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Link State protocols SPF trigger and delay algorithm impact on IGP microloops
draft-litkowski-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Author Stephane Litkowski
Last updated 2014-12-22
Replaced by draft-ietf-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement, RFC 8541
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draft-litkowski-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement-01
Routing Area Working Group                                  S. Litkowski
Internet-Draft                                   Orange Business Service
Intended status: Standards Track                       December 22, 2014
Expires: June 25, 2015

   Link State protocols SPF trigger and delay algorithm impact on IGP
                               microloops
            draft-litkowski-rtgwg-spf-uloop-pb-statement-01

Abstract

   A micro-loop is a packet forwarding loop that may occur transiently
   among two or more routers in a hop-by-hop packet forwarding paradigm.

   In this document, we are trying to analyze the impact of using
   different Link State IGP implementations in a single network in
   regards of microloops.  The analysis is focused on the SPF triggers
   and SPF delay algorithm in a first step.

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
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   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 June 25, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   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.  Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  SPF trigger strategies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  SPF delay strategies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Two step SPF delay  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  Exponential backoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Mixing strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Proposed work items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   10. Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

1.  Introduction

   Link State IGP protocols are using plenty of timers to control the
   router behavior in case of churn : SPF delay, PRC delay, LSP
   generation delay, LSP flooding delay, LSP retransmission interval ...
   We can observe differences between implementations of the same
   protocol in term of timer management policy.  Some timers are static,
   some timers are managed by a dynamic algorithm (with differences in
   term of algorithm used) ...

   A micro-loop is a packet forwarding loop that may occur transiently
   among two or more routers in a hop-by-hop packet forwarding paradigm.
   We can observe that these micro-loops are formed when two routers do
   not update their Forwarding Information Base (FIB) for a certain
   prefix at the same time.

   Routers have more and more powerful controlplane and dataplane that
   reduce the Control plane to Forwarding plane overhead during the
   convergence process.  Even if FIB update is still reasonably the
   highest contributor in the convergence time for large network, its
   duration is reducing more and more and may become comparable to

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   protocol timers.  This is particular true in small and medium
   networks.

   In multi vendor networks, using different implementations of a link
   state protocol may favor micro-loops creation during convergence time
   due to deprecancies of timers.  Service Providers are already aware
   to use similar timers for all the network as best practice, but
   sometimes it is not possible due to limitation of implementations.

   This document will present why it sounds important for service
   provider to have consistent implementations of Link State protocols
   across vendors.  We are particularly analyzing the impact of using
   different Link State IGP implementations in a single network in
   regards of microloops.  The analysis is focused on the SPF triggers
   and SPF delay algorithm in a first step.

   This document is only stating the problem, and defining some work
   items but its not intented to provide a solution.

2.  Problem statement

                      A ---- B
                      |      |
                   10 |      | 10
                      |      |
                      C ---- D
                      |  2   |
                      Px     Px

                       Figure 1

   In the figure above, A uses primarily the AC link to reach C.  When
   the AC link fails, IGP convergence occurs.  If A converges before B,
   A will forward traffic to C through B, but as B as not converged yet,
   B will loop back traffic to A, leading to a microloop.

   The microloop appears due to the asynchronous convergence of nodes in
   a network when a event occurs.

   Multiple factors (and combination of these factors) may increase the
   probability for a microloop to appear :

   o  delay of failure notification : the more B is advised of the
      failure later than A, the more a microloop may appear.

   o  SPF delay : most of the implementations supports a delay for the
      SPF computation to try to catch as many events as possible.  If A
      uses a SPF delay timer of x msec and B uses a SPF delay timer of y

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      msec and x < y, B would start converging after A leading to a
      potential microloop.

   o  SPF computation time : mostly a matter of CPU power and
      optimizations like incremental SPF.  If A computes SPF faster than
      B, there is a chance for a microloop to appear.  CPUs are today
      faster enough to consider SPF computation time as negligeable
      (order of msec in a large network).

   o  RIB and FIB prefix insertion speed or ordering : highly
      implementation dependant.

