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We're looking into how we can extend tracing IDs to plain TLS connections.
I'm looking into adding a TLS extension via e.g. openssl custom extension apis.

Has anyone been considering something similar?

If there is anyone else interested, I'd like to see if we can get a TLS extension ID registered for tracing.

Today's OSS tracing systems are focused on http, the typical enterprise has a lot of other protocols which are critical to the application. Some examples include:

• 1. JMS
  Data can be embedded in message properties without harm, and this allows correlation and identification of the presence of a messaging system. The data can be tagged going in and measured for message put. Similarly, the receiving end can measure the time in the queue and the time it takes to process said message.
• 2. Native MQ
  This is more difficult to handle since native MQ protocols do not have specific areas where message data can be inserted without the fear of breaking the downstream legacy code. There are several tricks here which can help avoid the problem, and there are published recommendations from IBM, Tibco, and others. The problem is that the downstream applications typically ignore the recommendations.
• 3. AMQP
  Similar to JMS, supporting AMQP is possible due to having extensible message formats. This still must be done by the library or programmer to inject the right data into the message.
• 4. DB Calls (JDBC / ADO.NET / other DB access types)
  Although this is not something I've seen tracing tools do today, it could be of use to have similar data going to the database. This is something that Oracle has done internally, for example, the database can automatically record a transaction id with the record for trackability (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/java.102/b14355/endtoend.htm#BEICGHJH). It would depend on the driver and database but could be of use.
• 5. RMI or other RPC
  In Java, these calls would typically be via CORBA or via raw calls to a downstream system. For things like CORBA, there are fields which are available to do this type of thing. Similarly, on Hadoop RPC (https://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/HadoopRpc) this would be possible as well. Some of these would require adding data to a message on one end, and possibly removing it on the remote end to avoid breakage.
• 6. Protobuf and other binary protocols
  These are potentially interesting technologies we could embed into, but once again it depends if we can remove the data before it's processed downstream, or find a way to embed data into the payload without causing issues. This is currently a challenge for APM tools.

Cloud Events defined extension:
https://github.com/cloudevents/spec/blob/master/extensions/distributed-tracing.md

CC: @duglin and @inlined - authors of the document above