**Session Date/Time:** 20 Jul 2025 16:00

# HotRFC Lightning Talks

## Summary

The HotRFC Lightning Talks session featured 15 four-minute presentations covering diverse technical topics ranging from AI/LLM applications in networking, transport protocols, security frameworks, to novel networking architectures. Each presenter had strictly enforced four-minute slots to introduce their ideas and seek collaboration opportunities. The session served as a forum for starting conversations and enabling hallway discussions throughout the week.

## Key Discussion Points

### AI/LLM Applications in Networking
- **Framework for evaluating LM agents for network configuration**: Comprehensive evaluation framework with task datasets, emulator environments, and metrics for reasoning ability, command accuracy, and functional correctness
- **Grounding high-level intents to low-level network configurations**: Using LLMs to convert threat intelligence into actionable network configurations, demonstrated with HTTP rapid reset DDoS attack example
- **Automated network protocol testing with LLMs**: Full pipeline automation from RFC specifications to executable test code, addressing time-intensive manual testing processes
- **AI assistant for IPv6 deployment**: Addressing IPv6 engineer shortage by creating AI system to answer questions, help with address planning, and generate configurations

### Transport and Network Protocols
- **Transport layer protocol optimization for satellite networks**: Addressing challenges in LEO satellite networks including frequent handovers, weather impact, and RTT variations affecting TCP performance
- **Kira scalable zero-touch routing**: Autonomous control plane providing highly resilient connectivity supporting hundreds of thousands of nodes without configuration requirements
- **Improving delay throughput trade-off with Codal++**: Modified AQM algorithm addressing assumptions about TCP Reno senders, optimized for modern TCP variants like Cubic and BBR

### Security and Trust
- **TLS secure element for asynchronous communication**: Trusted communication using secure elements as embedded TLS servers for email, messaging, and IoT applications
- **Remote attestation with composite devices**: Architecture for handling multiple verifiers in complex systems with hierarchical, cascade, and hybrid modes
- **Security considerations for confidential computing**: Analysis of threat models and trust boundaries in cloud service provider environments
- **Secure hybrid network monitoring**: Solutions for monitoring security properties in complex hybrid cloud/on-premise network configurations

### Emerging Technologies
- **Distributed inference network and Internet of Agents**: Architecture for handling concurrent AI agent interactions with low latency requirements
- **ICN Path to Africa**: Information-centric networking vision for content caching and availability, particularly relevant for connectivity challenges
- **Ultra low latency cryptography with Arrayon**: Performance improvements over AES-256-GCM and SHA-256 for real-time applications like e-sports and remote surgery

## Decisions and Action Items

- Multiple side meetings scheduled throughout the week for continued discussions:
  - Kira routing: Wednesday 4 PM
  - Distributed inference network: Wednesday early morning
  - Confidential computing: Tuesday and Wednesday 11-13 hours
  - Remote attestation: Various sessions scheduled
  - Transport optimization for satellites: Tuesday morning

## Next Steps

- Presenters actively seeking collaborators across multiple domains including operators, AI experts, security researchers, and implementers
- Several projects have open source implementations available for testing and contribution
- Draft submissions planned for various working groups including RATS, TLS, and potential new working groups
- Follow-up discussions to continue in hallway conversations and scheduled side meetings throughout IETF 123