Network Working Group                                   H. Khosravi, Ed.
Request for Comments: 3654                              T. Anderson, Ed.
Category: Informational                                            Intel
                                                          November 2003


      Requirements for Separation of IP Control and Forwarding

Status of this Memo

  This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
  not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
  memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

  This document introduces the Forwarding and Control Element
  Separation (ForCES) architecture and defines a set of associated
  terminology.  This document also defines a set of architectural,
  modeling, and protocol requirements to logically separate the control
  and data forwarding planes of an IP (IPv4, IPv6, etc.) networking
  device.

Table of Contents

  1.  Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
  2.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
  3.  Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
  4.  Architectural Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
  5.  FE Model Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
      5.1.  Types of Logical Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
      5.2.  Variations of Logical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
      5.3.  Ordering of Logical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
      5.4.  Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
      5.5   Minimal Set of Logical Functions. . . . . . . . . . . .   9
  6.  ForCES Protocol Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
  7.  References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
      7.1.  Normative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
      7.2.  Informative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
  8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
  9.  Authors' Addresses & Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
  10. Editors' Contact Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
  11. Full Copyright Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18




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1. Introduction

  An IP network element is composed of numerous logically separate
  entities that cooperate to provide a given functionality (such as a
  routing or IP switching) and yet appear as a normal integrated
  network element to external entities.  Two primary types of network
  element components exist: control-plane components and forwarding-
  plane components.  In general, forwarding-plane components are ASIC,
  network-processor, or general-purpose processor-based devices that
  handle all data path operations.  Conversely, control-plane
  components are typically based on general-purpose processors that
  provide control functionality such as the processing of routing or
  signaling protocols.  A standard set of mechanisms for connecting
  these components provides increased scalability and allows the
  control and forwarding planes to evolve independently, thus promoting
  faster innovation.

  For the purpose of illustration, let us consider the architecture of
  a router to illustrate the concept of separate control and forwarding
  planes.  The architecture of a router is composed of two main parts.
  These components, while inter-related, perform functions that are
  largely independent of each other.  At the bottom is the forwarding
  path that operates in the data-forwarding plane and is responsible
  for per-packet processing and forwarding.  Above the forwarding plane
  is the network operating system that is responsible for operations in
  the control plane.  In the case of a router or switch, the network
  operating system runs routing, signaling and control protocols (e.g.,
  RIP, OSPF and RSVP) and dictates the forwarding behavior by
  manipulating forwarding tables, per-flow QoS tables and access
  control lists.  Typically, the architecture of these devices combines
  all of this functionality into a single functional whole with respect
  to external entities.

2. Definitions

  Addressable Entity (AE) - A physical device that is directly
  addressable given some interconnect technology.  For example, on IP
  networks, it is a device to which we can communicate using an IP
  address; and on a switch fabric, it is a device to which we can
  communicate using a switch fabric port number.

  Physical Forwarding Element (PFE) - An AE that includes hardware used
  to provide per-packet processing and handling.  This hardware may
  consist of (but is not limited to) network processors, ASIC's, line
  cards with multiple chips or stand alone box with general-purpose
  processors.





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  Physical Control Element (PCE) - An AE that includes hardware used to
  provide control functionality.  This hardware typically includes a
  general-purpose processor.

  Forwarding Element (FE) - A logical entity that implements the ForCES
  protocol.  FEs use the underlying hardware to provide per-packet
  processing and handling as directed/controlled by a CE via the ForCES
  protocol.  FEs may happen to be a single blade(or PFE), a partition
  of a PFE or multiple PFEs.

  Control Element (CE) - A logical entity that implements the ForCES
  protocol and uses it to instruct one or more FEs how to process
  packets.  CEs handle functionality such as the execution of control
  and signaling protocols.  CEs may consist of PCE partitions or whole
  PCEs.

  Pre-association Phase - The period of time during which a FE Manager
  (see below) and a CE Manager (see below) are determining which FE and
  CE should be part of the same network element.  Any partitioning of
  PFEs and PCEs occurs during this phase.

  Post-association Phase - The period of time during which a FE does
  know which CE is to control it and vice versa, including the time
  during which the CE and FE are establishing communication with one
  another.

