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ALTO Incremental Updates Using Server-Sent Events (SSE)
draft-ietf-alto-incr-update-sse-17

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8895.
Authors Wendy Roome , Y. Richard Yang
Last updated 2019-11-14 (Latest revision 2019-07-23)
Replaces draft-roome-alto-incr-update-sse
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Formats
Reviews
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state In WG Last Call
Document shepherd Vijay K. Gurbani
IESG IESG state Became RFC 8895 (Proposed Standard)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to "Vijay Gurbani" <vijay.gurbani@gmail.com>
draft-ietf-alto-incr-update-sse-17
ALTO WG                                                         W. Roome
Internet-Draft                                           Nokia Bell Labs
Intended status: Standards Track                                 Y. Yang
Expires: January 23, 2020                                Yale University
                                                           July 22, 2019

        ALTO Incremental Updates Using Server-Sent Events (SSE)
                   draft-ietf-alto-incr-update-sse-17

Abstract

   The Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) [RFC7285] protocol
   provides network related information, called network information
   resources, to client applications so that clients can make informed
   decisions in utilizing network resources.  For example, an ALTO
   server can provide network and cost maps so that an ALTO client can
   use the maps to determine the costs between network endpoints when
   choosing communicating endpoints.

   However, the ALTO protocol does not define a mechanism to allow an
   ALTO client to obtain updates to the information resources, other
   than by periodically re-fetching them.  Because some information
   resources (e.g., the aforementioned maps) may be large (potentially
   tens of megabytes), and because only parts of the information
   resources may change frequently (e.g., only some entries in a cost
   map), complete re-fetching can be extremely inefficient.

   This document presents a mechanism to allow an ALTO server to push
   updates to ALTO clients, to achieve two benefits: (1) updates can be
   immediate, in that the ALTO server can send updates as soon as they
   are available; and (2) updates can be incremental, in that if only a
   small section of an information resource changes, the ALTO server can
   send just the changes.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

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

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   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://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 January 23, 2020.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Major Changes Since Version -01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.1.  Server-Sent Events (SSEs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  JSON Merge Patch  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.2.1.  JSON Merge Patch Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.2.2.  JSON Merge Patch ALTO Messages  . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.3.  JSON Patch  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       4.3.1.  JSON Patch Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       4.3.2.  JSON Patch ALTO Messages  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  Overview of Approach  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   6.  Update Messages: Data Update and Control Update Messages  . .  17
     6.1.  ALTO Update Message Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     6.2.  ALTO Data Update Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     6.3.  ALTO Control Update Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   7.  Update Stream Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     7.1.  Media Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     7.2.  HTTP Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     7.3.  Accept Input Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     7.4.  Capabilities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22

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     7.5.  Uses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     7.6.  Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     7.7.  Additional Requirements on Update Messages  . . . . . . .  25
       7.7.1.  Event Sequence Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       7.7.2.  Cross-Stream Consistency Requirements . . . . . . . .  25
       7.7.3.  Multipart Update Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     7.8.  Keep-Alive Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   8.  Stream Control Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     8.1.  URI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     8.2.  Media Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     8.3.  HTTP Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     8.4.  Accept Input Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
     8.5.  Capabilities & Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
     8.6.  Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   9.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
     9.1.  Example: IRD Announcing Update Stream Services  . . . . .  29
     9.2.  Example: Simple Network and Cost Map Updates  . . . . . .  31
     9.3.  Example: Advanced Network and Cost Map Updates  . . . . .  34
     9.4.  Example: Endpoint Property Updates  . . . . . . . . . . .  38
   10. Operation and Processing Considerations . . . . . . . . . . .  41
     10.1.  Considerations for Choosing SSE Line Lengths . . . . . .  41
     10.2.  Considerations for Choosing Data Update Messages . . . .  42
     10.3.  Considerations for Client Processing Data Update
            Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43
     10.4.  Considerations for Updates to Filtered Cost Maps . . . .  44
     10.5.  Considerations for Updates to Ordinal Mode Costs . . . .  44
   11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
     11.1.  Update Stream Server: Denial-of-Service Attacks  . . . .  45
     11.2.  ALTO Client: Update Overloading or Instability . . . . .  45
     11.3.  Stream Control: Spoofed Control Requests . . . . . . . .  45
   12. Requirements on Future ALTO Services to Use this Design . . .  46
   13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  46
   14. Alternative Designs Not Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
     14.1.  Why Not HTTP/2 Server-Push . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
     14.2.  Why Not Allowing Stream Restart  . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
   15. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
   16. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51

1.  Introduction

   The Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) [RFC7285] protocol
   provides network related information called network information
   resources to client applications so that clients may make informed
   decisions in utilizing network resources.  For example, an ALTO
   server provides network and cost maps, where a network map partitions
   the set of endpoints into a manageable number of sets each defined by
   a Provider-Defined Identifier (PID), and a cost map provides directed

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   costs between PIDs.  Given network and cost maps, an ALTO client can
   obtain costs between endpoints by first using the network map to get
   the PID for each endpoint, and then using the cost map to get the
   costs between those PIDs.  Such costs can be used by the client to
   choose communicating endpoints with low network costs.

   The ALTO protocol defines only an ALTO client pull model, without
   defining a mechanism to allow an ALTO client to obtain updates to
   network information resources, other than by periodically re-fetching
   them.  In settings where an information resource may be large but
   only parts of it may change frequently (e.g., some entries of a cost
   map), complete re-fetching can be inefficient.

   This document presents a mechanism to allow an ALTO server to push
   incremental updates to ALTO clients.  Integrating server-push and
   incremental updates provides two benefits: (1) updates can be
   immediate, in that the ALTO server can send updates as soon as they
   are available; and (2) updates can be small, in that if only a small
   section of an information resource changes, the ALTO server can send
   just the changes.

   While primarily intended to provide updates to GET-mode network and
   cost maps, the mechanism defined in this document can also provide
   updates to POST-mode ALTO services, such as the endpoint property and
   endpoint cost services.  We intend that the mechanism can also
   support new ALTO services to be defined by future extensions, but a
   future service needs to satisfy requirements specified in Section 12.

   The rest of this document is organized as follows.  Section 4 gives
   background on the basic techniques used in this design: (1) Server-
   Sent Events to allow server push; (2) JSON merge patch and JSON patch
   to allow incremental update.  With the background, Section 5 gives a
   non-normative overview of the design.  Section 6 defines individual
   messages in an update stream, and Section 7 defines the overall
   update stream service; Section 8 defines the stream control service;
   Section 9 gives several examples; Section 10 describes operation and
   processing considerations by both ALTO servers and clients;
   Section 14 discusses two design features that are not supported;
   Section 11 discusses security issues; The last two sections review
   the requirements for future ALTO services to use SSE and IANA
   considerations, respectively.

2.  Major Changes Since Version -01

   To RFC editor: This will be removed in the final version.  We keep
   this section to make clear major changes in the technical content.

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   o  Incremental encoding using JSON patch: Added JSON patch as an
      alternative incremental delta encoding than Merge patch.

   o  Substream-id to allow concurrent updates of the same server
      resource: This design allows an ALTO client to assign a unique
      substream-id when requesting a resource in an update stream.  The
      server puts the substream-id in each update event for that
      resource (before, the server used the server's resource-id).  This
      allows a client to use one update stream to receive updates to
      multiple requests for the same server resource, for example, for a
      POST-mode resource with different input parameters; before, that
      required separate update streams.

   o  Multipart resources: Use generic `data-id` subfield of the `event`
      field to identify the data to be updated.  For all major existing
      data, data-id is the substream-id, but it allows support of
      multipart as well, by adding content-id.

   o  Flexible control: Defined a new "stream control" resource
      (Section 8) to allow a client to add or remove resources from a
      previously created update stream.  The ALTO server creates a new
      stream control resource for each update stream instance, assigns a
      unique URI to it, and sends the URI to the client as the first
      event in the stream.

3.  Terms

   This document uses the following terms: Update Stream, Update Stream
   Server, Update Message, Data Update Message, Full Replacement,
   Incremental Change, Control Update Message, Stream Control Service,
   Stream Control.

   Update Stream: An update stream is an HTTP connection between an ALTO
   client and an ALTO server so that the server can push a sequence of
   update messages using SSE to the client.

   Update Stream Server: We refer to an ALTO server providing an update
   stream as an ALTO update stream server, or update stream server for
   short.  Note that the ALTO server mentioned in this document refers
   to a general server that provides various kinds of services; it can
   be an update stream server or stream control server (see below); it
   can also be a server providing ALTO IRD information.

   Update Message: An update message is either a data update message or
   a control update message.

   Data Update Message: A data update message is for a single ALTO
   information resource and sent from the update stream server to the

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   ALTO client when the resource changes.  A data update message can be
   either a full-replacement message or an incremental-change message.
   Full replacement is a shorthand for a full-replacement message, and
   incremental change is a shorthand for an incremental-change message.

   Full Replacement: A full replacement for a resource encodes the
   content of the resource in its original ALTO encoding.

   Incremental Change: An incremental change specifies only the
   difference between the new content and the previous version.  An
   incremental change can be encoded using either JSON merge patch or
   JSON patch in this document.

   Stream Control Service: An stream control service provides an HTTP
   URI so that the ALTO client of an update stream can use it to send
   stream control requests on the addition or removal of resources
   receiving update messages from the update stream.

   Stream Control: A shorthand for stream control service.

   Stream Control Server: An stream control server providing the stream
   control service.

   Control Update Message: A control update message is a message in an
   update stream for the update stream server to notify the ALTO client
   of related control information of the update stream.  The first
   message of an update stream is a control update message and provides
   the URI using which the ALTO client can send stream control requests
   to the stream control server.  Additional control update messages in
   an update stream allow the update stream server to notify the ALTO
   client of status changes (e.g., the server will no longer send
   updates for an information resource).

