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IP Flow Path Trace Requirements
draft-yin-tsvwg-ipflow-pathtrace-ps-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Yuanbin Yin , Sheng Jiang , Gang Yan
Last updated 2013-07-15
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draft-yin-tsvwg-ipflow-pathtrace-ps-00
Operations Area                                                Y. Yin 
Internet Draft                                               S. Jiang 
Intended status: Informational                                 G. Yan 
Expires: January 16, 2014                          Huawei Technologies 
                                                         July 15, 2013 
                                      
                      IP Flow Path Trace Requirements 

                draft-yin-tsvwg-ipflow-pathtrace-ps-00.txt 

                                    

Status of this Memo 

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 16, 2014. 

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Abstract 

   This document describes the requirements of IP flow path trace. 
   Network administrators need to get the real IP flow path information, 
   of which a specific IP flow goes through heterogeneous network 
   environments. It is also desired for more information relevant to 
   the IP flow path. Based on the information, network administrators 
   can locate possible faults of the network quickly or optimize 
   network resource for better network performance. 

Table of Contents 

    
   Abstract ....................................................... 2 
   1. Introduction ................................................ 3 
   2. Conventions Used in This Document                                            ............................ 4 
   3. Function Requirement for a new IP Flow Path Trace Mechanism                                                                     ... 4 
      3.1. Requirement for path trace across heterogeneous network 
      environments ................................................ 4 
      3.2. IP flow based path trace requirements ................... 5 
      3.3. Required information relevant to path ................... 5 
      3.4. Security requirements                                     ................................... 6 
   4. Security Considerations                                  ...................................... 7 
   5. IANA Considerations ......................................... 7 
   6. Acknowledgments ............................................. 7 
   7. References .................................................. 7 
      7.1. Informative References                                      .................................. 7 
   Author's Addresses ............................................. 8 
    
                       

 
 
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1. Introduction 

   At present, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provides a wide 
   variety of services, such as internet, lease line, mobile, Next 
   Generation Network (NGN), Virtual Private Network (VPN), etc. 
   Different service has different quality requirements and the ISPs 
   make the Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts with customers for 
   each service. So when service failure or decline in the quality of 
   service happens, the service provider's network administrator must 
   locate reasons in the shortest time. 

   The current ISP networks may actually be constructed by 
   heterogeneous network technologies, such as native IP, Multi-
   Protocol Label Switching (MPLS, [RFC3031]), Pseudo-Wire Emulation 
   Edge to Edge (PWE3, [RFC3985]), Virtual Private Lan Service (VPLS, 
   [RFC4762]), Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN, [RFC4664]), Layer 3 VPN (L3VPN, 
   [RFC4364]), tunnels (such as IPinIP [RFC1853], Generic Packet 
   Tunneling - GRE [RFC2473], etc.), translation, etc. The above 
   mentioned IP services may be delivered across these heterogeneous 
   network environments. 

   To locate the network fault quickly, IETF has defined the 
   corresponding ping and trace functions for each network technology, 
   independently. They are IP ping/trace using Internet Control Message 
   Protocol (ICMP) [RFC792], LSP ping/trace [RFC4379], PW ping/trace, 
   [RFC5085], [RFC6073], etc. 

   However, none of these technologies are able to gather the trace 
   information of all these heterogeneous network environments. 
   Although trace packets, such as ICMP packets, can traverse these 
   heterogeneous network environments, it does not record information 
   regarding to these heterogeneous intermediate devices at all. Giving 
   the fact, that many of current packets would transmit more than one 
   network environments, it is still difficult trace the complete end-
   to-end paths. 

   Another issue of these ping/trace functions is path replicability. 
   Most of these current ping/trace mechanisms are based on the triple 
   of {source IP address, destination IP address, IP protocol number}. 
   However, there are many Link Aggregation (LAG) or Equal-Cost Multi-
   Path (ECMP) scenarios in current networks; and many of network 
   devices select forwarding interfaces based on the result of hash 
   calculation on the quintuple {source IP address, destination IP 
   address, source port number, destination port number, IP protocol 
   number}. There are other load balancing algorithm, such as  
   [I-D.ietf-intarea-flow-label-balancing], which based on the triple 
 
 
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   of {source IP address, destination IP address, flow label} in IPv6. 
   Therefore, the path traced by these ping/trace mechanisms may not be 
   replicable by the IP flows at all. In other word, it is common that 
   the real IP flows go through different paths from the result these 
   ping/trace functions. 

