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diff --git a/doc/rfc/rfc7379.txt b/doc/rfc/rfc7379.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcffd1c --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/rfc/rfc7379.txt @@ -0,0 +1,731 @@ + + + + + + +Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Y. Li +Request for Comments: 7379 W. Hao +Category: Informational Huawei Technologies +ISSN: 2070-1721 R. Perlman + EMC + J. Hudson + Brocade + H. Zhai + JIT + October 2014 + + + Problem Statement and Goals for Active-Active Connection at the + Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Edge + +Abstract + + The IETF TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) + protocol provides support for flow-level multipathing with rapid + failover for both unicast and multi-destination traffic in networks + with arbitrary topology. Active-active connection at the TRILL edge + is the extension of these characteristics to end stations that are + multiply connected to a TRILL campus. This informational document + discusses the high-level problems and goals when providing active- + active connection at the TRILL edge. + +Status of This Memo + + This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is + published for informational purposes. + + This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force + (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has + received public review and has been approved for publication by the + Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents + approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet + Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. + + Information about the current status of this document, any errata, + and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at + http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7379. + + + + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 1] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + +Copyright Notice + + Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the + document authors. All rights reserved. + + This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal + Provisions Relating to IETF Documents + (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of + publication of this document. Please review these documents + carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect + to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must + include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of + the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as + described in the Simplified BSD License. + +Table of Contents + + 1. Introduction ....................................................3 + 1.1. Terminology ................................................3 + 2. Target Scenario .................................................4 + 2.1. LAALP and Edge Group Characteristics .......................6 + 3. Problems in Active-Active Connection at the TRILL Edge ..........7 + 3.1. Frame Duplications .........................................7 + 3.2. Loopback ...................................................8 + 3.3. Address Flip-Flop ..........................................8 + 3.4. Unsynchronized Information among Member RBridges ...........8 + 4. High-Level Requirements and Goals for Solutions .................9 + 5. Security Considerations ........................................10 + 6. References .....................................................11 + 6.1. Normative References ......................................11 + 6.2. Informative References ....................................12 + Acknowledgments ...................................................12 + Authors' Addresses ................................................13 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 2] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + +1. Introduction + + The IETF TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) + [RFC6325] protocol provides loop-free and per-hop-based multipath + data forwarding with minimum configuration. TRILL uses IS-IS [IS-IS] + [RFC6165] [RFC7176] as its control-plane routing protocol and defines + a TRILL-specific header for user data. In a TRILL campus, + communications between TRILL switches can: + + 1) use multiple parallel links and/or paths, + + 2) spread load over different links and/or paths at a fine-grained + flow level through equal-cost multipathing of unicast traffic and + multiple distribution trees for multi-destination traffic, and + + 3) rapidly reconfigure to accommodate link or node failures or + additions. + + To the degree practical, "active-active" is the extension of similar + load spreading and robustness to the connections between end stations + and the TRILL campus. Such end stations may have multiple ports and + will be connected, directly or via bridges, to multiple edge