Session Date/Time: 23 Mar 2022 09:00

rtgarea

Summary

The Routing Area Open Meeting covered administrative updates, including a change in AD leadership with a farewell to Martin Vigoureux and a welcome to Andrew Alston. There were updates on approved BoFs (MSR-6, DONCAST), the activities of the Routing Area Directorate (RAD), and detailed status reports from several working groups (BEER, PIM, LSVR, IDR, CCAMP, TEAS, RTWG). A significant portion of the session was dedicated to a presentation on Scion, a path-aware secure internet architecture, including its design principles, current deployments, and potential paths for standardization within the IETF.

Key Discussion Points

Administrative & General:
- The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with a note on the IETF's Notewell and BCP 7154 regarding respectful and technical discussions.
- Emphasis was placed on the importance of document review and active participation by all members to maintain document quality.
- A call for volunteers for AD and Working Group (WG) chair positions was made, encouraging community members to express interest.
AD Changes:
- Martin Vigoureux concluded his four-year tenure as a Routing Area Director (AD), receiving appreciation for his contributions across various working groups and conflict resolution.
- Andrew Alston was welcomed as a new AD, notably the first IESG resident from Africa, expressing commitment to the role.
- Thomas Eckert from the NomCom thanked the community for excellent AD candidates and encouraged broader participation in future NomCom cycles.
Routing Area Updates:
- No new working groups were opened or closed, and no re-chartering or chair changes occurred since the last meeting.
- New BoFs:
  - MSR-6 (Multicast Segment Routing with IPv6) BoF was approved. An interim BoF is planned before IETF 114 to maximize participation.
  - DONCAST (multicast distribution over data centers) BoF was held, demonstrating significant energy and good back-and-forth discussion. Key feedback included avoiding pushing excessive state into the underlay. Further discussions are to continue on the DONCAST mailing list.
- Routing Area Directorate (RAD):
  - Personnel changes: John Hisbrand, Dave and the Join, and Manaf concluded their terms; Xiaohui Jain, Du Ping, Donna, and Muhammad joined the team.
  - The RAD's purpose is to review last call and early review drafts for the Routing Area and related areas (e.g., OPS).
  - Statistics show over 100 early/last call reviews since 2020, with 3 early and 13 last call reviews since the last IETF. Top working groups for review requests were IDR, BESS, and LSR. Review results indicated approximately one-third of drafts were ready with minor issues, with only a few requiring substantial further work.
Working Group Status Updates:
- BEER (Bit Indexed Explicit Replication): Continues active work with 17 drafts, 2 ISG documents, and 14 in discussion stages. Progress was noted in converging solutions, completion of BRTE (BIER with Traffic Engineering) work, IPv6 convergence, and OAM proposals. Increased adoption, new silicon, and P4 implementations were highlighted.
- PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast): Focus is on Segment Routing (SR) point-to-multipoint (P2MP) work, with an informal agreement with Spring WG to manage these proposals, pending a charter update. Adopted drafts include P2MP policy creation and stitching replication segments. Related work is ongoing in IDR (BGP-LS), PCE, and BESS. Other areas include YANG models, DR (Designated Router) improvements for packet loss reduction and stickiness, and new proposals like PIM Light and MRH (Multicast Routing Header).
- LSVR (Link State Vector Routing): The BGP-SPF protocol specification is considered ready for IESG, following several review cycles. Deliverables include an applicability statement, the BGP-SPF spec, and a YANG specification (dependent on IDR BGP-LS work). Key components involve L3DL (Link Layer Discovery Protocol version 2) for link state harvesting (requiring a re-charter for formal WG inclusion), BGP-SPF for distribution, and SPF for routing calculation. Benefits include BGP's stability and scalability, fast convergence, and full topological information. LSVR is targeted for massive-scale data centers. Next steps are to send the base spec to IESG and pursue re-chartering for L3DL.
- IDR (IDR): The base specification is in review. The applicability statement is awaiting AD review. The YANG model for routing policies was published as RFC 9167. Extended-BGP YANG models are ready for Working Group Last Call (WGLC). Progress was reported on How-to-EVPN with existing implementations. Segment Routing work is progressing, with adoption planned after this IETF. Multicast work has seen less traction.
- CCAMP (Common Control and Measurement Plane): Approximately 90% of the current work is on YANG models. This includes models for optical networks (Layer 0 types, DWDM/Flexigrid topology/tunnel models, and optical impairment awareness), OTN networks (Layer 1 types, topology/tunnel models, and OTN slicing), and microwave networks (radio links, topology). Service models (Layer 1, client signals) and a network inventory data model are also in progress, seeking alignment with other WGs. Discussions on OTN slicing require alignment with TEAS. Milestones are slated for update.
- TEAS (Traffic Engineering Architecture and Signaling): The WG has 22 active documents. There are weekly open design meetings for TE-specific data modeling. An update to RFC 3272 (Internet Traffic Engineering principles) is ready for WGLC. Work on ACTN (Abstraction and Control of TE Networks) extends to packet-optical integration and network slicing. Enhanced VPNs are being discussed for providing enhanced connectivity services and network slicing infrastructure. The IETF Network Slices framework document and a corresponding YANG model for service requests have been adopted. GMPLS related work on shared mesh protection is with IESG, and interworking of distributed GMPLS with centralized controllers is adopted.
- RTWG (Routing WG): This WG focuses on routing protocols without a dedicated home and bringing in new work. Traditional areas include BGP PIC (Protocol Independent Convergence) for fast convergence (nearing WGLC), ATM BGP for mobile/aeronautical space (WGLC after IETF), and BFD for VRP (adopted for sub-second EVPN convergence). YANG work includes RFC 9167 (routing policies) and Extended-BGP YANG (ready for WGLC). Emerging areas include:
  - HPCC (High-Precision Congestion Control): Addressing requirements for RDMA traffic and machine learning clusters, involving discussions with the Transport Area for host-network API.
  - Semantic Routing: Exploring routing beyond destination-based lookups, using additional metadata in packets, currently a research area.
  - Routing in Satellites: Addressing the unique requirements for large-scale satellite networking deployments (e.g., Starlink) and the need for interoperability among currently proprietary systems. Discussions acknowledged testing challenges and the need for industry engagement.
Scion Presentation (Adrian Perrig, ETH Zurich & Anapaya Systems):
- Overview: Scion is a path-aware, secure internet architecture initiated in 2009. It focuses on security-centric design, formal verification, and scalability. It's now deployed by 6 ISPs and in over 180 data centers, with production use cases (e.g., secure Swiss finance network since 2017).
- Architectural Principles: Achieves stateless packet forwarding with an "always converged" routing system. It's an instance of path-aware networking, enabling native multipath communication, based on security, formal verification, transparency, and network sovereignty.
- Design: Employs isolation domains with local roots of trust for sovereignty and scalability. The control plane uses "beaconing" between core ASes to find path segments, disseminated via a pull-based path server infrastructure (similar to DNS). The data plane encapsulates forwarding information (AS and interface level) in packet headers, verified by efficient symmetric key cryptography (AES) on routers, incurring 12 bytes/AS overhead.
- Deployment: Described as a "homeopathic upgrade" for ISPs, requiring minimal changes to internal infrastructure and a few days of training. For end customers, a Scion IP Gateway translates between IP and Scion traffic, making it transparent to applications.
- Standardization: The Scion team believes the work satisfies RFC 5218 factors for standardization and is actively seeking IETF feedback on how to proceed.
- Discussion:
  - Community members expressed interest but also identified challenges in IETF standardization, such as the need to decouple the "boiling the ocean" problem into smaller, comprehensible pieces (routing, naming, addressing).
  - Questions were raised about whether the intent is to bring Scion as an independent protocol or to integrate its technological capabilities into existing IETF protocols. Adrian clarified the intent is to standardize the whole protocol, while also exploring cross-fertilization with other efforts like segment routing.
  - The timeliness of secure routing discussions was highlighted, given recent geopolitical events and increased government/industry interest in enhancing routing system security beyond current deployments like BGPsec.

