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authorThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
committerThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
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+Network Working Group D. Awduche
+Request for Comments: 3272 Movaz Networks
+Category: Informational A. Chiu
+ Celion Networks
+ A. Elwalid
+ I. Widjaja
+ Lucent Technologies
+ X. Xiao
+ Redback Networks
+ May 2002
+
+
+ Overview and Principles of Internet Traffic Engineering
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
+ not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
+ memo is unlimited.
+
+Copyright Notice
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This memo describes the principles of Traffic Engineering (TE) in the
+ Internet. The document is intended to promote better understanding
+ of the issues surrounding traffic engineering in IP networks, and to
+ provide a common basis for the development of traffic engineering
+ capabilities for the Internet. The principles, architectures, and
+ methodologies for performance evaluation and performance optimization
+ of operational IP networks are discussed throughout this document.
+
+Table of Contents
+
+ 1.0 Introduction...................................................3
+ 1.1 What is Internet Traffic Engineering?.......................4
+ 1.2 Scope.......................................................7
+ 1.3 Terminology.................................................8
+ 2.0 Background....................................................11
+ 2.1 Context of Internet Traffic Engineering....................12
+ 2.2 Network Context............................................13
+ 2.3 Problem Context............................................14
+ 2.3.1 Congestion and its Ramifications......................16
+ 2.4 Solution Context...........................................16
+ 2.4.1 Combating the Congestion Problem......................18
+ 2.5 Implementation and Operational Context.....................21
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ 3.0 Traffic Engineering Process Model.............................21
+ 3.1 Components of the Traffic Engineering Process Model........23
+ 3.2 Measurement................................................23
+ 3.3 Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation.........................24
+ 3.4 Optimization...............................................25
+ 4.0 Historical Review and Recent Developments.....................26
+ 4.1 Traffic Engineering in Classical Telephone Networks........26
+ 4.2 Evolution of Traffic Engineering in the Internet...........28
+ 4.2.1 Adaptive Routing in ARPANET...........................28
+ 4.2.2 Dynamic Routing in the Internet.......................29
+ 4.2.3 ToS Routing...........................................30
+ 4.2.4 Equal Cost Multi-Path.................................30
+ 4.2.5 Nimrod................................................31
+ 4.3 Overlay Model..............................................31
+ 4.4 Constraint-Based Routing...................................32
+ 4.5 Overview of Other IETF Projects Related to Traffic
+ Engineering................................................32
+ 4.5.1 Integrated Services...................................32
+ 4.5.2 RSVP..................................................33
+ 4.5.3 Differentiated Services...............................34
+ 4.5.4 MPLS..................................................35
+ 4.5.5 IP Performance Metrics................................36
+ 4.5.6 Flow Measurement......................................37
+ 4.5.7 Endpoint Congestion Management........................37
+ 4.6 Overview of ITU Activities Related to Traffic
+ Engineering................................................38
+ 4.7 Content Distribution.......................................39
+ 5.0 Taxonomy of Traffic Engineering Systems.......................40
+ 5.1 Time-Dependent Versus State-Dependent......................40
+ 5.2 Offline Versus Online......................................41
+ 5.3 Centralized Versus Distributed.............................42
+ 5.4 Local Versus Global........................................42
+ 5.5 Prescriptive Versus Descriptive............................42
+ 5.6 Open-Loop Versus Closed-Loop...............................43
+ 5.7 Tactical vs Strategic......................................43
+ 6.0 Recommendations for Internet Traffic Engineering..............43
+ 6.1 Generic Non-functional Recommendations.....................44
+ 6.2 Routing Recommendations....................................46
+ 6.3 Traffic Mapping Recommendations............................48
+ 6.4 Measurement Recommendations................................49
+ 6.5 Network Survivability......................................50
+ 6.5.1 Survivability in MPLS Based Networks..................52
+ 6.5.2 Protection Option.....................................53
+ 6.6 Traffic Engineering in Diffserv Environments...............54
+ 6.7 Network Controllability....................................56
+ 7.0 Inter-Domain Considerations...................................57
+ 8.0 Overview of Contemporary TE Practices in Operational
+ IP Networks...................................................59
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ 9.0 Conclusion....................................................63
+ 10.0 Security Considerations......................................63
+ 11.0 Acknowledgments..............................................63
+ 12.0 References...................................................64
+ 13.0 Authors' Addresses...........................................70
+ 14.0 Full Copyright Statement.....................................71
+
+1.0 Introduction
+
+ This memo describes the principles of Internet traffic engineering.
+ The objective of the document is to articulate the general issues and
+ principles for Internet traffic engineering; and where appropriate to
+ provide recommendations, guidelines, and options for the development
+ of online and offline Internet traffic engineering capabilities and
+ support systems.
+
+ This document can aid service providers in devising and implementing
+ traffic engineering solutions for their networks. Networking
+ hardware and software vendors will also find this document helpful in
+ the development of mechanisms and support systems for the Internet
+ environment that support the traffic engineering function.
+
+ This document provides a terminology for describing and understanding
+ common Internet traffic engineering concepts. This document also
+ provides a taxonomy of known traffic engineering styles. In this
+ context, a traffic engineering style abstracts important aspects from
+ a traffic engineering methodology. Traffic engineering styles can be
+ viewed in different ways depending upon the specific context in which
+ they are used and the specific purpose which they serve. The
+ combination of styles and views results in a natural taxonomy of
+ traffic engineering systems.
+
+ Even though Internet traffic engineering is most effective when
+ applied end-to-end, the initial focus of this document document is
+ intra-domain traffic engineering (that is, traffic engineering within
+ a given autonomous system). However, because a preponderance of
+ Internet traffic tends to be inter-domain (originating in one
+ autonomous system and terminating in another), this document provides
+ an overview of aspects pertaining to inter-domain traffic
+ engineering.
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+1.1. What is Internet Traffic Engineering?
+
+ Internet traffic engineering is defined as that aspect of Internet
+ network engineering dealing with the issue of performance evaluation
+ and performance optimization of operational IP networks. Traffic
+ Engineering encompasses the application of technology and scientific
+ principles to the measurement, characterization, modeling, and
+ control of Internet traffic [RFC-2702, AWD2].
+
+ Enhancing the performance of an operational network, at both the
+ traffic and resource levels, are major objectives of Internet traffic
+ engineering. This is accomplished by addressing traffic oriented
+ performance requirements, while utilizing network resources
+ economically and reliably. Traffic oriented performance measures
+ include delay, delay variation, packet loss, and throughput.
+
+ An important objective of Internet traffic engineering is to
+ facilitate reliable network operations [RFC-2702]. Reliable network
+ operations can be facilitated by providing mechanisms that enhance
+ network integrity and by embracing policies emphasizing network
+ survivability. This results in a minimization of the vulnerability
+ of the network to service outages arising from errors, faults, and
+ failures occurring within the infrastructure.
+
+ The Internet exists in order to transfer information from source
+ nodes to destination nodes. Accordingly, one of the most significant
+ functions performed by the Internet is the routing of traffic from
+ ingress nodes to egress nodes. Therefore, one of the most
+ distinctive functions performed by Internet traffic engineering is
+ the control and optimization of the routing function, to steer
+ traffic through the network in the most effective way.
+
+ Ultimately, it is the performance of the network as seen by end users
+ of network services that is truly paramount. This crucial point
+ should be considered throughout the development of traffic
+ engineering mechanisms and policies. The characteristics visible to
+ end users are the emergent properties of the network, which are the
+ characteristics of the network when viewed as a whole. A central
+ goal of the service provider, therefore, is to enhance the emergent
+ properties of the network while taking economic considerations into
+ account.
+
+ The importance of the above observation regarding the emergent
+ properties of networks is that special care must be taken when
+ choosing network performance measures to optimize. Optimizing the
+ wrong measures may achieve certain local objectives, but may have
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ disastrous consequences on the emergent properties of the network and
+ thereby on the quality of service perceived by end-users of network
+ services.
+
+ A subtle, but practical advantage of the systematic application of
+ traffic engineering concepts to operational networks is that it helps
+ to identify and structure goals and priorities in terms of enhancing
+ the quality of service delivered to end-users of network services.
+ The application of traffic engineering concepts also aids in the
+ measurement and analysis of the achievement of these goals.
+
+ The optimization aspects of traffic engineering can be achieved
+ through capacity management and traffic management. As used in this
+ document, capacity management includes capacity planning, routing
+ control, and resource management. Network resources of particular
+ interest include link bandwidth, buffer space, and computational
+ resources. Likewise, as used in this document, traffic management
+ includes (1) nodal traffic control functions such as traffic
+ conditioning, queue management, scheduling, and (2) other functions
+ that regulate traffic flow through the network or that arbitrate
+ access to network resources between different packets or between
+ different traffic streams.
+
+ The optimization objectives of Internet traffic engineering should be
+ viewed as a continual and iterative process of network performance
+ improvement and not simply as a one time goal. Traffic engineering
+ also demands continual development of new technologies and new
+ methodologies for network performance enhancement.
+
+ The optimization objectives of Internet traffic engineering may
+ change over time as new requirements are imposed, as new technologies
+ emerge, or as new insights are brought to bear on the underlying
+ problems. Moreover, different networks may have different
+ optimization objectives, depending upon their business models,
+ capabilities, and operating constraints. The optimization aspects of
+ traffic engineering are ultimately concerned with network control
+ regardless of the specific optimization goals in any particular
+ environment.
+
+ Thus, the optimization aspects of traffic engineering can be viewed
+ from a control perspective. The aspect of control within the
+ Internet traffic engineering arena can be pro-active and/or reactive.
+ In the pro-active case, the traffic engineering control system takes
+ preventive action to obviate predicted unfavorable future network
+ states. It may also take perfective action to induce a more
+ desirable state in the future. In the reactive case, the control
+ system responds correctively and perhaps adaptively to events that
+ have already transpired in the network.
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ The control dimension of Internet traffic engineering responds at
+ multiple levels of temporal resolution to network events. Certain
+ aspects of capacity management, such as capacity planning, respond at
+ very coarse temporal levels, ranging from days to possibly years.
+ The introduction of automatically switched optical transport networks
+ (e.g., based on the Multi-protocol Lambda Switching concepts) could
+ significantly reduce the lifecycle for capacity planning by
+ expediting provisioning of optical bandwidth. Routing control
+ functions operate at intermediate levels of temporal resolution,
+ ranging from milliseconds to days. Finally, the packet level
+ processing functions (e.g., rate shaping, queue management, and
+ scheduling) operate at very fine levels of temporal resolution,
+ ranging from picoseconds to milliseconds while responding to the
+ real-time statistical behavior of traffic. The subsystems of
+ Internet traffic engineering control include: capacity augmentation,
+ routing control, traffic control, and resource control (including
+ control of service policies at network elements). When capacity is
+ to be augmented for tactical purposes, it may be desirable to devise
+ a deployment plan that expedites bandwidth provisioning while
+ minimizing installation costs.
+
+ Inputs into the traffic engineering control system include network
+ state variables, policy variables, and decision variables.
+
+ One major challenge of Internet traffic engineering is the
+ realization of automated control capabilities that adapt quickly and
+ cost effectively to significant changes in a network's state, while
+ still maintaining stability.
+
+ Another critical dimension of Internet traffic engineering is network
+ performance evaluation, which is important for assessing the
+ effectiveness of traffic engineering methods, and for monitoring and
+ verifying compliance with network performance goals. Results from
+ performance evaluation can be used to identify existing problems,
+ guide network re-optimization, and aid in the prediction of potential
+ future problems.
+
+ Performance evaluation can be achieved in many different ways. The
+ most notable techniques include analytical methods, simulation, and
+ empirical methods based on measurements. When analytical methods or
+ simulation are used, network nodes and links can be modeled to
+ capture relevant operational features such as topology, bandwidth,
+ buffer space, and nodal service policies (link scheduling, packet
+ prioritization, buffer management, etc.). Analytical traffic models
+ can be used to depict dynamic and behavioral traffic characteristics,
+ such as burstiness, statistical distributions, and dependence.
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ Performance evaluation can be quite complicated in practical network
+ contexts. A number of techniques can be used to simplify the
+ analysis, such as abstraction, decomposition, and approximation. For
+ example, simplifying concepts such as effective bandwidth and
+ effective buffer [Elwalid] may be used to approximate nodal behaviors
+ at the packet level and simplify the analysis at the connection
+ level. Network analysis techniques using, for example, queuing
+ models and approximation schemes based on asymptotic and
+ decomposition techniques can render the analysis even more tractable.
+ In particular, an emerging set of concepts known as network calculus
+ [CRUZ] based on deterministic bounds may simplify network analysis
+ relative to classical stochastic techniques. When using analytical
+ techniques, care should be taken to ensure that the models faithfully
+ reflect the relevant operational characteristics of the modeled
+ network entities.
+
+ Simulation can be used to evaluate network performance or to verify
+ and validate analytical approximations. Simulation can, however, be
+ computationally costly and may not always provide sufficient
+ insights. An appropriate approach to a given network performance
+ evaluation problem may involve a hybrid combination of analytical
+ techniques, simulation, and empirical methods.
+
+ As a general rule, traffic engineering concepts and mechanisms must
+ be sufficiently specific and well defined to address known
+ requirements, but simultaneously flexible and extensible to
+ accommodate unforeseen future demands.
+
+1.2. Scope
+
+ The scope of this document is intra-domain traffic engineering; that
+ is, traffic engineering within a given autonomous system in the
+ Internet. This document will discuss concepts pertaining to intra-
+ domain traffic control, including such issues as routing control,
+ micro and macro resource allocation, and the control coordination
+ problems that arise consequently.
+
+ This document will describe and characterize techniques already in
+ use or in advanced development for Internet traffic engineering. The
+ way these techniques fit together will be discussed and scenarios in
+ which they are useful will be identified.
+
+ While this document considers various intra-domain traffic
+ engineering approaches, it focuses more on traffic engineering with
+ MPLS. Traffic engineering based upon manipulation of IGP metrics is
+ not addressed in detail. This topic may be addressed by other
+ working group document(s).
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 7]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ Although the emphasis is on intra-domain traffic engineering, in
+ Section 7.0, an overview of the high level considerations pertaining
+ to inter-domain traffic engineering will be provided. Inter-domain
+ Internet traffic engineering is crucial to the performance
+ enhancement of the global Internet infrastructure.
+
+ Whenever possible, relevant requirements from existing IETF documents
+ and other sources will be incorporated by reference.
+
+1.3 Terminology
+
+ This subsection provides terminology which is useful for Internet
+ traffic engineering. The definitions presented apply to this
+ document. These terms may have other meanings elsewhere.
+
+ - Baseline analysis:
+ A study conducted to serve as a baseline for comparison to
+ the actual behavior of the network.
+
+ - Busy hour:
+ A one hour period within a specified interval of time
+ (typically 24 hours) in which the traffic load in a network
+ or sub-network is greatest.
+
+ - Bottleneck:
+ A network element whose input traffic rate tends to be
+ greater than its output rate.
+
+ - Congestion:
+ A state of a network resource in which the traffic incident
+ on the resource exceeds its output capacity over an interval
+ of time.
+
+ - Congestion avoidance:
+ An approach to congestion management that attempts to
+ obviate the occurrence of congestion.
+
+ - Congestion control:
+ An approach to congestion management that attempts to remedy
+ congestion problems that have already occurred.
+
+ - Constraint-based routing:
+ A class of routing protocols that take specified traffic
+ attributes, network constraints, and policy constraints into
+ account when making routing decisions. Constraint-based
+ routing is applicable to traffic aggregates as well as
+ flows. It is a generalization of QoS routing.
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 8]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ - Demand side congestion management:
+ A congestion management scheme that addresses congestion
+ problems by regulating or conditioning offered load.
+
+ - Effective bandwidth:
+ The minimum amount of bandwidth that can be assigned to a
+ flow or traffic aggregate in order to deliver 'acceptable
+ service quality' to the flow or traffic aggregate.
+
+ - Egress traffic:
+ Traffic exiting a network or network element.
+
+ - Hot-spot:
+ A network element or subsystem which is in a state of
+ congestion.
+
+ - Ingress traffic:
+ Traffic entering a network or network element.
+
+ - Inter-domain traffic:
+ Traffic that originates in one Autonomous system and
+ terminates in another.
+
+ - Loss network:
+ A network that does not provide adequate buffering for
+ traffic, so that traffic entering a busy resource within the
+ network will be dropped rather than queued.
+
+ - Metric:
+ A parameter defined in terms of standard units of
+ measurement.
+
+ - Measurement Methodology:
+ A repeatable measurement technique used to derive one or
+ more metrics of interest.
+
+ - Network Survivability:
+ The capability to provide a prescribed level of QoS for
+ existing services after a given number of failures occur
+ within the network.
+
+ - Offline traffic engineering:
+ A traffic engineering system that exists outside of the
+ network.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 9]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ - Online traffic engineering:
+ A traffic engineering system that exists within the network,
+ typically implemented on or as adjuncts to operational
+ network elements.
+
+ - Performance measures:
+ Metrics that provide quantitative or qualitative measures of
+ the performance of systems or subsystems of interest.
+
+ - Performance management:
+ A systematic approach to improving effectiveness in the
+ accomplishment of specific networking goals related to
+ performance improvement.
+
+ - Performance Metric:
+ A performance parameter defined in terms of standard units
+ of measurement.
+
+ - Provisioning:
+ The process of assigning or configuring network resources to
+ meet certain requests.
+
+ - QoS routing:
+ Class of routing systems that selects paths to be used by a
+ flow based on the QoS requirements of the flow.
+
+ - Service Level Agreement:
+ A contract between a provider and a customer that guarantees
+ specific levels of performance and reliability at a certain
+ cost.
+
+ - Stability:
+ An operational state in which a network does not oscillate
+ in a disruptive manner from one mode to another mode.
+
+ - Supply side congestion management:
+ A congestion management scheme that provisions additional
+ network resources to address existing and/or anticipated
+ congestion problems.
+
+ - Transit traffic:
+ Traffic whose origin and destination are both outside of the
+ network under consideration.
