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Autonomous System Migration Features and Their Effects on the BGP AS_PATH Attribute
draft-ietf-idr-as-migration-03

The information below is for an old version of the document.
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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7705.
Authors Wesley George , Shane Amante
Last updated 2015-02-16 (Latest revision 2014-09-29)
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draft-ietf-idr-as-migration-03
Internet Engineering Task Force                                W. George
Internet-Draft                                         Time Warner Cable
Intended status: Standards Track                               S. Amante
Expires: April 2, 2015                                       Apple, Inc.
                                                      September 29, 2014

   Autonomous System Migration Features and Their Effects on the BGP
                           AS_PATH Attribute
                     draft-ietf-idr-as-migration-03

Abstract

   This draft discusses some BGP features for ASN migration that, while
   commonly used, are not formally part of the BGP4 protocol
   specification and may be vendor-specific in exact implementation.  It
   is necessary to document these de facto standards to ensure that they
   are properly supported in future BGP protocol work such as BGPSec.

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
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 2, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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
   (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.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Documentation note  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  ASN Migration Scenario Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  External BGP Autonomous System Migration Features . . . . . .   6
     3.1.  Modify Inbound BGP AS_PATH Attribute  . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.2.  Modify Outbound BGP AS_PATH Attribute . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.3.  Implementation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   4.  Internal BGP Autonomous System Migration Features . . . . . .   9
     4.1.  Internal BGP Alias  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.2.  Implementation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   5.  Additional Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.  Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   10. Appendix: Implementation report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16

1.  Introduction

   This draft discusses some BGP features for ASN migration that, while
   commonly used, are not formally part of the BGP4 [RFC4271] protocol
   specification and may be vendor-specific in exact implementation.
   These features are local to a given BGP Speaker and do not require
   negotiation with or cooperation of BGP neighbors.  The deployment of
   these features do not need to interwork with one another to
   accomplish the desired results, so slight variations between existing
   vendor implementations exist, and will not necessarily be harmonized
   due to this document.  However, it is necessary to document these de
   facto standards to ensure that new implementations can be successful,
   and any future protocol enhancements to BGP that propose to read,
   copy, manipulate or compare the AS_PATH attribute can do so without
   inhibiting the use of these very widely used ASN migration features.

   The migration features discussed here are useful to ISPs and
   organizations of all sizes, but it is important to understand the
   business need for these features and illustrate why they are so
   critical for ISPs' operations.  During a merger, acquisition or
   divestiture involving two organizations it is necessary to seamlessly

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   migrate both internal and external BGP speakers from one ASN to a
   second ASN.  The overall goal in doing so is to simplify operations
   through consistent configurations across all BGP speakers in the
   combined network.  In addition, it is common practice in the industry
   for ISPs to bill customers based on utilization.  ISPs bill customers
   based on the 95th percentile of the greater of the traffic sent or
   received, over the course of a 1-month period, on the customer's
   access circuit.  Given that the BGP Path Selection algorithm selects
   routes with the shortest AS_PATH attribute, it is critical that the
   ISP does not increase AS_PATH length during or after ASN migration
   toward downstream transit customers or settlement-free peers, who are
   likely sending or receiving traffic from those transit customers.
   This would not only result in sudden changes in traffic patterns in
   the network, but also substantially decrease utilization driven
   revenue at the ISP.

   By default, the BGP protocol requires an operator to configure a
   router to use a single remote ASN for the BGP neighbor, and the ASN
   must match on both ends of the peering in order to successfully
   negotiate and establish a BGP session.  Prior to the existence of
   these migration features, it would have required an ISP to coordinate
   an ASN change with, in some cases, tens of thousands of customers.
   In particular, as each router is migrated to the new ASN, to avoid an
   outage due to ASN mismatch, the ISP would have to force all customers
   on that router to change their router configurations to use the new
   ASN immediately after the ASN change.  Thus, it becomes critical to
   allow the ISP to make this process a bit more asymmetric, so that it
   could seamlessly migrate the ASN within its network(s), but allow the
   customers to gradually migrate to the ISP's new ASN at their leisure,
   either by coordinating individual reconfigurations, or accepting
   sessions using either the old or new ASN to allow for truly
   asymmetric migration.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   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].

