Skip to main content

Multi-agent Collaboration Protocol Suites Architecture
draft-li-dmsc-macp-06

Document Type Active Internet-Draft (individual)
Authors Xueting Li , Bing Liu , Jun Liu , Chenguang Du , Lianhua Zhang
Last updated 2026-07-19
Replaces draft-li-dmsc-mcps-agw
RFC stream (None)
Intended RFC status (None)
Formats
Stream Stream state (No stream defined)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
RFC Editor Note (None)
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-li-dmsc-macp-06
DMSC Working Group                                                 X. Li
Internet-Draft                                             China Telecom
Intended status: Standards Track                                  B. Liu
Expires: 21 January 2027                             Huawei Technologies
                                                                  J. Liu
                      Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
                                                                   C. Du
                                                                Tsinghua
                                                                L. Zhang
                                       AsiaInfo Technologies (China) Inc
                                                            20 July 2026

         Multi-agent Collaboration Protocol Suites Architecture
                         draft-li-dmsc-macp-06

Abstract

   This document defines a protocol suite and architectural framework
   for secure and scalable multi-agent collaboration.  The proposed
   Multi-Agent Collaboration Protocol (MACP) enables trusted agent
   onboarding, capability-based query, distributed capability
   synchronization, and secure interaction among agents and external
   resources.  The architecture introduces key entities such as the
   Agent Management Center (AMC), Agent Gateway (AGW), Agents, and
   External Resource Services (ERS), along with a set of protocols that
   collectively support dynamic, capability-driven collaboration across
   administrative domains.

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 21 January 2027.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 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.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Multi-agent Collaboration Protocol Architecture . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  Agent Management Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  Agent Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.3.  Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.4.  External Resource Service (ERS) . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.5.  Data Objects  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.6.  Entity Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   5.  Multi-Agent Collaboration Protocol Suite Overview . . . . . .  10
     5.1.  Agent-Gateway Interaction Protocol(AGIP)  . . . . . . . .  10
       5.1.1.  Agent Registration and Capability Advertisement . . .  11
       5.1.2.  Capability Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     5.2.  Agent Authentication and Authorization Protocol (AAAP)  .  12
     5.3.  Capability Directory Synchronization Protocol (CDSP)  . .  13
     5.4.  Gateway-side Mediation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     5.5.  Agent to External Resource Service Protocol . . . . . . .  16
   6.  Capability Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   8.  Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   9.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

1.  Introduction

   The rapid evolution of large-scale multi-agent systems introduces new
   requirements for coordination, security, and service discovery across
   distributed environments.  Agents are no longer confined to isolated
   execution contexts, but increasingly operate across administrative
   domains, network boundaries, and heterogeneous infrastructures.
   However, existing mechanisms for service interaction and discovery

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   exhibit several limitations when applied to multi-agent
   collaboration:

   *  Lack of unified trust establishment: Current agent interaction
      models often assume pre-established trust or rely on application-
      layer authentication, without a network-level mechanism to ensure
      that participating agents are authenticated, authorized, and
      accountable across domains.

   *  Insufficient capability abstraction and discoverability:
      Traditional service discovery mechanisms (e.g., DNS-based or
      registry-based approaches) focus on endpoint resolution rather
      than capability-oriented matching, making them unsuitable for
      dynamic agent collaboration where tasks are fulfilled based on
      functional capabilities rather than fixed service locations.

   *  Limited visibility across distributed environments: Existing
      systems lack a mechanism to construct a distributed, up-to-date
      view of available agent capabilities, especially when agents are
      registered under different control points or administrative
      domains.

   *  Inefficient or ad hoc discovery mechanisms: Without coordinated
      discovery strategies, agent systems rely on broadcast-like or
      centralized queries, leading to scalability challenges and
      increased latency in locating suitable collaborators.

   *  Fragmented protocol landscape: While protocols such as A2A, MCP,
      or other interaction mechanisms exist, they operate in isolation
      and do not provide an integrated framework for authentication,
      registration, discovery, and coordination.

