Inter-Domain Routing                                         P. Lapukhov
Internet-Draft                                                  Facebook
Intended status: Standards Track                           E. Aries, Ed.
Expires: May 4, 2017                                          P. Marques
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                             E. Nkposong
                                                      Salesforce.com Inc
                                                        October 31, 2016


                    Use of BGP for Opaque Signaling
                 draft-lapukhov-bgp-opaque-signaling-03

Abstract

   Border Gateway Protocol with multi-protocol extensions (MP-BGP)
   enables the use of the protocol for dissemination of virtually any
   information.  This document proposes a new Address Family/Subsequent
   Address Family to be used for distribution of opaque data.  This
   functionality is intended to be used by applications other than BGP
   for exchange of their own data on top of BGP mesh.  The structure of
   such data SHOULD NOT be interpreted by the regular BGP speakers,
   rather the goal is to use BGP purely as a convenient and scalable
   communication system.

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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

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
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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 May 4, 2017.




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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  BGP Opaque Data AFI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  BGP Key-Value SAFI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  BGP VPN Key-Value SAFI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Capability Advertisement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  Disseminating Key-Value bindings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     6.1.  Publishing a Key-Value binding  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.2.  Removing a Key-Value binding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Manageability Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.1.  Propagating multiple values for the same key  . . . . . .   6
     7.2.  Automated filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.3.  Filtering via policy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   Implementation of Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4 [RFC4760] gives
   the ability to pass arbitrary data in BGP protocol messages.  This
   capability has been leveraged by many for dissemination of non-
   routing related information over BGP (e.g.  "Dissemination of Flow
   Specification Rules" [RFC5575] as well as "North-Bound Distribution
   of Link-State and TE Information using BGP"
   [I-D.ietf-idr-ls-distribution]).  However, there has been no channel
   defined explicitly to disseminate data with arbitrary payload.  The
   intended use case is for applications other than BGP to leverage the



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   protocol machinery for distribution (broadcasting) of their own state
   in the network domain.  Publishers and consumers will use BGP UPDATE
   messages over TCP transport to submit and receive opaque data.  It is
   up to the BGP implementation to provide a custom API for message
   producers or consumers, if needed.

2.  BGP Opaque Data AFI

   This document introduces a new AFI known as a "BGP Opaque Data AFI"
   with the actual value to be assigned by IANA.  The purpose of this
   AFI is to exchange opaque information within a BGP network.  The
   propagation scope is to be controlled by the usual means of BGP
   policy, except that the policy SHOULD not match on NLRI information
   in any form other than an opaque string.

3.  BGP Key-Value SAFI

   This document introduces a new SAFI known as "BGP Key-Value SAFI"
   with the actual value to be assigned by IANA.  The purpose of this
   SAFI is exchange of opaque information structured as Key-Value
   binding.

4.  BGP VPN Key-Value SAFI

   This document introduces a new SAFI known as a "BGP VPN Key-Value
   SAFI" with the actual value to be assigned by IANA.  The purpose of
   this SAFI is exchange of opaque information structured as a Key-Value
   binding over service provider backbone providing Virtual Private
   Networks as a service.  The [RFC4364] defines a method and procedures
   for implementing VPNs using BGP as a control plane.  All the
   procedures of [RFC4364] apply to the BGP VPN Key-Value SAFI.  Under
   this SAFI, the NLRI for the opaque information has the mandatory 8
   bytes of Route Distinguisher at the beginning of the NLRI field.

5.  Capability Advertisement

   A BGP speaker that wishes to exchange Opaque Data MUST use the
   Multiprotocol Extensions Capability Code, as defined in [RFC4760], to
   advertise the corresponding AFI/SAFI pair.

6.  Disseminating Key-Value bindings

   This document proposes a distributed, eventually consistent Key-Value
   store on top of existing BGP protocol transport mechanism.  The "Key"
   and "Value" portions are to be encoded as the NLRI part of
   MP_REACH_NLRI attribute.





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   o  Publishers advertise keys along with associated values into the
      routing domain.  The BGP network disseminates that state by
      propagating the encoded data following regular BGP protocol
      operations.

   o  Consumers receive the information via BGP protocol UPDATE
      messages.  Only publishers and consumers of the opaque data are
      supposed to interpret its contents.  The rest of the BGP network
      acts merely as a dissemination system.

