<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> encoding='UTF-8'?>

<!DOCTYPE rfc [
 <!ENTITY RFC3877 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3877.xml"> nbsp    "&#160;">
 <!ENTITY RFC6632 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6632.xml"> zwsp   "&#8203;">
 <!ENTITY RFC8342 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.8342.xml"> nbhy   "&#8209;">
 <!ENTITY RFC8632 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.8632.xml">
  <!ENTITY RFC9232 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9232.xml">
  <!ENTITY RFC9315 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9315.xml">
  <!ENTITY RFC9417 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9417.xml">

  <!ENTITY I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture SYSTEM "http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture">
  <!ENTITY I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang SYSTEM "http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang"> wj     "&#8288;">
]>

<?rfc toc="yes"?>
<?rfc tocompact="yes"?>
<?rfc tocdepth="3"?>
<?rfc tocindent="yes"?>
<?rfc symrefs="yes"?>
<?rfc sortrefs="yes"?>
<?rfc comments="yes"?>
<?rfc inline="yes"?>
<?rfc compact="yes"?>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>

<rfc xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" ipr="trust200902" docName="draft-ietf-nmop-terminology-23" number="9940" consensus="true" category="info" obsoletes="" updates="" submissionType="IETF" xml:lang="en" tocInclude="true" tocDepth="3" symRefs="true" sortRefs="true" version="3">

  <front>
    <title abbrev="Network Fault Terminology">Some Key Terms for Network Fault and Problem Management</title>
    <seriesInfo name="Internet-Draft" value="draft-ietf-nmop-terminology-23"/> name="RFC" value="9940"/>
    <author initials="N." surname="Davis" fullname="Nigel Davis" role="editor">
      <organization>Ciena</organization>
      <address>
        <postal>
          <street/>
          <city/>
          <country>United Kingdom</country>
        </postal>
        <email>ndavis@ciena.com</email>
      </address>
    </author>

    <author initials="A." surname="Farrel" fullname="Adrian Farrel" role="editor">
      <organization>Old Dog Consulting</organization>
      <address>
        <postal>
          <street/>
          <city/>
          <country>United Kingdom</country>
        </postal>
        <email>adrian@olddog.co.uk</email>
      </address>
    </author>

    <author fullname="Thomas Graf" initials="T" surname="Graf">
      <organization>Swisscom</organization>
      <address>
        <postal>
          <street>Binzring 17</street>
          <city>Zurich</city>
          <code>8045</code>
          <country>Switzerland</country>
        </postal>
        <email>thomas.graf@swisscom.com</email>
      </address>
    </author>

    <author fullname="Qin Wu" initials="Q." surname="Wu">
      <organization>Huawei</organization>
      <address>
        <postal>
          <street>101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District</street>
          <city>Nanjing</city>
          <region>Jiangsu</region>
          <code>210012</code>
          <country>China</country>
        </postal>
        <email>bill.wu@huawei.com</email>
      </address>
    </author>

    <author initials="C." surname="Yu" fullname="Chaode Yu">
      <organization>Huawei Technologies</organization>
      <organization>Huawei</organization>
      <address>
        <email>yuchaode@huawei.com</email>
      </address>
    </author>

<!-- [rfced] Authors' Addresses:  We see that Qin Wu's affiliation is
listed as Huawei in this document. Please confirm that this is as desired.
We ask because we see that Qin Wu's affiliation is mostly listed as Huawei
after RFC 9000, but as "Huawei Technologies" in RFCs 9005, 9353, 9358, and 9731. -->

    <date year="2025"/> year="2026" month="February"/>

    <area>OPS</area>
    <workgroup>nmop</workgroup>

    <keyword>Problem</keyword>
    <keyword>Event</keyword>
    <keyword>Fault</keyword>
    <keyword>Occurrence</keyword>
    <keyword>Incident</keyword>
    <keyword>Anomally</keyword>
    <keyword>Anomaly</keyword>
    <keyword>Symptom</keyword>
    <keyword>Alert</keyword>
    <keyword>Alarm</keyword>

    <abstract>

      <t>This document sets out some terms that are fundamental to a common understanding
         of network fault and problem management within the IETF.</t>

