Routing In Fat Trees (rift) Internet Drafts


      
 RIFT: Routing in Fat Trees
 
 draft-ietf-rift-rift-24.txt
 Date: 23/05/2024
 Authors: Tony Przygienda, Jordan Head, Alankar Sharma, Pascal Thubert, Bruno Rijsman, Dmitry Afanasiev
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
This document defines a specialized, dynamic routing protocol for Clos, fat tree, and variants thereof. These topologies were initially used within crossbar interconnects, and consequently router and switch backplanes, but their characteristics make them ideal for constructing IP fabrics as well. The protocol specified by this document is optimized toward the minimization of control plane state to support very large substrates as well as the minimization of configuration and operational complexity to allow for simplified deployment of said topologies.
 YANG Data Model for Routing in Fat Trees (RIFT)
 
 draft-ietf-rift-yang-17.txt
 Date: 17/08/2024
 Authors: Zheng Zhang, Yuehua Wei, Shaowen Ma, Xufeng Liu, Bruno Rijsman
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
This document defines a YANG data model for the configuration and management of Routing in Fat Trees (RIFT) Protocol. The model is based on YANG 1.1 as defined in RFC7950 and conforms to the Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA) as described in RFC8342.
 RIFT Applicability and Operational Considerations
 
 draft-ietf-rift-applicability-17.txt
 Date: 17/06/2024
 Authors: Yuehua Wei, Zheng Zhang, Dmitry Afanasiev, Pascal Thubert, Tony Przygienda
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
This document discusses the properties, applicability and operational considerations of RIFT in different network scenarios. It intends to provide a rough guide how RIFT can be deployed to simplify routing operations in Clos topologies and their variations.
 RIFT Auto-EVPN
 
 draft-ietf-rift-auto-evpn-06.txt
 Date: 08/07/2024
 Authors: Jordan Head, Tony Przygienda, Wen Lin
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
This document specifies procedures that allow an EVPN overlay to be fully and automatically provisioned when using RIFT as underlay by leveraging RIFT's no-touch ZTP architecture.
 SRIFT: Segment Routing in Fat Trees
 
 draft-ietf-rift-sr-01.txt
 Date: 02/07/2024
 Authors: Zhaohui Zhang, Jeff Tantsura, Jordan Head
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
This document specifies signaling procedures for Segment Routing in RIFT. Each node's loopback address, Segment Routing Global Block (SRGB) and Node Segment Identifier (Node-SID), which are typically assigned by a configuration management system and distibuted by routing protocols, are distributed southbound from the Top Of Fabric (TOF) nodes via RIFT's Key-Value distribution mechanism, so that each node can compute how to reach a segment represented by the active SID in a packet. An SR controller signals SR policies to ingress nodes so that they can send packets with a desired segment list to steer traffic.
 RIFT Key/Value TIE Structure and Processing
 
 draft-ietf-rift-kv-tie-structure-and-processing-01.txt
 Date: 08/07/2024
 Authors: Jordan Head, Tony Przygienda
 Working Group: Routing In Fat Trees (rift)
The RIFT (Routing in Fat-Trees) protocol allows for key/value pairs to be advertised within Key-Value Topology Information Elements (KV- TIEs). The data contained within these KV-TIEs can be used for any imaginable purpose. This document defines the various Key-Types (i.e. Well-Known, OUI, and Experimental) and a method to structure corresponding values.


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Routing In Fat Trees (rift)

WG Name Routing In Fat Trees
Acronym rift
Area Routing Area (rtg)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-rift-02 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources Wiki, Zulip steam
Personnel Chairs Jeff Tantsura, Zhaohui (Jeffrey) Zhang
Area Director Jim Guichard
Mailing list Address rift@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/rift
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rift
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/rift

Charter for Working Group

Data Centers have experienced substantial growth, commonly hosting tens of thousands or more end points in a single network. The unique characteristics of data center networks driven by their topologies (both traditional and emerging), traffic patterns, requirements for rapid restoration, and a need for minimal human intervention, necessitates specialized routing solutions. The adoption of Clos and Fat-Tree topologies has become prevalent in data center networks, particularly in centralized architectures designed to deliver computation and storage services efficiently.

The Routing in Fat Trees (RIFT) protocol has been developed to meet the specific routing needs of Clos and Fat-Tree networks. RIFT employs a hybrid approach, combining elements of both link-state and distance-vector routing techniques, which can be colloquially described as 'link-state towards the spine and distance vector towards the leaves'. This approach is optimized for networks characterized by regular topologies with a high degree of connectivity, defined directionality, and large scale.

The RIFT Working Group has completed the base protocol specification. Building upon this foundation, the Working Group will continue to develop standards-track specifications in the following areas:

  • Key-Value Data Store: Development of a key-value data store to enhance RIFT protocol functionality.
  • Policy Guided Prefix: Specification of mechanisms to enable policy-guided prefix distribution.
  • MPLS: RIFT extensions to support the MPLS data plane.
  • Segment Routing: RIFT extensions to support Segment Routing, enhancing routing flexibility and scalability.
  • Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) integration: Leveraging RIFT ZTP procedures as a management plane to carry attributes that enable the provisioning and instantiation of other protocols, including:
    • EVPN: Distribution of Ethernet VPN (EVPN) attributes, such as Virtual Network Identifiers (VNIs), Route Targets (RTs), and Route Distinguishers (RDs), as defined in RFC7342.
    • IS-IS: Distribution of Flood Reflection attributes, such as Flood Reflection Cluster IDs, and related IS-IS attributes, as defined in RFC9377.
  • Multicast: Extensions to RIFT to support the construction of multicast trees within the network.
  • Leaf Ring Topologies: Extensions to RIFT to facilitate the creation and management of leaf ring topologies.
  • Dragonfly Topologies: Extensions to RIFT to support the construction of Top-of-Fabric (ToF) ring topologies.

The goal of the RIFT Working Group is to ensure that the RIFT protocol evolves in a manner that meets the current and future needs of large-scale, highly connected data center networks, with a focus on efficiency and scalability.

The RIFT Working Group will cooperate with other Working Groups as necessary. Key interactions include (but are not limited to):

  • SPRING WG: Close cooperation on RIFT protocol extensions, new requirements, and operational considerations.
  • BESS WG: Cooperation on RIFT-based protocol extensions for BGP-enabled services, new service transport requirements, and functional considerations.
  • LSR WG: Cooperation on RIFT-based LSR extensions, new RIFT-based attributes and encodings, and functional considerations.
  • PIM WG: Cooperation on RIFT-based PIM extensions, new RIFT-based attributes and encodings, and functional considerations.
  • BIER WG: Cooperation on RIFT-based BIER protocol extensions, new RIFT-based attributes and encodings, and functional considerations.

The chairs will ensure that Working Group Last Call (WGLC) and Adoption notices are cross posted to the relevant WGs.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Dec 2025 Submit RIFT Multicast specification to IESG for publication
Apr 2025 Submit RIFT Segment Routing MPLS specification to IESG for publication
Apr 2025 Submit RIFT for ISIS flood reflection specification to IESG for publication
Dec 2024 Submit RIFT Key-Value Data Store specification to IESG for publication
Dec 2024 Submit RIFT Auto-EVPN specification to IESG for publication