Internet-Draft | PLE | August 2021 |
Gringeri, et al. | Expires 18 February 2022 | [Page] |
This document describes a method for encapsulating high-speed bit-streams as virtual private wire services (VPWS) over packet switched networks (PSN) providing complete signal transport transparency.¶
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This document describes a method for encapsulating high-speed bit-streams as VPWS over packet switched networks (PSN). This emulation suits applications where complete signal transparency is required and data interpretation of the PE would be counter productive.¶
One example is two ethernet connected CEs and the need for synchronous ethernet operation between then without the intermediate PEs interfering. Another example is addressing common ethernet control protocol transparency concerns for carrier ethernet services, beyond the behavior definitions of MEF specifications.¶
The mechanisms described in this document follow principals similar to [RFC4553] but expanding the applicability beyond TDM and allow the transport of signals from many technologies such as ethernet, fibre channel, SONET/SDH [GR253]/[G.707] and OTN [G.709] at gigabit speeds by treating them as bit-stream payload defined in Section 3.3.3 of [RFC3985].¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
Similarly to [RFC4553] and [RFC5086] the term Interworking Function (IWF) is used to describe the functional block that encapsulates bit streams into PLE packets and in the reverse direction decapsulates PLE packets and reconstructs bit streams.¶
The generic models defined in [RFC4664] are applicable to PLE.¶
PLE embraces the minimum intervention principle outlined in section 3.3.5 of [RFC3985] whereas the data is flowing through the PLE encapsulation layer as received without modifications.¶
For some applications the NSP function is responsible for performing operations on the native data received from the CE. Examples are terminating FEC in case of 100GE or terminating the OTUk layer for OTN. After the NSP the IWF is generating the payload of the VPWS which carried via a PSN tunnel.¶
To allow the clock of the transported signal to be carried across the PLE domain in a transparent way the network synchronization reference model and deployment scenario outlined in section 4.3.2 of [RFC4197] is applicable.¶
The attachment circuit clock E is generated by PE2 via a differantial clock recovery method in reference to a common clock I. For this to work the difference between clock I and clock A MUST be explicitly transferred between the PE1 and PE2 using the timestamp inside the RTP header.¶
For the reverse direction PE1 does generate the clock J in reference to clock I and the clock difference between I and G.¶
The way the common clock I is implemented is out of scope of this document. Well established concepts for achieving frequency synchronization in a PSN have already been defined in [G.8261] and can be applied here as well.¶
The basic packet format used by PLE is shown in the below figure.¶
This document does not imply any specific technology to be used for implementing the VPWS demultiplexing and PSN layers.¶
When a MPLS PSN layer is used. A VPWS label provides the demultiplexing mechanism as described in section 5.4.2 of [RFC3985]. The PSN tunnel can be a simple best path Label Switched Path (LSP) established using LDP [RFC5036] or Segment Routing [RFC8402] or a traffic engineered LSP established using RSVP-TE [RFC3209] or SR-TE [SRPOLICY].¶
When PLE is applied to a SRv6 based PSN, the mechanisms defined in [RFC8402] and the End.DX2 endpoint behavior defined in [SRV6NETPROG] do apply.¶
The PLE header MUST contain the PLE control word (4 bytes) and MUST include a fixed size RTP header [RFC3550]. The RTP header MUST immediately follow the PLE control word.¶
The format of the PLE control word is inline with the guidance in [RFC4385] and as shown in the below figure:¶
The first nibble is used to differentiate if it is a control word or Associated Channel Header (ACH). The first nibble MUST be set to 0000b to indicate that this header is a control word as defined in section 3 of [RFC4385].¶
The other fields in the control word are used as defined below:¶
L¶
R¶
RSV¶
FRG¶
LEN¶
Sequence Number¶
The RTP header MUST be included and is used for explicit transfer of timing information. The RTP header is purely a formal reuse and RTP mechanisms, such as header extensions, contributing source (CSRC) list, padding, RTP Control Protocol (RTCP), RTP header compression, Secure Realtime Transport Protocol (SRTP), etc., are not applicable to PLE VPWS.¶
The format of the RTP header is as shown in the below figure:¶
V: Version¶
P: Padding¶
X: Header Extension¶
CC: CSRC Count¶
M: Marker¶
PT: Payload Type¶
Sequence Number¶
Timestamp¶
SSRC: Synchronization Source¶
A bit-stream is mapped into a packet with a fixed payload size ignoring any structure being present. The number of bytes MUST be defined during VPWS setup, MUST be the same in both directions of the VPWS and MUST remain unchanged for the lifetime of the VPWS.¶
For constant bit rate payloads the PLE packet is filled with incoming bits of the bit stream starting from the most significant to the least significant bit.¶
All PLE implementations MUST be capable of supporting the default payload size of 1024 bytes.¶
For PCS based CE interface types supporting FEC the NSP function MUST terminate the FEC and pass the PCS encoded signal to the IWF function.¶
For PCS based CE interface types supporting virtual lanes (i.e. 100GE) a PLE payload MUST carry information from all virtual lanes in a bit interleaved manner after the NSP function has performed PCS layer de-skew and re-ordering.¶
A PLE implementation MUST support the transport of all service types except ODUk bit-streams using the constant bit rate payload.¶
In case of an OTN bit-stream, the NSP function MUST present to the IWF an extended ODUk including a valid frame alignment overhead. The IWF is performing byte-aligned mapping into PLE packets. The egress NSP function will recover the ODUk by searching for the frame alignment overhead.¶
For byte aligned payloads PLE uses the following order for packetization:¶
All PLE implementations MUST support the payload size of 1024 bytes.¶
