OSPF Traffic Engineering (TE) Express Path

In certain networks, such as, but not limited to, financial information networks (e.g. stock market data providers), network performance criteria (e.g. latency) have become (or are becoming) as (or more) critical to data path selection than other metrics. This document describes extensions to OSPF TE (RFC3630) such that network performance information can be distributed and collected in a scalable fashion. The information collected from OSPF TE Express Path can then be used to make path selection decisions. Additionally, the information passed in these extensions will permit granular network performance monitoring. Note that this document only covers the mechanisms with which network performance information is distributed. The mechanisms for measuring network performance or acting on that information, once distributed, are outside the scope of this document.