Service Function Chaining W. Haeffner Internet-Draft Vodafone Intended status: Informational J. Napper Expires: July 17, 2015 Cisco Systems M. Stiemerling NEC D. Lopez Telefonica I+D J. Uttaro AT&T January 13, 2015 Service Function Chaining Use Cases in Mobile Networks draft-ietf-sfc-use-case-mobility-03 Abstract This document provides some exemplary use cases for service function chaining in mobile service provider networks. The objective of this draft is not to cover all conceivable service chains in detail. Rather, the intention is to localize and explain the application domain of service chaining within mobile networks as far as it is required to complement the problem statement [ietf-sfc-problem-statement] and architecture framework [ietf-sfc-arch] of the working group. Service function chains typically reside in a LAN segment which links the mobile access network to the actual application platforms located in the carrier's datacenters or somewhere else in the Internet. Service function chains (SFC) ensure a fair distribution of network resources according to agreed service policies, enhance the performance of service delivery or take care of security and privacy. SFCs may also include Value Added Services (VAS). Commonly, SFCs are typical middlebox services. General considerations and specific use cases are presented in this document to demonstrate the different technical requirements of these goals for service function chaining in mobile service provider networks. The specification of service function chaining for mobile networks must take into account an interaction between service function chains and the 3GPP Policy and Charging Control (PCC) environment. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 1] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 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]. 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 July 17, 2015. 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 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1. Terminology and abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2. General scope of mobile service chains . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3. General structure of end-to-end carrier networks . . . . 5 2. Mobile network overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.1. Building blocks of 3GPP mobile LTE networks . . . . . . . 7 2.2. Overview of mobile service chains . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.3. The most common classification scheme . . . . . . . . . . 10 Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 2] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 2.4. More sophisticated classification schemes . . . . . . . . 11 3. Example use cases specific to mobile networks . . . . . . . . 12 3.1. Service chain model for Internet HTTP services . . . . . 12 3.1.1. Weaknesses of current approaches . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.2. Service chain for TCP optimization . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.2.1. Weaknesses of current approaches . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3. HTTP header enrichment in mobile networks . . . . . . . . 17 4. Remarks on QoS in mobile networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 5. Weaknesses of current implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 5.1. Granularity of the classification scheme . . . . . . . . 19 5.2. Service chain implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 6. Operator requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 6.1. Simplicity of service function chain instantiation . . . 20 6.2. Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 6.3. Reflections on Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 6.4. Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 9. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1. Introduction 1.1. Terminology and abbreviations Much of the terminology used in this document has been defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which defines standards for mobile service provider networks. Although a few terms are defined here for convenience, further terms can be found in [RFC6459]. UE User equipment like tablets or smartphones eNB enhanced NodeB, radio access part of the LTE system S-GW Serving Gateway, primary function is user plane mobility P-GW Packet Gateway, actual service creation point, terminates 3GPP mobile network, interface to Packet Data Networks (PDN) HSS Home Subscriber System (control plane element) MME Mobility Management Entity (control plane element) GTP GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Tunnel Protocol Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 3] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 S-IP Source IP address D-IP Destination IP address IMSI The International Mobile Subscriber Identity that identifies a mobile subscriber (S)Gi Egress termination point of the mobile network (SGi in case of LTE, Gi in case of UMTS/HSPA). The internal data structure of this interface is not standardized by 3GPP PCRF 3GPP standardized Policy and Charging Rules Function PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function IDS Intrusion Detection System FW Firewall ACL Access Control List PEP Performance Enhancement Proxy 1.2. General scope of mobile service chains Mobile access networks terminate at a mobile service creation point (Packet Gateway) typically located at the edge of an operator IP backbone. From the user equipment (UE) up to the