The Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima) working group in the Operations and Management Area of the IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not made any determination yet. The following draft charter was submitted, and is provided for informational purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG mailing list (iesg at ietf.org) by 2014-10-19. Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (anima) ------------------------------------------------ Current Status: BOF WG Assigned Area Director: Benoit Claise <bclaise@cisco.com> Mailing list Address: anima@ietf.org To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/anima Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/anima/ Charter: Autonomic networking refers to the self-managing characteristics (configuration, protection, healing, and optimization) of distributed network elements, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity from operators and users. Autonomic Networking, which often involves closed-loop control, is applicable to the complete network (functions) lifecycle (e.g. installation, commissioning, operating, etc). An autonomic function works in a distributed way across various network elements, but allowing central guidance and reporting, and co-existence with non-autonomic methods of management. The general objective of this working group is to enable the progressive introduction of autonomic functions into operational networks, as well as reusable autonomic network infrastructure, in order to reduce the OpEx. This work build on definitions and design goals, as well as a simple architecture model undertaken in the Network Management Research Group (NMRG) of the IRTF. Elements of autonomic functions already exist today. However, all such functions today have their own discovery, node identification, negotiation, transport, messaging and security mechanisms as well as non-autonomic management interfaces. There is no common infrastructure for distributed functions. This leads to inefficiencies. Additionally, management and optimisation of operational device configurations is expensive, tedious, and prone to human error. A simple example is assigning address prefixes to network segments in a large and constantly changing network. Similarly, repair or bypassing of faults requires human intervention and causes significant down time. This WG is intended to mitigate this duplication of similar mechanisms and heavy dependency on human actions, in particular by facilitating secure closed-loop interaction directly between network elements to satisfy management intent. This motivates the introduction of a control paradigm where network processes, driven by objectives (or intent), coordinate their local decisions, autonomically translate them into local actions, and adapt them automatically according to various sources of information including external information and protocol information bases. While a complete solution for full autonomic networking is an ambitious goal, the initial scope of this working group's effort is much more modest: the specification of a minimum set of specific reusable infrastructure components to support autonomic interactions between devices, and to specify the application of these components to one or two elementary use cases of general value. Practically, these components should be capable of providing the following services to those distributed functions: o a common way to identify nodes o a common security model o a discovery mechanism o a negotiation mechanism to enable closed-loop interaction o a secure and logically separated communications channel o a consistent autonomic management model Where suitable protocols, models or methods exist, they will be preferred over creating new ones. It is preferred that autonomic functions would co-exist with traditional methods of management and configuration, and the initial focus would be on self-configuration. Future work may include a more detailed systems architecture to support the development of autonomic service agents. The ANIMA working group will initially focus on enterprise, ISP networks and IoT. Like traditional network management, the topological scope of autonomic functions is expected to be limited by administrative boundaries. The goals of this working group are below. The were selected to according to the analyzed technical gaps in draft-irtf-nmrg-an-gap-analysis: o Specification of a discovery functionality for autonomic functions o Specification of a negotiation functionality for autonomic functions Starting point: draft-jiang-config-negotiation-protocol o Specification of a solution to bootstrap a trust infrastructure Starting point: draft-pritikin-bootstrapping-keyinfrastructures o Specification of a solution for a separated Autonomic Control Plane Starting point: draft-behringer-autonomic-control-plane The design of these proposals should clearly target reusability. In addition, the WG will validate the application and reusability of the components to the following two use cases: o A solution for distributed IPv6 prefix management within a network. Although prefix delegation is currently supported, it relies on human action to subdivide and assign prefixes according to local requirements, and this process could become autonomic. o A solution for always-on, data plane independent connectivity between network elements (i.e., stable in the case of mis-configurations), which can be used for call home, network provisioning, or simply trouble-shooting. It is essential that these components and solutions fit together as an integrated whole. For this reason, an reference document will be developed in parallel with the individual specifications. The initial set of work items is limited to the above list to stay focused and avoid "boiling the ocean". Additional documents concerning other autonomic infrastructure components, policy intent, use cases or autonomic service agents are strongly encouraged, as individual submissions, or as submissions to the IRTF Network Network Management Research Group. Additional work items may only be added with approval from the responsible Area Director or by re-chartering. Milestones Mar 2015 - Adoption of initial drafts on AN components: Discovery and negotiation protocol(s) Bootstrap a trust infrastructure solution Autonomic control plane solution Jul 2015 - Adoption of reference model Jul 2015 - Adoption of the two validation drafts Apr 2016 - Submit discovery and negotiation protocol(s) to IESG (Standards Track) Apr 2016 - Submit bootstrap a trust infrastructure solution to IESG (Standards Track) Sep 2016 - Submit the two validation drafts to IESG (Informational) Sep 2016 - Submit autonomic control plane solution to IESG (Standards Track) Dec 2016 - Submit reference model to IESG (Informational) Dec 2016 - Recharter if needed, or close
