BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess) Internet Drafts

      
 BGP based Multi-homing in Virtual Private LAN Service
 
 draft-ietf-bess-vpls-multihoming-07.txt
 Date: 02/03/2026
 Authors: Kireeti Kompella, Bhupesh Kothari, Wim Henderickx, Florin Balus, Jim Uttaro
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) is a Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) that gives its customers the appearance that their sites are connected via a Local Area Network (LAN). It is often required for the Service Provider (SP) to give the customer redundant connectivity to some sites, often called "multi-homing". This memo shows how BGP-based multi-homing can be offered in the context of LDP and BGP VPLS solutions. This document updates RFC 4761 by defining new flags in the Control Flags field of the Layer2 Info Extended Community.
 Weighted Multi-Path Procedures for EVPN Multi-Homing
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-unequal-lb-35.txt
 Date: 15/03/2026
 Authors: Neeraj Malhotra, Ali Sajassi, Jorge Rabadan, John Drake, Avinash Lingala, Samir Thoria
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 Ethernet VPN (EVPN) provides all-active multi-homing for Customer Equipment (CE) devices connected to multiple Provider Edge (PE) devices, enabling equal cost load balancing of both bridged and routed traffic across the set of multi-homing PEs. However, existing procedures implicitly assume equal access bandwidth distribution among the multi-homing PEs, which can constrain link additions or removals and may not handle unequal PE-CE link bandwidth following link failures. This document specifies extensions to EVPN procedures to support weighted multi-pathing in proportion to PE-CE link bandwidth or operator-defined weights, thereby providing greater flexibility and resilience in multi-homing deployments. The extensions include signaling mechanisms to distribute traffic across egress PEs based on relative bandwidth or weight, and enhancements to Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast (BUM) designated forwarder (DF) election to achieve weighted DF distribution across the multi- homing PE set.
 Seamless Multicast Interoperability between EVPN and MVPN PEs
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-mvpn-seamless-interop-11.txt
 Date: 29/04/2026
 Authors: Ali Sajassi, Kesavan Thiruvenkatasamy, Samir Thoria, Ashutosh Gupta, Luay Jalil
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) solution is becoming pervasive for Network Virtualization Overlay (NVO) services in data center (DC), Enterprise networks as well as in service provider (SP) networks. As service providers transform their networks in their Central Offices (COs) towards the next generation data center with Software Defined Networking (SDN) based fabric and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), they want to be able to maintain their offered services including Multicast VPN (MVPN) service between their existing network and their new Service Provider Data Center (SPDC) network seamlessly without the use of gateway devices. They want to have such seamless interoperability between their new SPDCs and their existing networks for a) reducing cost, b) having optimum forwarding, and c) reducing provisioning. This document describes a unified solution based on RFCs 6513 & 6514 for seamless interoperability of Multicast VPN between EVPN and MVPN PEs. Furthermore, it describes how the proposed solution can be used as a routed multicast solution in data centers with only EVPN PEs.
 Controller-based BGP Multicast Signaling
 
 draft-ietf-bess-bgp-multicast-controller-18.txt
 Date: 06/07/2026
 Authors: Zhaohui Zhang, RASZUK Robert, Dante Pacella, Arkadiy Gulko
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document specifies a way that one or more centralized controllers can use BGP to set up multicast distribution trees (identified by either IP source/destination address pair, or mLDP FEC) in a network. Since the controllers calculate the trees, they can use sophisticated algorithms and constraints to achieve traffic engineering. The controllers directly signal dynamic replication state to tree nodes, leading to very simple multicast control plane on the tree nodes, as if they were using static routes. This can be used for both underlay and overlay multicast trees, including replacing BGP-MVPN signaling.
 Extended Procedures for EVPN Optimized Ingress Replication
 
