Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) for Deterministic Networking (DetNet) with the IP Data Plane

Active OAM for DetNet Networks with the IP Data Plane OAM protocols and mechanisms act within the data plane of the particular networking layer. Thus, it is critical that the data plane encapsulation support OAM mechanisms and enable them to be configured so that DetNet OAM packets follow the same path (unidirectional or bidirectional) through the network and receive the same forwarding treatment in the DetNet forwarding sub-layer as the DetNet flow being monitored. The DetNet data plane encapsulation in a transport network with IP encapsulations is specified in . For the IP underlay network, DetNet flows are identified by the ordered match to the provisioned information set that, among other elements, includes the IP protocol type, source port number, and destination port number. Active IP OAM protocols like Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) or the Simple Two-way Active Measurement Protocol (STAMP) use UDP transport and the well-known UDP port numbers as the respective destination ports. For BFD, the UDP destination port is specific to the BFD variant, e.g., multihop BFD uses port 4784 . Thus, a DetNet node must be able to associate an IP DetNet flow with the particular test session to ensure that test packets experience the same treatment as the DetNet flow packets. For example, in a network where path selection and DetNet functionality are based on 3-tuples (destination and source IP addresses in combination with the Differentiated Services Code Point value), that association can be achieved by having the OAM traffic use the same 3-tuple as the monitored IP DetNet flow. In such a scenario, an IP OAM session between the same pair of IP nodes would share the network treatment with the monitored IP DetNet flow regardless of whether ICMP, BFD, or STAMP is used. In IP networks, the majority of on-demand failure detection and localization is achieved through the use of ICMP, utilizing Echo Request and Echo Reply messages, along with a set of defined error messages such as Destination Unreachable, which provide detailed information through assigned code points. and define ICMP for IPv4 and IPv6 networks, respectively. To utilize ICMP effectively for these purposes within DetNet, DetNet nodes must establish the association of ICMP traffic between DetNet nodes with IP DetNet traffic. This entails ensuring that such ICMP traffic traverses the same interfaces and receives QoS treatment that is identical to the monitored DetNet IP flow. Failure to do so may result in ICMP being unable to detect and localize failures specific to the DetNet IP data plane.

Mapping Active OAM and IP DetNet Flows IP OAM protocols are used to detect failures (e.g., BFD ) and performance degradation (e.g., STAMP ) that affect an IP DetNet flow. For active OAM to be useful, it is essential to ensure that specially constructed OAM packets traverse the same set of nodes and links and receive the same network QoS treatment as the monitored data flow, e.g., a DetNet flow. When the UDP destination port number used by the OAM protocol is assigned by IANA, judicious selection of the UDP source port may help achieve co-routedness of OAM with the monitored IP DetNet flow in multipath environments, e.g., Link Aggregation Group or Equal Cost Multipath, via the use of a UDP source port value that results in the OAM traffic and the monitored IP DetNet flow hashing to the same path based on the packet header hashes used for path selection. This does assume that forwarding equipment along the multipath makes consistent hashing decisions, which might not always be true in a heterogeneous environment. (That also applies to the encapsulation techniques described in Sections and .) To ensure the accuracy of OAM results in detecting failures and monitoring the performance of IP DetNet, it is essential that test packets not only traverse the same path as the monitored IP DetNet flow but also receive the same treatment by the nodes, e.g., shaping, filtering, policing, and availability of the pre-allocated resources, as experienced by the IP DetNet packet. That correlation between the particular IP OAM session and the monitored IP DetNet flow can be achieved by using DetNet provisioning information (e.g., ). Each IP OAM protocol session is presented as a DetNet application with related service and forwarding sub-layers. The forwarding sub-layer of the IP OAM session is identical to the forwarding sub-layer of the monitored IP DetNet flow, except for information in the "ip-header" grouping item as defined in .

Active OAM Using IP-in-UDP Encapsulation As described above, active IP OAM is realized through several protocols. Some protocols use UDP transport, while ICMP is a network-layer protocol. The amount of operational work mapping IP OAM protocols to the monitored DetNet flow can be reduced by using an IP/UDP tunnel to carry IP test packets. Then, to ensure that OAM packets traverse the same set of nodes and links, the IP/UDP tunnel must be mapped to the monitored DetNet flow. Note that in such a case, the DetNet domain for the test packet is seen as a single IP link. As a result, transit DetNet IP nodes cannot be traced using the usual traceroute procedure, and a modification of the traceroute may be required.

Active OAM Using DetNet-in-UDP Encapsulation Active OAM in IP DetNet can be realized using DetNet-in-UDP encapsulation. Using a DetNet-in-UDP tunnel between IP DetNet nodes ensures that active OAM test packets follow the same path through the network as the monitored IP DetNet flow packets and receive the same forwarding treatment in the DetNet forwarding sub-layer (see ) as the IP DetNet flow being monitored. describes how DetNet with the MPLS-over-UDP/IP data plane can be used to support Packet Replication, Elimination, and Ordering Functions (PREOF) to potentially lower packet loss, improve the probability of on-time packet delivery, and ensure in-order packet delivery in IP DetNet's service sub-layer. To ensure that an active OAM test packet follows the path of the monitored DetNet flow in the DetNet service sub-layer, the encapsulation shown in is used.

DetNet ACH - the DetNet Associated Channel Header as defined in .
PREOF - Packet Replication, Elimination, and Ordering Functions used in the DetNet service sub-layer as defined in .

The Application of Y.1731/G.8013 Using GRE-in-UDP Encapsulation has defined the method of encapsulating GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) headers in UDP. GRE-in-UDP encapsulation can be used for IP DetNet OAM, as it eases the task of mapping an OAM test session to a particular IP DetNet flow that is identified by an N-tuple. Matching a GRE-in-UDP tunnel to the monitored IP DetNet flow enables the use of Y.1731/G.8013 as a comprehensive toolset of OAM. The Protocol Type field in the GRE header must be set to 0x8902, assigned by IANA to the IEEE 802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) protocol / ITU-T Recommendation Y.1731. Y.1731/G.8013 supports the necessary functions required for IP DetNet OAM, i.e., continuity checks, one-way packet loss, and packet delay measurements.