Congestion and Pre Congestion T. Moncaster Internet-Draft BT Intended status: Standards Track B. Briscoe Expires: November 20, 2009 BT & UCL M. Menth University of Wuerzburg May 19, 2009 Baseline Encoding and Transport of Pre-Congestion Information draft-ietf-pcn-baseline-encoding-04 Status of This Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on November 20, 2009. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Abstract The objective of Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN) is to protect the quality of service (QoS) of inelastic flows within a Diffserv domain. The overall rate of the PCN-traffic is metered on every link in the PCN-domain, and PCN-packets are appropriately marked when certain configured rates are exceeded. The level of marking allows the boundary nodes to make decisions about whether to admit or block a new flow request, and (in abnormal circumstances) whether to terminate some of the existing flows, thereby protecting the QoS of previously admitted flows. This document specifies how such marks are to be encoded into the IP header by re-using the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) codepoints within this controlled domain. The baseline encoding described here provides for only two PCN encoding states, Not-marked and PCN-marked. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Requirements notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4. Encoding two PCN States in IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.1. Valid and Invalid Codepoint Transitions . . . . . . . . . 6 4.2. Rationale for Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.3. PCN-Compatible Diffserv Codepoints . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.3.1. Co-existence of PCN and not-PCN traffic . . . . . . . 8 5. Rules for Experimental Encoding Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6. Backwards Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 11. Comments Solicited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Appendix A. PCN Deployment Considerations (Informational) . . . . 11 A.1. Choice of Suitable DSCPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A.2. Rationale for Using ECT(0) for Not-marked . . . . . . . . 12 Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 1. Introduction The objective of Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN) is to protect the quality of service (QoS) of inelastic flows within a Diffserv domain, in a simple, scalable and robust fashion. The overall rate of the PCN-traffic is metered on every link in the PCN-domain, and PCN- packets are appropriately marked when certain configured rates are exceeded. These configured rates are below the rate of the link thus providing notification before any congestion occurs (hence "pre- congestion notification"). The level of marking allows the boundary nodes to make decisions about whether to admit or block a new flow request, and (in abnormal circumstances) whether to terminate some of the existing flows, thereby protecting the QoS of previously admitted flows. This document specifies how these PCN marks are encoded into the IP header by re-using the bits of the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) field [RFC3168]. It also describes how packets are identified as belonging to a PCN flow. Some deployment models require two PCN encoding states, others require more. The baseline encoding described here only provides for two PCN encoding states. However the encoding can be easily extended to provide more states. Rules for such extensions are given in Section 5. Changes from previous drafts (to be removed by the RFC Editor): From -03 to -04: Major WGLC comments addressed: * Added Section 4.3.1 to clarify why we need the not-PCN codepoint. * Stated that the PCN WG will maintain a list of PCN-compatible DSCPs. This should help avoid inter-operability issues. Also addressed a number of WGLC nits. From -02 to -03: Extensive changes to address comments made by Gorry Fairhurst including: * Abstract re-written. * Clarified throughout that this re-uses the ECN bits in the IP header. Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 * Re-arranged order of terminology section for clarity. * Table 2 replaced with new table and text. * Security considerations re-written. * Appendixes re-written to improve clarity. * Numerous minor nits and language changes throughout. Extensive other minor changes throughout. From -01 to -02: Removed Appendix A and replaced with reference to [ECN-tunnel] Moved Appendix B into main body of text. Changed Appendix C to give deployment advice. Minor changes throughout including checking consistency of capitalisation of defined terms. Clarified that LU was deliberately excluded from encoding. From -00 to -01: Added section on restrictions for extension encoding schemes. Included table in Appendix showing encoding transitions at different PCN nodes. Checked for consistency of terminology. Minor language changes for clarity. Changes from previous filename Filename changed from draft-moncaster-pcn-baseline-encoding. Terminology changed for clarity (PCN-compatible DSCP and PCN- enabled packet). Minor changes throughout. Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 Modified meaning of ECT(1) state to EXP. Moved text relevant to behaviour of nodes into appendix for later transfer to new document on edge behaviours. From draft-moncaster -01 to -02: Minor changes throughout including tightening up language to remain consistent with the PCN Architecture terminology From draft-moncaster -00 to -01: Change of title from "Encoding and Transport of (Pre-)Congestion Information from within a Diffserv Domain to the Egress" Extensive changes to Introduction and abstract. Added a section on the implications of re-using a DSCP. Added appendix listing possible operator scenarios for using this baseline encoding. Minor changes throughout. 2. Requirements notation The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 3. Terminology The following terms are used in this document: o PCN-compatible Diffserv codepoint - a Diffserv codepoint for which the ECN field is used to carry PCN markings rather than [RFC3168] markings. o PCN-marked - codepoint indicating packets that have been marked at a PCN-interior-node using some PCN marking behaviour [PCN-metering-marking]. Abbreviated to PM. o Not-marked - codepoint indicating packets that are PCN-capable, but are not PCN-marked. Abbreviated to NM. o PCN-enabled codepoints - collective term for all NM and PM codepoints. By definition, packets carrying such codepoints are PCN-packets. Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 o not-PCN - packets that are not PCN-enabled. In addition, the document uses the terminology defined in [PCN-architecture]. 4. Encoding two PCN States in IP The PCN encoding states are defined using a combination of the DSCP and ECN fields within the IP header. The baseline PCN encoding closely follows the semantics of ECN [RFC3168]. It allows the encoding of two PCN states: Not-marked and PCN-marked. It also allows for traffic that is not PCN-capable to be marked as such (not- PCN). Given the scarcity of codepoints within the IP header the baseline encoding leaves one codepoint free for experimental use. The following table defines how to encode these states in IP: +---------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+---------+ | ECN codepoint | Not-ECT | ECT(0) (10) | ECT(1) (01) | CE (11) | | | (00) | | | | +---------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+---------+ | DSCP n | not-PCN | NM | EXP | PM | +---------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+---------+ Where DSCP n is a PCN-compatible Diffserv codepoint (see Section 4.3) and EXP means available for Experimental use. N.B. we deliberately reserve this codepoint for experimental use only (and not local use) to prevent future compatability issues. Table 1: Encoding PCN in IP The following rules apply to all PCN traffic: o PCN-traffic MUST be marked with a PCN-compatible Diffserv Codepoint. To conserve DSCPs, Diffserv Codepoints SHOULD be chosen that are already defined for use with admission controlled traffic, such as the Voice-Admit codepoint defined in [Voice-Admit]. Guidelines for mixing traffic-types within a PCN- domain are given in [PCN-metering-marking]. o Any packet that is not-PCN but which shares the same Diffserv codepoint as PCN-enabled traffic MUST have the ECN field of its outermost IP header equal to 00. 4.1. Valid and Invalid Codepoint Transitions A PCN-ingress-node MUST set the Not-marked (10) codepoint on any arriving packet that belongs to a PCN-flow. It MUST set the not-PCN (00) codepoint on all other packets sharing a PCN-compatible Diffserv Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 6] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 codepoint. The only valid codepoint transitions within a PCN-interior-node are from NM to PM (which should occur if either meter indicates a need to PCN-mark a packet [PCN-metering-marking]) and from EXP to PM (which MAY be allowed by some future experimental extensions). The following table gives the full set of valid and invalid codepoint transitions. +-------------------------------------------------+ | Codepoint Out | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | Codepoint in | not-PCN(00) | NM(10) | EXP(01) | PM(11) | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | not-PCN(00) | Valid | Not valid | Not valid | Not valid | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | NM(10) | Not valid | Valid | Not valid | Valid | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | EXP(01)* | Not valid | Not valid | Valid | Valid* | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | PM(11) | Not valid | Not valid | Not valid | Valid | +--------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ * This SHOULD cause an alarm to be raised at a higher layer. The packet MUST be treated as if it carried the NM codepoint. Table 2: Valid and Invalid Codepoint Transitions for PCN-packets at PCN-interior-nodes A PCN-egress-node SHOULD set the not-PCN (00) codepoint on all packets it forwards out of the PCN-domain. The only exception to this is if the PCN-egress-node is certain that revealing other codepoints outside the PCN-domain won't contravene the guidance given in [RFC4774]. 