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RE: Comments on draft-morin-l3vpn-mvpn-considerations-01.txt



Tom,

I think that splitting the current solutions document into two is a
great idea.  The current solutions document is pretty much unreadable.

Presumably, the one solutions document would consist of the mandatory
elements defined in draft morin?

Thanks,

John 

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Nadeau Thomas [mailto:tnadeau at lucidvision.com] 
>Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 3:55 PM
>To: Rosen Eric; Yakov Rekhter; l3vpn at ietf.org
>Subject: Re: Comments on draft-morin-l3vpn-mvpn-considerations-01.txt 
>
>
>	Guys,
>
>	As entertaining as this sparring is, it is not brining 
>us any closer to resolution. Can't we all just get along? *)
>
>	What we (at BT) want from this document is pretty 
>simple and is achievable within the confines of a WG document: 
>one set of mandatory operations/constructs with the rest set 
>to optional. It seems the only way to achieve this is to write 
>two WG solutions documents and let the market decide.
>
>	--Tom
>
>	
>> I think Yakov's  reply makes it pretty clear that  adoption of this 
>> document as a WG document at the current time is premature.
>>
>> I was  prepared for someone to  say that the  issues I raised can   
>> be worked
>> after the  document is accepted.  However,  we see from  Yakov's 
>> answer that
>> he,  at least,  wants to  suppress discussion  of all  the   
>> remaining issues
>> (after all, they're  all FUD ;-)).  I didn't think my  reputation in 
>> this WG was that of a FUD-provider, but YMMV ;-)
>>
>> For the kind of document that draft-morin seems to be, I think it is 
>> the job of the authors to investigate all  the issues, not 
>to say "we 
>> won't consider any issue until some  else proves beyond a 
>shadow of a  
>> doubt that there's a real problem".  Of  course, I'll be 
>happy to work 
>> with  the authors to flesh out  all the  arguments  pro and  
>con.  I'm  
>> not  trying to  prove that  the BGP-based scheme won't  
>work, but I'd 
>> have thought  that everyone knows that all proposals have  pros and 
>> cons; a "considerations"  document should bring out all the issues.
>>
>> In fairness, Yakov isn't one of the  authors of the document, so it 
>> would be interesting to know whether the authors  of the document 
>> agree that there is no need to discuss any of the issues I've raised.
>>
>> A few of the more outrageous comments do require some reply:
>>
>>> why should the draft talk about this [variety of factors 
>for which we 
>>> lack hard data] since facts are scarce ?
>>
>> Any choice  which is based  on opinion  rather than facts  
>is a risk,  
>> and a
>> "considerations"  document should certainly  make it  clear when   
>> such risks
>> exist.
>>
>>> Moreover since PIM is based on unreliable message exchange, "join 
>>> latency"
>>> with PIM could be in 10s of seconds.
>>
>> The worst  case join latency in  either case could be  arbitrarily 
>> long, but I'm sure everyone knows ((well, almost everyone 
>;-)) that's 
>> it's the average join latency that is important.  Since 
>packets don't 
>> usually get lost in the
>> backbone, that's  not much of  an issue.   I don't think  it takes  
>> a  lot of
>> fancy analysis  to determine  that it's  faster to send  a data   
>> packet from
>> point A  to point B then  to send it from  point A to  an 
>intermediate 
>> point
>> where it  is processed and then afterwards  sent along to 
>point  C.   
>> One can
>> argue  that the  latency increase  isn't significant,  or that   
>> it's  a good
>> tradeoff  against something  else,  but it's  just  silly to  deny 
>> that  the latency increase exists!
>>
>>> could  please  quantify  "significantly"  as  you assert  that   
>>> "BGP  will
>>> significantly increase the latency".
>>
>> I did  not state that  BGP will significantly  increase the 
>latency,  
>> I said that we  do not have  the data to  determine whether 
>BGP  will 
>> significantly increase the latency.
>>
>> A "significant  increase" would be one  that causes a visible   
>> effect to the
>> users of a multicast-based application.
>>
>>> "Dampening of  withdrawals [as opposed to updates]  of C-multicast 
>>> routes  does not impede the multicast join latency observed by MVPN 
>>> customers,"
>>
>> Sure, but  it doesn't have the same  effect on churn reduction  as 
>> does join dampening, and it has other side-effects as well.  This is 
>> certainly an area that would benefit from more analysis in any 
>> "considerations"
>> document.
>>
>>> Since you are a co-author on that draft, you should be 
>aware of this.
>>
>> I'm glad  you remembered that I'm  a co-conspirator (err,  co-
>> author) of the
>> BGP-based multicast control plane.  As  a co-author, I am familiar 
>> with lots
>> of  issues  that  might  not  necessarily  be  obvious  to  the   
>> authors  of
>> draft-morin.  Further,  I appear  to be the  only co-author who   
>> thinks that
>> both  BGP and  PIM have  merits, and  that it  is important  to do   
