TVR                                                      L. M. Contreras
Internet-Draft                                                Telefonica
Intended status: Informational                           20 October 2025
Expires: 23 April 2026


Using off-path mechanisms for exposing Time-Variant Routing information
                  draft-ietf-tvr-off-path-exposure-01

Abstract

   Time-Variant Routing (TVR) involves predictable, scheduled changes to
   network topology elements such as nodes, links, and adjacencies that
   impact routing behavior over time.  All those changes can alter the
   connectivity in the network in a predictable manner, which is known
   as Time-Variant Routing (TVR).  This document proposes mechanisms for
   exposing TVR information to both internal and external applications,
   focusing on off-path solutions that decouple the advertisement of
   scheduled changes from the routing control plane signaling.

Status of This Memo

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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 23 April 2026.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.










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   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
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  On-path vs Off-path Mechanisms for TVR  . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  On-path Mechanisms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Off-path Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.3.  Hybrid Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Ways of retrieving scheduled topological changes  . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Interaction with a network controller . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Interaction with routing protocols augmented to support TVR
           advertisements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.3.  Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Mechanisms for Exposing TVR Information . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  ALTO Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  Other Off-path Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  Security and operational considerations . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix A.  Assessment of ALTO as off-path solution against TVR
           requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Appendix B.  Assessment of the archietcture proposed in
           I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Appendix C.  Implementation status  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Appendix D.  Identified gaps on TVR specifications  . . . . . . .  15
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16

1.  Introduction

   Time-Variant Routing (TVR) refers to operational scenarios where
   network topology, including nodes, links, and adjacency attributes,
   changes in a predictable, scheduled manner.

   There can be operational situations (e.g., maintenance windows, load
   balancing, energy-saving policies, or network upgrades) where changes
   in the network, such as modifications in either nodes, links or
   adjacencies, can introduce variations on the routing of that network.
   Use cases representative of such operational situations are



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   documented in [RFC9657].  Those predictable changes can be scheduled
   either from a higher-level system (e.g., OSS) or from a Network
   Controller.  Figure 1 sketches a potential architecture facilitating
   the exposure of changes introduced by TVR operation.  There can be
   multiple variants of such architecture.

        Network             (programming       (impact
        Operator ---------+ of scheduled      estimation
                          | TVR changes)     of scheduled
                          V                  TVR changes)
                   +-------------+       +--------------+
                   |   Network   |       |   Network    |
                   |  Controller |<----->| Digital Twin |
                   +-------------+       +--------------+
                       A     |
   (feeding impacts    |     |        (activation
   of scheduled +------+     +------+ of scheduled
   TVR changes) |                   | TVR changes)
                |                   |
                V                   V
        +-------------+          ,------._
        |Off-path Info|       ,-'         `-.
        |  Component  |      /               \
        +-------------+     (     Network     )
                A            \               /
                |             `-.         ,-'
     (exposure  |                `+------'
   of scheduled |                     ^
   TVR changes) |                     :
                |  (awareness         :
                | of scheduled        v
                | TVR changes) +-------------+
                +------------->| Application |
                               +-------------+

   Figure 1.  Potential architecture using a dedicated Off-path
   Information Component for advertising TVR scheduled changes

   Since the expected changes can be predicted beforehand, then it is
   possible to anticipate the impacts of that changes in the routing of
   the network. , for instance by means of algorithms embedded in the
   Network Controller allowing to recalculate the resulting routing
   metrics, or through experimental observations e.g. in network digital
   twins [I-D.irtf-nmrg-network-digital-twin-arch].

   Being feasible then to automatize the changes and to pre-calculate
   the impacts that those changes can introduce into the routing of the
   network, it is possible to expose in advance such changes in a way



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   that applications (both internal and external) can become aware of
   those routing variations along time, allowing proactive service
   management and optimization ahead of the activation of those changes.

   This document builds on TVR-related foundational work [RFC9657],
   [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements] and [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang], but
   focussing on off-path exposure of TVR information, describing
   architectural considerations and mechanisms to present scheduled
   network changes to applications.

