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draft-ietf-opes-protocol-reqs-02

2002-08-02 15:38:50
Hi,

Please publish the attached OPES WG draft as
"draft-ietf-opes-protocol-reqs-02".



Open Pluggable Edge Services                                     A. Beck
Internet-Draft                                                M. Hofmann
Expires: January 31, 2003                            Lucent Technologies
                                                                H. Orman
                                               Purple Streak Development
                                                                R. Penno
                                                         Nortel Networks
                                                               A. Terzis
                                                   Individual Consultant
                                                          August 2, 2002


                Requirements for OPES Callout Protocols
                    draft-ietf-opes-protocol-reqs-02

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://
   www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 31, 2003.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document specifies the requirements that the OPES (Open
   Pluggable Edge Services) callout protocol must satisfy in order to
   support the remote execution of OPES services [1].  The requirements
   are intended to help evaluating possible protocol candidates and to
   guide the development of such protocols.



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Table of Contents

   1.   Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.   Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.   Functional Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.1  Callout Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.2  Callout Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.3  Reliability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.4  Congestion and Flow Control  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.5  Support for Keep-Alive Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.6  Operation in NAT Environments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.7  Multiple Callout Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.8  Multiple OPES Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.9  Support for Different Application Protocols  . . . . . . . .   7
   3.10 Capability and Parameter Negotiations  . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.11 Meta Data and Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   3.12 Asynchronous Message Exchange  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   3.13 Message Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   4.   Performance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   4.1  Protocol Efficiency  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   5.   Security Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   5.1  Authentication, Confidentiality, and Integrity . . . . . . .  12
   5.2  Hop-by-Hop Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   5.3  Operation Across Un-trusted Domains  . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   5.4  Privacy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.   Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
        References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
        Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   A.   Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   B.   Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
        Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19




















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1. 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 RFC 2119 [2].














































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2. Introduction

   The Open Pluggable Edge Services (OPES) architecture [1] enables
   cooperative application services (OPES services) between a data
   provider, a data consumer, and zero or more OPES processors.  The
   application services under consideration analyze and possibly
   transform application-level messages exchanged between the data
   provider and the data consumer.

   The execution of such services is governed by a set of rules
   installed on the OPES processor.  The rules enforcement can trigger
   the execution of service applications local to the OPES processor.
   Alternatively, the OPES processor can distribute the responsibility
   of service execution by communicating and collaborating with one or
   more remote callout servers.  As described in [1], an OPES processor
   communicates with and invokes services on a callout server by using a
   callout protocol.  This document presents the requirements for such a
   protocol.

   The requirements in this document are divided into three categories -
   functional requirements, performance requirements, and security
   requirements.  Each requirement is presented as one or more
   statements, followed by brief explanatory material as appropriate.




























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3. Functional Requirements

3.1 Callout Transactions

   The OPES callout protocol MUST enable an OPES processor and a callout
   server to perform callout transactions with the purpose of exchanging
   partial or complete application-level protocol messages (or
   modifications thereof).  More specifically, the callout protocol MUST
   enable an OPES processor to forward a partial or complete application
   message to a callout server so that one or more OPES services can
   process the forwarded application message (or parts thereof).  The
   result of the service operation may be a modified application
   message.  The callout protocol MUST therefore enable the callout
   server to return a modified application message or the modified parts
   of an application message to the OPES processor.

   A callout transaction is defined as a message exchange between an
   OPES processor and a callout server consisting of a callout request
   and a callout response.  Both, the callout request as well as the
   callout response, MAY each consist of one or more callout protocol
   messages, i.e.  a series of protocol messages.

   Callout transactions are always initiated by a callout request from
   an OPES processor and typically terminated by a callout response from
   a callout server.  The OPES callout protocol MUST, however, also
   allow either endpoint of a callout transaction to terminate a callout
   transaction prematurely, i.e.  before a callout request or response
   has been completely received by the corresponding endpoint.  The
   callout protocol MAY provide an explicit (e.g.  through a termination
   message) or implicit (e.g.  through a connection tear-down) mechanism
   to terminate a callout transaction prematurely.  Such a mechanism
   MUST ensure, however, that a premature termination of a callout
   transaction does not result in the loss of application message data.

   A premature termination of a callout transaction is required to
   support OPES services which may terminate even before they have
   processed the entire application message.  Content analysis services,
   for example, may be able to classify a Web object after having
   processed just the first few bytes of a Web object.