Packet Gateway (P-GW) everything is fully standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) e.g., in [TS.23.401]. Within the mobile network, the user payload is encapsulated in 3GPP specific tunnels terminating eventually at the P-GW. In many cases application- specific IP traffic is not directly exchanged between the original mobile network, more specific the P-GW, and an application platform, but will be forced to pass a set of service functions. Those application platforms are, for instance, a web server environment, a video platform, a social networking platform or some other multimedia platform. Network operators use these service functions to differentiate their services to their subscribers. Service function chaining is thus integral to the business model of operators. Important use cases classes for service function chains generally include: 1. functions to protect the carrier network and the privacy of its users(IDS, FW, ACL, encryption, decryption, etc.), Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 4] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 2. functions that ensure the contracted quality of experience using e.g., performance enhancement proxies (PEP) like video optimizers, TCP optimizers or functions guaranteeing fair service delivery based on policy based QoS mechanisms, 3. functions like HTTP header enrichment that may be used to identify and charge subscribers real time, 4. functions like CG-NAT/PAT, which are required solely for technical reasons, and 5. functions like parental control or malware detection that may be a cost option of a service offer. 1.3. General structure of end-to-end carrier networks Although this memo is focused on the Service Function Chaining use cases for mobile carrier networks, such as 3GPP- based ones, a number of other, different carrier networks exists that share similarities in the structure of the access networks and the service functions with mobile networks. Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic view of 4 different access service networks to indicate similarities with respect to Service Functions and their Chaining. These service networks consist of access-specific user equipment, a dedicated access network, a related service creation point and finally a (LAN) infrastructure hosting Service Functions which eventually interconnect to application platforms in the Internet or in the carrier's own datacenter (DC). From top to down, there is a 3GPP mobile network terminating at the P-GW, a xDSL network with its PPP tunnels terminating at a BNG (Broadband Network Gateway), a FTTH network terminating at an OLT (Optical Line Terminal) and finally a cable TV network terminating at a CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System). Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 5] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 Access Service Functions (Categories) Services +---------------------------+ +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ |+--1---+ +--2---+ +--3---+|| +---------+ |UE|--| 3GGP |---| P-GW|--|| NAT | | MWD | | TCP || |Internal | +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || . | | | | Opt. ||-|Appl. | || FW | | Par. | | . || |Platforms| +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || . | | Ctrl | | Video || |(e.g.IMS)| |UE|--| xDSL |---| BNG |--|| LB | | . | | Opt. || +---------+ +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || . | | LI | | . || || DPI | | . | | Head. || +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || . | | . | | Enr. || +---------+ |UE|--| FTTH |---| OLT |--|| . | | | | . || | | +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || . | | | | . || | | || . | | | | ||-|Internet | +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ || | | | | || | | |UE|--| CATV |---| CMTS|--|| | | | | || | | +--+ *~~~~~~~* +-----+ |+------+ +------+ +-------+| +---------+ +---------------------------+ Figure 1: Various end-to-end carrier networks and service functions sorted into categories 1, 2 and 3. Category 1 of service functions like NAT or DPI may be used by all of these service networks mainly just (but not exclusively) for technical reasons. The same is true for category 2, Value Added Services (VAS) like parental control, malware detection and elimination (MWD) or Lawful Interception (LI). TCP optimization is basically only seen in mobile networks only. The same may be true for video optimizers or HTTP header enrichment; i.e., category 3 as a rule mainly belongs to mobile networks only. In our view, 3GPP-based mobile networks seem to have the largest demand for service functions and service function chains. Service Function Chains used in other access networks are very likely a subset of what one can expect in 3GPP-based mobile networks. Typical data center use cases are described in [ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases]. Some technical aspects for the handling of long-lived flows are discussed in [ietf-sfc-long-lived-flow-use-cases]. 2. Mobile network overview For simplicity we only describe service function chaining in the context of LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks. But indeed our service chaining model also applies to earlier generations of mobile networks, such as purely UMTS-based mobile networks. