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Framework for Interface to Network Security Functions
draft-merged-i2nsf-framework-04

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Edward Lopez, Diego Lopez , Linda Dunbar , John Strassner , Xiaojun Zhuang , Joe Parrott , Ramki Krishnan , Seetharama Rao Durbha
Last updated 2015-10-19
Replaced by draft-ietf-i2nsf-problem-and-use-cases, draft-ietf-i2nsf-framework, RFC 8329
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draft-merged-i2nsf-framework-04
Network Working Group                                          E. Lopez
Internet Draft                                                 Fortinet
Intended status: Informational                                 D. Lopez
Expires: April 2016                                          Telefonica
                                                               L. Dunbar
                                                            J. Strassner
                                                                  Huawei
                                                               X. Zhuang
                                                            China Mobile
                                                              J. Parrott
                                                                      BT
                                                             R Krishnan
                                                                    Dell
                                                               S. Durbha
                                                               CableLabs

                                                       October 19, 2015

           Framework for Interface to Network Security Functions
                    draft-merged-i2nsf-framework-04.txt

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   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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Abstract

   This document defines a set of abstractions for guiding the
   functionality provided by I2NSF. In the design of interfaces to
   allow for the provisioning of network security functions (NSFs), a
   critical consideration is to prevent the creation of implied
   constraints on NSF capability and functionality.

   This document makes the recommendation that such interfaces be
   designed from the paradigm of processing packets and flows on the
   network. NSFs ultimately are packet-processing engines that inspect
   packets traversing networks, either directly or in the context of
   sessions in which the packet is associated.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................3

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   2. Conventions used in this document..............................4
   3. Interfaces to Flow-based NSFs..................................4
   4. Reference Models in Managing NSFs..............................6
      4.1. NSF Facing (Capability Layer) Interface...................7
      4.2. Client Facing (Service Layer) Interface...................7
      4.3. Vendor Facing Interface...................................8
      4.4. The network connecting the Security Controller and NSFs...8
      4.5. Interface to vNSFs........................................9
   5. Flow-based NSF Capability Characterization....................10
   6. Structure of Rules for governing NSFs.........................14
      6.1. Capability Layer Rules and Monitoring....................14
      6.2. Service Layer Policy.....................................16
   7. Capability Negotiation........................................19
   8. Types of I2NSF clients........................................19
   9. Manageability Considerations..................................20
   10. Security Considerations......................................20
   11. IANA Considerations..........................................20
   12. References...................................................21
      12.1. Normative References....................................21
      12.2. Informative References..................................21
   13. Acknowledgments..............................................22

1. Introduction

   This document describes the framework for the Interface to Network
   Security Functions (I2NSF), and defines a reference model along with
   functional components for I2NSF. It also describes how I2NSF
   facilitates Software-defined network (SDN) and Network Function
   Virtualization (NVF) control, while avoiding potential constraints
   that could limit NSFs internal functionality and capability.

   The I2NSF use cases ([I2NSF-ACCESS], [I2NSF-DC] and [I2NSF-Mobile])
   call for standard interfaces for clients (e.g., applications,
   application controllers, or users), to inform the network what they
   are willing to receive, in other words, the security rules for their
   specific traffic. It also provides a standard interface for them to
   monitor the security functions hosted and managed by service
   providers.

   [I2NSF-Problem] describes the motivation and the problem space for
   Interface to Network Security Functions.

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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 RFC-2119 [RFC2119].

   In this document, these words will appear with that interpretation
   only when in ALL CAPS. Lower case uses of these words are not to be
   interpreted as carrying RFC-2119 significance.

   BSS:  Business Support System

   Controller: used interchangeably with Service Provider Security
               Controller or management system throughout this
               document.

   FW:   Firewall

   IDS:  Intrusion Detection System

   IPS:  Intrusion Protection System

   NSF:  Network Security Functions, defined by [I2NSF-Problem]

   OSS:  Operation Support System

   vNSF: refers to NSF being instantiated on Virtual Machines.

