Internet DRAFT - draft-declercq-ppvpn-l3vpn-qos

draft-declercq-ppvpn-l3vpn-qos









Network Working Group                                   Jeremy De Clercq
INTERNET DRAFT                                                   Alcatel
<draft-declercq-ppvpn-l3vpn-qos-00.txt>


                                                           February 2003
                                                    Expires August, 2003


                   QoS considerations for L3 PPVPNs

                <draft-declercq-ppvpn-l3vpn-qos-00.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

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   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   Although QoS is identified as a very important requirement for L3
   PPVPNs (see for example [PPVPN-REQ]), the proposed L3 PPVPN solutions
   ([2547bis], [VR], [CE-based]) have paid very little attention to
   describing how the proposed approach fulfills the QoS requirements.
   This document explores different points of view, describes
   dependencies and orthogonalities, and details a number of solutions
   and guidelines.

Table of Contents




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   0.   Sub-IP Area Section .........................................  2
   1.   Introduction ................................................  3
   2.   Potential QoS-related issues with L3 PPVPNs .................  4
   2.1  Default use of LDP-DU and LSP merge .........................  4
   2.2  Default use of one PE-PE tunnel for all QoS classes and for
        all VPNs ....................................................  6
   2.3  Use of Penultimate Hop Popping (PHP) ........................  8
   2.4  BGP Signalling ..............................................  9
   2.5  PPVPNs in non-MPLS networks ................................. 11
   3.   Example ..................................................... 12
   3.1  QoS pre-provisioning of SP's network ........................ 12
   3.2  VPN SLS and Configuration of QoS-enabled L3 PPVPN ........... 12
   3.3  Adding a VPN site ........................................... 13
   4.   Conclusion .................................................. 13
   5.   Acknowledgements ............................................ 14
   6.   References .................................................. 14
   7.   Authors' Addresses .......................................... 14

0. SubIP-Area Section

   SUMMARY

   This document acknowledges the fact that QoS is a very important part
   of a VPN service, and demonstrates that for L3 VPNs, offering QoS to
   the VPN customers may be seen as a rather orthogonal issue from
   building the VPN topology and managing the connectivity.

   Nevertheless, some potential issues are discussed and possible
   solutions or prefered practices are identified. It is explained how
   to make advantage of the MPLS-DiffServ mechanisms to differentiate
   between customers and traffic classes (including level of traffic
   protection). It is also explained that establishing VR-to-VR non-
   multiplexed core LSPs is nor scalable nor necessary. In addition, the
   impact of the possible use of PHP is identified and the prefered way
   to handle this is explained. Finally, we state that the use of BGP to
   signal intra-domain per-VPN QoS parameters is not useful.

   RELATED DOCUMENTS

   See References section (especially [PPVPN-REQ], [2547bis], [VR]).

   WHERE DOES IT FIT IN THE PICTURE OF THE SUB-IP WORK

   PPVPN box.

   WHY IS IT TARGETED AT THIS WG

   This document discusses PPVPN-specific QoS matters.



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   JUSTIFICATION

   QoS is identified as a very important requirement for L3 PPVPNs (see
   for example [PPVPN-REQ]), while the proposed L3 PPVPN solution
   documents have paid very little attention to describing how the
   proposed approach fulfills the QoS requirements.

1. Introduction

   Although QoS is identified as a very important requirement for L3
   PPVPNs (see for example [PPVPN-REQ]), the proposed L3 PPVPN solutions
   ([2547bis], [VR], [CE-based]) have paid very little attention to
   describing how the proposed approach fulfills the QoS requirements.
   There are a number of possible explanations for this apparent
   contradiction: (i) provisioning an IP VPN over a shared backbone on
   one hand and offering Differentiated treatment and QoS guarantees to
   traffic flows over a SP's backbone on the other hand are orthogonal
   issues (this would mean that SP's offering VPN services using the
   approaches defined in the PPVPN WG can add QoS assurances to these
   VPNs using QoS mechanisms defined elsewhere), (ii) the VPN solutions
   have focussed on providing restricted connectivity first and will
   elaborate on the QoS issue later, (iii) the discussed solutions do
   not acknowledge QoS as an important requirement for VPNs and are
   happy with a solution for Best Effort VPNs. This document assumes (i)
   or (ii) is applicable and explores different points of view,
   describes dependencies and orthogonalities, and details a number of
   solutions.