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 6] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 2.1. Building blocks of 3GPP mobile LTE networks The major functional components of a LTE network are shown in Figure 2 and include user equipment (UE) like smartphones or tablets, the LTE radio unit named enhanced NodeB (eNB), the serving gateway (S-GW) which together with the mobility management entity (MME) takes care of mobility and the packet gateway (P-GW), which finally terminates the actual mobile service. These elements are described in detail in [TS.23.401]. Other important components are the home subscriber system (HSS) and the policy and charging rule function (PCRF), which are described in [TS.23.203]. The P-GW interface towards the SGi-LAN is called the SGi-interface, which is described in [TS.29.061]. Finally, the SGi-LAN is the home of service function chains (SFC), which are not standardized by 3GPP. +--------------------------------------------+ | Control Plane (C) [HSS] | [OTT Appl. Platform] | | | | | +--------[MME] [PCRF]--+--------+ Internet | | | | | | | | [UE-C] -- [eNB-C] == [S-GW-C] == [P-GW-C] | | | +=====|=========|==========|============|====+ +-----+----+-------+ | | | | | | | | | | | [UE-U] -- [eNB-U] == [S-GW-U] == [P-GW-U]-+--+----[SGi-LAN] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [Appl. Platform] | | | | | | User Plane (U) | | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ |<---------- 3GPP Mobile Network -------->| |<-- IP Backbone ->| Figure 2 shows the end to end context including all major components of a LTE network. The actual 3GPP mobile network includes the elements from the user equipment [UE] to the packet gateway [P-GW]. Figure 2: End to end context including all major components of a LTE network. The actual 3GPP mobile network includes the elements from the user equipment [UE] to the packet gateway [P-GW]. The radio-based IP traffic between the UE and the eNB is encrypted according 3GPP standards. Between eNB, S-GW and P-GW user IP packets as well as control plane packets are encapsulated in 3GPP-specific tunnels. In some mobile carrier networks the 3GPP-specific tunnels between eNB and S-GW are even additionally IPSec-encrypted. More precisely, IPSec originates/terminates at the eNB and on the other Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 7] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 side at an IPSec-GW often placed just in front of the S-GW. For more details see [TS.29.281], [TS.29.274] and [TS.33.210]. Service function chains act on user plane IP traffic only. But the way these act on user traffic may depend on subscriber, service or network specific control plane metadata. 2.2. Overview of mobile service chains The original user IP packet, including the Source-IP-Address (S-IP) of the UE and the Destination-IP-Address (D-IP) of the addressed application platform, leaves the Packet Gateway from the mobile network via the so-called Gi-interface (3G service, e.g., UMTS) respectively SGi-interface (4G service, e.g., LTE). Between this (S)Gi-interface and the actual application platform the user generated upstream IP packets and the corresponding downstream IP packets are typically forced to pass an ordered set of service functions, loosely called a Service Function Chain (SFC). The set of all available service functions (physical or virtualized) which can be used to establish different Service Function Chains for different services is often called a Gi-LAN for 2G/3G services and SGi-LAN for 4G services. The (S)Gi-interface towards the (S)Gi-LAN itself is discussed in [TS.29.061], but service function chaining is not specified by 3GPP. The (S)Gi-LAN service functions can use subscriber and service related metadata delivered from the mobile control plane, such as the PCRF, or from the user plane e.g., via HTTP Header Enrichment to process the flows according to service related policies. Some service functions may even use network performance data describing the actual momentary state of a network segment. In short, the (S)Gi-LAN service area is presently used by mobile service providers to differentiate their services to their subscribers and reflect the business model and of mobile operators. For different applications (e.g., Appl. 1,2,3) upstream and downstream user plane IP flows will be forced to pass a sequence of service functions which is called a Service Function Chain specific to a given application. In the simple example sketched in Figure 3, the service chains for applications 1, 2 and 3 may be just classified by a unique interface-ID of the egress P-GW interfaces where the service chains for application 1, 2 and 3 are attached. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 8] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Control Plane Environment [HSS] [MME] [PCRF] [others] | +------------------------------------------------|-----------------+ +--------------------+ +---------------------------|--------------------|-----------------+ | User Plane Environment | | | | | +------(S)Gi-LAN --+-----+ | | | | | | | | | +---[SF1]-[SF3]-[SF5]---[Appl. 1] | | | | / | | | [UE]---[eNB]===[S-GW]===[P-GW]-----[SF2]-[SF4]-[SF6]--------+ | | | \ | | | | | +---[SF7]-[SF8]-[SF9]-----+ | | | | | | | | | +------------------------+ | | | | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------|--|----+ | | OTT Internet Applications | | [Appl. 2] [Appl. 3] Figure 3: Typical service chain topology. Service functions typically observe, alter or even terminate and re- establish application session flows between mobile user equipment and application platforms. Control plane metadata supporting policy based traffic handling may be linked to individual service functions SFn. Because in Figure 3 