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-
-
-
- IDRP Tutorial
-
- By Susan Hares (MERIT)
-
-
- Introduction
- ------------
- Out of the fertile ground of the Internet and the traditional
- ANSI subcommittees has sprung an OSI Inter-Domain Routing
- Protocol (IDRP). This protocol is officially called
-
- "Information Processing Systems - Telecommunications and
- Information Exchange between Systems - Protocol for
- Exchange of Inter-Domain Routeing Information among
- Intermediate Systems to Support Forwarding of ISO
- 8473 PDUs (CD 10747)".
-
- This paper provides an overview of the IDRP protocol in terms of
- its architecture and features. No attempt has been made to
- describe the format of packets or state machines. These details
- are better left to the protocol document. Charlie Kunzinger
- (IBM), the editor of the ISO IDRP document, has kept this
- document readable, and deserves a lot of thanks for his efforts.
-
- IDRP has progressed along the standards track to Committee Draft
- (CD) ballot. CD Ballot is the second stage in the ISO standards
- process. This stage is similar to "Proposed Internet Standard"
- status in the IP Internet world. The current protocol
- description is firm foundation for implementation but, like all
- standards at the Committee Draft level, IDRP is still open to
- possible technical changes.
-
- Merit demonstrated a prototype implementation of the IDRP during
- INTEROP 91. Experience with the prototype has been fed back into
- the IDRP specification. For additional information about the
- IDRP prototype, please contact Merit (email address:nsfnet-info
- @merit.edu).
-
- Special thanks go to Charlie Kunzinger (IBM), the editor of IDRP,
- whose ten pages of overheads were turned into this document.
- Thanks are also due to Dave Katz (Merit) and Yakov Rekhter (IBM)
- who reviewed this document extensively.
-
- Architectural Overview
- ======================
- OSI Routing Environment
- -------------------------
-
- The OSI routing environment is described in ISO TR 9575 [1] as a
- set of interconnected Routing Domains (RDs). RDs are groups of
- hosts and routers that operate according to the same routing plan
- and are administered by a single authority. Routing domains
- interact with each other in a "mutually suspicious manner" [1]
- due to their mutual independence and autonomy. Routing domains
- may each have their own view of what constitutes an optimal
- route. The OSI routing environment does not require that all
- routing domains have homogenous criteria (policy) about how to
- select an optimal route.
-
- In many ways a routing domain is like an Autonomous System in the
-
-
- 1
-
-
-
-
- IP Internet [2]. Routing information passed within a routing
- domain (Intra-Domain) is trusted. Routing information passed
- between domains (Inter-Domain) may not be trusted. IDRP provides
- a means to communicate routing information and to calculate
- routes between routing domains. IDRP does not require that all
- routing domains have homogeneous criteria (policy) for route
- selection[3].
-
- Routing knowledge needs to be spread throughout an internet in
- some ubiquitous manner if packets are going to reach their
- destinations. However, the independent and autonomous status of
- routing domains within an internet work against providing
- homogeneous routing information. In this environment, some
- routing domains (such as NSFNET) need to carry traffic on behalf
- of other routing domains. Routing domains that carry traffic on
- the behalf of other routing domains are known as Transit Routing
- Domains (regional networks and backbone networks, for example).
-
- Since a routing domain has only a finite amount of resources, it
- must control on how these resources are used. For example, NSF
- does not want to subsidize XYZ Corporation by allowing the
- commercial traffic from XYZ Corporation to go across NSFNET. To
- control what traffic passes through NSFNET, NSFNET controls what
- routing information it accepts and transmits. By using this
- control, NSFNET does not carry the commercial traffic for XYZ
- corporation.
-
- In an atmosphere, in which each routing domain needs to control
- the traffic passed through it by controlling the dissemination of
- routing information, one RD may filter the routing information
- it receives from another RD. By filtering the routes, a routing
- domain keeps only the routing information needed to do its job.
