Internet-Draft SDN MPTCP-aware MPQUIC-aware using ALTO July 2023
Xing, et al. Expires 24 January 2024 [Page]
Workgroup:
alto
Internet-Draft:
draft-xing-alto-sdn-controller-aware-mptcp-mpquic-08
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Authors:
Z. Xing
Changchun University of Science and Technology
H. Qi
Changchun University of Science and Technology
X. Di
Changchun University of Science and Technology

The SDN-based MPTCP-aware and MPQUIC-aware Transmission Control Model using ALTO

Abstract

This document aims to study and implement Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) and Multipath QUIC (MPQUIC) using application layer traffic optimization (ALTO) in software defined network (SDN). In a software-defined network, ALTO server collects network cost indicators (including link delay, number of paths, availability, network traffic, bandwidth and packet loss rate etc.), and the controller extracts MPTCP or MPQUIC packet header to allocate MPTCP or MPQUIC packet to suitable transmission path according to the network cost indicators by ALTO, which can reduce the probability of transmission path congestion and improving path utilization in a multipath transmission network.

Status of This Memo

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This Internet-Draft will expire on 24 January 2024.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The conventional TCP protocol only uses one path between a server and a client to exchange data. In order to realize the simultaneous transmission of data via multiple paths between a server and a client, the IETF standardized MPTCP [RFC8684] . MPTCP uses multiple paths between hosts to transmit data at the same time, but it is necessary to modify the operating system kernel to change the protocol stack of both parties or use an application proxy [RFC8803] in order to increase the MPTCP protocol. MPTCP has disadvantages such as difficulty in deployment. In order to solve the drawbacks in the transmission network and adapt to the faster development of the Internet, Google proposed the HTTP/3 protocol which is QUIC [RFC9000]. QUIC has many new features, such as: 0-RTT, forward error correction, connection migration, flexible congestion control, multiplexing without head-of-line blocking, and more. MPQUIC [MPQUIC] is a multi-path transmission protocol designed on the basis of QUIC. SDN [RFC7149] is a new network innovation architecture. By separating control and forwarding, it breaks the closedness of traditional network equipment, and uses programming to make network management more concise and programmability. ALTO [RFC7285] can obtain and expose global network information to a controller, such as network traffic, link delay, etc. MPTCP and MPQUIC have their own characteristics [MultipathTester].

Realize the coupling control of MPTCP and MPQUIC subflows in the context of SDN, and obtain the network state information and allocate the optimal path according to the information conveyed in the ALTO Protocol, so as to improve the bandwidth utilization and resource allocation fairness, effectively alleviate the network congestion and realize the load balance between paths.

At present, some scholars have studied the model of deploying MPTCP or MPQUIC in software-defined network, [QUICSDN] \ [SDN_for_MPTCP] \ [SDN_MPTCP], but their SDN controller cannot manage the headers of MPTCP and MPQUIC data packets at the same time, and cannot manage of MPTCP and MPQUIC links at the same time.The ALTO Protocol can easily obtain various network states (including multiple SDNs, dynamic networks) from controller without the internal details of the network provider, and deliver controller decisions [SDN_ALTO_proof] \ [SDN_ALTO], which is already a successful solution.

The purpose of this document is to:

Describe the model that an SDN controller can use to MPTCP or MPQUIC data packets in the software-defined network.

According to the global information obtained by the AlTO, the controller allocates MPTCP or MPQUIC data packets with efficient transmission path.

2. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3. Original transmission control mode of MPTCP or MPQUIC in SDN

In a software-defined network, the original controller cannot extract MPTCP or MPQUIC data packets. If MPTCP or MPQUIC as a server/client is deployed in SDN with a original controller and there are multiple transmission paths, the controller only selects one of the paths to exchange data, and the other paths are "idle" (i.e., there is only one path to transmit data). The utilization rate is low, and it is impossible to transmit data on multiple paths at the same time, resulting in low transmission efficiency.

4. Delivering functions by ALTO

An ALTO server is used to obtain network status information, and an SDN controller is considered as an ALTO client. The ALTO server collects network cost indicators (including link delay, number of paths, availability, network traffic, bandwidth and packet loss rate).

5. Architectural Framework

The architectural framework of multi-path transmission model based on SDN controller MPTCP and MPQUIC using ALTO is shown in Figure 1.