the P-GW classifies service chains, we consider the P-GW as a component of the service chaining environment. However, more sophisticated classification schemes are possible and discussed later. Care must be taken in classifying and directing flows in different directions (upstream versus downstream) or different flows from the same subscriber when Service Functions observe or alter session flows. Such functions can maintain local state that is necessary to the correct functioning of session flows (e.g., non-transparent proxies) or to enforcing the policies of the service provider (e.g., fair-use policies). Such stateful service functions can require steering both upstream and downstream directions of a flow through a single service function instance (e.g., from a set of identical service function instances deployed for scale) or for steering all flows with a common criteria (e.g., belonging to the same subscriber) through such a single service function instance. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 9] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 2.3. The most common classification scheme Mobile user equipment like smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices address use Access Point Names (APNs) to address a service network or service platform. APNs are DNS host names and comparable to FQDN host names. While a FQDN refers to an Internet IP address, an APN (loosely speaking) specifies a P-GW IP address. These APNs are used to distinguish certain user groups and their traffic, e.g., there can be an APN for a mobile service offered to the general public while enterprise customers get their own APN. For APN details see [TS.23.003]. Operators often associate a designated VLAN-ID with an APN. A VLAN- ID n then may classify the service function chain n (SFC n) related to an application platform n (Appl. n), as shown in the following Figure 4. +----------+ | | | IF-1 O [APN 1 => VLAN-ID 1] ---- [SFC 1] ---- [Appl. 1] | | =====| P-GW O . . . . | | | IF-n O [APN n => VLAN-ID n] ---- [SFC n] ---- [Appl. n] | | +----------+ Figure 4: Association of a service chain to an application platform. Examples for an APN are, e.g.: +------------+-----------------+ | APN: | web.vodafone.de | | User Name: | not required | | Password: | not required | +------------+-----------------+ Table 1: Example APN for Vodafone Germany +------------+------------------+ | APN: | internet.telekom | | User Name: | t-mobile | | Password: | tm | +------------+------------------+ Table 2: Example APN for Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 10] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 2.4. More sophisticated classification schemes More sophisticated classifications are feasible using metadata that is UE related, subscriber and service related, as well as network related metadata. Typical metadata and their sources are: UE: terminal type (e.g., HTC one), IMSI (country, carrier, user) GTP tunnel endpoint: eNB-Identifier, time, and many more PCRF: subscriber info, APN (service name), QoS, policy rules Mobile operator defined subscriber, service or network specific policies are typically encoded in the 3GPP-based Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), see [TS.23.203]. For instance, a PCRF may encode the rules that apply to pre-paid and post-paid users, users with a classification of gold, silver, or bronze, or even as detailed as describing rules that apply to "gold users, wishing to download a video file, while these subscribers are subjected to a fair-usage policy". It is up to the mobile service providers to encode the precise mappings between its subscriber classes and the associated service chains. The Traffic Detection Function (TDF) is part of the 3GPP PCC (Policy and Charging Architecture, [TS.23.203]). Such a TDF inspects the user traffic after leaving the P-GW function (see Figure 4). The TDF can be used to classify traffic originating from an APN into more detailed services. This could be used to classify traffic into different Service Functions. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 11] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 +-------------------------+ | PCRF | +----+--------------+-----+ | | Gx-IF Sd-IF | | +----+-----+ +----+-----+ ==========O [PCEF] | | O--------[SFC 1] ---- [Appl. 1] | | | O--------[SFC 2] ---- [Appl. 2] ==========O P-GW O---O [TDF] O--------[SFC 3] ---- [Appl. 3] | | | O--------[SFC 4] ---- [Appl. 4] ==========O | | O--------[SFC n] ---- [Appl. n] +----------+ +----------+ * * 3GPP Bearer SGi SGi Figure 5: 3GPP Traffic Detection Function (TDF) for classification. The Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) enforces policies received from the PCRF and, in the other direction, provides the PCRF with subscriber and access information via Gx interface. The TDF will typically observe the traffic on all layers. On application start and stop the TDF provides feedback to the PCRF for further actions to be taken on a particular flow. The PCRF can request that the TDF apply application and detection controls to application flows including charging and usage monitoring. The TDF can also act without any interaction with the PCRF taking care of gating (firewalling), traffic redirection, bandwidth management or charging. 