1.2.  Documentation note

   This draft uses Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) from the range
   reserved for documentation as described in RFC 5398 [RFC5398].  In
   the examples used here, they are intended to represent Globally
   Unique ASNs, not private use ASNs as documented in RFC 6996 [RFC6996]
   section 5.

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2.  ASN Migration Scenario Overview

   The use case being discussed here is an ISP merging two or more ASNs,
   where eventually one ASN subsumes the other(s).  In this use case, we
   will assume the most common case where there are two ISPs, A and B,
   that prior to the ASN migration use AS 64500 and 64510, respectively.
   AS 64500 will be the permanently retained ASN used across the
   consolidated set of both ISPs network equipment, and AS 64510 will be
   retired.  Thus, at the conclusion of the ASN migration, there will be
   a single ISP A' with all internal BGP speakers configured to use AS
   64500.  To all external BGP speakers, the AS_PATH length will not be
   increased.

   In this same scenario, AS 64496 and AS 64499 represent two separate
   customer networks: C and D, respectively.  Originally, customer C (AS
   64496) is attached to ISP B, which will undergo ASN migration from AS
   64510 to AS 64500.  Furthermore, customer D (AS 64499) is attached to
   ISP A, which does not undergo ASN migration since the ASN for ISP A
   will remain constant, (AS 64500).  Although this example refers to AS
   64496 and 64499 as customer networks, either or both may be
   settlement-free or other types of peers.  In this use case they are
   referred to as "customers" merely for convenience.

         ------                  ------
       / ISP  A \              / ISP  B \
      | AS 64500 |            | AS 64510 |
       \        /              \        /
        -------                 -------
           |                       |
           |                       |
     ------------             -------------
     |  Cust D  |             |  Cust C   |
     | AS 64499 |             | AS 64496  |
     ------------             -------------

                        Figure 1: Before Migration

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                ---------------
              /                \
             |     ISP A'       |
             |     AS 64500     |
              \                /
                ---------------
             /                  \
           /                      \
          |                         |
     ------------             -------------
     |  Cust D  |             |  Cust C   |
     | AS 64499 |             | AS 64496  |
     ------------             -------------

                         Figure 2: After Migration

   The general order of operations, typically carried out in a single
   maintenance window by the network undergoing ASN migration (ISP B),
   are as follows.  First, ISP B will change the global BGP ASN used by
   a Provider Edge (PE) router, from ASN 64510 to 64500.  At this point,
   the router will no longer be able to establish eBGP sessions toward
   the existing Customer Edge (CE) devices that are attached to it and
   still using AS 64510.  Second, since ISP B needs to do this without
   coordinating the simultaneous change of its ASN with all of its eBGP
   peers, ISP B will configure two separate, but related ASN migration
   features discussed in this document on all eBGP sessions toward all
   CE devices.  These features enable the router to establish BGP
   neighbors using the legacy ASN, modify the AS_PATH attribute received
   from a CE device when advertising it further, and modify AS_PATH when
   transmitted toward CE devices to achieve the desired effect of not
   increasing the length of the AS_PATH.

   At the conclusion of the ASN migration, the CE devices at the edge of
   the network are not aware of the fact that their upstream router is
   now in a new ASN and do not observe any change in the length of the
   AS_PATH attribute.  However, after the changes discussed in this
   document are put in place by ISP A', there is a change to the
   contents of the AS_PATH attribute to ensure the AS_PATH is not
   artificially lengthened while these AS migration parameters are used.

   In this use case, neither ISP is using BGP Confederations RFC 5065
   [RFC5065] internally.