   These limitations become more critical as multi-agent systems scale,
   where dynamic task composition, cross-domain collaboration, and
   secure interaction are fundamental requirements.  To address these
   challenges, this document proposes the Multi-Agent Collaboration
   Protocol (MACP), a protocol suite and architectural framework that:

   *  Establishes a trusted onboarding mechanism via a centralized
      authentication and authorization entity.

   *  Introduces capability-based abstraction and identification for
      agents.

   *  Enables distributed capability synchronization across control
      points.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Integrates existing interaction protocols into a cohesive
      collaboration framework.

   By shifting from endpoint-centric interaction to capability-driven
   collaboration, MACP enables scalable, secure, and flexible multi-
   agent systems that can operate effectively across heterogeneous and
   distributed environments.

2.  Conventions used in this document

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  Terminology

   The following terms are defined in this draft:

   *  Agent: An automated intelligent entity capable of e.g interacting
      with its environment, acquiring contextual information, reasoning,
      self-learning, decision-making, executing tasks (autonomously or
      in collaboration with other Al Agents) to achieve a specific goal.

   *  Agent Gateway: The Agent Gateway is a functional entity that
      serves as the infrastructure for enabling interconnection and
      collaboration among agents.  While its core role remains
      consistent, it is inherently flexible in deployment and can be
      realized in various forms—ranging from a network service to a
      dedicated gateway—depending on the architectural and operational
      requirements of different network environments.

   *  Agent Management Center (AMC): It is the trusted infrastructure
      service responsible for agent identity lifecycle management and
      credential issuance.

   *  Agent Identity Code (AIC): An Agent Identity Code (AIC) is a
      verifiable, globally unique identifier that represents the
      identity of an Agent.

   *  Agent Capability Specification (ACS): An Agent Capability
      Specification (ACS) is a structured description of an agent's
      capabilities and service information that can be stored,
      retrieved, and matched.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Agent Credential: An Agent Credential is a tamper-resistant data
      object issued by an Agent Management Center(or its credential
      authority component), used by an Agent to prove identity
      attributes and/or authorization to a relying party.  Examples
      include X.509 certificates and security tokens.

   *  Agent-Gateway Interaction Protocol (AGIP): The AGIP defines the
      control-plane interaction between an Agent and its locally
      attached Agent Gateway.  It provides mechanisms for agent
      onboarding, capability registration, lifecycle management, and
      capability resolution, enabling an Agent to obtain suitable
      collaboration peers based on capability requirements.

   *  Agent Authentication and Authorization Protocol (AAAP): The AAAP
      defines how authentication and authorization decisions are
      requested and enforced.

   *  Capability Directory Synchronization Protocol (CDSP): The CDSP
      synchronizes abstracted agent capability digests across agent
      gateways.

4.  Multi-agent Collaboration Protocol Architecture

   The MACP architecture consists of the following key entities:, as
   shown in figure 1.  Each functional entity represents a logical role
   in the IoA architecture, implementations MAY combine multiple
   entities into a single product.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 5]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

                                  +-----------------------+
                                  |Agent Management Center|
                                  |   (Authentication &   |
                                  |    Authorization)     |
                                  +-----------------------+
                                    |  AAAP           |  AAAP
                                    |                 |
                    +-------------------+          +--------------------+
                    |   Agent Gateway 1 |          |  Agent Gateway 2   |
                    | + Registration    |----------| + Registration     |
                    | + Capa Resolution |   CDSP   | + Capa Resolution  |
                    | + Capa Sync       |          | + Capa Sync        |
                    +--+-----+----------+          +--------+-----+-----+
                             |                                |
                       AGIP  |                         AGIP   |
                             |                                |
             +-----------------------+            +----------------------+        +-----------------+
             |        Agent          |     A2A    |        Agent         |  MCP   |External Resource|
             |      (Role A)         |----------- |      (Role B)        |------- |  Service (ERS)  |
             +----------+------------+            +----------------------+        +-----------------+
                        |                                    |
             +----------+------------+            +----------+------------+
             |         User A        |            |        User B         |
             +-----------------------+            +-----------------------+

