Internet-Draft BIER-TE Path October 2021
Chen, et al. Expires 25 April 2022 [Page]
Workgroup:
Network Working Group
Internet-Draft:
draft-chen-idr-bier-te-path-02
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Authors:
H. Chen
Futurewei
M. McBride
Futurewei
R. Chen
ZTE Corporation
G. Mishra
Verizon Inc.
A. Wang
China Telecom
Y. Liu
China Mobile
Y. Fan
Casa Systems
B. Khasanov
Yandex LLC
L. Liu
Fujitsu
X. Liu
Volta Networks

BGP for BIER-TE Path

Abstract

This document describes extensions to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for distributing a Bit Index Explicit Replication Traffic/Tree Engineering (BIER-TE) path. A new Tunnel Type for BIER-TE path is defined to encode the information about a BIER-TE path.

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 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

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/.

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 25 April 2022.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

[I-D.ietf-bier-te-arch] introduces Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) Tree Engineering (BIER-TE). It is an architecture for per-packet stateless explicit point to multipoint (P2MP) multicast path/tree, which is called BIER-TE path, and based on the BIER architecture defined in [RFC8279].

A Bit-Forwarding Router (BFR) in a BIER-TE domain has a BIER-TE Bit Index Forwarding Table (BIFT). A BIER-TE BIFT on a BFR comprises a forwarding entry for a BitPosition (BP) assigned to each of the adjacencies of the BFR. If the BP represents a forward connected adjacency, the forwarding entry for the BP forwards the multicast packet with the BP to the directly connected BFR neighbor of the adjacency. If the BP represents a BFER (i.e., egress node) or say a local decap adjacency, the forwarding entry for the BP decapsulates the multicast packet with the BP and passes a copy of the payload of the packet to the packet's NextProto within the BFR.

A Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR) in a BIER-TE domain receives the information or instructions about which multicast flows/packets are mapped to which BIER-TE paths that are represented by BitPositions or say BitStrings. After receiving the information or instructions, the ingress node/router encapsulates the multicast packets with the BitPositions for the corresponding BIER-TE paths, replicates and forwards the packets with the BitPositions along the BIER-TE paths.

This document proposes some procedures and extensions to BGP for distributing a BIER-TE path to the Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR) of the path. It specifies a way of encoding the information about a BIER-TE path in a BGP UPDATE message, which can be distributed to the BFIR of the path.

1.1. Terminologies

The following terminologies are used in this document.

BIER:
Bit Index Explicit Replication.
BIER-TE:
BIER Tree Engineering.
BFR:
Bit-Forwarding Router.
BFIR:
Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router.
BFER:
Bit-Forwarding Egress Router.
BFR-id:
BFR Identifier. It is a number in the range [1,65535].
BFR-NBR:
BFR Neighbor.
BFR-prefix:
An IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6) of a BFR.
BIRT:
Bit Index Routing Table. It is a table that maps from the BFR-id (in a particular sub-domain) of a BFER to the BFR-prefix of that BFER, and to the BFR-NBR on the path to that BFER.
BIFT:
Bit Index Forwarding Table.
P-tunnel:
A multicast tunnel through the network of one or more SPs.
PMSI:
Provider Multicast Service Interface. PMSI is an abstraction that represents a multicast service for carrying packets. A PMSI is instantiated via one or more P-tunnels.
I-PMSI A-D Route:
Inclusive PMSI Auto-Discovery route.
S-PMSI A-D route:
Selective PMSI Auto-Discovery route.
x-PMSI A-D route:
A route that is either an I-PMSI A-D route or an S-PMSI A-D route.

2. Overview of BGP for BIER-TE Path

This section briefs the BGP for BIER-TE path and illustrates some details through a simple example BIER-TE topology.

