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Binding Label/Segment Identifier (SID) Extensions in Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP)
draft-sidor-pce-binding-label-sid-extensions-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Authors Samuel Sidor , Zafar Ali , Cheng Li , Mike Koldychev
Last updated 2025-07-04
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draft-sidor-pce-binding-label-sid-extensions-00
PCE Working Group                                               S. Sidor
Internet-Draft                                                    Z. Ali
Intended status: Standards Track                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
Expires: 5 January 2026                                            C. Li
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                            M. Koldychev
                                                       Ciena Corporation
                                                             4 July 2025

 Binding Label/Segment Identifier (SID) Extensions in Path Computation
                 Element Communication Protocol (PCEP)
            draft-sidor-pce-binding-label-sid-extensions-00

Abstract

   The Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) provides
   mechanisms for Path Computation Elements (PCEs) to instantiate and
   manage Label Switched Paths (LSPs) on a Path Computation Client
   (PCC).  This includes the ability for a PCE to specify a Binding
   Segment Identifier (SID) for an LSP as described in RFC9604.

   A binding value specified by a PCE may not be available for use on
   the PCC.  This can lead to LSP instantiation failures or entire PCEP
   message being rejected.

   This document proposes extensions to PCEP to allow a PCC to fall back
   to allocating a Binding SID from its own dynamic range if the value
   specified by the PCE is unavailable.  It also defines a mechanism for
   the PCC to report both the requested and the allocated binding values
   back to the PCE.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 5 January 2026.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  PCEP Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.2.  TE-PATH-BINDING TLV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Manageability Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     7.1.  STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV Flag  . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     7.2.  TE-PATH-BINDING TLV Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   A Stateful PCE [RFC8231] can instantiate LSPs on a PCC.  When
   instantiating an Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SR-TE) LSP
   [RFC8664], the PCE may request a specific Binding SID (BSID) to be
   associated with the LSP using the TE-PATH-BINDING TLV [RFC9604].  A
   problem arises if the BSID requested by the PCE is already in use or
   is outside the valid range on the PCC.  In the current PCEP
   specification, this would result in an LSP instantiation failure.

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   This document specifies PCEP extensions to handle this situation
   gracefully.  It introduces a capability that allows a PCC to signal
   its ability to fall back to local allocation.  It also extends the
   TE-PATH-BINDING TLV to allow a PCE to control the fallback behavior
   and for a PCC to report the actual allocated BSID back to the PCE.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Terminology

   This document uses the following terms defined in [RFC5440]: PCC,
   PCE, PCEP Peer, and PCEP speaker.

   The base PCEP specification [RFC4655] originally defined the use of
   the PCE architecture for MPLS and GMPLS networks with LSPs
   instantiated using the RSVP-TE signaling protocol.  Over time,
   support for additional path setup types, such as SRv6, has been
   introduced [RFC9603].  The term "LSP" is used extensively in PCEP
   specifications and, in the context of this document, refers to a
   Candidate Path within an SR Policy, which may be an SRv6 path (still
   represented using the LSP Object as specified in [RFC8231].

3.  PCEP Extensions

3.1.  STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV

   A new flag is proposed for the STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV,
   originally defined in Section 5.4 of [RFC8231].

   *  F (BSID-FALLBACK-CAPABILITY): If set, indicates that the PCEP peer
      supports LSP creation and fall back to dynamic binding value
      allocation if the specific binding value is unavailable, as
      detailed in Section 4.

3.2.  TE-PATH-BINDING TLV

   New flags are proposed in the TE-PATH-BINDING TLV, which was
   originally defined in Section 4 of [RFC9604].

   *  A (Allocated): If set, indicates that the binding value encoded in
      the TLV represents an allocated binding value.

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   *  D (Down on BSID Unavailability): If set, indicates that LSP can be
      created even if specified binding value is unavailable, but LSP
      will be in down state.
   *  F (Fallback): If set, indicates that binding value allocation from
      the dynamic range will be performed if the specified binding value
      is unavailable.

4.  Operation

   The PCEP protocol extensions defined in this document MUST NOT be
   used if one or both PCEP speakers have not indicated support for the
   extensions by setting the F flag (BSID-FALLBACK-CAPABILITY) in the
   STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV in their respective OPEN messages.

   When a PCE wants to instantiate or update an LSP and suggest a
   binding value, it includes the TE-PATH-BINDING TLV in the PCInitiate
   or PCUpd message.  The PCE can set the F flag or the D flag in this
   TLV to control the PCC's behavior in case the requested binding value
   is unavailable.  The F and D flags are mutually exclusive.

   If the PCC receives a TE-PATH-BINDING TLV with the F flag set and the
   requested binding value is unavailable, the PCC MUST attempt to
   allocate a new binding value from its dynamic pool.  If successful,
   the LSP is brought up with the new binding value.

