Subject: New Non-WG Mailing List: Ibnemo

From: IETF Secretariat <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 14:26:36 -0800

A new IETF non-working group email list has been created.

List address: [email-masked]
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ibnemo/
To subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ibnemo

Purpose:

Nemo is an intent-based North Bound (NB) interface consisting of an 
application protocol running over HTTP (RESTful interfaces) to 
exchange intent-based primitives between applications and 
meta-controllers controlling virtual network resources (networks, 
storage, CPU). 

The first Nemo specifications (draft-xia-sdnrg-nemo-language, and 
draft-xia-sdnrg-service-description-language) describe a set of 
intent-based primitives to create virtual networks comprised of nodes 
with policy-controlled flows. Intent oriented policy is prescriptive 
("go to the store") rather than descriptive ("follow this route to the 
store"), leaving the details to the network. Nemo's language 
connects the application to a controller and operates using 10 
commands which include 4 basic network commands (Node, Link, Flow, 
Policy) and 6 basic controller communication commands (connect, 
disconnect, transact, commit, notifiy, query). Nemo sends these 10 
commands using the RESTful interface over HTTP to exchange the 
commands with the controller. These commands operate as transactions 
allowing the process to have clear checkpoints. 

Within the controller, a Nemo-language process translates the Nemo 
intent-based commands into a set of commands to control network, 
storage, or CPU processes. For example, the Nemo language processor 
can interface with multiple intent-based policy repositories 
(Open-Daylight Group Policy, OpenStack Congress API Datalog Policy) 
and send actions to multiple SDN controllers (OpenFlow Switch (OFS), 
I2RS interface). 

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization 
(NFV) are moving the IT world from a network-centric view to an 
application-centric view. Google considers a datacenter to be the 
computer comprised of compute device, storage devices, and network. 
Applications running on the Google Cloud must be rewritten to run 
within this Cloud, an environment that takes care of placing 
applications on compute devices that have the appropriate amount of 
storage and network connectivity. The Nemo-project group seeks to 
create a simple intent-based protocol that forms a simple NorthBound 
API (NB) for applications on any platform to control the following : 
a) setup and take down of virtual networks between virtual nodes, b) 
control transfer of data toward storage, and c) handle compute devices 
with a the minimal set of intent-based primitives. 

Nemo's protocol standardization will go hand-in-hand with an 
open-source development of the code. An Open-source project details, 
technical specifications, and details can be found at 
www.nemo-project.net.

For additional information, please contact the list administrators.