📄 rfc2764.txt
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It is possible to extend the IPSec protocol suite to allow for the transport of multiprotocol packets. This can be achieved, for example, by extending the signalling component of IPSec - IKE, to indicate the protocol type of the traffic being tunneled, or to carry a packet multiplexing header (e.g., an LLC/SNAP header or GRE header) with each tunneled packet. This approach is similar to that used for the same purpose in ATM networks, where signalling is used to indicate the encapsulation used on the VCC, and where packets sent on the VCC can use either an LLC/SNAP header or be placed directly into the AAL5 payload, the latter being known as VC-multiplexing (see [25]).3.1.5 Frame Sequencing One quality of service attribute required by customers of a VPN may be frame sequencing, matching the equivalent characteristic of physical leased lines or dedicated connections. Sequencing may beGleeson, et al. Informational [Page 14]RFC 2764 IP Based Virtual Private Networks February 2000 required for the efficient operation of particular end to end protocols or applications. In order to implement frame sequencing, the tunneling mechanism must support a sequencing field. Both L2TP and GRE have such a field. IPSec has a sequence number field, but it is used by a receiver to perform an anti-replay check, not to guarantee in-order delivery of packets. It is possible to extend IPSec to allow the use of the existing sequence field to guarantee in-order delivery of packets. This can be achieved, for example, by using IKE to negotiate whether or not sequencing is to be used, and to define an end point behaviour which preserves packet sequencing.3.1.6 Tunnel Maintenance The VPN end points must monitor the operation of the VPN tunnels to ensure that connectivity has not been lost, and to take appropriate action (such as route recalculation) if there has been a failure. There are two approaches possible. One is for the tunneling protocol itself to periodically check in-band for loss of connectivity, and to provide an explicit indication of failure. For example L2TP has an optional keep-alive mechanism to detect non-operational tunnels. The other approach does not require the tunneling protocol itself to perform this function, but relies on the operation of some out-of- band mechanism to determine loss of connectivity. For example if a routing protocol such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP) [26] or Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) [27] is run over a tunnel mesh, a failure to hear from a neighbor within a certain period of time will result in the routing protocol declaring the tunnel to be down. Another out-of-band approach is to perform regular ICMP pings with a peer. This is generally sufficient assurance that the tunnel is operational, due to the fact the tunnel also runs across the same IP backbone. When tunnels are established dynamically a distinction needs to be drawn between the static and dynamic tunnel information needed. Before a tunnel can be established some static information is needed by a node, such as the identify of the remote end point and the attributes of the tunnel to propose and accept. This is typically put in place as a result of a configuration operation. As a result of the signalling exchange to establish a tunnel, some dynamic state is established in each end point, such as the value of the multiplexing field or keys to be used. For example with IPSec, the establishment of a Security Association (SA) puts in place the keys to be used for the lifetime of that SA.Gleeson, et al. Informational [Page 15]RFC 2764 IP Based Virtual Private Networks February 2000 Different policies may be used as to when to trigger the establishment of a dynamic tunnel. One approach is to use a data- driven approach and to trigger tunnel establishment whenever there is data to be transferred, and to timeout the tunnel due to inactivity. This approach is particularly useful if resources for the tunnel are being allocated in the network for QoS purposes. Another approach is to trigger tunnel establishment whenever the static tunnel configuration information is installed, and to attempt to keep the tunnel up all the time.3.1.7 Large MTUs An IP tunnel has an associated Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), just like a regular link. It is conceivable that this MTU may be larger than the MTU of one or more individual hops along the path between tunnel endpoints. If so, some form of frame fragmentation will be required within the tunnel. If the frame to be transferred is mapped into one IP datagram, normal IP fragmentation will occur when the IP datagram reaches a hop with an MTU smaller than the IP tunnel's MTU. This can have undesirable performance implications at the router performing such mid-tunnel fragmentation. An alternative approach is for the tunneling protocol itself to incorporate a segmentation and reassembly capability that operates at the tunnel level, perhaps using the tunnel sequence number and an end-of-message marker of some sort. (Note that multilink PPP uses a mechanism similar to this to fragment packets). This avoids IP level fragmentation within the tunnel itself. None of the existing tunneling protocols support such a mechanism.3.1.8 Minimization of Tunnel Overhead There is clearly benefit in minimizing the overhead of any tunneling mechanisms. This is particularly important for the transport of jitter and latency sensitive traffic such as packetized voice and video. On the other hand, the use of security mechanisms, such as IPSec, do impose their own overhead, hence the objective should be to minimize overhead over and above that needed for security, and to not burden those tunnels in which