Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. JoachimpillaiInternet-DraftRequest for Comments: 8013 VerizonIntended status:Category: Standards Track J. Hadi SalimExpires: January 2, 2017ISSN: 2070-1721 Mojatatu NetworksJuly 1, 2016 ForCESFebruary 2017 Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Inter-FELFB draft-ietf-forces-interfelfb-06Logical Functional Block (LFB) Abstract This document describes how to extend theForCES LFBForwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Logical Functional Block (LFB) topology acrossFEsForwarding Elements (FEs) by defining theInter-FEinter-FE LFBClass.class. TheInter-FEinter-FE LFBClassclass provides the ability to pass data and metadata across FEs without needing any changes to the ForCES specification. The document focuses on Ethernet transport. Status of This Memo ThisInternet-Draftissubmitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documentsan Internet Standards Track document. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The listIt represents the consensus ofcurrent Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents validthe IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved fora maximumpublication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841. Information about the current status ofsix monthsthis document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may beupdated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documentsobtained atany 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 January 2, 2017.http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8013. Copyright Notice Copyright (c)20162017 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.Terminology and ConventionsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 1.1. Requirements Language. . . . . . . 2 2. Terminology and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . .3 1.2. Definitions. . . . . 3 2.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32. Introduction .2.2. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Problem ScopeAndand Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1. Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2. Sample Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2.1. Basic IPv4 Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2.1.1. DistributingThethe Basic IPv4 Router . . . . . . . 6 3.2.2. Arbitrary Network Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2.2.1. DistributingThethe Arbitrary Network Function . . . 8 4. Inter-FE LFB Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.1. InsertingThethe Inter-FE LFB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98 5. Inter-FE Ethernet Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1. Inter-FE Ethernet Connectivity Issues . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1.1. MTU Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1110 5.1.2.Quality Of ServiceQuality-of-Service Considerations . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.1.3. Congestion Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2. Inter-FE Ethernet Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6. Detailed Description of the Ethernetinter-FEInter-FE LFB . . . . . . 13 6.1. Data Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1413 6.1.1. Egress Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6.1.2. Ingress Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6.2. Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 6.3. Inter-FE LFB XML Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 7.Acknowledgements .IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 8.IANAIEEE Assignment Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 9. Security Considerations . . . . . .21 9. IEEE Assignment Considerations . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 10.Security Considerations .References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 11. References. . . . . . . 23 10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2311.1. Normative10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Acknowledgements . . .23 11.2. Informative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24. . . . 25 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 1.Terminology and Conventions 1.1. 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]. 1.2. Definitions This document depends on the terminology defined in several ForCES documents [RFC3746], [RFC5810], [RFC5811], and [RFC5812] [RFC7391] [RFC7408] for the sake of contextual clarity. Control Engine (CE) Forwarding Engine (FE) FE Model LFB (Logical Functional Block) Class (or type) LFB Instance LFB Model LFB Metadata ForCES Component LFB Component ForCES Protocol Layer (ForCES PL) ForCES Protocol Transport Mapping Layer (ForCES TML) 2. Introduction InIntroduction In the ForCES architecture, a packet service can bemodelledmodeled by composing a graph of one or more LFB instances. The reader is referred to the details in the ForCESModelmodel [RFC5812]. The ForCES model describes the processing within a single Forwarding Element (FE) in terms oflogical forwarding blocks (LFB),Logical Functional Blocks (LFBs), including provision for the Control Element (CE) to establish and modify that processing sequence, and the parameters of the individual LFBs. Under somecircumstance,circumstances, it would be beneficial to be able to extend thisview,view and the resulting processing across more than one FE. This may be in order to achieve scale by splitting the processing acrosselements,elements or to utilize specialized hardware available on specific FEs. Given that the ForCES inter-LFB architecture calls for the ability to pass metadata between LFBs, it is imperativethereforeto define mechanisms to extend that existing feature and allow passing the metadata between LFBs across FEs. This document describes how to extend the LFB topology acrossFEs i.eFEs, i.e., inter-FE connectivity without needing any changes to the ForCES definitions. It focuses on using Ethernet as the interconnection between FEs. 2. Terminology and Conventions 2.1. 