TEAS                                                       LM. Contreras
Internet-Draft                                                Telefonica
Intended status: Informational                                  R. Rokui
Expires: 27 April 2023                                             Ciena
                                                           J.T. Tantsura
                                                               Microsoft
                                                                   B. Wu
                                                                  Huawei
                                                                  X. Liu
                                                         IBM Corporation
                                                                D. Dhody
                                                                  Huawei
                                                              S. Belloti
                                                                   Nokia
                                                            October 2022


      IETF Network Slice Controller and its associated data models
            draft-contreras-teas-slice-controller-models-04

Abstract

   This document describes the major functional components of an IETF
   Network Slice Controller (NSC) as well as references the data models
   required for supporting the requests of IETF network slice services
   and their realization.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 4 April 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.



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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
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   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  IETF Network Slice data models  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Structure of the IETF Network Slice Controller (NSC)  . . . .   4
     3.1.  NS Mapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.2.  NS Realizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Model types in IETF Network Slice Controller interfaces . . .   7
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   The generic idea of network slicing intends to provide tailored end-
   to-end network capabilities to customers in the way that they could
   be perceived as a dedicated network, despite the fact that it makes
   use of shared physical infrastructure facilities.

   Among the capabilities mentioned, connectivity of different parts of
   a network slice with particular performance characteristics play a
   central role.  Thus, the concept of IETF Network Slice, realized by
   any of the IETF technologies, emerges as complementary but essential
   part of an end-to-end network slice.

   In order to facilitate the request, realization and lifecycle control
   and management of a transport slice, a new element named IETF Network
   Slice Controller (NSC) is being proposed in
   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices].

   The NSC from its North Bound Interface (NBI), i.e. the IETF Network
   Slice Service interface, exposes set of APIs that allow a higher
   level system to request an end-to-end transport slice.  It receives
   the request of enablement of an IETF Network Slice by a customer
   (i.e. creation, modification or deletion).  Upon receiving a request
   from its NBI, the NSC finds the resources needed for realization of
   the IETF Network Slice and in turn interfaces from its South Bound
   Interface (SBI) with one or more Network Controllers for the



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   realization of the requested IETF Network Slice request and the
   management of its lifecycle.  Figure 1 presents a high-level view of
   the IETF NSC [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices].


             +------------------------------------------+
             | Customer higher level operation system   |
             |   (e.g E2E network slice orchestrator,   |
             |      customer network management system) |
             +------------------------------------------+
                                  A
                                  | IETF Network Slice Service Interface
                                  V
             +------------------------------------------+
             |    IETF Network Slice Controller (NSC)   |
             +------------------------------------------+
                                  A
                                  | Network Configuration Interface
                                  V
             +------------------------------------------+
             |           Network Controllers            |
             +------------------------------------------+

             Figure 1: Interface of Transport Slice Controller

   This document describes the characteristics of the NSC as well as a
   detailed structure of the NSC and its major components.  In addition,
   it describes the characteristics of the data models to identify the
   IETF Network Slice and its realization.  Then the referred data
   models are mapped to the interfaces among components.

2.  IETF Network Slice data models

   At the time of provisioning and operating IETF Network Slices
   different views can be identified as necessary:

   *  Customer's view, mostly focused on the individual IETF Network
      Slice request process, reflecting the needs of each particular
      customer, including SLOs and other characteristics of the slice
      relevant for it.  This view is technology agnostic and describes
      the characteristics of the IETF Network Slice from a customer's
      point of view.  It can include the slice topology, performance
      parameters, endpoints of the slice, traffic characteristics of the
      slice, and the KPIs to monitor the slice.

   *  Provider's view, mostly focused on the provisioning and operation
      of IETF Network Slices in the underlay network, considering how a
      particular IETF Network Slice interplays with other IETF Network



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      Slices maintained by the provider on a shared infrastructure.  In
      other words, operator's view shows how an IETF Network Slice is
      realized in operator's network along with all the resources used
      during the its realization.