Decisions and Action Items

AD Leadership Change: Martin Vigoureux's 4-year tenure as AD concluded; Andrew Alston was welcomed as a new AD.
MSR-6 BoF: Approved, with an interim meeting to be scheduled before IETF 114.
DONCAST BoF: Held, with follow-up technical discussions directed to the mailing list.
LSVR: The BGP-SPF base specification is deemed ready for IESG submission. The working group will pursue re-chartering to formally include L3DL work as a deliverable.
CCAMP: Working group milestones are to be updated, with a proposal to be presented to the WG on Friday and then submitted for AD approval.
TEAS: The updated RFC 3272 document (Internet Traffic Engineering Principles) is ready for Working Group Last Call.
Scion: The Scion team is encouraged to break down their comprehensive proposal into specific problem statements and engage with relevant IETF areas (e.g., routing, naming, addressing, security) to explore potential standardization paths.

Next Steps

MSR-6 proponents will coordinate scheduling for the interim BoF.
Technical discussions regarding DONCAST will continue on the working group mailing list.
The LSVR WG chairs will proceed with submitting the BGP-SPF base specification to the IESG and initiate the process for re-chartering to include L3DL.
CCAMP will finalize and submit its updated working group milestones.
TEAS will initiate the WGLC process for the RFC 3272 update.
The Scion team is to engage further with the IETF community and ADs to refine their standardization strategy, possibly by identifying specific components or capabilities that align with existing IETF work or represent new, distinct protocol efforts.
The community is encouraged to actively review documents across all working groups and to consider volunteering for AD or WG chair roles.