Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                C. Villamizar, Ed.
Request for Comments: 7226                                    OCCNC, LLC
Category: Informational                                  D. McDysan, Ed.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                  Verizon
                                                                S. Ning
                                                    Tata Communications
                                                               A. Malis
                                                                 Huawei
                                                                L. Yong
                                                             Huawei USA
                                                               May 2014


         Requirements for Advanced Multipath in MPLS Networks

Abstract

  This document provides a set of requirements for Advanced Multipath
  in MPLS networks.

  Advanced Multipath is a formalization of multipath techniques
  currently in use in IP and MPLS networks and a set of extensions to
  existing multipath techniques.

Status of This Memo

  This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
  published for informational purposes.

  This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
  (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
  received public review and has been approved for publication by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
  approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
  Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7226.












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Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2014 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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
    1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
  2.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
  3.  Functional Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
    3.1.  Availability, Stability, and Transient Response . . . . .   6
    3.2.  Component Links Provided by Lower-Layer Networks  . . . .   7
    3.3.  Component Links with Different Characteristics  . . . . .   8
    3.4.  Considerations for Bidirectional Client LSP . . . . . . .   9
    3.5.  Multipath Load-Balancing Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
  4.  General Requirements for Protocol Solutions . . . . . . . . .  12
  5.  Management Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
  6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
  7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
  8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
    8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
    8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15


















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1.  Introduction

  There is often a need to provide large aggregates of bandwidth that
  are best provided using parallel links between routers or carrying
  traffic over multiple MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs).  In core
  networks, there is often no alternative since the aggregate
  capacities of core networks today far exceed the capacity of a single
  physical link or a single packet-processing element.

  The presence of parallel links, with each link potentially comprised
  of multiple layers, has resulted in additional requirements.  Certain
  services may benefit from being restricted to a subset of the
  component links or a specific component link, where component link
  characteristics, such as latency, differ.  Certain services require
  that an LSP be treated as atomic and avoid reordering.  Other
  services will continue to require only that reordering not occur
  within a flow as is current practice.

  Numerous forms of multipath exist today, including MPLS Link Bundling
  [RFC4201], Ethernet Link Aggregation [IEEE-802.1AX], and various
  forms of Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) such as for OSPF ECMP, IS-IS
  ECMP, and BGP ECMP.  Refer to the appendices in [USE-CASES] for a
  description of existing techniques and a set of references.

  The purpose of this document is to clearly enumerate a set of
  requirements related to the protocols and mechanisms that provide
  MPLS-based Advanced Multipath.  The intent is to first provide a set
  of functional requirements, in Section 3, that are as independent as
  possible of protocol specifications.  A set of general protocol
  requirements are defined in Section 4.  A set of network management
  requirements are defined in Section 5.

1.1.  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].

  Any statement that requires the solution to support some new
  functionality through use of [RFC2119] keywords should be interpreted
  as follows.  The implementation either MUST or SHOULD support the new
  functionality, depending on the use of either MUST or SHOULD in the
  requirements statement.  The implementation SHOULD, in most or all
  cases, allow any new functionality to be individually enabled or
  disabled through configuration.  A service provider or other
  deployment MAY enable or disable any feature in their network,
  subject to implementation limitations on sets of features that can be
  disabled.



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2.  Definitions

  Multipath
      The term "multipath" includes all techniques in which:

      1.  Traffic can take more than one path from one node to a
          destination.

      2.  Individual packets take one path only.  Packets are not
          subdivided and reassembled at the receiving end.

      3.  Packets are not resequenced at the receiving end.

      4.  The paths may be:

          a.  parallel links between two nodes,

          b.  specific paths across a network to a destination node, or

          c.  links or paths to an intermediate node used to reach a
              common destination.

      The paths need not have equal capacity.  The paths may or may not
      have equal cost in a routing protocol.

  Advanced Multipath
      Advanced Multipath is a formalization of multipath techniques
      that meets the requirements defined in this document.  A key
      capability of Advanced Multipath is the support of non-
      homogeneous component links.

  Advanced Multipath Group (AMG)
      An AMG is a collection of component links where Advanced
      Multipath techniques are applied.

  Composite Link
      The term "composite link" had been a registered trademark of
      Avici Systems, but it was abandoned in 2007.  The term "composite
      link" is now defined by the ITU-T in [ITU-T.G.800].  The ITU-T
      definition includes multipath as defined here, plus inverse
      multiplexing, which is explicitly excluded from the definition of
      multipath.