All PLE implementations MUST support the transport of OTN bit-streams using the byte aligned payload.¶
A PLE VPWS can be established using manual configuration or leveraging mechanisms of a signalling protocol¶
Furthermore emulation of bit-stream signals using PLE is only possible when the two attachment circuits of the VPWS are of the same type (OC192, 10GBASE-R, ODU2, etc) and are using the same PLE payload type and payload size. This can be ensured via manual configuration or via a signalling protocol¶
Extensions to the PWE3 [RFC4447] and EVPN-VPWS [RFC8214] control protocols are described in a separate document [PLESIG].¶
After the VPWS is set up, the PSN-bound IWF does perform the following steps:¶
The CE-bound IWF is responsible for removing the PSN and VPWS demultiplexing headers, PLE control word and RTP header from the received packet stream and play-out of the bit-stream to the local attachment circuit.¶
A de-jitter buffer MUST be implemented where the PLE packets are stored upon arrival. The size of this buffer SHOULD be locally configurable to allow accommodation of specific PSN packet delay variation expected.¶
The CE-bound IWF SHOULD use the sequence number in the control word to detect lost and mis-ordered packets. It MAY use the sequence number in the RTP header for the same purposes.¶
The payload of a lost packet MUST be replaced with equivalent amount of replacement data. The contents of the replacement data MAY be locally configurable. All PLE implementations MUST support generation of "0xAA" as replacement data. The alternating sequence of 0s and 1s of the "0xAA" pattern does ensure clock synchronization is maintained. While playing out the replacement data, the IWF will apply a holdover mechanism to maintain the clock.¶
Whenever the VPWS is not operationally up, the CE-bound NSP function MUST inject the appropriate native downstream fault indication signal (for example ODUk-AIS or ethernet LF).¶
Whenever a VPWS comes up, the CE-bound IWF enters the intermediate state, will start receiving PLE packets and will store them in the jitter buffer. The CE-bound NSP function will continue to inject the appropriate native downstream fault indication signal until a pre-configured amount of payloads is stored in the jitter buffer.¶
After the pre-configured amount of payload is present in the jitter buffer the CE-bound IWF transitions to the normal operation state and the content of the jitter buffer is played out to the CE in accordance with the required clock. In this state the CE-bound IWF MUST perform egress clock recovery.¶
The recovered clock MUST comply with the jitter and wander requirements applicable to the type of attachment circuit, specified in:¶
Whenever the L bit is set in the PLE control word of a received PLE packet the CE-bound NSP function SHOULD inject the appropriate native downstream fault indication signal instead of playing out the payload.¶
If the CE-bound IWF detects loss of consecutive packets for a pre-configured amount of time (default is 1 millisecond), it enters packet loss (PLOS) state and a corresponding defect is declared.¶
If the CE-bound IWF detects a packet loss ratio (PLR) above a configurable signal-degrade (SD) threshold for a configurable amount of consecutive 1-second intervals, it enters the degradation (DEG) state and a corresponding defect is declared. Possible values for the SD-PLR threshold are between 1..100% with the default being 15%. Possible values for consecutive intervals are 2..10 with the default 7.¶
While either a PLOS or DEG defect is declared the CE-bound NSP function SHOULD inject the appropriate native downstream fault indication signal. Also the PSN-bound IWF SHOULD set the R bit in the PLE control word of every packet transmitted.¶
The CE-bound IWF does change from the PLOS to normal state after the pre-configured amount of payload has been received similarly to the transition from intermediate to normal state.¶
Whenever the R bit is set in the PLE control word of a received PLE packet the PLE performance monitoring statistics SHOULD get updated.¶
PLE SHOULD provide the following functions to monitor the network performance to be inline with expectations of transport network operators.¶
The near-end performance monitors defined for PLE are as follows:¶
Each second with at least one packet lost or a PLOS/DEG defect SHALL be counted as ES-PLE. Each second with a PLR greater than 15% or a PLOS/DEG defect SHALL be counted as SES-PLE.¶
UAS-PLE SHALL be counted after configurable number of consecutive SES-PLE have been observed, and no longer counted after a configurable number of consecutive seconds without SES-PLE have been observed. Default value for each is 10 seconds.¶
Once unavailability is detected, ES and SES counts SHALL be inhibited up to the point where the unavailability was started. Once unavailability is removed, ES and SES that occurred along the clearing period SHALL be added to the ES and SES counts.¶
A PLE far-end performance monitor is providing insight into the CE-bound IWF at the far end of the PSN. The statistics are based on the PLE-RDI indication carried in the PLE control word via the R bit.¶
The PLE VPWS performance monitors are derived from the definitions in accordance with [G.826]¶
The PSN carrying PLE VPWS may be subject to congestion, but PLE VPWS representing constant bit-rate (CBR) flows cannot respond to congestion in a TCP-friendly manner as described in [RFC2913].¶
Hence the PSN providing connectivity for the PLE VPWS between PE devices MUST be Diffserv [RFC2475] enabled and MUST provide a per domain behavior [RFC3086] that guarantees low jitter and low loss.¶
To achieve the desired per domain behavior PLE VPWS SHOULD be carried over traffic-engineering paths through the PSN with bandwidth reservation and admission control applied.¶
As PLE is leveraging VPWS as transport mechanism the security considerations described in [RFC7432] and [RFC3985] are applicable.¶
Applicable signalling extensions are out of the scope of this document.¶
PLE does not introduce additional requirements from IANA.¶
The authors would like to thank Andreas Burk for reviewing this document and providing useful comments and suggestions.¶