Transport Area Working Group                                    M. Amend
Internet-Draft                                          Deutsche Telekom
Intended status: Experimental                               A. Brunstrom
Expires: September 12, 2019                                   A. Kassler
                                                     Karlstad University
                                                            V. Rakocevic
                                               City University of London
                                                          March 11, 2019


    DCCP Extensions for multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
                  draft-amend-tsvwg-multipath-dccp-00

Abstract

   DCCP communication is currently restricted to a single path per
   connection, yet multiple paths often exist between peers.  The
   simultaneous use of these multiple paths for a DCCP session could
   improve resource usage within the network and, thus, improve user
   experience through higher throughput and improved resilience to
   network failure.

   Multipath DCCP provides the ability to simultaneously use multiple
   paths between peers.  This document presents a set of extensions to
   traditional DCCP to support multipath operation.  The protocol offers
   the same type of service to applications as DCCP and it provides the
   components necessary to establish and use multiple DCCP flows across
   potentially disjoint paths.

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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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 12, 2019.






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Copyright Notice

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Multipath DCCP in the Networking Stack  . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.3.  MP-DCCP Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.4.  Differences from Multipath TCP  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     1.5.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   2.  Operation Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.  MP-DCCP Protocol  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Interactions with Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   Multipath DCCP (MP-DCCP) is a set of extensions to regular DCCP
   [RFC4340], which enables a transport connection to operate across
   multiple paths simultaneously.  DCCP multipath operations is
   suggested in the context of ongoing 3GPP work on 5G multi-access
   solutions [draft-amend-tsvwg-multipath-framework-mpdccp] and for
   hybrid access networks [draft-lhwxz-hybrid-access-network-
   architecture, draft-muley-network-based-bonding-hybrid-access].  It
   can be applied for load-balancing, seamless session handover and
   aggregation purposes (referred to as steering, switching and
   splitting in 3GPP terminology [3GPP, TR 23.793]).

   This document presents the protocol changes required to add multipath
   capability to DCCP; specifically, those for signaling and setting up




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   multiple paths ("subflows"), managing these subflows, reassembly of
   data, and termination of sessions.

1.1.  Multipath DCCP in the Networking Stack

   MP-DCCP operates at the transport layer and aims to be transparent to
   both higher and lower layers.  It is a set of additional features on
   top of standard DCCP; Figure 1 illustrates this layering.  MP-DCCP is
   designed to be used by applications in the same way as DCCP with no
   changes.

                                +-------------------------------+
                                |           Application         |
   +---------------+            +-------------------------------+
   |  Application  |            |            MP-DCCP            |
   +---------------+            + - - - - - - - + - - - - - - - +
   |      DCCP     |            |Subflow (DCCP) |Subflow (DCCP) |
   +---------------+            +-------------------------------+
   |      IP       |            |       IP      |      IP       |
   +---------------+            +-------------------------------+


   Figure 1: Comparison of Standard DCCP and MP-DCCP Protocol Stacks

1.2.  Terminology

   [Tbd], could be similar to [RFC6824]

1.3.  MP-DCCP Concept

              Host A                               Host B
   ------------------------             ------------------------
   Address A1    Address A2             Address B1    Address B2
   ----------    ----------             ----------    ----------
     |             |                      |             |
     |         (DCCP flow setup)          |             |
     |----------------------------------->|             |
     |<-----------------------------------|             |
     |             |                      |             |
     |             |  (DCCP flow setup)   |             |
     |             |--------------------->|             |
     |             |<---------------------|             |
     | merge individual DCCP flows to one multipath connection
     |             |                      |             |


                 Figure 2: Example MP-DCCP Usage Scenario




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1.4.  Differences from Multipath TCP

   Multipath DCCP is similar to Multipath TCP [RFC6824], in that it
   extends the related basic DCCP transport protocol [RFC4340] with
   multipath capabilities in the same way as Multipath TCP extends TCP
   [RFC793].  However, mainly dominated by the basic protocols TCP and
   DCPP, the transport characteristics are different.

