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SPF Back-off algorithm for link state IGPs
draft-ietf-rtgwg-backoff-algo-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8405.
Authors Bruno Decraene , Stephane Litkowski , Hannes Gredler , Acee Lindem , Pierre Francois
Last updated 2015-06-19
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draft-ietf-rtgwg-backoff-algo-01
Network Working Group                                        B. Decraene
Internet-Draft                                                    Orange
Intended status: Standards Track                            S. Litkowski
Expires: December 21, 2015                       Orange Business Service
                                                              H. Gredler
                                                  Juniper Networks, Inc.
                                                               A. Lindem
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                             P. Francois
                                                IMDEA Networks Institute
                                                           June 19, 2015

               SPF Back-off algorithm for link state IGPs
                    draft-ietf-rtgwg-backoff-algo-01

Abstract

   This document defines a standard algorithm to back-off link-state IGP
   SPF computations.

   Having one standard algorithm improves interoperability by reducing
   the probability and/or duration of transient forwarding loops during
   the IGP convergence when the IGP reacts to multiple proximate IGP
   events.

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 [RFC2119].

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 December 21, 2015.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  High level goals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Definitions and parameters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Principles of SPF delay algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Specification of the SPF delay algorithm  . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Parameters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Impact on micro-loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   Link state IGPs, such as IS-IS [ISO10589-Second-Edition] and OSPF
   [RFC2328], perform distributed route computation on all routers of
   the area/level.  In order to have consistent routing tables across
   the network, such distributed computation requires that all routers
   have the same version of the network topology (Link State DataBase
   (LSDB)) and perform their computation at the same time.

   In general, when the network is stable, there is a desire to compute
   the new SPF as soon as the failure is detected in order to quickly
   route around the failure.  However, when the network is experiencing
   multiple proximate failures over a short period of time, there is a
   conflicting desire to limit the frequency of SPF computations.
   Indeed, this allows a reduction in control plane resources used by
   IGPs and all protocols/subsystem reacting on the attendant route

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   change, such as LDP, RSVP-TE, BGP, Fast ReRoute computations, FIB
   updates... This will reduce the churn on routers and in the network
   and, in particular, reduce the side effects such as micro-loops that
   ensue during IGP convergence.

   To allow for this, IGPs implement a SPF back-off algorithm.
   Different implementations choose different algorithms.  Hence, in a
   multi-vendor network, it's not possible to ensure that all routers
   trigger their SPF computation after the same delay.  This situation
   increases the average differential delay between routers completing
   their SPF computation.  It also increases the probability that
   different routers compute their FIBs based on a different LSDB
   versions.  Both factors increase the probability and/or duration of
   micro-loops.

   To allow multi-vendor networks to have all routers delay their SPF
   computations for the same duration, this document specifies a
   standard algorithm.  Optionally, implementations may offer
   alternative algorithms.

2.  High level goals

   The high level goals of this algorithm are the following:

   o  Very fast convergence for a single event (e.g., link failure).

   o  Slightly paced fast convergence for multiple proximate IGP events
      while IGP stability is considered acceptable.

   o  Delayed convergence when the IGP stability is problematic.  This
      will allow the IGP and related processes to conserve resources
      during the period of instability.

   o  Always try to avoid different SPF_DELAY timers values across
      different routers in the area/level.  Even though not all routers
      will receive IGP messages at the same time (due to differences
      both in the distance from the originator of the IGP event and in
      flooding implementations).

3.  Definitions and parameters

   IGP events: An IGP LSDB change requiring a new routing table
   computation.  Examples are a topology change, a prefix change, a
   metric change on link or prefix...

   Routing table computation: computation of the routing table, by the
   IGP, using the IGP LSDB.  No distinction is made between the type of
   computation performed. e.g., full SPF, incremental SPF, Partial Route

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   Computation (PRC).  The type of computation is a local consideration.
   This document may indifferently use the terms routing table
   computation or SPF computation.

   The SPF_DELAY is the delay introduced between the IGP event and the
   start of the routing table computation.  It can take the following
   values:

    INITIAL_WAIT: a very small delay to quickly handle link failure,
    e.g., 0 milliseconds.

