Chris -

Please see inline.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian Hopps <[email protected]>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 7:24 AM
> To: Les Ginsberg (ginsberg) <[email protected]>
> Cc: Christian Hopps <[email protected]>; Robert Raszuk
> <[email protected]>; Tony Li <[email protected]>; Henk Smit
> <[email protected]>; [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Lsr] New Version Notification for draft-pkaneria-lsr-multi-tlv-
> 01.txt
> 
> 
> [as wg-member]
> 
> I don't think what I've written is being read correctly.
> 
> > If a node which supports MP-TLV were to introduce/withdraw MP-TLVs
> > based on the advertised state of support for MP-TLVs by all nodes in
> > the network,  this would introduce flooding storms on the
> > transitions. Not a good thing.
> 
> I didn't suggest this. My suggestion was that a router sending multiple-TLVs
> needs to advertise that it does so, and receivers would interpret what they
> received (is this second TLV a replacement or is it a concatenation?) based on
> that advertisement. The proposal is for a "capability" in this case and that
> could serve as this advertisement.
> 
> I believe you would argue against this as it might impact networks that just
> happen to be lucky and working right now.
>
[LES:] My argument is the presence/use of the "capability" does not result in a 
working network.
As I have stated multiple times, MP-TLVs are sent because the configuration 
requires it - not just because an implementation is capable of doing so.
Preventing advertisement of what is configured does not make the network 
healthy. It simply trades one problem for another.
 
> If things would have been done correctly (i.e., documented) we also would
> have had the option to add a sub-tlv to the TLVs in question that indicated
> they were part of a set rather than replacements.
> 
[LES:] So, this is a new proposal - not one that has been defined or even 
suggested anywhere to date.
And I don’t support it.
It deviates from how existing MP-TLV support that is already explicitly 
specified is done.
It is inefficient in that it requires modification of the original TLV simply 
to advertise additional information about the same object - which means 
additional LSPs will need to be regenerated/flooded/processed.
It would require a flag day (or knobs of some sort) because it would not work 
until all implementations supported the new sub-TLV.

> > MP-TLVs are not sent just because an implementation supports them.
> > They are sent because the current configuration requires them.
> 
> The SW also has the option to alert the operator that their configuration is
> not supported, and to revise it, rather than play loose with standards.
> 
> The vendors who made these changes should have brought this to the IETF
> as a draft that would have clear and deterministic transition mechanism (e.g.,
> wide metrics had a clear transition plan documented in it's RFC).
> 
[LES:] Hmmm...RFC 5305 says in the Introduction:

"Mechanisms and procedures to migrate to the new TLVs are not
   discussed in this document."

What are you looking at?

> I'm suggesting that the most important thing to come now is to make clear
> what operators need to do to have a deterministic functional network. It
> doesn't have to be the way I suggested, but we have to get there somehow.
>
[LES:] If there was a way to do this I would be interested. Nothing proposed 
thus far does this.

