Robust TCP/IP Header Compression

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Forwarding and Control Element Protocol (FACT)
by Ram Gopal, Alex Audu, Chaoping Wu, Hormuzd
Khosravi
ltdraft-gopal-forces-fact-03.txtgt
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Protocol Overview

• Protocol to support communication between CE and
  FE in a distributed fault-tolerant architecture.
• Master/Slave relationship between CE-FE.
• Logical separation by means of providing base
  protocol and service functions.
• Service specific functions can be encoded using
  TLV, OID or XML.
• Transport/Interconnect independence
• Supports latest ForCES Requirements draft.

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FACT NE model
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Message Structure
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Message Class and Messages (1)

• Association Establishment
• To establish logical connection between CE and FE
• Join, Leave message etc
• Capabilities Exchange Configuration
• To exchange FEs capabilities and to configure
  FEs functions.
• Capability request, Configure FE Blocks, Topology
  request etc
• State Maintenance
• To track element states and report state changes.
• Heart-beat, PE UP, PE Down, PE Active and
  Inactive etc

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Message Class and Messages (2)

• Traffic Maintenance
• To control data and control traffic between CE
  and FE.
• Packet Redirection, Control packet forwarding
  etc.
• Event Notification
• Asynchronous status change notification by FE to
  CE.
• Event Register, Deregister, Notification
  message,etc..
• Vendor Specific
• To extend the protocol beyond its current
  capabilities.

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Association Phase
FE
CE
Join Request
1
Validation of FE endpoint
Join Response
2
Capability Request
3
FE Block addressing, handles and relationship
Capability Response
4
Topology Request
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Topology Response
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Configure FE Block
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FE Block configuration
Configuration Acknowledgement
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PE UP
9
PE UP acknowledgement
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State Maintenance (Element State)
PE (FE) ACTIVE
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PE ACTIVE acknowledgement
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Element State
ACTIVE
Alternate CE/FE active
CE/FE active
CE/FE inactive
INACTIVE
CE/FE down CE-FE communication failure
CE/FE down CE-FE communication failure
CE/FE UP
DOWN
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Normal Operation
FE
CE
Heart beat request
1
Heart beat response
2
Query Request
3
Query Response
4
Port Event Notification
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Port Event Notification Ack
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Configure Logical Components (Modify)
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Configure Logical Components ACK
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Control packet redirect
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Control packet redirect ACK
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Other features

• Two-phase transaction support
• Command bundling
• High availability support
• Security
• Configured as part of FE-Manager and CE-Manager
• Re-keying leveraged to Security protocols.
• Security for shared network similar to OSPFv3

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Questions