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PCEP Extensions for traffic steering support in Service Function Chaining
draft-wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Qin Wu , Dhruv Dhody
Last updated 2014-02-10
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draft-wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc-00
PCE Working Group                                                  Q. Wu
Internet-Draft                                                  D. Dhody
Intended status: Standards Track                                  Huawei
Expires: August 14, 2014                               February 10, 2014

    PCEP Extensions for traffic steering support in Service Function
                                Chaining
                  draft-wu-pce-traffic-steering-sfc-00

Abstract

   This document provides an overview of the usage of Path Computation
   Element (PCE) with Service Function Chaining (SFC); which is
   described as the definition and instantiation of an ordered set of
   such service functions (such as firewalls, load balancers), and the
   subsequent "steering" of traffic flows through those service
   functions.

   Further this document specifies extensions to the Path Computation
   Element Protocol (PCEP) that allow a stateful PCE to compute and
   instantiate Service Function Paths (SFP).

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
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   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 August 14, 2014.

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

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   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.  Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Service Function Paths and PCE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.   Overview of PCEP Operation in SFC enabled Networks . . . . .   4
     4.1.  SFP Instantiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.2.  SFP Deletion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.3.  SFP Delegation and Cleanup  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.4.  SFP State Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.5.  SFP Update and Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Object Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.1.  The OPEN Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.2.  The LSP Object  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       5.2.1.  SFP Identifiers TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Backward Compatibility  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   Service chaining enables creation of composite services that consist
   of an ordered set of Service Functions (SF) that must be applied to
   packets and/or frames selected as a result of classification as
   described in [I-D.quinn-sfc-arch] and referred to as Service Function
   Chain (SFC).  Service Function Path (SFP) is the instantiation of a
   SFC in the network.  Packets follow a Service Function Path from a
   classifier through the requisite Service Functions (SF).

   [RFC5440] describes the Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) as
   the communication between a Path Computation Client (PCC) and a Path
   Control Element (PCE), or between PCE and PCE, enabling computation
   of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for Traffic Engineering Label
   Switched Path (TE LSP).

   [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce] specifies extensions to PCEP to enable
   stateful control of MPLS TE LSPs.  [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp]

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   provides the fundamental extensions needed for stateful PCE-initiated
   LSP instantiation.

   This document specifies extensions to the PCEP that allow a stateful
   PCE to compute and instantiate Service Function Paths (SFP).

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 RFC2119 [RFC2119].

   The following terminologies are used in this document:

   PCC:  Path Computation Client.

   PCE:  Path Computation Element.

   PCEP:  Path Computation Element Protocol.

   PDP:  Policy Decision Point.

   SF:  Service Function.

   SFC:  Service Function Chain.

   SFP:  Service Function Path.

   UNI:  User-Network Interface.

3.  Service Function Paths and PCE

   Services are constructed as a sequence of SFs that represent an SFC,
   where SF can be a virtual instance or be embedded in a physical
   network element, and one or more SFs may be deployed within the same
   physical network element.  SFC creates an abstracted view of a
   service and specifies the set of required SFs as well as the order in
   which they must be executed.

   When an SFC is instantiated into the network it is necessary to
   select the specific instances of SFs that will be used, and to create
   the service topology for that SFC using SF's network locator.  Thus,
   instantiation of the SFC results in the creation of a Service
   Function Path (SFP) and is used for forwarding packets through the
   SFC.  In other words, an SFP is the instantiation of the defined SFC
   as described in details in [I-D.quinn-sfc-arch].

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   The selection of SFP can be based on a range of policy attributes,
   ranging from simple to more elaborate criteria and stateful PCE with
   extensions to PCEP are one such way to achieve this.

   Stateful pce [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce] specifies a set of
   extensions to PCEP to enable stateful control of TE LSPs.
   [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp] provides the fundamental motivations
   and extensions needed for stateful PCE-initiated LSP instantiation.
   This document specifies extensions that allow a stateful PCE to
   compute and instantiate Service Function Paths (SFP) via PCEP.

              +---------------------------------+
              |+------+ +------+            PDP |
              ||      | |      |                |
              ||      | |      |                |
              ||PCE   | |Policy|                |
              |*------+ +------+                |
              *---------------------------------+
             /
            /
           / SFP
          /  Instan-
         /   tiation
        /
       /
      V
   +-----+  Signaling  +-----+  Signaling  +-----+  Signaling  +-----+
   |SF-In|------------>|SF-1 |------------>|SF-2 |------------>|SF-E |
   |gress|             |     |             |     |             |gress|
   +-----+             +-----+             +-----+             +-----+

                    Figure 1: SFP instantiation vis PCE

   A Policy Decision Point (PDP) [RFC2753] is the central entity which
   is responsible for maintaining SFC Policy Tables and enforcing
   appropriate policies in SF Nodes described in detail in
   [I-D.boucadair-sfc-framework].  A PDP may further use stateful PCE
   and its instantiation mechanism to compute and instantiate Service
   Function Paths (SFP).  The PCE maybe co-located with the PDP or an
   external entity.

4.  Overview of PCEP Operation in SFC enabled Networks

   A PCEP speaker indicates its ability to support PCE initiated dynamic
   SFP during the PCEP Initialization Phase via mechanism described in
   Section 5.1.

