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TRILL IS-IS MTU Negotiation
draft-zhang-trill-mtu-negotiation-05

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Mingui Zhang , Xudong Zhang , Donald E. Eastlake 3rd , Radia Perlman , Vishwas Manral , Somnath Chatterjee
Last updated 2014-02-13
Replaced by draft-ietf-trill-mtu-negotiation, draft-ietf-trill-mtu-negotiation, RFC 8249
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draft-zhang-trill-mtu-negotiation-05
INTERNET-DRAFT                                              Mingui Zhang
Intended Status: Standards Track                            Xudong Zhang
Updates: 6325                                            Donald Eastlake
                                                                  Huawei
                                                           Radia Perlman
                                                  Individual Contributor
                                                          Vishwas Manral
                                                                      HP
                                                      Somnath Chatterjee
                                                                   Cisco
Expires: August 17, 2014                               February 13, 2014

                      TRILL IS-IS MTU Negotiation
                draft-zhang-trill-mtu-negotiation-05.txt

Abstract

   The base IETF TRILL protocol has a TRILL campus wide MTU feature,
   specified in RFC 6325 and RFC6327bis, that assures that link status
   changes can be successfully flooded throughout the campus while being
   able to take advantage of a campus wide capability to support jumbo
   packets. This document specifies optional updates to that MTU feature
   to take advantage, for appropriate link local packets, of link local
   MTUs that exceed the TRILL campus MTU. In addition, it specifies an
   efficient algorithm for local MTU testing. It updates RFC 6325.

Status of this Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   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."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html

 

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Copyright and License 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
   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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2. Link-Wide TRILL IS-IS MTU Size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3. Link MTU Size Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   4. Refreshing Campus-Wide Sz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   5. Relationship between Port MTU, Lz and Sz  . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   6. LSP Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   7. Recommendations for Traffic Link MTU Size Testing . . . . . . .  8
   8. Backwards Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   10. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   Author's Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

 

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1. Introduction

   [RFC6325] describes the way how RBridges agree on the campus-wide
   minimum acceptable inter-RBridge MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) size
   - the campus-wide Sz to ensure that link state flooding operates
   properly and all RBridges converge to the same link state. For the
   proper operation of TRILL IS-IS, all RBridges MUST format their LSPs
   not greater than the campus-wide Sz. [RFC6327bis] defines the diagram
   of state transitions of an adjacency. "Link MTU size is successfully
   tested" is part of an event (A6) causing the transition from "2-way"
   state to "Report" state for an adjacency. If MTU testing is enabled,
   this part means the link MTU testing of size X succeeds, and X is
   greater than or equal to the campus-wide Sz [RFC6325]. In other
   words, if this link cannot support an MTU of the campus-wide Sz, it
   will not be reported as part of the campus topology.

   This document specifies a new value, "link-wide Lz" to represent the
   link-wide minimum acceptable inter-RBridge MTU size for a specific
   link. There are PDUs which are valid only to a local link, such as
   CSNPs and PSNPs. These PDUs should be formatted not greater than the
   link-wide Lz. Since link-wide Lz is normally greater than the campus-
   wide Sz, link scope PDUs can therefore be optionally formatted
   greater than the campus-wide Sz up to Lz.

   An optional TRILL IS-IS MTU size testing algorithm is specified in
   Section 3 to detail the MTU testing method described in Section 4.3.2
   of [RFC6325] and in [RFC6327bis]. It's recommended to multicast the
   MTU-probes when there are multiple RBridges on a link responding to
   the probing with MTU-ack [RFC6327bis]. The testing method and rules
   of this draft are devised in a way to minimize the tries of MTU-
   probing for testing, which therefore reduces the number of multicast
   packets for MTU testing.

1.1. 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].

2. Link-Wide TRILL IS-IS MTU Size

   This draft specifies a new value "Lz" to represent the acceptable
   inter-RBridge link MTU size on the local link. Link-wide Lz is the
   minimum Lz supported by all RBridges on a specific link. If the link
   is usable, Lz will be greater than or equal to the campus wide Sz
   MTU. Some TRILL IS-IS PDUs are exchanged only between neighbors
   instead of the whole campus. They should be confined by the link-wide
   Lz instead of the campus-wide Sz. CSNPs and PSNPs are examples of
 

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   such PDUs. They are exchanged just on the link as part of LSP
   synchronization.