   The callout protocol MUST further enable a callout server to report
   back to the OPES processor the result of a callout transaction, e.g.
   in the form of a status code.

3.2 Callout Channels

   The OPES callout protocol MUST enable an OPES processor and a callout
   server to perform multiple callout transactions over a callout



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   channel.  A callout channel is defined as a logical connection at the
   application-layer between an OPES processor and a callout server.

   Callout channels MUST always be established by an OPES processor.  A
   callout channel MAY be closed by either endpoint of the callout
   channel provided that all callout transactions associated with the
   channel have terminated.

   A callout channel MAY have certain parameters associated with it, for
   example parameters that control the fail-over behavior of channel
   endpoints.  Callout channel parameters MAY be negotiated between OPES
   processors and callout servers (see Section 3.10).

3.3 Reliability

   The OPES callout protocol MUST be able to provide ordered reliability
   for the communication between OPES processor and callout server.
   Additionally, the callout protocol SHOULD be able to provide
   unordered reliability.

   In order to satisfy the reliability requirements, the callout
   protocol MAY specify that it must be used with a lower-level
   transport protocol which provides ordered reliability at the
   transport-layer.

3.4 Congestion and Flow Control

   The OPES callout protocol MUST ensure that congestion and flow
   control mechanisms are applied on all callout transactions.  For this
   purpose, the callout protocol MAY specify callout protocol-specific
   mechanisms or refer to a lower-level transport protocol and discuss
   how its mechanisms provide for congestion and flow control.

3.5 Support for Keep-Alive Mechanism

   The OPES callout protocol MUST provide an optional keep-alive
   mechanism which, if used, would allow both endpoints of a callout
   channel to detect a failure of the other endpoint even in the absence
   of callout transactions.  The callout protocol MAY specify that keep-
   alive messages be exchanged over existing callout channel connections
   or a separate connection between OPES processor and callout server.

   The detection of a callout server failure may enable an OPES
   processor to establish a channel connection with a stand-by callout
   server so that future callout transactions do not result in the loss
   of application message data.  The detection of the failure of an OPES
   processor may enable a callout server to release resources which
   would otherwise not be available for callout transactions with other



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   OPES processors.

3.6 Operation in NAT Environments

   The OPES protocol SHOULD be NAT-friendly, i.e.  its operation should
   not be compromised by the presence of one or more NAT devices in the
   path between an OPES processor and a callout server.

3.7 Multiple Callout Servers

   The OPES callout protocol MUST allow an OPES processor to
   simultaneously communicate with more than one callout server.

   In larger networks, OPES services are likely to be hosted by
   different callout servers.  Therefore, an OPES processor will likely
   have to communicate with multiple callout servers.  The protocol
   design MUST enable an OPES processor to do so.

3.8 Multiple OPES Processors

   The OPES callout protocol MUST allow a callout server to
   simultaneously communicate with more than one OPES processor.

   The protocol design MUST support a scenario in which multiple OPES
   processors use the services of a single callout server.

3.9 Support for Different Application Protocols

   The OPES callout protocol MUST be application protocol-agnostic, i.e.
   it MUST not make any assumptions about the characteristics of the
   application-layer protocol used on the data path between data
   provider and data consumer.

   The OPES entities on the data path may use different application-
   layer protocols, including, but not limited to, HTTP [3] and RTP [4].
   It would be desirable to be able to use the same OPES callout
   protocol for any such application-layer protocol.

3.10 Capability and Parameter Negotiations

   The OPES callout protocol MUST support the negotiation of
   capabilities and callout channel parameters between an OPES processor
   and a callout server.  This implies that the OPES processor and the
   callout server MUST be able to exchange their capabilities and
   preferences and engage into a deterministic negotiation process at
   the end of which the two endpoints have either agreed on the
   capabilities and parameters to be used for future callout channel
   transactions or determined that their capabilities are incompatible.



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   Capabilities and parameters that could be negotiated between an OPES
   processor and a callout server include (but are not limited to):
   callout protocol version, transport-layer protocol, fail-over
   behavior, heartbeat rate for keep-alive messages, security-related
   parameters etc.