4.  Background

   The design requires two basic techniques: server push and encoding of
   incremental changes.  Using existing techniques whenever possible,
   this design uses Server-Sent Events (SSEs) for server push; JSON
   merge patch and JSON patch to encode incremental changes.  Below we
   give a non-normative summary of these two techniques.

4.1.  Server-Sent Events (SSEs)

   The following is a non-normative summary of SSE; see [SSE] for its
   normative definition.

   Server-Sent Events enable a server to send new data to a client by
   "server-push".  The client establishes an HTTP ([RFC7230], [RFC7231])

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   connection to the server and keeps the connection open.  The server
   continually sends messages.  Each message has one or more lines,
   where a line is terminated by a carriage-return immediately followed
   by a new-line, a carriage-return not immediately followed by a new-
   line, or a new-line not immediately preceded by a carriage-return.  A
   message is terminated by a blank line (two line terminators in a
   row).

   Each line in a message is of the form "field-name: string value".
   Lines with a blank field-name (that is, lines which start with a
   colon) are ignored, as are lines which do not have a colon.  The
   protocol defines three field names: event, id, and data.  If a
   message has more than one "data" line, the value of the data field is
   the concatenation of the values on those lines.  There can be only
   one "event" and "id" line per message.  The "data" field is required;
   the others are optional.

   Figure 1 is a sample SSE stream, starting with the client request.
   The server sends three events and then closes the stream.

     (Client request)
     GET /stream HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.com
     Accept: text/event-stream

     (Server response)
     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     Connection: keep-alive
     Content-Type: text/event-stream

     event: start
     id: 1
     data: hello there

     event: middle
     id: 2
     data: let's chat some more ...
     data: and more and more and ...

     event: end
     id: 3
     data: goodbye

                      Figure 1: A Sample SSE stream.

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4.2.  JSON Merge Patch

4.2.1.  JSON Merge Patch Encoding

   To avoid always sending complete data, a server needs mechanisms to
   encode incremental changes.  This design uses JSON merge patch as one
   mechanism.  Below is a non-normative summary of JSON merge patch; see
   [RFC7396] for the normative definition.

   JSON merge patch is intended to allow applications to update server
   resources via the HTTP patch method [RFC5789].  This document adopts
   the JSON merge patch message format to encode incremental changes,
   but uses a different transport mechanism.

   Informally, a JSON merge patch object is a JSON data structure that
   defines how to transform one JSON value into another.  Specifically,
   JSON merge patch treats the two JSON values as trees of nested JSON
   objects (dictionaries of name-value pairs), where the leaves are
   values (e.g., JSON arrays, strings, numbers) other than JSON objects
   and the path for each leaf is the sequence of keys leading to that
   leaf.  When the second tree has a different value for a leaf at a
   path, or adds a new leaf, the JSON merge patch tree has a leaf, at
   that path, with the new value.  When a leaf in the first tree does
   not exist in the second tree, the JSON merge patch tree has a leaf
   with a JSON "null" value.  The JSON merge patch tree does not have an
   entry for any leaf that has the same value in both versions.

   As a result, if all leaf values are simple scalars, JSON merge patch
   is a quite efficient representation of incremental changes.  It is
   less efficient when leaf values are arrays, because JSON merge patch
   replaces arrays in their entirety, even if only one entry changes.

   Formally, the process of applying a JSON merge patch is defined by
   the following recursive algorithm, as specified in [RFC7396]:

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     define MergePatch(Target, Patch) {
       if Patch is an Object {
         if Target is not an Object {
           Target = {} # Ignore the contents and
                       # set it to an empty Object
         }
         for each Name/Value pair in Patch {
           if Value is null {
             if Name exists in Target {
               remove the Name/Value pair from Target
             }
           } else {
             Target[Name] = MergePatch(Target[Name], Value)
           }
         }
         return Target
       } else {
         return Patch
       }
     }

   Note that null as the value of a name/value pair will delete the
   element with "name" in the original JSON value.

4.2.2.  JSON Merge Patch ALTO Messages

   To provide both examples of JSON merge patch and a demonstration of
   the feasibility of applying JSON merge patch to ALTO, we look at the
   application of JSON merge patch to two key ALTO messages.

4.2.2.1.  JSON Merge Patch Network Map Messages

   Section 11.2.1.6 of [RFC7285] defines the format of an ALTO network
   map message.  Assume a simple example ALTO message sending an initial
   network map:

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     {
       "meta" : {
         "vtag": {
           "resource-id" : "my-network-map",
           "tag" : "da65eca2eb7a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785"
         }
       },
       "network-map" : {
         "PID1" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "192.0.2.0/24", "198.51.100.0/25" ]
         },
         "PID2" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "198.51.100.128/25" ]
         },
         "PID3" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "0.0.0.0/0" ],
           "ipv6" : [ "::/0" ]
         }
       }
     }

   Consider the following JSON merge patch update message, which (1)
   adds an ipv4 prefix "193.51.100.0/25" and an ipv6 prefix
   "2001:db8:8000::/33" to "PID1", (2) deletes "PID2", and (3) assigns a
   new "tag" to the network map:

     {
       "meta" : {
         "vtag" : {
           "tag" : "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
         }
       },
       "network-map": {
         "PID1" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "192.0.2.0/24", "198.51.100.0/25",
                      "193.51.100.0/25" ],
           "ipv6" : [ "2001:db8:8000::/33" ]
         },
         "PID2" : null
       }
     }

   Applying the JSON merge patch update to the initial network map is
   equivalent to the following ALTO network map:

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     {
       "meta" : {
         "vtag": {
           "resource-id" : "my-network-map",
           "tag" : "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
         }
       },
       "network-map" : {
         "PID1" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "192.0.2.0/24", "198.51.100.0/25",
                      "193.51.100.0/25" ],
           "ipv6" : [ "2001:db8:8000::/33" ]
         },
         "PID3" : {
           "ipv4" : [ "0.0.0.0/0" ],
           "ipv6" : [ "::/0" ]
         }
       }
     }

4.2.2.2.  JSON Merge Patch Cost Map Messages

   Section 11.2.3.6 of [RFC7285] defines the format of an ALTO cost map
   message.  Assume a simple example ALTO message for an initial cost
   map:

     {
       "meta" : {
         "dependent-vtags" : [
           {"resource-id": "my-network-map",
            "tag": "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
           }
         ],
         "cost-type" : {
           "cost-mode"  : "numerical",
           "cost-metric": "routingcost"
         },
         "vtag": {
           "resource-id" : "my-cost-map",
           "tag" : "3ee2cb7e8d63d9fab71b9b34cbf764436315542e"
         }
       },
       "cost-map" : {
         "PID1": { "PID1": 1,  "PID2": 5,  "PID3": 10 },
         "PID2": { "PID1": 5,  "PID2": 1,  "PID3": 15 },
         "PID3": { "PID1": 20, "PID2": 15  }
       }
     }

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   The following JSON merge patch message updates the example cost map
   so that (1) the "tag" field of the cost map is updated, (2) the cost
   of PID1->PID2 is 9 instead of 5, (3) the cost of PID3->PID1 is no
   longer available, and (4) the cost of PID3->PID3 is defined as 1.

     {
       "meta" : {
         "vtag": {
           "tag": "c0ce023b8678a7b9ec00324673b98e54656d1f6d"
         }
       }
       "cost-map" : {
         "PID1" : { "PID2" : 9 },
         "PID3" : { "PID1" : null, "PID3" : 1 }
       }
     }

   Hence applying the JSON merge patch to the initial cost map is
   equivalent to the following ALTO cost map:

     {
       "meta" : {
         "dependent-vtags" : [
           {"resource-id": "my-network-map",
            "tag": "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
           }
         ],
         "cost-type" : {
           "cost-mode"  : "numerical",
           "cost-metric": "routingcost"
         },
         "vtag": {
           "resource-id": "my-cost-map",
           "tag": "c0ce023b8678a7b9ec00324673b98e54656d1f6d"
         }
       },
       "cost-map" : {
         "PID1": { "PID1": 1,  "PID2": 9,  "PID3": 10 },
         "PID2": { "PID1": 5,  "PID2": 1,  "PID3": 15 },
         "PID3": {             "PID2": 15, "PID3": 1  }
       }
     }

4.3.  JSON Patch

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4.3.1.  JSON Patch Encoding

   One issue of JSON merge patch is that it does not handle array
   changes well.  In particular, JSON merge patch considers an array as
   a single object and hence can only replace an array in its entirety.
   When the change is to make a small change to an array such as the
   deletion of an element from a large array, whole-array replacement is
   inefficient.  Consider the example in Section 4.2.2.1.  To add a new
   entry to the ipv4 array for PID1, the server needs to send a whole
   new array.  Another issue is that JSON merge patch cannot change a
   value to be null, as the JSON merge patch processing algorithm
   (MergePatch in Section 4.2.1) interprets a null as a removal
   instruction.  On the other hand, some ALTO resources can have null
   values, and it is possible that the update will want to change the
   new value to be null.

   JSON patch [RFC6902] can address the preceding issues.  It defines a
   set of operators to modify a JSON object.  Below is a non-normative
   description of JSON patch; see [RFC6902] for the normative
   definition.

4.3.2.  JSON Patch ALTO Messages

   To provide both examples of JSON patch and a demonstration of the
   difference between JSON patch and JSON merge patch, we take a look at
   the application of JSON patch to the same updates shown in
   Section 4.2.2.

