Concepts of Digital Twin Network
draft-zhou-nmrg-digitaltwin-network-concepts-00

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Network Management Research Group                                C. Zhou
Internet-Draft                                                   H. Yang
Intended status: Informational                                   X. Duan
Expires: January 13, 2021                                   China Mobile
                                                           July 12, 2020

                    Concepts of Digital Twin Network
            draft-zhou-nmrg-digitaltwin-network-concepts-00

Abstract

   Digital twin technology is becoming a hot technology in industry 4.0.
   The application of digital twin technology in network field helps to
   realize efficient and intelligent management and network innovation.
   This document presents an overview of the concepts of Digital Twin
   Network (DTN), provides the definition and DTN, and then describes
   the benefits and key challenges of DTN.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

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   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 13, 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Definition of Digital Twin Network  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Benefits of Digital Twin Network  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Lower the cost of network optimization  . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  More intelligent for network decision making  . . . . . .   4
     3.3.  High efficient for network innovation . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Challenges to build Digital Twin Network  . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   With the advent of 5G, Internet of Things and Cloud Computing, the
   scale of network is expanding constantly.  Accordingly, the network
   operation and maintenance are becoming more complex due to higher
   complexity of network; and innovations on network will be more and
   more difficult due to the higher risk of network failure and higher
   trial cost.

   Digital twin is the real-time representation of physical entities in
   the digital world.  It has the characteristics of virtual-reality
   integration and real-time interaction, iterative operation and
   optimization, as well as full life-cycle, and full business data-
   driven.  At present, it has been successfully applied in the fields
   of intelligent manufacturing, smart city, complex system operation
   and maintenance [Tao2019].

   A digital twin network platform can be built by applying digital twin
   technology to network and creating virtual image of physical network
   facilities.  Through the real-time data interaction between physical
   network and twin network, the digital twin network platform can help

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