      <t>The purpose of this document is to bring clarity to discussions and other work
         related to network fault and problem management, management -- in particular particular, to YANG data models and management protocols
         that report, make visible, or manage network faults and problems.</t>

    </abstract>

  </front>

  <middle>

    <section anchor="introduction" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Introduction</name>

      <t>Successful operation of large networks depends on effective network management. This requires a
         virtuous circle of network control, network observability, network analytics, network assurance, and back to
         network control. Network fault and problem management <xref target="RFC6632" /> is an important aspect of network management and
         control solutions. It deals with the detection, reporting, inspection, isolation, correlation, and management of events within the
         network.
The intention of this document is to focus on those events that have a
negative effect on the network&apos;s network's ability to forward traffic according
to expected behavior and so behaviors that may reduce the network's ability to
deliver services, services. Such events may also impact the ability to
control and operate the network, and network. The document also considers other
faults that reduce the quality or reliability of the delivered service.
 The concept of fault and problem management extends to include actions taken to
         determine the causes of problems and to work toward recovery of expected network behavior.</t> behavior.
</t>

      <t>A number of work efforts within the IETF seek to provide components of a fault
         management system, such as YANG data models or management protocols. It is important that
         a common terminology is be used so that there is a clear understanding of how the
         elements of the management and control solutions fit together, together and how faults and
         problems will be handled.</t>

      <t>This document sets out some terms that are fundamental to a common understanding of network fault and
         problem management.  While "faults" and "problems" are concepts that apply at all levels of technology in
         the Internet, the scope of this document is restricted to the network layer and below, hence below; hence, this document
         is specifically about "network fault and problem management." The concept of "incidents" is also touched on
         in this document, where an incident results from one or more problems and is the disruption of a network
         service.</t>

      <t>Note that some useful terms are defined in <xref target="RFC3877" /> and <xref target="RFC8632" />. The
         definitions in this document are informed by those documents, but they are not dependent on that prior
         work.</t>

    </section>

    <section anchor="usage" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Usage of Terms</name>

      <t>The terms defined in this document are intended for consistent use within the IETF in the scope of
         network fault and problem management. Where similar concepts are described in other bodies, an attempt has been
         made to harmonize with those other descriptions, but there is care is needed where terms are not used consistently
         between bodies or where terms are applied outside the network layer. If other bodies find the terminology
         defined in this document useful, they are free to use it.</t>

      <t>The purpose of this document is to define the following terms for use in other documents. Other terms are defined
         to enable those definitions and may also be used by other documents, although that is not the principal purpose of
         their definitions here.</t>

         <ul spacing="compact">
            <li>Event</li>
            <li>State</li>
            <li>Fault</li>
            <li>Problem</li>
            <li>Symptom</li>
            <li>Cause</li>
            <li>Alert</li>
            <li>Alarm</li>
         </ul>

      <t>When other documents make use of the terms as defined in this document, it is suggested here that such uses should
         use capitalization of the terms as in this document to help distinguish them from colloquial uses, uses and should
         include an early section listing the terms inherited from this document with a citation.</t>

    </section>

    <section anchor="terms" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Terminology</name>

      <t>This section contains key terms. It is split into three subsections.</t>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <t><xref target="context" /> contains terms that help to set the context for network fault and problem management systems.</t>
        </li>
        <li>
          <t><xref target="core" /> includes specific and detailed core terms that will be used in other documents that describe elements of
             the network fault and problem management systems.</t>
        </li>
        <li>
          <t><xref target="other" /> provides three further terms that may be helpful.</t>
        </li>
      </ul>

      <section anchor="context" numbered="true" toc="default">
        <name>Context Terminology</name>

        <t>This section includes some terminology that helps describe the context for the rest of this work. The terms may be viewed as a
           cascaded sequence of processes, starting with Network Telemetry and building to Network Observability. The definitions are deliberately kept
           relatively terse. Further documents may expand on these terms without loss of specificity. Such contextualization (if any)
           should be highlighted clearly in those documents.</t>