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]. 2.2. Definitions This document depends on the terms (below) defined in several ForCES documents: [RFC3746], [RFC5810], [RFC5811], [RFC5812], [RFC7391], and [RFC7408]. Control Element (CE) Forwarding Element (FE) FE Model LFB (Logical Functional Block) Class (or type) LFB Instance LFB Model LFB Metadata ForCES Component LFB Component ForCES Protocol Layer (ForCES PL) ForCES Protocol Transport Mapping Layer (ForCES TML) 3. Problem ScopeAndand Use Cases The scope of this document is to solve the challenge of passingForCES definedForCES-defined metadata alongside packet data across FEs (be they physical or virtual) for the purpose of distributing the LFB processing. 3.1. Assumptions o The FEs involved in theInter-FEinter-FE LFB belong to the same NetworkElement(NE)Element (NE) and are within a single administrative private networkwhichthat is in close proximity. o The FEs are already interconnected using Ethernet. We focus on Ethernet because it isa very common setup as ancommonly used for FEinterconnect.interconnection. Other higher transports (such as UDP over IP) or lower transports could be defined to carry the data and metadata, but these cases are not addressed in this document. 3.2. Sample Use Cases To illustrate the problemscopescope, we present two use cases where we start with a single FE running all the LFBs functionality and then split it into multiple FEs achieving the same end goals. 3.2.1. Basic IPv4 Router A sample LFB topology depicted in Figure 1 demonstrates a service graph for delivering a basicIPv4 forwardingIPv4-forwarding service within one FE. For the purpose of illustration, the diagram shows LFB classes as graph nodes instead of multiple LFB class instances. Since the purpose of the illustrationonin Figure 1 ismeant only as an exerciseto showcase how data and metadata are sent down or upstream on a graph of LFB instances, it abstracts out any ports in both directions and talks about a generic ingress and egress LFB. Again, for illustration purposes, the diagram does not show exception or error paths. Also left out are details on Reverse Path Filtering, ECMP, multicasthandlinghandling, etc. In other words, this is not meant to be a complete description of anIPv4 forwardingIPv4-forwarding application; for a more complete example, please refer to theLFBlibLFBLibrary document [RFC6956]. The output of the ingress LFB(s) coming into the IPv4 Validator LFB will have both the IPv4 packets and, depending on the implementation, a variety of ingress metadata such as offsets into the different headers, any classification metadata, physical and virtual ports encountered,tunnelling informationtunneling information, etc. These metadata are lumped together as "ingress metadata". Once the IPv4 validator vets the packet(example(for example, it ensures that there is no expiredTTL etc),TTL), it feeds the packet and inherited metadata into the IPv4 unicast LPM (Longest-Prefix-Matching) LFB. +----+ | | IPv4 pkt | | IPv4 pkt +-----+ +---+ +------------->| +------------->| | | | | + ingress | | + ingress |IPv4 | IPv4 pkt | | | metadata | | metadata |Ucast+------------>| +--+ | +----+ |LPM | + ingress | | | +-+-+ IPv4 +-----+ + NHinfo +---+ | | | Validator metadata IPv4 | | | LFB NextHop| | | LFB | | | | | | IPv4 pkt | | | + {ingress | +---+ + NHdetails} Ingress metadata | LFB +--------+ | | Egress | | <--+ |<-----------------+ | LFB | +--------+ Figure 1: Basic IPv4packet servicePacket Service LFBtopologyTopology The IPv4 unicast LPM LFB doesa longest prefix matchan LPM lookup on the IPv4 FIB using the destination IP address as a search key. The result is typically anext hop selectornext-hop selector, which is passed downstream as metadata. TheNexthopNextHop LFB receives the IPv4 packet withanassociatednext hop infonext-hop (NH) information metadata. The NextHop LFB consumes the NHinfoinformation metadata and derivesfrom ita table index from it to look up thenext hopnext-hop table in order to find the appropriate egress information. The lookup result is used to build thenext hopnext-hop details to be used downstream on the egress. This information may include any source and destination information (for our purposes,MACwhich Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to use) as well as egress ports.[Note:(Note: It is also at this LFB wheretypicallytypically, the forwardingTTL decrementingTTL-decrementing and IP checksum recalculationoccurs.]occurs.) The details of the egress LFB are considered out of scope for this discussion. Suffice itisto say that somewhere within or beyond the EgressLFBLFB, the IPv4 packet will be sent out a port(Ethernet,(e.g., Ethernet, virtual orphysical etc).physical). 3.2.1.1. DistributingThethe Basic IPv4 Router Figure 2 demonstrates one way that the router LFB topology in Figure 1 may be split across two FEs(eg(e.g., twoASICs).Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)). Figure 2 shows the LFB topology split across FEs after the IPv4 unicast LPM LFB. FE1 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | +----+ | | +----------+ | | | | | Ingress | IPv4 pkt | | IPv4 pkt +-----+ | | | LFB +-------------->| +------------->| | | | | | + ingress | | + ingress |IPv4 | | | +----------+ metadata | | metadata |Ucast| | | ^ +----+ |LPM | | | | IPv4 +--+--+ | | | Validator | | | LFB | | +---------------------------------------------------|---------+ | IPv4 packet + {ingress + NHinfo} metadata FE2 | +---------------------------------------------------|---------+ | V | | +--------+ +--------+ | | | Egress | IPv4 packet | IPv4 | | | <-----+ LFB |<----------------------+NextHop | | | | |{ingress + NHdetails} | LFB | | | +--------+ metadata +--------+ | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ Figure 2: Split IPv4packet servicePacket Service LFBtopologyTopology Some proprietaryinter-connect (exampleinterconnections (for example, Broadcom HiGig over XAUI [brcm-higig]) are known to exist to carry both the IPv4 packet and the related metadata between the IPv4 Unicast LFB andIPv4 NextHopIPv4NextHop LFB across the two FEs. This document defines the inter-FE LFB, a standard mechanism for encapsulating, generating,receivingreceiving, and decapsulating packets and associated metadata FEs over Ethernet. 3.2.2. Arbitrary Network Function In thissectionsection, we show an example of an arbitrary Network Functionwhichthat is morecoarsecoarsely grained in terms of functionality. Each Network Function may constitute more than one LFB. FE1 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | +----+ | | +----------+ | | | | | Network | pkt |NF2 | pkt +-----+ | | | Function +-------------->| +------------->| | | | | 1 | + NF1 | | + NF1/2 |NF3 | | | +----------+ metadata | | metadata | | | | ^ +----+ | | | | | +--+--+ | | | | | | | | +---------------------------------------------------|---------+ V Figure 3: A Network Function Service Chain withinoneOne FE The setup in Figure 3 isatypical of most packet processing boxes where we have functions likeDPI,deep packet inspection (DPI), NAT, Routing,etcetc., connected in such a topology to deliver a packet processing service to flows. 3.2.2.1. DistributingThethe Arbitrary Network Function The setup in Figure 3 can be splitoutacross3three FEs instead of as demonstrated in Figure 4. This could be motivated byscale outscale-out reasons or because different vendors provide differentfunctionalityfunctionality, which is plugged-in to provide such functionality. The end result isto havehaving the same packet service delivered to the different flows passing through. FE1 FE2 +----------+ +----+ FE3 | Network | pkt |NF2 | pkt +-----+ | Function +-------------->| +------------->| | | 1 | + NF1 | | + NF1/2 |NF3 | +----------+ metadata | | metadata | | ^ +----+ | | | +--+--+ | V Figure 4: A Network Function Service Chain DistributedAcrossacross Multiple FEs 4. Inter-FE LFB Overview We address the inter-FE connectivity requirements by defining the inter-FE LFB class. Using a standard LFB class definition implies no change to the basic ForCES architecture in the form of the core LFBs (FE Protocol or Object LFBs). This design choice was made after considering an alternative approach that would have required changes to both the FE Object capabilities (SupportedLFBs)as welland the LFBTopology component to describe the inter-FE connectivity capabilities as well as the runtime topology of the LFB instances. 4.1. InsertingThethe Inter-FE LFB ne 15 The distributed LFB topology described in Figure 2 is re-illustrated in Figure 5 to show the topology location where the inter-FE LFB would fit in. As can be observed in Figure 5, the same details passed between IPv4 unicast LPM LFB and the IPv4 NH LFB are passed to the egress side of theInter-FEinter-FE LFB. This information is illustrated as multiplicity of inputs into the egressInterFEinter-FE LFB instance. Each input represents a unique set of selection information. FE1 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | +----------+ +----+ | | | Ingress | IPv4 pkt | | IPv4 pkt +-----+ | | | LFB +-------------->| +------------->| | | | | | + ingress | | + ingress |IPv4 | | | +----------+ metadata | | metadata |Ucast| | | ^ +----+ |LPM | | | | IPv4 +--+--+ | | | Validator | | | | LFB | | | | IPv4 pkt + metadata | | | {ingress + NHinfo} | | | | | | | +..--+..+ | | | |..| | | | | +-V--V-V--V-+ | | | Egress | | | |InterFEInter-FE | | | | LFB | | | +------+----+ | +---------------------------------------------------|---------+ | Ethernet Frame with: | IPv4 packet data and metadata {ingress + NHinfo +Inter FEInter-FE info} FE2 | +---------------------------------------------------|---------+ | +..+.+..+ | | |..|.|..| | | +-V--V-V--V-+ | | | Ingress | | | |InterFEInter-FE | | | | LFB | | | +----+------+ | | | | | IPv4 pkt + metadata | | {ingress + NHinfo} | | | | | +--------+ +----V---+ | | | Egress | IPv4 packet | IPv4 | | | <-----+ LFB |<----------------------+NextHop | | | | |{ingress + NHdetails} | LFB | | | +--------+ metadata +--------+ | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ Figure 5: SplitIPv4 forwarding serviceIPv4-Forwarding Service with Inter-FE LFB The egress of the inter-FE LFB uses the received packet and metadata to select details for encapsulation when sending messages towards the selected neighboring FE. These details include what to communicate as the source and destination FEs (abstracted as MAC addresses as described in Section 5.2); inadditionaddition, the original metadata may be passed along with the original IPv4 packet. On the ingress side of the inter-FELFBLFB, the received packet and its associated metadata are used to decide the packet graph continuation. This includes which of the original metadata and on which next LFB class instance to continueprocessing on.processing. Inthe illustratedFigure 5, anIPv4 NexthopIPv4NextHop LFB instance is selected and the appropriate metadata is passedonto it. The ingress side of the inter-FE LFB consumes some of the information passed and passesonit the IPv4 packet alongside with the ingress and NHinfo metadata to theIPv4 NextHopIPv4NextHop LFB as was done earlier in bothFigureFigures 1 andFigure2. 