+
+ - Traffic characteristic:
+ A description of the temporal behavior or a description of
+ the attributes of a given traffic flow or traffic aggregate.
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 10]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ - Traffic engineering system:
+ A collection of objects, mechanisms, and protocols that are
+ used conjunctively to accomplish traffic engineering
+ objectives.
+
+ - Traffic flow:
+ A stream of packets between two end-points that can be
+ characterized in a certain way. A micro-flow has a more
+ specific definition: A micro-flow is a stream of packets
+ with the same source and destination addresses, source and
+ destination ports, and protocol ID.
+
+ - Traffic intensity:
+ A measure of traffic loading with respect to a resource
+ capacity over a specified period of time. In classical
+ telephony systems, traffic intensity is measured in units of
+ Erlang.
+
+ - Traffic matrix:
+ A representation of the traffic demand between a set of
+ origin and destination abstract nodes. An abstract node can
+ consist of one or more network elements.
+
+ - Traffic monitoring:
+ The process of observing traffic characteristics at a given
+ point in a network and collecting the traffic information
+ for analysis and further action.
+
+ - Traffic trunk:
+ An aggregation of traffic flows belonging to the same class
+ which are forwarded through a common path. A traffic trunk
+ may be characterized by an ingress and egress node, and a
+ set of attributes which determine its behavioral
+ characteristics and requirements from the network.
+
+2.0 Background
+
+ The Internet has quickly evolved into a very critical communications
+ infrastructure, supporting significant economic, educational, and
+ social activities. Simultaneously, the delivery of Internet
+ communications services has become very competitive and end-users are
+ demanding very high quality service from their service providers.
+ Consequently, performance optimization of large scale IP networks,
+ especially public Internet backbones, have become an important
+ problem. Network performance requirements are multi-dimensional,
+ complex, and sometimes contradictory; making the traffic engineering
+ problem very challenging.
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 11]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ The network must convey IP packets from ingress nodes to egress nodes
+ efficiently, expeditiously, and economically. Furthermore, in a
+ multiclass service environment (e.g., Diffserv capable networks), the
+ resource sharing parameters of the network must be appropriately
+ determined and configured according to prevailing policies and
+ service models to resolve resource contention issues arising from
+ mutual interference between packets traversing through the network.
+ Thus, consideration must be given to resolving competition for
+ network resources between traffic streams belonging to the same
+ service class (intra-class contention resolution) and traffic streams
+ belonging to different classes (inter-class contention resolution).
+
+2.1 Context of Internet Traffic Engineering
+
+ The context of Internet traffic engineering pertains to the scenarios
+ where traffic engineering is used. A traffic engineering methodology
+ establishes appropriate rules to resolve traffic performance issues
+ occurring in a specific context. The context of Internet traffic
+ engineering includes:
+
+ (1) A network context defining the universe of discourse, and in
+ particular the situations in which the traffic engineering
+ problems occur. The network context includes network
+ structure, network policies, network characteristics,
+ network constraints, network quality attributes, and network
+ optimization criteria.
+
+ (2) A problem context defining the general and concrete issues
+ that traffic engineering addresses. The problem context
+ includes identification, abstraction of relevant features,
+ representation, formulation, specification of the
+ requirements on the solution space, and specification of the
+ desirable features of acceptable solutions.
+
+ (3) A solution context suggesting how to address the issues
+ identified by the problem context. The solution context
+ includes analysis, evaluation of alternatives, prescription,
+ and resolution.
+
+ (4) An implementation and operational context in which the
+ solutions are methodologically instantiated. The
+ implementation and operational context includes planning,
+ organization, and execution.
+
+ The context of Internet traffic engineering and the different problem
+ scenarios are discussed in the following subsections.
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 12]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+2.2 Network Context
+
+ IP networks range in size from small clusters of routers situated
+ within a given location, to thousands of interconnected routers,
+ switches, and other components distributed all over the world.
+
+ Conceptually, at the most basic level of abstraction, an IP network
+ can be represented as a distributed dynamical system consisting of:
+ (1) a set of interconnected resources which provide transport
+ services for IP traffic subject to certain constraints, (2) a demand
+ system representing the offered load to be transported through the
+ network, and (3) a response system consisting of network processes,
+ protocols, and related mechanisms which facilitate the movement of
+ traffic through the network [see also AWD2].
+
+ The network elements and resources may have specific characteristics
+ restricting the manner in which the demand is handled. Additionally,
+ network resources may be equipped with traffic control mechanisms
+ superintending the way in which the demand is serviced. Traffic
+ control mechanisms may, for example, be used to control various
+ packet processing activities within a given resource, arbitrate
+ contention for access to the resource by different packets, and
+ regulate traffic behavior through the resource. A configuration
+ management and provisioning system may allow the settings of the
+ traffic control mechanisms to be manipulated by external or internal
+ entities in order to exercise control over the way in which the
+ network elements respond to internal and external stimuli.
+
+ The details of how the network provides transport services for
+ packets are specified in the policies of the network administrators
+ and are installed through network configuration management and policy
+ based provisioning systems. Generally, the types of services
+ provided by the network also depends upon the technology and
+ characteristics of the network elements and protocols, the prevailing
+ service and utility models, and the ability of the network
+ administrators to translate policies into network configurations.
+
+ Contemporary Internet networks have three significant
+ characteristics: (1) they provide real-time services, (2) they have
+ become mission critical, and (3) their operating environments are
+ very dynamic. The dynamic characteristics of IP networks can be
+ attributed in part to fluctuations in demand, to the interaction
+ between various network protocols and processes, to the rapid
+ evolution of the infrastructure which demands the constant inclusion
+ of new technologies and new network elements, and to transient and
+ persistent impairments which occur within the system.
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 13]
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+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ Packets contend for the use of network resources as they are conveyed
+ through the network. A network resource is considered to be
+ congested if the arrival rate of packets exceed the output capacity
+ of the resource over an interval of time. Congestion may result in
+ some of the arrival packets being delayed or even dropped.
+
+ Congestion increases transit delays, delay variation, packet loss,
+ and reduces the predictability of network services. Clearly,
+ congestion is a highly undesirable phenomenon.
+
+ Combating congestion at a reasonable cost is a major objective of
+ Internet traffic engineering.
+
+ Efficient sharing of network resources by multiple traffic streams is
+ a basic economic premise for packet switched networks in general and
+ for the Internet in particular. A fundamental challenge in network
+ operation, especially in a large scale public IP network, is to
+ increase the efficiency of resource utilization while minimizing the
+ possibility of congestion.
+
+ Increasingly, the Internet will have to function in the presence of
+ different classes of traffic with different service requirements.
+ The advent of Differentiated Services [RFC-2475] makes this
+ requirement particularly acute. Thus, packets may be grouped into
+ behavior aggregates such that each behavior aggregate may have a
+ common set of behavioral characteristics or a common set of delivery
+ requirements. In practice, the delivery requirements of a specific
+ set of packets may be specified explicitly or implicitly. Two of the
+ most important traffic delivery requirements are capacity constraints
+ and QoS constraints.
+
+ Capacity constraints can be expressed statistically as peak rates,
+ mean rates, burst sizes, or as some deterministic notion of effective
+ bandwidth. QoS requirements can be expressed in terms of (1)
+ integrity constraints such as packet loss and (2) in terms of
+ temporal constraints such as timing restrictions for the delivery of
+ each packet (delay) and timing restrictions for the delivery of
+ consecutive packets belonging to the same traffic stream (delay
+ variation).
+
+2.3 Problem Context
+
+ Fundamental problems exist in association with the operation of a
+ network described by the simple model of the previous subsection.
+ This subsection reviews the problem context in relation to the
+ traffic engineering function.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ The identification, abstraction, representation, and measurement of
+ network features relevant to traffic engineering is a significant
+ issue.
+
+ One particularly important class of problems concerns how to
+ explicitly formulate the problems that traffic engineering attempts
+ to solve, how to identify the requirements on the solution space, how
+ to specify the desirable features of good solutions, how to actually
+ solve the problems, and how to measure and characterize the
+ effectiveness of the solutions.
+
+ Another class of problems concerns how to measure and estimate
+ relevant network state parameters. Effective traffic engineering
+ relies on a good estimate of the offered traffic load as well as a
+ view of the underlying topology and associated resource constraints.
+ A network-wide view of the topology is also a must for offline
+ planning.
+
+ Still another class of problems concerns how to characterize the
+ state of the network and how to evaluate its performance under a
+ variety of scenarios. The performance evaluation problem is two-
+ fold. One aspect of this problem relates to the evaluation of the
+ system level performance of the network. The other aspect relates to
+ the evaluation of the resource level performance, which restricts
+ attention to the performance analysis of individual network
+ resources. In this memo, we refer to the system level
+ characteristics of the network as the "macro-states" and the resource
+ level characteristics as the "micro-states." The system level
+ characteristics are also known as the emergent properties of the
+ network as noted earlier. Correspondingly, we shall refer to the
+ traffic engineering schemes dealing with network performance
+ optimization at the systems level as "macro-TE" and the schemes that
+ optimize at the individual resource level as "micro-TE." Under
+ certain circumstances, the system level performance can be derived
+ from the resource level performance using appropriate rules of
+ composition, depending upon the particular performance measures of
+ interest.
+
+ Another fundamental class of problems concerns how to effectively
+ optimize network performance. Performance optimization may entail
+ translating solutions to specific traffic engineering problems into
+ network configurations. Optimization may also entail some degree of
+ resource management control, routing control, and/or capacity
+ augmentation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ As noted previously, congestion is an undesirable phenomena in
+ operational networks. Therefore, the next subsection addresses the
+ issue of congestion and its ramifications within the problem context
+ of Internet traffic engineering.
+
+2.3.1 Congestion and its Ramifications
+
+ Congestion is one of the most significant problems in an operational
+ IP context. A network element is said to be congested if it
+ experiences sustained overload over an interval of time. Congestion
+ almost always results in degradation of service quality to end users.
+ Congestion control schemes can include demand side policies and
+ supply side policies. Demand side policies may restrict access to
+ congested resources and/or dynamically regulate the demand to
+ alleviate the overload situation. Supply side policies may expand or
+ augment network capacity to better accommodate offered traffic.
+ Supply side policies may also re-allocate network resources by
+ redistributing traffic over the infrastructure. Traffic
+ redistribution and resource re-allocation serve to increase the
+ 'effective capacity' seen by the demand.
+
+ The emphasis of this memo is primarily on congestion management
+ schemes falling within the scope of the network, rather than on
+ congestion management systems dependent upon sensitivity and
+ adaptivity from end-systems. That is, the aspects that are
+ considered in this memo with respect to congestion management are
+ those solutions that can be provided by control entities operating on
+ the network and by the actions of network administrators and network
+ operations systems.
+
+2.4 Solution Context
+
+ The solution context for Internet traffic engineering involves
+ analysis, evaluation of alternatives, and choice between alternative
+ courses of action. Generally the solution context is predicated on
+ making reasonable inferences about the current or future state of the
+ network, and subsequently making appropriate decisions that may
+ involve a preference between alternative sets of action. More
+ specifically, the solution context demands reasonable estimates of
+ traffic workload, characterization of network state, deriving
+ solutions to traffic engineering problems which may be implicitly or
+ explicitly formulated, and possibly instantiating a set of control
+ actions. Control actions may involve the manipulation of parameters
+ associated with routing, control over tactical capacity acquisition,
+ and control over the traffic management functions.
+
+ The following list of instruments may be applicable to the solution
+ context of Internet traffic engineering.
+
+
+
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+
+ (1) A set of policies, objectives, and requirements (which may
+ be context dependent) for network performance evaluation and
+ performance optimization.
+
+ (2) A collection of online and possibly offline tools and
+ mechanisms for measurement, characterization, modeling, and
+ control of Internet traffic and control over the placement
+ and allocation of network resources, as well as control over
+ the mapping or distribution of traffic onto the
+ infrastructure.
+
+ (3) A set of constraints on the operating environment, the
+ network protocols, and the traffic engineering system
+ itself.
+
+ (4) A set of quantitative and qualitative techniques and
+ methodologies for abstracting, formulating, and solving
+ traffic engineering problems.
+
+ (5) A set of administrative control parameters which may be
+ manipulated through a Configuration Management (CM) system.
+ The CM system itself may include a configuration control
+ subsystem, a configuration repository, a configuration
+ accounting subsystem, and a configuration auditing
+ subsystem.
+
+ (6) A set of guidelines for network performance evaluation,
+ performance optimization, and performance improvement.
+
+ Derivation of traffic characteristics through measurement and/or
+ estimation is very useful within the realm of the solution space for
+ traffic engineering. Traffic estimates can be derived from customer
+ subscription information, traffic projections, traffic models, and
+ from actual empirical measurements. The empirical measurements may
+ be performed at the traffic aggregate level or at the flow level in
+ order to derive traffic statistics at various levels of detail.
+ Measurements at the flow level or on small traffic aggregates may be
+ performed at edge nodes, where traffic enters and leaves the network.
+ Measurements at large traffic aggregate levels may be performed
+ within the core of the network where potentially numerous traffic
+ flows may be in transit concurrently.
+
+ To conduct performance studies and to support planning of existing
+ and future networks, a routing analysis may be performed to determine
+ the path(s) the routing protocols will choose for various traffic
+ demands, and to ascertain the utilization of network resources as
+ traffic is routed through the network. The routing analysis should
+ capture the selection of paths through the network, the assignment of
+
+
+
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+
+
+ traffic across multiple feasible routes, and the multiplexing of IP
+ traffic over traffic trunks (if such constructs exists) and over the
+ underlying network infrastructure. A network topology model is a
+ necessity for routing analysis. A network topology model may be
+ extracted from network architecture documents, from network designs,
+ from information contained in router configuration files, from
+ routing databases, from routing tables, or from automated tools that
+ discover and depict network topology information. Topology
+ information may also be derived from servers that monitor network
+ state, and from servers that perform provisioning functions.
+
+ Routing in operational IP networks can be administratively controlled
+ at various levels of abstraction including the manipulation of BGP
+ attributes and manipulation of IGP metrics. For path oriented
+ technologies such as MPLS, routing can be further controlled by the
+ manipulation of relevant traffic engineering parameters, resource
+ parameters, and administrative policy constraints. Within the
+ context of MPLS, the path of an explicit label switched path (LSP)
+ can be computed and established in various ways including: (1)
+ manually, (2) automatically online using constraint-based routing
+ processes implemented on label switching routers, and (3)
+ automatically offline using constraint-based routing entities
+ implemented on external traffic engineering support systems.
+
+2.4.1 Combating the Congestion Problem
+
+ Minimizing congestion is a significant aspect of Internet traffic
+ engineering. This subsection gives an overview of the general
+ approaches that have been used or proposed to combat congestion
+ problems.
+
+ Congestion management policies can be categorized based upon the
+ following criteria (see e.g., [YARE95] for a more detailed taxonomy
+ of congestion control schemes): (1) Response time scale which can be
+ characterized as long, medium, or short; (2) reactive versus
+ preventive which relates to congestion control and congestion
+ avoidance; and (3) supply side versus demand side congestion
+ management schemes. These aspects are discussed in the following
+ paragraphs.
+
+ (1) Congestion Management based on Response Time Scales
+
+ - Long (weeks to months): Capacity planning works over a relatively
+ long time scale to expand network capacity based on estimates or
+ forecasts of future traffic demand and traffic distribution. Since
+ router and link provisioning take time and are generally expensive,
+ these upgrades are typically carried out in the weeks-to-months or
+ even years time scale.
+
+
+
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+
+
+ - Medium (minutes to days): Several control policies fall within the
+ medium time scale category. Examples include: (1) Adjusting IGP
+ and/or BGP parameters to route traffic away or towards certain
+ segments of the network; (2) Setting up and/or adjusting some
+ explicitly routed label switched paths (ER-LSPs) in MPLS networks to
+ route some traffic trunks away from possibly congested resources or
+ towards possibly more favorable routes; (3) re-configuring the
+ logical topology of the network to make it correlate more closely
+ with the spatial traffic distribution using for example some
+ underlying path-oriented technology such as MPLS LSPs, ATM PVCs, or
+ optical channel trails. Many of these adaptive medium time scale
+ response schemes rely on a measurement system that monitors changes
+ in traffic distribution, traffic shifts, and network resource
+ utilization and subsequently provides feedback to the online and/or
+ offline traffic engineering mechanisms and tools which employ this
+ feedback information to trigger certain control actions to occur
+ within the network. The traffic engineering mechanisms and tools can
+ be implemented in a distributed fashion or in a centralized fashion,
+ and may have a hierarchical structure or a flat structure. The
+ comparative merits of distributed and centralized control structures
+ for networks are well known. A centralized scheme may have global
+ visibility into the network state and may produce potentially more
+ optimal solutions. However, centralized schemes are prone to single
+ points of failure and may not scale as well as distributed schemes.
+ Moreover, the information utilized by a centralized scheme may be
+ stale and may not reflect the actual state of the network. It is not
+ an objective of this memo to make a recommendation between
+ distributed and centralized schemes. This is a choice that network
+ administrators must make based on their specific needs.
+
+ - Short (picoseconds to minutes): This category includes packet level
+ processing functions and events on the order of several round trip
+ times. It includes router mechanisms such as passive and active
+ buffer management. These mechanisms are used to control congestion
+ and/or signal congestion to end systems so that they can adaptively
+ regulate the rate at which traffic is injected into the network. One
+ of the most popular active queue management schemes, especially for
+ TCP traffic, is Random Early Detection (RED) [FLJA93], which supports
+ congestion avoidance by controlling the average queue size. During
+ congestion (but before the queue is filled), the RED scheme chooses
+ arriving packets to "mark" according to a probabilistic algorithm
+ which takes into account the average queue size. For a router that
+ does not utilize explicit congestion notification (ECN) see e.g.,
+ [FLOY94], the marked packets can simply be dropped to signal the
+ inception of congestion to end systems. On the other hand, if the
+ router supports ECN, then it can set the ECN field in the packet
+ header. Several variations of RED have been proposed to support
+ different drop precedence levels in multi-class environments [RFC-
+
+
+
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+
+
+ 2597], e.g., RED with In and Out (RIO) and Weighted RED. There is
+ general consensus that RED provides congestion avoidance performance
+ which is not worse than traditional Tail-Drop (TD) queue management
+ (drop arriving packets only when the queue is full). Importantly,
+ however, RED reduces the possibility of global synchronization and
+ improves fairness among different TCP sessions. However, RED by
+ itself can not prevent congestion and unfairness caused by sources
+ unresponsive to RED, e.g., UDP traffic and some misbehaved greedy
+ connections. Other schemes have been proposed to improve the
+ performance and fairness in the presence of unresponsive traffic.
