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Restart Signaling for Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)
draft-ietf-isis-restart-05

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 3847.
Authors Mike Shand , Les Ginsberg
Last updated 2015-10-14 (Latest revision 2004-01-14)
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draft-ietf-isis-restart-05
INTERNET DRAFT              IS-IS restart                    Jan 2004 
 
 
 
Network Working Group                                          M. Shand 
Internet Draft                                              L. Ginsberg 
Expiration Date: July 2004                                Cisco Systems 
                                                           January 2004 
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
 
                      Restart signaling for IS-IS 
                     draft-ietf-isis-restart-05.txt 
 
 
Status of this Memo 
    

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with 
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC 2026.  

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. 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." 

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.  

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 

   Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All  
   Rights Reserved. 

Abstract 
    

   The IS-IS routing protocol (RFC 1195, ISO/IEC 10589) is a link state 
   intra-domain routing protocol. Normally, when an IS-IS router is 
   restarted, temporary disruption of routing occurs due to events in 
   both the restarting router and the neighbors of the restarting 
   router. 

   The router which has been restarted computes its own routes before 
   achieving database synchronization with its neighbors. The results 

 
  
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   of this computation are likely to be non-convergent with the routes 
   computed by other routers in the area/domain. 

   Neighbors of the restarting router detect the restart event and 
   cycle their adjacencies with the restarting router through the down 
   state. The cycling of the adjacency state causes the neighbors to 
   regenerate their LSPs describing the adjacency concerned. This in 
   turn causes temporary disruption of routes passing through the 
   restarting router. 

   In certain scenarios the temporary disruption of the routes is 
   highly undesirable. This draft describes mechanisms to avoid or 
   minimize the disruption due to both of these causes. 

Table of Contents 
    

   1. Conventions used in this document..............................3 
   2. Overview.......................................................3 
   3. Approach.......................................................4 
    3.1 Timers.......................................................4 
    3.2 Restart TLV..................................................4 
     3.2.1 Use of RR and RA bits.....................................5 
     3.2.2 Use of SA bit.............................................7 
    3.3 Adjacency (re)acquisition....................................8 
     3.3.1 Adjacency reacquisition during restart....................8 
     3.3.2 Adjacency acquisition during start.......................10 
     3.3.3 Multiple levels..........................................11 
    3.4 Database synchronization....................................12 
     3.4.1 LSP generation and flooding and SPF computation..........12 
       3.4.1.1. Restarting..........................................13 
       3.4.1.2. Starting............................................14 
   4. State Tables..................................................16 
    4.1 Running Router..............................................16 
    4.2 Restarting Router...........................................17 
    4.3 Starting Router.............................................18 
   5. Security Considerations.......................................19 
   6. IANA Considerations...........................................19 
   7. Normative References..........................................20 
   8. Acknowledgments...............................................20 
   9. Authors' Addresses............................................20 
   10. Full Copyright Statement.....................................21 
    

 
 
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1.    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 [4]. 

   If the control and forwarding functions in a router can be 
   maintained independently, it is possible for the forwarding function 
   state to be maintained across a control function restart. This 
   functionality is assumed when the terms "restart/restarting" are 
   used in this document. 

   The terms "start/starting" are used to refer to a router in which 
   the control function has either been started for the first time or 
   has been restarted but the forwarding functions have not been 
   maintained in a prior state. 

   The terms "(re)start/(re)starting" are used when the text is 
   applicable to both a "starting" and a "restarting" router. 

2.    Overview 

   When an adjacency is reinitialized as a result of a neighbor 
   restarting, a router does three things: 

      1. It causes its own LSP(s) to be regenerated, thus triggering 
        SPF runs throughout the area (or in the case of Level 2, 
        throughout the domain). 

      2. It sets SRMflags on its own LSP database on the adjacency 
        concerned. 

      3. In the case of a Point-to-Point link it transmits a (set of) 
        CSNP(s) over the adjacency. 

   In the case of a restarting router process, the first of these is 
   highly undesirable, but the second is essential in order to ensure 
   synchronization of the LSP database. 

   The third action above minimizes the number of LSPs which must be 
   exchanged and, if made reliable, provides a means of determining 
   when the LSP databases of the neighboring routers have been 
   synchronized. This is desirable whether the router is being 
   restarted or not (so that the overload bit can be cleared in the 
   router's own LSP, for example). 

   This draft describes a mechanism for a restarting router to signal 
   that it is restarting to its neighbors, and allow them to 
   reestablish their adjacencies without cycling through the down 
   state, while still correctly initiating database synchronization. 
 
 
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   This draft additionally describes a mechanism for a restarting 
   router to determine when it has achieved LSP database 
   synchronization with its neighbors and a mechanism to optimize LSP 
   database synchronization and minimize transient routing disruption 
   when a router starts. 

