Working Group Name:
        Interfaces to the Routing System (I2RS)

IETF Area:
        Routing Area

Chair(s):
        TBD
Routing Area Director(s):
        Adrian Farrel
Routing Area Advisor:
        Adrian Farrel
Operations Area Advisor:
        TBD

Mailing Lists:
        General Discussion: i2rs@ietf.org
        To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/i2rs
        Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/i2rs/current/maillist.html

Description of Working Group:

 In an IP routed network, the routing system:

 - Distributes topology and other state (network metadata)
 - Uses this network metadata to determine the best paths to each given reachable
   destination attached to the network
 - Communicates these decisions to the forwarding plane of each forwarding device in the
   network.

 That is, the routing system is the collection of entities, protocols and processes that
 collectively build the forwarding tables that are exported into the entities that
 constitute the network's forwarding plane.

 While processes participating in the routing system are often colocated with the local
 forwarding elements, this isn't a necessary condition. Thus, the routing system includes
 control plane protocols and processes that compute routes and paths for data packets,
 wherever the processes implementing those protocols and processes may be running.

 I2RS facilitates real-time or event driven interaction with the routing system through a
 collection of protocol-based control or management interfaces. These allow information,
 policies, and operational parameters to be injected into and retrieved (as read or by
 notification) from the routing system while retaining data consistency and coherency
 across the routers and routing infrastructure, and among multiple interactions with the
 routing system. The I2RS interfaces will co-exist with existing configuration and 
 management systems and interfaces.

 It is envisioned that users of the I2RS interfaces will be management applications, 
 network controllers, and user applications that make specific demands on the network.

 The I2RS working group works to develop a high-level framework and architecture that 
 describes the basic building-blocks necessary to enable the specific use cases, and that
 will lead to an understanding of the abstract informational models and requirements for
 encodings and protocols for the I2RS interfaces. Small and well-scoped use cases are
 critical to constrain the scope of the work and achieve sufficient focus for the working
 group to deliver successful outcomes. Initial work within the working group will be
 limited to a single administrative domain.

 The working group is chartered to work on the following items:

 - High-level architecture and framework for I2RS including considerations of policy and
   security.

 - Tightly scoped key use cases for operational use of I2RS as follows:
    o Interactions with the Routing Information Base (RIB). Allowing read and write
      access to the RIB, but no direct access to the Forwarding Information Base (FIB).
    o Control and analysis of the operation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) including
      the setting and activation of policies related to the protocol.
    o Control, optimization, and choice of traffic exit points from networks based on more
      information than provided by the dynamic control plane.
    o Distributed reaction to network-based attacks through rapid modification of the
      control plane behavior to reroute traffic for one destination while leaving 
      standard mechanisms (filters, metrics, and policy) in place for other routes.
    o Service layer routing to improve on existing hub-and-spoke traffic.
    o The ability to extract information about topology from the network. Injection and
      creation of topology will not be considered as an initial work item.

    Other use cases may be adopted by the working group only through rechartering.

 - Abstract information models consistent with the use cases.

 - Requirements for I2RS protocols and encoding languages.

 - An analysis of existing IETF and other protocols and encoding languages against the
   requirements.

 The working group is not currently chartered to develop protocols, encoding languages, or
 data models. The objective of this work effort is to arrive at common standards for these
 items, but these items are dependent on the progress of the topics listed above. Work for
 these items will be conducted in this working group only after a re-charter, and/or may
 be carried out in another working group with specific responsibility for the protocol or 
 encoding language.

Goals and Milestones:

Jul 2013 : Request publication of an Informational document defining the problem statement
Jul 2013 : Request publication of an Informational document defining the highlevel 
           architecture and framework
Aug 2013 : Request publication of Informational documents describing use cases
Sep 2013 : Request publication of an Informational document defining the protocol 
           requirements
Sep 2013 : Request publication of an Informational document defining encoding language 
           requirements
Feb 2014 : Request publication of Standards Track documents specifying information models
Feb 2014 : Request publication of an Informational document providing an analysis of 
           existing IETF and other protocols and encoding languages against the 
           requirements
Feb 2014 : Consider re-chartering