2.1. Example BIER-TE Topology with BGP

An example BIER-TE domain topology using SDN controllor with a BGP to distribute BIER-TE path is shown in Figure 1. There are 8 nodes/BFRs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H in the domain. Nodes/BFRs A, H, E, F and D are BFIRs (i.e., ingress nodes) or BFERs (i.e., egress nodes). The controller has a BGP session with each of the edge nodes in the domain, including BFIRs (i.e., ingress nodes A, H, E, F and D), and each of the non edge nodes in the domain (i.e., nodes B, C and G). Note that some of connections and the BGP on each edge node are not shown in the figure.

                    +------------------------------------+
                    |      SND controller with BGP       |
                    +------------------------------------+
                    /        ...         \               \
                   /                      \               \
                  /                    4'  \   17'    18'  \
                 /            /-----------( G )----------( H )
                /            /           19'\_______   12'/4
               /            /                _______)____/
              /            /                /      (_____
             /            /3'              /             \
            /   1'   2'  /    5'     6'   /11'  13'    20'\
 (CE) --- ( A )--------( B )------------( C )------------( D )
            5            \7'              \15'       14'   1
                          \                \
                           \8'   9'    10'  \16'
                          ( E )------------( F )
                            3                2
Figure 1: Example BIER-TE Topology with Controller

Nodes/BFRs D, F, E, H and A are BFERs (or BFIRs) and have local decap adjacency BitPositions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. For simplicity, these BPs are represented by (SI:BitString), where SI = 0 and BitString is of 8 bits. BPs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are represented by 1 (0:00000001), 2 (0:00000010), 3 (0:00000100), 4 (0:00001000) and 5 (0:00010000) respectively.

The BitPositions for the forward connected adjacencies are represented by i', where i is from 1 to 20. In one option, they are encoded as (n+i), where n is a power of 2 such as 32768. For simplicity, these BitPositions are represented by (SI:BitString), where SI = (6 + (i-1)/8) and BitString is of 8 bits. BitPositions i' (i from 1 to 20) are represented by 1'(6:00000001), 2'(6:00000010), 3'(6:00000100), 4'(6:00001000), 5'(6:00010000), 6'(6:00100000), 7'(6:01000000), 8'(6:10000000), 9'(7:00000001), 10'(7:00000010), . . . , 16'(7:10000000), 17'(8:00000001), 18'(8:00000010), . . . , 20'(8:00001000).

For a link between two nodes X and Y, there are two BitPositions for two forward connected adjacencies. These two forward connected adjacency BitPositions are assigned on nodes X and Y respectively. The BitPosition assigned on X is the forward connected adjacency from Y to X. The BitPosition assigned on Y is the forward connected adjacency from X to Y.

For example, for the link between nodes B and C in the figure, two forward connected adjacency BitPositions 5' and 6' are assigned to two ends of the link. BitPosition 5' is assigned on node B to B's end of the link. It is the forward connected adjacency from C to B. BitPosition 6' is assigned on node C to C's end of the link. It is the forward connected adjacency from B to C.

2.2. BIER-TE BIFT on a BFR

Every BFR in a BIER-TE domain has a BIER-TE BIFT. For the BIER-TE topology in Figure 1, each of 8 nodes/BFRs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H has its BIER-TE BIFT for the topology.

The controller sends each BFR all its BitPositions including its local decap adjacency BitPosition and forward connected adjacency BitPositions after the BitPositions are determined and assigned in the controller. For example, the controller sends BFR A BitPosition 5 and BitPosition 2', where the former is A's local decap adjacency BitPosition and the latter is A's forward connected adjacency BitPosition from A to B. The controller sends BFR B BitPositions 1', 4', 6' and 8', which are B's forward connected adjacency BitPositions from B to A, G, C and E respectively.

When a BFR (i.e., the BGP running on the BFR) receives its BitPositions from the controller, it creates its BIER-TE BIFT based on them. For example, when BFR A receives its BitPositions, it creates its BIER-TE BIFT, which is shown in Figure 2. There are two forwarding entries in the BIFT.

The 1st forwarding entry in the BIFT will locally decapsulate a multicast packet with BitPosition 5 and pass a copy of the payload of the packet to the packet's NextProto.

The 2nd forwarding entry in the BIFT will forward a multicast packet with BitPosition 2' to B.

