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Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach
charter-ietf-anima-01-08

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 2019-08-20
State External Review (Message to Community, Selected by Secretariat) Rechartering
WG State Active
IESG Responsible AD Mahesh Jethanandani
Charter edit AD Ignas Bagdonas
Send notices to (None)

charter-ietf-anima-01-08

The Autonomic Networking Integrated Model and Approach (ANIMA) working group develops and maintains specifications and documentation for interoperable protocols and procedures for automated network management and control of professionally-managed networks.

The vision is a network that configures, heals, optimizes and protects itself. The strategy is the incremental introduction of components to smoothly evolve existing and new networks accordingly.

ANIMA work will rely on the framework described in draft-ietf-anima-reference-model already approved for publication. Work not related to this framework is welcome for review, but WG adoption of such work requires explicit rechartering. The two concrete areas of the reference model are (1) the Autonomic Networking Infrastructure (ANI), and (2) Autonomic Functions (AF) built from software modules called Autonomic Service Agents (ASA).

The ANI is specified through prior ANIMA work. It is composed of the Autonomic Control Plane (ACP; RFC 8368), Bootstrap over Secure Key Infrastructures (BRSKI) including Vouchers (RFC8366), and the Generic Autonomic Signaling Protocol (GRASP). ANIMA will work on closing gaps and extending the ANI and its components.

ANIMA will start to define Autonomic Functions (AF) to enable service automation in networks; it will also work on generic aspects of ASA including design guidelines and lifecycle management, coordination and dependency management.

The reference model also discusses Intent, but ANIMA will not work on this without explicit rechartering. It will rely on the Network Management Research Group (NMRG) to define the next steps for this topic. ANIMA will coordinate with other IETF and IRTF groups as needed.

The scope of possible work items are (additional works are subject to extra approval from the responsible AD):

  • Extensions to the ANI, including variations of ANI deployment (e.g. in virtualised environments), information distribution within an AN, ANI OAMP interfaces (Operations, Administration, Management, Provisioning), interaction with YANG-based mechanisms, defining the domain boundary and membership management of the domain.

  • Support for Autonomic Service Agents, including design and implementation guidelines for ASAs, life cycle management, authorization and coordination of ASA.

  • BRSKI features, including proxies, enrollment, adaptions over various network protocols, variations of voucher formats.

  • Generic use cases of Autonomic Network and new GRASP extensions/options for them, including bulk transfer, DNS-SD interworking, autonomic resource management, autonomic SLA assurance, autonomic multi-tenant management, autonomic network measurement.

  • Integration with Network Operations Centers (NOCs), including autonomic discovery/connectivity to NOC, YANG-based ANI/ASA management by the NOC and reporting AF from node to NOC.