RFC 8570 PROPOSED STANDARD ROUTING · IS-IS · TRAFFIC ENGINEERING

IS-IS TE Metrics: IS-IS Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric Extensions

Letting IS-IS carry latency, loss and bandwidth measurements between routers.

On rfc-editor.org ↗
PUBLISHED
March 2019
AUTHORS
L. Ginsberg, S. Previdi, S. Giacalone, D. Ward, J. Drake, Q. Wu
STREAM
IETF
BUILDS ON
RFC 7810 — IS-IS TE Metrics
NEW SUB-TLV TYPES
33 to 39
DELAY UNIT
Microseconds
MAXIMUM DELAY VALUE
16,777,215 microseconds
LINK LOSS BASIC UNIT
0.000003%
DEFAULT MEASUREMENT INTERVAL
30 seconds
DEFAULT ANNOUNCEMENT PERIODICITY
120 seconds
DOI
10.17487/RFC8570

RFC text

Contents
Original text · RFC Editor View on rfc-editor.org ↗
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                  L. Ginsberg, Ed.
Request for Comments: 8570                           Cisco Systems, Inc.
Obsoletes: 7810                                          S. Previdi, Ed.
Category: Standards Track                                         Huawei
ISSN: 2070-1721                                             S. Giacalone
                                                               Microsoft
                                                                 D. Ward
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                                J. Drake
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                                   Q. Wu
                                                                  Huawei
                                                              March 2019


            IS-IS Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric Extensions

Abstract

   In certain networks, such as, but not limited to, financial
   information networks (e.g., stock market data providers), network-
   performance criteria (e.g., latency) are becoming as critical to
   data-path selection as other metrics.

   This document describes extensions to IS-IS Traffic Engineering
   Extensions (RFC 5305).  These extensions provide a way to distribute
   and collect network-performance information in a scalable fashion.
   The information distributed using IS-IS TE Metric Extensions can then
   be used to make path-selection decisions based on network
   performance.

   Note that this document only covers the mechanisms with which
   network-performance information is distributed.  The mechanisms for
   measuring network performance or acting on that information, once
   distributed, are outside the scope of this document.

   This document obsoletes RFC 7810.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8570.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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 Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. Requirements Language ......................................4
   2. TE Metric Extensions to IS-IS ...................................5
   3. Interface and Neighbor Addresses ................................6
   4. Sub-TLV Details .................................................7
      4.1. Unidirectional Link Delay Sub-TLV ..........................7
      4.2. Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay Sub-TLV ..................8
      4.3. Unidirectional Delay Variation Sub-TLV .....................9
      4.4. Unidirectional Link Loss Sub-TLV ..........................10
      4.5. Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth Sub-TLV .................11
      4.6. Unidirectional Available Bandwidth Sub-TLV ................12
      4.7. Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth Sub-TLV .................13
   5. Announcement Thresholds and Filters ............................13
   6. Announcement Suppression .......................................14
   7. Network Stability and Announcement Periodicity .................15
   8. Enabling and Disabling Sub-TLVs ................................15
   9. Static Metric Override .........................................15
   10. Compatibility .................................................15
   11. Security Considerations .......................................15
   12. IANA Considerations ...........................................16
   13. References ....................................................17
      13.1. Normative References .....................................17
      13.2. Informative References ...................................18
   Appendix A. Changes from RFC 7810 .................................19
   Acknowledgements ..................................................20
   Contributors ......................................................20
   Authors' Addresses ................................................21

1.  Introduction

   In certain networks, such as, but not limited to, financial
   information networks (e.g., stock market data providers), network-
   performance information (e.g., latency) is becoming as critical to
   data-path selection as other metrics.

   In these networks, extremely large amounts of money rest on the
   ability to access market data in "real time" and to predictably make
   trades faster than the competition.  Because of this, using metrics
   such as hop count or cost as routing metrics is becoming only
   tangentially important.  Rather, it would be beneficial to be able to
   make path-selection decisions based on performance data (such as
   latency) in a cost-effective and scalable way.

   This document describes extensions (hereafter called "IS-IS TE Metric
   Extensions") to the Extended IS Reachability TLV defined in
   [RFC5305]; these extensions can be used to distribute network-
   performance information (such as link delay, delay variation, packet
   loss, residual bandwidth, and available bandwidth).

   The data distributed by the IS-IS TE Metric Extensions described in
   this document is meant to be used as part of the operation of the
   routing protocol (e.g., by replacing cost with latency or considering
   bandwidth as well as cost), to enhance Constrained Shortest Path
   First (CSPF), or for other uses such as supplementing the data used
   by an Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) server [RFC7285].
   With respect to CSPF, the data distributed by IS-IS TE Metric
   Extensions can be used to set up, fail over, and fail back data paths
   using protocols such as RSVP-TE [RFC3209].

   Note that the mechanisms described in this document only disseminate
   performance information.  The methods for initially gathering that
   performance information (such as the methods described in [RFC6375])
   or how to act on the information once it is distributed are outside
   the scope of this document.  Example mechanisms to measure latency,
   delay variation, and loss in an MPLS network are given in [RFC6374].
   While this document does not specify how the performance information
   should be obtained, the measurement of delay SHOULD NOT vary
   significantly based upon the offered traffic load.  Thus, queuing
   delays SHOULD NOT be included in the delay measurement.  For links
   such as forwarding adjacencies [RFC4206], care must be taken that
   measurement of the associated delay avoids significant queuing
   delays; that could be accomplished in a variety of ways, including
   either (1) measuring with a traffic class that experiences minimal
   queuing or (2) summing the measured link delays of the components of
   the link's path.