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  Inverse Multiplexing
      Inverse multiplexing is another method of sending traffic over
      multiple links.  Inverse multiplexing either transmits whole
      packets and resequences the packets at the receiving end or
      subdivides packets and reassembles the packets at the receiving
      end.  Inverse multiplexing requires that all packets be handled
      by a common egress packet processing element and is, therefore,
      not useful for very high-bandwidth applications.

  Component Link
      The ITU-T definition of composite link in [ITU-T.G.800] and the
      IETF definition of link bundling in [RFC4201] both refer to an
      individual link in the composite link or link bundle as a
      component link.  The term "component link" is applicable to all
      forms of multipath.  The IEEE uses the term "member" rather than
      "component link" in Ethernet Link Aggregation [IEEE-802.1AX].

  Client Layer
      A client layer is the layer immediately above a server layer.

  Server Layer
      A server layer is the layer immediately below a client layer.

  Higher Layers
      Relative to a particular layer, a client layer and any layer
      above that is considered a higher layer.  Upper layer is
      synonymous with higher layer.

  Lower Layers
      Relative to a particular layer, a server layer and any layer
      below that is considered a lower layer.

  Client LSP
      A client LSP is an LSP that has been set up over one or more
      lower layers.  In the context of this discussion, one type of
      client LSP is an LSP that has been set up over an AMG.

  Flow
      A sequence of packets that should be transferred in order on one
      component link of a multipath.











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  Flow Identification
      The label stack and other information that uniquely identifies a
      flow.  Other information in flow identification may include an IP
      header, pseudowire (PW) control word, Ethernet Media Access
      Control (MAC) address, etc.  Note that a client LSP may contain
      one or more flows, or a client LSP may be equivalent to a flow.
      Flow identification is used to locally select a component link or
      a path through the network toward the destination.

  Load Balance
      Load split, load balance, or load distribution refers to
      subdividing traffic over a set of component links such that load
      is fairly evenly distributed over the set of component links and
      certain packet ordering requirements are met.  Some existing
      techniques better achieve these objectives than others.

  Performance Objective
      Numerical values for performance measures: principally
      availability, latency, and delay variation.  Performance
      objectives may be related to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as
      defined in [RFC2475] or may be strictly internal.  Performance
      objectives may span links from edge to edge or from end to end.
      Performance objectives may span one provider or multiple
      providers.

  A component link may be a point-to-point physical link (where a
  "physical link" includes one or more link layers, plus a physical
  layer) or a logical link that preserves ordering in the steady state.
  A component link may have transient out-of-order events, but such
  events must not exceed the network's performance objectives.  For
  example, a component link may be comprised of any supportable
  combination of link layers over a physical layer or over logical sub-
  layers -- including those providing physical-layer emulation -- or
  over MPLS server-layer LSP.

  The ingress and egress of a multipath may be midpoint LSRs with
  respect to a given client LSP.  A midpoint LSR does not participate
  in the signaling of any clients of the client LSP.  Therefore, in
  general, multipath endpoints cannot determine requirements of clients
  of a client LSP through participation in the signaling of the clients
  of the client LSP.

  This document makes no statement on whether Advanced Multipath is
  itself a layer or whether an instance of AMG is itself a layer.  This
  is to avoid engaging in long and pointless discussions about what
  constitutes a proper layer.





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  The term "Advanced Multipath" is intended to be used within the
  context described in this document and related documents, for
  example, [USE-CASES] and [FRAMEWORK].  Other Advanced Multipath
  techniques may arise in the future.  If the capabilities defined in
  this document become commonplace, they would no longer be considered
  "advanced".  Use of the term "advanced multipath" outside this
  document, if referring to the term as defined here, should indicate
  Advanced Multipath as defined by this document, citing the current
  document name.  If using another definition of "advanced multipath",
  documents may optionally clarify that they are not using the term
  "advanced multipath" as defined by this document if clarification is
  deemed helpful.

3.  Functional Requirements

  The functional requirements in this section are grouped in
  subsections, starting with the highest priority.

3.1.  Availability, Stability, and Transient Response

  In addition to maintaining stability, limiting the period of
  unavailability in response to failures or transient events is
  extremely important.

  FR#1  The transient period between some service disrupting event and
        the convergence of the routing and/or signaling protocols MUST
        occur within a time frame specified by performance objective
        values.

