Internet DRAFT - draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6

draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6







Internet Engineering Task Force                                 M. Smith
Internet-Draft                                           October 1, 2015
Intended status: Informational
Expires: April 3, 2016


           Enhancing Virtual Network Encapsulation with IPv6
                  draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-07

Abstract

   A variety of network virtualization over layer 3 methods are
   currently being developed and deployed.  These methods treat IPv4 and
   IPv6 as equivalent underlay network technologies.  This memo suggests
   how IPv6's additional capabilities may be used to enhance Virtual
   Network encapsulation over an IPv6 Underlay Network.

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 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 April 3, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   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
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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.



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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Carrying the Virtual Network Context ID in the Flow Label
       Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Using /64s to Identify NVEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Carrying Tenant Packet Address and Other Information in IIDs    6
     5.1.  Carrying Tenant Packet Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.2.  Carrying Other Tenant Packet Information  . . . . . . . .   8
     5.3.  Indicating IID Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Permanent Virtual Network Multicast Group Identifier  . . . .   9
   7.  Per-Virtual Network Multicast Group Addresses . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  Summary of Methods and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   11. Change Log [RFC Editor please remove] . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   12. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     12.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     12.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

1.  Introduction

   A variety of network virtualization over layer 3 methods are
   currently being developed and deployed
   [RFC7348][RFC7637][I-D.davie-stt].  Each of these methods treat both
   IPv4 and IPv6 as functionally equivalent underlay network
   technologies, with both providing general unicast and multicast
   capabilities.

   IPv6 provides a number of capabilities not available in IPv4.  This
   memo suggests how they may be used to enhance the encapsulation of
   Virtual Network traffic when forwarded over an IPv6 Underlay Network.

   This memo does not consider how Virtual Network signalling protocols
   could be enhanced using IPv6.  However, it may be possible to use
   techniques similar to those suggested in this memo to enhance these
   signalling protocols when being carried over IPv6.

2.  Terminology

   This memo adopts the terminology described in [RFC7365], summarised
   and supplemented below.

   Tenant System - a device operated by the user of the Virtual Network
   service.  It may be a host or a network element such as a router, and
   is not aware of the Virtual Network service.



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   IPv6 Underlay Network - the IPv6 network across which Tenant Packets
   are carried, encapsulated within IPv6, and possibly also within some
   other network virtualization header.  It is assumed by this memo that
   this network supports both unicast and multicast IPv6 packet
   forwarding services.

   Tenant Packet - a packet originated by a Tenant System, tunnelled
   within IPv6 across the IPv6 Underlay Network.  The most common Tenant
   Packet is likely to be an Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 frame [IEEE8023],
   although other link-layer frame types, and other network layer
   packets such as IPv6 or IPv4 packets could be Tenant Packets.

   Virtual Network - a single conceptual network interconnecting Tenant
   Systems, representing a single link or subnetwork.  The IPv6 Underlay
   Network provides packet forwarding service for some or all of the
   Virtual Network.

   Virtual Network Context Identifier (Virtual Network Context ID) - an
   identifier used to specify the Virtual Network a Tenant Packet
   belongs to while the packet is carried over the IPv6 Underlay
   Network.

   Network Virtualization Edge (NVE) - a device or function within a
   device that performs IPv6 encapsulation of Tenant Packets on ingress
   to the IPv6 Underlay Network and IPv6 decapsulation of Tenant Packets
   on egress from the IPv6 Underlay Network.  Other network
   virtualization related headers may be added or removed during the
   IPv6 encapsulation or decapsulation procedure.

3.  Carrying the Virtual Network Context ID in the Flow Label Field

   The IPv6 Flow Label field is a 20 bit field in a fixed location early
   in the IPv6 header [RFC2460][RFC6437].  It is intended to be used to
   identify flows between a pair of source and destination IPv6
   addresses, as an alternative to identifying flows using transport
   layer header port numbers [RFC0793][RFC0768][RFC4960][RFC4340], which
   may be located deeper within the IPv6 packet, perhaps following a
   number of other IPv6 extension headers, or hidden by IPsec [RFC4301].

   One of the expected and encouraged uses of the Flow Label field is as
   an input into link or path selection when using stateless load
   balancing of traffic across multiple links [RFC6436][RFC6438], using
   methods such as Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) [RFC2991] or Link
   Aggregation Groups (LAGs) [IEEE8021AX].