   This document obsoletes [RFC7810].

1.1.  Requirements Language

   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.

2.  TE Metric Extensions to IS-IS

   This document registers new IS-IS TE sub-TLVs in the "Sub-TLVs for
   TLVs 22, 23, 141, 222, and 223" registry.  These new sub-TLVs provide
   ways to distribute network-performance information.  The extensions
   in this document build on the extensions provided in IS-IS TE
   [RFC5305] and GMPLS [RFC4203].

   The Extended IS Reachability TLV (type 22) (defined in [RFC5305]),
   Inter-AS Reachability TLV (also called "inter-AS reachability
   information TLV") (type 141) (defined in [RFC5316]), and MT-ISN TLV
   (type 222) (defined in [RFC5120]) have nested sub-TLVs that permit
   the TLVs to be readily extended.  This document registers several
   sub-TLVs:

      Type    Description
      ----------------------------------------------------
       33     Unidirectional Link Delay

       34     Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay

       35     Unidirectional Delay Variation

       36     Unidirectional Link Loss

       37     Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth

       38     Unidirectional Available Bandwidth

       39     Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth

   As can be seen in the list above, the sub-TLVs described in this
   document carry different types of network-performance information.
   The new sub-TLVs include a bit called the Anomalous (or "A") bit.
   When the A bit is clear (or when the sub-TLV does not include an
   A bit), the sub-TLV describes steady-state link performance.  This
   information could conceivably be used to construct a steady-state
   performance topology for initial tunnel-path computation or to verify
   alternative failover paths.

   When network performance violates configurable link-local thresholds,
   a sub-TLV with the A bit set is advertised.  That sub-TLV could be
   used by the receiving node to determine whether to (1) fail traffic
   to a backup path or (2) calculate an entirely new path.  From an MPLS
   perspective, the intent of the A bit is to permit label switched path
   ingress nodes to determine whether the link referenced in the sub-TLV
   affects any of the label switched paths for which it is ingress.  If
   they are affected, then they can determine whether those label
   switched paths still meet end-to-end performance objectives.  If not,
   then the node could conceivably move affected traffic to a
   pre-established protection label switched path or establish a new
   label switched path and place the traffic in it.

   If link performance then improves beyond a configurable minimum value
   (reuse threshold), that sub-TLV can be re-advertised with the A bit
   cleared.  In this case, a receiving node can conceivably do whatever
   re-optimization (or failback) it wishes to do (including nothing).

   Note that when a sub-TLV does not include the A bit, that sub-TLV
   cannot be used for failover purposes.  The A bit was intentionally
   omitted from some sub-TLVs to help mitigate oscillations.  See
   Section 5 for more information.

   Consistent with the existing IS-IS TE specification [RFC5305], the
   bandwidth advertisements defined in this document MUST be encoded as
   IEEE floating-point values [IEEE754].  The delay and delay-variation
   advertisements defined in this document MUST be encoded as integer
   values.  Delay values MUST be quantified in units of microseconds,
   packet loss MUST be quantified as a percentage of packets sent, and
   bandwidth MUST be sent as bytes per second.  All values (except
   residual bandwidth) MUST be calculated as rolling averages, where the
   averaging period MUST be a configurable period of time.  See
   Section 5 for more information.

3.  Interface and Neighbor Addresses

   The use of IS-IS TE Metric Extensions sub-TLVs is not confined to the
   TE context.  In other words, IS-IS TE Metric Extensions sub-TLVs
   defined in this document can also be used for computing paths in the
   absence of a TE subsystem.

   However, as for the TE case, Interface Address and Neighbor Address
   sub-TLVs (IPv4 or IPv6) MUST be present.  The encoding is defined in
   [RFC5305] for IPv4 and in [RFC6119] for IPv6.

4.  Sub-TLV Details

4.1.  Unidirectional Link Delay Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the average link delay between two directly
   connected IS-IS neighbors.  The delay advertised by this sub-TLV MUST
   be the delay from the local neighbor to the remote neighbor (i.e.,
   the forward-path latency).  The format of this sub-TLV is shown in
   the following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |A|  RESERVED   |                   Delay                       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 1

   where:

   Type:  33

   Length:  4

   A bit:  This field represents the Anomalous (A) bit.  The A bit is
      set when the measured value of this parameter exceeds its
      configured maximum threshold.  The A bit is cleared when the
      measured value falls below its configured reuse threshold.  If the
      A bit is cleared, the sub-TLV represents steady-state link
      performance.

   RESERVED:  This field is reserved for future use.  It MUST be set
      to 0 when sent and MUST be ignored when received.

   Delay:  This 24-bit field carries the average link delay over a
      configurable interval in microseconds, encoded as an integer
      value.  When set to the maximum value 16,777,215
      (16.777215 seconds), then the delay is at least that value and may
      be larger.

4.2.  Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the minimum and maximum delay values between
   two directly connected IS-IS neighbors.  The delay advertised by this
   sub-TLV MUST be the delay from the local neighbor to the remote
   neighbor (i.e., the forward-path latency).  The format of this
   sub-TLV is shown in the following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |A| RESERVED    |                   Min Delay                   |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |   RESERVED    |                   Max Delay                   |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 2

   where:

   Type:  34

   Length:  8

   A bit:  This field represents the Anomalous (A) bit.  The A bit is
      set when one or more measured values exceed a configured maximum
      threshold.  The A bit is cleared when the measured value falls
      below its configured reuse threshold.  If the A bit is cleared,
      the sub-TLV represents steady-state link performance.

