[Nml-wg] About modelisation of the network description

[Freek Dijkstra]

Evangelos Chaniotakis wrote:

> I'm on the fence as to whether we need a separate "network" concept.
> We might need to model administrative domains that run multiple
> independent networks.

You totally convinced me. So:

DOMAIN = administrative domain = an organisational entity that is 
responsible for the operational control of resources (including network 
resources)

NETWORK = a collection of network elements that behaves as a single 
resource (it is possible to describe the functionality without exposing 
the internal implementation or detailed internal limitations)

I don't know how to describe VIEW. Evangelos, Aurélien, do you have 
suggestions?


> Anyway, here's what I think that sort of structure would look like:
> 
> - Domain
> --- View (type = "monitoring")
> ------ Network Element
> ------ Network Element
> -------- Network Element
> ------ ....
> --- View (type = "controlplane")
> ------ Network Element
> ------ Network Element
> ------ ....
> --- View (type = "export")
> ------ Network Element
> -------- Network Element
> ------ Network Element
> ------ ....
> 
> and so on and so forth.

Shouldn't that be:

- Domain
--- Network
----- View (type = "monitoring")
-------- Network Element
-------- Network Element
---------- Network Element
-------- ....
----- View (type = "controlplane")
-------- Network Element
-------- Network Element
-------- ....
----- View (type = "export")
-------- Network Element
---------- Network Element
-------- Network Element
-------- ....
--- Network
------ ....

A few questions about your tree.
* May a single network element occur in multiple views (I assume so)
* Must a network element be part of only one domain (I assume so)
* Can a view consist of network elements in multiple domains? (I really 
don't know about this one, but if true, a view can also be higher in the 
tree than a network)

Given your tree, am I correct to assume these relations:
domain:network = 1:many
   (each network is under control of only one domain)
network:view = 1:many
   (a view can only contain network elements within a single domain)
   alternatively: network:view = many:many
   (a domain may contain multiple views, and a view may be composed
   of network elements in multiple domains)
network element:view = many:many
   (a network element can occur in multiple views)
network element:network = many:1
   (a network element can only be part of one network)


Regards,
Freek