Re: [i2rs] FW: New Version Notification for draft-krishnan-i2rs-large-flow-use-case-01.txt

[Jeffrey Haas <[e-mail]>]

Ramki,

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 04:44:05PM -0800, ramki Krishnan wrote:
> Ramki: "a sequence of packets for which ordered delivery should be maintained" -- what we mean is that the router does not re-order packets of a flow. For example, a flow could be based on destination IP which would include traffic from multiple ingress ports.

Thanks for the clarification.  I would suggest that you might want to point
this out as somewhat of a divergence from the opsawg draft.  I think that
while it fits within the very letter of the definition, it's pushing the
spirit of it.

> In section 2.1, you're intentionally setting aside involvement of an I2RS agent as being the entity that shares the communication of recognizing large flows.  While I understand that existing mechanisms like IPFIX may be a better (initial) fit, why put it out of scope?  
> 
> For my own part, I believe that IPFIX collectors are likely participants in I2RS, long term.  This would align with the second case where sampling collectors are used.
> 
> Ramki: Communicating the large flow to external entities can be effectively handled by IPFIX (changes may be needed to IPFIX protocol) without I2RS involvement; same with sampling technologies too. Do you see any additional benefits by collapsing the IPFIX/sFlow agent functionality into I2RS ?

My point is that one may use I2RS notifications (mechanism, TBD) in order to
flag such things.  This also opens avenues for additional integration with
things like IPFIX; e.g. adding a new field to the template to correlate the
ejection of a particular flow record with an alert to allow foreign key
correlation of the two events.

> Section 2.3.2.2 for MPLS Networks should probably include mention of the Entropy Label feature (RFC 6790).
> 
> Ramki: In this case, the entropy label feature does not apply. We are talking about an indivisible large flow.

The thought I had was that part of the desire for entropy labels was to turn
something into a large flow - i.e. influence load balancing.

-- Jeff