+--------------Network Status Acquisition----------------+
|                     ALTO Server                        |
|       (Network topology, traffic distribution,         |
|               link delay/bandwidth)                    |
+---------------^----------------------------------------+
                |
                +------ALTO Protocol----+
                                        |
+-----------Control Plane-(ALTO Client)-v----------------+
|    +-------------------------------------------+       |
|    |     Extract MPTCP / MPQUIC header module  |       |
|    |          (Extract packet header)          |       |
|    +---------------------+---------------------+       |
|                          |                             |
|                     token or CID                       |
|                          |                             |
|    +---------------------v---------------------+       |
|    |            Path selection module          |       |
| +-->    (Select the appropriate path from      <--+    |
| |  |    the candidate paths - assigned path)   |  |    |
| |  +---------------------+---------------------+  |    |
| |                        |                   Allocated |
| |            +-----Allocate path------+         path   |
| |            |                        |           |    |
| |  +---------v----------+ +-----------v--------+  |    |
| |  |     Flow rules     | |  Link management   |  |    |
| |  | generation module  | |      module        |  |    |
| |  |   (All switch      | |(Manage the mapping +--+    |
| |  |  assignment flow   | |table flows and save|       |
| |  |  tables for the    | |   the connection   |       |
| |  |  selected path)    | |    information)    |       |
| |  +---------+----------| +--------------------+       |
+-|------------|-----------------------------------------+
 Network       |
 status        +----Flow rules-----+
  |                                |
  |  +---------------Data Plane----v-------------+
  |  | +------------------+ +------------------+ |
  |  | |    SDN switch    | |    SDN switch    | |
  +--+ | (Forwarding flow | | (Forwarding flow | |
     | | rules and obtain | | rules and obtain | |
     | |  network status) | |  network status) | |
     | +------------------+ +------------------+ |
     +-------------------------------------------+

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of SDN-based MPTCP-aware and MPQUIC-aware
transmission control model using ALTO

The SDN-based MPTCP and MPQUIC transmission control using ALTO model consists of three parts.

                     1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +---------------+---------------+-------+-----+-+---------------+
 |     Kind      |  Length = 12  |Subtype|     |B|   Address ID  |
 +---------------+---------------+-------+-----+-+---------------+
 |                   Receiver's Token (32 bits)                  |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                Sender's Random Number (32 bits)               |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
Figure 2: MPTCP Header Packet Format
  Long Header Packet {
   Header Form (1) = 1,
   Fixed Bit (1) = 1,
   Long Packet Type (2),
   Type-Specific Bits (4),
   Version (32),
   Destination Connection ID Length (8),
   Destination Connection ID (0..160),
   Source Connection ID Length (8),
   Source Connection ID (0..160),
   Type-Specific Payload (..),
  }
Figure 3: QUIC Header Packet Format

6. Implementation and Deployment

      +---------------------+        +----------------------------+
      | Create a flow table |        |The packet p arrives at s1, |
      +----------+----------+        | and s1 performs flow rules <---+
                 |                   |   item matching on p       |   |
                 |                   +--------------+-------------+   |
      +----------v----------+                       |                 |
      |Obtain Network Status|                       |                 |
      |Extract packet header|<-----+                |                 |
      +----------+----------+      |                v                 |
                 |                 |                /\                |
     +-----------+------------+    |               /  \               |
     |           |            |    +---NO-----Match successful?       |
     v           v            v                    \  /               |
    /\          /\           /\                     \/                |
   /  \        /  \         /  \                    YES               |
MP_CAPABLE     CID         MP_JOIN                   |                |
   \  /        \  /         \  /                     |                |
    \/          \/           \/         +------------v--------------+ |
    |            |            |         |Forward packet according to|-+
    |            |            v         |the flow rules instruction |
    |            |     +------+------+  +------------^--------------+
    |            |     |Extract token|               |
    |            |     +------+------+               |
    |            |            |                      |
    |            |            |                      |
    |     +------v----+ +-----v-------+              |
    |     | key=Q+CID | | key=T+token |              |
    |     +-----+-----+ +------+------+              |
    |           |              |                     |
    |           +------+-------+                     |
    |                  |                             |
    |                  v                             |
    |                 /\                             |
    |                /  \                            |
    |             Is there a key                     |
    |        +--in the flow table?--+                |
    |        |       \  /           |                |
    |       NO        \/           YES               |
    |        |                      |                |
    | +------v----------+   +-------v------+         |
    | |Extract source IP|   |              |         |
    | |destination IP   |   | Path of all  |         |
    | |source port      |   | subflows in  |         |
    | |destination port |   | value,RL     |         |
    | |and subflow      |   |              |         |
    | |identifier       |   |              |         |
    | +-------+---------+   +-------+------+         |
    |         |                     |                |
    |         |                     |                |
    | +-------v---------+   +-------v-------+        |
    | |Add the subflow  |   |Extract the    |        |
    | |meta information |   |subflow meta   |        |
    | |to value and then|   |information    |        |
    | |save <key:value> |   |and add it to  |        |
    | |to the flow rules|   |value          |        |
    | +-------+---------+   +-------+-------+        |
    +-------->|                     |                |
              |                     |                |
      +-------v---------+   +-------v------+         |
      |                 |   |Allocate a new|         |
      |Allocate the     |   |path to p, and|         |
      |first path to p  |   |route does not|         |
      |route            |   |belong to RL  |         |
      +-------+---------+   +-------+------+         |
              |                     |                |
              +----------+----------+                |
                         |                           |
                         |                           |
   +---------------------v----------------------+    |
   |Put forward and reverse flow rules to switch|----+
   +--------------------------------------------+
Figure 4: The flow chart of the SDN-based MPTCP-aware and MPQUIC-aware
 multi-path transmission control model using ALTO

