Early Review of draft-ietf-idr-nhc-00
review-ietf-idr-nhc-00-opsdir-early-fioccola-2026-02-16-00

Hi,

I have been selected as the Operational Directorate (opsdir) reviewer for this
Internet-Draft.

The Operational Directorate reviews all operational and management-related
Internet-Drafts to ensure alignment with operational best practices and that
adequate operational considerations are covered.

A complete set of _"Guidelines for Considering Operations and Management in
IETF Specifications"_ can be found at
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-opsarea-rfc5706bis/.

While these comments are primarily for the Operations and Management Area
Directors (Ops ADs), the authors should consider them alongside other feedback
received.

- Document: draft-ietf-idr-nhc-00

- Reviewer: Giuseppe Fioccola

- Review Date: 2026-02-16

- Intended Status: Standards Track

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## Summary

- Has Nits: This document is on the right track but has nits that should be
considered.

## General Operational Comments Alignment with RFC 5706bis

> This document defines a BGP transitive attribute called Next Hop Dependent
Characteristics Attribute (NHC). When a route is propagated beyond the
immediate peer, NHC allows to advertise further certain characteristics about
forwarding plane features.

> The Operational Considerations section is missing and could be included.
However, it is noted that there are already considerations regarding NHC
deployment and operation (sections 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5) and regarding BGPID TLV
operation (sections 3.2, 3.3, 3.4).

> Section 2.5 is titled "Network Operation Considerations" but I think that the
title does not fully match the content. I would change it or extend the section
to cover more deployment and operational aspects, as suggested in the next
bullet.

> An Operational Considerations section may be included before the IANA
Considerations section. The new section could put together or just refer to the
relevant sections in order to cover deployment and operational aspects, for
example sections 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 provide deployment information, like the NHC
propagation and regeneration that allow to introduce it into a network
incrementally.

## Major Issues

> No major issues found.

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## Minor Issues

> From an OPSDIR point of view, there are several deployment considerations in
the text. However, I would suggest to revise Section 2.5 or add a dedicated
Operational Considerations section.

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## Nits

> I suggest to change the title of Section 2.5 from "Network Operation
Considerations" to "Anycast Next Hops".

> For the IANA Considerations section, I think that this document should only
request the values defined in it. Therefore, Table 2 should not include values
defined in other drafts.

> In the Security Considerations, it could also be mentioned the application to
limited domains (RFC 8799).

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