+ Some of these schemes were proposed as theoretical frameworks and are
+ typically not available in existing commercial products. Two such
+ schemes are Longest Queue Drop (LQD) and Dynamic Soft Partitioning
+ with Random Drop (RND) [SLDC98].
+
+ (2) Congestion Management: Reactive versus Preventive Schemes
+
+ - Reactive: reactive (recovery) congestion management policies react
+ to existing congestion problems to improve it. All the policies
+ described in the long and medium time scales above can be categorized
+ as being reactive especially if the policies are based on monitoring
+ and identifying existing congestion problems, and on the initiation
+ of relevant actions to ease a situation.
+
+ - Preventive: preventive (predictive/avoidance) policies take
+ proactive action to prevent congestion based on estimates and
+ predictions of future potential congestion problems. Some of the
+ policies described in the long and medium time scales fall into this
+ category. They do not necessarily respond immediately to existing
+ congestion problems. Instead forecasts of traffic demand and
+ workload distribution are considered and action may be taken to
+ prevent potential congestion problems in the future. The schemes
+ described in the short time scale (e.g., RED and its variations, ECN,
+ LQD, and RND) are also used for congestion avoidance since dropping
+ or marking packets before queues actually overflow would trigger
+ corresponding TCP sources to slow down.
+
+ (3) Congestion Management: Supply Side versus Demand Side Schemes
+
+ - Supply side: supply side congestion management policies increase
+ the effective capacity available to traffic in order to control or
+ obviate congestion. This can be accomplished by augmenting capacity.
+ Another way to accomplish this is to minimize congestion by having a
+ relatively balanced distribution of traffic over the network. For
+ example, capacity planning should aim to provide a physical topology
+ and associated link bandwidths that match estimated traffic workload
+ and traffic distribution based on forecasting (subject to budgetary
+ and other constraints). However, if actual traffic distribution does
+
+
+
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+
+
+ not match the topology derived from capacity panning (due to
+ forecasting errors or facility constraints for example), then the
+ traffic can be mapped onto the existing topology using routing
+ control mechanisms, using path oriented technologies (e.g., MPLS LSPs
+ and optical channel trails) to modify the logical topology, or by
+ using some other load redistribution mechanisms.
+
+ - Demand side: demand side congestion management policies control or
+ regulate the offered traffic to alleviate congestion problems. For
+ example, some of the short time scale mechanisms described earlier
+ (such as RED and its variations, ECN, LQD, and RND) as well as
+ policing and rate shaping mechanisms attempt to regulate the offered
+ load in various ways. Tariffs may also be applied as a demand side
+ instrument. To date, however, tariffs have not been used as a means
+ of demand side congestion management within the Internet.
+
+ In summary, a variety of mechanisms can be used to address congestion
+ problems in IP networks. These mechanisms may operate at multiple
+ time-scales.
+
+2.5 Implementation and Operational Context
+
+ The operational context of Internet traffic engineering is
+ characterized by constant change which occur at multiple levels of
+ abstraction. The implementation context demands effective planning,
+ organization, and execution. The planning aspects may involve
+ determining prior sets of actions to achieve desired objectives.
+ Organizing involves arranging and assigning responsibility to the
+ various components of the traffic engineering system and coordinating
+ the activities to accomplish the desired TE objectives. Execution
+ involves measuring and applying corrective or perfective actions to
+ attain and maintain desired TE goals.
+
+3.0 Traffic Engineering Process Model(s)
+
+ This section describes a generic process model that captures the high
+ level practical aspects of Internet traffic engineering in an
+ operational context. The process model is described as a sequence of
+ actions that a traffic engineer, or more generally a traffic
+ engineering system, must perform to optimize the performance of an
+ operational network (see also [RFC-2702, AWD2]). The process model
+ described here represents the broad activities common to most traffic
+ engineering methodologies although the details regarding how traffic
+ engineering is executed may differ from network to network. This
+ process model may be enacted explicitly or implicitly, by an
+ automaton and/or by a human.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ The traffic engineering process model is iterative [AWD2]. The four
+ phases of the process model described below are repeated continually.
+
+ The first phase of the TE process model is to define the relevant
+ control policies that govern the operation of the network. These
+ policies may depend upon many factors including the prevailing
+ business model, the network cost structure, the operating
+ constraints, the utility model, and optimization criteria.
+
+ The second phase of the process model is a feedback mechanism
+ involving the acquisition of measurement data from the operational
+ network. If empirical data is not readily available from the
+ network, then synthetic workloads may be used instead which reflect
+ either the prevailing or the expected workload of the network.
+ Synthetic workloads may be derived by estimation or extrapolation
+ using prior empirical data. Their derivation may also be obtained
+ using mathematical models of traffic characteristics or other means.
+
+ The third phase of the process model is to analyze the network state
+ and to characterize traffic workload. Performance analysis may be
+ proactive and/or reactive. Proactive performance analysis identifies
+ potential problems that do not exist, but could manifest in the
+ future. Reactive performance analysis identifies existing problems,
+ determines their cause through diagnosis, and evaluates alternative
+ approaches to remedy the problem, if necessary. A number of
+ quantitative and qualitative techniques may be used in the analysis
+ process, including modeling based analysis and simulation. The
+ analysis phase of the process model may involve investigating the
+ concentration and distribution of traffic across the network or
+ relevant subsets of the network, identifying the characteristics of
+ the offered traffic workload, identifying existing or potential
+ bottlenecks, and identifying network pathologies such as ineffective
+ link placement, single points of failures, etc. Network pathologies
+ may result from many factors including inferior network architecture,
+ inferior network design, and configuration problems. A traffic
+ matrix may be constructed as part of the analysis process. Network
+ analysis may also be descriptive or prescriptive.
+
+ The fourth phase of the TE process model is the performance
+ optimization of the network. The performance optimization phase
+ involves a decision process which selects and implements a set of
+ actions from a set of alternatives. Optimization actions may include
+ the use of appropriate techniques to either control the offered
+ traffic or to control the distribution of traffic across the network.
+ Optimization actions may also involve adding additional links or
+ increasing link capacity, deploying additional hardware such as
+ routers and switches, systematically adjusting parameters associated
+ with routing such as IGP metrics and BGP attributes, and adjusting
+
+
+
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+
+
+ traffic management parameters. Network performance optimization may
+ also involve starting a network planning process to improve the
+ network architecture, network design, network capacity, network
+ technology, and the configuration of network elements to accommodate
+ current and future growth.
+
+3.1 Components of the Traffic Engineering Process Model
+
+ The key components of the traffic engineering process model include a
+ measurement subsystem, a modeling and analysis subsystem, and an
+ optimization subsystem. The following subsections examine these
+ components as they apply to the traffic engineering process model.
+
+3.2 Measurement
+
+ Measurement is crucial to the traffic engineering function. The
+ operational state of a network can be conclusively determined only
+ through measurement. Measurement is also critical to the
+ optimization function because it provides feedback data which is used
+ by traffic engineering control subsystems. This data is used to
+ adaptively optimize network performance in response to events and
+ stimuli originating within and outside the network. Measurement is
+ also needed to determine the quality of network services and to
+ evaluate the effectiveness of traffic engineering policies.
+ Experience suggests that measurement is most effective when acquired
+ and applied systematically.
+
+ When developing a measurement system to support the traffic
+ engineering function in IP networks, the following questions should
+ be carefully considered: Why is measurement needed in this particular
+ context? What parameters are to be measured? How should the
+ measurement be accomplished? Where should the measurement be
+ performed? When should the measurement be performed? How frequently
+ should the monitored variables be measured? What level of
+ measurement accuracy and reliability is desirable? What level of
+ measurement accuracy and reliability is realistically attainable? To
+ what extent can the measurement system permissibly interfere with the
+ monitored network components and variables? What is the acceptable
+ cost of measurement? The answers to these questions will determine
+ the measurement tools and methodologies appropriate in any given
+ traffic engineering context.
+
+ It should also be noted that there is a distinction between
+ measurement and evaluation. Measurement provides raw data concerning
+ state parameters and variables of monitored network elements.
+ Evaluation utilizes the raw data to make inferences regarding the
+ monitored system.
+
+
+
+
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+
+ Measurement in support of the TE function can occur at different
+ levels of abstraction. For example, measurement can be used to
+ derive packet level characteristics, flow level characteristics, user
+ or customer level characteristics, traffic aggregate characteristics,
+ component level characteristics, and network wide characteristics.
+
+3.3 Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation
+
+ Modeling and analysis are important aspects of Internet traffic
+ engineering. Modeling involves constructing an abstract or physical
+ representation which depicts relevant traffic characteristics and
+ network attributes.
+
+ A network model is an abstract representation of the network which
+ captures relevant network features, attributes, and characteristics,
+ such as link and nodal attributes and constraints. A network model
+ may facilitate analysis and/or simulation which can be used to
+ predict network performance under various conditions as well as to
+ guide network expansion plans.
+
+ In general, Internet traffic engineering models can be classified as
+ either structural or behavioral. Structural models focus on the
+ organization of the network and its components. Behavioral models
+ focus on the dynamics of the network and the traffic workload.
+ Modeling for Internet traffic engineering may also be formal or
+ informal.
+
+ Accurate behavioral models for traffic sources are particularly
+ useful for analysis. Development of behavioral traffic source models
+ that are consistent with empirical data obtained from operational
+ networks is a major research topic in Internet traffic engineering.
+ These source models should also be tractable and amenable to
+ analysis. The topic of source models for IP traffic is a research
+ topic and is therefore outside the scope of this document. Its
+ importance, however, must be emphasized.
+
+ Network simulation tools are extremely useful for traffic
+ engineering. Because of the complexity of realistic quantitative
+ analysis of network behavior, certain aspects of network performance
+ studies can only be conducted effectively using simulation. A good
+ network simulator can be used to mimic and visualize network
+ characteristics under various conditions in a safe and non-disruptive
+ manner. For example, a network simulator may be used to depict
+ congested resources and hot spots, and to provide hints regarding
+ possible solutions to network performance problems. A good simulator
+ may also be used to validate the effectiveness of planned solutions
+ to network issues without the need to tamper with the operational
+ network, or to commence an expensive network upgrade which may not
+
+
+
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+
+
+ achieve the desired objectives. Furthermore, during the process of
+ network planning, a network simulator may reveal pathologies such as
+ single points of failure which may require additional redundancy, and
+ potential bottlenecks and hot spots which may require additional
+ capacity.
+
+ Routing simulators are especially useful in large networks. A
+ routing simulator may identify planned links which may not actually
+ be used to route traffic by the existing routing protocols.
+ Simulators can also be used to conduct scenario based and
+ perturbation based analysis, as well as sensitivity studies.
+ Simulation results can be used to initiate appropriate actions in
+ various ways. For example, an important application of network
+ simulation tools is to investigate and identify how best to make the
+ network evolve and grow, in order to accommodate projected future
+ demands.
+
+3.4 Optimization
+
+ Network performance optimization involves resolving network issues by
+ transforming such issues into concepts that enable a solution,
+ identification of a solution, and implementation of the solution.
+ Network performance optimization can be corrective or perfective. In
+ corrective optimization, the goal is to remedy a problem that has
+ occurred or that is incipient. In perfective optimization, the goal
+ is to improve network performance even when explicit problems do not
+ exist and are not anticipated.
+
+ Network performance optimization is a continual process, as noted
+ previously. Performance optimization iterations may consist of
+ real-time optimization sub-processes and non-real-time network
+ planning sub-processes. The difference between real-time
+ optimization and network planning is primarily in the relative time-
+ scale in which they operate and in the granularity of actions. One
+ of the objectives of a real-time optimization sub-process is to
+ control the mapping and distribution of traffic over the existing
+ network infrastructure to avoid and/or relieve congestion, to assure
+ satisfactory service delivery, and to optimize resource utilization.
+ Real-time optimization is needed because random incidents such as
+ fiber cuts or shifts in traffic demand will occur irrespective of how
+ well a network is designed. These incidents can cause congestion and
+ other problems to manifest in an operational network. Real-time
+ optimization must solve such problems in small to medium time-scales
+ ranging from micro-seconds to minutes or hours. Examples of real-
+ time optimization include queue management, IGP/BGP metric tuning,
+ and using technologies such as MPLS explicit LSPs to change the paths
+ of some traffic trunks [XIAO].
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ One of the functions of the network planning sub-process is to
+ initiate actions to systematically evolve the architecture,
+ technology, topology, and capacity of a network. When a problem
+ exists in the network, real-time optimization should provide an
+ immediate remedy. Because a prompt response is necessary, the real-
+ time solution may not be the best possible solution. Network
+ planning may subsequently be needed to refine the solution and
+ improve the situation. Network planning is also required to expand
+ the network to support traffic growth and changes in traffic
+ distribution over time. As previously noted, a change in the
+ topology and/or capacity of the network may be the outcome of network
+ planning.
+
+ Clearly, network planning and real-time performance optimization are
+ mutually complementary activities. A well-planned and designed
+ network makes real-time optimization easier, while a systematic
+ approach to real-time network performance optimization allows network
+ planning to focus on long term issues rather than tactical
+ considerations. Systematic real-time network performance
+ optimization also provides valuable inputs and insights toward
+ network planning.
+
+ Stability is an important consideration in real-time network
+ performance optimization. This aspect will be repeatedly addressed
+ throughout this memo.
+
+4.0 Historical Review and Recent Developments
+
+ This section briefly reviews different traffic engineering approaches
+ proposed and implemented in telecommunications and computer networks.
+ The discussion is not intended to be comprehensive. It is primarily
+ intended to illuminate pre-existing perspectives and prior art
+ concerning traffic engineering in the Internet and in legacy
+ telecommunications networks.
+
+4.1 Traffic Engineering in Classical Telephone Networks
+
+ This subsection presents a brief overview of traffic engineering in
+ telephone networks which often relates to the way user traffic is
+ steered from an originating node to the terminating node. This
+ subsection presents a brief overview of this topic. A detailed
+ description of the various routing strategies applied in telephone
+ networks is included in the book by G. Ash [ASH2].
+
+ The early telephone network relied on static hierarchical routing,
+ whereby routing patterns remained fixed independent of the state of
+ the network or time of day. The hierarchy was intended to
+ accommodate overflow traffic, improve network reliability via
+
+
+
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+
+
+ alternate routes, and prevent call looping by employing strict
+ hierarchical rules. The network was typically over-provisioned since
+ a given fixed route had to be dimensioned so that it could carry user
+ traffic during a busy hour of any busy day. Hierarchical routing in
+ the telephony network was found to be too rigid upon the advent of
+ digital switches and stored program control which were able to manage
+ more complicated traffic engineering rules.
+
+ Dynamic routing was introduced to alleviate the routing inflexibility
+ in the static hierarchical routing so that the network would operate
+ more efficiently. This resulted in significant economic gains
+ [HUSS87]. Dynamic routing typically reduces the overall loss
+ probability by 10 to 20 percent (compared to static hierarchical
+ routing). Dynamic routing can also improve network resilience by
+ recalculating routes on a per-call basis and periodically updating
+ routes.
+
+ There are three main types of dynamic routing in the telephone
+ network. They are time-dependent routing, state-dependent routing
+ (SDR), and event dependent routing (EDR).
+
+ In time-dependent routing, regular variations in traffic loads (such
+ as time of day or day of week) are exploited in pre-planned routing
+ tables. In state-dependent routing, routing tables are updated
+ online according to the current state of the network (e.g., traffic
+ demand, utilization, etc.). In event dependent routing, routing
+ changes are incepted by events (such as call setups encountering
+ congested or blocked links) whereupon new paths are searched out
+ using learning models. EDR methods are real-time adaptive, but they
+ do not require global state information as does SDR. Examples of EDR
+ schemes include the dynamic alternate routing (DAR) from BT, the
+ state-and-time dependent routing (STR) from NTT, and the success-to-
+ the-top (STT) routing from AT&T.
+
+ Dynamic non-hierarchical routing (DNHR) is an example of dynamic
+ routing that was introduced in the AT&T toll network in the 1980's to
+ respond to time-dependent information such as regular load variations
+ as a function of time. Time-dependent information in terms of load
+ may be divided into three time scales: hourly, weekly, and yearly.
+ Correspondingly, three algorithms are defined to pre-plan the routing
+ tables. The network design algorithm operates over a year-long
+ interval while the demand servicing algorithm operates on a weekly
+ basis to fine tune link sizes and routing tables to correct forecast
+ errors on the yearly basis. At the smallest time scale, the routing
+ algorithm is used to make limited adjustments based on daily traffic
+ variations. Network design and demand servicing are computed using
+ offline calculations. Typically, the calculations require extensive
+ searches on possible routes. On the other hand, routing may need
+
+
+
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+
+ online calculations to handle crankback. DNHR adopts a "two-link"
+ approach whereby a path can consist of two links at most. The
+ routing algorithm presents an ordered list of route choices between
+ an originating switch and a terminating switch. If a call overflows,
+ a via switch (a tandem exchange between the originating switch and
+ the terminating switch) would send a crankback signal to the
+ originating switch. This switch would then select the next route,
+ and so on, until there are no alternative routes available in which
+ the call is blocked.
+
+4.2 Evolution of Traffic Engineering in Packet Networks
+
+ This subsection reviews related prior work that was intended to
+ improve the performance of data networks. Indeed, optimization of
+ the performance of data networks started in the early days of the
+ ARPANET. Other early commercial networks such as SNA also recognized
+ the importance of performance optimization and service
+ differentiation.
