Network Working Group Srihari R. Sangli (Cisco Systems)
Internet Draft Daniel Tappan (Cisco Systems)
Expiration Date: January 2006 Yakov Rekhter (Juniper Networks)
BGP Extended Communities Attribute
draft-ietf-idr-bgp-ext-communities-09.txt
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Abstract
This document describes the "extended community" BGP-4 attribute.
This attribute provides a mechanism for labeling information carried
in BGP-4. These labels can be used to control the distribution of
this information, or for other applications.
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Specification of Requirements
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 [RFC2119].
1. Introduction
The Extended Community Attribute provides two important enhancements
over the existing BGP Community Attribute [RFC1997]:
- It provides an extended range, ensuring that communities can be
assigned for a plethora of uses, without fear of overlap.
- The addition of a Type field provides structure for the
community space.
The addition of structure allows the usage of policy based on the
application for which the community value will be used. For example,
one can filter out all communities of a particular type, or allow
only certain values for a particular type of community. It also
allows one to specify whether a particular community is transitive or
non-transitive across Autonomous system boundary. Without structure,
this can only be accomplished by explicitly enumerating all community
values which will be denied or allowed and passed to BGP speakers in
neighboring ASes based on the transitive property.
2. BGP Extended Communities Attribute
The Extended Communities Attribute is a transitive optional BGP
attribute, with the Type Code 16. The attribute consists of a set of
"extended communities". All routes with the Extended Communities
attribute belong to the communities listed in the attribute.
Each Extended Community is encoded as an eight octet quantity, as
follows:
- Type Field : 1 or 2 octets
- Value Field : Remaining octets
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0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type high | Type low(*) | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Value |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
*) Present for Extended types only, used for the Value field
otherwise
Type Field:
Two classes of Type Field are introduced: Regular type and
Extended type.
The size of Type Field for Regular types is 1 octet and the
size of the Type Field for Extended types is 2 octets.
The value of the high-order octet of the Type Field determines
if an extended community is a Regular type or an Extended type.
The class of a type (Regular or Extended) is not encoded in the
structure of the type itself. The class of a type is specified
in the document which defines the type and the IANA registry.
The high-order octet of the Type Field is as shown below:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|I|T| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
I - IANA authority bit
Value 0: IANA assignable type using the "First Come First
Serve" policy
Value 1: Part of this Type Field space is for IANA
assignable types using either the Standard Action or the
Early IANA Allocation policy. The rest of this Type
Field space is for Experimental use.
T - Transitive bit
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Value 0: The community is transitive across ASes
Value 1: The community is non-transitive across ASes
Remaining 6 bits: Indicates the structure of the community
Value Field:
The encoding of the Value Field is dependent on the "type" of
the community as specified by the Type Field.
Two extended communities are declared equal only when all 8 octets of
the community are equal.
The two members in the tuple <Type, Value> should be enumerated to
specify any community value. The remaining octets of the community
interpreted based on the value of the Type field.
3. Defined BGP Extended Community Types
This section introduces a few extended types and defines the format
of the Value Field for those types. The types introduced here provide
"templates", where each template is identified by the high order
octet of the extended community Type field, and the lower order octet
(sub-type) is used to indicate a particular type of extended
community.
3.1. Two-octet AS specific extended community
This is an extended type with Type Field comprising of 2 octets and
Value Field comprising of 6 octets.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 0x00 or 0x40 | Sub-Type | Global Administrator |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Local Administrator |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The value of the high-order octet of this extended type is either
0x00 or 0x40. The low-order octet of this extended type is used to
indicate sub-types.
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The Value Field consists of two sub-fields:
Global Administrator sub-field: 2 octets
This sub-field contains an Autonomous System number assigned by
IANA.
Local Administrator sub-field: 4 octets
The organization identified by Autonomous System number in the
Global Administrator sub-field, can encode any information in
this sub-field. The format and meaning of the value encoded in
this sub-field should be defined by the sub-type of the
community.
3.2. IPv4 address specific extended community
This is an extended type with Type Field comprising of 2 octets and
Value Field comprising of 6 octets.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 0x01 or 0x41 | Sub-Type | Global Administrator |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Global Administrator (cont.) | Local Administrator |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The value of the high-order octet of this extended type is either
0x01 or 0x41. The low-order octet of this extended type is used to
indicate sub-types.
The Value field consists of two sub-fields:
Global Administrator sub-field: 4 octets
This sub-field contains an IPv4 unicast address assigned by one
of the Internet registries.