   This document will focus on analysis SPF delay (and associated
   triggers).

3.  SPF trigger strategies

   Depending of the change advertised in LSP/LSA, the topology may be
   affected or not.  An implementation can decide to not run SPF (and
   only run IP reachability) if the advertised change is not affecting
   topology.

   Different strategies exists to trigger SPF :

   1.  Always run full SPF whatever the change to process.

   2.  Run only Full SPF when required : e.g. if a link fails, a local
       node will run an SPF for its local LSP update.  If the LSP from
       the neighbor (describing the same failure) is received after SPF
       has started, the local node can decide that a new full SPF is not
       required as the topology has not change.

   3.  If topology does not change, only recompute reachability.

4.  SPF delay strategies

   Implementations of link state routing protocols use different
   strategies to delay SPF :

   1.  Two steps.

   2.  Exponential backoff.

4.1.  Two step SPF delay

   The SPF delay is managed by four parameters :

   o  Rapid delay : amount of time to wait before running SPF.

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   o  Rapid runs : amount of consecutive SPF runs that can run using
      rapid delay.  When amount is exceeded router moves to slow delay.

   o  Slow delay : amount of time to wait before running SPF.

   o  Wait time : amount of time to wait without events before going
      back to rapid delay.

   Example : Rapid delay = 50msec, Rapid runs = 3, Slow delay = 1sec,
   Wait time = 2sec

   SPF delay time
       ^
       |
       |
   SD- |             x xx x
       |
       |
       |
   RD- |   x  x   x                    x
       |
       +---------------------------------> Events
           |  |   |  | || |            |
                           < wait time >

4.2.  Exponential backoff

   The algorithm has two mode : fast mode and backoff mode.  In backoff
   mode, the SPF delay is increasing exponentially at each run.  The SPF
   delay is managed by four parameters :

   o  First delay : amount of time to wait before running SPF.  This
      delay is used on when SPF is in fast mode.

   o  Incremental delay : amount of time to wait before running SPF.
      This delay is used on when SPF is in backoff mode and increments
      exponentially at each SPF run.

   o  Maximum delay : maximum amount of time to wait before running SPF.

   o  Wait time : amount of time to wait without events before going
      back to fast mode.

   Example : First delay = 50msec, Incremental delay = 50msec, Maximum
   delay = 1sec, Wait time = 2sec

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   SPF delay time
       ^
   MD- |               xx x
       |
       |
       |
       |
       |
       |             x
       |
       |
       |
       |          x
       |
   FD- |   x  x                        x
   ID  |
       +---------------------------------> Events
           |  |   |  | || |            |
                           < wait time >
          FM->BM -------------------->FM

5.  Mixing strategies

                  S ---- E
                  |      |
               10 |      | 10
                  |      |
                  D ---- A
                  |  2
                  Px

                   Figure 2

   In the diagram above, we consider a flow of packet from S to D.  We
   consider that S is using optimized SPF triggering (Full SPF is
   triggered only when necessary), and two steps SPF delay
   (rapid=150ms,rapid-runs=3, slow=1s).  As implementation of S is
   optimized, Partial Reachability Computation (PRC) is available.  We
   consider the same timers as SPF for delaying PRC.  We consider that E
   is using a SPF trigger strategy that always compute Full SPF and
   exponential backoff strategy for SPF delay (start=150ms, inc=150ms,
   max=1s)

   We also consider the following sequence of events (note : the
   timescale does not intend to represent a real router timescale where
   jitters are introduced to all timers) :

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   o  t0 : a prefix is declared down in the network.

   o  t0+200ms : the prefix is declared as up.

   o  t0+400ms : a prefix is declared down in the network.

   o  t0+1000ms : S-D link fails.