   Table 1 compares the protocol characteristics of TCP and DCCP, which
   are by nature inherited by their respective multipath extensions.  A
   major difference lies in the delivery of payload, which is for TCP an
   exact copy of the generated byte-stream.  DCCP behaves contrary and
   does not guarantee to transmit any payload nor the order of delivery.
   Since this is mainly affecting the receiving endpoint of a TCP or
   DCCP communication, many similarities on sender side can be stated.
   Both transport protocols share the 3-way initiation of a
   communication and both exploit a congestion control to adapt to path
   characteristics.

   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Feature        |      TCP     |     DCCP     |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Full-Duplex    |      yes     |     yes      |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Connection-    |      yes     |     yes      |
   | Oriented       |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Header option  |      40      | < 1008 bytes |
   | space          |    bytes     |   or PMTU    |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Data transfer  |   reliable   |  unreliable  |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Packet-loss    | re-          |   report     |
   | handling       | transmission |   only       |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Ordered data   |      yes     |     no       |
   | delivery       |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Sequence       |  one per     |  one per     |
   | numbers        |  byte        |  PDU         |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Flow control   |      yes     |     no       |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Congestion     |      yes     |     yes      |
   | control        |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | ECN support    |      yes     |     yes      |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+



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   |                |              |  depends on  |
   | Selective ACK  |      yes     |  congestion  |
   |                |              |  control     |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Fix message    |      no      |     yes      |
   | boundaries     |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Path MTU       |      yes     |     yes      |
   | discovery      |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Fragmentation  |      yes     |     no       |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | SYN flood      |      yes     |     no       |
   | protection     |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Half-open      |      yes     |     no       |
   | connections    |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
       Table 1: TCP and DCCP protocol comparison


   Consequently, the multipath features, shown in Table 2, are the same
   for support of volatile paths, session handover and path aggregation
   capabilities.  All of them profit by the existence of congestion
   control.

   +----------------------------------------------+
   | Feature        |    MP-TCP    |    MP-DCCP   |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Volatile paths |      yes     |     yes      |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Robust session |      no      |     yes      |
   | establishment  |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Data           |      yes     |   optional   |
   | reassembly     |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Expandability  |  limited by  |   flexible   |
   |                |  TCP header  |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Session        |      yes     |      yes     |
   | handover       |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+
   | Path           |      yes     |      yes     |
   | aggregation    |              |              |
   +----------------+--------------+--------------+





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   Table 2: MPTCP and MP-DCCP protocol comparison

   Therefore the sender logic is not much different between MP-DCCP and
   MPTCP, even if the multipath session initiation differs.  MP-DCCP
   inherits a robust session establishment feature, which guarantees
   communication establishment if at least one functional path is
   available.  MP-TCP relies on an initial path, which has to work;
   otherwise no communication can be established.

   The receiver side for MP-DCCP has to deal with the unreliable
   transport character of DCCP and a possible re-assembly of the data
   stream.  In practice, it is assumed that some sort of re-assembly has
   to be applied, even if DCCP and the order of delivery is unreliable
   by nature.  Such re-assembly mechanisms have to account for the fact
   that packet loss may occur for any of the DCCP subflows.  Another
   issue is the packet reordering introduced when a DCCP communication
   is split across paths with disjoint latencies.  In theory,
   applications using DCCP certainly have to deal with packet
   reordering, since DCCP has no mechanisms to prevent it.  However, in
   practice, without any multipath extension, packet reordering can be
   assumed to be very limited.  Therefore most services on top of DCCP
   are not expecting massive packet reordering and degrades their
   performance if it happens anyway.

   The receiving process for MP-TCP is on the other hand a simple "just
   wait" approach, since TCP guarantees reliable delivery.

1.5.  Requirements Language

   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 [RFC2119].

