scope:

This document describes the Access Node Control Protocol (ANCP). ANCP operates between a Network Access Server (NAS) and an Access Node (e.g., a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM)) in a multi-service reference architecture in order to perform operations related to Quality of Service, service, and subscribers. Use cases for ANCP are documented in RFC 5851. As well as describing the base ANCP protocol, this document specifies capabilities for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) topology discovery, line configuration, and remote line connectivity testing. The design of ANCP allows for protocol extensions in other documents if they are needed to support other use cases and other access technologies.

ANCP is based on the General Switch Management Protocol version 3 (GSMPv3) described in RFC 3292, but with many modifications and extensions, to the point that the two protocols are not interoperable. For this reason, ANCP was assigned a separate version number to distinguish it.