| Internet-Draft | IPv6 Compressed Routing Header | June 2023 |
| Bonica, et al. | Expires 25 December 2023 | [Page] |
This document describes an experiment in which two new IPv6 Routing headers are implemented and deployed. Collectively, they are called the Compact Routing Headers (CRH). Individually, they are called CRH-16 and CRH-32.¶
One purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate that the CRH can be implemented and deployed in a production network. Another purpose is to demonstrate that the security considerations, described in this document, can be addressed with access control lists. Finally, this document encourages replication of the experiment.¶
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.¶
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."¶
This Internet-Draft will expire on 25 December 2023.¶
Copyright (c) 2023 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 (https://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 Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶
IPv6 [RFC8200] source nodes use Routing headers to specify the path that a packet takes to its destination. The IETF has defined several Routing header types [IANA-RH]. This document defines two new Routing header types. Collectively, they are called the Compact Routing Headers (CRH). Individually, they are called CRH-16 and CRH-32.¶
The CRH allows IPv6 source nodes to specify the path that a packet takes to its destination. The CRH:¶
The following are reasons for encoding the CRH in as few bytes as possible:¶
This document describes an experiment whose purposes are:¶
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.¶
Both CRH versions (i.e., CRH-16 and CRH-32) contain the following fields:¶
In the CRH, the Type-specific data field contains a list of Segment Identifiers (SIDs). Each SID identifies an entry in the CRH Forwarding Information Base (CRH-FIB) (Section 4). Each CRH-FIB entry identifies an interface on the path that the packet takes to its destination.¶
SIDs are listed in reverse order. So, the first SID in the list represents the final interface in the path. Because segments are listed in reverse order, the Segments Left field can be used as an index into the SID list. In this document, the "current SID" is the SID list entry referenced by the Segments Left field.¶
The first segment in the path can be omitted from the list. See Appendix A for examples.¶
In the CRH-16 (Figure 1), each SID is encoded in 16-bits. In the CRH-32 (Figure 2), each SID is encoded in 32-bits.¶
In all cases, the CRH MUST end on a 64-bit boundary. So, the Type- specific data field MUST be padded with zeros if the CRH would otherwise not end on a 64-bit boundary.¶
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 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Next Header | Hdr Ext Len | Routing Type | Segments Left | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | SID[0] | SID[1] | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-| | ......... +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
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 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Next Header | Hdr Ext Len | Routing Type | Segments Left | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + SID[0] + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + SID[1] + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ // // +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + SID[n] + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Each SID identifies a CRH-FIB entry.¶
Each CRH-FIB entry contains:¶
The first ten bits of the IPv6 address MUST NOT be fe00. That prefix is reserved for link-local [RFC6890] addresses.¶
The topological function specifies how the processing node forwards the packet to the interface identified by the IPv6 address. The following are examples:¶
Some topological functions require parameters. For example, a topological function might require a parameter that identifies the interface through which the packet is forwarded.¶
The CRH-FIB can be populated:¶
The following rules describe CRH processing:¶
NOTE: By default, the IPv6 module determines the next-hop and forwards the packet. However, the topological function may elicit another behavior. For example, the IPv6 module may forward the packet through a specified interface.¶
The algorithm described in this section accepts the following CRH fields as its input parameters:¶
It yields L, the minimum CRH length. The minimum CRH length is measured in 8-octet units, not including the first 8 octets.¶
<CODE BEGINS>
switch(Routing Type) {
case CRH-16:
if (Segments Left <= 2)
return(0)
sidsBeyondFirstWord = Segments Left - 2;
sidPerWord = 4;
case CRH-32:
if (Segments Left <= 1)
return(0)
sidsBeyondFirstWord = Segments Left - 1;
sidsPerWord = 2;
case default:
return(0xFF);
}
words = sidsBeyondFirstWord div sidsPerWord;
if (sidsBeyondFirstWord mod sidsPerWord)
words++;
return(words)
<CODE ENDS>¶
In the CRH, the Segments Left field is mutable. All remaining fields are immutable.¶
A CRH contains one or more SIDs. Each SID is processed by exactly one node.¶
Therefore, a SID is not required to have domain-wide significance. Applications can:¶
PING and TRACEROUTE [RFC2151] both operate correctly in the presence of the CRH.¶
Networks that process the CRH MUST NOT accept packets containing the CRH from outside of their limited domain. Domain border routers SHOULD discard packets that satisfy the following criteria:¶
Many border routers cannot filter packets based upon the Segments Left value. These border routers MAY discard packets that satisfy the following criteria:¶
Juniper Networks has produced experimental implementations of the CRH on the MX-series (ASIC-based) router¶
Liquid Telecom has produced experimental implementations of the CRH on software based routers.¶
The CRH has carried non-production traffic in CERNET and Liquid Telecom.¶
This document makes the following registrations in the "Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Parameters" "Routing Types" subregistry maintained by IANA:¶
+-------+------------------------------+---------------+
| Value | Description | Reference |
+=======+==============================+===============+
| 5 | CRH-16 | This document |
+-------+------------------------------+---------------+
| 6 | CRH-32 | This document |
+-------+------------------------------+---------------+
¶
Thanks to Dr. Vanessa Ameen, Fernando Gont, Naveen Kottapalli, Joel Halpern, Tony Li, Xing Li, Gerald Schmidt, Nancy Shaw, Ketan Talaulikar, and Chandra Venkatraman for their contributions to this document.¶
This appendix demonstrates CRH processing in the following scenarios:¶
----------- ----------- -----------
|Node: S | |Node: I1 | |Node: I2 |
|Loopback: |---------------|Loopback: |---------------|Loopback: |
|2001:db8::a| |2001:db8::1| |2001:db8::2|
----------- ----------- -----------
| |
| ----------- |
| |Node: D | |
---------------------|Loopback: |---------------------
|2001:db8::b|
-----------
Figure 3 provides a reference topology that is used in all examples.¶
| SID | IPv6 Address | Forwarding Method |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2001:db8::2 | Least-cost path |
| 11 | 2001:db8::b | Least-cost path |
Table 1 describes two entries that appear in each node's CRH-FIB.¶
In this example, Node S sends a packet to Node D, via I2. In this example, I2 appears in the CRH segment list.¶
| As the packet travels from S to I2: | |
|---|---|
| Source Address = 2001:db8::a | Segments Left = 1 |
| Destination Address = 2001:db8::2 | SID[0] = 11 |
| SID[1] = 2 |
| As the packet travels from I2 to D: | |
|---|---|
| Source Address = 2001:db8::a | Segments Left = 0 |
| Destination Address = 2001:db8::b | SID[0] = 11 |
| SID[1] = 2 |
In this example, Node S sends a packet to Node D, via I2. In this example, I2 does not appear in the CRH segment list.¶
| As the packet travels from S to I2: | |
|---|---|
| Source Address = 2001:db8::a | Segments Left = 1 |
| Destination Address = 2001:db8::2 | SID[0] = 11 |
| As the packet travels from I2 to D: | |
|---|---|
| Source Address = 2001:db8::a | Segments Left = 0 |
| Destination Address = 2001:db8::b | SID[0] = 11 |