Intent Based Networking - the technology

What is the Intent Based Networking (IBN)?At the highest level, intent is a declarative specification of the desired outcome. And the desired outcome is complete a …

What is the Intent Based Networking (IBN)?At the highest level, intent is a declarative specification of the desired outcome. And the desired outcome is complete automation of the whole network service life-cycle, which consists of the following phases:-design (intent consumption)-build (intent modeling)-deploy (intent instantiation)-validate (continues intent validation)

Intent defines the “what” not the “how”.Intent is dynamic, and a fundamental requirement of an IBN system is that it should be capable of ensuring that intent’s expectations are met in the presence of change.

In order to enforce that intent expectations are met, the IBNS has to be the single source of truth (regarding the intended state of both your infrastructure and your business rules) that one can programmatically reason about in the presence of change.Taxonomy of IBN introduces 4 levels of maturity, from basic automation to self-operating networks.Ability to constantly validate that the operational state is the intended state is fundamental for IBN to coherently provide full life cycle management, from design to deployment to operations.This is to introduce the concept of IBA - Intent Based Analytics that are context and intent aware and gather only data that is relevant to the intent as the opposite to “big data fishing”.

Jeff Tantsura: Jeff Tantsura has been in the networking space for 25+ years and has authored/contributed to many RFC’s and patents, worked in both, SP and vendor environments. He is co-chair of IETF Routing Working Group, chartered to work on New Network Architectures and Technologies, including protocol independent YANG models and Next Gen Routing Protocols as well as co-chair of RIFT (Routing in Fat Trees) Working Group chartered to work on the new routing protocol that specifically addresses Fat Tree topologies typically seen in the Data Center environment. Jeff serves the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). His focus has been on 5G transport and integration with RAN, IoT, MEC, Low Latency networking and Data modeling. He’s also a board member of SF Bay Area ISOC Chapter. Jeff is Head of Networking Strategy at Apstra, company championed Intent Based Networking, defining company’s networking strategy and technologies.