   The Flow Label field could be used to carry a whole or partial copy
   of the Virtual Network Context ID, providing it as an input into a




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   stateless load balancing method, operating within the IPv6 Underlay
   Network.

   Alternatively, the Flow Label field could carry the Virtual Network
   Context ID itself, providing support for up to 1 Million Virtual
   Networks.  This would reduce the encapsulation overhead of tunnelling
   over IPv6.

   A drawback of using the Flow Label to carry the Virtual Network
   Context ID is that it is a 'best effort' field, meaning that it may
   be changed as it transits the network without any protection by an
   end-to-end checksum, including when other fields in the IPv6 header
   are protected by the IPsec Authentication Header [RFC4302].  A change
   of the Flow Label field value when used to carry the Virtual Network
   Context ID would mean the Tenant Packet would either be delivered to
   the incorrect Virtual Network or would be dropped because the
   specified Virtual Network does not exist.  Incorrect Virtual Network
   delivery would likely be unacceptable to the Virtual Network's user
   for security reasons.

   This could be resolved by protecting the integrity of the Flow Label
   field value using a checksum carried in some other Virtual Network
   related header, and validating that checksum when the IPv6 tunnelling
   header is removed, before delivery to the corresponding Virtual
   Network.

   [RFC6437] advises that Flow Label values should be uniformly
   distributed.  If the Flow Label field carries the Virtual Network
   Context IDs, then ideally they should also be uniformly distributed.
   This would be easier to achieve if Virtual Network Context IDs are
   generated algorithmically, rather than chosen by a human operator.
   Note that some of the load distribution mechanisms described in
   [RFC7424] may reduce the importance of uniform distribution of Flow
   Label values when used in a closed network, such as the IPv6 Underlay
   Network.

   [RFC6437] also advises that forwarding nodes must not depend upon
   uniform distribution of Flow Label values.  When used as a hash key
   for load distribution, the Flow Label bits must be combined with
   other sources within the packet.  If a 3-tuple of Flow Label, Source
   and Destination Addresses fields are used as hash keys, the method of
   carrying Tenant Packet addresses in the IPv6 Underlay Network packet
   source and destination address IIDs, or source address IIDs,
   described later in Section 5, should result in a constant hash value
   across a flow of IPv6 Underlay Network packets between a pair of
   Tenant Systems, or one source Tenant System and a single broadcast or
   multicast destination, within the same Virtual Network.




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   A Flow Label value of zero has been deemed to mean that the Flow
   Label value has not been set [RFC6437], and can therefore be changed
   as the the IPv6 packet traverses the network.  This would preclude
   the use of the Flow Label field to carry a Virtual Network Context ID
   value of zero, as if it was changed by an intermediary device it
   would fail the Flow Label integrity check using checksum information
   carried by some other Virtual Network header.

   Carrying Virtual Network Context ID information in the Flow Label
   field is also likely to assist with IPv6 Underlay Network
   troubleshooting and facilitate traffic analysis using IPv6 tools that
   can analyse the Flow Label field.

4.  Using /64s to Identify NVEs

   Networks operating IPv6 have large numbers of /64 subnets; at a
   minimum, even the smallest end site is expected to be assigned a /56
   or 256 /64s [RFC6177], where as a single ULA /48 prefix [RFC4193]
   provides more than 65 000 /64 subnets.

   Instead of identifying an NVE in the IPv6 Underlay Network using a
   single unicast IPv6 address, an NVE could be identified using a /64
   prefix.  An NVE would then announce its /64 prefix into the IPv6
   Underlay Network's routing domain, using an IGP or EGP such as OSPFv3
   [RFC5340] or BGP [RFC4271][I-D.ietf-rtgwg-bgp-routing-large-dc].
   This would provide reachability and availability information to other
   NVEs, and support multihoming and load sharing when an NVE has
   multiple attachments to the IPv6 Underlay Network.  Automated
   discovery of NVEs could be facilitated by attaching a widely known
   identifier to the NVE /64 route announcements, using mechanisms such
   as OSPFv3's External Route Tag or a BGP community [RFC1997][RFC5701].