           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           |   Adjacency BP   |    Action    |  BFR-NBR   |
           |  (SI:BitString)  |              | (Next Hop) |
           +==================+==============+============+
           | 5  (0:00000005)  | local-decap  |            |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           | 2' (6:00000010)  | fw-connected |     B      |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
Figure 2: BIER-TE BIFT on BFR A

When BFR B receives its BitPositions 1', 4', 6' and 8', it creates its BIER-TE BIFT, which is shown in Figure 3. There are four forwarding entries in the BIFT.

The 1st forwarding entry in the BIFT will forward a multicast packet with BitPosition 1' to A.

The 2nd forwarding entry in the BIFT will forward a multicast packet with BitPosition 4' to G.

The 3rd forwarding entry in the BIFT will forward a multicast packet with BitPosition 6' to C.

The 4-th forwarding entry in the BIFT will forward a multicast packet with BitPosition 8' to E.

           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           |   Adjacency BP   |    Action    |  BFR-NBR   |
           |  (SI:BitString)  |              | (Next Hop) |
           +==================+==============+============+
           | 1' (6:00000001)  | fw-connected |     A      |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           | 4' (6:00001000)  | fw-connected |     G      |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           | 6' (6:00100000)  | fw-connected |     C      |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
           | 8' (6:10000000)  | fw-connected |     E      |
           +------------------+--------------+------------+
Figure 3: BIER-TE BIFT on BFR B

2.3. Distributing Path to Ingress

This section describes how the SDN controller distributes a BIER-TE path to its ingress node.

There are two scenarios for distributing the BIER-TE path information. In the first scenario, the ingress node is directly connected to the controller. The path information should not be propagated beyond the ingress node. In the second scenario, the ingress node is not directly connected to the controller. The path information should be propagated throughout the domain until it reaches the ingress node.

Suppose that node A in Figure 1 wants to have a BIER-TE path from ingress node A to egress nodes H and F. The path satisfies a set of constraints. The controller obtains the request from an application or user configuration. It finds a BIER-TE path satisfying the constraints and distributes the path to ingress node A.

If A is directly connected to the controller (e.g., as the example network in Figure 1), then the controller sends A the information about the path in a Update message in one of two ways. In one way, the controller sends each of its BGP peers, including the BGP peer running on node A, a Update message about the explicit path, with a route target matching the BGP identifier of ingress node A, and NO_ADVERTISE community. Ingress node A accepts this message from the controller and installs a forwarding entry for the BIER-TE path, but will not advertise it to any peer. All the other peers do not accept the message.

In another way, the controller sends A a Update message directly through the local session between them, but does not send the message to any other peers. The message contains the information about the path, a route target matching the BGP identifier of ingress node A and the NO_ADVERTISE community. Ingress node A accepts this message from the controller and installs a forwarding entry for the BIER-TE path, but will not advertise it.

If A is not directly connected to the controller, then the controller distributes the information about the explicit path to the ingress node A across the network. To achieve this, the controller advertises a BGP Update message to all its BGP peers, where the message contains the information about the path, a route target matching the BGP identifier of ingress node A, but does not have NO_ADVERTISE community. Each of the BGP peers advertises the received Update to its BGP neighbors according to normal BGP propagation rules. Eventually, ingress node A accepts this message and installs a forwarding entry for the BIER-TE path, which imports the packets to be transported by the path into the path.

For example, assume that the BIER-TE path computed by the controller traverses the link/adjacency from A to B (indicated by BP 2'), the link/adjacency from B to G (indicated by BP 4') and the link/adjacency from B to C (indicated by BP 6'), the link/adjacency from G to H (indicated by BP 18'), and the link/adjacency from C to F (indicated by BP 16'). This path is represented by {2', 4', 6', 16', 18', 2, 4}, where BitPositions 2 and 4 indicate egress nodes F and H respectively. The Update message distributed to the BGP on node A by the controller contains the path represented by {2', 4', 6', 16', 18', 2, 4}.