2.  On-path vs Off-path Mechanisms for TVR

   At the time of advertising and consuming TVR scheduled changes, two
   different mechanisms can be considered, namely on-path and off-path
   mechanisms.

2.1.  On-path Mechanisms

   On-path mechanisms disseminate scheduled topological changes directly
   through routing protocols such as OSPF, IS-IS, or BGP, augmented to
   carry time-scheduled advertisements [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang].
   This approach embeds TVR information on the routing data plane.

   One of the primary benefits of disseminating scheduled topological
   changes by routing protocols is the potential for timely, distributed
   updates.  This tight coupling enables rapid propagation of scheduled
   changes across the network.

   However, this approach also introduces several challenges:

   *  Cascading Updates: a single scheduled change (e.g., link metric
      adjustment or path re-optimization) may trigger a series of
      subsequent updates across the network.  These cascading effects
      can lead to excess of processing in the network elements if not
      properly managed.

   *  Coordination and Conflict Resolution: in a distributed
      environment, multiple nodes may attempt to adjust routes or
      metrics concurrently.  This increases the complexity of
      coordination and requires robust mechanisms to detect and resolve
      conflicts without introducing inconsistencies or loops.

2.2.  Off-path Mechanisms

   Off-path mechanisms expose TVR information via centralized or
   logically separate systems outside the routing protocol control
   plane, using specific protocols, data models or APIs for that
   purpose.



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   It can be advantageous for different reasons:

   *  Simplified conflict detection and resolution due to centralized
      control.

   *  Controlled and potentially filtered exposure of information to
      external or internal applications.

   *  Reduced impact on routing protocols and network stability.

   Off-path solutions can ingest data from multiple sources, including
   controllers and augmented routing protocols, and provide aggregated,
   application-friendly views of scheduled network changes.

2.3.  Hybrid Approaches

   Hybrid approaches may combine on-path and off-path methods, e.g.,
   using routing protocol advertisements for internal synchronization
   and off-path systems for external exposure.

3.  Ways of retrieving scheduled topological changes

   According to the two strategies commented in the Introduction, it can
   be considered two different ways in which off-path solutions retrieve
   the information about scheduled topological changes.  In one case,
   the changes can be notified directly by a network controller, while
   in the second case the changes are collected from advertisements in
   augmented routing protocols.

   In both cases, the data model for representing the scheduled changes
   can be the same, describing the changing topological events in a
   similar way.  A data model for representing TVR information is
   proposed in [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang], which can be used in any of
   the options describe next.

3.1.  Interaction with a network controller

   The architecture in Figure 1 assumes the intervention of a Network
   Controller in order to schedule and activate the changes in the
   network in a predictable manner.  The network controller can pass the
   information about the planned changes to a separate component
   dedicated to advertise the TVR changes off-path, or it could even
   incorporate such capability as part of the functional capabilities of
   the controller.  Thus, depending on the capabilities of the
   controller, it may either provide raw scheduled changes or
   precomputed future topologies reflecting those changes.





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3.2.  Interaction with routing protocols augmented to support TVR
      advertisements

   As an alternative solution, it could be the case that existing
   routing protocols become augmented in order to natively support the
   advertisement of network changes along the time (for instance, an
   example of schedules for OSPF costs is provided in
   [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang]).  If that is the case, the off-path
   solution can participate of the signaling of the network routing
   information by listening to IGPs and/or peering with BGP speakers, as
   described in [RFC7971].  This enables the off-path system to build
   time-aware topological views based on routing advertisements.

3.3.  Applicability

   Uniform representation of scheduled changes facilitates ingestion and
   processing.  The YANG data model draft [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang]
   provides a framework to represent schedules for nodes, interfaces,
   and attributes, including timing, periodicity, and availability.

