RSVP

Resource Reservation
Protocol
By
Ajay Kashyap
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HIGHLIGHTS

Multimedia Networking : Goals&Challenges

Definition
Introduction
Data Flows
Reservation Models & Styles
RSVP :Protocol Mechanisms
RSVP:Functional Specifications
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Multimedia Networking
Build hardware and software infrastructure
and tools to support multimedia traffic
Three basic difficulties
Higher Bandwidth
Real Time Traffic
Data is usually bursty
Design of real time protocols-imperative
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Definition
RSVP: It is a network control protocol that
allows data receiver to request a special end
to end quality of service for its data flows.
Although it sits on top of the IP protocol
stack, it is not a routing protocol
It is rather an internet control protocol
It is designed to operate with current and
future unicast and multicast routing protocols
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Basic Flow Diagram

Application

RSVP
Process

RSVP
Process
Policy
Ctrl
Admis
Ctrl

Classifier

Packet
Scheduler

Routing
Process

RSVP
Daemon

Data

Terminology
Quality of Service is implemented for a
particular data flow by a mechanism called
traffic control
Packet Classifier: Determines the QOS
Packet Scheduler: Link layer dependent
mechanism to determine which particular
packets are forwarded
For each outgoing interface, the scheduler
achieves the desired QOS.
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During reservation setup, an RSVP QOS

request is passed to two local decision
modules: 1. Admission control 2. Policy
control.
Admission Control: Determines whether the
node has sufficient available resources to
supply the requested resources.
Policy Control: Determines whether the user
has administrative permission to make the
reservation.

If both checks succeed, parameters are set in

the packet classifier and in the link layer
interface to obtain the desired QOS.
If either checks fails, the RSVP program
returns an error notification to the application
process that generated the request.

Since the membership of a large multicast

group and the resulting tree are likely to
change with time,the RSVP protocol specifies
the creation of soft states , that can be built
and destroyed incrementally in the routers and
the hosts.
For this RSVP periodically sends refresh
messages to maintain the state along the
reserved paths.
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Data Flows
RSVP defines a session to be a data flow
with a particular destination and transport
layer protocol.
An RSVP session is defined by the triple:
DestAddress,Protocol ID,DstPort
The DstPort is an optional parameter and is a
generalized destination port.
However the DstPort is necessary to allow
more than one unicast session addressed to 10

Reservation Model
An RSVP request consists of : flowspec
together with a filterspec. This pair is called
the flow descriptor.
The flowspec specifies a desired QOS.
The filterspec together with the session
specification defines the set of data packets.
The flowspec is used to set parameters in the
packet scheduler,while the filterspec is used to
set parameters in the packet classifier.
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The flowspec in a reservation request will

generally include a service class and two sets
of numeric parameters:
Rspec- defines the desired QOS.
Tspec- describes the data flow.
The format and contents of the above are
determined by the integrated service models
and are generally opaque to RSVP.
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Making a Reservation
RSVP messages carrying reservation requests
originate at receivers and are passed upstream
towards the senders.
At each intermediate node, a reservation
triggers two general actions:
1.The RSVP passes the request to admission
and policy control and the check is executed.
2. A reservation request is propagated
upstream towards the appropriate senders.
The set of sender hosts to which a reservation
request is propagated is called the scope of
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that request.

The basic reservation model is one-pass: a

receiver sends a request upstream and each
node in the path either accepts or rejects the
request.This does not provide a way to
determine the end-to-end service.
Therefore, RSVP supports an enhancement to
one pass service known as One-Pass With
Advertising(OPWA). With this scheme, RSVP
control packets are sent downstream , flowing
the data paths to gather information that can be
used to predict the end to end QOS.These
results are delivered to the receivers hosts
which can dynamically adjust the QOS.
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Reservation Styles
A reservation request includes a set of options
termed reservation styles.
One style concerns the treatment of
reservations for different sessions within the
same sessions. Another style controls the
selection of senders.It may be explicit or a
wildcard entry.
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Reservation Styles
Sender
Selection