+
+ In terms of traffic management, the Internet has been a best effort
+ service environment until recently. In particular, very limited
+ traffic management capabilities existed in IP networks to provide
+ differentiated queue management and scheduling services to packets
+ belonging to different classes.
+
+ In terms of routing control, the Internet has employed distributed
+ protocols for intra-domain routing. These protocols are highly
+ scalable and resilient. However, they are based on simple algorithms
+ for path selection which have very limited functionality to allow
+ flexible control of the path selection process.
+
+ In the following subsections, the evolution of practical traffic
+ engineering mechanisms in IP networks and its predecessors are
+ reviewed.
+
+4.2.1 Adaptive Routing in the ARPANET
+
+ The early ARPANET recognized the importance of adaptive routing where
+ routing decisions were based on the current state of the network
+ [MCQ80]. Early minimum delay routing approaches forwarded each
+ packet to its destination along a path for which the total estimated
+ transit time was the smallest. Each node maintained a table of
+ network delays, representing the estimated delay that a packet would
+ experience along a given path toward its destination. The minimum
+ delay table was periodically transmitted by a node to its neighbors.
+ The shortest path, in terms of hop count, was also propagated to give
+ the connectivity information.
+
+
+
+
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+
+ One drawback to this approach is that dynamic link metrics tend to
+ create "traffic magnets" causing congestion to be shifted from one
+ location of a network to another location, resulting in oscillation
+ and network instability.
+
+4.2.2 Dynamic Routing in the Internet
+
+ The Internet evolved from the APARNET and adopted dynamic routing
+ algorithms with distributed control to determine the paths that
+ packets should take en-route to their destinations. The routing
+ algorithms are adaptations of shortest path algorithms where costs
+ are based on link metrics. The link metric can be based on static or
+ dynamic quantities. The link metric based on static quantities may
+ be assigned administratively according to local criteria. The link
+ metric based on dynamic quantities may be a function of a network
+ congestion measure such as delay or packet loss.
+
+ It was apparent early that static link metric assignment was
+ inadequate because it can easily lead to unfavorable scenarios in
+ which some links become congested while others remain lightly loaded.
+ One of the many reasons for the inadequacy of static link metrics is
+ that link metric assignment was often done without considering the
+ traffic matrix in the network. Also, the routing protocols did not
+ take traffic attributes and capacity constraints into account when
+ making routing decisions. This results in traffic concentration
+ being localized in subsets of the network infrastructure and
+ potentially causing congestion. Even if link metrics are assigned in
+ accordance with the traffic matrix, unbalanced loads in the network
+ can still occur due to a number factors including:
+
+ - Resources may not be deployed in the most optimal locations
+ from a routing perspective.
+
+ - Forecasting errors in traffic volume and/or traffic
+ distribution.
+
+ - Dynamics in traffic matrix due to the temporal nature of
+ traffic patterns, BGP policy change from peers, etc.
+
+ The inadequacy of the legacy Internet interior gateway routing system
+ is one of the factors motivating the interest in path oriented
+ technology with explicit routing and constraint-based routing
+ capability such as MPLS.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+4.2.3 ToS Routing
+
+ Type-of-Service (ToS) routing involves different routes going to the
+ same destination with selection dependent upon the ToS field of an IP
+ packet [RFC-2474]. The ToS classes may be classified as low delay
+ and high throughput. Each link is associated with multiple link
+ costs and each link cost is used to compute routes for a particular
+ ToS. A separate shortest path tree is computed for each ToS. The
+ shortest path algorithm must be run for each ToS resulting in very
+ expensive computation. Classical ToS-based routing is now outdated
+ as the IP header field has been replaced by a Diffserv field.
+ Effective traffic engineering is difficult to perform in classical
+ ToS-based routing because each class still relies exclusively on
+ shortest path routing which results in localization of traffic
+ concentration within the network.
+
+4.2.4 Equal Cost Multi-Path
+
+ Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) is another technique that attempts to
+ address the deficiency in the Shortest Path First (SPF) interior
+ gateway routing systems [RFC-2328]. In the classical SPF algorithm,
+ if two or more shortest paths exist to a given destination, the
+ algorithm will choose one of them. The algorithm is modified
+ slightly in ECMP so that if two or more equal cost shortest paths
+ exist between two nodes, the traffic between the nodes is distributed
+ among the multiple equal-cost paths. Traffic distribution across the
+ equal-cost paths is usually performed in one of two ways: (1)
+ packet-based in a round-robin fashion, or (2) flow-based using
+ hashing on source and destination IP addresses and possibly other
+ fields of the IP header. The first approach can easily cause out-
+ of-order packets while the second approach is dependent upon the
+ number and distribution of flows. Flow-based load sharing may be
+ unpredictable in an enterprise network where the number of flows is
+ relatively small and less heterogeneous (for example, hashing may not
+ be uniform), but it is generally effective in core public networks
+ where the number of flows is large and heterogeneous.
+
+ In ECMP, link costs are static and bandwidth constraints are not
+ considered, so ECMP attempts to distribute the traffic as equally as
+ possible among the equal-cost paths independent of the congestion
+ status of each path. As a result, given two equal-cost paths, it is
+ possible that one of the paths will be more congested than the other.
+ Another drawback of ECMP is that load sharing cannot be achieved on
+ multiple paths which have non-identical costs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+4.2.5 Nimrod
+
+ Nimrod is a routing system developed to provide heterogeneous service
+ specific routing in the Internet, while taking multiple constraints
+ into account [RFC-1992]. Essentially, Nimrod is a link state routing
+ protocol which supports path oriented packet forwarding. It uses the
+ concept of maps to represent network connectivity and services at
+ multiple levels of abstraction. Mechanisms are provided to allow
+ restriction of the distribution of routing information.
+
+ Even though Nimrod did not enjoy deployment in the public Internet, a
+ number of key concepts incorporated into the Nimrod architecture,
+ such as explicit routing which allows selection of paths at
+ originating nodes, are beginning to find applications in some recent
+ constraint-based routing initiatives.
+
+4.3 Overlay Model
+
+ In the overlay model, a virtual-circuit network, such as ATM, frame
+ relay, or WDM, provides virtual-circuit connectivity between routers
+ that are located at the edges of a virtual-circuit cloud. In this
+ mode, two routers that are connected through a virtual circuit see a
+ direct adjacency between themselves independent of the physical route
+ taken by the virtual circuit through the ATM, frame relay, or WDM
+ network. Thus, the overlay model essentially decouples the logical
+ topology that routers see from the physical topology that the ATM,
+ frame relay, or WDM network manages. The overlay model based on ATM
+ or frame relay enables a network administrator or an automaton to
+ employ traffic engineering concepts to perform path optimization by
+ re-configuring or rearranging the virtual circuits so that a virtual
+ circuit on a congested or sub-optimal physical link can be re-routed
+ to a less congested or more optimal one. In the overlay model,
+ traffic engineering is also employed to establish relationships
+ between the traffic management parameters (e.g., PCR, SCR, and MBS
+ for ATM) of the virtual-circuit technology and the actual traffic
+ that traverses each circuit. These relationships can be established
+ based upon known or projected traffic profiles, and some other
+ factors.
+
+ The overlay model using IP over ATM requires the management of two
+ separate networks with different technologies (IP and ATM) resulting
+ in increased operational complexity and cost. In the fully-meshed
+ overlay model, each router would peer to every other router in the
+ network, so that the total number of adjacencies is a quadratic
+ function of the number of routers. Some of the issues with the
+ overlay model are discussed in [AWD2].
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+4.4 Constrained-Based Routing
+
+ Constraint-based routing refers to a class of routing systems that
+ compute routes through a network subject to the satisfaction of a set
+ of constraints and requirements. In the most general setting,
+ constraint-based routing may also seek to optimize overall network
+ performance while minimizing costs.
+
+ The constraints and requirements may be imposed by the network itself
+ or by administrative policies. Constraints may include bandwidth,
+ hop count, delay, and policy instruments such as resource class
+ attributes. Constraints may also include domain specific attributes
+ of certain network technologies and contexts which impose
+ restrictions on the solution space of the routing function. Path
+ oriented technologies such as MPLS have made constraint-based routing
+ feasible and attractive in public IP networks.
+
+ The concept of constraint-based routing within the context of MPLS
+ traffic engineering requirements in IP networks was first defined in
+ [RFC-2702].
+
+ Unlike QoS routing (for example, see [RFC-2386] and [MA]) which
+ generally addresses the issue of routing individual traffic flows to
+ satisfy prescribed flow based QoS requirements subject to network
+ resource availability, constraint-based routing is applicable to
+ traffic aggregates as well as flows and may be subject to a wide
+ variety of constraints which may include policy restrictions.
+
+4.5 Overview of Other IETF Projects Related to Traffic Engineering
+
+ This subsection reviews a number of IETF activities pertinent to
+ Internet traffic engineering. These activities are primarily
+ intended to evolve the IP architecture to support new service
+ definitions which allow preferential or differentiated treatment to
+ be accorded to certain types of traffic.
+
+4.5.1 Integrated Services
+
+ The IETF Integrated Services working group developed the integrated
+ services (Intserv) model. This model requires resources, such as
+ bandwidth and buffers, to be reserved a priori for a given traffic
+ flow to ensure that the quality of service requested by the traffic
+ flow is satisfied. The integrated services model includes additional
+ components beyond those used in the best-effort model such as packet
+ classifiers, packet schedulers, and admission control. A packet
+ classifier is used to identify flows that are to receive a certain
+ level of service. A packet scheduler handles the scheduling of
+
+
+
+
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+
+ service to different packet flows to ensure that QoS commitments are
+ met. Admission control is used to determine whether a router has the
+ necessary resources to accept a new flow.
+
+ Two services have been defined under the Integrated Services model:
+ guaranteed service [RFC-2212] and controlled-load service [RFC-2211].
+
+ The guaranteed service can be used for applications requiring bounded
+ packet delivery time. For this type of application, data that is
+ delivered to the application after a pre-defined amount of time has
+ elapsed is usually considered worthless. Therefore, guaranteed
+ service was intended to provide a firm quantitative bound on the
+ end-to-end packet delay for a flow. This is accomplished by
+ controlling the queuing delay on network elements along the data flow
+ path. The guaranteed service model does not, however, provide
+ bounds on jitter (inter-arrival times between consecutive packets).
+
+ The controlled-load service can be used for adaptive applications
+ that can tolerate some delay but are sensitive to traffic overload
+ conditions. This type of application typically functions
+ satisfactorily when the network is lightly loaded but its performance
+ degrades significantly when the network is heavily loaded.
+ Controlled-load service, therefore, has been designed to provide
+ approximately the same service as best-effort service in a lightly
+ loaded network regardless of actual network conditions. Controlled-
+ load service is described qualitatively in that no target values of
+ delay or loss are specified.
+
+ The main issue with the Integrated Services model has been
+ scalability [RFC-2998], especially in large public IP networks which
+ may potentially have millions of active micro-flows in transit
+ concurrently.
+
+ A notable feature of the Integrated Services model is that it
+ requires explicit signaling of QoS requirements from end systems to
+ routers [RFC-2753]. The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)
+ performs this signaling function and is a critical component of the
+ Integrated Services model. The RSVP protocol is described next.
+
+4.5.2 RSVP
+
+ RSVP is a soft state signaling protocol [RFC-2205]. It supports
+ receiver initiated establishment of resource reservations for both
+ multicast and unicast flows. RSVP was originally developed as a
+ signaling protocol within the integrated services framework for
+ applications to communicate QoS requirements to the network and for
+ the network to reserve relevant resources to satisfy the QoS
+ requirements [RFC-2205].
+
+
+
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+
+ Under RSVP, the sender or source node sends a PATH message to the
+ receiver with the same source and destination addresses as the
+ traffic which the sender will generate. The PATH message contains:
+ (1) a sender Tspec specifying the characteristics of the traffic, (2)
+ a sender Template specifying the format of the traffic, and (3) an
+ optional Adspec which is used to support the concept of one pass with
+ advertising" (OPWA) [RFC-2205]. Every intermediate router along the
+ path forwards the PATH Message to the next hop determined by the
+ routing protocol. Upon receiving a PATH Message, the receiver
+ responds with a RESV message which includes a flow descriptor used to
+ request resource reservations. The RESV message travels to the
+ sender or source node in the opposite direction along the path that
+ the PATH message traversed. Every intermediate router along the path
+ can reject or accept the reservation request of the RESV message. If
+ the request is rejected, the rejecting router will send an error
+ message to the receiver and the signaling process will terminate. If
+ the request is accepted, link bandwidth and buffer space are
+ allocated for the flow and the related flow state information is
+ installed in the router.
+
+ One of the issues with the original RSVP specification was
+ Scalability. This is because reservations were required for micro-
+ flows, so that the amount of state maintained by network elements
+ tends to increase linearly with the number of micro-flows. These
+ issues are described in [RFC-2961].
+
+ Recently, RSVP has been modified and extended in several ways to
+ mitigate the scaling problems. As a result, it is becoming a
+ versatile signaling protocol for the Internet. For example, RSVP has
+ been extended to reserve resources for aggregation of flows, to set
+ up MPLS explicit label switched paths, and to perform other signaling
+ functions within the Internet. There are also a number of proposals
+ to reduce the amount of refresh messages required to maintain
+ established RSVP sessions [RFC-2961].
+
+ A number of IETF working groups have been engaged in activities
+ related to the RSVP protocol. These include the original RSVP
+ working group, the MPLS working group, the Resource Allocation
+ Protocol working group, and the Policy Framework working group.
+
+4.5.3 Differentiated Services
+
+ The goal of the Differentiated Services (Diffserv) effort within the
+ IETF is to devise scalable mechanisms for categorization of traffic
+ into behavior aggregates, which ultimately allows each behavior
+ aggregate to be treated differently, especially when there is a
+ shortage of resources such as link bandwidth and buffer space [RFC-
+ 2475]. One of the primary motivations for the Diffserv effort was to
+
+
+
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+
+ devise alternative mechanisms for service differentiation in the
+ Internet that mitigate the scalability issues encountered with the
+ Intserv model.
+
+ The IETF Diffserv working group has defined a Differentiated Services
+ field in the IP header (DS field). The DS field consists of six bits
+ of the part of the IP header formerly known as TOS octet. The DS
+ field is used to indicate the forwarding treatment that a packet
+ should receive at a node [RFC-2474]. The Diffserv working group has
+ also standardized a number of Per-Hop Behavior (PHB) groups. Using
+ the PHBs, several classes of services can be defined using different
+ classification, policing, shaping, and scheduling rules.
+
+ For an end-user of network services to receive Differentiated
+ Services from its Internet Service Provider (ISP), it may be
+ necessary for the user to have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with
+ the ISP. An SLA may explicitly or implicitly specify a Traffic
+ Conditioning Agreement (TCA) which defines classifier rules as well
+ as metering, marking, discarding, and shaping rules.
+
+ Packets are classified, and possibly policed and shaped at the
+ ingress to a Diffserv network. When a packet traverses the boundary
+ between different Diffserv domains, the DS field of the packet may be
+ re-marked according to existing agreements between the domains.
+
+ Differentiated Services allows only a finite number of service
+ classes to be indicated by the DS field. The main advantage of the
+ Diffserv approach relative to the Intserv model is scalability.
+ Resources are allocated on a per-class basis and the amount of state
+ information is proportional to the number of classes rather than to
+ the number of application flows.
+
+ It should be obvious from the previous discussion that the Diffserv
+ model essentially deals with traffic management issues on a per hop
+ basis. The Diffserv control model consists of a collection of
+ micro-TE control mechanisms. Other traffic engineering capabilities,
+ such as capacity management (including routing control), are also
+ required in order to deliver acceptable service quality in Diffserv
+ networks. The concept of Per Domain Behaviors has been introduced to
+ better capture the notion of differentiated services across a
+ complete domain [RFC-3086].
+
+4.5.4 MPLS
+
+ MPLS is an advanced forwarding scheme which also includes extensions
+ to conventional IP control plane protocols. MPLS extends the
+ Internet routing model and enhances packet forwarding and path
+ control [RFC-3031].
+
+
+
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+
+ At the ingress to an MPLS domain, label switching routers (LSRs)
+ classify IP packets into forwarding equivalence classes (FECs) based
+ on a variety of factors, including, e.g., a combination of the
+ information carried in the IP header of the packets and the local
+ routing information maintained by the LSRs. An MPLS label is then
+ prepended to each packet according to their forwarding equivalence
+ classes. In a non-ATM/FR environment, the label is 32 bits long and
+ contains a 20-bit label field, a 3-bit experimental field (formerly
+ known as Class-of-Service or CoS field), a 1-bit label stack
+ indicator and an 8-bit TTL field. In an ATM (FR) environment, the
+ label consists of information encoded in the VCI/VPI (DLCI) field.
+ An MPLS capable router (an LSR) examines the label and possibly the
+ experimental field and uses this information to make packet
+ forwarding decisions.
+
+ An LSR makes forwarding decisions by using the label prepended to
+ packets as the index into a local next hop label forwarding entry
+ (NHLFE). The packet is then processed as specified in the NHLFE.
+ The incoming label may be replaced by an outgoing label, and the
+ packet may be switched to the next LSR. This label-switching process
+ is very similar to the label (VCI/VPI) swapping process in ATM
+ networks. Before a packet leaves an MPLS domain, its MPLS label may
+ be removed. A Label Switched Path (LSP) is the path between an
+ ingress LSRs and an egress LSRs through which a labeled packet
+ traverses. The path of an explicit LSP is defined at the originating
+ (ingress) node of the LSP. MPLS can use a signaling protocol such as
+ RSVP or LDP to set up LSPs.
+
+ MPLS is a very powerful technology for Internet traffic engineering
+ because it supports explicit LSPs which allow constraint-based
+ routing to be implemented efficiently in IP networks [AWD2]. The
+ requirements for traffic engineering over MPLS are described in
+ [RFC-2702]. Extensions to RSVP to support instantiation of explicit
+ LSP are discussed in [RFC-3209]. Extensions to LDP, known as CR-LDP,
+ to support explicit LSPs are presented in [JAM].