  ForCES Protocol - While there may be multiple protocols used within
  the overall ForCES architecture, the term "ForCES protocol" refers
  only to the ForCES post-association phase protocol (see below).

  ForCES Post-Association Phase Protocol - The protocol used for post-
  association phase communication between CEs and FEs.  This protocol
  does not apply to CE-to-CE communication, FE-to-FE communication, or
  to communication between FE and CE managers.  The ForCES protocol is
  a master-slave protocol in which FEs are slaves and CEs are masters.
  This protocol includes both the management of the communication
  channel (e.g., connection establishment, heartbeats) and the control
  messages themselves.  This protocol could be a single protocol or
  could consist of multiple protocols working together.

  FE Model - A model that describes the logical processing functions of
  a FE.

  FE Manager - A logical entity that operates in the pre-association
  phase and is responsible for determining to which CE(s) a FE should
  communicate.  This process is called CE discovery and may involve the
  FE manager learning the capabilities of available CEs.  A FE manager
  may use anything from a static configuration to a pre-association



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  phase protocol (see below) to determine which CE to use.  However,
  this pre-association phase protocol is currently out of scope.  Being
  a logical entity, a FE manager might be physically combined with any
  of the other logical entities mentioned in this section.

  CE Manager - A logical entity that operates in the pre-association
  phase and is responsible for determining to which FE(s) a CE should
  communicate.  This process is called FE discovery and may involve the
  CE manager learning the capabilities of available FEs.  A CE manager
  may use anything from a static configuration to a pre-association
  phase protocol (see below) to determine which FE to use.  Again, this
  pre-association phase protocol is currently out of scope.  Being a
  logical entity, a CE manager might be physically combined with any of
  the other logical entities mentioned in this section.

  Pre-association Phase Protocol - A protocol between FE managers and
  CE managers that is used to determine which CEs or FEs to use.  A
  pre-association phase protocol may include a CE and/or FE capability
  discovery mechanism.  Note that this capability discovery process is
  wholly separate from (and does not replace) what is used within the
  ForCES protocol (see Section 6, requirement #1).  However, the two
  capability discovery mechanisms may utilize the same FE model (see
  Section 5).  Pre-association phase protocols are not discussed
  further in this document.

  ForCES Network Element (NE) - An entity composed of one or more CEs
  and one or more FEs.  To entities outside a NE, the NE represents a
  single point of management.  Similarly, a NE usually hides its
  internal organization from external entities.

  ForCES Protocol Element - A FE or CE.

  High Touch Capability - This term will be used to apply to the
  capabilities found in some forwarders to take action on the contents
  or headers of a packet based on content other than what is found in
  the IP header.  Examples of these capabilities include NAT-PT,
  firewall, and L7 content recognition.

3. Architecture

  The chief components of a NE architecture are the CE, the FE, and the
  interconnect protocol.  The CE is responsible for operations such as
  signaling and control protocol processing and the implementation of
  management protocols.  Based on the information acquired through
  control processing, the CE(s) dictates the packet-forwarding behavior
  of the FE(s) via the interconnect protocol.  For example, the CE
  might control a FE by manipulating its forwarding tables, the state
  of its interfaces, or by adding or removing a NAT binding.



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  The FE operates in the forwarding plane and is responsible for per-
  packet processing and handling.  By allowing the control and
  forwarding planes to evolve independently, different types of FEs can
  be developed - some general purpose and others more specialized.
  Some functions that FEs could perform include layer 3 forwarding,
  metering, shaping, firewall, NAT, encapsulation (e.g., tunneling),
  decapsulation, encryption, accounting, etc.  Nearly all combinations
  of these functions may be present in practical FEs.

  Below is a diagram illustrating an example NE composed of a CE and
  two FEs.  Both FEs and CE require minimal configuration as part of
  the pre-configuration process and this may be done by FE Manager and
  CE Manager respectively.  Apart from this, there is no defined role
  for FE Manager and CE Manager.  These components are out of scope of
  the architecture and requirements for the ForCES protocol, which only
  involves CEs and FEs.

