6.6. Demand Mode

Demand mode is requested independently in each direction by virtue of a system setting the Demand (D) bit in its BFD Control packets. The system receiving the Demand bit ceases the periodic transmission of BFD Control packets. If both systems are operating in Demand mode, no periodic BFD Control packets will flow in either direction.

Demand mode requires that some other mechanism is used to imply continuing connectivity between the two systems. The mechanism used does not have to be the same in both directions, and is outside of the scope of this specification. One possible mechanism is the receipt of traffic from the remote system; another is the use of the Echo function.

When a system in Demand mode wishes to verify bidirectional connectivity, it initiates a Poll Sequence (see section 6.5). If no response is received to a Poll, the Poll is repeated until the Detection Time expires, at which point the session is declared to be Down. Note that if Demand mode is operating only on the local system, the Poll Sequence is performed by simply setting the Poll (P) bit in regular periodic BFD Control packets, as required by section 6.5.

The Detection Time in Demand mode is calculated differently than in Asynchronous mode; it is based on the transmit rate of the local system, rather than the transmit rate of the remote system. This ensures that the Poll Sequence mechanism works properly. See section 6.8.4 for more details.

Note that the Poll mechanism will always fail unless the negotiated Detection Time is greater than the round-trip time between the two systems. Enforcement of this constraint is outside the scope of this specification.

Demand mode MAY be enabled or disabled at any time, independently in each direction, by setting or clearing the Demand (D) bit in the BFD Control packet, without affecting the BFD session state. Note that the Demand bit MUST NOT be set unless both systems perceive the session to be Up (the local system thinks the session is Up, and the remote system last reported Up state in the State (Sta) field of the BFD Control packet).

When the transmitted value of the Demand (D) bit is to be changed, the transmitting system MUST initiate a Poll Sequence in conjunction with changing the bit in order to ensure that both systems are aware of the change.

If Demand mode is active on either or both systems, a Poll Sequence MUST be initiated whenever the contents of the next BFD Control packet to be sent would be different than the contents of the previous packet, with the exception of the Poll (P) and Final (F) bits. This ensures that parameter changes are transmitted to the remote system and that the remote system acknowledges these changes.

Because the underlying detection mechanism is unspecified, and may differ between the two systems, the overall Detection Time characteristics of the path will not be fully known to either system. The total Detection Time for a particular system is the sum of the time prior to the initiation of the Poll Sequence, plus the calculated Detection Time.

Note that if Demand mode is enabled in only one direction, continuous bidirectional connectivity verification is lost (only connectivity in the direction from the system in Demand mode to the other system will be verified). Resolving the issue of one system requesting Demand mode while the other requires continuous bidirectional connectivity verification is outside the scope of this specification.