  FR#2  An AMG MAY be announced in conjunction with detailed parameters
        about its component links, such as bandwidth and latency.  The
        AMG SHALL behave as a single IGP adjacency.

  FR#3  The solution SHALL provide a means to summarize some routing
        advertisements regarding the characteristics of an AMG such
        that the updated protocol mechanisms maintain convergence times
        within the time frame needed to meet or not significantly
        exceed existing performance objectives for convergence on the
        same network or convergence on a network with a similar
        topology.

  FR#4  The solution SHALL ensure that restoration operations happen
        within the time frame needed to meet existing performance
        objectives for restoration time on the same network or
        restoration time on a network with a similar topology.






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  FR#5  The solution shall provide a mechanism to select a set of paths
        for an LSP across a network in such a way that flows within the
        LSP are distributed across the set of paths, while meeting all
        of the other requirements stated above.  The solution SHOULD
        work in a manner similar to existing multipath techniques,
        except as necessary to accommodate Advanced Multipath
        requirements.

  FR#6  If extensions to existing protocols are specified and/or new
        protocols are defined, then the solution SHOULD provide a means
        for a network operator to migrate an existing deployment in a
        minimally disruptive manner.

  FR#7  Any load-balancing solutions MUST NOT oscillate.  Some change
        in path MAY occur.  The solution MUST ensure that path
        stability and traffic reordering continue to meet performance
        objectives on the same network or on a network with a similar
        topology.  Since oscillation may cause reordering, there MUST
        be means to control the frequency of changing the component
        link over which a flow is placed.

  FR#8  Management and diagnostic protocols MUST be able to operate
        over AMGs.

  Existing scaling techniques used in MPLS networks apply to MPLS
  networks that support Advanced Multipath.  Scalability and stability
  are covered in more detail in [FRAMEWORK].

3.2.  Component Links Provided by Lower-Layer Networks

  A component link may be supported by a lower-layer network.  For
  example, the lower layer may be a circuit-switched network or another
  MPLS network (e.g., MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP)).  The lower-
  layer network may change the latency (and/or other performance
  parameters) seen by the client layer.  Currently, there is no
  protocol for the lower-layer network to inform the higher-layer
  network of a change in a performance parameter.  Communication of the
  latency performance parameter is a very important requirement.
  Communication of other performance parameters (e.g., delay variation)
  is desirable.

  FR#9  The solution SHALL specify a protocol means to allow a server-
        layer network to communicate latency to the client-layer
        network.







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  FR#10 The precision of latency reporting SHOULD be configurable.  A
        reasonable default SHOULD be provided.  Implementations SHOULD
        support precision of at least 10% of the one-way latencies for
        latency of 1 msec or more.

  The intent is to measure the predominant latency in uncongested
  service-provider networks, where geographic delay dominates and is on
  the order of milliseconds or more.  The argument for including
  queuing delay is that it reflects the delay experienced by
  applications.  The argument against including queuing delay is that
  if used in routing decisions, it can result in routing instability.
  This trade-off is discussed in detail in [FRAMEWORK].

3.3.  Component Links with Different Characteristics

  As one means to provide high availability, network operators deploy a
  topology in the MPLS network using lower-layer networks that have a
  certain degree of diversity at the lower layer(s).  Many techniques
  have been developed to balance the distribution of flows across
  component links that connect the same pair of nodes or ultimately
  lead to a common destination.

  FR#11 In the requirements that follow in this document, the word
        "indicate" is used where information may be provided by either
        the combination of link state IGP advertisement and MPLS LSP
        signaling or via management plane protocols.  In later
        documents, providing framework and protocol definitions, both
        signaling and management plane mechanisms, MUST be defined.

  FR#12 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a client LSP will traverse a
        component link with the minimum-latency value.  This will
        provide a means by which minimum latency performance objectives
        of flows within the client LSP can be supported.

  FR#13 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a client LSP will traverse a
        component link with a maximum acceptable latency value as
        specified by protocol.  This will provide a means by which
        bounded latency performance objectives of flows within the
        client LSP can be supported.

  FR#14 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a client LSP will traverse a
        component link with a maximum acceptable delay variation value
        as specified by protocol.





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  The above set of requirements applies to component links with
  different characteristics, regardless of whether those component
  links are provided by parallel physical links between nodes or by
  sets of paths across a network provided by a server-layer LSP.

