



Network Working Group                                       L. Melegassi
Internet-Draft                                                  Catellix
Intended status: Informational                              25 May 2026
Expires: 26 November 2026


       MVPS Architecture: Specification Conformance for
       the Multi-Vantage Path-Coherence Drafts
              draft-melegassi-iab-mvps-architecture-00

Abstract

   This document specifies the abstract Multi-Vantage Path-
   coherence Specification (MVPS) as a surface-independent
   algebraic structure on a bounded simplex.  Five structural
   axioms (MVPS-A1 through MVPS-A5) are stated; the Invariance
   Theorem establishes that any architecture satisfying the
   five axioms inherits, verbatim, the v4.0 theorem catalogue
   of MVPS (Theorems 1, 2, 3, 3', 4, 5, 9, the unified detection-
   latency lemma L_DL, and Stein's Lemma for N-vantage joint
   error exponents).

   This document is the structural roof of the MVPS family.
   It explains, normatively and in a small number of axioms,
   why the seven MVPS Internet-Drafts ([I-D.melegassi-ippm-
   mvps-bundle] through [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-
   coherence]) are seven instantiations of the same
   specification rather than seven independent specifications.
   Each of the seven existing drafts is shown to satisfy the
   five axioms (Section 6.1); anticipated instantiations
   (kernel, dataplane, datacenter, IoT, post-quantum link) are
   catalogued as design targets; protocols that violate one or
   more axioms (BGP, BFD, DNS, TCP retransmission) are
   identified as non-conformant, and the structural reason for
   their tau_sampling-bound reactive latency floor under the
   Planetary Coherence Floor ([I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-planetary-
   floor]) is named.

   This document is informational.  It follows the IETF
   architecture-document pattern of [RFC1958], [RFC3439],
   [RFC1633], [RFC2475], [RFC2775], [RFC6973], and [RFC7258].
   It standardises no codepoints, defines no wire format, and
   introduces no RFC-2119 keywords beyond the conventions
   section.  Its sole content is the abstract specification,
   the axiom set, the Invariance Theorem, and the conformance
   catalogue.

   The mathematical device introduced is SPECIFICATION
   CONFORMANCE: an architecture A is MVPS-conformant if and



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   only if its 5-tuple (V_A, B_A, (C_A, H_A), D^2_A, Pub_A)
   satisfies A1..A5.  Conformance is strictly weaker than a
   categorical functor between surfaces (which the v4.0
   mathematical existence proof explicitly disclaims) but
   strictly stronger than parallel construction: conformant
   architectures inherit the v4.0 theorem catalogue by
   mechanical substitution.  No morphisms between surfaces
   are required.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with
   the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet
   Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may
   also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The
   list of current Internet-Drafts is at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of
   six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by
   other documents at any time.  It is inappropriate to use
   Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other
   than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 26 November 2026.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as
   the document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's
   Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the
   date of publication of this document.  Please review these
   documents carefully, as they describe your rights and
   restrictions with respect to this document.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  Terminology
   3.  Why an Architecture Document is Needed Now
   4.  The Abstract MVPS Specification
       4.1.  Architecture as 5-tuple
       4.2.  Surface
       4.3.  Conformance



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   5.  The Five MVPS Axioms (A1..A5)
       5.1.  MVPS-A1: Multi-vantage on a common tick lattice
       5.2.  MVPS-A2: Bounded coherence triple
       5.3.  MVPS-A3: Mahalanobis decision with FAR control
       5.4.  MVPS-A4: Conditional independence of vantages
       5.5.  MVPS-A5: Byzantine resilience via geometric median
   6.  The Invariance Theorem
       6.1.  Statement and proof
       6.2.  Remarks on functor-vs-conformance
   7.  Catalogue of Conformant Instantiations
       7.1.  Proved conformant (D-1..D-7)
       7.2.  Anticipated conformant
       7.3.  Non-conformant (and the structural reason)
   8.  Relationship to PCF
   9.  Conformance Procedure for New Deployments
  10.  Operational Contracts inherited from D-1..D-7
  11.  Security Considerations
  12.  IANA Considerations
  13.  References
       13.1.  Normative References
       13.2.  Informative References
   Acknowledgements
   Author's Address


1.  Introduction

   The MVPS family currently comprises seven Internet-Drafts
   (D-1 through D-7) whose proofs are structurally identical
   but whose surface vocabularies differ.  [I-D.melegassi-
   ippm-mvps-bundle] (D-1) defines the canonical network-
   observatory surface (RTT, fingerprint, edges).  [I-D.
   melegassi-mvps-ai-coherence] (D-5) defines the AI-serving
   surface (embedding W_2, attention CKA, falsifiability under
   perturbation).  [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-coherence]
   (D-7) defines the orbital-segment surface (mixed-medium
   causal lower bound, TLE-predicted edge set via SGP4).