        <dl newline="false" spacing="normal">

           <dt>Network Telemetry:</dt>
             <dd><t>This is defined in <xref target="RFC9232" /> and describes the process of collecting operational network data categorized
                    according to the network plane (e.g., layer Layer 3, layer Layer 2, and layer Layer 1) from which it was derived. Data collected through the
                    Network Telemetry process does not contain any data related to service definitions
                    (i.e., "intent" per Section 3.1 of <xref target="RFC9315" />).</t></dd> section="3.1"/>).</t>

</dd>

           <dt>Network Monitoring:</dt>
             <dd><t>This is the process of keeping a continuous record of functions related to a network topology. It involves tracking
                    various aspects such as traffic patterns, device health, performance metrics, and overall network behaviour. behavior. This approach
                    differentiates network monitoring Network Monitoring from resource or device monitoring, which focuses on individual components or resources or components
                    (<xref target="core"/>).</t></dd> target="core"/>).</t>
</dd>

           <dt>Network Analytics:</dt>
             <dd><t>This is the process of deriving analytical insights from operational network data. A process could be executed by
                    a piece of software, a system, or a human that analyzes operational data and outputs new analytical data related to the operational
                    data,
                    data -- for example, a symptom.</t></dd>

           <dt>Network Observability:</dt>
             <dd><t>This is the process of enabling network behavioral assessment through analysis of observed operational network data (logs, alarms, traces,
                    etc.) with the aim of detecting symptoms of network behavior, and to identify  identifying anomalies and their causes. Network Observability begins
                    with information gathered using Network Monitoring tools and that tools. That information may be further enriched with other operational data. The expected
                    outcome of the observability processes is identification and analysis of deviations in observed state versus the expected state of a
                    network.</t></dd>
                    network.</t>
</dd>
         </dl>

         <t>Thus, there is a cascaded sequence where the following relationships apply:</t>

         <ul>
            <li>Network Telemetry is the process of collecting operational data from a network.</li>
            <li>Network Monitoring is the process of creating/keeping a record of data gathered in Network Telemetry.</li>
            <li>Network Analytics is the process of deriving insight through the data recorded in Network Monitoring.</li>
            <li>Network Observability is the process of enabling behavioral assessment of a network through Network Analytics.</li>
         </ul>

      </section>

      <section anchor="core" numbered="true" toc="default">
        <name>Core Terms</name>

        <t>The terms in this section are presented below in an order that is intended to flow such that it is possible
           to gain understanding reading top to bottom.  The figures and explanations in <xref target="explain" />
           may aid understanding the terms set out here.</t>

        <dl newline="false" spacing="normal">

           <dt>Resource:</dt>
             <dd><t>An element of a network system.</t> system.
</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
                 <t>Resource is a recursive concept so that a Resource may be
                 a collection of other Resources (for example, a network node
                 comprises a collection of network interfaces).</t></dd> interfaces).</t>
	       </li>
             </ul>
           </dd>
           <dt>Characteristic:</dt>
             <dd><t>Observable or measurable aspect or behavior associated with a Resource.</t>
                 <ul>
                   <li>
                     <t>A Characteristic may be considered to be built on facts (see
                        'Value',
             "Value", below) and the contexts and descriptors that identify
             and give meaning to the facts.</t>
                   </li>
                   <li>
                     <t>The term "Metric" (see "metric" in <xref target="RFC9417" /> />) is another word
             for a measurable Characteristic Characteristic, which may also be thought of as
             analogous to a 'variable'.</t> "variable".
</t>
                   </li>
    	         </ul></dd>

           <dt>Value:</dt>
             <dd><t>A Value is a measure of a Characteristic associated with a
             Resource. It may be in the form of a categorization (e.g., high
             or low), an integer (e.g., a count or gauge), or a reading of a
             continuous variable (e.g., an analog measurement), etc.</t></dd> etc.</t>
</dd>

           <dt>Change:</dt>
             <dd><t>In the context of Network Monitoring, a Change is the
             variation in the Value of a Characteristic associated with a Resource and
             Resource.  A Change may arise over a period of time.</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
                 <t>Not all Changes are noteworthy (i.e., they do not have Relevance).</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                 <t>Perception of Change depends upon Detection, the sampling rate/accuracy/detail, and perspective.</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                <t>It may be helpful to qualify this as "Value Change" because the English word "change" is often heavily used.</t>
	       </li>
	     </ul>
           </dd>

