[rbridge] a clarification about the core IS-IS instance

Anoop Ghanwani anoop at brocade.com
Sun Jul 1 13:29:35 PDT 2007


Radia,

I would prefer a separate multicast address.
I think Silvano also said he would prefer it that way.
It makes things a lot simple from a parsing/frame 
validation standpoint.

Anoop 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Radia Perlman [mailto:Radia.Perlman at sun.com] 
> Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 10:27 PM
> To: Anoop Ghanwani
> Cc: Silvano Gai; Eastlake III Donald-LDE008; rbridge at postel.org
> Subject: Re: [rbridge] a clarification about the core IS-IS instance
> 
> At the time I thought there might be some IS-IS messages sent 
> unicast. 
> If that were
> true (which it turns out it isn't), then differentiating 
> based on multicast addresses would not have worked.
> 
> I don't think this is a big deal either way, and I don't 
> think anyone had strong opinions about it.
> 
> Radia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Anoop Ghanwani wrote:
> > Silvano/Donald/Radia,
> >
> > I would prefer to see a different multicast address used 
> for the TRILL 
> > IS-IS instances.  Was there any consensus on this at the 
> time it was 
> > discussed.  I do remember seeing the discussion, but I 
> can't remember 
> > how it concluded.
> >
> > Anoop
> >
> >   
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Silvano Gai [mailto:sgai at nuovasystems.com]
> >> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 1:54 PM
> >> To: Eastlake III Donald-LDE008; Anoop Ghanwani
> >> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >> Subject: RE: [rbridge] a clarification about the core 
> IS-IS instance
> >>
> >>
> >> Donald,
> >>
> >> Radia confirmed that all the ISIS messages are sent to multicast 
> >> addresses and therefore we discussed the possibility to 
> use separate 
> >> multicast addresses instead of the V bit
> >>
> >> -- Silvano
> >>
> >>     
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: rbridge-bounces at postel.org 
> [mailto:rbridge-bounces at postel.org]
> >>>       
> >> On
> >>     
> >>> Behalf Of Eastlake III Donald-LDE008
> >>> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 8:46 AM
> >>> To: Anoop Ghanwani
> >>> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >>> Subject: Re: [rbridge] a clarification about the core 
> IS-IS instance
> >>>
> >>> If it were not for the V bit, how would you distinguish an IS-IS
> >>>       
> >> routing
> >>     
> >>> packet conveying layer 3 routing information being sent
> >>>       
> >> inside a TRILL
> >>     
> >>> data frame from a layer 2 TRILL per VLAN IS-IS packet being sent
> >>>       
> >> inside
> >>     
> >>> a TRILL IS-IS frame?
> >>>
> >>> Donald
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Anoop Ghanwani [mailto:anoop at brocade.com]
> >>> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 10:34 AM
> >>> To: Eastlake III Donald-LDE008
> >>> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >>> Subject: RE: [rbridge] a clarification about the core 
> IS-IS instance
> >>>
> >>> Hi Donald,
> >>>
> >>> Thanks again.
> >>>
> >>> What's the function of the V-bit in all of this?  What does an 
> >>> RBridge gain by looking at this, that it cannot get by looking at 
> >>> fields that it already has to?
> >>>
> >>> Anoop
> >>>
> >>>       
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: Eastlake III Donald-LDE008
> >>>> [mailto:Donald.Eastlake at motorola.com]
> >>>> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 7:30 AM
> >>>> To: Anoop Ghanwani
> >>>> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >>>> Subject: RE: [rbridge] a clarification about the core
> >>>>         
> >> IS-IS instance
> >>     
> >>>> Hi Anoop,
> >>>>
> >>>> That looks about right, although you also have to check that the 
> >>>> inner length/type field is in the length range. And if you 
> >>>> determine that a TRILL IS-IS frame is for a per VLAN 
> instance, you 
> >>>> still don't know if you should process as well as forwarding it 
> >>>> until you check whether you are DRB for a link with an 
> end station 
> >>>> in that VLAN.
> >>>>
> >>>> Donald
> >>>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: Anoop Ghanwani [mailto:anoop at brocade.com]
> >>>> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 10:00 AM
> >>>> To: Eastlake III Donald-LDE008
> >>>> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >>>> Subject: RE: [rbridge] a clarification about the core
