[Nml-wg] Example topology of Automated GOLE

[Freek Dijkstra]

Jerry Sobieski wrote:

> I am very nervous about this - we deliberatly did *NOT* use "port" in 
> NSI because of the overloaded connotation. The Service Termination Point 
> in NSI is *not* a port. ...not in the physical sense.   So we need to 
> understand what a NML "port" represents.

Indeed the term "Port" is overloaded, but so are (unfortunately) other
terms. We had multiple (very long) discussion on the exact term to use,
and we closed the discussion by reaching working group consensus onn "Port".

An NML "port" is equivalent to a G.800 "Forwarding Point" (or G.805
"Connection Point").

I usually refer to it as a "logical interface", to clearly distinguish
it from a "physical interface". G.805 defines it as 'A "reference point"
that consists of a pair of co-located "unidirectional connection points"
and therefore represents the binding of two paired bidirectional
"connections".'

You will note from this definition that in G.800, two "Ports" connected
together form a "Point", I think this is similar to a NSI STP and SDP.
>From discussion we had with people involved in the ITU, most people
nowadays consider this distinction unnecessary, since there is only
rarely the need to differentiate between the G.800 "Port" and G.800
"Point" when it comes to topology descriptions (in fact I do not know of
any use case where the distinction is required -- I would love to hear
about one).

Regards,
Freek