   Channel parameters may also pertain to the characteristics of OPES
   callout services if, for example, callout channels are associated
   with one or more specific OPES services.  An OPES service-specific
   parameter may, for example, specify which parts of an application
   message an OPES service requires for its operation.

   Callout channel parameters MUST be negotiated on a per-callout
   channel basis and before any callout transactions are performed over
   the corresponding channel.  Other parameters and capabilities, such
   as the fail-over behavior, MAY be negotiated between the two
   endpoints independently of callout channels.

   The parties to a callout protocol MAY use callout channels to
   negotiate all or some of their capabilities and parameters.
   Alternatively, a separate control connection MAY be used for this
   purpose.

3.11 Meta Data and Instructions

   The OPES callout protocol MUST provide a mechanism for the endpoints
   of a particular callout transaction to include in callout requests
   and responses meta data and instructions for the OPES processor or
   callout server.

   Specifically, the callout protocol MUST enable an OPES processor to
   include information about the forwarded application message in a
   callout request, e.g.  in order to specify the type of the forwarded
   application message or to specify what part(s) of the application
   message are forwarded to the callout server.  Likewise, the callout
   server MUST be able to include information about the returned
   application message.

   The OPES processor MUST further be able to include an ordered list of
   one or more uniquely specified OPES services which are to be
   performed on the forwarded application message in the specified
   order.  However, as the callout protocol MAY also choose to associate
   callout channels with specific OPES services, there may not be a need
   to identify OPES service on a per-callout transaction basis.

   Additionally, the OPES callout protocol MUST allow the callout server
   to indicate to the OPES processor the cacheability of callout
   responses.  This implies that callout responses may have to carry



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   cache-control instructions for the OPES processor.

   The OPES callout protocol MUST further enable the OPES processor to
   indicate to the callout server if it has kept a local copy of the
   forwarded application message (or parts thereof).  This information
   enables the callout server to determine whether the forwarded
   application message must be returned to the OPES processor even it
   has not been modified by an OPES service.

   The OPES callout protocol MUST also allow OPES processors to comply
   with the tracing requirements of the OPES architecture as laid out in
   [1] and [5].  This implies that the callout protocol MUST enable a
   callout server to convey to the OPES processor information about the
   OPES service operations performed on the forwarded application
   message.

3.12 Asynchronous Message Exchange

   The OPES callout protocol MUST support an asynchronous message
   exchange between an OPES processor and a callout server.

   In order to allow asynchronous processing on the OPES processor and
   callout server, it MUST be possible to separate request issuance from
   response processing.  The protocol MUST therefore allow multiple
   outstanding requests and provide a method to correlate responses to
   requests.

   Additionally, the callout protocol MUST enable a callout server to
   respond to a callout request before it has received the entire
   request.

3.13 Message Segmentation

   The OPES callout protocol MUST allow an OPES processor to forward an
   application message to a callout server in a series of smaller
   message fragments.  The callout protocol MUST further enable the
   receiving callout server to assemble the fragmented application
   message.

   Likewise, the callout protocol MUST enable a callout server to return
   an application message to an OPES processor in a series of smaller
   message fragments.  The callout protocol MUST enable the receiving
   OPES processor to assemble the fragmented application message.

   Depending on the application-layer protocol used on the data path,
   application messages may be very large in size (for example in the
   case of audio/video streams) or of unknown size.  In both cases, the
   OPES processor has to initiate a callout transaction before it has



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   received the entire application message to avoid long delays for the
   data consumer.  The OPES processor MUST therefore be able to forward
   fragments or chunks of an application message to a callout server as
   it receives them from the data provider or consumer.  Likewise, the
   callout server MUST be able to process and return application message
   fragments as it receives them from the OPES processor.













































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4. Performance Requirements

4.1 Protocol Efficiency

   The OPES callout protocol SHOULD be efficient in that it minimizes
   the additionally introduced latency, for example by minimizing the
   protocol overhead.

   As OPES callout transactions introduce additional latency to
   application protocol transactions on the data path, callout protocol
   efficiency is crucial.








































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5. Security Requirements

   In the absence of any security mechanisms, sensitive information
   might be communicated between the OPES processor and the callout
   server in violation of either endpoint's security and privacy policy
   through misconfiguration or a deliberate insider attack.  By using
   strong authentication, message encryption, and integrity checks, this
   threat can be minimized to a smaller set of insiders and/or operator
   configuration errors.

