Rfc5392
TitleOSPF Extensions in Support of Inter-Autonomous System (AS) MPLS and GMPLS Traffic Engineering
AuthorM. Chen, R. Zhang, X. Duan
DateJanuary 2009
Format:TXT, HTML
Status:PROPOSED STANDARD






Network Working Group                                           M. Chen
Request for Comments: 5392                                     R. Zhang
Category: Standards Track                 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
                                                                X. Duan
                                                           China Mobile
                                                           January 2009


      OSPF Extensions in Support of Inter-Autonomous System (AS)
                  MPLS and GMPLS Traffic Engineering

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2009 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 (http://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.

Abstract

   This document describes extensions to the OSPF version 2 and 3
   protocols to support Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and
   Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) Traffic Engineering (TE) for multiple
   Autonomous Systems (ASes).  OSPF-TE v2 and v3 extensions are defined
   for the flooding of TE information about inter-AS links that can be
   used to perform inter-AS TE path computation.

   No support for flooding information from within one AS to another AS
   is proposed or defined in this document.










RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................3
   2. Problem Statement ...............................................3
      2.1. A Note on Non-Objectives ...................................4
      2.2. Per-Domain Path Determination ..............................4
      2.3. Backward Recursive Path Computation ........................6
   3. Extensions to OSPF ..............................................7
      3.1. LSA Definitions ............................................8
           3.1.1. Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA ..................................8
           3.1.2. Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA ..................................8
      3.2. LSA Payload ................................................9
           3.2.1. Link TLV ............................................9
      3.3. Sub-TLV Details ...........................................10
           3.3.1. Remote AS Number Sub-TLV ...........................10
           3.3.2. IPv4 Remote ASBR ID Sub-TLV ........................11
           3.3.3. IPv6 Remote ASBR ID Sub-TLV ........................11
   4. Procedure for Inter-AS TE Links ................................12
      4.1. Origin of Proxied TE Information ..........................13
   5. Security Considerations ........................................14
   6. IANA Considerations ............................................14
      6.1. Inter-AS TE OSPF LSA ......................................14
           6.1.1. Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA .................................14
           6.1.2. Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA .................................14
      6.2. OSPF LSA Sub-TLVs Type ....................................15
   7. Acknowledgments ................................................15
   8. References .....................................................15
      8.1. Normative References ......................................15
      8.2. Informative References ....................................16

1.  Introduction

   [OSPF-TE] defines extensions to the OSPF protocol [OSPF] to support
   intra-area Traffic Engineering (TE).  The extensions provide a way of
   encoding the TE information for TE-enabled links within the network
   (TE links) and flooding this information within an area.  Type 10
   Opaque Link State Advertisements (LSAs) [RFC5250] are used to carry
   such TE information.  Two top-level Type Length Values (TLVs) are
   defined in [OSPF-TE]: Router Address TLV and Link TLV.  The Link TLV
   has several nested sub-TLVs that describe the TE attributes for a TE
   link.









RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   [OSPF-V3-TE] defines similar extensions to OSPFv3 [OSPFV3].  It
   defines a new LSA, which is referred to as the Intra-Area-TE LSA, to
   advertise TE information.  [OSPF-V3-TE] uses "Traffic Engineering
   Extensions to OSPF" [OSPF-TE] as a base for TLV definitions and
   defines some new TLVs and sub-TLVs to extend TE capabilities to IPv6
   networks.

   Requirements for establishing Multiprotocol Label Switching Traffic
   Engineering (MPLS-TE) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) that cross multiple
   Autonomous Systems (ASes) are described in [INTER-AS-TE-REQ].  As
   described in [INTER-AS-TE-REQ], a method SHOULD provide the ability
   to compute a path spanning multiple ASes.  So a path computation
   entity that may be the head-end Label Switching Router (LSR), an AS
   Border Router (ASBR), or a Path Computation Element [PCE] needs to
   know the TE information not only of the links within an AS, but also
   of the links that connect to other ASes.

   In this document, two new separate LSAs are defined to advertise
   inter-AS TE information for OSPFv2 and OSPFv3, respectively, and
   three new sub-TLVs are added to the existing Link TLV to extend TE
   capabilities for inter-AS Traffic Engineering.  The detailed
   definitions and procedures are discussed in the following sections.

   This document does not propose or define any mechanisms to advertise
   any other extra-AS TE information within OSPF.  See Section 2.1 for a
   full list of non-objectives for this work.