   When QoS guarantees are offered as a service to VPN customers, the
   details of this offering are described in the SLS between the SP and
   the VPN customer (the Service Level Specification is the technical
   part of the Service Level Agreement). Such an SLS will describe the
   QoS guarantees (in terms of bandwidth, delay, jitter, drop
   probability, etc.) and the availability/survivability guarantees of a
   VPN customer's various types of traffic. As a VPN consists of a set
   of sites attached to a SP's core network, a VPN SLS is often
   described as a collection of pipe and/or hose service specifications.

   On one hand, VPNs segregate the traffic of different customers (this
   means for example that the behaviour of one VPN customer must not
   affect the traffic of other VPN customers served by the same SP
   backbone), and on the other hand, QoS/CoS segregates the different
   types of traffic travelling over a network as to treat them
   appropriately. And of course, one VPN customer may send different
   types of traffic. Important to note is that, as SLSs are VPN
   customer-specific, the same type of traffic belonging to different
   VPN customers may need to be treated differently in the SP's core
   network (both with regards to QoS and availability/survivability).



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   This means that the traffic class (a traffic class contains all the
   traffic from a certain network portion that will be QoS/CoS treated
   identically in that specific portion of the network) of a specific
   packet in the SP's core network is a function of (i) the traffic
   class of a packet in the customer's network and (ii) the VPN the
   packet belongs to.

   Instantiating a pipe or hose SLS in a provider's core network
   requires specific provisioning of some network elements and possibly
   specific QoS-signalling in the core network. One important question
   is whether these QoS provisioning actions are "compatible" with the
   VPN provisioning and auto-discovery mechanisms. Indeed, the current
   L3 PPVPN approaches have been designed as to optimize scalability (in
   usage of core network resources (e.g. "no per-VPN state in the
   core"), in provisioning burden (e.g. "VPN membership auto-
   discovery"), etc.). So the question is whether the provisioning of
   QoS parameters (dictated by the SLS), that is often a task that is
   distributed over multiple network elements, can be optimized as to
   fit within the scalable local VPN provisioning tasks.

   A last initial consideration is that the default VPN signalling used
   by the SP is a point-to-multipoint signalling that has a per VPN-
   route granularity (or per set of destination addresses) in [2547bis].
   This in contradiction to QoS signalling that typically is a point-
   to-point signalling with a per-flow (or per-aggregate flows - type of
   traffic) granularity.

   Section 2 of this document discusses several "potential QoS-related
   issues with L3 PPVPNs": the goal is to identify which issues can be
   solved using (or combining) existing mechanisms, which issues have
   been raised but are irrelevant and which issues could benefit from
   the definition of additional protocol extensions or specifications.
   Section 3 gives an example of the provisioning and operation of a
   QoS-enabled L3 PPVPN. Section 4 gives an overall conclusion.

2. Potential QoS-related issues with L3 PPVPNs

2.1 Default use of LDP-DU and LSP merge

   o description

      MPLS-based VPNs (e.g. [2547bis])use a two-label stack to forward
      packets accross the SP's backbone. The specification assumes that
      every PE knows which 'outer' label to push on data packets to make
      them reach a particular egress PE, identified by its /32 "BGP NEXT
      HOP". There is no requirement on how this PE-to-PE "tunnel LSP" is
      established. In order to improve interoperability, the
      specification states that every router MUST support LDP. Using



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      LDP, the distribution of each router's /32 address into the core's
      IGP automatically results in the establishment of a full mesh of
      LSPs between PE devices (1 single LSP per direction between each
      pair of PE devices). Where applicable, these LSPs will be merged
      as to preserve the routers' label space as much as possible.