   A reader of the seven drafts will observe that the proofs
   in each are structurally the same theorem catalogue applied
   to different per-axis metrics.  The v4.0 mathematical
   existence proof
   ([v4-proof]) explicitly DECLINES a categorical functor
   between profiles -- the correct call, since no canonical
   morphism between "an RTT measurement at a probe" and "a
   2-Wasserstein distance between LLM embeddings" exists.
   But the disclaimer leaves a gap: the reader is told what
   does NOT unify the seven drafts; the reader is not told
   what DOES.



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   This document fills exactly that gap.  It provides a
   unification strictly weaker than a functor (no inter-
   surface morphisms required) but strictly stronger than
   parallel construction: the same theorem catalogue is
   mechanically inherited by every conformant instantiation.

   THE ANSWER (Invariance Theorem, Section 6).  Any
   architecture A satisfying the five MVPS axioms (MVPS-A1
   through MVPS-A5 of Section 5) inherits, verbatim, the v4.0
   theorem catalogue: Theorems 1, 2, 3, 3', 4, 5, 9, the
   unified detection-latency lemma L_DL, and Stein's Lemma
   for the N-vantage joint error exponent.

   THE PATTERN.  This document follows the IETF architecture-
   document lineage of [RFC1958] (Internet architectural
   principles), [RFC3439] (Internet architectural guidelines
   and philosophy), [RFC1633] (Integrated Services), [RFC2475]
   (Differentiated Services), [RFC2775] (Internet
   transparency), [RFC6973] (privacy considerations), and
   [RFC7258] (pervasive monitoring).  It is a small (15-30
   page) informational document that defines the abstract
   specification underlying a protocol family and is referenced
   normatively by every instantiation draft.

   SCOPE.  This document standardises NO codepoints, defines NO
   wire format, and introduces NO RFC-2119 keyword usage
   beyond the conventions section.  Its content is exclusively
   the abstract specification, the five axioms, the Invariance
   Theorem, and the conformance catalogue.


2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL",
   "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT
   RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are
   to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119]
   [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals.

   Architecture
        A 5-tuple A = (V_A, B_A, (C_A, H_A), D^2_A, Pub_A)
        per Section 4.1.

   Surface
        The measurable space on which a vantage takes its
        observation samples (Section 4.2).

   Vantage
        An observer v_i : Time -> Surface_i that emits, at every



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        tick instant t_k = k * T_tick, an observation record
        o_i(k).

   Bundle
        The N-tuple { o_i(k) : i in [N] } at a common tick.

   Coherence triple
        The vector (C_1, C_2, C_3) in [0,1]^3 computed from a
        bundle per [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle].

   Hamiltonian
        The scalar H : [0,1]^3 -> [0, H_max] with
        H_max = -3 log eps per Theorem 1 of [v4-proof].

   Mahalanobis decision quantity
        D^2(C; mu, Sigma) := (C - mu)^T Sigma^{-1} (C - mu).

   Conformance
        The property of an architecture A of satisfying the
        five MVPS axioms (Section 5).

   v4.0 catalogue
        Theorems 1, 2, 3, 3', 4, 5, 9 of [v4-proof], the
        unified detection-latency lemma L_DL of [LDL-doc],
        and Stein's Lemma for N-vantage joint error exponents
        per Appendix A of [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-
        coherence].

   Functor
        A category-theoretic mapping between two categories
        preserving identity and composition.  This document
        does NOT introduce a functor; it introduces
        conformance, which is strictly weaker.

   Parallel construction
        The pattern of stating the SAME theorem on different
        surfaces with different per-axis metrics, INDEPENDENTLY
        for each surface.  v4.0 uses parallel construction.
        This document strengthens parallel construction to
        conformance by stating a single axiom set whose
        satisfaction implies inheritance of the catalogue.


3.  Why an Architecture Document is Needed Now

   Reading D-1 through D-7 in sequence, a reviewer faces a
   structural question that no single draft answers
   normatively:




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        "Are these seven drafts seven independent specifications
         or seven instantiations of the same specification?"

   v4.0 explicitly declines the strongest possible answer (a
   functor between profiles).  Quoting MVPS_IETF_FOUNDATIONS.txt
   Section 5 on C-5.1:

        "PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION (Closing of v4.0 explicitly
         disclaims a functor between profiles)."

