Routing area S. Hegde
Internet-Draft C. Bowers
Intended status: Informational Juniper Networks, Inc.
Expires: May 3, 2018 S. Litkowski
Orange
October 30, 2017

Node Protection for SR-TE Paths
draft-hegde-spring-node-protection-for-sr-te-paths-02

Abstract

Segment routing supports the creation of explicit paths using adjacency-sids, node-sids, and binding-sids. It is important to provide fast reroute (FRR) mechanisms to respond to failures of links and nodes in the Segment-Routed Traffic-Engineered(SR-TE) path. A point of local repair (PLR) can provide FRR protection against the failure of a link in an SR-TE path by examining only the first (top) label in the SR label stack. In order to protect against the failure of a node, a PLR may need to examine the second label in the stack as well in order to determine SR-TE path beyond the failed node. This document specifies how a PLR can use the first and second label in the label stack describing an SR-TE path to provide protection against node failures.

Requirements Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 3, 2018.

Copyright Notice

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

It is possible for a routing device to completely go out of service abruptly due to power failure, hardware failure or software crashes. Node protection is an important property of the Fast Reroute mechanism. It provides protection against a node failure by rerouting traffic around the failed node. For example, the mechanisms described in Loop Free Alternates [RFC5286] and Remote loop free alternates [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection] can be used to provide node protection to ensure minimal traffic loss after a node failure.

Section 2 describes problems with SR-TE paths and need for a specialized mechanism to provide node protection for the SR-TE paths. Section 3 describes the solution applied to paths built using adjacency-sids, node-sids and binding-sids. Section 3.5 describes the solution applied to egress node protection.

2. Node Failures Along SR-TE Paths

The topology shown in Figure 1. illustrates a example network topology with SPRING enabled on each node.

   Node          Node          Node          Node          Node
   sid:1         sid:2         sid:3         sid:4         sid:5  
   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+
   | R1 |--------| R2 |--------| R3 |--------| R4 |--------| R5 |
   +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+
       \                           \          /
        \ 10                        \ 100    / 60
         \                           \      /
          \   +----+                  +----+   
           +--| R7 |------------------| R8 |
              +----+    30            +----+
             / Node                   Node             Label stack:
            /  sid:7                  sid:8            +------------+
      +----+                          SRGB:            |  1008 (top)|
      | R6 |                          3000-4000        +------------+
      +----+                                           |  3005      |
      Node                                             +------------+
      sid:6
      

Figure 1: Example topology. The segment index for each node is shown in the diagram. All nodes have SRGB = [1000-2000], except for R8 which has SRGB = [3000-4000]. A label stack that represents the path R1->R7->R8->R4->R5 is shown as well.

2.1. Node protection for node-sid explicit paths

Consider an explicit path in the topology in Figure 1 from R1->R5 via R1->R7->R8->R4->R5. This path can be built using the shortest paths from R1-to-R8 and R8-to-R5. The label stack to instantiate this path contains two node-sids 1008 and 3005. The 1008 label will take the packet from R1 to R8 via R7 and get popped. The next label in the stack 3005 will take the packet from R8 to the destination R5 via R4. If the node R8 goes down, it is not possible for R7 to perform FRR without examining the second label in the incoming label stack (3005).

Note that in the absence of a failure, R7 does not need to understand the meaning of the second label (3005) in order to perform normal forwarding. However, in order to support node protection, R7 will need to understand the meaning of label 3005 in order to determine where the packet is headed after R8.

2.2. Node-Protection for Anycast-SIDs

A prefix segment advertised as a node SID may only be advertised by one node in the network. Instead, an anycast prefix segment may be advertised by more than one node. In some situations, one can use anycast SIDs to construct SR-TE paths that are protected against node failure, without the need for the mechanism described in this document.

 
   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+
   | R1 |--------| R2 |--------| R3 |--------| R4 |--------| R5 |
   +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+
       \                           \          / |
        \ 10                        \100   60/  |  
         \                           \      /   | 
          \   +----+    30            +----+    |
           +--| R7 |------------------| R8 |    | 
              +----+                  +----+    |
             /    \                  Anycast    +               
            /      \                 sid:100   /                  
      +----+        \                         /             
      | R6 |         \    40          +----+ /60                            
      +----+          +---------------| R9 |+          Label stack:  
                                      +----+           +------------+
                                     Anycast           |  1100 (top)|
                                     sid:100           +------------+
                                                       |  1005      |
                                                       +------------+
      

Figure 2: Topology illustrating use of anycast-sids to protect against node failures. All nodes have SRGB = [1000-2000].

