Re: [alto] AD review of draft-ietf-alto-performance-metrics-15

"Y. Richard Yang" <yry@cs.yale.edu> Thu, 08 April 2021 20:04 UTC

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From: "Y. Richard Yang" <yry@cs.yale.edu>
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:04:16 -0400
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To: Martin Duke <martin.h.duke@gmail.com>
Cc: IETF ALTO <alto@ietf.org>, Brian Trammell <ietf@trammell.ch>
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Subject: Re: [alto] AD review of draft-ietf-alto-performance-metrics-15
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Hi Martin,

Thanks for the quick feedback. Please see below.

On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 11:03 AM Martin Duke <martin.h.duke@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Richard,
>
> Where needed, responses inline.
>
> On Fri, Apr 2, 2021 at 6:18 PM Y. Richard Yang <yry@cs.yale.edu> wrote:
>
>> - Sec 2.1. The cost-source model is conceptually sound, but the
>>> justification for it seems underexplained. What exactly is a client going
>>> to do with this information? What different behaviors would a client
>>> execute if the context was e.g. "sla" instead of "nominal?" To the extent
>>> the parameters are not machine readable, like links to webpages, are we
>>> really expecting this information to be presented to the humans behind ALTO
>>> clients?
>>>
>>
>> Good comment. This is a point which the WG indeed discussed multiple
>> times. The decision was that providing the source will give the server the
>> ability to indicate the source, and the client knows more about the
>> context. Some operational aspects are discussed in Sec. 5.1. There were
>> some discussions on potential normative specifications on the client-side
>> and/or the server-side, but the final decision is that ALTO provides
>> non-normative information. For example, the basic cost values are
>> non-normative, and only best-effort information. There can be out-of-ALTO
>> control loops, for example, business contracts, and the cost-source
>> supports indication of such information channel.
>>
>> The comment on clarifying whether the info will be for humans behind is a
>> great one. One use case setting discussed is that the link can provide
>> machine-readable specifications such as a machine-readable language
>> specifying the measurement parameters, but this is considered out of scope.
>> Will you recommend that we include more some more elaboration in the
>> operational considerations section (i.e., extending Sec. 5.1)?
>>
>
> If it were me, I'd put some of it in the intro and some motivation in 2.1,
> and maybe go through some miscellaneous considerations in 5. But that's
> less important that it be there somewhere.
>
> Thanks for the note. We are adding a few sentences in 5.


> If the intent is that it be machine-readable, then there are several
> places where this standard is going to need more standardization (i.e.
> precise definition of text fields).
>

Some of the authors discussed the issue and feel that going down the path
of making the content machine-readable, in a systematic way, adds
substantial complexity.
.

> But zooming out: I understand that the point is that "the client knows
> more about the context," which is pretty much what 5.1 says. But I don't
> understand if the "client" is the user or a user agent, and what either one
> would actually do with the information. Would the application execute a
> policy based on the source? Why would it use a latency that came from an
> sla, but not from measurement? etc.
>

This is a good comment. Here is an example (
https://ipnetwork.bgtmo.ip.att.net/pws/averages.html) that motivated some
early discussions. In this example, AT&T post both target (aka sla. should
we change the name from sla to service-level-target?) and actual
measurements. In this sense, ALTO can be considered as a standard way of
providing and update the information. Both target and actual values can be
useful. Make sense?

>
>
>
>>
>>> - Sec 2.1 I am confused about the meaning of the "sla" cost-source. Does
>>> this refer to an SLA the ALTO client has with the network? Between the
>>> target IP and the network? Or something else? If the first, does this link
>>> to client authentication in some way? If the second, what are the privacy
>>> implications of exposing these SLAs?
>>>
>>
>> It is target IP and the network. Here is some text in the current version
>> on the authentication and privacy aspects (Sec. 6):
>> "Indeed, TE
>>    performance is a highly sensitive ISP information; therefore, sharing
>>    TE metric values in numerical mode requires full mutual confidence
>>    between the entities managing the ALTO server and the ALTO client.
>>    ALTO servers will most likely distribute numerical TE performance to
>>    ALTO clients under strict and formal mutual trust agreements.  On the
>>    other hand, ALTO clients must be cognizant on the risks attached to
>>    such information that they would have acquired outside formal
>>    conditions of mutual trust."
>>
>> Will this be OK?
>>
>
> That privacy information is alright, but exposing the details of
> third-party SLAs deserves special attention.
>

Yes.


> But to follow up your answer: if the client has a better SLA than the
> target, this won't show up in the metrics at all?
>

Now I see that I need to clarify. The metric is end-to-end, from src IP to
dst (target) IP. Does this clarify? I can add a sentence to clarify this.


>
>
>>
>> - Sec 2.1. Related to the above, the text suggests that any cost-source
>>> expressed as "import" could also be expressed as "estimation". Why would
>>> the server do this? The text should say, or perhaps it would be
>>> conceptually cleaner if "estimation" and "import" were mutually exclusive
>>> sources by definition.
>>>
>>
>> In the early WG discussion, they were considered separate, and then the
>> agreement was that import is a special case of estimation, with more
>> specific dependency tracking. Consider data provenance of how the ALTO data
>> are computed. Estimation means that the server does not want to indicate
>> the specific details, and the important gives a precise indication of the
>> exact protocols.
>>
>
> OK, I now understand that "import" implies a specific set of parameters. I
> can't understand what value this distinction has, but that just circles
> around to me not understanding the cost-source information at all.
>
>

I see. Let me try to clarify slightly differently. import means that the
ALTO server can provide a precise source of information using specific
parameters, and estimate is that it comes from a black-box (the server does
not reveal). Thinking about it a bit more, we can go down the path of
specifying a precise format (rfc/section just as ippm) when specifying
import. Will this be a direction that you want to go?


>
>> - Sec 5.4.1: "...the ALTO server may provide the client with the validity
>> period of the exposed metric values."
>>
>> Shouldn't there be a standard format for this? Or are you implying the
>> use of cost-calendar?
>>
>
> Good catch. The decision of the WG at the time was to use HTTP whenever
> possible. For example, the freshness is indicated by HTTP timestamp (see
> Sec. 5.2); by consistency, then, we should use HTTP Expires. We can add
> this. Agree?
>
> Sure.
>
>
Thanks a ton!

Richard

> Martin
>