**Session Date/Time:** 25 Jul 2025 07:30

# rift

## Summary

The IETF rift working group meeting covered several topics including the publication of RFC 9692, updates on the KV store and segment routing, discussion around multicast in AI/ML environments, and a proposal for dragonfly routing. The discussion highlighted the increasing relevance of rift in data center networking.

## Key Discussion Points

*   **RFC 9692 Publication:** RFC 9692, the rift Protocol Spot, has been published.
*   **KV Store:** The KV store document has completed Shepard Review and will be put to last call after this IETF meeting. IPR review is a to-do item for the chairs.
*   **Segment Routing:** Continued work on segment routing with good progress on services.
*   **rift Multicast:** Revival of multicast work is anticipated due to increasing interest in multicast for AI data centers. BEER integration with rift was also suggested.
*   **Multicast for MOE:** Discussion focused on using multicast for Mixture of Experts (MOE) architectures in large language models (LLMs). The motivation is to reduce pressure on source GPUs and reduce congestion between nodes.
*   **MOE Multicast Challenges:** The discussion acknowledged the challenges including inconsistent sending methods (memory reading, DMA), coordination between large model coding and network layer, packet encapsulation and reliability issues.
*   **Dragonfly Routing:** A proposal for dragonfly routing was presented, aiming for dynamic routing without silicon changes or complex VPN policies. The proposal involves a split horizon approach based on topological ordering.
*   **Reliability of Multicast:** Reliability was identified as a major obstacle to deploying multicast in AI networks, necessitating consideration of mechanisms for handling packet loss and retransmission.

## Decisions and Action Items

*   **KV Store:** Chairs to initiate IPR review for the KV store document. Authors to address document edits after IETF 123.
*   **MOE Multicast:** Sandy to share the recording link of the MOE side meeting to the mailing list.
*   **Dragonfly Routing:** Tony to update the dragonfly routing draft.

## Next Steps

*   Continue working on segment routing and auto-assess work.
*   Further investigate the use of BEER in rift for multicast scenarios, specifically considering reliability aspects.
*   Explore the potential of dragonfly routing within the rift framework, taking into account power constraints and reconfigurable optical switches.