   RESERVED:  This field is reserved for future use.  It MUST be set
      to 0 when sent and MUST be ignored when received.

   Min Delay:  This 24-bit field carries the minimum measured link delay
      value (in microseconds) over a configurable interval, encoded as
      an integer value.

   Max Delay:  This 24-bit field carries the maximum measured link delay
      value (in microseconds) over a configurable interval, encoded as
      an integer value.

   Implementations MAY also permit the configuration of an offset value
   (in microseconds) to be added to the measured delay value, to
   facilitate the communication of operator-specific delay constraints.

   It is possible for Min Delay and Max Delay to be the same value.

   When the delay value (Min Delay or Max Delay) is set to the maximum
   value 16,777,215 (16.777215 seconds), then the delay is at least that
   value and may be larger.

4.3.  Unidirectional Delay Variation Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the average link delay variation between two
   directly connected IS-IS neighbors.  The delay variation advertised
   by this sub-TLV MUST be the delay from the local neighbor to the
   remote neighbor (i.e., the forward-path latency).  The format of this
   sub-TLV is shown in the following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |  RESERVED     |               Delay Variation                 |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 3

   where:

   Type:  35

   Length:  4

   RESERVED:  This field is reserved for future use.  It MUST be set
      to 0 when sent and MUST be ignored when received.

   Delay Variation:  This 24-bit field carries the average link delay
      variation over a configurable interval in microseconds, encoded as
      an integer value.  When set to 0, it has not been measured.  When
      set to the maximum value 16,777,215 (16.777215 seconds), then the
      delay is at least that value and may be larger.

4.4.  Unidirectional Link Loss Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the loss (as a packet percentage) between two
   directly connected IS-IS neighbors.  The link loss advertised by this
   sub-TLV MUST be the packet loss from the local neighbor to the remote
   neighbor (i.e., the forward-path loss).  The format of this sub-TLV
   is shown in the following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |A|  RESERVED   |                    Link Loss                  |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 4

   where:

   Type:  36

   Length:  4

   A bit:  This field represents the Anomalous (A) bit.  The A bit is
      set when the measured value of this parameter exceeds its
      configured maximum threshold.  The A bit is cleared when the
      measured value falls below its configured reuse threshold.  If the
      A bit is cleared, the sub-TLV represents steady-state link
      performance.

   RESERVED:  This field is reserved for future use.  It MUST be set
      to 0 when sent and MUST be ignored when received.

   Link Loss:  This 24-bit field carries link packet loss as a
      percentage of the total traffic sent over a configurable interval.
      The basic unit is 0.000003%, where (2^24 - 2) is 50.331642%.  This
      value is the highest packet-loss percentage that can be expressed
      (the assumptions being that (1) precision is more important on
      high-speed links than the ability to advertise loss rates greater
      than this and (2) high-speed links with over 50% loss are
      unusable).  Therefore, measured values that are larger than the
      field maximum SHOULD be encoded as the maximum value.

4.5.  Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the residual bandwidth between two directly
   connected IS-IS neighbors.  The residual bandwidth advertised by this
   sub-TLV MUST be the residual bandwidth from the system originating
   the Link State Advertisement (LSA) to its neighbor.

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                          Residual Bandwidth                   |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 5

   where:

   Type:  37

   Length:  4

   Residual Bandwidth:  This field carries the residual bandwidth on a
      link, forwarding adjacency [RFC4206], or bundled link in IEEE
      floating-point format with units of bytes per second.  For a link
      or forwarding adjacency, residual bandwidth is defined to be the
      maximum bandwidth [RFC5305] minus the bandwidth currently
      allocated to RSVP-TE label switched paths.  For a bundled link,
      residual bandwidth is defined to be the sum of the component link
      residual bandwidths.

      The calculation of residual bandwidth is different than that of
      unreserved bandwidth [RFC5305].  This calculation subtracts tunnel
      reservations from maximum bandwidth (i.e., the link capacity)
      [RFC5305] and provides an aggregated remainder across priorities.
      Unreserved bandwidth, on the other hand, is subtracted from the
      maximum reservable bandwidth (the bandwidth that can theoretically
      be reserved) and provides per-priority remainders.  Residual
      bandwidth and unreserved bandwidth [RFC5305] can be used
      concurrently, and each has a separate use case (e.g., the former
      can be used for applications like Weighted ECMP, while the latter
      can be used for call admission control).

4.6.  Unidirectional Available Bandwidth Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the available bandwidth between two directly
   connected IS-IS neighbors.  The available bandwidth advertised by
   this sub-TLV MUST be the available bandwidth from the system
   originating this sub-TLV.  The format of this sub-TLV is shown in the
   following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                      Available Bandwidth                      |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 6

   where:

   Type:  38

   Length:  4

   Available Bandwidth:  This field carries the available bandwidth on a
      link, forwarding adjacency, or bundled link in IEEE floating-point
      format with units of bytes per second.  For a link or forwarding
      adjacency, available bandwidth is defined to be residual bandwidth
      (see Section 4.5) minus the measured bandwidth used for the actual
      forwarding of non-RSVP-TE label switched path packets.  For a
      bundled link, available bandwidth is defined to be the sum of the
      component link available bandwidths.