                          Figure 1 MACP Architecture Overview

4.1.  Agent Management Center

   The Agent Management Center is the trusted infrastructure service
   responsible for agent identity lifecycle management and credential
   issuance.  The AMC provides centralized authentication and
   authorization services.  It ensures that only legitimate and trusted
   agents are allowed to join the system.  Specifically, the AMC:

   *  Authenticates agent identity

   *  Determines authorization scope and execution permissions

   *  Issues authorization credentials (e.g., certificates or tokens)

   Multiple Agent Management Center MAY exist in an IoA deployment, each
   managing a subset of agents within its administrative scope.  A
   deployment MAY realize the identity management function and the
   credential authority function as separate services, provided they
   maintain consistent identity-to-credential binding.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 6]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

4.2.  Agent Gateway

   The Agent Gateway is a functional entity that serves as the
   infrastructure for enabling interconnection and collaboration among
   agents.  While its core role remains consistent, it is inherently
   flexible in deployment and can be realized in various forms—ranging
   from a network service to a dedicated gateway—depending on the
   architectural and operational requirements of different network
   environments.

   The Agent Gateway provides the following functions:

   *  Agent Registration: Maintains agent identity and capability
      information.

   *  Agent Capability Directory Management: Stores and organizes
      registered agent capabilities.

   *  Agent Capability Directory Synchronization: Exchanges agent
      capability digests with peer gateways.

   *  Agent Group Communication Support: Enables multi-agent
      coordination.

   Each AGW maintains a local capability view and participates in
   forming a distributed capability knowledge plane.  More specific
   requirements are specified in [draft-liu-dmsc-gw-
   requirements][GW-REQ].

4.3.  Agent

   The Agent is an automated intelligent entity capable of e.g
   interacting with its environment, acquiring contextual information,
   reasoning, self-learning, decision-making, executing tasks
   (autonomously or in collaboration with other Al Agents) to achieve a
   specific goal.

   An Agent is responsible for:

   *  Maintaining its own identity information (e.g., AIC) and
      credentials locally.

   *  Maintaining its capability description (e.g., ACS) and ensuring
      consistency with its current state.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 7]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Performing authentication and authorization checks for
      interconnection, including mutual verification of peer agents and
      validation of presented credentials. - Conducting agent-to-agent
      interaction, including session establishment, message exchange,
      and task/context management.

   *  Accessing external resources when required to fulfill tasks.

   *  Producing monitoring and logging data for troubleshooting,
      auditing, and governance purposes.

   These are internal agent capabilities described here for
   informational purposes.  They are NOT standardized as separate
   architectural functional components.  In an interaction, an Agent MAY
   assume different roles depending on the collaboration mode.  The DMSC
   architecture does not constrain the set of possible roles; specific
   collaboration protocols MAY define role semantics appropriate to
   their interaction patterns.

   For example, in a task-driven collaboration [draft-yang-dmsc-ioa-
   task-protocol] [draft-yang-dmsc-ioa-task-protocol]:

   *  Leader: The Agent that initiates tasks and organizes
      collaboration.

   *  Partner: The Agent that accepts tasks and provides services,
      executing assigned tasks and returning results to the Leader.

   A single Agent implementation MAY act in different roles across
   different interactions.  Role assignment is per-interaction, not per-
   deployment.

4.4.  External Resource Service (ERS)

   The External Resource Service (ERS) represents external systems such
   as APIs, databases, or compute services that agents may invoke.  ERS
   is conceptually external to the agent collaboration system and is
   accessed via existing protocols.

   ERS may include both domain-specific services and shared
   infrastructure services.  In particular, certain ERS instances MAY
   correspond to widely deployed Internet-scale infrastructure (e.g.,
   naming, data access, or knowledge retrieval systems), which provide
   common capabilities that are not specific to agent collaboration but
   are essential for its operation.  In this sense, ERS can be viewed as
   leveraging existing or future shared Internet service infrastructure,
   rather than replicating such functionality within the agent system
   itself.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 8]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   A key design principle is the separation of responsibilities between
   the agent collaboration system and ERS.  The agent system is
   responsible for:

   *  Agent identity, trust establishment, and authorization

   *  Agent capabilities registration, abstraction

   *  Coordination and interaction among agents

   In contrast, ERS is responsible for:

   *  Providing external data, computation, or domain-specific
      functionality

   *  Supporting tasks that require capabilities beyond the agent system
      itself

   Agents interact with ERS when executing tasks that require external
   resources, while core collaboration functions—such as routing, and
   coordination—remain within the agent system.  The MACP architecture
   intentionally avoids redefining general-purpose Internet services
   (e.g., naming or data retrieval), and instead focuses on enabling
   agents to discover, select, and utilize such services in a
   coordinated manner.