 draft-ietf-bess-extended-evpn-optimized-ir-09.txt
 Date: 29/06/2026
 Authors: W. Lin, Selvakumar Sivaraj, Vishal Garg, Jorge Rabadan
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 In the Virtualization Overlay (NVO) network with Ethernet VPN (EVPN), optimized ingress replication uses Assisted-Replication (AR) to achieve more efficient delivery of Broadcast and Multicast (BM) traffic. An AR-LEAF, which is a Network Virtualization Edge (NVE) device, forwards received BM traffic from its tenant system to an AR- REPLICATOR. The AR-REPLICATOR then replicates it to the remaining AR-LEAFs in the network. However, when replicating the packet on behalf of its multihomed AR-LEAF, an AR-REPLICATOR may face challenges in retaining the source IP address or including the expected Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI) label that is required for EVPN split-horizon filtering. This document extends the optimized ingress replication procedures to address such limitations. The extended procedures specified in this document allow the support of EVPN multihoming on the AR-LEAFs as well as optimized ingress replication for the rest of the EVPN NVO network.
 EVPN Network Layer Fault Management
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-bfd-20.txt
 Date: 07/09/2026
 Authors: Vengada Govindan, Ali Sajassi, Mudigonda Mallik, Greg Mirsky, Donald Eastlake
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document specifies proactive, in-band Network Layer OAM (RFC 9062) mechanisms to detect loss of continuity faults that affect unicast and multi-destination paths (used by Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast traffic) in an Ethernet VPN (EVPN, RFC 7432bis) network. The mechanisms specified in this document use the widely adopted Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (RFC 5880) protocol.
 BGP Usage for SD-WAN Overlay Networks
 
 draft-ietf-bess-bgp-sdwan-usage-37.txt
 Date: 01/06/2026
 Authors: Linda Dunbar, Ali Sajassi, John Drake, Basil Najem, Sue Hares
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document illustrates how a BGP-based control plane can be used to manage large scale Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) overlay networks by distributing edge service reachability information, WAN port attributes, and underlay path details, thereby minimizing manual provisioning. In such deployments, BGP can provide a standards-based mechanism for distributing information that may otherwise be exchanged using proprietary SD-WAN control-plane mechanisms. However, extensions to BGP are needed to achieve that goal.
 BGP link bandwidth extended community use cases
 
 draft-ietf-bess-ebgp-dmz-11.txt
 Date: 05/08/2026
 Authors: Stephane Litkowski, MOHANTY Satya, Arie Vayner, Akshay Gattani, Ajay Kini, Jeff Tantsura, Reshma Das
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 BGP link bandwidth extended community provides a way to signal a value along with a BGP path that can be used to perform weighted load-balancing in multipath scenarios. This document details various use cases of the BGP link bandwidth extended community. It also describes local mechanisms to dynamically adjust the BGP link bandwidth value or the multipath weights based on different considerations.
 AC-Aware Bundling Service Interface in EVPN
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-ac-aware-bundling-06.txt
 Date: 17/03/2026
 Authors: Ali Sajassi, Luc Burdet, Mankamana Mishra, Jorge Rabadan, John Drake
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 An EVPN (Ethernet VPNs) provides an extensible and flexible multihoming VPN solution over an MPLS/IP network for intra-subnet connectivity among Tenant Systems and End Devices that can be physical or virtual. EVPN multihoming with Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) is one of the common deployment scenarios. Some deployments requires the capability to have multiple subnets designated with multiple VLAN IDs in the single broadcast domain. EVPN technology defines three different types of service interface which serve different requirements but none of them address the requirement of supporting multiple subnets within a single broadcast domain. In this document, we define a new service interface type to support multiple subnets in the single broadcast domain. Service interface proposed in this document will be applicable to multihoming cases only.
 BGP Extensions for the Mobile User Plane (MUP) SAFI
 