4.7.  Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth Sub-TLV

   This sub-TLV advertises the bandwidth utilization between two
   directly connected IS-IS neighbors.  The bandwidth utilization
   advertised by this sub-TLV MUST be the bandwidth from the system
   originating this sub-TLV.  The format of this sub-TLV is shown in the
   following diagram:

     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    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                     Utilized Bandwidth                        |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                 Figure 7

   where:

   Type:  39

   Length:  4

   Utilized Bandwidth:  This field carries the bandwidth utilization on
      a link, forwarding adjacency, or bundled link in IEEE
      floating-point format with units of bytes per second.  For a link
      or forwarding adjacency, bandwidth utilization represents the
      actual utilization of the link (i.e., as measured by the
      advertising node).  For a bundled link, bandwidth utilization is
      defined to be the sum of the component link bandwidth
      utilizations.

5.  Announcement Thresholds and Filters

   The values advertised in all sub-TLVs (except minimum/maximum delay
   and residual bandwidth) MUST represent an average over a period of
   time or be obtained by a filter that is reasonably representative of
   an average.  For example, a rolling average is one such filter.

   Minimum and maximum delay MUST each be derived in one of the
   following ways: by taking the lowest and/or highest measured value
   over a measurement interval or by making use of a filter or other
   technique to obtain a reasonable representation of a minimum value
   and a maximum value representative of the interval, with compensation
   for outliers.

   The measurement interval, any filter coefficients, and any
   advertisement intervals MUST be configurable per sub-TLV.

   In addition to the measurement intervals governing re-advertisement,
   implementations SHOULD provide configurable accelerated advertisement
   thresholds per sub-TLV, such that:

   1.  If the measured parameter falls outside a configured upper bound
       for all but the minimum delay metric (or lower bound for the
       minimum delay metric only) and the advertised sub-TLV is not
       already outside that bound, or

   2.  If the difference between the last advertised value and current
       measured value exceeds a configured threshold, then

   3.  The advertisement is made immediately.

   4.  For sub-TLVs that include an A bit, an additional threshold
       SHOULD be included corresponding to the threshold for which the
       performance is considered anomalous (and sub-TLVs with the A bit
       are sent).  The A bit is cleared when the sub-TLV's performance
       has been below (or re-crosses) this threshold for one or more
       advertisement intervals to permit failback.

   To prevent oscillations, only the high threshold or the low threshold
   (but not both) may be used to trigger any given sub-TLV that
   supports both.

   Additionally, once outside the bounds of the threshold, any
   re-advertisement of a measurement within the bounds would remain
   governed solely by the measurement interval for that sub-TLV.

6.  Announcement Suppression

   When link-performance values change by small amounts that fall under
   thresholds that would cause the announcement of a sub-TLV,
   implementations SHOULD suppress sub-TLV re-advertisement and/or
   lengthen the period within which the sub-TLVs are refreshed.

   Only the accelerated advertisement threshold mechanism described in
   Section 5 may shorten the re-advertisement interval.  All suppression
   and re-advertisement interval backoff timer features SHOULD be
   configurable.

7.  Network Stability and Announcement Periodicity

   Sections 5 and 6 provide configurable mechanisms to bound the number
   of re-advertisements.  Instability might occur in very large networks
   if measurement intervals are set low enough to overwhelm the
   processing of flooded information at some of the routers in the
   topology.  Therefore, care should be taken in setting these values.

   Additionally, the default measurement interval for all sub-TLVs
   SHOULD be 30 seconds.

   Announcements MUST also be able to be throttled using configurable
   inter-update throttle timers.  The minimum announcement periodicity
   is one announcement per second.  The default value SHOULD be set to
   120 seconds.

   Implementations SHOULD NOT permit the inter-update timer to be lower
   than the measurement interval.

   Furthermore, it is RECOMMENDED that any underlying performance-
   measurement mechanisms not include any significant buffer delay, any
   significant buffer-induced delay variation, or any significant loss
   due to buffer overflow or due to active queue management.

8.  Enabling and Disabling Sub-TLVs

   Implementations MUST make it possible to individually enable or
   disable each sub-TLV based on configuration.

9.  Static Metric Override

   Implementations SHOULD permit static configuration and/or manual
   override of dynamic measurements for each sub-TLV in order to
   simplify migration and to mitigate scenarios where dynamic
   measurements are not possible.

10.  Compatibility

   As per [RFC5305], unrecognized sub-TLVs should be silently ignored.

11.  Security Considerations

   The sub-TLVs introduced in this document allow an operator to
   advertise state information of links (bandwidth, delay) that could be
   sensitive and that an operator may not want to disclose.

   Section 7 describes a mechanism to ensure network stability when the
   new sub-TLVs defined in this document are advertised.

   Implementations SHOULD follow the described guidelines to mitigate
   the risk of instability.

   [RFC5304] describes an authentication method for IS-IS Link State
   PDUs that allows cryptographic authentication of IS-IS Link State
   PDUs.

   It is anticipated that in most deployments, the IS-IS protocol is
   used within an infrastructure entirely under the control of the same
   operator.  However, it is worth considering that the effect of
   sending IS-IS Traffic Engineering sub-TLVs over insecure links could
   include a man-in-the-middle attacker delaying real-time data to a
   given site or destination; this could negatively affect the value of
   the data for that site or destination.  The use of Link State PDU
   cryptographic authentication allows mitigation of the risk of
   man-in-the-middle attacks.

12.  IANA Considerations

   IANA maintains the registry for the sub-TLVs.  IANA has registered
   the following sub-TLVs in the "Sub-TLVs for TLVs 22, 23, 141, 222,
   and 223" registry:

      Type    Description
      ----------------------------------------------------
       33     Unidirectional Link Delay

       34     Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay

       35     Unidirectional Delay Variation

       36     Unidirectional Link Loss

       37     Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth

       38     Unidirectional Available Bandwidth

       39     Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth

13.  References

13.1.  Normative References

   [IEEE754]  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "IEEE
              Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic", IEEE
              Std 754-2008.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC4206]  Kompella, K. and Y. Rekhter, "Label Switched Paths (LSP)
              Hierarchy with Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching
              (GMPLS) Traffic Engineering (TE)", RFC 4206,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4206, October 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4206>.

