The IETF Routing Directorate has completed an early review of the draft-ietf-idr-next-next-hop-nodes-01 standard. The review highlights potential concerns regarding NLRI update churn in CLOS fabrics and provides technical feedback on BGP Identifier encoding and route aggregation to ensure network stability.
Refining BGP Next-Next-Hop protocols is critical for the high-density CLOS architectures that underpin modern data centers and content delivery networks. If NLRI churn is not properly managed, streaming providers could face increased latency or routing instability during rapid network topology changes. This technical scrutiny ensures that new routing standards do not inadvertently degrade performance for high-bandwidth video traffic. As the draft moves toward IESG submission, the industry should monitor whether the Working Group adopts stricter damping measures or explicit aggregation bans to safeguard large-scale fabric deployments.
The IETF's work on BGP extensions for CLOS fabrics sits within a broader push to modernize routing protocols for hyperscale and carrier networks. In June 2026, Ericsson launched its AI in RAN commercial software subscription claiming up to 20% higher downlink throughput and up to 10% better spectral efficiency across more than 15 live deployments, signaling that operators are investing heavily in network intelligence layers that depend on stable underlay routing. Verizon simultaneously disclosed that its 60,000-site vRAN now applies agentic AI to planned configuration changes and service assurance, while publicly calling for industry-wide interoperability standards for agentic systems. These automation initiatives rely on predictable BGP behavior in CLOS and leaf-spine topologies, making the Next-Next-Hop draft's stability guarantees directly relevant to operator deployment timelines. Nokia has pursued a parallel strategy, embedding agentic AI into its core network products to reduce manual intervention in routing and service assurance. Nokia's mobile core team is deploying generative AI and agentic technologies for root cause analysis, with smaller models collocated at the network edge making autonomous decisions without human intervention. The company reported that AI-driven paging reduces call setup times from roughly 10 seconds to one or two seconds in certain use cases. Nokia also partnered with AWS and Databricks to build a unified telco AI control layer, claiming operators are already achieving automation rates higher than 90% and service delivery times of four hours or less. These platforms assume deterministic routing behavior at the fabric level, which is precisely what the Next-Next-Hop draft aims to standardize without introducing NLRI churn. On the technical side, Nokia and Google Cloud demonstrated six specialized AI agents at DTW IGNITE 2026 capable of reducing network problem-solving times by 50% to 80%, including an event triage agent and an anomaly reasoner that distinguish real issues from false alarms. The agents operate within Nokia's Assurance Center and are scheduled for Google Cloud Marketplace availability in September 2026. Meanwhile, Light Reading reported that Ericsson and Nokia are diverging sharply on AI-RAN architecture, with Nokia building its entire Layer 1 RAN on Nvidia's CUDA platform following a $1 billion investment from the chipmaker. This architectural split means routing protocol stability in shared fabric infrastructure becomes even more critical, as multi-vendor environments must agree on BGP behavior to avoid the kind of update churn the Routing Directorate flagged in its review. To further optimize challenged network delivery in these complex environments, new protocol specifications are being evaluated to ensure consistent performance.
The IETF Routing Directorate issued an early review of the BGP Next-Next-Hop draft, identifying risks of NLRI update churn in CLOS fabrics. Reviewer Andrew Stone recommended stricter guidelines for route aggregation and BGP Identifier encoding. These changes are vital to ensure network stability for high-bandwidth traffic and modern data center architectures.
The IETF Routing Directorate identified potential network stability issues, specifically warning that forwarding changes beyond direct peers could trigger excessive NLRI update churn within CLOS fabrics.
Andrew Stone recommended explicitly prohibiting route aggregation to maintain stability and aligning BGP Identifier encoding with existing standards to include Autonomous System data.
Stable BGP behavior is critical for high-density CLOS architectures and automated AI-driven network layers. Unmanaged NLRI churn can lead to increased latency or routing instability, which could degrade performance for high-bandwidth video traffic and impact operator deployment timelines.
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