After receiving the BIER-TE path, the ingress node installs a forwarding entry for the path. For any packet from CE to be transported by the path, the ingress node encapsulates the packet with the BitPositions representing the path and forwards the packet according to its BIFT.

For example, when ingress node A receives the path represented by BitPositions {2', 4', 6', 16', 18', 2, 4}, it installs a forwarding entry for the path. Node A encapsulates a packet to be carried by the path with a BIER header containing BitPositions {2', 4', 6', 16', 18', 2, 4} using the entry and forwards the encapsulated packet along the path according to its BIFT.

A forwards the packet to B according to the forwarding entry for BP 2' in its BIFT.

After receiving the packet from A, B forwards the packet to G and C according to the forwarding entries for BPs 4' and 6' in B's BIFT respectively. The packet received by G has path {16', 18', 2, 4}. The packet received by C has path {16', 18', 2, 4}.

After receiving the packet from B, G sends the packet to H according to the forwarding entry for BP 18' in G's BIFT.

After receiving the packet from B, C sends the packet to F according to the forwarding entry for BP 16' in C's BIFT.

Egress node H of the BIER-TE path receives the packet with BitPosition 4. It decapsulates the packet and pass the payload of the packet to the packet's NextProto.

Egress node F of the BIER-TE path receives the packet with BitPosition 2. It decapsulates the packet and pass the payload of the packet to the packet's NextProto.

3. Extensions to BGP

This section specifies two options for extensions to BGP. One option defines a new Tunnel Type for BIER-TE path under Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute. The other defines a new Tunnel Type under PMSI_TUNNEL Attribute.

3.1. Extensions to PMSI_TUNNEL Attribute

This section defines a new Tunnel Type (or TLV) for BIER-TE path/tunnel under the PMSI_TUNNEL Attribute (PTA) defined in [RFC6514]. It describes a couple of new sub-TLVs encoding the information about a BIER-TE path.

3.1.1. New Tunnel Type for BIER-TE

The PMSI Tunnel attribute carried by an x-PMSI A-D route identifies P-tunnel for PMSI. For the PTA with Tunnel Type BIER-TE, the PTA is constructed by the SDN controller and distributed to the ingress node of the BIER-TE tunnel.

The format of the PMSI_TUNNEL Attribute with the new Tunnel Type (TBD) for BIER-TE is shown in Figure 4.

  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
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Attr Flags   | Attr Type(22) | Length(1/2 byte)   ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Flag     |TunnelType(TBD)|          MPLS Label           |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  MPLS Label   |       Tunnel Identifier (11/23 bytes)         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                                               +
 |                                                               ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                             sub-TLVs                          ~
 ~                                                               ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 4: PTA with Tunnel Type for BIER-TE

For BIER-TE tunnel/path, the fields in the PTA are set as follows:

o Tunnel Type:
It is set to be TBD, indicating BIER-TE tunnel.
o Tunnel Identifier:

It contains:

* sub-domain-id (1 octet):
It is id of the sub domain through which the BIER-TE tunnel crosses.
* BFR-id (2 octets):
It is the BFR-id of the BFIR of the BIER-TE tunnel.
* Tunnel-ID (4 octets):
It is a number uniquely identifying a BIER-TE tunnel within the BFIR and sub domain.
* BFR-prefix (4/16 octets):
It is a BFR-prefix of the BFIR of the BIER-TE tunnel. It occupies 4 octets for IPv4 and 16 octets for IPv6.
o sub-TLVs:
It contains a Path BitPositions sub-TLV encoding an explicit BIER-TE path. It may include a Path Name sub-TLV for the name of the BIER-TE path.
o Others:
The other fields are set according to [RFC6514].

3.1.2. Sub-TLVs for BIER-TE Path

This section describes two sub-TLVs for a BIER-TE path: Path BitPositions sub-TLV for encoding the path and Path Name sub-TLV for the name of the path.

3.1.2.1. Path BitPositions Sub-TLV

The bit positions of a BIER-TE path are encoded in a Path BitPositions sub-TLV. The format of the sub-TLV is illustrated below.