Reservations
Distinct
Sender

Explicit

Fixed Filter

Shared Explicit

Wildcard

None

Wildcard Filter
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1.Wildcard Filter(WF)Style:It creates a single

reservation shared by flows from all upstream
senders.WF(*(Q))
*- represents the wildcard sender selection
Q-flowspec
2. Fixed Filter(FF): It creates a distinct
reservation for data packets from a particular
sender. FF(S(Q))
3. Shared Explicit(SE):It creates a single
reservation shared by selected upstream
senders.SE((S1,S2,..)(Q))
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RSVP Protocol Mechanisms

A
Router
B
B

D
D

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There are two fundamental RSVP messages:

1.Path
2. Resv
Each receiver host sends a Resv message
upstream towards the senders. These
messages must follow the exact reverse path
the data will use.
They create and maintain the reservation state
in each node along the path.
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Path: Each RSVP sender host transmits a Path

message downstream. These store the the path
state in each node along the way.
This path state includes the IP address of the
previous hop node which is used to route the
Resv message in the reverse direction.
Each Path message contains the following
information:
1.Sender Template: Describes the format of data
packets that the sender will originate.
2.Sender Tspec: Defines the traffic
characteristics of the data flow.
3.Adspec: Used for OPWA.
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1.Soft State: RSVP takes a soft state approach

to manage the reservation state in routers and
hosts.
A soft state is created and periodically
refreshed by Path and Resv messages.
2. Teardown: It is used to remove path or
reservation state immediately.Two Types:
1. PathTear-travels downstream
2. ResvTear -travels upstream
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3. Errors: The two killer reservation problems:

1. KR-1-It arises when already there is a Q0 in
place and if another receiver makes a larger
Q1>Q0, the result of merging may be rejected by
some intermediate node.
Solution: In case of failure, any existing
reservation is kept in place.
2.KR-II-The receiver is trying to make a
reservation of Q1 even though admission control
is failing for it in some node.This must not
prevent a Q0 <Q1 from establishment.
Solution: Blockade State.
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Blockade State: A blocked state in a node

modifies the merging process to omit the
offending flowspec.
When a ResvErr message is received , its
flowspec Qe is used to create or refresh an
element of local blockade state. Each element
of blocked state consists of a blocked
flowspec Qb taken from the error message
and a associated blockade timer Tb. When a
blockade timer expires , the corresponding
blockade state is deleted.
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RSVP:Functional Specifications
---------------------------------------------------------Vers | Flags| Msg Type |
RSVP Checksum
--------------------------------------------------------| Send_TTL | (Reserved) |
RSVP Length
---------------------------------------------------

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Functional Specifications
1.Vers: Usually 1.
2. Flags: 4 bits 0x01-0x08:Reserved.
3. Msg Type:8 bits
1=Path
2= Resv and so on.
4. RSVP Checksum:16 bits
5. Send_TTL:IP TTL value with which the
message was sent.
6. RSVP Length: 16 bits- includes the common
header and variable length objects that follow.
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Objects:
---------------------------------------------------Length (bytes)
| Class-Num | C-Type
---------------------------------------------------//

(Object contents)

//

----------------------------------------------------

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Objects
1. Length: 16 bit containing the total length in
bytes.
2. Class-Num:Identifies the object class.
3. C-Type: Object type , unique within each
object class.
The maximum object content length is 65528
bytes. The Class-Num and the C-Type fields
may be used together as a 16 bit number to
define a unique type for each object.
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SUMMARY
1. Makes reservations for both unicast and multicast.
2. RSVP is receiver oriented.
3. RSVP maintains soft state in routers and hosts.
4.It is not a routing protocol but depends upon the
present and future protocols.
5. It transports and maintains traffic control and policy
control parameters that are opaque to RSVP.
6.RSVP provides several reservation styles to fit a
variety of applications.
7.RSVP supports both IPV4 and IPV6.

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References:
RFC 2205
RFC 2209
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/internet/rsvp
.html

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