+
+4.5.5 IP Performance Metrics
+
+ The IETF IP Performance Metrics (IPPM) working group has been
+ developing a set of standard metrics that can be used to monitor the
+ quality, performance, and reliability of Internet services. These
+ metrics can be applied by network operators, end-users, and
+ independent testing groups to provide users and service providers
+ with a common understanding of the performance and reliability of the
+ Internet component 'clouds' they use/provide [RFC-2330]. The
+ criteria for performance metrics developed by the IPPM WG are
+ described in [RFC-2330]. Examples of performance metrics include
+ one-way packet
+
+
+
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+
+ loss [RFC-2680], one-way delay [RFC-2679], and connectivity measures
+ between two nodes [RFC-2678]. Other metrics include second-order
+ measures of packet loss and delay.
+
+ Some of the performance metrics specified by the IPPM WG are useful
+ for specifying Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs are sets of
+ service level objectives negotiated between users and service
+ providers, wherein each objective is a combination of one or more
+ performance metrics, possibly subject to certain constraints.
+
+4.5.6 Flow Measurement
+
+ The IETF Real Time Flow Measurement (RTFM) working group has produced
+ an architecture document defining a method to specify traffic flows
+ as well as a number of components for flow measurement (meters, meter
+ readers, manager) [RFC-2722]. A flow measurement system enables
+ network traffic flows to be measured and analyzed at the flow level
+ for a variety of purposes. As noted in RFC 2722, a flow measurement
+ system can be very useful in the following contexts: (1)
+ understanding the behavior of existing networks, (2) planning for
+ network development and expansion, (3) quantification of network
+ performance, (4) verifying the quality of network service, and (5)
+ attribution of network usage to users.
+
+ A flow measurement system consists of meters, meter readers, and
+ managers. A meter observes packets passing through a measurement
+ point, classifies them into certain groups, accumulates certain usage
+ data (such as the number of packets and bytes for each group), and
+ stores the usage data in a flow table. A group may represent a user
+ application, a host, a network, a group of networks, etc. A meter
+ reader gathers usage data from various meters so it can be made
+ available for analysis. A manager is responsible for configuring and
+ controlling meters and meter readers. The instructions received by a
+ meter from a manager include flow specification, meter control
+ parameters, and sampling techniques. The instructions received by a
+ meter reader from a manager include the address of the meter whose
+ date is to be collected, the frequency of data collection, and the
+ types of flows to be collected.
+
+4.5.7 Endpoint Congestion Management
+
+ [RFC-3124] is intended to provide a set of congestion control
+ mechanisms that transport protocols can use. It is also intended to
+ develop mechanisms for unifying congestion control across a subset of
+ an endpoint's active unicast connections (called a congestion group).
+ A congestion manager continuously monitors the state of the path for
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+ each congestion group under its control. The manager uses that
+ information to instruct a scheduler on how to partition bandwidth
+ among the connections of that congestion group.
+
+4.6 Overview of ITU Activities Related to Traffic Engineering
+
+ This section provides an overview of prior work within the ITU-T
+ pertaining to traffic engineering in traditional telecommunications
+ networks.
+
+ ITU-T Recommendations E.600 [ITU-E600], E.701 [ITU-E701], and E.801
+ [ITU-E801] address traffic engineering issues in traditional
+ telecommunications networks. Recommendation E.600 provides a
+ vocabulary for describing traffic engineering concepts, while E.701
+ defines reference connections, Grade of Service (GOS), and traffic
+ parameters for ISDN. Recommendation E.701 uses the concept of a
+ reference connection to identify representative cases of different
+ types of connections without describing the specifics of their actual
+ realizations by different physical means. As defined in
+ Recommendation E.600, "a connection is an association of resources
+ providing means for communication between two or more devices in, or
+ attached to, a telecommunication network." Also, E.600 defines "a
+ resource as any set of physically or conceptually identifiable
+ entities within a telecommunication network, the use of which can be
+ unambiguously determined" [ITU-E600]. There can be different types
+ of connections as the number and types of resources in a connection
+ may vary.
+
+ Typically, different network segments are involved in the path of a
+ connection. For example, a connection may be local, national, or
+ international. The purposes of reference connections are to clarify
+ and specify traffic performance issues at various interfaces between
+ different network domains. Each domain may consist of one or more
+ service provider networks.
+
+ Reference connections provide a basis to define grade of service
+ (GoS) parameters related to traffic engineering within the ITU-T
+ framework. As defined in E.600, "GoS refers to a number of traffic
+ engineering variables which are used to provide a measure of the
+ adequacy of a group of resources under specified conditions." These
+ GoS variables may be probability of loss, dial tone, delay, etc.
+ They are essential for network internal design and operation as well
+ as for component performance specification.
+
+ GoS is different from quality of service (QoS) in the ITU framework.
+ QoS is the performance perceivable by a telecommunication service
+ user and expresses the user's degree of satisfaction of the service.
+ QoS parameters focus on performance aspects observable at the service
+
+
+
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+
+
+ access points and network interfaces, rather than their causes within
+ the network. GoS, on the other hand, is a set of network oriented
+ measures which characterize the adequacy of a group of resources
+ under specified conditions. For a network to be effective in serving
+ its users, the values of both GoS and QoS parameters must be related,
+ with GoS parameters typically making a major contribution to the QoS.
+
+ Recommendation E.600 stipulates that a set of GoS parameters must be
+ selected and defined on an end-to-end basis for each major service
+ category provided by a network to assist the network provider with
+ improving efficiency and effectiveness of the network. Based on a
+ selected set of reference connections, suitable target values are
+ assigned to the selected GoS parameters under normal and high load
+ conditions. These end-to-end GoS target values are then apportioned
+ to individual resource components of the reference connections for
+ dimensioning purposes.
+
+4.7 Content Distribution
+
+ The Internet is dominated by client-server interactions, especially
+ Web traffic (in the future, more sophisticated media servers may
+ become dominant). The location and performance of major information
+ servers has a significant impact on the traffic patterns within the
+ Internet as well as on the perception of service quality by end
+ users.
+
+ A number of dynamic load balancing techniques have been devised to
+ improve the performance of replicated information servers. These
+ techniques can cause spatial traffic characteristics to become more
+ dynamic in the Internet because information servers can be
+ dynamically picked based upon the location of the clients, the
+ location of the servers, the relative utilization of the servers, the
+ relative performance of different networks, and the relative
+ performance of different parts of a network. This process of
+ assignment of distributed servers to clients is called Traffic
+ Directing. It functions at the application layer.
+
+ Traffic Directing schemes that allocate servers in multiple
+ geographically dispersed locations to clients may require empirical
+ network performance statistics to make more effective decisions. In
+ the future, network measurement systems may need to provide this type
+ of information. The exact parameters needed are not yet defined.
+
+ When congestion exists in the network, Traffic Directing and Traffic
+ Engineering systems should act in a coordinated manner. This topic
+ is for further study.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ The issues related to location and replication of information
+ servers, particularly web servers, are important for Internet traffic
+ engineering because these servers contribute a substantial proportion
+ of Internet traffic.
+
+5.0 Taxonomy of Traffic Engineering Systems
+
+ This section presents a short taxonomy of traffic engineering
+ systems. A taxonomy of traffic engineering systems can be
+ constructed based on traffic engineering styles and views as listed
+ below:
+
+ - Time-dependent vs State-dependent vs Event-dependent
+ - Offline vs Online
+ - Centralized vs Distributed
+ - Local vs Global Information
+ - Prescriptive vs Descriptive
+ - Open Loop vs Closed Loop
+ - Tactical vs Strategic
+
+ These classification systems are described in greater detail in the
+ following subsections of this document.
+
+5.1 Time-Dependent Versus State-Dependent Versus Event Dependent
+
+ Traffic engineering methodologies can be classified as time-
+ dependent, or state-dependent, or event-dependent. All TE schemes
+ are considered to be dynamic in this document. Static TE implies
+ that no traffic engineering methodology or algorithm is being
+ applied.
+
+ In the time-dependent TE, historical information based on periodic
+ variations in traffic, (such as time of day), is used to pre-program
+ routing plans and other TE control mechanisms. Additionally,
+ customer subscription or traffic projection may be used. Pre-
+ programmed routing plans typically change on a relatively long time
+ scale (e.g., diurnal). Time-dependent algorithms do not attempt to
+ adapt to random variations in traffic or changing network conditions.
+ An example of a time-dependent algorithm is a global centralized
+ optimizer where the input to the system is a traffic matrix and
+ multi-class QoS requirements as described [MR99].
+
+ State-dependent TE adapts the routing plans for packets based on the
+ current state of the network. The current state of the network
+ provides additional information on variations in actual traffic
+ (i.e., perturbations from regular variations) that could not be
+ predicted using historical information. Constraint-based routing is
+
+
+
+
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+
+ an example of state-dependent TE operating in a relatively long time
+ scale. An example operating in a relatively short time scale is a
+ load-balancing algorithm described in [MATE].
+
+ The state of the network can be based on parameters such as
+ utilization, packet delay, packet loss, etc. These parameters can be
+ obtained in several ways. For example, each router may flood these
+ parameters periodically or by means of some kind of trigger to other
+ routers. Another approach is for a particular router performing
+ adaptive TE to send probe packets along a path to gather the state of
+ that path. Still another approach is for a management system to
+ gather relevant information from network elements.
+
+ Expeditious and accurate gathering and distribution of state
+ information is critical for adaptive TE due to the dynamic nature of
+ network conditions. State-dependent algorithms may be applied to
+ increase network efficiency and resilience. Time-dependent
+ algorithms are more suitable for predictable traffic variations. On
+ the other hand, state-dependent algorithms are more suitable for
+ adapting to the prevailing network state.
+
+ Event-dependent TE methods can also be used for TE path selection.
+ Event-dependent TE methods are distinct from time-dependent and
+ state-dependent TE methods in the manner in which paths are selected.
+ These algorithms are adaptive and distributed in nature and typically
+ use learning models to find good paths for TE in a network. While
+ state-dependent TE models typically use available-link-bandwidth
+ (ALB) flooding for TE path selection, event-dependent TE methods do
+ not require ALB flooding. Rather, event-dependent TE methods
+ typically search out capacity by learning models, as in the success-
+ to-the-top (STT) method. ALB flooding can be resource intensive,
+ since it requires link bandwidth to carry LSAs, processor capacity to
+ process LSAs, and the overhead can limit area/autonomous system (AS)
+ size. Modeling results suggest that event-dependent TE methods could
+ lead to a reduction in ALB flooding overhead without loss of network
+ throughput performance [ASH3].
+
+5.2 Offline Versus Online
+
+ Traffic engineering requires the computation of routing plans. The
+ computation may be performed offline or online. The computation can
+ be done offline for scenarios where routing plans need not be
+ executed in real-time. For example, routing plans computed from
+ forecast information may be computed offline. Typically, offline
+ computation is also used to perform extensive searches on multi-
+ dimensional solution spaces.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ Online computation is required when the routing plans must adapt to
+ changing network conditions as in state-dependent algorithms. Unlike
+ offline computation (which can be computationally demanding), online
+ computation is geared toward relative simple and fast calculations to
+ select routes, fine-tune the allocations of resources, and perform
+ load balancing.
+
+5.3 Centralized Versus Distributed
+
+ Centralized control has a central authority which determines routing
+ plans and perhaps other TE control parameters on behalf of each
+ router. The central authority collects the network-state information
+ from all routers periodically and returns the routing information to
+ the routers. The routing update cycle is a critical parameter
+ directly impacting the performance of the network being controlled.
+ Centralized control may need high processing power and high bandwidth
+ control channels.
+
+ Distributed control determines route selection by each router
+ autonomously based on the routers view of the state of the network.
+ The network state information may be obtained by the router using a
+ probing method or distributed by other routers on a periodic basis
+ using link state advertisements. Network state information may also
+ be disseminated under exceptional conditions.
+
+5.4 Local Versus Global
+
+ Traffic engineering algorithms may require local or global network-
+ state information.
+
+ Local information pertains to the state of a portion of the domain.
+ Examples include the bandwidth and packet loss rate of a particular
+ path. Local state information may be sufficient for certain
+ instances of distributed-controlled TEs.
+
+ Global information pertains to the state of the entire domain
+ undergoing traffic engineering. Examples include a global traffic
+ matrix and loading information on each link throughout the domain of
+ interest. Global state information is typically required with
+ centralized control. Distributed TE systems may also need global
+ information in some cases.
+
+5.5 Prescriptive Versus Descriptive
+
+ TE systems may also be classified as prescriptive or descriptive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ Prescriptive traffic engineering evaluates alternatives and
+ recommends a course of action. Prescriptive traffic engineering can
+ be further categorized as either corrective or perfective.
+ Corrective TE prescribes a course of action to address an existing or
+ predicted anomaly. Perfective TE prescribes a course of action to
+ evolve and improve network performance even when no anomalies are
+ evident.
+
+ Descriptive traffic engineering, on the other hand, characterizes the
+ state of the network and assesses the impact of various policies
+ without recommending any particular course of action.
+
+5.6 Open-Loop Versus Closed-Loop
+
+ Open-loop traffic engineering control is where control action does
+ not use feedback information from the current network state. The
+ control action may use its own local information for accounting
+ purposes, however.
+
+ Closed-loop traffic engineering control is where control action
+ utilizes feedback information from the network state. The feedback
+ information may be in the form of historical information or current
+ measurement.
+
+5.7 Tactical vs Strategic
+
+ Tactical traffic engineering aims to address specific performance
+ problems (such as hot-spots) that occur in the network from a
+ tactical perspective, without consideration of overall strategic
+ imperatives. Without proper planning and insights, tactical TE tends
+ to be ad hoc in nature.
+
+ Strategic traffic engineering approaches the TE problem from a more
+ organized and systematic perspective, taking into consideration the
+ immediate and longer term consequences of specific policies and
+ actions.
+
+6.0 Recommendations for Internet Traffic Engineering
+
+ This section describes high level recommendations for traffic
+ engineering in the Internet. These recommendations are presented in
+ general terms.
+
+ The recommendations describe the capabilities needed to solve a
+ traffic engineering problem or to achieve a traffic engineering
+ objective. Broadly speaking, these recommendations can be
+ categorized as either functional and non-functional recommendations.
+
+
+
+
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+
+ Functional recommendations for Internet traffic engineering describe
+ the functions that a traffic engineering system should perform.
+ These functions are needed to realize traffic engineering objectives
+ by addressing traffic engineering problems.
+
+ Non-functional recommendations for Internet traffic engineering
+ relate to the quality attributes or state characteristics of a
+ traffic engineering system. These recommendations may contain
+ conflicting assertions and may sometimes be difficult to quantify
+ precisely.
+
+6.1 Generic Non-functional Recommendations
+
+ The generic non-functional recommendations for Internet traffic
+ engineering include: usability, automation, scalability, stability,
+ visibility, simplicity, efficiency, reliability, correctness,
+ maintainability, extensibility, interoperability, and security. In a
+ given context, some of these recommendations may be critical while
+ others may be optional. Therefore, prioritization may be required
+ during the development phase of a traffic engineering system (or
+ components thereof) to tailor it to a specific operational context.
+
+ In the following paragraphs, some of the aspects of the non-
+ functional recommendations for Internet traffic engineering are
+ summarized.
+
+ Usability: Usability is a human factor aspect of traffic engineering
+ systems. Usability refers to the ease with which a traffic
+ engineering system can be deployed and operated. In general, it is
+ desirable to have a TE system that can be readily deployed in an
+ existing network. It is also desirable to have a TE system that is
+ easy to operate and maintain.
+
+ Automation: Whenever feasible, a traffic engineering system should
+ automate as many traffic engineering functions as possible to
+ minimize the amount of human effort needed to control and analyze
+ operational networks. Automation is particularly imperative in large
+ scale public networks because of the high cost of the human aspects
+ of network operations and the high risk of network problems caused by
+ human errors. Automation may entail the incorporation of automatic
+ feedback and intelligence into some components of the traffic
+ engineering system.
+
+ Scalability: Contemporary public networks are growing very fast with
+ respect to network size and traffic volume. Therefore, a TE system
+ should be scalable to remain applicable as the network evolves. In
+ particular, a TE system should remain functional as the network
+ expands with regard to the number of routers and links, and with
+
+
+
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+
+
+ respect to the traffic volume. A TE system should have a scalable
+ architecture, should not adversely impair other functions and
+ processes in a network element, and should not consume too much
+ network resources when collecting and distributing state information
+ or when exerting control.
+
+ Stability: Stability is a very important consideration in traffic
+ engineering systems that respond to changes in the state of the
+ network. State-dependent traffic engineering methodologies typically
+ mandate a tradeoff between responsiveness and stability. It is
+ strongly recommended that when tradeoffs are warranted between
+ responsiveness and stability, that the tradeoff should be made in
+ favor of stability (especially in public IP backbone networks).
+
+ Flexibility: A TE system should be flexible to allow for changes in
+ optimization policy. In particular, a TE system should provide
+ sufficient configuration options so that a network administrator can
+ tailor the TE system to a particular environment. It may also be
+ desirable to have both online and offline TE subsystems which can be
+ independently enabled and disabled. TE systems that are used in
+ multi-class networks should also have options to support class based
+ performance evaluation and optimization.
+
+ Visibility: As part of the TE system, mechanisms should exist to
+ collect statistics from the network and to analyze these statistics
+ to determine how well the network is functioning. Derived statistics
+ such as traffic matrices, link utilization, latency, packet loss, and
+ other performance measures of interest which are determined from
+ network measurements can be used as indicators of prevailing network
+ conditions. Other examples of status information which should be
+ observed include existing functional routing information
+ (additionally, in the context of MPLS existing LSP routes), etc.
+
+ Simplicity: Generally, a TE system should be as simple as possible.
+ More importantly, the TE system should be relatively easy to use
+ (i.e., clean, convenient, and intuitive user interfaces). Simplicity
+ in user interface does not necessarily imply that the TE system will
+ use naive algorithms. When complex algorithms and internal
+ structures are used, such complexities should be hidden as much as
+ possible from the network administrator through the user interface.
