Network Working Group T. Przygienda
Internet-Draft C. Barth
Intended status: Standards Track Juniper Networks
Expires: 7 November 2025 6 May 2025
Optional IS-IS Fragment Timestamping
draft-rigatoni-lsr-isis-fragment-timestamping-02
Abstract
Many applications in today’s networks rely on reliable and timely
flooding of link-state information, such as, but not limited to
Traffic Engineered networks. If such link-state information is
delayed it can be difficult for those applications to adequately
fulfill their intended functionality. This document describes
extensions to ISIS supporting distribution of fragment origination
time. The origination time can be used to aid troubleshooting and/or
by the applications themselves to improve their behavior.
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document authors. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Timestamp TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Operational and Deployment Considerations . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1. Introduction
Many applications in today’s networks rely on reliable and timely
flooding of link-state information, such as, but not limited to
Traffic Engineered networks and advanced telemetry solutions. If
such information is delayed during flooding it can be difficult for
those applications to adequately fulfill their intended purpose.
This document describes extensions to ISIS allowing it to carry the
origination time on each fragment. The origination time can be used
to aid troubleshooting of large domains and/or by the applications
themselves to improve their behavior.
As an example, in the case of Traffic Engineered Networks
synchronization of the Traffic Engineering Database (TED) enables the
compute nodes to adapt to changes in the network state and/or react
to network events in a timely manner. If link state information is
delayed during the flooding process this can result in an
unsynchronized TED and easily lead to service degradation due to
substandard re-optimization of network load. More specifically, in
RSVP-TE networks, a TE path computed using a specific snapshot of the
TED may be rejected during signaling by a transit node because of
bandwidth unavailability on a specific link (link bandwidth
information in the snapshot of TED used during computation may not be
“current”). When the ingress is subsequently notified of this
“error” via RSVP signaling, the link in question is avoided in the
subsequent path computation and an alternate path is sought. An
implementation may use a configurable “hold time” to determine how
long this link needs to be avoided. The awareness of the
distribution delay statistics can be used by implementations to
dynamically adapt an appropriate “hold time” for a given TE link
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(instead of using a blanket topology-wide configuration). Therefore,
the origination time proposed in this document is meant to be used by
a compute node(s) or by an operator of Traffic Engineered Network to
measure any delays incurred in TED synchronization. The awareness of
delays in the distribution of information can be incorporated further
into algorithms and network tooling to improve the responsiveness and
quality of decisions taken.
2. Timestamp TLV
This section defines a new, optional TLV that can be present in any
fragment. In case of multiple instances of the TLV in a fragment
only the first occurrence MUST be used. The semantics of the TLV is
the point in time the fragment with the current sequence number has
been generated. Its absence signifies that such information is not
available due to host of possible issues, one of them lack of clock
with synchronization precise enough.
For practical purposes, although desirable, timestamping the moment a
fragment is flooded would be preferable but beside practical
implementation problems this could generate on different interfaces
the same fragment with different content which breaks one of the
fundamental tenants of link-state protocols. However, an
implementation is free to choose to use, e.g. the moment the fragment
is queued for flooding first time rather than the time the version is
generated.
To save space the timestamp is following semantically NTP seconds
epoch [RFC5905] with the exception of an extra bit in the seconds
field to extend the wrap around and carrying only 2^-8 of a second as
maximum resolution of the timestamp since this is considered
sufficient for link-state purposes. The specification follows
further guidelines of [RFC8877] as far as possible.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Seconds |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|H| Frac | Prec |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+---------------+
Figure 1
* Type: TBD1
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* Length: ...
* Seconds: 4 bytes of number of seconds since the NTP [RFC5905]
epoch.
* H(-Bit): 1 bit. Extra high order bit is used to prevent wrap-
around in 2036 and pushes it out to 2242. The offset can be
constructed in network order `HB` shifted to left without overflow
by 32 bits and the `Seconds` field OR'ed into the according value.
* Fraction: 8-bits of fraction of the second in units of 2^-8 which
is equivalent to 1/256 of a second or roughly 4 msecs resolution.
* Precision: 7 bits indicating the maximum possible slip (either in
future or past) of the clock used to generate the timestamp
(depending on the synchronization protocol) as 2^Precision where
at minimum of the range signifies 2 msec or better precision and
the maximum of the range amounts to 256 msec precision or less. A
node that cannot achieve this minimum precision required SHOULD
NOT advertise the fragment timestamp.
3. Operational and Deployment Considerations
A requirement for the correct interpretation of the additions
proposed in this document is an infrastructure capable of
synchronizing time across devices involved so the timestamps at the
various points of interest become comparable. This could be
accomplished by utilizing NTP [RFC5905], Precision Time Protocol
(PTP) IEEE Std. 1588 [IEEEstd1588] or 802.1AS [IEEEstd8021AS]
designed for bridged LANs. The achieved precision is carried in the
timestamp of the fragment.
Though the timestamp can be very useful in deriving measurement of
behavior in a deployed IS-IS network, e.g. maximum incurred flooding
delays between any pair of nodes, it should not be used in any
attempts to modify the behavior of protocol behavior itself such as
e.g. influencing flooding rates. A single badly synchronized clock
could otherwise change the behavior of parts or even the whole
network in unpredictable or even detrimental way.
4. Normative References
[IEEEstd1588]
IEEE, "IEEE Standard for a Precision Clock Synchronization
Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems",
IEEE Standard 1588,
.
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[IEEEstd8021AS]
IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area
Networks - Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive
Applications in Bridged Local Area Networks",
IEEE Standard 802.1AS,
.
5. Informative References
[RFC5905] Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch,
"Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010,
.
[RFC8877] Mizrahi, T., Fabini, J., and A. Morton, "Guidelines for
Defining Packet Timestamps", RFC 8877,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8877, September 2020,
.
Authors' Addresses
Tony Przygienda
Juniper Networks
Email: prz@juniper.net
Colby Barth
Juniper Networks
Email: cbarth@juniper.net
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