Data Centers have been steadily growing to commonly host tens of thousands
of end points, or more, in a single network.  Because of their topologies
(traditional and emerging), traffic patterns, need for fast restoration,
and for low human intervention, data center networks have a unique set of
requirements that is resulting in the design of routing solutions specific
to them.  Clos and Fat-Tree topologies have gained popularity in data center
networks as a result of a trend towards centralized data center network
architectures that may deliver computation and storage services.

The Routing in Fat Trees (RIFT) protocol addresses the demands of routing in
Clos and Fat-Tree networks via a mixture of both link-state and distance-vector
techniques colloquially described as 'link-state towards the spine and distance
vector towards the leafs'.  RIFT uses this hybrid approach to focus on networks
with regular topologies with a high degree of connectivity, a defined
directionality, and large scale.

The RIFT WG has finished the base protocol specification
(draft-ietf-rift-rift-20) and will continue to work on standards track
specifications on the following:

 - Key-Value Data Store
 - Policy Guided Prefix
 - Segment Routing
 - Using RIFT Zero Touch Provisioning for automatic provisioning of other
   mechanisms/protocols (e.g., EVPN overlay, ISIS flood reflection topologies)
 - Multicast
 - Leaf ring topologies
 - Dragonfly topologies

The RIFT WG will also explore the use and extensions of the RIFT protocol for
the newer AI/ML Data Center architectures.