Mohamed Boucadair has entered the following ballot position for
draft-ietf-lsr-igp-ureach-prefix-announce-09: Discuss

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DISCUSS:
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Hi Peter, Clarence, Daniel, Shraddha, and Gyan,

Thank you for the effort put into this specification.

I like the approach adopted here as it leverages exiting features (which is
good for backward compatibility) and thus eases incremental deployment.

# Meta comment

The flow of the document can be made better by introducing the explicit
signaling part early in the document as that is what actually demux the use
defined in the draft vs. any other future uses of the specific metric. The
current flow reveals that the signaling part was added as an after though, not
as part of the design.

Please find below some DICUSS points:

# Planned Maintenance

I expect that adequate reconfiguration will be put in place to isolate a node
for PM purposes. The document does not explain how the signal defined here is
needed or solves an issue. I appreciate that the introduction include a short
mention of the use of overload bit, though.

I’m also asking the question because there is no ** normative ** discussion (at
least I missed it) about how that can be triggered at the originating ABR.

Also, unlike a random failure, a planned failure is associated with an expected
start and end times. Signaling the event without those characteristic questions
the value of tagging a loss as an NP.

# Configuration Efficiency

Section 2
   Implementations MAY limit the UPA generation to specific prefixes,
   e.g.  host prefixes, SRv6 locators, or similar.  Such filtering is
   optional and MAY be controlled via configuration.

I’m afraid that for the limit to be useful, it should be tweaked based on local
operator policy and not on some magic that is internal to the implementation. I
suggest the second MAY to be changed to SHOULD when such limit is supported.

Idem for the following:
   Implementation MAY provide a configuration option to specify the UPA
   lifetime at the originating ABR or ASBR.

I suggest we update it to:

   UPA implementations SHOULD provide a configuration option to specify the UPA
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   lifetime at the originating ABR or ASBR.

The reasoning for this change is that a failure may last long and that an
operator would like to maintain that loss state longer (than allowed by a
default limit) to accommodate how the specific application consuming the loss
signal.

Please note that you say that the validity depends on the use case:

CURRENT (S.2):
   The
   time the UPA is kept in the network SHOULD also reflect the intended
   use-case for which the UPA was advertised.

# Withdrawal

Section 2 says:

   UPA advertisements SHOULD
   therefore be withdrawn after some amount of time, that would provides
   sufficient time for UPA to be flooded network-wide and acted upon by
   receiving nodes, but limits the presence of UPA in the network.  The
   time the UPA is kept in the network SHOULD also reflect the intended
   use-case for which the UPA was advertised.
   …
   ABR or ASBR MUST withdraw the previously advertised UPA when the
   reason for which the UPA was generated ceases - e.g. prefix
   reachability was restored or its metric has changed such that it is
   below the configured threshold value.

The second MUST is not useful if that reason disappears before the timeout that
triggers the SHOULD.

I think a simple text reorder would fix this. For example,

NEW:
   ABR or ASBR MUST withdraw the previously advertised UPA when the
   reason for which the UPA was generated ceases - e.g. prefix
   reachability was restored or its metric has changed such that it is
   below the configured threshold value.

   Even if the reasons persist, UPA advertisements SHOULD
   be withdrawn after some amount of time, that would provides
   sufficient time for UPA to be flooded network-wide and acted upon by
   receiving nodes, but limits the presence of UPA in the network.  The
   time the UPA is kept in the network SHOULD also reflect the intended
   use-case for which the UPA was advertised.

# Scalability control

Section 2 says:
   It is also RECOMMENDED that implementations limit the number of UPA
   advertisements which can be originated at a given time.

The benefits gained by summarization may be nullified if a large number of UPAs
are injected. This recommendation is really great, but there is a need to
expose a configuration parameter here. Pease

NEW:
   UPA implementations SHOULD provide a configuration option to limit
   the number of such UPAs.

# Backward compatibility Check

CURRENT (3.2/4.2):
   Such requirement of
   reachability MUST NOT be applied for UPAs, as they are propagating
   unreachability.

Does this mean that an ABR that don’t support UPA might discard it?

# Avoid redefining exiting behaviors

CURRENT (Section 4):
   In addition, NU-bit is defined for OSPFv3 [RFC5340].  Prefixes having
   the NU-bit set in their PrefixOptions field SHOULD NOT be included in
   the routing calculation.

The SHOULD NOT part is already defined in 5340. What is this redefined again?

# Check on “UP-Flag” is useless

5.1.1
   The prefix that is advertised with U-Flag or UP-Flag  MUST have the
   metric set to a value larger than 0xFE000000.  If the prefix metric
   is less than or equal 0xFE000000, both of these flags MUST be
   ignored.