4.3.2.1.  JSON Patch Network Map Messages

   First consider the same update as in Section 4.2.2.1 for the network
   map.  Below is the encoding using JSON patch:

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     [
       {
         "op": "replace",
         "path": "/meta/vtag/tag",
         "value": "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
       },
       {
         "op": "add",
         "path": "/network-map/PID1/ipv4/2",
         "value": "193.51.100.0/25"
       }
       {
         "op": "add",
         "path": "/network-map/PID1/ipv6",
         "value": ["2001:db8:8000::/33"]
       },
       {
         "op": "remove",
         "path": "/network-map/PID2"
       }
     ]

4.3.2.2.  JSON Patch Cost Map Messages

   Compared with JSON merge patch, JSON patch does not encode cost map
   updates efficiently.  Consider the cost map update shown in
   Section 4.2.2.2, the encoding using JSON patch is:

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     [
       {
         "op": "replace",
         "path": "/meta/vtag/tag",
         "value": "c0ce023b8678a7b9ec00324673b98e54656d1f6d"
       },
       {
         "op": "replace",
         "path": "/cost-map/PID1/PID2",
         "value": 9
       },
       {
         "op": "remove",
         "path": "/cost-map/PID3/PID1"
       },
       {
         "op": "replace",
         "path": "/cost-map/PID3/PID3",
         "value": 1
       }
     ]

5.  Overview of Approach

   With the preceding background, we now give a non-normative overview
   of the update mechanism to be defined in later sections of this
   document.

   The building block of the update mechanism defined in this document
   is the update stream service (defined in Section 7), where each
   update stream service is a POST-mode service that provides update
   streams.  When an ALTO client requests an update stream service, the
   ALTO client establishes a persistent connection to the update stream
   server, creating an update stream.  The update stream server uses the
   update stream to continuously send a sequence of update messages
   (defined in Section 6) to the ALTO client.  An update stream can
   provide updates to both GET-mode resources, such as ALTO network and
   cost maps, and POST-mode resources, such as ALTO endpoint property
   service.

   An ALTO server may provide any number of update stream services,
   where each update stream may provide updates for a given subset of
   the ALTO server's resources.  An ALTO server's Information Resource
   Directory (IRD) defines the update stream services and declares the
   set of resources for which each update stream service provides
   updates.  The ALTO server selects the resource set for each update
   stream service.  It is recommended that if a resource depends on one
   or more other resource(s) (indicated with the "uses" attribute

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   defined in [RFC7285]), these other resource(s) should also be part of
   that update stream.  Thus the update stream for a cost map should
   also provide updates for the network map on which that cost map
   depends.

   An ALTO client may request any number of update streams
   simultaneously.  Because each update stream consumes resources on the
   update stream server, an update stream server may require client
   authorization and/or authentication, limit the number of open update
   streams, close inactive streams, or redirect an ALTO client to
   another update stream server.

   An ALTO client may use one update stream to receive updates to
   multiple requests.  In particular, the client may request to receive
   updates for the same resource but with different parameters for a
   POST-mode resource.  Hence, the ALTO server needs an identifier to
   indicate the specific request among these multiple requests for an
   update event.  To achieve this goal, the client assigns a unique
   substream-id when requesting a resource in an update stream, and the
   server puts the substream-id in each update event to distinguish the
   updates.

   The key objective of an update stream is to update the ALTO client on
   data value changes to ALTO resources.  This document refers to
   messages sending such updates as data update messages.  Although an
   update stream may update one or more ALTO resources, each data update
   message updates only one resource and is sent as a Server-Sent Event
   (SSE), as defined by [SSE].  A data update message is encoded either
   as a full replacement or as an incremental change.  A full
   replacement uses the JSON message format defined by the ALTO
   protocol.  There can be multiple encodings for incremental changes.
   The current design supports incremental changes using JSON merge
   patch ([RFC7396]) or JSON patch ([RFC6902]) to describe the changes
   of the resource.  Future documents may define additional mechanisms
   for incremental changes.  The update stream server decides when to
   send data update messages, and whether to send full replacements or
   incremental changes.  These decisions can vary from resource to
   resource and from update to update.

   An update stream can run for a long time, and hence there can be
   status changes at the update stream server side during the lifetime
   of an update stream; for example, the update stream server may
   encounter an error or need to shut down for maintenance.  To support
   robust, flexible protocol design, this design allows the update
   stream server to send server control updates (vs data updates) to the
   ALTO client as well, showing as control update messages from the
   update stream server to the ALTO client.

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    ------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                                                                  |
   |            +-------+         +-------+ init request  +-------+   |
   |            |       |         |       | <----------   |       |   |
   | add/remove |       |         |       |               |       |   |
   | resource   |Stream |         |Update | data update   |       |   |
     ---------> |Control| private |Stream | messages      |Client | --
                |Server |<------->|Server | ----------->  |       |
     ---------- |       |         |       |               |       | <-
   | response   |       |         |       | ----------->  |       |   |
   |            |       |         |       | control update|       |   |
   |            +-------+         +-------+ messages      +-------+   |
   |                                                                  |
    ------------------------------------------------------------------

                     Figure 2: ALTO SSE Architecture.

   In addition to control changes triggered from the update stream
   server side, in a flexible design, an ALTO client may initiate
   control changes as well, in particular, by adding or removing ALTO
   resources receiving updates.  An ALTO client initiates such changes
   using the stream control service.  Although one may use a design that
   the client uses the same HTTP connection to send the control
   requests, it requires stronger server support such as HTTP pipeline.
   For more flexibility, this document introduces stream control
   service.  In particular, the update stream server of an update stream
   uses the first message to provide the URI of the stream control
   service.  The ALTO client can then use the URI to ask the update
   stream server to (1) send data update messages for additional
   resources, (2) stop sending data update messages for previously
   requested resources, or (3) gracefully stop and close the update
   stream altogether.  Figure 2 shows the complete ALTO SSE
   architecture.

6.  Update Messages: Data Update and Control Update Messages

   We now define the details of ALTO SSE.  Specifically, an update
   stream consists of a stream of data update messages (Section 6.2) and
   control update messages (Section 6.3).

6.1.  ALTO Update Message Format

   Data update and control update messages have the same basic
   structure: each message includes a data field to provide data
   information, which is typically a JSON object; and an event field
   preceding the data field, to specify the media type indicating the
   encoding of the data field.

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   A data update message needs additional information to identify the
   ALTO data to which the update message applies.  For example, an ALTO
   client can request updates for both a cost map and its dependent
   network map in the same update stream.  The ALTO client assigns
   substream-id "1" in its request to receive updates to the network
   map; and substream-id "2" to the cost map.  For this example, the
   substream-id defines the data to be updated and need to be indicated
   in a data update message.

   Hence, the event field of ALTO update message can include two sub-
   fields (media-type and data-id), where the two sub-fields are
   separated by a comma:

         media-type [ ',' data-id ]

   To allow non-ambiguous decoding of the two sub-fields, the media-type
   name used by ALTO SSE MUST NOT contain a comma (character code 0x2c),
   and the string before the comma is the media-type name.  [To RFC
   editor: please check this conforms to Section 4.2 of [RFC6838] and
   confirms to IANA.]

   Note that an update message does not use the SSE "id" field.

6.2.  ALTO Data Update Message

   A data update message is sent when a monitored resource changes.  In
   [RFC7285], each resource is encoded as a single JSON object.  In the
   general case, a resource may include multiple JSON objects.  This
   document considers the case that a resource may contain multiple
   components (parts) and they are encoded using multipart/related
   [RFC2387].  Each component requiring the service of this document
   MUST be identified by a unique Content-ID to be defined in its
   defining document.

   The `data-id` sub-field identifies the ALTO data to which a data
   update message applies.  For a resource containing only a single JSON
   object, the substream-id assigned by the client when requesting the
   SSE service is enough to identify the data.  In this document,
   substream-ids MUST follow the rules for ALTO ResourceIds
   (Section 10.2 of [RFC7285]).  Substream-ids MUST be unique within an
   update stream, but need not be globally unique.  For a resource using
   multipart/related, the `data-id` sub-field must include the
   substream-id, `.` and the unique Content-ID.

   A data update is either a complete specification of the identified
   data, or else an incremental patch (e.g., a JSON merge patch or JSON
   patch), if possible, describing the changes from the last version of
   the data.  This document refers to these as full replacement and

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   incremental change, respectively.  The encoding of a full replacement
   is defined its defining document (e.g., network and cost map messages
   by [RFC7285], and uses media type defined in that document.  The
   encoding of JSON merge patch is defined by [RFC7396], with media type
   "application/merge-patch+json"; the encoding of JSON patch is defined
   by [RFC6902], with media type "application/json-patch+json".

   Figure 3 shows some examples of ALTO data update messages:

     event: application/alto-networkmap+json,1
     data: { ... full network map message ... }

     event: application/alto-costmap+json,2
     data: { ... full cost map message ... }

     event: application/merge-patch+json,2
     data: { ... JSON merge patch update for the cost map ... }

             Figure 3: Examples of ALTO data update messages.

6.3.  ALTO Control Update Message

   Control update messages have the media type "application/alto-
   updatestreamcontrol+json", and the data is of type
   UpdateStreamControlEvent:

     object {
        [String       control-uri;]
        [SubstreamId     started<1..*>;]
        [SubstreamId     stopped<1..*>;]
        [String       description;]
     } UpdateStreamControlEvent;

   control-uri:  the URI providing stream control for this update stream
        (see Section 8).  The server MUST send a control update message
        with an URI as the first event in an update stream.  If the URI
        is NULL, the update stream server does not support stream
        control for this update stream; otherwise, the update stream
        server provides stream control through the given URI.

   started:  a list of substream-ids of resources.  It notifies the ALTO
        client that the update stream server will start sending data
        update messages for each resource listed.

   stopped:  a list of substream-ids of resources.  It notifies the ALTO
        client that the update stream server will no longer send data
        update messages for the listed resources.  There can be multiple
        reasons for an update stream server to stop sending data update

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        messages for a resource, including a request from the ALTO
        client using stream control (Section 7.7.1) or an internal
        server event.

   description:  a non-normative text providing an explanation for the
        control event.  When an update stream server stops sending data
        update messages for a resource, it is RECOMMENDED that the
        update stream server use the description field to provide
        details.

7.  Update Stream Service

   An update stream service returns a stream of update messages, as
   defined in Section 6.  An ALTO server's IRD (Information Resource
   Directory) MAY define one or more update stream services, which ALTO
   clients use to request new update stream instances.