        --------------------------------
        | NE                           |
        |        -------------         |
        |        |    CE     |         |
        |        -------------         |
        |          /        \          |
        |         /          \         |
        |        /            \        |
        |       /              \       |
        |  -----------     ----------- |
        |  |   FE    |     |    FE   | |
        |  -----------     ----------- |
        |    | | | |         | | | |   |
        |    | | | |         | | | |   |
        |    | | | |         | | | |   |
        |    | | | |         | | | |   |
        --------------------------------
             | | | |         | | | |
             | | | |         | | | |

4. Architectural Requirements

  The following are the architectural requirements:

  1) CEs and FEs MUST be able to connect by a variety of interconnect
  technologies.  Examples of interconnect technologies used in current
  architectures include Ethernet, bus backplanes, and ATM (cell)
  fabrics.  FEs MAY be connected to each other via a different
  technology than that used for CE/FE communication.





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  2) FEs MUST support a minimal set of capabilities necessary for
  establishing network connectivity (e.g., interface discovery, port
  up/down functions).  Beyond this minimal set, the ForCES architecture
  MUST NOT restrict the types or numbers of capabilities that FEs may
  contain.

  3) Packets MUST be able to arrive at the NE by one FE and leave the
  NE via a different FE.

  4) A NE MUST support the appearance of a single functional device.
  For example, in a router, the TTL of the packet should be decremented
  only once as it traverses the NE regardless of how many FEs through
  which it passes.  However, external entities (e.g., FE managers and
  CE managers) MAY have direct access to individual ForCES protocol
  elements for providing information to transition them from the pre-
  association to post-association phase.

  5) The architecture MUST provide a way to prevent unauthorized ForCES
  protocol elements from joining a NE.  (For more protocol details,
  refer to section 6 requirement #2)

  6) A FE MUST be able to asynchronously inform the CE of a failure or
  increase/decrease in available resources or capabilities on the FE.
  Thus, the FE MUST support error monitoring and reporting. (Since
  there is not a strict 1-to-1 mapping between FEs and PFEs, it is
  possible for the relationship between a FE and its physical resources
  to change over time).  For example, the number of physical ports or
  the amount of memory allocated to a FE may vary over time. The CE
  needs to be informed of such changes so that it can control the FE in
  an accurate way.

  7) The architecture MUST support mechanisms for CE redundancy or CE
  failover.  This includes the ability for CEs and FEs to determine
  when there is a loss of association between them, ability to restore
  association and efficient state (re)synchronization mechanisms.  This
  also includes the ability to preset the actions an FE will take in
  reaction to loss of association to its CE e.g., whether the FE will
  continue to forward packets or whether it will halt operations.

  8) FEs MUST be able to redirect control packets (such as RIP, OSPF
  messages) addressed to their interfaces to the CE.  They MUST also
  redirect other relevant packets (e.g., such as those with Router
  Alert Option set) to their CE.  The CEs MUST be able to configure the
  packet redirection information/filters on the FEs.  The CEs MUST also
  be able to create packets and have its FEs deliver them.






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  9) Any proposed ForCES architectures MUST explain how that
  architecture supports all of the router functions as defined in
  [RFC1812].  IPv4 Forwarding functions such IP header validation,
  performing longest prefix match algorithm, TTL decrement, Checksum
  calculation, generation of ICMP error messages, etc defined in RFC
  1812 should be explained.

  10) In a ForCES NE, the CE(s) MUST be able to learn the topology by
  which the FEs in the NE are connected.

  11) The ForCES NE architecture MUST be capable of supporting (i.e.,
  must scale to) at least hundreds of FEs and tens of thousands of
  ports.

  12) The ForCES architecture MUST allow FEs AND CEs to join and leave
  NEs dynamically.

  13) The ForCES NE architecture MUST support multiple CEs and FEs.
  However, coordination between CEs is out of scope of ForCES.

  14) For pre-association phase setup, monitoring, configuration
  issues, it MAY be useful to use standard management mechanisms for
  CEs and FEs.  The ForCES architecture and requirements do not
  preclude this.  In general, for post-association phase, most
  management tasks SHOULD be done through interaction with the CE.  In
  certain conditions (e.g., CE/FE disconnection), it may be useful to
  allow management tools (e.g., SNMP) to be used to diagnose and repair
  problems.  The following guidelines MUST be observed:

  1. The ability for a management tool (e.g., SNMP) to be used to read
     (but not change) the state of FE SHOULD NOT be precluded.
  2. It MUST NOT be possible for management tools (e.g., SNMP, etc) to
     change the state of a FE in a manner that affects overall NE
     behavior without the CE being notified.