3. Interfaces to Flow-based NSFs

   The emergence of SDN and NFV has resulted in the need to create
   application programming interfaces (APIs) in support of dynamic
   requests from various applications or application controllers. Flow-
   based NSFs [I2NSF-Problem] inspects packets in the order that they
   are received.

   The Interface to Flow-based NSFs can be generally grouped into three
   types:

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   1) Configuration - deals with the management and configuration of
   the NSF device itself, such as port address configurations.
   Configuration deals with attributes that are relatively static.

   2) Signaling - which represents logging and query functions between
   the NSF and external systems. Signaling API functions may also be
   well defined by other protocols such as SYSLOG, DOTS, etc.

   3) Rules Provisioning - used to control the rules that govern how
   packets are treated by the NSFs. Due to the need of
   applications/controllers to dynamically control what traffic they
   need to receive, much of the I2NSF efforts towards interface
   development will be in this area.

   This draft proposes that a rule provisioning interface to NSFs can
   be developed on a packet-based paradigm. While there are many
   classifications of existing and emerging NSFs, a common trait shared
   by them is in the processing of packets based on the content
   (header/payload) and context (session state, authentication state,
   etc) of received packets.

   An important concept is the fact that attackers do not have
   standards as to how to attack networks, so it is equally important
   not to constrain NSF developers to offering a limited set of
   security functions. In other words, the introduction of I2NSF
   standards should not make it easier for attackers to compromise the
   network. Therefore, in constructing standards for rules provisioning
   interfaces to NSFs, it is equally important to allow support for
   vendor-specific functions, to allow the introduction of NSFs that
   evolve to meet new threats. Proposed standards for rules
   provisioning interfaces to NSFs SHOULD NOT:

   - Narrowly define NSF categories, or their roles when implemented
   within a network

   - Attempt to impose functional requirements or constraints, either
   directly or indirectly, upon NSF developers

   - Be a limited lowest-common denominator approach, where interfaces
   can only support a limited set of standardized functions, without
   allowing for vendor-specific functions

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   - Be seen as endorsing a best-common-practice for the implementation
   of NSFs

   By using a packet-based approach to the design of such provisioning
   interfaces, the goal is to create a workable interface to NSFs that
   aids in their integration within legacy, SDN, and/or NFV
   environments, while avoiding potential constraints which could limit
   their functional capabilities.

   Even though security functions come in a variety of form factors and
   have different features, provisioning to Flow-based NSFs can be
   categorized by

     - Subject-Match values, based on packet data, packet header, or
       packet payload, which can be one or more header fields or bits
       in the packets, or the various combination of them;
     - Object-Match values, based on context (e.g., state, direction of
       the traffic, time, geo-location, etc.);
     - Action-Egress processing, such as invoke signaling, packet
       forwarding and/or transformation, SDN/NFV integration;
     - Functional Profile - a functional profile is a specific
       organization of characteristics and/or behavior of that define
       the functionality offered by an entity (e.g., IPS:<Profile>,
       signature file, Anti-virus file, URL filtering file, etc.).
       Integrated and one-pass checks on the content of packets are
       examples of a functional profile.

   The functional profile or signature file is one of the key
   properties that determine the effectiveness of the NSF, and is
   mostly vendor-specific today.

4. Reference Models in Managing NSFs

   This document only focuses on the framework of rules provisioning
   and monitoring of flow-based NSFs.

   The following figure shows various interfaces for managing the
   provisioning & monitoring aspects of flow-based NSFs.

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             +------------------------------------------+
             |       Client or App Gateway              |
             |       (e.g. Video conference Ctrl        |
             | Admin, OSS/BSS, or Service Orchestration)|
             +-------+----------------------------------+
                         |
                         |  Client Facing (service layer) Interface
                   +-----+---------------+
                   |Service Provider mgmt|              +-------------+
                   | Security Controller | < -------- > | Vendor      |
                   +---------------------+ Vendor Facing|  Sys        |
                                   |         Interface  +-------------+
                                   |
                                   | NSF Facing (capability) Interface
                                   |
        +------------------------------------------------+
        |                                                |
        |                                                |
   +------+         +------+             +------+       +------+
   + NSF-1+ ------- + NSF-n+             +NSF-1 + ----- +NSF-m +  . . .
   +------+         +------+             +------+       +------+

   Vendor A                                       Vendor B

                         Figure 1: Multiple Interfaces

4.1. NSF Facing (Capability Layer) Interface

     This is the interface between the Service Provider's management
     system (or Security Controller) and the NSFs that are selected to
     enforce the desired network security. This interface is called the
     Capability Interface in the I2NSF context.

