Subject: [nmrg] NMRG Virtual Interim Meeting March 2019 - Minutes

From: "Ciavaglia, Laurent (Nokia - FR/Paris-Saclay)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 07:32:56 +0000

Dear all,

Please find below and at: https://etherpad.tools.ietf.org/p/nmrg-virtual-20190306
the minutes of our virtual meeting held on March 6th, 2019.

I will soon sent a doodle poll for the next meeting in April.

Thanks to all the participants, and looking forward to the next virtual/physical meetings.

Best regards, Laurent.

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NMRG Virtual Interim Meeting March 2019: 06-03-2019 10am-12pm CET

Participants (10): Laurent Ciavaglia (Nokia), Pedro Andres Aranda Gutierrez (UC3M), Marinos Charalambides (UCL), Walter Cerroni (UoB), Juergen Schoenwaelder (Jacobs University Bremen), Amina Boubendir (Orange), Jérôme François (INRIA), Carlos Bernardos Cano (UC3M), Will Lou (Huawei),
Micheal Crotty (TSSG)

Logistics:
* Webex: https://ietf.webex.com/ietf/j.php?MTID=m2fe003c8a03d2806314d2e4abecda3c7
* Etherpad: https://etherpad.tools.ietf.org/p/nmrg-virtual-20190306

Agenda:
* ~55 min. - Technical topic #1: Intent Based Networking
      - status, discussion, next steps
 * ~55 min. - Evolution of NMRG
      - what network management means in 2020?
      - what federating research directions and targeted collective outcome?
      - tools and methods
 * ~ 5 min. - Quick info. and warm -up for IETF 104

Meeting notes:
*** Intent Based Networking
Laurent presented a quick status on the IBN work in NMRG, related work in IETF and current work plan (as defined at IETF100/Singapore, Nov 2017); and highlighted importance of *collective outcome*
 - What we should produce
. Content -> Problem statements, research proposals, experimental validation
. Form -> Internet Draft not the only/ultimate format and form of output
. Time  -> refine/update work plan, RG milestones
 - Criteria for RG adoption and work completion
- How we should work: virtual/interim meetings, collaborative platform
The existing work plan could/should be updated/revised according to the current topics of interest/importance, their understanding and overall situation on IBN in the industry.

Marinos: support to have more virtual meetings to progress on the work.
Suggestions for next steps:
      . language: guidelines on what features languages should support for the different functions(/forms?) of intent.
      . architecture: list functions to support transformation of intent (similar to the models defined for PBM).
      . applicability scenarios/use cases: how useful for different scenarios.

Pedro: worked on languages in the context of NFV. Intention to re-work/resubmit I-D on language proposal.
Importance to scope where intent is "sitting" e.g. configuration intents, service intents...

Walter: new to the working of a research group like NMRG.
Importance to understand what kind of abstraction(s) (e.g. Network Service - NS) are needed to express NS as an intent. Working on SFC, intent-based specification/composition of SFC.

Amina: also new to the working of NMRG. Working on collaborative research projects. Different topics could be of interest for / in scope of NMRG.

Discussion on the "form" of the work we produce in NMRG and for the IBN sub-topic.
Pedro: I-D still more acceptable towards I*TF communities. If white paper or other forms: "seriousness" of the document.
Laurent: time factor also important: 2-3 years for RFC publication.
Marinos: agree on the question to choose/define the right forms. Need to work on defining what is relevant for a RFC, what is relevant for a white paper.
Laurent: recurring issue about the "value" of the RG and product if the RG, especially interest for the academic community.
Marinos: when writing first papers on IBN, as a researcher, no reference architecture nor list of functions and their organization for an IBN system. Importance of guidelines (functions/interactions) and the abstractions to automate the composition).
Walter: agree w/ Marinos. When writing tutorial, difficult to find starting point(s). no defined/reference architecture/components.

*** Evolution of NMRG
Laurent presented some general level information about the drivers for the evolution of the group and the (new/adapted) supporting tools and methods, and again highlighted the importance of "federating research directions and targeted collective outcome", i.e., we need *both* good topics and groups of people motivated to address them.
Discussion:
Will: 2020 is too soon. Standards technology cannot be influenced in such short time frame. Important to make NMRG the place for Hot Topics in NM. Comparison with car industry and the move to autonomous car. Network management is becoming more complex dur to 5G and 5GLTE, more overhead in the management. Target would be to maintain the same OPEX for 5G to the level of 4G, same performance with less people.
Laurent: typo in the slide. The goal is to understand how are networks/network management today (2019) and how they will evolve in the next 5-10 years.
Marinos: evolution with NFV/SDN in the last 6-7 years, more seems to go towards on-line provisioning, things will be more on-the-fly and adaptive. And will require adequate decision-making and assistance functions/services.
Laurent: agreed. Similar to the aspect presented at previous meeting(s) on "managing at scales": space scale e.g. networks like web-scale companies (google network, Netflix) with new approaches to network operations. Time scale: management operations aligned with the pace of the network operations.
Jérôme: agree with the importance to have both the right topics and the partners to work on them.
Juergen: things we manage and the motivations have changed a lot over the decade(s). it is important to understand and acknowledge these evolutions. It is key, and challenging, to have topics defined bottom-up by the persons who propose the topics and are ready to work on them.

*** Quick info. and warm -up for IETF 104
Laurent shared information on the upcoming NMRG meetings and topics to be discussed there.
One session will be dedicated to progress on a technical topic, probably on IBN and use to update the work plan, define milestones and expected outcome.
The other session will be dedicated to the discussion on the evolution of the RG (re-chartering), inviting also for topics presentation that could federate work in the RG.

*** General observations
Participants appreciated to have virtual meetings and it is part of the plan for the RG to have regular virtual meeting (monthly basis) and, on a per need basis, dedicated virtual meetings to progress on specific topics (e.g. IBN)
There is a growing momentum around the topic of IBN with new participants, proposals and sense of willingness to achieve concrete results. It is of high importance that the RG succeeds in delivering results on the topics otherwise it might be too late or less relevant.
Some actions and early conclusions were reached on the way forward. The intent (pun?) is to build on the momentum and good interactions during the virtual meeting and off-line discussion at the IETF104 meeting and follow-ups.
Some interim meetings are planned. Information already shred on the mailing list. Additional meetings are possible on a per need basis.

*** end of meeting ***