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IPv6 Flow Label Reflection
draft-wang-6man-flow-label-reflection-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Aijun Wang , Sheng Jiang
Last updated 2014-10-21
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draft-wang-6man-flow-label-reflection-00
Internet Engineering Task Force                                  A. Wang
Internet-Draft                                             China Telecom
Intended status: Standards Track                                S. Jiang
Expires: April 24, 2015                     Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd
                                                        October 21, 2014

                       IPv6 Flow Label Reflection
                draft-wang-6man-flow-label-reflection-00

Abstract

   The current definition of the IPv6 Flow Label focuses mainly on how
   the packet source forms the value of this field and how the forwarder
   in-path treats it.  In network operations, there are needs to
   correlate an upstream session and the corresponding downstream
   session together.  This document propose a flow label reflection
   mechanism that network devices copy the flow label value from
   received packets to the corresponding flow label field in return
   packets.  This mechanism could simplify the network traffic
   recognition process in network operations and make the policy for
   both directions of traffic of one session consistent.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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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 April 24, 2015.

Copyright Notice

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

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Summary of the current usage for IPv6 Flow Label  . . . .   3
   2.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Potential Benefit of Flow Label Reflection  . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Flow Label Reflection Behaviors on Network Devices  . . . . .   4
   5.  Applicable Scenarios  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.1.  Flow Label Reflection on CP servers . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.2.  Flow Label Reflection for Bi-direction Tunnels  . . . . .   6
     5.3.  Flow Label Reflection on edge devices . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Deployment Consideration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   The IPv6 flow label [RFC6437] in the fixed IPv6 header is designed to
   differentiate the various flow session of IPv6 traffic; it can
   accelerate the clarification and treatment of IPv6 traffic by the
   network devices in its forwarding path.  In practice, many current
   implementations use the 5-tuple {dest addr, source addr, protocol,
   dest port, source port} as the identifier of network flows.  However,
   transport-layer information, such as the port numbers, is not always
   in a fixed position, since it follows any IPv6 extension headers that
   may be present; in contrast, the flow label is at a fixed position in
   every IPv6 packet and easier to access.  In fact, the logic of
   finding the transport header is always more complex for IPv6 than for
   IPv4, due to the absence of an Internet Header Length field in IPv6.
   Additionally, if packets are fragmented, the flow label will be
   present in all fragments, but the transport header will only be in
   one packet.  Therefore, within the lifetime of a given transport-
   layer connection, the flow label can be a more convenient "handle"
   than the port number for identifying that particular connection.

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   The usages of IPv6 flow label, so far as briefly summarized in
   Section 1.1, only exploit the characteristic of IPv6 flow label in
   one direction.

   In current practice, an application session is often recognized as
   two separated IP traffics, in two opposite directions.  However, from
   the point view of a service provider, the upstream and downstream of
   one session should be handled together, particularly, when
   application-aware operations are placed in the network.  A ubiquitous
   example is that end user initiates a request, with small-scale data
   transmitted, towards a content server, then the server responds with
   a large set of follow-up packets.  The bi-directional flows should be
   correlated together and handled with the same policy.  Ideally, the
   request embeds a flow recognition identifier that is accessible and
   the follow-up response packets carry the same identifier.  The flow
   label is a good choice for the flow recognition identifier.

   This document proposes a flow label reflection mechanism so that
   network devices copy the flow label value from received packets to
   the corresponding flow label field in return packets.  By having the
   same flow label value in the downstream and upstream of one IPv6
   traffic session, the network traffic recognition process and the
   traffic policy deployment in network operations could be simplified.
   It may also increase the accuracy of network traffic recognition.

   Several applicable scenarios of the IPv6 flow label reflection are
   also given, in Section 5.  For now, this document only considers the
   scenario in a single administrative domain, although the IPv6 flow
   label reflection mechanism may also bring benefits into cross domain
   scenarios.

1.1.  Summary of the current usage for IPv6 Flow Label

   [RFC6438] describe the usage of IPv6 Flow Label for ECMP and link
   aggregation in Tunnels; it mainly utilizes the random distribution
   characteristic of IPv6 flow label.  [RFC7098] also describes similar
   usage in server farms.

   All these usage scenarios consider only the usage of IPv6 flow label
   in one direction, while many bi-directional network traffics need to
   be treated together.

2.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   [RFC2119] when they appear in ALL CAPS.  When these words are not in

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   ALL CAPS (such as "should" or "Should"), they have their usual
   English meanings, and are not to be interpreted as [RFC2119] key
   words.

   Flow Label Reflection  A mechanism/behavior so that a network device
      copies the value of flow label from a IPv6 flow into a
      corresponding return IPv6 flow.

   Flow Label Reflection Device  A network device that applies the flow
      label reflection mechanism.  It is the end of an IPv6 flow and the
      initiation node of the corresponding return IPv6 flow.