           <dt>Event:</dt>
             <dd><t>The variation in Value of a Characteristic of a Resource
             at a distinct moment in time (i.e., the period is negligible).</t>
             negligible).
</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
             <t>Compared with a Change, which may be over a period of time, an
             Event happens at a distinct moment in time. Thus, an Event may be
             the observation of a Change.</t>
	       </li>
	     </ul>
           </dd>

           <dt>Condition:</dt>
             <dd><t>A Condition is an
             <dd><t>An interpretation of the Values of a set of
             one or more Characteristics of a Resource (with respect to
             working order or some other aspect relevant to the Resource purpose/application),
             purpose/application) -- for
                    example example, "low available memory". Thus,
             it is the output of a function applied to a set of one or more
             variables.</t></dd>

           <dt>State:</dt>
             <dd><t>A particular Condition that a Resource has (i.e., it is in
             a State) at a specific time.  For example, a router may report
             the total amount of memory it has, has and how much is free. These
             are the Values of two Characteristics of a Resource. These Values
             can be interpreted to determine the Condition of the Resource,
             and that may determine the State of the router, such as shortage
             of memory.</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
                 <t>While a State may be observed at a specific moment in time, it
             is actually determined by summarizing measurement over time in a
             process sometimes called State compression.</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                 <t>It may be helpful to qualify this as "Resource State" to make
             clear the distinction between this and other uses of "state" such
             as "protocol state".</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                 <t>This term may be contrasted with "Operational State" "operational state" as used
             in <xref target="RFC8342" />. For example, the state of a link
             might be up/down/degraded, but the operational state of the link
             would include a collection of Values of Characteristics of the link.</t> link.
</t>
	       </li>
	     </ul>
           </dd>

           <dt>Detect (hence Detected, Detection):</dt>
             <dd><t>To notice the presence of something (State, Change, Event, activity, etc.).</t> etc.)</t>
	     <ul>
                   <li>
                     <t>Hence also
	       <li>Also to notice a Change (from the perspective of an
	       observer such as a monitoring system).</t>
                   </li> system).</li>
	     </ul>
         </dd>

           <dt>Relevance:</dt>
             <dd><t>Consideration of an Event, State, or Value (through the
   application of policy, relative to a specific perspective, perspective or intent,
   and in relation to other Events, States, and Values) to determine
   whether it is of note to the system that controls or manages the
   network. Note, for example, that not all Changes are Relevant.</t> Relevant.
</t>
         <ul>
           <li>
             <t>This term may also be used as "Relevant Event", "Relevant State", or "Relevant Value".</t>
	   </li>
         </ul>
        </dd>

           <dt>Occurrence:</dt>
             <dd><t>A Relevant Event or a particular Relevant Change.</t>
              <ul>
                <li>
                  <t>An Occurrence may be an aggregation or abstraction of multiple fine-grain fine-grained Events or Changes.</t> Changes.

</t>
		</li>
                <li>
                  <t>An Occurrence may occur at any macro or micro scale because
             Resources are a recursive
                     concept, and concept. An Occurrence may be perceived perceived, depending
             on the scope of observation (i.e., according to the level of
             Resource recursion that is examined). That is, Occurrences, themselves
             themselves, are a recursive concept.</t> concept.
</t>
		</li>
	      </ul>
            </dd>

           <dt>Fault:</dt>
             <dd><t>An Occurrence (i.e., an Event or a Change) that is not
             desired/required (as it may be indicative of a current or future
             undesired State). Thus, a Fault happens at a moment in time. A
             Fault can potentially be associated with a Cause. See <xref
             target="RFC8632" /> for a more detailed discussion of network
             faults.</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
                <t>Note that there is a distinction between a Fault and a Problem
             that depends on context. For example, in a connectivity service
             where redundancy is present, a link down is a Problem, but from
             the perspective of managing the network resources, a link down is
             a Fault.  Likewise, for example, in a router with two power
             supplies, if the backup power supply fails leaving the primary
             unprotected, this is a Problem.</t>
	       </li>
	     </ul>
         </dd>