An example of this is shown in Figure 2. In this example, R8 and R9 advertise an anycast SID of 100. The label stack in this example = [1100, 1005];. The top label (1100) corresponds to the anycast SID advertised by both R8 and R9. In the absence of a failure, the packet sent by R1 with this label stack will follow the path from R1->R5 along R1->R7->R8->R4->R5.

If R7 is performing a per-prefix LFA calculation [RFC5286], then R7 will install a backup next-hop to R9 for this anycast SID, protecting against the failure of the primary next-hop to R8. This backup path does not pass through R8, so it is would not be affected by a complete failure of node R8. As illustrated by this example, for some topologies node-protecting SR-TE paths can constructed through the use of anycast SIDs, as opposed to the mechanism described in this document.

2.3. Node-protection for adj-sid explicit paths

                               Adj-sid:
                               R3-R8:9044

   Node          Node          Node          Node          Node
   sid:1         sid:2         sid:3         sid:4         sid:5  
   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+
   | R1 |--------| R2 |--------| R3 |--------| R4 |--------| R5 |
   +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+
       \                           \          /              |   
        \ 10                        \ 100    / 60            | 10
         \                           \      /                |   
          \   +----+                  +----+               +----+
           +--| R7 |------------------| R8 |---------------| R9 |
              +----+    30            +----+      10       +----+
             / Node                   Node                 Node       
            /  sid:7                  sid:8                sid:9     
      +----+                          SRGB:                           
      | R6 |                          3000-4000        Label stack:  
      +----+                                           +------------+
      Node                            Adj-sids:        |  1003 (top)|
      sid:6                           R8-R4:9054       +------------+
                                                       |  9044      |
                                                       +------------+ 
                                                       |  9054      | 
                                                       +------------+ 
                                                       |  1005      |          	
                                                       +------------+  																			
      

Figure 3: Explicit path using an adjacency sid. All nodes have SRGB = [1000-2000], except for R8 which has SRGB = [3000-4000].

Consider an explicit path from R1->R5 via R1->R2->R3->R8->R4->R5. This path can be built using a combination of node sids and adjacency sids, as shown in Figure 3. The diagram shows shows the label stack needed to instantiate this path, as well as several adjacency sids advertised by nodes involved in this path. When a packet leaving R1 with this label stack reaches R3, the top label is 9044, which will take the packet to R8. The next-next-hop in the path is R4. To provide protection for the failure of node R8, R3 would need to send the the packet to R4 without going through R8. However, the only way R3 can learn that the packet needs to go to the R4 is to examine the next label in the stack, label 9054. Since R3 knows that R8 has advertised label 9054 as the adjacency segment for the link from R8 to R4, R3 knows that a backup path can merge back into the original explicit path at R4.

2.4. Node-protection of binding-sid explicit paths

Binding sids (defined in SR architecture [I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing]) allow the SR-TE path to be built using a hierarchy of sub-paths. The binding sid provides a single label to represent a set of nodes and links. If the node advertising the binding sid goes down, the traffic needs to be protected. The label stack involving the binding-sid contains next label in the stack which corresponds to the end point represented by the binding-sid. The penultimate node of the binding-sid advertiser cannot know the meaning of the next label in the stack.

3. Detailed Solution using Context Tables

3.1. Building Context Tables

[RFC5331] introduced the concept of Context Specific Label Spaces and there are various applications making use of this concept.A context label table on a router represents the Label Forwarding Information Base (LFIB) from the point of view of a particular neighbor . Context tables are built by constructing incoming label mappings advertised by the neighbor and the actions corresponding to those labels. The labels advertised by each node are local to the node and may not be unique across the segment routing domain. The context tables are separate tables built on a per-neighbor basis on every node to ensure they represent LFIBs of a particular neighbor.

When a node requires to protect an SRTE path against the failure of a neighbor N, it MUST create a context table associated to N. This context table MUST be populated with the following segment routing forwarding entries:

The following section illustrates how the context table is constructed to allow the PLR to provide node-protecting paths for the next-next hops in the topology shown in Figure 1 and Figure 3.

