Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (alto) Internet Drafts

      
 YANG Data Models for the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol
 
 draft-ietf-alto-oam-yang-17.txt
 Date: 19/01/2024
 Authors: Jingxuan Zhang, Dhruv Dhody, Kai Gao, Roland Schott, Qiufang Ma
 Working Group: Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (alto)
 This document defines a YANG data model for Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) & Management of the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol. The operator of an ALTO server can use this data model to (1) set up the ALTO server, (2) configure server discovery, (3) create, update and remove ALTO information resources, (4) manage the access control of each ALTO information resource, and (5) collect statistical data from the ALTO server. The application provider can also use this data model to configure ALTO clients to communicate with known ALTO servers.
 The ALTO Transport Information Publication Service
 
 draft-ietf-alto-new-transport-22.txt
 Date: 03/01/2024
 Authors: Kai Gao, Roland Schott, Y. Yang, Lauren Delwiche, Lachlan Keller
 Working Group: Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (alto)
 The ALTO Protocol (RFC 7285) leverages HTTP/1.1 and is designed for the simple, sequential request-reply use case, in which an ALTO client requests a sequence of information resources and the server responds with the complete content of each resource one at a time. ALTO incremental updates using Server-Sent Events (SSE) (RFC 8895) defines a multiplexing protocol on top of HTTP/1.x, so that an ALTO server can incrementally push resource updates to clients whenever monitored network information resources change, allowing the clients to monitor multiple resources at the same time. However, HTTP/2 and later versions already support concurrent, non-blocking transport of multiple streams in the same HTTP connection. To take advantage of newer HTTP features, this document introduces the ALTO Transport Information Publication Service (TIPS). TIPS uses an incremental RESTful design to give an ALTO client the new capability to explicitly, concurrently (non-blocking) request (pull) specific incremental updates using native HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, while still functioning for HTTP/1.1.

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Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (alto)

WG Name Application-Layer Traffic Optimization
Acronym alto
Area Operations and Management Area (ops)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-alto-05 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources ALTO Implementation and Deployments
ALTO in APNIC Blog
GitHub Organization
Socializing ALTO; The Internet Protocol Journal
Wiki
Zulip Stream
Personnel Chairs Mohamed Boucadair, Qin Wu
Area Director Martin Duke
Mailing list Address alto@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/alto
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/alto/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/alto

Charter for Working Group

The ALTO working group was established in 2008 to devise a request/response protocol to allow a host to choose optimal paths to resources from a server with more knowledge of the network. The working group developed an HTTP-based protocol, and reported proof-of-concepts of ALTO based solutions supporting applications such as content distribution networks (CDN).

To support current and future deployments of ALTO, the working group is now chartered for the following activities:

o Develop operational support tools for ALTO. Based on experience from deployments, the advice in RFC 7971, and the latest opinions and techniques from the Operations and Management Area, the working group will develop tools to configure, operate, and manage the ALTO protocol and networks that use ALTO. This may include YANG models and Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) mechanisms, in consultation with the OPS area and the IPPM WG. The working group may also update RFC 7971 in the light of new experience and protocol features that were added to ALTO after that RFC was published.

o Support for modern transport protocols. ALTO only uses the capabilities of HTTP version 1. While ALTO can operate successfully over any version of HTTP, it would benefit from leveraging HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 capabilities such as push. The WG will produce an ALTO extension that leverages these capabilities if they can be shown to improve performance.

o The WG will place special emphasis on the normal group activities of collecting deployment experience, exploring use cases, and protocol maintenance. The working group will not develop protocol extensions for new use cases until it has been re-chartered specifically for that purpose. A report on wide-scale deployment of ALTO and documented demand for new use cases will be critical to the decision to recharter or close the Working Group.

At the conclusion of the OAM and HTTP2/3 deliverables, plus completion of any adopted drafts emerging from urgent protocol maintenance needs, the working group will close or recharter.

Furthermore, the Area Director and chairs will assess the state of the deliverables at the end of 2022. If the Area Director judges that delivery of these documents is not imminent, and that documentation of wide deployment is missing, the AD may close the working group immediately. The AD may also either move each adopted document to another working group for completion, or abandon the work.

Done milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Done ALTO OAM Document/YANG Model draft-ietf-alto-oam-yang
Done RFC for ALTO using HTTP/2 and /3 mechanisms draft-ietf-alto-new-transport
Done Wiki or internet-draft on ALTO deployments and challenges
Done Send Cost Modes Update to IESG for publication draft-ietf-alto-cost-mode