Re: [Rift] [RIFT][Non equal cost anycast]

Benchong, as always, when people start implement they start to ask the real
questions ;-) Yes, any cast in RIFT is much closer to what you would
consider “true any cast” than IP is which is really just ECMP on same
address. In RIFT anycast on different distance nodes is a normal thing.

First, it it important to understand the difference between mobility and
any cast on the fabric. if a prefix moves on the fabric without using the
mobility attributes it can appear in two locations @ once of course (if the
new TIE floods faster than the previous location manages to purge the
prefix). That's not a proper anycast of course, that's just an artefact. If
the prefix properly attaches timestamps by some means (such as 6lo) it will
be understood as having moved, otherwise it will be any cast for a bit.

And then, of course there is true any cast which is equal to two prefixes
advertised from two nodes being equal. RIFT is loop-free which means that
it doesn’t really care all that much about distance so if a packet enters
from ToF it can be forwarded to any leaf showing any cast. That allows true
“service on any cast” architecture. In case when you route from the leaf
the packet will use default (unless an implementation does their own things
the spec doesn’t mention but doesn’t suppress either) until it pops up far
enough it sees any cast @ which point in time it will turn the packet south
(assuming all anycast is on leafs). if balancing of any cast over whole
metric is desired then the packet needs to be pushed all the way to the ToF
using tunnels or some other solution.

So, basically, any cast is just a funky next-hop on a prefix that can point
to two different nodes & metric can be used to balance or ignored and the
spec does not need to say more I think.

This little diatribe should make it into RIFT applicability statement in
some form I think ...

-- tony

On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 5:57 AM <xu.benchong@zte.com.cn> wrote:

> Hi,Tony
>
> Can you talk about REQ6, How does RIFT support it? Is it benefiting from
> the default route?
>
> "  REQ6:    Non equal cost anycast must be supported to allow for easy
>
>             and robust multi-homing of services without regressing to
>
>             careful balancing of link costs."
>
>
> Thank you!
>
> Benchong
>
>
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