 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 (TBD3) |        Length (variable)      |   Reserved    |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|    SI-Len     | BitStringLen  | sub-domain-id |     MT-ID     |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                BIFT-id-1              |  RSV  |     SI-1      |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                            BitString-1                        ~
|                                                               ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
:                                                               :
:                                                               :
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                BIFT-id-n              |  RSV  |     SI-n      |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                            BitString-n                        ~
|                                                               ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 5: Path BitPositions Sub-TLV Format
Type:
Its value (TBD3) is to be assigned by IANA.
Length:
It is variable.
Reserved/RSV:
MUST be set to zero by the sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.
SI-Len (SI Length) - 8 bits:
The length in bits of the SI field.
BitStringLen (Bit String Length) - 8 bits:
The length in bits of the BitString field according to [RFC8296]. If k is the length of the BitString, the value of BitStringLen is log2(k)-5. For example, BitStringLen = 1 indicates k = 64, BitStringLen = 7 indicates k = 4096.
sub-domain-id:
Unique value identifying the BIER sub-domain within the BIER domain.
MT-ID:
Multi-Topology ID identifying the topology that is associated with the BIER sub-domain.
<BIFT-id, SI, BitString> tuple:
Each tuple <BIFT-id-i, SI-i, BitString-i> (i = 1, 2, ..., n) represents/encodes a set of bit positions on the BIER-TE path with a BIFT ID. All the tuples in the sub-TLV represent/encode the BIER-TE path (i.e., all the bit positions of the BIER-TE path).

For example, when SI-Len = 8 and BitStringLen = 1 (indicating BitString is of 64 bits), each <BIFT-id, SI, BitString> tuple has a BIFT-id of 20 bits, a SI of 8 bits and a BitString of 64 bits. For simplicity, BitString of 8 bits and BIFT-id of 16 bits are used below. The BitPositions for a BIER-TE path are sorted in descending order before they are put into a BIER-TE Path BitPositions sub-TLV. For BIER-TE path {2', 4', 6', 16', 18', 2, 4}, when its BitPositions are sorted, it is {18', 16', 6', 4', 2', 4, 2}, which is {18'(8:00000010), 16'(7:10000000), 6'(6:00100000), 4'(6:00001000), 2'(6:00000010), 4 (0:00001000), 2 (0:00000010)}. The BitPositions with the same SI are stored in one BitString. For example, 6'(6:00100000), 4'(6:00001000) and 2'(6:00000010) are stored in (SI:BitString) = (6:00101010), where SI = 6. BIER-TE path {18', 16', 6', 4', 2', 4, 2} is encoded in the Path BitPositions sub-TLV in the figure below. The path uses four tuples of <BIFT-id, SI, BitString>.

  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 (TBD3) |          Length = 13          |   Reserved    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  SI-Len = 8   | BitStringLen  |sub-domain-id=0|   MT-ID = 0   |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       BIFT-id-1 = 100         |    SI-1 = 8   |0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       BIFT-id-2 = 200         |    SI-2 = 7   |1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       BIFT-id-3 = 300         |    SI-3 = 6   |0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       BIFT-id-4 = 400         |    SI-4 = 0   |0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 6: Path BitPositions sub-TLV for a BIER-TE Path
3.1.2.2. Path Name Sub-TLV

The name of a BIER-TE path is encoded in a Path Name sub-TLV. The format of the sub-TLV is illustrated below.

 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 (TBD4) |        Length (variable)      |   Reserved    |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
//                        Path Name String                     //
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 7: Path Name Sub-TLV Format
Type:
Its value (TBD4) is to be assigned by IANA.
Length:
It is variable.
Reserved:
MUST be set to zero by the sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.
Path Name String:
It represents/encodes the name of the BIER-TE path in a string of chars.

3.2. Extensions to Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute

This section define a new Tunnel Type (or say TLV) for BIER-TE path/tunnel under Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute and a new SAFI. This new SAFI and the existing AFI for IPv4/IPv6 pair uses a new NLRI for indicating a BIER-TE Path.

