1. Intent Based Orchestration for Applications
Dave Lenrow

2. Background for discussing “Intent Based”
An IMPERATIVE interface explicitly prescribes the technology features, configuration and state of devices that deliver services
An DECLARATIVE interface defines a desired end-state in a way that is independent of technology and device specifics
Declarative interfaces deliver benefits including portability, vendor-independence, interoperability, linear scale-out, ease of use, automation of complex logic, and more.

3. Defining an Intent Based System
Note this picture was published the ONF NBI groups principles technical recommendation.
Note that mappings can come from anywhere in the system. Intent can’t refer to things unless they existin in mapping DB so they are tightly coupled.
The intent engine is the imperative control point for driving imperative interfaces to infrastructure and devices
The intent engine is the brain of the control system
Intent based systems include a controller (the Intent Engine) with two distinct north-bound interfaces:
The Intent API is declarative, describing desired system behavior
The Mapping API updates state of dynamic system elements

4. Migrating to Intent Based Systems
Today
Applications include knowledge of and analytics for infrastructure devices and behaviors. They harvest proprietary infrastructure telemetry, analyze it and drive imperative changes to infrastructure elements.
Imperative and Declarative interfaces are combined in a way that makes for big, complicated, non-interoperable applications and infrastructure interfaces
After Intent Project
Closed loop monitoring of infrastructure state and imperative control lives exclusively in the infrastructure controller layer.
Applications express desired end state and behavior (they are not aware of infrastructure details) using interoperable declarative interfaces.
End-user of intent can introduce new terms and grammatical constructions via the mapping interface (this requires a developer)
Imperative get deprecated as control loops migrate

5. Application Programming Model Examples
Programable Network
App On
Device
Cloud
Service
Telemetry ST
Data
LSO Intent
NBI
Inference Intent Model
ST App
& Proxy
Intent
API
Analytics
Direct Application Intent Model
Application
Proxy
App
Intent
API
Analytics
Programable Network
App On
Device
Cloud
Service
Telemetry
Application
Data
LSO Intent
NBI
DPI Intent Model
DPI App
& Proxy
DPI
Intent
API
Analytics
Telemetry
Application
Data
Telemetry
Application
Data
LSO Intent
NBI
App On
Device
Cloud
Service
Programable Network

6. Mixed Imperative/Declarative
Migrating to Intent
Mixed Imperative/Declarative
Intent Based
Application/
Proxy
Application/
Proxy
Analytics I M P E R A T V D E C L A T I V I N T E M A P I N G S
Analytics
Analytics
Telemetry
Application
Data
Telemetry
Data
Telemetry
Application
Data
Telemetry
Data
LSO
NBI
LSO Intent
NBI
Infrastructure
State
Talk about migrating to some intent vs migrating to all intent.
Goal is consolidation of infrastructure state and analytics outside of the application layer. This means migrating the control logic and closed-loop monitoring into the intent engine and leaving only intent and mapping in the application layer.
App On
Device
Cloud
Service
App On
Device
Cloud
Service
Programable Network
Programable Network

7. Imperative out of applications layer
Application Layer
Application Analytics I N T E M A P I N G S
Application
Telemetry
Data
Infrastructure Demarcation Point
Infrastructure Layer N
Analytics
Mixed Imperative &
Declarative I M P E R A T V I N T E M A P I N G S
Infrastructure
State
Point of this slide is intent may exist inside the infra stack. What matters is imperative is out of the apps.
Goal is consolidation of infrastructure state and analytics outside of the application layer. This means migrating the control logic and closed-loop monitoring into the intent engine and leaving only intent and mapping in the application layer.
Beneath the application layer there can be various mixtures of imperative and declarative up and down the infra stack.
Infrastructure Layer N + 1
Analytics
Infra
Telemetry
Data
Infra
Telemetry
Data
Infrastructure
State
Device
device
Programable Network

8. LSO Closed Loop Analytics with Application APIs
MEF LSO Framework
Cloud Applications
Application Events and Telemetry
LEGATO (BUS:SOF)
AI Analytic Applications
Service Orchestration Functionality
Events
Data Analytics Platform
PRESTO (SOF:ICM)
Infrastructure Control and Management
ADAGIO (ICM:ECM)
Observe that this picture is essentially identical to the intent migration endpoint
Element Control
Management & Data
Aggregation
Network Events
Events
Logs
Metrics
Netflow
Network Telemetry
Network Infrastructure

9. Excerpts from MEF SD-WAN proposal
To meet customer demand for agile, economical end to end services and application delivery, Service Providers (SPs) need standards of inter-operator and multi-vendor interoperability.
Having interoperablity and quality standards will enable the industry to capitalize on the opportunities offered by this transition while underpinning innovation.
SPs who can offer a service that is certified against a recognised industry standard will have a competitive advantage.
Show SD-WAN and combination of control loops with mixed i/d
Show migration to segregated with consolidated analytics
Talk about data lake

10. Intent as SD-WAN Interoperability Foundation
Declarative component is inherently portable and implementation agnostic. Common API or translation between similar levels of abstraction is possible for interoperability in the declarative domain.
Mapping ties declarative abstractions to the implementation details and needs a more formalized approach to agreeing on interface details per-use- case.
Intent Group under MEF Application Committee will initially work on refactoring/defining SD-WAN as intent and mappings, after refining and prioritizing use cases

11. MEF Intent based SD-WAN Work
Deliverables:
2H2018 SD-WAN intent and mapping interface definition V1.0
2H2018 Open Source POC/Reference V1.0
Need volunteers to lead work items
Immediate Work Items
Recruit and identify contributors
Agree on use case priorities
Define use cases (already done by SD-WAN project?)
Identify and define intent based SD-WAN POC 1.0
Begin software development
Will refine dates and deliverables as a group once up and running

12. Intent Based Orchestration Weekly GTM
To Be Announced