Deterministic Networking (detnet) Internet Drafts

      
 Reliable and Available Wireless (RAW) Technologies
 
 draft-ietf-raw-technologies-17.txt
 Date: 15/04/2025
 Authors: Pascal Thubert, Dave Cavalcanti, Xavier Vilajosana, Corinna Schmitt, Janos Farkas
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This document surveys the short and middle range radio technologies that are suitable to provide a Deterministic Networking / Reliable and Available Wireless (RAW) service over, presents the characteristics that RAW may leverage, and explores the applicability of the technologies to carry deterministic flows, as of its time of publication. The studied technologies are Wi-Fi 6/7, TimeSlotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), 3GPP 5G, and L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS).
 A Framework for Deterministic Networking (DetNet) Controller Plane
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-controller-plane-framework-15.txt
 Date: 24/09/2025
 Authors: Andrew Malis, Xuesong Geng, Mach Chen, Balazs Varga, Carlos Bernardos
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This document provides a framework overview for the Deterministic Networking (DetNet) controller plane. It discusses concepts and requirements for DetNet controller plane which could be the basis for a future solution specification.
 Reliable and Available Wireless Architecture
 
 draft-ietf-raw-architecture-30.txt
 Date: 25/07/2025
 Authors: Pascal Thubert
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 Reliable and Available Wireless (RAW) extends the reliability and availability of DetNet to networks composed of any combination of wired and wireless segments. The RAW Architecture leverages and extends RFC 8655, the Deterministic Networking Architecture, to adapt to challenges that affect prominently the wireless medium, notably intermittent transmission loss. This document defines a network control loop that optimizes the use of constrained bandwidth and energy while assuring the expected DetNet services. The loop involves a new Point of Local Repair (PLR) function in the DetNet Service sub-layer that dynamically selects the DetNet path(s) for packets to route around local connectivity degradation.
 Requirements for Scaling Deterministic Networks
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-scaling-requirements-09.txt
 Date: 07/09/2025
 Authors: Peng Liu, Yizhou Li, Toerless Eckert, Quan Xiong, Jeong-dong Ryoo, zhushiyin, Xuesong Geng
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 Aiming to scale deterministic networks, this document describes the technical and operational requirements when the network has a large variation in latency among hops, a great number of flows and/or multiple domains that do not share the same time source. Applications with varying levels of determinism co-exist and are transported in such a network. This document also describes the corresponding Deterministic Networking (DetNet) data plane enhancement requirements.
 Dataplane Enhancement Taxonomy
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-dataplane-taxonomy-05.txt
 Date: 08/01/2026
 Authors: Jinoo Joung, Xuesong Geng, Shaofu Peng, Toerless Eckert
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This draft is to facilitate the understanding of the data plane enhancement solutions, which are suggested currently or can be suggested in the future, for deterministic networking. This draft provides criteria for classifying data plane solutions. Examples of each category are listed, along with reasons where necessary. Strengths and limitations of the categories are described. Suitability of the solutions for various services of deterministic networking are also mentioned. Reference topologies for evaluation of the solutions are given as well.
 Deadline Based Deterministic Forwarding
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-deadline-based-forwarding-00.txt
 Date: 16/01/2026
 Authors: Shaofu Peng, Zongpeng Du, Kashinath Basu, chris cheng, Dong Yang, Chang Liu
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This document describes a deadline based deterministic forwarding mechanism for IP/MPLS network with the corresponding resource reservation, admission control, scheduling and policing processes to provide guaranteed latency bound. It employs a latency compensation technique with a stateless core, to replace reshaping, making it suitable for the Differentiated Services (Diffserv) architecture [RFC2475].
 Timeslot Queueing and Forwarding Mechanism
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-packet-timeslot-mechanism-00.txt
 Date: 16/01/2026
 Authors: Shaofu Peng, Peng Liu, Kashinath Basu, Aihua Liu, Dong Yang, Guoyu Peng, Junfeng Zhao
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 IP/MPLS networks use packet switching (with the feature store-and- forward) and are based on statistical multiplexing. Statistical multiplexing is essentially a variant of time division multiplexing, which refers to the asynchronous and dynamic allocation of link timeslot resources. In this case, the service flow does not occupy a fixed timeslot, and the length of the timeslot is not fixed, but depends on the size of the packet. Statistical multiplexing has certain challenges and complexity in meeting deterministic QoS, and its delay performance is dependent on the used queueing mechanism. This document further describes a generic time division multiplexing scheme for layer-3 in an IP/MPLS networks, called timeslot queueing and forwarding (TQF) mechanism. TQF is an enhancement based on TSN TAS and allows the data plane to create a flexible timeslot mapping scheme based on available timeslot resources. It defines a cyclic period consisting of multiple timeslots where a flow is assigned to be transmited within one or more dedicated timeslots. The objective of TQF is to better handle large scaling requirements.