           <dt>Problem:</dt>
             <dd><t>A State that is undesirable and that may require remedial
             action. A Problem cannot necessarily be associated with a
             Cause. The resolution of a Problem does not necessarily act on
             the thing that has the Problem.</t>
             <ul>
               <li>
                 <t>Note that there is a historic aspect to the concept of a
             Problem. The current State may be operational, but there could
             have been a Fault that is unexplained, and the fact of that
             unexplained recent Fault is a Problem.</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                 <t>Note that while a Problem is unresolved it may continue to
             require attention. A record of resolved Problems may be
             maintained in a log.</t>
	       </li>
               <li>
                 <t>Note that there may be a State which that is considered to be a
             Problem from several perspectives. For example, consider a "loss
             of light" State that may cause multiple services to fail. In this
             example, a new State (the light recovers) may cause the Problem
             to be resolved from one perspective (the services are operational
             once more), more) but may leave the Problem as unresolved (because the
             loss of light has not been explained). Further, in this example,
             there could be another development (the reason for the temporary
             loss of light is traced to a microbend in the fiber that is
             repaired) resulting in that unresolved Problem now being
             resolved. But, in this example, this still leaves a further
             Problem unresolved (a microbend occurred, and that Problem is not
             resolved until it is understood how it occurred and a remedy is
             put in place to prevent recurrence).</t>
	       </li>
	     </ul>
           </dd>

           <dt>Cause:</dt>
             <dd><t>The Events (Detected or otherwise) that gave rise to a Fault/Problem.</t></dd>

           <dt>Incident:</dt>
             <dd><t>A (Network)
             <dd><t>Also referred to as "Network Incident". An Incident is an undesired Occurrence such as an unexpected interruption of a
                    network service, degradation of the quality of a network service, or the below-target
                    performance of a network service. An Incident results from one or more Problems, and a
                    Problem may give rise to or contribute to one or more Incidents.
                    Greater discussion of Network Incident relationships, including Customer Incidents and
                    Incident management, can be found in <xref target="I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang" />.</t></dd> />.</t>
</dd>

           <dt>Symptom:</dt>
             <dd><t>An observable Value, Change, State, Event, or Condition considered as an indication of a
                    Problem or potential Problem.</t></dd>

           <dt>Anomaly:</dt>
             <dd><t>A (Network)
             <dd><t>Also referred to as "Network Anomaly". An Anomaly is an unusual or unexpected Event or pattern in network data in the
                    forwarding plane, control plane, or management plane that deviates from the normal,
                    expected behavior. See <xref target="I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture" />
                    for more details.</t></dd>

           <dt>Alert:</dt>
             <dd><t>An indication of a Fault.</t></dd>

           <dt>Alarm:</dt>
             <dd><t>As specified in <xref target="RFC8632" />, an Alarm signifies an undesirable State in a
                    Resource that requires corrective action.  From a management point of view,
                    an Alarm can be seen as a State in its own right and the transition to this State
                    may result in an Alert being issued.  The receipt of this Alert
                    may give rise to a continuous indication (to a human operator) highlighting the
                    potential or actual presence of a Problem.</t></dd>

        </dl>

      </section>

      <section anchor="other" numbered="true" toc="default">
        <name>Other Terms</name>

        <t>Three other terms may be helpful:</t>

        <dl newline="false" spacing="normal">
          <dt>Intermittent:</dt>
            <dd><t>A State that is not continuous, continuous but that keeps recurring in some time frame.</t></dd>

          <dt>Transient:</dt>
            <dd><t>A State that is not continuous, continuous and that occurs once in some time frame.</t></dd>

          <dt>Recurrent:</dt>
            <dd><t>A Problem that is actively resolved, resolved but returns.</t></dd>
        </dl>

      </section>

    </section>

    <section anchor="explain" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Workflow Explanations</name>

      <t>This section aims to add information about the relationship between the terms defined in
         <xref target="core" /> in the context of network fault and problem management.
         The text and figures here are for explanation and are not normative for the definition of terms.</t>

      <t>The relationship between Resources and Characteristics is shown in
         <xref target="systemfig" />. Note that there is a 1:n relationship between a Network
         system and Resources, Resources and between Resources and Characteristics: For clarity, this is not shown on in the
         figure for clarity.</t>
         figure.</t>

