Forwarding and Control Element Separation (forces)

In addition to this official charter maintained by the IETF Secretariat, there is additional information about this working group on the Web at:

       Additional FORCES Web Page

Last Modified: 2008-04-18

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/forces

Chair(s):

  • Patrick Droz <dro@zurich.ibm.com>

  • Jamal Hadi Salim <hadi@znyx.com>

    Routing Area Director(s):

  • Ross Callon <rcallon@juniper.net>
  • David Ward <dward@cisco.com>

    Routing Area Advisor:

  • Ross Callon <rcallon@juniper.net>

    Mailing Lists:

    General Discussion: forces@peach.ease.lsoft.com
    To Subscribe: listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
    In Body: (un)subscribe forces
    Archive: ftp://ftp.ietf.org/ietf-mail-archive/forces

    Description of Working Group:

    The emergence of off-the-shelf network processor devices that
    implement
    the fast path or forwarding plane in network devices such as routers,
    along with the appearance of a new generation of third party
    signaling,
    routing, and other router control plane software, has created the need
    for standard mechanisms to allow these components to be combined into
    functional wholes. ForCES aims to define a framework and associated
    mechanisms for standardizing the exchange of information between the
    logically separate functionality of the control plane, including
    entities such as routing protocols, admission control, and signaling,
    and the forwarding plane, where per-packet activities such as packet
    forwarding, queuing, and header editing occur. By defining a set
    of standard mechanisms for control and forwarding separation, ForCES
    will enable rapid innovation in both the control and forwarding
    planes.
    A standard separation mechanism allows the control and forwarding
    planes to innovate in parallel while maintaining interoperability.

    The products of this working group will be:

    o A set of requirements for mechanisms to logically
      separate the control and data forwarding planes of
      an IP network element (NE)

    o An applicability statement for the ForCES model
      and protocol

    o Informational RFCs as necessary documenting current
      approaches to the functional model and controlled
      objects therein

    o An architectural framework defining the entities
      comprising a ForCES network element and identifying
      the interactions between them.

    o A description of the functional model of a
      Forwarding Element

    o A formal definition of the controlled objects in the
      functional model of a forwarding element. This
      includes IP forwarding, IntServ and DiffServ QoS. An
      existing specification language shall be used for
      this task.

    o Specification of IP-based protocol for transport of the
      controlled objects. When the control and forwarding devices
      are separated beyond a single hop, ForCES will make use of an
      existing  RFC2914 compliant L4 protocol with adequate reliability,
      security and congestion control (e.g. TCP, SCTP) for transport
      purposes.

    The main focus area of the working group will be control and
    forwarding separation for IP forwarding devices where the
    control and forwarding elements are in close (same room/small
    number of hops) or very close (same box/one hop) proximity. Other
    scenarios will be considered but at not the main focus of the
    work. The functional model of the forwarding element will include
    QoS (DiffServ and IntServ) capabilities of modern networking
    devices such as routers.  In order to minimize the effort to
    integrate forwarding elements and control elements, a mechanism
    for auto discovery and capability information exchange will form
    an integral part of the standardized interface.

    ForCES will coordinate with other standards bodies and working
    groups as appropriate. Examples of such bodies include IETF/GSMP,
    IETF/Megaco, the Network Processing Forum (NPF), the Multiservice
    Switching Forum (MSF), IEEE P1520, and SoftSwitch. ForCES will
    review relevant protocol efforts such as GSMP and Megaco and will
    extend or reuse them if appropriate. If protocol reuse is
    accepted as satisfactory for fulfilling the ForCES requirements
    then ForCES may recharter to adopt specific deliverables around
    the selected protocol.

    Goals and Milestones:

    Done  Submit requirements document to IESG
    Done  Submit framework document to IESG
    Nov 2004  Submit forwarding element functional model document to IESG
    Mar 2005  Submit formal definition of controlled objects in functional model
    Mar 2005  Submit protocol selection/definition document to IESG
    Mar 2005  Submit applicability statement to IESG

    Internet-Drafts:

    ForCES Forwarding Element Model (289871 bytes)
    ForCES Protocol Specification (240783 bytes)
    ForCES MIB (36127 bytes)
    SCTP based TML (Transport Mapping Layer) for ForCES protocol (36628 bytes)

    Request For Comments:

    Linux Netlink as an IP Services Protocol (RFC 3549) (72161 bytes)
    Requirements for Separation of IP Control and Forwarding (RFC 3654) (40418 bytes)
    Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Framework (RFC 3746) (98660 bytes)
    IETF Secretariat - Please send questions, comments, and/or suggestions to ietf-web@ietf.org.

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