+
+ Interoperability: Whenever feasible, traffic engineering systems and
+ their components should be developed with open standards based
+ interfaces to allow interoperation with other systems and components.
+
+ Security: Security is a critical consideration in traffic engineering
+ systems. Such traffic engineering systems typically exert control
+ over certain functional aspects of the network to achieve the desired
+
+
+
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+
+
+ performance objectives. Therefore, adequate measures must be taken
+ to safeguard the integrity of the traffic engineering system.
+ Adequate measures must also be taken to protect the network from
+ vulnerabilities that originate from security breaches and other
+ impairments within the traffic engineering system.
+
+ The remainder of this section will focus on some of the high level
+ functional recommendations for traffic engineering.
+
+6.2 Routing Recommendations
+
+ Routing control is a significant aspect of Internet traffic
+ engineering. Routing impacts many of the key performance measures
+ associated with networks, such as throughput, delay, and utilization.
+ Generally, it is very difficult to provide good service quality in a
+ wide area network without effective routing control. A desirable
+ routing system is one that takes traffic characteristics and network
+ constraints into account during route selection while maintaining
+ stability.
+
+ Traditional shortest path first (SPF) interior gateway protocols are
+ based on shortest path algorithms and have limited control
+ capabilities for traffic engineering [RFC-2702, AWD2]. These
+ limitations include :
+
+ 1. The well known issues with pure SPF protocols, which do not take
+ network constraints and traffic characteristics into account
+ during route selection. For example, since IGPs always use the
+ shortest paths (based on administratively assigned link metrics)
+ to forward traffic, load sharing cannot be accomplished among
+ paths of different costs. Using shortest paths to forward traffic
+ conserves network resources, but may cause the following problems:
+ 1) If traffic from a source to a destination exceeds the capacity
+ of a link along the shortest path, the link (hence the shortest
+ path) becomes congested while a longer path between these two
+ nodes may be under-utilized; 2) the shortest paths from different
+ sources can overlap at some links. If the total traffic from the
+ sources exceeds the capacity of any of these links, congestion
+ will occur. Problems can also occur because traffic demand
+ changes over time but network topology and routing configuration
+ cannot be changed as rapidly. This causes the network topology
+ and routing configuration to become sub-optimal over time, which
+ may result in persistent congestion problems.
+
+ 2. The Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) capability of SPF IGPs supports
+ sharing of traffic among equal cost paths between two nodes.
+ However, ECMP attempts to divide the traffic as equally as
+ possible among the equal cost shortest paths. Generally, ECMP
+
+
+
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+
+
+ does not support configurable load sharing ratios among equal cost
+ paths. The result is that one of the paths may carry
+ significantly more traffic than other paths because it may also
+ carry traffic from other sources. This situation can result in
+ congestion along the path that carries more traffic.
+
+ 3. Modifying IGP metrics to control traffic routing tends to have
+ network-wide effect. Consequently, undesirable and unanticipated
+ traffic shifts can be triggered as a result. Recent work
+ described in Section 8.0 may be capable of better control [FT00,
+ FT01].
+
+ Because of these limitations, new capabilities are needed to enhance
+ the routing function in IP networks. Some of these capabilities have
+ been described elsewhere and are summarized below.
+
+ Constraint-based routing is desirable to evolve the routing
+ architecture of IP networks, especially public IP backbones with
+ complex topologies [RFC-2702]. Constraint-based routing computes
+ routes to fulfill requirements subject to constraints. Constraints
+ may include bandwidth, hop count, delay, and administrative policy
+ instruments such as resource class attributes [RFC-2702, RFC-2386].
+ This makes it possible to select routes that satisfy a given set of
+ requirements subject to network and administrative policy
+ constraints. Routes computed through constraint-based routing are
+ not necessarily the shortest paths. Constraint-based routing works
+ best with path oriented technologies that support explicit routing,
+ such as MPLS.
+
+ Constraint-based routing can also be used as a way to redistribute
+ traffic onto the infrastructure (even for best effort traffic). For
+ example, if the bandwidth requirements for path selection and
+ reservable bandwidth attributes of network links are appropriately
+ defined and configured, then congestion problems caused by uneven
+ traffic distribution may be avoided or reduced. In this way, the
+ performance and efficiency of the network can be improved.
+
+ A number of enhancements are needed to conventional link state IGPs,
+ such as OSPF and IS-IS, to allow them to distribute additional state
+ information required for constraint-based routing. These extensions
+ to OSPF were described in [KATZ] and to IS-IS in [SMIT].
+ Essentially, these enhancements require the propagation of additional
+ information in link state advertisements. Specifically, in addition
+ to normal link-state information, an enhanced IGP is required to
+ propagate topology state information needed for constraint-based
+ routing. Some of the additional topology state information include
+ link attributes such as reservable bandwidth and link resource class
+ attribute (an administratively specified property of the link). The
+
+
+
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+
+
+ resource class attribute concept was defined in [RFC-2702]. The
+ additional topology state information is carried in new TLVs and
+ sub-TLVs in IS-IS, or in the Opaque LSA in OSPF [SMIT, KATZ].
+
+ An enhanced link-state IGP may flood information more frequently than
+ a normal IGP. This is because even without changes in topology,
+ changes in reservable bandwidth or link affinity can trigger the
+ enhanced IGP to initiate flooding. A tradeoff is typically required
+ between the timeliness of the information flooded and the flooding
+ frequency to avoid excessive consumption of link bandwidth and
+ computational resources, and more importantly, to avoid instability.
+
+ In a TE system, it is also desirable for the routing subsystem to
+ make the load splitting ratio among multiple paths (with equal cost
+ or different cost) configurable. This capability gives network
+ administrators more flexibility in the control of traffic
+ distribution across the network. It can be very useful for
+ avoiding/relieving congestion in certain situations. Examples can be
+ found in [XIAO].
+
+ The routing system should also have the capability to control the
+ routes of subsets of traffic without affecting the routes of other
+ traffic if sufficient resources exist for this purpose. This
+ capability allows a more refined control over the distribution of
+ traffic across the network. For example, the ability to move traffic
+ from a source to a destination away from its original path to another
+ path (without affecting other traffic paths) allows traffic to be
+ moved from resource-poor network segments to resource-rich segments.
+ Path oriented technologies such as MPLS inherently support this
+ capability as discussed in [AWD2].
+
+ Additionally, the routing subsystem should be able to select
+ different paths for different classes of traffic (or for different
+ traffic behavior aggregates) if the network supports multiple classes
+ of service (different behavior aggregates).
+
+6.3 Traffic Mapping Recommendations
+
+ Traffic mapping pertains to the assignment of traffic workload onto
+ pre-established paths to meet certain requirements. Thus, while
+ constraint-based routing deals with path selection, traffic mapping
+ deals with the assignment of traffic to established paths which may
+ have been selected by constraint-based routing or by some other
+ means. Traffic mapping can be performed by time-dependent or state-
+ dependent mechanisms, as described in Section 5.1.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ An important aspect of the traffic mapping function is the ability to
+ establish multiple paths between an originating node and a
+ destination node, and the capability to distribute the traffic
+ between the two nodes across the paths according to some policies. A
+ pre-condition for this scheme is the existence of flexible mechanisms
+ to partition traffic and then assign the traffic partitions onto the
+ parallel paths. This requirement was noted in [RFC-2702]. When
+ traffic is assigned to multiple parallel paths, it is recommended
+ that special care should be taken to ensure proper ordering of
+ packets belonging to the same application (or micro-flow) at the
+ destination node of the parallel paths.
+
+ As a general rule, mechanisms that perform the traffic mapping
+ functions should aim to map the traffic onto the network
+ infrastructure to minimize congestion. If the total traffic load
+ cannot be accommodated, or if the routing and mapping functions
+ cannot react fast enough to changing traffic conditions, then a
+ traffic mapping system may rely on short time scale congestion
+ control mechanisms (such as queue management, scheduling, etc.) to
+ mitigate congestion. Thus, mechanisms that perform the traffic
+ mapping functions should complement existing congestion control
+ mechanisms. In an operational network, it is generally desirable to
+ map the traffic onto the infrastructure such that intra-class and
+ inter-class resource contention are minimized.
+
+ When traffic mapping techniques that depend on dynamic state feedback
+ (e.g., MATE and such like) are used, special care must be taken to
+ guarantee network stability.
+
+6.4 Measurement Recommendations
+
+ The importance of measurement in traffic engineering has been
+ discussed throughout this document. Mechanisms should be provided to
+ measure and collect statistics from the network to support the
+ traffic engineering function. Additional capabilities may be needed
+ to help in the analysis of the statistics. The actions of these
+ mechanisms should not adversely affect the accuracy and integrity of
+ the statistics collected. The mechanisms for statistical data
+ acquisition should also be able to scale as the network evolves.
+
+ Traffic statistics may be classified according to long-term or
+ short-term time scales. Long-term time scale traffic statistics are
+ very useful for traffic engineering. Long-term time scale traffic
+ statistics may capture or reflect periodicity in network workload
+ (such as hourly, daily, and weekly variations in traffic profiles) as
+ well as traffic trends. Aspects of the monitored traffic statistics
+ may also depict class of service characteristics for a network
+ supporting multiple classes of service. Analysis of the long-term
+
+
+
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+
+
+ traffic statistics MAY yield secondary statistics such as busy hour
+ characteristics, traffic growth patterns, persistent congestion
+ problems, hot-spot, and imbalances in link utilization caused by
+ routing anomalies.
+
+ A mechanism for constructing traffic matrices for both long-term and
+ short-term traffic statistics should be in place. In multi-service
+ IP networks, the traffic matrices may be constructed for different
+ service classes. Each element of a traffic matrix represents a
+ statistic of traffic flow between a pair of abstract nodes. An
+ abstract node may represent a router, a collection of routers, or a
+ site in a VPN.
+
+ Measured traffic statistics should provide reasonable and reliable
+ indicators of the current state of the network on the short-term
+ scale. Some short term traffic statistics may reflect link
+ utilization and link congestion status. Examples of congestion
+ indicators include excessive packet delay, packet loss, and high
+ resource utilization. Examples of mechanisms for distributing this
+ kind of information include SNMP, probing techniques, FTP, IGP link
+ state advertisements, etc.
+
+6.5 Network Survivability
+
+ Network survivability refers to the capability of a network to
+ maintain service continuity in the presence of faults. This can be
+ accomplished by promptly recovering from network impairments and
+ maintaining the required QoS for existing services after recovery.
+ Survivability has become an issue of great concern within the
+ Internet community due to the increasing demands to carry mission
+ critical traffic, real-time traffic, and other high priority traffic
+ over the Internet. Survivability can be addressed at the device
+ level by developing network elements that are more reliable; and at
+ the network level by incorporating redundancy into the architecture,
+ design, and operation of networks. It is recommended that a
+ philosophy of robustness and survivability should be adopted in the
+ architecture, design, and operation of traffic engineering that
+ control IP networks (especially public IP networks). Because
+ different contexts may demand different levels of survivability, the
+ mechanisms developed to support network survivability should be
+ flexible so that they can be tailored to different needs.
+
+ Failure protection and restoration capabilities have become available
+ from multiple layers as network technologies have continued to
+ improve. At the bottom of the layered stack, optical networks are
+ now capable of providing dynamic ring and mesh restoration
+ functionality at the wavelength level as well as traditional
+ protection functionality. At the SONET/SDH layer survivability
+
+
+
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+
+
+ capability is provided with Automatic Protection Switching (APS) as
+ well as self-healing ring and mesh architectures. Similar
+ functionality is provided by layer 2 technologies such as ATM
+ (generally with slower mean restoration times). Rerouting is
+ traditionally used at the IP layer to restore service following link
+ and node outages. Rerouting at the IP layer occurs after a period of
+ routing convergence which may require seconds to minutes to complete.
+ Some new developments in the MPLS context make it possible to achieve
+ recovery at the IP layer prior to convergence [SHAR].
+
+ To support advanced survivability requirements, path-oriented
+ technologies such a MPLS can be used to enhance the survivability of
+ IP networks in a potentially cost effective manner. The advantages
+ of path oriented technologies such as MPLS for IP restoration becomes
+ even more evident when class based protection and restoration
+ capabilities are required.
+
+ Recently, a common suite of control plane protocols has been proposed
+ for both MPLS and optical transport networks under the acronym
+ Multi-protocol Lambda Switching [AWD1]. This new paradigm of Multi-
+ protocol Lambda Switching will support even more sophisticated mesh
+ restoration capabilities at the optical layer for the emerging IP
+ over WDM network architectures.
+
+ Another important aspect regarding multi-layer survivability is that
+ technologies at different layers provide protection and restoration
+ capabilities at different temporal granularities (in terms of time
+ scales) and at different bandwidth granularity (from packet-level to
+ wavelength level). Protection and restoration capabilities can also
+ be sensitive to different service classes and different network
+ utility models.
+
+ The impact of service outages varies significantly for different
+ service classes depending upon the effective duration of the outage.
+ The duration of an outage can vary from milliseconds (with minor
+ service impact) to seconds (with possible call drops for IP telephony
+ and session time-outs for connection oriented transactions) to
+ minutes and hours (with potentially considerable social and business
+ impact).
+
+ Coordinating different protection and restoration capabilities across
+ multiple layers in a cohesive manner to ensure network survivability
+ is maintained at reasonable cost is a challenging task. Protection
+ and restoration coordination across layers may not always be
+ feasible, because networks at different layers may belong to
+ different administrative domains.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ The following paragraphs present some of the general recommendations
+ for protection and restoration coordination.
+
+ - Protection and restoration capabilities from different layers
+ should be coordinated whenever feasible and appropriate to provide
+ network survivability in a flexible and cost effective manner.
+ Minimization of function duplication across layers is one way to
+ achieve the coordination. Escalation of alarms and other fault
+ indicators from lower to higher layers may also be performed in a
+ coordinated manner. A temporal order of restoration trigger timing
+ at different layers is another way to coordinate multi-layer
+ protection/restoration.
+
+ - Spare capacity at higher layers is often regarded as working
+ traffic at lower layers. Placing protection/restoration functions in
+ many layers may increase redundancy and robustness, but it should not
+ result in significant and avoidable inefficiencies in network
+ resource utilization.
+
+ - It is generally desirable to have protection and restoration
+ schemes that are bandwidth efficient.
+
+ - Failure notification throughout the network should be timely and
+ reliable.
+
+ - Alarms and other fault monitoring and reporting capabilities
+ should be provided at appropriate layers.
+
+6.5.1 Survivability in MPLS Based Networks
+
+ MPLS is an important emerging technology that enhances IP networks in
+ terms of features, capabilities, and services. Because MPLS is
+ path-oriented, it can potentially provide faster and more predictable
+ protection and restoration capabilities than conventional hop by hop
+ routed IP systems. This subsection describes some of the basic
+ aspects and recommendations for MPLS networks regarding protection
+ and restoration. See [SHAR] for a more comprehensive discussion on
+ MPLS based recovery.
+
+ Protection types for MPLS networks can be categorized as link
+ protection, node protection, path protection, and segment protection.
+
+ - Link Protection: The objective for link protection is to protect
+ an LSP from a given link failure. Under link protection, the path
+ of the protection or backup LSP (the secondary LSP) is disjoint
+ from the path of the working or operational LSP at the particular
+ link over which protection is required. When the protected link
+ fails, traffic on the working LSP is switched over to the
+
+
+
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+
+ protection LSP at the head-end of the failed link. This is a
+ local repair method which can be fast. It might be more
+ appropriate in situations where some network elements along a
+ given path are less reliable than others.
+
+ - Node Protection: The objective of LSP node protection is to
+ protect an LSP from a given node failure. Under node protection,
+ the path of the protection LSP is disjoint from the path of the
+ working LSP at the particular node to be protected. The secondary
+ path is also disjoint from the primary path at all links
+ associated with the node to be protected. When the node fails,
+ traffic on the working LSP is switched over to the protection LSP
+ at the upstream LSR directly connected to the failed node.
+
+ - Path Protection: The goal of LSP path protection is to protect an
+ LSP from failure at any point along its routed path. Under path
+ protection, the path of the protection LSP is completely disjoint
+ from the path of the working LSP. The advantage of path
+ protection is that the backup LSP protects the working LSP from
+ all possible link and node failures along the path, except for
+ failures that might occur at the ingress and egress LSRs, or for
+ correlated failures that might impact both working and backup
+ paths simultaneously. Additionally, since the path selection is
+ end-to-end, path protection might be more efficient in terms of
+ resource usage than link or node protection. However, path
+ protection may be slower than link and node protection in general.
+
+ - Segment Protection: An MPLS domain may be partitioned into
+ multiple protection domains whereby a failure in a protection
+ domain is rectified within that domain. In cases where an LSP
+ traverses multiple protection domains, a protection mechanism
+ within a domain only needs to protect the segment of the LSP that
+ lies within the domain. Segment protection will generally be
+ faster than path protection because recovery generally occurs
+ closer to the fault.
+
+6.5.2 Protection Option
+
+ Another issue to consider is the concept of protection options. The
+ protection option uses the notation m:n protection, where m is the
+ number of protection LSPs used to protect n working LSPs. Feasible
+ protection options follow.
+
+ - 1:1: one working LSP is protected/restored by one protection LSP.
+
+ - 1:n: one protection LSP is used to protect/restore n working LSPs.
+
+
+
+
+
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+ - n:1: one working LSP is protected/restored by n protection LSPs,
+ possibly with configurable load splitting ratio. When more than
+ one protection LSP is used, it may be desirable to share the
+ traffic across the protection LSPs when the working LSP fails to
+ satisfy the bandwidth requirement of the traffic trunk associated
+ with the working LSP. This may be especially useful when it is
+ not feasible to find one path that can satisfy the bandwidth
+ requirement of the primary LSP.