- A routing domain may also filter what it sends to other RDs so
- that only certain pathways are used. In addition, configurations
- are set up to authenticate the remote peer sending the
- information. This filtering and authentication creates a
- "firewall" to keep each routing domain independent of other
- routing domains.
-
- Routing domains whose policies do not permit them to carry
- transit traffic are known as End Routing Domains. End Routing
- Domains may be further subdivided into those connected to a
- single adjacent RD (Stub) and those connected to multiple
- adjacent RDs (multi-homed). In figure 1, C is a transit routing
- domain and B is a multi-homed routing domain. Routing domain A
- is a stub routing domain. Routing domain A is adjacent to
- routing domain C.
-
- ---------- ------------ ------------
- | RD A |--------------| RD C | | RD D |
- | (stub) | | transit |------------| transit |
- ----------- ------------ -------------
- | |
- \ /
- \ /
- \ /
- ----------------
- | RD B |
- | multi-homed |
- ---------------
-
-
-
- 2
-
-
-
-
- Figure 1 - Routing Domains
-
-
-
- Inter-Domain Routing Goals
- ---------------------------
-
- IDRP is designed to provide for the deterministic selection of
- paths through the OSI environment (internet) taken by network
- layer packets. Included in the design criteria for IDRP are the
- ability to:
-
- - scale well to a growing internet, and
- - allow transit routing domains to transit
- traffic.
-
- Additionally, IDRP assumes that the OSI environment (internet)
- may face multiple cuts to the topology of the network. Therefore
- IDRP provides routing that adapts to the topological changes (at
- the Inter-Domain level).
-
- When a protocol scales well, it will make efficient use of
- network bandwidth and the processing and memory within routers.
-
- IDRP was designed to fit into the OSI stack without affecting the
- existing network layer protocols. These protocols are:
-
- CLNP - Connectionless Network Layer Protocol (ISO 8473) [3]
-
- ES-IS - End System to Intermediate System routeing exchange
- protocol (ISO 9452) [4]
-
- IS-IS - Intermediate System to Intermediate System
- Intra-Domain Routeing protocol (ISO 10589) [5]
-
- IDRP does not require either ES-IS or IS-IS in order to operate
- properly. The only requirement placed on the intra-domain
- routing environment is the presence of stable paths between
- border routers in the same RD participating in IDRP (for the
- forwarding of transit traffic) and the presence of stable paths
- to and from end systems within the routing domain (for the
- forwarding of traffic originating or terminating within the local
- RD). IDRP was not designed to provide user data security, to
- adapt routes based on traffic load, or to repair partitions of
- routing domains.
-
-
- Multiple Qualities of Service
- -----------------------------
-
- The OSI connectionless network layer protocol (ISO 8473) allows a
- network packet to request several qualities of service (QOS).
- This QOS is similar to types of service (TOS) in IP. These QOS
- values allow a packet to be "colored". IDRP supports the
- calculation of separate paths for each of these different
- qualities of service by means of Distinguishing Attributes [5],
- thus allowing paths or routes to be "colored".
-
- When an ISO 8473 packet comes into a router, the router will
- check to see if the packet has been "colored" by QOS. If so,
- the router looks up the destination address in the appropriate
-
-
- 3
-
-
-
-
- QOS's routing table. The IDRP protocol specifies a mapping
- between the QOS values (packet's "color") and an IDRP
- inter-domain pathway (the route's "color"). If no QOS value has
- been set, the default routing table is used.
-
- Most of the Internet will probably start out having only a
- "default" QOS (or colorless pathway). Packets without any QOS
- (colorless packets) may be able to travel much further than
- "colored" packets. If a pathway of the right QOS (color) is not
- available, the packet is dropped.