7.1.  Media Type

   The media type of an ALTO update stream service is "text/event-
   stream", as defined by [SSE].

7.2.  HTTP Method

   An ALTO update stream service is requested using the HTTP POST
   method.

7.3.  Accept Input Parameters

   An ALTO client specifies the parameters for the new update stream by
   sending an HTTP POST body with the media type "application/alto-
   updatestreamparams+json".  That body contains a JSON Object of type
   UpdateStreamReq, where:

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     object {
        [AddUpdatesReq   add;]
        [SubstreamId        remove<0..*>;]
     } UpdateStreamReq;

     object-map {
        SubstreamId -> AddUpdateReq;
     } AddUpdatesReq;

     object {
        String       resource-id;
        [String      tag;]
        [Boolean     incremental-changes;]
        [Object      input;]
     } AddUpdateReq;

   add: specifies the resources (and the parameters for the resources)
        for which the ALTO client wants updates.  We say that the add-
        request creates a substream.  The ALTO client MUST assign a
        unique substream-id (Section 6.1) for each entry, and uses those
        substream-ids as the keys in the "add" field.

   resource-id:  the resource-id of an ALTO resource, and MUST be in the
        update stream's "uses" list (Section 8.5.2 of Section 7.5).  If
        the resource-id is a GET-mode resource with a version tag (or
        "vtag"), as defined in Section 6.3 and Section 10.3 of
        [RFC7285], and the ALTO client has previously retrieved a
        version of that resource from the update stream server, the ALTO
        client MAY set the "tag" field to the tag part of the client's
        version of that resource.  If that version is not current, the
        update stream server MUST send a full replacement before sending
        any incremental changes, as described in Section 7.7.1.  If that
        version is still current, the update stream server MAY omit the
        initial full replacement.

   incremental-changes:  the ALTO client specifies whether it is willing
        to receive incremental changes from the update stream server for
        this substream.  If the "incremental-changes" field is "true",
        the update stream server MAY send incremental changes for this
        substream (assuming the update stream server supports
        incremental changes for) that resource; see
        Section Section 7.4).  If the "incremental-changes" field is
        "false", the update stream server MUST NOT send incremental
        changes for that substream.  The default value for "incremental-
        changes" is "true", so to suppress incremental changes, the ALTO
        client MUST explicitly set "incremental-changes" to "false".  An
        alternative design of incremental-changes control is a more
        fine-grained control, by allowing a client to select the subset

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        of incremental methods from the set announced in the server's
        capabilities (see Section Section 7.4).  But this adds
        complexity to server, which is more likely to be the bottleneck.
        Note that the ALTO client cannot suppress full replacement.
        When the ALTO client sets "incremental-changes" to "false", the
        update stream server MUST send a full replacement instead of an
        incremental change to the ALTO client.  The update stream server
        MAY wait until more changes are available, and send a single
        full replacement with those changes.  Thus an ALTO client which
        declines to accept incremental changes may not get updates as
        quickly as an ALTO client which does.

   input:  If the resource is a POST-mode service which requires input,
        the ALTO client MUST set the "input" field to a JSON Object with
        the parameters that the resource expects.

   remove:  it is used in update stream control requests (Section 8),
        and is not allowed in the update stream request.  The update
        stream server SHOULD ignore this field if it is included in the
        request.

   If a request has any errors, the update stream server MUST NOT create
   an update stream.  Also, the update stream server will send an error
   response to the ALTO client as specified in Section 7.6.

7.4.  Capabilities

   The capabilities are defined as an object of type
   UpdateStreamCapabilities:

     object {
       IncrementalUpdateMediaTypes incremental-change-media-types;
       Boolean                     support-stream-control;
     } UpdateStreamCapabilities;

     object-map {
        ResourceID -> String;
     } IncrementalUpdateMediaTypes;

   If this update stream can provide data update messages with
   incremental changes for a resource, the "incremental-change-media-
   types" field has an entry for that resource-id, and the value is the
   media-type of the incremental change.  Normally this will be
   "application/merge-patch+json", "application/json-patch+json", or
   "application/merge-patch+json,application/json-patch+json", because,
   as described in Section 6, they are the only incremental change types
   defined by this document.  However future extensions may define other
   types of incremental changes.

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   When choosing the media-type to encode incremental changes for a
   resource, the update stream server SHOULD consider the limitations of
   the encoding.  For example, when a JSON merge patch specifies that
   the value of a field is null, its semantics is that the field is
   removed from the target, and hence the field is no longer defined
   (i.e., undefined); see the MergePatch algorithm in Section 4.2.1 on
   how null value is processed.  This, however, may not be the intended
   result for the resource, when null and undefined have different
   semantics for the resource.  In such a case, the update stream server
   SHOULD choose JSON patch over JSON merge patch.

   The "support-stream-control" field specifies whether the given update
   stream supports stream control.  If "support-stream-control" field is
   "true", the update stream server will uses the stream control
   specified in this document; else, the update stream server may use
   other mechanisms to provide the same functionality as stream control.

7.5.  Uses

   The "uses" attribute MUST be an array with the resource-ids of every
   resource for which this update stream can provide updates.  Each
   resource specified in the "uses" MUST support full replacement: the
   update stream server can always send full replacement, and the ALTO
   client MUST accept full replacement.

   This set may be any subset of the ALTO server's resources, and may
   include resources defined in linked IRDs.  However, it is RECOMMENDED
   that the ALTO server selects a set that is closed under the resource
   dependency relationship.  That is, if an update stream's "uses" set
   includes resource R1, and resource R1 depends on ("uses") resource
   R0, then the update stream's "uses" set SHOULD include R0 as well as
   R1.  For example, an update stream for a cost map SHOULD also provide
   updates for the network map upon which that cost map depends.

7.6.  Response

   If the update stream request has any errors, the update stream server
   MUST return an HTTP "400 Bad Request" to the ALTO client.  The body
   part of the HTTP response is the JSON object defined in Section 8.5.2
   in [RFC7285].  Hence, an ALTO error response has the format:

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          HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
          Content-Length: [TBD]
          Content-Type: application/alto-error+json
          Connection: Closed

          {
              "meta":{
                  "code":  "***",
                  "field": "***",
                  "value": "***"
              }
          }

   Note that "field" and "value" are optional fields.  If the "value"
   field exists, the "field" field MUST exist.

   o  If an update stream request does not have an "add" field
      specifying one or more resources, the error code of the error
      message MUST be E_MISSING_FIELD and the "field" field SHOULD be
      "add".  The update stream server MUST close the stream without
      sending any events.

   o  If the "resource-id" field is invalid, or is not associated with
      the update stream, the error code of the error message MUST be
      E_INVALID_FIELD_VALUE; the "field" field SHOULD be "resource-id"
      and the "value" field SHOULD be the invalid resource-id.  If there
      are more than one invalid resource-ids, the update stream server
      SHOULD pick one and return it.  The update stream server MUST
      close the stream without sending any events.

   o  If the resource is a POST-mode service which requires input, the
      client MUST set the "input" field to a JSON Object with the
      parameters that that resource expects.  If the "input" field is
      missing or invalid, the update stream server MUST return the same
      error response that that resource would return for missing or
      invalid input (see [RFC7285]).  In this case, the update stream
      server MUST close the update stream without sending any events.
      If the input for several POST-mode resources are missing or
      invalid, the update stream server MUST pick one and return it.

   The response to a valid request is a stream of update messages.
   Section 6 defines the update messages, and [SSE] defines how they are
   encoded into a stream.

   An update stream server SHOULD send updates only when the underlying
   values change.  However, it may be difficult for an update stream

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   server to guarantee that in all circumstances.  Therefore a client
   MUST NOT assume that an update message represents an actual change.

7.7.  Additional Requirements on Update Messages

7.7.1.  Event Sequence Requirements

   o  The first event MUST be a control update message with the URI of
      the update stream control service Section 8 for this update
      stream.

   o  As soon as possible after the ALTO client initiates the
      connection, the update stream server MUST send a full replacement
      for each resource-id requested with a version tag.  In this case
      the update stream server MAY omit the initial full replacement for
      that resource, if the "tag" field the ALTO client provided for
      that resource-id matches the tag of the update stream's current
      version.

   o  If this update stream provides update for resource-ids and R0 and
      R1, and if R1 depends on R0, then the update stream server MUST
      send the update for R0 before sending the related updates for R1.
      For example, suppose an update stream provides updates to a
      network map and its dependent cost maps.  When the network map
      changes, the update stream server MUST send the network map update
      before sending the cost map updates.

   o  When the ALTO client uses the stream control service to stop
      updates for one or more resources Section 8, the ALTO client MUST
      send a stream control request.  The update stream server MUST send
      a control update message whose "stopped" field has the substream-
      ids of all active resources.

7.7.2.  Cross-Stream Consistency Requirements

   If several ALTO clients create multiple update streams for updates to
   the same resource, the update stream server MUST send the same
   updates to all of them.  However, the update stream server MAY pack
   data items into different patch events, as long as the net result of
   applying those updates is the same.

   For example, suppose two different ALTO clients create update streams
   for the same cost map, and suppose the update stream server processes
   three separate cost point updates with a brief pause between each
   update.  The server MUST send all three new cost points to both
   clients.  But the update stream server MAY send a single patch event
   (with all three cost points) to one ALTO client, while sending three

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   separate patch events (with one cost point per event) to the other
   ALTO client.

   A update stream server MAY offer several different update stream
   resources that provide updates to the same underlying resource (that
   is, a resource-id may appear in the "uses" field of more than one
   update stream resource).  In this case, those update stream resources
   MUST return the same update data.

7.7.3.  Multipart Update Requirements

   This design allows any valid media type for full replacement.  Hence,
   it supports ALTO resources using multipart to contain multiple JSON
   objects.  This realizes the push benefit, but not the incremental
   encoding benefit of SSE.