   For instance, an engineer in the Network Operation Center (NOC)
   represented in Figure 1 can program some changes in the network in a
   planned, anticipated way so that the impacts of such changes can be
   estimated in advance.  For instance, the engineer can enter the
   following data, according to [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang]:


























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   module: ietf-tvr-node
     +--rw node-schedule
        +--rw node-id? "192.168.10.17"
        ...
        +--rw interface-schedule
           +--rw interfaces*
              +--rw name "GigabitEthernet0"
              ...
              +--rw attribute-schedule
                 +--rw schedules*
                    +--rw schedule-id "0123456789"
                    +--rw (schedule-type)?
                       +--:(period)
                         ...
                          +--rw period-start "2024-07-08T10:30:00"
                          +--rw time-zone-identifier? "Africa/Dakar"
                          +--rw (period-type)?
                             ...
                             +--:(duration)
                                +--rw duration? "3600"
                                     ...
                                     +--rw attr-value
                        +--rw available? "false"

   This order represents the action of tearing down interface
   GigabitEthernet0 of the node with loopback IP address 192.168.10.17
   for one hour, at 10:30 local time of Dakar, due for instance to a
   maintenance action in the network.  With this information, the
   network systems can analyse the impact of such action (the way in
   which that impacts are evaluated are out of scope of this document).
   According to the estimated impacts, the engineer can decide to
   continue or to replan the action.

4.  Mechanisms for Exposing TVR Information

   Exposing TVR information requires mechanisms able to represent time-
   varying network states, including topology and associated metrics,
   with appropriate granularity and temporal precision.

4.1.  ALTO Protocol

   The Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) protocol [RFC7285]
   has been designed to expose network topological and cost information
   to applications.  In consequence, ALTO can an act as an off-path
   mechanism for the purpose of exposing the impacts due to changes in
   the routing of a network.  In that case, the Off-path Information
   Component in Figure 1 is realized by means of an ALTO Server.




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   ALTO [RFC7285] provides topological-related information in the form
   of both network and cost maps.  The network map basically summarizes
   the IP address ranges aggregated in each Provider-defined Identifier
   (PID).  Such IP addresses define either customers or service
   functions attached to each network node.  The cost map details the
   topological relationship among PIDs in terms of a certain metric.
   The basic metric provided is the routing cost among PIDs, but other
   metrics can be also provided such as performance-related metrics
   [RFC9439].

   For the purpose of exposing future changes on the reachability
   between PIDs in the network, ALTO defines in [RFC8896] a calendared
   cost map (named ALTO cost calendar) which allows to signal future
   changes on the cost metric.  Thus, for a metric related to routing,
   the cost calendar can expose scheduled modifications in the
   connectivity between PIDs in a natural manner.

   The ALTO cost calendar presents the information (i.e., metrics
   between PIDs) in the form of JSON arrays, where each listed value
   corresponds to a certain time interval.  The ALTO cost calendar also
   includes attributes to describe the time scope of the calendar.  The
   calendar provided by ALTO has the following attributes defined in
   [RFC8896]:

   *  "Calendar-start-time", which indicates the date at which the first
      value of the calendar applies.

   *  "Time-interval-size", that defines the duration of an ALTO
      Calendar time interval in a unit of seconds.

   *  "Number-of-intervals", that indicates the number of values of the
      cost calendar array.

   *  "Repeated", which is an optional attribute that indicates how many
      iterations of the calendar value array have the same values.

   In order to know about cheduled changes, two possibles strategies can
   be in placed.

   One strategy is to relay on centralized network control elements
   populating scheduled changes to the ALTO server sufficiently in
   advance as to calculate and expose the intended changes before them
   are effectively activated in the network by the controllers.  That
   is, the introduction of changes is governed by the network controller
   configuring dynamically the network elements (i.e., nodes, links)
   following a planned set of actions.  Such planned actions are the
   ones fed to ALTO so that ALTO can create and expose updated
   topological views for the scheduled modifications.



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   A second strategy is to disseminate the scheduled changes by means of
   the routing protocols in the network, so that the routing protocols
   distribute the planned topological changes at link or node level.  It
   is worthy to note that a change distributed in this manner just by a
   single node can motivate a cascade of some other scheduled changes in
   different other nodes, thus representing potential stability issues
   that should be addressed with care.  Anyway, in certain environments
   it can be suitable for signaling scheduled changes so that can serve
   as basis for deriving from it the topological views to be exposed by
   ALTO.

