Software-Defined Reconfigurability, White Boxes, and Abstraction

Next generation networks – spanning from wide area networks to intra-datacenters – are expected to encompass devices and sub-devices from different vendors. Inter operability and vendor neutrality are now key topics for researchers and companies as a way to reduce costs avoiding to be tied to a single vendor. Also the management system is expected to be disaggregated from the hardware and possibly developed by a different company. An example is the white box, which disaggregates the software from the hardware and can be composed of modules from different vendors. Currently, NETCONF – based on YANG – is the protocol considered for the (re)configuration of white boxes. Discussions are being carried on to identify commonly agreed information models to guarantee vendor-neutral configuration and management of next generation networks.