Session Date/Time: 26 Jul 2022 19:00

bmwg

Summary

The BMWG session focused on the status of existing Working Group documents, new proposals for adoption, and updates on ongoing technical work. Key decisions included the adoption of the YANG Model for Benchmarking and consensus to adopt the Benchmarking Methodology for Stateful NAT-XY Gateways. Discussions also covered updates to the Next Generation Firewall Benchmarking document, progress on Segment Routing (SR-MPLS and SRv6) benchmarking methodologies, and brief mentions of work on LEO communications and containerized infrastructures. The importance of community review and implementation experience was emphasized for all drafts.

Key Discussion Points

Ops Area Director Role and Responsibilities: Warren, the current Ops Area Director (AD), provided an overview of his role, emphasizing the review of Working Group documents, IESG progression, managing discuss ballots, and overseeing WGs in the Ops area. He encouraged potential candidates for the AD role.
Working Group Document Status:
- Next Generation Firewall Benchmarking: The draft is in IESG review, with efforts underway to resolve four discuss ballots and address transport area review comments. A major rewrite is expected soon. Discussion highlighted expanding the draft to cover QUIC and HTTP/3 and clarifying "shoulds" to "musts."
- Multiple Loss Ratio Search: The co-authors (Maciac and Brodco) are undertaking a significant rewrite, focusing on defining throughput at various loss levels beyond the typical zero-loss RFC 2544 definition. Challenges related to partial support from existing definitions were noted.
- YANG Model for Benchmarking: The draft has been officially adopted as a Working Group document. The author, Vladimir, highlighted its value for new BMWG members and mentioned his hackathon work on multi-stream implementation for RFC reset/recovery tests. A YANG doctor review was encouraged.
- Benchmarking Methodology for Stateful NAT-XY Gateways: Gabor presented the draft, outlining a methodology for benchmarking stateful NAT-XY gateways (IPv4/IPv6). It defines standard metrics (throughput, latency) and specific stateful metrics (max connection establishment rate, connection tear-down, connection tracking table capacity) using a two-phase test setup. Functional validation of connections and an exponential/binary search for CTT capacity measurement were introduced.
- Segment Routing - MPLS (SR-MPLS) Benchmarking: Paolo Volpato presented a proposal to fill a gap in RFC 5695 by providing benchmarking for SR-MPLS (RFC 8402). The draft outlines test setup augmentations, considerations for label distribution, multiple labels, MTU adjustments, and specific SR-MPLS operations (push, next, continue). Industry need from operators and vendors was cited.
- Segment Routing - IPv6 (SRv6) Benchmarking: Edward V presented the SRv6 counterpart, stressing the existing industry need and the fact that numerous deployments and tests have already occurred without a formal methodology. The draft builds upon RFC 2544, RFC 5180 (IPv6), and RFC 5695 (MPLS), excluding traffic engineering and VPN services to maintain scope. Key elements included seed stack configuration by protocol, the structure of SRv6 seeds (Node, Function, Argument), MTU/header size considerations due to SRH and multiple seeds, and distinct SRv6 terminology (Source, Endpoint, Transit nodes).
Other Business:
- LEO Communications Benchmarking: The draft on benchmarking Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications with terrestrial networks was updated in April, reflecting ongoing interest in the area.
- Containerized Infrastructures Benchmarking: The team presented hackathon work on Express Data Path (XDP) and eBPF for benchmarking performance in containerized environments.
- ETSI Reference Correction: It was noted that ETSI TST009 (virtualized DUTs) is the correct reference, not TST007, for SR-MPLS and SRv6 drafts.

Decisions and Action Items

Decisions:

The YANG Model for Benchmarking draft was formally adopted as a Working Group document.
There was consensus to adopt the Benchmarking Methodology for Stateful NAT-XY Gateways as a Working Group document.

Action Items:

Al Morton (Co-chair): Follow up with authors of the LEO Communications Benchmarking and Containerized Infrastructures Benchmarking drafts to encourage sharing updates on the BMWG mailing list.
Edward V / Gabor (Stateful NAT-XY Gateway authors): Update the draft to include IPv6 example pictures, and/or both IPv4 and IPv6 examples, ensuring the use of BMWG allocated address space (e.g., /48 for IPv6).
Paolo Volpato / SR-MPLS authors: Correct the ETSI reference in the SR-MPLS Benchmarking draft from TST007 to TST009.
Edward V / SRv6 authors: Correct the ETSI reference in the SRv6 Benchmarking draft from TST007 to TST009.
Boris: Review the SR-MPLS Benchmarking draft, particularly the SR policy section.
Timothy Winners (QA Cafe): Review the Stateful NAT-XY Gateways draft for potentially missing metrics.
Gabor: Review the SRv6 Benchmarking draft within two months.
Boris: Review the SRv6 Benchmarking draft after completing the SR-MPLS review.
Louise (Telefonica): Conduct testing of SRv6 procedures based on the draft after the summer and report findings at IETF 115.

Next Steps

The authors of Next Generation Firewall Benchmarking will continue to address discuss ballots and issue a new draft within 2-3 weeks, followed by further updates for "shoulds" and default values.
The newly adopted YANG Model for Benchmarking will proceed through the Working Group document lifecycle, with continued calls for review.
The Benchmarking Methodology for Stateful NAT-XY Gateways will progress as a Working Group document, incorporating feedback from reviewers.
Authors of SR-MPLS Benchmarking and SRv6 Benchmarking are encouraged to integrate feedback from volunteers and the community, and to seek further testing/implementation experiences.
Community members are urged to review all drafts under consideration and provide technical comments on the mailing list to facilitate progress.