Internet-Draft YANG Notification Transport Capabilities August 2026
Wu, et al. Expires 18 February 2027 [Page]
Workgroup:
NETCONF Working Group
Internet-Draft:
draft-ietf-netconf-yp-transport-capabilities-07
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Authors:
Q. Wu
Huawei
Q. Ma
Huawei
A. Huang-Feng
Deutsche Telekom
T. Graf
Swisscom

YANG Notification Transport Capabilities

Abstract

This document specifies a YANG module for discovering transport capabilities for YANG notifications. The module augments the YANG notifications capabilities model with capabilities for the notification transport protocol, transport encoding, and transport encryption. The capabilities enable a client to determine the notification transport options supported by a NETCONF or RESTCONF server at runtime or at implementation time using the YANG instance data file format.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

This Internet-Draft will expire on 18 February 2027.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The "ietf-system-capabilities" YANG module defined in [RFC9196] allows a NETCONF or RESTCONF client to discover capabilities supported by a NETCONF or RESTCONF server, including basic system capabilities and YANG-Push related capabilities. These capabilities can be provided at implementation time or reported at runtime, allowing a client to determine which YANG management features are supported by the server.

YANG Notifications, as defined in [RFC8639] and [RFC8641], allow clients to establish subscriptions for receiving YANG notifications from a NETCONF or RESTCONF server. A server may support multiple notification delivery protocols, encoding formats, and security protocols. Knowledge of these capabilities can allow a client to select an appropriate notification delivery protocol and associated parameters when establishing a subscription.

Currently, a client may determine whether a particular notification delivery protocol and its associated parameters are supported only by attempting to use them through configuration. For example, a NETCONF or RESTCONF server may reject a subscription request when the requested notification delivery parameters, such as the delivery protocol, encoding format, or security protocol, are not supported. As described in Section 3.2 of [RFC8641], a simple negotiation mechanism, such as inserting hints into an error response to a failed RPC request, can increase the likelihood of success for subsequent RPC requests involving subscription parameters. While such error responses can help establish a subscription, they are not widely supported and may result in unexpected failures or additional message exchanges between the client and server.

This document defines a YANG module that extends the system capabilities model defined in [RFC9196] with capabilities specific to the delivery of YANG notifications. The module allows a NETCONF or RESTCONF client to discover, from a NETCONF or RESTCONF server, the notification delivery protocols, encoding formats, and security protocols supported for YANG notifications. The capabilities can be provided at implementation time using the YANG instance data file format or discovered at runtime through a YANG management protocol.

1.1. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

The terms "subscription", "publisher", and "receiver" are used as defined in [RFC8639].

The terms "client", and "server" are used as defined in [RFC8342].

The term "transport protocol" is used as defined by the "transport" identity in [RFC8639] and refers to the notification delivery protocol used to deliver YANG notifications between a publisher and a receiver.

2. Capabilities for Systems and Datastore Update Notifications

Section 3.1 of [RFC8641] lists the NETCONF/RESTCONF server capabilities related to YANG-Push that are supported in the YANG module "ietf-notification-capabilities".

These server capabilities are transport independent, session level capabilities. They can be provided either at the implementation time or reported at runtime.

This document provides additional attributes associated with system capabilities that are related to the YANG notification delivery protocol:

The model defined in this document augments the System Capabilities model defined in [RFC9196].

This model is intended to be used between an orchestrator and a network device that provides YANG notifications. A management network between the orchestrator and the network device is assumed to be available for exchanging YANG management information. The management connectivity and endpoint of the network device are expected to be provisioned as part of the management network configuration. The orchestrator can use the established management connection to discover the notification transport capabilities of the network device before establishing the notification subscription.

2.1. Tree Diagram

The following tree diagram [RFC8340] provides an overview of the data model.

module: ietf-yp-transport-capabilities

  augment /sysc:system-capabilities/notc:subscription-capabilities:
    +--ro transport-capabilities
       +--ro transport-capability* [transport-protocol]
          +--ro transport-protocol    identityref
          +--ro security-protocol*    union
          +--ro encoding-format*      identityref

3. YANG Module

<CODE BEGINS> file "ietf-yp-transport-capabilities@2026-08-13.yang"

module ietf-yp-transport-capabilities {
  yang-version 1.1;
  namespace
    "urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yp-transport-capabilities";
  prefix yptc;

  import ietf-subscribed-notifications {
    prefix sn;
    reference
      "RFC 8639: Subscription to YANG Notifications";
  }
  import ietf-system-capabilities {
    prefix sysc;
    reference
      "RFC 9196: YANG Modules Describing Capabilities for
       Systems and Datastore Update Notifications";
  }
  import ietf-notification-capabilities {
    prefix notc;
    reference
      "RFC 9196: YANG Modules Describing Capabilities for
       Systems and Datastore Update Notifications";
  }
  import ietf-tls-common {
    prefix tlscmn;
    reference
      "RFC 9645: YANG Groupings for TLS Clients and TLS Servers";
  }

  organization
    "IETF NETCONF (Network Configuration) Working Group";
  contact
    "WG Web:   <https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/netconf/>
     WG List:  <mailto:netconf@ietf.org>

