1. Extending MPLS/BGP VPNs to End-Systems
Maria Napierala
AT&T Labs
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

2. Motivation for Virtualization and SDN
Service Providers want to deploy network and service appliances on server COTS hardware
Reduce CAPEX, OPEX, introduce vendor neutrality, and innovation.
Service Providers want to share network, storage, and compute resources across different services and applications, and across different customers
Treat application, service, customer as a “tenant” of a common infrastructure.
Enable access-control, isolation, multi-tenancy, IP mobility.
Realized by “virtual networks”.
Standard operational practice: simple core, services at the edge. Core should not have virtual network state.
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

3. DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec 3-4 2012, Rutgers University
MPLS/BGP VPNs
MPLS/BGP IP VPNs [RFC4364] is the industry de-facto standard for IP-based virtual networks
Provides constructs for:
Policy-based concept of a VPN.
A virtual interface may communicate with multiple VPNs (extra-net).
Proven scale: 1M+ route deployments are common.
Deployed Inter-AS support.
Optimal route distribution (BGP rt-constraint).
Support for multicast.
Support for traffic filtering (BGP flow-spec).
MPLS/BGP VPN control plane is encapsulation agnostic.
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

4. End-System MPLS/BGP VPNs
There is a need to extend MPLS/BGP VPNs to end-systems and associate virtual resources (Virtual Machines, applications, service appliances) with VPNs.
There is a requirement to decouple “provider edge” (PE) control function from PE forwarding function
Software complexity of PE control function can run on a generic computing machine.
PE forwarding function can be implemented in software and run on multiple industry standard devices, such as operating systems of application servers or network appliances.
Allows the PE control plane function to run on a generic computing machine to be itself virtualized and run as an application in end-system.
Standards based protocol (XMPP) for delegating PE forwarding functionality.
End-System is a computer or a server that sits at the edge of a network.
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

5. End-System CE and PE Functions
“Controller” is a network of routers
Router-based PE
Highest level of abstraction is desired, not to constrain implementations.
Extensibility (XML documents).
End-System PE
PE Control Plane
Line Card
control
forwarding CE PE
PE Control Plane
BGP
proprietary
Open = XMPP CE
Hypervisor/ Host OS
agent
App/VM
forwarding
CE is a non-routing host that resides in a Virtual Machine or Server.
PE forwarding function is on a hypervisor switch or network appliance.
PE control plane function on generic computing machine delegates PE forwarding via a standard protocol (XMPP).
Scale: End-system PE can control 1000’s of CE interfaces.
CE is a physical device external to PE.
CE and PE are routing peers.
PE device implements both L3VPN control and forwarding functions.
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

6. DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec 3-4 2012, Rutgers University
Summary
Standards based L3VPN technology is the right building block for network virtualization services
draft-ietf-l3vpn-end-system-00
draft-marques-sdnp-flow-spec-00
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

7. DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec 3-4 2012, Rutgers University
Backup
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University

8. DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec 3-4 2012, Rutgers University
XMPP
Extensibility: XML documents.
Publish-subscribe
Route updates can be initiated from Control Plane software.
Events/Stats can be published from the Hypervisor Switch (aka line-card).
Protocol commonly deployed in end-systems.
27 November 2018
DIMACS - SDN Workshop, Dec , Rutgers University