      In many aspects, an LDP-signalled MPLS core network behaves like
      an IP-forwarded core network. This is the case too for the QoS
      aspects: RFC3270 explains how to make an MPLS network DiffServ-
      aware. Although differentiated treatment of different classes of
      service is possible, LDP doesn't allow to explicitly signal
      bandwidth reservations, to establish traffic engineered paths or
      to establish multiple paths between the same destination with
      different levels of protection.

   o solution

      As was mentioned before, there is no requirement on the way the
      PE-PE LSPs are established: the routers must support LDP but may
      use e.g. RSVP-TE to establish traffic engineered LSPs with certain
      signalled bandwidth guarantees. In addition, nothing precludes a
      SP to establish more than one LSP per pair of PE devices (for a
      certain direction), and let the ingress decide which tunnel to use
      on a per-packet basis. Other architectures that use a traffic-
      engineered core in addition to a LDP-signalled scalable MPLS edge
      can prove to be very usefull too. Alternatively, in an
      intelligently over-provisioned network with under-utilized links
      (possibly using DiffServ for service differentiation), the overall
      performance of an LDP-established mesh may be high enough as to
      satisfy every customer's SLS.

   o impact

      Using traffic engineered/bandwidth guaranteed (RSVP-TE) LSPs from
      PE to PE instead of a full mesh of automatically established LDP
      LSPs results in a higher label consumption, an increase of the
      state maintained in the network elements and an increase of the
      signalling load for the SP's routers. Also the management burden
      may likely increase. These implications are orthogonal to the fact
      that MPLS VPNs is the service transported by the MPLS network, and
      has as such no impact on the VPN specification (e.g. [2547bis]).

   o conclusion

      By offering PPVPNs based on MPLS VPN approaches, a SP has the
      complete freedom to use the range of capabilities of the
      underlying MPLS network. BGP/MPLS VPNs need PE-to-PE tunnels.
      These tunnels may be automatically established using LDP (and



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      eventually enhanced with DiffServ capabilities [3270]), or
      alternatively using RSVP-TE. The latter approach allows the SP to
      take advantage of the available traffic engineering, bandwidth
      reservation signalling and dedicated protection capabilities of
      RSVP-TE established LSPs.

2.2 Default use of one PE-PE tunnel for all QoS classes and for all VPNs

   o description

      In BGP/MPLS VPNs, VPN routes are distributed among PE devices
      using BGP. The BGP Route Target attribute identifies which VPN the
      routes belong to; the MPLS label carried with the routes in the
      BGP updates is the 'inner label' to be used for packets sent on
      these announced routes, and the BGP NEXT_HOP attribute identifies
      the egress PE for these routes.

      In the forwarding plane, when a site sends a packet to its
      attached PE, an IP destination address look-up in the associated
      VRF results in a 'inner label' and a NEXT_HOP address. Based on
      this NEXT_HOP address, the tunnel LSP to send the packet on is
      identified. As such, in the most simple and default
      implementation, the NEXT_HOP address uniquely identifies a PE to
      PE LSP. As such, all packets destined for destinations advertised
      by the egress PE will be sent on a particular LSP, independent of
      the VPN the packets belong to and independent of the class of
      service associated with the packets. This means that all traffic
      from all VPNs would be treated and protected equally. With one
      single LSP between two PEs, even when this LSP is associated with
      certain reserved resources, when congestion occurs, all traffic
      classes of all VPNs will be affected in a non-deterministic way.

   o solution

      (A) In order to accomplish a differentiated treatment, RFC 3270
      can be used: the PE-PE LSPs can be E-LSPs (one LSP carries traffic
      from a set of BAs) or L-LSPs (one LSP carries traffic belonging to
      one PSC), with or without bandwidth reservations. Upon congestion,
      differentiated treatment for different classes of traffic will be
      applied. Using RFC3270, it is also possible (using multiple L-LSPs
      between a couple of PEs) to give different survivability
      assurances to different DiffServ classes.