   Both views are complementary, each of them specialized for a given
   purpose.  In consequence, it should be consistency between both in
   order to ensure alignment.

   Currently there are two different models proposed, one for each of
   the categories above.  The model in
   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-yang] fits into the customer
   view, while the model defined in
   [I-D.liu-teas-transport-network-slice-yang] fits in to the provider
   view.

   It should be noted that for the realization of an IETF Network Slice,
   the NSC interacts with one or more Network Controllers underneath.
   In that case, the data models to be used are particular for each
   Network Controller (e.g., technology dependent), as well as the
   mapping function from its NBI (i.e., IETF Network Slice Service
   interface) to SBI (i.e., Network Configuration Interface) and the
   details of this mapping function are both out of the scope of this
   document.

3.  Structure of the IETF Network Slice Controller (NSC)

   The NSC should work with both data models.  The NSC takes first the
   customer's view by analyzing the needs of the customer, processing
   such requests taking into account the overall view of the network and
   the IETF Network Slices already instantiated, normalizing its
   instantiation across different technologies, and finally generates
   the provider view.

   Once the new request is processed and declared as feasible, the NSC
   triggers its realization by interacting with the Network Controllers
   underneath and communicates back to the higher level controller to
   start the billing cycle.

   In order to accommodate these procedures, the internal structure of
   the NSC can be divided into:

   *  IETF Network Slice Mapper: this high-level component processes the
      customer request, putting it into the context of the overall IETF
      Network Slices in the network.






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   *  IETF Network Slice Realizer: this high-level component processes
      the complete view of transport slices including the one requested
      by the customer, decides the proper technologies for realizing the
      IETF Network Slice and triggers its realization.

   Figure 2 illustrates the components described and the associated
   models, as follows

   *  (a) -> customer's view, e.g.
      [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-yang].

   *  (b) -> provider's view, including more detailed but yet
      technology-agnostic resource view as e.g.
      [I-D.liu-teas-transport-network-slice-yang], and/or alternative
      technology-specific augmentations as e.g.
      [I-D.ietf-ccamp-yang-otn-slicing].

   *  (c) -> models per network controller, out of scope of this
      document.  An example of applicability of existing models is in
      [I-D.barguil-teas-network-slices-instantation].


                                    Higher Level System
                                             |
                                             |
                                ---------------------------
                                | NSC        | (a)        |
                                |            v            |
                                |   -------------------   |
                                |   |                 |   |
                                |   |    NS Mapper    |   |
                                |   |                 |   |
                                |   -------------------   |
                                |            | (b)        |
                                |            v            |
                                |   -------------------   |
                                |   |                 |   |
                                |   |    NS Realizer  |   |
                                |   |                 |   |
                                |   -------------------   |
                                |            | (c)        |
                                ---------------------------
                                             |
                                             v
                                    Network Controllers

     Figure 2: IETF Network Slice Controller structure and asspociated
                                data models



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   IETF Network Slices with different level of detail could be
   requested:

   *  The IETF network slice can be abstracted as a set of edge-to-edge
      links (Type 1).

   *  The IETF network slice can be abstracted as a topology of virtual
      nodes and virtual links (Type 2) which represent the partitioning
      of underlay network resources for use by network slice
      connectivity.

   The use cases of these two types of networks are further described by
   [RFC8453].  [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-yang] models the
   Type 1 service, while [I-D.liu-teas-transport-network-slice-yang]
   models the Type 2 service.  When a customer intends to request a Type
   2 service, [I-D.liu-teas-transport-network-slice-yang] can also be
   used at the point (a) in Figure 2.  As an example, when ACTN is used
   to realize an IETF network slice, model mappings are described in
   more details in [I-D.ietf-teas-actn-yang].