     Authors:  Qin Wu
               <mailto:bill.wu@huawei.com>
               Qiufang Ma
               <mailto:maqiufang1@huawei.com>
               Alex Huang Feng
               <mailto:alex.huang-feng@t-systems.com>
               Thomas Graf
               <mailto:thomas.graf@swisscom.com>";
  description
    "This module defines an extension to YANG-Push
     Notification Capabilities model that provides additional
     transport specific capabilities for YANG notifications.

     The key words 'MUST', 'MUST NOT', 'REQUIRED', 'SHALL', 'SHALL
     NOT', 'SHOULD', 'SHOULD NOT', 'RECOMMENDED', 'NOT RECOMMENDED',
     'MAY', and 'OPTIONAL' in this document are to be interpreted as
     described in BCP 14 (RFC 2119) (RFC 8174) when, and only when,
     they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

     Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as
     authors of the code.  All rights reserved.

     Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
     without modification, is permitted pursuant to, and subject
     to the license terms contained in, the Revised BSD License
     set forth in Section 4.c of the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions
     Relating to IETF Documents
     (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).

     This version of this YANG module is part of RFC XXXX
     (https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfcXXXX); see the RFC itself
     for full legal notices.";

  revision 2026-08-13 {
    description
      "Initial revision.";
    reference
      "RFC XXXX: YANG Notifications Transport Capabilities";
  }

  identity security-protocol {
    description
      "Identity for YANG notifications security protocols.";
  }

  identity dtls12 {
    base security-protocol;
    description
      "Indicates DTLS Protocol Version 1.2. DTLS 1.2 is obsolete,
       and thus it is NOT RECOMMENDED to enable this feature.";
    reference
      "RFC 6347: The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
       Protocol Version 1.2.";
  }

  identity dtls13 {
    base security-protocol;
    description
      "Indicates DTLS Protocol Version 1.3.";
    reference
      "RFC 9147: The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
       Protocol Version 1.3.";
  }

  augment "/sysc:system-capabilities"
        + "/notc:subscription-capabilities" {
    description
      "Adds subscription-related system level capabilities.";
    container transport-capabilities {
      description
        "Specifies capabilities related to YANG-Push transports.";
      list transport-capability {
        key "transport-protocol";
        description
          "Indicates supported YANG notifications transport protocol
           for Subscribed Notifications [RFC8639] and YANG-Push
           [RFC8641]. Defines the supported transports, security
           protocols and supported notification encodings.";
        leaf transport-protocol {
          type identityref {
            base sn:transport;
          }
          description
            "Indicates the supported YANG notifications transport
             protocol for Subscribed Notifications [RFC8639] and
             YANG-Push [RFC8641].";
        }
        leaf-list security-protocol {
          type union {
            type identityref {
              base security-protocol;
            }
            type identityref {
              base tlscmn:tls-version-base;
            }
          }
          description
            "Indicates the supported YANG notifications transport
             encryption protocols.";
        }
        leaf-list encoding-format {
          type identityref {
            base sn:encoding;
          }
          description
            "Indicates supported encoding formats for YANG
             notifications.";
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

<CODE ENDS>

4. IANA Considerations

4.1. Updates to the IETF XML Registry

This document registers a URI in the "IETF XML Registry" [RFC3688]. Following the format in [RFC3688], the following registration has been made:

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yp-transport-capabilities
Registrant Contact: The IESG.
XML: N/A; the requested URI is an XML namespace.
Reference: RFC XXXX (RFC Ed.: replace XXX with actual RFC number
  and remove this note.)

4.2. Updates to the YANG Module Names Registry

This document registers one YANG module in the "YANG Module Names" registry [RFC6020]. Following the format in [RFC6020], the following registration has been made:

name: ietf-yp-transport-capabilities
namespace: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yp-transport-capabilities
prefix: yptc
reference: RFC XXXX (RFC Ed.: replace XXX with actual RFC number
  and remove this note.)

5. Implementation Status

Note to the RFC-Editor: Please remove this section before publishing.

5.1. Huawei VRP

Huawei implemented this document for a YANG Push publisher in their VRP platform.

5.2. Cisco IOS XR

Cisco implemented this document for a YANG Push publisher in their IOS XR platform.