4.2. Client Facing (Service Layer) Interface

     This interface is for clients or Application Controller to express
     and monitor security policies for their specific flows. The Client
     Facing interface is called the Server Layer Interface in the I2NSF

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     context. The I2NSF Service Layer allows the client to define and
     monitor the client specific policies and their execution status.

     A single client layer policy may need multiple NSFs or NSF
     instantiations that are used collectively to achieve the desired
     enforcement.

4.3. Vendor Facing Interface

     When service providers have multiple types of security functions
     provided by different vendors, it is necessary to have an
     interface for vendors to register their NSFs indicating the
     capabilities of their NSFs.

     The Registration Interface can be defined statically or
     instantiated dynamically at runtime. If new functionality that is
     exposed to the user is added to an NSF, then the vendor MUST
     notify the Service Provider management system of its updated
     interface.

4.4. The network connecting the Security Controller and NSFs

     Most likely, the NSFs are not directly attached to the Security
     Controller; for example, NSFs can be distributed across the
     network. The network that connects the Security Controller with
     the NSFs can be the same network that carries the data traffic, or
     can be a dedicated network for management purposes only. In either
     case, packet loss could happen due to failure, congestion, or
     other reasons.

     Therefore, the transport mechanism used to carry the control
     messages and monitoring information should provide reliable
     message delivery.  Transport redundancy mechanisms such as
     Multipath TCP (MPTCP) [MPTCP] and the Stream Control Transmission
     Protocol (SCTP) [RFC3286] will need to be evaluated for
     applicability.  Latency requirements for control message delivery
     must also be evaluated.

     The connection between Security Controller and NSFs could be:

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     - Closed environments, where there is only one administrative
       domain.  Less restrictive access control and simpler validation
       can be used inside the domain because of the protected
       environment.

     - Open environments, where some NSFs (virtual or physical) can be
       hosted in external administrative domains or reached via
       external network domains.  This requires more restrictive
       security controls to be placed over the I2NSF interface.  The
       information over the I2NSF interfaces must use trusted channels,
       such as TLS, SASL (RFC4422), or the combination of the two.

     Over the Open Environment, I2NSF needs to provide identity
     information, along with additional data that Authentication,
     Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) frameworks can use. This
     enables those frameworks to perform AAA functions on the I2NSF
     traffic.

4.5. Interface to vNSFs

     Even though there is no difference between virtual network
     security functions (vNSF) and physical NSFs from the policy
     provisioning perspective, there are some unique characteristics in
     interfacing to the vNSFs:

     - There could be multiple instantiations of one single NSF being
       distributed across a network. When different instantiations are
       visible to the Security Controller, different policies may be
       applied to different instantiations of one single NSF (e.g., to
       reflect the different roles that each vNSF is designated for).
     - When multiple instantiations of one single NSF appear as one
       single entity to the Security Controller, the policy
       provisioning has to be sent to the NSF's sub-controller, which
       in turn disseminates the polices to the corresponding
       instantiations of the NSF, as shown in the Figure 2 below.
     - Policies to one vNSF may need to be retrieved and moved to
       another vNSF of the same type when client flows are moved from
       one vNSF to another.

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     - Multiple vNSFs may share the same physical platform
     - There may be scenarios where multiple vNSFs collectively perform
       the security policies needed.