5. FE Model Requirements

  The variety of FE functionality that the ForCES architecture allows
  poses a potential problem for CEs.  In order for a CE to effectively
  control a FE, the CE must understand how the FE processes packets. We
  therefore REQUIRE that a FE model be created that can express the
  logical packet processing capabilities of a FE.  This model will be
  used in the ForCES protocol to describe FE capabilities (see Section
  6, requirement #1).  The FE model MUST define both a capability model
  and a state model, which expresses the current configuration of the
  device.  The FE model MUST also support multiple FEs in the NE
  architecture.




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5.1. Types of Logical Functions

  The FE model MUST express what logical functions can be applied to
  packets as they pass through a FE. Logical functions are the packet
  processing functions that are applied to the packets as they are
  forwarded through a FE.  Examples of logical functions are layer 3
  forwarding, firewall, NAT, and shaping. Section 5.5 defines the
  minimal set of logical functions that the FE Model MUST support.

5.2. Variations of Logical Functions

  The FE model MUST be capable of supporting/allowing variations in the
  way logical functions are implemented on a FE.  For example, on a
  certain FE the forwarding logical function might have information
  about both the next hop IP address and the next hop MAC address,
  while on another FE these might be implemented as separate logical
  functions.  Another example would be NAT functionality that can have
  several flavors such as Traditional/Outbound NAT, Bi-directional NAT,
  Twice NAT,  and Multihomed NAT [RFC2663].  The model must be flexible
  enough to allow such variations in functions.

5.3. Ordering of Logical Functions

  The model MUST be capable of describing the order in which these
  logical functions are applied in a FE.  The ordering of logical
  functions is important in many cases.  For example, a NAT function
  may change a packet's source or destination IP address.  Any number
  of other logical functions (e.g., layer 3 forwarding, ingress/egress
  firewall, shaping, and accounting) may make use of the source or
  destination IP address when making decisions.  The CE needs to know
  whether to configure these logical functions with the pre-NAT or
  post-NAT IP address.  Furthermore, the model MUST be capable of
  expressing multiple instances of the same logical function in a FE's
  processing path.  Using NAT again as an example, one NAT function is
  typically performed before the forwarding decision (packets arriving
  externally have their public addresses replaced with private
  addresses) and one NAT function is performed after the forwarding
  decision (for packets exiting the domain, their private addresses are
  replaced by public ones).

5.4. Flexibility

  Finally, the FE model SHOULD provide a flexible infrastructure in
  which new logical functions and new classification, action, and
  parameterization data can be easily added.  In addition, the FE model
  MUST be capable of describing the types of statistics gathered by
  each logical function.




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5.5. Minimal Set of Logical Functions

  The rest of this section defines a minimal set of logical functions
  that any FE model MUST support.  This minimal set DOES NOT imply that
  all FEs must provide this functionality.  Instead, these requirements
  only specify that the model must be capable of expressing the
  capabilities that FEs may choose to provide.

  1) Port Functions
  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing the number of ports on the
  device, the static attributes of each port (e.g., port type, link
  speed), and the configurable attributes of each port (e.g., IP
  address, administrative status).

  2) Forwarding Functions
  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing the data that can be used
  by the forwarding function to make a forwarding decision.  Support
  for IPv4 and IPv6 unicast and multicast forwarding functions MUST be
  provided by the model.

  3) QoS Functions
  The FE model MUST allow a FE to express its QoS capabilities in terms
  of, e.g., metering, policing, shaping, and queuing functions. The FE
  model MUST be capable of expressing the use of these functions to
  provide IntServ or DiffServ functionality as described in [RFC2211],
  [RFC2212], [RFC2215], [RFC2475], and [RFC3290].

  4) Generic Filtering Functions
  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing complex sets of filtering
  functions.  The model MUST be able to express the existence of these
  functions at arbitrary points in the sequence of a FE's packet
  processing functions.  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing a
  wide range of classification abilities from single fields (e.g.,
  destination address) to arbitrary n-tuples.  Similarly, the FE model
  MUST be capable of expressing what actions these filtering functions
  can perform on packets that the classifier matches.

