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Abstract

This document specifies an extension to the base Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Protocol that generalizes the concept of "endpoint properties", which have been tied to IP addresses so far, to entities defined by a wide set of objects. Further, these properties are presented as maps, similar to the network and cost maps in the base ALTO Protocol. While supporting the endpoints and related Endpoint Property Service defined in RFC 7285, the ALTO Protocol is extended in two major directions. First, from endpoints restricted to IP addresses to entities covering a wider and extensible set of objects; second, from properties for specific endpoints to entire entity property maps. These extensions introduce additional features that allow entities and property values to be specific to a given information resource. This is made possible by a generic and flexible design of entity and property types.