   There are multiple implementations with equivalent features deployed
   and in use.  Some documentation pointers to these implementations, as
   well as additional documentation on migration scenarios can be found
   in the appendix.  The examples cited below use Cisco IOS CLI for ease
   of illustration purposes only.

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3.  External BGP Autonomous System Migration Features

   The following section addresses features that are specific to
   modifying the AS_PATH attribute at the Autonomous System Border
   Routers (ASBRs) of an organization, (typically a single Service
   Provider).  This ensures that external BGP customers/peers are not
   forced to make any configuration changes on their CE routers before
   or during the exact time the Service Provider wishes to migrate to a
   new, permanently retained ASN.  Furthermore, these features eliminate
   the artificial lengthening of the AS_PATH both transmitted from and
   received by the Service Provider that is undergoing AS Migration,
   which would have negative implications on path selection by external
   networks.

3.1.  Modify Inbound BGP AS_PATH Attribute

   The first feature used in the process described above is called
   "Local AS".  This feature allows the PE router that was formerly in
   ISP B to re-establish an eBGP session toward the existing CE devices
   using the legacy AS, AS 64510.  Ultimately, the CE devices (i.e.:
   customer C) are completely unaware that ISP B has reconfigured its
   router to participate as a member of a new AS.  Within the context of
   the former ISP B PE router, the second effect this feature has on
   AS_PATH is that, by default, it prepends all received BGP UPDATEs
   with the legacy AS of ISP B: AS 64510, while advertising it (Adj-RIB-
   Out) to other BGP speakers (A').  Within Loc-RIB on ISP B prior to
   the migration, the AS_PATH toward customer C would appear as: 64510,
   whereas the same RIB on ISP A' (ISP B routers post-migration) would
   contain AS_PATH: 64510 64496.  To avoid changes to the AS_PATH
   length, a secondary feature "No Prepend" is added to the "Local AS"
   configuration toward every eBGP neighbor on PE routers migrating from
   ISP B.  The "No Prepend" feature causes those routers to not prepend
   the legacy AS, AS 64510, when advertising UPDATES received from
   customer C.  This restores the AS_PATH within ISP A' toward customer
   C so that it is just one ASN in length: 64496.

   In the direction of CE -> PE (inbound):

   1.  'local-as <old_ASN>': prepends the <old_ASN> value to the AS_PATH
       when advertising routes received from the CE

   2.  'local-as <old_ASN> no-prepend': does not prepend <old_ASN> value
       to the AS_PATH when advertising routes received from the CE

   PE-B is a PE that was originally in ISP B, and has a customer peer
   CE-B.  PE-B has had its global configuration ASN changed from AS
   64510 to AS 64500 to make it part of the permanently retained ASN.
   This now makes PE-B a member of ISP A'.  PE-A is a PE that was

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   originally in ISP A, and has a customer peer CE-A.  Although its
   global configuration ASN remains AS 64500, throughout this exercise
   we also consider PE-A a member of ISP A'.

                    ISP A'                    ISP A'
              CE-A <--- PE-A <------------------- PE-B <--- CE-B
              64499     New_ASN: 64500   Old_ASN: 64510     64496
                                         New_ASN: 64500

             Note: Direction of BGP UPDATE as per the arrows.

                   Figure 3: Local AS BGP UPDATE Diagram

   The final configuration on PE-B after completing the "Local AS"
   portion of the AS migration is as follows:

   router bgp 64500
        neighbor <CE-B_IP> remote-as 64496
        neighbor <CE-B_IP> local-as 64510 no-prepend

   As a result of the "Local AS No Prepend" configuration, on PE-B, CE-A
   will see an AS_PATH of: 64500 64496.  CE-A will not receive a BGP
   UPDATE containing AS 64510 in the AS_PATH.  (If only the "local-as
   64510" feature was configured without the keyword "no-prepend" on PE-
   B, then CE-A would see an AS_PATH of: 64496 64510 64500, which
   results in an unacceptable lengthening of the AS_PATH).