   The NVE identifying /64 would be separate from the IPv6 prefixes and
   addresses used to logically or physically attach the NVE to the IPv6
   Underlay Network.  Notionally, the NVE /64 could be considered both
   internal to the NVE, and at least one hop away from the NVE's IPv6
   Underlay Network attachment prefixes.  Configuration and monitoring
   of the Network Virtualization encapsulation/decapsulation function
   could be exposed to the NVE's operator using a logical or virtual
   interface (commonly known as a "tunnel" interface) for the NVE's /64
   (with an NVE that has multiple Network Virtualization /64s having
   multiple corresponding logical or virtual interfaces).  This could
   include exposing Virtual Network encapsulation/decapsulation
   performance and other metrics via SNMP variables, including interface
   variables [RFC1213][RFC1229].

   As the NVEs are now identified by /64 prefixes, for unicast Tenant
   Packets, the source and destination IPv6 addresses used for the IPv6



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   encapsulation can be the Subnet-Router anycast address, the result of
   the NVE /64 prefix and an IID portion value of all zeros [RFC4291].
   For multicast traffic, the source used can be the Subnet-Router
   anycast address, while the destination address used is an IPv6
   multicast address used to reach the appropriate NVEs.

   [RFC7421] reports that some IPv6 routers provide optimal forwarding
   performance for /64 or shorter prefixes.  Assigning /64s to NVEs
   would gain the best performance from this class of IPv6 routers when
   carrying traffic across the IPv6 Underlay Network.

5.  Carrying Tenant Packet Address and Other Information in IIDs

   If /64s are used to identify NVEs, then the IPv6 Underlay Network's
   packets' 8 octet IID portions in their source and possibly
   destination addresses can be used to carry Tenant Packet address
   information and possibly other information.  This is instead of
   setting the IID portions to the Subnet-Router anycast address IID
   suggested in Section 4.

   Carrying Tenant Packet addresses and other fields in the address IID
   portions of the IPv6 Underlay Network header should improve load
   balancing, and would expose this information to IPv6 traffic analysis
   tools such as IPFIX [RFC7011][RFC7015], providing the IPv6 Underlay
   Network operator with information about individual Tenant Systems and
   the traffic volumes between them.

5.1.  Carrying Tenant Packet Addresses

   During encapsulation in IPv6, upon ingress to the IPv6 Underlay
   Network, Tenant Packet addresses could be copied into the IID
   portions of the IPv6 address fields.  For unicast Tenant Packets, the
   source and destination addresses are copied into the corresponding
   IPv6 Underlay Packet address IID portions.  For multicast Tenant
   Packets, the source address is copied into the IPv6 Underlay Packet
   source address IID portion, while the destination address is an
   appropriate IPv6 multicast address.

   As the IPv6 source and destination address fields can be used as
   inputs for stateless load balancing across the IPv6 Underlay Network,
   the entropy in the IID portions of the address, as a result of being
   Tenant Packet address values, should improve the effectiveness of
   load balancing, while preserving in-order delivery of Tenant Packets
   between pairs of Tenant Systems.  This will also assist with flow
   recognition when mechanisms described in [RFC7424] are used in the
   IPv6 Underlay Network.





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   For most types of Tenant Packet addresses, the 8 octet IPv6 IID field
   will be large enough to hold a complete copy of the Tenant Packet
   addresses.  To reduce tunnelling overhead, these address fields could
   be removed from the Tenant Packet while being tunnelled, and restored
   when the IPv6 packet arrives at the destination NVE, as part of the
   process of IPv6 decapsulation.

   Note that the IPv6 header is not protected by an end-to-end checksum
   [RFC2460], so removing the Tenant Packet address fields during IPv6
   encapsulation should only be performed when the removed fields are
   protected by a suitable network virtualization header checksum or a
   Tenant Packet checksum.

   In the case of a network virtualization header checksum covering the
   Tenant Packet addresses when carried in the IPv6 address IID
   portions, the validation of this checksum would occur when the Tenant
   Packet is reconstructed by the destination NVE.

   Alternatively, if the Tenant Packet checksum originally covered the
   Tenant Packet addresses, validation could be left to the Tenant
   Packet destination, increasing NVE performance at the cost of
   possibly forwarding corrupted Tenant Packets after IPv6
   decapsulation.  As Tenant Packet corruption is likely to be rare when
   forwarded across the IPv6 Underlay Network, it is recommended to
   leave this validation to the final Tenant Packet destination.  It
   would be useful for a network operator to be able to switch on
   validation at an NVE temporarily for troubleshooting purposes.