5. Inter-FE Ethernet Connectivity Section 5.1 describes some of the issues related to using Ethernet as the transport and how we mitigate them. Section 5.2 defines a payload format that is to be used over Ethernet. An existing implementation of this specification that runs on top of Linux Traffic Control [linux-tc] is described in [tc-ife]. 5.1. Inter-FE Ethernet Connectivity Issues There are several issues that may occur due to using direct Ethernet encapsulation that need consideration. 5.1.1. MTU Consideration Because we are adding data to existing Ethernet frames, MTU issues may arise. We recommend: oTo useUsing large MTUs when possible (example with jumbo frames). oLimitLimiting the amount of metadata that could be transmitted; our definition allows for filtering of select metadata to be encapsulated in the frame as described in Section 6. We recommend sizing the egress port MTU so as to allow space for maximum size of the metadata total size to allow between FEs. In such a setup, the port is configured to "lie" to the upper layers by claiming to have a lower MTU than it is capable of. Setting the MTUsettingcan be achieved by ForCES control of the portLFB(orLFB (or some otherconfig).configuration. In essence, the control plane when explicitly making a decision for the MTU settings of the egress port is implicitly deciding how much metadata will be allowed. Caution needs to be exercised on how low the resulting reported link MTU could be:Forfor IPv4packetspackets, the minimum size is 64 octets[RFC 791][RFC791] and for IPv6 the minimum size is 1280 octets [RFC2460]. 5.1.2.Quality Of ServiceQuality-of-Service Considerations A raw packet arriving at theInter-FEinter-FE LFB (from upstream LFBClassclass instances) may haveCOS metadatumClass-of-Service (CoS) metadata indicating how it should be treated from aQuality of ServiceQuality-of-Service perspective. The resulting Ethernet frame will be eventually (preferentially) treated by a downstreamLFB(typicallyLFB (typically a port LFB instance) and theirCOSCoS marks will be honored in terms of priority. In otherwordswords, the presence of theInter-FEinter-FE LFB does not change theCOS semanticsCoS semantics. 5.1.3. Congestion Considerations Most of the traffic passing through FEs that utilize theInter-FEinter-FE LFB is expected to be IP based, which is generally assumed to be congestion controlled[draft-ietf-tsvwg-rfc5405bis].[UDP-GUIDE]. Forexampleexample, if congestion causes a TCP packet annotated with additional ForCES metadata to be dropped between FEs, the sending TCP can be expected to react in the same fashion as if that packet had been dropped at a different point on its path where ForCES is not involved. For this reason, additionalInter-FE congestion controlinter-FE congestion-control mechanisms are not specified. However, the increased packet size due to the addition of ForCES metadata is likely to require additional bandwidth on inter-FE linksbyin comparison to what would be required to carry the same traffic without ForCES metadata. Therefore, traffic engineering SHOULD be done when deployingInter-FEinter-FE encapsulation. Furthermore, theInter-FEinter-FE LFB MUST only be deployed within a single network (with a single network operator) or networks of an adjacent set of cooperating network operators where traffic is managed to avoid congestion. These are Controlled Environments, as defined by Section 3.6 of[draft-ietf-tsvwg-rfc5405bis].[UDP-GUIDE]. Additional measures SHOULD be imposed to restrict the impact ofInter-FE encapsulatedinter-FE-encapsulated traffic on other traffic; for example: orate limitingrate-limiting all inter-FE LFB traffic at an upstream LFBall Inter-FE LFB trafficomanagedmanaging circuitbreaking[circuit-b].breaking [circuit-b] o Isolating theInter-FEinter-FE traffic either via dedicated interfaces orVLANs.VLANs 5.2. Inter-FE Ethernet Encapsulation The Ethernet wire encapsulation is illustrated in Figure 6. The process that leads to this encapsulation is described in Section 6. The resulting frame is32 bit32-bit aligned. 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Destination MAC Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Destination MAC Address | Source MAC Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Source MAC Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Inter-FE ethertype | Metadata length | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | TLV encoded Metadata ~~~..............~~ | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | TLV encoded Metadata ~~~..............~~ | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Original packet data ~~................~~ | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Figure 6: Packetformat definitionFormat Definition The Ethernet header (illustrated in Figure 6) has the following semantics: o The Destination MAC Address is used to identify the Destination FEID by the CE policy (as described in Section 6). o The Source MAC Address is used to identify the Source FEID by the CE policy (as described in Section 6). o TheEthernet typeethertype is used to identify the frame as inter-FE LFB type. EthertypeTBA1ED3E (base 16) is to beused (XXX: Note to RFC editor - update when available).used. o The 16-bit metadata length is used todescribeddescribe the total encoded metadata length (including the 16 bits used to encode the metadata length). o One or more 16-bitTLV encoded MetadatumTLV-encoded metadatum follows themetadataMetadata length field. The TLV type identifies theMetadata id.metadata ID. ForCESIANA-defined Metadata idsmetadata IDs that have been registered with IANA will be used. All TLVs will be32 bit aligned.32-bit-aligned. We recognize that using a16 bit16-bit TLV restricts the metadataidID to 16 bits instead ofForCES-defineda ForCES- defined component ID space of 32 bits if anILVIndex-Length-Value (ILV) is used. However, at the time ofpublicationpublication, we believe this is sufficient to carry all theinfoinformation we need; the TLV approach has been selected because it saves us 4 bytes perMetadatummetadatum transferred as compared to the ILV approach. o The original packet data payload is appended at the end of the metadata as shown. 