3.2.  Modify Outbound BGP AS_PATH Attribute

   The previous feature, "Local AS No Prepend", was designed to modify
   the AS_PATH Attribute received by the ISP in updates from CE devices,
   when CE devices still have an eBGP session established with the ISPs
   legacy AS, (AS64510).  In some existing implementations, "Local AS No
   Prepend" does not concurrently modify the AS_PATH Attribute for BGP
   UPDATEs that are transmitted by the ISP to CE devices.  Specifically,
   with "Local AS No Prepend" enabled on PE-B, it automatically causes a
   lengthening of the AS_PATH in outbound BGP UPDATEs from ISP A' toward
   directly attached eBGP speakers, (Customer C in AS 64496).  This is
   the result of the "Local AS No Prepend" feature automatically
   appending the new global configuration ASN, AS64500, after the legacy
   ASN, AS64510, in BGP UPDATEs that are transmitted by PE-B to CE-B.
   The end result is that customer C, in AS 64496, will receive the
   following AS_PATH: 64510 64500 64499.  Therefore, if ISP A' takes no
   further action, it will cause an unacceptable increase in AS_PATH
   length within customer's networks directly attached to ISP A'.

   A second feature was designed to resolve this problem (continuing the
   use of Cisco CLI in the examples, it is called "Replace AS" in the

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   examples below).  This feature allows ISP A' to prevent routers
   configured with this feature from appending the global configured AS
   in outbound BGP UPDATEs toward its customer's networks configured
   with the "Local AS" feature.  Instead, only the historical (or
   legacy) AS will be prepended in the outbound BGP UPDATE toward the
   customer's network, restoring the AS_PATH length to what it what was
   before AS Migration occurred.

   To re-use the above diagram, but in the opposite direction, we have:

                         ISP A'                    ISP A'
              CE-A ---> PE-A -------------------> PE-B ---> CE-B
              64499     New_ASN: 64500   Old_ASN: 64510     64496
                                         New_ASN: 64500

             Note: Direction of BGP UPDATE as per the arrows.

                  Figure 4: Replace AS BGP UPDATE Diagram

   The final configuration on PE-B after completing the "Replace AS"
   portion of the AS migration is as follows:

   router bgp 64500
        neighbor <CE-B_IP> remote-as 64496
        neighbor <CE-B_IP> local-as 64510 no-prepend replace-as

   By default, without "Replace AS" enabled, CE-B would see an AS_PATH
   of: 64510 64500 64499, which is artificially lengthened by the ASN
   Migration.  After ISP A' changes PE-B to include the "Replace AS"
   feature, CE-B would receive an AS_PATH of: 64510 64499, which is the
   same AS_PATH length pre-AS migration.

3.3.  Implementation

   While multiple implementations already exist, the following should
   document the expected behavior such that a new implementation of this
   feature could be done on other platforms.

   These features MUST be configurable on a per-neighbor or per peer-
   group basis to allow for maximum flexibility.  When this feature set
   is invoked, an ASN that is different from the globally-configured ASN
   is provided as a part of the command as exemplified above.  To
   implement this feature, a BGP speaker MUST send BGP OPEN messages to
   the configured eBGP peer using the ASN configured for this session as
   the value sent in MY ASN.  The speaker MUST NOT use the ASN
   configured globally within the BGP process as the value sent in MY
   ASN in the OPEN message.  This will avoid the BGP OPEN Error message
   BAD PEER AS, and is typically used to re-establish eBGP sessions with

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   peers expecting the legacy ASN after a router has been moved to a new
   ASN.  Additionally, when the BGP speaker configured with this feature
   receives updates from its neighbor, it MUST process the update as
   normal, but it MUST append the configured ASN in the AS_PATH
   attribute before advertising the UPDATE to any other BGP speaker.
   Note that processing the update as normal will include appending the
   globally configured ASN to the AS_PATH, thus processing this update
   will result in the addition of two ASNs to the AS_PATH attribute.
   Similarly, for outbound updates sent by the configured BGP speaker to
   its neighbor, the speaker MUST append the configured ASN to the
   AS_PATH attribute, adding to the existing global ASN in the AS_PATH,
   for a total of two ASNs added to the AS_PATH.