   It is assumed that the three-way handshake [5] is being used on 
   Point-to-Point circuits. 

3.    Approach 

3.1     Timers 

   Three additional timers, T1, T2 and T3 are required to support the 
   functionality defined in this document. 

   An instance of the timer T1 is maintained per interface, and 
   indicates the time after which an unacknowledged (re)start attempt 
   will be repeated. A typical value might be 3 seconds. 

   An instance of the timer T2 is maintained for each LSP database 
   present in the system i.e. for a Level1/2 system, there will be an 
   instance of the timer T2 for Level 1 and an instance for Level 2. 
   This is the maximum time that the system will wait for LSPDB 
   synchronization. A typical value might be 60 seconds. 

   A single instance of the timer T3 is maintained for the entire 
   system. It indicates the time after which the router will declare 
   that it has failed to achieve database synchronization (by setting 
   the overload bit in its own LSP). This is initialized to 65535 
   seconds, but is set to the minimum of the remaining times of 
   received IIHs containing a restart TLV with RA set and an indication 
   that the neighbor has an adjacency in the UP state to the restarting 
   router. 

   NOTE: The timer T3 is only used by a restarting router. 

3.2     Restart TLV 

   A new TLV is defined to be included in IIH PDUs. The presence of 
   this TLV indicates that the sender supports the functionality 
   defined in this document and it carries flags that are used to 
   convey information during a (re)start. All IIHs transmitted by a 
   router that supports this capability MUST include this TLV.  

 
 
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         Type   211 
         Length # of octets in the value field (1 to (3 + ID Length)) 
         Value 

                                            No. of octets 
             +-----------------------+ 
             |   Flags               |     1 
             +-----------------------+ 
             | Remaining Time        |     2 
             +-----------------------+ 
             | Restarting Neighbor ID|     ID Length 
             +-----------------------+ 
              
          
           Flags (1 octet) 

              0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7 
             +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ 
             |  Reserved    |SA|RA|RR| 
             +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ 
              

             RR - Restart Request 
             RA - Restart Acknowledgment 
             SA - Suppress adjacency advertisement 
              

           (Note: Remaining fields are required when RA bit is set) 

           Remaining Time (2 octets) 

             Remaining holding time (in seconds) 
              

           Restarting Neighbor System ID (ID Length octets) 

             The system ID of the neighbor to which an RA refers. Note: 
             Implementations based on earlier versions of this document 
             may not include this field in the TLV when RA is set. In 
             this case a router which is expecting an RA on a LAN 
             circuit SHOULD assume that the acknowledgement is directed 
             at the local system. 
              
              
3.2.1       Use of RR and RA bits 

   The RR bit is used by a (re)starting router to signal to its 
   neighbors that a (re)start is in progress, that an existing 
 
 
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   adjacency SHOULD be maintained even under circumstances when the 
   normal operation of the adjacency state machine would require the 
   adjacency to be reinitialized, to request a set of CSNPs, and to 
   request setting of SRMflags. 

   The RA bit is sent by the neighbor of a (re)starting router to 
   acknowledge the receipt of a restart TLV with the RR bit set. 

   When the neighbor of a (re)starting router receives an IIH with the 
   restart TLV having the RR bit set, if there exists on this interface 
   an adjacency in state "Up" with the same System ID, and in the case 
   of a LAN circuit, with the same source LAN address, then, 
   irrespective of the other contents of the "Intermediate System 
   Neighbors" option (LAN circuits), or the "Point-to-Point Three-Way 
   Adjacency" option (Point-to-Point circuits):   

    a) The state of the adjacency is not changed. If this is the first 
      IIH with the RR bit set that this system has received associated 
      with this adjacency then the adjacency is marked as being in 
      "Restart mode" and the adjacency holding time is refreshed - 
      otherwise the holding time is not refreshed. The "remaining time" 
      transmitted according to (b) below MUST reflect the actual time 
      after which the adjacency will now expire. Receipt of a normal 
      IIH with RR bit reset will clear the "Restart mode" state. This 
      procedure allows the restarting router to cause the neighbor to 
      maintain the adjacency long enough for restart to successfully 
      complete while also preventing repetitive restarts from 
      maintaining an adjacency indefinitely. Whether an adjacency is 
      marked as being in "Restart mode" or not has no effect on 
      adjacency state transitions. 

    b) immediately (i.e. without waiting for any currently running timer 
      interval to expire, but with a small random delay of a few 10s of 
      milliseconds on LANs to avoid "storms"), transmit over the 
      corresponding interface an IIH including the restart TLV with the 
      RR bit clear and the RA bit set, in the case of Point-to-Point 
      adjacencies having updated the "Point-to-Point Three-Way 
      Adjacency" option to reflect any new values received from the 
      (re)starting router. (This allows a restarting router to quickly 
      acquire the correct information to place in its hellos.) The 
      "Remaining Time" MUST be set to the current time (in seconds) 
      before the holding timer on this adjacency is due to expire. If 
      the corresponding interface is a LAN interface, then the 
      Restarting Neighbor System ID SHOULD be set to the System ID of 
      the router from whom the IIH with RR bit set was received. This 
      is required to correctly associate the acknowledgement and 
      holding time in the case where multiple systems on a LAN restart 
      at approximately the same time. This IIH SHOULD be transmitted 
      before any LSPs or SNPs transmitted as a result of the receipt of 
      the original IIH. 
 