                          +------------------------+
                          | Security Controller    |
                          +------------------------+
                                   ^        ^
                                   |        |
                       +-----------+        +------------+
                       |                                 |
                       v                                 v
    + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +  + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
    |  NSF-A  +--------------+      |  |  NSF-B  +--------------+      |
    |         |Sub Controller|      |  |         |sub Controller|      |
    |         +--------------+      |  |         +--------------+      |
    | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |  | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |
    | |+---------+     +---------+| |  | |+---------+     +---------+| |
    | || NSF-A#1 | ... |  NSF-A#n|| |  | ||  NSF-B#1| ... |  NSF-B#m|| |
    | |+---------+     +---------+| |  | |+---------+     +---------+| |
    | |         NSF-A cluster     | |  | |          NSF-B cluster    | |
    | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |  | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |
    + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +  + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +

                Figure 2: Cluster of NSF Instantiations Management

5. Flow-based NSF Capability Characterization

   There are many types of flow-based NSFs. Firewall, IPS, and IDS are
   the commonly deployed flow-based NSFs. However, the differences
   among them are definitely blurring, due to technological capacity
   increases, integration of platforms, and new threats. At their core:
  . Firewall - A device or a function that analyzes packet headers and
     enforces policy based on protocol type, source address,
     destination address, source port, destination port, and/or other
     attributes of the packet header). Packets that do not match policy
     are rejected. Note that additional functions, such as logging and
     notification of a system administrator, could optionally be
     enforced as well.
  . IDS (Intrusion Detection System) - A device or function that
     analyzes whole packets, both header and payload, looking for known
     events. When a known event is detected, a log message is generated
     detailing the event. Note that additional functions, such as

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     notification of a system administrator, could optionally be
     enforced as well.
  . IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) - A device or function that
     analyzes whole packets, both header and payload, looking for known
     events. When a known event is detected the packet is rejected.
     Note that additional functions, such as logging and notification
     of a system administrator, could optionally be enforced as well.

   To prevent constraints on NSF vendors' creativity and innovation,
   this document recommends the Flow-based NSF interfaces to be
   designed from the paradigm of processing packets on the network.
   Flow-based NSFs ultimately are packet-processing engines that
   inspect packets traversing networks, either directly or in the
   context of sessions in which the packet is associated.

   Flow-based NSFs differ in the depth of packet header or payload they
   can inspect, the various session/context states they can maintain,
   and the specific profiles and the actions they can apply. An example
   of a session is "allowing outbound connection requests and only
   allowing return traffic from the external network".

   Accordingly, the NSF capabilities are characterized by the level of
   packet processing and context that a NSF supports, the profiles and
   the actions that the NSF can apply. The term "context" includes
   anything that can influence the action(s) taken by the NSF, such as
   time of day, location, session state, and events.

   Vendors can register their NSFs using the Subject-Object-Action-
   Function categories described in Section 2, with detailed
   specification of each category as shown in the table below:

     +-----------------------------------------------------------+
     |         Subject Capability Index                          |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Layer 2       | Layer 2 header fields:                    |
     | Header        | Source/Destination/s-VID/c-VID/EtherType/.|
     |               |                                           |
     |---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Layer 3       | Layer  header fields:                     |

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     |               |            protocol                       |
     | IPv4 Header   |            dest port                      |
     |               |            src port                       |
     |               |            src address                    |
     |               |            dest address                   |
     |               |            dscp                           |
     |               |            length                         |
     |               |            flags                          |
     |               |            ttl                            |
     |               |                                           |
     | IPv6 Header   |                                           |
     |               |            addr                           |
     |               |            protocol/nh                    |
     |               |            src port                       |
     |               |            dest port                      |
     |               |            src address                    |
     |               |            dest address                   |
     |               |            length                         |
     |               |            traffic class                  |
     |               |            hop limit                      |
     |               |            flow label                     |
     |               |            dscp                           |
     |               |                                           |
     | TCP           |            Port                           |
     | SCTP          |            syn                            |
     | DCCP          |            ack                            |
     |               |            fin                            |
     |               |            rst                            |
     |               |          ? psh                            |
     |               |          ? urg                            |
     |               |          ? window                         |
     |               |            sockstress                     |
     |               | Note: bitmap could be used to             |
     |               |   represent all the fields                |
     |               |                                           |
     | UDP           |                                           |
     |               |            flood abuse                    |
     |               |            fragment abuse                 |
     |               |            Port                           |
     | HTTP layer    |                                           |
     |               |          | hash collision                 |
     |               |          | http - get flood               |
     |               |          | http - post flood              |
     |               |          | http - random/invalid url      |
     |               |          | http - slowloris               |
     |               |          | http - slow read               |
     |               |          | http - r-u-dead-yet (rudy)     |
     |               |          | http - malformed request       |
     |               |          | http - xss                     |