2.  Operation Overview

   [Tbd], could be similar to [RFC6824]

3.  MP-DCCP Protocol

   [Tbd], could be similar to [RFC6824]

   [Tbd] On top it requires particular considerations for:

   o  The minimum PMTU of the individual paths must be selected to
      announce to the application.  Changes of individual path PMTUs
      must be re-announced to the application if they are lower than the
      current announced PMTU.




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   o  Overall sequencing for optional reassembly procedure

   o  Congestion control

   o  Robust MP-DCCP session establishment (no dependency on an initial
      path setup)

4.  Security Considerations

   [Tbd]

5.  Interactions with Middleboxes

   [Tbd], should mention standardized technologies like [RFC5597] or
   [RFC6773] and U-DCCP [draft-amend-tsvwg-dccp-udp-header-conversion]

6.  Acknowledgments

   1.  Notes

   This document is inspired by Multipath TCP [RFC6824] and some text
   passages for the -00 version of the draft are copied almost
   unmodified.

7.  IANA Considerations

   [Tbd], must include options for:

   o  handshaking procedure to indicate MP support

   o  handshaking procedure to indicate JOINING of an existing MP
      connection

   o  signaling of new or changed addresses

   o  setting handover or aggregation mode

   o  setting reordering on/off

   should include options carrying:

   o  overall sequence number for restoring purposes

   o  sender time measurements for restoring purposes

   o  scheduler preferences

   o  reordering preferences



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8.  Informative References

   [I-D.amend-tsvwg-multipath-framework-mpdccp]
              Amend, M., Brunstrom, A., Kassler, A., and V. Rakocevic,
              "IP compatible multipath framework for heterogeneous
              access networks", draft-amend-tsvwg-multipath-framework-
              mpdccp-00 (work in progress), March 2019.

   [I-D.lhwxz-hybrid-access-network-architecture]
              Leymann, N., Heidemann, C., Wasserman, M., Xue, L., and M.
              Zhang, "Hybrid Access Network Architecture", draft-lhwxz-
              hybrid-access-network-architecture-02 (work in progress),
              January 2015.

   [I-D.muley-network-based-bonding-hybrid-access]
              Muley, P., Henderickx, W., Geng, L., Liu, H., Cardullo,
              L., Newton, J., Seo, S., Draznin, S., and B. Patil,
              "Network based Bonding solution for Hybrid Access", draft-
              muley-network-based-bonding-hybrid-access-03 (work in
              progress), October 2018.

   [RFC0793]  Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
              RFC 793, DOI 10.17487/RFC0793, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc793>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC4340]  Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram
              Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4340, March 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4340>.

   [RFC5597]  Denis-Courmont, R., "Network Address Translation (NAT)
              Behavioral Requirements for the Datagram Congestion
              Control Protocol", BCP 150, RFC 5597,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5597, September 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5597>.

   [RFC6773]  Phelan, T., Fairhurst, G., and C. Perkins, "DCCP-UDP: A
              Datagram Congestion Control Protocol UDP Encapsulation for
              NAT Traversal", RFC 6773, DOI 10.17487/RFC6773, November
              2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6773>.






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   [RFC6824]  Ford, A., Raiciu, C., Handley, M., and O. Bonaventure,
              "TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple
              Addresses", RFC 6824, DOI 10.17487/RFC6824, January 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6824>.

Authors' Addresses

   Markus Amend
   Deutsche Telekom
   T-Online-Allee 1
   Darmstadt
   Germany

   Email: Markus.Amend@telekom.de


   Anna Brunstrom
   Karlstad University
   Universitetsgatan 2
   651 88 Karlstad
   Sweden

   Email: anna.brunstrom@kau.se


   Andreas Kassler
   Karlstad University
   Universitetsgatan 2
   651 88 Karlstad
   Sweden

   Email: andreas.kassler@kau.se


   Veselin Rakocevic
   City University of London
   Northampton Square
   London
   United Kingdom

   Email: veselin.rakocevic.1@city.ac.uk










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