3.1.  NS Mapper

   The Mapper will receive the IETF Network Slice request from the
   customer.  It will process it obtaining an overall view of how this
   new request complements or fits with the rest of IETF Network Slices,
   if any, as provisioned in the network.  As part of that processing, a
   single customer IETF Network Slice request could result in the need
   of actually provisioning different IETF Network Slices in the
   network.  The Mapper will maintain the relationship among customer
   IETF Network Slice request and provisioned IETF Network Slices.  The
   Mapper also will provide performance notifications in relation with
   the SLOs dictated in the slice request by the customer.

   The Mapper performs resource partitions of the filtered topologies
   provided by the Realizer component, generating specific Network
   Resource Partitions (NRPs).  An NRP represents a collection of
   resources such as buffers, queues, etc, of the links of a filtered
   topology.  The Mapper, when processing the slice request, will map
   the connectivity constructs to one or more NRPs, e.g., according to
   specific SLOs.

   As part of the performance monitoring of the IETF Network Slice
   service, the Mapper will aggregate performance information from the
   distinct NRPs used for mapping the connectivity constructs forming
   the slice.






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3.2.  NS Realizer

   The Realizer will receive from the Mapper one or more requests for
   provision of IETF Network Slices, potentially including some
   technology-specific information.  With that information, the Realizer
   will determine the realization of each particular IETF Network Slice
   interacting with technology-specific Network Controllers.

   The Realizer will be in charge of generating filtered topologies from
   the underlying (physical) network information provided by the Network
   Controllers.  The handling of filtered topologies is optional, then
   if not filtering is applied, the Realizer could expose the physical
   network.  The filtered topologies represent a selection of nodes and
   links from the underlying network(s), e.g. as result of applying
   certain policies.

   The Realizer will provide the telemetry information from the filtered
   topologies to the Mapper for further processing in support of the
   performance assurance of the IETF Network Slices.

4.  Model types in IETF Network Slice Controller interfaces

   Both [RFC8309] and [RFC8969] offer a complete view of customer,
   service and network model types.  In this sense a potential mapping
   of models to IETF Network Slcie Controller interfaces is as follows:

   *  NBI of the IETF NSC, i.e. IETF Network Slice Service interface
      (interface (a) in Figure 2) -> Customer service model.  According
      to [RFC8309] "a customer's service request is (or should be)
      technology agnostic.  That is, a customer is unaware of the
      technology that the network operator has available to deliver the
      service, so the customer does not make requests specific to the
      underlying technology but is limited to making requests specific
      to the service that is to be delivered".  This definition matches
      the expected behavior of the IETF NSC NBI as considered in
      [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices].

   *  Interface between NS Mapper and NS Realizer (interface (b) in
      Figure 2) -> Service Delivery model.  According to [RFC8309] "a
      service delivery module is expressed as a core set of parameters
      that are common across a network type and technology [...] Service
      delivery modules include technology-specific modules.".
      Furthermore, [RFC8969] (in its Figures 3 and 5) considers L3SM or
      VN Service models to be later on fed into a controller.

   *  SBI of the IETF NSC, i.e. Network Configuration interface
      (interface (c) in Figure 2) -> Network Configuration model.
      According to [RFC8309] "the orchestrator must map the service



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      request to its view, and this mapping may include a choice of
      which networks and technologies to use depending on which service
      features have been requested".  This is coincideent with the
      expected behavior of the IETF NSC SBI as considered in in
      [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices].

5.  Security Considerations

   This draft considers both the Mapper and the Realizer component as
   internal modules of the IETF Network Slice Controller.  However,
   anything prevents that these modules could be separated components,
   communicating through standard protocols (i.e., not as an internal
   communication to the IETF NSC).

   In that case, some security requirements apply such as:

   *  Authentication between Mapper and Realizer, to prevent malicious
      behaviors.

   *  Privacy of the information shared between components.

   *  Secure transport between components based on the kind of interface
      used in the communication (e.g., NETCONF, RESTCONF, etc).

