The IESG has approved the following document: - 'An Architecture for Use of PCE and PCEP in a Network with Central Control' (draft-ietf-teas-pce-central-control-05.txt) as Informational RFC This document is the product of the Traffic Engineering Architecture and Signaling Working Group. The IESG contact persons are Alvaro Retana, Alia Atlas and Deborah Brungard. A URL of this Internet Draft is: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-teas-pce-central-control/ Technical Summary The Path Computation Element (PCE) has become established as a core component of Software Defined Networking (SDN) systems. It can compute optimal paths for traffic across a network for any definition of "optimal" and can also monitor changes in resource availability and traffic demands to update the paths. Conventionally, the PCE has been used to derive paths for MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs). These paths are supplied using the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) to the head end of the LSP for signaling in the MPLS network. This document briefly introduces the architecture for PCE as a central controller, examines the motivations and applicability for PCEP as a southbound interface, and introduces the implications for the protocol. This document does not describe the use cases in detail and does not define protocol extensions: that work is left for other documents. Working Group Summary The progress of the document through the WG has been smooth. There was some serious debate before the last call with regards to implications on manageability and on PCEP. The authors addressed all of these concerns by adding relevant text to the document. Document Quality This document has been discussed and reviewed thoroughly by the WG. The base PCE architecture and the PCEP protocol have been implemented. The document that discusses the use-cases for PCE as a central controller is actively being worked on. While there have been no public statements on implementation of this new architecture, the authors are from multiple vendors, and implementation is expected. Personnel Who is the Document Shepherd for this document? Vishnu Pavan Beeram Who is the Responsible Area Director? Deborah Brungard RFC Editor Note text at the end of s2.1.2: s/whole the controllers/while the controllers/