   The OPES processor and the callout servers SHOULD have enforceable
   policies that limit the parties they communicate with, that determine
   the protections to use based on identities of the endpoints and other
   data (such as enduser policies).  In order to enforce the policies,
   they MUST be able to authenticate the callout protocol endpoints
   using cryptographic methods.

5.1 Authentication, Confidentiality, and Integrity

   The parties to the callout protocol MUST have a sound basis for
   binding authenticated identities to the protocol endpoints, and they
   MUST verify that these identities are consistent with their security
   policies.

   The OPES callout protocol MUST provide for message authentication,
   confidentiality, and integrity between the OPES processor and the
   callout server.  It MUST provide mutual authentication.  For this
   purpose, the callout protocol SHOULD use existing security
   mechanisms.  The callout protocol specification is not required to
   specify the security mechanisms, but it MAY instead refer to a lower-
   level security protocol and discuss how its mechanisms are to be used
   with the callout protocol.

5.2 Hop-by-Hop Confidentiality

   If end-to-end encryption is a requirement for the content path, then
   this confidentiality MUST be extended to the communication between
   the callout servers and the OPES processor.  In order to minimize
   data exposure, the callout protocol MUST use a different encryption
   key for each encrypted content stream.

5.3 Operation Across Un-trusted Domains

   The OPES callout protocol MUST operate securely across un-trusted
   domains between the OPES  processor and the callout server.

   If the communication channels between the OPES processor and callout
   server cross outside of the organization taking responsibility for



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   the OPES services, then endpoint authentication and message
   protection (confidentiality and integrity) MUST be used.

5.4 Privacy

   Any communication carrying information relevant to privacy policies
   MUST protect the data using encryption.












































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6. Security Considerations

   The security requirements for the OPES callout protocol are discussed
   in Section 5.















































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References

   [1]  Barbir, A., "An Architecture for Open Pluggable Edge Services
        (OPES)", draft-ietf-opes-architecture-03 (work in progress),
        August 2002.

   [2]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
        Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [3]  Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H., Masinter, L.,
        Leach, P. and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
        HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.

   [4]  Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R. and V. Jacobson,
        "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", RFC
        1889, January 1996.

   [5]  Floyd, S. and L. Daigle, "IAB Architectural and Policy
        Considerations for Open Pluggable Edge Services", RFC 3238,
        January 2002.


Authors' Addresses

   Andre Beck
   Lucent Technologies
   101 Crawfords Corner Road
   Holmdel, NJ  07733
   US

   EMail: abeck(_at_)bell-labs(_dot_)com


   Markus Hofmann
   Lucent Technologies
   Room 4F-513
   101 Crawfords Corner Road
   Holmdel, NJ  07733
   US

   Phone: +1 732 332 5983
   EMail: hofmann(_at_)bell-labs(_dot_)com









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   Hilarie Orman
   Purple Streak Development

   EMail: ho(_at_)alum(_dot_)mit(_dot_)edu
   URI:   http://www.purplestreak.com


   Reinaldo Penno
   Nortel Networks
   2305 Mission College Boulevard
   San Jose, CA  95134
   US

   EMail: rpenno(_at_)nortelnetworks(_dot_)com


   Andreas Terzis
   Individual Consultant
   150 Golf Course Dr.
   Rohnert Park, CA  94928
   US

   Phone: +1 707 586 8864
   EMail: aterzis(_at_)sbcglobal(_dot_)net



























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Appendix A. Acknowledgments

   This document is based in parts on previous work by Anca Dracinschi
   Sailer, Volker Hilt, and Rama R.  Menon.

   The authors would like to thank the participants of the OPES WG for
   their comments on this draft.












































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Appendix B. Change Log

   Changes from draft-ietf-opes-protocol-reqs-01.txt

   o  Reworded and clarified several statements of the draft

   Changes from draft-ietf-opes-protocol-reqs-00.txt

   o  Aligned terminology with [1]

   o  Clarified in Section 3.11 that OCP requests not only have to
      identify one or more OPES services, but also the order in which
      the services are to be executed

   o  Removed requirement from Section 4.1 that OCP must satisfy
      performance requirements of the application-layer protocol used
      between data consumer and provider


































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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



















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