Subject: [trill] Alvaro Retana's Discuss on draft-ietf-trill-rfc6439bis-04: (with DISCUSS)

From: "Alvaro Retana" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2017 12:32:16 -0800

Alvaro Retana has entered the following ballot position for
draft-ietf-trill-rfc6439bis-04: Discuss

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DISCUSS:
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Section 2.4 (Overload and Appointed Forwarders) talks about potential
Appointed Forwarders which are overloaded.  In IS-IS, a node with the
overload bit set "shall not" (ISO 10589) be considered for transit. 
However, the use of "SHOULD NOT appoint an RBridge in overload" and
"SHOULD re-assign VLANs from the overloaded RBridge" leaves a potential
hole in the proper forwarding of TRILL data packers.  Why aren't MUST
NOT/MUST used?  Is there something in the specific use of IS-IS by TRILL
that I am missing?

I think this should be an easy DISCUSS to clear; either point to the
piece I'm missing, or don't use an overloaded node.

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From: Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:43:51 -0500

Hi Alvaro,

> introductory paragraph, however.)

The Appointed Forwarder function has to do with accepting frames from
end stations for ingress and egressing frames to end stations. It does
not have anything to do with TRILL Data packet transit routing.

Consider the following case: two TRILL switches (RBridges) RB1 and RB2
are connected by a link L1 that also has end stations on it. The end
stations are all in VLAN X. There are other end stations in VLAN X in
the TRILL campus not on L1 but all of these other end stations are
directly connected to RB2. RB2 is in overload.

Under these circumstances, RB2 should be the Appointed Forwarder for
VLAN X as that way traffic between all of the VLAN X end stations can
be forwarded by RB2 without any IS-IS routing at all. RB2 will just
be, in effect, forwarding native frames between RB2 ports (although,
for consistency, the TRILL specifications say that RB2 ingresses this
VLAN X traffic by encapsulating it into a TRILL Data frame, and then
notices it is destined for an end station on a local port, immediately
decapsulates it, and sends it out that port).

> piece I'm missing, or don't use an overloaded node.

Thanks,
Donald
===============================
 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   +1-508-333-2270 (cell)
 155 Beaver Street, Milford, MA 01757 USA
 [email-masked]

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From: "Alvaro Retana (aretana)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2017 14:18:40 +0000

Donald:

Hi!

I am not concerned about the case you described below: where the source and destination are attached to the same switch.  Nor am I concerned about transit TRILL data packets.

I am concerned about the case where the other end stations are not attached to any of the local switches, but are somewhere else in the campus (or the mixed case where some of the other end stations are attached to an overloaded switch, but others are elsewhere).  In that case, if I am not missing anything, the appointed forwarder for the local link will accept the native frame and will have to send a TRILL Data Packet across the campus – the information to do that may not be available if the switch is overloaded.

Thanks!

Alvaro.

On 1/18/17, 11:43 PM, "Donald Eastlake" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:

Hi Alvaro,

On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 3:32 PM, Alvaro Retana <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
Alvaro Retana has entered the following ballot position for
draft-ietf-trill-rfc6439bis-04: Discuss

Thanks,
Donald
===============================
Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   +1-508-333-2270 (cell)
155 Beaver Street, Milford, MA 01757 USA
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>