Session Date/Time: 15 Oct 2025 13:00

DRIP

Summary

The DRIP Working Group met to discuss the current state of DRIP, its increasing relevance in the UAS ecosystem, and progress on key drafts. Stu provided an overview of the regulatory landscape and the critical need for trustworthy air domain awareness, emphasizing DRIP's role in ensuring trust in Remote ID data. Adam presented the "TADA" draft, a comprehensive document on registration and provisioning, and requested its adoption for group review. The meeting also introduced a new team of Brazilian researchers committed to contributing to DRIP's work, including developing a testbed and conducting KPI analysis.

Key Discussion Points

Welcome and Logistics: Daniel welcomed participants and confirmed Adam would take notes.
DRIP Ecosystem and Regulatory Landscape (Stu):
- The UAS industry is focused on Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, with considerations for security, safety, effectiveness, and economics.
- The US FAA and TSA have released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to normalize BVLOS operations, moving away from waivers to standardized regulations.
- Future UAS operations will include faster, higher-flying, larger aircraft for cargo delivery and air taxis, blurring lines with conventional crewed aviation.
- This trend highlights an urgent need for "trustworthy air domain awareness" to support:
  - Strategic deconfliction: Pre-flight planning of operational intents in 4D airspace volumes, managed via UTM overlay networks.
  - Tactical deconfliction / Self-separation / Detect and Avoid (DAA): In-flight awareness of other aircraft and objects for pilots (AI/ML or human) to make informed decisions, distinct from automated collision avoidance.
- These needs require integrating UAS Remote ID (RID), cooperative systems (e.g., ADS-B), and non-cooperative systems (e.g., radar) with UAS Traffic Management (UTM) and Air Traffic Control (ATC).
- Trust in safety-critical data is paramount, especially if RID is used as an input for DAA. A trivially spoofable RID system (without DRIP) cannot be trusted and is vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks on airspace.
- Applicable Trust Frameworks:
  - ICAO's emerging trust framework for all aviation, based on X.509, which Bob's DKI draft compacts into DRIP over-the-air endorsements (as per RFC 9575).
  - AUVSI's new framework for all uncrewed vehicles across domains.
  - DRIP is well-positioned at the intersection of these two frameworks.
- Current DRIP Document Flow and Missing Pieces:
  - ASTM F-3411 (UAS Remote ID standard) informs DRIP requirements and architecture, which relies on Bob's DRIP Entity Tag (DET).
  - DEMS RFC 9575 uses DETs for authentication formats and protocols.
  - Bob and Jim Reed's draft (in RFC editor queue) covers using DETs in DNS.
  - Missing Piece: A standardized process for registering a DET, which functions as an Internet domain name and IPv6 address, including its allocation in IP address space and registration in DNS zones.
  - Need for Means of Compliance (MOCs): Globally applicable MOCs are needed to guide implementers, making it easy for SDOs (like ASTM or EuroK) to cite DRIP documents for a complete system solution, including the registration process and essentials from the DKI draft.
- Drones Quad Initiative: CAAs from Brazil, Canada, EU, and the US have created a template to facilitate standards development that can be easily cited in MOCs.
- Adam's Draft: Adam's draft addresses registration and provisioning, including session IDs, authentication key IDs, and optional encryption key IDs. This is seen as the final missing piece to fulfill the initial DRIP charter.
- DRIP's Impact: DRIP has achieved name recognition among regulators and has produced artifacts adopted by security-focused government agencies (e.g., US Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security for Crowdsourced Remote ID - CS-RID) and major commercial operators (e.g., Zipline).
New Work and Drafts (Adam):
- Crowdsourced RID: Adam and Bob have complementary drafts (practical vs. theoretical) that need to be merged. Adam's operational experience from deploying CS-RID systems informed his later work.
- "TADA" (Trust and Data Authority) Document: This large document merges previous drafts on MOCs, registration with CWTs, and RDAP. Its primary goal is to provide a single, comprehensive document for CAAs to implement DRIP, covering:
  - Roles and responsibilities for various party classes within the DRIP ecosystem.
  - Technical goals for global harmonization, setting a standard way for implementation.
  - Registration Process: Standardized via HTTPS carrying CWTs or JWTs, defining the client-registrar interface.
  - Private Queries (PII): Uses RDAP with mutual TLS, with OpenDroneID Connect and XACML over SAML as other options.
  - X.509 Profiles: A normative appendix incorporates X.509 profiles from Bob's DKI document to support ICAO ACCP and certificate signing requests.
- Adam requested the group to adopt and review the TADA draft.
Discussion on Reviews and Future Engagement:
- Stu and Adam emphasized the TADA draft is breadth-complete and ready for review, though potentially large.
- A sense of those present indicated a preference to recharter the DRIP WG rather than closing it or moving to a different working group, to avoid confusing regulators.
- The chairs noted a lack of mailing list discussions on the drafts and the challenge of engaging non-IETF aviation/regulatory experts in the IETF process.
- The primary focus for the working group should be to attract contributions and reviews for the drafts, demonstrating support and commitment to move the work forward. The "home" (specific area or WG) for the work is a secondary concern once active participation is established.
Brazilian Team Introduction:
- A new team from Brazil (Lorenzo, Antonia, Flavio, Melo) introduced themselves. They are funded for three years by the Brazilian Internet Committee to participate in IETF meetings.
- Their goal is to contribute to DRIP, balancing IETF work with their sponsor's project (running code, tests, papers).
- They are currently observing and learning IETF processes and interaction patterns.
- One master's student is working on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for DRIP.
- They are developing a testbed (currently with Andre Gortov in Sweden, planned for Brazil).
- The entire team will attend IETF 124 in Montreal. They are eager to share their project and KPI ideas at future meetings.

Decisions and Action Items

Decision: Adam committed to taking notes for this meeting.
Action Item: Adam to initiate discussions on the mailing list regarding the TADA draft, focusing on specific "hotter touchy issues" to drive engagement.
Action Item: Adam to submit an updated version of his Crowdsourced RID draft by the upcoming ID deadline.
Action Item: Adam to work on adapting the TADA draft to the "Drones Quad" template, potentially during a hackathon.
Action Item: Stu and the Chairs to continue efforts to engage external SDO and regulatory experts in IETF mailing list discussions and working group activities.
Action Item: The Brazilian team to prepare a presentation on their project, KPI work for DRIP, and testbed development for the next interim meeting and IETF 124.
Action Item: Chairs to schedule the next interim meeting and prepare the agenda for IETF 124, including slots for draft updates and the Brazilian team's presentation.

Next Steps

The working group will focus on driving discussion and gathering reviews for the TADA draft on the mailing list. Adam will continue to refine the draft and explore its alignment with the Drones Quad template. The Brazilian team's commitment to participation and their planned technical contributions are welcomed and will be integrated into future meeting agendas. The chairs will continue efforts to broaden participation and review engagement as the working group progresses towards potentially rechartering or concluding its current work items.