Re: comments on draft-ietf-rap-frameworkpib-02

[Keith McCloghrie <kzm@cisco.com>]

> Keith> In going through WG Last Call emails to find the updates that
> Keith> need to be made to the SPPI, I came across the above, for which
> Keith> I haven't found a resolution.  My suggestion is that we remove
> Keith> the dependencies between the POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB and the SPPI
> Keith> and Framework PIB.
> 
> Keith> Specifically, I suggest we "copy by value", i.e., we have the
> Keith> same Role and RoleCombination TCs defined in both the
> Keith> POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB and in the Framework PIB.
> 
> Was the resolution not to move the Role and RoleCombination TCs into
> the FRAMEWORK-PIB? Once they are there, you can apply the PIB->MIB
> translation rules which gives you a FRAMEWORK-PIB-MIB with Role and
> RoleCombination TCs that can be imported from the POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB.
 
This is correct in the abstract.  However, while many users have MIB
tools, few of them have a tool to do PIB->MIB translation.  At the same
time as they will use the POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB, they also need to be
supplied with whichever MIB contains the Role and RoleCombination TCs.
I suggest it would be pragmatically advantageous to include the Role
and RoleCombination TCs in a MIB, in the same document as the
POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB.  While that MIB could be the FRAMEWORK-PIB-MIB
produced by the PIB->MIB translation of the FRAMEWORK-PIB, doing so
seems like a lot of overkill.  I believe it would be a whole lot
simpler to just copy the text of the two TC definitions into the
POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB (as I proposed above).

> It was my understanding that this is the general mechanism to use PIB
> TCs within a MIB. It sure is not perfect - but I guess this is what we
> have to live with until there is a converged data definition language.
> ;-)

Life will certainly improve with a converged data definition language.
In the meantime, the more pragmatic short-term approach is to have PIBs
import TC definitions from MIBs, as provided for in section 5.1 of the
SPPI:

   In particular, a PIB module imports each of the base data types that it
   uses from COPS-PR-SPPI (defined in this document), and may import as
   required from other PIB modules.  A PIB module may import, from the SMI,
   (subtree) OIDs for the purpose of defining new OIDs.  A PIB module may
-->also import, from MIB modules, OID assignments as well as textual
-->convention definitions providing that their underlying syntax is
   supported by the SPPI.

However, I suggest that this case of Role and RoleCombination TCs is an
exception, because we don't want to make the FRAMEWORK-PIB be dependent
on the POLICY-DEVICE-AUX-MIB.

Keith.