   [RFC5120]  Przygienda, T., Shen, N., and N. Sheth, "M-ISIS: Multi
              Topology (MT) Routing in Intermediate System to
              Intermediate Systems (IS-ISs)", RFC 5120,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5120, February 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5120>.

   [RFC5304]  Li, T. and R. Atkinson, "IS-IS Cryptographic
              Authentication", RFC 5304, DOI 10.17487/RFC5304,
              October 2008, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5304>.

   [RFC5305]  Li, T. and H. Smit, "IS-IS Extensions for Traffic
              Engineering", RFC 5305, DOI 10.17487/RFC5305,
              October 2008, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5305>.

   [RFC5316]  Chen, M., Zhang, R., and X. Duan, "ISIS Extensions in
              Support of Inter-Autonomous System (AS) MPLS and GMPLS
              Traffic Engineering", RFC 5316, DOI 10.17487/RFC5316,
              December 2008, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5316>.

   [RFC6119]  Harrison, J., Berger, J., and M. Bartlett, "IPv6 Traffic
              Engineering in IS-IS", RFC 6119, DOI 10.17487/RFC6119,
              February 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6119>.

   [RFC7471]  Giacalone, S., Ward, D., Drake, J., Atlas, A., and S.
              Previdi, "OSPF Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric
              Extensions", RFC 7471, DOI 10.17487/RFC7471, March 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7471>.

   [RFC7810]  Previdi, S., Ed., Giacalone, S., Ward, D., Drake, J., and
              Q. Wu, "IS-IS Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric Extensions",
              RFC 7810, DOI 10.17487/RFC7810, May 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7810>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in
              RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, May 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

13.2.  Informative References

   [RFC3209]  Awduche, D., Berger, L., Gan, D., Li, T., Srinivasan, V.,
              and G. Swallow, "RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP
              Tunnels", RFC 3209, DOI 10.17487/RFC3209, December 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3209>.

   [RFC4203]  Kompella, K., Ed. and Y. Rekhter, Ed., "OSPF Extensions in
              Support of Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching
              (GMPLS)", RFC 4203, DOI 10.17487/RFC4203, October 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4203>.

   [RFC6374]  Frost, D. and S. Bryant, "Packet Loss and Delay
              Measurement for MPLS Networks", RFC 6374,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6374, September 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6374>.

   [RFC6375]  Frost, D., Ed. and S. Bryant, Ed., "A Packet Loss and
              Delay Measurement Profile for MPLS-Based Transport
              Networks", RFC 6375, DOI 10.17487/RFC6375, September 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6375>.

   [RFC7285]  Alimi, R., Ed., Penno, R., Ed., Yang, Y., Ed., Kiesel, S.,
              Previdi, S., Roome, W., Shalunov, S., and R. Woundy,
              "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol",
              RFC 7285, DOI 10.17487/RFC7285, September 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7285>.

   [RFC8571]  Ginsberg, L., Ed., Previdi, S., Wu, Q., Tantsura, J., and
              C. Filsfils, "BGP - Link State (BGP-LS) Advertisement of
              IGP Traffic Engineering Performance Metric Extensions",
              RFC 8571, DOI 10.17487/RFC8571, March 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8571>.

Appendix A.  Changes from RFC 7810

   Errata ID 5293 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5293) correctly
   identified that in [RFC7810] the length associated with the following
   sub-TLVs did not match the figures associated with each:

      37    Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth

      38    Unidirectional Available Bandwidth

      39    Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth

   The length specified was 4, which did not include the RESERVED field
   shown in the figures.  Subsequent investigation revealed that some
   implementations had used the specified length (4) and omitted the
   RESERVED field while other implementations included the specified
   RESERVED field and used a length of 5.

   Because these different implementation choices are not interoperable,
   it was decided that a bis version should be generated to resolve this
   ambiguity.

   The choice made here is to omit the unused RESERVED field from these
   sub-TLVs and use the length of 4.  This matches the corresponding
   advertisements specified in the equivalent OSPF TE specification
   [RFC7471] and the corresponding BGP - Link State (BGP-LS)
   specification [RFC8571].

   Some minor editorial corrections have also been made.

   Errata ID 5486 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5486) identified
   that in Section 4.6 of [RFC7810] the definition of available
   bandwidth on bundled links used a circular definition, i.e., it used
   "sum of the component link available bandwidths" when it should have
   used "sum of the component link residual bandwidths".  This has been
   corrected and clarified.

Acknowledgements

   In [RFC7810], the authors recognized Ayman Soliman, Nabil Bitar,
   David McDysan, Edward Crabbe, Don Fedyk, Hannes Gredler, Uma
   Chunduri, Alvaro Retana, Brian Weis, and Barry Leiba for their
   contributions and reviews of this document.

   The authors also recognized Curtis Villamizar for significant
   comments and direct content collaboration.

   For this document, the authors thank Jeff Haas for identifying and
   reporting the incorrect encoding of the bandwidth-related sub-TLVs.

Contributors

   The following people contributed substantially to the content of this
   document and should be considered coauthors:

      Alia Atlas
      Juniper Networks
      United States of America
      Email: akatlas@juniper.net

      Clarence Filsfils
      Cisco Systems, Inc.
      Belgium
      Email: cfilsfil@cisco.com

Authors' Addresses

   Les Ginsberg (editor)
   Cisco Systems, Inc.