   Two options exist to manipulate the behavior of this feature.  They
   modify the behavior as described below:

   No prepend inbound - When the BGP speaker configured with this option
   receives inbound updates from its neighbor, it MUST NOT append the
   configured ASN in the AS_PATH attribute when advertising that UPDATE
   to other peers and instead MUST append only the globally configured
   ASN.

   No prepend outbound - When the BGP speaker configured with this
   option generates outbound BGP updates to the configured peer, the BGP
   speaker MUST remove the globally configured ASN from the AS_PATH
   attribute, and MUST append the locally configured ASN to the AS_PATH
   attribute before sending outbound BGP updates to the configured peer.

   While the exact command syntax is an implementation detail beyond the
   scope of this document, the following consideration may be helpful
   for implementers: Implementations MAY integrate the behavior of the
   options described above into a single command that addresses both
   inbound and outbound updates, but if this is done, implementations
   MUST provide a method to select its applicability to inbound updates,
   outbound updates, or updates in both directions.  Several existing
   implementations use separate commands (e.g. local-as no-prepend vs
   local-as replace-as) for maximum flexibility in controlling the
   behavior on the session to address the widest range of possible
   migration scenarios.

4.  Internal BGP Autonomous System Migration Features

   The following section describes features that assist with a gradual
   and least service impacting migration of Internal BGP sessions from a
   legacy ASN to the permanently retained ASN.  The following feature is
   very valuable to networks undergoing AS migration, but its use does
   not cause changes to the AS_PATH attribute.

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4.1.  Internal BGP Alias

   In this case, all of the routers to be consolidated into a single,
   permanently retained ASN are under the administrative control of a
   single entity.  Unfortunately, the traditional method of migrating
   all Internal BGP speakers, particularly within larger networks, is
   both time consuming and widely service impacting.

   The traditional method to migrate Internal BGP sessions was strictly
   limited to reconfiguration of the global configuration ASN and,
   concurrently, changing all iBGP neighbors' remote ASN from the legacy
   ASN to the new, permanently retained ASN on each router within the
   legacy AS.  These changes can be challenging to swiftly execute in
   networks with with more than a few dozen internal BGP speakers.
   There is also the concomitant service interruptions as these changes
   are made to routers within the network, resulting in a reset of iBGP
   sessions and subsequent route reconvergence to reestablish optimal
   routing paths.  Operators often cannot make such sweeping changes
   given the associated risks of a highly visible service interruption;
   rather, they require a more gradual method to migrate Internal BGP
   sessions, from one ASN to a second, permanently retained ASN, that is
   not visibly service-impacting to its customers.

   With the "Internal BGP Alias" [JUNIPER] feature, it allows an
   Internal BGP speaker to form a single iBGP session using either the
   old, legacy ASN or the new, permanently retained ASN.  The benefits
   of using this feature are several fold.  First, it allows for a more
   gradual and less service-impacting migration away from the legacy ASN
   to the permanently retained ASN.  Second, it (temporarily) permits
   the coexistence of the legacy and permanently retained ASN within a
   single network, allowing for uniform BGP path selection among all
   routers within the consolidated network.  NB: Cisco doesn't have an
   exact equivalent to "Internal BGP Alias", but the combination of the
   Cisco features iBGP local-AS and dual-as provides similar
   functionality.