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     |               |          | https - ssl session exhaustion |
     +---------------+----------+--------------------------------+
     | IETF PCP      | Configurable                              |
     |               | Ports                                     |
     |               |                                           |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | IETF TRAM     | profile                                   |
     |               |                                           |
     |               |                                           |
     |---------------+-------------------------------------------+
                      Table 1: Subject Capability Index

     +-----------------------------------------------------------+
     |      Object (context) matching Capability Index           |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Session       |   Session state,                          |
     |               |   bidirectional state                     |
     |               |                                           |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Time          |   time span                               |
     |               |   time occurrence                         |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Events        |   Event URL, variables                    |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Location      |   Text string, GPS coords, URL            |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Connection    |   Internet (unsecured), Internet          |
     |   Type        |   (secured by VPN, etc.), Intranet, ...   |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     |  Direction    |  Inbound, Outbound                        |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     |  State        |  Authentication State                     |
     |               |  Authorization State                      |
     |               |  Accounting State                         |
     |               |  Session State                            |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+

                      Table 2: Object Capability Index

     +-----------------------------------------------------------+
     |      Action Capability Index                              |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Ingress port  |   SFC header termination,                 |
     |               |   VxLAN header termination                |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     |               |   Pass                                    |
     | Actions       |   Deny                                    |
     |               |   Mirror                                  |

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     |               |   Simple Statistics: Count (X min; Day;..)|
     |               |   Client specified Functions: URL         |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Egress        |   Encap SFC, VxLAN, or other header       |
      +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
                      Table 3: Action Capability Index

     +-----------------------------------------------------------+
     |      Functional profile Index                             |
     +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
     | Profile types |   Name, type, or                          |
     | Signature     |   Flexible Profile/signature URL          |
     |               | Command for Controller to enable/disable  |
     |               |                                           |
      +---------------+-------------------------------------------+
                     Table 4: Function Capability Index

6. Structure of Rules for governing NSFs

6.1. Capability Layer Rules and Monitoring

   The purpose of the Capability Layer is to define explicit rules for
   individual NSFs to treat packets, as well as methods to monitor the
   execution status of those functions.

   [ACL-MODEL] has defined rules for the Access Control List supported
   by most routers/switches that forward packets based on packets' L2,
   L3, or sometimes L4 headers. The actions for Access Control Lists
   include Pass, Drop, or Redirect.

   The functional profiles (or signatures) for NSFs are not present in
   [ACL-MODEL] because the functional profiles are unique to specific
   NSFs. For example, most vendors' IPS/IDS have their proprietary
   functions/profiles. One of the goals of I2NSF is to define a common
   envelop format for exchanging or sharing profiles among different
   organizations to achieve more effective protection against threats.

   The "subject" of the I2NSF policies should not only include the
   matching criteria specified by [ACL-MODEL] but also the L4-L7 fields
   depending on the NSFs selected.

   The I2NSF Capability Layer has to specify the "Object" (i.e. the
   context surrounding the packets).

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   The I2NSF "actions" should extend the actions specified by [ACL-
   MODEL] to include applying statistics functions that clients
   provide.

