Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima) Internet Drafts

      
 Constrained Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructure (cBRSKI)
 
 draft-ietf-anima-constrained-voucher-31.txt
 Date: 08/06/2026
 Authors: Michael Richardson, Peter van der Stok, Panos Kampanakis, Esko Dijk
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document defines the Constrained Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructure (cBRSKI) protocol, which provides a solution for secure zero-touch onboarding of resource-constrained (IoT) devices into the network of a domain owner. This protocol is designed for constrained networks, which may have limited data throughput or may experience frequent packet loss. cBRSKI is a variant of the BRSKI protocol, which uses an artifact signed by the device manufacturer called the "voucher" which enables a new device and the owner's network to mutually authenticate. While the BRSKI voucher data is encoded in JSON, cBRSKI uses a compact CBOR-encoded voucher. The BRSKI voucher data definition is extended with new data types that allow for smaller voucher sizes. The Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST) protocol, used in BRSKI, is replaced with EST-over- CoAPS; and HTTPS used in BRSKI is replaced with DTLS-secured CoAP (CoAPS). This document Updates RFC 8995 and RFC 9148.
 Join Proxy for Onboarding of Constrained Network Elements
 
 draft-ietf-anima-constrained-join-proxy-21.txt
 Date: 21/07/2026
 Authors: Esko Dijk, Michael Richardson, Peter van der Stok, Panos Kampanakis
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document supports the constrained Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructures (cBRSKI) onboarding protocol by adding a required network function, the Join Proxy. This function can be implemented on a constrained node. The goal of the Join Proxy is to help new constrained nodes ("Pledges") securely onboard into a new IP network using the cBRSKI protocol. It acts as a circuit proxy for User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets that carry the onboarding messages. The solution is extensible to support other UDP-based onboarding protocols as well. The Join Proxy functionality is designed for use in constrained networks, including IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) based networks in which the onboarding authority server ("Registrar") may be multiple IP hops away from a Pledge. Despite this distance, the Pledge only needs to use link-local communication to complete cBRSKI onboarding. Two modes of Join Proxy operation are defined, stateless and stateful, to allow different trade-offs regarding resource usage, implementation complexity and security.
 Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructure (BRSKI) Cloud Registrar
 
 draft-ietf-anima-brski-cloud-19.txt
 Date: 09/09/2025
 Authors: Owen Friel, Rifaat Shekh-Yusef, Michael Richardson
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructures (BRSKI) defines how to onboard a device securely into an operator-maintained infrastructure. It assumes that there is local network infrastructure for the device to discover. On networks without that, there is nothing present to help onboard the device. This document extends BRSKI and defines behavior for bootstrapping devices for deployments where no local infrastructure is available, such as in a home or remote office. This document defines how the device can use a well-defined "call-home" mechanism to find the operator-maintained infrastructure. This document defines how to contact a well-known Cloud Registrar, and two ways in which the device may be redirected towards the operator-maintained infrastructure. The Cloud Registrar enables discovery of the operator-maintained infrastructure, and may enable establishment of trust with operator-maintained infrastructure that does not support BRSKI mechanisms. This document updates RFC 8995 (BRSKI).
 JWS signed Voucher Artifacts for Bootstrapping Protocols
 
 draft-ietf-anima-jws-voucher-16.txt
 Date: 15/01/2025
 Authors: Thomas Werner, Michael Richardson
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document introduces a variant of the RFC8366 voucher artifact in which CMS is replaced by the JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) mechanism described in RFC7515. This supports deployments in which JOSE is preferred over CMS. In addition to specifying the format, the "application/voucher-jws+json" media type is registered and examples are provided.
 BRSKI with Pledge in Responder Mode (BRSKI-PRM)
 
 draft-ietf-anima-brski-prm-23.txt
 Date: 03/06/2025
 Authors: Steffen Fries, Thomas Werner, Eliot Lear, Michael Richardson
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document defines enhancements to Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructure (BRSKI, RFC8995) as BRSKI with Pledge in Responder Mode (BRSKI-PRM). BRSKI-PRM supports the secure bootstrapping of devices, referred to as pledges, into a domain where direct communication with the registrar is either limited or not possible at all. To facilitate interaction between a pledge and a domain registrar the registrar-agent is introduced as new component. The registrar-agent supports the reversal of the interaction model from a pledge-initiated mode, to a pledge-responding mode, where the pledge is in a server role. To establish the trust relation between pledge and registrar, BRSKI-PRM relies on object security rather than transport security. This approach is agnostic to enrollment protocols that connect a domain registrar to a key infrastructure (e.g., domain Certification Authority).
 A Voucher Artifact for Onboarding Protocols
 
 draft-ietf-anima-rfc8366bis-36.txt
 Date: 09/09/2026
 Authors: Kent Watsen, Michael Richardson, Esko Dijk, Toerless Eckert, Qiufang Ma
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document defines a strategy to securely assign a candidate device (Pledge) to an Owner using an artifact signed, directly or indirectly, by the Pledge's manufacturer. This artifact is known as a "Voucher". This document defines an artifact format as a YANG-defined JSON or CBOR document that has been signed using a variety of cryptographic systems. The Voucher Artifact is normally generated by the Pledge's manufacturer (i.e., the Manufacturer Authorized Signing Authority (MASA)). This document obsoletes RFC8366: it includes a number of desired extensions into the YANG module. The Voucher Request YANG module defined in RFC8995 is also updated and now included in this document, as well as other YANG extensions needed for variants of RFC8995.
 BRSKI discovery and variations
 