TRILL + switches. It must be possible, except in some failure conditions, to + spread end-station traffic load at the granularity of flows across + links to such multiple edge TRILL switches and rapidly reconfigure to + accommodate topology changes. + +1.1. Terminology + + The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", + "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this + document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. + + The acronyms and terminology in the RBridges base protocol [RFC6325] + are used herein with the following additions: + + CE: Customer Equipment (end station or bridge). + + Data Label: VLAN or FGL (Fine-Grained Label [RFC7172]). + + LAALP: Local Active-Active Link Protocol. Any protocol + similar to MC-LAG that runs in a distributed fashion + on a CE, on the links from that CE to a set of edge + group RBridges, and on those RBridges. + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 3] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + MC-LAG: Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation. Proprietary + extensions to IEEE Std 802.1AX-2011 [802.1AX] so that + the aggregated links can, at one end of the + aggregation, attach to different switches. + + Edge group: a group of edge RBridges to which at least one CE is + multiply attached using an LAALP. When multiple CEs + attach to the exact same set of edge RBridges, those + edge RBridges can be considered as a single edge + group. An RBridge can be in more than one edge group. + + RBridge: Routing Bridge. An alternative name for a TRILL + switch. + + TRILL: Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links. + + TRILL switch: a device that implements the TRILL protocol; an + alternative term for an RBridge. + +2. Target Scenario + + This section presents a typical scenario of active-active connection + to a TRILL campus via multiple edge RBridges where the current TRILL + Appointed Forwarder mechanism does not work as expected. + + The TRILL Appointed Forwarder mechanism [RFC6439] can handle failover + (active-standby), provides loop avoidance, and, with administrative + configuration, provides load spreading based on VLAN. One and only + one appointed RBridge can ingress/egress native frames into/from the + TRILL campus for a given VLAN among all edge RBridges connecting a + legacy network to the TRILL campus. This is true whether the legacy + network is a simple point-to-point link or a complex bridged LAN or + anything in between. By carefully selecting different RBridges as + Appointed Forwarder for different sets of VLANs, load spreading over + different edge RBridges across different Data Labels can be achieved. + + The Appointed Forwarder mechanism [RFC6439] requires all of the edge + group RBridges to exchange TRILL IS-IS Hello packets through their + access ports. As Figure 1 shows, when multiple access links of + multiple edge RBridges are connected to a CE by an LAALP, Hello + messages sent by RB1 via access port to CE1 will not be forwarded to + RB2 by CE1. RB2 (and other members of LAALP1) will not see that + Hello from RB1 via the LAALP1. Every member RBridge of LAALP1 thinks + of itself as Appointed Forwarder on an LAALP1 link for all VLANs and + will ingress/egress frames. Hence, the Appointed Forwarder mechanism + cannot provide active-active or even active-standby service across + the edge group in such a scenario. + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 4] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + ---------------------- + | | + | TRILL Campus | + | | + ---------------------- + | | | + ----- | -------- + | | | + +------+ +------+ +------+ + | | | | | | + |(RB1) | |(RB2) | | (RBk)| + +------+ +------+ +------+ + |..| |..| |..| + | +----+ | | | | + | +---|-----|--|----------+ | + | +-|---|-----+ +-----------+ | + | | | +------------------+ | | + LAALP1--->(| | |) (| | |) <---LAALPn + +-------+ . . . +-------+ + | CE1 | | CEn | + | | | | + +-------+ +-------+ + + Figure 1: Active-Active Connection to TRILL Edge RBridges + + Active-active connection is useful when we want to achieve the + following two goals: + + - Flow-based rather than VLAN-based load balancing is desired. + + - More rapid failure recovery is desired. + + The current Appointed Forwarder mechanism relies on the TRILL Hello + timer expiration to detect the unreachability of another edge RBridge + connecting to the same local link. Then, reappointing the forwarder + for specific VLANs may be required. Such procedures take time on the + scale of seconds although this can be improved with TRILL use of + Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) [RFC7175]. Active-active + connection usually has a faster built-in mechanism for member node + and/or link failure detection. Faster detection of failures + minimizes the frame loss and recovery