 
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    c) if the corresponding interface is a Point-to-Point interface, or 
      if the receiving router has the highest LnRouterPriority (with 
      highest source MAC address breaking ties) among those routers to 
      which the receiving router has an adjacency in state "Up" on this 
      interface whose IIHs contain the restart TLV, excluding 
      adjacencies to all routers which are considered in "Restart mode" 
      (note the actual DIS is NOT changed by this process), initiate 
      the transmission over the corresponding interface of a complete 
      set of CSNPs, and set SRMflags on the corresponding interface for 
      all LSPs in the local LSP database. 

   Otherwise (i.e. if there was no adjacency in the "UP" state to the 
   system ID in question), process the IIH as normal by reinitializing 
   the adjacency, and setting the RA bit in the returned IIH. 

3.2.2       Use of SA bit 

   The SA bit is used by a starting router to request that its neighbor 
   suppress advertisement of the adjacency to the starting router in 
   the neighbor's LSPs. 

   A router which is starting has no maintained forwarding function 
   state. This may or may not be the first time the router has started. 
   If this is not the first time the router has started, copies of LSPs 
   generated by this router in its previous incarnation may exist in 
   the LSP databases of other routers in the network. These copies are 
   likely to appear "newer" than LSPs initially generated by the 
   starting router due to the reinitialization of LSP fragment sequence 
   numbers by the starting router. This may cause temporary blackholes 
   to occur until the normal operation of the update process causes the 
   starting router to regenerate and flood copies of its own LSPs with 
   higher sequence numbers. The temporary blackholes can be avoided if 
   the starting router's neighbors suppress advertising an adjacency to 
   the starting router until the starting router has been able to 
   propagate newer versions of LSPs generated by previous incarnations. 

   When a router receives an IIH with the restart TLV having the SA bit 
   set, if there exists on this interface an adjacency in state "Up" 
   with the same System ID, and in the case of a LAN circuit, with the 
   same source LAN address, then the router MUST suppress advertisement 
   of the adjacency to the neighbor in its own LSPs. Until an IIH with 
   the SA bit clear has been received, the neighbor advertisement MUST 
   continue to be suppressed. If the adjacency transitions to the UP 
   state, the new adjacency MUST NOT be advertised until an IIH with 
   the SA bit clear has been received. 

   Note that a router which suppresses advertisement of an adjacency 
   MUST NOT use this adjacency when performing its SPF calculation. In 
   particular, if an implementation follows the example guidelines 
   presented in [3] Annex C.2.5 Step 0:b) "pre-load TENT with the local 
 
 
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   adjacency database", the suppressed adjacency MUST NOT be loaded 
   into TENT. 

3.3     Adjacency (re)acquisition 

   Adjacency (re)acquisition is the first step in (re)initialization. 
   Restarting and starting routers will make use of the RR bit in the 
   restart TLV, though each will use it at different stages of the 
   (re)start procedure.  

3.3.1       Adjacency reacquisition during restart 

   The restarting router explicitly notifies its neighbor that the 
   adjacency is being reacquired, and hence that it SHOULD NOT 
   reinitialize the adjacency. This is achieved by setting the RR bit 
   in the restart TLV. When the neighbor of a restarting router 
   receives an IIH with the restart TLV having the RR bit set, if there 
   exists on this interface an adjacency in state "Up" with the same 
   System ID, and in the case of a LAN circuit, with the same source 
   LAN address, then the procedures described in 4.2.1 are followed. 

   A router that does not support the restart capability will ignore 
   the restart TLV and reinitialize the adjacency as normal, returning 
   an IIH without the restart TLV. 

   On restarting, a router initializes the timer T3, starts the timer 
   T2 for each LSPDB and for each interface (and in the case of a LAN 
   circuit, for each level) starts the timer T1 and transmits an IIH 
   containing the restart TLV with the RR bit set. 

   On a Point-to-Point circuit the restarting router SHOULD set the 
   "Adjacency Three-Way State" to "Init", because the receipt of the 
   acknowledging IIH (with RA set) MUST cause the adjacency to enter 
   "Up" state immediately. 