   If Tenant Packet addresses are larger than the IPv6 address IID
   portions, then the portion of the Tenant Packet addresses that would
   provide the best input into load balancing should be copied.  For
   example, if Tenant Packets are raw IPv6 packets (i.e., without a
   link-layer header), then the Tenant Packet address 64 bit IID
   portions should be copied into the IPv6 Underlay Network packet
   address IID fields, and then perhaps removed from the Tenant Packets.
   Tenant Packets carrying IID portions generated using either [RFC7217]
   or [RFC4941] will provide the best IID values, as those IID values
   are the result of a pseudo-random or hash function.

   When the IPv6 IID portions are used to carry Tenant Packet values,
   the receiving NVE would not consider any of the received IID values
   to have any significance.  In other words, none of the IID values
   described in [RFC5453] are to be considered reserved.  This is
   consistent with [RFC7136], which states that only a local context can
   give the IID bits semantic meaning.






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5.2.  Carrying Other Tenant Packet Information

   If the Tenant Packet addresses are smaller than the IPv6 address IID
   portions, other Tenant Packet field values could be copied into the
   remaining parts of the IPv6 address IIDs portion, and also possibly
   be removed from the Tenant Packet, which will further reduce
   tunnelling overhead, and may further increase stateless load-
   balancing effectiveness.

   For example, for Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 Tenant Packets, both the 6 octet
   Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 source address and subsequent 2 octet type/length
   field values could be copied into the IPv6 source address 8 octet IID
   portion in a single operation, and then removed from the original
   Tenant Packet.  This should be beneficial to stateless load-balancing
   when the type/length field is carrying a variety of payload type
   values.

   If the Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 type/length field is carrying length
   values when copied into the IPv6 source address IID portion, out of
   original sending order delivery of Tenant Packets could be the
   result, caused by the stateless load-balancing method being used by
   the IPv6 Underlay network.  This may negatively impact the
   performance or possibly in the worst case cause failure of the
   corresponding upper layer protocol.

   If lower performance or possible upper layer protocol failure is
   unacceptable, only the Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 source address could be
   copied into the the IPv6 source address IID portion for these
   'length' Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 frames.  To distinguish between these
   Tenant Packets and those where both the Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 source
   address and type field values are copied into the IPv6 source address
   IID field, either a different Virtual Network Context ID could be
   used, or some other indicator field in an additional Virtual Network
   header could indicate the different 'length' value encapsulation.  If
   a different Virtual Network Context ID is used for these 'length'
   Tenant Packets, at the decapsulating NVE, these frames would be
   merged back into the single Virtual Network.

   Upon NVE encapsulation, rather than perform a less than or equal to
   1500 comparison operation on the type/length field to identify
   'length' Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 frames [IEEE8023], a simpler and likely
   faster implementation in hardware could perform an exact match
   comparison on the type/length field value against a set of common
   protocol types, such as IPv4 [RFC0894], ARP [RFC0826], IPv6 [RFC2464]
   and IEEE 802.1Q [IEEE8021Q].  For those frames that match, both the
   Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 source address and type/length field values are
   copied into the IPv6 Underlay Network packet source address IID
   portion, where as for all other frames, just the Ethernet/IEEE 802.3



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   source address value would be copied into the IPv6 Underlay Network
   packet source address IID portion.

5.3.  Indicating IID Contents

   This optimisation of carrying Tenant Packet field values in the IPv6
   encapsulating header's address field IIDs portions and removing them
   from the Tenant Packet could be indicated to the destination NVE
   implicitly by the Virtual Network Context ID, or via some other
   header carried in the IPv6 packet.

6.  Permanent Virtual Network Multicast Group Identifier

   To simplify and automate configuration, a permanent IPv6 multicast
   group identifier could be assigned by IANA, in accordance with the
   allocation guidelines specified in [RFC3307], to be used for
   encapsulation of multicast Tenant Packets in IPv6 multicast packets.