   [FS-LSP] defines the PDUs which support flooding scopes in addition
   to area wide scope and domain wide scope. RBridges on a local link
   that support Lz greater than Sz MUST support the L1 Circuit Scoped
   (L1CS) flooding. They use that flooding to exchange their maximally
   supportable value of "Lz". The smallest value of the Lz collected on
   a link, but not less than Sz, is the link-wide Lz.

   The maximum sized level 1 link-local PDU, such as PSNP or CSNP, which
   may be generated by a system is controlled by the value of the
   management parameter originatingL1SNPBufferSize. This value
   determines Lz. The TRILL APPsub-TLV shown in Figure 2.1 SHOULD be
   included in a GENINFO TLV [RFC6823] in an L1CS-LSP number zero. If it
   is missing from a fragment zero L1CS-LSP or there is no fragment zero
   L1CS-LSP, it is assumed that its originating IS is implicitly
   advertising its originatingSNPBufferSize value as Sz octets.

                   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                   | Type                          |   (2 byte)
                   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                   | Length                        |   (2 byte)
                   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                   | originatingSNPBufferSize      |   (2 byte)
                   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    Figure 2.1: Lz is reported in the originatingSNPBufferSize TLV.

   Type: set to originatingSNPBufferSize subTLV (TRILL APPsub-TLV type
   0x0002). Two bytes because this APPsub-TLV appears in an Extended TLV
   [FS-LSP].

   Length: set to 2.

   originatingSNPBufferSize: the local value of
   originatingL1SNPBufferSize, limited to 1470 to 65,535 bytes.

 

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                         Lz:1800             Lz:1800
                          +---+       |       +---+
                          |RB1|(2000)-|-(2000)|RB2|
                          +---+       |       +---+
                                      |
                  Lz:1800             |
                   +---+             +--+
                   |RB3|(2000)-(1700)|B1|
                   +---+             +--+
                                      |

   Figure 2.2: Link-wide Lz = 1800 v.s. tested link MTU size = 1700 

   Even if all RBridges on a specific link have reached consensus on the
   value of link-wide Lz, it does not mean that these RBridges can
   safely exchange PDUs between each other. Figure 2.2 shows such a
   corner case. RB1, RB2 and RB3 are three RBridges on the same link and
   their Lz is 1800, so the link-wide Lz of this link is 1800. There is
   an intermediate bridge (say B1) between RB2 and RB3 whose port MTU
   size is 1700. If RB2 sends PDUs formatted in chunk of size 1800, it
   will be discarded by B1.

   Therefore the link MTU size should be tested. After the link MTU size
   of an adjacency is successfully tested, those link local PDUs such as
   CSNP, PSNP and also L1CS-LSP will be formatted no greater than the
   tested link MTU size and will be safely transmitted on this link.

   As for campus-wide Sz, RBridges continue to propagate their
   originatingL1LSPBufferSize across the campus through the
   advertisement of LSPs as defined in Section 4.3.2 of [RFC6325]. The
   smallest value of Sz advertised by any RBridge, but not less than
   1470, will be deemed as the campus-wide Sz. Each RBridge should
   format their "campus-wide" PDUs, for example LSPs, not greater than
   what they believe to be the campus-wide Sz.

3. Link MTU Size Testing

   [RFC6327bis] defines the event A6 as including "MTU test is
   successful" if the MTU testing is enabled. As described in Section
   4.3.2 of [RFC6325], this is a combination of the following event and
   condition.

   Event: The link MTU size has been tested.

   Condition: The link can support the campus-wide Sz.

   This condition can be efficiently tested by the following "Binary
   Search Algorithm" and rules. The MTU-probe and MTU-ack PDUs are
 

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   specified in Section 3 of [RFC6326bis].

