The Network Change Tracker with Timeline is specifically designed to log all configuration changes and correlate them with network alarms and performance events. This allows an engineer to pinpoint exactly which change was made and when, and see if it aligns with the onset of the performance issue, providing a clear audit trail for root cause analysis.

An SR-MPLS Best Effort (BE) path is, by definition, the unconstrained shortest path as calculated by the underlying IGP (OSPF or IS-IS). It does not consider additional constraints like bandwidth, delay, or administrative groups. Its primary goal is basic connectivity along the least-cost path.

A major operational simplification of Segment Routing (both MPLS and IPv6 dataplanes) is that it removes the dependency on complex, stateful protocols like LDP for label distribution. SR uses extensions to existing IGPs (OSPF/IS-IS) to distribute segment information, massively simplifying the control plane, reducing configuration overhead, and improving network convergence and scalability.

SRv6 is the architecture that natively uses IPv6 as the data plane. Huawei’s NCE-IP controller provides full lifecycle management (orchestration, provisioning, optimization, assurance) for SRv6 policies. This combination delivers the required native IPv6 support and deep SDN-based automation.

In TI-LFA, the P-space and Q-space are calculated. The PQ node is a router that is in both the P-space (reachable from the protecting node without passing through the failure) and the Q-space (can reach the destination without passing through the failure). The backup path is engineered to go from the protecting node to this PQ node, where it safely rejoins the post-failure shortest path to the destination, guaranteeing loop-free convergence.

Huawei NCE-IP’s ‘auto-optimization’ feature continuously monitors network performance and can automatically re-optimize SR Policies to a better path if the current one degrades. If this feature is enabled, a path deviation is an expected and intentional behavior, not a fault. This should be verified before investigating harder failures.

Segment Routing enables explicit steering through a Segment List, which is an ordered list of node or adjacency segments (SIDs). By specifying the SIDs of the security appliances in the Segment List of an SR Policy, you can force the traffic to traverse those specific nodes in the defined order, creating a strict, explicit path without the need for a separate signaling protocol like RSVP-TE.

The SRv6 End.M (Endpoint with cross-connect to MPLS) behavior is key for 5G integration. It allows an SRv6-capable node (like a PE) to terminate an SRv6 path and cross-connect the traffic into an existing MPLS or GTP-U based network segment. It essentially decapsulates the outer SRv6 header and exposes the inner payload (e.g., a GTP-U tunnel), enabling a smooth migration and interworking between SRv6 transport and legacy mobile core networks.

Flex-Algo allows defining custom constraint-based algorithms. To restrict a path to only use links with a specific characteristic (like a ‘low-latency-ready’ tag), you define an Administrative Group (link color) and then configure the Flex-Algo with an *include-any* constraint for that group. This means the path calculation will only consider links that possess *at least* that specific administrative group tag.

The Network Change Tracker with Timeline is specifically designed to log all configuration changes and correlate them with network alarms and performance events. This allows an engineer to pinpoint exactly which change was made and when, and see if it aligns with the onset of the performance issue, providing a clear audit trail for root cause analysis.0