Internet DRAFT - draft-reddy-mmusic-ice-best-interface-pcp

draft-reddy-mmusic-ice-best-interface-pcp






MMUSIC                                                          T. Reddy
Internet-Draft                                                   D. Wing
Intended status: Informational                               B. VerSteeg
Expires: April 13, 2014                                         R. Penno
                                                                   Cisco
                                                                V. Singh
                                                        Aalto University
                                                        October 10, 2013


Improving ICE Interface Selection Using Port Control Protocol (PCP) Flow
                               Extension
              draft-reddy-mmusic-ice-best-interface-pcp-00

Abstract

   A host with multiple interfaces needs to choose the best interface
   for communication.  Oftentimes, this decision is based on a static
   configuration and does not consider the link characteristics of that
   interface, which may affect the user experience.

   This document describes a mechanism for an endpoint to query the link
   characteristics from the access router (the router at the other end
   of the endpoint's access link) using a Port Control Protocol (PCP)
   Flow Extension.  This information influences endpoint's Interactive
   Connectivity Establishment (ICE) candidate selection algorithm.

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
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 13, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.



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   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
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   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
   2.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Algorithm overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     3.1.  Changed Link Quality  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  Multiple Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     4.1.  Multiple Interfaces for media streams . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     4.2.  Availability of New Interfaces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Appendix A.   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     A.1.  Delay Factor in Discovering the Link Characteristics  . . . 7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7






















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1.  Introduction

   ICE [RFC5245] uses a prioritization formula to perform connectivity
   checks, in which the most preferred address pairs are tested first
   and when a sufficiently good pair is discovered, the ICE connectivity
   tests are stopped.  ICE prefers address pairs in the following order:
   transport address directly attached to the endpoint's network
   interface (host candidate), transport address on the public side of a
   NAT (server reflexive candidate), and finally, transport address that
   are allocated on a media relay (relayed candidate).  This approach
   works well for an endpoint with a single interface, but is too
   simplistic for endpoints with multiple interfaces.  The network
   interfaces may have different link characteristics, but that will not
   be known without the awareness of the upstream and downstream
   characteristics of the access link.

   In this document, an ICE agent [RFC5245] uses PCP Flow Extension
   [I-D.wing-pcp-flowdata] to determine the link characteristics of the
   host's interfaces, which influence the ICE candidate priority.

   As this document explains the interworking of ICE and Port Control
   Protocol (PCP) Flow Extensions, it is beneficial to first read the
   Overview of ICE (Section 2 of ICE [RFC5245]) and PCP Flowdata Option
   [I-D.wing-pcp-flowdata].  Additionally, PCP for WebRTC
   [I-D.penno-rtcweb-pcp] describes the problems with traversing NATs
   and firewalls, current techniques used to solve them and the PCP
   solution in these scenarios.


2.  Notational Conventions

   This note uses terminology defined in ICE [RFC5245] and PCP
   [RFC6887].


3.  Algorithm overview

   The proposed algorithm is backward compatible with existing
   implementations, and does not require any changes other than to the
   selection of candidate priority.

   When an endpoint first joins a network, it determines if the network
   supports PCP Flow Extensions by following the procedures described in
   [I-D.wing-pcp-flowdata].  Basically, the endpoint sends a PCP Flow
   Extension probe packet, the response to which provides coarse
   information on the link capabilities.  After confirming that PCP Flow
   Extensions are supported on that network interface, the ICE agent can
   use PCP Flow Extensions on that interface (rather than STUN).



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   When a media session needs to be established, and the user and
   operator controlled policies on an endpoint permit more than one
   interface for a media session, the ICE agent uses PCP Flow Extensions
   to (a) obtain a mapping from its NAT or firewall and (b) determine
   the characteristics of the link.  After receiving the PCP Flow
   Extension responses from its various interfaces, the ICE agent sorts
   the ICE candidates according to the link capacity characteristics.
   ICE candidates from the interface which best fulfills the desired
   flow characteristics is assigned the highest priority and the best
   suited interface should be used to communicate with the TURN server
   to learn the relayed candidate address.

   The ICE agent calculates the priorities of host and server-reflexive
   candidates based on the above steps and signals these candidates in
   offer or answer to the remote peer.  After the offer and answer are
   exchanged, the participating ICE agents begin pairing the candidates,
   ordering them into check lists to start the ICE connectivity check
   phase and eventually select the pair of candidates that will be used
   for real-time communication.

3.1.  Changed Link Quality

   It is possible that the characteristics of a link may change over
   time, and therefore the ICE agent may want to move the media to a
   different interface.  For example, if a competing high-bandwidth flow
   starts or finishes its data transmission; the DSL line rate might
   have improved (or degraded); the link capacity may have been
   dynamically increased (or decreased).  When link quality changes in
   such a fashion, the PCP Flow Extensions sends a PCP message to the
   endpoint.  Upon receiving the message, the ICE agent may decide to
   move the active flow to a more suitable interface and performs ICE
   restart to trigger the switch over of the media streams to the new
   interface.

   For ICE local relayed candidates, the ICE agent can switch to the
   more suitable interface by refreshing its allocation with the TURN
   server using the procedures explained in section 5 of Mobility using
   TURN [I-D.wing-mmusic-ice-mobility].  Thus reusing the local relayed
   candidate on a different interface even if the endpoint IP address
   changes.  Therefore, the ICE agent can switch over local relayed
   candidate to the most suited interface that meets the requirements of
   the media stream.  This way, even without informing the SIP server
   and remote peer, ICE agent can switch over a local relayed candidate
   to the most suited interface which meets the requested flow
   characteristics.