   On a LAN circuit the LAN-ID assigned to the circuit SHOULD be the 
   same as that used prior to the restart. In particular, for any 
   circuits for which the restarting router was previously DIS, the use 
   of a different LAN-ID would necessitate the generation of a new set 
   of pseudonode LSPs, and corresponding changes in all the LSPs 
   referencing them from other routers on the LAN. By preserving the 
   LAN-ID across the restart, this churn can be prevented. To enable a 
   restarting router to learn the LAN-ID used prior to restart, the 
   LAN-ID specified in an IIH with RR set MUST be ignored. 

   Transmission of "normal" IIHs is inhibited until the conditions 
   described below are met (in order to avoid causing an unnecessary 
   adjacency initialization). On expiry of the timer T1, it is 
   restarted and the IIH is retransmitted as above. 

 
 
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   When a restarting router receives an IIH a local adjacency is 
   established as usual, and if the IIH contains a restart TLV with the 
   RA bit set (and on LAN circuits with a Restart Neighbor System ID 
   which matches that of the local system), the receipt of the 
   acknowledgement over that interface is noted. When the RA bit is set 
   and the state of the remote adjacency is UP then the timer T3 is set 
   to the minimum of its current value and the value of the "Remaining 
   Time" field in the received IIH.  

   On a Point-to-Point link, receipt of an IIH not containing the 
   restart TLV is also treated as an acknowledgement, since it 
   indicates that the neighbor is not restart capable. However, since 
   no CSNP is guaranteed to be received over this interface, the timer 
   T1 is cancelled immediately without waiting for a complete set of 
   CSNP(s). Synchronization may therefore be deemed complete even 
   though there are some LSPs which are held (only) by this neighbor 
   (see section 4.4). In this case we also want to be certain that the 
   neighbor will reinitialize the adjacency in order to guarantee that 
   SRMflags have been set on its database, thus ensuring eventual LSPDB 
   synchronization. This is guaranteed to happen except in the case 
   where the Adjacency Three-Way State in the received IIH is UP and 
   the Neighbor Extended Local Circuit ID matches the extended local 
   circuit ID assigned by the restarting router. In this case the 
   restarting router MUST force the adjacency to reinitialize by 
   setting the local Adjacency Three-Way State to DOWN and sending a 
   normal IIH.  

   In the case of a LAN interface, receipt of an IIH not containing the 
   restart TLV is unremarkable since synchronization can still occur so 
   long as at least one of the non-restarting neighboring routers on 
   the LAN supports restart. Therefore T1 continues to run in this 
   case. If none of the neighbors on the LAN are restart capable, T1 
   will eventually expire after the locally defined number of retries.  

   In the case of a Point-to-Point circuit, the "LocalCircuitID" and 
   "Extended Local Circuit ID" information contained in the IIH can be 
   used immediately to generate an IIH containing the correct 3-way 
   handshake information. The presence of "Neighbor Extended Local 
   Circuit ID" information which does not match the value currently in 
   use by the local system is ignored (since the IIH may have been 
   transmitted before the neighbor had received the new value from the 
   restarting router), but the adjacency remains in the initializing 
   state until the correct information is received. 

   In the case of a LAN circuit the source neighbor information (e.g. 
   SNPAAddress) is recorded and used for adjacency establishment and 
   maintenance as normal. 

 
 
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   When BOTH a complete set of CSNP(s) (for each active level, in the 
   case of a pt-pt circuit) and an acknowledgement have been received 
   over the interface, the timer T1 is cancelled. 

   Once the timer T3 has expired or been cancelled, subsequent IIHs are 
   transmitted according to the normal algorithms, but including the 
   restart TLV with both RR and RA clear. 

   If a LAN contains a mixture of systems, only some of which support 
   the new algorithm, database synchronization is still guaranteed, but 
   the "old" systems will have reinitialized their adjacencies. 

   If an interface is active, but does not have any neighboring router 
   reachable over that interface the timer T1 would never be cancelled, 
   and according to clause 3.4.1.1 the SPF would never be run. 
   Therefore timer T1 is cancelled after some pre-determined number of 
   expirations (which MAY be 1).  

3.3.2       Adjacency acquisition during start 

   The starting router wants to ensure that in the event a neighboring 
   router has an adjacency to the starting router in the UP state (from 
   a previous incarnation of the starting router) that this adjacency 
   is reinitialized. The starting router also wants neighboring routers 
   to suppress advertisement of an adjacency to the starting router 
   until LSP database synchronization is achieved. This is achieved by 
   sending IIHs with the RR bit clear and the SA bit set in the restart 
   TLV. The RR bit remains clear and the SA bit remains set in 
   subsequent transmissions of IIHs until the adjacency has reached the 
   UP state and the initial T1 timer interval (see below) has expired. 