3.  Potential Benefit of Flow Label Reflection

   With flow label reflection mechanism, the IPv6 Flow Label could be
   used to correlate the upstream and downstream packets of bi-
   directional traffics:

   o  It makes the downstream and upstream of one session be easily
      recognized.  It makes the correlation of traffic and then the
      recognition of various traffics easier.

   o  The network operator can easily apply the same policy to the bi-
      directional traffic of one interested session

   o  The traffic analyzer can also easily correlate the upstream and
      downstream of one session to find the symptoms of various internet
      protocols.

4.  Flow Label Reflection Behaviors on Network Devices

   To fulfill the flow label reflection mechanism, the below proposed
   behaviors on network devices:

   o  The generation method of IPv6 flow label in source IPv6 node
      SHOULD follow the guidelines in [RFC6437], that is the IPv6 flow
      label should be generated randomly and distributed enough.

   o  On the Flow Label Reflection Device, the value of IPv6 Flow Label
      from received packets SHOULD be copied into the corresponding flow
      label field in return packets by the flow label reflection
      devices.

   o  The forwarding nodes within the management domain SHOULD follow
      the specification in [RFC6437], that is the IPv6 flow label SHOULD
      NOT be modified in the path, unless flow label value in arriving
      packets is zero.  The forwarding nodes MAY follow the
      specification in [RFC6438] when using the flow label for load

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      balancing by equal cost multipath (ECMP) routing and for link
      aggregation, particularly for IPv6-in-IPv6 tunneled traffic.

   o  The network traffic recognition devices, or devices that may have
      differentiated operations per flow, SHOULD recognize and analyze
      network traffics based on 3-tuple of {dest addr, source addr,
      flowlabel}. It SHOULD consider the traffics that have same flow
      label value and reversed source/dest addr as upstream and
      downstream of the same flow, match them together to accomplish the
      traffic recognition process.

   o  Other network operations MAY also be based on 3-tuple of {dest
      addr, source addr, flowlabel}.

5.  Applicable Scenarios

   This section describes some applicable scenarios, which network
   operators can benefit from deploying the flow label reflection
   mechanism.  It is not a complete enumeration.  More scenarios may be
   introduced in the future.

5.1.  Flow Label Reflection on CP servers

   There is rapidly increasing requirement from service providers (SP)
   to cooperate with the content providers (CP) to provide more accurate
   services and charging policies based on accurate traffic recognition.
   The service providers need to recognize the CP/SP's bi-directional
   traffics at the access edge devices of the network, such as
   BRAS/PDSN/P-GW devices.

   Normally, the burden for these edge devices to recognize the
   subscriber's upstream traffic is light, because request messages are
   typically small.  But they often need more resource to recognize
   downstream traffics, which normally contain large data.  With flow
   label reflection on CP servers, recognition based on the 3-tuple of
   {dest addr, source addr, flowlabel} would reduce the consumption of
   recognition and make the correlation process much easier.

   In this scenario, the CP servers would be the Flow Label Reflection
   Devices.  They copy the flow label value from received upstream user
   request packets to the corresponding flow label field in return
   downstream packets.

   The access edge devices of service provider scrutinize the
   subscriber's upstream IPv6 traffic and record the binding of 3-tuple
   and traffic-specific policy.  If the flow label is zero, the access
   edge devices must rewrite the flow label value according to local
   policy.  With the recorded binding information, the access edge

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   devices can easily recognize and match the downstream packet to the
   previous recognized upstream packet, by just accessing 3-tuple.  The
   edge devices can then apply the corresponding traffic policy to the
   upstream/downstream of the session to the cooperated CP.

   Note: this mechanism may not reliable when the CP servers are not
   directly connected to the service provider, because there is no
   guarantee the flow label would not be changed by intermediate devices
   in other administrative domains.

5.2.  Flow Label Reflection for Bi-direction Tunnels

   Tunnel is ubiquitous within service provider networks.  It is very
   difficult (important if the tunnel is encrypted) for intermediate
   network devices to recognize the inner encapsulated packet, although
   such recognition could be very helpful in some scenarios, such as
   traffic statistics, network diagnoses, etc.  Furthermore, such
   recognition normally requires to correlate bi-direction traffic
   together.  The flow label reflection mechanism could provide help in
   such requirement scenarios.

   In this scenario, the tunnel end devices would be the Flow Label
   Reflection Devices.  They record the flow label value from received
   tunnel packets, and copy it to the corresponding flow label field in
   return packets, which can be recognized by 5-tuple or 3-tuple of the
   inner packet at the tunnel end devices.

   The tunnel initiating devices should generate different flow label
   values for different inner flow traffics based on their 5-tuple or
   3-tuple in accordance with [RFC6437].  Note: if the inner flow is
   encryption in ESP model [RFC4303], the transport-layer port numbers
   are inaccessiable.  In such case, 5-tuple is not available.

