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+Network Working Group Y. Rekhter
+Request for Comments: 2105 B. Davie
+Category: Informational D. Katz
+ E. Rosen
+ G. Swallow
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ February 1997
+
+
+ Cisco Systems' Tag Switching Architecture Overview
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
+ does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
+ this memo is unlimited.
+
+IESG Note:
+
+ This protocol is NOT the product of an IETF working group nor is it a
+ standards track document. It has not necessarily benefited from the
+ widespread and in depth community review that standards track
+ documents receive.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This document provides an overview of a novel approach to network
+ layer packet forwarding, called tag switching. The two main
+ components of the tag switching architecture - forwarding and
+ control - are described. Forwarding is accomplished using simple
+ label-swapping techniques, while the existing network layer routing
+ protocols plus mechanisms for binding and distributing tags are used
+ for control. Tag switching can retain the scaling properties of IP,
+ and can help improve the scalability of IP networks. While tag
+ switching does not rely on ATM, it can straightforwardly be applied
+ to ATM switches. A range of tag switching applications and deployment
+ scenarios are described.
+
+Table of Contents
+
+ 1 Introduction ........................................... 2
+ 2 Tag Switching components ............................... 3
+ 3 Forwarding component ................................... 3
+ 3.1 Tag encapsulation ...................................... 4
+ 4 Control component ...................................... 4
+ 4.1 Destination-based routing .............................. 5
+ 4.2 Hierarchy of routing knowledge ......................... 7
+ 4.3 Multicast .............................................. 8
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ 4.4 Flexible routing (explicit routes) ..................... 9
+ 5 Tag switching with ATM ................................. 9
+ 6 Quality of service ..................................... 11
+ 7 Tag switching migration strategies ..................... 11
+ 8 Summary ................................................ 12
+ 9 Security Considerations ................................ 12
+ 10 Intellectual Property Considerations ................... 12
+ 11 Acknowledgments ........................................ 12
+ 12 Authors' Addresses ..................................... 13
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ Continuous growth of the Internet demands higher bandwidth within the
+ Internet Service Providers (ISPs). However, growth of the Internet is
+ not the only driving factor for higher bandwidth - demand for higher
+ bandwidth also comes from emerging multimedia applications. Demand
+ for higher bandwidth, in turn, requires higher forwarding performance
+ (packets per second) by routers, for both multicast and unicast
+ traffic.
+
+ The growth of the Internet also demands improved scaling properties
+ of the Internet routing system. The ability to contain the volume of
+ routing information maintained by individual routers and the ability
+ to build a hierarchy of routing knowledge are essential to support a
+ high quality, scalable routing system.
+
+ We see the need to improve forwarding performance while at the same
+ time adding routing functionality to support multicast, allowing more
+ flexible control over how traffic is routed, and providing the
+ ability to build a hierarchy of routing knowledge. Moreover, it
+ becomes more and more crucial to have a routing system that can
+ support graceful evolution to accommodate new and emerging
+ requirements.
+
+ Tag switching is a technology that provides an efficient solution to
+ these challenges. Tag switching blends the flexibility and rich
+ functionality provided by Network Layer routing with the simplicity
+ provided by the label swapping forwarding paradigm. The simplicity
+ of the tag switching forwarding paradigm (label swapping) enables
+ improved forwarding performance, while maintaining competitive
+ price/performance. By associating a wide range of forwarding
+ granularities with a tag, the same forwarding paradigm can be used to
+ support a wide variety of routing functions, such as destination-
+ based routing, multicast, hierarchy of routing knowledge, and
+ flexible routing control. Finally, a combination of simple
+ forwarding, a wide range of forwarding granularities, and the ability
+ to evolve routing functionality while preserving the same forwarding
+ paradigm enables a routing system that can gracefully evolve to
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ accommodate new and emerging requirements.
+
+ The rest of the document is organized as follows. Section 2
+ introduces the main components of tag switching, forwarding and
+ control. Section 3 describes the forwarding component. Section 4
+ describes the control component. Section 5 describes how tag
+ switching could be used with ATM. Section 6 describes the use of tag
+ switching to help provide a range of qualities of service. Section 7
+ briefly describes possible deployment scenarios. Section 8 summarizes
+ the results.
+
+2. Tag Switching components
+
+ Tag switching consists of two components: forwarding and control.