   JSON Patch and Merge Patch provide the incremental encoding benefit
   but can be applied to only a single JSON object.  If an update stream
   service (1) supports a resource providing a multipart media type and
   (2) specifies an incremental media type for the resource in its
   capabilities, the server MUST (1) use substream-id.content-id in its
   `event` field, (2) include the content-id in the multipart message,
   and (3) the content identified by the content-id must be a single
   JSON object.

7.8.  Keep-Alive Messages

   In an SSE stream, any line which starts with a colon (U+003A)
   character is a comment, and an ALTO client MUST ignore that line
   ([SSE]).  As recommended in [SSE], an update stream server SHOULD
   send a comment line (or an event) every 15 seconds to prevent ALTO
   clients and proxy servers from dropping the HTTP connection.

8.  Stream Control Service

   An stream control service allows an ALTO client to remove resources
   from the set of resources that are monitored by an update stream, or
   add additional resources to that set.  The service also allows an
   ALTO client to gracefully shut down an update stream.

   When an update stream server creates a new update stream, and if the
   update stream server supports stream control for the update stream,
   the update stream server creates a stream control service for that
   update stream.  An ALTO client uses the stream control service to
   remove resources from the update stream instance, or to request
   updates for additional resources.  An ALTO client cannot obtain the
   stream control service through the IRD.  Instead, the first event

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   that the update stream server sends to the ALTO client has the URI
   for the associated stream control service (see Section 6.3).

   Each stream control request is an individual HTTP request.  If the
   ALTO client and the stream control server the ALTO client MAY send
   multiple stream control requests to the stream control server using
   the same HTTP connection.

8.1.  URI

   The URI for an stream control service, by itself, MUST uniquely
   specify the update stream instance which it controls.  The stream
   control server MUST NOT use other properties of an HTTP request, such
   as cookies or the client's IP address, to determine the update
   stream.  Furthermore, an update stream server MUST NOT reuse a
   control service URI once the associated update stream has been
   closed.

   The ALTO client MUST evaluate a non-absolute control URI (for
   example, a URI without a host, or with a relative path) in the
   context of the URI used to create the update stream.  The stream
   control service's host MAY be different from the update stream's
   host.

   It is expected that the update stream server will assign a unique
   stream id to each update stream instance and will embed that id in
   the associated stream control URI.  However, the exact mechanism is
   left to the update stream server.  ALTO clients MUST NOT attempt to
   deduce a stream id from the control URI.

   To prevent an attacker from forging a stream control URI and sending
   bogus requests to disrupt other update streams, stream control URIs
   SHOULD contain sufficient random redundancy to make it difficult to
   guess valid URIs.

8.2.  Media Type

   An ALTO stream control response does not have a specific media type.

8.3.  HTTP Method

   An ALTO update stream control resource is requested using the HTTP
   POST method.

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8.4.  Accept Input Parameters

   An stream control service accepts the same input media type and input
   parameters as the update stream service (Section 7.3).  The only
   difference is that a stream control service also accepts the "remove"
   field.

   If specified, the "remove" field is an array of substream-ids the
   ALTO client previously added to this update stream.  An empty
   "remove" array is equivalent to a list of all currently active
   resources; the update stream server responds by removing all
   resources and closing the stream.

   An ALTO client MAY use the "add" field to add additional resources.
   However, the ALTO client MUST assign a unique substream-id to each
   resource.  Substream-ids MUST be unique over the lifetime of this
   update stream: an ALTO client MUST NOT reuse a previously removed
   substream-id.

   If a request has any errors, the update stream server MUST NOT add or
   remove any resources from the associated update stream.  Also, the
   stream control server will return an error response to the client as
   specified in Section 8.6.

8.5.  Capabilities & Uses

   None (Stream control services do not appear in the IRD).

8.6.  Response

   The stream control server MUST process the "add" field before the
   "remove" field.  If the request removes all active resources without
   adding any additional resources, the update stream server MUST close
   the update stream.  Thus an update stream cannot have zero resources.

   If the request has any errors, the stream control server MUST return
   an HTTP "400 Bad Request" to the ALTO client.  The body part of the
   HTTP response is the JSON object defined in Section 8.5.2 in
   [RFC7285].  An error response has the same format as specified in
   Section 7.6.  Detailed error code and error information are specified
   as below.

   o  If the "add" request does not satisfy the requirements in
      Section 7.3, the stream control server MUST return the ALTO error
      message defined in Section 7.6.

   o  If any substream-id in the "remove" field was not added in a prior
      request, the error code of the error message MUST be

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      E_INVALID_FIELD_VALUE; the "field" field SHOULD be "remove" and
      the "value" field SHOULD be the array of the invalid substream-
      ids.  Thus it is illegal to "add" and "remove" the same substream-
      id in the same request.  However, it is legal to remove a
      substream-id twice.

   o  If any substream-id in the "add" field has been used before in
      this stream, the error code of the error message MUST be
      E_INVALID_FIELD_VALUE, the "field" field SHOULD be "add" and the
      "value" field SHOULD be the array of invalid substream-ids.

   o  If the request has a non-empty "add" field and a "remove" field
      with an empty list of substream-ids (to replace all active
      resources with a new set, the client MUST explicitly enumerate the
      substream-ids to be removed), the error code of the error message
      MUST be E_INVALID_FIELD_VALUE; the "field" field SHOULD be
      "remove" and the "value" field SHOULD be an empty array.

   If the request is valid but the associated update stream has been
   closed.  The stream control server MUST return an HTTP "404 Not
   Found".

   If the request is valid and the stream control server successfully
   processes the request without error, the stream control server should
   return either an HTTP "202 Accepted" response or an HTTP "204 No
   Content" response.  The difference is that for the latter case, the
   stream control server is sure that the update stream server has also
   processed the request.  Regardless of 202 or 204 HTTP response, the
   final updates of related resources will be notified by the update
   stream server using its control update message(s), due to our modular
   design.

9.  Examples

9.1.  Example: IRD Announcing Update Stream Services

   Below is an example IRD announcing two update stream services.  The
   first, which is named "update-my-costs", provides updates for the
   network map, the "routingcost" and "hopcount" cost maps, and a
   filtered cost map resource.  The second, which is named "update-my-
   prop", provides updates to the endpoint properties service.

   Note that in the "update-my-costs" update stream shown in the example
   IRD, the update stream server uses JSON patch for network map, and it
   uses JSON merge patch to update the other resources.  Also, the
   update stream will only provide full replacements for "my-simple-
   filtered-cost-map".

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   Also, note that this IRD defines two filtered cost map resources.
   They use the same cost types, but "my-filtered-cost-map" accepts cost
   constraint tests, while "my-simple-filtered-cost-map" does not.  To
   avoid the issues discussed in Section 10.4, the update stream
   provides updates for the second, but not the first.

     "my-network-map": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/networkmap",
       "media-type": "application/alto-networkmap+json",
     },
     "my-routingcost-map": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/costmap/routingcost",
       "media-type": "application/alto-costmap+json",
       "uses": ["my-networkmap"],
       "capabilities": {
         "cost-type-names": ["num-routingcost"]
       }
     },
     "my-hopcount-map": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/costmap/hopcount",
       "media-type": "application/alto-costmap+json",
       "uses": ["my-networkmap"],
       "capabilities": {
         "cost-type-names": ["num-hopcount"]
       }
     },
     "my-filtered-cost-map": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/costmap/filtered/constraints",
       "media-type": "application/alto-costmap+json",
       "accepts": "application/alto-costmapfilter+json",
       "uses": ["my-networkmap"],
       "capabilities": {
         "cost-type-names": ["num-routingcost", "num-hopcount"],
         "cost-constraints": true
       }
     },
     "my-simple-filtered-cost-map": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/costmap/filtered/simple",
       "media-type": "application/alto-costmap+json",
       "accepts": "application/alto-costmapfilter+json",
       "uses": ["my-networkmap"],
       "capabilities": {
         "cost-type-names": ["num-routingcost", "num-hopcount"],
         "cost-constraints": false
       }
     },
     "my-props": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/properties",

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       "media-type": "application/alto-endpointprops+json",
       "accepts": "application/alto-endpointpropparams+json",
       "capabilities": {
         "prop-types": ["priv:ietf-bandwidth"]
       }
     },
     "update-my-costs": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/updates/costs",
       "media-type": "text/event-stream",
       "accepts": "application/alto-updatestreamparams+json",
       "uses": [
          "my-network-map",
          "my-routingcost-map",
          "my-hopcount-map",
          "my-simple-filtered-cost-map"
       ],
       "capabilities": {
         "incremental-change-media-types": {
           "my-network-map": "application/json-patch+json",
           "my-routingcost-map": "application/merge-patch+json",
           "my-hopcount-map": "application/merge-patch+json"
         },
         "support-stream-control": true
       }
     },
     "update-my-props": {
       "uri": "http://alto.example.com/updates/properties",
       "media-type": "text/event-stream",
       "uses": [ "my-props" ],
       "accepts": "application/alto-updatestreamparams+json",
       "capabilities": {
         "incremental-change-media-types": {
           "my-props": "application/merge-patch+json"
         },
         "support-stream-control": true
       }
     }

9.2.  Example: Simple Network and Cost Map Updates

   Given the update streams announced in the preceding example IRD,
   below we show an example of an ALTO client's request and the update
   stream server's immediate response, using the update stream resource
   "update-my-costs".  In the example, the ALTO client requests updates
   for the network map and "routingcost" cost map, but not for the
   "hopcount" cost map.  The ALTO client uses the ALTO server's
   resource-ids as the substream-ids.  Because the client does not
   provide a "tag" for the network map, the update stream server must

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   send a full replacement for the network map as well as for the cost
   map.  The ALTO client does not set "incremental-changes" to "false",
   so it defaults to "true".  Thus, the update stream server will send
   patch updates for the cost map and the network map.