   This was the right call mathematically: a functor would
   force morphisms between surfaces that do not, in general,
   exist.

   But the disclaimer leaves a gap.  This document fills it.

   The unification introduced here is the WEAKEST possible that
   still suffices for theorem inheritance: NO morphisms between
   surfaces are required.  All that is required is that each
   surface's instantiation satisfy the same axiom set; the
   v4.0 theorem catalogue then applies VERBATIM by mechanical
   substitution.


4.  The Abstract MVPS Specification

4.1.  Architecture as 5-tuple

   An MVPS architecture is a 5-tuple

        A = (V_A, B_A, (C_A, H_A), D^2_A, Pub_A)

   consisting of:

      V_A      A finite set of N >= 3 OBSERVATION VANTAGES,
               each a function v_i : Time -> Surface_i that
               emits, at every tick instant t_k = k * T_tick,
               an observation record o_i(k) in Surface_i.

      B_A      A BUNDLE-CONSTRUCTION RULE that, at each tick
               k, composes the N records into a bundle
               B(k) := { o_i(k) : i in [N] }.

      (C_A, H_A)
               A COHERENCE TRIPLE C_A := (C_1, C_2, C_3) : B
               -> [0,1]^3 together with a scalar HAMILTONIAN
               H_A : [0,1]^3 -> [0, H_max] satisfying
               H_max = -3 log eps per Theorem 1 of [v4-proof].




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      D^2_A    The MAHALANOBIS DECISION quantity
               D^2(C; mu, Sigma) := (C - mu)^T Sigma^{-1}
               (C - mu) against a baseline (mu, Sigma)
               calibrated per OC3 (n_calib >= 18,500 per
               Corollary 3'.1 of [v4-proof]).

      Pub_A    A PUBLISH-SUBSCRIBE primitive delivering the
               alarm signal from broker to all subscribers
               within a bounded tau_RTT envelope.

4.2.  Surface

   A surface is an arbitrary measurable space on which
   observation vantages can take samples.  Examples:

      Network surface (D-1, D-2, D-3, D-4, D-6).
           Surface_i = R+ x F x P(V x V) with RTT in R+, F a
           fingerprint string, P(V x V) an observed edge set.

      AI surface (D-5).
           Surface_i = R^d x R^{d x d} x V with embedding,
           attention, output.

      Orbital surface (D-7).
           Surface_i = R+ x F x P(V x V) x P(V x V) with
           additional TLE-predicted edge set.

   Kernel, dataplane, IoT, datacenter, and post-quantum link
   surfaces are anticipated (Section 7.2).

   No morphisms between surfaces are required.  Surfaces are
   catalogued, not categorified.

4.3.  Conformance

   An MVPS architecture A is CONFORMANT to the MVPS
   specification if and only if it satisfies all five MVPS
   axioms (Section 5).


5.  The Five MVPS Axioms (A1..A5)

5.1.  MVPS-A1: Multi-vantage on a common tick lattice

   V_A has N >= 3 vantages on a tick lattice with period
   T_tick > 0.  The bundle rule B_A is well-defined: B(k) exists
   and is finite for every tick k.

5.2.  MVPS-A2: Bounded coherence triple

   The map C_A := (C_1, C_2, C_3) sends every bundle B(k) into
   [0,1]^3 by construction (per-axis clipping per Design D4 of
   [v4-proof]).  Equivalently, each axis is bounded above by 1
   and below by 0 on the support of B_A.

5.3.  MVPS-A3: Mahalanobis decision with FAR control

   D^2_A is computed against a baseline (mu, Sigma) satisfying:

      rank(Sigma)         = 3            (OC4 of D-1)
      min_eig(Sigma_hat)  > 0            (OC4 of D-1)
      n_calib             >= 18,500      (OC3, Corollary 3'.1)
      sampling cadence G  >= W_max       (OC2)

   FAR is controlled either parametrically (chi^2(3, 1-alpha)
   when Theorem 2 of [v4-proof] applies) or empirically
   (Theorem 3', distribution-free DKW envelope).

5.4.  MVPS-A4: Conditional independence of vantages

   The observation records o_i(k) are conditionally independent
   given the hypothesis H_0 (baseline) or H_1 (event):

        p(o_1, ..., o_N | H_k)
            = prod_{i=1..N}  p(o_i | H_k),    k in {0, 1}.