3.2.1. New SAFI and NLRI

A new SAFI, called BIER-TE path SAFI, is defined. Its codepoint (TBD1) is to be assigned by IANA. This new SAFI and the existing AFI for IPv4/IPv6 pair uses a new NLRI, which is defined 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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|  NLRI Length  |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                      Distinguisher (4 octets)                 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                      Endpoint (4/16 octets)                   ~
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 8: NLRI Format

Where:

NLRI Length:
1 octet represents the length of NLRI. If the Length is anything other than 8 or 20, the NLRI is corrupt and the enclosing UPDATE message MUST be ignored.
Distinguisher:
4 octet value uniquely identifies the content/BIER-TE path.
Endpoint:
4/16 octet value indicates IPv4/IPv6 address of the ingress of the BIER-TE path. If the AFI is for IPv4, the Endpoint is a 4 octet IPv4 address. If the AFI is for IPv6, the Endpoint is a 16 octet IPv6 address.

3.2.2. New Tunnel Type for BIER-TE

A new Tunnel Type (or say TLV), called BIER-TE Path or Tunnel, is defined under Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute in [RFC9012]. Its codepoint is to be assigned by IANA. This new TLV with a number of new sub-TLVs encodes the information about a BIER-TE path.

The structure encoding the information about a BIER-TE path is shown below.

    Attributes:
        Tunnel Encaps Attribute (23)
            Tunnel Type (TBD2): BIER-TE Path
                Path BitPositions sub-TLV
                Path Name sub-TLV
                Traffic Description sub-TLV

Where:

  • Tunnel Type (TBD2) is to be assigned by IANA.
  • Path BitPositions sub-TLV encodes the bit positions of the BIER-TE path. It is defined in the previous section.
  • Path Name sub-TLV encodes the name of a BIER-TE path. It is defined in the previous section.
  • Traffic Description sub-TLV encodes the multicast traffic that is transported by the BIER-TE path.

3.2.3. Traffic Description Sub-TLVs

A Traffic Description Sub-TLV describes the traffic to be imported into a BIER-TE path. Two Traffic Description Sub-TLVs are defined. They are multicast traffic sub-TLVs for IPv4 and IPv6.

The multicast traffic sub-TLVs for IPv4 and IPv6 are shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10 respectively.

  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 (TBD5) |             Length            |   Reserved    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |        Reserved           |S|G|  Src Mask Len | Grp Mask Len  |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                Source Address (up to 4 bytes)                 ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |            Group Multicast Address (up to 4 bytes)            ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 9: Multicast Traffic for IPv4 Sub-TLV
  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 (TBD6) |             Length            |   RESERVED    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |        Reserved           |S|G|  Src Mask Len | Grp Mask Len  |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                        Source Address                         ~
 ~                       (up to 16 bytes)                        ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                   Group multicast Address                     ~
 ~                       (up to 16 bytes)                        ~
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 10: Multicast Traffic for IPv6 Sub-TLV

The address fields and address mask lengths of the two Multicast Traffic sub-TLVs contain source and group prefixes for matching against packets noting that the two address fields are up to 32 bits for an IPv4 Multicast Traffic and up to 128 bits for an IPv6 Multicast Traffic.

The Reserved field MUST be set to zero and ignored on receipt.

Two bit flags (S and G) are defined to describe the multicast wildcarding in use. If the S bit is set, then source wildcarding is in use and the values in the Source Mask Length and Source Address fields MUST be ignored. If the G bit is set, then group wildcarding is in use and the values in the Group Mask Length and Group multicast Address fields MUST be ignored. The G bit MUST NOT be set unless the S bit is also set: if a Multicast Traffic sub-TLV is received with S bit = 0 and G bit = 1 the receiver MUST respond with an error (Malformed Multicast Traffic).

