Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) Requirements for Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) Layer

introduces and explains Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) architecture and how it supports forwarding of multicast data packets. This document lists the OAM requirements for BIER layer of multicast domain. The list can further be used to for gap analysis of available OAM tools to identify possible enhancements of existing or whether new OAM tools are required to support proactive and on-demand path monitoring and service validation.

Term "BIER OAM" used in this document interchangeably with longer version "set of OAM protocols, methods and tools for BIER layer". BFR: Bit-Forwarding Router BFER: Bit-Forwarding Egress Router BIER: Bit Index Explicit Replication OAM: Operations, Administration and Maintenance

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 .

This section lists requirements for OAM of BIER layer: The listed requirements MUST be supported with any type of transport layer over which BIER layer can be realized. It MUST be possible to initialize BIER OAM session from any Bit-Forwarding Router (BFR) of the given BIER domain. It SHOULD be possible to initialize BIER OAM session from a centralized controller. BIER OAM MUST support proactive and on-demand OAM monitoring and measurement methods. BIER OAM MUST support unidirectional OAM methods, both continuity check and performance measurement. BIER OAM packets MUST be in-band, i.e. follow exactly the same path as data plane traffic, in forward direction, i.e. from ingress toward egress end point(s) of the OAM test session. BIER OAM MUST support bi-directional OAM methods. Such OAM methods MAY combine in-band monitoring or measurement in forward direction and out-of-band notification in the reverse direction, i.e. from egress to ingress end point of the OAM test session. BIER OAM MUST support proactive monitoring of BFER availability by a BFR in the given BIER domain, e.g. p2mp BFD active tail support. BIER OAM MUST support Path Maximum Transmission Unit discovery. BIER OAM MUST support Reverse Defect Indication (RDI) notification of the source of continuity checking BFR by Bit-Forwarding Egress Routers (BFERs), e.g. by using Diag in p2mp BFD with active tail support. BIER OAM MUST support active and passive performance measurement methods. BIER OAM MUST support unidirectional performance measurement methods to calculate throughput, loss, delay and delay variation metrics. provides great details into performance measurement and performance metrics. BIER OAM MUST support defect notification mechanism, like Alarm Indication Signal. Any BFR in the given BIER domain MAY originate a defect notification addressed to any subset of BFRs within the domain. BIER OAM MUST support methods to enable survivability of a BIER layer. These recovery methods MAY use protection switching and restoration.

This document does not propose any IANA consideration. This section may be removed.

This document list the OAM requirement for BIER-enabled domain and does not raise any security concerns or issues in addition to ones common to networking.

TBD