  5) Vendor-Specific Functions
  The FE model SHOULD be extensible so that new, currently unknown FE
  functionality can be expressed.  The FE Model SHOULD NOT be extended
  to express standard/common functions in a proprietary manner.  This
  would NOT be ForCES compliant.

  6) High-Touch Functions
  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing the encapsulation and
  tunneling capabilities of a FE.  The FE model MUST support functions





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  that mark the class of service that a packet should receive (i.e.,
  IPv4 header TOS octet or the IPv6 Traffic Class octet).  The FE model
  MAY support other high touch functions (e.g., NAT, ALG).

  7) Security Functions
  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing the types of encryption
  that may be applied to packets in the forwarding path.

  8) Off-loaded Functions
  Per-packet processing can leave state in the FE, so that logical
  functions executed during packet processing can perform in a
  consistent manner (for instance, each packet may update the state of
  the token bucket occupancy of a give policer).  In addition, the FE
  Model MUST allow logical functions to execute asynchronously from
  packet processing, according to a certain finite-state machine, in
  order to perform functions that are, for instance, off-loaded from
  the CE to the FE.  The FE model MUST be capable of expressing these
  asynchronous functions.  Examples of such functions include the
  finite-state machine execution required by TCP termination or OSPF
  Hello processing, triggered not only by packet events, but by timer
  events as well.  This Does NOT mean off-loading of any piece of code
  to an FE, just that the FE Model should be able to express existing
  Off-loaded functions on an FE.

  9) IPFLOW/PSAMP Functions
  Several applications such as, Usage-based Accounting, Traffic
  engineering, require flow-based IP traffic measurements from Network
  Elements. [IPFLOW] defines architecture for IP traffic flow
  monitoring, measuring and exporting.  The FE model SHOULD be able to
  express metering functions and flow accounting needed for exporting
  IP traffic flow information.  Similarly to support measurement-based
  applications, [PSAMP] describes a framework to define a standard set
  of capabilities for network elements to sample subsets of packets by
  statistical and other methods.  The FE model SHOULD be able to
  express statistical packet filtering functions and packet information
  needed for supporting packet sampling applications.

6. ForCES Protocol Requirements

  This section specifies some of the requirements that the ForCES
  protocol MUST meet.

  1) Configuration of Modeled Elements
  The ForCES protocol MUST allow the CEs to determine the capabilities
  of each FE.  These capabilities SHALL be expressed using the FE model
  whose requirements are defined in Section 5.  Furthermore, the
  protocol MUST provide a means for the CEs to control all the FE




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  capabilities that are discovered through the FE model.  The protocol
  MUST be able to add/remove classification/action entries, set/delete
  parameters, query statistics, and register for and receive events.

  2) Support for Secure Communication
     a) FE configuration will contain information critical to the
        functioning of a network (e.g., IP Forwarding Tables).  As
        such, it MUST be possible to ensure the integrity of all ForCES
        protocol messages and protect against man-in-the-middle
        attacks.
     b) FE configuration information may also contain information
        derived from business relationships (e.g., service level
        agreements).  Because of the confidential nature of the
        information, it MUST be possible to secure (make private) all
        ForCES protocol messages.
     c) In order to ensure that authorized CEs and FEs are
        participating in a NE and defend against CE or FE impersonation
        attacks, the ForCES architecture MUST select a means of
        authentication for CEs and FEs.
     d) In some deployments ForCES is expected to be deployed between
        CEs and FEs connected to each other inside a box over a
        backplane, where physical security of the box ensures that
        man-in-the-middle, snooping, and impersonation attacks are not
        possible.  In such scenarios the ForCES architecture MAY rely
        on the physical security of the box to defend against these
        attacks and protocol mechanisms May be turned off.
     e) In the case when CEs and FEs are connected over a network,
        security mechanisms MUST be specified or selected that protect
        the ForCES protocol against such attacks.  Any security
        solution used for ForCES MUST specify how it deals with such
        attacks.

  3) Scalability
  The ForCES protocol MUST be capable of supporting (i.e., must scale
  to) at least hundreds of FEs and tens of thousands of ports.  For
  example, the ForCES protocol field sizes corresponding to FE or port
  numbers SHALL be large enough to support the minimum required
  numbers.  This requirement does not relate to the performance of a NE
  as the number of FEs or ports in the NE grows.