-
- The CLNP QOS function or an IDRP QOS pathway does not have to be
- supported by each system in the pathway. However, each system
- must correctly handle a packet with a QOS value set. For
- example, suppose a particularly miserly end system wanted to send
- a packet along pathways which had minimal costs. He would set
- the "Expense" bit (perhaps like a green color) in the network
- layer packet and shove the packet out the door to a router. If
- IS-IS is used within a routing domain, the local routing domain
- would pass the packet on a low expense route until it hit a
- router on the border of the routing domain. This border router
- would check in its routing tables to find a route which had low
- expense. If it found one, the miserly end systems's packet would
- speed along low cost routes. If a route was not found, the
- packet would be discarded and an Error PDU would be passed back
- to the miserly end system. Given that our miserly end system did
- not want to spend lots of money reaching the destination, this
- behavior makes the end system happy. If the miserly end system
- must spend the money to send this packet, it can switch to a
- route with no QOS set (colorless) when it receives the ERROR PDU.
-
-
- (Figure 2 - Miserly Packet example goes here. Note
- figure two is only available in the postscript version.
- The figure is available for anonymous ftp from merit.edu.
- The file is located in /pub/iso/noop/tutorial/idrp.f02.ps)
-
- Scope of QOS
- -------------
-
- The "color" of a packet (QOS) or route (Distinguishing Attribute)
- has a scope. The scope may either be specific to:
-
- - a source address
- (a route may have scope for a group of source addresses),
- - a destination address
- (a route may have scope for a group of destination
- addresses), or
- - a globally unique QOS such as the Expense flag.
-
- Two types of "color" for the packet or route (QOS and
- Distinguishing Attributes) deal with source addresses: Source
- Specific QOS and Source Specific Security QOS. Two types of
- "color" deal with destination addresses: Destination Specific QOS
- and Destination Specific Security QOS.
-
- To indicate a globally unique QOS value, a value is set in the
- header of a CLNP (ISO 8473) packet in an option field. For
- example, the packet from our miserly end system would have a bit
- set that indicates "Expense" QOS. The "Expense" Distinguishing
- Attribute which IDRP maps to the "Expense" QOS has a value which
-
-
- 4
-
-
-
-
- indicates how expensive each route is. However, the meaning of
- that "Expense QOS" value may be valid only within an RD or a set
- of RDs.
-
- Global availability or agreement on the colors of "packets" or
- routes will probably take a great deal of coordination in the
- Inter-Domain realm. Today's Internet is built on such
- coordination between networks. The current policies on how
- routes are passed in the Internet are implemented in router
- configurations in lots of networks.
-
- For the scope of a "color" or a packet (QOS) or a route
- (Distinguishing Attribute) to truly be global, many countries may
- have to agree on the exact syntax and meaning of a "color". For
- example, NSF currently limits any traffic passing across the
- NSFNET to being non-commercial and in support of research and
- education. This type of policy restriction may be illogical
- within Japan or Australia. If our miserly packet was from a
- University, it could find a "golden" pathway that was the
- research pathway through the US. But when it hit the US border,
- the definition of what this "golden" pathway means may simply not
- apply to Canada or Japan or Australia or imply something
- different within those countries.
-
-
- Protocol Overview
- ==================
-
- A router that participates in inter-domain routing (and thus runs
- the IDRP protocol) is known as a Border Intermediate System
- (BIS). A routing domain may contain one or more BISs. A BIS
- uses policy to select among the routes it receives. In order for
- the IDRP protocol to work, all the BISs within an RD must have a
- reliable and consistent picture of how to route packets. To
- minimize the network bandwidth and processing power used by IDRP,
- IDRP must help control the amount of information passed. The next
- sections stroll through the features provided by the IDRP
- protocol.
-
- Architectural Place of IDRP
- ----------------------------
-
- IDRP is part of the suite of routing protocols for in the OSI
- Network Layer, and runs over the OSI Connectionless Network Layer
- Protocol (CLNP ISO 8473). IDRP describes how PDUs are exchanged
- between BISs, how routes are constructed, and how protocol errors
- are handled, but the choice of how routes are selected is left to
- the local BIS's policy. BIS PDUs are passed between BISs within
- a domain and between BISs in different routing domains.