   When the "Internal BGP Alias" feature is enabled, typically just on
   one side of a iBGP session, it allows that iBGP speaker to establish
   a single iBGP session with either the legacy ASN or the new,
   permanently retained ASN, depending on which one it receives in the
   "My Autonomous System" field of the BGP OPEN message from its iBGP
   session neighbor.  It is important to recognize that enablement of
   the "Internal BGP Alias" feature preserves the semantics of a regular
   iBGP session, (using identical ASNs).  Thus, the BGP attributes
   transmitted by and the acceptable methods of operation on BGP
   attributes received from iBGP sessions configured with "Internal BGP
   Alias" are no different than those exchanged across an iBGP session

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   without "Internal BGP Alias" configured, as defined by [RFC4271] and
   [RFC4456].

   Typically, in medium to large networks, BGP Route Reflectors
   [RFC4456] (RRs) are used to aid in reduction of configuration of iBGP
   sessions and scalability with respect to overall TCP (and, BGP)
   session maintenance between adjacent iBGP speakers.  Furthermore, BGP
   Route Reflectors are typically deployed in pairs within a single
   Route Reflection cluster to ensure high reliability of the BGP
   Control Plane.  As such, the following example will use Route
   Reflectors to aid in understanding the use of the "Internal BGP
   Alias" feature.  Note that Route Reflectors are not a prerequisite to
   enable "Internal BGP Alias" and this feature can be enabled
   independent of the use of Route Reflectors.

   The general order of operations is as follows:

   1.  Within the legacy network, (the routers comprising the set of
       devices that still have a globally configured legacy ASN), one
       member of a redundant pair of RRs has its global configuration
       ASN changed to the permanently retained ASN.  Concurrently,
       "Internal BGP Alias" is configured on all iBGP sessions.  This
       will comprise Non-Client iBGP sessions to other RRs as well as
       Client iBGP sessions, typically to PE devices, both still
       utilizing the legacy ASN.  Note that during this step there will
       be a reset and reconvergence event on all iBGP sessions on the
       RRs whose configuration was modified; however, this should not be
       service impacting due to the use of redundant RRs in each RR
       Cluster.

   2.  The above step is repeated for the other side of the redundant
       pair of RRs.  The one alteration to the above procedure is that
       "Internal BGP Alias" is now removed from the Non-Client iBGP
       sessions toward the other (previously reconfigured) RRs, since it
       is no longer needed.  "Internal BGP Alias" is still required on
       all RRs for all RR Client iBGP sessions.  Also during this step,
       there will be a reset and reconvergence event on all iBGP
       sessions whose configuration was modified, but this should not be
       service impacting.  At the conclusion of this step, all RRs
       should now have their globally configured ASN set to the
       permanently retained ASN and "Internal BGP Alias" enabled and in
       use toward RR Clients.

   3.  At this point, the network administrators would then be able to
       establish iBGP sessions between all Route Reflectors in both the
       legacy and permanently retained networks.  This would allow the
       network to appear to function, both internally and externally, as

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       a single, consolidated network using the permanently retained
       network.

   4.  To complete the AS migration, each RR Client (PE) in the legacy
       network still utilizing the legacy ASN is now modified.
       Specifically, each legacy PE would have its globally configured
       ASN changed to use the permanently retained ASN.  The ASN used by
       the PE for the iBGP sessions toward each RR would be changed to
       use the permanently retained ASN.  (It is unnecessary to enable
       "Internal BGP Alias" on the migrated iBGP sessions).  During the
       same maintenance window, External BGP sessions would be modified
       to include the above "Local AS No Prepend" and "Replace-AS"
       features described in Section 3 above, since all of the changes
       are service interrupting to the eBGP sessions of the PE.  At this
       point, all PEs will have been migrated to the permanently
       retained ASN.

   5.  The final step is to excise the "Internal BGP Alias"
       configuration from the first half of the legacy RR Client pair --
       this will expunge "Internal BGP Alias" configuration from all
       devices in the network.  After this is complete, all routers in
       the network will be using the new, permanently retained ASN for
       all iBGP sessions with no vestiges of the legacy ASN on any iBGP
       sessions.