The three multicast mappings may be achieved as follows:

(S, G):
S bit = 0, G bit = 0, the Source Address and Group multicast Address prefixes are both used to define the multicast traffic.
(*, G):
S bit = 1, G bit = 0, the Group multicast Address prefix is used to define the multicast traffic, but the Source Address prefix is ignored.
(*, *):
S bit = 1, G bit = 1, the Source Address and Group multicast Address prefixes are both ignored.

4. Security Considerations

Protocol extensions defined in this document do not affect the BGP security other than those as discussed in the Security Considerations section of [RFC9012].

5. Acknowledgements

The authors of this document would like to thank Tony Przygienda and Susan Hares for their comments.

6. IANA Considerations

6.1. Existing Registry: SAFI Parameters

This document requests assigning a new SAFI in the registry "Subsequent Address Family Identifiers (SAFI) Parameters" as follows:

   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   | Code Point            | Description             | Reference   |
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   | TBD1(179 suggested)   |  BIER-TE Policy SAFI    |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+

6.2. Existing Registry: BGP TEA Tunnel Types

This document requests assigning a new Tunnel-Type in the registry "BGP Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute Tunnel Types" as follows:

   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   | Code Point            | Description             | Reference   |
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   |  TBD2(16 suggested)   |  BIER-TE Tunnel/Path    |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+

6.3. Existing Registry: BGP TEA sub-TLVs

This document requests assigning a few of new sub-TLVs in the registry "BGP Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute sub-TLVs" as follows:

   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   | Code Point            | Description             | Reference   |
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   |  TBD3(16 suggested)   |  Path BitPositions      |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   |  TBD4(17 suggested)   |  Path Name              |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   |  TBD5(18 suggested)   |  IPv4 Multicast Traffic |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+
   |  TBD6(19 suggested)   |  IPv6 Multicast Traffic |This document|
   +=======================+=========================+=============+

7. References

7.1. Normative References

[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC6514]
Aggarwal, R., Rosen, E., Morin, T., and Y. Rekhter, "BGP Encodings and Procedures for Multicast in MPLS/BGP IP VPNs", RFC 6514, DOI 10.17487/RFC6514, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6514>.
[RFC8174]
Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC8279]
Wijnands, IJ., Ed., Rosen, E., Ed., Dolganow, A., Przygienda, T., and S. Aldrin, "Multicast Using Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER)", RFC 8279, DOI 10.17487/RFC8279, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8279>.
[RFC8296]
Wijnands, IJ., Ed., Rosen, E., Ed., Dolganow, A., Tantsura, J., Aldrin, S., and I. Meilik, "Encapsulation for Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) in MPLS and Non-MPLS Networks", RFC 8296, DOI 10.17487/RFC8296, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8296>.
[RFC9012]
Patel, K., Van de Velde, G., Sangli, S., and J. Scudder, "The BGP Tunnel Encapsulation Attribute", RFC 9012, DOI 10.17487/RFC9012, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9012>.

7.2. Informative References

[I-D.ietf-bier-te-arch]
Eckert, T., Cauchie, G., and M. Menth, "Tree Engineering for Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER-TE)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-bier-te-arch-10, , <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-bier-te-arch-10.txt>.
[RFC5226]
Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", RFC 5226, DOI 10.17487/RFC5226, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5226>.
[RFC5575]
Marques, P., Sheth, N., Raszuk, R., Greene, B., Mauch, J., and D. McPherson, "Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules", RFC 5575, DOI 10.17487/RFC5575, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5575>.

Authors' Addresses

Huaimo Chen
Futurewei
Boston, MA,
United States of America
Mike McBride
Futurewei
Ran Chen
ZTE Corporation
Gyan S. Mishra
Verizon Inc.
13101 Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
United States of America
Phone: 301 502-1347
Aijun Wang
China Telecom
Beiqijia Town, Changping District
Beijing
102209
China
Yisong Liu
China Mobile
Yanhe Fan
Casa Systems
United States of America
Boris Khasanov
Yandex LLC
Moscow
Lei Liu
Fujitsu
United States of America
Xufeng Liu
Volta Networks
McLean, VA
United States of America