      Using DiffServ E-LSPs and L-LSPs, possibly associated with
      explicit bandwidth reservations and specific protection
      characteristics per LSP, a SP can guarantee different specific
      levels of service for different classes of traffic between any two
      PE devices. In order to optimize the scalability of the



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      architecture, it is of prime import to aggregate the traffic
      belonging to the same class of service and that is associated with
      the same survivability guarantees.

      Note that this class of service (and survivability class) is the
      class to which the packets are associated within the SP's core
      network.

      The SLS of every customer describes which treatment (service
      guarantees) will be associated with which traffic types. This is
      VPN-dependent: the same traffic type (e.g. with the same DSCP, or
      from the same application), belonging to different VPNs, may be
      associated with different service guarantees in the SP's core. As
      such, data packets that will be carried by the SP's network will
      be associated with a specific SP's traffic class, depending on (i)
      the VPN they belong to and (ii) the packet's "traffic type". The
      packet's traffic type may be identified by it's DSCP or
      alternatively by a combination of other fields (e.g. source and
      destination IP addresses, protocol, port numbers etc.). This means
      that, as an extreme example, based on the specifics of the
      considered SLSs, the 'gold' traffic of VPN-blue can be associated
      with the same SP's traffic class as the 'best effort' traffic from
      VPN-red.

      So the result is one ("traffic type"[in the context of one VPN] =>
      "traffic class in the SP's network") translation table per VPN. In
      addition there will be one (<"traffic class in the SP's network",
      BGP NEXT_HOP> => <"outer MPLS label", EXP-bit setting, outgoing
      interface>) table per PE device. In the data forwarding plane,
      this means that, processing of a VPN packet in a VRF sent by a
      directly attached customer site will result in the identification
      of (i) 'inner label', (ii) BGP NEXT_HOP and (iii) "traffic class
      in the SP's network". Resolving the BGP NEXT_HOP and "traffic
      class in the SP's network" information will uniquely identify the
      'tunnel label' to use and the setting of the EXP bits in that
      outer label.

      (B) An alternative way to differentiate traffic from different
      VPNs is to establish end-to-end bandwidth guaranteed VRF-to-VRF
      hop-by-hop LSPs. This would result in a one-label MPLS stack in
      the core network and is obviously a non-scalable solution.

   o impact

      The impact of using the approach described in (A) is that PE
      devices need to be able to implement different policies for
      mapping packets into traffic classes, depending on the VPN the
      packets belong to. The enforcement of customer SLSs implies the



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      ability to establish per-VRF policers, shapers and markers in the
      PE device. There is no impact on the BGP/MPLS VPN or VR-based VPN
      specification.

      The impact of implementing something according to (B) is
      important: the scalability would drastically decrease (a very
      large amount of LSPs to maintain, the distribution of /32
      addresses per VRF, etc.). This method contrasts with the
      separation of the "tunneling architecture" vs the "VPN
      architecture" as used by e.g. BGP/MPLS VPNs. As such (B) is not
      compatible with [2547bis], while it could be implemented in the
      [VR] framework.

   o conclusion

      By implementing differentiated treatment for a set of specified
      traffic classes in the SP's core network (using RFC3270 and/or
      using traffic engineered LSPs and/or using explicitely reserved
      bandwidth guarantees per LSP and/or using different protection
      rules for different LSPs between the same couple of PEs), and by
      defining VPN-dependent mappings for packets into these traffic
      classes (according to the VPN SLSs), a SP has all necessary
      freedom to fully support VPN- and traffic-dependent QoS
      guarantees.