4.2. Rationale for Encoding The exact choice of encoding was dictated by the constraints imposed by existing IETF RFCs, in particular [RFC3168], [RFC4301] and [RFC4774]. One of the tightest constraints was the need for any PCN encoding to survive being tunnelled through either an IP in IP tunnel or an IPsec Tunnel. [ECN-tunnel] explains this in more detail. The main effect of this constraint is that any PCN marking has to carry the 11 codepoint in the ECN field since this is the only codepoint that is guaranteeed to be copied down into the inner header upon decapsulation. An additional constraint is the need to minimise the use of Diffserv codepoints because there is a limited supply of standards track codepoints remaining. Section 4.3 explains how we have minimised this still further by reusing pre-existing Diffserv Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 7] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 codepoint(s) such that non-PCN traffic can still be distinguished from PCN traffic. There are a number of factors that were considered before choosing to set 10 as the NM state instead of 01. These included similarity to ECN, presence of tunnels within the domain, leakage into and out of PCN-domain and incremental deployment (see Appendix A.2). The encoding scheme above seems to meet all these constraints and ends up looking very similar to ECN. This is perhaps not surprising given the similarity in architectural intent between PCN and ECN. 4.3. PCN-Compatible Diffserv Codepoints Equipment complying with the baseline PCN encoding MUST allow PCN to be enabled for certain Diffserv codepoints. This document defines the term "PCN-compatible Diffserv codepoint" for such a DSCP and the PCN working group will compile a list of such DSCPs. To be clear, any packets with such a DSCP will be PCN enabled only if they are within a PCN-domain and have their ECN field set to indicate a codepoint other than not-PCN. Enabling PCN marking behaviour for a specific DSCP disables any other marking behaviour (e.g. enabling PCN disables the default ECN marking behaviour introduced in [RFC3168]). All traffic metering and marking behaviours are discussed in [PCN-metering-marking]. This ensures compliance with the BCP guidance set out in [RFC4774]. 4.3.1. Co-existence of PCN and not-PCN traffic The scarcity of pool 1 DSCPs coupled with the fact that PCN is envisaged as a marking behaviour that could be applied to a number of different DSCPs makes it essential that we provide a not-PCN state. As stated above (and expanded in Appendix A.1) the aim is for PCN to re-use existing DSCPs. Because PCN re-defines the meaning of the ECN field for such DSCPs it is important to allow an operator to still use the DSCP for traffic that isn't PCN-enabled. This is achieved by providing a not-PCN state within the encoding scheme. 5. Rules for Experimental Encoding Schemes Any experimental encoding scheme MUST follow these rules to ensure backward compatibility with this baseline scheme: o The 00 codepoint in the ECN field SHALL indicate not-PCN and MUST NOT be changed to any other codepoint within a PCN-domain. Therefore an ingress node wishing to disable PCN marking for a packet within a PCN-compatible Diffserv Codepoint MUST set the ECN field to 00. Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 8] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 o The 11 codepoint in the ECN field SHALL indicate PCN-marked (though this does not exclude the 01 Experimental codepoint from carrying the same meaning). o Once set, the 11 codepoint in the ECN field MUST NOT be changed to any other codepoint. o Any experimental scheme MUST include details of all valid and invalid codepoint transitions at any PCN nodes. o Any experimental scheme MUST NOT update the meaning of the 00 and 11 codepoints defined above. 6. Backwards Compatibility BCP 124 [RFC4774] gives guidelines for specifying alternative semantics for the ECN field. It sets out a number of factors to be taken into consideration. It also suggests various techniques to allow the co-existence of default ECN and alternative ECN semantics. The baseline encoding specified in this document defines PCN- compatible Diffserv codepoints as no longer supporting the default ECN semantics. As such this document is compatible with BCP 124. It should be noted that this baseline encoding effectively disables end- to-end ECN unless mechanisms are put in place to tunnel such traffic across the PCN-domain. Standard IP-in-IP or IPsec tunnels will always copy the CE codepoint from teh outer header into the inner header in decapsulation (unless the inner packet is not-ECT). If an operator it is essential that any operator wishing to allow ECN to exist end-to-end ensures there are no tunnel end-points within the PCN-domain. 7. IANA Considerations This document makes no direct request to IANA. However this document allows for a set of Diffserv Codepoints to be assigned different ECN semantics within a controlled domain as described in [RFC4774]. A list of such DSCPs will be maintained by the PCN working group. 8. Security Considerations PCN-marking only carries a meaning within the confines of a PCN- domain. Packets wishing to be treated as belonging to a PCN-flow must carry a PCN-compatible DSCP and a PCN-Enabled ECN codepoint. This encoding document is intended to stand independently of the architecture used to determine how specific packets are authorised to be PCN-marked, which will be described in separate documents on PCN- boundary-node behaviour. Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 9] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 This document assumes the PCN-domain to be entirely under the control of a single operator, or a set of operators who trust each other. However future extensions to PCN might include inter-domain versions where trust cannot be assumed between domains. If such schemes are proposed they must ensure that they can operate securely despite the lack of trust but such considerations are beyond the scope of this document. 