field and those without; 
   the PIL will distinguish these cases. If a particular ingress LSR 
   chooses not to impose a Protocol Type field, LSR Y's processing of 
   the received label stack (which might be empty) is as if LSR Y chose 
   not to accept Protocol Type field.  

   If an ingress LSR X chooses to impose the Protocol Type field, then 
   LSR Y will receive an MPLS packet constructed as follows: <Top Label 
   (TL), Application Label (AL), PIL> <Protocol Type field> <remaining 
   MPLS payload>. Note that here the TL could be replaced with an IP-
   based tunnel [RFC4023] and the AL is optional. 

   LSR Y recognizes TL as the label it distributed to its upstream LSR 
   and pops the TL (note that the TL may be an implicit null label, in 
   which case it doesn't appear in the label stack and LSR Y MUST 
   process the packet starting with the AL label (if present) and/or the 
   PIL.)  LSR Y recognizes the PIL with S bit set.  LSR Y then processes 
   the Protocol Type field, which will determine how LSR Y processes the 
   MPLS payload. 




 
 
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4.2. Ingress LSRs 

   If an egress LSR Y indicates via signaling that it can process the 
   Protocol Type field, an ingress LSR X can choose whether or not to 
   insert it into the MPLS packet destined for LSR Y. The ingress LSR X 
   MUST NOT insert the Protocol Type field into that MPLS packet unless 
   the egress LSR X has explicitly announced that it could process it. 

   The steps that ingress LSR X performs to insert the Protocol Type 
   field are as follows: 

      1.  On an incoming packet, identify the application to which the       
   packet belongs and determine whether the Protocol Type field needs to 
   be added to the incoming packet. 

      2.  For packets requiring the insertion of the Protocol Type field, 
   prepend the Protocol Type field to the existing MPLS payload; then, 
   push the PIL on to the label stack with the S bit set.  

      3.  Push the application label (AL) label (if required) on to the       
   label stack. 

      4.  Push the EL and the ELI labels [RFC6790] on to the label stack 
   (if required). 

      6.  Determine the top label (TL) and push it on to the label stack. 

      7.  Determine the output interface and send the packet out. 

4.3. Transit LSRs  

   Transit LSRs MAY operate with no change in forwarding behavior. If a 
   transit LSR recognizes the PIL and the subsequent Protocol Type field, 
   it MAY be allowed to do some additional value-added processing, such 
   as MPLS payload inspection, on the received MPLS packet containing 
   the PIL and the Protocol Type field. 

4.4. Penultimate Hop LSR 

   No change is needed at penultimate hop LSRs. 







 
 
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5. Signaling for PIL Processing Capability 

5.1. LDP 

5.2. RSVP-TE 

5.3. BGP 

5.4. OSPF 

5.5. ISIS 

6. IANA Considerations 

   A special purpose label with value of <TBD> or an extended special 
   purpose label with value of <TBD> for the PIL needs to be assigned by 
   the IANA. 

7. Acknowledgements 

   TBD. 

8. References 

8.1. Normative References 

   [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate               
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 

   [RFC3032] Rosen, E., Rekhter, Y., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G.,                  
             Farinacci, D. and A. Conta, "MPLS Label Stack                      
             Encoding", RFC 3032, January 2001. 

8.2. Informative References 

   [RFC4023] Worster, T., Rekhter, Y., and E. Rosen, "Encapsulating MPLS 
             in IP or GRE", RFC4023, March 2005. 

   [ETYPES]  The IEEE Registration Authority, "IEEE 802 Numbers", 2012,         
             <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ieee-802-numbers/              
             ieee-802-numbers.xml>. 

   [RFC5036] Andersson, L., Minei, I., and B. Thomas, "LDP              
             Specification", RFC 5036, October 2007. 




 
 
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   [RFC3209] Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T., Srinivasan, V.,          
             and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP              
             Tunnels", RFC 3209, December 2001. 

   [RFC3107] Rekhter, Y. and E. Rosen, "Carrying Label Information in           
             BGP-4", RFC 3107, May 2001. 

   [RFC4970] Lindem, A., Ed., Shen, N., Vasseur, JP., Aggarwal, R., and         
             S. Shaffer, "Extensions to OSPF for Advertising Optional           
             Router Capabilities", RFC 4970, July 2007. 

   [RFC4971] Vasseur, JP., Shen, N., and R. Aggarwal, "Intermediate             
             System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) Extensions for              
             Advertising Router Information", RFC 4971, July 2007. 

   [RFC6790] Kompella, K., Drake, J., Amante, S., Henderickx, W., and           
             L. Yong, "The Use of Entropy Labels in MPLS Forwarding",           
             RFC 6790, November 2012. 

   [RFC5586] Bocci, M., Vigoureux, M., and S. Bryant, "MPLS Generic             
             Associated Channel", RFC 5586, June 2009. 

   [RFC4385] Bryant, S., Swallow, G., Martini, L., and D. McPherson,            
             "Pseudowire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Control Word for         
             Use over an MPLS PSN", RFC 4385, February 2006. 

   [RFC4928] Swallow, G., Bryant, S., and L. Andersson, "Avoiding Equal         
             Cost Multipath Treatment in MPLS Networks", BCP 128,              
             RFC 4928, June 2007. 

   [SPL]     Kompella, K., Andersson, L., and A. Farrel, "Allocating and 
             Retiring Special Purpose MPLS Labels", draft-ietf-mpls-
             special-purpose-labels-03 (work in progress), July 2013.


Authors' Addresses

   Xiaohu Xu
   Huawei Technologies
   Beijing, China
   Phone: +86-10-60610041   
   Email: xuxiaohu@huawei.com


   Mach(Guoyi) Chen
   Huawei Technologies 
   Beijing, China
   Email: mach.chen@huawei.com


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