2.3 Use of Penultimate Hop Popping (PHP)

   o description

      The use of PHP has implications on the way a DiffServ-aware MPLS
      network operates (see [3270]). Application of the "pipe model",
      that is intuitively the most appropriate model for a PPVPN
      service, is not possible. By applying the "pipe model" on the LSP
      (PE-to-PE) tunnel, the core network's DiffServ information would
      be lost at the egress PE in case of PHP.

   o solution

      As explained in [3270], the use of the "tunneling model" (pipe,
      short pipe or unified model) is configurable on a per "nested LSP"
      level: the DiffServ treatment of every label in the MPLS label
      stack can be according to a different "tunneling model". An
      important requirement for PPVPNs is that the VPN packet's eventual
      QoS marking (DSCP) can be transported transparantly over the SP's
      backbone.

      For a specific PE-to-PE LSP, if PHP is not used:




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         - the "tunnel LSP" is allowed to operate in the "pipe model".
         In this scenario, the DiffServ treatment of the "inner label"
         may be ignored. Use of the EXP-bits of the "inner label" is
         TBD.

         - the "tunnel LSP" is allowed to operate in the "unified
         model". In this scenario, the "inner label" must operate in the
         "pipe model".

         - the "tunnel LSP" is allowed to operate in the "short pipe
         model". In this scenario, the "inner label" must operate in the
         "pipe model".

      For a specific PE-to-PE LSP, if PHP is used:

         - the "tunnel LSP" is NOT allowed to operate in the "pipe
         model", because the impact of the forwarding of the packet
         through the SP's network on the packet's DiffServ information
         would be lost at the penultimate hop and unusable to the egress
         PE.

         - the "tunnel LSP" is allowed to operate in the "unified
         model". In this scenario, the "inner label" must operate in the
         "pipe model".

         - the "tunnel LSP" is allowed to operate in the "short pipe
         model". In this scenario, the "inner label" must operate in the
         "pipe model".

   o conclusion

      The SP should make consistent choices with regards to the use of
      PHP and the use of the different "DiffServ tunneling models" at
      each depth of the MPLS label stack.

2.4 BGP Signalling

   o description

      In PE-based PPVPNs ([2547bis],[VR]), the addition of one new site
      to an existing VPN requires only local configuration at the PE to
      which the new site will be attached. The other PEs that serve the
      same VPN will auto-discover the presence of a new VPN site. This
      auto-discovery is BGP-based. On the other hand, the addition of a
      new VPN site that is associated with a guaranteed SLS will require
      the provisioning of QoS-specific attributes at the directly
      attached PE, but eventually also at other PEs. This would then
      compromize the "auto-discovery" mechanism and the "local



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      provisioning only"-paradigm.

   o solution and impact

      In many situations, the addition of a VPN site with QoS guarantees
      will not require provisioning of other PE devices than the one to
      which the site is to be directly attached.

      Indeed, this is the case for the addition of a VPN site

      - that is associated with a hose (+funnel) SLS that doesn't
      contrast with the SLSs of the other existing sites in the same VPN
      (meaning that these SLS's don't need to be re-defined),

      - whose SLS guarantees (for the different types of traffic) can be
      assured by the SP's core network without re-provisioning of
      resources (as it "fits" within the pre-provisioned QoS trunks in
      the network; as identified e.g. by an admission control procedure
      on an aggregate level)

      Such a scenario can be assured by intelligent planning and network
      (pre-)provisioning.

      In some situations, the addition of one VPN site with QoS
      guarantees will require provisioning of other PE devices than the
      one to which the site is to be directly attached. For example, the
      addition of a new VPN site that is associated with a pipe SLS
      towards a particular other site will often require the
      provisioning of specific traffic conditioners at both the local PE
      and the peer PE. In some situations, where this exercice of
      distributed provisioning is a non-frequent task and/or only
      involves a restricted number of PEs, this is acceptable, in other
      situations this can translate to a large management burden for the
      SP.

      Intelligent network planning and pre-provisioning, combined with
      the definition of appropriate SLSs looks like the preferred
      approach. Alternatively, signalling could be used in order to
      dynamically communicate the QoS characteristics of the inter-site
      VPN traffic.

