Segments

Interior gateway protocol (IGP) distributes two types of segments: prefix segments and adjacency segments. Each router (node) and each link (adjacency) has an associated segment identifier (SID).

• A prefix SID is associated with an IP prefix. The prefix SID is manually configured from the segment routing global block (SRGB) range of labels, and is distributed by IS-IS or OSPF. The prefix segment steers the traffic along the shortest path to its destination. A node SID is a special type of prefix SID that identifies a specific node. It is configured under the loopback interface with the loopback address of the node as the prefix.

  A prefix segment is a global segment, so a prefix SID is globally unique within the segment routing domain.

• An adjacency segment is identified by a label called an adjacency SID, which represents a specific adjacency, such as egress interface, to a neighboring router. The adjacency SID is distributed by IS-IS or OSPF. The adjacency segment steers the traffic to a specific adjacency.

  An adjacency segment is a local segment, so the adjacency SID is locally unique relative to a specific router.

By combining prefix (node) and adjacency segment IDs in an ordered list, any path within a network can be constructed. At each hop, the top segment is used to identify the next hop. Segments are stacked in order at the top of the packet header. When the top segment contains the identity of another node, the receiving node uses equal cost multipaths (ECMP) to move the packet to the next hop. When the identity is that of the receiving node, the node pops the top segment and performs the task required by the next segment.

Segment Routing Policies

Segment routing for traffic engineering uses a “policy” to steer traffic through the network. An SR policy path is expressed as a list of segments that specifies the path, called a segment ID (SID) list. Each segment is an end-to-end path from the source to the destination, and instructs the routers in the network to follow the specified path instead of the shortest path calculated by the IGP. If a packet is steered into an SR policy, the SID list is pushed on the packet by the head-end. The rest of the network executes the instructions embedded in the SID list.

Crosswork supports the visualization (and some provisioning) of the following SR-related policies:

• SR-MPLS and SRv6

• Flexible Algorithms

• Tree Segment Identifier (Tree-SID) Multicast Traffic Engineering

Note	Crosswork discovers existing SR policies when devices are imported, but cannot manage them. SR policies can be managed only if they were provisioned using the UI.

There are two types of SR policies: dynamic and explicit.

A dynamic path is based on an optimization objective and a set of constraints. The head-end computes a solution, resulting in a SID list or a set of SID lists. When the topology changes, a new path is computed. If the head-end does not have enough information about the topology, the head-end might delegate the computation to a path computation engine (PCE).

When you configure an explicit policy, you specify an explicit path which consists of a list of prefix or adjacency SIDs, each representing a node or link along on the path.

Disjointness

Crosswork uses the disjoint policy to compute two lists of segments that steer traffic from two source nodes to two destination nodes along disjoint paths. The disjoint paths can originate from the same head-end or different head-ends. Disjoint level refers to the type of resources that should not be shared by the two computed paths. The following disjoint path computations are supported:

• Link – Specifies that links are not shared on the computed paths.

• Node – Specifies that nodes are not shared on the computed paths.

• SRLG – Specifies that links with the same Share Risk Link Group (SRLG) value are not shared on the computed paths.

• SRLG-node – Specifies that SRLG and nodes are not shared on the computed paths.

When the first request is received with a given disjoint-group ID, a list of segments is computed, encoding the shortest path from the first source to the first destination. When the second request is received with the same disjoint-group ID, information received in both requests is used to compute two disjoint paths: one path from the first source to the first destination, and another path from the second source to the second destination. Both paths are computed at the same time. The shortest lists of segments is calculated to steer traffic on the computed paths.

Note	Disjointness is supported for two policies with the same disjoint ID. Configuring affinity and disjointness at the same time is not supported.

RSVP-TE Explicit Routing (Strict, Loose)

RSVP-TE explicit routes are particular paths in the network topology that you can specify as abstract nodes, which could be a sequence of IP prefixes or a sequence of autonomous systems, in the Explicit Route Object (ERO). The explicit path can be administratively specified, or automatically computed using an algorithm such as constrained shortest path first (CSPF).

The explicit path that is specified in the ERO could be a strict path or a loose path.

A strict path means that a network node and its preceding node in the ERO must be adjacent and directly connected.

A loose hop means that a network node specified in the ERO must be in the path but is not required to be directly connected to its preceding node. If a loose hop is encountered during ERO processing, the node that processes the loose hop can update the ERO with one or more nodes along the path from itself to the next node in the ERO. The advantage of a loose path is that the entire path does not need to be specified or known when creating the ERO. The disadvantage of a loose path is that it can result in forwarding loops during transients in the underlying routing protocol.

Note	RSVP-TE tunnels cannot be configured with loose hops when provisioning within the UI.

RSVP FRR

When a router’s link or neighboring device fails, the router often detects this failure by receiving an interface-down notification. When a router notices that an interface has gone down, it switches LSPs going out that interface onto their respective backup tunnels (if any).

The FRR object is used in the PATH message and contains a flag that identifies the backup method to be used as facility-backup. The FRR object specifies setup and hold priorities, which are included in a set of attribute filters and bandwidth requirements to be used in the selection of the backup path.

The Record Route Object (RRO) reports in the RESV message the availability or use of local protection on an LSP, and whether bandwidth and node protection are available for that LSP.

The signaling of the FRR requirements is initiated at the TE tunnel headend. Points of Local Repair (PLR) along the path act on the FRR requirements based on the backup tunnel availability at the PLR, and signal the backup tunnel selection information to the headend. When an FRR event is triggered, the PLR sends PATH messages through the backup tunnel to the merge point (MP) where the backup tunnel rejoins the original LSP. The MP also sends RESV messages to the PLR using the RSVP-Hop object that is included by the PLR in its PATH message. This process prevents the original LSP from being torn down by the MP. Also, the PLR signals the tunnel headend with a PATH-ERROR message to indicate the failure along the LSP and that FRR is in active use for that LSP. This information is used by the headend to signal a new LSP for the TE tunnel, and to tear down the existing failed path after the new LSP is set up through make-before-break techniques.