   The rules for Flow-Based NSF can be extended from the Policy Core
   Information Model [RFC3060] and Policy Core Information Model
   Extension [RFC3460] which is the base for ITU-T X.1036 [ITU-T-
   X1036]:

             +-------------------------+
             | Capability-Layer-Rules  |
             +-------------------------+
               |    |
     +---------+     +--------+              +---------+ |- Pass
     |Compound |     |        |              |  Simple +-|- Deny
     |Condition|     | action |           +--+  Actions| |- Mirror
     +----+----+     +----+---+           |  +---------+ |- Count
          |<-------+      +---------------+              |- client fun
      +---+------+ |                      |
     ++---+-----+| |                      |  +---------+
     | simple   || |Compound Operators:   +--+ function|
     |conditions|+ |  Logical AND: &&        | Profile |
     +--+-----+-+  |  Logical OR: ||         +---------+
        |     |    |  Logical NOT: !
        |     +----+
        +-----------+
 +------+--+     +--+-----+                  +---------+
 | Subject |     | Object |                  |  Time   |
 |  Match  |     | Match  |               +--+---------+
 +-----+---+     +----+---+               |  +---------+
       |              +-------------------+--+  States |
       |                                  |  +---------+
    +--+----------+----------+            |  +---------+
 +--+----+     +--+---+   +--+---+        +--+ Port    |
 |IPv4   |     |IPv6  |   | MAC  |        |  +---------+
 |Header |     |Header|   |Header|        |      *
 +-------+     +------+   +------+        +--+   *
             Figure 3: Structure of Capability Layer Rules

   Policy consistency among multiple security function instances is
   very critical because security policies are no longer maintained by
   one central security devices, but instead are enforced by multiple
   security functions instantiated at various locations.

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6.2. Service Layer Policy

   This layer is for clients or Application Controller to express &
   monitor the needed security policies for their specific flows.

   Some Customers may not have security skills. As such, they are not
   able to express requirements or security policies that are precise
   enough. These customers may express expectations or intent.
   Customers may also express guidelines such as which certain types of
   destinations are not allowed for certain groups. As the result,
   there could be many depths or layers of Service Layer policies. Here
   are some examples of more abstract service layer security Policies:

          o Pass for Subscriber "xxx"
          o enable basic parental control
          o enable "school protection control"
          o allow Internet traffic from 8:30 to 20:00
          o scan email for malware detection protect traffic to
            corporate network with integrity and confidentiality
          o remove tracking data from Facebook [website =
            *.facebook.com]
          o my son is allowed to access facebook from 18:30 to 20:00

   One Service Layer Security Policy may need multiple security
   functions at various locations to achieve the enforcement. Service
   layer Security Policy may need to be updated by users or Application
   controller when user's service requirements have been changed. Some
   service layer policies may not be granted because the carrier or
   Enterprises imposes additional constraints on what the user can
   have. [I2NSF-Demo] describes an implementation of translating a set
   of service layer policies to the Capability Layer instructions to
   NSFs.

   I2NSF will first focus on simple service layer policies that are
   modeled as closely as possible on the Capability Layer.  The I2NSF
   simple service layer should have similar structure as I2NSF
   capability layer, however with more client oriented expression for
   the subject, object, action, and function.

   There have been several industry initiatives to address network
   policies, such as OpenStack's Group-based Policy (GBP), IETF Policy

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   Core Information Model-PCIM [RFC3060, RFC3460], and others. I2NSF
   will not work on general network service policies, but instead will
   define a standard interface for clients/applications to inform the
   Flow-based NSFs on the rules for treating traffic.

   However, the notion of Groups (or roles), Target, Context (or
   conditions), and Action do cover what is needed for
   clients/applications to express the rules on how their flows can be
   treated by the Flow-Based NSFs in networks.  The goal is to have a
   policy structure that can be mapped to the Capability layer's
   Subject-Object-Action-Function" paradigm.

   Using PCIM (RFC3060, which ITU-T X.1036 was based on) as a basis is
   possible. However, RFC3060 was created for general network policies.
   This means that in some areas, it provides more than what I2NSF
   needs, and in other areas, it needs extension. This is especially
   pronounced regarding Policy Context and Policy Conditions (e.g., the
   direction, time, and other contextual events that govern the
   policies to NSFs).