    FAST_WAIT: a small delay to have a fast convergence in case of
    single component failure (node, SRLG..), e.g., 50-100 milliseconds.
    Note: we want to be fast, but as this failure results in multiple
    IGP events, being too fast increases the probability to receive
    additional network events immediately after the SPF computation.

    LONG_WAIT: a long delay when the IGP is unstable, e.g., 2 seconds.
    Note: Allow the IGP network to stabilize.

   The TIME_TO_LEARN timer is the maximum duration typically needed to
   learn all the IGP events related to a single component failure (e.g.,
   router failure, SRLG failure), e.g., 1 second.  It's mostly dependent
   on variation of failure detection times between all routers that are
   adjacent to the failure.  Additionally, it may depend on the
   different flooding implementations for routers in the network.

   The HOLD_DOWN timer is the time needed with no received IGP events
   before considering the IGP to be stable again, allowing the SPF_DELAY
   to be restored to INITIAL_WAIT. e.g., 3 seconds.

4.  Principles of SPF delay algorithm

   For this first IGP event, we assume that there has been a single
   simple change in the network which can be taken into account using a
   single routing computation (e.g., link failure, prefix (metric)
   change) and we optimize for very fast convergence, delaying the
   routing computation by INITIAL_WAIT.  Under this assumption, there is
   no benefit in delaying the routing computation.  In a typical
   network, this is the most common type of IGP event.  Hence, it makes
   sense to optimize this case.

   If subsequent IGP events are received in a short period of time
   (TIME_TO_LEARN), we then assume that a single component failed, but
   that this failure requires the knowledge of multiple IGP events in
   order for the IGP routing to converge.  Under this assumption, we
   want fast convergence since this is a normal network situation.
   However, there is a benefit in waiting for all IGP events related to

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   this single component failure so that the IGP can compute the post-
   failure routing table in a single route computation.  In this
   situation, we delay the routing computation by FAST_WAIT.

   If IGP events are still received after TIME_TO_LEARN seconds from the
   initial IGP event, then the network is presumably experiencing
   multiple independent failures and while waiting for network
   stability, the computations are delayed for a longer time represented
   by LONG_WAIT.  This SPF_delay is kept until no IGP events are
   received for HOLD_DOWN seconds.

   Note: previous SPF delay algorithms used to count the number of SPF
   computations.  However, as all routers may receive the IGP events at
   different times, we cannot assume that all routers will perform the
   same number of SPF computations or that they will schedule them at
   the same time.  For example, assuming that the SPF delay is 50 ms,
   router R1 may receive 3 IGP events (E1, E2, E3) in those 50 ms and
   hence will perform a single routing computation.  While another
   router R2 may only receive 2 events (E1, E2) in those 50 ms and hence
   will schedule another routing computation when receiving E3.  That's
   why this document defines a time (TIME_TO_LEARN) from the initial
   event detection/reception as opposed to defining the number of SPF
   computations to determine when the IGP is unstable.

5.  Specification of the SPF delay algorithm

   When no IGP events have occurred during the HOLD_DOWN interval:

   o  The IGP is set to the QUIET state.

   When the IGP is in the QUIET state and an IGP event is received:

   o  The time of this first IGP event is stored in FIRST_EVENT_TIME.

   o  The next routing table computation is scheduled at: this IGP event
      received time + INITIAL_WAIT.

   o  The IGP is set to the FAST_WAIT state.

   When the IGP is in the FAST_WAIT state and an IGP event is received:

   o  If more than the TIME_TO_LEARN interval has passed since
      FIRST_EVENT_TIME, then the IGP is set to the HOLD_DOWN state.

   o  If a routing table computation is not already scheduled, one is
      scheduled at: this IGP event received time + FAST_WAIT.

   When the IGP is in the HOLD_DOWN state and an IGP event is received:

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   o  If a routing table computation is not already scheduled, one is
      scheduled at: this IGP event received time + LONG_WAIT.