+ The forwarding component uses the tag information (tags) carried by
+ packets and the tag forwarding information maintained by a tag switch
+ to perform packet forwarding. The control component is responsible
+ for maintaining correct tag forwarding information among a group of
+ interconnected tag switches.
+
+3. Forwarding component
+
+ The fundamental forwarding paradigm employed by tag switching is
+ based on the notion of label swapping. When a packet with a tag is
+ received by a tag switch, the switch uses the tag as an index in its
+ Tag Information Base (TIB). Each entry in the TIB consists of an
+ incoming tag, and one or more sub-entries of the form (outgoing tag,
+ outgoing interface, outgoing link level information). If the switch
+ finds an entry with the incoming tag equal to the tag carried in the
+ packet, then for each (outgoing tag, outgoing interface, outgoing
+ link level information) in the entry the switch replaces the tag in
+ the packet with the outgoing tag, replaces the link level information
+ (e.g MAC address) in the packet with the outgoing link level
+ information, and forwards the packet over the outgoing interface.
+
+ From the above description of the forwarding component we can make
+ several observations. First, the forwarding decision is based on the
+ exact match algorithm using a fixed length, fairly short tag as an
+ index. This enables a simplified forwarding procedure, relative to
+ longest match forwarding traditionally used at the network layer.
+ This in turn enables higher forwarding performance (higher packets
+ per second). The forwarding procedure is simple enough to allow a
+ straightforward hardware implementation.
+
+ A second observation is that the forwarding decision is independent
+ of the tag's forwarding granularity. For example, the same forwarding
+ algorithm applies to both unicast and multicast - a unicast entry
+ would just have a single (outgoing tag, outgoing interface, outgoing
+
+
+
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+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ link level information) sub-entry, while a multicast entry may have
+ one or more (outgoing tag, outgoing interface, outgoing link level
+ information) sub-entries. (For multi-access links, the outgoing link
+ level information in this case would include a multicast MAC
+ address.) This illustrates how with tag switching the same forwarding
+ paradigm can be used to support different routing functions (e.g.,
+ unicast, multicast, etc...)
+
+ The simple forwarding procedure is thus essentially decoupled from
+ the control component of tag switching. New routing (control)
+ functions can readily be deployed without disturbing the forwarding
+ paradigm. This means that it is not necessary to re-optimize
+ forwarding performance (by modifying either hardware or software) as
+ new routing functionality is added.
+
+3.1. Tag encapsulation
+
+ Tag information can be carried in a packet in a variety of ways:
+
+ - as a small "shim" tag header inserted between the layer 2 and
+ the Network Layer headers;
+
+ - as part of the layer 2 header, if the layer 2 header provides
+ adequate semantics (e.g., ATM, as discussed below);
+
+ - as part of the Network Layer header (e.g., using the Flow Label
+ field in IPv6 with appropriately modified semantics).
+
+ It is therefore possible to implement tag switching over virtually
+ any media type including point-to-point links, multi-access links,
+ and ATM.
+
+ Observe also that the tag forwarding component is Network Layer
+ independent. Use of control component(s) specific to a particular
+ Network Layer protocol enables the use of tag switching with
+ different Network Layer protocols.
+
+4. Control component
+
+ Essential to tag switching is the notion of binding between a tag and
+ Network Layer routing (routes). To provide good scaling
+ characteristics, while also accommodating diverse routing
+ functionality, tag switching supports a wide range of forwarding
+ granularities. At one extreme a tag could be associated (bound) to a
+ group of routes (more specifically to the Network Layer Reachability
+ Information of the routes in the group). At the other extreme a tag
+ could be bound to an individual application flow (e.g., an RSVP
+ flow). A tag could also be bound to a multicast tree.
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ The control component is responsible for creating tag bindings, and
+ then distributing the tag binding information among tag switches.
+ The control component is organized as a collection of modules, each
+ designed to support a particular routing function. To support new
+ routing functions, new modules can be added. The following describes
+ some of the modules.
+
+4.1. Destination-based routing
+
+ In this section we describe how tag switching can support
+ destination-based routing. Recall that with destination-based routing
+ a router makes a forwarding decision based on the destination address
+ carried in a packet and the information stored in the Forwarding
+ Information Base (FIB) maintained by the router. A router constructs
+ its FIB by using the information the router receives from routing
+ protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP).