   Email: ginsberg@cisco.com


   Stefano Previdi (editor)
   Huawei

   Email: stefano@previdi.net


   Spencer Giacalone
   Microsoft

   Email: spencer.giacalone@gmail.com


   Dave Ward
   Cisco Systems, Inc.

   Email: wardd@cisco.com


   John Drake
   Juniper Networks
   1194 N. Mathilda Ave.
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089
   United States of America

   Email: jdrake@juniper.net


   Qin Wu
   Huawei
   101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
   Nanjing, Jiangsu  210012
   China

   Email: bill.wu@huawei.com

ISO Plain Language

On this page
PROBLEMIn some networks, such as financial data networks, latency matters as much as any other metric for choosing a path, but IS-IS Traffic Engineering had no way to distribute performance data.
MECHANISMRFC 8570 defines seven new sub-TLVs, types 33 to 39, carrying link delay, minimum and maximum delay, delay variation, loss, residual, available and utilized bandwidth, plus rules for thresholds, throttling and an Anomalous bit.
WHY IT MATTERSIt obsoletes RFC 7810 and fixes an ambiguity in the length of the bandwidth sub-TLVs. It only distributes the data; measuring it and acting on it are out of scope.

§1Why Latency Became a Routing Metric

In certain networks, such as financial information networks like stock market data providers, network-performance information such as latency is becoming as critical to data-path selection as other metrics. In these networks, extremely large amounts of money rest on the ability to access market data in real time and to predictably make trades faster than the competition. Because of this, using metrics such as hop count or cost as routing metrics is becoming only tangentially important. It would be more useful to make path-selection decisions based on performance data such as latency, in a cost-effective and scalable way.

This document describes extensions, called the IS-IS TE Metric Extensions, to the Extended IS Reachability TLV defined in RFC 5305. These extensions can be used to distribute network-performance information: link delay, delay variation, packet loss, residual bandwidth and available bandwidth.

The data distributed is meant to be used as part of the operation of the routing protocol, for example by replacing cost with latency or considering bandwidth as well as cost, to enhance Constrained Shortest Path First, or for other uses such as supplementing the data used by an Application-Layer Traffic Optimization server. With respect to Constrained Shortest Path First, the data can be used to set up, fail over and fail back data paths using protocols such as RSVP-TE.

The mechanisms described only disseminate performance information. The methods for initially gathering it, such as those in RFC 6375, and how to act on it once it is distributed, are outside the scope of the document. Example mechanisms to measure latency, delay variation and loss in an MPLS network are given in RFC 6374. While the document does not specify how the performance information should be obtained, the measurement of delay SHOULD NOT vary significantly based on the offered traffic load, so queuing delays SHOULD NOT be included in the delay measurement. For links such as forwarding adjacencies, care must be taken that the measurement avoids significant queuing delays, which could be done by measuring with a traffic class that experiences minimal queuing, or by summing the measured link delays of the components of the link's path.

In a network that carries market data, a few milliseconds of extra delay can cost money, so the number of hops stops being the interesting measure. This document lets routers publish what they measure about their own links, so that the rest of the network can choose paths on speed instead.

§2The Seven New Sub-TLVs

The document registers new IS-IS TE sub-TLVs in the registry of sub-TLVs for TLVs 22, 23, 141, 222 and 223, and they build on the extensions provided in IS-IS Traffic Engineering and GMPLS. The Extended IS Reachability TLV, type 22, the Inter-AS Reachability TLV, type 141, and the MT-ISN TLV, type 222, all have nested sub-TLVs that permit the TLVs to be readily extended. The new sub-TLVs are type 33 Unidirectional Link Delay, 34 Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay, 35 Unidirectional Delay Variation, 36 Unidirectional Link Loss, 37 Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth, 38 Unidirectional Available Bandwidth and 39 Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth.

The new sub-TLVs include a bit called the Anomalous bit, or A bit. When the A bit is clear, or when the sub-TLV does not include an A bit, the sub-TLV describes steady-state link performance, which could be used to construct a steady-state performance topology for initial tunnel-path computation or to verify alternative failover paths.

When network performance violates configurable link-local thresholds, a sub-TLV with the A bit set is advertised. That sub-TLV could be used by the receiving node to determine whether to fail traffic to a backup path or to calculate an entirely new path. From an MPLS perspective, the intent of the A bit is to permit label switched path ingress nodes to determine whether the link referenced in the sub-TLV affects any of the label switched paths for which it is ingress. If they are affected, the node can determine whether those paths still meet end-to-end performance objectives, and if not, it can move affected traffic to a pre-established protection path or establish a new path and place the traffic in it.

If link performance then improves beyond a configurable minimum value, the reuse threshold, the sub-TLV can be re-advertised with the A bit cleared, and a receiving node can do whatever re-optimization or failback it wishes, including nothing. A sub-TLV that does not include the A bit cannot be used for failover purposes; the A bit was intentionally omitted from some sub-TLVs to help mitigate oscillations.

Consistent with the existing IS-IS TE specification, the bandwidth advertisements MUST be encoded as IEEE floating-point values, while the delay and delay-variation advertisements MUST be encoded as integer values. Delay values MUST be quantified in units of microseconds, packet loss MUST be quantified as a percentage of packets sent, and bandwidth MUST be sent as bytes per second. All values, except residual bandwidth, MUST be calculated as rolling averages, where the averaging period MUST be a configurable period of time.