   Receipt of an IIH with RR bit clear will result in the neighboring 
   router utilizing normal operation of the adjacency state machine. 
   This will ensure that any old adjacency on the neighboring router 
   will be reinitialized. 

   On receipt of an IIH with SA bit set the behavior described in 3.2.2 
   is followed.  

   On starting, a router starts timer T2 for each LSPDB. 

   For each interface (and in the case of a LAN circuit, for each 
   level), when an adjacency reaches the UP state, the starting router 
   starts a timer T1 and transmits an IIH containing the restart TLV 
   with the RR bit clear and SA bit set. On expiry of the timer T1, it 
   is restarted and the IIH is retransmitted with both RR and SA bits 
   set (only the RR bit has changed state from earlier IIHs). 

   On receipt of an IIH with RR bit set (regardless of whether SA is 
   set or not) the behavior described in 3.2.1 is followed.  
 
 
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   When an IIH is received by the starting router and the IIH contains 
   a restart TLV with the RA bit set (and on LAN circuits with a 
   Restart Neighbor System ID which matches that of the local system), 
   the receipt of the acknowledgement over that interface is noted. 

   On a Point-to-Point link, receipt of an IIH not containing the 
   restart TLV is also treated as an acknowledgement, since it 
   indicates that the neighbor is not restart capable. Since the 
   neighbor will have reinitialized the adjacency this guarantees that 
   SRMflags have been set on its database, thus ensuring eventual LSPDB 
   synchronization. However, since no CSNP is guaranteed to be received 
   over this interface, the timer T1 is cancelled immediately without 
   waiting for a complete set of CSNP(s). Synchronization may therefore 
   be deemed complete even though there are some LSPs which are held 
   (only) by this neighbor (see section 4.4).  

   In the case of a LAN interface, receipt of an IIH not containing the 
   restart TLV is unremarkable since synchronization can still occur so 
   long as at least one of the non-restarting neighboring routers on 
   the LAN supports restart. Therefore T1 continues to run in this 
   case. If none of the neighbors on the LAN are restart capable, T1 
   will eventually expire after the locally defined number of retries. 
   The usual operation of the update process will ensure that 
   synchronization is eventually achieved. 

   When BOTH a complete set of CSNP(s) (for each active level, in the 
   case of a pt-pt circuit) and an acknowledgement have been received 
   over the interface, the timer T1 is cancelled. Subsequent IIHs sent 
   by the starting router have the RR and RA bits clear and the SA bit 
   set in the restart TLV. 

   Timer T1 is cancelled after some pre-determined number of 
   expirations (which MAY be 1).  

   When the T2 timer(s) are cancelled or expire transmission of 
   "normal" IIHs (with RR, RA, and SA bits clear) will begin. 

3.3.3       Multiple levels 

   A router which is operating as both a Level 1 and a Level 2 router 
   on a particular interface MUST perform the above operations for each 
   level. 

   On a LAN interface, it MUST send and receive both Level 1 and 
   Level 2 IIHs and perform the CSNP synchronizations independently for 
   each level. 

   On a pt-pt interface, only a single IIH (indicating support for both 
   levels) is required, but it MUST perform the CSNP synchronizations 
   independently for each level. 
 
 
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3.4     Database synchronization 

   When a router is started or restarted it can expect to receive a 
   (set of) CSNP(s) over each interface. The arrival of the CSNP(s) is 
   now guaranteed, since an IIH with RR bit set will be retransmitted 
   until the CSNP(s) are correctly received. 

   The CSNPs describe the set of LSPs that are currently held by each 
   neighbor. Synchronization will be complete when all these LSPs have 
   been received. 

   When (re)starting, a router starts an instance of timer T2 for each 
   LSPDB as described in 4.3.1 or 4.3.2. In addition to normal 
   processing of the CSNPs, the set of LSPIDs contained in the first 
   complete set of CSNP(s) received over each interface is recorded, 
   together with their remaining lifetime. In the case of a LAN 
   interface, a complete set of CSNPs MUST consist of CSNPs received 
   from neighbor(s) which are not restarting. If there are multiple 
   interfaces on the (re)starting router, the recorded set of LSPIDs is 
   the union of those received over each interface. LSPs with a 
   remaining lifetime of zero are NOT so recorded. 

   As LSPs are received (by the normal operation of the update process) 
   over any interface, the corresponding LSPID entry is removed (it is 
   also removed if the LSP had arrived before the CSNP containing the 
   reference). When an LSPID has been held in the list for its 
   indicated remaining lifetime, it is removed from the list. When the 
   list of LSPIDs is empty and the timer T1 has been cancelled for all 
   the interfaces that have an adjacency at this level, the timer T2 is 
   cancelled. 