        <figure anchor="systemfig">
          <name>Resources and Characteristics</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
Characteristics
       ^
       |
    Resources
       ^
       |
Network system
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

     <t>The Value of a Characteristic of a Resource may change over time. Specific
        Changes in Value may be noticed at a specific time (as digital Changes), Detected, and
        treated as Events. This is shown on the left left-hand side of <xref target="characterfig" />.</t>

     <t>The center of <xref target="characterfig" /> shows how the Value of a Characteristic
        may change over time. The Value may be Detected at specific times or periodically
        and give rise to Conditions that are States (and consequently State Changes).</t>

     <t>In practice, the Characteristic may vary in an analog manner over time as shown on the
        right-hand side of <xref target="characterfig" />. The Value can be read or reported
        (i.e., Detected) periodically leading to analog Values that may be deemed Relevant Values,
        or it may be evaluated over time as shown in <xref target="thresholdfig" />.</t> />.
</t>

        <figure anchor="characterfig">
          <name>Characteristics and Changes</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
      Event                State                  Value
                         Condition
        ^                    ^                      ^
 Detect :             Detect :               Detect :
        :                    :                      :

   ^        ^          ^     ^     ^                   /\
   :        :          :     :     :                  /  \
   :        :          :     :     :             /\  /    \
    __    __               _____                /  \/
   |        |             |     |            /\/
 __|        |__       ____|     |____       /

Change at a time     Change over time      Change over time
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

     <t><xref target="eventfig" /> shows the workflow progress for Events. As noted above, an
        Event is a Change in the Value of a Characteristic at a time. The Event may be
        evaluated (considering policy, relative to a specific perspective, with a
        view to intent, and in relation to other Events, States, and Values) to determine if
        it is an Occurrence and possibly to indicate a Change of State. An Occurrence may be
        undesirable (a Fault) and that can Fault), which might cause an Alert to be generated, generated. Or, an Occurrence may be evidence
        of a Problem and could directly indicate a Cause. In some cases, an Alert may give
        rise to an Alarm highlighting the potential or actual presence of a Problem.</t> Problem.
</t>

        <figure anchor="eventfig">
          <name>Event and Dependent Terms</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
        Alert - - - > Alarm
          ^
          |
          |     -----> Cause
          |    |
          |----------> Problem
          |
          |
        Fault
          ^
          |
          |
          |
      Occurrence
          ^
          |
          |----------> State
          |
          |
        Event
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

     <t>Parallel to the workflow for Events, <xref target="statefig" /> shows the
        workflow progress for States. As shown in <xref target="characterfig" />,
        Change noted at a particular time gives rise to State. The State may be
        deemed to have Relevance considering policy, relative to a specific perspective,
        with a view to intent, and in relation to other Events, States, and Values.
        A Relevant State may be deemed a Problem, or it may indicate a Problem or
        potential Problem.</t> Problem.
</t>

     <t>Problems may be considered based on Symptoms and may map directly or
        indirectly to Causes. An Incident results from one or more Problems. An Alarm may be
        raised as the result of a Problem, and the transition to an Alarmed state alarmed State may
        give rise to an Alert.</t> Alert.
</t>

        <figure anchor="statefig">
          <name>State and Dependent Terms</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
        Alarm - - -> Alert
          ^
          |     ------> Incident
          |    |
          |    |   ---> Cause
          |    |  |
      Problem---------> Symptom
          ^
          |
          | Relevance
          |
          |
        State
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

     <t><xref target="consolidationfig" /> shows how Faults and Problems
        may be consolidated to determine the Causes. The arrows show how
        one item may give rise to another.</t>

     <t>A Cause can be indicated by or determined from Faults, Problems, and Symptoms.
        It may be that one Cause points to another, and it can also be considered as a
        Symptom. The determination of Causes can consider multiple inputs. An Incident
        results from one or more Problems.</t>

        <figure anchor="consolidationfig">
          <name>Consolidation of Symptoms and Causes</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
                                      ---------
                       ------------- |         |
                      |  ----------> | Symptom |
                      | |            |         |
                      | |             ---------
                      v |                 ^
                   ---------              |
          ------->|  Cause  |<---------   |
         |         ---------           |  |
         |           ^   |             |  |
         |           |   |             |  |
         |            ---              |  |
         |                             |  |
     ---------                      ---------          ----------
    |  Fault  |------------------->| Problem |------->| Incident |
     ---------                      ---------          ----------
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