  4) Multihop
  When the CEs and FEs are separated beyond a single L3 routing hop,
  the ForCES protocol will make use of an existing RFC2914 compliant L4
  protocol with adequate reliability, security and congestion control
  (e.g., TCP, SCTP) for transport purposes.






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  5) Message Priority
  The ForCES protocol MUST provide a means to express the protocol
  message priorities.

  6) Reliability
     a) The ForCES protocol will be used to transport information that
        requires varying levels of reliability.  By strict or robust
        reliability in this requirement we mean, no losses, no
        corruption, no re-ordering of information being transported and
        delivery in a timely fashion.
     b) Some information or payloads, such as redirected packets or
        packet sampling, may not require robust reliability (can
        tolerate some degree of losses).  For information of this sort,
        ForCES MUST NOT be restricted to strict reliability.
     c) Payloads such as configuration information, e.g., ACLs, FIB
        entries, or FE capability information (described in section 6,
        (1)) are mission critical and must be delivered in a robust
        reliable fashion.  Thus, for information of this sort, ForCES
        MUST either provide built-in protocol mechanisms or use a
        reliable transport protocol for achieving robust/strict
        reliability.
     d) Some information or payloads, such as heartbeat packets that
        may be used to detect loss of association between CE and FEs
        (see section 6, (8)), may prefer timeliness over reliable
        delivery.  For information of this sort, ForCES MUST NOT be
        restricted to strict reliability.
     e) When ForCES is carried over multi-hop IP networks, it is a
        requirement that ForCES MUST use a [RFC2914]-compliant
        transport protocol.
     f) In cases where ForCES is not running over an IP network such as
        an Ethernet or cell fabric between CE and FE, then reliability
        still MUST be provided when carrying critical information of
        the types specified in (c) above, either by the underlying
        link/network/transport layers or by built-in protocol
        mechanisms.

  7) Interconnect Independence
  The ForCES protocol MUST support a variety of interconnect
  technologies. (refer to section 4, requirement #1)

  8) CE redundancy or CE failover
  The ForCES protocol MUST support mechanisms for CE redundancy or CE
  failover.  This includes the ability for CEs and FEs to determine
  when there is a loss of association between them, ability to restore
  association and efficient state (re)synchronization mechanisms.  This
  also includes the ability to preset the actions an FE will take in





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  reaction to loss of association to its CE, e.g., whether the FE will
  continue to forward packets or whether it will halt operations.
  (refer to section 4, requirement #7)

  9) Packet Redirection/Mirroring
     a) The ForCES protocol MUST define a way to redirect packets from
        the FE to the CE and vice-versa.  Packet redirection terminates
        any further processing of the redirected packet at the FE.
     b) The ForCES protocol MUST define a way to mirror packets from
        the FE to the CE.  Mirroring allows the packet duplicated by
        the FE at the mirroring point to be sent to the CE while the
        original packet continues to be processed by the FE.

  Examples of packets that may be redirected or mirrored include
  control packets (such as RIP, OSPF messages) addressed to the
  interfaces or any other relevant packets (such as those with Router
  Alert Option set).  The ForCES protocol MUST also define a way for
  the CE to configure the behavior of a) and b) (above), to specify
  which packets are affected by each.

  10) Topology Exchange
  The ForCES protocol or information carried in the ForCES protocol
  MUST allow those FEs which have inter-FE topology information to
  provide that information to the CE(s).

  11) Dynamic Association
  The ForCES protocol MUST allow CEs and FEs to join and leave a NE
  dynamically. (refer to section 4, requirement #12)

  12) Command Bundling
  The ForCES protocol MUST be able to group an ordered set of commands
  to a FE.  Each such group of commands SHOULD be sent to the FE in as
  few messages as possible.  Furthermore, the protocol MUST support the
  ability to specify if a command group MUST have all-or-nothing
  semantics.

  13) Asynchronous Event Notification
  The ForCES protocol MUST be able to asynchronously notify the CE of
  events on the FE such as failures or change in available resources or
  capabilities. (refer to section 4, requirement #6)

  14) Query Statistics
  The ForCES protocol MUST provide a means for the CE to be able to
  query statistics (monitor performance) from the FE.