      Although BGP has become the default inter-PE VPN signalling
      protocol, it is not a good candidate to perform the discussed QoS
      signalling for a number of reasons:

      - (I-)BGP is a point-to-multipoint routing protocol: this means
      that all the peer PEs attached to a certain VPN will receive the
      same information; signalling QoS characteristics with such a



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      mechanism would only be effective when the QoS parameters for all
      pairs <existing VPN site (i), new VPN site> would be identical for
      a specific VPN. As this only covers a small subset of the possible
      deployments, such a mechanism would not be very useful.

      - BGP signalling as used for VPNs has a per-route [2547bis] or a
      per-VR [VR] granularity. Adding QoS parameters to 2547bis-like BGP
      signalling would mean sending the QoS information with every
      exchange of reachability information, which is not efficient;
      adding QoS parameters to VR-like BGP signalling would apply on a
      VR-to-VR scope while different sites may be connected to the same
      VR and it is probable for customer SLSs to be defined on the
      granularity of site-to-site rather than VR-to-VR. In addition, BGP
      has no affinity with QoS signalling: the definition of the
      necessary extensions would require serious standardization
      efforts, and the interaction between a router's BGP process and
      the provisioning of signalled QoS attributes would need to be
      studied.

      An alternative solution would be to not to couple the VPN
      (topology and membership) signalling with an eventual QoS
      signalling. This would mean signalling VPN QoS characteristics
      (with e.g. RSVP) within the VPN, after the VPN topology has been
      created/discovered with the known VPN BGP mechanisms.

   o conclusion

      Intelligent network planning and pre-provisioning, combined with
      the definition of appropriate SLSs looks like the preferred
      approach. Using hose and funnel SLSs for IP VPNs looks like a
      natural fit, and eases the SP's provisioning tasks. The
      provisioning of QoS parameters associated with "pipe SLSs" is a
      feasible task in 'stable' environments (where additions of new
      sites is a non-frequent task).

      Signalling QoS attributes using the VPN BGP-based auto-discovery
      mechanisms does not seem appropriate.

2.5 PPVPNs in non-MPLS networks

   o description

      [2547-IP-GRE] describes how to deploy BGP/MPLS VPNs in a non-MPLS
      network, and [VR] does the same for VR-based VPNs. In both
      approaches, forwarding in the SP's core network is based on the IP
      addresses of the packets' "outer IP header". In such a deployment,
      the SP cannot take advantage of MPLS-specific features such as
      MPLS traffic engineering, fast protection and restauration



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      mechanisms. On the other hand, many SPs may want to offer QoS VPNs
      over a non-MPLS, pure IP network.

   o solution

      A SP offering VPN services can provision and operate its IP
      backbone network in the same way as he does for other services
      that are associated with strict SLSs (e.g. by intelligent network
      dimensioning, traffic conditioning at the network edges and using
      DiffServ in the core network). The SP's IGP and lower layer
      technology will take care of routing traffic around network
      failures (the eventual disruption of user service should be taken
      into account in the SLS).

      The SP can use an approach such as described in section 2.2 for
      the mapping of user-defined traffic class to the traffic classes
      used in the SP's core. There is no such concept as PHP in an IP-
      tunneling environment (section 2.3).

      The same remarks for VPN signalling as described in section 2.4
      apply for VPN services over non-MPLS core networks.

3. Example

3.1 QoS pre-provisioning of SP's network

   In a first phase, the SP will define the QoS classes and the
   protection levels to be used in its core network, independently of
   any customer SLS, and provision its routers, and define the PHBs and
   eventually establish the tunnel LSPs. For example the SP may choose
   to create a DiffServ-aware LDP-DU established LSP mesh to carry the
   (i) Best Effort, the (ii) low packet loss and the (iii) low delay and
   jitter classes, and in addition to that to establish traffic-
   engineered and protected RSVP-TE LSPs to carry the (iv) high
   availability and 'very strict SLS' traffic. The SP will also
   provision traffic conditioners at the network edges for the non-VPN
   traffic.