6. Security Considerations

This section is modeled after the template described in Section 3.7 of [I-D.ietf-netmod-rfc8407bis]

The "ietf-yp-transport-capabilities" YANG module defines a data model that is designed to be accessed via YANG-based management protocols, such as NETCONF [RFC6241] and RESTCONF [RFC8040]. These protocols have to use a secure transport layer (e.g., SSH [RFC4252], TLS [RFC8446], and QUIC [RFC9000]) and have to use mutual authentication.

The Network Configuration Access Control Model (NACM) [RFC8341] provides the means to restrict access for particular NETCONF or RESTCONF users to a preconfigured subset of all available NETCONF or RESTCONF protocol operations and content.

All protocol-accessible data nodes are read-only and cannot be modified. The data in the module is not security sensitive. It inherits all the security considerations of [RFC9196].

7. Contributors

Ran Tao
Huawei
101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210012
China
Email: taoran20@huawei.com

Liang Geng
China Mobile
32 Xuanwumen West St, Xicheng District
Beijing 10053
China
Email: gengliang@chinamobile.com

Peng Liu
China Mobile
Beiqijia Town, Changping District
Beijing 10053
China
Email: liupengyjy@chinamobile.com

Wei Wang
China Telecom
32 Xuanwumen West St, Xicheng District
Beijing 102209
China
Email: wangw36@chinatelecom.cn

8. Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mohamed Boucadair, Kent Watson, Jan Lindblad, Reshad Rahman, Xiao Min, Per Andersson and Rob Wilton for their review and valuable comments.

9. References

9.1. Normative References

[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC5246]
Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, DOI 10.17487/RFC5246, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5246>.
[RFC6241]
Enns, R., Ed., Bjorklund, M., Ed., Schoenwaelder, J., Ed., and A. Bierman, Ed., "Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)", RFC 6241, DOI 10.17487/RFC6241, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6241>.
[RFC6347]
Rescorla, E. and N. Modadugu, "Datagram Transport Layer Security Version 1.2", RFC 6347, DOI 10.17487/RFC6347, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6347>.
[RFC7950]
Bjorklund, M., Ed., "The YANG 1.1 Data Modeling Language", RFC 7950, DOI 10.17487/RFC7950, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7950>.
[RFC7951]
Lhotka, L., "JSON Encoding of Data Modeled with YANG", RFC 7951, DOI 10.17487/RFC7951, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7951>.
[RFC8040]
Bierman, A., Bjorklund, M., and K. Watsen, "RESTCONF Protocol", RFC 8040, DOI 10.17487/RFC8040, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8040>.
[RFC8174]
Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC8341]
Bierman, A. and M. Bjorklund, "Network Configuration Access Control Model", STD 91, RFC 8341, DOI 10.17487/RFC8341, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8341>.
[RFC8342]
Bjorklund, M., Schoenwaelder, J., Shafer, P., Watsen, K., and R. Wilton, "Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA)", RFC 8342, DOI 10.17487/RFC8342, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8342>.
[RFC8446]
Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.
[RFC8639]
Voit, E., Clemm, A., Gonzalez Prieto, A., Nilsen-Nygaard, E., and A. Tripathy, "Subscription to YANG Notifications", RFC 8639, DOI 10.17487/RFC8639, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8639>.
[RFC8641]
Clemm, A. and E. Voit, "Subscription to YANG Notifications for Datastore Updates", RFC 8641, DOI 10.17487/RFC8641, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8641>.
[RFC9147]
Rescorla, E., Tschofenig, H., and N. Modadugu, "The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) Protocol Version 1.3", RFC 9147, DOI 10.17487/RFC9147, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9147>.
[RFC9196]
Lengyel, B., Clemm, A., and B. Claise, "YANG Modules Describing Capabilities for Systems and Datastore Update Notifications", RFC 9196, DOI 10.17487/RFC9196, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9196>.
[RFC9254]
Veillette, M., Ed., Petrov, I., Ed., Pelov, A., Bormann, C., and M. Richardson, "Encoding of Data Modeled with YANG in the Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR)", RFC 9254, DOI 10.17487/RFC9254, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9254>.

9.2. Informative References

[I-D.ietf-netconf-https-notif]
Jethanandani, M. and K. Watsen, "An HTTPS-based Transport for YANG Notifications", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-netconf-https-notif-16, , <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-netconf-https-notif-16>.
[I-D.ietf-netconf-udp-notif]
Feng, A. H., Francois, P., Zhou, T., Graf, T., and P. Lucente, "UDP-based Transport for Configured Subscriptions", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-netconf-udp-notif-26, , <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-netconf-udp-notif-26>.
[I-D.ietf-netmod-rfc8407bis]
Bierman, A., Boucadair, M., and Q. Wu, "Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers of Documents Containing YANG Data Models", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-netmod-rfc8407bis-28, , <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-netmod-rfc8407bis-28>.
[RFC3688]
Mealling, M., "The IETF XML Registry", BCP 81, RFC 3688, DOI 10.17487/RFC3688, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3688>.
[RFC4252]
Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol", RFC 4252, DOI 10.17487/RFC4252, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4252>.
[RFC6020]
Bjorklund, M., Ed., "YANG - A Data Modeling Language for the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)", RFC 6020, DOI 10.17487/RFC6020, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6020>.
[RFC8340]
Bjorklund, M. and L. Berger, Ed., "YANG Tree Diagrams", BCP 215, RFC 8340, DOI 10.17487/RFC8340, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8340>.
[RFC9000]
Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000, DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.