time. + + Today, LAALP is usually a proprietary facility whose implementation + varies by vendor. So, to be sure the LAALP operates successfully + across a group of edge RBridges, those edge RBridges will almost + always have to be from the same vendor. In the case where the LAALP + is an MC-LAG, the CE normally implements the logic described in IEEE + Std 802.1AX-2011 [802.1AX], so proprietary elements would only be at + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 5] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + the end of the edge group. There is also a revision of IEEE Std + 802.1AX-2011 [802.1AX] underway (802.1X-REV) to remove the + restriction in IEEE Std 802.1AX-2011 [802.1AX] that there be one box + at each end of the aggregation. So it is possible that, in the + future, an LAALP could be implemented through such a revised IEEE Std + 802.1AX-2011 [802.1AX] with standards-conformant logic at the ends of + both the CE and edge group. In order to have a common understanding + of active-active connection scenarios, the assumptions in Section 2.1 + are made about the characteristics of the LAALP and edge group of + RBridges. + +2.1. LAALP and Edge Group Characteristics + + For a CE connecting to multiple edge RBridges via an LAALP (active- + active connection), the following characteristics apply: + + a) The LAALP will deliver a frame from an end node to TRILL at + exactly one edge group RBridge. + + b) The LAALP will never forward frames it receives from one uplink to + another. + + c) The LAALP will attempt to send all frames for a given flow on the + same uplink. To do this, it has some unknown rule for which + frames get sent to which uplinks (typically based on a simple hash + function of Layer 2 through 4 header fields). + + d) Frames are accepted from any of the uplinks and passed down to end + nodes (if any exist). + + e) The LAALP cannot be assumed to send useful control information to + the uplink such as "this is the set of other RBridges to which + this CE is attached" or "these are all the MAC addresses + attached". + + For an edge group of RBridges to which a CE is multiply attached with + an LAALP: + + a) Any two RBridges in the edge group are reachable from each other + via the TRILL campus. + + b) Each RBridge in the edge group knows an ID for each LAALP instance + multiply attached to that group. The ID will be consistent across + the edge group and globally unique across the TRILL campus. For + example, if CE1 attaches to RB1, RB2, ... RBn using an LAALP, then + each of the RBs will know, for the port to CE1, that it has a + label such as "LAALP1". + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 6] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + c) Each RB in the edge group can be configured with the set of + acceptable VLANs for the ports to any CE. The acceptable VLANs + configured for those ports should include all the VLANs the CE has + joined and be consistent for all the member RBridges of the edge + group. + + d) When an RBridge fails, all the other RBridges that have formed an + LAALP instance with it learn of the failure in a timely fashion. + + e) When a downlink of an edge group RBridge to an LAALP instance + fails, that RBridge and all the other RBridges participating in + the LAALP instance, including that downlink, learn of the failure + in a timely fashion. + + f) The RBridges in the edge group have a mechanism to exchange + information with each other, information such as the set of CEs + they are connecting to or the IDs of the LAALP instances their + downlinks are part of. + + Other than the applicable characteristics above, the internals of an + LAALP are out of the scope of TRILL. + +3. Problems in Active-Active Connection at the TRILL Edge + + This section presents the problems that need to be addressed in + active-active connection scenarios. The topology in Figure 1 is used + in the following sub-sections as the example scenario for + illustration purposes. + +3.1. Frame Duplications + + When a remote RBridge ingresses a multi-destination TRILL data packet + in VLAN x, all edge group RBridges of LAALP1 will receive the frame + if any local CE1 joins VLAN x. As each of them thinks it is the + Appointed Forwarder for VLAN x, without changes made for active- + active connection support, they would all forward the frame to CE1. + The bad consequence is that CE1 receives multiple copies of that + multi-destination frame from the remote end-host source. + + Frame duplication may also occur when an ingress RBridge is non- + remote -- say, ingress and egress are two RBridges belonging to the + same edge group. Assume LAALP m connects to an edge group g, and the + edge group g consists of RB1, RB2, and RB3. The multi-destination + frames ingressed from a port not connected to LAALP m by RB1 can be + locally replicated to other ports