 draft-ietf-bess-mup-safi-01.txt
 Date: 06/07/2026
 Authors: Tetsuya Murakami, Keyur Patel, Satoru Matsushima, Zhaohui Zhang, Swadesh Agrawal, Dan Voyer
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document defines a new SAFI known as a BGP Mobile User Plane (BGP-MUP) SAFI to support MUP Extensions and a extended community for BGP. This document also provides BGP signaling and procedures for the new SAFI to convert mobile session information into appropriate IP forwarding information. These extensions can be used by operators between a PE, and a Controller for integrating mobile user plane into BGP MUP network using the IP based routing.
 Applications and Procedures for the Unknown MAC Route in EVPN
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-umr-mobility-01.txt
 Date: 22/07/2026
 Authors: Ali Sajassi, Jorge Rabadan, Alex Nichol, Lukas Krattiger, Krishnaswamy Ananthamurthy
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 The Interconnect Solution for Ethernet VPN defines Unknown MAC (Media Access Control) Route (UMR) utilization for Data Center Interconnect (DCI) when EVPN MPLS or EVPN VXLAN is used as an overlay network for such interconnects. The use of UMR has implications for EVPN MAC mobility procedures, for EVPN Layer 2 and IRB operations, and for EVPN Proxy ARP/ND operations. This document describes additional enhancements required to EVPN procedures and operations when using UMR. This document updates RFC9014 to clarify and extend the procedures for UMR usage.
 EVPN multi-homing support for L3 services
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-l3mh-proto-01.txt
 Date: 14/09/2026
 Authors: Patrice Brissette, Michael MacKenzie, Satoru Matsushima, Wen Lin, Jorge Rabadan
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document describes the use of EVPN Ethernet Segment Link Aggregation Group (ES-LAG) technology to provide multi-homing redundancy for Layer 3 services. The solution synchronizes ARP/ND, multicast state, and IGP routes between redundant PEs without requiring Layer 2 constructs or proprietary Inter-Chassis Communication protocols.
 EVPN First Hop Security
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-first-hop-security-01.txt
 Date: 22/07/2026
 Authors: Ali Sajassi, Lukas Krattiger, Krishnaswamy Ananthamurthy, Jorge Rabadan, Wen Lin
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snoop database stores valid IPv4-to-MAC and IPv6-to-MAC bindings by snooping on DHCP messages. These bindings are used by security functions like Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol Inspection (DAI), Neighbor Discovery Inspection (NDI), IPv4 Source Guard, and IPv6 Source Guard to safeguard against traffic received with a spoofed address. These functions are collectively referred to as First Hop Security (FHS). This document proposes BGP extensions and new Ethernet VPN (EVPN) procedures to distribute and synchronize the DHCP snoop database to support FHS. Such synchronization is needed to support EVPN host mobility and multihoming.
 BGP Encodings and Procedures for Multicast in MPLS/BGP IP VPNs
 
 draft-ietf-bess-rfc6514bis-00.txt
 Date: 10/06/2026
 Authors: Zhaohui Zhang, Mankamana Mishra
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 RFC 6514 describes the BGP encodings and procedures for exchanging the information elements required by Multicast in MPLS/BGP IP VPNs, as specified in RFC 6513. This document updates and obsoletes RFC 6514. The original authors of RFC 6514 are listed at the end of this document.
 Proxy MAC-IP Advertisement in EVPNs
 
 draft-ietf-bess-evpn-ip-mac-proxy-adv-00.txt
 Date: 21/07/2026
 Authors: Ryan Bickhart, W. Lin, Jorge Rabadan, Alton Lo, Patrice Brissette
 Working Group: BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)
 This document specifies procedures for EVPN PEs connected to a common multihomed site to generate proxy EVPN MAC-IP advertisements on behalf of other PEs to facilitate preservation of ARP/ND state across link or node failures.

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BGP Enabled ServiceS (bess)

WG Name BGP Enabled ServiceS
Acronym bess
Area Routing Area (rtg)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-bess-02 Approved
Status update Show Changed 2020-03-03
Document dependencies
Additional resources Implementation Requirement Policy
Issue tracker
WiKi
Wiki - Retired. No longer maintained
Zulip Stream
Personnel Chairs Matthew Bocci, Stephane Litkowski, Zhaohui (Jeffrey) Zhang
Area Director Gunter Van de Velde
Secretary Mankamana Prasad Mishra
Mailing list Address [email protected]
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/bess
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/bess/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/bess

Charter for Working Group

BGP is established as a protocol for provisioning and operating Layer-3 (routed) Virtual Private Networks (L3VPNs) and Layer-2 Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs).

