Re: [Lsr] Flex Algo merge work, IS-IS and OSPF FAD sub-TLVs

[Christian Hopps <[e-mail]>]

Hi Les,

It feels like your response is perhaps reading more into my suggestion than was intended. I was in no way suggesting we go back and start combining TLV registries, or that future registries needed to be combined unnecessarily.

I'm looking at this particular case where we have 2 copies of the same [sub-]sub-TLV registry that we will be creating as the document is written. The OSPF definitions for the sub-TLV types are exactly the same as the IS-IS sub-sub-TLVs ones. In fact option 2 keeps the containing [sub-]TLV separate and only the [sub-]sub-TLV space is combined.

Isn't it better to define something once and refer to that single definition? This is the motivation that led us to combining the documents in the first place, and so I'm simply wondering if we can benefit more from this same treatment.

Thanks,
Chris.

P.S WRT type field length of [sub-]sub-TLVs. We are *defining* the value content, so of course we can do whatever we want and no documents about other [sub-]TLV values, types or field lengths actually applies unless we wish it to.

P.P.S. WRT scoping. The document defines an IS-IS sub-TLV which is scoped to the IS-IS Router Capability TLV (242) and defines an OSPF TLV which is scoped to the Router Information LSA. I think these are fairly analogous, or at least can be treated as such for [sub-]sub-TLV definitions. In fact section 5.3 treats them as equal for defining their use. I don't put this above b/c it's not something I want to distract from the general discussion and sharing the FAD [sub-]TLV was only option 1 of a list.


> On May 18, 2018, at 11:41 AM, Les Ginsberg (ginsberg) <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> (I never saw Chris's original email either - perhaps it was sent during the period when delivery to the alias when compromised.)
> 
> I am in full agreement w Acee - it is a VERY BAD idea to try to combine protocol TLV registries.
> There are many reasons for this - here are a few.
> 
> 1)In IS-IS the scope of TLV type identifiers is the protocol - in OSPF it is the LSA type
> 
> 2)There are (obviously) many legacy code points which will make consistency at best confusing
> 
> 3)Imposing an 8 bit type on OSPF or a 16 bit type on IS-IS is simply a non-starter.  RFC 7356 defines a non-backwards compatible way of doing this for IS-IS - but does so in a way that preserves the legacy codepoints - which seems obviously necessary. And introducing a 16 bit length into IS-IS isn't sensible unless we also address the current 256 LSP number limitation (which RFC 7356 also does). Suggesting this can be usefully done in a backwards compatible way does not make sense to me.
> I cannot imagine why OSPF would be motivated to move to a more restricted 8 bit type/length model.
> 
> I cannot support this suggestion.
> 
>   Les
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Lsr <[e-mail]> On Behalf Of Acee Lindem (acee)
>> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2018 7:29 AM
>> To: Christian Hopps <[e-mail]>
>> Cc: [e-mail]
>> Subject: [Lsr] Flex Algo merge work, IS-IS and OSPF FAD sub-TLVs
>> 
>> Hi Chris,
>> 
>> Somehow, I lost the mail below and was only able to retrieve it from the
>> archive. Pardon my top posting.
>> 
>> While I believe that sharing code points for values, e.g., IGP Algorithm Type,
>> is a good idea, I don’t necessarily think it is a good idea to merge the TLV type
>> registries. It seems to me it would be a poor trade-off to impact optimal
>> protocol encoding including implementation just so we can have a combined
>> IANA registry. It is extremely unlikely that OSPF and IS-IS implementations
>> will ever share a common TLV parsing library.
>> 
>> Note that we did discuss this once before in the context of the OSPF and IS-
>> IS Tunnel Encapsulation drafts. I'd appreciate hearing what other WG
>> members feel with respect to this issue.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Acee
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Christian Hopps <[e-mail]> Thu, 17 May 2018 21:07 UTC
>> 
>> So in looking at the IANA requests inside the newly merged flex algorithm
>> draft I noticed that the document is creating 2 separate Flex Algorithm
>> Definition sub-tlvs Registries for IS-IS and OSPF with the initial content
>> described in sections:
>> 
>> 6.1.  ISIS Flexible Algorithm Exclude Admin Group Sub-TLV 6.2.  ISIS Flexible
>> Algorithm Include-Any Admin Group Sub-TLV 6.3.  ISIS Flexible Algorithm
>> Include-All Admin Group Sub-TLV
>> 
>> 7.1.  OSPF Flexible Algorithm Exclude Admin Group Sub-TLV 7.2.  OSPF
>> Flexible Algorithm Include-Any Admin Group Sub-TLV 7.3.  OSPF Flexible
>> Algorithm Include-All Admin Group Sub-TLV
>> 
>> They are basically the same thing (indeed the later OSPF sections refer back
>> to the IS-IS sections), except for one detail AFAICT, the size of the type and
>> length fields.
>> 
>> I think we may have some options here to make this a bit more elegant.
>> 
>> 1. Share the same sub-TLV structure
>>   a. using the OSPF sub-tlv structure (16 bit type and 16 bit len) for both
>> protocols
>>   b. using the IS-IS sub-tlv structure (8 bit type and 8 bit len) for both
>> protocols
>> 
>> 2. Use different structure with the same type field size of the
>>   a. more constrained IS-IS 8 bit size
>>   b. less constrained OSPF 16 bit size
>> 
>> 3. Define and use some generic method to define shared TLVs like this
>> where the only actual difference is the size of the type and length fields.
>> 
>> 
>> 1, Creates a clean and simple standard, 1 TLV definition and 1 sub-TLV
>> registry.
>> 
>> 1a, has the property that the length value in IS-IS can't normally exceed an 8
>> bit value; however, sub-TLV length values are already constrained beyond
>> the field size as sub-TLVs may appear anywhere in the TLV.
>> 
>> 1b, restricts both protocols to 256 types, and perhaps more importantly
>> restricts the sub-TLV length to 257 octets. This is handled all the time in IS-IS
>> using repeated TLVs, but not so much (ever?) in OSPF.
>> 
>> 
>> 2. Allows us to at least create a single IANA registry for the sub-tlv types so
>> we aren't duplicating them and their definitions for each protocol.
>> 
>> 
>> 3. Is interesting but probably requires some work outside of this document.
>> 
>> 
>> This document is serving as our guinea pig for how to merge work so I think
>> it's worth spending some effort on these types of details.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Chris.
>> 
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