   The I2NSF simple service layer can have the following entities:

       - Composite Groups or Roles (I2NSF-Role): This is a group of
          users, applications, virtual networks, or traffic patterns to
          which a service layer policy can be applied. An I2NSF-Role
          may be mapped to a client virtual Subnet (i.e. with private
          address prefix), a subnet with public address families,
          specific applications, destinations, or any combination of
          them with logical operators (Logical AND, OR, or NOT). An
          I2NSF-Role can have one or more Policy Rule Sets.
       - Target. This is used by the application client to establish
          communications over the network. A Target can be mapped to a
          physical/logical ingress port, a set of destinations, or a
          physical/logical egress port.
       - Policy Rule Set. A Policy Rule Set is used to determine how
          the traffic between a pair of I2NSF-Role and Target is to be
          treated. A Policy Rule Set consists of one or more Policy
          Rules.
       - Policy Rule. A Policy Rule consists of a Policy Conditions
          and a set of Actions to be applied to the traffic.
       - Policy Condition. Describes when a Policy Rule set is to be
          applied. It can be expressed as a direction, a list of L4
          ports, time range, or a protocol, etc.

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       - Policy Action: This is the action applied to the traffic that
          matches the Conditions. An action may be a simple ACL action
          (i.e. allow, deny, mirroring), applying a well known
          statistics functions (e.g. X minutes count, Y hours court),
          applying client specified functions (with URL provided), or
          may refer to an ordered sequence of functions.

     +---------+     +--------+      +-------+ |- Logical Port
     | CTG     |---->| Policy |<-----+Target +-|- Ingress Port
     |         |     |Role Set|      |       | |- Egress Port
     +----+----+     +----+---+      +-------+ |-      *
          |<-------+      +---------------+
       +--+------+ |                      |    +--------+Logical
     +/---+-----+| |                      |  +/-------+ |Combination:
     | Simple   || |Compound Operators:   +--+ Policy | | AND/OR/NOT
     | Group    |+ |  Logical AND: &&        | Rule   | +
     +--+-----+-/  |  Logical OR: ||         +-+----+-/
        |     |    |  Logical NOT: !          /      \
        |     +----+                       +------+  +----------+
        |                                  |Action| -| Condition|
        +----------+---------------+--     +---+--+  +--+-------+
 +------+-+     +--+-----+     +---+-----+     |        |-Direction
 | App    |     |virtual |     | Subnet  |     |        |-timer
 | Group  |     | Subnet |     |host list|     |        |-L4 port
 ++-------+--+  +----+---+     +----+----+     |        |-Protocol
  |Client Grp|       |              |          |        |- *
  +----------+       |              |          |
    +-------------+--+------+-------+---       |
 +--+----+     +--+---+   +--+---+             |-Allow
 |IPv4   |     |IPv6  |   | MAC  |             |-Deny
 |Header |     |Header|   |Header|             |-count
 +-------+     +------+   +------+             |-apply function list
                                               |-   *

           Figure 4: Rule Structure for Simple Service Layer

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7. Capability Negotiation

     When an NSF can't perform the desired provisioning (e.g., due to
     resource constraints), it MUST inform the controller.

     The protocol needed for this security function/capability
     negotiation may be somewhat correlated to the dynamic service
     parameter negotiation procedure [RFC7297]. The Connectivity
     Provisioning Profile (CPP) template documented in RFC7297, even
     though currently covering only Connectivity (but includes security
     clauses such as isolation requirements, non-via nodes, etc.),
     could be extended as a basis for the negotiation procedure.
     Likewise, the companion Connectivity Provisioning Negotiation
     Protocol (CPNP) could be a candidate to proceed with the
     negotiation procedure.

     The "security as a service" would be a typical example of the kind
     of (CPP-based) negotiation procedures that could take place
     between a corporate customer and a service provider. However, more
     security specific parameters have to be considered.

8. Types of I2NSF clients

   It is envisioned that I2NSF clients include:

   - Application Controller:

        -                 For example, Video Conference Mgr/Controller needs to
          dynamically inform network to allow or deny flows (some of
          which are encrypted) based on specific fields in the packets
          for a certain time span. Otherwise, some flows can't go
          through the NSFs (e.g. FW/IPS/IDS) in the network because the
          payload is encrypted or packets' protocol codes are not
          recognized by those NSFs.