   This group ID would be used to form Interface-Local, Link-Local, and
   Site-Local scope multicast addresses.  Each NVE would then subscribe
   to these scoped multicast addresses for the permanent group ID.  The
   range of different scopes will allow an origin NVE to constrain the
   forwarding domain of IPv6 multicast packets holding multicast Tenant
   Packets if necessary or useful.

   Other multicast scopes that may be useful for NVE encapsulation
   operation might be the Realm-Local, Admin-Local, and Organization-
   Local scopes [RFC7346], also used with the IANA reserved group ID.

7.  Per-Virtual Network Multicast Group Addresses

   Using a single well known multicast group to flood IPv6 encapsulated
   multicast or broadcast Tenant Packets to all NVEs for all Virtual
   Networks may eventually impact network performance, due to the volume
   of multicast traffic being sent to NVEs at which the corresponding
   Virtual Network is not present.

   Reducing network load may be achieved by using multiple multicast
   groups to distribute IPv6 encapsulated multicast or broadcast Tenant
   Packets to NVEs where the Virtual Network is present.  Optionally, an
   NVE might only become and remain a member of the Virtual Network
   specific multicast group when it is aware that there is at least one
   Tenant System present in the local Virtual Network segment.

   [RFC3306] describes how to create multicast addresses using a unicast
   IPv6 prefix, between 0 and 64 bits in length.  For each unicast IPv6
   derived multicast prefix, 32 bits are available for the Group ID.
   These group IDs are created using the guidelines specified in



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   [RFC3307].  For dynamically created multicast addresses, [RFC3307]
   restricts the group ID range to (in IPv6 address form) ::8000:0000 to
   ::ffff:ffff, a range of 31 bits or approximately 2 billion unique
   groups.  The leading high order bit in the Group ID corresponds to
   the 'T' bit value in the multicast address flag, which indicates a
   Temporary multicast address.  This ensures that when the multicast
   group is mapped to a multicast link-layer address, by copying the
   lower 32 bits of the multicast address to the link-layer multicast
   address range (e.g., 33-33-XX-XX-XX-XX for Ethernet/IEEE 802.3
   [RFC2464]), the link-layer multicast address does not collide with
   Permanent IPv6 multicast addresses at the link-layer.

   These 31 bits of dynamic group IDs, available for a unicast prefix,
   could be used to form a unique multicast group address per Virtual
   Network, using the Virtual Network Context ID, by combining it with
   an IPv6 prefix used by all NVEs.  The NVEs would be informed of the
   common IPv6 prefix using manual configuration or a signalling
   protocol.

   The common IPv6 prefix used to form these addresses does not have to
   be related to any of the /64 prefixes being used by the NVEs.
   However it is recommended to relate them intuitively, by using a
   shorter aggregate prefix that covers the set of identifying /64
   prefixes being used by the NVEs attached to the same IPv6 Underlay
   Network.  This would simplify configuration, reduce errors and
   simplify troubleshooting.

   With larger numbers of Virtual Networks, one multicast group per
   Virtual Network may exceed the IPv6 Underlay Network's capacity to
   reliably track multicast group membership for all of the present
   multicast groups.  NVEs would participate directly in the IPv6
   Underlay Network's multicast routing protocol [RFC5110], limiting the
   number of multicast groups to the IPv6 Underlay Network's multicast
   routing protocol implementations' maximum capacity.

   The preferred option in this situation would be to create another
   IPv6 Underlay Network, and to move some, and ideally half of the
   Virtual Networks to the new IPv6 Underlay Network.  This would
   preserve the efficiency of one multicast group per Virtual Network,
   as well as increasing encapsulation network unicast and multicast
   traffic capacity.

   An alternative, although less efficient option would be to map
   multiple Virtual Networks onto each multicast group, on a many-to-one
   basis.  A simple scheme would be to map the Virtual Networks equally
   onto the available multicast groups.  This may be easier to implement
   if the Virtual Network Context IDs have been uniformly distributed as
   suggested previously in Section 3.  More advanced mapping schemes



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   might take into consideration other Virtual Network attributes such
   as the number of Tenant Systems attached to the individual Virtual
   Networks, the maximum allowed number of Tenant Systems in each
   Virtual Network or the number of NVEs where Tenant System network
   segments for each Virtual Network are present, with a goal of trying
   to equally balance multicast traffic across the available multicast
   groups.