   This is Hypothesis A1 of [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-



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   coherence] Section 4.  It is required for Stein additivity
   in Theorem 9 below.

5.5.  MVPS-A5: Byzantine resilience via geometric median

   The aggregator across vantages is the geometric median on
   the per-vantage statistics, with bias bound

        || m* - mu_0 ||   <=   (2 f / (N - 2 f)) * sqrt(2)

   whenever at most f < N/2 vantages are corrupt (Theorem 9 of
   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle]).


6.  The Invariance Theorem

6.1.  Statement and proof

   THEOREM 1 (Invariance of the v4.0 catalogue under conformant
              instantiation).

   Let A be any MVPS architecture satisfying axioms MVPS-A1
   through MVPS-A5 (Section 5).  Then A inherits, as theorems
   on its own bundle space, ALL of:

        Theorem 1     (boundedness; H_max = -3 log eps)
        Theorem 2     (chi^2 null under Gaussian C)
        Theorem 3     (scaled-F null under estimated Sigma)
        Theorem 3'    (distribution-free FAR via empirical
                       quantile)
        Theorem 4     (joint Mahalanobis vs q_J; EXACT Schur)
        Theorem 5     (Heisenberg-Gabor time-frequency floor)
        Theorem 9     (geometric-median max-bias on a simplex)
        L_DL          (unified detection latency)
        Stein's Lemma ([Cover-Thomas-2006] Theorem 11.8.1)
                      under A4.

   Furthermore, the COMPOSITION of any of these theorems
   remains valid in A (since composition uses only A1..A5).

   PROOF.  We chase each theorem of the catalogue back to the
   axioms.  Each step is mechanical substitution.

      STEP 1 (Theorem 1).  v4.0 Theorem 1 states H : [0,1]^3
        -> [0, H_max] with H_max = -3 log eps.  Proof relies
        on the [0,1]^3 image of C (axis-by-axis), the choice
        of H as H(c) = -sum_k log(c_k + eps), and the clipping
        bound.  A2 guarantees C_A(B(k)) in [0,1]^3 for all
        bundles.  Inheritance holds.



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      STEP 2 (Theorem 2).  v4.0 Theorem 2 states: under the
        Gaussian null C ~ N(mu, Sigma) the statistic D^2 follows
        chi^2(3).  Proof uses only: D^2 is a quadratic form in
        C - mu with Sigma^{-1}; rank(Sigma) = 3; Gaussian null
        assumption.  A3 guarantees rank(Sigma) = 3 and
        min_eig(Sigma_hat) > 0.  Gaussian null is a hypothesis;
        when it holds, Theorem 2 fires verbatim.

      STEP 3 (Theorem 3).  v4.0 Theorem 3 states: when Sigma is
        estimated from a calibration sample of size n_calib,
        D^2 follows the scaled-F distribution.  Proof uses
        Wishart distribution theory + Hotelling T^2.  A3
        (n_calib >= 18,500, rank(Sigma) = 3) provides every
        prerequisite.

      STEP 4 (Theorem 3').  v4.0 Theorem 3' uses the Dvoretzky-
        Kiefer-Wolfowitz (DKW) inequality + a non-Gaussian C
        distribution.  Proof requires only: the [0,1]^3 image
        (A2) and n_calib (A3); produces an FAR within +/- 1%
        of nominal at n_calib >= 18,500.

      STEP 5 (Theorem 4).  v4.0 Theorem 4 uses the EXACT Schur
        complement formula and the Sylvester identity to
        construct the joint detector across two surfaces.
        Proof uses linear-algebra identities valid on any
        inner-product space.  A1+A2+A3 provide the bundle
        structure.

      STEP 6 (Theorem 5).  v4.0 Theorem 5 imports the
        Heisenberg-Gabor inequality sigma_t * sigma_f >=
        1/(4 pi).  Proof is independent of surface; depends
        only on the L^2 inner product of the time-domain
        signal with itself.  A1 (tick lattice) gives the time
        grid; the inequality holds.

      STEP 7 (Theorem 9).  v4.0 Theorem 9 states: with at most
        f < N/2 byzantine vantages, the geometric median has
        bias <= (2f/(N-2f))*sqrt(2).  Proof imports
        [Minsker-2015] / [Cohen-et-al-2016] on a compact
        metric space.  A5 (geometric median aggregator) + the
        bounded simplex of A2 provides the space.  The bound
        holds on any inner-product or Hilbert space (per
        C-5.6 of D-5 for the AI surface where the simplex is
        replaced by a compact embedding ball).