     POST /updates/costs HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/event-stream,application/alto-error+json
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     { "add": {
         "my-network-map": {
           "resource-id": "my-network-map"
           },
         "my-routingcost-map": {
           "resource-id": "my-routingcost-map"
         }
       }
     }

     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     Connection: keep-alive
     Content-Type: text/event-stream

     event: application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json
     data: {"control-uri":
     data: "http://alto.example.com/updates/streams/3141592653589"}

     event: application/alto-networkmap+json,my-network-map
     data: {
     data:   "meta" : {
     data:     "vtag": {
     data:       "resource-id" : "my-network-map",
     data:         "tag" : "da65eca2eb7a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785"
     data:       }
     data:     },
     data:     "network-map" : {
     data:       "PID1" : {
     data:         "ipv4" : [ "192.0.2.0/24", "198.51.100.0/25" ]
     data:       },
     data:       "PID2" : {
     data:         "ipv4" : [ "198.51.100.128/25" ]
     data:       },
     data:       "PID3" : {
     data:         "ipv4" : [ "0.0.0.0/0" ],
     data:         "ipv6" : [ "::/0" ]
     data:       }

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     data:     }
     data:   }
     data: }

     event: application/alto-costmap+json,my-routingcost-map
     data: {
     data:   "meta" : {
     data:     "dependent-vtags" : [{
     data:       "resource-id": "my-network-map",
     data:       "tag": "da65eca2eb7a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785"
     data:     }],
     data:     "cost-type" : {
     data:       "cost-mode"  : "numerical",
     data:       "cost-metric": "routingcost"
     data:     },
     data:     "vtag": {
     data:       "resource-id" : "my-routingcost-map",
     data:       "tag" : "3ee2cb7e8d63d9fab71b9b34cbf764436315542e"
     data:     }
     data:   },
     data:   "cost-map" : {
     data:     "PID1": { "PID1": 1,  "PID2": 5,  "PID3": 10 },
     data:     "PID2": { "PID1": 5,  "PID2": 1,  "PID3": 15 },
     data:     "PID3": { "PID1": 20, "PID2": 15  }
     data:   }
     data: }

   After sending those events immediately, the update stream server will
   send additional events as the maps change.  For example, the
   following represents a small change to the cost map.  PID1->PID2 is
   changed to 9 from 5, PID3->PID1 is no longer available and PID3->PID3
   is now defined as 1:

     event: application/merge-patch+json,my-routingcost-map
     data: {
     data:   "meta" : {
     data:     "vtag": {
     data:       "tag": "c0ce023b8678a7b9ec00324673b98e54656d1f6d"
     data:     }
     data:   },
     data:   "cost-map": {
     data:     "PID1" : { "PID2" : 9 },
     data:     "PID3" : { "PID1" : null, "PID3" : 1 }
     data:   }
     data: }

   As another example, the following represents a change to the network
   map: an ipv4 prefix "193.51.100.0/25" is added to PID1.  It triggers

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   changes to the cost map.  The update stream server chooses to send an
   incremental change for the network map and send a full replacement
   instead of an incremental change for the cost map:

         event: application/json-patch+json,my-network-map
         data: {
         data:   {
         data:     "op": "replace",
         data:     "path": "/meta/vtag/tag",
         data:     "value" :"a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
         data:   },
         data:   {
         data:     "op": "add",
         data:     "path": "/network-map/PID1/ipv4/2",
         data:     "value": "193.51.100.0/25"
         data:   }
         data: }

         event: application/alto-costmap+json,my-routingcost-map
         data: {
         data:   "meta" : {
         data:     "vtag": {
         data:       "tag": "c0ce023b8678a7b9ec00324673b98e54656d1f6d"
         data:     }
         data:   },
         data:   "cost-map" : {
         data:     "PID1": { "PID1": 1,  "PID2": 3,  "PID3": 7 },
         data:     "PID2": { "PID1": 12,  "PID2": 1,  "PID3": 9 },
         data:     "PID3": { "PID1": 14, "PID2": 8  }
         data:   }
         data: }

9.3.  Example: Advanced Network and Cost Map Updates

   This example is similar to the previous one, except that the ALTO
   client requests updates for the "hopcount" cost map as well as the
   "routingcost" cost map and provides the current version tag of the
   network map, so the update stream server is not required to send the
   full network map data update message at the beginning of the stream.
   In this example, the client uses the substream-ids "net", "routing"
   and "hops" for those resources.  The update stream server sends the
   stream control URI and the full cost maps, followed by updates for
   the network map and cost maps as they become available:

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     POST /updates/costs HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/event-stream,application/alto-error+json
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     { "add": {
         "net": {
           "resource-id": "my-network-map".
           "tag": "a10ce8b059740b0b2e3f8eb1d4785acd42231bfe"
           },
         "routing": {
           "resource-id": "my-routingcost-map"
           },
         "hops": {
           "resource-id": "my-hopcount-map"
         }
       }
     }

     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     Connection: keep-alive
     Content-Type: text/event-stream

     event: application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json
     data: {"control-uri":
     data: "http://alto.example.com/updates/streams/2718281828459"}

     event: application/alto-costmap+json,routing
     data: { ... full routingcost cost map message ... }

     event: application/alto-costmap+json,hops
     data: { ... full hopcount cost map message ... }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,routing
     data: {"cost-map": {"PID2" : {"PID3" : 31}}}

     event: application/merge-patch+json,hops
     data: {"cost-map": {"PID2" : {"PID3" : 4}}}

   If the ALTO client wishes to stop receiving updates for the
   "hopcount" cost map, the ALTO client can send a "remove" request on
   the stream control URI:

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     POST /updates/streams/2718281828459" HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/plain,application/alto-error+json
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     {
       "remove": [ "hops" ]
     }

     HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
     Content-Length: 0

         (stream closed without sending data content)

   The update stream server sends a "stopped" control update message on
   the original request stream to inform the ALTO client that updates
   are stopped for that resource:

     event: application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json
     data: {
     data:   "stopped": ["hops"]
     data: }

   Below is an example of an invalid stream control request.  The
   "remove" field of the request includes an undefined substream-id and
   the stream control server will return an error response to the ALTO
   client.

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         POST /updates/streams/2718281828459 HTTP/1.1
         Host: alto.example.com
         Accept: text/plain,application/alto-error+json
         Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
         Content-Length: ###
         {
           "remove": [ "properties" ]
         }

         HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
         Content-Length: [TBD]
         Content-Type: application/alto-error+json

         {
           "meta":{
           "code": "E_INVALID_FIELD_VALUE",
           "field": "remove",
           "value": "properties"
         }

   If the ALTO client no longer needs any updates, and wishes to shut
   the update stream down gracefully, the client can send a "remove"
   request with an empty array:

     POST /updates/streams/2718281828459 HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/plain,application/alto-error+json
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     {
       "remove": [ ]
     }

     HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
     Content-Length: 0

         (stream closed without sending data content)

   The update stream server sends a final control update message on the
   original request stream to inform the ALTO client that all updates
   are stopped and then closes the stream:

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     event: application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json
     data: {
     data:   "stopped": ["net", "routing"]
     data: }

         (server closes stream)

9.4.  Example: Endpoint Property Updates

   As another example, here is how an ALTO client can request updates
   for the property "priv:ietf-bandwidth" for one set of endpoints and
   "priv:ietf-load" for another.  The update stream server immediately
   sends full replacements with the property values for all endpoints.
   After that, the update stream server sends data update messages for
   the individual endpoints as their property values change.

     POST /updates/properties HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/event-stream
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     { "add": {
         "props-1": {
           "resource-id": "my-props",
           "input": {
             "properties" : [ "priv:ietf-bandwidth" ],
             "endpoints" : [
               "ipv4:198.51.100.1",
               "ipv4:198.51.100.2",
               "ipv4:198.51.100.3"
             ]
           }
         },
         "props-2": {
           "resource-id": "my-props",
           "input": {
             "properties" : [ "priv:ietf-load" ],
             "endpoints" : [
               "ipv6:2001:db8:100::1",
               "ipv6:2001:db8:100::2",
               "ipv6:2001:db8:100::3",
             ]
           }
         },
       }
     }

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     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     Connection: keep-alive
     Content-Type: text/event-stream

     event: application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json
     data: {"control-uri":
     data: "http://alto.example.com/updates/streams/1414213562373"}

     event: application/alto-endpointprops+json,props-1
     data: { "endpoint-properties": {
     data:     "ipv4:198.51.100.1" : { "priv:ietf-bandwidth": "13" },
     data:     "ipv4:198.51.100.2" : { "priv:ietf-bandwidth": "42" },
     data:     "ipv4:198.51.100.3" : { "priv:ietf-bandwidth": "27" }
     data:  } }

     event: application/alto-endpointprops+json,props-2
     data: { "endpoint-properties": {
     data:     "ipv6:2001:db8:100::1" : { "priv:ietf-load": "8" },
     data:     "ipv6:2001:db8:100::2" : { "priv:ietf-load": "2" },
     data:     "ipv6:2001:db8:100::3" : { "priv:ietf-load": "9" }
     data:  } }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,props-1
     data: { "endpoint-properties":
     data:   {"ipv4:198.51.100.1" : {"priv:ietf-bandwidth": "3"}}
     data: }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,props-2
     data: { "endpoint-properties":
     data:   {"ipv6:2001:db8:100::3" : {"priv:ietf-load": "7"}}
     data: }

   If the ALTO client needs the "bandwidth" property for additional
   endpoints, the ALTO client can send an "add" request on the stream
   control URI:

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     POST /updates/streams/1414213562373" HTTP/1.1
     Host: alto.example.com
     Accept: text/plain,application/alto-error+json
     Content-Type: application/alto-updatestreamparams+json
     Content-Length: ###