   Multiple publishers can advertise the same key bound to different
   values.  Only the "Key" part of MP_REACH_NLRI filed MUST be used to
   differentiate unique advertisements in such case.  It is also
   possible for the advertised binding to have the same Key-Value pairs,
   but differ in some other BGP attributes.  In that case, the BGP
   implementation MUST follow the regular best-path selection logic to
   prevent duplicate information in the network.  A consumer will
   receive the value created by the publisher "closest" in terms of BGP
   best-path selection logic, based on the policies that exist in the
   routing domain.  This document does not propose methods to achieve
   strong global consensus for all published values of a given key, as
   it's generally impossible in eventually consistent data distribution
   systems.

6.1.  Publishing a Key-Value binding

   The encoding scheme proposed below follows the semantics of a Key-
   Value binding.  The "Key" and "Value" are stored in the NLRI section
   of the MP_REACH_NLRI attribute, as shown on Figure 1.

       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Address Family Identifier (2 octets)                    |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Subsequent Address Family Identifier (1 octet)          |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Length of Next Hop Address (1 octet), must be zero      |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Reserved (1 octet), must be zero                        |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Opaque Key Length (2 octets)                            |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Opaque Key Data (variable)                              |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+
       | Opaque Value Data (variable)                            |
       +---------------------------------------------------------+

                      Figure 1: MP_REACH_NLRI Layout




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   o  The AFI/SAFI values are to be allocated by IANA.

   o  Length of Next Hop Address: must be zero, indicating empty next-
      hop.

   o  Opaque Key Length: identifies the size of the Key field in octets,
      an unsigned integer value.  The field MUST have a value of at
      least one octet under the Key-Value SAFI and at least 9 octets
      under the VPN Key-Value SAFI.  Violating this requirement MUST
      cause the receiver to ignore the advertised Key-Value binding.

   o  Opaque Key Data: the byte string representing the opaque key
      contents.

   o  Opaque Value Data: The length of this field is determined by
      subtracting the length of all previous fields from the total
      length of MP_REACH_NLRI attribute.  This field MAY be empty.

   The maximum size of the Opaque "Key" and "Value" fields together is
   limited by the BGP UPDATE message size.  With the default BGP
   protocol implementation is may not exceed 4096 octets (see [RFC4271]
   Section 4).  However, if [I-D.ietf-idr-bgp-extended-messages] is
   implemented, the UPDATE message size could be as large as 65536
   octets.

6.2.  Removing a Key-Value binding

   The removal procedure follows the regular MP-BGP route withdrawal,
   using the MP_UNREACH_NLRI attribute.  This section defines the
   attribute structure for the new AFI/SAFI.

   The specific MP_UNREACH_NLRI format is shown on Figure 2.  This
   message instructs the receiving BGP speaker to delete the N bindings
   corresponding to Key 1, Key 2 ... Key N if the keys have been
   previously learned from the withdrawing speaker.  If any of the keys
   could not be found in the LocRIB or has not been previously received
   from the withdrawing BGP peer, such key removal request MUST be
   ignored and the event MAY be logged.  For the Key-Value SAFI, each
   key length field must have the value of at least "1".  For the VPN
   Key-Value SAFI, each key length must be at least 9 octets long.
   Violation of of these constraints MUST cause the receiver of the
   UPDATE message to ignore the corresponding key withdrawal.









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   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Address Family Identifier (2 octets)                    |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Subsequent Address Family Identifier (1 octet)          |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Opaque Key 1 Length (1 octet)                           |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Opaque Key 1 Data (variable)                            |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   ~                                                         ~
   | Opaque Key N Length (1 octet)                           |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Opaque Key N Data (variable)                            |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+

                Figure 2: MP_UNREACH_NLRI attribute layout

7.  Manageability Considerations

7.1.  Propagating multiple values for the same key

   It is possible to propagate multiple values associated with the same
   key using the Add-Path extension defined in [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths].
   However, this document recommends that instead unique key values
   SHOULD be used for this purpose.  It is up to the consumers and
   publishers of the opaque data to settle on single unique value using
   some kind of consensus protocol.