3.2. Node protection for node SIDs

Figure 4 shows the routing table entries on R7 corresponding to the node SIDs to reach R1 and R8 for the topology in Figure 1. In the absence of a failure, a packet with a label stack whose top label is 1008 will have its top label popped by R7 (assuming PHP behavior), and R7 will forward the packet to R8. When the interface to R8 is down, the backup next-hop entry is used. R7 will pop the top label of 1008, and use the context table that R7 computed for R8 to evaluate the next label on the stack.

    
    R7's Routing Table (partial) 
    Transits routes for Node SIDs for R1 and R8 
   +=============+=============================================+
   | In label    | Outgoing label action                       | 
   +=============+=============================================+
   | 1001        | Primary: pop, fwd to R1                     |
   |             | Backup: pop, lookup context.r1              |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+
   | 1008        | Primary: pop, fwd to R8                     | 
   |             | Backup: pop, lookup context.r8              |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+

    R7's Context Table for R8 (context.r8, partial)
   +=============+=============================================+
   | In label    | Outgoing label action                       | 
   +=============+=============================================+  
   | 3004        | swap 1004, fwd to R1                        |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+
   | 3005        | swap 1005, fwd to R1                        |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+
   | 3008        | swap 1008, fwd to R1                        |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+       
        

Figure 4: Building node-protecting backup paths for SR-TE paths involving node SIDs

R7 builds context table for R8 using the following process. R7 computes the mapping of incoming label to node-sid that R8 expects to see based on the SRGB advertised by R8. In the example in Figure 1, R7 can determine that R8 interprets in incoming label of 3005 as mapping to the the node SID for R5.

R7 then computes a loop-free backup path to reach R5 which is node-protecting with respect to the failure of R8. In this example, the backup path computed by R7 to reach R5 without passing through R8 can be achieved forwarding the packet to R1 with a top label of 1005, corresponding to the node SID for R5 in the context of R1's SRGB. The loop-free path computation may be based on a mechanism such as LFA, R-LFA, TI-LFA, or constraint based SPF avoiding failure. To populate the context table for R8, R7 maps the out label actions corresponding to the backup path to R5 to the incoming label 3005. This results in the entry for label 3005 showin in context.r8 in Figure 4.

Therefore, when a packet arrives at R7 with label stack = [1008, 3005], and the link from R7 to R8 has recently failed, R7 will use backup next-hop entry for label 1008 in its main routing table. Based on this entry, R7 will pop label 1008, and use context.r8 to lookup the new top label = 3005. R7 will swap label 3005 for 1005 and forward the packet to R1. This will get the packet to R5 on a node protecting backup path.

Note that R7 activates the node-protecting backup path when it detects that the link to R8 has failed. R7 does not know that node R8 has actually failed. However, the node-protecting backup path is computed assuming that the failure of the link to R8 implies that R8 has failed.

3.3. Node protection for ajacency SIDs

This section gives an example of how to constuct node-protecting backup paths when the SR-TE path uses adjacency SIDs. Figure 5 shows some of the routing table entries for R3 corresponding to the sample network shown in Figure 3. When the top label of the label stack is an adjacency SID, the PLR needs to recognize that in order to provide a node-protecting backup path, it needs to pop the top label and examine the next label in the context of the next-hop router identified by the top label adjacency SID. In this example, when R3 is constructing its routing table, it recognizes that label 9044 corresponds to a next-hop of R8, so it installs a backup entry, corresponding to the failure of the link to R8, when pops label 9044, and then examines the new top label in the context of R8.

 
		
    R3's Routing Table (partial) 
    Transit route for Adj SID 
   +=============+=============================================+
   | In label    | Outgoing label action                       | 
   +=============+=============================================+
   | 9044        | Primary: pop, fwd to R8                     |
   |             | Backup: pop, lookup context.r8              |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+


    R3's Context Table for R8 (context.r8, partial)
   +=============+=============================================+
   | In label    | Outgoing label action                       | 
   +=============+=============================================+  
   | 3005        | swap 1005, fwd to R4                        |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+	
   | 9054        | pop, fwd to R4                              |
   +-------------+---------------------------------------------+   
        

Figure 5: Building node-protecting backup paths for SR-TE paths involving adjacency SIDs

R3 constructs its context table for R8 by determining which labels R8 expects to receive to accomplish different forwarding actions. The entry for incoming label 3005 in context.r8 in Figure 5 corresponds to a node SID. This entry is computed using the methods described in Section 3.2

The entry for incoming label 9054 in context.r8 corresponds to an adjacency SID. R3 recognizes that R8 has advertised this adjacency SID for the link from R8 to R4 in Figure 3. So R3 determines the outgoing label action needed to reach R4 without passing through R8. This can be accomplished by popping the label 9054, and forwarding the packet directly on the link from R3 to R4.

