RE: How does XML help Network Operators

["Allen, Keith" <kallen@tri.sbc.com>]

All,

Hello all,

I believe Bert wrote earlier about trying to document the needs of different
types of carriers - large, small, core, access, etc.  Working for a large
access provider, we often find it hard to get suppliers that are oriented
towards enterprises or core service providers to understand our needs.  I
think it will be a difficult challenge for this group to try to accommodate
all.

I have gotten the impression from some messages that the focus of a
configuration protocol should be on the retrieval (dumping) and restoring of
configuration state from/to some network element.  Unfortunately access
networks are not so stable that the greatest configuration management
concern is backups and restores.  Change is constant.  Our greatest
configuration management concern is updating the configuration of network
elements to support some new service need, such as the addition of a new
subscriber or a change in subscriber status.  The management system also has
to be updated if changes are made to the NE.  So, I see the need for a
configuration protocol that enables a much more dynamic interaction between
a management system and an NE than just dumping and restoring.

It's not so much that we have to make do with "junior operators," although
skilled talent is always a concern.  It's simply scale.  For fun, consider
this future scenario.  A large network operator with 60 million telephone
subscribers figures that some day a good chunk of those subscribers might be
served with VoIP.  Just to pick an easy number, lets say at some point they
are converting 1 million subscribers per year (which, as I'm sure you can
calculate, means it would take 60 years to evolve from POTS to VoIP).  Even
at that leisurely pace, they are converting on the order of 10 subscribers
per second each 8 hour working day.  Just getting the VoIP gateways
configured as subscribers are added will be a scramble that I don't think
can be done with dumps and restores.

Designing one protocol that enables one operator to simply dump the
configuration of a device while allowing another operator to go in and
change a specific set of parameters on a device or perform some query will
be a challenge.


Keith Allen


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Wijnen, Bert (Bert) [mailto:bwijnen@lucent.com] 
Sent:	Monday, September 30, 2002 9:15 AM
To:	Eliot Lear
Cc:	xmlconf
Subject:	RE: How does XML help Network Operators

OK, I have gone through the draft and have these comments:

- In the intro, you differentiate between configuration and
  provisioning. Later in the document, I get confused again 
  as to when you use the term provisioning and when you use
  configuration. Is it just me?
- I wish operators would also read this and express their
  agreement or disagreement with what you have written down
- I am missing any discussion on "network-wide-configuration",
  while I have seen that as THE BIG REQUIREMENT through all
  of the discussions we have had
- I am not clear that the authorization aspects have been
  discussed well enough. This is the "who is who" and "who
  can do what". I understand the "who is who" is authentication,
  but once you have authenticated someone, you want that person
  to be mapped into some sort of "group" and then you want to
  control access to various portions of the configuration and/or
  provioning data based on the group to which the person is
  mapped. Or at least that is what I understand from some 
  of the operator input I have heard.

Well, those are my intial remarks.. more comments from others please

Bert 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eliot Lear [mailto:lear@cisco.com]
> Sent: donderdag 26 september 2002 0:43
> To: Wijnen, Bert (Bert)
> Cc: xmlconf
> Subject: Re: How does XML help Network Operators
> 
> 
> Bert,
> 
> Along the lines of wanting things written down, I've done a little 
> writing of my own, with a WHOLE lot of input from many different 
> sources.  The following is provided merely for discussion purposes, 
> based on our world tours together and other customer interactions.  I 
> hope you find it useful.  This is a draft -00.  Your comments and 
> suggestions are welcome.  I have donned my flame retardant 
> glasses and 
> gloves ;-)
> 
> Eliot
> 
> file saved as: draft-lear-config-issues-00.txt
> 

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