Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (trill) ---------------------------------------------------- Charter Last Modified: 2008-07-02 Current Status: Active Working Group Chair(s): Erik Nordmark Donald Eastlake 3rd Internet Area Director(s): Jari Arkko Mark Townsley Internet Area Advisor: Mark Townsley Mailing Lists: General Discussion:rbridge@postel.org To Subscribe: http://www.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/rbridge Archive: http://www.postel.org/pipermail/rbridge Description of Working Group: The TRILL WG will design a solution for shortest-path frame routing in multi-hop IEEE 802.1-compliant Ethernet networks with arbitrary topologies, using an existing link-state routing protocol technology. This work will initially be based on draft-perlman-rbridge-03.txt. The design should have the following properties: - Minimal or no configuration required - Load-splitting among multiple paths - Routing loop mitigation (possibly through a TTL field) - Support of multiple points of attachment - Support for broadcast and multicast - No significant service delay after attachment - No less secure than existing bridged solutions Any changes introduced to the Ethernet service model should be analyzed and clearly documented. To ensure compatibility with IEEE VLANs and the Ethernet service model, the WG will request an IEEE liaison relationship with IEEE 802.1, and IEEE 802.1 will be asked to review the architecture document and specification(s) before they are submitted to the IESG. It is not an explicit requirement that the solution should be able to run on existing IP routers or IEEE 802 switches as a software upgrade. However, the working group should take deployment considerations into account, to ensure that the solution can interwork with bridges in a flexible manner (e.g., to allow incremental deployment into LANs that currently use 802.1D bridges). The TRILL working will work with the L2VPN WG to develop interworking between TRILL and 802.1D bridges at the edge, such that a bridged sub-cloud could be attached to TRILL devices in more than one place for redundancy. The solution must not interfere with the end-to-end transparency of the Internet architecture or with end-to-end congestion control and QOS mechanisms. The WG will work on the following items: (1) Develop a problem statement and architecture document that describes the high-level TRILL architecture, discusses the scalability of that architecture, describes the threat model and security impacts of the TRILL solution, and describes the expected impacts (if any) of the TRILL solution on the Ethernet service model. (2) Define the requirements for a TRILL-capable routing protocol, and select one or more existing routing protocols that could meet those requirements. (3) Work with the appropriate Routing area working group to extend an existing routing protocol to meet the TRILL working group requirements. Note: The TRILL working group is not chartered to develop a new routing protocol or to make substantial modifications to an existing routing protocol. If, during the requirements definition and selection phase, the TRILL working group discovers that no existing routing protocol will meet their needs, we will need to re-assess the TRILL WG charter to determine how/if this work should proceed. (4) Produce a (set of) TRILL specification(s) for standards track publication that define(s) what information must be carried in an encapsulation header for data packets. Although this work will initially be undertaken only for 802.1-compliant links, it may later be expanded to non-802.1 links, so the design should be link-layer agnostic to whatever extent possible. The TRILL working group is chartered to undertake all of the above tasks and may begin work on more than one of these tasks in parallel. However, the problem statement and architecture document should be completed before the details of the base protocol are finalized, while there is still time to consider changes to the architecture without major impacts on established specifications. Goals and Milestones: Done Accept base protocol specification as a WG document Done Accept problem statement and applicability as a WG work item Done Start work with routing area WG(s) to undertake TRILL extensions Done Accept architecture document as a WG work item Done Accept routing protocol requirements as a WG work item Done Choose routing protocol(s) that can meet the requirements Dec 2007 Submit base protocol specification to IEEE/IETF expert review Dec 2007 Submit problem statement and applicability to IESG for Informational RFC Dec 2007 Submit architecture document to IEEE/IETF expert review Mar 2008 Submit architecture document to the IESG for publication as an Informational RFC Mar 2008 Base protocol specification submitted to the IESG for publication as a Proposed Standard RFC Dec 2008 Re-charter or shut down the WG Internet-Drafts: Posted Revised I-D Title ------ ------- -------------------------------------------- May 2006 Jul 2008 Rbridges: Base Protocol Specification Jun 2006 Jun 2008 Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL): Problem and Applicability Statement Sep 2006 Feb 2008 The Architecture of an RBridge Solution to TRILL Request For Comments: None to date.