  Allowing multipath to contain component links with different
  characteristics can improve the overall load balance and can be
  accomplished while still accommodating the more strict requirements
  of a subset of client LSP.

3.4.  Considerations for Bidirectional Client LSP

  Some client LSPs MAY require a path bound to a specific set of
  component links.  This case is most likely to occur in a
  bidirectional client LSP where time synchronization protocols such as
  the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) or the Network Time Protocol (NTP)
  are carried or in any other case where symmetric delay is highly
  desirable.  There may be other uses of this capability.

  Other client LSPs may only require that the LSP serve the same set of
  nodes in both directions.  This is necessary if protocols are carried
  that make use of the reverse direction of the LSP as a back channel
  in cases such Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM)
  protocols using IPv4 Time to Live (TTL) or IPv4 Hop Limit to monitor
  or diagnose the underlying path.  There may be other uses of this
  capability.

  FR#15 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a client LSP be bound to a
        particular component link within an AMG.  If this option is not
        exercised, then a client LSP that is carried over an AMG may be
        bound to any component link or set of component links matching
        all other signaled requirements, and different directions of a
        bidirectional client LSP can be bound to different component
        links.

  FR#16 The solution MUST support a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that for a specific co-routed
        bidirectional client LSP, both directions of the co-routed
        bidirectional client LSP MUST be bound to the same set of
        nodes.

  FR#17 A client LSP that is bound to a specific component link SHOULD
        NOT exceed the capacity of a single component link.  This is
        inherent in the assumption that a network SHOULD NOT operate in
        a congested state if congestion is avoidable.





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  For some large bidirectional client LSPs, it may not be necessary (or
  possible due to the client LSP capacity) to bind the LSP to a common
  set of component links, but it may be necessary or desirable to
  constrain the path taken by the LSP to the same set of nodes in both
  directions.  Without an entirely new and highly dynamic protocol, it
  is not feasible to constrain such a bidirectional client LSP from
  taking multiple paths and coordinating load balance on each side in
  order to keep both directions of flows within such an LSP on common
  paths.

3.5.  Multipath Load-Balancing Dynamics

  Multipath load balancing attempts to keep traffic levels on all
  component links below congestion levels if possible and preferably
  well balanced.  Load balancing is minimally disruptive (see the
  discussion below this section's list of requirements).  The
  sensitivity to these minimal disruptions of traffic flows within a
  specific client LSP needs to be considered.

  FR#18 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a specific client LSP MUST NOT be
        split across multiple component links.

  FR#19 The solution SHALL provide a means local to a node that
        automatically distributes flows across the component links in
        the AMG such that performance objectives are met, as described
        in the prior requirements in Section 3.3.

  FR#20 The solution SHALL measure traffic flows or groups of traffic
        flows and dynamically select the component link on which to
        place this traffic in order to balance the load so that no
        component link in the AMG between a pair of nodes is
        overloaded.

  FR#21 When a traffic flow is moved from one component link to another
        in the same AMG between a set of nodes, it MUST be done so in a
        minimally disruptive manner.

  FR#22 Load balancing MAY be used during sustained low-traffic periods
        to reduce the number of active component links for the purpose
        of power reduction.










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  FR#23 The solution SHALL provide a means for the client layer to
        indicate a requirement that a specific client LSP contains
        traffic whose frequency of component link change due to load
        balancing needs to be bounded by a specific value.  The
        solution MUST provide a means to bound the frequency of a
        component link change due to load balancing for subsets of
        traffic flow on AMGs.

  FR#24 The solution SHALL provide a means to distribute traffic flows
        from a single client LSP across multiple component links to
        handle at least the case where the traffic carried in a client
        LSP exceeds that of any component link in the AMG.

  FR#25 The solution SHOULD support the use case where an AMG itself is
        a component link for a higher order AMG.  For example, an AMG
        comprised of MPLS-TP bidirectional tunnels viewed as logical
        links could then be used as a component link in yet another AMG
        that connects MPLS routers.

  FR#26 If the total demand offered by traffic flows exceeds the
        capacity of the AMG, the solution SHOULD define a means to
        cause some client LSPs to move to an alternate set of paths
        that are not congested.  These "preempted LSPs" may not be
        restored if there is no uncongested path in the network.

  A minimally disruptive change implies that as little disruption as is
  practical occurs.  Such a change can be achieved with zero packet
  loss.  A delay discontinuity may occur, which is considered to be a
  minimally disruptive event for most services if this type of event is
  sufficiently rare.  A delay discontinuity is an example of a
  minimally disruptive behavior corresponding to current techniques.