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4.  Multiple Interfaces

   If multiple interfaces are available, the ICE agent can use PCP Flow
   Extensions [I-D.wing-pcp-flowdata] to determine the best path.  The
   advantage is PCP can be used to select the most suitable interface
   for the media streams.  When an endpoint has multiple interfaces (for
   example 3G, 4G, WiFi, VPN, etc.), an ICE agent can choose the
   interfaces for media streams according to the path characteristics,
   as discussed in the previous section.

4.1.  Multiple Interfaces for media streams

   If the requested flow characteristics for the media streams cannot be
   handled by a single interface but by multiple interfaces then the ICE
   agent performs the following steps:

   o  ICE agent based on the ICE connectivity results could select
      multiple interfaces for the media session.  For example, the ICE
      agent selects to send the audio stream over the WiFi access point
      because it offers (via PCP Flow Extensions) low delay, low packet
      loss and average capacity of 120 Kbps, but for the video stream it
      selects the 3G interface because it offers medium delay, medium
      packet loss and average capacity of 500Kbps.

   o  Alternatively, the ICE agent on a mobile device may also want to
      select the best suited interface among all the available
      interfaces even if it does not serve the requested flow
      characteristics for all the media streams, so that other
      interfaces can be turned off to increase the battery life of
      cellular connected devices such as smartphones or tablets.

4.2.  Availability of New Interfaces

   If the available interfaces do not meet the requested flow
   characteristics then ICE agent can either proceed as usual using the
   "Recommended Formula" explained in Section 4.1.2.1 of [RFC5245] to
   prioritize the candidates or use the Happy Eyeballs Extension for ICE
   algorithm proposed in [I-D.reddy-mmusic-ice-happy-eyeballs] for dual-
   stack endpoint.  When new interfaces become available then ICE agent
   can use PCP Flow Extension to find if the newly available interfaces
   meet the flow characteristics.  When a PCP response is received from
   at least one of the new interfaces and if it meets the requirements,
   the endpoint can re-connect to the SIP proxy using the new interface.
   The endpoint uses the candidates indicated in the previous PCP
   response, it exchanges updated offer/answer to trigger ICE restart.
   Once the ICE processing reaches the "Completed state", the ICE
   endpoint can successfully switch the media session over to the new
   interface.  The interface initially used for communication can now be



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   turned off without disrupting communications.


5.  IANA Considerations

   None.


6.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations discussed in [RFC6887] are to be taken into
   account.


7.  Acknowledgements

   Authors would like to thank Anca Zamfir for comments and review.


8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.wing-pcp-flowdata]
              Wing, D., Penno, R., and T. Reddy, "PCP Flowdata Option",
              draft-wing-pcp-flowdata-00 (work in progress), July 2013.

   [RFC5245]  Rosenberg, J., "Interactive Connectivity Establishment
              (ICE): A Protocol for Network Address Translator (NAT)
              Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols", RFC 5245,
              April 2010.

   [RFC6887]  Wing, D., Cheshire, S., Boucadair, M., Penno, R., and P.
              Selkirk, "Port Control Protocol (PCP)", RFC 6887,
              April 2013.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.penno-rtcweb-pcp]
              Penno, R., Reddy, T., Wing, D., and M. Boucadair, "PCP
              Considerations for WebRTC Usage",
              draft-penno-rtcweb-pcp-00 (work in progress), May 2013.

   [I-D.reddy-mmusic-ice-happy-eyeballs]
              Reddy, T., Patil, P., and D. Wing, "Happy Eyeballs
              Extension for ICE",
              draft-reddy-mmusic-ice-happy-eyeballs-03 (work in
              progress), October 2013.



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   [I-D.wing-mmusic-ice-mobility]
              Wing, D., Reddy, T., Patil, P., and P. Martinsen,
              "Mobility with ICE (MICE)",
              draft-wing-mmusic-ice-mobility-05 (work in progress),
              September 2013.


Appendix A.

A.1.  Delay Factor in Discovering the Link Characteristics

   Some concern has been expressed, that discovering the link
   characteristics may consume more time than using STUN.  However, STUN
   will actually take more time than learning link characteristics,
   because a STUN request/response traverses across more routers than a
   PCP Flow Extension request.


Authors' Addresses

   Tirumaleswar Reddy
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   Cessna Business Park, Varthur Hobli
   Sarjapur Marathalli Outer Ring Road
   Bangalore, Karnataka  560103
   India

   Email: tireddy@cisco.com


   Dan Wing
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   170 West Tasman Drive
   San Jose, California  95134
   USA

   Email: dwing@cisco.com


   Bill VerSteeg
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   5030 Sugarloaf Parkway
   Lawrenceville  30044
   USA

   Email: billvs@cisco.com





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   Reinaldo Penno
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   170 West Tasman Drive
   San Jose,   95134
   USA

   Phone:
   Email: repenno@cisco.com
   URI:


   Varun Singh
   Aalto University
   School of Electrical Engineering
   Otakaari 5 A
   Espoo, FIN  02150
   Finland

   Email: varun.singh@iki.fi
   URI:   http://www.netlab.tkk.fi/~varun/































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