Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol Specification
RFC 5810

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                     A. Doria, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5810                Lulea University of Technology
Category: Standards Track                             J. Hadi Salim, Ed.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                     Znyx
                                                            R. Haas, Ed.
                                                                     IBM
                                                        H. Khosravi, Ed.
                                                                   Intel
                                                            W. Wang, Ed.
                                                                 L. Dong
                                           Zhejiang Gongshang University
                                                                R. Gopal
                                                                   Nokia
                                                              J. Halpern
                                                              March 2010

           Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES)
                         Protocol Specification

Abstract

   This document specifies the Forwarding and Control Element Separation
   (ForCES) protocol.  The ForCES protocol is used for communications
   between Control Elements(CEs) and Forwarding Elements (FEs) in a
   ForCES Network Element (ForCES NE).  This specification is intended
   to meet the ForCES protocol requirements defined in RFC 3654.
   Besides the ForCES protocol, this specification also defines the
   requirements for the Transport Mapping Layer (TML).

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5810.

Doria, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 5810                         ForCES                       March 2010

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 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.

Doria, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 2]
RFC 5810                         ForCES                       March 2010

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................5
   2. Terminology and Conventions .....................................6
      2.1. Requirements Language ......................................6
      2.2. Other Notation .............................................6
      2.3. Integers ...................................................6
   3. Definitions .....................................................6
   4. Overview .......................................................10
      4.1. Protocol Framework ........................................11
           4.1.1. The PL .............................................13
           4.1.2. The TML ............................................14
           4.1.3. The FEM/CEM Interface ..............................14
      4.2. ForCES Protocol Phases ....................................15
           4.2.1. Pre-association ....................................16
           4.2.2. Post-association ...................................18
      4.3. Protocol Mechanisms .......................................19
           4.3.1. Transactions, Atomicity, Execution, and Responses ..19
           4.3.2. Scalability ........................................25
           4.3.3. Heartbeat Mechanism ................................26
           4.3.4. FE Object and FE Protocol LFBs .....................27
      4.4. Protocol Scenarios ........................................27
           4.4.1. Association Setup State ............................27
           4.4.2. Association Established State or Steady State ......29
   5. TML Requirements ...............................................31