



rtgwg                                                           R. Zhang
Internet-Draft                                                    J. Mao
Intended status: Informational                                    B. Liu
Expires: 7 May 2026                                              N. Geng
                                                                X. Shang
                                                                  Q. Gao
                                                                   Z. Li
                                                                  Huawei
                                                         3 November 2025


  Use Cases and Requirements of Communication Protocol for Measurement
                       Agents on Network Devices
               draft-zhang-rtgwg-ai-agents-measurement-00

Abstract

   This document focuses on the use cases and requirements of
   communication protocols for measurement agents on network devices.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   The latest revision of this draft can be found at
   https://example.com/LATEST.  Status information for this document may
   be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-zhang-rtgwg-ai-
   agents-measurement/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the rtgwg Working Group
   mailing list (mailto:WG@example.com), which is archived at
   https://example.com/WG.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/USER/REPO.

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/.






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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Use Case 1: Latency Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.2.  Use Case 2: Active Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Transmission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  Data Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.3.  Security  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.4.  Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.5.  Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.6.  Interoperability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6










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1.  Introduction

   This document outlines use cases and requirements for network device
   agents engaged in network measurement tasks.  As networks evolve
   toward increased automation and intelligence, efficient and
   standardized interactions between agents (located in routers,
   switches, or other network elements) become critical.  Network
   measurement supports scientific discovery and network operations
   through tasks like characterizing traffic, understanding protocol
   performance, billing customers and detecting problems.  This draft
   focuses on defining use cases that illustrate practical communication
   flows between agents, utilizing protocols like HTTP, gRPC, and
   others, and establishes key requirements to ensure interoperability,
   scalability, and reliability.  The methods of measurement is out of
   scope in this draft.  But the measurement agents on network devices
   should have the ability of choosing and invoking suitable network
   measurement tool.

2.  Conventions and Definitions

   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, as shown here.

3.  Use Cases

   This section describes three use cases for communication between
   network device agents for network measurement.  Each case follows the
   follow:

   1.  Intent analysis

   2.  Measurement configuration generation

   3.  Configuration deployment

3.1.  Use Case 1: Latency Measurement

   +----------------+ 1. request    +----------------+
   |   +-------+    +--------------->   +-------+    |
   |   | Agent |    | 2. response   |   | Agent |    |
   |   +-------+    <---------------+   +-------+    |
   | Network Device |               | Network Device |
   +----------------+               +----------------+

   Figure: Latency Measurement



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   In this scenario, an agent analyzes network performance intent and
   generates a latency measurement configuration.  The intent may
   generate by other agent or human.  The configuration specifies ICMP-
   based measurement with a 5-second duration.  The agent sends an HTTP
   GET request to related agent's endpoint with the configuration
   parameters.  The agent which receives this request applies the
   configuration, executes the measurement, and returns results in JSON
   format containing average latency, jitter, and timestamps.

   Overall, this approach promotes interoperability and ease of
   integration in heterogeneous networks.

3.2.  Use Case 2: Active Measurement

   This use case involves an agent perceived or received a risk of link
   congestion initiates an active probing measurement.  The agent should
   analyzes the level of risk to determine probe type and frequency.
   After analyzing the agent generates a configuration specifying active
   probing.  There may be multiple related agent to cooperate to handle
   this issue.  When probe arriving destinations, related agents should
   send reports to the agent on the source node.

4.  Requirements

   To enable effective network measurement between network device
   agents, several key requirements must be addressed to ensure robust,
   scalable, and interoperable communications.  These requirements stem
   from the use cases described and broader industry needs, focusing on
   protocol capabilities, data handling, and system integration.

4.1.  Transmission

   Support for stream-oriented transmission is essential.  As
   demonstrated in above use cases, measurements often involve
   continuous data flows, such as real-time metrics or large datasets.
   Protocols must facilitate bidirectional streaming to allow agents to
   send and receive data concurrently without interruption, minimizing
   latency and enabling dynamic adjustments during measurements.  This
   requirement aligns with protocols like gRPC and WebSocket, which
   natively support streaming, and should be extended to other
   implementations through standards like HTTP/2 for broader adoption.










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4.2.  Data Formats

   Structured and extensible data formats are critical for
   interoperability.  Agents must exchange measurement results in a
   consistent manner, using formats such as JSON, XML, or Protocol
   Buffers.  These formats enable easy parsing, validation, and
   integration with analytics tools.  Additionally, the data schema
   should be extensible to accommodate new measurement types and
   parameters, allowing for future enhancements without breaking
   backward compatibility.  For instance, defining common fields for
   timestamps, error codes, and metadata in responses can standardize
   interactions across diverse agent implementations.

4.3.  Security

   Security mechanisms must be integrated to protect measurement data
   and prevent unauthorized access.  This includes mandatory use of
   transport-layer security (e.g., TLS for HTTP and gRPC, WSS for
   WebSocket) to encrypt data in transit, as well as authentication and
   authorization frameworks such as OAuth or client certificates.  Given
   the sensitive nature of network metrics, agents should also implement
   rate limiting and audit logging to detect and mitigate potential
   threats, ensuring compliance with organizational policies.

4.4.  Reliability

   Reliability and error handling are paramount for maintaining
   measurement accuracy.  Protocols should incorporate features like
   retransmission policies, timeouts, and graceful degradation to handle
   network failures or agent unavailability.  For example, in the
   latency measurement use case, HTTP retries can be employed for
   transient errors, while gRPC's built-in error codes provide detailed
   diagnostics.  Agents must also support idempotent operations to avoid
   duplicate measurements and ensure data consistency.

4.5.  Scalability

   Scalability and performance optimizations are necessary to support
   large-scale deployments.  This involves efficient resource
   management, such as connection pooling and load balancing, to handle
   high volumes of concurrent measurements.  Protocols should minimize
   overhead through compression techniques and efficient serialization,
   as seen with Protocol Buffers in gRPC.  Moreover, agents ought to
   support asynchronous operations to non-blockingly process multiple
   requests, enhancing overall system throughput.






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4.6.  Interoperability

   Interoperability and standardization across vendor implementations
   are crucial.  This requires adherence to common APIs, protocol
   specifications, and data models, possibly defined in IETF RFCs.  By
   promoting a unified approach, agents from different manufacturers can
   seamlessly communicate, reducing integration costs and fostering
   innovation in network automation.  Additional considerations include
   support for multicast or publish-subscribe models for group
   measurements and mechanisms for data aggregation to reduce network
   load.

5.  Security Considerations

   TBD

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

7.  Conclusion

   This draft presents use cases and requirements for the measurement
   agents on the network device.  The defined requirements for
   transmission, data formats, security, reliability, scalability, and
   interoperability form a foundation for standardized agent
   interactions.  These improvements will enable more automated and
   intelligent network management, enhancing performance and resilience
   in modern networks.

8.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

Acknowledgments

   TODO acknowledge.

Authors' Addresses





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   Ruyi Zhang
   Huawei
   Email: zhangruyi8@huawei.com


   Jianwei Mao
   Huawei
   Email: maojianwei@huawei.com


   Bing Liu
   Huawei
   Email: leo.liubing@huawei.com


   Nan Geng
   Huawei
   Email: gengnan@huawei.com


   Xiaotong Shang
   Huawei
   Email: shangxiaotong@huawei.com


   Qiangzhou Gao
   Huawei
   Email: gaoqiangzhou@huawei.com


   Zhenbin Li
   Huawei
   Email: robinli314@163.com


















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