     { "add": {
         "props-3": {
           "resource-id": "my-props",
           "input": {
             "properties" : [ "priv:ietf-bandwidth" ],
             "endpoints" : [
               "ipv4:198.51.100.4",
               "ipv4:198.51.100.5",
             ]
           }
         },
         "props-4": {
           "resource-id": "my-props",
           "input": {
             "properties" : [ "priv:ietf-load" ],
             "endpoints" : [
               "ipv6:2001:db8:100::4",
               "ipv6:2001:db8:100::5",
             ]
           }
         },
       }
     }

     HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
     Content-Length: 0

         (stream closed without sending data content)

   The update stream server sends full replacements for the two new
   resources, followed by incremental changes for all four requests as
   they arrive:

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     event: application/alto-endpointprops+json,props-3
     data: { "endpoint-properties": {
     data:     "ipv4:198.51.100.4" : { "priv:ietf-bandwidth": "25" },
     data:     "ipv4:198.51.100.5" : { "priv:ietf-bandwidth": "31" },
     data:  } }

     event: application/alto-endpointprops+json,props-4
     data: { "endpoint-properties": {
     data:     "ipv6:2001:db8:100::4" : { "priv:ietf-load": "6" },
     data:     "ipv6:2001:db8:100::5" : { "priv:ietf-load": "4" },
     data:  } }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,props-3
     data: { "endpoint-properties":
     data:   {"ipv4:198.51.100.5" : {"priv:ietf-bandwidth": "15"}}
     data: }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,props-2
     data: { "endpoint-properties":
     data:   {"ipv6:2001:db8:100::2" : {"priv:ietf-load": "9"}}
     data: }

        (pause)

     event: application/merge-patch+json,props-4
     data: { "endpoint-properties":
     data:   {"ipv6:2001:db8:100::4" : {"priv:ietf-load": "3"}}
     data: }

10.  Operation and Processing Considerations

10.1.  Considerations for Choosing SSE Line Lengths

   SSE was designed for events that consist of relatively small amounts
   of line-oriented text data, and SSE clients frequently read input one
   line-at-a-time.  However, an update stream sends full cost maps as
   single events, and a cost map may involve megabytes, if not tens of
   megabytes, of text.  This has implications for both the update stream
   server and the ALTO Client.

   First, SSE clients might not be able to handle a multi-megabyte data
   "line".  Hence it is RECOMMENDED that an update stream server limit
   data lines to at most 2,000 characters.

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   Second, some SSE client packages read all the data for an event into
   memory, and then present it to the client as a single character
   array.  However, a client computer may not have enough memory to hold
   the entire JSON text for a large cost map.  Hence an ALTO client
   SHOULD consider using an SSE library which presents the event data in
   manageable chunks, so the ALTO client can parse the cost map
   incrementally and store the underlying data in a more compact format.

10.2.  Considerations for Choosing Data Update Messages

   The choice on data update messages depends on both how frequently the
   resources will change, and how extensive those changes will be.  For
   stable resources with minor changes, the update stream server may
   choose to send incremental changes; for resources that frequently
   change, the update stream server may choose to send a full
   replacement after a while.  Whether to send full replacement or
   incremental change depends on the update stream server.

   For incremental updates, this design allows both JSON patch and JSON
   merge patch for incremental changes.  JSON merge patch is clearly
   superior to JSON patch for describing incremental changes to Cost
   Maps, Endpoint Costs, and Endpoint Properties.  For these data
   structures, JSON merge patch is more space-efficient, as well as
   simpler to apply; we see no advantage to allowing a server to use
   JSON patch for those resources.

   The case is not as clear for incremental changes to network maps.

   First, consider small changes such as moving a prefix from one PID to
   another.  JSON patch could encode that as a simple insertion and
   deletion, while JSON merge patch would have to replace the entire
   array of prefixes for both PIDs.  On the other hand, to process a
   JSON patch update, the ALTO client would have to retain the indexes
   of the prefixes for each PID.  Logically, the prefixes in a PID are
   an unordered set, not an array; aside from handling updates, a client
   has no need to retain the array indexes of the prefixes.  Hence to
   take advantage of JSON patch for network maps, ALTO clients would
   have to retain additional, otherwise unnecessary, data.

   Second, consider more involved changes such as removing half of the
   prefixes from a PID.  JSON merge patch would send a new array for
   that PID, while JSON patch would have to send a list of remove
   operations and delete the prefix one by one.

   Therefore, each update stream server may decide on its own whether to
   use JSON merge patch or JSON patch according to the changes in
   network maps.

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   Other JSON-based incremental change formats may be introduced in the
   future.

10.3.  Considerations for Client Processing Data Update Messages

   In general, when an ALTO client receives a full replacement for a
   resource, the ALTO client should replace the current version with the
   new version.  When an ALTO client receives an incremental change for
   a resource, the ALTO client should apply those patches to the current
   version of the resource.

   However, because resources can depend on other resources (e.g., cost
   maps depend on network maps), an ALTO client MUST NOT use a dependent
   resource if the resource on which it depends has changed.  There are
   at least two ways an ALTO client can do that.  We will illustrate
   these techniques by referring to network and cost map messages,
   although these techniques apply to any dependent resources.

   Note that when a network map changes, the update stream server MUST
   send the network map update message before sending the updates for
   the dependent cost maps (see Section 7.7.1).

   One approach is for the ALTO client to save the network map update
   message in a buffer and continue to use the previous network map, and
   the associated cost maps, until the ALTO client receives the update
   messages for all dependent cost maps.  The ALTO client then applies
   all network and cost map updates atomically.

   Alternatively, the ALTO client MAY update the network map
   immediately.  In this case, the ALTO client MUST mark each dependent
   cost map as temporarily invalid and MUST NOT use that map until the
   ALTO client receives a cost map update message with the new network
   map version tag.  Note that the ALTO client MUST NOT delete the cost
   maps, because the update stream server may send incremental changes.

   The update stream server SHOULD send updates for dependent resources
   in a timely fashion.  However, if the ALTO client does not receive
   the expected updates, the ALTO client MUST close the update stream
   connection, discard the dependent resources, and reestablish the
   update stream.  The ALTO client MAY retain the version tag of the
   last version of any tagged resources and give those version tags when
   requesting the new update stream.  In this case, if a version is
   still current, the update stream server will not re-send that
   resource.

   Although not as efficient as possible, this recovery method is simple
   and reliable.

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10.4.  Considerations for Updates to Filtered Cost Maps

   If an update stream provides updates to a Filtered cost map which
   allows constraint tests, then an ALTO client MAY request updates to a
   Filtered cost map request with a constraint test.  In this case, when
   a cost changes, the update stream server MUST send an update if the
   new value satisfies the test.  If the new value does not, whether the
   update stream server sends an update depends on whether the previous
   value satisfied the test.  If it did not, the update stream server
   SHOULD NOT send an update to the ALTO client.  But if the previous
   value did, then the update stream server MUST send an update with a
   "null" value, to inform the ALTO client that this cost no longer
   satisfies the criteria.

   An update stream server can avoid such issues by offering update
   streams only for filtered cost maps which do not allow constraint
   tests.

10.5.  Considerations for Updates to Ordinal Mode Costs

   For an ordinal mode cost map, a change to a single cost point may
   require updating many other costs.  As an extreme example, suppose
   the lowest cost changes to the highest cost.  For a numerical mode
   cost map, only that one cost changes.  But for an ordinal mode cost
   map, every cost might change.  While this document allows an update
   stream server to offer incremental updates for ordinal mode cost
   maps, update stream server implementors should be aware that
   incremental updates for ordinal costs are more complicated than for
   numerical costs, and ALTO clients should be aware that small changes
   may result in large updates.

   An update stream server can avoid this complication by only offering
   full replacements for ordinal cost maps.

11.  Security Considerations

   As an extension of the base ALTO protocol [RFC7285], this document
   fits into the architecture of the base protocol, and hence the
   Security Considerations (Section 15) of the base protocol fully apply
   when this extension is provided by an ALTO server.  For example, the
   same authenticity and integrity considerations (Section 15.1 of
   [RFC7285]) still fully apply; the same considerations for the privacy
   of ALTO users (Section 15.4 of [RFC7285]) also still fully apply.

   The addition of update streams and stream control can introduce
   additional risks which we discuss below.

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11.1.  Update Stream Server: Denial-of-Service Attacks

   Allowing persistent update stream connections enables a new class of
   Denial-of-Service attacks.

   For the update stream server, an ALTO client might create an
   unreasonable number of update stream connections, or add an
   unreasonable number of substream-ids to one update stream.

   To avoid these attacks on the update stream server, the server MAY
   choose to limit the number of active streams and reject new requests
   when that threshold is reached.  An update stream server MAY also
   choose to limit the number of active substream-ids on any given
   stream, or limit the total number of substream-ids used over the
   lifetime of a stream, and reject any stream control request which
   would exceed those limits.  In these cases, the update stream server
   SHOULD return the HTTP status "503 Service Unavailable".

   While the preceding techniques prevent update stream DoS attacks from
   disrupting an update stream server's other services, it does make it
   easier for a DoS attack to disrupt the update stream service.
   Therefore an update stream server may prefer to restrict update
   stream services to authorized clients, as discussed in Section 15 of
   [RFC7285].

   Alternatively, an update stream server MAY return the HTTP status
   "307 Temporary Redirect" to redirect the client to another ALTO
   server which can better handle a large number of update streams.

11.2.  ALTO Client: Update Overloading or Instability

   The availability of continuous updates can also cause overload for an
   ALTO client, in particular an ALTO client with limited processing
   capabilities.  The current design does not include any flow control
   mechanisms for the client to reduce the update rates from the server.
   Under overloading, the client may choose to remove the information
   resources with high update rates.

   Also, under overloading, the client may no longer be able to detect
   whether an information is still fresh or has become stale.  In such a
   case, the client should be careful in how it uses the information to
   avoid stability or efficiency issues.