+
+ - 1+1: traffic is sent concurrently on both the working LSP and the
+ protection LSP. In this case, the egress LSR selects one of the
+ two LSPs based on a local traffic integrity decision process,
+ which compares the traffic received from both the working and the
+ protection LSP and identifies discrepancies. It is unlikely that
+ this option would be used extensively in IP networks due to its
+ resource utilization inefficiency. However, if bandwidth becomes
+ plentiful and cheap, then this option might become quite viable
+ and attractive in IP networks.
+
+6.6 Traffic Engineering in Diffserv Environments
+
+ This section provides an overview of the traffic engineering features
+ and recommendations that are specifically pertinent to Differentiated
+ Services (Diffserv) [RFC-2475] capable IP networks.
+
+ Increasing requirements to support multiple classes of traffic, such
+ as best effort and mission critical data, in the Internet calls for
+ IP networks to differentiate traffic according to some criteria, and
+ to accord preferential treatment to certain types of traffic. Large
+ numbers of flows can be aggregated into a few behavior aggregates
+ based on some criteria in terms of common performance requirements in
+ terms of packet loss ratio, delay, and jitter; or in terms of common
+ fields within the IP packet headers.
+
+ As Diffserv evolves and becomes deployed in operational networks,
+ traffic engineering will be critical to ensuring that SLAs defined
+ within a given Diffserv service model are met. Classes of service
+ (CoS) can be supported in a Diffserv environment by concatenating
+ per-hop behaviors (PHBs) along the routing path, using service
+ provisioning mechanisms, and by appropriately configuring edge
+ functionality such as traffic classification, marking, policing, and
+ shaping. PHB is the forwarding behavior that a packet receives at a
+ DS node (a Diffserv-compliant node). This is accomplished by means
+ of buffer management and packet scheduling mechanisms. In this
+ context, packets belonging to a class are those that are members of a
+ corresponding ordering aggregate.
+
+
+
+
+
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+ Traffic engineering can be used as a compliment to Diffserv
+ mechanisms to improve utilization of network resources, but not as a
+ necessary element in general. When traffic engineering is used, it
+ can be operated on an aggregated basis across all service classes
+ [RFC-3270] or on a per service class basis. The former is used to
+ provide better distribution of the aggregate traffic load over the
+ network resources. (See [RFC-3270] for detailed mechanisms to
+ support aggregate traffic engineering.) The latter case is discussed
+ below since it is specific to the Diffserv environment, with so
+ called Diffserv-aware traffic engineering [DIFF_TE].
+
+ For some Diffserv networks, it may be desirable to control the
+ performance of some service classes by enforcing certain
+ relationships between the traffic workload contributed by each
+ service class and the amount of network resources allocated or
+ provisioned for that service class. Such relationships between
+ demand and resource allocation can be enforced using a combination
+ of, for example: (1) traffic engineering mechanisms on a per service
+ class basis that enforce the desired relationship between the amount
+ of traffic contributed by a given service class and the resources
+ allocated to that class, and (2) mechanisms that dynamically adjust
+ the resources allocated to a given service class to relate to the
+ amount of traffic contributed by that service class.
+
+ It may also be desirable to limit the performance impact of high
+ priority traffic on relatively low priority traffic. This can be
+ achieved by, for example, controlling the percentage of high priority
+ traffic that is routed through a given link. Another way to
+ accomplish this is to increase link capacities appropriately so that
+ lower priority traffic can still enjoy adequate service quality.
+ When the ratio of traffic workload contributed by different service
+ classes vary significantly from router to router, it may not suffice
+ to rely exclusively on conventional IGP routing protocols or on
+ traffic engineering mechanisms that are insensitive to different
+ service classes. Instead, it may be desirable to perform traffic
+ engineering, especially routing control and mapping functions, on a
+ per service class basis. One way to accomplish this in a domain that
+ supports both MPLS and Diffserv is to define class specific LSPs and
+ to map traffic from each class onto one or more LSPs that correspond
+ to that service class. An LSP corresponding to a given service class
+ can then be routed and protected/restored in a class dependent
+ manner, according to specific policies.
+
+ Performing traffic engineering on a per class basis may require
+ certain per-class parameters to be distributed. Note that it is
+ common to have some classes share some aggregate constraint (e.g.,
+ maximum bandwidth requirement) without enforcing the constraint on
+ each individual class. These classes then can be grouped into a
+
+
+
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+ class-type and per-class-type parameters can be distributed instead
+ to improve scalability. It also allows better bandwidth sharing
+ between classes in the same class-type. A class-type is a set of
+ classes that satisfy the following two conditions:
+
+ 1) Classes in the same class-type have common aggregate requirements
+ to satisfy required performance levels.
+
+ 2) There is no requirement to be enforced at the level of individual
+ class in the class-type. Note that it is still possible,
+ nevertheless, to implement some priority policies for classes in the
+ same class-type to permit preferential access to the class-type
+ bandwidth through the use of preemption priorities.
+
+ An example of the class-type can be a low-loss class-type that
+ includes both AF1-based and AF2-based Ordering Aggregates. With such
+ a class-type, one may implement some priority policy which assigns
+ higher preemption priority to AF1-based traffic trunks over AF2-based
+ ones, vice versa, or the same priority.
+
+ See [DIFF-TE] for detailed requirements on Diffserv-aware traffic
+ engineering.
+
+6.7 Network Controllability
+
+ Off-line (and on-line) traffic engineering considerations would be of
+ limited utility if the network could not be controlled effectively to
+ implement the results of TE decisions and to achieve desired network
+ performance objectives. Capacity augmentation is a coarse grained
+ solution to traffic engineering issues. However, it is simple and
+ may be advantageous if bandwidth is abundant and cheap or if the
+ current or expected network workload demands it. However, bandwidth
+ is not always abundant and cheap, and the workload may not always
+ demand additional capacity. Adjustments of administrative weights
+ and other parameters associated with routing protocols provide finer
+ grained control, but is difficult to use and imprecise because of the
+ routing interactions that occur across the network. In certain
+ network contexts, more flexible, finer grained approaches which
+ provide more precise control over the mapping of traffic to routes
+ and over the selection and placement of routes may be appropriate and
+ useful.
+
+ Control mechanisms can be manual (e.g., administrative
+ configuration), partially-automated (e.g., scripts) or fully-
+ automated (e.g., policy based management systems). Automated
+ mechanisms are particularly required in large scale networks.
+ Multi-vendor interoperability can be facilitated by developing and
+ deploying standardized management
+
+
+
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+
+
+ systems (e.g., standard MIBs) and policies (PIBs) to support the
+ control functions required to address traffic engineering objectives
+ such as load distribution and protection/restoration.
+
+ Network control functions should be secure, reliable, and stable as
+ these are often needed to operate correctly in times of network
+ impairments (e.g., during network congestion or security attacks).
+
+7.0 Inter-Domain Considerations
+
+ Inter-domain traffic engineering is concerned with the performance
+ optimization for traffic that originates in one administrative domain
+ and terminates in a different one.
+
+ Traffic exchange between autonomous systems in the Internet occurs
+ through exterior gateway protocols. Currently, BGP [BGP4] is the
+ standard exterior gateway protocol for the Internet. BGP provides a
+ number of attributes and capabilities (e.g., route filtering) that
+ can be used for inter-domain traffic engineering. More specifically,
+ BGP permits the control of routing information and traffic exchange
+ between Autonomous Systems (AS's) in the Internet. BGP incorporates
+ a sequential decision process which calculates the degree of
+ preference for various routes to a given destination network. There
+ are two fundamental aspects to inter-domain traffic engineering using
+ BGP:
+
+ - Route Redistribution: controlling the import and export of routes
+ between AS's, and controlling the redistribution of routes between
+ BGP and other protocols within an AS.
+
+ - Best path selection: selecting the best path when there are
+ multiple candidate paths to a given destination network. Best
+ path selection is performed by the BGP decision process based on a
+ sequential procedure, taking a number of different considerations
+ into account. Ultimately, best path selection under BGP boils
+ down to selecting preferred exit points out of an AS towards
+ specific destination networks. The BGP path selection process can
+ be influenced by manipulating the attributes associated with the
+ BGP decision process. These attributes include: NEXT-HOP, WEIGHT
+ (Cisco proprietary which is also implemented by some other
+ vendors), LOCAL-PREFERENCE, AS-PATH, ROUTE-ORIGIN, MULTI-EXIT-
+ DESCRIMINATOR (MED), IGP METRIC, etc.
+
+ Route-maps provide the flexibility to implement complex BGP policies
+ based on pre-configured logical conditions. In particular, Route-
+ maps can be used to control import and export policies for incoming
+ and outgoing routes, control the redistribution of routes between BGP
+ and other protocols, and influence the selection of best paths by
+
+
+
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+
+ manipulating the attributes associated with the BGP decision process.
+ Very complex logical expressions that implement various types of
+ policies can be implemented using a combination of Route-maps, BGP-
+ attributes, Access-lists, and Community attributes.
+
+ When looking at possible strategies for inter-domain TE with BGP, it
+ must be noted that the outbound traffic exit point is controllable,
+ whereas the interconnection point where inbound traffic is received
+ from an EBGP peer typically is not, unless a special arrangement is
+ made with the peer sending the traffic. Therefore, it is up to each
+ individual network to implement sound TE strategies that deal with
+ the efficient delivery of outbound traffic from one's customers to
+ one's peering points. The vast majority of TE policy is based upon a
+ "closest exit" strategy, which offloads interdomain traffic at the
+ nearest outbound peer point towards the destination autonomous
+ system. Most methods of manipulating the point at which inbound
+ traffic enters a network from an EBGP peer (inconsistent route
+ announcements between peering points, AS pre-pending, and sending
+ MEDs) are either ineffective, or not accepted in the peering
+ community.
+
+ Inter-domain TE with BGP is generally effective, but it is usually
+ applied in a trial-and-error fashion. A systematic approach for
+ inter-domain traffic engineering is yet to be devised.
+
+ Inter-domain TE is inherently more difficult than intra-domain TE
+ under the current Internet architecture. The reasons for this are
+ both technical and administrative. Technically, while topology and
+ link state information are helpful for mapping traffic more
+ effectively, BGP does not propagate such information across domain
+ boundaries for stability and scalability reasons. Administratively,
+ there are differences in operating costs and network capacities
+ between domains. Generally, what may be considered a good solution
+ in one domain may not necessarily be a good solution in another
+ domain. Moreover, it would generally be considered inadvisable for
+ one domain to permit another domain to influence the routing and
+ management of traffic in its network.
+
+ MPLS TE-tunnels (explicit LSPs) can potentially add a degree of
+ flexibility in the selection of exit points for inter-domain routing.
+ The concept of relative and absolute metrics can be applied to this
+ purpose. The idea is that if BGP attributes are defined such that
+ the BGP decision process depends on IGP metrics to select exit points
+ for inter-domain traffic, then some inter-domain traffic destined to
+ a given peer network can be made to prefer a specific exit point by
+ establishing a TE-tunnel between the router making the selection to
+ the peering point via a TE-tunnel and assigning the TE-tunnel a
+ metric which is smaller than the IGP cost to all other peering
+
+
+
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+
+
+ points. If a peer accepts and processes MEDs, then a similar MPLS
+ TE-tunnel based scheme can be applied to cause certain entrance
+ points to be preferred by setting MED to be an IGP cost, which has
+ been modified by the tunnel metric.
+
+ Similar to intra-domain TE, inter-domain TE is best accomplished when
+ a traffic matrix can be derived to depict the volume of traffic from
+ one autonomous system to another.
+
+ Generally, redistribution of inter-domain traffic requires
+ coordination between peering partners. An export policy in one
+ domain that results in load redistribution across peer points with
+ another domain can significantly affect the local traffic matrix
+ inside the domain of the peering partner. This, in turn, will affect
+ the intra-domain TE due to changes in the spatial distribution of
+ traffic. Therefore, it is mutually beneficial for peering partners
+ to coordinate with each other before attempting any policy changes
+ that may result in significant shifts in inter-domain traffic. In
+ certain contexts, this coordination can be quite challenging due to
+ technical and non- technical reasons.
+
+ It is a matter of speculation as to whether MPLS, or similar
+ technologies, can be extended to allow selection of constrained paths
+ across domain boundaries.
+
+8.0 Overview of Contemporary TE Practices in Operational IP Networks
+
+ This section provides an overview of some contemporary traffic
+ engineering practices in IP networks. The focus is primarily on the
+ aspects that pertain to the control of the routing function in
+ operational contexts. The intent here is to provide an overview of
+ the commonly used practices. The discussion is not intended to be
+ exhaustive.
+
+ Currently, service providers apply many of the traffic engineering
+ mechanisms discussed in this document to optimize the performance of
+ their IP networks. These techniques include capacity planning for
+ long time scales, routing control using IGP metrics and MPLS for
+ medium time scales, the overlay model also for medium time scales,
+ and traffic management mechanisms for short time scale.
+
+ When a service provider plans to build an IP network, or expand the
+ capacity of an existing network, effective capacity planning should
+ be an important component of the process. Such plans may take the
+ following aspects into account: location of new nodes if any,
+ existing and predicted traffic patterns, costs, link capacity,
+ topology, routing design, and survivability.
+
+
+
+
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+
+ Performance optimization of operational networks is usually an
+ ongoing process in which traffic statistics, performance parameters,
+ and fault indicators are continually collected from the network.
+ This empirical data is then analyzed and used to trigger various
+ traffic engineering mechanisms. Tools that perform what-if analysis
+ can also be used to assist the TE process by allowing various
+ scenarios to be reviewed before a new set of configurations are
+ implemented in the operational network.
+
+ Traditionally, intra-domain real-time TE with IGP is done by
+ increasing the OSPF or IS-IS metric of a congested link until enough
+ traffic has been diverted from that link. This approach has some
+ limitations as discussed in Section 6.2. Recently, some new intra-
+ domain TE approaches/tools have been proposed
+ [RR94][FT00][FT01][WANG]. Such approaches/tools take traffic matrix,
+ network topology, and network performance objective(s) as input, and
+ produce some link metrics and possibly some unequal load-sharing
+ ratios to be set at the head-end routers of some ECMPs as output.
+ These new progresses open new possibility for intra-domain TE with
+ IGP to be done in a more systematic way.
+
+ The overlay model (IP over ATM or IP over Frame relay) is another
+ approach which is commonly used in practice [AWD2]. The IP over ATM
+ technique is no longer viewed favorably due to recent advances in
+ MPLS and router hardware technology.
+
+ Deployment of MPLS for traffic engineering applications has commenced
+ in some service provider networks. One operational scenario is to
+ deploy MPLS in conjunction with an IGP (IS-IS-TE or OSPF-TE) that
+ supports the traffic engineering extensions, in conjunction with
+ constraint-based routing for explicit route computations, and a
+ signaling protocol (e.g., RSVP-TE or CRLDP) for LSP instantiation.
+
+ In contemporary MPLS traffic engineering contexts, network
+ administrators specify and configure link attributes and resource
+ constraints such as maximum reservable bandwidth and resource class
+ attributes for links (interfaces) within the MPLS domain. A link
+ state protocol that supports TE extensions (IS-IS-TE or OSPF-TE) is
+ used to propagate information about network topology and link
+ attribute to all routers in the routing area. Network administrators
+ also specify all the LSPs that are to originate each router. For
+ each LSP, the network administrator specifies the destination node
+ and the attributes of the LSP which indicate the requirements that to
+ be satisfied during the path selection process. Each router then
+ uses a local constraint-based routing process to compute explicit
+ paths for all LSPs originating from it. Subsequently, a signaling
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+ protocol is used to instantiate the LSPs. By assigning proper
+ bandwidth values to links and LSPs, congestion caused by uneven
+ traffic distribution can generally be avoided or mitigated.
+
+ The bandwidth attributes of LSPs used for traffic engineering can be
+ updated periodically. The basic concept is that the bandwidth
+ assigned to an LSP should relate in some manner to the bandwidth
+ requirements of traffic that actually flows through the LSP. The
+ traffic attribute of an LSP can be modified to accommodate traffic
+ growth and persistent traffic shifts. If network congestion occurs
+ due to some unexpected events, existing LSPs can be rerouted to
+ alleviate the situation or network administrator can configure new
+ LSPs to divert some traffic to alternative paths. The reservable
+ bandwidth of the congested links can also be reduced to force some
+ LSPs to be rerouted to other paths.
+
+ In an MPLS domain, a traffic matrix can also be estimated by
+ monitoring the traffic on LSPs. Such traffic statistics can be used
+ for a variety of purposes including network planning and network
+ optimization. Current practice suggests that deploying an MPLS
+ network consisting of hundreds of routers and thousands of LSPs is
+ feasible. In summary, recent deployment experience suggests that
+ MPLS approach is very effective for traffic engineering in IP
+ networks [XIAO].
+
+ As mentioned previously in Section 7.0, one usually has no direct
+ control over the distribution of inbound traffic. Therefore, the
+ main goal of contemporary inter-domain TE is to optimize the
+ distribution of outbound traffic between multiple inter-domain links.
+ When operating a global network, maintaining the ability to operate
+ the network in a regional fashion where desired, while continuing to
+ take advantage of the benefits of a global network, also becomes an
+ important objective.
+
+ Inter-domain TE with BGP usually begins with the placement of
+ multiple peering interconnection points in locations that have high
+ peer density, are in close proximity to originating/terminating
+ traffic locations on one's own network, and are lowest in cost.
+ There are generally several locations in each region of the world
+ where the vast majority of major networks congregate and
+ interconnect. Some location-decision problems that arise in
+ association with inter-domain routing are discussed in [AWD5].
+
+ Once the locations of the interconnects are determined, and circuits
+ are implemented, one decides how best to handle the routes heard from
+ the peer, as well as how to propagate the peers' routes within one's
+ own network. One way to engineer outbound traffic flows on a network
+ with many EBGP peers is to create a hierarchy of peers. Generally,
+
+
+
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+ the Local Preferences of all peers are set to the same value so that
+ the shortest AS paths will be chosen to forward traffic. Then, by
+ over-writing the inbound MED metric (Multi-exit-discriminator metric,
+ also referred to as "BGP metric". Both terms are used
+ interchangeably in this document) with BGP metrics to routes received
+ at different peers, the hierarchy can be formed. For example, all
+ Local Preferences can be set to 200, preferred private peers can be
+ assigned a BGP metric of 50, the rest of the private peers can be
+ assigned a BGP metric of 100, and public peers can be assigned a BGP
+ metric of 600. "Preferred" peers might be defined as those peers
+ with whom the most available capacity exists, whose customer base is
+ larger in comparison to other peers, whose interconnection costs are
+ the lowest, and with whom upgrading existing capacity is the easiest.
