What transport mechanisms can NETCONF use?

NETCONF primarily uses SSH (Secure Shell) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) as its transport mechanisms. These protocols provide a secure means to manage network devices by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and authentication of the communication between the client and the server.

SSH is favored for its encryption capabilities, allowing network configuration data to be transmitted securely, preventing unauthorized access during communication. TLS is often used to secure the transport of data over the internet, adding an additional layer of security to the management of network devices.

In contrast to other options, protocols such as HTTP and FTP do not inherently provide the same level of security as SSH and TLS; therefore, they are not suitable for the sensitive operations typically performed with NETCONF. Similarly, UDP and ICMP are not transport mechanisms that could be used for NETCONF operations, as they lack the reliability and session establishment that protocols like SSH provide. Lastly, while Telnet does offer a method of accessing network devices, it is not secure, and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is more focused on monitoring rather than configuration management, farther detaching it from NETCONF's intended use case.