  S timescale             E timescale               Event timescale
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | <- t0 Event
    | Schedule PRC (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | SPF starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+180ms
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+200ms Event
    | Schedule PRC (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | SPF starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+380ms
    |                       |                         | < - t0+400ms Event
    | Schedule PRC (300ms)  | Schedule SPF (300ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | SPF starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+730ms
    |                       |                         |

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    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+1000ms Event
    | Schedule SPF (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (600ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF starts            |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        |                         |
    |                       |                         |  }
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  } Micro-loop creation
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       | SPF starts              |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       | SPF ends                |  }
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            |  }

                   Figure 3

   In the figure above, we can see that due to deprecancies in SPF
   management, after multiple events (different types of event), SPF
   delays are completely misaligned between nodes leading to long
   microloop creation.

   The same issue can also appear with only single type of events as
   displayed below :

  S timescale             E timescale               Event timescale
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0 Event remote link down
    | Schedule SPF (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | SPF starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |

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    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+180ms
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+200ms Event remote link down
    | Schedule SPF (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF starts            | SPF starts              |
    | SPF ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+380ms
    |                       |                         | < - t0+400ms Event remote link change
    | Schedule SPF (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (300ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF starts            |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        |                         |
    |                       | SPF starts              |  }
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |  }
    |                       | SPF ends                |  } micro-loop creation
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+730ms
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+1000ms Event
    | Schedule SPF (1s)     | Schedule SPF (600ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |

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    |                       | SPF starts              |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       | SPF ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  } microloop creation
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    | SPF starts            |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    | SPF ends              |                         |  }
    | RIB/FIB starts        |                         |  }
    |                       |                         |  }
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         | t0 + 2030ms

                        Figure 4

6.  Proposed work items

   In order to enhance the current LinkState IGP behavior, authors would
   encourage working on standardisation of some behaviors.

   Authors are proposing the following work items :

   o  Standardize SPF trigger strategy.

   o  Standardize computation timer scope : single timer for all
      computation operations, separated timers ...

   o  Standardize "slowdown" timer algorithm including its association
      to a particular timer : authors of this document does not presume
      that the same algorithm must be used for all timers.

   Using the same event sequence as in figure 2, we may expect fewer
   and/or shorter microloops using standardized implementations.

      S timescale             E timescale               Event timescale
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0 Event
    | Schedule PRC (150ms)  | Schedule PRC (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |

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    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | PRC starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | PRC ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+180ms
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+200ms Event
    | Schedule PRC (150ms)  | Schedule PRC (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | PRC starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | PRC ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+380ms
    |                       |                         | < - t0+400ms Event
    | Schedule PRC (300ms)  | Schedule PRC (300ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | PRC starts            | PRC starts              |
    | PRC ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        | PRC ends                |
    |                       | RIB/FIB starts          |
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |
    |                       | RIB/FIB ends            | t0+730ms
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | < - t0+1000ms Event
    | Schedule SPF (150ms)  | Schedule SPF (150ms)    |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF starts            |  SPF starts             |
    |                       |                         |
    | SPF ends              |                         |
    | RIB/FIB starts        |  SPF ends               |
    |                       |  RIB/FIB starts         |  } microloop creation
    | RIB/FIB ends          |                         |  }
    |                       |  RIB/FIB ends           |

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    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         |

                          Figure 5

   As displayed above, there could be some other parameters like router
   computation power, flooding timers that may also influence
   microloops.  In the figure 5, we consider E to be a bit slower than
   S, leading to microloop creation.  Despite of this, we expect that by
   aligning implementations at least on SPF trigger and SPF delay,
   service provider may reduce number or duration of microloops.

7.  Security Considerations

   This document does not introduce any security consideration.

8.  Acknowledgements

9.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no action for IANA.

10.  Normative References

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

Author's Address

   Stephane Litkowski
   Orange Business Service

   Email: stephane.litkowski@orange.com

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