Local Administrator sub-field: 2 octets
The organization which has been assigned the IPv4 address in
the Global Administrator sub-field, can encode any information
in this sub-field. The format and meaning of this value
encoded in this sub-field should be defined by the sub-type of
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the community.
3.3. Opaque extended community
This is an extended type with Type Field comprising of 2 octets and
Value Field comprising of 6 octets.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 0x03 or 0x43 | Sub-Type | Value |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Value (cont.) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The value of the high-order octet of this extended type is either
0x03 or 0x43. The low-order octet of this extended type is used to
indicate sub-types.
This is a generic community of extended type. The value of the sub-
type which should define the Value Field is to be assigned by IANA.
4. Route Target Community
The Route Target Community identifies one or more routers that may
receive a set of routes (that carry this Community) carried by BGP.
This is transitive across the Autonomous system boundary.
The Route Target Community is of an extended type.
The value of the high-order octet of the Type field for the Route
Target Community can be 0x00, 0x01 or 0x02. The value of the low-
order octet of the Type field for this community is 0x02.
When the value of the high-order octet of the Type field is 0x00 or
0x02, the Local Administrator sub-field contains a number from a
numbering space which is administered by the organization to which
the Autonomous System number carried in the Global Administrator
subfield has been assigned by an appropriate authority.
When the value of the high-order octet of the Type field is 0x01, the
Local Administrator sub-field contains a number from a numbering
space which is administered by the organization to which the IP
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address carried in the Global Administrator subfield has been
assigned by an appropriate authority.
One possible use of the Route Target Community is specified in [BGP-
MPLS-VPN].
5. Route Origin Community
The Route Origin Community identifies one or more routers that inject
a set of routes (that carry this Community) into BGP. This is
transitive across the Autonomous system boundary.
The Route Origin Community is of an extended type.
The value of the high-order octet of the Type field for the Route
Origin Community can be 0x00, 0x01 or 0x02. The value of the low-
order octet of the Type field for this community is 0x03.
When the value of the high-order octet of the Type field is 0x00 or
0x02, the Local Administrator sub-field contains a number from a
numbering space which is administered by the organization to which
the Autonomous System number carried in the Global Administrator
subfield has been assigned by an appropriate authority.
When the value of the high-order octet of the Type field is 0x01, the
Local Administrator sub-field contains a number from a numbering
space which is administered by the organization to which the IP
address carried in the Global Administrator subfield has been
assigned by an appropriate authority.
One possible use of the Route Origin Community is specified in [BGP-
MPLS-VPN].
6. Operations
A BGP speaker may use the Extended Communities attribute to control
which routing information it accepts or distributes to its peers.
The Extended Community attribute MUST NOT be used to modify the BGP
best path selection algorithm in a way that leads to forwarding
loops.
A BGP speaker receiving a route that doesn't have the Extended
Communities attribute MAY append this attribute to the route when
propagating it to its peers.
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A BGP speaker receiving a route with the Extended Communities
attribute MAY modify this attribute according to the local policy.
By default if a range of routes is to be aggregated and the resultant
aggregates path attributes do not carry the ATOMIC_AGGREGATE
attribute, then the resulting aggregate should have an Extended
Communities path attribute which contains the set union of all the
Extended Communities from all of the aggregated routes. The default
behavior could be overriden via local configuration, in which case
handling the Extended Communities attribute in the presence of route
aggregation becomes a matter of the local policy of the BGP speaker
that performs the aggregation.
If a route has a non-transitivity extended community, then before
advertising the route across the Autonomous system boundary the
community SHOULD be removed from the route. However, the community
SHOULD NOT be removed when advertising the route across the BGP
Confederation boundary.
A route may carry both the BGP Communities attribute as defined in
[RFC1997]), and the Extended BGP Communities attribute. In this case
the BGP Communities attribute is handled as specified in [RFC1997],
and the Extended BGP Communities attribute is handled as specified in
this document.
7. IANA Considerations
All the BGP Extended Communities contain a Type field for which IANA
is to create and maintain a registry entitled "BGP Extended
Communities Type".
The Type could be either regular or extended. For a regular Type the
IANA allocates an 8-bits value; for an extended Type the IANA
allocates a 16-bits value.
The value allocated for a regular Type MUST NOT be reused as the
value of the high-order octet when allocating an extended Type. The
value of the high-order octet allocated for an extended Type MUST NOT
be reused when allocating a regular Type.