3.4. Node protection for binding sids

Figure 6 shows a sample network where R2 advertises a binding sid 2014 for the path R2->R3->R8->R4. This mechanism is very useful in compressing the label stack depth as a sub-path can be represented using a single label. The explicit path R7->R1->R2->R3->R8->R4->R5 can be represented by a 3 label stack as shown in Figure 6. If the node that advertises the binding-sid goes down, protection mechanisms are needed for the binding sid that the node advertised.

                 Binding sid
                 to reach R4: 
                 8014    
				 
   Node          Node          Node          Node          Node
   sid:1         sid:2         sid:3         sid:4         sid:5  
   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+
   | R1 |--------| R2 |--------| R3 |--------| R4 |--------| R5 |
   +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+        +----+
       \                           \          /   
        \ 10                        \ 100    / 60
         \                           \      /   
          \   +----+                  +----+    
           +--| R7 |------------------| R8 |           Label stack
              +----+    30            +----+           for packet fwd 
             / Node                   Node             from R7 to R1
            /  sid:7                  sid:8            +------------+
      +----+                          SRGB:            |  1002 (top)|
      | R6 |                          3000-4000        +------------+
      +----+                                           |  8014      |
      Node                                             +------------+
      sid:6                                            |  1005      |
                                                       +------------+
      

Figure 6: Building node-protecting backup paths for SR-TE paths involving binding SIDs

In the example topology, R7 forwards a packet to R1 with label stack = [1002,8014,1005]. In the absence of a failure, R1 pops the label 1002 (assuming PHP behavior) and forwards the packet with label stack = [8014,1005] to R2. R2 recognizes label 8014 as the binding SID it advertised for a path to reach R4 so it pops the label 8014 and uses some forwarding mechanism to have the packet reach R4 with label stack = [1005].

If node R2 fails, it is up to R1 to figure out where traffic would have been sent by R2, had it reached R2, by looking deeper into the label stack. In this example, R1 recognizes that the second label in the stack corresponds to the binding SID advertised by R2 with R4 as the tail-end of the advertised path. R1 therefore pops label 1002, swaps label 8014 with 1004 (the node SID to reach R4), and forwards the packet to R7.

Note that the PLR (R1 in this example) needs to receive and understand the binding SID advertisement in order to be able to determine the tail-end of the path advertised by the binding SID. This would be the case with binding SIDs advertised using the IGP. If other mechanisms are used for advertising binding SIDs, the PLR may not automatically have access to this information.

3.5. Node protection for edge nodes

The node protection mechanism described in previous sections depends on the assumption that the label below the top label in the label stack are understood in the IGP domain. In the example topology in Figure 7, CE-A and CE-B are customer edge routers receiving services from provider edge routers. The provider edge routers are exchanging service labels via BGP or some other non-IGP mechanism. A packet with label stack = [1005,70099] sent from PE1 to R2 would be forwarded along the path PE1->R2->R3->R4->PE5. Assuming PHP behavior, PE5 receives the packet with the label stack = [70099]. PE5 uses the service label 70099 to send the packet to CE-B with the appropriate service characteristics. If PE5 fails, R4 needs to act as the PLR. However, R4 does not understand the meaning of the service label 70099.

                                        
                                                       Primary PE:
                                                       context 1.1.1.1
                                                       prefix sid: 201
                                                       
                                                         
    Node         Node          Node          Node        Node
    sid:1        sid:2         sid:3         sid:4       sid:5  
    +---+   10   +----+   10   +----+   10   +----+ 10   +---+   +----+
    |PE1|--------| R2 |--------| R3 |--------| R4 |------|PE5|---|CE-A|
    +---+        +----+        +----+        +----+      +---+   +----+
       \                           \          /               \  /     
        \ 10                        \ 100    / 60              \/       
         \                           \      /                  /\      
          \   +----+                  +----+             +---+/  +----+
           +--| R7 |------------------| R8 |-------------|PE9+---|CE-B|
              +----+    30            +----+  10         +---+   +----+
             / Node                   Node               Node       
            /  sid:7                  sid:8              sid:9      
      +----+                                                  
      | R6 |                                           Protector PE:
      +----+                                           context 1.1.1.1
      Node                                             prefix sid: 201
      sid:6                                            binding sid:8002
      