4.5.  Data Objects

   The following are protocol data objects referenced by the functional
   entities.  They are not functional entities themselves:

   *  Agent Identity Code (AIC): An Agent Identity Code (AIC) is a
      verifiable, globally unique identifier that represents the
      identity of an Agent.  An AIC is allocated by an Agent Gateway
      during agent registration.

   *  Agent Capability Specification (ACS): An Agent Capability
      Specification (ACS) is a structured description of an agent's
      capabilities and service information that can be stored,
      retrieved, and matched.  An ACS MAY use the JSON [RFC8259]
      [RFC8259] format, typically including: the agent's AIC, functional
      capabilities, technical characteristics, service interfaces, and
      security requirements.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027                [Page 9]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Agent Credential: An Agent Credential is a tamper-resistant data
      object issued by an AMC (or its credential authority component),
      used by an Agent to prove identity attributes and/or authorization
      to a relying party.  Examples include X.509 certificates and
      security tokens.

4.6.  Entity Summary

   The following table provides a summary of all functional entities and
   external actors in the simplified DMSC architecture.

| #  | Entity                    | Type              | Role in Architecture                                  |
|----|---------------------------|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 1  | Agent                     | Core entity       | Autonomous task execution and collaboration           |
| 2  | Agent Management Center   | Infrastructure    | Identity lifecycle management and credential issuance |
| 3  | Agent Gateway             | Infrastructure    | Capability directory, synchronization                 |
| 4  | External Resource Service | Infrastructure    | External resource exposure and invocation handling    |
| 5  | User                      | External actor    | Task initiation, authorization, and result consumption|

Figure 2  A summary of all functional entities

5.  Multi-Agent Collaboration Protocol Suite Overview

   MACP defines a set of protocols to enable interaction among entities.

5.1.  Agent-Gateway Interaction Protocol(AGIP)

   The Agent-Gateway Interaction Protocol (AGIP) defines the control-
   plane interaction between an Agent and its locally attached Agent
   Gateway (AGW).  AGIP provides a unified interaction framework that
   enables Agents to join the collaboration system, advertise and
   maintain their capabilities, and request capability resolution
   services throughout their lifecycle.[draft-sz-dmsc-iaip]

   As the primary interface between an Agent and the AGW, AGIP supports
   two complementary interaction procedures.  The first enables an Agent
   to establish its identity and advertise its capabilities to the
   gateway, allowing the AGW to maintain an up-to-date capability
   directory of locally attached Agents.  The second enables an Agent to
   submit collaboration requests during runtime.  Upon receiving such
   requests, the AGW interprets the requested capabilities, resolves
   them against its distributed capability knowledge, and returns one or
   more suitable collaboration Agents.

   Accordingly, AGIP consists of the following two procedures: Agent
   Registration and Capability Advertisement, Capability Resolution.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 10]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

5.1.1.  Agent Registration and Capability Advertisement

   This procedure enables an Agent to become a trusted participant in
   the collaboration system while publishing its capabilities to the
   attached Agent Gateway.

   AGIP is responsible for:

   *  Agent identity declaration.

   *  Capability advertisement.

   *  Agent registration and deregistration.

   *  Capability update and lifecycle management.

   Operational flow:

   1.  The Agent sends a registration request to its attached AGW,
       carrying its identity information together with its Agent
       Capability Specification (ACS).

   2.  The AGW invokes the Agent Authentication and Authorization
       Protocol (AAAP), as described in Section 5.2, to authenticate and
       authorize the requesting Agent.

