From: tsvwg <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ian Swett
Sent: den 28 mars 2023 12:04
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [tsvwg] Further thoughts on maturity of multipath

I don't have a strong opinion on EXP vs PS, but the conceptual structure of 
MPTCP, MP-QUIC, and MP-DCCP don't seem equivalent to me.

Hi Ian, could you expand on what conceptual differences you see with respect to 
concurrent path usage? Is it related to safety or you are thinking of something 
else?

The potential safety issues involved in concurrent use of more than one path 
seem conceptually similar to me for all three protocols (ask well as for SCTP), 
even if there are other differences between the protocols.

The publication of MPTCP as PS suggests that concurrent path usage is 
considered safe. But I can agree with Martin that the use may have been mostly 
for particular use cases so far and perhaps not much general use and there is 
no coupled CC published as PS yet. It is also very easy to get wrong. From that 
perspective, I think it makes sense to leave general use of concurrent paths 
out of scope.

Unless someone sees other safety issues, I am in favor of PS for both MP-DCCP 
and MP-QUIC. From my understanding, this will make it easier to make use of the 
protocols by other standardization organization. That seems desirable from an 
IETF perspective.

BR,
Anna

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 2:50 PM 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear all,

Thank you to everyone who participated in today's TSVWG discussion on the 
proposed section 3.9 for the MP-DCCP draft in the email below. The goal of this 
section is to provide a clear recommendation to implementers that concurrent 
path use is not a well-verified feature and therefore not appropriate to be 
implemented over the Internet. With this statement in the MP-DCCP draft, 
authors believe PS track can be followed instead of EXP. Certainly, this cannot 
guarantee that implementers will use MP-DCCP without the concurrent path usage 
feature over the Internet, but at least the proposed Section 3.9.1. and the 
existing statement in the draft that packet scheduling is out of scope indicate 
that this is experimental and therefore at the user's own risk.

Let me share my conclusion from the meeting and in particular the lack of 
discussion that I see in this context to reach a generally accepted consensus.


1. the voting results on the EXP->PS question during the meeting showed that 
more people have an opinion than have actually read the document or the 
suggested section 3.9, which was confirmed in another vote earlier. I would 
like to encourage these people, especially those who are not in favor, to 
comment on the mailing list. As the author, I did not receive any feedback from 
them during the meeting as to why they believe PS is not appropriate.

2. I assume that the proposed text reflects a general dilemma of multipath in 
the IETF. Therefore, any conclusion related to the change of MP-DCCP draft from 
EXP to PS is part of a general multipath discussion that also affects the 
ongoing standardization of MP-QUIC, or is also related to the standardized 
MPTCP. Since the conceptual structure of MPTCP, MP-QUIC and MP-DCCP is pretty 
much the same, this should motivate those involved with these protocols to 
share their views here.

Br

Markus

From: tsvwg <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On Behalf 
Of Amend, Markus
Sent: Donnerstag, 9. März 2023 19:45
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [tsvwg] Further thoughts on maturity of multipath

Hi Martin, all,

With the MP-DCCP draft-07 a version is now available which includes the latest 
reviews from Simone and IANA. So I now come to the discussion from the last 
IETF to change to "Proposed Standard". We, the authors, have below attached a 
text with the new section 3.9 to the "Step 4b" proposed by you for this. I am 
looking forward to the discussion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

### 3.9 Path usage strategies

MP-DCCP can be configured to realise one of several strategies for path usage, 
via selecting one DCCP subflow of the multiple DCCP subflows within a MP-DCCP 
connection for data transmission. This can be a dynamic process further 
facilitated by the means of DCCP and MP-DCCP defined options such as path 
preference using MP-PRIO, adding or removing DCCP subflows using MP_REMOVEADDR, 
MP_ADDADDR or DCCP-Close/DCCP-Reset and also path metrics such as 
packet-loss-rate, CWND or RTT provided by the Congestion Control Algorithm.

Selecting an appropriate method can allow MP-DCCP to realise different path 
utilization strategies that make MP-DCCP suitable for end-to-end implementation 
over the Internet or in controlled environments such as Hybrid Access or 5G 
ATSSS.