      STEP 8 (L_DL).  L_DL of [LDL-doc] states
        tau_detect(phi) = M*T_tick - phi + tau_RTT, with the
        three canonical specialisations tau_min, tau_E,
        tau_max.  Proof uses only: tick lattice (A1) +



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        multiplier M (architectural) + subscriber-arrival
        latency (Pub_A).

      STEP 9 (Stein's Lemma).  The MAIN THEOREM of D-7
        Appendix A composes Stein's Lemma + KL chain rule
        under conditional independence (A4) to give
        E_N = sum_i D_i.  A4 is the SOLE hypothesis specific
        to this step; A1..A3 supply the per-vantage
        Mahalanobis structure required.

      STEP 10 (Composition closure).  Each of v4.0's Theorems
        1-9 is stated in the SAME bundle-space abstraction.
        Any composition uses only the inputs of the composed
        theorems.  Inheriting EACH theorem implies inheriting
        their compositions.

   Each step above is mechanical substitution.  No new
   mathematics.   QED.

6.2.  Remarks on functor-vs-conformance

   REMARK 1 (what surface-specific content remains).  A1..A5
   do NOT determine the CHOICE of metric on each axis:

      C_2 may be   1 - JSD on token distributions   (network)
                   1 - W_2 on embeddings            (AI)
                   mean Jaccard on observed-vs-predicted edge
                       sets                         (orbital)
                   normalised Hamming on packet fingerprints
                                                    (kernel,
                                                     dataplane).

   Each choice satisfies the [0,1] image required by A2 and
   the bias bound required by A5.  Theorem 1 guarantees that
   the v4.0 catalogue applies to all such choices identically.

   REMARK 2 (Invariance is strictly weaker than a functor).
   A categorical functor F : Surface -> Bundle would require,
   for every surface morphism f : S_1 -> S_2, an induced map
   F(f) : F(S_1) -> F(S_2) preserving the coherence triple.
   This document imposes NO such inter-surface morphisms.
   Two conformant instantiations on different surfaces are
   RELATED ONLY by the fact that both inherit the same
   theorem catalogue.  This is the precise mathematical sense
   in which v4.0's disclaimer ("PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION ... no
   functor") is preserved while a normative unification IS
   achieved.





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7.  Catalogue of Conformant Instantiations

7.1.  Proved conformant (D-1..D-7)

   For each of D-1 through D-7 the axiom check is one paragraph
   per axiom and reduces, in each case, to citing the draft's
   own internal claims (already proved in the respective
   draft).

   D-1  [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle].
        Surface: network observatory.
        A1 holds (OC1: N >= 3 vantages).
        A2 holds (Design D4 + Theorem 1).
        A3 holds (OC3, OC4 + Theorem 3').
        A4 holds (geographic separation; operational).
        A5 holds (Design D9 + Theorem 9).

   D-2  [I-D.melegassi-mvps-incremental-be].
        Surface: D-1 + cell partition.
        A1-A5 inherited from D-1; A5 strengthened per cell.

   D-3  [I-D.melegassi-coherence-bfd].
        Surface: D-1 specialised to BFD wire format.
        A1 holds with cardinality caveat (V3 Echo permits
        N = 2; full conformance recommends N >= 3 per
        D-1 OC1).
        A2-A5 inherited from D-1.

   D-4  [I-D.melegassi-mvps-ddos-resilience].
        Surface: D-1 + multi-region cell partition.
        A1-A4 inherited; A5 strengthened by Theorem D2
        (cell-aware geometric median).

   D-5  [I-D.melegassi-mvps-ai-coherence].
        Surface: AI serving.
        A1 holds (N >= 3 replicas).
        A2 holds (W_2 / CKA / falsifiability in [0,1]).
        A3 holds (CBF calibration).
        A4 holds (replicas independently seeded;
                  operational).
        A5 holds (Theorem C-5.6, Byzantine-robust C_2^gm).

   D-6  [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-coherence-leadtime].
        Surface: D-1 specialised to rank-1 propagating
        signals.  A1-A5 inherited from D-1.

   D-7  [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-coherence].
        Surface: ground vantages + orbital metadata + TLE.
        A1 holds (OC7-1: N >= 3 ground vantages, separation



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        >= 500 km).
        A2 holds (T-6 + T-7 of D-7 inherit [0,1] image with
                  TLE-predicted component).
        A3 holds (OC7-2 baseline excludes handover windows;
                  empirical T_3').
        A4 holds (D-7 Hypothesis A1).
        A5 holds (Theorem 9 with diameter D_emb = sqrt(2)).

