FACT Protocol: Forwarding and Control Element Protocol

1. Forwarding and Control Element Protocol (FACT) by Ram Gopal, Alex Audu, Chaoping Wu, Hormuzd Khosravi <draft-gopal-forces-fact-05.txt>

2. FACT Protocol Updates • Incorporated feedback from last IETF meeting • Reduced mandatory implementation options for transport, security to help with Interoperability – design principles in RFC 1958, 2360 • FACT uses TCP as transport protocol for control channel over IP interconnection • FACT may use DCCP as transport for data channel • FACT uses TLS for security over IP interconnection • FACT will use single encapsulation scheme for payload, depending on the data model discussions • Increased priority bit filed to 3 , i.e. 8 priority levels • Made other fixes to the text

3. Protocol Requirements Compliance(1) • Configuration of Modeled Elements • Capability and Control Message Class -> Configure Request/Response, Capability Request/Response messages • Support for secure communication • FACT uses TLS for communication in un trusted environment • For physically secure environment, protocol security functions can be turned off • FACT recommends rate limiting mechanisms on FE for protection against DoS attacks • Scalability • FACT uses 16-bit addressing for CEs, FEs that allows 64K CEs, FEs – Minimize the message updates • FACT uses congestion aware transport which helps scalability of network element

4. Protocol Requirements Compliance (2) • Multihop • FACT uses TCP which is congestion aware and meets transport requirements for multi-hop IP networks • Message Priority • FACT supports 8 levels of message priority using 3 priority bits in common header • Reliability • FACT uses reliable transport protocol • For IP interconnection, FACT uses TCP for the control channel to provide reliability • FACT also has Response/Ack messages that provide application/protocol level responses

5. Protocol Requirements Compliance (3) • Interconnect Independence • FACT uses interconnect independent addressing in its common header (CE Tag, FE Id) • For non-IP interconnects, an interconnect specific encapsulation will have to be defined • For IP interconnects, FACT uses TCP as transport • CE Redundancy or Failover • FACT uses heartbeat messages to determine loss of association between protocol elements • FACT provides mechanisms for CE failover (strong consistency, weak consistency) • Topology Exchange • Capability and Control Message Class -> Topology Request/Response messages

6. Protocol Requirements Compliance (4) • Packet Redirection/Mirroring • Traffic Maintenance Message Class -> CP Redirect, CP Forward messages sent over Data Channel • Event Register/Deregister messages used to specify which packets to be redirected • Dynamic Association • Connection and Association Message Class -> Join Request/Response, Leave Request/Response messages • Command bundling • FACT uses multiple TLVs in its message payload to support command bundling • FACT also supports 2-phase commit operations

7. Protocol Requirements Compliance (5) • Asynchronous Event Notification • Event Notification Message Class -> Asynchronous FE Event Notification message • Query Statistics • Capability and Control Message Class -> Query Request/Response message • Protection against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks • FACT uses separate Control and Data channels to provide robustness against DoS attacks • FACT’s configure Request/Response messages can be used to configure rate-limiting mechanisms on FE

8. Summary • FACT protocol meets all ForCES Requirements • FACT reuse protocols that are widely available • Some of the key features • Separation of data and control for robustness • Reliability with congestion control over IP interconnection • Scalability, Grouping e.g.., FE and CE identifiers • PE state messages to determine state of protocol elements • FACT enables protocol interoperability over IP by reducing the mandatory implementation options for transport, security and payload encapsulation

9. Questions