6. Detailed Description of the Ethernetinter-FEInter-FE LFB The Ethernet inter-FE LFB has two LFB input port groups and three LFB output ports as shown in Figure 7. The inter-FE LFB defines two components used in aiding processing described in Section6.2.6.1. +-----------------+ Inter-FE LFB | | Encapsulated | OUT2+-->decapsulatedDecapsulated Packet -------------->|IngressInGroup | + metadata Ethernet Frame | | | | raw Packet + | OUT1+--> Encapsulated Ethernet -------------->|EgressInGroup | Frame Metadata | | | EXCEPTIONOUT +--> ExceptionID, packet | | + metadata +-----------------+ Figure 7: Inter-FE LFB 6.1. Data Handling TheInter-FEinter-FE LFB (instance) can be positioned at the egress of a source FE. Figure 5 illustrates an example source FE in the form of FE1. In such acasecase, anInter-FEinter-FE LFB instance receives, via port group EgressInGroup, a raw packet and associated metadata from the preceding LFB instances. The input information is used to produce a selection of how to generate and encapsulate the new frame. The set of all selections is stored in the LFB component IFETable described further below. The processed encapsulated EthernetFrameframe will go out on OUT1 to a downstream LFB instance when processing succeeds or to the EXCEPTIONOUT port in the case ofafailure. TheInter-FEinter-FE LFB (instance) can be positioned at the ingress of a receiving FE. Figure 5 illustrates an example destination FE in the form of FE1. In such acasecase, anInter-FEinter-FE LFB receives, via an LFB port in the IngressInGroup, an encapsulated Ethernet frame. Successful processing of the packet will result in a raw packet with associated metadata IDs going downstream to an LFB connected on OUT2. Onfailurefailure, the data is sent out EXCEPTIONOUT. 6.1.1. Egress Processing The egressInter-FEinter-FE LFB receives packet data and any accompanyingMetadatummetadatum at an LFB port of the LFB instance's input port grouplabelledlabeled EgressInGroup. The LFB implementation may use the incoming LFB port (within the LFB port group EgressInGroup) to map to a table index used tolookuplook up the IFETable table. If the lookup is successful, a matched table rowwhichthat has theInterFEinfoIFEInfo details is retrieved with the tuple{optional IFEtype,(optional IFETYPE, optional StatId, Destination MACaddress(DSTFE),address (DSTFE), Source MACaddress(SRCFE),address (SRCFE), and optionalmetafilters}.metafilters). The metafilters lists define a whitelist of whichMetadatummetadatum are to be passed to the neighboring FE. The inter-FE LFB will perform the following actions using the resulting tuple: o Increment statistics for packet and byte count observed at the corresponding IFEStats entry. o When the MetaFilterList is present,thenwalk each receivedMetadatummetadatum and apply it against the MetaFilterList. If no legitimate metadata is found that needs to be passeddownstreamdownstream, then the processing stops andsendthe packet and metadata are sent out the EXCEPTIONOUT port with the exceptionID of EncapTableLookupFailed [RFC6956]. o Check that the additional overhead of the Ethernet header and encapsulated metadata will not exceed MTU. If it does, increment theerror packet counterror-packet-count statistics and send the packet and metadata out the EXCEPTIONOUT port with the exceptionID of FragRequired [RFC6956]. o Create the Ethernetheaderheader. o Set the Destination MAC address of the Ethernet header with the value found in the DSTFE field. o Set the Source MAC address of the Ethernet header with the value found in the SRCFE field. o If the optional IFETYPE is present, set theEthernet typeethertype to the value found in IFETYPE. If IFETYPE isabsentabsent, then the standardInter-FEinter- FE LFBEthernet type TBA1ethertype ED3E (base 16) isused (XXX: Note to RFC editor - update when available).used. o Encapsulate each allowedMetadatummetadatum in a TLV. Use theMetaidmetaID as the "type" field in the TLV header. The TLV should be aligned to 32 bits. This means you may need to add a padding of zeroes at the end of the TLV to ensure alignment. o Update theMetadatametadata length to the sum of each TLV's space plus 2 bytes(for(a 16-bit space for the Metadata lengthfield 16 bit space).field). The resulting packet is sent to the next LFB instance connected to the OUT1LFB-port;LFB-port, typically a port LFB. In the case of a failedlookuplookup, the original packet and associated metadata is sent out the EXCEPTIONOUT port with the exceptionID of EncapTableLookupFailed [RFC6956]. Note that the EXCEPTIONOUT LFB port is merely an abstraction and implementation may in fact drop packets as described above. 