8. Packet Switching
• In the early 1960s, Paul Baran at The Rand Corporation writes a series
of reports investigating the networking requirements for the DoD.
• Donald Davies at NPL in the UK had the same idea
• He finds that the requirements for data are very different than those for
voice.
• Data is bursty. Voice is continuous.
• Data connections are short. Voice connections have long durations.
• Data would be sent in individual packets, rather than as continuous
stream, on a path through the network.
• Packet switching is born and
• By the late 1960s, the Advance Research Projects Agency decides
building one would reduce the cost of research and so we have the
ARPANET.
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 8
9. But was Packet Switching
a Major Breakthrough?
• Strange as it may seem, it depends.
• During this period many things are age dependent.
• If your formative years had occurred prior to the mid-60s (pre-boomer),
your model of communication was defined by
telephony.
– Then this is revolutionary.
• If you are younger (boomer), your model is determined by
computers.
– Data is in buffers, How do you do communications:
• Pick up a buffer and send it.
– What could be more obvious!
• That it was independently invented (and probably more than twice) supports
that.
• But there was a more radical idea coming!
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 9
26. What Do We Mean by
Separating Mechanism and Policy
• Concept first proposed by Bill Wulf [1975] for operating
systems.
• Separating what is common across solutions from what is uncommon.
• Mechanics of memory management are the same, allocation scheme or
page replacement policy is what varies.
• In protocols, there are a few mechanisms. Virtually all of the
variation is in the policies.
– Acknowledgement is mechanism; when to Ack is policy.
– This has major implication for the structure of protocols.
– By not separating mechanism and policy, we have been saying there is
one point in ~8 dimensional space that solves everything!
• Absurd! No one would expect that!
• We will apply this across the board to simplify and ensure that
cooperating layers behave in a compatible manner.
• Leverage is in the commonality, but letting what must vary vary.
– Never take it to extremes. It is subtle task.
27. The Structure of Protocols
• If we separate mechanism and policy, we find there are
• Two kinds of mechanisms:
– Tightly-Bound: Those that must be associated with the Transfer PDU
• policy is imposed by the sender.
– Loosely-Bound: Those that don’t have to be.
• policy is imposed by the receiver.
– Furthermore, the two are only loosely coupled through a state vector.
• Implies a very different structure for protocols and their implementations
• Noting that syntactic differences are minimal, we can conclude
that
• There is one data transfer protocol with a small number of
encodings.
Tightly-bound
(pipelined)
Loosely-bound
(Policy processing)
127. There is Much More,
And Much More to Discover!
• A Claim: One will not find a structure that is both as rich
and as simple as this that is not equivalent to it. Prove us
wrong! ;-)
– That is the whole idea: Test Principles to Understand More, so
what we build isn’t a morass of patches. IOW, do some science
before builidng.
• An Invitation: Come explore it with us.
– There is much to explore:
• Believe it or not, I have left out a lot!
• How it applies to different environments, especially wireless.
• What are the dynamic properties?
– Routing, congestion control
• Start with Patterns in Network Architecture, Prentice Hall
– Check out related work at
– At www.pouzinsociety.org or
– http://irati.eu or http://ict-pristine.eu
– http://csr.bu.edu/rina
129. How to design RINA Networks?
• Until here we hope to have provided multiple reasons
why RINA provides a simpler, cleaner yet more powerful
toolset for network architects than TCP/IP
• But how to put it all together to design real networks?
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 129
130. Designing RINA networks (I)
Number, scope of layers and goal of each one
• Decide the number and scope of the layers (DIFs) in the
network, . Example:
– Three ISPs that use multiple DIFs internally for traffic aggregation
purposes
– ISP alliance DIF: the three ISPs get together to support a number of
specialized DIFs
• Public Internet DIF (General purpose), Corporate VPN DIF, Interactive
Video DIF
Public Internet DIF
Interactive Video DIF Corporate VPN DIF
ISP 2 Metro DIF
ISP 2 Regional DIF
ISP 2 Backbone DIF
ISP 3 Metro DIF
ISP 3 Backbone DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 130
ISP 1 Metro DIF
ISP 1 Backbone DIF
ISP Alliance DIF
131. Designing RINA networks (II)
QoS cubes to be supported by each layer
• Identify the types of traffic that should be served by each layer
and dimension it. Ideally, for each type of traffic, we would like
to know:
– Characterization in terms of burstiness, offered load, etc
– Required statistical bounds on loss and delay (e.g. 99% of
time loss should be less than 5%) -> can be derived from
required QoE
– Reliable and/or in order delivery of data required?