The BGP Enabled Services (BESS) working group (WG) is responsible for defining, specifying, and extending VPN services over a packet switched network (PSN) where the VPN signaling uses BGP. The following services are in-scope:

  • BGP-enabled IP VPN solutions (based on RFC4364, RFC4659, RFC6513, RFC6514 and RFC9252) for supporting unicast and multicast provider-provisioned L3VPNs.
  • BGP-enabled L2VPNs (based on RFC4664, RFC7432 and RFC9252). Only types of L2VPN that utilize BGP for discovery, signaling, or for some other purposes related to the VPN are in scope. L2VPN solutions that do not utilize BGP for any of these purposes are out of scope of the BESS WG.
  • BGP-enabled VPN solutions for use in data center networking. This work includes consideration of VPN scaling issues and mechanisms applicable to such environments.
  • Extensions to BGP-enabled VPN solutions to enable interworking between BGP L3VPNs and BGP L2VPNs.

The WG may also suggest new services to be supported by BGP and these may be added to the WG charter subject to rechartering, and they will not be adopted in the WG until such rechartering.

The WG will primarily focus on the development of standards track specifications for BGP-based services in its charter. In addition, the WG may produce Informational documents, limited to operational and deployment considerations related to services for which the WG is also developing protocol specifications.

As part of enhancing and maintaining the services that the WG has specified, the following is a list of specific aspects that the WG is expected to work on:

a) BGP signaling related to the discovery of service endpoints and their capabilities that are related to the service.
b) The exchange of service routes and their provisioning.
c) Scaling and convergence improvements.
d) Interworking between different services.
e) Definition of YANG data models for device provisioning and operations.
f) Redundancy, multi-homing, load-balancing, and similar resiliency mechanisms.
g) OAM mechanisms related to services within the scope of the WG, following coordination with the WGs responsible for the underlying data plane technologies.
h) Informational documents that describe operational practices, deployment considerations, and implementation experiences related to services for which the WG is also developing standard track protocol specifications.
i) BGP signaling related to multicast services. This includes BGP components that are also applicable to the underlay PSN and that are detailed in specifications already adopted at the time of this charter revision (i.e. draft-ietf-bess-bgp-multicast-controller and draft-ietf-bess-bgp-multicast).
j) Specifications for BGP-enabled VPN solutions for SD-WAN environments that are already adopted at the time of this charter revision (i.e. draft-ietf-bess-bgp-sdwan-usage).

The WG will not define new data plane or forwarding encapsulations. Instead, it will rely on existing encapsulation mechanisms. These include, but are not limited to, IP-based encapsulations (such as IP-in-IP, VXLAN, GENEVE, and SRv6) and MPLS.

The WG is expected to coordinate closely with the IDR WG. Any extensions that impact core BGP protocol behavior, including modifications to the BGP finite state machine, message formats, best-path selection procedures, or the definition of new path attributes, must be cross-posted to the IDR WG for review. While technical discussions may occur on the BESS WG mailing list, work affecting the base BGP protocol remains subject to coordination with the IDR WG.

The WG will also liaise with other relevant WGs, including but not limited to MPLS, SPRING, 6MAN, NVO3, MBONED, and BFD, as appropriate. This coordination aims to ensure architectural consistency, alignment of data plane considerations, and interoperability of OAM procedures for BGP-based VPN solutions.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Dec 2026 Submit a Yang device data model for E-VPN to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-evpn-yang
Dec 2026 Submit a YANG device data model for mVPN to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-mvpn-yang
Dec 2026 Submit a YANG device data model for L2VPN to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-l2vpn-yang
Dec 2026 Submit a Yang device data model for RFC4364 to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-l3vpn-yang
Dec 2026 Submit EVPN Fast Reroute to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-evpn-fast-reroute
Mar 2026 Submit EVPN multi-homing for L2 gateway protocols to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-evpn-l2gw-proto
Mar 2026 Submit E-VPN OAM to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-evpn-bfd
Mar 2026 Submit update to EVPN base spec (RFC7432bis) to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-rfc7432bis
Mar 2026 Submit specifications for BGP components that are applicable to both overlay BESS service and underlay PSN as PS draft-ietf-bess-bgp-multicast-controller
draft-ietf-bess-bgp-multicast
Dec 2025 Submit Weighted Multipath for EVPN to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-evpn-unequal-lb
Dec 2025 Submit VPLS multihoming to IESG as PS draft-ietf-bess-vpls-multihoming
Dec 2025 Submit BGP Usage for SD-WAN Overlay Networks to IESG as Informational draft-ietf-bess-bgp-sdwan-usage