   - Security Administrators

          - Enterprise

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          - Operator Management System dynamically updates, monitors
            and verifies the security policies to NSFs (by different
            vendors) in a network.
          - Third party system

   - Security functions send requests for more sophisticated functions
     upon detecting something suspicious, usually via a security
     controller.

9. Manageability Considerations

     Management of NSFs usually includes
        -               life cycle management and resource management of vNSFs

        -               configuration of devices, such as address configuration,
          device internal attributes configuration, etc,

        -               signaling, and

        -               policy rules provisioning.

     I2NSF will only focus on the policy rule provisioning part, i.e.,
     the last bullet listed above.

10. Security Considerations

     Having a secure access to control and monitor NSFs is crucial for
     hosted security service. Therefore, proper secure communication
     channels have to be carefully specified for carrying the
     controlling and monitoring information between the NSFs and their
     management entity (or entities).

11. IANA Considerations

   This document requires no IANA actions. RFC Editor: Please remove
   this section before publication.

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12. References

12.1. Normative References

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

   [RFC3060] Moore, B, et al, "Policy Core Information Model (PCIM)",
             RFC 3060, Feb 2001.

   [RFC3460] Moore, B. "Policy Core Information Model (PCIM)
             Extensions", RFC3460, Jan 2003.

   [RFC7297] Boucadair, M., "IP Connectivity Provisioning Profile",
             RFC7297, April 2014.

 12.2. Informative References

   [I2NSF-ACCESS] A. Pastor, et al, "Access Use Cases for an Open OAM
             Interface to Virtualized Security Services", <draft-
             pastor-i2nsf-access-usecases-00>, Oct 2014.

   [I2NSF-DC] M. Zarny, et al, "I2NSF Data Center Use Cases", <draft-
             zarny-i2nsf-data-center-use-cases-00>, Oct 2014.

   [I2NSF-MOBILE] M. Qi, et al, "Integrated Security with Access
             Network Use Case", <draft-qi-i2nsf-access-network-usecase-
             00>, Oct 2014

   [I2NSF-Problem] L. Dunbar, et al "Interface to Network Security
             Functions Problem Statement", <draft-dunbar-i2nsf-problem-
             statement-01>, Jan 2015

   [ACL-MODEL] D. Bogdanovic, et al, "Network Access Control List (ACL)
             YANG Data Model", <draft-ietf-net-acl-model-00>, Nov 2014.

   [gs_NFV] ETSI NFV Group Specification, Network Functions
             Virtualizsation (NFV) Use Cases. ETSI GS NFV 001v1.1.1,
             2013.

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   [NW-2011] J. Burke, "The Pros and Cons of a Cloud-Based Firewall",
             Network World, 11 November 2011

   [SC-MobileNetwork] W. Haeffner, N. Leymann, "Network Based Services
             in Mobile Network", IETF87 Berlin, July 29, 2013.

   [I2NSF-Demo] Y. Xie, et al, "Interface to Network Security Functions
             Demo Outline Design", <draft-xie-i2nsf-demo-outline-
             design-00>, April 2015.

   [ITU-T-X1036] ITU-T Recommendation X.1036, "Framework for creation,
             storage, distribution and enforcement of policies for
             network security", Nov 2007.

13. Acknowledgments

   Acknowledgements to xxx for his review and contributions.

   This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.

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Authors' Addresses

   Edward Lopez
   Fortinet
   899 Kifer Road
   Sunnyvale, CA 94086
   Phone: +1 703 220 0988
   Email: elopez@fortinet.com

   Diego Lopez
   Telefonica
   Email: diego.r.lopez@telefonica.com

   XiaoJun Zhuang
   China Mobile
   Email: zhuangxiaojun@chinamobile.com

   Linda Dunbar
   Huawei
   Email: Linda.Dunbar@huawei.com

   John Strassner
   Huawei
   John.sc.Strassner@huawei.com

   Joe Parrott
   BT
   Email: joe.parrott@bt.com

   Ramki Krishnan
   Dell
   Email: ramki_krishnan@dell.com

   Seetharama Rao Durbha
   CableLabs
   Email: S.Durbha@cablelabs.com

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