11.3.  Stream Control: Spoofed Control Requests

   An outside party which can read the update stream response, or which
   can observe stream control requests, can obtain the control URI and
   use that to send a fraudulent "remove" requests, thus disabling

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   updates for the valid ALTO client.  This can be avoided by encrypting
   the update stream and stream control requests (see Section 15 of
   [RFC7285]).  Also, the update stream server echoes the "remove"
   requests on the update stream, so the valid ALTO client can detect
   unauthorized requests.

12.  Requirements on Future ALTO Services to Use this Design

   Although this design is quite flexible, it has underlying
   requirements.

   The key requirements are that (1) each data update message is for a
   single resource; (2) an incremental change can be applied only to a
   resource that is a single JSON object, as both JSON merge patch and
   JSON patch can apply only to a single JSON object.  Hence, if a
   future ALTO resource can contain multiple objects, then either each
   individual object also has a resource-id or an extension to this
   design is made.

   At the low level encoding level, new line in SSE has its own
   semantics.  Hence, this design requires that resource encoding does
   not include new lines that can confuse with SSE encoding.  In
   particular, the data update message MUST NOT include "event: " or
   "data: " at a new line as part of data message.

   If an update stream provides updates to a filtered cost map that
   allows constraint tests, the requirements for such services are
   stated in Section 10.4.

13.  IANA Considerations

   This document defines two new media-types, "application/alto-
   updatestreamparams+json", as described in Section 7.3, and
   "application/alto-updatestreamcontrol+json", as described in
   Section 6.3.  All other media-types used in this document have
   already been registered, either for ALTO, JSON merge patch, or JSON
   patch.

   Type name:  application

   Subtype name:  alto-updatestreamparams+json

   Required parameters:  n/a

   Optional parameters:  n/a

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   Encoding considerations:  Encoding considerations are identical to
      those specified for the "application/json" media type.  See
      [RFC7159].

   Security considerations:  Security considerations relating to the
      generation and consumption of ALTO Protocol messages are discussed
      in Section 11 of this document and Section 15 of [RFC7285].

   Interoperability considerations:  This document specifies format of
      conforming messages and the interpretation thereof.

   Published specification:  Section 7.3 of this document.

   Applications that use this media type:  ALTO servers and ALTO clients
      either stand alone or are embedded within other applications.

   Additional information:

      Magic number(s):  n/a

      File extension(s):  This document uses the mime type to refer to
         protocol messages and thus does not require a file extension.

      Macintosh file type code(s):  n/a

   Person & email address to contact for further information:  See
      Authors' Addresses section.

   Intended usage:  COMMON

   Restrictions on usage:  n/a

   Author:  See Authors' Addresses section.

   Change controller:  Internet Engineering Task Force
      (mailto:iesg@ietf.org).

   Type name:  application

   Subtype name:  alto-updatestreamcontrol+json

   Required parameters:  n/a

   Optional parameters:  n/a

   Encoding considerations:  Encoding considerations are identical to
      those specified for the "application/json" media type.  See
      [RFC7159].

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   Security considerations:  Security considerations relating to the
      generation and consumption of ALTO Protocol messages are discussed
      in Section 11 of this document and Section 15 of [RFC7285].

   Interoperability considerations:  This document specifies format of
      conforming messages and the interpretation thereof.

   Published specification:  Section 6.3 of this document.

   Applications that use this media type:  ALTO servers and ALTO clients
      either stand alone or are embedded within other applications.

   Additional information:

      Magic number(s):  n/a

      File extension(s):  This document uses the mime type to refer to
         protocol messages and thus does not require a file extension.

      Macintosh file type code(s):  n/a

   Person & email address to contact for further information:  See
      Authors' Addresses section.

   Intended usage:  COMMON

   Restrictions on usage:  n/a

   Author:  See Authors' Addresses section.

   Change controller:  Internet Engineering Task Force
      (mailto:iesg@ietf.org).

14.  Alternative Designs Not Supported

14.1.  Why Not HTTP/2 Server-Push

   HTTP/2 ([RFC7540]) provides a Server Push facility.  Although the
   name implies that it might be useful for sending asynchronous updates
   from the update stream server to the client, in reality Server Push
   is not well suited for that task.  To see why it is not, here is a
   quick summary of HTTP/2.

   HTTP/2 allows an client and a server to multiplex many HTTP requests
   and responses over a single TCP connection.  The requests and
   responses can be interleaved on a block by block basis, avoiding the
   head-of-line blocking problem encountered with the Keep-Alive
   mechanism in HTTP/1.1.  Server Push allows a server to send a

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   resource (an image, a CSS file, a javascript file, etc.) to the
   client before the client explicitly requests it.  A server can only
   push cacheable GET-mode resources.  By pushing a resource, the server
   implicitly tells the client, "Add this resource to your cache,
   because a resource you have requested needs it."

   One approach for using Server Push for updates is for the update
   stream server to send each data update message as a separate Server
   Push item and let the client apply those updates as they arrive.
   Unfortunately, there are several problems with that approach.

   First, HTTP/2 does not guarantee that pushed resources are delivered
   to the client in the order they were sent by the client, so each data
   update message would need a sequence number, and the client would
   have to re-sequence them.

   Second, an HTTP/2-aware client library will not necessarily inform a
   client application when the server pushes a resource.  Instead, the
   library might cache the pushed resource, and only deliver it to the
   client when the client explicitly requests that URI.

   But the third problem is the most significant: Server Push is
   optional and can be disabled by any proxy between the client and the
   server.  This is not a problem for the intended use of Server Push:
   eventually the client will request those resources, so disabling
   Server Push just adds a delay.  But this means that Server Push is
   not suitable for resources which the client does not know to request.

   Thus we do not believe HTTP/2 Server Push is suitable for delivering
   asynchronous updates.  Hence we have chosen to base ALTO updates on
   HTTP/1.1 and SSE.

14.2.  Why Not Allowing Stream Restart

   If an update stream is closed accidentally, when the ALTO client
   reconnects, the update stream server must resend the full maps.  This
   is clearly inefficient.  To avoid that inefficiency, the SSE
   specification allows an update stream server to assign an id to each
   event.  When an ALTO client reconnects, the ALTO client can present
   the id of the last successfully received event, and the update stream
   server restarts with the next event.

   However, that mechanism adds additional complexity.  The update
   stream server must save SSE messages in a buffer, in case ALTO
   clients reconnect.  But that mechanism will never be perfect: if the
   ALTO client waits too long to reconnect, or if the ALTO client sends
   an invalid id, then the update stream server will have to resend the
   complete maps anyway.

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   Furthermore, this is unlikely to be a problem in practice.  ALTO
   clients who want continuous updates for large resources, such as full
   Network and cost maps, are likely to be things like P2P trackers.
   These ALTO clients will be well connected to the network; they will
   rarely drop connections.

   Mobile devices certainly can and do drop connections and will have to
   reconnect.  But mobile devices will not need continuous updates for
   multi-megabyte cost maps.  If mobile devices need continuous updates
   at all, they will need them for small queries, such as the costs from
   a small set of media servers from which the device can stream the
   currently playing movie.  If the mobile device drops the connection
   and reestablishes the update stream, the update stream server will
   have to retransmit only a small amount of redundant data.

   In short, using event ids to avoid resending the full map adds a
   considerable amount of complexity to avoid a situation which we
   expect is very rare.  We believe that complexity is not worth the
   benefit.

   The Update Stream service does allow the ALTO client to specify the
   tag of the last received version of any tagged resource, and if that
   is still current, the update stream server need not retransmit the
   full resource.  Hence ALTO clients can use this to avoid
   retransmitting full network maps.  cost maps are not tagged, so this
   will not work for them.  Of course, the ALTO protocol could be
   extended by adding version tags to cost maps, which would solve the
   retransmission-on-reconnect problem.  However, adding tags to cost
   maps might add a new set of complications.

15.  Acknowledgments

   Thank you to Dawn Chen (Tongji University), Shawn Lin (Tongji
   University) and Xiao Shi (Yale University) for their contributions to
   an earlier version of this document.

16.  References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, BCP 14, March 1997.

   [RFC2387]  Levinson, E., "The MIME Multipart/Related Content-type",
              RFC 2387, BCP 14, August 1998.

   [RFC5789]  Dusseault, L. and J. Snell, "PATCH Method for HTTP", RFC
              5789, March 2010.

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   [RFC6838]  Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
              Specifications and Registration Procedures", RFC 6838,
              January 2013.

   [RFC6902]  Bryan, P. and M. Nottingham, "JavaScript Object Notation
              (JSON) Patch", RFC 6902, April 2013.

   [RFC7159]  Bray, T., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", RFC 7159, March 2014.

   [RFC7285]  Almi, R., Penno, R., Yang, Y., Kiesel, S., Previdi, S.,
              Roome, W., Shalunov, S., and R. Woundy, "Application-Layer
              Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol", RFC 7285, September
              2014.

   [RFC7230]  Fielding, R. and J. Reschke, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol
              (HTTP/1.1): Message Syntax and Routing", RFC 7230, June
              2014.

   [RFC7231]  Fielding, R. and J. Reschke, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol
              (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content", RFC 7231, June 2014.

   [RFC7396]  Hoffman, P. and J. Snell, "JSON Merge Patch", RFC 7396,
              October 2014.

   [RFC7540]  Belshe, M., Peon, R., and M. Thomson, "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)", RFC 7540, May 2015.

   [SSE]      Hickson, I., "Server-Sent Events (W3C)", W3C
              Recommendation 03 February 2015, February 2015.

Authors' Addresses

   Wendy Roome
   Nokia Bell Labs (Retired)
   124 Burlington Rd
   Murray Hill, NJ  07974
   USA

   Phone: +1-908-464-6975
   Email: wendy@wdroome.com

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   Y. Richard Yang
   Yale University
   51 Prospect St
   New Haven  CT
   USA

   Email: yry@cs.yale.edu

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