   As a recommendation, the originators of key-value pairs may use the
   origin ASN and the IPv4 or IPv6 address assigned to the originating
   BGP speaker to create a unique key prefix.  Alternatively, UUIDs
   could be used to generate the unique key names, see [RFC4122]

7.2.  Automated filtering

   One can leverage mechanics described in [RFC4684] and use the route-
   target extended community attribute to identify "channels" where key-
   value bindings are published.  The consumers would signal their
   interest in particular "channel" by advertising the corresponding
   router-target membership.  The publications then need to carry the
   router-target extended community attribute to restrict information
   propagation.

7.3.  Filtering via policy

   Ad-doc message filtering could be implemented using BGP standard (see
   [RFC4271]) or extended community attributes (see [RFC4360]).  The
   semantic of these attributes is to determined by the policy and



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   publishers/consumers.  Filtering could be done locally on receiving
   BGP speaker, or on remote BGP speaker, by using outbound route
   filtering feature defined in [RFC5291].

8.  IANA Considerations

   For the purpose of this work, IANA would be asked to allocate values
   for the new AFI and SAFIs.

9.  Security Considerations

   This document does not introduce any changes in terms of BGP
   security.  The usual set of issues that arise from running multiple
   AFI/SAFI's over single BGP session would apply in this case.
   Additional concerns may be raised due to increase of the volume and
   rate of change of the information distributed by means of opaque
   signaling.

10.  Acknowledgements

   Keyur Patel provided useful feedback and suggested a practical
   implementation of unique key semantic and support for VPN Key-Value
   SAFI.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

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

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed., "A
              Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.

11.2.  Informative References

   [RFC4122]  Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally
              Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4122, July 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4122>.

   [RFC4360]  Sangli, S., Tappan, D., and Y. Rekhter, "BGP Extended
              Communities Attribute", RFC 4360, DOI 10.17487/RFC4360,
              February 2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4360>.



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   [RFC4364]  Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private
              Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, DOI 10.17487/RFC4364, February
              2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4364>.

   [RFC4684]  Marques, P., Bonica, R., Fang, L., Martini, L., Raszuk,
              R., Patel, K., and J. Guichard, "Constrained Route
              Distribution for Border Gateway Protocol/MultiProtocol
              Label Switching (BGP/MPLS) Internet Protocol (IP) Virtual
              Private Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4684, DOI 10.17487/RFC4684,
              November 2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4684>.

   [RFC4760]  Bates, T., Chandra, R., Katz, D., and Y. Rekhter,
              "Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4", RFC 4760,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4760, January 2007,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4760>.

   [RFC5291]  Chen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "Outbound Route Filtering
              Capability for BGP-4", RFC 5291, DOI 10.17487/RFC5291,
              August 2008, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5291>.

   [RFC5575]  Marques, P., Sheth, N., Raszuk, R., Greene, B., Mauch, J.,
              and D. McPherson, "Dissemination of Flow Specification
              Rules", RFC 5575, DOI 10.17487/RFC5575, August 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5575>.

   [I-D.ietf-idr-add-paths]
              Walton, D., Retana, A., Chen, E., and J. Scudder,
              "Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP", draft-ietf-idr-
              add-paths-15 (work in progress), May 2016.

   [I-D.ietf-idr-ls-distribution]
              Gredler, H., Medved, J., Previdi, S., Farrel, A., and S.
              Ray, "North-Bound Distribution of Link-State and TE
              Information using BGP", draft-ietf-idr-ls-distribution-13
              (work in progress), October 2015.

   [I-D.ietf-idr-bgp-extended-messages]
              Bush, R., Patel, K., and D. Ward, "Extended Message
              support for BGP", draft-ietf-idr-bgp-extended-messages-13
              (work in progress), June 2016.

Authors' Addresses









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   Petr Lapukhov
   Facebook
   1 Hacker Way
   Menlo Park, CA  94025
   US

   Email: petr@fb.com


   Ebben Aries (editor)
   Juniper Networks
   1133 Innovation Way
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   US

   Email: exa@juniper.net


   Pedro Marques
   Juniper Networks
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   US

   Email: roque@juniper.net


   Edet Nkposong
   Salesforce.com Inc
   The Landmark @ One Market, ST 300
   San Francisco, CA  94105
   US

   Email: enkposong@salesforce.com

















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