1.1.  Conventions Used in This Document

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

2.  Problem Statement

   As described in [INTER-AS-TE-REQ], in the case of establishing an
   inter-AS TE LSP traversing multiple ASes, the Path message [RFC3209]
   may include the following elements in the Explicit Route Object (ERO)
   in order to describe the path of the LSP:

      - a set of AS numbers as loose hops; and/or

      - a set of LSRs including ASBRs as loose hops.

   Two methods for determining inter-AS paths are currently being
   discussed.  The per-domain method [PD-PATH] determines the path one
   domain at a time.  The backward recursive method [BRPC] uses
   cooperation between PCEs to determine an optimum inter-domain path.



RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   The sections that follow examine how inter-AS TE link information
   could be useful in both cases.

2.1.  A Note on Non-Objectives

   It is important to note that this document does not make any change
   to the confidentiality and scaling assumptions surrounding the use of
   ASes in the Internet.  In particular, this document is conformant to
   the requirements set out in [INTER-AS-TE-REQ].

   The following features are explicitly excluded:

      o There is no attempt to distribute TE information from within one
        AS to another AS.

      o There is no mechanism proposed to distribute any form of TE
        reachability information for destinations outside the AS.

      o There is no proposed change to the PCE architecture or usage.

      o TE aggregation is not supported or recommended.

      o There is no exchange of private information between ASes.

      o No OSPF adjacencies are formed on the inter-AS link.

   Note also that the extensions proposed in this document are used only
   to advertise information about inter-AS TE links.  As such these
   extensions address an entirely different problem from L1VPN Auto-
   Discovery [L1VPN-OSPF-AD], which defines how TE information about
   links between Customer Edge (CE) equipment and Provider Edge (PE)
   equipment can be advertised in OSPF-TE alongside the auto-discovery
   information for the CE-PE links.  There is no overlap between this
   document and [L1VPN-OSPF-AD].

2.2.  Per-Domain Path Determination

   In the per-domain method of determining an inter-AS path for an
   MPLS-TE LSP, when an LSR that is an entry point to an AS receives a
   Path message from an upstream AS with an ERO containing a next hop
   that is an AS number, it needs to find which LSRs (ASBRs) within the
   local AS are connected to the downstream AS so that it can compute a
   TE LSP segment across the local AS to one of those LSRs and forward
   the Path message to it and hence into the next AS.  See Figure 1 for
   an example:






RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


            R1------R3----R5-----R7------R9-----R11
                    |     | \    |      / |
                    |     |  \   |  ----  |
                    |     |   \  | /      |
            R2------R4----R6   --R8------R10----R12
                       :              :
            <-- AS1 -->:<---- AS2 --->:<--- AS3 --->

              Figure 1: Inter-AS Reference Model

   The figure shows three ASes (AS1, AS2, and AS3) and twelve LSRs (R1
   through R12).  R3 and R4 are ASBRs in AS1.  R5, R6, R7, and R8 are
   ASBRs in AS2.  R9 and R10 are ASBRs in AS3.

   If an inter-AS TE LSP is planned to be established from R1 to R12,
   the AS sequence will be: AS1, AS2, AS3.

   Suppose that the Path message enters AS2 from R3.  The next hop in
   the ERO shows AS3, and R5 must determine a path segment across AS2 to
   reach AS3.  It has a choice of three exit points from AS2 (R6, R7,
   and R8) and it needs to know which of these provide TE connectivity
   to AS3, and whether the TE connectivity (for example, available
   bandwidth) is adequate for the requested LSP.

   Alternatively, if the next hop in the ERO is the entry ASBR for AS3
   (say R9), R5 needs to know which of its exit ASBRs has a TE link that
   connects to R9.  Since there may be multiple ASBRs that are connected
   to R9 (both R7 and R8 in this example), R5 also needs to know the TE
   properties of the inter-AS TE links so that it can select the correct
   exit ASBR.

   Once the path message reaches the exit ASBR, any choice of inter-AS
   TE link can be made by the ASBR if not already made by the entry ASBR
   that computed the segment.

   More details can be found in Section 4 of [PD-PATH], which clearly
   points out why the advertising of inter-AS links is desired.

   To enable R5 to make the correct choice of exit ASBR, the following
   information is needed:

      o List of all inter-AS TE links for the local AS.

      o TE properties of each inter-AS TE link.

      o AS number of the neighboring AS to which each inter-AS TE link
        is connected.




RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


      o Identity (TE Router ID) of the neighboring ASBR to which each
        inter-AS TE link is connected.

   In GMPLS networks, further information may also be required to select
   the correct TE links as defined in [GMPLS-TE].

   The example above shows how this information is needed at the entry
   point ASBRs for each AS (or the PCEs that provide computation
   services for the ASBRs), but this information is also needed
   throughout the local AS if path computation function is fully
   distributed among LSRs in the local AS, for example, to support LSPs
   that have start points (ingress nodes) within the AS.

2.3.  Backward Recursive Path Computation

   Another scenario using PCE techniques has the same problem.  [BRPC]
   defines a PCE-based TE LSP computation method (called Backward
   Recursive Path Computation) to compute optimal inter-domain
   constrained MPLS-TE or GMPLS LSPs.  In this path computation method,
   a specific set of traversed domains (ASes) are assumed to be selected
   before computation starts.  Each downstream PCE in domain(i) returns
   to its upstream neighbor PCE in domain(i-1) a multipoint-to-point
   tree of potential paths.  Each tree consists of the set of paths from
   all Boundary Nodes located in domain(i) to the destination where each
   path satisfies the set of required constraints for the TE LSP
   (bandwidth, affinities, etc.).

   So a PCE needs to select Boundary Nodes (that is, ASBRs) that provide
   connectivity from the upstream AS.  In order that the tree of paths
   provided by one PCE to its neighbor can be correlated, the identities
   of the ASBRs for each path need to be referenced, so the PCE must
   know the identities of the ASBRs in the remote AS reached by any
   inter-AS TE link, and, in order that it provides only suitable paths
   in the tree, the PCE must know the TE properties of the inter-AS TE
   links.  See the following figure as an example:

                   PCE1<------>PCE2<-------->PCE3
                   /       :             :
                  /        :             :
                R1------R3----R5-----R7------R9-----R11
                        |     | \    |      / |
                        |     |  \   |  ----  |
                        |     |   \  | /      |
                R2------R4----R6   --R8------R10----R12
                           :              :
                <-- AS1 -->:<---- AS2 --->:<--- AS3 --->

              Figure 2: BRPC for Inter-AS Reference Model



RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   The figure shows three ASes (AS1, AS2, and AS3), three PCEs (PCE1,
   PCE2, and PCE3), and twelve LSRs (R1 through R12).  R3 and R4 are
   ASBRs in AS1.  R5, R6, R7, and R8 are ASBRs in AS2.  R9 and R10 are
   ASBRs in AS3.  PCE1, PCE2, and PCE3 cooperate to perform inter-AS
   path computation and are responsible for path segment computation
   within their own domain(s).

   If an inter-AS TE LSP is planned to be established from R1 to R12,
   the traversed domains are assumed to be selected: AS1->AS2->AS3, and
   the PCE chain is: PCE1->PCE2->PCE3.  First, the path computation
   request originated from the Path Computation Client (R1) is relayed
   by PCE1 and PCE2 along the PCE chain to PCE3, then PCE3 begins to
   compute the path segments from the entry boundary nodes that provide
   connection from AS2 to the destination (R12).  But, to provide
   suitable path segments, PCE3 must determine which entry boundary
   nodes provide connectivity to its upstream neighbor AS (identified by
   its AS number), and must know the TE properties of the inter-AS TE
   links.  In the same way, PCE2 also needs to determine the entry
   boundary nodes according to its upstream neighbor AS and the inter-AS
   TE link capabilities.

   Thus, to support Backward Recursive Path Computation the same
   information listed in Section 2.2 is required.  The AS number of the
   neighboring AS to which each inter-AS TE link is connected is
   particularly important.

3.  Extensions to OSPF

   Note that this document does not define mechanisms for distribution
   of TE information from one AS to another, does not distribute any
   form of TE reachability information for destinations outside the AS,
   does not change the PCE architecture or usage, does not suggest or
   recommend any form of TE aggregation, and does not feed private
   information between ASes.  See Section 2.1.

   The extensions defined in this document allow an inter-AS TE link
   advertisement to be easily identified as such by the use of two new
   types of LSA, which are referred to as Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA and
   Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA.  Three new sub-TLVs are added to the Link TLV to
   carry the information about the neighboring AS and the remote ASBR.

