Network Work group N. Kumar
Internet-Draft C. Pignataro
Intended status: Standards Track P. Quinn
Expires: September 10, 2015 Cisco Systems, Inc.
March 9, 2015

IPFIX Information Element extension for SFC
draft-kumar-ipfix-sfc-extension-00

Abstract

Service Function Chaining (SFC) is an architecture that enables any operator to apply selective set of services by steering the traffic through an ordered set of service functions without any topology dependency.

This document defines the required Information Elements to represent the details about service flows over any Service Function Path.

Status of This Memo

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This Internet-Draft will expire on September 10, 2015.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

[I-D.ietf-sfc-architecture] introduces and explains SFC architecture that enables any operator to apply selective set of services by steering the traffic through an ordered set of service functions without any topology dependency. Such ordered set of service functions to be applied to a packet is defined as service function chaining. As defined in [I-D.quinn-sfc-nsh], a classifier will add Network Service Header (NSH) to a packet that defines the corresponding service path to follow.

This document defines the required Information Elements to represent the details about traffic flows over any Service Function Path and export to Collector.

2. Requirements notation

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].

3. Terminology

This document uses the terminologies defined in [I-D.ietf-sfc-architecture] and [RFC7011]. In addition, this document defines the below terminologies:

Service Flow

4. Network Service Header

Section 3.1 of [I-D.quinn-sfc-nsh] defines the Network Service Header format used by the classifier to encapsulate the traffic, carrying instruction about the service functions to be applied to the packet. This header comprises a 4 byte base header followed by a 4 byte service path header and a variable size context header.

In order to accomodate different needs from different use cases, there are 2 types of Network Service Header defined in [I-D.quinn-sfc-nsh] that preserves same Base header and Service Path header while differs in Context header. NSH MD-type 1 have a fixed size Mandatory Context header while NSH MD-type 2 have a variable size TLV based context header. The details are below:


     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
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |Ver|O|C|R|R|R|R|R|R|   Length  |  MD-type=0x1  | Next Protocol |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |          Service Path ID                      | Service Index |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                Mandatory Context Header                       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                Mandatory Context Header                       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                Mandatory Context Header                       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                Mandatory Context Header                       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                             

                           Figure 1: NSH MD-type 1
  
	  

      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
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |Ver|O|C|R|R|R|R|R|R|   Length  |  MD-type=0x2  | Next Protocol |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |          Service Path ID                      | Service Index |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                                                               |
     ~           Optional Variable Length Context Headers            ~
     |                                                               |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                           

                            Figure 2: NSH MD-type 2
  
	  

The details about different header fields are detailed in Section 3.4 and 3.5 of [I-D.quinn-sfc-nsh].

5. Flow measurement in SFC environment

SFC introduces the concept of steering user traffic over an ordered set of service function by utilizing service overlay between service functions over the existing network topology. The measurement of Service flow over Service Function Chain are required for various application such as but not limited to below:

In SFC environment, Classifier and Service Function Forwarder (SFF) are the different nodes that handles SFC encapsulation and it is appropriate to collect the Service Flow records in these nodes.

5.1. Observation Point

An Observation point in SFC environment is where Flow record for Service Flow will be collected and exported to the Collector. In a Classifier or SFF, an Observation point can be any physical or logical port that:

5.2. Flow measurement

The ability to collect Flow record for different flows observed at the above range of Observation point allows an Operator to measure flow properties before and after the application of any service function within a service function path. An implementation SHOULD support the use of Information Elements defined in section 6 to measure and export the flow information. In addition, it also MAY support the use of other Flow keys relevant to the underlay network to collect any additional information from transport header encapsulating NSH header.

6. Service Flow Information Elements

This document defines the below set of Information Elements that are necessary for enabling IPFIX traffic measurement for Service Flow:


 		+---------+------------------------------------------+
 		|   ID    |                Name                      |
 		+---------+------------------------------------------+
 		|  TBD1   |  nshBaseVersion                          |
 		|  TBD2   |  nshBaseFlags                            |
		|  TBD3   |  nshBaseHeaderLength                     |
 		|  TBD4   |  nshBaseMDType                           |
 		|  TBD5   |  nshBaseNextProtocol                     |
 		|  TBD6   |  nshSphServicePathID                     |
 		|  TBD7   |  nshSphServiceIndex                      |
 		|  TBD8   |  nshMetadataMch                          |
 		|  TBD9   |  nshMetadataVch                          |
 		|  TBD10  |  nshIPv4NextSFF                          |
 		|  TBD11  |  nshIPv6NextSFF                          |
 		+---------+------------------------------------------+
 			
	  

6.1. nshBaseVersion

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD1

Data Type Semantic: identifier

Range: The valid range is 0-3.

Reference:

6.2. nshBaseFlags

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD2

Data Type Semantic: flags

Reference:

6.3. nshBaseHeaderLength

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD3

Range: The valid range is 0-255.

Reference:

6.4. nshBaseMDType

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD4

Data Type Semantic: identifier

Reference:

6.5. nshBaseNextProtocol

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD5

Data Type Semantic: identifier

Reference:

6.6. nshSphServicePathID

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned32

Element ID: TBD6

Data Type Semantic: identifier

Reference:

6.7. nshSphServiceIndex

Description:

Abstract Data Type: unsigned8

Element ID: TBD7

Range : The valid range is between 0-255.

Reference:

6.8. nshMetadataMch

Description:

Abstract Data Type: OctetArray

Element ID: TBD8

Reference:

6.9. nshMetadataVch

Description:

Abstract Data Type: OctetArray

Element ID: TBD9

Reference:

6.10. nshIPv4NextSFF

Description:

Abstract Data Type: ipv4Address

Element ID: TBD10

Data Type Semantic: identifier

6.11. nshIPv6NextSFF

Description:

Abstract Data Type: ipv6Address

Element ID: TBD11

Data Type Semantic: identifier

7. IANA Considerations

To be Updated.

8. Security Considerations

TBD

9. Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Jim Guichard, Stewart Bryant, Benoit Claise and Richard Furr for their contribution.

10. Contributing Authors

TBD

11. References

11.1. Normative References

[I-D.quinn-sfc-nsh] Quinn, P., Guichard, J., Surendra, S., Smith, M., Henderickx, W., Nadeau, T., Agarwal, P., Manur, R., Chauhan, A., Halpern, J., Majee, S., Elzur, U., Melman, D., Garg, P., McConnell, B., Wright, C. and K. Kevin, "Network Service Header", Internet-Draft draft-quinn-sfc-nsh-07, February 2015.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC7011] Claise, B., Trammell, B. and P. Aitken, "Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange of Flow Information", STD 77, RFC 7011, September 2013.

11.2. Informative References

[I-D.ietf-sfc-architecture] Halpern, J. and C. Pignataro, "Service Function Chaining (SFC) Architecture", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-sfc-architecture-07, March 2015.
[RFC7012] Claise, B. and B. Trammell, "Information Model for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)", RFC 7012, September 2013.
[RFC7013] Trammell, B. and B. Claise, "Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers of IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Information Elements", BCP 184, RFC 7013, September 2013.

Authors' Addresses

Nagendra Kumar Cisco Systems, Inc. 7200 Kit Creek Road Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 US EMail: naikumar@cisco.com
Carlos Pignataro Cisco Systems, Inc. 7200 Kit Creek Road Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-4987 US EMail: cpignata@cisco.com
Paul Quinn Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Dr San Jose, CA US EMail: paulq@cisco.com