Internet Engineering Task Force                           James M. Polk
Internet Draft                                            Cisco Systems
Expiration: July 16th, Nov 19th, 2003
File: draft-polk-ieprep-flow-model-considerations-00.txt draft-polk-ieprep-flow-model-considerations-01.txt

                      Considerations for IEPREP Related
                         Protocol Packet Flow Models

                             January 16th,

                               May 19th, 2003

Status of this Document

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents
   at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress".

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed
   at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

Abstract

   This document diagrams the packet flows - both signaling and data -
   of Internet Emergency Preparedness (IEPREP) related protocols. This
   document serves as a point of reference for the WG when discussing if (and
which)
   which QoS mechanisms should can be employed for each individual
   (application) protocol packet flow to function properly during
   congestion events from IP source to IP destination.

Table of Contents

Abstract  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
1.0 destination, as well as a
   potentially different QOS mechanism for a related but separate data
   flow (if present).

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
       1.1 Motivation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
       1.2 Terms and Definitions   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.3 Changes between document versions . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
2.0
   2.  Why Do Packet Paths Matter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
3.0  4
   3.  Control and Data Plane Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4  5
       3.1 In-Band Point-to-Point Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4  5
       3.2 In-Band Signaling Via a an Intermediate Server  . . . . . .  6
       3.2.1 In-Band Signaling to a Composed Device  . . . . . . . .  6
       3.3 Out-of-Band Signaling . . . .  5
 3.3 Out-of-Band Signaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.3.1 Out-of-Band Signaling with one Control plane  . . . . .  7
       3.3.2 Out-of-Band Signaling with two Control planes . . . . .  6
4.0  8
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
5.0  9
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   6.  Acknowledgements  . .  6
6.0  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   7.  References  . . . .  7
7.0  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   8.  Author Information  . . . . . . .  7
8.0  Authors Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   9.  Full Copyright Statement  . . . . . . . . .  8

1.0 . . . . . . . . . 10

1. 	Introduction

   This document diagrams the packet flows - both signaling and data -
   of Internet Emergency Preparedness (IEPREP) related protocols. This
   document should be seen as a point of reference for the WG when
   discussing if (and
which) which QoS mechanisms should can be employed for each individual
   (application) protocol packet flow to function properly during
   congestion events from IP source to IP destination. destination, as well as a
   potentially different QOS mechanism for a related but separate data
   flow (if present).

   The models shown within the document will focus (and list) those
   protocols of interest to the Internet Emergency Preparedness
   (IEPREP) Working Group. Of particular interest here is the
   classification of protocols that have their signaling packets travel
   along the same path as the data packets, and which protocols do not
   share the data path with their signaling packets.

   This document will focus on the concept that in most IETF protocols
   there are one or two control planes and one data plane.

1.1 Motivation

   This document clarifies paths taken by signaling and data packets
   for typical IETF protocols.  These concepts will help facilitate
   IEPREP discussions on ensuring applications perform adequately
   during congestive events.

1.2 Terms and Definitions

   The following are pointed out for clarity:

      Control Plane - See "In-Band Signaling" and "Out-of-Band
            Signaling"

      Data Plane - the data packet (media, text, MIME body) path
            between an IP source and one or more endpoints

      Intermediary Server - Any server that is the destination of
            control information from the IP source. These packets can
            either be for the server itself, or for further forwarding
            toward the intended destination possibly manipulating the
            packet(s) in transit

      In-Band Signaling - the control plane packets traversing the same
            path as the data plane between endpoints (same source IP
            address and port number, as well as the same destination IP
            address and port number)

      Out-of-Band Signaling - the control plane taking a different path
            than the data path or the In-Band control plane (either the
            source and destination IP addresses are different between
            the control packets and data packets, or the port numbers
            used between the same source and destination IP addresses is
            are different)

2.0

1.3 Changes between document versions

   Here is the list of changes between internet draft versions -00 and
   -01:

   - named Figure 2 either a Triangle Model (with one server) or
     Trapezoidal Model (multiple servers) for further clarification

   - added Figure 4b to solve confusion surrounding categorization of
     FTP

   - added sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 to show that there can be more than
     one Out-of-Band Control plane

   - the above bullet resulted in the split up of Figure 5 into Figures
     5a & 5b to solve the lack of categorization of MEGACO/H.248 and
     H.323 in which there are two Out-Of-Band Control planes for one
     data plane

   - changed the document formatting to be consistent with recent RFCs
     published

   - added comment in Abstract and Intro sections stating that due to
     the separation of paths for a communications type, different QOS
     mechanisms can be considered for each plane/path

   - removed the word "intermediate" from Figure 2 to relieve confusion

2.  Why Do Packet Paths Matter?

   Most IETF communications use the following simple model:

            Sender ========> Router(s) ========> Receiver

         Figure 1. Direct IP Communications

   But many IP communications use this model (or a variant of it):

                      Intermediate

                        Server (one or more)
                      /                     \
        Out-of-Band  /                       \  Out-of-Band
   Control plane A  /                         \  Control plane B
                   /        Data plane         \
                   ============================>
            Sender                               Receiver
                   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>
                        In-Band Control plane

         Figure 2. IP Communications using Intermediate Server Server(s)

   Figure 2 is called a Triangle Model when only one server is utilized
   by the sender and receiver. But when more than one server is used
   between endpoints, it is called a Trapezoidal Model.