   While some of the TE information of an inter-AS TE link may be
   available within the AS from other protocols, in order to avoid any
   dependency on where such protocols are processed, this mechanism
   carries all the information needed for the required TE operations.






RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


3.1.  LSA Definitions

3.1.1.  Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA

   For the advertisement of OSPFv2 inter-AS TE links, a new Opaque LSA,
   the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA, is defined in this document.  The
   Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA has the same format as "Traffic Engineering LSA",
   which is defined in [OSPF-TE].

   The inter-AS TE link advertisement SHOULD be carried in a Type 10
   Opaque LSA [RFC5250] if the flooding scope is to be limited to within
   the single IGP area to which the ASBR belongs, or MAY be carried in a
   Type 11 Opaque LSA [RFC5250] if the information is intended to reach
   all routers (including area border routers, ASBRs, and PCEs) in the
   AS.  The choice between the use of a Type 10 (area-scoped) or Type 11
   (AS-scoped) Opaque LSA is an AS-wide policy choice, and configuration
   control of it SHOULD be provided in ASBR implementations that support
   the advertisement of inter-AS TE links.

   The Link State ID of an Opaque LSA as defined in [RFC5250] is divided
   into two parts.  One of them is the Opaque type (8-bit), the other is
   the Opaque ID (24-bit).  The value for the Opaque type of
   Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA is 6 and has been assigned by IANA (see Section
   6.1).  The Opaque ID of the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA is an arbitrary value
   used to uniquely identify Traffic Engineering LSAs.  The Link State
   ID has no topological significance.

   The TLVs within the body of an Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA have the same
   format as used in OSPF-TE.  The payload of the TLVs consists of one
   or more nested Type/Length/Value triplets.  New sub-TLVs specifically
   for inter-AS TE Link advertisement are described in Section 3.2.

3.1.2.  Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA

   In this document, a new LS type is defined for OSPFv3 inter-AS TE
   link advertisement.  The new LS type function code is 13 (see Section
   6.1).

   The format of an Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA follows the standard definition
   of an OSPFv3 LSA as defined in [OSPFV3].

   The high-order three bits of the LS type field of the OSPFv3 LSA
   header encode generic properties of the LSA and are termed the U-bit,
   S2-bit, and S1-bit [OSPFV3].  The remainder of the LS type carries
   the LSA function code.






RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   For the Inter-AS-TE-v3-LSA, the bits are set as follows:

   The U-bit is always set to 1 to indicate that an OSPFv3 router MUST
   flood the LSA at its defined flooding scope even if it does not
   recognize the LS type.

   The S2 and S1 bits indicate the flooding scope of an LSA.  For the
   Inter-AS-TE-v3-LSA, the S2 and S1 bits SHOULD be set to 01 to
   indicate that the flooding scope is to be limited to within the
   single IGP area to which the ASBR belongs, but MAY be set to 10 if
   the information should reach all routers (including area border
   routers, ASBRs, and PCEs) in the AS.  The choice between the use of
   01 or 10 is a network-wide policy choice, and configuration control
   SHOULD be provided in ASBR implementations that support the
   advertisement of inter-AS TE links.

   The Link State ID of the Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA is an arbitrary value
   used to uniquely identify Traffic Engineering LSAs.  The LSA ID has
   no topological significance.

   The TLVs within the body of an Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA have the same
   format and semantics as those defined in [OSPF-V3-TE].  New sub-TLVs
   specifically for inter-AS TE Link advertisement are described in
   Section 3.2.

3.2.  LSA Payload

   Both the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA and Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA contain one top
   level TLV:

      2 - Link TLV

   For the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA, this TLV is defined in [OSPF-TE], and for
   the Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA, this TLV is defined in [OSPF-V3-TE].  The
   sub-TLVs carried in this TLV are described in the following sections.

3.2.1.  Link TLV

   The Link TLV describes a single link and consists a set of sub-TLVs.
   The sub-TLVs for inclusion in the Link TLV of the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA
   and Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA are defined, respectively, in [OSPF-TE] and
   [OSPF-V3-TE], and the list of sub-TLVs may be extended by other
   documents.  However, this document defines the following exceptions.








RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   The Link ID sub-TLV [OSPF-TE] MUST NOT be used in the Link TLV of an
   Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA, and the Neighbor ID sub-TLV [OSPF-V3-TE] MUST NOT
   be used in the Link TLV of an Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA.  Given that OSPF is
   an IGP and should only be utilized between routers in the same
   routing domain, the OSPF specific Link ID and Neighbor ID sub-TLVs
   are not applicable to inter-AS links.