Each measurement travels in its own small record nested inside the reachability record that the router already advertises. A single bit in most of them says whether the link is behaving normally or has gone outside the thresholds the operator set, which is what tells a receiving router that it may need to move traffic.

THE SEVEN NEW SUB-TLVs
  • 33Unidirectional Link Delay — Average link delay in microseconds. Length 4, with an A bit.
  • 34Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay — Lowest and highest delay measured, in microseconds. Length 8, with an A bit.
  • 35Unidirectional Delay Variation — Average delay variation in microseconds. Length 4, no A bit.
  • 36Unidirectional Link Loss — Packet loss as a percentage. Length 4, with an A bit.
  • 37Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth — Maximum bandwidth minus what RSVP-TE tunnels have reserved. Length 4.
  • 38Unidirectional Available Bandwidth — Residual bandwidth minus what other traffic is using. Length 4.
  • 39Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth — The measured bandwidth in use on the link. Length 4.

§4What Each Sub-TLV Carries

The Unidirectional Link Delay sub-TLV, type 33, advertises the average link delay between two directly connected IS-IS neighbours. The delay advertised MUST be the delay from the local neighbour to the remote one, that is the forward-path latency. It is four octets long and carries a 24-bit delay value in microseconds as an integer. When set to the maximum value 16,777,215, that is 16.777215 seconds, the delay is at least that value and may be larger.

The Min/Max Unidirectional Link Delay sub-TLV, type 34, advertises the minimum and maximum delay values between two directly connected neighbours, each as a 24-bit integer in microseconds. It is eight octets long. The two values may be the same, and either may again carry the maximum value. Implementations MAY also permit the configuration of an offset value in microseconds to be added to the measured delay, to communicate operator-specific delay constraints.

The Unidirectional Delay Variation sub-TLV, type 35, advertises the average link delay variation, again forward-path, as a 24-bit integer in microseconds. It has no A bit, and a value of 0 means it has not been measured.

The Unidirectional Link Loss sub-TLV, type 36, advertises the loss as a packet percentage between two directly connected neighbours, forward-path. The 24-bit field carries link packet loss as a percentage of the total traffic sent over a configurable interval, where the basic unit is 0.000003%, so that 2^24 - 2 is 50.331642%. That is the highest packet-loss percentage that can be expressed, on the assumptions that precision matters more on high-speed links than advertising larger loss rates, and that high-speed links with over 50% loss are unusable. Measured values larger than the field maximum SHOULD be encoded as the maximum value.

The Unidirectional Residual Bandwidth sub-TLV, type 37, advertises the residual bandwidth from the system originating the advertisement to its neighbour, in IEEE floating-point format with units of bytes per second. For a link or forwarding adjacency, residual bandwidth is the maximum bandwidth minus the bandwidth currently allocated to RSVP-TE label switched paths; for a bundled link it is the sum of the component link residual bandwidths. This differs from unreserved bandwidth, which is subtracted from the maximum reservable bandwidth and gives per-priority remainders, while residual bandwidth subtracts tunnel reservations from the link capacity and gives an aggregated remainder across priorities. The two can be used concurrently, each with its own use case, the former for applications such as Weighted ECMP and the latter for call admission control.

The Unidirectional Available Bandwidth sub-TLV, type 38, advertises the available bandwidth from the system originating it, in the same units. For a link or forwarding adjacency it is the residual bandwidth minus the measured bandwidth used for the actual forwarding of non-RSVP-TE packets; for a bundled link it is the sum of the component link available bandwidths.

The Unidirectional Utilized Bandwidth sub-TLV, type 39, advertises the bandwidth utilization from the system originating it, in the same units. For a link or forwarding adjacency it is the actual utilization of the link as measured by the advertising node; for a bundled link it is the sum of the component link utilizations.

The use of these sub-TLVs is not confined to the traffic engineering context: they can also be used for computing paths in the absence of a traffic engineering subsystem. As in the traffic engineering case, the Interface Address and Neighbor Address sub-TLVs, IPv4 or IPv6, MUST be present.

There are seven measurements: average delay, the slowest and fastest delay seen, how much the delay wobbles, how many packets are lost, how much capacity is left after tunnels are booked, how much capacity is left after ordinary traffic, and how much capacity is in use. Delays are in microseconds, loss is a percentage, and capacity is in bytes per second.

THE UNIDIRECTIONAL LINK DELAY SUB-TLV (RFC 8570 FIGURE 1)
Link delay sub-TLV
FieldNameSizeValueDescription
TYPEType1 byte33.
LENGTHLength1 byte4.
FLAGSA bit and reserved1 byteThe A bit is set when the measured value exceeds its configured maximum threshold, and cleared when it falls below the reuse threshold.
DELAYDelay3 bytesThe average link delay over a configurable interval in microseconds. The maximum value 16,777,215 means the delay is at least that.
RESIDUAL BANDWIDTH AND UNRESERVED BANDWIDTH
AspectResidual bandwidthUnreserved bandwidth
What it is subtracted fromThe maximum bandwidth, that is the link capacityThe maximum reservable bandwidth
What it producesAn aggregated remainder across prioritiesPer-priority remainders
Typical useApplications such as Weighted ECMPCall admission control

§5Thresholds and Announcement Timing

The values advertised in all sub-TLVs, except minimum and maximum delay and residual bandwidth, MUST represent an average over a period of time, or be obtained by a filter that is reasonably representative of an average, for example a rolling average. Minimum and maximum delay MUST each be derived either by taking the lowest and highest measured value over a measurement interval, or by using a filter or other technique that gives a reasonable representation of a minimum and a maximum for the interval, with compensation for outliers. The measurement interval, any filter coefficients and any advertisement intervals MUST be configurable per sub-TLV.

