XSDMI charter

XML Schema for SMI Access is an effort to standardize how access to MIB 
data should be handled for non-SNMP protocols. It is expected that MIB 
access from non-SNMP protocols will be done using XML, with tools that 
can utilize XML Schemas to validate the datatypes. 

The first use case is providing reusable XML datatypes corresponding to 
common SMIv2 datatypes and textual conventions, such as counters, gauges, 
SnmpAdminStrings, InetAddresses, and so on. These datatypes may be useful 
when developing non-MIB data models for use with non-SNMP protocols.

The second use case is providing access to existing MIB data using 
XML-based protocols, and to be able to validate the type of the data, 
using XSD. It is expected that some protocols will develop their own data 
models, but where data would overlap, it might be simpler to just access 
the MIB data models. For example, a MIB object defined as a DateAndTime 
should be converted into an XML dateTime type before sending from code 
co-resident with the MIB agent. An XSD-aware application receiving the 
data can read the MIB module translation into XSD and know that the 
DateAndTime object is mapped to an XML dateTime, and can then validate 
that the data transferred is a dateTime type.

Since multiple applications might access the MIB on a device, and the 
MIB data might be sensitive, it might be important to operators, 
depending on the environment, to coordinate access controls to the data. 
Access control should be configurable by operators. This effort would 
produce a document detailing security requirements. Existing SNMP access 
controls (e.g. VACM) could be invoked to check whether access is allowed. 
This might require an accessing protocol to utilize the isAccessAllowed 
ASI from SNMPv3, and to translate from their own addressing mechanism 
into one suitable for SNMPv3, plus a securityName, securityLevel, and 
securityModel. Alternatively, access to the underlying instrumentation 
might occur outside the SNMP/MIB interface, and it will be necessary to 
document the types of threats that must be mitigated by whatever protocol 
will access the instrumentation. The decision between these approches 
might be made by operators at deployment time, rather than by implementers. 
These approaches need to be considered, and requirements documented for how 
MIB access control should be handled across protocols.

These are the proposed deliverables:
1) translations of SMI base data types to corresponding XML base data types, 
with XML schemas to specify restricted types as needed, for automated 
checking of compliance of data of those data types. The translations will 
probably draw from the smidump translation mappings/algorithms, which are 
documented in draft-li-mib-convert-00.txt.
2) translations of textual conventions into XML Schema definitions of 
ComplexTypes (where needed) so the datatypes can be reused in XML-based 
data models for Netconf, and potentially other protocols. The WG should 
decide whether to accept draft-romascanu-netconf-datatypes-00 as a WG draft 
to start this work.
3) access control guidelines or rules for how non-SNMP protocols should check 
access controls for the MIB data. This document would only detail the security 
requirements, not the solutions, since solutions may be dependent on the 
purpose, the operations, and the data structures of the accessing protocols. 
A proposed starting point is described in draft-harrington-mib-access-security-00.
4) a proposal for special verbs for Netconf access to the MIB. This should 
probably be moved into NEE since it is a Netconf extension.

The editors listed below have indicated availability to work on these tasks. 
The WG chairs will need to make the decisions on editor assignments.

Milestones (starting at WG creation):
start+4 months    draft-xsdmi-smi-datatypes-and-tcs-00             
                    editors: Yan Li and ???
start+4 months 	draft-xsdmi-mib-access-security-requirements-00  
                    editors: Dave Harrington and ???   
start+12 months   draft-xsdmi-smi-datatypes-and-tcs-xx 
                    submit to IESG as Proposed Standard
start+16 months   draft-xsdmi-mib-access-security-requirements-xx 
                    submit to IESG as Proposed Standard