                                 Normal                Protection
                                 label stack           label stack
                                 +------------+        +------------+        
                                 |  1201 (top)|        |  1201 (top)|   
                                 +------------+        +------------+           
                                 |  70099     |        |  8002      |      
                                 +------------+        +------------+ 
                                                       |  70099     |
                                                       +------------+
      

Figure 7: Node Protection for edge nodes

The service mirroring use case is described in [I-D.filsfils-spring-segment-routing-use-cases]. The customer edge (CE) routers are multi-homed to provider edge (PE) routers, and one of the PE's acts in a primary role and the other in protector role. The two PEs advertise a context ip address for each customer site and attaches a prefix-sid to the context. The protector PE advertises a binding sid with M bit set which implies mirroring capability for the context. Protector PE builds the context table for the BGP service labels advertised by the primary PE for the same context. The BGP service is built using a stack of labels with context-sid at the bottom of the label stack.

Each node acting as a PLR with respect to failure of the Primary PE installs a backup routing entry that accomplishes two things. The routes gets the packet to the Protector PE. And it positions the context-label immediately above the service label in the label stack, so that the Protector PE is able to identify the correct context table to interpret the service label.

In the example in Figure 7, R4 makes sure that the packet originally destined for PE5 is forwarded on the interface to R8 with label stack = [1201,8002,70099]. This gets the packet to PE9 with label stack = [8002,70099] (assuming PHP behavior). PE9 then uses the context label of 8002 to identify the context table corresponding to PE5.

4. Security Considerations

TBD

5. IANA Considerations

6. Acknowledgments

7. References

7.1. Normative References

[RFC5286] Atlas, A. and A. Zinin, "Basic Specification for IP Fast Reroute: Loop-Free Alternates", RFC 5286, DOI 10.17487/RFC5286, September 2008.
[RFC5331] Aggarwal, R., Rekhter, Y. and E. Rosen, "MPLS Upstream Label Assignment and Context-Specific Label Space", RFC 5331, DOI 10.17487/RFC5331, August 2008.
[RFC7490] Bryant, S., Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Shand, M. and N. So, "Remote Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) Fast Reroute (FRR)", RFC 7490, DOI 10.17487/RFC7490, April 2015.

7.2. Informative References

[I-D.filsfils-spring-segment-routing-use-cases] Filsfils, C., Francois, P., Previdi, S., Decraene, B., Litkowski, S., Horneffer, M., Milojevic, I., Shakir, R., Ytti, S., Henderickx, W., Tantsura, J., Kini, S. and E. Crabbe, "Segment Routing Use Cases", Internet-Draft draft-filsfils-spring-segment-routing-use-cases-01, October 2014.
[I-D.francois-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa] Francois, P., Bashandy, A., Filsfils, C., Decraene, B. and S. Litkowski, "Abstract", Internet-Draft draft-francois-rtgwg-segment-routing-ti-lfa-04, December 2016.
[I-D.ietf-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection] Sarkar, P., Hegde, S., Bowers, C., Gredler, H. and S. Litkowski, "Remote-LFA Node Protection and Manageability", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-rtgwg-rlfa-node-protection-13, January 2017.
[I-D.ietf-spring-segment-routing] Filsfils, C., Previdi, S., Ginsberg, L., Decraene, B., Litkowski, S. and R. Shakir, "Segment Routing Architecture", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-spring-segment-routing-13, October 2017.
[I-D.minto-rsvp-lsp-egress-fast-protection] Jeganathan, J., Gredler, H. and Y. Shen, "RSVP-TE LSP egress fast-protection", Internet-Draft draft-minto-rsvp-lsp-egress-fast-protection-03, November 2013.
[ISO10589] "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.", Nov 2002.
[RFC1195] Callon, R., "Use of OSI IS-IS for routing in TCP/IP and dual environments", RFC 1195, DOI 10.17487/RFC1195, December 1990.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.
[RFC2328] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, DOI 10.17487/RFC2328, April 1998.
[RFC5340] Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J. and A. Lindem, "OSPF for IPv6", RFC 5340, DOI 10.17487/RFC5340, July 2008.

Authors' Addresses

Shraddha Hegde Juniper Networks, Inc. Exora Business Park Bangalore, KA 560103 India EMail: shraddha@juniper.net
Chris Bowers Juniper Networks, Inc. EMail: cbowers@juniper.net
Stephane Litkowski Orange EMail: stephane.litkowski@orange.com