In addition to the measurement intervals governing re-advertisement, implementations SHOULD provide configurable accelerated advertisement thresholds per sub-TLV. The advertisement is made immediately if the measured parameter falls outside a configured upper bound, for all but the minimum delay metric, where a lower bound applies instead, and the advertised sub-TLV is not already outside that bound, or if the difference between the last advertised value and the current measured value exceeds a configured threshold. For sub-TLVs that include an A bit, an additional threshold SHOULD be included, corresponding to the point at which performance is considered anomalous and sub-TLVs with the A bit are sent; the A bit is cleared when the performance has been below, or has re-crossed, that threshold for one or more advertisement intervals, to permit failback.

To prevent oscillations, only the high threshold or the low threshold, but not both, may be used to trigger any given sub-TLV that supports both. Once outside the bounds of the threshold, any re-advertisement of a measurement within the bounds remains governed solely by the measurement interval for that sub-TLV.

When link performance values change by small amounts that fall under the thresholds, implementations SHOULD suppress sub-TLV re-advertisement and lengthen the period within which the sub-TLVs are refreshed. Only the accelerated advertisement threshold mechanism may shorten the re-advertisement interval, and all suppression and re-advertisement interval backoff timer features SHOULD be configurable.

Measurements are averaged before they are published, so a single hiccup does not move the number. A router only republishes immediately when a value crosses a limit the operator set or moves by more than a set amount; otherwise it waits for the next scheduled update. Two limits cannot both trigger the same record, or the number would flap up and down.

WHEN A MEASUREMENT IS PUBLISHED AGAIN
  • Measurement intervalValues must be averages over a period, or a filter that is representative of an average. The default should be 30 seconds.
  • Out of boundsIf the measured value falls outside a configured bound, and the advertised value is not already outside it, the advertisement is made immediately.
  • Changed enoughIf the difference between the last advertised value and the current measurement exceeds a configured threshold, the advertisement is made immediately.
  • No oscillationOnly the high or the low threshold, not both, may trigger a given sub-TLV, and once outside the bounds a re-advertisement waits for the measurement interval.

§7Keeping the Network Stable

The configurable mechanisms described earlier bound the number of re-advertisements. Instability might occur in very large networks if measurement intervals are set low enough to overwhelm the processing of flooded information at some of the routers in the topology, so care should be taken in setting these values. The default measurement interval for all sub-TLVs SHOULD be 30 seconds.

Announcements MUST also be able to be throttled using configurable inter-update throttle timers. The minimum announcement periodicity is one announcement per second, and the default value SHOULD be set to 120 seconds. Implementations SHOULD NOT permit the inter-update timer to be lower than the measurement interval. It is also RECOMMENDED that the underlying performance-measurement mechanisms not include any significant buffer delay, any significant buffer-induced delay variation, or any significant loss due to buffer overflow or due to active queue management.

Publishing a measurement on every small change would flood a large network with updates, so there are floors: measure over at least half a minute by default, and publish at most once a second, with two minutes as the usual interval.

§8Turning Measurements On and Off

Implementations MUST make it possible to individually enable or disable each sub-TLV based on configuration. They SHOULD also permit static configuration and manual override of the dynamic measurements for each sub-TLV, in order to simplify migration and to mitigate scenarios where dynamic measurements are not possible.

As in RFC 5305, unrecognized sub-TLVs should be silently ignored.

The document also records what changed from RFC 7810. Errata ID 5293 identified that in RFC 7810 the length associated with the residual, available and utilized bandwidth sub-TLVs did not match the figures, because the specified length of 4 did not include the RESERVED field shown in them. Investigation showed that some implementations had used the length of 4 and omitted the field, while others included the field and used a length of 5, and since those choices are not interoperable, a new version was needed. The choice made here is to omit the unused RESERVED field from these sub-TLVs and use the length of 4, which matches the corresponding advertisements in the equivalent OSPF traffic engineering specification and in the BGP Link State specification. Errata ID 5486 also identified that the definition of available bandwidth on bundled links used a circular definition, using the sum of the component link available bandwidths where it should have used the sum of the component link residual bandwidths; this has been corrected and clarified.

Each measurement can be switched on or off separately, and an operator can type in a value instead of a measured one, which helps when moving to the new records. The document also sorts out a mismatch in the length of the bandwidth records that had made two kinds of implementation unable to talk to each other.

§11Security Considerations

The sub-TLVs introduced in this document allow an operator to advertise state information of links, such as bandwidth and delay, that could be sensitive and that an operator may not want to disclose. The mechanism for ensuring network stability when the new sub-TLVs are advertised is described earlier, and implementations SHOULD follow those guidelines to mitigate the risk of instability.

RFC 5304 describes an authentication method for IS-IS link state PDUs that allows cryptographic authentication of them. It is anticipated that in most deployments the IS-IS protocol is used within an infrastructure entirely under the control of the same operator. It is still worth considering that the effect of sending traffic engineering sub-TLVs over insecure links could include a man-in-the-middle attacker delaying real-time data to a given site or destination, which could negatively affect the value of the data for that site or destination. The use of link state PDU cryptographic authentication allows the risk of such attacks to be mitigated.

The measurements describe how busy each link is, and an operator may not want that published to anyone who can see the routing protocol. Where it matters, the existing IS-IS authentication can be used to protect the advertisements.

§8References