-
- IDRP is a Path Vector Method Protocol
- -------------------------------
-
- IDRP is a "path vector" protocol, which is neither a distance
- vector nor a link state protocol. The distance metric of a
- distance vector protocol is not required. Unlike a link state
- protocol, the full topology and explicit link status are not
- distributed. In a "path vector" protocol, the routes distributed
- contain a complete path to the source of the route. Such a
- protocol provides the following:
-
-
-
- 5
-
-
-
-
- - a vector of path attributes,
- - one route to destination for each QOS value,
- - excellent information hiding/abstraction and
- - provides for hop-by-hop routing.
-
- Inclusion of path information allows more rapid convergence than
- classic distance vector protocols and eliminates the "count to
- infinity" problem.
-
- IDRP Information Flow
- ----------------------
-
- IDRP operates between pairs of BISs as shown in figure 3.
- Similar to the BGP protocol in the IP Internet, IDRP is used
- between BISs within the same routing domain so that the entire RD
- has a consistent picture of inter-domain routing.
-
-
- -------- ---------
- | RD A | | RD C |
- | BIS|\ ----------- /|BIS |
- | BIS | \ | RD B | / ----------
- --------- ---------|BIS BIS|---
- | /|BIS BIS|\ -----------
- | | ----------- \ | RD E |
- --------- | \---|BIS |
- | BIS BIS|----------|-------------------| |
- | RD D | | -----------
- | BIS BIS|\ --------
- ---------- \ -----| BIS |
- | | RD G |
- | --------
- -----------
- | BIS |
- | RD F |
- -----------
-
- Figure 3 - Routing Domains connected by BISs
-
- IDRP allows each BIS to control routing information passed on to
- other BISs. Only routes which satisfy the local policy of a BIS
- and have been selected to be to be used will be passed on to the
- next BIS.
-
- IDRP exchanges routing information between BISs within a domain
- and between adjacent BISs in adjacent routing domains. Since
- IDRP routing updates are incremental, routing traffic between
- BISs are minimized. The heaviest flow of traffic comes when a
- BIS first becomes operational. The BIS must establish a
- connection to other BISs in its RD and adjacent RDs. Routing
- information must be sent from the adjacent BISs to this new BIS.
-
-
- A BIS's route re-calculation is partial and event driven (only
- newly arrived routes need to be evaluated). The events which
- cause route re-calculation are:
- - a BIS receives an incremental routing update with new routes,
- - a BIS neighbor goes down, or
- - a BIS neighbor comes up.
-
-
-
-
- 6
-
-
-
-
- Loop Suppression in IDRP
- -------------------------
- The richly interconnected Internet topology provides the
- opportunity to construct paths that form loops. However, IDRP
- will never construct looping paths because it keeps track of all
- RDs traversed by a route. If a BIS sees its own RD in a route
- advertised by a BIS in another RD, it will ignore that route.
-
- Routing Domain Identifiers
- --------------------------
- IDRP uses a Routing Domain Identifier (RDI) to uniquely identify
- a Routing Domain. The Routing Domain Identifier is taken from
- the same address space as the Network Service Access Point (NSAP)
- addresses. RDIs are drawn from the NSAP address space solely to
- simplify administration; no relationship should be inferred
- between the value of an RDI and the NSAP addresses resident
- within the RD.
-
- IDRP Path Attributes
- ---------------------
-
- Like BGP, IDRP defines a pathway as a pairing between a
- destination and the attributes of that path to the destination.
- A destination in IDRP is described by Network Layer Reachability
- Information (NLRI). NLRI contains groups of NSAP addresses
- described by NSAP prefixes. IDRP describes pathways through the
- morass of routing domains as ordered sequences of RDIs. For
- example, the pathway in Figure 3 between A and E could be A,B,E.
