--- 1/draft-ietf-ipv6-host-load-sharing-02.txt 2006-02-05 00:02:31.000000000 +0100 +++ 2/draft-ietf-ipv6-host-load-sharing-03.txt 2006-02-05 00:02:31.000000000 +0100 @@ -1,46 +1,48 @@ IPv6 Working Group R. Hinden INTERNET-DRAFT Nokia -May 4, 2004 D. Thaler -Expires November 2004 Microsoft +October 18, 2004 D. Thaler +Expires April 2005 Microsoft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing - + Status of this Memo -This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with -all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. +By submitting this Internet-Draft, I certify that any applicable +patent or other IPR claims of which I am aware have been +disclosed, or will be disclosed, and any of which I become aware +will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668. 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 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." +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 +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. Copyright Notice -Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved. +Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing October 2004 -Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing May 2004 +Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved. Abstract The original IPv6 conceptual sending algorithm does not do load- sharing among equivalent IPv6 routers, and suggests schemes which can be problematic in practice. This document updates the conceptual sending algorithm so that traffic to different destinations can be distributed among routers in an efficient fashion. @@ -49,177 +51,175 @@ In the conceptual sending algorithm in [ND] and in the optional extension in [ROUTERSEL], a next hop is chosen when no destination cache entry exists for an off-link destination or when communication through an existing router is failing. Normally a router is selected the first time traffic is sent to a specific destination IP address. Subsequent traffic to the same destination address continues to use the same router unless there is some reason to change to a different router (e.g., a redirect message is received, or the router is found to be unreachable). -In both the base algorithm and in the optional extension, +In addition, as described in [ADDRSEL], the choice of next hop may +also affect the choice of source address, and hence indirectly +(and to a lesser extent) may affect the router used for inbound +traffic as well. + +In both the base sending algorithm and in the optional extension, sometimes a host has a choice of multiple equivalent routers for a destination. That is, all other factors are equal and a host must break a tie via some implementation-specific means. It is typically desirable when there is more than one equivalent router that hosts distribute their outgoing traffic among these routers. This shares the load among multiple routers and provides better performance for the host's traffic. +On the other hand, load sharing can be undesirable in situations +where sufficient capacity is available through a single router and +the traffic patterns could be more predictable by using a single +router; in particular, this helps to diagnose connectivity +problems beyond the first-hop routers. + +Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing October 2004 + [ND] does not require any particular behavior in this respect. It specifies that an implementation may always choose the same router (e.g., the first in the list) or may cycle through the routers in a round-robin manner. Both of these suggestions are problematic. Clearly, always choosing the same router does not provide load sharing. Some problems with load sharing using naive tie-breaking techniques such as round-robin and random are discussed in [MULTIPATH]. While the destination cache provides some stability since the determination is not per-packet, cache evictions or timeouts can still result in unstable or unpredictable paths over time, lowering the performance and making it harder to diagnose problems. Round-robin selection may also result in - -Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing May 2004 - synchronization issues among hosts, where in the worst case the load is concentrated on one router at a time. In the remainder of this document, the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 2. Load Sharing When a host chooses from multiple equivalent routers, it SHOULD support choosing using some method which distributes load for different destinations among the equivalent routers rather than always choosing the same router (e.g., the first in the list). -Furthermore, a host that does attempt to distribute load among -routers SHOULD use a hash-based scheme, such as those described in -[MULTIPATH], which takes the destination IP address into account. +This memo takes no stance on whether the support for load sharing +should be turned on or off by default. Furthermore, a host that +does attempt to distribute load among routers SHOULD use a hash- +based scheme which takes the destination IP address into account, +such as those described in [MULTIPATH], for choosing a router to +use. Note that traffic for a given destination address will use the same router as long as the Destination Cache Entry for the destination address is not deleted. With a hash-based scheme, traffic for a given destination address will use the same router over time even if the Destination Cache Entry is deleted, as long as the list of equivalent routers remains the same. -3. Acknowledgments - -The authors of this document would like to thank Erik Nordmark, -Brian Haberman, Steve Deering, Aron Silverton, and Christian -Huitema. +Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing October 2004 -4. Security Considerations +3. Security Considerations As mentioned in [MULTIPATH], when next-hop selection is predictable, an application can synthesize traffic that will all hash the same, making it possible to launch a denial-of-service attack against the load sharing algorithm, and overload a particular router. This can even be done by a remote application that can cause a host to respond to a given destination address. A special case of this is when the same (single) next-hop is always selected, such as in the algorithm allowed by [ND]. Introducing hashing can make such an attack more difficult; the - -Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing May 2004 - more unpredictable the hash is, the harder it becomes to conduct a denial-of-service attack against any single router. -5. Normative References +However, a malicious local application can bypass the algorithm +for its own traffic by using mechanisms such as raw sockets, and +remote attackers can still overload the routers directly. Hence, +the mechanisms discussed herein have no significant incremental +impact on Internet infrastructure security. + +4. IANA Considerations + +This document has no actions for IANA. + +5. Acknowledgments + +The authors of this document would like to thank Erik Nordmark, +Brian Haberman, Steve Deering, Aron Silverton, Christian Huitema, +and Pekka Savola. + +6. Normative References [ND] Narten, T., Nordmark, E. and W. Simpson, "Neighbor Discovery for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December 1998. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, BCP0014, March 1997. -6. Informative References +[ADDRSEL] + Draves, R., "Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol + version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 3484, February 2003. + +Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing October 2004 + +7. Informative References [MULTIPATH] Thaler, D. and C. Hopps, "Multipath Issues in Unicast and Multicast Next-Hop Selection", RFC 2991, November 2000. [ROUTERSEL] Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences and More-Specific Routes", Work in progress, draft-ietf- ipv6-router-selection-03.txt, December 2003. -7. Authors' Addresses +8. Authors' Addresses Robert Hinden Nokia 313 Fairchild Drive Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: +1 650 625-2004 Email: bob.hinden@nokia.com Dave Thaler Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 Phone: +1 425 703 8835 EMail: dthaler@microsoft.com -Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing May 2004 - -8. Revision History - -(This section to be removed before publication as an RFC) - -Changes from draft-ietf-ipv6-load-sharing-01.txt: - -o Changed load sharing from a MUST to a SHOULD. - -o Added standard IETF intellectual property notice. - -Changes from draft-ietf-ipv6-router-selection-02.txt: - -o Split load sharing back into its own document. - -o Made hash-based, rather than random, the rule. - 9. Full Copyright Statement -Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). 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 implmentation 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. +Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is +subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP +78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their +rights. -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. +This document and the information contained herein are provided on +an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE +REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND +THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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. -Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing May 2004 +Draft IPv6 Host to Router Load Sharing October 2004 10. 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