4.2.  Other Off-path Mechanisms

   While ALTO is a mature example, other off-path mechanisms may include
   custom APIs exposing scheduled network data.  Such APIs could be
   supported by;

   *  Network Controllers, in case such controller is able to compute
      and maintain the changes.

   *  Managing device, in charge of generating and maintaining the
      schedules, or Schedule Database as defined in
      [I-D.zdm-tvr-applicability].

5.  Security and operational considerations

   Same security and operational considerations as described in
   [RFC8896] apply also in this document.

   Apart from that, [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements] describes relevant
   security considerations for TVR solutions.

   The off-path approach prevents some of those security issues, as the
   ones requiring direct access to the source of information in risk,
   like the time synchronization signals.  However, some other threats
   are of applicability, like the ones referring to the access to the
   information, activity identification and privacy.

   In order to mitigate such security risks, the off-path solution
   should implement the necessary mechanisms for authentication, secure
   data transfer and privacy preservation.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References






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   [RFC7285]  Alimi, R., Ed., Penno, R., Ed., Yang, Y., Ed., Kiesel, S.,
              Previdi, S., Roome, W., Shalunov, S., and R. Woundy,
              "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol",
              RFC 7285, DOI 10.17487/RFC7285, September 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7285>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements]
              King, D., Contreras, L. M., Sipos, B., and L. Zhang, "TVR
              (Time-Variant Routing) Requirements", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-tvr-requirements-07, 10 October
              2025, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-
              tvr-requirements-07>.

   [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang]
              Qu, Y., Lindem, A., Kinzie, E., Fedyk, D., and M.
              Blanchet, "YANG Data Model for Scheduled Attributes", Work
              in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-tvr-schedule-yang-
              05, 4 July 2025, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
              draft-ietf-tvr-schedule-yang-05>.

   [I-D.irtf-nmrg-network-digital-twin-arch]
              Zhou, C., Yang, H., Duan, X., Lopez, D., Pastor, A., Wu,
              Q., Boucadair, M., and C. Jacquenet, "Network Digital
              Twin: Concepts and Reference Architecture", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-irtf-nmrg-network-digital-
              twin-arch-11, 6 July 2025,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-irtf-nmrg-
              network-digital-twin-arch-11>.

   [I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability]
              Zhang, L., Ma, Q., Wu, Q., and M. Boucadair,
              "Applicability of YANG Data Models for Scheduling of
              Network Resources", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-wqb-tvr-applicability-00, 10 September 2024,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-wqb-tvr-
              applicability-00>.

   [I-D.zdm-tvr-applicability]
              Zhang, L., Dong, J., and M. Boucadair, "Applicability of
              TVR YANG Data Models", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-zdm-tvr-applicability-04, 16 October 2025,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-zdm-tvr-
              applicability-04>.

   [OPTIMAIX_repo]
              "OPTIMAIX repository (https://github.com/OPTIMAIX)", n.d..



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   [OPTIMAIX_video]
              "Network Operation Demonstration
              (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_sduilyier-cA3-Xpir-
              A)", December 2024.

   [RFC7971]  Stiemerling, M., Kiesel, S., Scharf, M., Seidel, H., and
              S. Previdi, "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO)
              Deployment Considerations", RFC 7971,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7971, October 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7971>.

   [RFC8896]  Randriamasy, S., Yang, R., Wu, Q., Deng, L., and N.
              Schwan, "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO)
              Cost Calendar", RFC 8896, DOI 10.17487/RFC8896, November
              2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8896>.

   [RFC9439]  Wu, Q., Yang, Y., Lee, Y., Dhody, D., Randriamasy, S., and
              L. Contreras, "Application-Layer Traffic Optimization
              (ALTO) Performance Cost Metrics", RFC 9439,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9439, August 2023,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9439>.

   [RFC9657]  Birrane, III, E., Kuhn, N., Qu, Y., Taylor, R., and L.
              Zhang, "Time-Variant Routing (TVR) Use Cases", RFC 9657,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9657, October 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9657>.