     <t><xref target="thresholdfig" /> shows
        how thresholds are important in the consideration of analog Values and Events.
        The arrows in the figure show how one item may give rise to or utilize another.
        The use of threshold-driven Events and States (and the Alerts that
        they might give rise to) must be treated with caution to dampen any "flapping"
        (so that consistent States may be observed) and to avoid overwhelming management
        processes or systems. Analog Values may be read or notified from the Resource
        and could transition a threshold, be deemed Relevant Values, or be evaluated over
        time. Events may be counted, and the Count may cross a threshold or
        reach a Relevant Value.</t>

     <t>The Threshold Process may be implementation-specific implementation specific and subject to policies.
        When a threshold is crossed and any other conditions are matched, an Event
        may be determined, determined and treated like any other Event.</t> Event.
</t>

        <figure anchor="thresholdfig">
          <name>Counts, Thresholds, and Values</name>
          <artwork align="center" name="" type="" alt="">
            <![CDATA[ alt=""><![CDATA[
Occurrence
     ^
     |
     |---------------------> State
     |
     |        -------                  Relevance
     |------>| Count |-----------------------------> Value
     |        -------          |                       ^
     |           |             |                       |
     |           |             |                       | Relevance
     |           |             v                       |
     |           |        -----------           ----------------
   Event         |       | Evaluated |         |                |
     ^           |       | over time |<--------|  Analog Value  |
     |           v        -----------          |                |
     |      -----------        |               |                |
     |     | Threshold |       |               |                |
     |<----|  Process  |<------                |                |
     |     |           |<----------------------|                |
     |      -----------                         ----------------
     |                                                 ^
     |                                                 |
     | Detect                                   Detect |
     |                                                 |
Change at a Time                                Change over Time
            ]]>
          </artwork>
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

    </section>

    <section anchor="security-considerations" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Security Considerations</name>

      <t>This document specifies terminology and has no direct effect on the security of
         implementations or deployments. However, protocol solutions and management models
         need to be aware of several aspects:</t>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <t>The exposure of information pertaining to Faults and Problems may make available knowledge
             of the internal workings of a network (in particular particular, its vulnerabilities) that
             may be of use to an attacker.</t>
        </li>
        <li>
          <t>Systems that generate management information (messages, notifications, etc.) when
             Faults occur, occur may be attacked by causing them to generate so much information
             that the system that manages the network is swamped and unable to properly manage
             the network.</t>
        </li>
        <li>
          <t>Reporting false information about Faults (or masking reports of Faults) may
             cause the system that manages the network to function incorrectly.</t>
        </li>
      </ul>

    </section>

    <section anchor="privacy-considerations" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>Privacy Considerations</name>

      <t>Network fault and problem management should preserve user privacy by
         not exposing user data or information about end-user activities.</t>

      <t>Network Telemetry involves observing network traffic and collecting
         operational data from the network, while Network Monitoring is the
         process of keeping records of data gathered in Network Telemetry.
         Therefore, it is possible that the data observed and collected
         includes users&apos; users' privacy information. Such information must be
         protected and controlled to avoid exposure to unauthorised unauthorized parties.
         Particular care may need to be exercised over stores of such
         information which that might be accessed at any time (including far into
         the future).</t> future).
</t>

      <t>Additionally, a network operator will be concerned to keep about keeping control of
         all information about Faults to protect their own privacy and the
         details of how they operate their network.</t>

    </section>

    <section anchor="iana-considerations" numbered="true" toc="default">
      <name>IANA Considerations</name>

      <t>This document makes has no requests for IANA action.</t> actions.</t>

    </section>

  </middle>
  <back>

<displayreference target="I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture" to="Net-Anomaly-Arch"/>
<displayreference target="I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang" to="Net-Incident-Mgmt-YANG"/>
    <references>
      <name>Informative References</name>

      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3877.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6632.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.8342.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.8632.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9232.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9315.xml"/>
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.9417.xml"/>

