Path Computation Element Communication Protocol Extensions for Segment Routing Policy Candidate Paths
RFC 9862, “Path Computation Element Communication Protocol Extensions for Segment Routing Policy Candidate Paths”, is a Proposed Standard document published in October 2025 by M. Koldychev, S. Sivabalan, S. Sidor, C. Barth, S. Peng, H. Bidgoli. It updates RFC 8231. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.
Abstract
A Segment Routing (SR) Policy is an ordered list of instructions called "segments" that represent a source-routed policy. Packet flows are steered into an SR Policy on a node where it is instantiated. An SR Policy is made of one or more Candidate Paths.
This document specifies the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) extension to signal Candidate Paths of an SR Policy. Additionally, this document updates RFC 8231 to allow delegation and setup of an SR Label Switched Path (LSP) without using the path computation request and reply messages. This document is applicable to both Segment Routing over MPLS (SR-MPLS) and Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6).
What “Proposed Standard” means
An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.
The canonical text of RFC 9862 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in HTML,TXT,PDF,XML.
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