   By Theorem 1 (Section 6), all seven inherit the v4.0
   theorem catalogue.

7.2.  Anticipated conformant

   The following architectures are described as proposals in
   the MVPS repository.  Each is anticipated to satisfy
   A1..A5 once a reference implementation and FAR calibration
   are completed.

      D-8        IoT (RPL parent change, CoAP RTT).  See
                 [I-D.melegassi-roll-mvps-iot].

      KERNEL     Linux kernel internals via eBPF / perf /
                 ftrace.  See MVPS_KERNEL_PROFILE.txt.

      DATAPLANE  Forwarding silicon (ASIC/NPU counters,
                 queue depths).  See MVPS_DATAPLANE_
                 PROFILE.txt.

      DATACTR    Datacenter fabric (Clos topology, RDMA
                 latency, GPU NVLink congestion).  Future.

      PQ-LINK    Post-quantum link layer (QKD link, post-
                 quantum handshake latency).  Future.

7.3.  Non-conformant (and the structural reason)

   The following classical protocols are catalogued as
   structurally NON-CONFORMANT.  The specific axiom violated
   determines the protocol's tau_sampling-bound reactive
   latency floor under PCF ([I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-planetary-
   floor]).

   BGP-4 ([RFC4271]).
        Violates A1: per-AS-boundary single-vantage; no
                     multi-vantage joint inference at the
                     protocol layer.
        Violates A4: route propagation is correlated by AS
                     path; not conditionally independent.
        Consequence: cannot inherit Stein additivity;



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                     bounded below by tau_sampling^{BGP} =
                     60 s per [RFC4271] Section 10 keepalive
                     lattice.

   BFD ([RFC5880]).
        Violates A2: no coherence triple, just binary
                     up/down state.
        Violates A1: per-session pair, not multi-vantage
                     joint.
        Consequence: cannot inherit Theorem 1 or Theorem 9;
                     bounded below by tau_sampling^{BFD} =
                     M * MinTx per [RFC5880] Section 6.8.1.

   DNS ([RFC1034], [RFC1035], [RFC2181]).
        Violates A1: resolvers are single-vantage per query.
        Violates A2: no coherence triple; just (name ->
                     address) binding cached under TTL.
        Consequence: cannot inherit any v4.0 theorem;
                     bounded below by tau_sampling^{DNS} =
                     TTL_min per [RFC2181].

   TCP retransmission ([RFC9293], [RFC6298]).
        Violates A1: per-connection single-endpoint timer.
        Violates A4: timer doubles deterministically (binary
                     backoff is not conditionally independent
                     sampling).
        Consequence: bounded below by tau_sampling^{TCP-RTX}
                     = RTO_min = 1 s per [RFC6298]
                     Section 2.4.

   The non-conformance examples above are PRECISELY the
   tau_sampling-binding floors of [I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-
   planetary-floor] Section 6.  This is not a coincidence:
   PCF Theorem (Section 5 of the planetary-floor draft)
   bounds the reactive latency floor of any architecture by
   max{tau_causal, tau_sampling, tau_information,
   tau_consensus, tau_coupling}.  An architecture's reactive
   latency is dominated by tau_causal ONLY IF tau_information
   is below tau_causal, which requires Stein additivity,
   which requires A4.  Architectures that violate A4 are
   STRUCTURALLY bound to be tau_sampling-bound.

   D-16 therefore SUBSUMES PCF's binding-floor analysis:
   every classical-Internet protocol whose tau_sampling floor
   PCF computes is precisely a non-conformant architecture
   per this document's axiom check.


8.  Relationship to PCF



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   This document and [I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-planetary-floor]
   (PCF) are the two halves of the MVPS family's closing act:

      THIS DOCUMENT (ARCH)  says WHAT MVPS is.
      PCF                   says HOW FAST MVPS reacts under
                            the floor composition.

   The recommended reading order for a new IETF reviewer is:

      1.  This document (ARCH) -- understand the unification.
      2.  D-1 [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle] -- the canonical
          instantiation.
      3.  D-2..D-7 -- the parallel instantiations, in any
          order.
      4.  [LDL-doc] -- the unifying detection-latency lemma.
      5.  PCF [I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-planetary-floor] -- the
          operational consequence; the world number.

