Huawei Technologies Huawei Technologies China Telecom China Unicom Verizon Inc. This document describes the processing of the Hop-by-Hop Options Header (HBH) in current routers in the aspects of standards specification, common implementations, and default operations. This document outlines reasons why the Hop-by-Hop Options Header is rarely utilized in current networks. In addition, this document describes how HBH Options Header could be used as a powerful mechanism allowing deployment and operations of new services requiring a more optimized way to leverage network resources of an infrastructure. The purpose of this draft is to document reasons why HBH Options Header is rarely used within networks. It motivates the benefits and requirements needed to enable wider use of HBH Options.