   The data plane can be within the signaling protocol (in the case of
   Instant Messaging), or it can be a completely different protocol
   (i.e. RTP for Voice or Video [1] or SMTP [2]). In some cases, there
   is no In-Band control plane. In other cases, there is no out-of-band
   control plane. Some protocols use both Out-of-Band control planes (A
   & B) B in Figure 2 2) separately (such as with MEGACO/H.248[3] or
   H.323[4]).

   An additional aspect of this model in Figure 2 above is that there will
   likely be more than one intermediate (intermediate) server involved in most
   protocols that communicate through any intermediate server. Most
   likely there is one in the source IP device's domain, and there is
   also one in the destination IP device's domain. There may or may not
   be any intermediate servers in the ISP(s) between these two domains;
   sometimes there might be several servers between the source and
   destination domains.

   Because there can be up to 3 separate communications control planes, with up to 2
   different packet paths for a communications data transfer, it is important to
   understand which protocols transmit their packets on which path. The
   rest of this document will provide these various packet path models
   for IEPREP related protocols.

   Keep in mind that the "Receiver" in many of these diagrams is either
   (or both) a server and/or a user device.

   Also note that this document doesn't cover an exhaustive IETF
   protocols list, each categorized, but attempts to include those that are of interest
   to the IEPREP effort.

3.0

3.  Control and Data Plane Diagrams

   Figure 1 (above) showed the simplest of IP communication between
   source and destination, but this model requires destination. However, Figure 1 assumes the source to know device
   knows the IP address of the destination, for that source to use a protocol that requires no
intermediate servers, and that protocol to have all necessary signaling
and data traverse point to point. destination device (which is not always
   the case).

3.1 In-Band Point-to-Point Communications

   This model is true only if the communication is as in the previous
   paragraph: one protocol (with one port number) and one path though through
   a network. Figure 3 below shows this in diagram form:

   The signaling flow model shown in Figure 3 only applies to those
   protocols that communicate from a source IP device (using one
   protocol port number) and another destination IP device (using the
   same protocol port number).

          -------->         -------->         -------->
   Sender           Router1           Router2           Receiver
          ========>         ========>         ========>

    Legend:  ---->  In-Band Control plane (signaling)
             ====>  Data plane (media/text/file)

         Figure 3. In-Band Signaling example

   Protocols that use this model for IP communications are:

      - H.323 (without a Gatekeeper only)[4]
      - Telnet [5]
      - SIP (when the UAC knows the IP address of the UAS)[6]
      - HTTP [7]
      - POP3 [8]
      - IMAP [9]

   The data plane in these protocols is set-up by the signaling
   (control) plane between endpoints.

3.2 In-Band Signaling Via a an Intermediate Server

   A variation on the In-Band Model shown in Figure 3 (above) is the
   one in Figure 4 4a in which all communications traverse an
   Intermediate Server(s). Here the signaling and data are contained
   with the same protocol that hops through a server(s) on its path
   towards the destination IP device.

   In Figure 4 4a below, the placement of one or more routers doesn't
   directly affect the path of the packets between the Sender to the
   Server and on to the Receiver, therefore none are shown here to make
   the diagram cleaner.

          -------------->                 ------------->
   Sender               Intermediary Server             Receiver
          ==============>                 =============>

    Legend:  ---->  In-Band Control plane (signaling)
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane

         Figure 4. 4a. In-Band Signaling example

   Signaling protocol that uses this model for IP communications is:

      - SIP (when used for instant messaging[10])

   The data plane between the two endpoints generally occurs is within the signaling
   packets as MIME bodies or text.

3.2.1 In-Band Signaling to a Composed Device

   In-Band signaling comes in two basic models: one with a decomposed
   or intermediate model (in which the destination IP device is
   separate physically and logically from the server) as just shown in
   Figure 4a, and a physically composed destination device (in which
   the server is same device as the data receiver, but logically
   separated) shown next in Figure 4b.

   In this model (Figure 4b), the communications is between the same
   two IP devices, but the signaling uses a different protocol port
   than that of the data packets between the two devices.

                                            +---------------+
                                            |  ___________  |
                                            | |           | |
                                     ------>| |  Server   | |
                                    /       | |___________| |
             ----->        ---------        |  ___________  |
      Sender       Router1                  | |           | |
             =====>        ================>| | receiver  | |
                                            | |___________| |
                                            |               |
                                            +---------------+
                                            Composed IP Device

    Legend:  ---->  In-Band Control plane (signaling)
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane

         Figure 4b. In-Band Signaling example

   Protocol that uses this model for IP communications is:

      - FTP [11]

   A case could be made for POP3 and IMAP functioning under this model,
   with SMTP being the data plane; but it was decided that since SMTP
   was a different protocol (and not just port number) that these 3
   protocols would be categorized in their native models.