> >>>>         
> >> IS-IS instance
> >>     
> >>>> Hi Donald,
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks for the clarification.  Yes, I do remember the 
> discussion on 
> >>>> the list.  At that time it looked like the Ethertype 
> would tell if 
> >>>> the frame was IS-IS.
> >>>> It now looks like even the core IS-IS instance will use 
> a DSAP/SSAP 
> >>>> (for some reason I thought we were going to use a new 
> Ethertype for 
> >>>> the core IS-IS instance).
> >>>>
> >>>> So, to identify a core IS-IS frame (which all RBridges should be 
> >>>> interested in) one would have to check for:
> >>>> outer.etype = trill
> >>>> inner.dsap = xx
> >>>> inner.ssap = xx
> >>>> inner.ctl = yy
> >>>> inner.vlan = not present
> >>>>
> >>>> The V bit doesn't really seem all that useful since both 
> the core 
> >>>> frames and the per-VLAN instance have it set, so that 
> bit doesn't 
> >>>> tell one whether or the packet needs to be processed as 
> a control 
> >>>> packet at a given RBridge.  The above fields are necessary and 
> >>>> sufficient.  Please let me know if I'm missing something 
> re the V 
> >>>> bit.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks,
> >>>> Anoop
> >>>>
> >>>>         
> >>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>> From: Eastlake III Donald-LDE008
> >>>>> [mailto:Donald.Eastlake at motorola.com]
> >>>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 9:09 PM
> >>>>> To: Anoop Ghanwani
> >>>>> Cc: rbridge at postel.org
> >>>>> Subject: RE: [rbridge] a clarification about the core IS-IS
> >>>>>           
> >> instance
> >>     
> >>>>> Hi Anoop,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yes, that was a change that was extensively discussed on
> >>>>>           
> >>>> the mailing
> >>>>         
> >>>>> list. There wasn't a formal consensus determination but it
> >>>>>           
> >>>> was clear
> >>>>         
> >>>>> that the sentiment of the group was to always have a TRILL
> >>>>>           
> >>>> Header on
> >>>>         
> >>>>> TRILL IS-IS frames and use a formerly reserved bit in the header
> >>>>>           
> >> to
> >>     
> >>>>> distinguish a TRILL IS-IS frame from a TRILL data frame
> >>>>>           
> >>>> whose contents
> >>>>         
> >>>>> happens to be a (presumably layer 3) IS-IS message.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I believe your second point is correct. Checking for the TRILL 
> >>>>> Ethertype is the key to deciding whether to process a frame
> >>>>>           
> >>>> if you are
> >>>>         
> >>>>> not DRB on that port and VLAN. (This ignores the
> >>>>>           
> >>>> bridging/media frames
> >>>>         
> >>>>> sent to the block of multicast 16 addresses reserved for that
> >>>>> purpose.)
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thanks,
> >>>>> Donald
> >>>>>
> >>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>> From: rbridge-bounces at postel.org
> >>>>> [mailto:rbridge-bounces at postel.org] On Behalf Of Anoop Ghanwani
> >>>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 9:42 PM
> >>>>> To: rbridge at postel.org
> >>>>> Subject: [rbridge] a clarification about the core IS-IS instance
> >>>>>
> >>>>> From reading the previous version of the draft I got the
> >>>>>           
> >> impression
> >>     
> >>>>> that frames sent as part of the core IS-IS would not
> >>>>>           
> >>>> contain a trill
> >>>>         
> >>>>> header or inner header.  However, on reading this version, it
> >>>>>           
> >> looks
> >>     
> >>>>> like the core IS-IS instance would in fact contain a
> >>>>>           
> >> trill header.
> >>     
> >>>>> Assuming that the above is true, would it be safe to assume that
> >>>>>           
> >> an
> >>     
> >>>>> RBridge, for a port that is connected to a LAN for which it
> >>>>>           
> >>>> is not a
> >>>>         
> >>>>> DRB, will drop all frames whose Ethertype does not
> >>>>>           
> >> indicate trill?
> >>     
> >>>>> Anoop
> >>>>>
> >>>>>           
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> rbridge mailing list
> >>> rbridge at postel.org
> >>> http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/rbridge
> >>>       
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > rbridge mailing list
> > rbridge at postel.org
> > http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/rbridge
> >   
> 



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