   3.  Upon successful authentication and authorization, the AGW
       allocates a globally unique Agent Identity Code (AIC).

   4.  The AGW stores the advertised capability information in its local
       capability directory and associates it with the allocated AIC.

   5.  The AGW acknowledges successful registration to the Agent.

   6.  The registered capability information becomes available for
       subsequent synchronization with peer AGWs through the Capability
       Directory Synchronization Protocol (CDSP).

   After registration, an Agent MAY update its capability information
   whenever its supported functions, service interfaces, execution
   status, or other capability-related attributes change.  Likewise, an
   Agent MAY deregister from the AGW when it leaves the collaboration
   system, allowing the corresponding capability information to be
   withdrawn from the capability directory.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 11]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

5.1.2.  Capability Resolution

   After successful registration, an Agent MAY request collaboration
   services by submitting a capability request to its attached AGW
   through AGIP.

   Upon receiving a request from an agent, the AGW performs the
   following operations:

   1.  Receive the capability request from the requesting Agent.

   2.  Interpret and normalize the requested capability into an internal
       capability representation.

   3.  Match the normalized capability against the capability directory
       maintained by the AGW.

   4.  Identify one or more candidate Agents capable of satisfying the
       requested capability.

   5.  Apply local selection policies when multiple candidate Agents are
       available.

   6.  Return the capability resolution result to the requesting Agent.

   The capability directory maintained by the AGW contains both
   capabilities advertised by locally registered Agents and abstract
   capability summaries synchronized from peer AGWs through CDSP.
   Consequently, capability resolution may identify candidate Agents
   either within the local administrative domain or in remote domains
   without requiring the requesting Agent to interact directly with
   multiple gateways.

   When multiple candidate Agents satisfy the requested capability, the
   AGW MAY rank or select candidates according to locally configured
   policies, including capability matching degree, resource
   availability, execution load, trust relationships, network
   conditions, administrative policies, or application-specific
   optimization objectives.

5.2.  Agent Authentication and Authorization Protocol (AAAP)

   The Agent Authentication and Authorization Protocol (AAAP) is used
   between the Agent Gateway (AGW) and the Agent Management Center (AMC)
   to establish trust for agents attempting to join the system.

   AAAP is responsible for:

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 12]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Verifying the identity of an agent (via AGW as a proxy)

   *  Determining the authorization scope and permitted operations

   *  Issuing authorization credentials (e.g., tokens or certificates)

   Operational flow:

   1.  The AGW receives a registration request from an agent.

   2.  The AGW initiates an AAAP request to the AMC, carrying agent
       identity information.

   3.  The AMC performs authentication and authorization checks.

   4.  Upon success, the AMC returns an authorization credential and
       policy constraints.

   5.  The AGW enforces the received authorization decision.

   6.  The AMC acts as the trust anchor of the system, while the AGW
       acts as the policy enforcement point (PEP).

   Note that although AAAP establishes the initial trust relationship
   between an agent and the system (i.e., onboarding trust), subsequent
   interactions between agents may require additional, context-specific
   authentication and authorization.  Such interaction-level mechanisms
   are out of scope for AAAP and MAY leverage existing frameworks (e.g.,
   OAuth-based token exchange or similar delegation mechanisms) to
   support secure, fine-grained access control between agents.

   An agent MUST successfully complete AAAP before participating in
   invocation or collaboration.  However, successful onboarding via AAAP
   does not eliminate the need for authentication and authorization
   during runtime interactions between agents.

5.3.  Capability Directory Synchronization Protocol (CDSP)

   The Capability Directory Synchronization Protocol (CDSP) is used
   between Agent Gateways (AGWs) to synchronize capability directory
   information and construct a distributed view of agent capabilities
   across the network.  More detailed treatment of the gateway
   capability directory in [draft-zhang-dmsc-gateway-directory-sync]
   [draft-zhang-dmsc-gateway-directory-sync].

   CDSP is designed to:

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 13]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   *  Enable distributed visibility of agent capabilities across
      multiple AGWs

   *  Avoid centralized bottlenecks in capability management

   *  Preserve privacy and scalability through abstraction

   *  Support incremental and policy-controlled synchronization.