• From that information the number and characteristics of QoS
cubes required can be derived.
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 131
132. Designing RINA networks (III)
Policy sets of each layer
• Design new (or use existing) policy sets that allow each layer to
reach its design goals taking into account its operational
environment (offered traffic, QoS cubes supported, N-1 DIFs).
– Connectivity graph, addressing, routing, data transfer, delimiting, resource
allocation, relaying and multiplexing, authentication, authorization, SDU
protection, etc
IPC API
Data Transfer Data Transfer Control Layer Management
CACEP
Retransmission
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 132
SDU Delimiting
Data Transfer
Relaying and
Multiplexing
SDU Protection
Retransmission
Control
Flow Control
RIB
Daemon
RIB
CDAP
Parser/Generator
Enrollment
Flow Allocation
Resource Allocation
Routing
Authentication
State Vector
SStatatete V Veecctotorr
DDaatata T Trarannsfsefer r
Retransmission
Control
Control
Flow Control
Flow Control
Increasing timescale (functions performed less often) and complexity
Namespace
Management
Security
Management
133. Designing RINA networks (IV)
Network Management System
• Analyze the role of the Network Management System (“monitor
and repair”), a number of configurations are possible – from
fairly centralized to autonomic.
• Understand the different operating ranges of the network,
decide monitors/triggers to sense them and design strategies to
automatically transition between different policy sets associated
to the operating ranges.
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 133
Mgr
MA MA MA
MA
MA
MA
MA
MA
134. Designing RINA networks (V)
Interoperating with legacy technology
• If it has to interoperate with existing technology or support
legacy apps, understand the required tooling for interoperation:
shim DIFs, gateways, legacy application support.
Public Internet
Gateway
Legacy
Faux Sockets
Gateway app
faux
Shim IPC
Process
Shim IPC
Process
Shim IPC
Process
VIFIB Node Gateway
TCP or UDP
(IPv6)
Ethernet
VIFIB Node VIFIB Node
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 134
Ethernet (VLAN)
Shim IPC
Process
Shim IPC
Process Public Internet (IPv4)
Ethernet . . . Ethernet Ethernet . . . Ethernet
IPC
Process
IPC
Process
IPC
Process
IPC
Process
SlapOS base
DIF
Shim DIF over UDP
Shim DIF
over 802.1Q
Shim DIFs
135. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 135
138. Metropolitan DIF
Connectivity graph and example policies
• Supports different “e-malls” – DIFs designed to support applications.
• Organized in subDIF, each subDIF could map to a city.
• Topological addressing (<city.IPCP>), link state within a subDIF.
• Need to multiplex traffic from potentially very different characteristics:
E-mall
DIF
E-mall
DIF
need to provide multiple QoS cubes.
• Strong security requirements since the DIF is exposed to customer
routers
MR
BR
BR
IR
BR
BR
ISP
BR
BR
BR
IR
IR
BR
IR
IR
IR
MR
BR
BR
BR
BR IR BR
SubDIF 3
BR
SubDIF 1
SubDIF 2
Regional DIF
E-mall
DIF
E-mall
DIF
E-mall
DIF
E-mall
DIF
E-mall
DIF
E.mall
DIF
IR = IPCP at Interior Router
BR = IPCP at Border Router
E-mall
DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 138
139. Regional DIF
Connectivity graph and example policies
• Provides connectivity to the different subDIFs of the metropolitan DIF.
• Organized in subDIF, each subDIF could map to a region.
• Topological addressing (<region.IPCP>), link state within a subDIF.
• Traffic more aggregated than in metros, still probably need to provide
support for multiple QoS cubes.