The flow chart of the SDN-based MPTCP-aware and MPQUIC-aware multi-path transmission control model using ALTO is shown in Figure 4. The transmission control model is realized by the following steps:

7. Security Considerations

The transmission control model uses the default security mechanism of SDN\ALTO\MPTCP\QUIC in the network, and does not modify the default security mechanisms such as encryption and authentication models [RFC7149], [RFC7285], [RFC6824] and [RFC9000].

8. IANA Considerations

TBD.

9. Discussion

The SDN transmission control model proposed in this document can simultaneously identify MPTCP and MPQUIC data packets and allocate optimal paths according to the network status obtained by ALTO, which expands the application scope of MPTCP and MPQUIC. In order to verify its comprehensive transmission performance, a fat-tree data center network is designed. The transmission control method proposed in this document improves the throughput by about 3 times compared to the default transmission control method. This model also supports data transmission in a software-defined networks with multiple path, and can also be applied to satellite networks, marine networks, etc. to transmit data.

10. Acknowledgments

The authors thank all reviewers for their comments.

11. References

11.1. Normative References

[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC6824]
Ford, A., Raiciu, C., Handley, M., and O. Bonaventure, "TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses", RFC 6824, DOI 10.17487/RFC6824, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6824>.
[RFC7149]
Boucadair, M. and C. Jacquenet, "Software-Defined Networking: A Perspective from within a Service Provider Environment", RFC 7149, DOI 10.17487/RFC7149, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7149>.
[RFC7285]
Alimi, R., Ed., Penno, R., Ed., Yang, Y., Ed., Kiesel, S., Previdi, S., Roome, W., Shalunov, S., and R. Woundy, "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol", RFC 7285, DOI 10.17487/RFC7285, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7285>.
[RFC8684]
Ford, A., Raiciu, C., Handley, M., Bonaventure, O., and C. Paasch, "TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses", RFC 8684, DOI 10.17487/RFC8684, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8684>.
[RFC8803]
Bonaventure, O., Ed., Boucadair, M., Ed., Gundavelli, S., Seo, S., and B. Hesmans, "0-RTT TCP Convert Protocol", RFC 8803, DOI 10.17487/RFC8803, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8803>.
[RFC9000]
Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000, DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.

11.2. Informative References

[MPQUIC]
"Multipath Extension for QUIC", <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-quic-multipath/>.
[MultipathTester]
"Coninck Q D , Bonaventure O . MultipathTester: Comparing MPTCP and MPQUIC in Mobile Environments[C]// 2019 Network Traffic Measurement and Analysis Conference (TMA). 2019.", <https://10.23919/TMA.2019.8784653>.
[QUICSDN]
"Kumar P , Chen J , Dezfouli B . QuicSDN: Transitioning from TCP to QUIC for Southbound Communication in SDNs[J]. 2021.", <https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021arXiv210708336K>.
[SDN_ALTO]
"V. K. Gurbani, M. Scharf, T. V. Lakshman, V. Hilt and E. Marocco, "Abstracting network state in Software Defined Networks (SDN) for rendezvous services," 2012 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2012, pp. 6627-6632.", <https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2012.6364858>.
[SDN_ALTO_proof]
"Faigl, Z. , Z. Szabo , and R. Schulcz . "Application-layer traffic optimization in software-defined mobile networks: A proof-of-concept implementation." IEEE(2014):1-6.", <https://doi.org/10.1109/NETWKS.2014.6959200>.
[SDN_for_MPTCP]
"Hussein A , Elhajj I H , Chehab A , et al. SDN for MPTCP: An enhanced architecture for large data transfers in datacenters[C]// IEEE International Conference on Communications. IEEE, 2017.", <https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2017.7996653>.
[SDN_MPTCP]
"7. K. Gao, C. Xu, J. Qin, S. Yang, L. Zhong and G. Muntean, "QoS-driven Path Selection for MPTCP: A Scalable SDN-assisted Approach," 2019 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), 2019, pp. 1-6,", <https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2019.8885585>.

Authors' Addresses

Ziyang Xing
Changchun University of Science and Technology
Changchun
Hui Qi
Changchun University of Science and Technology
Changchun
Xiaoqiang Di
Changchun University of Science and Technology
Changchun