6.1.2. Ingress Processing An ingressing inter-FE LFB packet is recognized by inspecting the ethertype, and optionally the destination and source MAC addresses. A matching packet is mapped to an LFB instance port in the IngressInGroup. The IFETable table row entry matching the LFB instance port may have optionally programmed metadata filters. In such acasecase, the ingress processing should use the metadata filters as a whitelist of what metadatum is to be allowed. o Increment statistics for packet and byte count observed. o Look at the metadata length field and walk the packetdatadata, extractingfrom the TLVsthe metadatavalues.values from the TLVs. For eachMetadatummetadatum extracted, in the presence of metadata filters, themetaidmetaID is compared against the relevant IFETable row metafilter list. If theMetadatummetadatum isrecognized,recognized andisallowed by the filter, the corresponding implementation Metadatum field is set. If an unknownMetadatum idmetadatum ID isencountered,encountered or if themetaidmetaID is not in the allowed filterlistlist, then the implementation is expected to ignore it, increment the packet errorstatisticstatistic, and proceed processing otherMetadatum.metadatum. o Upon completion of processing all the metadata, the inter-FE LFB instance resets the data point to the original payload(i.e(i.e., skips the IFE header information). At thispointpoint, the original packet that was passed to the egressInter-FEinter-FE LFB at the source FE is reconstructed. This data is then passed along with the reconstructed metadata downstream to the next LFB instance in the graph. In the case of a processing failure of either ingress or egress positioning of the LFB, the packet and metadata are sent out the EXCEPTIONOUT LFB port with the appropriate errorid.ID. Note that the EXCEPTIONOUT LFB port is merely an abstraction and implementation may in fact drop packets as described above. 6.2. Components There are two LFB components accessed by the CE. The reader is asked to refer to the definitions in Figure 8. The first component, populated by the CE, is an array known as theIFETable"IFETable" table. The array rows are made up of IFEInfo structure. The IFEInfo structureconstitutes:constitutes the optional IFETYPE, the optionally present StatId, the Destination MACaddress(DSTFE),address (DSTFE), the Source MACaddress(SRCFE),address (SRCFE), and an optionally present array of allowedMetaidsmetaIDs (MetaFilterList). The secondcomponent(IDcomponent (ID 2), populated by the FE and read by the CE, is an indexed array known as theIFEStats"IFEStats" table. Each IFEStats rowwhichcarries statistics information in the structure bstats. A note about the StatId relationship between the IFETable table and the IFEStatstable: Antable -- an implementation may choose to map between an IFETable row and IFEStats table row using the StatId entry in the matching IFETable row. In thatcasecase, the IFETable StatId must be present.AlternativeAn alternative implementation may mapat provisioning timean IFETable row to an IFEStats tablerow. Yetrow at provisioning time. Yet another alternative implementation may choose not to use the IFETable row StatId and instead use the IFETable row index as the IFEStats index. For thesereasonsreasons, the StatId component is optional. 6.3. Inter-FE LFB XML Model <LFBLibrary xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:forces:lfbmodel:1.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" provides="IFE"> <frameDefs> <frameDef> <name>PacketAny</name> <synopsis>Arbitrary Packet</synopsis> </frameDef> <frameDef> <name>InterFEFrame</name> <synopsis> EthernetFrameframe withencapsulateencapsulated IFE information </synopsis> </frameDef> </frameDefs> <dataTypeDefs> <dataTypeDef> <name>bstats</name> <synopsis>Basic stats</synopsis> <struct> <component componentID="1"> <name>bytes</name> <synopsis>The total number of bytes seen</synopsis> <typeRef>uint64</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="2"> <name>packets</name> <synopsis>The total number of packets seen</synopsis> <typeRef>uint32</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="3"> <name>errors</name> <synopsis>The total number of packets with errors</synopsis> <typeRef>uint32</typeRef> </component> </struct> </dataTypeDef> <dataTypeDef> <name>IFEInfo</name> <synopsis>Describing IFE table row Information</synopsis> <struct> <component componentID="1"> <name>IFETYPE</name> <synopsis>the ethernet typeThe ethertype to be used for outgoing IFE frame </synopsis> <optional/> <typeRef>uint16</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="2"> <name>StatId</name> <synopsis>theThe Index into the stats table </synopsis> <optional/> <typeRef>uint32</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="3"> <name>DSTFE</name> <synopsis>theThe destination MAC address of the destination FE </synopsis> <typeRef>byte[6]</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="4"> <name>SRCFE</name> <synopsis>theThe source MAC address used for the source FE </synopsis> <typeRef>byte[6]</typeRef> </component> <component componentID="5"> <name>MetaFilterList</name> <synopsis>theThe allowed metadata filter table </synopsis> <optional/> <array type="variable-size"> <typeRef>uint32</typeRef> </array> </component> </struct> </dataTypeDef> </dataTypeDefs> <LFBClassDefs> <LFBClassDef LFBClassID="18"> <name>IFE</name> <synopsis> This LFB describes IFE connectivity parameterization </synopsis> <version>1.0</version> <inputPorts> <inputPort group="true"> <name>EgressInGroup</name> <synopsis> The input port group of the egress side. It expects any type of Ethernet frame. </synopsis> <expectation> <frameExpected> <ref>PacketAny</ref> </frameExpected> </expectation> </inputPort> <inputPort group="true"> <name>IngressInGroup</name> <synopsis> The input port group of the ingress side. It expects aninterFE encapsulatedinterFE-encapsulated Ethernet frame. </synopsis> <expectation> <frameExpected> <ref>InterFEFrame</ref> </frameExpected> </expectation> </inputPort> </inputPorts> <outputPorts> <outputPort> <name>OUT1</name> <synopsis> The