[ZTCPP] Re: Draft Review

[Benfeng Chen <[e-mail]>]

Hi Houda,

Thank you for sharing this interesting work. I appreciate the effort that
went into extending the Network Hiding Protocol (NHP) concepts to 5G/6G
Service-Based Architectures and exploring how authenticate-before-connect
principles can be applied to autonomous telecom environments.

The ideas around intent-based authorization, pre-connection authentication,
and exposure control are very much aligned with the broader direction of
Zero Trust networking and with ongoing work around NHP. We would be happy
to explore how some of these concepts could be incorporated into the
evolving NHP standards and specifications, particularly for telecom and
service-based architecture deployment profiles.

I also appreciate Philip’s comments regarding the importance of focusing on
interoperability surfaces rather than assuming a single Zero Trust
implementation model. From my perspective, the NHP-SBA work could provide
valuable input to discussions around:

   - PEP capability registration and discovery;
   - Controller-to-PEP policy distribution, update, and revocation;
   - Pre-connection authorization and exposure control;
   - Binding policy decisions to authenticated sessions, flows, and
   channels;
   - Enforcement telemetry, auditing, and reporting.

One question I had while reading the draft: do you currently have an
open-source implementation or prototype of the proposed NHP-SBA
architecture? As you know, the IETF has a strong tradition of “rough
consensus and running code,” and implementation experience would be
extremely valuable for evaluating the proposed mechanisms.

If you already have an implementation, we would be very interested in
learning more about it. We would also welcome contributions to the OpenNHP
open-source project (https://github.com/OpenNHP/opennhp) which already
provides an open implementation of NHP and related Zero Trust networking
components. Integrating or demonstrating the NHP-SBA extensions within the
OpenNHP ecosystem could provide a practical way for the community to
evaluate and validate these concepts in 5G/6G and service-based network
environments.

I believe this would also help demonstrate how NHP-based
authenticate-before-connect mechanisms can interoperate with broader Zero
Trust policy enforcement frameworks currently being discussed within ZTCPP.

Thank you again for sharing this work, and I look forward to further
discussions.

Best regards,

Benfeng Chen

On Sun, Jul 5, 2026 at 10:38 AM Philip Griffiths <
[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hi Houda,
>
> Thank you for sharing this draft.
>
> I think this is useful input for the ZTCPP discussion, particularly around
> authenticated-before-connect, resource hiding, and possible 5G/6G
> deployment profiles.
>
> Given the recent feedback from SAAG/ADs, I think we should be careful not
> to frame any one mechanism as the assumed solution for ZTCPP. The narrower
> direction we are discussing is *Policy Enforcement Point interoperability*:
> how heterogeneous PEPs register capabilities, receive policy lifecycle
> updates, enforce pre-connection authorization, bind policy decisions to
> sessions/flows/channels, and report enforcement outcomes.
>
> In that framing, NHP/NHP-SBA could be a useful candidate implementation or
> profile to map against the requirements, especially for the pre-connection
> authorization / exposure-control seam. It would be helpful if the draft
> could also show how it maps to the broader PEP interoperability surfaces:
> controller-to-PEP lifecycle, policy update/revocation, session/flow
> binding, and enforcement reporting.
>
> This could be a good topic for the proposed IETF 126 side meeting,
> alongside other prototype and implementation inputs.
>
> Best regards,
> Philip
>
>
> On Fri, 3 Jul 2026 at 07:04, Houda CHIHI <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> > Hope that you are doing well, kindly the submitted draft entitled :
> > Network Hiding Protocol (NHP) Extensions for 5G/6G Service-Based
> > Architectures
> > https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-alsahati-nhp-sba-nhp-protocol/
> >
> > For Review and comments !
> >
> >
> > Good Day !
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