+
+ To support destination-based routing with tag switching, a tag
+ switch, just like a router, participates in routing protocols (e.g.,
+ OSPF, BGP), and constructs its FIB using the information it receives
+ from these protocols.
+
+ There are three permitted methods for tag allocation and Tag
+ Information Base (TIB) management: (a) downstream tag allocation, (b)
+ downstream tag allocation on demand, and (c) upstream tag allocation.
+ In all cases, a switch allocates tags and binds them to address
+ prefixes in its FIB. In downstream allocation, the tag that is
+ carried in a packet is generated and bound to a prefix by the switch
+ at the downstream end of the link (with respect to the direction of
+ data flow). In upstream allocation, tags are allocated and bound at
+ the upstream end of the link. `On demand' allocation means that tags
+ will only be allocated and distributed by the downstream switch when
+ it is requested to do so by the upstream switch. Methods (b) and (c)
+ are most useful in ATM networks (see Section 5). Note that in
+ downstream allocation, a switch is responsible for creating tag
+ bindings that apply to incoming data packets, and receives tag
+ bindings for outgoing packets from its neighbors. In upstream
+ allocation, a switch is responsible for creating tag bindings for
+ outgoing tags, i.e. tags that are applied to data packets leaving the
+ switch, and receives bindings for incoming tags from its neighbors.
+
+ The downstream tag allocation scheme operates as follows: for each
+ route in its FIB the switch allocates a tag, creates an entry in its
+ Tag Information Base (TIB) with the incoming tag set to the allocated
+ tag, and then advertises the binding between the (incoming) tag and
+ the route to other adjacent tag switches. The advertisement could be
+ accomplished by either piggybacking the binding on top of the
+ existing routing protocols, or by using a separate Tag Distribution
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ Protocol [TDP]. When a tag switch receives tag binding information
+ for a route, and that information was originated by the next hop for
+ that route, the switch places the tag (carried as part of the binding
+ information) into the outgoing tag of the TIB entry associated with
+ the route. This creates the binding between the outgoing tag and the
+ route.
+
+ With the downstream tag allocation on demand scheme, operation is as
+ follows. For each route in its FIB, the switch identifies the next
+ hop for that route. It then issues a request (via TDP) to the next
+ hop for a tag binding for that route. When the next hop receives the
+ request, it allocates a tag, creates an entry in its TIB with the
+ incoming tag set to the allocated tag, and then returns the binding
+ between the (incoming) tag and the route to the switch that sent the
+ original request. When the switch receives the binding information,
+ the switch creates an entry in its TIB, and sets the outgoing tag in
+ the entry to the value received from the next hop.
+
+ The upstream tag allocation scheme is used as follows. If a tag
+ switch has one or more point-to-point interfaces, then for each
+ route in its FIB whose next hop is reachable via one of these
+ interfaces, the switch allocates a tag, creates an entry in its TIB
+ with the outgoing tag set to the allocated tag, and then advertises
+ to the next hop (via TDP) the binding between the (outgoing) tag and
+ the route. When a tag switch that is the next hop receives the tag
+ binding information, the switch places the tag (carried as part of
+ the binding information) into the incoming tag of the TIB entry
+ associated with the route.
+
+ Once a TIB entry is populated with both incoming and outgoing tags,
+ the tag switch can forward packets for routes bound to the tags by
+ using the tag switching forwarding algorithm (as described in Section
+ 3).
+
+ When a tag switch creates a binding between an outgoing tag and a
+ route, the switch, in addition to populating its TIB, also updates
+ its FIB with the binding information. This enables the switch to add
+ tags to previously untagged packets.
+
+ To understand the scaling properties of tag switching in conjunction
+ with destination-based routing, observe that the total number of tags
+ that a tag switch has to maintain can not be greater than the number
+ of routes in the switch's FIB. Moreover, in some cases a single tag
+ could be associated with a group of routes, rather than with a single
+ route. Thus, much less state is required than would be the case if
+ tags were allocated to individual flows.
+
+
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ In general, a tag switch will try to populate its TIB with incoming
+ and outgoing tags for all routes to which it has reachability, so
+ that all packets can be forwarded by simple label swapping. Tag
+ allocation is thus driven by topology (routing), not traffic - it is
+ the existence of a FIB entry that causes tag allocations, not the
+ arrival of data packets.
