Internet Draft






Internet Engineering Task Force                     C-Y Lee
INTERNET DRAFT                                      S Ganti
                                                    A Srinivasan

November 2000


                  Path Request and Path Reply Message


              <draft-lee-mpls-path-request-00.txt>

Status of this memo

     This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance
     with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

     Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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Abstract

   This memo specifies the interface between an entity requesting an
   explicit route between two end-points (Path Query Entity) and another
   entity computing the explicit route (Path Computation Entity)

1. Overview

   This memo specifies the interface between an entity requesting an
   explicit route between two end-points (Path Query Entity) and another
   entity providing the explicit route (Path Computation Entity) These
   entities may reside on the same node or on different nodes in a
   network.  The end-points may be the source or destination in the path
   or the intermediate points (eg the end-points of a segment of the
   path) in the path.





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      ====================   Request an explicit route   ==============
      | Path Computation |  <-------------------------   | Path Query |
      | Entity           |                               | Entity     |
      |                  |  -------------------------->  |            |
      ===================   Return an explicit route     ==============
                                object

   This interface is required by a node e.g a Label Edge Router (LER)
   which does not have all the constraint information required to
   compute an explicit path to the destination. For instance to
   establish a route across different areas or network boundaries, an
   LER may query the transit border router (which has the constraint
   information to the destination or for at least part of the way to the
   destination). The transit border router computes and return the
   explicit routes satisfying the set of specified constraints.

   If the constraint aggregated routes from another area or network is
   not available the transit border router for the shortest path to the
   destination, is queried.  If the constraint aggregated routes from
   another network area is available, the transit border router for the
   constraint path may be queried.

   The transit border router may recurse this query for the constraint
   explicit path to the next transit border router to the destination.
   If a border router recurses this query, it should concatenate the
   explicit routes returned by the next transit border router to the
   explicit routes that it computed, before sending the explicit path to
   the querier. [Note: A border router (eg inter-domain) may choose to
   return a loose segment instead and may cache the explicit route in
   its domain to facilitate the subsequent path setup or it may expand
   the loose segment during path setup. This is FFS]


2. Path Request and Reply Message

   A one time client query and server response message is used here. The
   Path Request message is encapsulated in TCP, the destination address
   is set to the path computing entity IP address and the port number is
   set to a value that is being reserved for this purpose.

   The messages are: Path Request Message and Path Reply Message.
   Existing TLVs already defined in various drafts are used here.  The
   new TLV added is : Discrete Bandwidth Required TLV

2.1 Path Request Message

   A Path Query Entity sends a Path Request Message, encapsulated in a
   TCP header to the Path Computation Entity.



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   The Path Request Message contains the following mandatory fields:

   The encoding for the Path Request message is:

          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
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |0|   Path Request (0x0420)     |      Message Length           |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Message ID                                |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Source - ER-Hop TLV                       |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Destination - ER-Hop TLV                  |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Discrete Bandwidth   TLV                  |
         |                     or Traffic Parameters TLV                 |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Optional TLVs                             |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Message ID - 32-bit value used to identify this message.

   Source Address - the source end of the path or the segment specified
   by the ER-Hop TLV defined in [CR-LDP] [Note: source, destination may
   refer to intermediate points in a path, eg the end-points of a loose
   segment of a path]

   Destination address - the destination end of the path or the segment
   specified by the ER-Hop TLV

   Discrete bandwidth required TLV - specified in next section  or
   Traffic Parameters TLV, as specified in [CR-LDP]

   The Path Request Message may contain the following optional fields:

   Resource Class (4 octets) TLV - as defined in [OSPF-TE-EXT]

   Encoding Type (2 octets) TLV - defined as LSP Encoding Type in [GEN-
   MPLS]

2.2 Path Reply Message

   The Route Response Message returns a set of explicit route.  The
   explicit route returned is as defined in [CR-LDP] - the Explicit
   Route TLV (ER-TLV) and consists of Explicit Hop TLV (ER-Hop TLV)

          0                   1                   2                   3



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          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
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |0|   Path Request (0x0421)     |      Message Length           |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Message ID                                |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     ER-TLV                                    |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |                     Optional TLVs                             |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

3. Discrete Bandwidth TLV

   The Discrete Bandwidth TLV is used to specify the discrete bandwidth
   required by a Path Query Entity, if the Encoding Type is not of
   Packet Type.  For e.g. if the Encoding Type is SONET, then n
   bandwidth means OC-n

   The format for the Discrete Bandwidth TLV is:


         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
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |0|0|  Discrete Bandwidth TLV   |           Length              |
         | | |      (0x0850)             |                               |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         |     Discrete Bandwidth        |        Reserved               |
         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


4.0 Acknowledgment

   The authors would like to thank Neil Gammage for his helpful comments
   and suggestions.
















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References


[TE-X]          http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-lee-mpls-te-exchange-00.txt

[OSPF-TE]       http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-katz-yeung-ospf-traffic-03.txt

[CR-LDP]        http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mpls-cr-ldp-0404.txt

[GEN-MPLS]      http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ashwood-generalized-mpls-signaling-00.txt

[OMPLS]         http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-kompella-ospf-ompls-extensions-00.txt

Authors' Information

   leecy@nortelnetworks.com

   sganti@nortelnetworks.com

   anandsr@nortelnetworks.com































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