<!-- draft-ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture (I-D Exists)
  (Did "long way" to fix Alex Huang Feng's surname) -->
<reference anchor="I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture">
   <front>
      <title>A Framework for a Network Anomaly Detection Architecture</title>
      <author initials="T." surname="Graf" fullname="Thomas Graf">
         <organization>Swisscom</organization>
      </author>
      <author initials="W." surname="Du" fullname="Wanting Du">
         <organization>Swisscom</organization>
      </author>
      <author initials="P." surname="Francois" fullname="Pierre Francois">
         <organization>INSA-Lyon</organization>
      </author>
      <author initials="A." surname="Huang Feng" fullname="Alex Huang Feng">
         <organization>INSA-Lyon</organization>
      </author>
      <date month="November" day="21" year="2025" />
   </front>
   <seriesInfo name="Internet-Draft" value="draft-ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture-06" />
</reference>

<!-- draft-ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang (I-D Exists) -->
      <xi:include href="https://bib.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang.xml"/>

    </references>

    <section anchor="acknowledgments" numbered="false" toc="default">
      <name>Acknowledgments</name>
      <t>The authors would like to thank Med Boucadair, Wanting Du, Joe Clarke, Javier Antich, Benoit Claise, Christopher Janz,
         Sherif Mostafa, Kristian Larsson, Dirk Hugo, Carsten Bormann, Hilarie Orman, Stewart Bryant, Bo Wu, Paul Kyzivat,
         Jouni Korhonen, Reshad Rahman, Rob Wilton, Mahesh Jethanandani, Tim Bray, Paul Aitken, and Deb Cooley <contact fullname="Med Boucadair"/>,
      <contact fullname="Wanting Du"/>, <contact fullname="Joe Clarke"/>,
      <contact fullname="Javier Antich"/>, <contact fullname="Benoit
      Claise"/>, <contact fullname="Christopher Janz"/>, <contact
      fullname="Sherif Mostafa"/>, <contact fullname="Kristian Larsson"/>,
      <contact fullname="Dirk Von Hugo"/>, <contact fullname="Carsten Bormann"/>,
      <contact fullname="Hilarie Orman"/>, <contact fullname="Stewart
      Bryant"/>, <contact fullname="Bo Wu"/>, <contact fullname="Paul
      Kyzivat"/>, <contact fullname="Jouni Korhonen"/>, <contact
      fullname="Reshad Rahman"/>, <contact fullname="Rob Wilton"/>, <contact
      fullname="Mahesh Jethanandani"/>, <contact fullname="Tim Bray"/>,
      <contact fullname="Paul Aitken"/>, and <contact fullname="Deb Cooley"/>
      for their helpful comments.</t> comments.
</t>

      <t>Special thanks to the team that met at a side meeting at IETF-120 IETF 120 to
      discuss some of the thorny issues:</t>
      <ul spacing="compact">
         <li>Benoit Claise</li>
         <li>Watson Ladd</li>
         <li>Brad Peters</li>
         <li>Bo Wu</li>
         <li>Georgios Karagiannis</li>
         <li>Olga Havel</li>
         <li>Vincenzo Riccobene</li>
         <li>Yi Lin</li>
         <li>Jie Dong</li>
         <li>Aihua Guo</li>
         <li>Thomas Graf</li>
         <li>Qin Wu</li>
         <li>Chaode Yu</li>
         <li>Adrian Farrel</li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Benoit Claise"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Watson Ladd"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Brad Peters"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Bo Wu"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Georgios Karagiannis"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Olga Havel"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Vincenzo Riccobene"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Yi Lin"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Jie Dong"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Aihua Guo"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Thomas Graf"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Qin Wu"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Chaode Yu"/></t></li>
         <li><t><contact fullname="Adrian Farrel"/></t></li>
      </ul>

    </section>

  </middle>

  <back>

    <references>
      <name>Informative References</name>

      &RFC3877;
      &RFC6632;
      &RFC8342;
      &RFC8632;
      &RFC9232;
      &RFC9315;
      &RFC9417;

      &I-D.ietf-nmop-network-anomaly-architecture;
      &I-D.ietf-nmop-network-incident-yang;

    </references>

  </back>

</rfc>