 Deterministic Networking (DetNet) Data Plane - Tagged Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (TCQF) for bounded latency with low jitter in large scale DetNets
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-tcqf-00.txt
 Date: 16/01/2026
 Authors: Toerless Eckert, Yizhou Li, Stewart Bryant, Andrew Malis, Jeong-dong Ryoo, Peng Liu, Guangpeng Li, Shoushou Ren
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This memo specifies a forwarding method for bounded latency and bounded jitter for Deterministic Networks and is a variant of the IEEE TSN Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (CQF) method. Tagged CQF (TCQF) supports more than 2 cycles and indicates the cycle number via an existing or new packet header field called the tag to replace the cycle mapping in CQF which is based purely on synchronized reception clock. This memo standardizes TCQF as a mechanism independent of the tagging method used. It also specifies tagging via the (1) the existing MPLS packet Traffic Class (TC) field for MPLS packets, (2) the IP/IPv6 DSCP field for IP/IPv6 packets, and (3) a new TCQF Option header for IPv6 packets. Target benefits of TCQF include low end-to-end jitter, ease of high- speed hardware implementation, optional ability to support large number of flow in large networks via DiffServ style aggregation by applying TCQF to the DetNet aggregate instead of each DetNet flow individually, and support of wide-area DetNet networks with arbitrary link latencies and latency variations as well as low accuracy clock synchronization.
 Deterministic Networking (DetNet) Data Plane - guaranteed Latency Based Forwarding (gLBF) for bounded latency with low jitter and asynchronous forwarding in Deterministic Networks
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-glbf-00.txt
 Date: 16/01/2026
 Authors: Toerless Eckert, Alexander Clemm, Stewart Bryant, Stefan Hommes
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This memo proposes a mechanism called "guaranteed Latency Based Forwarding" (gLBF) as part of DetNet for hop-by-hop packet forwarding with per-hop deterministically bounded latency and minimal jitter. gLBF is intended to be useful across a wide range of networks and applications with need for high-precision deterministic networking services, including in-car networks or networks used for industrial automation across on factory floors, all the way to ++100Gbps country-wide networks. Contrary to other mechanisms, gLBF does not require network wide clock synchronization, nor does it need to maintain per-flow state at network nodes, avoiding drawbacks of other known methods while leveraging their advantages. Specifically, gLBF uses the queuing model and calculus of Urgency Based Scheduling (UBS, [UBS]), which is used by TSN Asynchronous Traffic Shaping [TSN-ATS]. gLBF is intended to be a plug-in replacement for TSN-ATN or as a parallel mechanism beside TSN-ATS because it allows to keeping the same controller-plane design which is selecting paths for TSN-ATS, sizing TSN-ATS queues, calculating latencies and admitting flows to calculated paths for calculated latencies. In addition to reducing the jitter compared to TSN-ATS by additional buffering (dampening) in the network, gLBF also eliminates the need for per-flow, per-hop state maintenance required by TSN-ATS. This avoids the need to signal per-flow state to every hop from the controller-plane and associated scaling problems. It also reduces implementation cost for high-speed networking hardware due to the avoidance of additional high-speed speed read/write memory access to retrieve, process and update per-flow state variables for a large number of flows.
 Operations,Administration and Maintenance (OAM) features for Reliable and Available Wireless
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-wireless-oam-support-00.txt
 Date: 19/01/2026
 Authors: Fabrice Theoleyre, Georgios Papadopoulos, Greg Mirsky, Carlos Bernardos
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 Some critical applications may use a wireless infrastructure. However, wireless networks exhibit a bandwidth of several orders of magnitude lower than wired networks. Besides, wireless transmissions are lossy by nature; the probability that a packet cannot be decoded correctly by the receiver may be quite high. In these conditions, providing high reliability and a low delay is challenging. This document lists the requirements of the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) features are recommended to provide availability and reliability on top of a collection of wireless segments. This document describes the benefits, problems, and trade-offs for using OAM in wireless networks to achieve Service Level Objectives (SLO).
 On-time Forwarding with Non-work Conserving Stateless Core Fair Queuing
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-nscore-00.txt
 Date: 23/01/2026
 Authors: Yeoncheol Ryoo, Jinoo Joung
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This document specifies the framework and operational procedure for deterministic networking that guarantees maximum and minimum end-to- end latency bounds to flows. The solution has non-periodic, asynchronous, flow-level, non-work conserving, on-time, and rate- based functional characteristics, according to the taxonomy suggested by [draft-ietf-detnet-dataplane-taxonomy-03]. The packets are stored in the queue in ascending order of the ideal service start time, called Eligible Time (ET), and the ideal service completion time, called Finish Time (FT). The queued packets were forwarded between ET and FT in a non-work conserving manner. The ET and FT are calculated at the entrance node according to the packet size and rate of the flow. All subsequent core nodes are stateless and asynchronously compute ET and FT based on metadata received via packet headers. This mechanism is called non-work-preserving stateless fair queuing, which guarantees both E2E latency upper and lower bounds.
 On-time Forwarding with Push-In First-Out (PIFO) queue
 