+
+ Use of tags associated with routes, rather than flows, also means
+ that there is no need to perform flow classification procedures for
+ all the flows to determine whether to assign a tag to a flow. That,
+ in turn, simplifies the overall scheme, and makes it more robust and
+ stable in the presence of changing traffic patterns.
+
+ Note that when tag switching is used to support destination-based
+ routing, tag switching does not completely eliminate the need to
+ perform normal Network Layer forwarding. First of all, to add a tag
+ to a previously untagged packet requires normal Network Layer
+ forwarding. This function could be performed by the first hop router,
+ or by the first router on the path that is able to participate in tag
+ switching. In addition, whenever a tag switch aggregates a set of
+ routes (e.g., by using the technique of hierarchical routing), into a
+ single tag, and the routes do not share a common next hop, the switch
+ needs to perform Network Layer forwarding for packets carrying that
+ tag. However, one could observe that the number of places where
+ routes get aggregated is smaller than the total number of places
+ where forwarding decisions have to be made. Moreover, quite often
+ aggregation is applied to only a subset of the routes maintained by a
+ tag switch. As a result, on average a packet can be forwarded most of
+ the time using the tag switching algorithm.
+
+4.2. Hierarchy of routing knowledge
+
+ The IP routing architecture models a network as a collection of
+ routing domains. Within a domain, routing is provided via interior
+ routing (e.g., OSPF), while routing across domains is provided via
+ exterior routing (e.g., BGP). However, all routers within domains
+ that carry transit traffic (e.g., domains formed by Internet Service
+ Providers) have to maintain information provided by not just interior
+ routing, but exterior routing as well. That creates certain problems.
+ First of all, the amount of this information is not insignificant.
+ Thus it places additional demand on the resources required by the
+ routers. Moreover, increase in the volume of routing information
+ quite often increases routing convergence time. This, in turn,
+ degrades the overall performance of the system.
+
+ Tag switching allows the decoupling of interior and exterior routing,
+ so that only tag switches at the border of a domain would be required
+ to maintain routing information provided by exterior routing, while
+
+
+
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+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ all other switches within the domain would just maintain routing
+ information provided by the domain's interior routing (which is
+ usually significantly smaller than the exterior routing information).
+ This, in turn, reduces the routing load on non-border switches, and
+ shortens routing convergence time.
+
+ To support this functionality, tag switching allows a packet to carry
+ not one but a set of tags, organized as a stack. A tag switch could
+ either swap the tag at the top of the stack, or pop the stack, or
+ swap the tag and push one or more tags into the stack.
+
+ When a packet is forwarded between two (border) tag switches in
+ different domains, the tag stack in the packet contains just one tag.
+ However, when a packet is forwarded within a domain, the tag stack in
+ the packet contains not one, but two tags (the second tag is pushed
+ by the domain's ingress border tag switch). The tag at the top of
+ the stack provides packet forwarding to an appropriate egress border
+ tag switch, while the next tag in the stack provides correct packet
+ forwarding at the egress switch. The stack is popped by either the
+ egress switch or by the penultimate (with respect to the egress
+ switch) switch.
+
+ The control component used in this scenario is fairly similar to the
+ one used with destination-based routing. In fact, the only essential
+ difference is that in this scenario the tag binding information is
+ distributed both among physically adjacent tag switches, and among
+ border tag switches within a single domain. One could also observe
+ that the latter (distribution among border switches) could be
+ trivially accommodated by very minor extensions to BGP (via a
+ separate Tag Binding BGP attribute).
+
+4.3. Multicast
+
+ Essential to multicast routing is the notion of spanning trees.
+ Multicast routing procedures (e.g., PIM) are responsible for
+ constructing such trees (with receivers as leafs), while multicast
+ forwarding is responsible for forwarding multicast packets along such
+ trees.
+
+ To support a multicast forwarding function with tag switching, each
+ tag switch associates a tag with a multicast tree as follows. When a
+ tag switch creates a multicast forwarding entry (either for a shared
+ or for a source-specific tree), and the list of outgoing interfaces
+ for the entry, the switch also creates local tags (one per outgoing
+ interface). The switch creates an entry in its TIB and populates
+ (outgoing tag, outgoing interface, outgoing MAC header) with this
+ information for each outgoing interface, placing a locally generated
+ tag in the outgoing tag field. This creates a binding between a
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 8]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ multicast tree and the tags. The switch then advertises over each
+ outgoing interface associated with the entry the binding between the
+ tag (associated with this interface) and the tree.