   Instead, the remote ASBR is identified by the inclusion of the
   following new sub-TLVs defined in this document and described in the
   subsequent sections.

      21 - Remote AS Number sub-TLV

      22 - IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV

      23 - IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV

   The Remote-AS-Number sub-TLV MUST be included in the Link TLV of both
   the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA and Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA.  At least one of the
   IPv4-Remote-ASBR-ID sub-TLV and the IPv6-Remote-ASBR-ID sub-TLV
   SHOULD be included in the Link TLV of the Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA and
   Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA.  Note that it is possible to include the
   IPv6-Remote-ASBR-ID sub-TLV in the Link TLV of the Inter-AS-TE-v2
   LSA, and to include the IPv4-Remote-ASBR-ID sub-TLV in the Link TLV
   of the Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA because the sub-TLVs refer to ASBRs that
   are in a different addressing scope (that is, a different AS) from
   that where the OSPF LSA is used.

3.3.  Sub-TLV Details

3.3.1.  Remote AS Number Sub-TLV

   A new sub-TLV, the Remote AS Number sub-TLV is defined for inclusion
   in the Link TLV when advertising inter-AS links.  The Remote AS
   Number sub-TLV specifies the AS number of the neighboring AS to which
   the advertised link connects.  The Remote AS Number sub-TLV is
   REQUIRED in a Link TLV that advertises an inter-AS TE link.

   The Remote AS Number sub-TLV is TLV type 21 (see Section 6.2), and is
   four octets in length.  The format is as follows:

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |              Type             |             Length            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote AS Number                        |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+



RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009



   The Remote AS Number field has 4 octets.  When only two octets are
   used for the AS number, as in current deployments, the left (high-
   order) two octets MUST be set to zero.

3.3.2.  IPv4 Remote ASBR ID Sub-TLV

   A new sub-TLV, which is referred to as the IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-
   TLV, can be included in the Link TLV when advertising inter-AS links.
   The IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV specifies the IPv4 identifier of the
   remote ASBR to which the advertised inter-AS link connects.  This
   could be any stable and routable IPv4 address of the remote ASBR.
   Use of the TE Router Address TE Router ID as specified in the Router
   Address TLV [OSPF-TE] is RECOMMENDED.

   The IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV is TLV type 22 (see Section 6.2), and
   is four octets in length.  Its format is as follows:

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |              Type             |             Length            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote ASBR ID                          |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   In OSPFv2 advertisements, the IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV MUST be
   included if the neighboring ASBR has an IPv4 address.  If the
   neighboring ASBR does not have an IPv4 address (not even an IPv4 TE
   Router ID), the IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV MUST be included instead.
   An IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV and IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV MAY
   both be present in a Link TLV in OSPFv2 or OSPFv3.

3.3.3.  IPv6 Remote ASBR ID Sub-TLV

   A new sub-TLV, which is referred to as the IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-
   TLV, can be included in the Link TLV when advertising inter-AS links.
   The IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV specifies the identifier of the
   remote ASBR to which the advertised inter-AS link connects.  This
   could be any stable, routable, and global IPv6 address of the remote
   ASBR.  Use of the TE Router IPv6 Address IPv6 TE Router ID as
   specified in the IPv6 Router Address, which is specified in the IPv6
   Router Address TLV [OSPF-V3-TE], is RECOMMENDED.

   The IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV is TLV type 24 (see Section 6.2), and
   is sixteen octets in length.  Its format is as follows:





RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |              Type             |             Length            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote ASBR ID                          |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote ASBR ID (continued)              |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote ASBR ID (continued)              |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Remote ASBR ID (continued)              |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   In OSPFv3 advertisements, the IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV MUST be
   included if the neighboring ASBR has an IPv6 address.  If the
   neighboring ASBR does not have an IPv6 address, the IPv4 Remote ASBR
   ID sub-TLV MUST be included instead.  An IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV
   and IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV MAY both be present in a Link TLV in
   OSPFv2 or OSPFv3.