-
-
- In IDRP, the attributes of a path to a destination describe the
- characteristics of the path. Of these attributes, some are
- "Distinguishing attributes" and color the routes. Figure 4
- shows which attributes can be listed together on a pathway.
-
- Like your mother when she gave you choices of vegetables, you can
- choose one from Group A, one from Group B and one from Group C.
- Unlike your mother, you also have the choice of "none", which is
- called "default" routing (no vegetables).
-
- Figure 4 - Possible Groups of Distinguished attributes
-
- Group A Group B Group C
- -------------- ---------- -----------------
- -Transit Delay -Priority -Source Sensitive
- -Residual Error Security
- -Expense -Destination
- -Capacity Sensitive
- -Source Sensitive Security
- QOS
- -Destination
- Sensitive QOS
-
-
- Information Bases
- -----------------
-
- For each unique combination of distinguishing attributes and
- destinations, there is local policy that affects the router.
- IDRP policy is akin to BGP policy. It is policy that is set by a
- routing domain administrator for a routing domain and expressed
-
-
- 7
-
-
-
-
- in local configuration files on each node. The functioning of
- the "global" internet policy is the combination of all these
- "local" policies.
-
- Each BIS builds a Routing Information Base (RIB) based on routing
- information received from other BISs and from within the local
- RD. The RIB represents the set of routes that has been selected
- for use by the BIS.
-
- Each remote BIS neighbor sends a BIS its RIB for each unique set
- of distinguishing attributes. For example, if a BIS supports an
- expense attribute (for our miserly network user) and a route with
- default QOS, a Routing Information Base will be sent for
- expense QOS and for default QOS. This routing information
- contains only the active routes selected by the neighbor.
-
- The local BIS, upon receiving this information, uses local policy
- to select the routes, and updates its RIB. From the RIB the BIS
- generates a Forwarding Information Base (FIB). The FIB
- effectively contains a set of destinations and next hop BISs for
- each destination.
-
- Upon the loss of a BIS neighbor, the local BIS will re-run the
- route selection function. The local BIS will use local policy to
- select among the routes from the remaining neighbors, update its
- RIB, and generate a new FIB.
-
- Routing Domain Confederations
- -----------------------------
- A Routing Domain Confederation (RDC) is a group of routing
- domains that join together in such a way that they appear to be a
- single routing domain as viewed from outside the RDC. The only
- common policy that must be supported among the members of the RDC
- is that all routes between members of the RDC must lie entirely
- within the RDC. RDCs provide a powerful mechanism for reducing
- the complexity of routing information, since the details of the
- internal topology of the RDC are hidden from those domains
- outside the RDC. In addition, the size of the RD path
- information carried by IDRP will be reduced. RDCs can overlap
- and/or be nested. Figure 5 shows 6 RD organized into 3 RDCs.
- RDCs A and B overlap. RDC C is nested inside of RDC B.
-
- Routing Domain Confederations - Figure 5
-
- 6 RDs, organized into 3 Routing Confederations
-
- -----------------|
- | RDC A -------|-----------------|
- | | RDC B ------------ |
- | | |RDC C | |
- | RD1--|---RD4----|-------RD6| |
- | / | | / \ | / | |
- | | | | | \ | / | |
- --|---|---| | ----RD5 | |
- RD2 RD3-|-| |----------| |
- |-------------------------
-
-
-
-
- How IDRP provides Scaling
-
-
- 8
-
-
-
-
- --------------------------
- IDRP provides good scaling by a variety of mechanisms. Three
- types of information can be abstracted or hidden: Network
- reachability information, topology information, and transit
- policies. Topology information is expressed in terms of RD
- pathways to the remote destination.
-
- The abstractions IDRP provides are comforting in the face of an
- expanding internet. This abstraction of data will lessen the
- routing information that is passed around. Less bandwidth
- devoted to routing means there is more bandwidth for the
- internet's real purpose- sending data from here to there.
