Subject: [Netslices] BoF thinking flow

From: Liang GENG <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2018 10:25:18 +0000

Dear All,

According to ADs and chairs’ suggestion and our previous discussion, I suggest we present COMS proposal during the BoF referring to the following thinking flow based on the 3 main questions asked by Benoit.

Q1 Clarifying the problem space

First, introduce typical use cases of COMS

         -Use case 1: Combination of networking and computing resources

         -Use case 2: Technology diversity of network infrastructure

The uses cases will help to derive the required problem space of COMS, i.e. unified slice management in heterogeneous environment.

Then a simple architecture view is presented to clarify the scope. The interfaces/models COMS will work on should be precisely highlighted.

         -In scope: Service Model, Service Delivery Model, Information Model

         -Out of scope: New forwarding technology, New device configuration model, New network configuration model.

Q2 Find out whether IETF is the right place for this type of top down approach

This question could be justified from two aspects.

-External aspect (Top down): network slicing is indeed a top-down requirement triggered by new vertical industry services. However, within IETF, it does not necessarily ask for new forwarding technology. Nevertheless, a slice-level management must be provided by IETF to enable slicing capability among existing IETF forwarding technologies.

-Internal aspect (Bottom up): Nowadays, existing IETF technologies either evolves (e.g. DETNET) or naturally support (e.g. VPN) certain resource dedication mechanism. This is in line with the concept of network slicing. However, A big problem is that IETF has little tools for cross-domain management (draft-arkko-arch-virtualization-00<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-arkko-arch-virtualization/>).

These two aspects meet a common convergence. Hence, COMS response to the converged requirement, which is not a result from a solely top-down approach.

Q3 How would that top down approach meet bottom up (being worked on in different WGs)

The information model of COMS serves as the key element for the convergence. It provides guidance for the design of service (deliver) model. And it also provides slice-level abstraction reference for existing IETF forwarding technologies. This information model should be a comprehensive set of abstraction. Each single technology typically refer to a subset of this information model towards slice-level abstraction process. During the BoF, this should be carefully explained.

Based on the methodology above, we suggest the following organization of the presentation materials from the proponents.

1 presentation to answer Q1. Materials are derived from Use Case, Architecture and Problem statement drafts.

1 presentation to answer both Q2 and Q3. Materials are derived from Architecture and Information model drafts.

I suggest that the above 2 presentations jointly ask for about 60 mins – however the time arrangement is up to the Chairs to coordinate.

No discussion on technical solution details are suggested during this BoF.

Comments are extremely welcome!

Best wishes,

Liang