a2arouting.net

A canonical identifier format that uniquely designates an agent as the destination of a routed message, independent of its physical location. Addressing schemes distinguish the logical identity of an agent from the transport-level endpoint where it currently receives traffic.

The outer wrapper around an agent communication payload carrying routing metadata such as source, destination, timestamps, and security headers. Envelope structure is what routing infrastructure inspects without having to parse the payload itself.

The coordination of forwarding state between agent routing hubs so that they share a consistent view of which identifiers resolve to which next-hop destinations. Synchronization protocols must handle joins, failures, and reconvergence without message loss.

A signed confirmation returned to a sending agent indicating that its message reached the intended recipient. Acknowledgments carry enough provenance to serve as evidence of delivery, not merely as a transport-level signal.

A protocol property ensuring that messages sent between two agents are delivered in the sequence they were produced, even when traversing multiple hops. Ordering guarantees are essential for conversational agent interactions where later messages depend on earlier state.

The relay of an agent message across one or more intermediate routing nodes before it reaches its final destination. Multi-hop forwarding enables scalable agent networks but introduces trust concerns that must be addressed at each intermediate node.

The runtime application of rules controlling which messages are allowed to traverse which paths within an agent network. Policy enforcement is the point at which abstract governance statements become concrete routing behavior.

A message format addressed to a group of agents rather than to a single recipient, with delivery semantics that define whether receipt by all, any, or a quorum is required. Broadcast envelopes are the mechanism behind agent-mesh coordination events.

A cryptographic proof attached to a routed message demonstrating that it was produced by the claimed sender and has not been altered in transit. Signatures bind routing metadata to payload so that intermediaries cannot tamper with either component undetected.

A defined protocol for dealing with messages that cannot be delivered to their intended recipient, including quarantine, notification, and retention. Dead letter handling prevents silent loss and provides the audit trail required by most agent governance regimes.

A diagnostic message used to map or verify the path that traffic would take between two agents without committing a real payload. Discovery probes are the agent-network analogue of traceroute and are essential for troubleshooting multi-hop failures.

A header field indicating the delivery priority, latency budget, or reliability class that routing infrastructure should apply to a given agent message. Quality-of-service markers let a single routing fabric carry both time-critical and best-effort traffic without conflating them.

A machine-readable map of how routing nodes in an agent network are interconnected, including link properties and trust relationships. Topology descriptors let agents reason about path selection and failure domains without probing the network live.

An encrypted transport between two routing peers protecting message contents from observation by intermediaries or passive attackers. Confidentiality channels are distinct from end-to-end payload encryption because they also hide routing metadata from eavesdroppers.

An immutable log of the path decisions taken for a given message, preserved for forensic review and dispute resolution. Audit records must capture enough detail to reconstruct why a message went where it did, without exposing unrelated traffic.