6.  IANA Considerations

   This draft does not include any IANA considerations

7.  References

   [I-D.barguil-teas-network-slices-instantation]
              Barguil, S., Contreras, L. M., Lopez, V., Rokui, R., and
              O. G. D. Dios, "Instantiation of IETF Network Slices in
              Service Providers Networks", Work in Progress, Internet-
              Draft, draft-barguil-teas-network-slices-instantation-05,
              24 October 2022,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/document/draft-
              barguil-teas-network-slices-instantation/>.

   [I-D.ietf-ccamp-yang-otn-slicing]
              Guo, A., Contreras, L. M., Belotti, S., Rokui, R., Xu, Y.,
              Zhao, Y., and X. Liu, "Framework and Data Model for OTN
              Network Slicing", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-ccamp-yang-otn-slicing-03, 22 October 2022,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/document/draft-
              ietf-ccamp-yang-otn-slicing/>.





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   [I-D.ietf-teas-actn-yang]
              Lee, Y., Zheng, H., Ceccarelli, D., Yoon, B. Y., and S.
              Belotti, "Applicability of YANG models for Abstraction and
              Control of Traffic Engineered Networks", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-actn-yang-10, 4 September
              2022, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-teas-
              actn-yang-10.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-yang]
              Wu, B., Dhody, D., Rokui, R., Saad, T., and L. Han, "IETF
              Network Slice Service YANG Model", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-
              yang-02, 11 July 2022, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/
              draft-ietf-teas-ietf-network-slice-nbi-yang-02.txt>.

   [I-D.ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices]
              Farrel, A., Drake, J., Rokui, R., Homma, S., Makhijani,
              K., Contreras, L. M., and J. Tantsura, "Framework for IETF
              Network Slices", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-teas-ietf-network-slices-14, 3 August 2022,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-teas-ietf-
              network-slices-14.txt>.

   [I-D.liu-teas-transport-network-slice-yang]
              Liu, X., Tantsura, J., Bryskin, I., Contreras, L. M., Wu,
              Q., Belotti, S., and R. Rokui, "IETF Network Slice YANG
              Data Model", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-liu-
              teas-transport-network-slice-yang-05, 6 March 2022,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-liu-teas-transport-
              network-slice-yang-05.txt>.

   [RFC8309]  Wu, Q., Liu, W., and A. Farrel, "Service Models
              Explained", RFC 8309, DOI 10.17487/RFC8309, January 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8309>.

   [RFC8453]  Ceccarelli, D., Ed. and Y. Lee, Ed., "Framework for
              Abstraction and Control of TE Networks (ACTN)", RFC 8453,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8453, August 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8453>.

   [RFC8969]  Wu, Q., Ed., Boucadair, M., Ed., Lopez, D., Xie, C., and
              L. Geng, "A Framework for Automating Service and Network
              Management with YANG", RFC 8969, DOI 10.17487/RFC8969,
              January 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8969>.

Authors' Addresses





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   Luis M. Contreras
   Telefonica
   Ronda de la Comunicacion, s/n
   Sur-3 building, 3rd floor
   28050 Madrid
   Spain
   Email: luismiguel.contrerasmurillo@telefonica.com
   URI:   http://lmcontreras.com/


   Reza Rokui
   Ciena
   Canada
   Email: rrokui@ciena.com


   Jeff Tantsura
   Microsoft
   United States of America
   Email: jefftant.ietf@gmail.com


   Bo Wu
   Huawei Technologies
   101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District
   Nanjing, Jiangsu
   210012
   China
   Email: lana.wubo@huawei.com


   Xufeng Liu
   IBM Corporation
   Email: xufeng.liu.ietf@gmail.com


   Dhruv Dhody
   Huawei Technologies
   Divyashree Techno Park
   Bangalore, Karnataka 560066
   India
   Email: dhruv.ietf@gmail.com


   Sergio Belloti
   Nokia
   Email: sergio.belotti@nokia.com




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