+ In a network with low utilization at the edge, this works well. The
+ same concept could be applied to a network with higher edge
+ utilization by creating more levels of BGP metrics between peers,
+ allowing for more granularity in selecting the exit points for
+ traffic bound for a dual homed customer on a peer's network.
+
+ By only replacing inbound MED metrics with BGP metrics, only equal
+ AS-Path length routes' exit points are being changed. (The BGP
+ decision considers Local Preference first, then AS-Path length, and
+ then BGP metric). For example, assume a network has two possible
+ egress points, peer A and peer B. Each peer has 40% of the
+ Internet's routes exclusively on its network, while the remaining 20%
+ of the Internet's routes are from customers who dual home between A
+ and B. Assume that both peers have a Local Preference of 200 and a
+ BGP metric of 100. If the link to peer A is congested, increasing
+ its BGP metric while leaving the Local Preference at 200 will ensure
+ that the 20% of total routes belonging to dual homed customers will
+ prefer peer B as the exit point. The previous example would be used
+ in a situation where all exit points to a given peer were close to
+ congestion levels, and traffic needed to be shifted away from that
+ peer entirely.
+
+ When there are multiple exit points to a given peer, and only one of
+ them is congested, it is not necessary to shift traffic away from the
+ peer entirely, but only from the one congested circuit. This can be
+ achieved by using passive IGP-metrics, AS-path filtering, or prefix
+ filtering.
+
+ Occasionally, more drastic changes are needed, for example, in
+ dealing with a "problem peer" who is difficult to work with on
+ upgrades or is charging high prices for connectivity to their
+ network. In that case, the Local Preference to that peer can be
+ reduced below the level of other peers. This effectively reduces the
+ amount of traffic sent to that peer to only originating traffic
+
+
+
+
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+
+ (assuming no transit providers are involved). This type of change
+ can affect a large amount of traffic, and is only used after other
+ methods have failed to provide the desired results.
+
+ Although it is not much of an issue in regional networks, the
+ propagation of a peer's routes back through the network must be
+ considered when a network is peering on a global scale. Sometimes,
+ business considerations can influence the choice of BGP policies in a
+ given context. For example, it may be imprudent, from a business
+ perspective, to operate a global network and provide full access to
+ the global customer base to a small network in a particular country.
+ However, for the purpose of providing one's own customers with
+ quality service in a particular region, good connectivity to that
+ in-country network may still be necessary. This can be achieved by
+ assigning a set of communities at the edge of the network, which have
+ a known behavior when routes tagged with those communities are
+ propagating back through the core. Routes heard from local peers
+ will be prevented from propagating back to the global network,
+ whereas routes learned from larger peers may be allowed to propagate
+ freely throughout the entire global network. By implementing a
+ flexible community strategy, the benefits of using a single global AS
+ Number (ASN) can be realized, while the benefits of operating
+ regional networks can also be taken advantage of. An alternative to
+ doing this is to use different ASNs in different regions, with the
+ consequence that the AS path length for routes announced by that
+ service provider will increase.
+
+9.0 Conclusion
+
+ This document described principles for traffic engineering in the
+ Internet. It presented an overview of some of the basic issues
+ surrounding traffic engineering in IP networks. The context of TE
+ was described, a TE process models and a taxonomy of TE styles were
+ presented. A brief historical review of pertinent developments
+ related to traffic engineering was provided. A survey of
+ contemporary TE techniques in operational networks was presented.
+ Additionally, the document specified a set of generic requirements,
+ recommendations, and options for Internet traffic engineering.
+
+10.0 Security Considerations
+
+ This document does not introduce new security issues.
+
+11.0 Acknowledgments
+
+ The authors would like to thank Jim Boyle for inputs on the
+ recommendations section, Francois Le Faucheur for inputs on Diffserv
+ aspects, Blaine Christian for inputs on measurement, Gerald Ash for
+
+
+
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+
+ inputs on routing in telephone networks and for text on event-
+ dependent TE methods, Steven Wright for inputs on network
+ controllability, and Jonathan Aufderheide for inputs on inter-domain
+ TE with BGP. Special thanks to Randy Bush for proposing the TE
+ taxonomy based on "tactical vs strategic" methods. The subsection
+ describing an "Overview of ITU Activities Related to Traffic
+ Engineering" was adapted from a contribution by Waisum Lai. Useful
+ feedback and pointers to relevant materials were provided by J. Noel
+ Chiappa. Additional comments were provided by Glenn Grotefeld during
+ the working last call process. Finally, the authors would like to
+ thank Ed Kern, the TEWG co-chair, for his comments and support.
+
+12.0 References
+
+ [ASH2] J. Ash, Dynamic Routing in Telecommunications Networks,
+ McGraw Hill, 1998.
+
+ [ASH3] Ash, J., "TE & QoS Methods for IP-, ATM-, & TDM-Based
+ Networks", Work in Progress, March 2001.
+
+ [AWD1] D. Awduche and Y. Rekhter, "Multiprocotol Lambda
+ Switching: Combining MPLS Traffic Engineering Control
+ with Optical Crossconnects", IEEE Communications
+ Magazine, March 2001.
+
+ [AWD2] D. Awduche, "MPLS and Traffic Engineering in IP
+ Networks", IEEE Communications Magazine, Dec. 1999.
+
+ [AWD5] D. Awduche et al, "An Approach to Optimal Peering Between
+ Autonomous Systems in the Internet", International
+ Conference on Computer Communications and Networks
+ (ICCCN'98), Oct. 1998.
+
+ [CRUZ] R. L. Cruz, "A Calculus for Network Delay, Part II:
+ Network Analysis", IEEE Transactions on Information
+ Theory, vol. 37, pp. 132-141, 1991.
+
+ [DIFF-TE] Le Faucheur, F., Nadeau, T., Tatham, M., Telkamp, T.,
+ Cooper, D., Boyle, J., Lai, W., Fang, L., Ash, J., Hicks,
+ P., Chui, A., Townsend, W. and D. Skalecki, "Requirements
+ for support of Diff-Serv-aware MPLS Traffic Engineering",
+ Work in Progress, May 2001.
+
+ [ELW95] A. Elwalid, D. Mitra and R.H. Wentworth, "A New Approach
+ for Allocating Buffers and Bandwidth to Heterogeneous,
+ Regulated Traffic in an ATM Node", IEEE IEEE Journal on
+ Selected Areas in Communications, 13:6, pp. 1115-1127,
+ Aug. 1995.
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 64]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ [FGLR] A. Feldmann, A. Greenberg, C. Lund, N. Reingold, and J.
+ Rexford, "NetScope: Traffic Engineering for IP Networks",
+ IEEE Network Magazine, 2000.
+
+ [FLJA93] S. Floyd and V. Jacobson, "Random Early Detection
+ Gateways for Congestion Avoidance", IEEE/ACM Transactions
+ on Networking, Vol. 1 Nov. 4., p. 387-413, Aug. 1993.
+
+ [FLOY94] S. Floyd, "TCP and Explicit Congestion Notification", ACM
+ Computer Communication Review, V. 24, No. 5, p. 10-23,
+ Oct. 1994.
+
+ [FT00] B. Fortz and M. Thorup, "Internet Traffic Engineering by
+ Optimizing OSPF Weights", IEEE INFOCOM 2000, Mar. 2000.
+
+ [FT01] B. Fortz and M. Thorup, "Optimizing OSPF/IS-IS Weights in
+ a Changing World",
+ www.research.att.com/~mthorup/PAPERS/papers.html.
+
+ [HUSS87] B.R. Hurley, C.J.R. Seidl and W.F. Sewel, "A Survey of
+ Dynamic Routing Methods for Circuit-Switched Traffic",
+ IEEE Communication Magazine, Sep. 1987.
+
+ [ITU-E600] ITU-T Recommendation E.600, "Terms and Definitions of
+ Traffic Engineering", Mar. 1993.
+
+ [ITU-E701] ITU-T Recommendation E.701, "Reference Connections for
+ Traffic Engineering", Oct. 1993.
+
+ [ITU-E801] ITU-T Recommendation E.801, "Framework for Service
+ Quality Agreement", Oct. 1996.
+
+ [JAM] Jamoussi, B., Editior, Andersson, L., Collon, R. and R.
+ Dantu, "Constraint-Based LSP Setup using LDP", RFC 3212,
+ January 2002.
+
+ [KATZ] Katz, D., Yeung, D. and K. Kompella, "Traffic Engineering
+ Extensions to OSPF", Work in Progress, February 2001.
+
+ [LNO96] T. Lakshman, A. Neidhardt, and T. Ott, "The Drop from
+ Front Strategy in TCP over ATM and its Interworking with
+ other Control Features", Proc. INFOCOM'96, p. 1242-1250,
+ 1996.
+
+ [MA] Q. Ma, "Quality of Service Routing in Integrated Services
+ Networks", PhD Dissertation, CMU-CS-98-138, CMU, 1998.
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 65]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ [MATE] A. Elwalid, C. Jin, S. Low, and I. Widjaja, "MATE: MPLS
+ Adaptive Traffic Engineering", Proc. INFOCOM'01, Apr.
+ 2001.
+
+ [MCQ80] J.M. McQuillan, I. Richer, and E.C. Rosen, "The New
+ Routing Algorithm for the ARPANET", IEEE. Trans. on
+ Communications, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 711-719, May 1980.
+
+ [MR99] D. Mitra and K.G. Ramakrishnan, "A Case Study of
+ Multiservice, Multipriority Traffic Engineering Design
+ for Data Networks", Proc. Globecom'99, Dec 1999.
+
+ [RFC-1458] Braudes, R. and S. Zabele, "Requirements for Multicast
+ Protocols", RFC 1458, May 1993.
+
+ [RFC-1771] Rekhter, Y. and T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4
+ (BGP-4)", RFC 1771, March 1995.
+
+ [RFC-1812] Baker, F., "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers", STD
+ 4, RFC 1812, June 1995.
+
+ [RFC-1992] Castineyra, I., Chiappa, N. and M. Steenstrup, "The
+ Nimrod Routing Architecture", RFC 1992, August 1996.
+
+ [RFC-1997] Chandra, R., Traina, P. and T. Li, "BGP Community
+ Attributes", RFC 1997, August 1996.
+
+ [RFC-1998] Chen, E. and T. Bates, "An Application of the BGP
+ Community Attribute in Multi-home Routing", RFC 1998,
+ August 1996.
+
+ [RFC-2205] Braden, R., Zhang, L., Berson, S., Herzog, S. and S.
+ Jamin, "Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) - Version 1
+ Functional Specification", RFC 2205, September 1997.
+
+ [RFC-2211] Wroclawski, J., "Specification of the Controlled-Load
+ Network Element Service", RFC 2211, September 1997.
+
+ [RFC-2212] Shenker, S., Partridge, C. and R. Guerin, "Specification
+ of Guaranteed Quality of Service", RFC 2212, September
+ 1997.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 66]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ [RFC-2215] Shenker, S. and J. Wroclawski, "General Characterization
+ Parameters for Integrated Service Network Elements", RFC
+ 2215, September 1997.
+
+ [RFC-2216] Shenker, S. and J. Wroclawski, "Network Element Service
+ Specification Template", RFC 2216, September 1997.
+
+ [RFC-2328] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, July 1997.
+
+ [RFC-2330] Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J. and M. Mathis,
+ "Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330, May
+ 1998.
+
+ [RFC-2386] Crawley, E., Nair, R., Rajagopalan, B. and H. Sandick, "A
+ Framework for QoS-based Routing in the Internet", RFC
+ 2386, August 1998.
+
+ [RFC-2474] Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F. and D. Black,
+ "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
+ Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474, December
+ 1998.
+
+ [RFC-2475] Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E., Wang, Z.
+ and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated
+ Services", RFC 2475, December 1998.
+
+ [RFC-2597] Heinanen, J., Baker, F., Weiss, W. and J. Wroclawski,
+ "Assured Forwarding PHB Group", RFC 2597, June 1999.
+
+ [RFC-2678] Mahdavi, J. and V. Paxson, "IPPM Metrics for Measuring
+ Connectivity", RFC 2678, September 1999.
+
+ [RFC-2679] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S. and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
+ Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2679, September 1999.
+
+ [RFC-2680] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S. and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
+ Packet Loss Metric for IPPM", RFC 2680, September 1999.
+
+ [RFC-2702] Awduche, D., Malcolm, J., Agogbua, J., O'Dell, M. and J.
+ McManus, "Requirements for Traffic Engineering over
+ MPLS", RFC 2702, September 1999.
+
+ [RFC-2722] Brownlee, N., Mills, C. and G. Ruth, "Traffic Flow
+ Measurement: Architecture", RFC 2722, October 1999.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 67]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ [RFC-2753] Yavatkar, R., Pendarakis, D. and R. Guerin, "A Framework
+ for Policy-based Admission Control", RFC 2753, January
+ 2000.
+
+ [RFC-2961] Berger, L., Gan, D., Swallow, G., Pan, P., Tommasi, F.
+ and S. Molendini, "RSVP Refresh Overhead Reduction
+ Extensions", RFC 2961, April 2000.
+
+ [RFC-2998] Bernet, Y., Ford, P., Yavatkar, R., Baker, F., Zhang, L.,
+ Speer, M., Braden, R., Davie, B., Wroclawski, J. and E.
+ Felstaine, "A Framework for Integrated Services Operation
+ over Diffserv Networks", RFC 2998, November 2000.
+
+ [RFC-3031] Rosen, E., Viswanathan, A. and R. Callon, "Multiprotocol
+ Label Switching Architecture", RFC 3031, January 2001.
+
+ [RFC-3086] Nichols, K. and B. Carpenter, "Definition of
+ Differentiated Services Per Domain Behaviors and Rules
+ for their Specification", RFC 3086, April 2001.
+
+ [RFC-3124] Balakrishnan, H. and S. Seshan, "The Congestion Manager",
+ RFC 3124, June 2001.
+
+ [RFC-3209] Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T., Srinivasan, V.
+ and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP
+ Tunnels", RFC 3209, December 2001.
+
+ [RFC-3210] Awduche, D., Hannan, A. and X. Xiao, "Applicability
+ Statement for Extensions to RSVP for LSP-Tunnels", RFC
+ 3210, December 2001.
+
+ [RFC-3213] Ash, J., Girish, M., Gray, E., Jamoussi, B. and G.
+ Wright, "Applicability Statement for CR-LDP", RFC 3213,
+ January 2002.
+
+ [RFC-3270] Le Faucheur, F., Wu, L., Davie, B., Davari, S., Vaahanen,
+ P., Krishnan, R., Cheval, P. and J. Heinanen, "Multi-
+ Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Support of Differentiated
+ Services", RFC 3270, April 2002.
+
+ [RR94] M.A. Rodrigues and K.G. Ramakrishnan, "Optimal Routing in
+ Shortest Path Networks", ITS'94, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
+
+ [SHAR] Sharma, V., Crane, B., Owens, K., Huang, C., Hellstrand,
+ F., Weil, J., Anderson, L., Jamoussi, B., Cain, B.,
+ Civanlar, S. and A. Chui, "Framework for MPLS Based
+ Recovery", Work in Progress.
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 68]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+ [SLDC98] B. Suter, T. Lakshman, D. Stiliadis, and A. Choudhury,
+ "Design Considerations for Supporting TCP with Per-flow
+ Queueing", Proc. INFOCOM'98, p. 299-306, 1998.
+
+ [SMIT] Smit, H. and T. Li, "IS-IS extensions for Traffic
+ Engineering", Work in Progress.
+
+ [WANG] Y. Wang, Z. Wang, L. Zhang, "Internet traffic engineering
+ without full mesh overlaying", Proceedings of
+ INFOCOM'2001, April 2001.
+
+ [XIAO] X. Xiao, A. Hannan, B. Bailey, L. Ni, "Traffic
+ Engineering with MPLS in the Internet", IEEE Network
+ magazine, Mar. 2000.
+
+ [YARE95] C. Yang and A. Reddy, "A Taxonomy for Congestion Control
+ Algorithms in Packet Switching Networks", IEEE Network
+ Magazine, p. 34-45, 1995.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 69]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+13.0 Authors' Addresses
+
+ Daniel O. Awduche
+ Movaz Networks
+ 7926 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 615
+ McLean, VA 22102
+
+ Phone: 703-298-5291
+ EMail: awduche@movaz.com
+
+
+ Angela Chiu
+ Celion Networks
+ 1 Sheila Dr., Suite 2
+ Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
+
+ Phone: 732-747-9987
+ EMail: angela.chiu@celion.com
+
+
+ Anwar Elwalid
+ Lucent Technologies
+ Murray Hill, NJ 07974
+
+ Phone: 908 582-7589
+ EMail: anwar@lucent.com
+
+
+ Indra Widjaja
+ Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies
+ 600 Mountain Avenue
+ Murray Hill, NJ 07974
+
+ Phone: 908 582-0435
+ EMail: iwidjaja@research.bell-labs.com
+
+
+ XiPeng Xiao
+ Redback Networks
+ 300 Holger Way
+ San Jose, CA 95134
+
+ Phone: 408-750-5217
+ EMail: xipeng@redback.com
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 70]
+
+RFC 3272 Overview and Principles of Internet TE May 2002
+
+
+14.0 Full Copyright Statement
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
+
+ This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+ others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+ or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
+ and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
+ kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+ included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+ document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+ the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+ Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
+ developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
+ copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
+ followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
+ English.
+
+ The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+ revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
+
+ This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
+ "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
+ TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
+ BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
+ HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+ MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Acknowledgement
+
+ Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
+ Internet Society.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Awduche, et. al. Informational [Page 71]
+