-
- "Hiding" by Use of OSI NSAP Structure
- --------------------------------------
- Network reachability information can be abstracted or hidden by
- using the hierarchical nature of the NSAP address to group NSAPs
- under shorter NSAP prefixes. Such prefixes are carried in IDRP
- routes. Figure 6 shows an example of how several addresses are
- combined into a shorter prefix. A part of an NSAP address used
- to describe a group of NSAP addresses is called an NSAP Prefix.
-
- Figure 6 - Combination of NSAPs into a Prefix
-
- 47.0005.80.ffff00.0000.0001.0001.010203040506.01
- 47.0005.80.ffff00.0000.0001.0002.80ff32401f23.01
- 47.0005.80.ffff00.0000.0001.0003.800103040500.01
-
- could be represented by one of the following prefixes, among
- others (going from most specific to most general).
-
- 47.0005.80.ffff00.0000.0001 or 47.0005.80.ffff00 or 47.0005 or 47
-
-
-
- Sets of RDs Compress RD Pathway (Topology) Information
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- In combination with the use of NSAP prefixes, RD path information
- can abstracted from an ordered sequence of RDIs to an unordered
- set of RDIs. Although some information is lost, the automatic
- loop suppression mechanism in IDRP is preserved. For example,
- if paths to two destinations have RD paths A,B,C and A,B,D, the
- single unordered set A,B,C,D could be used and a single path
- created. This abstraction may allow multiple routes to be
- aggregated based on the policies of a routing domain.
-
-
- RDCs allow Compression of Pathway Information and Policy
- --------------------------------------------------------
- Topology information can be abstracted using the IDRP concept of
- Routing Domain Confederations. RDCs provide a nice means for
- scaling. Fewer policies need to be administered by other routing
- domains. Fewer total routes need to be reported to the world
- outside the RDC. Inside an RDC the policies are exploded to serve
- the needs of RDs within the Confederation. The IDRP protocol can
- distinguish between intra-RDC and trans-RDC routing information.
- In addition, transit policies may be implemented in the presence
- of an RDC via the "Hierarchical Recording" feature.
-
- Transit policies can also be abstracted by using RDCs. RDCs can
-
-
- 9
-
-
-
-
- be nested, allowing policy for several routing domains to be
- summarized as a single policy of a Routing Confederation.
-
-
- Taming the Shrew -Reducing the Information Flow in Policy Routing
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- In the play by William Shakespeare, "Taming of the Shrew," a
- husband seeks to tame a head-strong wife. The wife has a strong
- verbal flow and a stronger temper. He accomplishes this task by
- taming himself and the wife. The wife learns that ranting and
- raving can be more effective if it is truthful, used sparingly,
- and directed at the right person.
-
- RFC 1104 describes the same sort of global taming for the
- Internet. The Internet, like the wife, has a strong flow of
- information which must be tamed by correct policies in order to
- let packets peacefully flow. Routes, like "ranting and raving,"
- must be directed at just the right routing domains.
-
-
- IDRP provides a taming or reduction of routing information and
- processing via control of the distribution of information. Only
- the actual routes that are selected to be used by a BIS are
- propagated to other routing domains. Like what "truth in
- advertising" should be for home appliances, the BIS only
- advertises what it uses. We should have the same restriction on
- those people who sell vacuum cleaners or coffee makers.
-
- Each RD may also select the set of RDs to which its routes are
- distributed. In this way, transit routing policies are supported
- via control of the distribution of routing information. Again,
- to use the analogy of home appliances, a company could choose to
- not ship chain saws to someone under 16 years of age. Route
- selection processing is also reduced because routes are selected
- based on routes received (actual routes only) plus the local
- BIS's policy, which can further reduce the number of routes.
-
- The IDRP attributes "DIST_LIST_INCL" and "DIST_LIST_EXCL" give
- routing domains the means to select the routing domains that will
- receive their routing information. The "DIST_LIST_INCL" allows
- routing information to be sent to RDIs listed in the attribute.
