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Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach
charter-ietf-anima-00-05

The information below is for an older proposed charter
Document Proposed charter Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach WG (anima) Snapshot
Title Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach
Last updated 2014-09-12
State Draft Charter Rechartering
WG State BOF
IESG Responsible AD Mahesh Jethanandani
Charter edit AD (None)
Send notices to (None)

charter-ietf-anima-00-05

[background]
Autonomic networking refers to the self-managing characteristics of distributed network elements, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity from operators and users. It often involves closed-loop control. 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. Elements of autonomic functions already exist today, for example aspects of IGP routing protocols such as OSPF, although their initial configuration process is not autonomic. However, all such functions today have their own discovery, transport, messaging and security mechanisms as well as non-autonomic management interfaces. The general objective of this working group is to enable the progressive introduction of autonomic behaviors into operational networks, as well as reusable autonomic network infrastructure.

The ANIMA working group will cover the four conventional areas of self-management: configuration, protection, healing and optimization, and aims to be equally applicable to the complete network (functions) lifecycle (e.g. installation, commissioning, operating, etc).

[previous work]
To transform the somewhat abstract Autonomic Networking concept into concrete, realisable requirements, the first stage, undertaken in the Network Management Research Group (NMRG) of the IRTF, was to define terminology and design goals, and to derive a high-level gap analysis. The definitions and design goals, as well as a simple architecture model are defined in draft-irtf-nmrg-autonomic-network-definitions; the gap analysis for AN is described in draft-irtf-nmrg-an-gap-analysis. The UCAN BoF at IETF 90 discussed use cases and some existing solutions. All the above work serves as a baseline for this working group.

[problem statement]
Certain network functions are today implemented in a distributed way, and new distributed network functions keep being developed. Currently, every distributed function defines its own way to identify nodes, to communicate, discover and negotiate between nodes, and to secure the interactions: there is no common infrastructure for distributed functions. Consequently, network administrators are required to define and configure node identities, security schemes, etc, for each distributed mechanism separately. Vendors need to implement parallel mechanisms for similar tasks. This leads to inefficiencies. Additionally, central configuration, 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. Autonomic networking is intended to reduce OpEx by mitigating 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. This paradigm which mainly relies on closed-loop adaptive control is referred to an autonomic networking.

[scope of initial effort]
A complete solution for full autonomic networking would be a very ambitious goal. The scope of this working group's effort for the initial stage is much more modest: it is to define 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.

[main goal]
The main goal of the ANIMA WG is therefore to develop common infrastructure components for distributed functions. The infrastructure 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

[preference for existing methods]
Where suitable protocols, models or methods exist, they will be preferred over creating new ones.

[co-existence with traditional management]
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.

[Potential-future-works-not-for-initial-stage]
Some in-scope topics are intentionally not included in the initial goals as they are considered separate matters that should be considered later, although they are in the scope for discussion with lower priority:
o Mechanism for distributing policy intent to autonomic nodes
o Use of data analytics by autonomic nodes
o Other external information sources
o System-wide integration of autonomics

[specific goals]
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 Definition of a discovery and negotiation protocol for autonomic functions
Starting point: draft-jiang-config-negotiation-protocol
o Definition of a solution to bootstrap a trust infrastructure
Starting point: draft-pritikin-bootstrapping-keyinfrastructures
o Definition of a solution for a separated Autonomic Control Plane
Starting point: draft-behringer-autonomic-control-plane

Each proposal should have its own motivation and complete workflow as autonomic process. The design of these proposals should clearly target to be reusable by other use cases. The WG will verify all proposed solutions to make sure the components are reusable, necessary and sufficient.

In addition, autonomic service agents will demonstrate the usage of the above mentioned autonomic infrastructure components with two use cases:
o A solution for distributed IPv6 prefix management within a network.
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 overview 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 Management Research Group, but are not planned as working group deliverables for now. No additional work items will be accepted without re-chartering.

Milestones

Nov 2014 - WG formation and adoption of initial drafts
- Mar IETF 92nd -
Apr 2015 - adoption of solution draft(s)
Jun 2015 - WGLC for discovery and negotiation protocol
- Jul IETF 93rd -
Aug 2015 - submit discovery and negotiation protocol to IESG (standards track)
Aug 2015 - adoption of overview draft
Oct 2015 - WGLC for trust bootstrap draft
Oct 2015 - WGLC for solution draft
- Nov IETF 94th -
Dec 2015 - submit trust bootstrap draft to IESG (standards track)
Dec 2015 - submit solution draft(s) to IESG (standards track)
Jan 2016 - WGLC for autonomic control plane draft
Jan 2016 - WGLC for overview draft
- Mar IETF 95th -
Apr 2016 - submit autonomic control plane draft to IESG (standards track)
Apr 2016 - submit overview draft to IESG (informational)
Jul 2016 - recharter if needed, or close