   X, X1, and X2 are local integer variables.

   Step 0: RB1 sends an MTU-probe padded to the size of link-wide Lz. 

   1) If RB1 successfully receives the MTU-ack from RB2 to the probe of
      the value of link-wide Lz within k tries (where k is a
      configurable parameter whose default is 3), then link MTU size is
      set to the size of link-wide Lz and stop. 

   2) RB1 tries to send an MTU-probe padded to the size 1470. 

      a) If RB1 fails to receive an MTU-ack from RB2 after k tries, RB1
         sets the "failed minimum MTU test" flag for RB2 in RB1's Hello
         and stop. 

      b) Link MTU size <-- 1470, X1 <-- 1470, X2 <-- link-wide Lz, X <--
         [(X1 + X2)/2] (Operation "[...]" returns the fraction-rounded-
         up integer.). Repeat Step 1.  

   Step 1: RB1 tries to send an MTU-probe padded to the size X.   

   1) If RB1 fails to receive an MTU-ack from RB2 after k tries, then: 

         X2 <-- X and X <-- [(X1 + X2)/2]

   2) If RB1 receives an MTU-ack to a probe of size X from RB2 then: 

         link MTU size <-- X, X1 <-- X and X <-- [(X1 + X2)/2]

   3) If X1 >= X2 or Step 1 has been repeated n times (where n is a
      configurable parameter whose default value is 5), stop. Else
      repeat Step 1.

   MTU testing is only done in the Designated VLAN [RFC6327bis]. Since
   the execution of the above algorithm can be resource consuming, it is
   recommended that the DRB takes the responsibility to do the testing. 
   Multicast should be used instead of unicast when multiple RBridges
   are desired to respond with MTU-ack on the link. The Binary Search
   Algorithm is proposed here to minimize the tries of probing therefore
   it reduces the number of multicast packets for MTU-probing.

   The following rules are designed to determine whether the
   aforementioned "Condition" holds.

   RBridges have figured out the upper bound (X2) and lower bound (X1)
   for the link MTU size from the execution of the above algorithm. If
 

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   the campus-wide Sz is smaller than the lower bound or greater than
   the upper bound, RBridges can directly judge whether the link
   supports the campus-wide Sz without MTU-probing.

   (a) If X1 >= campus-wide Sz. This link can support campus-wide Sz.

   (b) Else if X2 <= campus-wide Sz. This link cannot support campus-
       wide Sz.

   Otherwise, RBridges need to test whether the link can support campus-
   wide Sz:

   (c) X1 < campus-wide Sz < X2. RBridges need probe the link with MTU-
       probe messages padded to campus-wide Sz. If an MTU-ack is
       received within k tries, this link can support campus-wide Sz.
       Otherwise, this link cannot support campus-wide Sz. Through this
       test, the lower bound and upper bound of link MTU size can be
       updated accordingly.

4. Refreshing Campus-Wide Sz

   RBridges may join in or leave the campus, which may change the
   campus-wide Sz. The following recommendations are specified for
   refreshing the campus-wide Sz.

   1) When a new RBridge joins in the campus and its
      originatingL1LSPBufferSize is smaller than current campus-wide Sz,
      reporting its originatingL1LSPBufferSize in its LSPs will cause
      other RBridges decrease their campus-wide Sz. Then the LSPs in the
      campus will be resized to be no greater than the new campus-wide
      Sz.

   2) When an RBrige leaves the campus and its
      originatingL1LSPBufferSize is equal to the campus-wide Sz, its
      LSPs are purged from the remaining campus after reaching MaxAge
      [ISO10589]. The campus-wide Sz may be recalculated and may be
      increased. In other words, while RB1 normally ignores link state
      information for any IS-IS unreachable [TRILLClear] RBridge RB2,
      originatingL1LSPBufferSize is an exception. Its value, even from
      IS-IS unreachable RBridges, is used in determining Sz. 