5.2.2
   The prefix that is advertised with U-Flag or UP-Flag MUST have the
   NU-bit set in the PrefixOptions of the parent TLV.

The “or UP-Flag” part of both MUSTs is useless as U-Flag will be set in such
case as well. The case where only UP-Flag is set is invalid and will be ignored.

Unless I missed a subtle thing here, please update these two.

# Service stability

The document declares the applications that consume the signal out of scope.
Which is fine. However, there might be some negative implications due to how
the loss signal (or it withdrawal/absence) is interpreted. For example, add a
warning to insist that withdrawal does not mean revert to a nominal state.
Having few sentences for these service to take appropriate measure before
reverting.


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COMMENT:
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# Topology-dependent matters

Abstract:
   This enables fast
   convergence by steering traffic away from the node which owns the
   prefix and is no longer reachable.

“steering..” part of the text is only possible when there alternate routes for
that prefix. Otherwise, the traffic will be dropped anyway.

Pleas reword. For example, saying “when applicable” or similar would be just
fine.

# Why now?

Summarization was there since decades. A mention about what exacerbates the
need for this new feature now (and was not considered as a major issue in past)
would be helpful.

# "Egress" depends on the traffic directionality

Section 1:
   Similarly, when an egress router needs to be taken out of service for
   maintenance, the traffic is drained from the node before taking it
   down.

A router may behave as ingress/egress as a function of traffic direction. I
would delete “egress” here.

# (ni) There might be many ABRs per area, not single one

Please make this change in Section 1 (and similar):

OLD:
   When prefixes from such node are summarized by the
   Area Border Router (ABR) or Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR),

NEW:
   When prefixes from such node are summarized by an
   Area Border Router (ABR) or Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR),

# (Operational Considerations) Many signals, distinct expected uses

Section 1 has the following:

   This document does not define how to advertise prefix that is not
   reachable for routing.  That has been defined for IS-IS in [RFC5305]
   and [RFC5308], for OSPF in [RFC2328], and for OSPFv3 in [RFC5340].

I wonder whether we can list the signals available out there (explicit prefer
advertisement, prefix with a specific metric, etc.) and remind the intend use
scope for each of them. This can be record in the Operational Considerations.

I’m raising this point, especially that the text right after says the following
without appropriate scoping:

CURRENT:
   This document defines two new flags in IS-IS, OSPF, and OSPFv3.
   These flags, together with the existing protocol mechanisms, provide
   the support for advertising prefix unreachability , together with the
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   reason for which the unreachability is advertised

# Unreachable metric?!

Section 1 has the following:
   This document defines a method to signal a specific reason for which
   the prefix with unreachable metric was advertised.

Unless, I’m mistaken there is no such “unreachable metric” as a thing in IS-IS.

# (Operational Considerations) Activation default

Section 2 has the following:
   UPA MAY be generated by the ABR or ASBR for a prefix that is
   summarized by the summary address originated by the ABR or ASBR in
   the following cases:

Can we say something about whether the use of UPA be enabled or disabled by
default?

# Threshold

Section 2 says:
          - the metric to reach the prefix from the ABR or ASBR crosses
          the configured threshold.

Can we explicit the threshold we are referring to here + add reference where to
look at?

# Explicit references in Section 3

OLD:
   [RFC5305] defines the encoding for advertising IPv4 prefixes using 4
   octets of metric information.  Section 4 specifies:
   ..
   Similarly, [RFC5308] defines the encoding for advertising IPv6
   prefixes using 4 octets of metric information. Section 2 states:

NEW:
   [RFC5305] defines the encoding for advertising IPv4 prefixes using 4
   octets of metric information.  Section 4 of [RFC5305]  specifies:
   ..
   Similarly, [RFC5308] defines the encoding for advertising IPv6
   prefixes using 4 octets of metric information.  Section 2 of [RFC5308]
   states:

# “Advertisement of UPA in IS-IS”

CURENT (S3.1)
   Recognition of the advertisement as UPA is only required on routers
   which have a valid use case for this information.

I would delete this sentence as this section is about the originator.

# Section 6

Consider moving that section right after current Section 7 as a subsection of
an Operational Consideration section.

## Multiple ABRs

That section may also discuss whether there are specific consideration to take
into account, e.g., presence of multiple ABRs with announces UPAs for a set of
prefixes in an area and measures to prevent routing stability. If you don’t see
any risk out there, saying that as well would be useful.

## Consider adding any implications (or absence of) explicit withdrawal of an
UPA.

Cheers,
Med



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