 draft-ietf-anima-brski-discovery-13.txt
 Date: 23/06/2026
 Authors: Toerless Eckert, Esko Dijk
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document specifies procedures for variations of the "Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key Infrastructure" (BRSKI) series of protocols to automatically announce, discover and select responders using different discovery mechanisms such as DNS-SD, GRASP or CORE- LF. Different variations are not interoperable so initiators need to be able to find responders supporting the variation(s) they support. Procedures for BRSKI proxies are defined that allow proxying of traffic for any current and future variation. Procedures to discover BRSKI Pledges by their identifier are defined. All procedures are defined such that they rely on IANA defined tables through which not only well specified but also possible but not yet validated variations of BRSKI or additional discovery mechanisms can be supported simply by adding entries to the IANA tables. Many of the procedures and mechanisms covered by this document may equally be applied to discovery of other protocols, especially when they have non-interoperable variations.
 Operational Considerations for Voucher infrastructure for BRSKI MASA
 
 draft-ietf-anima-masa-considerations-03.txt
 Date: 09/08/2026
 Authors: Michael Richardson, Thomas Werner
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document describes a number of operational modes that a BRSKI Manufacturer Authorized Signing Authority (MASA) may take on. Each mode is defined, and then each mode is given a relevance within an over applicability of what kind of organization the MASA is deployed into. This document does not change any protocol mechanisms.
 Operational Considerations for BRSKI Registrar
 
 draft-ietf-anima-registrar-considerations-03.txt
 Date: 26/03/2026
 Authors: Michael Richardson, Thomas Werner, Peter Liu
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document describes a number of operational modes that a BRSKI Registration Authority (Registrar) may take on. Each mode is defined, and then each mode is given a relevance within an over applicability of what kind of organization the Registrar is deployed into. This document does not change any protocol mechanisms. This document includes operational advice about avoiding unwanted consequences.
 Constrained GeneRic Autonomic Signaling Protocol
 
 draft-ietf-anima-constrained-grasp-03.txt
 Date: 02/07/2026
 Authors: Longwei Zhu, Sheng Jiang, Cheng Sheng
 Working Group: Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)
 This document proposes the Constrained GeneRic Autonomic Signaling Protocol (cGRASP), a constrained and lightweight variant of the GeneRic Autonomic Signaling Protocol (GRASP, or the standard GRASP). cGRASP reduces message overhead and replaces TCP with CoAP as the transport protocol. By leveraging CoAP's reliability features and deployment maturity, cGRASP can provide reliable signaling services without relying on TCP, making it suitable for IoT, where lightweight and resource-constrained devices dominate. Furthermore, this document also discusses the potential approaches to adapting the cGRASP to work on the network without IP connectivity.

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Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima)

WG Name Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach
Acronym anima
Area Operations and Management Area (ops)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-anima-02 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources Issue tracker, Wiki, Zulip Stream
Personnel Chairs Sheng Jiang, Toerless Eckert
Area Director Mahesh Jethanandani
Tech Advisor Nancy Cam-Winget
Secretary Michael Richardson
Delegates Michael Richardson, Mike McBride
Mailing list Address [email protected]
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/anima
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/anima/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/anima

Charter for Working Group

The Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (ANIMA) working group develops and maintains specifications and documentation for interoperable protocols and procedures for automated network management and control of professionally-managed networks.

The vision is a network that configures, heals, optimizes and protects itself. The strategy is the incremental introduction of components to smoothly evolve existing and new networks accordingly.

ANIMA work will rely on the framework described in draft-ietf-anima-reference-model already approved for publication. Work not related to this framework is welcome for review, but WG adoption of such work requires explicit rechartering. The two concrete areas of the reference model are (1) the Autonomic Networking Infrastructure (ANI), and (2) Autonomic Functions (AF) built from software modules called Autonomic Service Agents (ASA).

The ANI is specified through prior ANIMA work. It is composed of the Autonomic Control Plane (ACP; RFC 8368), Bootstrap over Secure Key Infrastructures (BRSKI) including Vouchers (RFC8366), and the Generic Autonomic Signaling Protocol (GRASP). ANIMA will work on closing gaps and extending the ANI and its components.

ANIMA will start to define Autonomic Functions (AF) to enable service automation in networks; it will also work on generic aspects of ASA including design guidelines and lifecycle management, coordination and dependency management.

The reference model also discusses Intent, but ANIMA will not work on this without explicit rechartering. It will rely on the Network Management Research Group (NMRG) to define the next steps for this topic. ANIMA will coordinate with other IETF and IRTF groups as needed.

The scope of possible work items are (additional works are subject to extra approval from the responsible AD):

  • Extensions to the ANI, including variations of ANI deployment (e.g. in virtualised environments), information distribution within an AN, ANI OAMP interfaces (Operations, Administration, Management, Provisioning), interaction with YANG-based mechanisms, defining the domain boundary and membership management of the domain.

  • Support for Autonomic Service Agents, including design and implementation guidelines for ASAs, life cycle management, authorization and coordination of ASA.

  • BRSKI features, including proxies, enrollment, adaptions over various network protocols, variations of voucher formats.

  • Generic use cases of Autonomic Network and new GRASP extensions/options for them, including bulk transfer, DNS-SD interworking, autonomic resource management, autonomic SLA assurance, autonomic multi-tenant management, autonomic network measurement.

  • Integration with Network Operations Centers (NOCs), including autonomic discovery/connectivity to NOC, YANG-based ANI/ASA management by the NOC and reporting AF from node to NOC.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Jul 2020 Recharter or close the WG
Mar 2020 Submit Guidelines for Developing Autonomic Service Agents to the IESG
Mar 2020 Submit Lifecycle and Management of Autonomic Service Agents to the IESG
Dec 2019 Submit Constrained Join Proxy for Bootstrapping Protocols to the IESG
Dec 2019 Submit Constrained Voucher Artifacts for Bootstrapping Protocols to the IESG
Nov 2019 Submit Information distribution over GRASP to the IESG