Technical Summary
Abstraction and Control of TE Networks (ACTN) refers to the set of
virtual network (VN) operations needed to orchestrate, control and
manage large-scale multi-domain TE networks so as to facilitate
network programmability, automation, efficient resource sharing, and
end-to-end virtual service aware connectivity and network function
virtualization services.
The Path Computation Element (PCE) is a component, application, or
network node that is capable of computing a network path or route
based on a network graph and applying computational constraints. The
PCE serves requests from Path Computation Clients (PCCs) that
communicate with it over a local API or using the Path Computation
Element Communication Protocol (PCEP).
This document examines the applicability of PCE to the ACTN
framework.
Working Group Summary
The WG process has been smooth.
At one stage, this work caught up with (or got ahead of) the core ACTN
and it had to pause. But now RFCs 8453 and 8454 have been published, and
advancing this work is appropriate.
WG consensus was reasonable.
Document Quality
This is an Informational document, so implementation is moot. However,
there are known to be implementations (product and research) that use
the ACTN architecture and contain PCE as key component.
Personnel
Who is the Document Shepherd for this document? Adrian Farrel
Who is the Responsible Area Director? Deborah Brungard