   Furthermore, these current ping/trace mechanisms only provide very 
   simple information of path, mainly the addresses of intermediate 
   nodes only. It is far from sufficient information to determine the 
   network fault and make dynamic adjustment based on it. More 
   information, such as link bandwidth, link congestion, etc., is 
   desired if a better path trace mechanism was going to be designed. 

   With the above mentioned issues of current ping/trace mechanisms, 
   this document describes requirements for a new path trace mechanism. 
   If all these requirements were met, network administrators should be 
   able to easily get the real path information which a specific IP 
   service flow goes through in the heterogeneous network environments, 
   and also can get many more information regarding to intermediate 
   devices and links. Based on the information, network administrators 
   can locate the possible faults of the network quickly and may 
   optimize network resources better to provide better network 
   performance for their customers. 

2. Conventions Used in This Document 

   L2VPN   Layer-2 Virtual Private Networks 

   L3VPN   Layer-3 Virtual Private Networks 

   VRF     Virtual Routing and Forwarding 

   LAG     Link Aggregation 

   ECMP    Equal-Cost Multi-Path 

3. Function Requirement for a new IP Flow Path Trace Mechanism 

3.1. Requirement for path trace across heterogeneous network 
   environments 

   A new IP flow path trace mechanism should be able to traverse 
   heterogeneous network environments and gather the path information 
   of intermediate devices and links. The heterogeneous network 
   environments include native IPv4, native IPv6, MPLS, PWE3, VPLS, 
   L2VPN, L3VPN, tunnels, translation, etc. 

 
 
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   The new IP flow path trace mechanism should trace an end-to-end path 
   or paths, no matter what intermediate network environment may go 
   through. It should gather the information, described in section 3.3, 
   and return them to the initiating node, which is normally the source 
   of the end-to-end path. 

   The trace function may be trigger by a remote network manage device 
   through a management protocol and the trace result may be 
   automatically report back to this remote network manage device. 
   However, it is independent from the requirements of the IP flow path 
   trace mechanism. 

3.2. IP flow based path trace requirements 

   Many IP services are managed based on IP flow. Between two giving 
   nodes, there may be more than one IP flows and each IP flow may take 
   different path, because the triple {source IP address, destination 
   IP address, IP protocol number} are not sufficient to decide the 
   path. 

   One of the purposes of the required new IP flow path trace mechanism 
   is to trace the real path, which a specific IP service goes through. 
   This would enable the network administrator to manage the network 
   resource on this specific path in order to provide the best 
   performance. 

   Therefore, the new required path trace requirements should be IP 
   flow based. With a giving IP flow information, which is identified 
   by the quintuple {source IP address, destination IP address, source 
   port number, destination port number, IP protocol number} or triple 
   {source IP address, destination IP address, flow label} in IPv6, the 
   new IP flow path trace mechanism should trace its end-to-end path or 
   all possible paths. 

3.3. Required information relevant to path 

   This section describes the information is desired when a new IP flow 
   path trace mechanism is designed. 

   Intermediate node information: the identification information of each 
      node which the specific IP flow goes through in the network. The 
      information may be IP address, Router ID or MPLS LSR ID of each 
      node. 

   Incoming interface and outgoing interface information: the incoming 
      interface information and outgoing interface information of each 
      node which the specific IP flow goes through in the network. The 
 
 
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      information must include the interface's IP address and may 
      include interface name information. 

   MPLS label information: the MPLS forwarding label information if the 
      flow goes through MPLS network. The information should include the 
      incoming label and the outgoing label information of the LSP. If 
      VRF or PW are used to bear the IP flow, the information should 
      include the incoming label and the outgoing label information for 
      the VRF and PW. 

   Link bandwidth information: the link bandwidth information of the 
      incoming interface and outgoing interface of each node which the 
      IP flow goes through in the network. The information should 
      include the total bandwidth and the current bandwidth usage ratio. 