- "DIST_LIST_EXCL" allows routing information to be sent to any RDI
- not included in the attribute list. An RDI in one of these
- attributes can specify either a routing domain or a routing
- domain confederation.
-
- The use Routing Domain confederation (RDCs) also helps tame the
- flow of routing information needed. The "Hierarchical Recording"
- attribute helps track when RDCs have been entered and exited so
- routes can limited to within an RDC. Once a RDC has been entered
- and the "Hierarchical Recording" attribute is set, routes can be
- advertised only to BISs that can be reached without exiting any
- RDCs. An RDC can be nested within an RDC or overlap another RDC.
- Routes can be announced to RDs:
- - within the same RDC,
- - in an RDC nested in side this RDC, or
- - or in an overlapping RDC.
-
- This establishes a Hierarchy of RDs as you enter further into
- nested or overlapping RDCs and controls route transitivity.
-
-
-
- 10
-
-
-
-
- Disjoint RDCs are RDCs which can only be reached by exiting all
- routing confederations in which this local BIS resides. The
- "Hierarchical Recording" attribute cannot be passed between two
- Disjoint RDCs.
-
-
- Interaction with Intra-Domain routing
- -------------------------------------
- IDRP may need to interact with intra-domain routing if it is
- running in an RD that contains end systems. First of all, IDRP
- needs to know the set of NSAP prefixes reachable within the local
- routing domain. This information is likely to be statically
- configured information, and not extracted dynamically from
- intra-domain routing.
-
- Secondly, a representation of the destinations reachable outside
- of the RD may be injected into intra-domain routing so that the
- appropriate exit BIS can be reached. This information may be
- provided to intra-domain routing in a dynamic fashion.
-
- Both of these interactions can be accomplished by the
- manipulation of managed objects via network management
- primitives.
-
-
- Reliability built into IDRP
- ---------------------------
-
- Like the truck ads that say "Ford tough", the IDRP protocol is
- built to be "internet tough". All communications between peer
- BISs can be protected through the use of a cryptographic
- signature on a per-packet basis.
-
- Unlike BGP, IDRP implements its own reliable transport. Each
- data-carrying packet (BIS protocol data unit (PDU)) contains a
- sequence number which is used for re-transmission and flow
- control. Data-carrying PDUs are the OPEN PDU (which contains the
- connection information), the UPDATE PDU (which contains
- incremental routing information), and the RIB REFRESH PDU (which
- contains routing information). A retransmission timer controls
- the retransmission of packets. The method of flow control is a
- window scheme. This scheme only allows a fixed number of BIS
- PDUs to be transmitted to a remote BIS neighbor prior to the
- local BIS receiving an acknowledgement.
-
-
- Especially Neat Features of IDRP
- --------------------------------
-
- Thanks to the rich technical environment of the Internet, the
- contributors to the IDRP specification have put in several neat
- features to make it work even better than BGP. Two of these
- features which have made it into the current CD ballot version of
- the document are:
-
- 1.) A BIS playing route server for another router
- 2.) RIB Refresh PDU
-
- Some features which are under discussion but not in the CD ballot
- are: Auto-configuration of BISs and Source-based routes.
-
-
-
- 11
-
-
-
-
- The Route server function in IDRP allows one BIS to do policy and
- handle the BIS PDUS but point to another router to do the packet
- switching. Suppose your BIS was running on a slow packet pusher
- (perhaps a unix system running "gated"). With the route server
- you can point your data flow to a fast packet pusher of a router
- (say one of the commercially available routers) and traffic would
- not be impacted by the IDRP protocol running on a slow machine.
