Segment Routing for DCI

Pete Moyer, Principal Consulting Engineer - Nokia

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Background of Segment Routing
•  The SPRING working group will define procedures that will allow a node to steer a
packet along an explicit route using information attached to the packet and
without the need for per-path state information to be held at transit nodes.
•  The initial data planes that will be considered are MPLS and IPv6.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/spring/about/

•  Leverages source routing paradigm

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Segment Routing for DCI Use Case
•  While DCI (Data Center Interconnect) could be simple p2p circuits, these use
cases are based on diverse paths being available amongst several or more DC
locations.
•  The services and applications running over this diverse topology in these use
cases require traffic-engineering capabilities.
•  An additional requirement for these use cases is to avoid complex signaling
protocols, such as RSVP-TE. Drives the solution towards segment routing.
•  SR-TE

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Specifics of Segment Routing for DCI
•  Well known traffic-engineering options are available in SR
•  IGP floods link-state plus SR parameters; TED is built
•  SR-TE paths calculated based on link characteristics and other parameters
•  SRLG, node-SID, adjacency-SID, BW, delay, etc
•  Link-coloring like capability is available for path diversity
•  SR-TE path is determined, label stack is created & populated
•  FRR capability is available
•  LFA provided by IGP
•  50ms
•  What about the control plane?
•  Controllers are good …

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SR data plane for DCI
•  MPLS has been deployed for decades
•  Operators fully understand MPLS; similar experience with IGPs and BGP
•  Must ask oneself “why not MPLS?”
•  What about IPv6 (SRv6)?
•  Capable, interoperable, functional, etc
•  See first bullet …

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What about the DC overlay?
•  EVPN provides both L2 and L3 services in a unified control and forwarding plane.
•  EVPN can be used for p2p and/or p2mp services
•  EVPN leverages a widely deployed and well known protocol; BGP.
•  This makes EVPN highly scalable
•  After all, doesn’t BGP “fix everything?”
•  EVPN route types for these use cases.
•  Type 1 Ethernet auto-discovery for fast convergence and multi-homing of CE devices
•  Type 2 MAC/IP binding for control plane learning of MAC addresses
•  Type 4 Ethernet segment identifier for multi-homing and DF election
•  Type 5 IP Prefix advertisement
•  VxLAN data plane
•  While maturing, has not yet reached feature parity with MPLS
•  While supported by network vendors, has not yet displayed wide scale interoperability

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Why EVPN w/MPLS in DC?
•  See previous slide …
•  But what about ToR/Leaf support of MPLS?
•  This use case leverages a “smart edge” initiative
•  L3 @ leaf
•  Leaf network elements are capable devices (aka: routers)
•  This use case not reliant on NFV/VNFs
•  Could still deploy VNFs
•  Could leverage VxLAN from VNF to ToR/leaf; stitch to EVPN-MPLS for DCI

•  Result: EVPNoSR-TE/MPLS provides right foundation for these use cases

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Why Unified Packet Fabric ?
•  Reduce OPEX and CAPEX cost
•  Architecture Optimization
•  Product and Services consolidation over common Infrastructure
•  Simplify day to day operations
•  Simplify control and data plane across products
•  Reduce service delivery time
•  Simplify network monitoring tools
•  Network Infrastructure readiness for 5G

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Control & Data Plane – Why EVPN / SR?
Why EVPN ? Why Segment Routing ?
All-in-one VPN technology - Unified control plane Lower CAPEX :
supports multiple data plane encapsulations (VXLAN and •  Better utilization of network bandwidth due to packet based path optimization using
MPLS) ECMP unlike circuit based path optimization with RSVP-TE by making optimal use of
available BW

•  Eliminate need to use end to end signaling protocol maintain flow state in the network
relaxes memory / CPU requirements on Edge/core devices gives flexibility to use cheaper
white label or merchant silicon in the core
Provides wide range of services such as E-LAN, E-Line, E- Lower OPEX :
TREE, L3VPN, DCI, DC-overlay, IRB etc without running
separate control plane protocols •  Due to technology simplicity troubleshooting is comparatively simpler then traditional
RSVP-TE deployments
Advance Value added service offering:
•  SR supports Class of Service-based TE (CoS) where one can define per-flow CoS policies
and encode a segment to fulfill the CoS demands. RSVP-TE has failed to provide this level
of granular control due to scalability issues

•  Path Computation Element (PCE) support enables an agile WAN-SDN use cases . SR with
SDN Platform can be used to provision TE tunnels automatically and provide value-added
services such as bandwidth management, bandwidth calendaring, and bandwidth on-
demand.

•  5G roll-out will drive significant investment in the network infrastructure to support new
requirements such as network slicing – specific slices include encrypted, low latency and
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high bandwidth slices.
10
 Use Case-1: Low Speed Metro connect services
1G & 10G protected and unprotected optical services over packet switching network

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 Use Case-1: Low Speed Metro connect services
1G & 10G protected and unprotected optical services over packet switching network

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 Use Case-2: IXP Public and Private Peering
Internet Exchange migration from legacy VLL/VPLS/LDP based network to EVPN / Segment
routing

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 Use Case-2: IXP Public and Private Peering
Internet Exchange migration from legacy VLL/VPLS/LDP based network to EVPN / Segment
routing

Internet Exchange
VXLAN Based Internet Exchange
VXLAN and SR

Interworking

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 Use Case-3: Enterprise Cloud Exchange Services
IaaS/PaaS & SaaS Service consumption by Enterprise customer using Equinix private exchange

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 Use Case-3: Enterprise Cloud Exchange Services
IaaS/PaaS & SaaS Service consumption by Enterprise customer using Equinix private exchange
MPLS/SR Integration for
L2/L3 VPN Services

Service Chaining using explicit Segment list

Enterprise

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 Use Case-4: Application SLA based Path selection
Application SLA based Service offering over Equinix Private exchange

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 Use Case-4: Application SLA based Path selection
Application SLA based Service offering over Equinix Private exchange

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Summary
•  EVPN overlay in DC combined with SR-TE for DCI is technologically ready
and makes sense for these use cases.
•  Leverages well known and widely deployed protocols; BGP for control plane and
MPLS for data plane
•  Equinix UPF architecture collapses multiple service networks onto cohesive
infrastructure.
•  Reduces complexity for operations
•  Provides high customer QoE
•  QoS and TE for multiple services
•  Protection and fast reroute services maintained
•  Provides control to enable service chaining without adding complexity
•  New services, such as virtualization and data analytics, being pursued

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 Questions?


Pete Moyer <pmoyer@nokia.com>
Muhammad Durrani <mdurrani@equinix.com>