Hi Yao, all,

Speaking as individual contributor.

Many thanks Yao for your review and feedback.

  *   And another concern on option 2 is that, if the last entry is used to 
carry different types of metadata, only one of them can be carried in the same 
SRH, they can never be used together.
This is a valid point.
But this seems a concern related to the choice of encoding the info in the last 
entry of the SRH, more than related to the SRH flag question.
By definition, there is a single “last entry” so using it for this use-case 
exclude other uses cases.

If your requirement is to not exclude other uses cases, the use of a more 
generic tool, e.g., SRH TLV might be a better fit. Has this been considered?

Regards,
--Bruno
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 8:45 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; DECRAENE Bruno INNOV/NET 
<[email protected]>; [email protected]; 
[email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [spring] Seeking WG Consensus on PSID Encoding Options for 
draft-ietf-spring-srv6-path-segment


Hi Guanming,



Thank you for putting this out.

I prefer the original option 1, it's simple and implementation friendly.

About option 2, I was wondering is there any strong usecase besides PSID that 
has to carry a 128-bit metadata at last entry? For the In-situ OAM trace data, 
RFC 9486 already defines HBH/DOH options for it, and for the custom telemetry 
payload, existing IOAM mechanism in RFC9197 also supports carry self-defined 
data.

And another concern on option 2 is that, if the last entry is used to carry 
different types of metadata, only one of them can be carried in the same SRH, 
they can never be used together.



Regards,

Yao




Original
From: zengguanming 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
To: SPRING WG List <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;
Cc: Cheng Li 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;[email protected] 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;DHRUV DHODY 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;chengweiqiang 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;[email protected]
 <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>;
Date: 2026年01月23日 16:17
Subject: [spring] Seeking WG Consensus on PSID Encoding Options for 
draft-ietf-spring-srv6-path-segment
_______________________________________________
spring mailing list -- [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
To unsubscribe send an email to 
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Dear SPRING WG,
As part of our ongoing effort to finalize the encoding mechanism for the SRv6 
Path Segment Identifier (PSID) in 
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-spring-srv6-path-segment/, we would 
like to present three high-level approaches—along with their sub-options—for 
community review and consensus. Thanks to Bruno’s constructive review, comments 
and thorough discussion, we finally come up with the following options and 
present to the WG:

________________________________
Option 1: Dedicated P-flag (Current Draft Approach)
Mechanism: Introduce a new SRH flag (e.g., P-flag) solely to indicate that SRH. 
SegmentList[Last Entry] carries a PSID.
Pros: Simple, unambiguous, and enables per-packet fast-path processing for 
precise OAM (e.g., loss measurement).
Cons: Consumes one of only eight SRH flags for a single function.

Option 2: Generic Metadata Flag (Recommended Evolution)
Mechanism: Define a generic SRH flag (e.g., G-flag) that signals the presence 
of a structured 128-bit sid in SegmentList[Last Entry]. The opcode is defined 
to distinguish different use cases, for example:
•    OpCode=0x01: Path Segment ID (PSID)
•    OpCode=0x02: In-situ OAM trace data
•    OpCode=0x03: Custom telemetry payload
Pros:
•    One generic flag supports multiple future extensions, thus addresses 
“resource waste” concern by making the flag generically useful.
•    Maintains high-performance, per-packet processing.
Cons: Slightly more complex: requires defining opcode semantics and 
extensibility model.

Option 3: No New Flag
This has three sub-options:
3A: Reuse O-flag
Mechanism: Use the existing OAM flag to signal PSID presence.
Pros:
•     No SRH flags consumption.
Cons:
•     O-flag implies slow-path, sampled OAM treatment (per RFC 8754), but PSID 
often requires fast-path, per-packet handling for accurate end-to-end metrics. 
Mismatch in processing model risks under-serving key use cases.

3B: Flag-less (Pure SID Convention)
Mechanism: Rely solely on the END.PSID behavior code (Function = 0x0064); no 
flag needed. PSID is placed at SegmentList[n] where n = SRH.LastEntry.
Pros:
•    Minimalist design; No SRH flags consumption.
Cons:
•    No visibility for intermediate nodes—limits future telemetry or policy 
enforcement.
•    Functionally restricted to egress-only use cases (e.g., basic path 
binding), losing the full programmability advantage of SRv6.

3C: Flag-less with Dedicated PSID Prefix
Mechanism:

·         Reserve a well-known, non-routable IPv6 prefix (e.g., ::/32) for 
PSIDs.

·         Intermediate SR Endpoint nodes inspect SegmentList[n] and recognize 
PSID by prefix match.
Pros:

·         No SRH flag consumption.

·         Enables intermediate node visibility without a flag.
Cons:

·         SR nodes on the path needs one more mechanism to read PSID at Segment 
List[n], which introduces more complexity

________________________________
Next Steps
We believe Option 1(Dedicated P-flag) is simple, unambiguous, and enables 
per-packet fast-path processing for precise OAM, and Option 2 (Generic Flag) 
offers the best long-term balance: it conserves scarce flag space, supports 
future extensions (beyond PSID), and maintains performance.
And we kindly ask the WG to share your views on:

1.      Which direction best meets operational and architectural needs?

2.      Any strong objections to the proposed options.
Depending on feedback, we will update the draft accordingly and aim to request 
WGLC soon.
Thank you for your engagement!

Best regards,
Guanming Zeng & Cheng Li
Huawei





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