   At this point the local database is guaranteed to contain all the 
   LSP(s) (either the same sequence number, or a more recent sequence 
   number) which were present in the neighbors' databases at the time 
   of (re)starting. LSPs that arrived in a neighbor's database after 
   the time of (re)starting may or may not be present, but the normal 
   operation of the update process will guarantee that they will 
   eventually be received. At this point the local database is deemed 
   to be "synchronized". 

   Since LSPs mentioned in the CSNP(s) with a zero remaining lifetime 
   are not recorded, and those with a short remaining lifetime are 
   deleted from the list when the lifetime expires, cancellation of the 
   timer T2 will not be prevented by waiting for an LSP that will never 
   arrive. 

3.4.1       LSP generation and flooding and SPF computation 

   The operation of a router starting, as opposed to restarting is 
   somewhat different. These two cases are dealt with separately below. 
 
 
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3.4.1.1.          Restarting 

   In order to avoid causing unnecessary routing churn in other 
   routers, it is highly desirable that the own LSPs generated by the 
   restarting system are the same as those previously present in the 
   network (assuming no other changes have taken place). It is 
   important therefore not to regenerate and flood the LSPs until all 
   the adjacencies have been re-established and any information 
   required for propagation into the local LSPs is fully available. 
   Ideally, the information is loaded into the LSPs in a deterministic 
   way, such that the same information occurs in the same place in the 
   same LSP (and hence the LSPs are identical to their previous 
   versions). If this can be achieved, the new versions may not even 
   cause SPF to be run in other systems. However, provided the same 
   information is included in the set of LSPs (albeit in a different 
   order, and possibly different LSPs), the result of running the SPF 
   will be the same and will not cause churn to the forwarding tables. 

   In the case of a restarting router, none of the router's own LSPs 
   are transmitted, nor are the router's own forwarding tables updated 
   while the timer T3 is running. 

   Redistribution of inter-level information MUST be regenerated before 
   this router's LSP is flooded to other nodes. Therefore the Level-n 
   non-pseudonode LSP(s) MUST NOT be flooded until the other level's T2 
   timer has expired and its SPF has been run. This ensures that any 
   inter-level information which is to be propagated can be included in 
   the Level-n LSP(s).  

   During this period, if one of the router's own (including 
   pseudonodes) LSPs is received, which the local router does not 
   currently have in its own database, it is NOT purged. Under normal 
   operation, such an LSP would be purged, since the LSP clearly should 
   not be present in the global LSP database. However, in the present 
   circumstances, this would be highly undesirable, because it could 
   cause premature removal of an own LSP - and hence churn in remote 
   routers. Even if the local system has one or more own LSPs (which it 
   has generated, but not yet transmitted) it is still not valid to 
   compare the received LSP against this set, since it may be that as a 
   result of propagation between Level 1 and Level 2 (or vice versa) a 
   further own LSP will need to be generated when the LSP databases 
   have synchronized. 

   During this period a restarting router SHOULD send CSNPs as it 
   normally would. Information about the router's own LSPs MAY be 
   included, but if it is included it MUST be based on LSPs which have 
   been received, not on versions which have been generated (but not 

 
 
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   yet transmitted). This restriction is necessary to prevent premature 
   removal of an LSP from the global LSP database.  

   When the timer T2 expires or is cancelled indicating that 
   synchronization for that level is complete, the SPF for that level 
   is run in order to derive any information which is required to be 
   propagated to another level, but the forwarding tables are not yet 
   updated.   

   Once the other level's SPF has run and any inter-level propagation 
   has been resolved, the own LSPs can be generated and flooded. Any 
   own LSPs which were previously ignored, but which are not part of 
   the current set of own LSPs (including pseudonodes) MUST then be 
   purged. Note that it is possible that a Designated Router change may 
   have taken place, and consequently the router SHOULD purge those 
   pseudonode LSPs which it previously owned, but which are now no 
   longer part of its set of pseudonode LSPs. 

   When all the T2 timers have expired or been cancelled, the timer T3 
   is cancelled and the local forwarding tables are updated. 

   If the timer T3 expires before all the T2 timers have expired or 
   been cancelled, this indicates that the synchronization process is 
   taking longer than minimum holding time of the neighbors. The 
   router's own LSP(s) for levels which have not yet completed their 
   first SPF computation are then flooded with the overload bit set to 
   indicate that the router's LSPDB is not yet synchronized (and 
   therefore other routers MUST NOT compute routes through this 
   router). Normal operation of the update process resumes and the 
   local forwarding tables are updated. In order to prevent the 
   neighbor's adjacencies from expiring, IIHs with the normal interface 
   value for the holding time are transmitted over all interfaces with 
   neither RR nor RA set in the restart TLV. This will cause the 
   neighbors to refresh their adjacencies. The own LSP(s) will continue 
   to have the overload bit set until timer T2 has expired or been 
   cancelled.  