  A delay discontinuity is an isolated event that may greatly exceed
  the normal delay variation (jitter).  A delay discontinuity has the
  following effect.  When a flow is moved from a current link to a
  target link with lower latency, reordering can occur.  When a flow is
  moved from a current link to a target link with a higher latency, a
  time gap can occur.  Some flows (e.g., timing distribution and PW
  circuit emulation) are quite sensitive to these effects.  A delay
  discontinuity can also cause a jitter buffer underrun or overrun,
  affecting user experience in real-time voice services (causing an
  audible click).  These sensitivities may be specified in a
  performance objective.

  As with any load-balancing change, a change initiated for the purpose
  of power reduction may be minimally disruptive.  Typically, the
  disruption is limited to a change in delay characteristics and the
  potential for a very brief period with traffic reordering.  When



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  configuring a network for power reduction, the network operator
  should weigh the benefit of power reduction against the disadvantage
  of a minimal disruption.

4.  General Requirements for Protocol Solutions

  This section defines requirements for protocol specifications used to
  meet the functional requirements specified in Section 3.

  GR#1  The solution SHOULD extend existing protocols wherever
        possible, developing a new protocol only where doing so adds a
        significant set of capabilities.

  GR#2  A solution SHOULD extend LDP capabilities to meet functional
        requirements.  This MUST be accomplished without defining LDP
        Traffic Engineering (TE) methods as decided in [RFC3468].

  GR#3  Coexistence of LDP- and RSVP-TE-signaled LSPs MUST be supported
        on an AMG.  Function requirements SHOULD, where possible, be
        accommodated in a manner that supports LDP-signaled LSP, RSVP-
        signaled LSP, and LSP setup using management plane mechanisms.

  GR#4  When the nodes connected via an AMG are in the same routing
        domain, the solution MAY define extensions to the IGP.

  GR#5  When the nodes are connected via an AMG are in different MPLS
        network topologies, the solution SHALL NOT rely on extensions
        to the IGP.

  GR#6  The solution SHOULD support AMG IGP advertisement that results
        in convergence time better than that of advertising the
        individual component links.  The solution SHALL be designed so
        that it represents the range of capabilities of the individual
        component links such that functional requirements are met, and
        it also minimizes the frequency of advertisement updates that
        may cause IGP convergence to occur.

        Examples of advertisement-update-triggering events to be
        considered include: client LSP establishment/release, changes
        in component-link characteristics (e.g., latency and up/down
        state), and/or bandwidth utilization.










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  GR#7  When a worst-case failure scenario occurs, the number of
        RSVP-TE client LSPs to be resignaled will cause a period of
        unavailability as perceived by users.  The resignaling time of
        the solution MUST support protocol mechanisms meeting existing
        provider performance objectives for the duration of
        unavailability without significantly relaxing those existing
        performance objectives for the same network or for networks
        with similar topology.  For example, the processing load due to
        IGP readvertisement MUST NOT increase significantly, and the
        resignaling time of the solution MUST NOT increase
        significantly as compared with current methods.

5.  Management Requirements

  MR#1  The Management Plane MUST support polling of the status and
        configuration of an AMG and its individual component links and
        support notification of status change.

  MR#2  The Management Plane MUST be able to activate or deactivate any
        component link in an AMG in order to facilitate operation
        maintenance tasks.  The routers at each end of an AMG MUST
        redistribute traffic to move traffic from a deactivated link to
        other component links based on the traffic flow TE criteria.

  MR#3  The Management Plane MUST be able to configure a client LSP
        over an AMG and be able to select a component link for the
        client LSP.

  MR#4  The Management Plane MUST be able to trace which component link
        a client LSP is assigned to and monitor individual component
        link and AMG performance.

  MR#5  The Management Plane MUST be able to verify connectivity over
        each individual component link within an AMG.

  MR#6  Component link fault notification MUST be sent to the
        management plane.

  MR#7  AMG fault notification MUST be sent to the management plane and
        MUST be distributed via a link state message in the IGP.

  MR#8  The Management Plane SHOULD provide the means for an operator
        to initiate an optimization process.

  MR#9  An operator-initiated optimization MUST be performed in a
        minimally disruptive manner, as described in Section 3.5.





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6.  Acknowledgements

  Frederic Jounay of France Telecom and Yuji Kamite of NTT
  Communications Corporation coauthored a version of this document.