8.  Summary of Methods and Benefits

   o  Carrying a full or partial copy of the Virtual Network Context ID
      value in the Flow Label field would expose it to the IPv6 Underlay
      Network load balancing mechanisms and troubleshooting tools.

   o  Carrying the Virtual Network Context ID in the Flow Label field
      would reduce tunnelling overhead.

   o  Using /64s to identify NVEs within the IPv6 Underlay Network would
      support the use of more conventional IPv6 routing methods and
      protocols, may provide more efficient forwarding, and allows for
      other uses of the IID portions of the IPv6 addresses.

   o  Carrying full or partial copies of Tenant Packet addresses and
      other information in the IID portions of the IPv6 address fields
      would expose those values to the IPv6 Underlay Network load
      balancing mechanisms and other IPv6 troubleshooting and analysis
      tools, such as IPFIX.

   o  Carrying Tenant Packet addresses and other field information in
      the IID portions of the IPv6 address fields, and then removing
      those fields from the original Tenant Packets while being carried
      across the IPv6 Underlay Network, would reduce tunnelling
      overhead.

   o  Using an IANA assigned permanent multicast group ID, used by all
      NVEs, would both simplify and allow automated configuration of NVE
      multicast.

   o  Per-Virtual Network multicast groups would reduce the volume of
      multicast or broadcast Tenant Packets being sent to NVEs at which
      the destination Virtual Network does not exist.

   o  When the IPv6 Underlay Network's multicast group capacity is
      exceeded, mapping multiple Virtual Networks to multiple multicast
      groups, on a many-to-one basis, would be more efficient than using
      a single multicast group for all Virtual Networks.





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   o  Use of the Interface-Local, Link-Local, and Site-Local scopes for
      the various Virtual Network multicast addresses would allow origin
      NVEs to better control the forwarding domain of multicast IPv6
      Underlay Network traffic they send.

9.  Security Considerations

   Within a trusted IPv6 Underlay Network, copying or carrying Virtual
   Network or Tenant Packet attributes in IPv6 header fields will not
   significantly further expose them to untrusted parties, as they are
   likely to already exist in clear text within the IPv6 packet payload.

   However, if the IPv6 Underlay Network is to span portions of the
   Internet, the IPv6 packets should be carried within IPsec [RFC4301]
   or some other secure tunnelling protocol that provides
   confidentiality, integrity and authenticity, to mitigate pervasive
   monitoring [RFC7258] and other security concerns.

   In particular, when using IPsec, tunnel mode should be used with at
   least the IPsec Encapsulating Security Payload protocol [RFC4303], as
   the IPv6 Underlay Packets or their Tenant System packets would
   facilitate analysis of Tenant System traffic, by exposing detailed
   information about the numbers and identities of the Virtual Networks,
   possibly globally unique details of individual Tenant Systems, and
   volumes of traffic between distinct Tenant Systems.

   To reduce the possibility of accidental forwarding of IPv6 Underlay
   Network traffic onto the Internet, it is recommended that the IPv6
   Underlay Network is numbered using a single ULA /48, with egress
   packet filters dropping ULA source or destination packets at the
   network's Internet boundary, as described in [RFC4193].  Additional
   egress packet filters at the edge of the IPv6 Underlay Network, for
   the ULA address space in use within the IPv6 Underlay Network, would
   provide further protection against accidental forwarding of IPv6
   Underlay Network traffic onto the Internet.

10.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to (in alphabetical order) Fred Baker, Brian Carpenter and Tom
   Herbert for their encouragement, review and comments.

   This memo was prepared using the xml2rfc tool.

11.  Change Log [RFC Editor please remove]

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-00, initial version, 2014-06-02

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-01, 2014-07-22



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   o  issues with 'length' Ethernet Tenant Packets

   o  uniform distribution of flow label values/virtual network context
      IDs

   o  more descriptive and clarifying text

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-02, 2014-07-28

   o  methods and benefits summary section

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-03, 2014-07-29

   o  fix some references

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-04, 2014-08-16

   o  some clarifications around per-NVE /64s

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-05, 2014-08-26

   o  Remove suggestion of sharing a single /64 between multiple NVEs,
      as for it to be reliable, all virtual networks would need to be
      available at the shared /64 NVEs all of the time, which can't be
      guaranteed

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-06, 2015-06-16

   o  virtual/tunnel interface to represent NVE /64

   o  IDs/RFC references updates

   draft-smith-enhance-vne-with-ipv6-07, 2015-10-02

   o  completely remove per-NVE multicast groups section - should have
      done for -06 revision

12.  References

12.1.  Normative References

   [RFC0768]  Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0768, August 1980,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc768>.

