Re: [multipathtcp] q about on-path proxy

[Olivier Bonaventure <[e-mail]>]

Yoshifumi,
>
> I am trying to understand on-path proxy scenarios.
> (BTW, I'm referring draft-nam-mptcp-deployment-considerations-01
> and draft-boucadair-mptcp-plain-mode-10)
>
> In case of on-path proxy (implicit mode),the dest of the primary subflow
> will be the receiver. It's not very clear to me how MCP intercepts the
> packets in this subflow.


There are several techniques that can be deployed by operators to ensure 
that the transparent MCP is on-path for the initial subflow. All these 
techniques operate in the network layer or below and are thus 
transparent for TCP. Let me give an example based on source routing that 
does not match an actual deployment but would illustrate the main 
principle. With source routing, one can add inside the IP header a loose 
hop.


        +------- R4 ---- R5 --------+
C --- uMCP ---- R1 ---- R2 ------ dMCP ---- R6 --- R7 --- S

Consider a TCP connection created by client C towards server S. The uMCP 
is the first hop router for C. It intercepts the connection and 
transparently terminates it, acting as S. It then initiates a Multipath 
TCP connection towards S, acting as C. The packets for this connection 
are sent as IP packet that contain the IP address of the downstream MCP 
as a loose source routing hop. The dMCP removes the source routing 
option, transparently terminates the Multipath TCP connection and then 
initiates a connection towards S, acting as C.

Three connections exist to transfer data from C et S and vice-versa.

C<->uMCP  (source address C, destination address S)
uMCP<->dMCP (source address C, destination address S, using source 
routing to ensure that all downstream packets pass through dMCP, for 
upstream packets, source routing is usually not required because there 
is only one path to the uMCP that advertises C to R1 only )
dMCP<-> S (source address C, destination address S)

For the Multipath TCP connection between uMCP and dMCP, the second 
subflow is used without relying on source routing. The uMCP and the dMCP 
have addresses on the R4/R5 network and use the ADD_ADDR option to 
advertise those addresses and create the required subflows.

> The MCP splits the connection between two nodes and send forged packets
> to the sender?

Yes

> Also, in the two proxy scenario, does the downstream MCP have to be
> on-path?

If the downstream MCP is on path, then it does not have to include any 
NAT function which is beneficial from an operational viewpoint.


Olivier