IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization
28 June–2 July 2021 // Virtual Conference

WIN 2021

1st International Workshop on Intent-based Networking

Website: WIN 2021

Monday, June 28, 2021

Welcome and Workshop Introduction

2:00pm – 2:15pm JST
Session Chair: Laurent Ciavaglia, Rakuten Mobile, France and Eric Renault, ESIEE, France

Invited talk

2:15pm – 3:00pm JST
Session Chair: Laurent Ciavaglia, Rakuten Mobile, France
Intent based Network and Service Automation
Péter Szilágyi, Nokia Bell Labs, Hungary

Description

Intent Based Networking (IBN) is a new paradigm in network and service management, aiming to reduce the complexity exposed to operators and users of the network. Traditional policy and rule-based management approaches require users to prescribe context based actions for the network, which executes them regardless of their actual impact. In order to achieve a consistent network or service level objective, many contexts would need to be considered in advance, manually providing a specific recipe for each. With the increasing complexity of device, topology, technology, vendor, dynamic user demand and behavior, such approach is not feasible nor scalable in real life. In contrast, IBN allows users to communicate more abstract, context independent goals and expected outcomes to the network, without prescribing specific means or actions to achieve them. The IBN autonomously derives actions or configurations and applies them in the right domains to achieve a network behavior that is consistent with the goals. While the IBN principle leverages abstraction to combat complexity exposed to network users and operators, its significance goes beyond providing yet another interface layer above existing network management APIs. First, interfaces from human to machine and machine to human both need to be designed to create a human-centric role-based exposure of network state and capabilities, helping users create intents that are feasible and sensible. Feedback must flow in the reverse direction carrying information about the system, intents and escalated potential problems in a contextualized representation that is comprehensive to and actionable by the user, rather than dumping low level data that requires deep manual investigation. Novel dialogue mechanisms could be implemented between the system and the user to let the system acquire missing information or guidance from the user on a focused and need basis. Second, IBN systems require additional intelligence to adapt their own operation to the intents. Autonomy has impact on internal system architecture, new technology enablers and capabilities that cannot be packed in an interface layer. New intent related system requirements include consistency check and validation of new intents, system state monitoring, intent contextualization and translation to action, self-evaluation and self-learning. In particular, fulfilling and assuring intents is often a stateful continuous activity rather than the completion of a one-time configuration change. Actions should be improved continuously via self-learning capability, by monitoring the outcome of the actions and learning what is efficient in various contexts. The IBN also needs to harmonize multiple intents and handle potential conflicts, with may be temporary or persistent, local or global in scope. The talk will reflect on the IBN journey in the ICT industry so far, outline the benefits of IBN, discuss technical requirements, challenges to be solved, and future directions of research and evolution.

Biography

Péter Szilágyi received an M.Sc. degree in Software Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary, in 2009. He is a senior research engineer and DMTS at Nokia Bell Labs. His research history includes telecommunications and software, artificial intelligence, data analytics, 5G and verticals, connected vehicles, end-to-end system engineering and rapid prototyping. He has more than 40 patents and 25 publications in book chapters, journals and conferences.

Technical Session

3:00pm – 4:15pm JST
Session Chair: Sabine Randriamasy, Nokia Bell Labs, France

Implementation of an Intent Layer for SDN-enabled and QoS-Aware Network Slicing
Molka Gharbaoui, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy
Barbara Martini, CNIT, Italy
Piro Castoldi, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy

Intent-based Networking Approach for Service Route and QoS control on KOREN SDI
Talha Ahmed Khan, Jeju National University, South Korea
Afaq Muhammad, Jeju National University, South Korea
Waleed Akbar, Jeju National University, South Korea
Asif Mehmood, Jeju National University, South Korea
Adeel Rafiq, Jeju National University, South Korea
Wang-Cheol Song, Jeju National University, South Korea

To All Intents and Purposes: Towards Flexible Intent Expression
Mehdi Bezanaf, Lancaster University, UK
Eleanor Davies, Lancaster University, UK
Charalampos Rotsos, Lancaster University, UK
Nicholas Race, Lancaster University, UK

Standards and Open Source Tech Talks

4:45pm – 5:45pm JST
Session Chair: Laurent Ciavaglia, Rakuten Mobile, France

IRTF NMRG: Trying to understand intent the NMRG way
Diego Lopez, Telefonica, Spain

TMForum Autonomous Networks Project: Intent enables Autonomy
Kevin McDonnell, Huawei, Ireland

LFN ONAP: Development and Evolution of IBN in ONAP
Dong Wang, China Telecom, China

ETSI ZSM ISG: Intent-driven Autonomous Networks
Pedro Henrique Gomes, Ericsson, Brazil

Hot Topics in IBN Panel

5:45pm – 6:30pm JST
Panel Moderator
Eric Renault, ESIEE, France

Panel Members
Diego Lopez, Telefonica, Spain
Kevin McDonnell, Huawei, Ireland
Dong Wang, China Telecom, China
Magnus Buhrgard, Ericsson, Sweden
Molka Gharbaoui, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy

Summary and Conclusions

6:30pm – 6:45pm JST
Session Chair: Laurent Ciavaglia, Rakuten Mobile, France and Eric Renault, ESIEE, France

End of the Workshop, Social Interactions

6:45pm – 7:00pm JST
Session Chair: Laurent Ciavaglia, Rakuten Mobile, France and Eric Renault, ESIEE, France

2021 Patrons


  • Platinum

  • ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation logo

    Bronze

  • Hitachi logo

    Bronze

  • NEC logo

    Bronze


  • Bronze

Technical Co-Sponsors