   Les
 
> Thanks,
> Chris.
> [as wg-member]
> 
> 
> "Les Ginsberg (ginsberg)" <[email protected]> writes:
> 
> > Chris -
> >
> >
> >
> > Inline.
> >
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >
> >> From: Christian Hopps <[email protected]>
> >
> >> Sent: Monday, October 3, 2022 5:52 PM
> >
> >> To: Les Ginsberg (ginsberg) <[email protected]>
> >
> >> Cc: Christian Hopps <[email protected]>; Robert Raszuk
> >
> >> <[email protected]>; Tony Li <[email protected]>; Henk Smit
> >
> >> <[email protected]>; [email protected]
> >
> >> Subject: Re: [Lsr] New Version Notification for
> > draft-pkaneria-lsr-multi-tlv-
> >
> >> 01.txt
> >
> >>
> >
> >>
> >
> >> [As wg-member] --- inline...
> >
> >>
> >
> >> "Les Ginsberg (ginsberg)" <[email protected]> writes:
> >
> >>
> >
> >> > Chris -
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> >> -----Original Message-----
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> >> From: Christian Hopps <[email protected]>
> >
> >> >> Sent: Monday, October 3, 2022 8:37 AM
> >
> >> >> To: Les Ginsberg (ginsberg) <[email protected]>
> >
> >> >> Cc: Robert Raszuk <[email protected]>; Tony Li <[email protected]
> >>; Henk
> >
> >> Smit
> >
> >> >> <[email protected]>; [email protected]
> >
> >> >> Subject: Re: [Lsr] New Version Notification for
> > draft-pkaneria-lsr-multi-tlv-
> >
> >> 01.txt
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> >> [As wg-member]
> >
> >> >>
> >
> >> >> I think the draft should include a table of all top level TLVS
> > as rows and for
> >
> >> >> columns we have
> >
> >> >>
> >
> >> >> - "Implicit Single TLV Only" (e.g., no key info)
> >
> >> >> - "Implicit Multi-TLV Only"
> >
> >> >> - "Explicit Single TLV Only"
> >
> >> >> - "Explicit Multi-TLV-Allowed"
> >
> >> >>
> >
> >> >> This draft then would *explicitly* cover the existing "implicit"
> > cases and
> >
> >> we
> >
> >> >> have the table to point at to be precise about what we are
> > talking about.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> > [LES:] I am not overly enthused about this - but I can see its
> >
> >> > usefulness, so I don’t oppose it.
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> > Probably best realized as an additional column in the existing
> > IS-IS
> >
> >> > TLV Codepoints registry.
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> > But also realize that in some cases this extends to sub-TLVs (as
> > one
> >
> >> > example "16 Application-Specific Link Attributes").
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >> Now about the capability... There's an argument about including
> > a router
> >
> >> >> capability and it seems to be that people have agreed that it
> > should *not*
> >
> >> >> have any operation impact on the protocol.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >> I think this is hasty. I would like to look at the above table
> > to see what
> >
> >> TLVs
> >
> >> >> we are *exactly* talking about here (the implicit multi-tlv
> > ones). People
> >
> >> have
> >
> >> >> said that implementations support multi-tlv use of these
> > implicit cases
> >
> >> (e.g.,
> >
> >> >> the draft talks about extended reachability).
> >
> >> >>
> >
> >> >> Really?
> >
> >>
> >
> >> > [LES:] Yes - really. 😊
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >> I could easily believe its not common. I think we should get
> > specific about
> >
> >> >> vendors and versions (and maybe specific TLVS?) if we are saying
> > this has
> >
> >> >> been deployed and is in use. I've written a few IS-IS
> > implementations and
> >
> >> I
> >
> >> >> don't think *any* of them supported multiple tlvs of, for
> > example,
> >
> >> extended
> >
> >> >> reachability (seeing 2 of the same keyed info would be seen as
> > one
> >
> >> replacing
> >
> >> >> the other, or a bug if in the same LSP segment).
> >
> >>
> >
> >> > [LES:] All of us who have "been around for a while" have worked
> > on
> >
> >> > implementations that did not support MP-TLVs. Prior to new
> > features
> >
> >> > (SR, TE Metric Extensions (RFC 8570), flex-algo, more extensive
> >
> >> > deployments of IPv6, etc.) there wasn't a need - at least for
> >
> >> > Neighbor/Prefix advertisements.
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> > But deployment requirements have evolved. We absolutely have
> > cases
> >
> >> > today where a single TLV is insufficient space-wise for both
> > neighbor
> >
> >> > and prefix advertisements and there are multiple implementations
> >
> >> > which already support this.
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> > If the WG wants to pursue an Implementation Report on this, I
> > have no
> >
> >> > objection.
> >
> >> >
> >
> >> > BTW, the need for this should not surprise you. Discussion of
> > this
> >
> >> > problem dates back at least to 2004: https://datatracker.ietf.org
> > /doc
> >
> >> > /html/draft-shen-isis-extended-tlv-00
> >
> >>
> >
> >> The need is not a surprise to me, no.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >> Once we have this info I think a stronger case might be made for
> > actually
> >
> >> >> having the router capability be used *operationally* (i.e., if
> > you don't see
> >
> >> the
> >
> >> >> capability advertised then that router in fact doesn't send
> > multi-tlv tlvs
> >
> >> and
> >
> >> >> they should be seen as replacements of each other), and the
> > argument
> >
> >> >> about it's inclusion goes away as it's then required.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> > [LES:] I don't agree with this argument - but I think the