MR
BR
BR
IR
BR
BR
ISP
BR
BR
BR
IR
IR
BR
IR
IR
IR
MR
BR
BR
BR
IR
MR
BR BRBR
SubDIF 3
BR
SubDIF 1
SubDIF 2
Backbone DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
IR = IPCP at Interior Router
BR = IPCP at Border Router
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 139
140. Backbone DIF
Connectivity graph and example policies
• Provides connectivity to the different subDIFs of the regional DIF.
• Traffic is aggregated and therefore more deterministic, more connection-oriented
like resource allocation policies make sense.
• Security policies can be more relaxed: all the infrastructure is in control of
the provider and not exposed outside.
• Relatively small number of IPCPs: flat addressing and link-state routing may
be enough (no subDIFs).
• Meshed connectivity graph.
Regional
IR = IPCP at Interior Router
BR = IPCP at Border Router
BR
BR
BR
BR
BR
BR
IR
IR
IR
IR
IR
IR
IR
Regional
DIF
Regional
DIF
Regional
DIF
Regional
DIF
Regional
DIF
DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 140
141. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 141
142. Border
Router
Service Provider Networks
Example scenario (Mobile networks)
Application-specific DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
P2P DIF
Metro DIF
Backbone DIF
Provider Fixed Network
(necklace with e-mall at the top)
P2P DIF
Border
Router
P2P DIF
Border
Router
District DIF
Metro DIF
Interior
Router
(Base Station)
Host
(Mobile)
Multi-access DIF
(radio) P2P DIF
Regional DIF
Public Internet DIF
DAP
Border
Router
Regional DIF
P2P DIF
Customer Terminal Mobile Infrastructure Network
P2P DIF
Interior
Router
Border
Router
P2P DIF
Regional
Metro
District
P2P DIF
Interior
Router
142
143. Radio Access DIF and District DIF
Example connectivity graphs
Multi-homed host
Metro
DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
BR
BS
H H H
BS
H
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
BR
BS
H H H
BS
H
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
Multi-homed host
Metro
DIF
Metro
DIF
District DIF 1 District DIF 2
Radio DIF
Radio
DIF
Radio DIF
Radio
DIF
DISTRICT DIF
BS = IPCP at Base Station
H = IPCP at Host
BR = IPCP at Border Router
BS
H
BS
H H
H
H
Multi-access DIF 1
(radio) Multi-access DIF 2
(radio)
District
DIF
District
DIF
District
DIF
District
DIF
District
DIF
District
DIF
MULTI-ACCESS
RADIO DIF
BS = IPCP at Base Station
H = IPCP at Host
143
144. Metro DIF and Regional DIF
Example connectivity graphs
E-mall
DIF
Regional
DIF
BR
Internet DIF REGIONAL DIF
Metro
DIF
Public
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
METRO DIF
H = IPCP at Host
BR = IPCP at Border Router
BR
H H H H H
H H H H H
Reg.
DIF
Multi-homed host
H H H H
H
BR
H
District
DIF
District
DIF
District
DIF
BR
H
Metro
DIF
BR
H H H HH HH HH H H HH HH H H HH H H HH
BR
H H H HH H H H HH HH H H HH H H H
BR
Metro DIF
(fixed)
H = IPCP at Host
BR = IPCP at Border Router
144
145. Mobility, what is needed?
• Nothing new!
• Enrollment to new DIFs follows usual procedures
• Allocation of flows follows usual procedures
• Changing address of IPCPs within a DIF as they move through it
as described before
• New lower layer DIFs (points of attachment) are acquired as
usual
• Current points of attachment are discarded when they can no
longer provide an acceptable QoS (defined per DIF)
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 145
146. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 146
147. Datacentre(DC) Network
Example scenario: NSP owns DC and Network to customers
DAP DAP
P2P DIF P2P DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
Border Router
(Server)
P2P DIF
VM
P2P DIF
Interior
Router
P2P DIF P2P DIF
(Top of Rack)
Interior
Router
(Aggregation)
Border Router
(DataCentre)
DataCentre (DC) Fabric DIF
P2P DIF
Border Router
(Network Service
Provider)
Provider 1 Metro DIF
Provider 1 regional DIF
Access DIF
Border Router
(Network Service
Provider)
Customer Site DIF
P2P DIF P2P DIF
Border Router
(Customer
Site)
Customer DIF (VPN)
. . .
