MPLS Payload Protocol Identifier
draft-xu-mpls-payload-protocol-identifier-06

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Network Working Group                                              X. Xu
Internet-Draft                                             Alibaba, Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track                            H. Assarpour
Expires: September 26, 2019                                     Broadcom
                                                                   S. Ma
                                                                 Juniper
                                                                 F. Clad
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                          March 25, 2019

                    MPLS Payload Protocol Identifier
              draft-xu-mpls-payload-protocol-identifier-06

Abstract

   The MPLS label stack has no explicit protocol identifier field to
   indicate the protocol type of the MPLS payload.  This document
   proposes a mechanism for containing a protocol identifier field
   within the MPLS packet, which is useful for any new encapsulation
   header which may need to be encapsulated with an MPLS header.

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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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 26, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents

Xu, et al.             Expires September 26, 2019               [Page 1]
Internet-Draft          MPLS Payload Protocol ID              March 2019

   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.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Protocol Type Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Data Plane Processing of PIL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Egress LSRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  Ingress LSRs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.3.  Transit LSRs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.4.  Penultimate Hop LSRs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Signaling for PIL Processing Capability . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Alternative Approaches  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   The MPLS label stack has no explicit protocol identifier field to
   indicate the protocol type of the MPLS payload.  This document
   proposes a mechanism for containing a protocol identifier field
   within the MPLS packet, which is useful for any new encapsulation
   header which may need to be encapsulated with an MPLS header.  With
   this explicit protocol identifier field, there is no need any more
   for each new encapsulation header to deal with the notorious first
   nibble issue associated with MPLS individually.  More specifically,
   there is no need to intentionally avoid the first nibble of each new
   encapsulation header from being 0100 (IPv4) or 0110 (IPv6) and even
   worsely misuse the first nibble of each new encapsulation header as
   an MPLS payload type field (e.g., MPLS-BIER
   [I-D.ietf-bier-mpls-encapsulation]).  The tacit permission of
   misusing the first nibble of each new encapsulation header as an MPLS
   payload type field would exhause the valuable nibble space quickly.