3.3 Out-of-Band Signaling

   Out-of-Band control is the case where a signaling protocol (likely)
   establishes the data plane via some intermediate server or servers
   (see Figure 5). In this example, the triangle model as shown in

3.3.1 Out-of-Band Signaling with one Control plane

   Figure 5a shows one type of the Triangle Model depicting a single
   Out-of-Band Control plane from Sender to Server to Receiver; the
   data packets are not transmitted to or through the server (towards
   the ultimate receiver). The signaling path from the sender to the
   server is not the same path as the data plane from the sender to the
   receiver (which is direct in this example). Here each path could be
   considered for different treatment and handling.

                      Intermediary Server
                      ^                 .
                      .                 .
          .............                 .............>
   Sender           Router1           Router2           Receiver
          ========>         ========>        ========>

    Legend:  ....>  Out-of-Band Control plane (signaling)
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane

         Figure 5. 5a. 'Single' Out-of-Band Signaling example

Protocols

   Protocol that use uses this model for IP communications are: is:

      - SIP (for Voice and Video when the UAC does not know the IP
             address of the UAS, thus requiring a Proxy Server [6])
      - FTP [11]

H.323 [4] and MEGACO/H.248 [3] are not categorized here because these
protocols use two independent control planes between the Gatekeeper or
Media Gateway Controller and each endpoint

   Aside from minor incremented or termination (see Figure 2 -
control planes A & B). added/subtracted headers within the
   SIP message by the (Proxy) Server, the SIP message essentially
   arrives in tact at the UAS.

   As an example of the data plane in Figure 5 5a above with SIP
   signaling, the data protocol is could be RTP (either Voice or Video
   [1]).

4.0

3.3.2 Out-of-Band Signaling with two Control planes

   Figure 5b shows the other Triangle Model for Out-of-Band Signaling
   in which there are multiple control planes (generally one each
   between the endpoints and the server). These different control
   planes are shown as (a) and (b) in Figure 5b. Each control plane
   will be unique to that endpoint from the server.

                       Server/Controller
                      ^                 ^
               (a)    .                 .   (b)
          <............                 .............>
   Sender           Router1           Router2           Receiver
          ========>         ========>        ========>

    Legend:  ....>  Out-of-Band Control plane (signaling)
             ====>  Data (media/text/file) plane

         Figure 5b. 'Dual' Out-of-Band Signaling example

   Protocols that use this model for IP communications are:

      - MEGACO/H.248 [3]
      - H.323 (H.225/H.245) [4] with a Gatekeeper

   With both ITU-T protocols listed above, each uses unique control
   signaling - where signal 'a' is different than signal 'b' -  between
   the endpoints and the server to facilitate the endpoints
   communicating.

   Similar to SIP in Figure 5a, MEGACO/H.248 and H.323 can use RTP in
   the data plane.

4.  Security Considerations

   This document merely discusses is restricted to discussion of the modeling
   differences of various IETF protocols which control the
   communications signal between a source and (one or more)
   destination(s), therefore there are no special security
   considerations.

5.0

5.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA considerations within this document

6.0

6.  Acknowledgements

   To Scott Bradner, Kimberly King, Senthilkumar Ayyasamy and Henning
   Schulzrinne for their comments and suggestions

7.0

7.  References

 [1]  H. Schulzrinne, S. Casner, R. Frederick, V. Jacobson, ôRTP: A
      Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applicationsö, RFC 1889, January
      1996

 [2]  J. Klensin, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, RFC 2821, April 2001

 [3]  F. Cuervo, N. Greene, A. Rayhan, C. Huitema, B. Rosen, J.
      Segers, ôMegaco Protocol Version 1.0ö, RFC 3015, November 2000.

 [4]  ITU-T H.323v2 Recommendation, "Packet-Based Multimedia
      Communications System", 1996

 [5]  J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "Telnet Protocol Specification", RFC 854,
      May 1983

 [6]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
      Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M. and E. Schooler, "SIP:
      Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, May 2002.

 [7]  R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J., Mogul, H. Frystyk, L., Masinter, P.
      Leach, T. Berners-Lee, " Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.1",
      RFC 2616, June 1999

 [8]  J. Myers, M. Rose, "Post Office Protocol - version 3", RFC 1939,
      May 1996

 [9]  M. Crispin, "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4 rev1",
      RFC 2060, Dec 1996

 [10] B. Campbell, Ed., J. Rosenberg, H. Schulzrinne, C. Huitema, D.
      Gurle, " Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension for Instant
      Messaging", RFC 3428, December 2002

 [11] J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol", RFC 959, Oct
      1985

8.0

8.  Authors Information

   James M. Polk
   Cisco Systems
   2200 East President George Bush Turnpike
   Richardson, Texas 75082 USA
   jmpolk@cisco.com

9.  Full Copyright Statement

   "Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).
   All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph
   are included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."

   The Expiration date for this Internet Draft is:

July 16th,

   Nov 19th, 2003