Interior
Router
Host
DC Network Provider Network Customer Network
• Service provider owns both the network and the DC: offers “private
cluster with QoS” to customers
• Set of Private Virtual Machines available to the customer only, via the “Customer DIF”, a
VPN.
• Customer can expand the Customer DIF to his site, and include its own hosts/VMs.
• Customer can customize policies in his DIF (routing, addressing, security, etc.)
147
148. Datacentre(DC) Network
Example scenario: Customer access DC via the Internet
DAP DAP
Provider 1 Metro DIF
Public Internet DIF
… …
P2P DIF
BR (NSP 1)
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
Border Router
(Server)
P2P DIF
VM
P2P DIF
Interior
Router
P2P DIF P2P DIF
(Top of Rack)
Interior
Router
(Aggregation)
Border Router
(DataCentre)
DataCentre (DC) Fabric DIF
P2P DIF
BR (NSP 1)
Provider 2 Metro DIF
Access DIF
BR (NSP 2)
Customer Site DIF
P2P DIF P2P DIF
Border Router
(Customer
Site)
Customer DIF (VPN)
Interior
Router
Host
BR (NSP2)
DC Network Provider 1 Network Provider 2 Network
Customer Network
• Service provider owns both the network and the DC: offers “private cluster
over the public Internet” to customers
• Set of Private Virtual Machines available to the customer only, via the “Customer DIF”, a VPN.
• Customer can expand the Customer DIF to his site, and include its own hosts/VMs.
• Customer can customize policies in his DIF (routing, addressing, security, etc.)
148
149. Datacentre(DC) Network
Example scenario: User accesses app via the Internet
P2P DIF P2P DIF
Provider 1 Metro DIF
… …
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
Border Router
(Server)
P2P DIF
DAP
VM
P2P DIF
Interior
Router
(Top of Rack)
Interior
Router
(Aggregation)
Border Router
(DataCentre)
DataCentre (DC) Fabric DIF
P2P DIF
BR (NSP 1)
Access DIF
BR (NSP 2)
Border Router
(Customer
Site)
Home DIF
(Wiireless)
Host
DC Network Provider 1 Network Home Network
• App deployed in the DC, made available through the public Internet
• Home user access the application from his home network (connected
to the Internet)
DAP
P2P DIF
Provider 2 Metro DIF
Public Internet DIF
BR (NSP 1)
BR (NSP2)
Provider 2 Network
149
150. DC Model
Example
P2P DIF
P2P DIF
Border Router
(Server)
DAP
VM
Customer A DIF
DataCentre (DC) Fabric DIF
Interior
Router
P2P DIF P2P DIF
(Top of Rack)
Interior
Router
(Aggregation)
Public
Internet DIF
NSP DIF
P2P DIF
Border Router
(DC)
• VM contains applications
• Server hosts VMs (internal DIFs to communicate to them). Servers are
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
Border Routers for VMs
• Top of Rack (ToR) routers interconnect VMs of the same Rack
• Aggregation (A) routers interconnect ToRs (multi-stage Clos Fabric or
leaf-spine connectivity, see next slide)
• Border Routers (BRs) interconnect DC to the external world
150
151. DC Fabric DIF
Example connectivity graph and policies
• Connects servers between them and to DC Border Routers
• Fat tree connectivity graph for full bisection BW and no oversubscription
• Resource allocation policies should effectively multiplex flows with different
capacity and latency requirements
• Connectivity graph is fixed: Hierarchical addressing to facilitate forwarding
• DIF is completely hidden within DC: relaxed security policies
BR BR BR BR
A A
ToR
A A
ToR
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
A A
ToR
S S S S
ToR
S S S S
ToR
S S S S
S S S S
S S S S
ToR
S S S S
A A
ToR
S S S S
ToR
S S S S
Customer
A DIF
Customer
A DIF
Customer
B DIF
Public Int.
DIF
Public Int.
DIF
Customer
C DIF
151
152. Customer DIF
Example connectivity graph and policies
• Connects VMs running customer applications between them and to other
infrastructure (for example at one or more customer site(s)).