#### 3.9.1 Path mobility

The path mobility strategy provides the use of a single path with a seamless 
handover function to continue the connection when the currently used path is 
deemed unsuitable for service delivery.

Some of the DCCP subflows of a MP-DCCP connection might become inactive due to 
either the occurrence of certain error conditions (e.g., DCCP timeout, packet 
loss threshold, RTT threshold, closed/removed) or adjustments from the MP-DCCP 
user.

When there is outbound data to send and the primary path becomes inactive 
(e.g., due to failures) or de-prioritized, the MP-DCCP endpoint SHOULD try to 
send the data through an alternate path with a different source or destination 
address (depending on the point of failure), if one exists. This process SHOULD 
respect the path prio configured by MP_PRIO or if not available pick the most 
divergent source-destination pair from the original used source-destination 
pair.

Note: Rules for picking the most appropriate source-destination pair are an 
implementation decision and are not specified within this document.

Path mobility is supported in the current Linux reference implementation 
[https://multipath-dccp.org/].

#### 3.9.2 Concurrent path usage

This method could be used to support a concurrent path utilization strategy, 
which allows multiple path resources to be aggregated for higher throughput.

Compared to the path mobility strategy, the selection of DCCP flows is a 
per-packet decision and part of the multipath scheduling process which is out 
of scope of this specification.

Concurrent path usage over the Internet can have implications. The choice of 
(coupled) congestion control, scheduler, and possible reordering function has 
performance and fairness consequences. Since this needs further investigation, 
it is recommended that concurrent path usage over the Internet SHOULD NOT be 
used.

Concurrent path usage is also supported in the current Linux reference 
implementation [https://multipath-dccp.org/].

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Br

Markus

From: tsvwg <mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On 
Behalf Of Amend, Markus
Sent: Freitag, 11. November 2022 15:22
To: mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; 
mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [tsvwg] Further thoughts on maturity of multipath

Hi Martin,


Thank you for your thoughts on the items we raised during the IETF 115 TSVWG 
meeting.


We believe that 4b is a feasible step. We are currently working on a draft 
version -07 that includes the final comments from Simone and IANA. Our plan is 
then to provide text for a concurrent path usage section on the mailing list.


Br

Markus

From: tsvwg <mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On 
Behalf Of Martin Duke
Sent: Donnerstag, 10. November 2022 11:44
To: tsvwg <mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: [tsvwg] Further thoughts on maturity of multipath

I reflected a bit more on the appropriate maturity level of MP-DCCP and 
MP-QUIC, and the result is perhaps a bit more nuanced than what I said at the 
mic.

1. After the presentations at IETF 115, I feel somewhat better about the 
maturity of MP-DCCP. That said, I have no strong opinion as to whether this has 
cleared the bar for standards track, and would be interested in the overall 
consensus of the WG.

2. As I stated at the mic, for all MP protocols I am concerned about a Proposed 
Standard that includes concurrent bulk delivery when we don't really know how 
to fairly apply congestion control or schedule data streams across multiple 
paths. Indeed, one reason I encouraged both the MP-DCCP and MP-QUIC work is to 
provide a good experimental platform for the research community to explore 
these questions.

3. However, that statement glosses over an important point. There are a variety 
of use cases that are *not* concurrent delivery. Failover and "hot standby" are 
sometimes supported by existing standards, but sometimes not (for example, QUIC 
supports client address changes but not server).

4. Stepping back from the question of how to spell this in documents, what I 
would like is for the non-concurrent cases to be standards track (assuming they 
are otherwise mature enough) while implementers are warned away from the 
concurrent use case unless they "know what they are doing".

4a. One way to do this would be to have a PS document that does not include 
concurrency while a smaller experimental extension covers concurrency.

4b. Another would be a PS document with a section concurrency that says, in 
some way, implementers SHOULD NOT do this unless they know what they are doing, 
perhaps outlining how this can be dangerous if you don't understand your 
traffic, etc.

5. I am not the responsible AD for QUIC, but I believe a similar framework is 
appropriate for MP-QUIC.

I'm happy to hear the community's thoughts on this.

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