   Each AGW maintains a local capability directory, which is populated
   through agent registration and updated over time.  CDSP enables AGWs
   to exchange selected portions of these directories so that capability
   information is not confined to a single gateway but becomes visible,
   in an abstracted form, across multiple administrative or network
   domains.  To ensure scalability and protect sensitive information,
   CDSP does not transfer complete capability descriptions.  Instead,
   AGWs exchange capability directory entries in a summarized form.
   Each entry represents a capability exposed by an agent and is
   associated its corresponding capability vector.  The exchanged
   information MAY include semantic descriptions or structured
   representations of the capability, along with limited metadata such
   as version or category.  Detailed implementation-specific information
   and sensitive attributes MUST NOT be propagated through CDSP.

   CDSP supports different synchronization scopes depending on
   deployment requirements.  During initial establishment between peer
   AGWs or recovery scenarios, a gateway MAY perform a full
   synchronization of its capability directory.  In steady-state
   operation, synchronization is typically incremental or selective,
   where only updated or policy-permitted entries are exchanged.  The
   selection of entries MAY be governed by administrative policies,
   trust relationships, or capability classification.  Synchronization
   can be triggered in multiple ways.  An AGW MAY initiate periodic
   synchronization to maintain freshness of the distributed view.  It
   MAY also perform event-driven updates when local changes occur, such
   as agent registration, deregistration, or capability updates.
   Additionally, synchronization MAY be requested on demand by peer
   gateways when needed for coordination purposes.

   Given the distributed nature of CDSP, strict consistency across all
   AGWs is not required.  Instead, the system operates under an eventual
   consistency model, where capability directory views converge over
   time.  To support this, capability entries SHOULD include versioning
   or timestamp information, allowing AGWs to reconcile updates and
   prefer the most recent information.  Conflict resolution policies MAY
   be applied when inconsistencies arise.  All CDSP exchanges MUST be
   authenticated and integrity-protected.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 14]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

5.4.  Gateway-side Mediation Requirements

   The protocols defined in this document specify how Agents, Agent
   Gateways (AGWs), and gateway support functions exchange registration
   information, capability information, authentication information, and
   collaboration requests.  These protocols provide the information
   required for gateway-assisted collaboration.  However, they do not
   specify how an Agent Gateway transforms the exchanged information
   into an operational collaboration decision.

   In practical deployments, an Agent Gateway performs more than
   protocol forwarding, capability directory management, or message
   relay.  When an Agent submits a collaboration request through the
   Agent-Gateway Interaction Protocol (AGIP), the gateway is responsible
   for determining whether the request can be satisfied, which Agent or
   service is appropriate, and under what operational constraints the
   collaboration should proceed.  Although the decision logic may vary
   across deployments, the need for gateway-side decision making is
   common across heterogeneous agent ecosystems.

   To produce an appropriate collaboration decision, the gateway may
   need to interpret the request objective, correlate it with registered
   capability descriptions, evaluate candidate capabilities, apply
   authorization and operational policies, consider trust relationships,
   and assess execution context before selecting an appropriate
   collaboration target.  These decision inputs are derived from the
   protocol interactions defined in MACP but require additional gateway-
   side processing before they can be used for collaboration decisions.

   The decision process may also incorporate information obtained from
   multiple gateway support functions.  Capability directories
   synchronized through CDSP provide candidate capability views.
   Authentication and authorization services defined by AAAP provide
   identity and permission information.  Registration information
   maintained through AGIP provides capability metadata and lifecycle
   state.  Operational policies, administrative constraints, network
   conditions, and deployment-specific knowledge may further influence
   the gateway's decision.  These information sources collectively
   contribute to gateway-side decision making but do not themselves
   define how decisions are produced.

   After a collaboration decision has been made, the gateway may further
   determine how the request should be handed over to the selected
   interaction mechanism.  Depending on deployment requirements, the
   gateway may prepare additional information describing the selected
   capability, applicable policy constraints, interaction context,
   routing information, trust context, or failure reasons.  The
   resulting decision and handoff context enable different interaction

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 15]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   mechanisms, including A2A, MCP, IAIP, or other protocols, to execute
   collaboration while preserving consistent capability, policy, and
   trust semantics.