• All policies are tailored to the particular needs of the customer (addressing,
routing, resource allocation, authentication, access control, SDU Protection, etc.)
To customer A site 1 To customer A site 2
S S
VM VM VM VM VM
VM VM
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
S
VM VM
BR BR
DC Fabric
DIF
Provider 1
Metro DIF
152
153. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 153
154. No need for migration: adoption!
• RINA can be deployed over, under and next to the
current TCP/IP based Internet
– If the Internet is good enough for you: keep using it!
– Otherwise… there can be an alternative!
Applications
DIF
…
DIF
TCP or UDP
Applications
DIF
…
DIF
Applications
TCP or UDP
DIF
…
DIF
End goal
Applications
DIF
…
DIF
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 154
Today
Applications
TCP or UDP
IP
Ethernet
Physical Media
IP
Ethernet
Physical Media
Ethernet
Physical Media
IP
Physical Media
Physical Media
155. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 155
156. Shim DIFs
General requirements
• The task of a shim DIF is to put a small as possible veneer over a
legacy protocol to allow a RINA DIF to use it unchanged.
• The shim DIF should provide no more service or capability than
the legacy protocol provides.
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 156
157. Shim DIF over 802.1Q
Environment
• (Disclaimer: Other shim DIFs over Ethernet are possible: with no
VLANs; using LLC; over carrier Ethernet; …)
• A shim DIF over Ethernet maps to a VLAN
– The DIF name is the VLAN name
• The shim DIF only supports on class of service: unreliable
• ARP can be used to map upper layer IPC Process names to shim
DIF addresses (MAC addresses)
• Only one application (a normal IPC Process) can be registered
at each shim IPC Process
– No way to differentiate between multiple flows from the same pair of shim
IPC Processes
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 157
158. Shim DIF over 802.1Q
Use of the Ethernet frame
• Source MAC @ (6 bytes)
– Source shim IPC Process address
• Destination MAC @ (6 bytes)
– Destination shim IPC Process address
• IEEE 802.1Q tag (2 bytes)
– DIF name
• Ethertype (2 bytes)
– 0x0D1F
158
Shim DIF over Ethernet
Ethernet II PCI Application data
• Minimum length: 42 bytes (46 if 802.1Q
not present)
• Maximum length: 1500 bytes
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP
159. Shim DIF over 802.1Q
Environment
Investigating RINA as an Alternative to TCP/IP 159
160. Shim DIF over TCP/UDP
Flow
2 5
UDP Port:2524 UDP Port:2524
• Wraps an IP network with the DIF IPC API
• Two QoS cubes possible: reliable and in-order-delivery of flows (TCP),
unreliable (UDP)
– More could be possible depending on the capabilities of the underlying IP
network
• IPCP name is mapped to an IP address and a port number
– Using proprietary procedures or leveraging DNS (via SRV records)
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 160
IPCP
a.1
IPCP
b.1
Shim DIF over IP networks
IP layer
Shim IPCP
X.1
Shim IPCP
Y.1
IP: 4.3.2.1 IP: 5.3.5.8
161. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 161
162. RINA under IP
• RINA-based ISP, internal layers are RINA, can transport IP
(can be treated as just another app) and/or other DIFs.
Shim DIF Shim DIF
Backbone DIF
• Almost all routing is done in RINA layers. From the IP layer
perspective, the ISP is a single hop
– Directly connects access routers between them or with border
routers
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 162
App
Customer network
Home router
Regional DIF
ISP access router
Shim DIF Shim DIF
Regional
router
Regional-bacbone
border
router
Backbone
router
ISP border
router (runs
BGP sessions
with peers)
Customer
network is not
RINA enabled
Public Internet layer (IP)
Data transfer/control: TCP/IP Layer management: ICMP, BGP, etc…
Access network
layer (e.g Ethernet)
AS-to-AS layer
(e.g Ethernet)
Peer AS is not
RINA-enabled
163. Outline
• Examples of RINA Networks
– Network Service Provider (Fixed Network)
– Network Service Provider (Mobile Network)
– Data Center Network
• Deploying RINA in the current Internet
– Shim DIFs: RINA over X
– Under IP
– Legacy application support: faux sockets API
T-5 Alternatives to TCP/IP 163