   The family thereby closes at NINE Internet-Drafts:

      SEVEN INSTANTIATIONS    +    TWO CAPSTONES
      (D-1..D-7)                  (this document + PCF)

   The nine are MUTUALLY INDEPENDENT (each proves something
   the others do not) and JOINTLY EXHAUSTIVE (no further
   capstone is derivable from existing material without
   introducing new measurement or new mathematics).


9.  Conformance Procedure for New Deployments

   A new deployment that wishes to claim MVPS conformance
   SHOULD author a short (5-10 page) "MVPS Conformance
   Statement" that:

      (a)  describes its surface and per-axis metric choice;
      (b)  demonstrates A1 (N >= 3, tick lattice exists);
      (c)  demonstrates A2 (each axis lies in [0,1]);
      (d)  demonstrates A3 (n_calib >= 18,500; rank-3 Sigma);
      (e)  demonstrates A4 (conditional independence; possibly
           an operational hypothesis like H-3 of D-7);
      (f)  demonstrates A5 (geometric median aggregator with
           bias bound);
      (g)  cites this document as the source of the inherited
           theorems.

   A WG chair MAY verify conformance by reading the conformance
   statement against the axiom checklist of Section 5 above.
   This is the same pattern [RFC2475] uses to admit new
   DiffServ PHB groups via per-codepoint specification.



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10.  Operational Contracts inherited from D-1..D-7

   The MVPS Operational Contracts (OC1..OC8) from
   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle] apply to every conformant
   instantiation:

      OC1   N >= 3 vantages required.
      OC2   Sampling cadence G >= W_max.
      OC3   n_calib >= 18,500 for +/- 1% FAR precision.
      OC4   rank(Sigma) = 3 with min_eig(Sigma_hat) > 0.
      OC5   C_2 comparisons valid only within a session at
            fixed N.
      OC6   tau_OU uses the rho_1^clip of Design D12.
      OC7   Recalibrate whenever 7-day FAR > 5% empirically.
      OC8   K_1, K_2 thresholds in [exp(-1), 1].

   Surface-specific OCs (e.g., OC7-1..OC7-4 of D-7 for
   orbital deployments) apply to their respective
   instantiations as published.


11.  Security Considerations

   This document is descriptive; it standardises no wire
   format or codepoint.  It inherits the security model of
   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle] (HMAC-SHA256 wire
   integrity, [RFC2104]) and [I-D.melegassi-mvps-ddos-
   resilience] (cell-aware Byzantine bound, Theorem 9 + D2).

   A1 (multi-vantage) is itself a security-relevant property:
   a single-vantage architecture has no Byzantine resilience
   (Theorem 9 is vacuous at N = 1).  A4 (conditional
   independence) is operationally fragile if vantages share
   a corruption channel; deployments MUST ensure vantage
   independence at the instrumentation level.


12.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.


13.  References

13.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2104]   Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti,
               "HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message
               Authentication", RFC 2104, DOI 10.17487/RFC2104,
               February 1997.



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   [RFC2119]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to
               Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.

   [RFC8174]   Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase
               in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, May 2017.

   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-bundle]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS Bundle Envelope and Multi-
               Vantage Coherence Algebra", Work in Progress,
               Internet-Draft, draft-melegassi-ippm-mvps-
               bundle-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-mvps-incremental-be]
               Melegassi, L., "Bandwidth-Efficient Incremental
               MVPS", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
               draft-melegassi-mvps-incremental-be-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-coherence-bfd]
               Melegassi, L., "Coherence-BFD: Sub-Second
               Coherence Detection", Work in Progress,
               Internet-Draft, draft-melegassi-coherence-
               bfd-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-mvps-ddos-resilience]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS DDoS Resilience Profile",
               Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
               melegassi-mvps-ddos-resilience-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-mvps-ai-coherence]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS AI-Coherence Extension",
               Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
               melegassi-mvps-ai-coherence-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-coherence-leadtime]
               Melegassi, L., "Multi-Vantage Coherence
               Detection: Closed-Form Lead-Time on Rank-Low
               Propagating Signals", Work in Progress,
               Internet-Draft, draft-melegassi-ippm-mvps-
               coherence-leadtime-00, May 2026.

   [I-D.melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-coherence]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS Profile for Satellite-
               Segment Paths: Mapping and N-Vantage Error-
               Exponent Scaling", Work in Progress, Internet-
               Draft, draft-melegassi-ippm-mvps-orbital-
               coherence-00, May 2026.