   [RFC0793]  Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
              RFC 793, DOI 10.17487/RFC0793, September 1981,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc793>.



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   [RFC0826]  Plummer, D., "Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol: Or
              Converting Network Protocol Addresses to 48.bit Ethernet
              Address for Transmission on Ethernet Hardware", STD 37,
              RFC 826, DOI 10.17487/RFC0826, November 1982,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc826>.

   [RFC0894]  Hornig, C., "A Standard for the Transmission of IP
              Datagrams over Ethernet Networks", STD 41, RFC 894,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0894, April 1984,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc894>.

   [RFC6177]  Narten, T., Huston, G., and L. Roberts, "IPv6 Address
              Assignment to End Sites", BCP 157, RFC 6177,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6177, March 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6177>.

   [RFC7011]  Claise, B., Ed., Trammell, B., Ed., and P. Aitken,
              "Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
              Protocol for the Exchange of Flow Information", STD 77,
              RFC 7011, DOI 10.17487/RFC7011, September 2013,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7011>.

   [RFC7258]  Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive Monitoring Is an
              Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258, DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May
              2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7258>.

12.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.davie-stt]
              Davie, B. and J. Gross, "A Stateless Transport Tunneling
              Protocol for Network Virtualization (STT)", draft-davie-
              stt-06 (work in progress), April 2014.

   [I-D.ietf-rtgwg-bgp-routing-large-dc]
              Lapukhov, P., Premji, A., and J. Mitchell, "Use of BGP for
              routing in large-scale data centers", draft-ietf-rtgwg-
              bgp-routing-large-dc-07 (work in progress), August 2015.

   [IEEE8021AX]
              IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area
              networks - Link Aggregation", IEEE Std
              802.1AX-2012 (R2012), 2008.

   [IEEE8021Q]
              IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area
              networks - Media Access Control (MAC) Bridges and Virtual
              Bridge Local Area Networks", IEEE Std 802.1Q-2011 (R2011),
              2011.



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   [IEEE8023]
              IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Ethernet", IEEE Std
              802.3-2012 (R2012), 2012.

   [RFC1213]  McCloghrie, K. and M. Rose, "Management Information Base
              for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II",
              STD 17, RFC 1213, DOI 10.17487/RFC1213, March 1991,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1213>.

   [RFC1229]  McCloghrie, K., "Extensions to the generic-interface MIB",
              RFC 1229, DOI 10.17487/RFC1229, May 1991,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1229>.

   [RFC1997]  Chandra, R., Traina, P., and T. Li, "BGP Communities
              Attribute", RFC 1997, DOI 10.17487/RFC1997, August 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1997>.

   [RFC2460]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC2460,
              December 1998, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2460>.

   [RFC2464]  Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
              Networks", RFC 2464, DOI 10.17487/RFC2464, December 1998,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2464>.

   [RFC2991]  Thaler, D. and C. Hopps, "Multipath Issues in Unicast and
              Multicast Next-Hop Selection", RFC 2991,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2991, November 2000,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2991>.

   [RFC3306]  Haberman, B. and D. Thaler, "Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6
              Multicast Addresses", RFC 3306, DOI 10.17487/RFC3306,
              August 2002, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3306>.

   [RFC3307]  Haberman, B., "Allocation Guidelines for IPv6 Multicast
              Addresses", RFC 3307, DOI 10.17487/RFC3307, August 2002,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3307>.

   [RFC4193]  Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast
              Addresses", RFC 4193, DOI 10.17487/RFC4193, October 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4193>.

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed., "A
              Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.





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   [RFC4291]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
              Architecture", RFC 4291, DOI 10.17487/RFC4291, February
              2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4291>.

   [RFC4301]  Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the
              Internet Protocol", RFC 4301, DOI 10.17487/RFC4301,
              December 2005, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4301>.