+
+ When a tag switch receives a binding between a multicast tree and a
+ tag from another tag switch, if the other switch is the upstream
+ neighbor (with respect to the multicast tree), the local switch
+ places the tag carried in the binding into the incoming tag component
+ of the TIB entry associated with the tree.
+
+ When a set of tag switches are interconnected via a multiple-access
+ subnetwork, the tag allocation procedure for multicast has to be
+ coordinated among the switches. In all other cases tag allocation
+ procedure for multicast could be the same as for tags used with
+ destination-based routing.
+
+4.4. Flexible routing (explicit routes)
+
+ One of the fundamental properties of destination-based routing is
+ that the only information from a packet that is used to forward the
+ packet is the destination address. While this property enables highly
+ scalable routing, it also limits the ability to influence the actual
+ paths taken by packets. This, in turn, limits the ability to evenly
+ distribute traffic among multiple links, taking the load off highly
+ utilized links, and shifting it towards less utilized links. For
+ Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who support different classes of
+ service, destination-based routing also limits their ability to
+ segregate different classes with respect to the links used by these
+ classes. Some of the ISPs today use Frame Relay or ATM to overcome
+ the limitations imposed by destination-based routing. Tag switching,
+ because of the flexible granularity of tags, is able to overcome
+ these limitations without using either Frame Relay or ATM.
+
+ To provide forwarding along the paths that are different from the
+ paths determined by the destination-based routing, the control
+ component of tag switching allows installation of tag bindings in tag
+ switches that do not correspond to the destination-based routing
+ paths.
+
+5. Tag switching with ATM
+
+ Since the tag switching forwarding paradigm is based on label
+ swapping, and since ATM forwarding is also based on label swapping,
+ tag switching technology can readily be applied to ATM switches by
+ implementing the control component of tag switching.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 9]
+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+ The tag information needed for tag switching can be carried in the
+ VCI field. If two levels of tagging are needed, then the VPI field
+ could be used as well, although the size of the VPI field limits the
+ size of networks in which this would be practical. However, for most
+ applications of one level of tagging the VCI field is adequate.
+
+ To obtain the necessary control information, the switch should be
+ able (at a minimum) to participate as a peer in Network Layer routing
+ protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP). Moreover, if the switch has to perform
+ routing information aggregation, then to support destination-based
+ unicast routing the switch should be able to perform Network Layer
+ forwarding for some fraction of the traffic as well.
+
+ Supporting the destination-based routing function with tag switching
+ on an ATM switch may require the switch to maintain not one, but
+ several tags associated with a route (or a group of routes with the
+ same next hop). This is necessary to avoid the interleaving of
+ packets which arrive from different upstream tag switches, but are
+ sent concurrently to the same next hop. Either the downstream tag
+ allocation on demand or the upstream tag allocation scheme could be
+ used for the tag allocation and TIB maintenance procedures with ATM
+ switches.
+
+ Therefore, an ATM switch can support tag switching, but at the
+ minimum it needs to implement Network Layer routing protocols, and
+ the tag switching control component on the switch. It may also need
+ to support some network layer forwarding.
+
+ Implementing tag switching on an ATM switch would simplify
+ integration of ATM switches and routers - an ATM switch capable of
+ tag switching would appear as a router to an adjacent router. That
+ could provide a viable, more scalable alternative to the overlay
+ model. It also removes the necessity for ATM addressing, routing and
+ signalling schemes. Because the destination-based forwarding approach
+ described in section 4.1 is topology driven rather than traffic
+ driven, application of this approach to ATM switches does not high
+ call setup rates, nor does it depend on the longevity of flows.
+
+ Implementing tag switching on an ATM switch does not preclude the
+ ability to support a traditional ATM control plane (e.g., PNNI) on
+ the same switch. The two components, tag switching and the ATM
+ control plane, would operate in a Ships In the Night mode (with
+ VPI/VCI space and other resources partitioned so that the components
+ do not interact).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+6. Quality of service
+
+ Two mechanisms are needed for providing a range of qualities of
+ service to packets passing through a router or a tag switch. First,
+ we need to classify packets into different classes. Second, we need
+ to ensure that the handling of packets is such that the appropriate
+ QOS characteristics (bandwidth, loss, etc.) are provided to each
+ class.