3. Example use cases specific to mobile networks Because HTTP via TCP port 80 (or TCP port 443 for HTTPS) is by far the most common Internet traffic class, we discuss two typical examples of an associated service function chaining model in some more detail. The models presented below are simplified compared to real life service function chain implementations because we do not discuss differentiated traffic handling based on different subscriber- specific service level agreements and price plans or even actual network load conditions. 3.1. Service chain model for Internet HTTP services With the increase of Internet traffic in mobile networks mobile operators have started to introduce Performance Enhancement Proxies (PEPs) to optimize network resource utilization. PEPs are more or Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 12] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 less integrated platforms that ensure the best possible Quality of Experience (QoE). Their service functions include but are not limited to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), web and video optimizations, subscriber and service policy controlled dynamic network adaption, analytics and management support. A simple service function chain model for mobile Internet upstream and downstream traffic is shown in Figure 6 below. The function chain includes Load Balancers (LB), which split HTTP over TCP port 80 away from the rest of the internet traffic. Beside basic web content, this traffic class includes more and more video. To act on this traffic type we force this traffic to pass Performance Enhancement Proxies. The firewall function (FW) protects the carrier network from the outside and Network Address Translation (NAT) maps the private IP address space dedicated to user equipment to a public IP address. [Cache] | [P-GW]---[LB]-----------[PEP]--[LB]--[FW]---[NAT]---[Internet] | HTTP:80 | | | | | | non HTTP:80 | +---------------------+ Figure 6: Service function chain for HTTP traffic over TCP port 80. The first application in this Service Chain example caches web content to help reduce Round Trip Times (RTT) and therefore contribute to improved web page load times. Optimizing RTT and thereby improving Quality of Experience (QoE) is generally more important for mobile service providers than reducing Internet peering costs. Similar arguments hold for cached video content. We avoid potential large jitter imported from the Internet. An example for non HTTP:80 traffic in Figure 6 is UDP-encapsulated IPsec traffic, which is dedicated to port 10000. Note that in a real environment not only port 80 but for example additional traffic via port 8080, 25 for SMTP, 110 for POP3 or 143 for IMAP may be forced to pass a service chain. A second application is video optimization. Video content from the Internet may not fit to the size of mobile device displays or simply would overload the mobile network when used natively. Therefore mobile operators adapt internet-based video content to ensure the best QoE. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 13] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 Video content optimization very often is also an additional premium- related component in service offers and price plans. Our PEP environment for video optimization consists of three basic service functions shown in Figure 7: a steering proxy which is able to redirect HTTP traffic, a DPI-based controller which checks for video content and an optimizer which transcodes videos to an appropriate format on the fly in real time. [PEP for video] ==>> [Steering Proxy]---[DPI Contr.]---[Optimizer] Figure 7: Service functions required for video optimization. In Figure 8 we show the detailed HTTP flows and their redirection in some more detail. The intention here is to show every elementary functional step in a chain as a separate physical or virtualized item, but this state diagram must not necessarily reflect every existing vendor-specific proprietary implementation. Specifically, the Steering Proxy includes a TCP proxy and an ICAP client which communicates with an ICAP server residing in the controller function which is supported by a L7 DPI. The video optimization process acts on the downstream flow only. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 14] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 [UE]----[Steering Proxy]----[DPI Contr.]----[Optimizer]----[Content] |-- HTTP GET ->|-------------- HTTP GET ----------------------->| |<------------- HTTP Response -------------------| |-- Is it Video? ->| |<-- Video found --| |<--- HTTP ----| Redirect |-- HTTP GET ->|-----HTTP GET ---------------->| |-- HTTP GET -->| Video |<--- HTTP -----| Response Orig. Video {Optimize} |<------- HTTP Response --------| Transcoded Video |-- Is it Video? ->| |<-- Video found --| |<--- HTTP ----| Response Transcoded Video Figure 8: Flow diagram between UE and video optimization PEP. In such an application scenario one can have reclassification or off- loading on the fly. Assume a video streams within a 4G LTE radio cell. The video optimizer would then apply a transcoding scheme appropriate to the abilities of the 4G network. If one is now leaving the 4G cell and entering a 3G radio cell, the network conditions will most probably become different and the video optimizer has to use another transcoding scheme to keep a certain QoE. This requires that the video optimizer service function is aware of the Radio Access Technology (RAT) in use. One may transfer RAT type from the P-GW (or Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 15] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 GGSN in case of 3G traffic) via an AAA Proxy to the service function chain. The RAT information will then be embedded in an appropriate Radius message. Other 3GPP steering mechanisms may apply as well. If for example the 4G network has sufficient bandwidth, one could also think of another, different use case. The rule could be that only 3G video streams are forced to pass the video optimizer while all 4G video traffic will be bypassed. Additionally, network utilization information can be used to trigger the behavior of the service function. The degree of video compression applied could depend on the actual current network load. Last but not least the behavior of the video optimizer service function (or any other service function) could additionally depend on the user-specific service contract (price plan, gold, silver, bronze) or on individual on demand requests. 