3.4.1.2.          Starting 

   In the case of a starting router, as soon as each adjacency is 
   established, and before any CSNP exchanges, the router's own zeroth 
   LSP is transmitted with the overload bit set. This prevents other 
   routers from computing routes through the router until it has 
   reliably acquired the complete set of LSPs. The overload bit remains 
   set in subsequent transmissions of the zeroth LSP (such as will 
   occur if a previous copy of the routers LSP is still present in the 
   network) while any timer T2 is running. 

   When all the T2 timers have been cancelled, the own LSP(s) MAY be 
   regenerated with the overload bit clear (assuming the router isn't 
 
 
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   in fact overloaded, and there is no other reason, such as incomplete 
   BGP convergence, to keep the overload bit set), and flooded as 
   normal. 

   Other own LSPs (including pseudonodes) are generated and flooded as 
   normal, irrespective of the timer T2. The SPF is also run as normal 
   and the RIB and FIB updated as routes become available. 

   To avoid the possible formation of temporary blackholes the starting 
   router sets the SA bit in the restart TLV (as described in 4.3.2) in 
   all IIHs that it sends. 

   When all T2 timers have been cancelled the starting router MUST 
   transmit IIHs with the SA bit clear. 

 
 
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4.    State Tables 

   This section presents state tables which summarize the behaviors 
   described in this document. Other behaviors, in particular adjacency 
   state transitions and LSP database update operation, are NOT 
   included in the state tables except where this document modifies the 
   behaviors described in [3] and [5]. 

   The states named in the columns of the tables below are a mixture of 
   states that are specific to a single adjacency (ADJ suppressed, ADJ 
   Seen RA, ADJ Seen CSNP) and states which are indicative of the state 
   of the protocol instance (Running, Restarting, Starting, SPF Wait). 

   Three state tables are presented from the point of view of a running 
   router, a restarting router, and a starting router. 

    

4.1     Running Router 

  Event       | Running              | ADJ suppressed  
 ============================================================== 
  RX RR       | Maintain ADJ State   | 
              | Send RA              | 
              | Set SRM,send CSNP    | 
              |  (Note 1)            | 
              | Update Hold Time,    | 
              |  set Restart Mode    | 
              |  (Note 2)            | 
 -------------+----------------------+------------------------- 
  RX RR clr   | Clr Restart mode     | 
 -------------+----------------------+------------------------- 
  RX SA       | Suppress IS neighbor | 
              |   TLV in LSP(s)      | 
              | Goto ADJ Suppressed  | 
 -------------+----------------------+------------------------- 
  RX SA clr   |                      |Unsuppress IS neighbor 
              |                      |   TLV in LSP(s) 
              |                      |Goto Running 
 ============================================================== 
  
    Note 1: CSNPs are sent by routers in accordance with Section 3.2.1c 
    Note 2: If Restart Mode clear 

 
 
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4.2     Restarting Router 

  Event      | Restarting         | ADJ Seen  | ADJ Seen  | SPF Wait 
             |                    |    RA     |   CSNP    | 
 =================================================================== 
  Router     | Send IIH/RR        |           |           | 
   restarts  | ADJ Init           |           |           | 
             | Start T1,T2,T3     |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  RX RR      | Send RA            |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  RX RA      | Adjust T3          |           | Cancel T1 | 
             | Goto ADJ Seen RA   |           | Adjust T3 | 
 ----------- +--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  RX CSNP set| Goto ADJ Seen CSNP | Cancel T1 |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  RX IIH w/o | Cancel T1 (Point-  |           |           | 
  Restart TLV|  to-point only)    |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  T1 Expires | Send IIH/RR        |Send IIH/RR|Send IIH/RR| 
             | Restart T1         | Restart T1| Restart T1| 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  T1 Expires | Send IIH/          | Send IIH/ | Send IIH/ | 
   nth time  |   normal           |   normal  |   normal  | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  T2 expires | Trigger SPF        |           |           | 
             | Goto SPF Wait      |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  T3 expires | Set OL             |           |           | 
             | Flood local LSPs   |           |           | 
             | Update fwd plane   |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
  LSP DB Sync| Cancel T2, and T3  |           |           | 
             | Trigger SPF        |           |           | 
             | Goto SPF wait      |           |           | 
 ------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ 
 All SPF     |                    |           |           | Clear OL 
   done      |                    |           |           | Update fwd 
             |                    |           |           |  plane 
             |                    |           |           | Flood local 
             |                    |           |           |   LSPs 
             |                    |           |           | Goto Runing 
 ====================================================================== 
 