security is not mandatory with unnecessary overhead. One area where the amount of overhead may be significant is when voluntary tunneling is used for dial-up remote clients connecting to a VPN, due to the typically low bandwidth of dial-up links. This is discussed further in section 6.3.Gleeson, et al. Informational [Page 16]RFC 2764 IP Based Virtual Private Networks February 20003.1.9 Flow and congestion control During the development of the L2TP protocol procedures were developed for flow and congestion control. These were necessitated primarily because of the need to provide adequate performance over lossy networks when PPP compression is used, which, unlike IP Payload Compression Protocol (IPComp) [28], is stateful across packets. Another motivation was to accommodate devices with very little buffering, used for example to terminate low speed dial-up lines. However the flow and congestion control mechanisms defined in the final version of the L2TP specification are used only for the control channels, and not for data traffic. In general the interactions between multiple layers of flow and congestion control schemes can be very complex. Given the predominance of TCP traffic in today's networks and the fact that TCP has its own end-to-end flow and congestion control mechanisms, it is not clear that there is much benefit to implementing similar mechanisms within tunneling protocols. Good flow and congestion control schemes, that can adapt to a wide variety of network conditions and deployment scenarios are complex to develop and test, both in themselves and in understanding the interaction with other schemes that may be running in parallel. There may be some benefit, however, in having the capability whereby a sender can shape traffic to the capacity of a receiver in some manner, and in providing the protocol mechanisms to allow a receiver to signal its capabilities to a sender. This is an area that may benefit from further study. Note also the work of the Performance Implications of Link Characteristics (PILC) working group of the IETF, which is examining how the properties of different network links can have an impact on the performance of Internet protocols operating over those links.3.1.10 QoS / Traffic Management As noted above, customers may require that VPNs yield similar behaviour to physical leased lines or dedicated connections with respect to such QoS parameters as loss rates, jitter, latency and bandwidth guarantees. How such guarantees could be delivered will, in general, be a function of the traffic management characteristics of the VPN nodes themselves, and the access and backbone networks across which they are connected. A full discussion of QoS and VPNs is outside the scope of this document, however by modeling a VPN tunnel as just another type of link layer, many of the existing mechanisms developed for ensuring QoS over physical links can also be applied. For example at a VPN node, the mechanisms of policing, marking, queuing, shaping andGleeson, et al. Informational [Page 17]RFC 2764 IP Based Virtual Private Networks February 2000 scheduling can all be applied to VPN traffic with VPN-specific parameters, queues and interfaces, just as for non-VPN traffic. The techniques developed for Diffserv, Intserv and for traffic engineering in MPLS are also applicable. See also [29] for a discussion of QoS and VPNs. It should be noted, however, that this model of tunnel operation is not necessarily consistent with the way in which specific tunneling protocols are currently modeled. While a model is an aid to comprehension, and not part of a protocol specification, having differing models can complicate discussions, particularly if a model is misinterpreted as being part of a protocol specification or as constraining choice of implementation method. For example, IPSec tunnel processing can be modeled both as an interface and as an attribute of a particular packet flow.3.2 Recommendations IPSec is needed whenever there is a requirement for strong encryption or strong authentication. It also supports multiplexing and a signalling protocol - IKE. However extending the IPSec protocol suite to also cover the following areas would be beneficial, in order to better support the tunneling requirements of a VPN environment. - the transport of a VPN-ID when establishing an SA (3.1.2) - a null encryption and null authentication option (3.1.3) - multiprotocol operation (3.1.4) - frame sequencing (3.1.5) L2TP provides no data security by itself, and any PPP security mechanisms used do not apply to the L2TP protocol itself, so that in order for strong security to be provided L2TP must run over IPSec. Defining specific modes of operation for IPSec when it is used to support L2TP traffic will aid interoperability. This is currently a work item for the proposed L2TP working group.4.0 VPN Types: Virtual Leased Lines The simplest form of a VPN is a 'Virtual Leased Line' (VLL) service. In this case a point-to-point link is provided to a customer, connecting two CPE devices, as illustrated below. The link layer type used to connect the CPE devices to the ISP nodes can be any link layer type, for example an ATM VCC or a Frame Relay circuit. The CPE devices can be either routers bridges or hosts.Gleeson, et al. Informational [Page 18]RFC 2764 IP Based Virtual Private Networks February 2000 The two ISP nodes are both connected to an IP network, and an IP tunnel is set up between them. Each ISP node is configured to bind the stub link and the IP tunnel together at layer 2 (e.g., an ATM VCC and the IP tunnel). Frames are relayed between the two links. For example the ATM Adaptation Layer 5 (AAL5) payload is taken and encapsulated in an IPSec tunnel, and vice versa. The contents of the
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