| ROLL | P. Thubert, Ed. |
| Internet-Draft | J. Pylakutty |
| Intended status: Standards Track | Cisco |
| Expires: December 31, 2015 | June 29, 2015 |
Root initiated routing state in RPL
draft-thubert-dao-projection-00
This document proposes a root-initiated protocol extension to RPL that enables to install a limited amount of downward routes in non-storing mode. This enables loose source routing down the DODAG.
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 http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
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."
This Internet-Draft will expire on December 31, 2015.
Copyright (c) 2015 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.
The Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks [RFC6550] (LLN)(RPL) specification defines a generic Distance Vector protocol that is indeed designed for very low energy consumption and adapted to a variety of LLNs. RPL forms Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graphs (DODAGs) which root often acts as the Border Router to connect the RPL domain to the Internet. The root is responsible to select the RPL Instance that is used to forward a packet coming from the Internet into the RPL domain and set the related RPL information in the packets.
A classical RPL implementation in a very constrained LLN uses the non-storing mode of operation whereby a RPL node indicates a parent-child relationship to the root, using a Destination Advertisement Object (DAO) that is unicast from the node directly to the root, and the root builds a path to a destination down the DODAG by concatenating this information.
------+---------
| Internet
|
+-----+
| | Border Router
| | (RPL Root)
+-----+ ^ | |
| | DAO | ACK |
o o o o | | | Strict
o o o o o o o o o | | | Source
o o o o o o o o o o | | | Route
o o o o o o o o o | | |
o o o o o o o o | v v
o o o o
LLN
Figure 1: RPL non-storing operation
Nodes are not expected to store downward routing state via their children, and the routing operates in strict source routing mode as detailed in An IPv6 Routing Header for Source Routes with RPL [RFC6554]
The non-storing mode of operation (MOP) is largely utilized because networks can get very large and the amount of memory in nodes close to the root may become prohibitive in storing mode. But as a network gets deep, the size of the source routing header that the root must add to all the downward packets may also become an issue as well. In some cases, RPL network form long lines and a limited number of well-targeted routes would enable a loose source routing operation and save packet size, energy, and eventually fragmentation which is highly detrimental to the LLN operation.
This draft proposes an addition whereby the root projects a route through an extended DAO to an arbitrary node down the DODAG, indicating a child or a direct sequence of children via which a certain destination (target) may be reached. The root is expected to use the mechanism optimally and with required parsimony to fit within the device resources, but how the root figures the amount of resources that are available is out of scope.
------+---------
| Internet
|
+-----+
| | Border Router
| | (RPL Root)
+-----+ | ^ |
| | DAO | ACK |
o o o o | | | Loose
o o o o o o o o o | ^ | Source
o o o o o o o o o o | | DAO | Route
o o o o o o o o o | ^ |
o o o o o o o o v | DAO v
o o o o
LLN
Figure 2: Non-Storing with Projected routes
The 6TiSCH architecture [I-D.ietf-6tisch-architecture] leverages the Deterministic Networking Architecture [I-D.finn-detnet-architecture] as one possible model whereby the device resources and capabilities are exposed to an external entity (a Path Computation Element [PCE]), which installs routing states into the network based on some objective functions that reside in that external entity.
Based on non-specified heuristics of usage, path length, and knowledge of device capacity, this draft enables a RPL root to install and maintain a local and temporary storing mode path within the RPL domain, along a selected set of nodes and for a selected duration, thus advantageously modifying the mode of operation of RPL in non-storing mode.
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].
The Terminology used in this document is consistent with and incorporates that described in `Terminology in Low power And Lossy Networks' [RFC7102] and [RFC6550].
Section 6.7 of [RFC6550] specifies Control Message Options (CMO) to be placed in RPL messages such as the DAO message. The RPL Target option indicates a node to be reached and the Transit Information Option specifies a parent that can be used to reach that node.
This specification introduces a new Control Message Option, the Via Information option. One or more Via Information options MUST be preceded by one or more RPL Target options, and the Via options indicate an ordered sequence of hops to reach the target(s), presented in the same order as they would in a routing header.
The Via Information option MAY be present in DAO messages, and its format is as follows:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type = 0x0A | Option Length | Path Sequence | Path Lifetime |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+ +
. .
. Child Address .
. .
+ +
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 1: Eliding the RPLInstanceID
When a RPL domain operates in non-storing Mode of Operation (NS-MOP), only the root possesses routing information about the whole network. A packet that is generated within the domain first reaches the root, which can then apply a source routing information to reach the destination. Similarly, a packet coming from the outside of the domain for a destination that is expected to be in a RPL domain reaches the root.
In NS-MOP, the root, or some associated centralized computation engine, can thus determine the amount of packets that reach a destination in the RPL domain, and thus the amount of energy and bandwidth that is wasted for transmission, between itself and the destination, as well as the risk of fragmentation, any potential delays because of a paths longer than necessary (shorter paths exist that would not traverse the root).
Additionally, the DAG root knows the whole DAG topology, so when the source of a packet is also in the RPL domain, the root can determine the common parent that would have been used in storing mode, and thus the list of nodes in the path between the common parent and the destination. For instance in the below diagram, if the source is 41 and the destination 52, the common parent is the node 22.