   The benefit of using "Internal BGP Alias" is that it is a more
   gradual and less externally service-impacting change to accomplish an
   AS migration.  Previously, without "Internal BGP Alias", such an AS
   migration change would carry a high risk and need to be successfully
   accomplished in a very short timeframe (e.g.: at most several hours).
   In addition, it would likely cause substantial routing churn and
   rapid fluctuations in traffic carried -- potentially causing periods
   of congestion and resultant packet loss -- during the period the
   configuration changes are underway to complete the AS Migration.  On
   the other hand, with "Internal BGP Alias", the migration from the
   legacy ASN to the permanently retained ASN can occur over a period of
   days or weeks with reduced customer disruption.  (The only observable
   service disruption should be when each PE undergoes the changes
   discussed in step 4 above.)

4.2.  Implementation

   When configured with this feature, a BGP speaker MUST accept BGP OPEN
   and establish an iBGP session from configured iBGP peers if the ASN
   value in MY ASN is either the globally configured ASN or the locally
   configured ASN provided in this command.  Additionally, a BGP speaker
   configured with this feature MUST send its own BGP OPEN using both
   the globally configured and the locally configured ASN in MY ASN.  To

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   avoid potential deadlocks when two BGP speakers are attempting to
   establish a BGP peering session and are both configured with this
   feature, the speaker SHOULD send BGP OPEN using the globally
   configured ASN first, and only send a BGP OPEN using the locally
   configured ASN as a fallback if the remote neighbor responds with the
   BGP error BAD PEER ASN.  In each case, the BGP speaker MUST treat
   updates sent and received to this peer as if this was a natively
   configured iBGP session, as defined by [RFC4271] and [RFC4456].

   Implementations of this feature MAY integrate the functionality from
   the eBGP features (Section 3) section as a part of this command in
   order to simplify support for eBGP migrations as well as iBGP
   migrations, such that an eBGP session to a configured neighbor could
   be established via either the global ASN or the locally configured
   ASN.  If the eBGP session is established with the global ASN, no
   modifications to AS_PATH are required, but if the eBGP session is
   established with the locally configured ASN, the modifications
   discussed in eBGP features (Section 3) MUST be implemented to
   properly manipulate the AS_PATH.

5.  Additional Operational Considerations

   This document describes several features to support ISPs and other
   organizations that need to perform ASN migrations.  Other variations
   of these features may exist, for example, in legacy router software
   that has not been upgraded or reached End of Life, but continues to
   operate in the network.  Such variations are beyond the scope of this
   document.

   Companies routinely go through periods of mergers, acquisitions and
   divestitures, which in the case of the former cause them to
   accumulate several legacy ASNs over time.  ISPs often do not have
   control over the configuration of customers' devices (i.e.: the ISPs
   are often not providing a managed CE router service, particularly to
   medium and large customers that require eBGP).  Furthermore, ISPs are
   using methods to perform ASN migration that do not require
   coordination with customers.  Ultimately, this means there is not a
   finite period of time after which legacy ASNs will be completely
   expunged from the ISP's network.  In fact, it is common that legacy
   ASNs and the associated External BGP AS Migration features discussed
   in this document can and do persist for several years, if not longer.
   Thus, it is prudent to plan that legacy ASNs and associated External
   BGP AS Migration features will persist in a operational network
   indefinitely.

   With respect to the Internal BGP AS Migration Features, all of the
   routers to be consolidated into a single, permanently retained ASN
   are under the administrative control of a single entity.  Thus,

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   completing the migration from iBGP sessions using the legacy ASN to
   the permanently retained ASN is more straightforward and could be
   accomplished in a matter of days to months.  Finally, good
   operational hygiene would dictate that it is good practice to avoid
   using "Internal BGP Alias" over a long period of time for reasons of
   not only operational simplicity of the network, but also reduced
   reliance on that feature during the ongoing lifecycle management of
   software, features and configurations that are maintained on the
   network.