  A rewrite of this document occurred after the IETF 77 meeting.
  Dimitri Papadimitriou, Lou Berger, Tony Li, the former WG Chairs John
  Scuder and Alex Zinin, the current WG Chair Alia Atlas, and others
  provided valuable guidance prior to and at the IETF 77 RTGWG meeting.

  Tony Li and John Drake have made numerous valuable comments on the
  RTGWG mailing list that are reflected in versions following the IETF
  77 meeting.

  Iftekhar Hussain and Kireeti Kompella made comments on the RTGWG
  mailing list after the IETF 82 meeting that identified a new
  requirement.  Iftekhar Hussain made numerous valuable comments on the
  RTGWG mailing list that resulted in improvements to the document's
  clarity.

  In the interest of full disclosure of affiliation and in the interest
  of acknowledging sponsorship, past affiliations of authors are noted
  here.  Much of the work done by Ning So and Andrew Malis occurred
  while they were at Verizon.  Much of the work done by Curtis
  Villamizar occurred while he was at Infinera.

  Tom Yu and Francis Dupont provided the SecDir and GenArt reviews,
  respectively.  Both reviews provided useful comments.  The current
  wording of the security section is based on suggested wording from
  Tom Yu.  Lou Berger provided the RtgDir review, which resulted in the
  document being renamed and the substantial clarification of
  terminology and document wording, particularly in the Abstract,
  Introduction, and Definitions sections.

7.  Security Considerations

  The security considerations for MPLS/GMPLS and for MPLS-TP are
  documented in [RFC5920] and [RFC6941].  This document does not impact
  the security of MPLS, GMPLS, or MPLS-TP.

  The additional information that this document requires does not
  provide significant additional value to an attacker beyond the
  information already typically available from attacking a routing or
  signaling protocol.  If the requirements of this document are met by
  extending an existing routing or signaling protocol, the security
  considerations of the protocol being extended apply.  If the
  requirements of this document are met by specifying a new protocol,
  the security considerations of that new protocol should include an



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  evaluation of what level of protection is required by the additional
  information specified in this document, such as data origin
  authentication.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

8.2.  Informative References

  [FRAMEWORK]
             Ning, S., McDysan, D., Osborne, E., Yong, L., and C.
             Villamizar, "Advanced Multipath Framework in MPLS", Work
             in Progress, July 2013.

  [IEEE-802.1AX]
             IEEE Standards Association, "IEEE Std 802.1AX-2008 IEEE
             Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Link
             Aggregation", 2006, <http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
             download/802.1AX-2008.pdf>.

  [ITU-T.G.800]
             ITU-T, "Unified functional architecture of transport
             networks", ITU-T Recommendation G.800, February 2012,
             <http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-G/
             recommendation.asp?parent=T-REC-G.800>.

  [RFC2475]  Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E., Wang, Z.,
             and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated
             Services", RFC 2475, December 1998.

  [RFC3468]  Andersson, L. and G. Swallow, "The Multiprotocol Label
             Switching (MPLS) Working Group decision on MPLS signaling
             protocols", RFC 3468, February 2003.

  [RFC4201]  Kompella, K., Rekhter, Y., and L. Berger, "Link Bundling
             in MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE)", RFC 4201, October 2005.

  [RFC5920]  Fang, L., "Security Framework for MPLS and GMPLS
             Networks", RFC 5920, July 2010.

  [RFC6941]  Fang, L., Niven-Jenkins, B., Mansfield, S., and R.
             Graveman, "MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) Security
             Framework", RFC 6941, April 2013.




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  [USE-CASES]
             Ning, S., Malis, A., McDysan, D., Yong, L., and C.
             Villamizar, "Advanced Multipath Use Cases and Design
             Considerations", Work in Progress, November 2013.

Authors' Addresses

  Curtis Villamizar (editor)
  OCCNC, LLC

  EMail: [email protected]


  Dave McDysan (editor)
  Verizon
  22001 Loudoun County PKWY
  Ashburn, VA  20147
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]


  So Ning
  Tata Communications

  EMail: [email protected]


  Andrew G. Malis
  Huawei Technologies
  2330 Central Expressway
  Santa Clara, CA  95050
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]


  Lucy Yong
  Huawei USA
  5340 Legacy Dr.
  Plano, TX  75025
  USA

  Phone: +1 469-277-5837
  EMail: [email protected]






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