4.  Procedure for Inter-AS TE Links

   When TE is enabled on an inter-AS link and the link is up, the ASBR
   SHOULD advertise this link using the normal procedures for OSPF-TE
   [OSPF-TE].  When either the link is down or TE is disabled on the
   link, the ASBR SHOULD withdraw the advertisement.  When there are
   changes to the TE parameters for the link (for example, when the
   available bandwidth changes), the ASBR SHOULD re-advertise the link,
   but the ASBR MUST take precautions against excessive re-
   advertisements as described in [OSPF-TE].

   Hellos MUST NOT be exchanged over the inter-AS link, and
   consequently, an OSPF adjacency MUST NOT be formed.

   The information advertised comes from the ASBR's knowledge of the TE
   capabilities of the link, the ASBR's knowledge of the current status
   and usage of the link, and configuration at the ASBR of the remote AS
   number and remote ASBR TE Router ID.

   Legacy routers receiving an advertisement for an inter-AS TE link are
   able to ignore it because the Link Type carries an unknown value.
   They will continue to flood the LSA, but will not attempt to use the
   information received as if the link were an intra-AS TE link.

   In the current operation of TE OSPF, the LSRs at each end of a TE
   link emit LSAs describing the link.  The databases in the LSRs then
   have two entries (one locally generated, the other from the peer)



RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   that describe the different 'directions' of the link.  This enables
   Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) to do a two-way check on the
   link when performing path computation and eliminate it from
   consideration unless both directions of the link satisfy the required
   constraints.

   In the case we are considering here (i.e., of a TE link to another
   AS), there is, by definition, no IGP peering and hence no
   bidirectional TE link information.  In order for the CSPF route
   computation entity to include the link as a candidate path, we have
   to find a way to get LSAs describing its (bidirectional) TE
   properties into the TE database.

   This is achieved by the ASBR advertising, internally to its AS,
   information about both directions of the TE link to the next AS.  The
   ASBR will normally generate an LSA describing its own side of a link;
   here we have it 'proxy' for the ASBR at the edge of the other AS and
   generate an additional LSA that describes that device's 'view' of the
   link.

   Only some essential TE information for the link needs to be
   advertised; i.e., the Link Type, the Remote AS number, and the Remote
   ASBR ID.  Routers or PCEs that are capable of processing
   advertisements of inter-AS TE links SHOULD NOT use such links to
   compute paths that exit an AS to a remote ASBR and then immediately
   re-enter the AS through another TE link.  Such paths would constitute
   extremely rare occurrences and SHOULD NOT be allowed except as the
   result of specific policy configurations at the router or PCE
   computing the path.

4.1.  Origin of Proxied TE Information

   Section 4 describes how an ASBR advertises TE link information as a
   proxy for its neighbor ASBR, but does not describe where this
   information comes from.

   Although the source of this information is outside the scope of this
   document, it is possible that it will be a configuration requirement
   at the ASBR, as are other, local, properties of the TE link.
   Further, where BGP is used to exchange IP routing information between
   the ASBRs, a certain amount of additional local configuration about
   the link and the remote ASBR is likely to be available.

   We note further that it is possible, and may be operationally
   advantageous, to obtain some of the required configuration
   information from BGP.  Whether and how to utilize these possibilities
   is an implementation matter.




RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


5.  Security Considerations

   The protocol extensions defined in this document are relatively minor
   and can be secured within the AS in which they are used by the
   existing OSPF security mechanisms.

   There is no exchange of information between ASes, and no change to
   the OSPF security relationship between the ASes.  In particular,
   since no OSPF adjacency is formed on the inter-AS links, there is no
   requirement for OSPF security between the ASes.

   Some of the information included in these new advertisements (e.g.,
   the remote AS number and the remote ASBR ID) is obtained manually
   from a neighboring administration as part of commercial relationship.
   The source and content of this information should be carefully
   checked before it is entered as configuration information at the ASBR
   responsible for advertising the inter-AS TE links.

   It is worth noting that, in the scenario we are considering, a Border
   Gateway Protocol (BGP) peering may exist between the two ASBRs, and
   this could be used to detect inconsistencies in configuration (e.g.,
   the administration that originally supplied the information may be
   lying, or some manual misconfigurations or mistakes are made by the
   operators).  For example, if a different remote AS number is received
   in a BGP OPEN [BGP] from that locally configured into OSPF-TE, as we
   describe here, then local policy SHOULD be applied to determine
   whether to alert the operator to a potential misconfiguration or to
   suppress the OSPF advertisement of the inter-AS TE link.  Note,
   further, that if BGP is used to exchange TE information as described
   in Section 4.1, the inter-AS BGP session SHOULD be secured using
   mechanisms as described in [BGP] to provide authentication and
   integrity checks.