6.  Parameters

   All the parameters MUST be configurable.  All the delays
   (INITIAL_WAIT, FAST_WAIT, LONG_WAIT, TIME_TO_LEARN, HOLD_DOWN) SHOULD
   be configurable at the millisecond granularity.  They MUST be
   configurable at least at the tenth of second granularity.  The
   configurable range for all the parameters SHOULD be at least from 0
   milliseconds to 60 seconds.

   This document does not propose default values for the parameters
   because these values are expected to be context dependent.
   Implementations are free to propose their own default values.

   When setting the (default) values, one SHOULD consider the customer's
   or their applications' requirements, the computational power of the
   routers, the size of the network, and, in particular, the number of
   IP prefixes advertised in the IGP, the frequency and number of IGP
   events, the number of protocols reactions/computations triggered by
   IGP SPF (e.g., BGP, PCEP, Traffic Engineering CSPF, Fast ReRoute
   computations).

   Note that some or all of these factors may change over the life of
   the network.  In case of doubt, it's RECOMMENDED to play it safe and
   start with safe, i.e., longer timers.

   For the standard algorithm to be effective in mitigating micro-loops,
   it is RECOMMENDED that all routers in the IGP domain, or at least all
   the routers in the same area/level, have exactly the same configured
   values.

7.  Impact on micro-loops

   Micro-loops during IGP convergence are due to a non-synchronized or
   non-ordered update of the forwarding information tables (FIB)
   [RFC5715] [RFC6976] [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement].  FIBs
   are installed after multiple steps such as SPF wait time, SPF
   computation, FIB distribution, and FIB update.  This document only
   addresses the first contribution.  This standardized procedure
   reduces the probability and/or duration of micro-loops when the IGP
   experience multiple proximate events.  It does not prevent all micro-
   loops.  However, it is beneficial and its cost seems limited compared
   to full solutions such as [RFC5715] or [RFC6976].

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8.  IANA Considerations

   No IANA actions required.

9.  Security considerations

   This algorithm presented in this document does not in any way
   compromise the security of the IGP.  In fact, the HOLD_DOWN state may
   mitigate the effects of Denial-of-Service (DOS) attacks generating
   many IGP events.

10.  Acknowledgements

   We would like to acknowledge Les Ginsberg, Uma Chunduri, and Mike
   Shand for the discussions and comments related to this document.

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.

11.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement]
              Litkowski, S., "Link State protocols SPF trigger and delay
              algorithm impact on IGP microloops", draft-ietf-rtgwg-spf-
              uloop-pb-statement-00 (work in progress), May 2015.

   [ISO10589-Second-Edition]
              International Organization for Standardization,
              "Intermediate system to Intermediate system intra-domain
              routeing information exchange protocol for use in
              conjunction with the protocol for providing the
              connectionless-mode Network Service (ISO 8473)", ISO/IEC
              10589:2002, Second Edition, Nov 2002.

   [RFC2328]  Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, April 1998.

   [RFC5715]  Shand, M. and S. Bryant, "A Framework for Loop-Free
              Convergence", RFC 5715, January 2010.

   [RFC6976]  Shand, M., Bryant, S., Previdi, S., Filsfils, C.,
              Francois, P., and O. Bonaventure, "Framework for Loop-Free
              Convergence Using the Ordered Forwarding Information Base
              (oFIB) Approach", RFC 6976, July 2013.

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Authors' Addresses

   Bruno Decraene
   Orange
   38 rue du General Leclerc
   Issy Moulineaux cedex 9  92794
   France

   Email: bruno.decraene@orange.com

   Stephane Litkowski
   Orange Business Service

   Email: stephane.litkowski@orange.com

   Hannes Gredler
   Juniper Networks, Inc.
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave.
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   US

   Email: hannes@juniper.net

   Acee Lindem
   Cisco Systems
   301 Midenhall Way
   Cary, NC  27513
   USA

   Email: acee@cisco.com

   Pierre Francois
   IMDEA Networks Institute
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave.
   Leganes
   ES

   Email: pierre.francois@imdea.org

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