> > discussion
> >
> >> > triggered by posts from Gunter and Henk has already covered this
> > well
> >
> >> > from both points of view, so I won’t repeat here.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> That discussion had to do with whether to include a bit that is for
> >
> >> management purposes only. What I am seeing here is a need for an
> >
> >> operationally relevant bit (i.e., determines how the protocol
> > functions).
> >
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > [LES:] In the discussions thus far (both on the list and discussions
> > I have had with folks off the list) no one has suggested that the
> > advertisement of MP-TLV support be used to determine what a given
> > implementation sends on the wire. And there is good reason for that.
> >
> > If a node which supports MP-TLV were to introduce/withdraw MP-TLVs
> > based on the advertised state of support for MP-TLVs by all nodes in
> > the network,  this would introduce flooding storms on the
> > transitions. Not a good thing.
> >
> >
> >
> > Also (pardon the repetition - I have stated this before), such
> > behavior would not result in a working network.
> >
> > MP-TLVs are not sent just because an implementation supports them.
> > They are sent because the current configuration requires them.
> >
> > If an implementation suppresses MP-TLVs because it sees one or more
> > nodes in the network isn’t advertising support, some of the
> > information required to be advertised based on current configuration
> > won't be advertised - which means the network isn’t working.
> >
> >
> >
> > There is no good way to utilize the advertisement to control what is
> > sent/not sent.
> >
> >
> >
> >> AFAICT we now have implementations out there that are sending
> > multiple
> >
> >> TLVs which are not documented to be sent that way, that
> > historically were
> >
> >> not expected to be received that way, and then we have other
> >
> >> implementations that do not expect this new, convenient but rather
> > loose
> >
> >> interpretation of the standards. Consider we have documents that
> > explicitly
> >
> >> state that a TLV can be sent multiple times, it would be completely
> > normal for
> >
> >> someone to then assume that when that isn't stated explicitly that
> > multiple
> >
> >> versions of those TLV will not be sent.
> >
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > [LES:] Well, implementations faced with deployment requirements where
> > more than 255 bytes are required to be sent for a given IS Neighbor
> > or a given prefix had to do “something” – and it was clear that
> > MP-TLVs are the natural extension of the protocol.
> >
> > We did this with full awareness that if not all nodes in the network
> > supported MP-TLVs for these TLVs the network would not work
> > correctly. As with many aspects of scale, operators have to determine
> > that the nodes they deploy can support the scale required in their
> > deployment before they introduce the associated configuration.
> >
> > And based on customer cases I have worked on over the years, I know
> > that operators would not be happy if we withdrew advertisements
> > because a new node came up and did not have the necessary support.
> > Instead of having only the new node be compromised, you would degrade
> > the support of configured features in the entire network. Clearly a
> > very undesirable consequence.
> >
> >
> >
> >> Thus the need for this document -- in some form.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> Having all routers work from the same link-state database is basic
> >
> >> requirement to the correct functioning of the decision process.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> Are we just lucky that things haven't really broken yet? How can an
> > operator
> >
> >> even know what they've got deployed? Before this document there's
> >
> >> nothing to even refer to to document the possible different
> > behaviors.
> >
> >>
> >
> >> If people want to argue that no operationally significant bit is
> > needed then
> >
> >> how can an operator be expected to get this right? What is the
> > exact process
> >
> >> they should follow to have interoperating routers?
> >
> >
> >
> > [LES:] This isn't a new problem for operators. There are many
> > examples of extensions to the protocol which have been introduced
> > which result in a broken network in cases of partial deployment. To
> > list just a few:
> >
> >
> >
> >     Wide metrics
> >     Cryptographic authentication
> >     Support for extended LSP lifetime (> 1200 seconds)
> >
> >
> >
> > The consequences of sending MP-TLVs when not all routers support them
> > are no more severe than the consequences of partial support for any
> > of the above features.
> >
> >
> >
> > Operators absolutely have to know the capabilities of the routers in
> > their network. But that is precisely what the management plane is
> > for. That is what PICS documents are for. That is what vendor
> > documentation is for.
> >
> >
> >
> > Folks may well complain that management tools are not as good as they
> > need to be, but trying to compensate for this by adding management
> > information into the protocol itself isn’t a good solution.
> >
> >
> >
> >    Les
> >
> >
> >
> >>
> >
> >> Thanks,
> >
> >> Chris.
> >
> >> [as wg-member]
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >    Les
> >
> >>
> >
> >> >> Thanks,
> >
> >> >> Chris.
> >
> >> >> [as wg-member]
> >
> >

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