Automation Testing for NETCONF & YANG
White Papers
| Automating Network and Service Configuration Using NETCONF and YANG Network providers are challenged by new requirements for fast and error-free service turn-up. Existing approaches to configuration management such as CLI scripting, device-specific adapters, and entrenched commercial tools are an impediment to meeting these new requirements. Up until recently, there has been no standard way of configuring network devices other than SNMP and SNMP is not optimal for configuration management. The IETF has released NETCONF and YANG which are standards focusing on Configuration management. We have validated that NETCONF and YANG greatly simplify the configuration management of devices and services and still provide good performance. Our performance tests are run in a cloud managing 2000 devices. Our work can help existing vendors and service providers to validate a standardized way to build configuration management solutions. |
| Inside RESTCONF Learn How RESTCONF Works, Where it Should and Shouldn't Be Used. |
| Managing Distributed Systems Realize Significant Benefits from Programmable Networks Using Transactions A few years ago, timelines to activate or change a network service could span weeks or even months. To meet escalating customer requirements, operators need much faster, more flexible, and more reliable service delivery today. To meet these needs, programmability and transactions are the key features that are needed in order to be able to quickly launch new products and update existing ones. Download the “Managing Distributed Systems Using NETCONF and RESTCONF Transactions” whitepaper to get a technical overview of how NETCONF-enabled devices can support automated service provisioning using transactions in real-world operator networks. Specifically, you will learn: How transactions can be used to automate the configuration of all participating instances in the network Strategies for addressing services and applications with different requirements for different situations The importance of the IETF-standardized NETCONF protocol and its associated data modeling language, YANG, in automating and programming the network transactionally Why RESTCONF is insufficient for environments that use distributed network wide transactions |
| Creating the Programmable Network The Business Case for NETCONF/YANG in Network Devices |
| Network Programmability in Cloud Native Networks In the telecommunications industry, major technology evolutions have become a way of life. Operators are moving from physical network devices to NFV. Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) have been creating VNFs implemented in software using virtual machines. Now a major shift is under way to cloud-native based VNFs. In a cloud-native world, applications are decomposed into “microservices” running in containers rather than dedicated VMs. This is so that they can more easily take advantage of the shared resources, speed, and agility of cloud environments. Since VNFs are, at their core, software applications themselves, they too are now being decomposed into their constituent microservices to become “cloud-native.” This whitepaper discusses some of the considerations for developing cloud-native VNFs. Readers will learn in depth the impact of cloud-native approaches on today’s programmable networks and why NEPs should continue to prioritize programmability in their cloud-native VNFs for the future. |
| Trends in NFV Management The promise of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is to help provide a wide-range of benefits from lower operating costs to faster time-to-revenue to reduced errors. However, all of these depend on a core assumption: that the provisioning of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) can be automated through straightforward management and configuration processes. In theory, this is not controversial. In practice, it can still be elusive. Network Element Providers (NEPs) need to leverage NETCONF and YANG to introduce a more standardized application programming interface (API) into their network elements, and unlock the value of full NFV automation. Much of the discussion of VNF management today focuses on onboarding— getting VNFs booted and spun up in their initial configured state, placed in the right location, connected to the right physical and virtual networks, ensuring that they have the appropriate resources and licenses. This whitepaper provides an overview of the complexities of “Day 1” configuration management and automation in virtualized environments for NEPs. You will learn about the unique management challenges that NFV poses and what are the newer approaches to account for these challenges, and the need to shift from network management to “network programmability” in today’s virtualized world. |
| Programmability in 5G In the past, many Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have viewed data model-driven network programmability as a “nice-to-have” capability. They recognized that, in the future, programmable network elements would help them provision services more simply, quickly, and cost-effectively, and lay the foundation for end-to-end network automation. That future is now as MNOs roll out 5G networks and we see that previous approaches are no longer a viable strategy for network management. Data model-driven programmability has become essential for operating 5G networks. This whitepaper provides an overview of programmability in 5G networks and details the ways that 5G environments differ from legacy architectures and the capabilities MNOs must employ to manage and automate them. /td> |
| NETCONF: The Programmable Interface For SDN and NFV Network operators can clearly envision the Software Defined Networking (SDN) services model of the future: Where all network elements are part of a single, programmable fabric. The industry has zeroed in on NETCONF, along with the YANG data modeling language, to provide this standard configuration protocol. With NETCONF you can overcome the shortcomings of alternative protocols for device automation. Learn how a wide range of SDN projects and industry organizations, are now promoting NETCONF as a universal southbound interface for the configuration and management of both VNFs and physical network devices in SDN environments. It’s time for device and VNF vendors to take the next step, by adding NETCONF support. |
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Enabling Network Programmability & Automation With NETCONF/YANG
A Heavy Reading white paper produced for Tail-f Systems The network element provider (NEP) market is going through a period of unprecedented change with advanced approaches including SDN and NFV. Change is happening, and fast. So how do NEPs cope with exponential change? Through automation. This whitepaper will discuss programmability as the key to automation and ultimately in making devices more programmable. Readers will learn: 1. The challenges with current programmability approaches to automation 1. The need for a consistent data modelling language to model both configuration data as well as state data of network elements 1. How leveraging a standardized approach to programmability like NETCONF and YANG is critical to network automation 1. Network automation use cases |