 
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4.3     Starting Router 

  Event       | Starting          | ADJ Seen RA| ADJ Seen CSNP  
 ============================================================= 
 Router       | Send IIH/SA       |            |                
   starts     | Start T1,T2       |            |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 RX RR        | Send RA           |            | 
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 RX RA        | Goto ADJ Seen RA  |            | Cancel T1 
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 RX CSNP Set  | Goto ADJ Seen CSNP| Cancel T1  |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 RX IIH w     | Cancel T1         |            |                
   no Restart | (Point-to-Point   |            |                
   TLV        |   only)           |            |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 ADJ UP       | Start T1          |            |                
              | Send local LSPs   |            |                
              |  w OL             |            |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 T1 Expires   | Send IIH/RR       |Send IIH/RR | Send IIH/RR    
              |   and SA          |   and SA   |   and SA       
              | Restart T1        |Restart T1  | Restart T1     
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 T1 Expires   | Send IIH/SA       |Send IIH/SA | Send IIH/SA    
  nth time    |                   |            |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 T2 expires   | Clear OL          |            |                
              | Send IIH normal   |            |                
              | Goto Running      |            |                
 -------------+-------------------+------------+--------------- 
 LSP DB Sync  | Cancel T2         |            |                
              | Clear OL          |            |                
              | Send IIH normal   |            |                
 ============================================================== 

 
 
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5.    Security Considerations 

   Any new security issues raised by the procedures in this document 
   depend upon the ability of an attacker to inject a false but 
   apparently valid IIH, the ease/difficulty of which has not been 
   altered. 

   If the RR bit is set in a false IIH, neighbors who receive such an 
   IIH will continue to maintain an existing adjacency in the UP state 
   and may (re)send a complete set of CSNPs. While the latter action is 
   wasteful, neither action causes any disruption in correct protocol 
   operation. 

   If the RA bit is set in a false IIH, a (re)starting router which 
   receives such an IIH may falsely believe that there is a neighbor on 
   the corresponding interface which supports the procedures described 
   in this document. In the absence of receipt of a complete set of 
   CSNPs on that interface, this could delay the completion of 
   (re)start procedures by requiring the timer T1 to time out the 
   locally defined maximum number of retries. This behavior is the same 
   as would occur on a LAN where none of the (re)starting router's 
   neighbors support the procedures in this document and is covered in 
   Sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2. 

   If an SA bit is set in a false IIH, this could cause suppression of 
   the advertisement of an IS neighbor which could either continue for 
   an indefinite period or occur intermittently with the result being 
   possible loss of reachability to some destinations in the network 
   and/or increased frequency of LSP flooding and SPF calculation. 

   The possibility of IS-IS PDU spoofing can be reduced by the use of 
   authentication as described in [2] and [3], and especially the use 
   of cryptographic authentication as described in [6]. 

6.    IANA Considerations 

   This document defines the following new ISIS TLV that needs to be 
   reflected in the ISIS TLV code-point registry: 

    Type        Description                            IIH   LSP   SNP 
    ----        -----------------------------------    ---   ---   --- 
    211         Restart TLV                              y     n     n 
    

 
 
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7.    Normative References 

   1 Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 
     9, RFC 2026, October 1996.  

   2 Callon, R., "OSI IS-IS for IP and Dual Environment," RFC 1195, 
     December 1990.  

   3 ISO, "Intermediate system to Intermediate system 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.  

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

   5 Katz, D., and Saluja, R., "Three-Way Handshake for IS-IS Point-
     to-Point Adjacencies", RFC 3373, September 2002 

   6 Li, T., and Atkinson, R., "Intermediate System to Intermediate 
     System (IS-IS) Cryptographic Authentication", RFC 3567, July 
     2003 

   7 Narten, T. and Alvestrand, H., "Guidelines for Writing an IANA 
     Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26 , RFC 2434, October 1998 

8.    Acknowledgments 

   The authors would like to acknowledge contributions made by Jeff 
   Parker, Radia Perlman, Mark Schaefer, Naiming Shen, Nischal Sheth, 
   Russ White, and Rena Yang. 

9.    Authors' Addresses 

   Mike Shand 
   Cisco Systems 
   250 Longwater Avenue, 
   Reading, 
   Berkshire, 
   RG2 6GB 
   UK 
   Phone: +44 208 824 8690 
   Email: mshand@cisco.com 

    
   Les Ginsberg 
   Cisco Systems 
   510 McCarthy Blvd. 
   Milpitas, Ca. 95035 USA 
   Email: ginsberg@cisco.com 
 
 
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10.     Full Copyright Statement 

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003).  All Rights Reserved. 

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to 
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it 
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published 
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any 
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph 
   are included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this 
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing 
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other 
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of 
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for 
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be 
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than 
   English. 

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be 
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. 

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an 
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING 
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING 
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION 
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 

 
 
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