output port of the egressside.side </synopsis> <product> <frameProduced> <ref>InterFEFrame</ref> </frameProduced> </product> </outputPort> <outputPort> <name>OUT2</name> <synopsis> The output port of the Ingressside.side </synopsis> <product> <frameProduced> <ref>PacketAny</ref> </frameProduced> </product> </outputPort> <outputPort> <name>EXCEPTIONOUT</name> <synopsis> The exception handling path </synopsis> <product> <frameProduced> <ref>PacketAny</ref> </frameProduced> <metadataProduced> <ref>ExceptionID</ref> </metadataProduced> </product> </outputPort> </outputPorts> <components> <component componentID="1" access="read-write"> <name>IFETable</name> <synopsis>theThe table of allInterFEinter-FE relations </synopsis> <array type="variable-size"> <typeRef>IFEInfo</typeRef> </array> </component> <component componentID="2" access="read-only"> <name>IFEStats</name> <synopsis>theThe stats corresponding to the IFETable table </synopsis> <typeRef>bstats</typeRef> </component> </components> </LFBClassDef> </LFBClassDefs> </LFBLibrary> Figure 8: Inter-FE LFB XML 7.Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Joel Halpern and Dave Hood for the stimulating discussions. Evangelos Haleplidis shepherded and contributed to improving this document. Alia Atlas was the AD sponsor of this document and did a tremendous job of critiquing it. The authors are grateful to Joel Halpern and Sue Hares in their roles as the Routing Area reviewers in shaping the content of this document. David Black put a lot of effort in making sure congestion control considerations are sane. Russ Housley did the Gen-ART review and Joe Touch did the TSV area. Shucheng LIU (Will) did the OPS review. Suresh Krishnan helped us provide clarity during the IESG review. The authors are appreciative of the efforts Stephen Farrell put in fixing the security section. 8.IANA ConsiderationsThis memo includes oneIANArequest withinhas registered the following LFB class name in theregistry https:// www.iana.org/assignments/forces The request is forthesub-registry"Logical Functional Block (LFB) Class Names and Class Identifiers"to request for the reservationsubregistry ofLFB class name IFE with LFB classid 18 with version 1.0. +--------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------------+the "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES)" registry <https://www.iana.org/assignments/forces>. +------------+--------+---------+-----------------------+-----------+ | LFB Class | LFB | LFB | Description | Reference | | Identifier | Class | Version | | | | | Name | | | |+--------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------------++------------+--------+---------+-----------------------+-----------+ | 18 | IFE | 1.0 | An IFE LFB to | This | | | | | standardize inter-FE | document | | | | |inter-FELFB for| | | | | |ForCESNetwork| | | | | | Network Elements | |+--------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------------++------------+--------+---------+-----------------------+-----------+ Logical Functional Block (LFB) Class Names and Class Identifiers9.8. IEEE Assignment Considerations This memo includes a request for a newethernetEthernet protocol type as described in Section 5.2.10.9. Security Considerations The FEs involved in theInter-FEinter-FE LFB belong to the sameNetwork Device (NE)NE and are within the scope of a single administrative Ethernet LAN private network. While trust of policy in the control and its treatment in the datapath exists already, anInter-FEinter-FE LFB implementation SHOULD support security services provided by Media Access ControlSecurity(MACsec)[ieee8021ae].Security (MACsec) [ieee8021ae]. MACsec is not currently sufficiently widely deployed in traditional packet processing hardware although it is present in newer versions of the Linux kernel (which will be widely deployed) [linux-macsec]. Overtimetime, wewouldexpect that most FEs will be able to support MACsec. MACsec provides security services such as a message authentication service and an optional confidentiality service. The services can be configured manually or automatically using the MACsec KeyAgreement(MKA)Agreement (MKA) over the IEEE 802.1x [ieee8021x] Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) framework. It is expected that FE implementations are going to start with shared keys configured from the control plane but progress to automated key management. The following are the MACsec security mechanisms that need to be in place for theInterFEinter-FE LFB: o Security mechanisms are NE-wide for all FEs. Once the security is turnedonon, depending upon the chosen security level(Authentication,(e.g., Authentication, Confidentiality), it will be in effect for the inter-FE LFB for the entire duration of the session. o An operator SHOULD configure the same security policies for all participating FEs in the NE cluster. This will ensure uniform operations and avoid unnecessary complexity in policy configuration. In other words, the Security AssociationKeys(SAKs)Keys (SAKs) should be pre-shared. When using MKA, FEs must identify themselves with a shared Connectivity Association Key (CAK) and Connectivity Association Key Name (CKN). EAP-TLS SHOULD be used as the EAP method. o An operator SHOULD configure the strict validationmode i.emode, i.e., all non-protected,invalidinvalid, or non-verifiable frames MUST be dropped. It should be noted that given the above choices, if an FE is compromised, an entity running on the FE would be able to fake inter- FE or modify itscontentcontent, causing bad outcomes.11.10. References11.1.10.1. Normative References[RFC5810] Doria, A., Ed., Hadi Salim, J., Ed., Haas, R., Ed., Khosravi, H., Ed., Wang, W., Ed., Dong, L., Gopal, R., and J.