3.1.1. Weaknesses of current approaches This use case model highlights the weakness of current service deployments in the areas of traffic selection, reclassification, and multi-vendor support. Traffic in this example is classified after the P-GW and separated into separate flows based on whether it is (in this example) TCP traffic destined to port 80. This classification could be done by the load balancer (see Figure 6) if it initiates the service chain selection, or the traffic can be reclassified at the load balancer if the traffic is already embedded in a Service Chain (e.g., when combined with other functions such as the TCP optimization in the following use case). Multi-vendor support is needed because every element in the use case can be provided by a different vendor: load-balancer, HTTP proxy, firewall, and NAT. 3.2. Service chain for TCP optimization The essential parameters influencing TCP behavior are latency, packet loss and available throughput. Content servers are mostly attached to fixed networks. These are characterized by high bandwidth and low latency. On the other side, Radio Access Networks (RANs) tend to have higher latency, packet loss, and congestion. The fixed network part will typically get a TCP Rx/Tx buffer size different to that one on the radio network side, because buffer sizes are typically set proportional to the latency (rule of thumb: 2x latency x bandwidth). Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 16] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 TCP cannot handle such disparate end-to-end situations very well. One way to mitigate this problem is to use split TCP. However, even without congestion, packet losses on the mobile network side may result in time outs and finally can cause the content server on the fixed network side to stall. Therefore mobile operators often use TCP optimization proxies in the data path. These proxies monitor latency and throughput real-time and dynamically optimize TCP parameters for each TCP connection to ensure a better transmission behavior. A rudimentary service chain setup for TCP optimization is shown in Figure 9. Examples of non TCP flows are UDP/RTP voice or video traffic. [P-GW]---[LB]----------[TCP Opt.]---[LB]---[FW]---[NAT]---[Internet] | TCP | | | | non-TCP | +--------------------------+ Figure 9: Optimizing TCP parameterization in a mobile network. 3.2.1. Weaknesses of current approaches This use case highlights weaknesses of current service deployments in the areas of traffic selection, reclassification, and multi-vendor support as in the previous use case presented in Section 3.1. 3.3. HTTP header enrichment in mobile networks In legacy mobile networks WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gateways mediated between traditional mobile phones and the Internet translating HTML web content into a WML (Wireless Markup Language) and vice versa. By functionality, WAP-GWs fit also in the SFC category. Traditionally WAP-GWs use HTTP header enrichment to insert subscriber related data into WAP and HTTP request headers in real time. These data were (are) used to identify and charge subscribers on third party web sites. Today 3G and 4G mobile networks HTTP header enrichment is done by the GGSN/P-GW or a dedicated transparent HTTP optimizer as most of the data traffic on a mobile network no longer passes a WAP-GW. Information typically added to the header includes: Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 17] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 o Charging Characteristics o Charging ID o Subscriber ID o GGSN or PGW IP address o Serving Gateway Support Node (SGSN) or SGW IP address o International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) o International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) o Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN) o UE IP address 4. Remarks on QoS in mobile networks As indicated in Figure 3, service functions may be linked to the control plane to take care of additional subscriber or service related metadata. In many cases the source of metadata would be the PCRF and the link would be a Gx or Diameter-based Sd interface. Diameter is specified in [RFC6733] and Gx in [TS.29.212]. Service functions within the SGi/Gi-LAN are less focused on the explicit QoS steering of the actual mobile wireless network. QoS in mobile networks is based on the 3GPP "Bearer" concept. A Bearer is the essential traffic separation element enabling traffic separation according to different QoS settings and represents the logical transmission path between the User Equipment (UE) and the Packet Gateway (P-GW). 