   Frequent LSP "resizing" is harmful to the stability of the TRILL
   campus, so it should be dampened. Within the two kinds of resizing
   actions, only the upward resizing will be dampened. When an upward
   resizing event happens, a timer is set (this is a configurable
   parameter whose default value is 300 seconds). Before this timer
   expires, all subsequent upward resizing will be dampened. Of course,
   in a well-configured campus with all RBridges configured to have the
 

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   same originatingL1LSPBufferSize, no resizing will be necessary.

   If the refreshed campus-wide Sz is smaller than the lower bound or
   greater than the upper bound of the tested link MTU size, the
   resource consuming link MTU size testing can be avoided according to
   rule (a) or (b) specified in Section 3. Otherwise, RBridges need to
   test the link MTU size according to rule (c). But it's unnecessary to
   perform the link MTU size testing algorithm all over again.

5. Relationship between Port MTU, Lz and Sz

   When port MTU size is smaller than the local
   originatingL1SNPBufferSize of an RBridge (sort of a wrong
   configuration), this port should be explicitly disabled from the
   TRILL campus. On the other hand, when an RBridge receives an LSP or
   L1CS-LSP with size greater than the link-wide Lz or the campus-wide
   Sz but not greater than its port MTU size, this LSP should be
   processed rather than discarded. If the size of an LSP is greater
   than the MTU size of a port over which it is to be propagated, no
   attempt shall be made to propagate this LSP over the port and an
   LSPTooLargeToPropagate alarm shall be generated [ISO10589].

6. LSP Synchronization

   An RBridge participates in LSP synchronization on a link as soon as
   it has at least one adjacency on that link that has advanced to at
   least the 2-Way state [RFC6327bis]. On a LAN link, CSNP and PSNP PDUs
   are used for synchronization. On a point-to-point link, only PSNP are
   used.

   The CSNPs and PSNPs MUST be formatted in chunks of size at most the
   link-wide Lz but are processed normally if received larger than that.
   Since the link MTU size may not have been tested in the 2-Way state,
   link-wide Lz may be greater than the supported link MTU size. In that
   case, a CSNP or PSNP may be discarded. After the link MTU size is
   successfully tested, RBridges will begin to format these PDUs in the
   size no greater than it, therefore these PDUs will finally
   successfully get through. 

   Note that the link MTU size is probably greater than the campus-wide
   Sz. Link local PDUs are formatted in the size of link MTU size rather
   than the campus-wide Sz, which promises a reduction in the number of
   PDUs and a faster LSP synchronization process.

7. Recommendations for Traffic Link MTU Size Testing

   Campus-wide Sz and link-wide Lz are used to limit the size of most
   TRILL IS-IS PDUs. They are different from the MTU size restricting
 

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   the size of TRILL data packets. The size of a TRILL data packet is
   restricted by the physical MTU of the ports and links the packet
   traverses. It is possible that a TRILL data packet successfully gets
   through the campus but its size is greater than the campus-wide Sz or
   link-wide Lz values. 

   The algorithm defined in link MTU size testing can also be used in
   TRILL traffic MTU size testing, only that the link-wide Lz used in
   that algorithm should be replaced by the port MTU of the RBridge
   sending MTU probes. The successfully tested size X can be advertised
   as an attribute of this link using MTU sub-TLV defined in
   [RFC6326bis].

   Unlike RBridges, end stations do not participate in the exchange of
   ISIS PDUs of TRILL, therefore they can not grasp the traffic link MTU
   size from a TRILL campus automatically. An operator may collect these
   values using network management tools such as TRILL ping or
   TraceRoute. Then the path MTU is set as the smallest tested link MTU
   on this path and end stations should not generate frames that, when
   encapsulated as TRILL Data packets, may exceed this path MTU.

8. Backwards Compatibility

   There can be a mixture of Lz-ignorant and Lz-aware RBridges on a
   link. This will act properly although it will not be as efficient as
   it would be if all RBridges on the link are Lz-aware.

   At the side of an Lz-aware RBridge, in case that link-wide Lz is
   greater than campus-wide Sz, larger link-local TRILL IS-IS PDUs can
   be sent out to gain efficiencies. Lz-ignorant RBridges as receivers
   will have no problem to handle them since the
   originatingL1LSPBufferSize value of these RBridges had been reported
   and the link-wide Lz is not greater than that value.