3.2 VPN SLS and Configuration of QoS-enabled L3 PPVPN

   An SLS will be defined when a new customer is added to the SP's
   network. This SLS will be based on customer input and finalized after
   negotiation with the SP. Before accepting the SLS, the SP will
   control wether its core network is able to support the described SLS
   without compromising the other services that the network currently
   supports (e.g. without introducing congestion that would affect
   priority traffic). If this is not the case, the SP may want to re-
   dimension its network or reject the customer's request.



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   If the SLS is finally accepted, the SP will configure the VRFs in the
   affected PE routers (e.g. access connections, Route Target
   attributes, Route Distinguishers) and provision the QoS parameters
   (e.g. traffic conditioners in the PEs) according to the SLS. More
   precicely, the SP will define mappings between the customer's packets
   traffic types and the traffic classes it has defined in its core
   network ((i), .., (iv)), and then provision policers for these
   classes according to the agreed SLS. Every PE to which a new site is
   to be attached, is to be provisioned.

3.3 Adding a site

   Assume that at a later point in time, the VPN customer decides to add
   a new site to its VPN. After negotiation, an SLS will be associated
   with this new site. The SP will again control wether its network can
   support the SLS (possibly after re-dimensioning and provisioning)
   before accepting it.

   If the SLS is accepted, the SP will configure the necessary
   parameters (access connections, possibly RD, RT, etc.) at the PE to
   which the new site is to be attached, define the mappings and
   provision the local QoS parameters (traffic conditioners at that
   particular PE).

   If the SLS is such that no QoS provisioning at peering PEs is
   necessary (e.g. a compatible hose SLS), than the provisioning effort
   is done and remains a purely local effort. Alternatively, while the
   auto-discovery mechanism will make sure the other PEs will discover
   the new site, re-provisioning of QoS parameters at the other PEs
   might be necessary (e.g. for the addition of a guaranteed QoS pipe to
   a VPN).

4. Conclusion

   This document acknowledges the fact that QoS is a very important part
   of a VPN service, and demonstrates that for L3 VPNs, offering QoS to
   the VPN customers may be seen as a rather orthogonal issue from
   building the VPN topology and managing the connectivity.

   Nevertheless, some potential issues are discussed and possible
   solutions or prefered practices are identified. It is explained how
   to make advantage of the (MPLS-)DiffServ mechanisms to differentiate
   between customers and traffic classes (including level of traffic
   protection). It is also explained that establishing VR-to-VR non-
   multiplexed core LSPs is nor scalable nor necessary. In addition, the
   impact of the possible use of PHP is identified and the prefered way
   to handle this is explained. Finally, we state that the use of BGP to
   signal intra-domain per-L3VPN QoS parameters is not useful.



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5. Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank the following persons for their
   valuable contributions to this document: Mustapha Aissaoui, Sven Van
   Den Bosch, Arnold Jansen.

6. References

   [CE-based] De Clercq, J. et al., "An Architecture for Provider
   Provisioned CE-based VPNs using IPsec", Work in Progress

   [FRAMEWORK] Callon, R. et al., "A Framework for Provider Provisioned
   Virtual Private Networks", draft-ietf-ppvpn-framework-0x.txt, Work in
   progress

   [PPVPN-REQ] Carugi, M., McDysan, D., "Service Requirements for
   Layer-3 Provider Provisioned VPNs", draft-ietf-ppvpn-requirements,
   Work in Progress

   [VR] Knight, P., et al., "Network-Based IP VPN Architecture using
   Virtual Routers", Work in Progress

   [2547bis] Rosen, E., et al., "BGP/MPLS VPNs", Work in Progress

7. Authors' Addresses

   Jeremy De Clercq
   Alcatel
   Fr. Wellesplein 1, 2018 Antwerpen, Belgium
   E-mail: jeremy.de_clercq@alcatel.be





















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