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   [I-D.melegassi-iab-mvps-planetary-floor]
               Melegassi, L., "Planetary Coherence Floor:
               Composition Theorem for Reactive Latency in
               Multi-Vantage Network Infrastructure", Work in
               Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-melegassi-iab-
               mvps-planetary-floor-00, May 2026.

   [Cover-Thomas-2006]
               Cover, T. and J. Thomas, "Elements of
               Information Theory", 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2006.
               Theorem 11.8.1 (Stein's Lemma).

   [Minsker-2015]
               Minsker, S., "Geometric median and robust
               estimation in Banach spaces", Bernoulli,
               vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 2308-2335, 2015.

   [Cohen-et-al-2016]
               Cohen, M., Lee, Y., Miller, G., Pachocki, J.,
               and A. Sidford, "Geometric median in nearly
               linear time", Proc. STOC 2016.

13.2.  Informative References

   [RFC1034]   Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and
               facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC1034, November 1987.

   [RFC1035]   Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation
               and specification", STD 13, RFC 1035,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC1035, November 1987.

   [RFC1633]   Braden, R., Clark, D., and S. Shenker,
               "Integrated Services in the Internet
               Architecture: an Overview", RFC 1633,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC1633, June 1994.

   [RFC1958]   Carpenter, B., Ed., "Architectural Principles
               of the Internet", RFC 1958,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC1958, June 1996.

   [RFC2181]   Elz, R. and R. Bush, "Clarifications to the DNS
               Specification", RFC 2181,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC2181, July 1997.

   [RFC2475]   Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E.,
               Wang, Z., and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for
               Differentiated Services", RFC 2475,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC2475, December 1998.



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   [RFC2775]   Carpenter, B., "Internet Transparency",
               RFC 2775, DOI 10.17487/RFC2775, February 2000.

   [RFC3439]   Bush, R. and D. Meyer, "Some Internet
               Architectural Guidelines and Philosophy",
               RFC 3439, DOI 10.17487/RFC3439, December 2002.

   [RFC4271]   Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares,
               Ed., "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)",
               RFC 4271, DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006.

   [RFC5880]   Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional
               Forwarding Detection (BFD)", RFC 5880,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC5880, June 2010.

   [RFC6298]   Paxson, V., Allman, M., Chu, J., and
               M. Sargent, "Computing TCP's Retransmission
               Timer", RFC 6298, DOI 10.17487/RFC6298,
               June 2011.

   [RFC6973]   Cooper, A., Tschofenig, H., Aboba, B., Peterson,
               J., Morris, J., Hansen, M., and R. Smith,
               "Privacy Considerations for Internet Protocols",
               RFC 6973, DOI 10.17487/RFC6973, July 2013.

   [RFC7258]   Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive
               Monitoring Is an Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258,
               DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May 2014.

   [RFC9293]   Eddy, W., Ed., "Transmission Control Protocol
               (TCP)", STD 7, RFC 9293, DOI 10.17487/RFC9293,
               August 2022.

   [I-D.melegassi-roll-mvps-iot]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS-IoT: Multi-Vantage Path
               Snapshot for IoT / RPL", Work in Progress,
               Internet-Draft, draft-melegassi-roll-mvps-
               iot-00, May 2026.  [STANDBY]

   [v4-proof]  Melegassi, L., "MVPS Mathematical Existence
               Proof v4.0", docs/MVPS_MATHEMATICAL_EXISTENCE_
               PROOF_V4.txt, 2026.

   [LDL-doc]   Melegassi, L., "MVPS Detection Latency -
               Unified Lemma L_DL", docs/MVPS_DETECTION_
               LATENCY_LEMMA.txt, May 2026.

   [ARCH-proof]
               Melegassi, L., "MVPS-ARCH: Formal Proof",



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               docs/MVPS_ARCH_PROOF.txt, May 2026.


Acknowledgements

   The author thanks Benoit Donnet (ULiege) for the original
   canonical-representation audit that anchored the MVPS
   discipline; the IETF community for the venue; the
   architecture-document tradition of [RFC1958], [RFC3439],
   [RFC1633], [RFC2475], [RFC2775], [RFC6973], and [RFC7258]
   for the precedent under which this document is filed;
   and the MVPS adversarial-self-audit rounds K, G, H, W, S,
   B, and L for the discipline that ensured every axiom in
   Section 5 was chosen so that the seven existing drafts
   satisfy it without amendment.


Author's Address

   Leonardo Melegassi
   Catellix Research
   Andradina, SP
   Brazil

   Email: melegassi@catellix.com
   URI:   https://catellix.com/v11-evidence.html



































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