Appendix A.  Assessment of ALTO as off-path solution against TVR
             requirements

   (Note: to be updated with [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements] version -05 or
   higher)

   The Time Variant Routing requirements are being documented in
   [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements].  Despite that is yet a work in progress,
   it is convenient to start an assessment of the off-path solution
   provided by ALTO against the requirements expected to be supported by
   any TVR-capable solution.

   The following Table summarizes the assessment exercise.  The
   requirements are listed including the section (in brackets) of
   [I-D.ietf-tvr-requirements] where they are defined.









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       +===============================+===============================+
       | Requirement                   | Compliance                    |
       +===============================+===============================+
       | (2.1) Resource scheduling     | Feasible to reflect scheduled |
       |                               | changes in a topology by means|
       |                               | of a sequence of network and  |
       |                               | cost maps along the time      |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.1) Scope of Time-        | Combines both time-invariant  |
       | Variability                   | and time-variant entities.    |
       |                               | Allows representation of      |
       |                               | global and individual changes |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.2) Time Horizon          | Specified by means of         |
       |                               | "time-interval-size" attribute|
       |                               | expressed in seconds          |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.3) Time Precision        | Determined in units of seconds|
       | and Accuracy                  |                               |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.4) Validity in a Schedule| Permits to accommodate        |
       |                               | multiple subsequent schedules |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.5) Periodicity in a      | Repetitive states specified   |
       | Schedule                      | by  means of the attribute    |
       |                               | "repeated"                    |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.6) Continuity in a       | Governed by the               |
       | Schedule                      | "time-interval-size" attribute|
       |                               | expressed in seconds          |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.7) Time-Overlap and      | Not supported. It would       |
       | Priority                      | require extension of RFC8896  |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.8) Property Value        | Zero-order hold mode. Other   |
       | Interpolation                 | modes could be potentially    |
       |                               | supported                     |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.2.9) Changes to Model      | Support of fine-grained       |
       | State                         | changes                       |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.3) Topologies              | Schedules applicable to nodes |
       |                               | and links. Support of         |
       |                               | potential future node or link |
       |                               | connectivity                  |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.4) Routing                 | Allows computation of         |
       |                               | TVR-enabled paths. Reported   |



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       |                               | constrains can be considered  |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
       | (2.5) Integrity               | Security considerations in    |
       | Considerations                | both [RFC7285] and [RFC7971]  |
       |                               | apply in this case            |
       +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

Appendix B.  Assessment of the archietcture proposed in
             [I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability]

   (Note: to reconsider this section since [I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability]
   already expired, and new version of the document in
   [I-D.zdm-tvr-applicability] does not consider the same architecture)

   [I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability] introduces an architecture for the
   control scheduling of network resources, with two functional
   components, namely the Scheduled Service Requester, in charge of
   soliciting a resource schedule change, and the Scheduled Service
   Responder, in charge of handling the scheduling orders.  Such
   architecture assumes the existence of funcitonal interfaces between
   both comoponents.

   Comparing such architecture with the one depicted in Figure 1, the
   following mapping is possible, as represented in Figure 2.



























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          Network Operator         (programming       (impact
         [ScheduleRequester]-----+ of scheduled      estimation
                                 | TVR changes)     of scheduled
        .......................  V  ............... TVR changes) ...
        : [Schedule       +-------------+       +--------------+   :
        :  Service        |   Network   |       |   Network    |   :
        : Responder]      |  Controller |<----->| Digital Twin |   :
        :                 +-------------+       +--------------+   :
        :                     A ... | .............................:
        : (feeding impacts    | :   |        (activation
        : of scheduled +------+ :   +------+ of scheduled
        : TVR changes) |        :          | TVR changes)
        :              |        :          |
        :              V        :          V
        :      +-------------+  :       ,------._
        :      |Off-path Info|  :    ,-'         `-.
        :      |  Component  |  :   /               \
        :      +-------------+  :  (     Network     )
        :              A        :   \               /
        :............. | .......:    `-.         ,-'
            (exposure  |                `+------'
          of scheduled |                     ^
          TVR changes) |                     :
                       |  (awareness         :
                       | of scheduled        v
                       | TVR changes) +-------------+
                       +------------->| Application |
                                      +-------------+
                                    [Schedule Consumer]

   Figure 2.  Schedule Requester, Responder and Consumer in the off-path
   solution

   From this assessment, it can be concluded that the roles of Schedule
   Requester and Schedule Responder have its correspondance in the off-
   path solution here described.  However, the intended architecture in
   [I-D.wqb-tvr-applicability] lacks of the role of Schedule Consumer
   here described (or at least assumes that the Requester will be also
   the Consumer, which cannot be necessarily the case).