5. Weaknesses of current implementations In many operator environments every new service introduction can result in a further dedicated (S)Gi-LAN service chain, because service chaining has been deployed historically in an ad hoc manner. It typically requires placement of new functions in the operator's data center, changing the actual wiring to include any new or changed service function, configuration of the functions and network equipment, and finally testing of the new configuration to ensure that everything has been properly setup. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 18] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 5.1. Granularity of the classification scheme Often the coarse grained classification according to APNs is not fine enough to uniquely select a service function chain or a processing scheme within a service function chain required to support the typical user-, service- or network- related policies which the operator likes to apply to a specific user plane flow. It is very likely that an APN, such as shown in Section 2.3, is carrying an extremely diverse set of user traffic. This can range from HTTP web traffic to real-time traffic. 5.2. Service chain implementations In many carrier networks service chain LANs grow incrementally according product introductions or product modifications. This very often ends in a mix of static IP links, policy based routing or individual VRF implementations etc. to enforce the required sequence of service functions. Major weak points seen in many carrier networks are: o Very static service chain instances, hard-wired on the network layer leads to no flexibility with respect to reusing, adding, and removing service nodes and reprogramming service chains. o Evolutionary grown "handcrafted" connectivity models require high complexity to manage or maintain. o Basic implementation paradigm is based on APNs (that is service types) only, which requires individual injections of context- related metadata to obtain granularity down to user/service level. o There is currently no natural (or standardized) information exchange on network status between services and the network, complicating management of network resources based on subscriber profiles. o It is currently practically impossible to implement an automated service provisioning and delivery platform. o Scaling up flows or service chains with service or subscriber related metadata is extremely diffcult. 6. Operator requirements Mobile operators use service function chains to enable and optimize service delivery, offer network related customer services, optimize network behavior or protect networks against attacks and ensure Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 19] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 privacy. Service function chains are essential to their business. Without these, mobile operators are not able to deliver the necessary and contracted Quality of Experience (QoE) or even certain products to their customers. 6.1. Simplicity of service function chain instantiation Because product development cycles are very fast in mobile markets, mobile operators are asking for service chaining environments which allow them to instantly create or modify service chains in a very flexible and very simple way. The creation of service chains should be embedded in the business and operation support layers of the company and on an abstract functional level, independent of any network underlay. No knowledge about internetworking technology should be required at all. The mapping of the functional model of a service chain onto the actual underlay network should be done by a provisioning software package similar to that shown in Figure 10. Details of the architecture and design are the subject of forthcoming standards and proprietary implementation details. +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Creation of an abstract service function chain | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | V +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | +----------------------------------------------------+ | | | Service function chain compiler | | | +----------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | V | | +----------------------------------------------------+ | | | Mediation device | | | +----------------------------------------------------+ | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | V +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Physical network underlay | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ Figure 10: Creation and provisioning system for service function chains. Service functions can be physical or virtualized. In the near future the majority of mobile service functions will typically reside in the local cloud computing environment of a mobile core location. Nevertheless, first trials have shown that (virtualized) Service Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 20] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 Function interconnects via WAN links require careful latency considerations. Last but not least, any implementation must take into account that in the migration phase a mixed infrastructure including virtual machines and bare metal based systems must be supported. 