6.  IANA Considerations

   IANA has made the following allocations from registries under its
   control.

6.1.  Inter-AS TE OSPF LSA

6.1.1.  Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA

   IANA has assigned a new Opaque LSA type (6) to Inter-AS-TE-v2 LSA.

6.1.2.  Inter-AS-TE-v3 LSA

   IANA has assigned a new OSPFv3 LSA type function code (13) to Inter-
   AS-TE-v3 LSA.



RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


6.2.  OSPF LSA Sub-TLVs Type

   IANA maintains the "Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Traffic
   Engineering TLVs" registry with sub-registry "Types for sub-TLVs in a
   TE Link TLV".  IANA has assigned three new sub-TLVs as follows (see
   Section 3.3 for details):

   Value     Meaning

   21        Remote AS Number sub-TLV

   22        IPv4 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV

   24        IPv6 Remote ASBR ID sub-TLV

7.  Acknowledgments

   The authors would like to thank Adrian Farrel, Acee Lindem, JP
   Vasseur, Dean Cheng, and Jean-Louis Le Roux for their review and
   comments to this document.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [GMPLS-TE]        Kompella, K., Ed., and Y. Rekhter, Ed., "OSPF
                     Extensions in Support of Generalized Multi-Protocol
                     Label Switching (GMPLS)", RFC 4203, October 2005.

   [OSPF]            Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, April
                     1998.

   [OSPF-TE]         Katz, D., Kompella, K., and D. Yeung, "Traffic
                     Engineering (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2", RFC
                     3630, September 2003.

   [OSPF-V3-TE]      Ishiguro, K., Manral, V., Davey, A., and A. Lindem,
                     Ed., "Traffic Engineering Extensions to OSPF
                     Version 3", RFC 5329, September 2008.

   [OSPFV3]          Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J., and A. Lindem,
                     "OSPF for IPv6", RFC 5340, July 2008.

   [RFC2119]         Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                     Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.






RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


   [RFC3209]         Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T.,
                     Srinivasan, V., and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE:
                     Extensions to RSVP for LSP Tunnels", RFC 3209,
                     December 2001.

   [RFC5250]         Berger, L., Bryskin, I., Zinin, A., and R. Coltun,
                     "The OSPF Opaque LSA Option", RFC 5250, July 2008.

8.2.  Informative References

   [BGP]             Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed.,
                     "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
                     January 2006.

   [BRPC]            Vasseur, JP., Ed., Zhang, R., Bitar, N., and JL. Le
                     Roux, "A Backward Recursive PCE-Based Computation
                     (BRPC) Procedure to Compute Shortest Inter-Domain
                     Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths", Work in
                     Progress, April 2008.

   [INTER-AS-TE-REQ] Zhang, R., Ed., and J.-P. Vasseur, Ed., "MPLS
                     Inter-Autonomous System (AS) Traffic Engineering
                     (TE) Requirements", RFC 4216, November 2005.

   [L1VPN-OSPF-AD]   Bryskin, I. and L. Berger, "OSPF-Based Layer 1 VPN
                     Auto-Discovery", RFC 5252, July 2008.

   [PCE]             Farrel, A., Vasseur, J.-P., and J. Ash, "A Path
                     Computation Element (PCE)-Based Architecture", RFC
                     4655, August 2006.

   [PD-PATH]         Vasseur, JP., Ed., Ayyangar, A., Ed., and R. Zhang,
                     "A Per-Domain Path Computation Method for
                     Establishing Inter-Domain Traffic Engineering (TE)
                     Label Switched Paths (LSPs)", RFC 5152, February
                     2008.















RFC 5392            OSPF Extensions for Inter-AS TE         January 2009


Authors' Addresses

   Mach(Guoyi) Chen
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
   KuiKe Building, No.9 Xinxi Rd.
   Hai-Dian District
   Beijing, 100085
   P.R. China

   EMail: mach@huawei.com


   Renhai Zhang
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
   KuiKe Building, No.9 Xinxi Rd.
   Hai-Dian District
   Beijing, 100085
   P.R. China

   EMail: zhangrenhai@huawei.com


   Xiaodong Duan
   China Mobile
   53A,Xibianmennei Ave,Xunwu District
   Beijing, China

   EMail: duanxiaodong@chinamobile.com