Why 5G needs NETCONF system (1)

NETCONF is the full name of Network Configuration Protocol, which is a network management protocol that allows NMS (Network Management System) to issue, modify and delete the configuration of connected network devices (routers, eNodeB, gNodeB, DU, CU or RU). NETCONF is developed and standardized by IETF; while for O-RAN, it is under the responsibility of WG (Working Group 4).

1. The NETCONF protocol uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) data encoding to process configuration data and protocol messages; it is based on the concept of server and client and uses RPC (Remote Procedure Call) mechanism to achieve communication between server and client. The client process runs on the NMS, which can be a script or application, and the server is a typical network device.

2. The characteristics of NETCONF are as follows:

• It adopts a layered protocol framework, making it more suitable for on-demand, automated and cloud-based networks.
• It is used to issue, modify and delete configurations to network devices.
• XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used for data encoding of configuration data and protocol messages.
• Based on the server and client concept, the NMS acts as a client and the network device acts as a server.
• Communication between servers and clients is achieved using the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) mechanism.
• Operations are executed based on the YANG model, reducing network failures caused by manual configuration errors.
• NETCONF meets the needs of network automation.
• It provides security mechanisms such as authentication and authorization to ensure secure message transmission. It also provides transaction mechanisms, supporting data classification, storage and migration, phased commit, and configuration isolation.
• It supports comprehensive configuration delivery, verification, and rollback, minimizing the impact on network services.
• It allows vendors to define their own protocol operations to implement unique management capabilities.

3.Why is NETCONF needed? A key requirement of cloud networks is network automation for rapid, on-demand service provisioning and automated operations management. Traditional approaches such as CLI and SNM cannot meet this requirement. They have the following limitations, which NETCONF addresses.

  31. Disadvantages of CLI: First, configuration is complex. Second, the following:

• CLIs vary by vendor, requiring users to learn and adapt CLI scripts for each vendor.
• CLI structure and syntax frequently change, making CLI scripts difficult to maintain.
• Command output is unstructured, unpredictable, and easily changeable, making automatic parsing of CLI scripts difficult.

  3.2 Disadvantages of SNMP:

• SNMP does not support transactions, resulting in inefficient configuration.
• SNMP uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which does not provide reliable, sequenced data transmission and lacks effective security mechanisms.
• SNMP lacks a mechanism for submitting configuration transactions.
• SNMP manages device configuration on a device-by-device basis and does not support network-level configuration or multi-device configuration collaboration.