[ieee8021ae] IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks Media Access Control (MAC) Security", IEEE 802.1AE-2006, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2006.245590, <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1678345/>. [ieee8021x] IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks - Port-Based Network Access Control.", IEEE 802.1X-2010, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2010.5409813, <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5409813/>. [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>. [RFC5810] Doria, A., Ed., Hadi Salim, J., Ed., Haas, R., Ed., Khosravi, H., Ed., Wang, W., Ed., Dong, L., Gopal, R., and J. Halpern, "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol Specification", RFC 5810, DOI10.17487/ RFC5810,10.17487/RFC5810, March 2010, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5810>. [RFC5811] Hadi Salim, J. and K. Ogawa, "SCTP-Based Transport Mapping Layer (TML) for the Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol", RFC 5811, DOI10.17487/ RFC5811,10.17487/RFC5811, March 2010, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5811>. [RFC5812] Halpern, J. and J. Hadi Salim, "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Forwarding Element Model", RFC 5812, DOI 10.17487/RFC5812, March 2010, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5812>. [RFC7391] Hadi Salim, J., "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Protocol Extensions", RFC 7391, DOI10.17487/ RFC7391,10.17487/RFC7391, October 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7391>. [RFC7408] Haleplidis, E., "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Model Extension", RFC 7408, DOI 10.17487/RFC7408, November 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7408>.[draft-ietf-tsvwg-rfc5405bis] Eggert, L., Fairhurst, G., and G. Shepherd, "UDP Usage Guidelines", Nov 2015, <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft- ietf-tsvwg-rfc5405bis-07>. [ieee8021ae] , "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks Media Access Control (MAC) Security", IEEE 802.1AE-2006, Aug 2006. [ieee8021x] , "IEEE standard for local and metropolitan area networks - port-based network access control.", IEEE 802.1X-2010, 2010. 11.2.10.2. Informative References[RFC2119] Bradner,[brcm-higig] Broadcom, "HiGig", <http://www.broadcom.com/products/ ethernet-communication-and-switching/switching/bcm56720>. [circuit-b] Fairhurst, G., "Network Transport Circuit Breakers", Work in Progress, draft-ietf-tsvwg-circuit-breaker-15, April 2016. [linux-macsec] Dubroca, S.,"Key words"MACsec: Encryption foruse in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/ RFC2119, March 1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.the wired LAN", Netdev 11, Feb 2016. [linux-tc] Hadi Salim, J., "Linux Traffic Control Classifier-Action Subsystem Architecture", Netdev 01, Feb 2015. [RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC2460, December 1998, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2460>. [RFC3746] Yang, L., Dantu, R., Anderson, T., and R. Gopal, "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Framework", RFC 3746, DOI 10.17487/RFC3746, April 2004, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3746>. [RFC6956] Wang, W., Haleplidis, E., Ogawa, K., Li, C., and J. Halpern, "Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Logical Function Block (LFB) Library", RFC 6956, DOI 10.17487/RFC6956, June 2013, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6956>.[brcm-higig] , "HiGig", <http://www.broadcom.com/products/brands/HiGig>. [circuit-b] Fairhurst, G., "Network Transport Circuit Breakers", Feb 2016, <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-fairhurst-tsvwg- circuit-breaker-13>. [linux-macsec] Dubroca, S., "MACsec: Encryption for the wired LAN", netdev 11, Feb 2016. [linux-tc] Hadi Salim,[RFC791] Postel, J.,"Linux Traffic Control Classifier-Action Subsystem Architecture", netdev 01, Feb 2015."Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791, DOI 10.17487/RFC0791, September 1981, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc791>. [tc-ife] Hadi Salim, J. and D. Joachimpillai, "Distributing Linux Traffic Control Classifier-Action Subsystem",netdevNetdev 01, Feb 2015.[vxlan-udp] , "iproute2[UDP-GUIDE] Eggert, L., Fairhurst, G., andkernel code (drivers/net/vxlan.c)", <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>.G. Shepherd, "UDP Usage Guidelines", Work in Progress, draft-ietf-tsvwg- rfc5405bis-19, October 2016. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Joel Halpern and Dave Hood for the stimulating discussions. Evangelos Haleplidis shepherded and contributed to improving this document. Alia Atlas was the AD sponsor of this document and did a tremendous job of critiquing it. The authors are grateful to Joel Halpern and Sue Hares in their roles as the Routing Area reviewers for shaping the content of this document. David Black put in a lot of effort to make sure the congestion-control considerations are sane. Russ Housley did the Gen-ART review, Joe Touch did the TSV area review, and Shucheng LIU (Will) did the OPS review. Suresh Krishnan helped us provide clarity during the IESG review. The authors are appreciative of the efforts Stephen Farrell put in to fixing the security section. Authors' Addresses Damascane M. Joachimpillai Verizon 60 Sylvan Rd Waltham,Mass.MA 02451USAUnited States of America Email: damascene.joachimpillai@verizon.com Jamal Hadi Salim Mojatatu Networks Suite 200, 15 Fitzgerald Rd. Ottawa, Ontario K2H 9G1 Canada Email: hadi@mojatatu.com