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   As per section 5.1 of [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp], the PCE sends
   a Path Computation LSP Initiate Request (PCInitiate) message to the
   PCC to instantiate or delete a LSP.  This document makes no change to
   the PCInitiate message format but extends LSP objects described in
   Section 5.2.

4.1.  SFP Instantiation

   The Instantiation operation of SFP is same as defined in section 5.3
   of [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp].  Rules of processing and error
   codes remains unchanged.

4.2.  SFP Deletion

   The deletion operation of SFP is same as defined in section 5.4 of
   [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp] by sending an LSP Initiate Message
   with an LSP object carrying the PLSP-ID of the SFP to be removed and
   an SRP object with the R flag set (LSP-REMOVE as per section 5.2 of
   [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp]).  Rules of processing and error
   codes remains unchanged.

4.3.  SFP Delegation and Cleanup

   SFP delegation and cleanup operations are same as defined in section
   6 of [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp].  Rules of processing and error
   codes remains unchanged.

4.4.  SFP State Synchronization

   State Synchronization operations described in Section 5.4 of
   [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce] and can be applied for SFPs as well.

4.5.  SFP Update and Report

   PCE can make an SFP Update requests to a PCC to update one or more
   attributes of an SFP and to re-signal the SFP with updated
   attributes.  PCC can make an SFP state report to a PCE to send SFP
   state.  The mechanism are described in [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce]
   and can be applied for SFPs as well.

5.  Object Formats

5.1.  The OPEN Object

   This document defines a new optional TLV for use in the OPEN Object
   to indicate the PCEP speaker's capability for Service function
   Chaining.

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   The SFC-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV is an optional TLV for use in the OPEN
   Object to advertise the SFC capability on the PCEP session.  The
   format of the SFC-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV is shown in the following
   figure:

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |            Type=TBD           |            length=4           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |            Reserved           |             Flags             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The code point for the TLV type is to be defined by IANA.  The TLV
   length is 4 octets.

   The value is TBD.

   As per [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce], PCEP speaker advertises
   capability for instantiation of PCE-initiated LSPs via Stateful PCE
   Capability TLV (LSP-INSTANTIATION-CAPABILITY bit) in open message.
   The inclusion of SFC-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV in an OPEN object indicates
   that the sender is SFC capable.  These mechanism when used together
   indicates the instantiation capability for SFP by the PCEP speaker.

5.2.  The LSP Object

   The LSP object is defined in [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp] and
   included here for easy reference.

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                PLSP-ID                | Flags |F|C|  O|A|R|S|D|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   //                        TLVs                                 //
   |                                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   A new flag, the SFC (F) flag is introduced.  The F Flag set to 1 to
   indicate that this an SFP.  The C flag will also be set to indicate
   it was created via a PCInitiate message.

5.2.1.  SFP Identifiers TLV

   The SFP Identifiers TLV MUST be included in the LSP object for
   Service Function Paths (SFP).

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   The format and operations are TBD.

6.  Backward Compatibility

   The PCEP protocol extensions described in this document for PCEP
   speaker with instantiation capability for SFPs MUST NOT be used if
   PCC or PCE has not advertised its stateful capability with
   Instantiation and SFC capability as per Section 5.1.  If this is not
   the case and Stateful operations on SFPs are attempted, then a PCErr
   with error-type 19 (Invalid Operation) and error-value TBD needs to
   be generated.

   [Editor Note: more information on exact error value is needed]

7.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations described in [RFC5440] and
   [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp] are applicable to this
   specification.  No additional security measure is required.

8.  IANA Considerations

   TBD

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

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

   [I-D.ietf-pce-stateful-pce]
              Crabbe, E., Medved, J., Minei, I., and R. Varga, "PCEP
              Extensions for Stateful PCE", draft-ietf-pce-stateful-
              pce-07 (work in progress), October 2013.

   [I-D.ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp]
              Crabbe, E., Minei, I., Sivabalan, S., and R. Varga, "PCEP
              Extensions for PCE-initiated LSP Setup in a Stateful PCE
              Model", draft-ietf-pce-pce-initiated-lsp-00 (work in
              progress), December 2013.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC2753]  Yavatkar, R., Pendarakis, D., and R. Guerin, "A Framework
              for Policy-based Admission Control", RFC 2753, January
              2000.

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   [RFC5440]  Vasseur, JP. and JL. Le Roux, "Path Computation Element
              (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", RFC 5440, March
              2009.

   [I-D.quinn-sfc-arch]
              Quinn, P. and A. Beliveau, "Service Function Chaining
              (SFC) Architecture", draft-quinn-sfc-arch-04 (work in
              progress), January 2014.

   [I-D.boucadair-sfc-framework]
              Boucadair, M., Jacquenet, C., Parker, R., Lopez, D.,
              Guichard, J., and C. Pignataro, "Service Function
              Chaining: Framework & Architecture", draft-boucadair-sfc-
              framework-00 (work in progress), October 2013.

Authors' Addresses

   Qin Wu
   Huawei
   101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
   Nanjing, Jiangsu  210012
   China

   EMail: sunseawq@huawei.com

   Dhruv Dhody
   Huawei
   Leela Palace
   Bangalore, Karnataka  560008
   INDIA

   EMail: dhruv.ietf@gmail.com

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