   [RFC4302]  Kent, S., "IP Authentication Header", RFC 4302,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4302, December 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4302>.

   [RFC4303]  Kent, S., "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)",
              RFC 4303, DOI 10.17487/RFC4303, December 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4303>.

   [RFC4340]  Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram
              Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4340, March 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4340>.

   [RFC4941]  Narten, T., Draves, R., and S. Krishnan, "Privacy
              Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in
              IPv6", RFC 4941, DOI 10.17487/RFC4941, September 2007,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4941>.

   [RFC4960]  Stewart, R., Ed., "Stream Control Transmission Protocol",
              RFC 4960, DOI 10.17487/RFC4960, September 2007,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4960>.

   [RFC5110]  Savola, P., "Overview of the Internet Multicast Routing
              Architecture", RFC 5110, DOI 10.17487/RFC5110, January
              2008, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5110>.

   [RFC5340]  Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J., and A. Lindem, "OSPF
              for IPv6", RFC 5340, DOI 10.17487/RFC5340, July 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5340>.

   [RFC5453]  Krishnan, S., "Reserved IPv6 Interface Identifiers",
              RFC 5453, DOI 10.17487/RFC5453, February 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5453>.

   [RFC5701]  Rekhter, Y., "IPv6 Address Specific BGP Extended Community
              Attribute", RFC 5701, DOI 10.17487/RFC5701, November 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5701>.






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   [RFC6436]  Amante, S., Carpenter, B., and S. Jiang, "Rationale for
              Update to the IPv6 Flow Label Specification", RFC 6436,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6436, November 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6436>.

   [RFC6437]  Amante, S., Carpenter, B., Jiang, S., and J. Rajahalme,
              "IPv6 Flow Label Specification", RFC 6437,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6437, November 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6437>.

   [RFC6438]  Carpenter, B. and S. Amante, "Using the IPv6 Flow Label
              for Equal Cost Multipath Routing and Link Aggregation in
              Tunnels", RFC 6438, DOI 10.17487/RFC6438, November 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6438>.

   [RFC7015]  Trammell, B., Wagner, A., and B. Claise, "Flow Aggregation
              for the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol",
              RFC 7015, DOI 10.17487/RFC7015, September 2013,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7015>.

   [RFC7136]  Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Significance of IPv6
              Interface Identifiers", RFC 7136, DOI 10.17487/RFC7136,
              February 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7136>.

   [RFC7217]  Gont, F., "A Method for Generating Semantically Opaque
              Interface Identifiers with IPv6 Stateless Address
              Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)", RFC 7217,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7217, April 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7217>.

   [RFC7346]  Droms, R., "IPv6 Multicast Address Scopes", RFC 7346,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7346, August 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7346>.

   [RFC7348]  Mahalingam, M., Dutt, D., Duda, K., Agarwal, P., Kreeger,
              L., Sridhar, T., Bursell, M., and C. Wright, "Virtual
              eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN): A Framework for
              Overlaying Virtualized Layer 2 Networks over Layer 3
              Networks", RFC 7348, DOI 10.17487/RFC7348, August 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7348>.

   [RFC7365]  Lasserre, M., Balus, F., Morin, T., Bitar, N., and Y.
              Rekhter, "Framework for Data Center (DC) Network
              Virtualization", RFC 7365, DOI 10.17487/RFC7365, October
              2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7365>.






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   [RFC7421]  Carpenter, B., Ed., Chown, T., Gont, F., Jiang, S.,
              Petrescu, A., and A. Yourtchenko, "Analysis of the 64-bit
              Boundary in IPv6 Addressing", RFC 7421,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7421, January 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7421>.

   [RFC7424]  Krishnan, R., Yong, L., Ghanwani, A., So, N., and B.
              Khasnabish, "Mechanisms for Optimizing Link Aggregation
              Group (LAG) and Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) Component Link
              Utilization in Networks", RFC 7424, DOI 10.17487/RFC7424,
              January 2015, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7424>.

   [RFC7637]  Garg, P., Ed. and Y. Wang, Ed., "NVGRE: Network
              Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation",
              RFC 7637, DOI 10.17487/RFC7637, September 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7637>.

Author's Address

   Mark Smith
   PO BOX 521
   HEIDELBERG, VIC  3084
   AU

   Email: markzzzsmith+id@gmail.com


























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