Lightning Talk: Device vs Service models in Network Automation

Network operators are increasingly adopting automation, but most networks today are managed as a set of individual devices. Further, approximately 70% of network o …

Network operators are increasingly adopting automation, but most networks today are managed as a set of individual devices. Further, approximately 70% of network operators still use CLI as the main management interface. One of the main reason is the lack of common data models, driven by divergent approaches taken by competing vendors. This has led to grassroots efforts to create common models that are accessible understandable machine-readable language. With the increased availability of devices supporting NETCONF and YANG data models, focus is shifting from device management to network services. The models that we use are evolving from device models to service models. Today there are hundreds of device data models, but very few service data models. This lightning talk is going to introduce the idea with some examples.