   If the PCC receives a TE-PATH-BINDING TLV with the D flag set and the
   requested binding value is unavailable, the PCC MUST instantiate the
   LSP but keep it in a down state.

   In its PCRpt message, the PCC reports the status of the binding value
   allocation.  If the originally requested binding value and the
   allocated binding value differ, two instances of the TE-PATH-BINDING
   TLV MUST be included in the PCRpt message:

   *  A TLV instance with the originally requested binding value with
      the A flag cleared.
   *  A TLV instance with the actually allocated binding value with the
      A flag set.

   If the requested binding value was successfully allocated, only a
   single instance of the TE-PATH-BINDING TLV with the A flag set SHOULD
   be included in the PCEP message.

   The A, D and F flags in the TE-PATH-BINDING TLV MUST NOT be used if
   one or both PCEP speakers have not set the BSID-FALLBACK-CAPABILITY
   in the STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV in their respective OPEN messages.

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5.  Manageability Considerations

   All manageability requirements and considerations listed in
   [RFC5440], [RFC8231], and [RFC9604] apply to the PCEP extensions
   defined in this document.

   A PCE or PCC implementation MAY allow the capability of supporting
   PCEP extensions introduced in this document to be enabled/disabled as
   part of the global configuration.  An implementation SHOULD allow the
   operator to view the advertised and received capabilities.

6.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations described in [RFC5440], [RFC8231], and
   [RFC9604] are applicable to this document.  No additional security
   measures are required.

7.  IANA Considerations

7.1.  STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV Flag

   IANA maintains a registry, named "STATEFUL-PCE-CAPABILITY TLV Flag
   Field", within the "Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) Numbers"
   registry group.  IANA is requested to make the following assignment:

          +======+==============================+===============+
          | Bit  | Description                  | Reference     |
          +======+==============================+===============+
          | TBA1 | F (BSID-FALLBACK-CAPABILITY) | This document |
          +------+------------------------------+---------------+

                                  Table 1

7.2.  TE-PATH-BINDING TLV Flags

   IANA maintains a registry, named "TE-PATH-BINDING TLV Flag Field",
   within the "Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) Numbers"
   registry group.  IANA is requested to make the following assignments:

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        +======+=================================+===============+
        | Bit  | Description                     | Reference     |
        +======+=================================+===============+
        | TBA2 | A (Allocated)                   | This document |
        +------+---------------------------------+---------------+
        | TBA3 | D (Down on BSID Unavailability) | This document |
        +------+---------------------------------+---------------+
        | TBA4 | F (Fallback)                    | This document |
        +------+---------------------------------+---------------+

                                 Table 2

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5440]  Vasseur, JP., Ed. and JL. Le Roux, Ed., "Path Computation
              Element (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", RFC 5440,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5440, March 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5440>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8231]  Crabbe, E., Minei, I., Medved, J., and R. Varga, "Path
              Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP)
              Extensions for Stateful PCE", RFC 8231,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8231, September 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8231>.

   [RFC8664]  Sivabalan, S., Filsfils, C., Tantsura, J., Henderickx, W.,
              and J. Hardwick, "Path Computation Element Communication
              Protocol (PCEP) Extensions for Segment Routing", RFC 8664,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8664, December 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8664>.

   [RFC9604]  Sivabalan, S., Filsfils, C., Tantsura, J., Previdi, S.,
              and C. Li, Ed., "Carrying Binding Label/SID in PCE-Based
              Networks", RFC 9604, DOI 10.17487/RFC9604, August 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9604>.

8.2.  Informative References

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   [RFC4655]  Farrel, A., Vasseur, J.-P., and J. Ash, "A Path
              Computation Element (PCE)-Based Architecture", RFC 4655,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4655, August 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4655>.

   [RFC9603]  Li, C., Ed., Kaladharan, P., Sivabalan, S., Koldychev, M.,
              and Y. Zhu, "Path Computation Element Communication
              Protocol (PCEP) Extensions for IPv6 Segment Routing",
              RFC 9603, DOI 10.17487/RFC9603, July 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9603>.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Rajesh Melarcode Venkateswaran for
   their contributions to this document.

Authors' Addresses

   Samuel Sidor
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   Eurovea Central 3
   Pribinova 10
   811 09 Bratislava
   Slovakia
   Email: ssidor@cisco.com

   Zafar Ali
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   Email: zali@cisco.com

   Cheng Li
   Huawei Technologies
   Huawei Campus, No. 156 Beiqing Rd.
   Beijing
   100095
   China
   Email: c.l@huawei.com

   Mike Koldychev
   Ciena Corporation
   385 Terry Fox Dr.
   Kanata Ontario K2K 0L1
   Canada
   Email: mkoldych@proton.me

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