   Link congestion information: the link congestion information of the 
      incoming interface and outgoing interface of each node which the 
      IP flow goes through in the network. The information should 
      include the indication of congestion or not, further, usage 
      information of the Quality of Service (QoS) queue which IP flow 
      belongs to. 

   LAG&ECMP information: if outgoing interface is LAG or exist ECMP, the 
      system must be able to accurately determine the load balance 
      forwarding choice of the real IP, and also should get the LAG or 
      ECMP number information.  

   Tunnel information: the information whether the IP Flow is tunneled 
      and the information regarding to the tunnel. It may include the 
      intermediate devices the tunnel transmits over. 

   Translation information: the information how the IP flow has been 
      translated by a translation intermediate devices. It should 
      include the mapping information from original address and port to 
      translated address and port. 

   More information: more path trace information may be extended in the 
      future so that more information relevant to IP flow path can be 
      gathered. 

3.4. Security requirements 

   Anti-DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) 

      An attacker can launch a number of tracing processes to the 
      network nodes, resulting in DDOS attacks. So the network node 

 
 
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      should implement flow control for the messages of the new tracing 
      function to avoid the attack. 

   Prevention of Network Information Spying Attack 

      The tracing function may enable an attacker to collect the 
      information of the network, including topology, bandwidth, usage 
      rate, etc. There must mechanisms to prevent such a threat and 
      system information leak. 

4. Security Considerations 

   The Section 3.4 presents the security consideration/requirements for 
   a solution that design to meet the IP flow path trace requirements. 

5. IANA Considerations 

   This draft does not request any IANA action. 

6. Acknowledgments 

   The authors wish to acknowledge the important contributions of 
   Zhenbin Li and Mach Chen. 

7. References 

7.1. Informative References 

   [RFC792] Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", RFC 792, 
             September 1981. 

   [RFC1853] RFC 1853 ASCII, PDF IP in IP Tunneling  W. Simpson October 
             1995. 

   [RFC2473] RFC 2473 ASCII, PDF Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 
             Specification  A. Conta, S. Deering December 1998. 

   [RFC3031] E. Rosen, A. Viswanathan, and R. Callon, "Multiprotocol 
             Label Switching Architecture", RFC 3031, January 2001. 

   [RFC3985] S. Bryant, and P. Pate "Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge 
             (PWE3) Architecture", RFC 3985. March 2005. 

   [RFC4364] E. Rosen and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private 
             Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, February 2006. 

 
 
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   [RFC4379] K. Kompella, G. Swallow, "Detecting Multi-Protocol Label 
             Switched (MPLS) Data Plane Failures", RFC 4379, February 
             2006. 

   [RFC4664] L. Andersson, Ed. and E. Rosen, Ed., "Framework for Layer 
             2 Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs)", RFC 4664, September 
             2006. 

   [RFC4762] M. Lasserre, Ed. and V. Kompella, Ed., "Virtual Private 
             LAN Service (VPLS) Using Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) 
             Signaling ", RFC 4762, January 2007. 

   [RFC5085] T. Nadeau, Ed., C. Pignataro, Ed., "Pseudowire Virtual 
             Circuit Connectivity Verification (VCCV): A Control 
             Channel for Pseudowires", RFC 5085, December 2007. 

   [RFC6073] L. Martini, C. Metz, T. Nadeau, M. Bocci,M. Aissaoui, 
             "Segmented Pseudowire", RFC 6073, January 2011 

   [I-D.ietf-intarea-flow-label-balancing] 
             B. Carpenter, S. Jiang, and W. Tarreau, "Using the IPv6 
             Flow Label for Server Load Balancing", working in progress, 
             May 2013. 

    

Author's Addresses 

   Yuanbin Yin 
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd 
   Huawei Q15 Building, No.156 Beiqing Rd., 
   Hai-Dian District  100095 
   Email: yinyuanbin@huawei.com 
    
   Sheng Jiang 
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd 
   Huawei Q14 Building, No.156 Beiqing Rd., 
   Hai-Dian District  100095 
   Email: jiangsheng@huawei.com 
    
   Gang Yan 
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd 
   Huawei Q15 Building, No.156 Beiqing Rd., 
   Hai-Dian District  100095 
   Email: yangang@huawei.com 
    

 
 
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