6.  Conclusion

   Although the features discussed in this document are not formally
   recognized as part of the BGP4 specification, they have been in
   existence in commercial implementations for well over a decade.
   These features are widely known by the operational community and will
   continue to be a critical necessity in the support of network
   integration activities going forward.  Therefore, these features are
   extremely unlikely to be deprecated by vendors.  As a result, these
   features must be acknowledged by protocol designers, particularly
   when there are proposals to modify BGP's behavior with respect to
   handling or manipulation of the AS_PATH Attribute.  More
   specifically, assumptions should not be made with respect to the
   preservation or consistency of the AS_PATH Attribute as it is
   transmitted along a sequence of ASNs.  In addition, proposals to
   manipulate the AS_PATH that would gratuitously increase AS_PATH
   length or remove the capability to use these features described in
   this document will not be accepted by the operational community.

7.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Kotikalapudi Sriram, Stephane Litkowski, Terry Manderson,
   David Farmer, Jaroslaw Adam Gralak, Gunter Van de Velde, Juan
   Alcaide, Jon Mitchell, and Thomas Morin for their comments.

8.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

9.  Security Considerations

   This draft discusses a process by which one ASN is migrated into and
   subsumed by another.  This involves manipulating the AS_PATH
   Attribute with the intent of not increasing the AS_PATH length, which
   would typically cause the BGP route to no longer be selected by BGP's
   Path Selection Algorithm in others' networks.  This could result in a
   loss of revenue if the ISP is billing based on measured utilization
   of traffic sent to/from entities attached to its network.  This could

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   also result in sudden and unexpected shifts in traffic patterns in
   the network, potentially resulting in congestion, in the most extreme
   cases.

   Given that these features can only be enabled through configuration
   of routers within a single network, standard security measures should
   be taken to restrict access to the management interface(s) of routers
   that implement these features.

10.  Appendix: Implementation report

   As noted elsewhere in this document, this set of migration features
   has multiple existing implementations in wide use.

   o  Cisco [CISCO]

   o  Juniper [JUNIPER]

   o  Alcatel-Lucent [ALU]

   This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, as equivalent features
   do exist in other implementations, however the authors were unable to
   find publicly available documentation of the vendor-specific
   implementation to reference.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

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

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Li, T., and S. Hares, "A Border Gateway
              Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271, January 2006.

   [RFC5398]  Huston, G., "Autonomous System (AS) Number Reservation for
              Documentation Use", RFC 5398, December 2008.

11.2.  Informative References

   [ALU]      Alcatel-Lucent, "BGP Local AS attribute", 2006-2012,
              <https://infoproducts.alcatel-lucent.com/html/0_add-
              h-f/93-0074-10-01/7750_SR_OS_Routing_Protocols_Guide/BGP-
              CLI.html#709567>.

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   [CISCO]    Cisco Systems, Inc., "BGP Support for Dual AS
              Configuration for Network AS Migrations", 2003,
              <http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-
              xml/ios/iproute_bgp/configuration/xe-3s/asr1000/
              irg-xe-3s-asr1000-book/irg-dual-as.html>.

   [JUNIPER]  Juniper Networks, Inc., "Configuring the BGP Local
              Autonomous System Attribute", 2012,
              <http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos13.3/topics/
              concept/bgp-local-as-introduction.html>.

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

   [RFC5065]  Traina, P., McPherson, D., and J. Scudder, "Autonomous
              System Confederations for BGP", RFC 5065, August 2007.

   [RFC6996]  Mitchell, J., "Autonomous System (AS) Reservation for
              Private Use", BCP 6, RFC 6996, July 2013.

Authors' Addresses

   Wesley George
   Time Warner Cable
   13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
   Herndon, VA  20171
   US

   Phone: +1 703-561-2540
   Email: wesley.george@twcable.com

   Shane Amante
   Apple, Inc.
   1 Infinite Loop
   Cupertino, CA  95014
   US

   Email: samante@apple.com

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