Appendix C.  Implementation status

   The scenario proposed in Figure 1 has been implemented for the
   validation of the off-path TVR approach using ALTO as off-path
   mechanism.  The use case to exercise the off-path solution considers
   operational tasks in the network such as hardware and/or software
   maintenance and upgrades.  Such actions imply temporal topological
   changes that can be anticipated since they are planned interventions



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   in teh network.  By leveraging on TVR, applications consuming the
   network can be timnely informed of those changes in advanced,
   permitting re-configurations and re-optimizations on the application
   side minimizing negative impacts due to the foreseen changes.

   A video demonstrating the scenario can be found in [OPTIMAIX_video].
   The modules implementing the functionality have been released as open
   source and are available at [OPTIMAIX_repo].

   *  Network Operation Center (NOC), developed by E-lighthouse.  This
      component is represented as the "Network Operator" in Figure 1.
      It is in charge of requesting scheduled changes in the network.

   *  Net2plan_NDT, developed by E-lighthouse.  This component is part
      of the "Network Digital Twin" module in Figure 1.  It is in charge
      of performing advanced network simulations and reporting Key
      Performance Indicator (KPI) evaluation consequence of the
      topological changes.

   *  Change_Scheduler, devoloped by Telefónica.  This component is part
      of the "Network Controller" module in Figure 1.  It is in charge
      of receiving the topological changes requests, including the
      intended execution time for the scheduled changes.  It passess /
      receive topological information and KPIs to / from Net2plan_NDT.
      It is also in charge of triggering the execution of the network
      chages at due time.

   *  ALTO_CostCalendar, developed by Telefónica.  This component is
      part of the "ALTO Server" module in Figure 1.  It is in charge of
      processing the predicted KPIs on the topology with the proposed
      changes, and exposing those changes to external applications as an
      example of off-path mechanism.

Appendix D.  Identified gaps on TVR specifications

   The work carried out for implementing the architecture in Figure 1
   reveals some gaps.

   *  [I-D.ietf-tvr-schedule-yang] only provides granularity for
      schedule changes at node and link level.  However, operational
      scenarios as the one described here can require further
      granularity, as cards.  A current workaround could be to count all
      the interfaces of the same card, which can be onerous in some
      cases (e.g., cards of 48 GigaEthernet ports).

   *  Advertisements of scheduled changes in distributed manner (that
      is, on-path, directly using augmented routing protocols) can raise
      conflicts.  While conflicts are easy to be handled by centralized



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      (i.e., off-path) solutions, it can require the definition of
      arbitration mechanisms for the case of distributed (i.e., on-path)
      ones.

   *  When distributed advertisements are in place, there are no means
      defined for reverting planned changes other than reconfiguring and
      launch new advertisements.  Centralized approach simplifies the
      evaluation of impacts, and then, facilitates the indetification of
      potential problems that a planned change can cause.  Distributed
      means of distributed scheduled changes can require ways of easily
      reverting proposed changes.

   *  When using distributed advertisement, the exposure of planned
      changes to external parties or applications can be a security
      problem, because the potential accessibility to internal
      information beyond the topological changes.  Secure ways of
      accessing to that information can be needed to allow such use
      cases.

Acknowledgements

   This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of
   Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the European Union -
   NextGenerationEU under projects OPTIMAIX_OaaS (Ref. TSI-
   063000-2021-34) and OPTIMAIX_NDT (Ref. TSI-063000-2021-35).

Author's Address

   Luis M. Contreras
   Telefonica
   Ronda de la Comunicacion, s/n
   28050 Madrid
   Spain
   Email: luismiguel.contrerasmurillo@telefonica.com
   URI:   http://lmcontreras.com
















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