The Type field indicates where the Extended Community is transitive
or not. Future requests for assignment of a Type value must specify
whether the Type value is intended for a transitive or a non-
transitive Extended Community.
Future assignment are to be made using either the Standards Action
process defined in [RFC2434], or the Early IANA Allocation process
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defined in [kompella-zinin], or the "First Come First Served" policy
defined in [RFC2434].
The following table summarizes the ranges for the assignment of
Types:
Type Standard Action First Come
Early IANA Allocation First Served
------------------ --------------------- ------------
regular, transitive 0x90-0xbf 0x00-x3f
regular, non-transitive 0xd0-0xff 0x40-0x7f
extended, transitive 0x9000-0xbfff 0x0000-0x3fff
extended, non-transitive 0xd000-0xffff 0x4000-0x7fff
Assignments consist of a name and the value.
The Type values 0x80-0x8f and 0xc0-0xcf for regular Types, and
0x8000-0x8fff and 0xc000-0xcfff for extended Types are for
Experimental use as defined in RFC3692.
This document defines a class of extended communities called two-
octet AS specific extended community for which the IANA is to create
and maintain a registry entitled "Two-octet AS Specific Extended
Community". All the communities in this class are of extended Types.
Future assignment are to be made using the "First Come First Served"
policy defined in [RFC2434]. The Type values for the transitive
communities of the two-octet AS specific extended community class are
0x0000-0x00ff, and for the non-transitive communities of that class
are 0x4000-0x40ff. Assignments consist of a name and the value.
This document makes the following assignments for the two-octet AS
specific extended community:
Name Type Value
---- ----------
two-octet AS specific Route Target 0x0002
two-octet AS specific Route Origin 0x0003
This document defines a class of extended communities called IPv4
address specific extended community for which the IANA is to create
and maintain a registry entitled "IPv4 Address Specific Extended
Community". All the communities in this class are of extended Types.
Future assignment are to be made using the "First Come First Served"
policy defined in [RFC2434]. The Type values for the transitive
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communities of the two-octet AS specific extended community class
are 0x0100-0x01ff, and for the non-transitive communities of that
class are 0x4100-0x41ff. Assignments consist of a name and the
value.
This document makes the following assignments for the IPv4 address
specific extended community:
Name Type Value
---- ----------
IPv4 address specific Route Target 0x0102
IPv4 address specific Route Origin 0x0103
This document defines a class of extended communities called opaque
extended community for which the IANA is to create and maintain a
registry entitled "Opaque Extended Community". All the communities
in this class are of extended Types. Future assignment are to be
made using the "First Come First Served" policy defined in [RFC2434].
The Type values for the transitive communities of the opaque extended
community class are 0x0300-0x03ff, and for the non-transitive
communities of that class are 0x4300-0x43ff. Assignments consist
of a name and the value.
When requesting an allocation from more than one registry defined
above, one may ask for allocating the same Type value from
these registries. If possible, the IANA should accommodate such
requests.
8. Security Considerations
This extension to BGP has similar security implications as BGP
Communities [RFC1997].
This extension to BGP does not change the underlying security issues.
Specifically, an operator who is relying on the information carried
in BGP must have a transitive trust relationship back to the source
of the information. Specifying the mechanism(s) to provide such a
relationship is beyond the scope of this document.
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9. Intellectual Property Considerations
This section is taken from Section 5 of RFC 3668.
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
ipr@ietf.org.
10. Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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.
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11. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank John Hawkinson, Jeffrey Haas, Bruno
Rijsman, Bill Fenner, and Alex Zinin for their suggestions and
feedback.
12. Normative References
[BGP-4] Rekhter, Y., and T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4
(BGP-4)", RFC 1771, March 1995.
[RFC1997] Chandra, R., Traina, P., Li, T., "BGP Communities
Attribute", RFC1997, August 1996.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
13. Non-normative References
[BGP-MPLS-VPN] Rosen, E., Rekhter, Y., "BGP/MPLS IP VPNs", draft-
ietf-l3vpn-rfc2547bis-03.txt
[RFC1997] Chandra, R., Traina, P., Li, T., "BGP Communities
Attribute" RFC1997
14. Author Information
Srihari R. Sangli
Cisco Systems, Inc.
e-mail: rsrihari@cisco.com
Dan Tappan
Cisco Systems, Inc.
250 Apollo Drive
Chelmsford, MA 01824
e-mail: tappan@cisco.com
Yakov Rekhter
Juniper Networks, Inc.
1194 N. Mathilda Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
e-mail: yakov@juniper.net
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