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  15) Protection against Denial of Service Attacks (based on CPU
  overload or queue overflow)
  Systems utilizing the ForCES protocol can be attacked using denial of
  service attacks based on CPU overload or queue overflow. The ForCES
  protocol could be exploited by such attacks to cause the CE to become
  unable to control the FE or appropriately communicate with other
  routers and systems.  The ForCES protocol MUST therefore provide
  mechanisms for controlling FE capabilities that can be used to
  protect against such attacks.  FE capabilities that MUST be
  manipulated via ForCES include the ability to install classifiers and
  filters to detect and drop attack packets, as well as to be able to
  install rate limiters that limit the rate of packets which appear to
  be valid but may be part of an attack (e.g., bogus BGP packets).

7. References

7.1.  Normative References

  [RFC3290]  Bernet, Y., Blake, S., Grossman, D. and A. Smith, "An
             Informal Management Model for DiffServ Routers", RFC 3290,
             May 2002.

  [RFC1812]  Baker, F., "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers", RFC
             1812, June 1995.

  [RFC2211]  Wroclawski, J., "Specification of the Controlled-Load
             Network Element Service", RFC 2211, September 1997.

  [RFC2212]  Shenker, S., Partridge, C. and R. Guerin, "Specification
             of Guaranteed Quality of Service", RFC 2212, September
             1997.

  [RFC2215]  Shenker, S. and J. Wroclawski, "General Characterization
             Parameters for Integrated Service Network Elements", RFC
             2215, September 1997.

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

  [RFC2914]  Floyd, S., "Congestion Control Principles", BCP 14, RFC
             2914, September 2000.

  [RFC2663]  Srisuresh, P. and M. Holdrege, "IP Network Address
             Translator (NAT) Terminology and Considerations", RFC
             2663, August 1999.





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7.2. Informative References

  [RFC3532]  Anderson, T. and J. Buerkle, "Requirements for the Dynamic
             Partitioning of Switching Elements", RFC 3532, May 2003.

  [IPFLOW]   Quittek, et al., "Requirements for IP Flow Information
             Export", Work in Progress, February 2003.

  [PSAMP]    Duffield, et al., "A Framework for Passive Packet
             Measurement ", Work in Progress, March 2003.

8. Security Considerations

  See architecture requirement #5 and protocol requirement #2.

9. Authors' Addresses & Acknowledgments

  This document was written by the ForCES Requirements design team:

  Todd A. Anderson (Editor)


  Ed Bowen
  IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
  Saumerstrasse 4
  CH-8803 Rueschlikon Switzerland

  Phone: +41 1 724 83 68
  EMail: [email protected]


  Ram Dantu
  Department of Computer Science
  University of North Texas,
  Denton, Texas, 76203

  Phone: 940 565 2822
  EMail: [email protected]


  Avri Doria
  ETRI
  161 Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu
  Deajeon 305-350 Korea

  EMail: [email protected]





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  Ram Gopal
  Nokia Research Center
  5, Wayside Road,
  Burlington, MA 01803

  Phone: 1-781-993-3685
  EMail: [email protected]


  Jamal Hadi Salim
  Znyx Networks
  Ottawa, Ontario
  Canada

  EMail: [email protected]


  Hormuzd Khosravi (Editor)


  Muneyb Minhazuddin
  Avaya Inc.
  123, Epping road,
  North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia
  Phone: +61 2 9352 8620
  EMail: [email protected]


  Margaret Wasserman
  Nokia Research Center
  5 Wayside Road
  Burlington, MA 01803
  Phone: +1 781 993 3858
  EMail: [email protected]

  The authors would like to thank Vip Sharma and Lily Yang for their
  valuable contributions.














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10.  Editors' Contact Information

  Hormuzd Khosravi
  Intel
  2111 NE 25th Avenue
  Hillsboro, OR 97124 USA

  Phone: +1 503 264 0334
  EMail: [email protected]


  Todd A. Anderson
  Intel
  2111 NE 25th Avenue
  Hillsboro, OR 97124 USA

  Phone: +1 503 712 1760
  EMail: [email protected]

































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11.  Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assignees.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

  Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
  Internet Society.



















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