Session Date/Time: 19 Mar 2025 06:00

bess

Summary

This BESS working group meeting covered a range of topics, including RFC publications, document status updates, charter updates, and presentations on various drafts related to EVPN and BGP-based networking. Key discussions revolved around tunnel encapsulation attributes, charter scope, SD-WAN integration, MAC address withdrawal, per-flow designated forwarder (DF) election, and layer 3 access for EVPN.

Key Discussion Points

RFC Publications and Document Status: Updates on recently published RFCs (9746, 9744) and drafts in the RFC editor's queue and IESG review. A mis-reference issue in the fast DF recovery and virtual Ethernet segment drafts was noted and resolved.
Tunnel Encapsulation Attributes: IDR chairs provided guidelines and a template for describing tunnel and encapsulation attributes in drafts, emphasizing adherence to RFC 9012 and including security considerations. A strong preference for using Tunnel Encapsulation attributes was mentioned.
Charter Update: Discussion about revising the BESS charter to reflect current work items, including SRv6 and various VPN services. The goal is to define the scope of BESS more tightly while allowing for flexibility to incorporate new services in the future.
SD-WAN Integration: Discussion of a draft on using BGP for SD-WAN control and the need to address IESG review comments. Debate on the charter scope and where SD-WAN related work should reside.
MAC Address Withdrawal: Clarification of procedures for MAC address withdrawal in EVPN, especially concerning the use of age-out timers to prevent blackholing.
Aliasing and ETHERAD per EVI: Clarification was provided on scenarios involving partial or absent ETHERAD per EVI information in multi-homing setups.
Per-Flow DF Election: Presentation on a draft proposing per-flow DF election for better load balancing in EVPN networks. Discussion focused on the transient nature of bum traffic and the potential benefits in specific scenarios like router boot-up or L2 multicast.
Layer 3 Access for EVPN: Presentation on a draft proposing a layer 3 access mechanism for EVPN. Doubts were raised regarding the need for new ENCAP and LSI.
Dynamic Overlay Load Balancing: This session presented work based on overlay load balancing, and there was an open question about how often new traffic would get scheduled with this method. There was concern about potentially stale information, and also confusion about counter direction (transmit side v receive side.)
9251 bis: This session covered the necessity to address several deficiencies that have been found now that 9251 has been deployed. The primary concerns were the necessity to refine the multicast leapseeking procedures, and wild card route handling.
6514 bis: The general topic discussed here was whether it's feasible to publish 6514 again, as many years have passed and many deployments and addendums exist for this RFC. Should the entire body of work be included, or just specific components?

Decisions and Action Items

Authors to Update Drafts: Authors of drafts under working group last call were reminded to resubmit their documents to increment the version number and confirm continued interest.
Review Unequal LB: IDR was requested to perform a new review of the unequal LB draft as the previous review may have been lost.
Review VPN Control Plane for Geneva: Sammy to respond to Sue's comments on the VPN control plane for Geneva, if Sammy is unable to respond, Jason to take action.
Authors to Renew IPR Call: The EVPN IPVP and Interworking draft needs an updated IPR call with responses from each active author.
Investigate Merge of NFFR Flag and Fast Reroute: Confirm agreement to merge the NFFR flag draft with the fast reroute draft.
Authors to incorporate Tunnel Encapsulation requirements: Draft authors to include new tunnel and encapsulation requirements as appropriate.
Evaluate Draft Ready for Last Call: Consider the draft on applying D-Path attribute to layer 2 EVPN routes for working group last call.
Evaluate Draft Ready for Last Call: Consider the draft on Fast Convergence and Alias for working group last call.
Add Draft to Adoption Queue: Add the EVPN VPWS gateway version 6 draft to the working group adoption call queue.
Evaluate Draft for Adoption: Evaluate the Multicast E2E Gateway Draft for working group adoption call.
Discuss MAC Table Synchronization Concerns: Address the MAC table synchronization concerns that were raised for the Multi-homed EVPN draft.
Authors to provide pointers: Provide pointers to the error handling section in the draft on MAC address.

Next Steps

Post Charter Update to Mailing List: Chairs will post the draft BESS charter update to the mailing list for working group review and consensus.
Evaluate L3 extension on mailing list: Authors of the L3 access will work to provide an example on the mailing list.
Address outstanding review concerns in subsequent drafts: Authors to work to resolve outstanding issues on various RFC's discussed.