9. Conclusions This document defines the baseline PCN encoding utilising a combination of a PCN-enabled DSCP and the ECN field in the IP header. This baseline encoding allows the existence of two PCN encoding states, not-Marked and PCN-marked. It also allows for the co- existence of competing traffic within the same DSCP so long as that traffic does not require ECN support within the PCN-domain. The encoding scheme is conformant with [RFC4774]. 10. Acknowledgements This document builds extensively on work done in the PCN working group by Kwok Ho Chan, Georgios Karagiannis, Philip Eardley, Anna Charny, Joe Babiarz and others. Thanks to Ruediger Geib and Gorry Fairhurst for providing detailed comments on this document. 11. Comments Solicited (To be removed by the RFC-Editor.) Comments and questions are encouraged and very welcome. They can be addressed to the IETF congestion and pre-congestion working group mailing list , and/or to the authors. 12. References 12.1. Normative References [PCN-metering-marking] Eardley, P., "Metering and marking behaviour of PCN-nodes", draft-ietf-pcn-marking-behaviour-03 (work in progress), May 2009. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC3168] Ramakrishnan, K., Floyd, S., and D. Black, "The Addition of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP", RFC 3168, Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 10] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 September 2001. [RFC4774] Floyd, S., "Specifying Alternate Semantics for the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Field", BCP 124, RFC 4774, November 2006. 12.2. Informative References [ECN-tunnel] Briscoe, B., "Tunnelling of Explicit Congestion Notification", draft-ietf-tsvwg-ecn-tunnel-02 (work in progress), March 2009. [PCN-architecture] Eardley, P., "Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN) Architecture", draft-ietf-pcn-architecture-11 (work in progress), April 2009. [RFC3540] Spring, N., Wetherall, D., and D. Ely, "Robust Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Signaling with Nonces", RFC 3540, June 2003. [RFC4301] Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol", RFC 4301, December 2005. [RFC5127] Chan, K., Babiarz, J., and F. Baker, "Aggregation of DiffServ Service Classes", RFC 5127, February 2008. [Voice-Admit] Baker, F., Polk, J., and M. Dolly, "DSCP for Capacity-Admitted Traffic", draft-ietf-tsvwg-admitted-realtime-dscp-05 (work in progress), November 2008. Appendix A. PCN Deployment Considerations (Informational) A.1. Choice of Suitable DSCPs The PCN Working Group chose not to define a single DSCP for use with PCN for several reasons. Firstly the PCN mechanism is applicable to a variety of different traffic classes. Secondly standards track DSCPs are in increasingly short supply. Thirdly PCN should be seen as being essentially a marking behaviour similar to ECN but intended for inelastic traffic. The choice of which DSCP is most suitable for a given PCN-domain is dependant on the nature of the traffic entering Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 11] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 that domain and the link rates of all the links making up that domain. In PCN-domains with uniformly high link rates, the appropriate DSCPs would currently be those for the Real Time Traffic Class [RFC5127]. If the PCN domain includes lower speed links it would also be appropriate to use the DSCPs of the other traffic classes that [Voice-Admit] defines for use with admission control, such as the three video classes CS4, CS3 and AF4 and the Admitted Telephony Class. The PCN working group will maintain a list of PCN- compatible Diffserv Codepoints. A.2. Rationale for Using ECT(0) for Not-marked The choice of which ECT codepoint to use for the Not-marked state was based on the following considerations: o [RFC3168] full functionality tunnel within the PCN-domain: Either ECT is safe. o Leakage of traffic into PCN-domain: because of the lack of take-up of the ECN nonce [RFC3540], leakage of ECT(1) is less likely to occur so might be considered safer. o Leakage of traffic out of PCN-domain: Either ECT is equally unsafe (since this would incorrectly indicate the traffic was ECN-capable outside the controlled PCN-domain). o Incremental deployment: Either codepoint is suitable providing that the codepoints are used consistently. o Conceptual consistency with other schemes: ECT(0) is conceptually consistent with [RFC3168]. Overall this seemed to suggest ECT(0) was most appropriate to use. Authors' Addresses Toby Moncaster BT B54/70, Adastral Park Martlesham Heath Ipswich IP5 3RE UK Phone: +44 1473 648734 EMail: toby.moncaster@bt.com Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 12] Internet-Draft Baseline PCN Encoding May 2009 Bob Briscoe BT & UCL B54/77, Adastral Park Martlesham Heath Ipswich IP5 3RE UK Phone: +44 1473 645196 EMail: bob.briscoe@bt.com Michael Menth University of Wuerzburg room B206, Institute of Computer Science Am Hubland Wuerzburg D-97074 Germany Phone: +49 931 888 6644 EMail: menth@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de Moncaster, et al. Expires November 20, 2009 [Page 13]