   Then the intermediate network device can easily distinguish the
   different flow within the same tunnel transport link and correlate
   bi-direction traffics of same flow together.  This can also increase
   the service provider's traffic control capabilities.

   This mechanism can also work when the encapsulated traffics are IPv4
   traffics, such as DS-Lite scenario [RFC6333].  The IPv4 5-tuple may
   be used as the input for the flow label generation.

5.3.  Flow Label Reflection on edge devices

   If the flow label reflection mechanisms have been applied on peer
   host, the service provider could always use it for bi-directional
   traffic recognition.  However, there is no guarantee the flow label
   would not be changed by intermediate devices in other administrative

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   domains.  Therefore, to make the flow label value trustful, the edge
   devices need to validate the flow label reflection.

   In this scenario, the edge devices would be the (backup) Flow Label
   Reflection Devices.  They record the flow label value from the
   packets that leave the domain.  When the corresponding flow label
   field in return packets are recognized by 5-tuple or 3-tuple at the
   edge devices, the edge devices should check the flow label as below:

   o  if the flow label matches the record value, it remains;

   o  if the flow label is zero, the edge devices copy the record value
      into it;

   o  if the flow label is non-zero, but does not matches the record
      value, the edge devices can decide the flow label are modified by
      other intermediate devices (with the assumption the peer host has
      reflect the original flow label), then restore the flow label
      using the record value.

   Then the network recognition devices located anywhere within the
   service provider network could easily correlate bi-directional
   traffics together, and apply traffic-specific policy accordingly.

6.  Deployment Consideration

   The IPv6 flow label reflection mechanism requires the "Flow Label
   Reflection Device" to be stateful, store the flow label value and
   copy it to the corresponding return packet.  Such change cannot be
   accomplished within a short term, and therefore the deployment of
   this mechanism will be accomplished gradually.  During the
   incremental deployment period, the traditional recognition
   mechanisms, which are more expensive, would coexist.  The traffics
   that could not be recognized by 3-tuple of {dest addr, source addr,
   flowlabel} could fall back to the traditional process or be skipped
   over by advanced services.  The more devices support the flow label
   reflection mechanism, the less consumption for traffic recognition
   from the network management perspective, or the better coverage of
   advanced services that are based on the traffic recognition.

7.  Security Considerations

   Security aspects of the flow label are discussed in [RFC6437].  A
   malicious source or man-in-the-middle could disturb the traffic
   recognition by manipulating flow labels.  However, the worst case is
   that fall back to the current practice that an application session is
   often recognized as two separated IP traffics.  The flow label does
   not significantly alter this situation.

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   Specifically, the IPv6 flow label specification [RFC6437] states that
   "stateless classifiers should not use the flow label alone to control
   load distribution."  This is answered by also using the source and
   destination addresses with flow label.

8.  IANA Considerations

   This draft does not request any IANA action.

9.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thanks Brian Carpenter, who gave many
   useful advices.  The authors would also like to thanks the valuable
   comments made by Fred Baker, Lee Howard and other members of V6OPS
   WG.

   This document was produced using the xml2rfc tool [RFC2629].

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

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

   [RFC2629]  Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629,
              June 1999.

   [RFC6146]  Bagnulo, M., Matthews, P., and I. van Beijnum, "Stateful
              NAT64: Network Address and Protocol Translation from IPv6
              Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6146, April 2011.

   [RFC6437]  Amante, S., Carpenter, B., Jiang, S., and J. Rajahalme,
              "IPv6 Flow Label Specification", RFC 6437, November 2011.

   [RFC6438]  Carpenter, B. and S. Amante, "Using the IPv6 Flow Label
              for Equal Cost Multipath Routing and Link Aggregation in
              Tunnels", RFC 6438, November 2011.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC4303]  Kent, S., "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)", RFC
              4303, December 2005.

   [RFC6333]  Durand, A., Droms, R., Woodyatt, J., and Y. Lee, "Dual-
              Stack Lite Broadband Deployments Following IPv4
              Exhaustion", RFC 6333, August 2011.

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   [RFC7098]  Carpenter, B., Jiang, S., and W. Tarreau, "Using the IPv6
              Flow Label for Load Balancing in Server Farms", RFC 7098,
              January 2014.

Authors' Addresses

   Aijun Wang
   China Telecom
   Beijing Research Institute, China Telecom Cooperation Limited
   No.118, Xizhimenneidajie, Xicheng District, Beijing  100035
   China

   Phone: 86-10-58552347
   Email: wangaj@ctbri.com.cn

   Sheng Jiang
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd
   Q14, Huawei Campus, No.156 Beiqing Road
   Hai-Dian District, Beijing, 100095
   P.R. China

   Email: jiangsheng@huawei.com

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