------+---------
| Internet
|
+-----+
| | Border Router
| | (RPL Root)
+-----+
| \ \____
/ \ \
o 11 o 12 o 13
/ | / \
o 22 o 23 o 24 o 25
/ \ | \ \
o 31 o 32 o o o 35
/ / | \ | \
o 41 o 42 o o o 45 o 46
| | | | \ |
o 51 o 52 o 53 o o 55 o 56
LLN
Figure 2: Non-Storing with Projected routes
With this draft, the root can install routing states along a segment that is either itself to the destination, or from one or more common parents for a particular source/destination pair towards that destination (in our example, this would be the segment made of nodes 22, 32, 42).
The draft expects that the root has enough information about the capability for each node to store a number of routes, which can be discovered for instance using a Network Management System (NMS) and/or the RPL routing extensions specified in Routing for Path Calculation in LLNs [RFC6551]. Based on that information, the root computes which segment should be routed and which relevant state should be installed in which nodes. The algorithm is out of scope but it is envisaged that the root could compute the ratio between the optimal path (existing path not traversing the root, and the current path), the application SLA for specific flows that could benefit from shorter paths, the energy wasted in the network, local congestion on various links that would benefit from having flows routed along other paths.
This draft introduces a new mode of operation for loose source routing in the LLN, the Non-Storing with Projected routes MOP. With this new MOP, the root sends a unicast DAO message to the last node of the routing segment that must be installed. The DAO message contains the ordered list of hops along the segment as a list of Via Information options that are preceded by one or more RPL Target options to which they relate. Each Via Information option contains a lifetime for which state is to be maintained.
The root sends the DAO directly to the last node in the segment, which is expected to be able to route to the targets on its own.
The last node in the segment may have another information to reach the target(s), such as a connected route or an already installed projected route. If it does not have such a route then the node should lookup the address on the relevant interfaces. If one of the targets cannot be located, the node MUST answer to the root with a negative DAO-ACK listing the target(s) that could not be located (suggested status 10), and continue the process for those targets that could be located if any.
For the targets that could be located, last node in the segment generates a DAO to its loose predecessor in the segment as indicated in the list of Via Information options.
The node strips the last Via Information option which corresponds to self, and uses it as source address for the DAO to the predecessor. The address of the predecessor to be used as destination for the DAO message is found in the now last Via Information option. The predecessor is expected to have a route to the address used as source, either connected, installed previously as another DAO, or from other means.
The predecessor is expected to have a route to the address used as source and that is his successor. If it does not and cannot locate the successor, the predecessor node MUST answer to the root with a negative DAO-ACK indicating the successor that could not be located. The DAO-ACK contains the list of targets that could not be routed to (suggested status 11).
If the predecessor can route to the successor node, then it installs a route to the targets via the successor. If that route is not connected then a recursive lookup will take place to reach the target(s). From there, the node strips the last Via Information option and either answers to the root with a positive DAO-ACK that contains the list of targets that could be routed to, or propagates the DAO to its own predecessor.
A NULL lifetime in the Via Information option along the segment is used to clean up the state.
In the example below, say that there is a lot of traffic to nodes 55 and 56 and the root decides to reduce the size of routing headers to those destinations. The root can first send a DAO to node 45 indicating target 55 and a Via segment (35, 45), as well as another DAO to node 46 indicating target 56 and a Via segment (35, 46). This will save one entry in the routing header on both sides. The root may then send a DAO to node 35 indicating targets 55 and 56 a Via segment (13, 24, 35) to fully optimize that path.
Alternatively, the root may send a DAO to node 45 indicating target 55 and a Via segment (13, 24, 35, 45) and then a DAO to node 46 indicating target 56 and a Via segment (13, 24, 35, 46), indicating the same DAO Sequence.
This draft uses messages that are already present in [RFC6550] with optional secured versions. The same secured versions may be used with this draft, and whatever security is deployed for a given network also applies to the flows in this draft.
This document updates the IANA registry for the Mode of Operation (MOP)
This document updates IANA registry for the RPL Control Message Options
The authors wish to acknowledge JP Vasseur and Patrick Wetterwald for their contributions to the ideas developed here.
| [RFC2119] | Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. |
| [RFC6550] | Winter, T., Thubert, P., Brandt, A., Hui, J., Kelsey, R., Levis, P., Pister, K., Struik, R., Vasseur, JP. and R. Alexander, "RPL: IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks", RFC 6550, March 2012. |
| [RFC6551] | Vasseur, JP., Kim, M., Pister, K., Dejean, N. and D. Barthel, "Routing Metrics Used for Path Calculation in Low-Power and Lossy Networks", RFC 6551, March 2012. |
| [RFC6554] | Hui, J., Vasseur, JP., Culler, D. and V. Manral, "An IPv6 Routing Header for Source Routes with the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL)", RFC 6554, March 2012. |
| [RFC7102] | Vasseur, JP., "Terms Used in Routing for Low-Power and Lossy Networks", RFC 7102, January 2014. |
| [I-D.finn-detnet-architecture] | Finn, N., Thubert, P. and M. Teener, "Deterministic Networking Architecture", Internet-Draft draft-finn-detnet-architecture-01, March 2015. |
| [I-D.ietf-6tisch-architecture] | Thubert, P., "An Architecture for IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-6tisch-architecture-08, May 2015. |
| [PCE] | IETF, "Path Computation Element" |