on RB1 and also TRILL encapsulated + and forwarded to RB2 and RB3. CE1 will receive duplicate copies from + RB1, RB2, and RB3. + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 7] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + Note that frame duplication is only a problem in multi-destination + frame forwarding. Unicast forwarding does not have this issue as + there is only ever one copy of the packet. + +3.2. Loopback + + As shown in Figure 1, CE1 may send a native multi-destination frame + to the TRILL campus via a member of the LAALP1 edge group (say RB1). + This frame will be TRILL encapsulated and then forwarded through the + campus to the multi-destination receivers. Other members (say RB2) + of the same LAALP edge group will receive this multicast packet as + well. In this case, without changes made for active-active + connection support, RB2 will decapsulate the frame and egress it. + The frame loops back to CE1. + +3.3. Address Flip-Flop + + Consider RB1 and RB2 using their own nickname as ingress nickname for + data into a TRILL campus. As shown in Figure 1, CE1 may send a data + frame with the same VLAN and source Media Access Control (MAC) + address to any member of the edge group LAALP1. If an egress RBridge + receives TRILL data packets from different ingress RBridges but with + the same source Data Label and MAC address, it learns different + correspondences between a {Data Label and MAC address} and nickname + when decapsulating the data frames. Address correspondence may keep + flip-flopping among nicknames of the member RBridges of the LAALP for + the same Data Label and MAC address. Existing hardware does not + support data-plane learning of multiple nicknames for the same MAC + address and Data Label -- when data-plane learning indicates + attachment of the MAC address to a new nickname, it overwrites the + old attachment nickname. + + Implementers have stated that most current TRILL switch hardware, + when doing data-plane learning, behaves badly under these + circumstances and, for example, interprets address flip-flopping as a + severe network problem. It may also cause the returning traffic to + go through different paths to reach the destination, resulting in + persistent reordering of the frames. + +3.4. Unsynchronized Information among Member RBridges + + A local RBridge, say RB1 connected to LAALP1, may have learned a + correspondence between a {Data Label and MAC address} and nickname + for a remote host h1 when h1 sends a packet to CE1. The returning + traffic from CE1 may go to any other member RBridge of LAALP1, for + example, RB2. RB2 may not have h1's correspondence between a {Data + Label and MAC address} and nickname stored. Therefore, it has to do + the flooding for unknown unicast addresses [RFC6325]. Such flooding + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 8] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + is unnecessary since the returning traffic is almost always expected + and RB1 had learned the address correspondence. It is desirable to + avoid flooding; it imposes a greater burden on the network than known + destination unicast traffic because the flooded traffic is sent over + more links. + + Synchronization of the correspondence between a {Data Label and MAC + address} and nickname information among member RBridges will reduce + such unnecessary flooding. + +4. High-Level Requirements and Goals for Solutions + + The problems identified in Section 3 should be solved in any solution + for active-active connection to edge RBridges. The following high- + level requirements and goals should be met. + + Data plane: + + 1) All uplinks of a CE MUST be active: the LAALP is free to choose + any uplink on which to send packets, and the CE is able to receive + packets from any uplink of an edge group. + + 2) Loopback and frame duplication MUST be prevented. + + 3) Learning of correspondence between a {Data Label and MAC address} + and nickname by a remote RBridge MUST NOT flip-flop between the + local multiply attached edge RBridges. + + 4) Packets for a flow SHOULD stay in order. + + 5) The Reverse Path Forwarding Check MUST work properly as per the + RBridges base protocol [RFC6325]. + + 6) Single uplink failure on a CE to an edge group MUST NOT cause + persistent packet delivery failure between a TRILL campus and CE. + + Control plane: + + 1) No requirement for new information to be passed between edge + RBridges and CEs or between edge RBridges and end nodes exists. + + 2) If there is any TRILL-specific information required to be + exchanged between RBridges in an edge group, for example, Data + Labels and MAC addresses binding to nicknames, a solution MUST + specify the mechanism to perform such exchange unless this is + handled internal to the LAALP. + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 9] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + + 3) RBridges SHOULD be able to discover other members in the same edge + group by exchanging their LAALP attachment information. + + Configuration, incremental deployment, and others: + + 1) Solution SHOULD require minimal configuration. + + 2) Solution SHOULD automatically detect misconfiguration of edge + RBridge group. + + 3) Solution SHOULD support incremental deployment, that is, not + require campus-wide upgrading for all RBridges, only changes to + the edge group RBridges. + + 4) Solution SHOULD be able to support from two up to at least four + active-active uplinks on a multiply attached CE. + + 5) Solution SHOULD NOT assume there is a dedicated physical link + between any two edge RBridges in an edge group. + +5. Security Considerations + + As an informational overview, this document does not introduce any + extra security risks. Security risks introduced by a particular + LAALP or other elements of solutions to the problems presented here + will be discussed in the separate document(s) describing such LAALP + or solutions. + + End-station links in TRILL are Ethernet links, and consideration + should be given to securing them with link security as described in + IEEE Std 802.1AE-2006 [802.1AE] for the protection of end-station + data and link-level control messages, including any LAALP control + messages. + + For general TRILL Security Considerations, see the RBridges base + protocol [RFC6325]. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 10] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + +6. References + +6.1. Normative References + + [IS-IS] ISO/IEC, "Information technology -- Telecommunications and + information exchange between systems -- Intermediate + System to Intermediate System intra-domain routeing + information exchange protocol for use in conjunction with + the protocol for providing the connectionless-mode network + service (ISO 8473)", ISO/IEC 10589:2002, Second Edition, + 2002. + + [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate + Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>. + + [RFC6165] Banerjee, A. and D. Ward, "Extensions to IS-IS for Layer-2 + Systems", RFC 6165, April 2011, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6165>. + + [RFC6325] Perlman, R., Eastlake 3rd, D., Dutt, D., Gai, S., and A. + Ghanwani, "Routing Bridges (RBridges): Base Protocol + Specification", RFC 6325, July 2011, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6325>. + + [RFC6439] Perlman, R., Eastlake, D., Li, Y., Banerjee, A., and F. + Hu, "Routing Bridges (RBridges): Appointed Forwarders", + RFC 6439, November 2011, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6439>. + + [RFC7172] Eastlake 3rd, D., Zhang, M., Agarwal, P., Perlman, R., and + D. Dutt, "Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links + (TRILL): Fine-Grained Labeling", RFC 7172, May 2014, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7172>. + + [RFC7176] Eastlake 3rd, D., Senevirathne, T., Ghanwani, A., Dutt, + D., and A. Banerjee, "Transparent Interconnection of Lots + of Links (TRILL) Use of IS-IS", RFC 7176, May 2014, + <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7176>. + + + + + + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 11] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + +6.2. Informative References + + [802.1AE] IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area + networks -- Media Access Control (MAC) Security", IEEE Std + 802.1AE-2006, 18 August 2006. + + [802.1AX] IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area + networks -- Link Aggregration", IEEE Std 802.1AX-2008, 3 + November 2008. + + [RFC7175] Manral, V., Eastlake 3rd, D., Ward, D., and A. Banerjee, + "Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL): + Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) Support", RFC + 7175, May 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7175>. + +Acknowledgments + + Special acknowledgments to Donald Eastlake, Adrian Farrel, and Mingui + Zhang for their valuable comments. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 12] + +RFC 7379 Problems of Active-Active Connection October 2014 + + +Authors' Addresses + + Yizhou Li + Huawei Technologies + 101 Software Avenue, + Nanjing 210012 + China + + Phone: +86-25-56625409 + EMail: liyizhou@huawei.com + + + Weiguo Hao + Huawei Technologies + 101 Software Avenue, + Nanjing 210012 + China + + Phone: +86-25-56623144 + EMail: haoweiguo@huawei.com + + + Radia Perlman + EMC + 2010 256th Avenue NE, #200 + Bellevue, WA 98007 + United States + + EMail: Radia@alum.mit.edu + + + Jon Hudson + Brocade + 130 Holger Way + San Jose, CA 95134 + United States + + Phone: +1-408-333-4062 + EMail: jon.hudson@gmail.com + + + Hongjun Zhai + JIT + + EMail: honjun.zhai@tom.com + + + + + + +Li, et al. Informational [Page 13] + |