 draft-ietf-detnet-ontime-forwarding-00.txt
 Date: 23/01/2026
 Authors: Yeoncheol Ryoo
 Working Group: Deterministic Networking (detnet)
 This document describes operations of data plane and controller plane for Deterministic Networking (DetNet) to forward packets to meet minimum and maximum end-to-end latency requirements, while utilizing Push-In First-Out (PIFO) queue. According to the solution described in this document, forwarding nodes do not need to maintain flow states or to be time-synchronized with each other.

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Deterministic Networking (detnet)

WG Name Deterministic Networking
Acronym detnet
Area Routing Area (rtg)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-detnet-04 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources Issue tracker, New Wiki, Zulip stream
Personnel Chairs János Farkas, Lou Berger
Area Director Ketan Talaulikar
Tech Advisor David L. Black
Secretary Eve Schooler
Delegate Eve Schooler
Mailing list Address detnet@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/detnet
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/detnet/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/detnet

Charter for Working Group

The Deterministic Networking (DetNet) Working Group focuses on deterministic data paths that operate over Layer 2 bridged and Layer 3 routed segments, where such paths can provide bounds on reordering, latency, loss, and packet delay variation (jitter), and high reliability. DetNet solutions apply to both wireless and wired networks. The Working Group addresses Layer 3 aspects in support of applications requiring deterministic networking. The Working Group collaborates with IEEE802.1 Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), which is responsible for Layer 2 operations, to define a common architecture for both Layer 2 and Layer 3. Example applications for deterministic networks include professional and home audio/video, multimedia in transportation, engine control systems, and other general industrial and vehicular applications being considered by the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group.

The Working Group will initially focus on solutions for networks that are under a single administrative control or within a closed group of administrative control; these include not only campus-wide networks but also private WANs. The DetNet WG will not spend energy on solutions for large groups of domains such as the Internet.

The Working Group is responsible for the overall DetNet architecture and DetNet-specific specifications that encompass the data plane, OAM (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance), time synchronization, management, control, and security aspects which are required to enable a multi-hop path, and forwarding along the path, with the deterministic properties of controlled latency, low packet loss, low packet delay variation, and high reliability. The work applies to point-to-point (unicast) and point-to-multipoint (multicast) flows which can be characterized in a manner that allows the network to 1) reserve the appropriate resources for the flows in advance, and 2) release/reuse the resources when they are no longer required. The work covers the characterization of flows, the encapsulation of frames, the required forwarding behaviors, as well as the state that may need to be established in intermediate nodes. Layer 3 data plane technologies that can be used include: IP and MPLS, and Layer 2 encapsulations that run over IP and/or MPLS, such as pseudowires and GRE.

