Name-Based Service Function Forwarder (nSFF) Component within a Service Function Chaining (SFC) Framework
draft-trossen-sfc-name-based-sff-07

(Via drafts-eval@iana.org): IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

The IANA Functions Operator has reviewed draft-trossen-sfc-name-based-sff-07 and has the following comments:

We understand that this document doesn't require any registry actions.

While it's often helpful for a document's IANA Considerations section to remain in place upon publication even if there are no actions, if the authors strongly prefer to remove it, we do not object.

If this assessment is not accurate, please respond as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Amanda Baber
Lead IANA Services Specialist

draft-trossen-sfc-name-based-sff has been presented to the ISE for publication as an Informaitonal RFC.

Service Function Chaining (SFC) utilises Service Function Paths (SFPs) to navigate packets through a network and ensure that Service Functions (SFs) are executed on the packets before their delivery to their addressed destination. SFs may be instantiated at multiple locations in a network and a choice must be made to direct the packets to the best instances. This document describes a way to separate a logical SFP from the specific execution end points (i.e., SFs) through a name-based system. The document sets out the necessary extensions, additional functions, and protocol details to enable a Service Function Forwarder to handle name-based relationships.
 
The Abstract will contain the caveat text

  This document presents InterDigital's approach to name-based service
  function chaining.  It does not represent IETF consensus and is
  presented here so that the SFC community may benefit from considering
  this mechanism and the possiblity of its use in the edge data
  centers.

Implementations of some aspects of the solution have been developed and are currently being trialed as part of the H2020-funded FLAME project in Bristol (UK) and Barcelona (Spain). Early versions of those solutions were trialed as early as 2017 in Bristol as part of the H2020-funded POINT project.

The authors brought this document to the SFC working group and presented it at a couple of meetings, but the chairs decided that it sat outside the working group charter and recommended taking it to the Independent Stream. One of the chairs (Joel Halpern) also did a review of the document.

Reviews were also provided for the ISE by Dirk von Hugo and Andy Malis. And the ISE also did a review. The document has been updated several times as a result.

The ISE also consulted with the ICNRG chairs to check for overlap. They responded that they see this work as not part of the scope of the ICNRG and have no objection to it being
published as an Independent Submission.

There are two IPR disclosures against this document at https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/3377/ and https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/3378/ Counsel for the IPR holders are considering an update to the license in order to specifically handle the case where the document ends up as an RFC outside the IETF Stream.