Subject: [bess] Is there any objection to adopting the MEF's SDWAN service definition for draft-ietf-bess-bgp-sdwan-usage?

From: Linda Dunbar <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 22:17:59 +0000

BESS WG,

MEF SDWAN Service Specification project defines "SDWAN Service" as:

SD-WAN Service

A connectivity service, offered by a Service Provider, that optimizes transport of IP Packets over multiple Underlay Connectivity Services by recognizing applications (Application Flows) at Ingress and determining forwarding behavior by applying Policies to them. MEF SD-WAN Services are specified using Service Attributes defined in this MEF Standard.

draft-ietf-bess-bgp-sdwan-usage-01 currently has a very long description for SDWAN networks characteristics in its Introduction section. It would be better to have a short description in the Section 2 (Convention).

  *   Augment of transport, which refers to utilizing overlay paths over different underlay networks. Very often there are multiple parallel overlay paths between any two SDWAN edges, some of which are private networks over which traffic can traverse with or without encryption, others require encryption, e.g. over untrusted public networks.
  *   Enable direct Internet access from remote sites, instead hauling all traffic to Corporate HQ for centralized policy control.
  *   Some traffic flows can be forwarded based on their application identifiers instead of based on destination IP addresses, by the edge nodes placing the traffic flows onto specific overlay paths based on their application requirement.
  *   The traffic flows forwarding can also be based on specific performance criteria (e.g. packets delay, packet loos, jitter) to provide better application performance by choosing the right underlay that meets or exceeds the specified criteria.

Any opinion?

Thanks, Linda Dunbar