   The gateway-side decision process described above complements the
   protocol interactions defined by MACP.  While MACP specifies how
   collaboration information is exchanged among Agents and Agent
   Gateways, it does not define how gateways interpret requests or
   derive collaboration decisions from the exchanged information.

   This motivates the need for a gateway mediation function.  A
   companion draft, Gateway Mediation Layer
   [draft-zhang-dmsc-ioa-semantic-interaction], analyzes the mediation
   inputs, decision process, outputs, and interoperability
   considerations required for gateway-assisted collaboration across
   heterogeneous agent environments.

5.5.  Agent to External Resource Service Protocol

   Interaction between agents and external resources (ERS) is supported
   via existing protocols such as:

   *  Model Context Protocol (MCP)

   *  Agent-to-Tool (A2T)

   MACP does not redefine these protocols but enables their integration
   within the architecture.

6.  Capability Model

   Capabilities are the core abstraction in MACP.

   *  Each capability is associated with a Capability vector.

   *  Capabilities are registered, indexed, and discovered via AGWs.

   *  Capability information is abstracted during synchronization to
      protect sensitive details.

   *  Capability descriptions MAY be semantic or structured depending on
      use case.

   This abstraction enables flexible and scalable service composition.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 16]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

7.  IANA Considerations

   TBD

8.  Acknowledgement

   TBD

9.  Normative References

   [draft-sz-dmsc-iaip]
              S, S., "Intent-based Agent Interconnection Protocol at
              Agent Gateway.  draft-sz-dmsc-iaip.
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-sz-dmsc-iaip/>", 9
              February 2026.

   [draft-verma-dmsc-nlip-notes]
              V, D., "Use of Natural Language for Agent Communication.
              draft-verma-dmsc-nlip-notes.
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-verma-dmsc-nlip-
              notes/>", 11 February 2026.

   [draft-yang-dmsc-ioa-task-protocol]
              Y, C., "Internet of Agents Task Protocol (IoA Task
              Protocol) for Heterogeneous Agent Collaboration.  draft-
              yang-dmsc-ioa-task-protocol.
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-yang-dmsc-ioa-
              task-protocol/>", 14 January 2026.

   [draft-zhang-dmsc-gateway-directory-sync]
              Z, L., "Gateway Capability Directory and Synchronization
              for Internet of Agents. draft-zhang-dmsc-gateway-
              directory-sync.  <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-
              zhang-dmsc-gateway-directory-sync/>", 28 April 2026.

   [draft-zhang-dmsc-ioa-semantic-interaction]
              Z, L., "Ontology-based Semantic Interaction for Internet
              of Agents.  draft-zhang-dmsc-ioa-semantic-interaction.
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-zhang-dmsc-ioa-
              semantic-interaction/>", 4 February 2026.

   [GW-REQ]   L, B., "Gateway Requirements for Dynamic Multi-agents
              Secured Collaboration. draft-liu-dmsc-gw-requirements.
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-liu-dmsc-gw-
              requirements/>", 16 January 2026.

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 17]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   [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/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8259]  Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", STD 90, RFC 8259,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8259, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8259>.

Authors' Addresses

   Xueting Li
   China Telecom
   Beiqijia Town, Changping District
   Beijing
   Beijing, 102209
   China
   Email: lixt2@foxmail.com

   Bing Liu
   Huawei Technologies
   No. 156 Beiqing Road
   Beijing
   China
   Email: leo.liubing@huawei.com

   Jun Liu
   Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
   10 Xitucheng Road, Haidian District
   Beijing
   100876
   China
   Email: liujun@bupt.edu.cn

   Chenguang Du
   Tsinghua
   Beijing
   100094
   China
   Email: du_chenguang@outlook.com

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 18]
Internet-Draft                    MACP                         July 2026

   Lianhua Zhang
   AsiaInfo Technologies (China) Inc
   Beijing
   100000
   China
   Email: zhanglh2@asiainfo.com

Li, et al.               Expires 21 January 2027               [Page 19]