Appendix A. Usage Example of interaction with UDP-Notif and HTTPS-Notif for Configured Subscription

The following instance-data example describes the notification transport capabilities of a hypothetical "acme-router".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<instance-data-set
  xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yang-instance-data"
  xmlns:sysc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-system-capabilities"
  xmlns:notc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-notification-capabilities"
  xmlns:hnt="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-https-notif-transport"
  xmlns:sn="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-subscribed-notifications"
  xmlns:tlscmn="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-tls-common"
  xmlns:unt="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-udp-notif-transport">
  <name>acme-router-notification-capabilities</name>
  <content-schema>
    <module>ietf-system-capabilities@2022-02-17</module>
    <module>ietf-notification-capabilities@2022-02-17</module>
    <module>ietf-yp-transport-capabilities@2026-08-13</module>
  </content-schema>
  <!-- revision date, contact, etc. -->
  <description>Server Capability Discovery</description>
  <content-data>
    <sysc:system-capabilities>
      <notc:subscription-capabilities>
        <transport-capabilities
      xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yp-transport-capabilities">
          <transport-capability>
            <transport-protocol>hnt:https</transport-protocol>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-xml</encoding-format>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-json</encoding-format>
            <security-protocol>tlscmn:tls12</security-protocol>
            <security-protocol>tlscmn:tls13</security-protocol>
          </transport-capability>
          <transport-capability>
            <transport-protocol>unt:udp-notif</transport-protocol>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-json</encoding-format>
            <encoding-format>unt:encode-cbor</encoding-format>
            <security-protocol>dtls12</security-protocol>
            <security-protocol>dtls13</security-protocol>
          </transport-capability>
        </transport-capabilities>
      </notc:subscription-capabilities>
    </sysc:system-capabilities>
  </content-data>
</instance-data-set>

In addition, the client could also query notification transport capabilities from the NETCONF or RESTCONF server. For example, the client sends <get> request message to the the server to query from the server.

================= NOTE: '\' line wrapping per RFC 8792 ==================

<rpc message-id="101"
  xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
  <get>
    <filter type="subtree">
      <system-capabilities xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-syste\
m-capabilities">
        <subscription-capabilities xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ie\
tf-notification-capabilities">
          <transport-capabilities xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:iet\
f-yp-transport-capabilities"/>
        </subscription-capabilities>
      </system-capabilities>
    </filter>
  </get>
</rpc>

The server returns server data export capability using <rpc-reply> as follows:

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
  xmlns:sysc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-system-capabilities"
  xmlns:notc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-notification-capabilities"
  xmlns:hnt="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-https-notif-transport"
  xmlns:sn="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-subscribed-notifications"
  xmlns:unt="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-udp-notif-transport"
  xmlns:tlscmn="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-tls-common"
  message-id="101">
  <data>
    <sysc:system-capabilities>
      <notc:subscription-capabilities>
        <transport-capabilities
    xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yp-transport-capabilities">
          <transport-capability>
            <transport-protocol>hnt:https</transport-protocol>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-xml</encoding-format>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-json</encoding-format>
            <security-protocol>tlscmn:tls12</security-protocol>
            <security-protocol>tlscmn:tls13</security-protocol>
          </transport-capability>
          <transport-capability>
            <transport-protocol>unt:udp-notif</transport-protocol>
            <encoding-format>sn:encode-json</encoding-format>
            <encoding-format>unt:encode-cbor</encoding-format>
            <security-protocol>dtls12</security-protocol>
            <security-protocol>dtls13</security-protocol>
          </transport-capability>
        </transport-capabilities>
      </notc:subscription-capabilities>
    </sysc:system-capabilities>
  </data>
</rpc-reply>

Authors' Addresses

Qin Wu
Huawei
101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
Nanjing
Jiangsu, 210012
China
Qiufang Ma
Huawei
101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
Nanjing
Jiangsu, 210012
China
Alex Huang Feng
Deutsche Telekom
Barcelona
Spain
Thomas Graf
Swisscom
Binzring 17
CH-8045 Zurich
Switzerland