-
-
-
-
- (figure 7 - Route Server. Figure 7 is only available in
- postscript. The figure is available for anonymous ftp
- from merit.edu in the directory /pub/iso/noop/tutorial
- the file is idrp.f07.ps)
-
- By using a RIB REFRESH PDU, a BIS may refresh its Routing
- Information Base (RIB) from a neighbor BIS or to send its active
- routing information to a neighbor BIS. If a router detects that
- its routing information has been corrupted, it can get fresh IDRP
- routing information from all its neighbors. Or perhaps something
- convinces the BIS (or the person operating the router) that a
- neighbor BIS has scrambled the routing information advertised by
- the local BIS. The local BIS simply ships the remote BIS a new
- copy of the RIB.
-
-
- Auto-configuration of BISs involve the methods by which BISs can
- communicate with each other without having to pre-configure each
- neighbor BIS. This feature could make it easier to add new BISs
- to an RD without having to reconfigure all other BISs.
-
- Each network packet (NPDU) has a source and destination field
- just like a good old IP packet. Source-based routing establishes
- routes based on both source and destination addresses.
- Source-based routing may help "commercial" traffic take a
- different route than "research" traffic or provide two different
- routes to the same destination, each tagged for a different set
- of source addresses.
-
-
- Conclusion
- -----------
- IDRP reminds one of "Stone soup". "Stone soup" is described in a
- children's fairy tale in which three soldiers return from a war
- and no one in the village wants to give them any food. They
- start with 3 stones in a pot of water. By the end of the tale,
- the villagers have added all the vegetables, meat and potatoes
- you could ever want.
-
- IDRP started with the concepts of BGP and the OSI routing
- framework. These two original concepts are like the "stones" in
- the "stone soup." To this beginning, the experience and needs
- of the Internet community and the ANSI X3S3.3 communities have
- been added to make IDRP one OSI protocol full of "meat" and
- substance.
-
- IDRP has already followed the tradition of Internet protocols by
- having a prototype developed by Merit during the CD ballot stage.
- Nothing improves a protocol like an implementor. Often
- implementors cannot wait until they "talk" to the person that
-
-
- 12
-
-
-
-
- wrote a protocol specification. This dialogue is most painful
- when you are both implementor and the person that helped with the
- original text.
-
- Perhaps this tutorial has given you an appetite to read the
- protocol and any associated documents. Below you will find a
- reading list to help you fill up on OSI routing issues. Bon
- appetit!
-
-
- References
-
- [1] "Information processing systems - Telecommunications and
- information exchange between systems - OSI Routeing
- Framework" (ISO TR 9575)
-
- [2] "RFC 1136 - Administrative Domains and Routing Domains: A
- Model for Routing in the Internet" (Hares/Katz)
-
- [3] "Information processing systems - Telecommunications
- and information exchange between systems - Protocol
- for Providing the Connectionless-Mode Network Service"
- (ISO 8473) March 1987
-
- [4] "Information processing systems - Telecommunications and
- information exchange between systems - End System to
- Intermediate system routeing exchange protocol for use
- in conjunction with the Protocol for providing
- connectionless-mode network service (ISO 8473)"
- (ISO 9542) March 1988
-
- [5] "Information processing systems - Telecommunications and
- information exchange between systems - Intermediate
- system to Intermediate System Intra-Domain Routeing
- Exchange protocol for use in Conjunction with the
- Protocol for Providing the Connectionless-mode
- Network Service (ISO 8473)", ISO 10589, forthcoming
-
-
-
- Reading List
- ---------------
- RFC 1136
- RFC 1237
- RFC 1195
-
- Tutorials on the ISO routing documents [3], [4], [5],
- found on merit.edu in the /pub/iso/noop/tutorial.
-
- The actual ISO documents [1], [3], [4], [5], and IDRP.
- Working copies of IS-IS, and IDRP can be found on
- merit.edu for ANSI X3S3.3 committee work in the
- /pub/iso directory.
-
- ANSI X3S3.3 notes and mail archives on IDRP. The ANSI
- X3S3.3 archives are on merit.edu. The ANSI X3S3.3 mail
- list is x3s33@merit.edu.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
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