   At the side of an Lz-ignorant RBridge, TRILL IS-IS PDUs are always
   formatted not greater than the campus-wide Sz. Lz-aware RBridges as
   receivers can handle these PDUs since they cannot be greater than the
   link-wide Lz.

   An Lz-ignorant RBridge does not support the link MTU testing
   algorithm defined in Section 3 but may be using some algorithm just
   to test for Sz MTU on the link. In any case, if an RBridge per
   [RFC6325] receives an MTU-probe, it MUST respond with an MTU-ack
   padded to the same size as the MTU-probe. So the extension of TRILL
   MTU negotiation with Lz, as specified in this document, is fully
   backwards compatible.

9. Security Considerations
 

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   This document raises no new security issues for TRILL. For general
   and adjacency related TRILL security considerations, see [RFC6325]
   and [RFC6327bis].

10. IANA Considerations

   Similar as Section 7.2 of [ESADI], IANA is requested to create a new
   subregistry (2 suggested) under the Generic Information TLV (#251)
   [RFC6823] for TRILL originatingSNPBufferSize sub-TLV defined in
   Section 2 of this document. 

11. References 

11.1. Normative References

   [RFC6325]    R. Perlman, D. Eastlake, et al, "RBridges: Base Protocol
                Specification", RFC 6325, July 2011.

   [RFC6327bis] D. Eastlake, R. Perlman, et al, "TRILL: Adjacency",
                draft-ietf-trill-rfc6327bis-04.txt, in RFC Editor's
                queue.

   [RFC6326bis] D. Eastlake, T. Senevirathne, et al, "Transparent
                Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Use of IS-IS",
                draft-ietf-isis-rfc6326bis-03.txt, in RFC Editor's
                queue.

   [FS-LSP]     L. Ginsberg, S. Previdi and Y. Yang, "IS-IS Flooding
                Scope LSPs", draft-ietf-isis-fs-lsp-01.txt, work in
                progress.

   [TRILLClear] D. Eastlake, M. Zhang, et al., "TRILL: Clarifications,
                Corrections, and Updates", draft-ietf-trill-clear-
                correct-06.txt, in RFC Editor's queue.

   [RFC6823]    Ginsberg, L., Previdi, S., and M. Shand, "Advertising
                Generic Information in IS-IS", RFC 6823, December 2012.
11.2. Informative References

   [ISO10589]   ISO, "Intermediate system to Intermediate system
                routeing information exchange protocol for use in
                conjunction with the Protocol for providing the
                Connectionless-mode Network Service (ISO 8473)," ISO/IEC
                10589:2002.

   [ESADI]      H. Zhai, F. Hu, et al., "TRILL (Transparent
                Interconnection of Lots of Links): ESADI (End Station
 

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                Address Distribution Information) Protocol", draft-ietf-
                trill-esadi-05.txt, work in progress.

 

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Author's Addresses

   Mingui Zhang
   Huawei Technologies
   No.156 Beiqing Rd. Haidian District,
   Beijing 100095 P.R. China
        
   Email: zhangmingui@huawei.com

   Xudong Zhang
   Huawei Technologies
   No.156 Beiqing Rd. Haidian District,
   Beijing 100095 P.R. China
        
   Email: zhangxudong@huawei.com

   Donald E. Eastlake, 3rd
   Huawei Technologies
   155 Beaver Street
   Milford, MA 01757 USA

   Phone: +1-508-333-2270
   Email: d3e3e3@gmail.com

   Radia Perlman
   Individual Contributor

   Email: radiaperlman@gmail.com

   Vishwas Manral
   Hewlett-Packard Co.
   19111 Pruneridge Ave.
   Cupertino, CA 95014 USA

   Phone: 1-408-447-0000
   Email: vishwas.manral@hp.com

   Somnath Chatterjee
   Cisco Systems

   Email: somnath.chatterjee01@gmail.com

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