The Working Group will document which deployment environments and types of topologies are within (or outside) the scope of the DetNet architecture. This work focuses on the data plane aspects and is independent of any path setup protocol or mechanism. The Working Group will also document DetNet Controller Plane approaches that reuse existing IETF solutions, such as Path Computation Element (PCE), and identify the Working Group responsible for any extensions needed to support DetNet. Documents produced by the Working Group will be compatible with the work done in IEEE802.1 TSN and other IETF Working Groups. The Working Group's scope generally excludes modifications of transport protocols, OAM, Layer 3 forwarding, and encapsulations, but it may discuss requirements for such modifications and the work will be coordinated with the Working Group responsible for the technology.

DetNet is chartered to work in the following areas:

Overall architecture: This work encompasses the data plane, OAM, time synchronization, management, control, and security aspects.

Data plane: This work will specify how to use IP and/or MPLS, and related OAM, to support a data plane method of flow identification and packet treatment over Layer 3. Other IETF-defined data plane technologies may also be used.

Controller Plane: The DetNet Controller Plane is defined in RFC 8655 as "the aggregation of the Control and Management Planes". This work will document how to use IETF control plane solutions to support DetNet, including the identification of any gaps in existing solutions. Any modification to Controller Plane protocols to address identified gaps should be carried out in their associated Working Groups, but may be done in DetNet if agreed to by the relevant Working Group chairs and responsible Area Directors.

Data flow information model: This work will identify the information needed for flow establishment and control and be used by reservation protocols and YANG data models. The work will be independent of the protocol(s) used to control the flows (e.g. YANG+NETCONF/RESTCONF, PCEP, or GMPLS).

YANG models: This work will document device and link capabilities (feature support) and resources (e.g. buffers, bandwidth) for use in device configuration and status reporting. Such information may also be used when advertising the deterministic network elements to a control plane. Control plane-related information will be independent of the protocol(s) that may be used to advertise this information (e.g. IS-IS or GMPLS extensions). Any new YANG models will be coordinated with the Working Groups that define any base models that are to be augmented.

DetNets including Wireless: This work will define how DetNet solutions operate over networks that include wired and wireless network technologies. The work may include providing DetNet reliability and availability for scheduled wireless segments and other wireless media, e.g., frequency/time-sharing physical media resources with stochastic traffic: IEEE Std. 802.15.4 timeslotted channel hopping (TSCH), 3GPP 5G ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), IEEE 802.11ax/be, and L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS), etc. This work will stay abstract to the radio layers underneath, addressing the Layer 3 aspects in support of applications requiring high reliability and availability.

As needed, vertical requirements: This effort will detail the requirements for deterministic networks in various industries that have previously not been documented and cannot be supported using defined DetNet solutions.

To investigate whether existing data plane encryption mechanisms can be applied, possibly opportunistically, to improve security and privacy.

The Working Group coordinates with other relevant IETF Working Groups, including CCAMP, IPPM, LSR, PCE, PALS, TEAS, TSVWG, RAW, and 6TiSCH. As the work progresses, requirements may be provided to the responsible Working Group, e.g. PCE, TEAS, and CCAMP, with DetNet acting as a focal point to maintain the consistency of the overall architecture and related solutions. The WG will liaise with appropriate groups in IEEE and other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Jul 2026 Submit first Enhanced DetNet Data Plane solution document for publication as Standards Track
Jul 2026 Submit Requirements for Scaling Deterministic Networks for publication as Informational draft-ietf-detnet-scaling-requirements
Nov 2025 Adopt first Enhanced DetNet Data Plane solution document
Sep 2024 Submit RAW framework document for publication as informational draft-ietf-raw-framework
Mar 2024 Submit RAW OAM document for publication as Informational draft-ietf-raw-oam-support

Done milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Done Submit controller plane framework for publication as Informational draft-ietf-detnet-controller-plane-framework
Done Submit RAW architecture document for publication as Informational draft-ietf-raw-architecture