+
+ Tag switching provides an easy way to mark packets as belonging to a
+ particular class after they have been classified the first time.
+ Initial classification would be done using information carried in the
+ network layer or higher layer headers. A tag corresponding to the
+ resultant class would then be applied to the packet. Tagged packets
+ can then be efficiently handled by the tag switching routers in their
+ path without needing to be reclassified. The actual packet scheduling
+ and queueing is largely orthogonal - the key point here is that tag
+ switching enables simple logic to be used to find the state that
+ identifies how the packet should be scheduled.
+
+ The exact use of tag switching for QOS purposes depends a great deal
+ on how QOS is deployed. If RSVP is used to request a certain QOS for
+ a class of packets, then it would be necessary to allocate a tag
+ corresponding to each RSVP session for which state is installed at a
+ tag switch. This might be done by TDP or by extension of RSVP.
+
+7. Tag switching migration strategies
+
+ Since tag switching is performed between a pair of adjacent tag
+ switches, and since the tag binding information could be distributed
+ on a pairwise basis, tag switching could be introduced in a fairly
+ simple, incremental fashion. For example, once a pair of adjacent
+ routers are converted into tag switches, each of the switches would
+ tag packets destined to the other, thus enabling the other switch to
+ use tag switching. Since tag switches use the same routing protocols
+ as routers, the introduction of tag switches has no impact on
+ routers. In fact, a tag switch connected to a router acts just as a
+ router from the router's perspective.
+
+ As more and more routers are upgraded to enable tag switching, the
+ scope of functionality provided by tag switching widens. For example,
+ once all the routers within a domain are upgraded to support tag
+ switching, in becomes possible to start using the hierarchy of
+ routing knowledge function.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+8. Summary
+
+ In this document we described the tag switching technology. Tag
+ switching is not constrained to a particular Network Layer protocol -
+ it is a multiprotocol solution. The forwarding component of tag
+ switching is simple enough to facilitate high performance forwarding,
+ and may be implemented on high performance forwarding hardware such
+ as ATM switches. The control component is flexible enough to support
+ a wide variety of routing functions, such as destination-based
+ routing, multicast routing, hierarchy of routing knowledge, and
+ explicitly defined routes. By allowing a wide range of forwarding
+ granularities that could be associated with a tag, we provide both
+ scalable and functionally rich routing. A combination of a wide range
+ of forwarding granularities and the ability to evolve the control
+ component fairly independently from the forwarding component results
+ in a solution that enables graceful introduction of new routing
+ functionality to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving computer
+ networking environment.
+
+9. Security Considerations
+
+ Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
+
+10. Intellectual Property Considerations
+
+ Cisco Systems may seek patent or other intellectual property
+ protection for some or all of the technologies disclosed in this
+ document. If any standards arising from this document are or become
+ protected by one or more patents assigned to Cisco Systems, Cisco
+ intends to disclose those patents and license them on reasonable and
+ non-discriminatory terms.
+
+11. Acknowledgments
+
+ Significant contributions to this work have been made by Anthony
+ Alles, Fred Baker, Paul Doolan, Dino Farinacci, Guy Fedorkow, Jeremy
+ Lawrence, Arthur Lin, Morgan Littlewood, Keith McCloghrie, and Dan
+ Tappan.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+RFC 2105 Cisco's Tag Switching Architecture February 1997
+
+
+12. Authors' Addresses
+
+ Yakov Rekhter
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ 170 Tasman Drive
+ San Jose, CA, 95134
+
+ EMail: yakov@cisco.com
+
+
+ Bruce Davie
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ 250 Apollo Drive
+ Chelmsford, MA, 01824
+
+ EMail: bsd@cisco.com
+
+
+ Dave Katz
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ 170 Tasman Drive
+ San Jose, CA, 95134
+
+ EMail: dkatz@cisco.com
+
+
+ Eric Rosen
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ 250 Apollo Drive
+ Chelmsford, MA, 01824
+
+ EMail: erosen@cisco.com
+
+
+ George Swallow
+ Cisco Systems, Inc.
+ 250 Apollo Drive
+ Chelmsford, MA, 01824
+
+ EMail: swallow@cisco.com
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Rekhter, et. al. Informational [Page 13]
+