6.2. Extensions A service function chain should be generalized by a directed graph where the vertices (nodes) represent an elementary service function. This model allows branching conditions at the vertices. Branching in a graph could then be triggered by typical 3GPP specified mobile metadata (see Section 2.3) and allow for more sophisticated steering methods in a service chain. Typically this data will be injected by the mobile control plane, commonly by the PCRF via a Diameter-based 3GPP Sd interface. Service chain behavior and output should additionally depend on actual network conditions. For example, the selection of a video compression format could depend on the actual load of the mobile network segment a mobile user is attached to. That is to say that classification of flows may allow very dynamic inputs while specification of such inputs from a 3GPP network will need to be done by 3GPP or another standards body. Although necessary metadata can be obtained from the PCRF, to avoid Diameter signaling storms in the (S)Gi-LAN, individual service functions should probably not be attached individually to the control plane. A mechanism where such metadata is carried by a metadata header can reduce requests to the PCRF, provided these extensions do not increase the original payload size too much. 6.3. Reflections on Metadata At the moment we see just two types of metadata classes. Metadata which are static and related to subscriber and service policies residing typically in the control plane environment and dynamic metadata, which may reflect time and location dependent status somewhere in the network or other service platforms, e.g., load conditions or relevant network technology indicators. It may be useful to have proper interfaces to inject these metadata into the Service Function Chain domain. Summarized, metadata may by injected into individual Service Chain Functions: Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 21] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 o asynchronously from the control plain environment by means of individual standardized interfaces, o synchrounously, piggypacked with the user IP packet: * by means of a to-be-defined metadata header * or carried with http header enrichements within the user payload. 6.4. Delimitations A clear separation between service chaining functionality and 3GPP bearer handling is required. This may be subject of forthcoming studies. 7. Security Considerations Organizational security policies must apply to ensure the integrity of the SFC environment. 8. IANA Considerations This document has no actions for IANA. 9. Acknowledgments We thank Peter Bosch, Carlos Correia, Dave Dolson, Linda Dunbar, Alla Goldner, Wim Hendericks, Konstantin Livanos, Praveen Muley, Ron Parker, and Nirav Salot for valuable discussions and contributions. 10. References 10.1. Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 10.2. Informative References [RFC6459] Korhonen, J., Soininen, J., Patil, B., Savolainen, T., Bajko, G., and K. Iisakkila, "IPv6 in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Evolved Packet System (EPS)", RFC 6459, January 2012. [RFC6733] Fajardo, V., Arkko, J., Loughney, J., and G. Zorn, "Diameter Base Protocol", RFC 6733, October 2012. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 22] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 [TS.23.003] "Numbering, addressing and identification", 3GPP TS 23.003 12.1.0, December 2013. [TS.23.203] "Policy and charging control architecture", 3GPP TS 23.203 12.3.0, December 2013. [TS.23.401] "General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access", 3GPP TS 23.401 12.3.0, December 2013. [TS.29.061] "Interworking between the Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) supporting packet based services and Packet Data Networks (PDN)", 3GPP TS 29.061 12.4.0, December 2013. [TS.29.212] "Policy and Charging Control (PCC); Reference points", 3GPP TS 29.212 13.0.0, January 2015. [TS.29.274] "3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS); Evolved General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunnelling Protocol for Control plane (GTPv2-C); Stage 3", 3GPP TS 29.274 12.3.0, December 2013. [TS.29.281] "General Packet Radio System (GPRS) Tunnelling Protocol User Plane (GTPv1-U)", 3GPP TS 29.281 11.6.0, March 2013. [TS.33.210] "3G security; Network Domain Security (NDS); IP network layer security", 3GPP TS 33.210 12.2.0, December 2012. [ietf-sfc-arch] and , "Service Function Chaining (SFC) Architecture", I-D draft-ietf-sfc-architecture-03 (work in progress), January 2015. [ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases] , , , , and , "Service Function Chaining Use Cases In Data Centers", I-D draft-ietf-sfc-dc-use-cases-01 (work in progress), July 2014. Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 23] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 [ietf-sfc-long-lived-flow-use-cases] , , , , and , "SFC Long-lived Flow Use Cases", I-D draft- ietf-sfc-long-lived-flow-use-cases-01 (work in progress), December 2014. [ietf-sfc-problem-statement] and , "Service Function Chaining Problem Statement", I-D draft-ietf-sfc-problem-statement-10 (work in progress), August 2014. Authors' Addresses Walter Haeffner Vodafone Vodafone D2 GmbH Ferdinand-Braun-Platz 1 Duesseldorf 40549 DE Phone: +49 (0)172 663 7184 Email: walter.haeffner@vodafone.com Jeffrey Napper Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. Haarlerbergweg 13-19 Amsterdam 1101 CH NL Email: jenapper@cisco.com Martin Stiemerling NEC NEC Europe Ltd. Kurfuersten-Anlage 36 Heidelberg 69181 DE Email: mls.ietf@gmail.com Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 24] Internet-Draft SFC Use Cases in Mobility January 2015 Diego R. Lopez Telefonica I+D Don Ramon de la Cruz, 82 Madrid 28006 ES Phone: +34 913 129 041 Email: diego@tid.es Jim Uttaro AT&T 200 South Laurel Ave Middletown, NJ 07748 US Email: uttaro@att.com Haeffner, et al. Expires July 17, 2015 [Page 25]