>> a pretty
>> thorough and unbiased comparison.
>>
>>> As for the last "effect on existing L3VPN route reflector systems", 
>>> please note the the following text in Section 15 of
>>> draft-ietf-l3vpn-2547bis-mcast-bgp:
>>
>>>  Moreover, Route Reflectors used for MVPN do not have to be 
> used for 
>>> VPN-IP routes
>>
>>> And as a reminder, you are a co-author on that draft !
>>
>> Yes, I am well aware that you  can add new RRs expressly to handle 
>> multicast
>> routes.  In  a "considerations" document, the  need (or lack of   
>> need) to do
>> this is one of the considerations  that should be discussed.  Unless 
>> the SPs are willing to say up front "not to worry, we don't care how 
>> many additional RRs we need, they come for free and do not increase 
>> our operational burden".
>>
>> As you know, I am a big fan of the 2547 technology :-), but 
>the issue 
>> of how the VPN-IP routes affect BGP generally (and how much "BGP 
>> churn"
>> they cause)
>> has  always  been with  us.   At  least VPN-IP  routes  do  not  
>> behave  much
>> differently than  IP routes, since  updates are still triggered  by 
>> topology changes and  not by  enduser activity.  MVPN  introduces a 
>> different  set of dynamics to BGP and the impact on  the rest of the 
>> BGP system is certainly a consideration that needs to be better 
>> understood.
>>
>> It is fair  to point out that additional BGP activity  is at least 
>> partially compensated for by reduced PIM activity.  On the 
>other hand, 
>> PIM activity doesn't impact the BGP system, so this 
>comparison is not 
>> straightforward.
>>
>>> In fact, can you explain why having one architecture for 
>unicast VPN 
>>> (aggregated routing) and another architecture for multicast VPN 
>>> (virtual routers) is any better than having the same 
>architecture for 
>>> both unicast and multicast VPN ?
>>
>> I  think the  choice between  the two  schemes should  be based   
>> not  on the
>> elegance of  the architecture but on  the multitude of  facts that 
>> determine
>> (a) how well the multicast applications in the enterprise will be 
>> supported, and (b) how much operational impact they have on the SP.
>>
>> Further, multicast  routing is  really a very  different thing  than 
>> unicast routing, and  there is  no history of  success in  combining 
>> the two  into a single architecture (e.g., MOSPF).
>>
>> This is  not to say  that BGP is  a poor choice, but  just 
>to explain  
>> why I
>> don't  think that  the  uniformity  of the  architecture  is the   
>> overriding
>> considerations.
>>
>>> First of all, autoRP is a cisco proprietary technology. Asking 
>>> standards to support cisco proprietary technology is inappropriate.
>>
>> If  an enterprise  is using  proprietary technology,  and if  a SP   
>> wants to
>> provide MVPN service to that enterprise,  then I think the SP will 
>> certainly want to know whether he has to  tell the 
>enterprise "no MVPN 
>> service for you until you change your deployed technologies" ;-)
>>
>> A large number of enterprises use Cisco technology, and I 
>imagine that 
>> other vendors would like to be able to provide PEs that 
>support those 
>> enterprises.
>>
>>> supporting BSR without  MI-PMSI has been explained in  the 
>>> presentation at
>>> the  L3VPN  WG  meeting  (with  you  as one  of  the  co-authors   
>>> on  that
>>> presentation).
>>
>> Many of  the presentations  we've given over  the years  presented 
>> solutions which  turned out  to  be  unsatisfactory.  
>Certainly  the  
>> support or  lack
>> thereof  for  BSR  is  something  that a  "considerations"   
>> document  should
>> examine.
>>
>>>> realistically, for  the foreseeable future, the use  of an MI-PMSI 
>>>> is
>>>>    going  to remain  the  only  method of  aggregation.
>>
>>> Do you speak just for cisco, or for all other vendors as well ?
>>
>> I would highly recommend that before eliminating the 
>MI-PMSI, the SPs 
>> should get solid  delivery dates from  their vendors for  
>> upstream-assigned labels!
>> ;-)
>>
>>>> it is not clear that segmented inter-AS  S-PMSIs are scalable at 
>>>> all.
>>
>>> Are they less scalable than non-segmented inter-AS S-PMSIs ?
>>
>> In my mind, the issue is whether there's a real good inter-provider 
>> solution at all.
>>
>>> If less work for the PEs is the goal, then one should not run 2547 
>>> VPNs,
>>
>> Well, I'd like to hear the SPs  say that they don't care how much 
>> additional work  the PEs  have to  do!  Or  that they  don't 
>care  how  
>> much additional coordination they have  to do with their 
>customers, or  
>> that they don't care
>> how many  changes the customers  have to make  before they can buy   
>> the SPs'
>> service.
>>
>>> the recommendations should  reflect position of SPs, not  vendors 
>>> (and you are part of the latter, not the former).
>>
>> I've yet to hear any SP say that they don't want my input because I 
>> work for a  vendor.  If  any  do  feel that  way,  I'm sure  
>they  can  
>> speak up  for themselves.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>